Our Listeners of the Week are Cory, David, Michael, and Earle for their donations, along with our 61 Patreon Patrons, and also Bob B. for talking us up to Optoma, and Rob M. for telling Acoustic Panels Canada that he heard about them from us.

In the news, Emotiva released their Stealth Series PA-1 Class D Monoblock Amplifier with 140 Watts of ICEpower amplification. And Amazon Prime Video will be getting Dolby Atmos audio support in August.

David recommends checking if your router and CPU are up to the task of encrypting and decrypting VPN data. Bob let us know that USTV Now is available to anyone with a US billing address. And Ken M. spent a bit extra to get a Denon AVR-S920W for its eight HDMI inputs and Audyssey MultEQ support.

0:16:50 Will T. wants to know which streaming box can output full lossless audio bitstreams using Plex. We point to the NVidia Shield, and speculate about whether we think the Apple TV 4K will support lossless bitstreams with tvOS 12.

0:23:21 Bobby M. wants to know if dual SVS PB-1000 subwoofers are really worth the price. And we point to three Optoma 4K DLP projectors – UHD50, UHD60, and UHD65 – as models that can throw a 106-inch diagonal image when the room is only 12 feet long.

0:33:46 Nick B. is trying to decide whether to upgrade his Pioneer Kuro plasma TV with an OLED or a FALD LCD, and then we speculate a bit about larger screen sizes.

0:39:02 Mike S. has us go over an entire soundproof room design and his choices for gear. We go over double drywall and door construction ideas, screen size and seating distance plans, subwoofer choices, speaker layouts using VideoSecu Side-Clamping Speaker Mounts, long HDMI runs using an Emotiva HDBaseT 18 Gbps adapter or active HDMI cables from Blue Jeans Cable or Monoprice DynamicView, and controlling it all with a Harmony Hub.

1:13:50 Chad B. gets reassurance that he can backup Ultra HD Blu-ray discs using MakeMKV while retaining full lossless audio, but play them back in 1080p SDR until he’s ready to upgrade his display.

1:16:52 Alvin C. gets our advice to backup his DVDs using MakeMKV instead of HandBrake, since MakeMKV is still free. And then we recommend using the Plex Media Player for Windows for playback so that he gets bitstream audio output without worrying about his sound card settings.

1:20:24 Eduardo T. would like to upgrade his subwoofer, but there’s only one spot where it can go in his room, so we recommend the HSU VTF-3 MK5 HP, HSU VTF-15H MK2, or Power Sound Audio V1510DF, any of which should just fit into his available space. Then we suggest potentially adding a ButtKicker Advance or several ButtKicker Mini LFE with a Dayton SA1000 amp to power them, and a miniDSP 2×4 for EQ, as well as printed art panels from Acoustimac or GiK Acoustics.

1:31:51 Lior M. gets our thoughts on where he should position one pair of Atmos overhead speakers if he just wants to dip his toe into Atmos. And then we point to a German Audyssey Editor App tutorial to explain measuring, manipulating, and loading your desired Audyssey target curve.

1:41:55 Ed has two sons, two Xboxes, but only one Xbox Live account, so we explain the difference between Family Sharing and the Xbox Live Family Pack. Then we discuss whether we still buy physical media, or if we’re leaning more towards streaming these days.

1:49:42 Jerrod K. gets our advice about DIY acoustic panel supplies from GiK, and Guilford of Maine acoustically transparent fabric options.

• 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.
• Check out AVGadgets.com where Tom is the new Editor-in-Chief!
• Download Tom's NEWEST book, Touch of Pain from Amazon now!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Liked it? Take a second to support AV Rant on Patreon!