Home > Podcast > AV Rant #596: Jurassic Park DTS:X Review

AV Rant #596: Jurassic Park DTS:X Review

June 23rd, 2018

Insteon Hub Giveaway – email Tom directly by June 30, 2018, and let him know why you’d like to have an Insteon Hub. One lucky person will be selected. Our thanks to Kris P. for providing the Insteon Hub for this giveaway!


Our Listeners of the Week are Zachary for his donations, our 61 Patreon Patrons, Nathan W. for telling Power Sound Audio that he heard about them from us, and Jason D. for mentioning us in his SVS PC-2000 user review.

Tom kicks things off with his impressions of the DTS:X immersive audio soundtrack present on the Ultra HD Blu-ray release of Jurassic Park.

In the news, miniDSP introduced their EARS headphone measurement rig. And Odeon Cinemas in the UK have announced their plans to open seven Dolby Cinemas, joining the small group of countries outside of the USA and China to now have Dolby Cinemas.

Joseph H. let us know about a small, affordable 12 Volt timer delay circuit. Karl R. shared a podcast episode from Twenty Thousand Hertz that’s all about the THX Deep Note. David F. opened up his external USB Asus Blu-ray drive and found something very different from what he thought he had purchased. Kris B. was disappointed with an imperfection and the customer service of his Screen Innovations Black Diamond projection screen. And Heath B. wrote back with some more details about his dual SVS SB-4000 subwoofer setup that keeps blowing amplifiers.

0:25:47 Nick B. asks what to do to keep Front Wide speakers active if Dolby’s mandate to only ever use the Dolby Surround Upmixer with any Dolby signals goes into effect, and why Dolby treats Front Wides the way they do. Then he asks about using multiple measurement microphones all at the same time to potentially adjust for uniform bass in real time. That gets us to mention the discontinued Velodyne MIC-5 Kit, or the possibility of using several smartphones or tablets with their own measurement microphones, like the Dayton iMM-6, miniDSP PMIK-1, or MicW i436. Nick asks if the Oppo 203 Ultra HD Blu-ray player will live on in the form of the Cambridge Audio CXUHD. And we talk about how loud bass needs to be for pressurization.

0:46:26 Kris I. gets our recommendation for the Sony UBP-X800 Ultra HD Blu-ray player to use with his projector.

0:49:28 Christian S. saw the ultra-wide display that Bethesda used at their E3 press conference, and he wants to know how that’s done and how much it costs, so we mention Matrox multi-projector edge blending graphics cards.

0:53:03 David shared an example of the unwatchable level of macroblocking he’s seeing on his OLED TV, so we delve into possible culprits.

0:58:38 Infinite Gary asks us to clarify our acoustic treatment placement advice. And he isn’t enjoying the 4K HDR displays that he owns, and he wants to know if we feel the same way.

1:04:39 Joe K. wants to show two Xbox One feeds on a single 2.35:1 projection setup, so we talk a bit about video multiviewers and tilers, but our real advice is to buy a second projector, such as the BenQ HT2050A if 1080p is enough, or the ViewSonic PX727-4K if an affordable 4K unit is desired.

1:09:50 Sushmit G. just bought a house, and he’d like our advice on which section of his basement to use as his home theater and how to orient and position everything. And for his $1,500 budget, we recommend he buy blackout curtains, a BenQ HT2050A projector, a 92-inch Monoprice manual pull-down screen, acoustic ceiling tiles, some Acoustimac DIY Panel Kits, and Ascend Acoustics HTM-200SE or Focal Little Birds for his Surrounds.

1:23:59 Jim B. wants to know why some of his DVD backups are 480i resolution, while others are 480p.

1:26:05 Patrick P. is trying to track down the first 231 episodes of AVRant.

1:31:36 Greg wants to know if we think a $2,000 B-Stock JVC DLA-X570R projector would be a worthwhile upgrade over his older 1080p JVC model.

1:34:05 Lee gets our reassurance that he will love the new OLED TV he ordered, and we suggest either the 2018 Vizio E-Series or TCL S5 Series for his den, along with a Denon AVR-X3400H Receiver.

1:42:29 Joseph S. updates us on getting his HTPC to play 4K content smoothly on his OLED TV. Jim B. offers another settings suggestion. And we try to sort out why HDMI-ARC isn’t working with Joseph’s Yamaha Receiver.

Thanks for listening. Now, don't forget to:

  • Check out the AV Rant YouTube channel to watch our show videos.
  • Download Tom’s FREE superhero-themed ebook Bob Moore: No Hero.
  • Visit Tom's website for download links as well as links for 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!

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