home theater

Next week is the last great trade show for home theater. It's called CEDIA. The Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association. After that, we'll see a dead period until CES in January. But next week, Scott will be talking about all the new displays and projectors coming from Epson, Sony, and all the big names. Scott is really looking forward to what Wolf Cinema has come out with. They always have the best image on the screen from their projectors. But they aren't cheap at five figures. 

Scott joins Leo today to talk about the new initiative launched by television manufacturers to make Hollywood directors happy. Filmmakers complain about "motion smoothing" or "frame interpolation" which can create the "soap opera effect" that makes the image look far too crisp. It takes out the motion blur by adding additional frames to make the image sharper. It's great for sports events, but terrible for movies, and directors HATE it.

Scott joins Leo to talk about LEDs that are stuck too bright on the screen. The question came from yours truly, James DeRuvo, who says several of his backlit LEDs are too bright on the screen. There are six LED lights that are brighter than the rest intermittently. Scott says that unfortunately, that's not an easy or affordable fix since it's in the screen. It would be cheaper to buy a new one.

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.