Adam recently bought an LG OLED 65" TV. But using his Sony receiver with Dolby 5.1, should he plug everything into that first? Leo says that his general standard is to route everything through the AV receiver and then to the OLED. But if he is streaming from the TV itself, he will need an audio return channel (ARC) in order to get that audio through the home theatre system.
This week, Scott is talking about the Audeara A-01 headphones, which comes with an app that will give you a hearing test and then optimize your audio experience based on the results. It has active noise cancellation as well. You can also apply a hearing curve setting that will help you to hear the music better without turning the volume up. Price is around $300. So they're not cheap, but for what they offer, it's a pretty good deal. And it sounds better with noise cancelling on than off.
Leo wants to talk about the Vulture article on how motion smoothing or frame interpolation is ruining cinema at home. Scott agrees that we've been conditioned to believe that watching a movie at 24fps is the best, but in reality, that was just the least expensive frame rate to save money on filming with motion picture film. There are plenty of directors, like Ang Lee, James Cameron, and Peter Jackson prefer shooting at higher frame rates.
Scott joins us to talk about the next generation of TV displays, called microLED. Tiny LED lights that are .003 square mm which is what TV manufacturers are going to need to get to the next level of sharpness. And it looks perfectly smooth and beautiful. but they're super expensive, which is why we won't see them in homes for a few years. But when they do, the stand-alone TV will be a thing of the past, and we'll see video walls in homes. It's coming. Scott saw an example of it at Sony last week, 16' wide by 9' tall.
This week, Scott is going to Sony Pictures to see their Crystal LED technology. It's like a giant LED TV; the size of a movie theater. It looks super cool and will get much brighter than any projected image. That means the dynamic range is incredible. He'll be watching MIB International. Scott says that there is no HDR format for any other display system other than Dolby Cinema, so it'll be interesting to see how this will compare.
Scott went to an Aerosmith concert and was amazed at the quality of the video projection. He also learned that if you pay enough for your ticket, you can sit on the stage, listen with a pair of in-ear monitors, and listen to either the house mix or Steven Tyler's monitor mix. You can also get a free iPod. Cost ... starting at $800. Leo says that's not surprising at all. Concert tickets are really expensive now, pricing out a lot of younger fans.
Doug got an HDMI switcher for his TV. Would it work with Atmos? Scott says it would, and at $4 from AliExpress, the price is right.
Scott Wilkinson recently did an article on how soundbars have the design flaw of using only a single HDMI port. But what if you have multiple HDMI devices you want to connect? Scott was reviewing an LG Atmos Soundbar, when he discovered the drawback. Looking around, he discovered the same problem with other soundbars as well. Leo says you can use Optical, and that makes sense. But Scott says the optical output is limited and doesn't support Dolby Atmos. The only thing that carries the Atmos bitstream is HDMI.
Rick wants to get a 77" LG OLED TV for his home theatre. His problem is that he needs a soundbar system that supports Dolby Atmos at home, and must have wireless speakers. Scott says there are a variety of soundbars that will do what Rick needs, including one he's reviewing right now from LG (the SL8YG). You can also buy a separate surround speaker package. But it's not cheap. Cost is $850 plus $200 for the wireless surround package. Vizio also makes a wireless soundbar system with up-firing Atmos speakers: Model SB46514.
Scott joins us to talk about how the Sony OLED TV won the great Value Electronics Shootout. He's written a great article about it here. Also, this week, Scott attended a monthly meeting of SMPTE, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, about immersive technologies. Scott says that the talk was about how 3D is essentially simulated. How do you get an authentic holographic presentation? The current solution is through Light Fields.
