Tom gets a new co-host: Everyone meet Daisy! Our Listeners of the Week are Steve, Mike, Andrew, Lance, and Yuri for their donations, as well as our 48 Patreon Patrons, including Grant, Benjamin, Ted, and Christian. We also thank Travis for letting SVS know his PB12-NSD subwoofer purchase was thanks to us, and Larry for offering to help out fellow AVRant Listener Mike. We send a huge shout out and thank you to James for sending Tom a stack of AVRant-branded mouse pads, and another stack of totally different “loudspeaker decoupling risers”.

You’ll want to check out our AV Rant Podcast YouTube video this week to meet our new AVRant mascot, Daisy.

In the news, Netflix now supports HDR10 playback on Kaby Lake-powered Windows 10 PCs. Sony TVs with the X1 Extreme video chip should get Dolby Vision support by the end of January. And LG will show an 88-inch, 8K resolution OLED prototype at CES 2018.

Greg L. thanked us for our repair advice after he discovered a leak in his theater. Benjamin thanks AVRant commenter RAID5 for suggesting the use of Zone 2 to allow an older Receiver to act as an amplifier with more than two channels. Matt shared an image of the Power Sound Audio subwoofer package that had been taunting him until Christmas. T.L. received great customer service from Martin Logan on his Descent 1 subwoofer. And George was displeased with the non-optional “upgraded” power supply sent to him by Schiit Audio that wound up costing George return shipping and restocking fees.

Jason S. wants to know if it’s a good idea to repurpose his Denon 4810CI Receiver as a 3 Zone amplifier for whole house audio. Brandon N. used our advice to settle on a pair of GoldenEar Triton 2 Towers and dual subwoofers, but he wants to know if it’d be worth trying to enclose part of his room, and he has some questions about how bass gets rerouted depending on the subwoofer output and LFE settings. And D. gets clarification on how the PS4 and PS4 Pro handle audio, and which settings are best.

Chris T. has Atmos content on his Plex server, and he wants to know if an Xbox One or a Raspberry Pi 3 can play it. Greg C. wants a 7.2.4 Processor and 11 channels of amplification, so we highly recommend using an AV Receiver and only three or five channels of external amplification. And Biv wonders if Tidal sent from an iPhone to an AV Receiver via AirPlay remains lossless.

David F. found a wholesale supplier for RBH in-ceiling speakers, so he wants to confirm their value. He also asks if he needs more absorption in an alcove at the front of his room, and we point him to DIY Movie Rooms and Audioholics for advice on building a seating riser. Jason A. wants a fully analogue crossover, which we really don’t think is necessary, but is available in the Emotiva XSP-1 Pre-amp. And Andy read about the big budget release of the movie Bright on Netflix, so we share what we think about how it might impact theatrical releases.

Bari W. updates us on his basement theater that has an awkward soffit covering a pipe, so we discuss speaker placement options and ways to finish his ceiling if he tears down the existing soffit. Travis D. ran some bass sweeps and found some big dips in his bass that he asks if EQ can fix, and he isn’t hearing the expected roll-off in his speakers when he tries to apply bass management. And Jonathan F. gets our opinions on a study sighted by Floyd Toole in which people were better at picking the winners of music competitions when they could see the contestants but not hear them.

Earle B. wants to know if his Sony X940C TV will get Dolby Vision, and why some Netflix content is labelled as Dolby Vision on his Apple TV 4K, but that same content is labelled only as HDR in his Sony Netflix app. Infinite Gary found Display Wars helpful for comparing screen sizes, but he wants to know viewing angles and field of view, too, so we suggest using the Viewing Distance Calculator. Gary also asks why so much effort went into the production of Dunkirk only to have it filtered and cropped out of shots, and how we’d suggest viewing 4:3 content on a 2.35:1 aspect ratio screen. And Donald wants to share his dual subwoofers with both a surround sound setup and a separate 2-channel setup, so we suggest adding a miniDSP 2×4 to his Receiver’s Zone 2 outputs, and using an Outlaw Audio OAW4, Dayton Audio Wave Link, or Outdoor Speaker Depot WSK-100 wireless adapter to get the signal to his subwoofer at the back of his room.

Kris B. wants to know the best settings to use when connecting an Oppo UDP-203 Ultra HD Blu-ray player to his Epson 6040UB projector. Mark H. has a JVC X500 projector and Denon AVR-4520 Receiver that can handle 4K resolution signals, but not HDR, 10-bit color, or HDCP 2.2, so he wants to know if a Monoprice HDCP 2.2 to 1.4 Converter will let him see any benefit from Ultra HD Blu-rays. And Dave asks what the large capacitors that were installed in car audio systems back in the 90’s were doing for the amplifiers and power supplies.

Brandon N. heard a big improvement when he went from one subwoofer to two, but now he wants to know if his bass can sound even better. We highly recommend getting a calibrated USB microphone from Cross-Spectrum Labs, and we talk about looking for uniformity across multiple seats to figure out what needs adjustment. And Nick B.’s dad is looking for an affordable 65-inch TV with a SoundBar, so we recommend a Vizio display along with either a Vizio 3.1 SoundBar or the Yamaha YAS-207.

• Check out the AV Rant YouTube channel to watch our show videos.
• Download Tom’s FREE superhero-themed ebook Bob Moore: No Hero.
• If you like it, you can purchase the two full-length follow-ups -  Bob Moore: Desperate Times and Bob Moore: Hostile Territory.
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