Physical & Digital EST: The Future of Home Video Discussion Thread

[Warm Gun]

Screw it, not gonna watch movies until I have an apartment again. Way too much noise between the two of them. Well, maybe the ones with monaural sound that I can listen to over Optical/Toslink with my in-ear monitors. They cancel noise. Will have to move my headphone DAC and amp over to the TV. Hate the way movies look on a monitor. You're much too close to all the mucky compression and grain.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

I have a HARMONY ULTIMATE ONE hub setup in my HT and, like you, use a FLIRC dongle in my living room.

Quite a few years ago I looked into Harmony remotes. They looked quite nice but had a 15 device limitation so that eliminated them from consideration. Also did not like the fact that I could not use Pronto hex codes directly in programming.

I do use a Harmony Hub upstairs with a Echo Dot. My URC MX-980 replaces these remotes in the home theater (pic not up to date):

[Show spoiler]

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Quite a few years ago I looked into Harmony remotes. They looked quite nice but had a 15 device limitation so that eliminated them from consideration. Also did not like the fact that I could not use Pronto hex codes directly in programming.

I do use a Harmony Hub upstairs with a Echo Dot. My URC MX-980 replaces these remotes in the home theater (pic not up to date):

[Show spoiler]

For the longest time, I stubbornly resisted any kind of consolidation of remote tasks and insisted on having all component remotes at the ready to ensure maximum control over my setup... not a particularly popular decision with other family members...

It wasn't until I wanted to move my equipment out of line of sight that I started messing around with ir repeaters etc until I finally broke down and went the HARMONY route...it was an ape / monolith moment for me LOL...

I'm sure that I'll have to find an alternative someday when some new piece of equipment comes along that's not in the database but I'll resist it as long as I can...I can't begin to measure how easy these remotes have made my life...

I was actually surprised that my JVC NZ7 was specifically supported without the need to cobble together codes from older models..

[Warm Gun]

I set up the headphone amp/DAC and Zidoo again between my PC and TV. Then I learned that my Z9X 8K remote has no Bluetooth. That's pretty cheap of them. They sell the Bluetooth+IR version for only ten dollars more than the IR version. Don't want to keep reaching over the back of the sofa with the remote, so I ordered the V12 with Bluetooth remote. Not happy about the 43 dollars.

[Warm Gun]

The Z9X 8K converts DTS and Dolby (including HD MA and TrueHD) to PCM before sending it over Optical. With the old Z9X I could only listen to PCM/FLAC tracks over Optical.

[Vilya]

While not as extraordinary as my last piece of news, today is my birthday! I made it another year! That's two things to in the span of just 4 days!

for everyone! Just don't ask me to blow out the candles.

[bhampton]

Happy Birthday

[Show spoiler]

[gotmule]

Happy Birthday! Pick a good movie or two for the day!

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

The Z9X 8K converts DTS and Dolby (including HD MA and TrueHD) to PCM before sending it over Optical. With the old Z9X I could only listen to PCM/FLAC tracks over Optical.

Does optical top out at 5.1 ? I have been HDMI only for a while now.

I remember having trouble with my PCM tracks from Zidoo. Particularly the 5.1 mix of Dark Side of the Moon like the SACD mix that resurfaced on Blu Ray in the Immersion box set. It sounded ok until a track like Money made you realize some things were just missing because the tracks were being sent to the wrong channels.

Thankfully, ... I love the ATMOS mix of DSotM and the Z9X does that well.

I don't think my Zidoo plays the hi rez Delicate Sound of Thunder ... it just crashes. Thankfully, I still have a disc player for some things and I prefer to listen to my Blu Ray audio mixes from that most of the time.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Vilya

While not as extraordinary as my last piece of news, today is my birthday! I made it another year! That's two things to in the span of just 4 days!

for everyone! Just don't ask me to blow out the candles.

Hope it has a butter cream filling!

[Ender14]

Originally Posted by Vilya

While not as extraordinary as my last piece of news, today is my birthday! I made it another year! That's two things to in the span of just 4 days!

for everyone! Just don't ask me to blow out the candles.

Happy Birthday!!

[Warm Gun]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Does optical top out at 5.1 ? I have been HDMI only for a while now.

I remember having trouble with my PCM tracks from Zidoo. Particularly the 5.1 mix of Dark Side of the Moon like the SACD mix that resurfaced on Blu Ray in the Immersion box set. It sounded ok until a track like Money made you realize some things were just missing because the tracks were being sent to the wrong channels.

Thankfully, ... I love the ATMOS mix of DSotM and the Z9X does that well.

I don't think my Zidoo plays the hi rez Delicate Sound of Thunder ... it just crashes. Thankfully, I still have a disc player for some things and I prefer to listen to my Blu Ray audio mixes from that most of the time.

I don't know. The PCM option is stereo and my headphone DAC handles only stereo, so I use that. That your Zidoo doesn't correctly handle PCM track channels scares me, because I convert all my 16-bit surround tracks to FLAC. I'm gonna test this file.

https://archive.org/details/surround-sound-test-pcm-5.1

Oh, that's stereo. Well, I can still check matrixed stereo with that. Edit: That test file doesn't fold at all. But my PCM stereo movies do, so whatever.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

For the longest time, I stubbornly resisted any kind of consolidation of remote tasks and insisted on having all component remotes at the ready to ensure maximum control over my setup... not a particularly popular decision with other family members...

I always wanted a single control. In the 80's started with a Fox 800, good control but the back light was almost worthless. In the 90's moved to a Marantz RC2000MKII, great back lighting but LCD was hard to read. Early 2000's purchased a URC MX-850, finally had a IR & RF remote that could be programmed on a PC. Always wanted a Philips Pronto but were out of my price range.

[Show spoiler]
Fox




Marantz

[Lord-Oakbeard]

Originally Posted by Vilya

While not as extraordinary as my last piece of news, today is my birthday! I made it another year! That's two things to in the span of just 4 days!

for everyone! Just don't ask me to blow out the candles.

Happy birthday greetings, congratulations and salutations and here’s to many more

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

I set up the headphone amp/DAC and Zidoo again between my PC and TV. Then I learned that my Z9X 8K remote has no Bluetooth. That's pretty cheap of them. They sell the Bluetooth+IR version for only ten dollars more than the IR version. Don't want to keep reaching over the back of the sofa with the remote, so I ordered the V12 with Bluetooth remote. Not happy about the 43 dollars.

In the product description they say the remote is IR but nothing about it in the specs.

I am totally IR and RF control* but remote and base station is RF. No pointing of remote for many years now. I had a small device attached to my Marantz remote which sent IR commands to a base station via RF. I have a IR pickup device connected to my IR distribution system so I can use factory IR remotes if needed.

Have you tried to play a Blu-ray title with VC-1 encoding? It is my understanding the Amlogic SoC devices has real problems with this codec. I know for certain later Amlogic SoC devices will not output frame packed 3-D.

*Have a URC MX-5000 that does IR, IP and RF but never use it.

[Warm Gun]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

In the product description they say the remote is IR but nothing about it in the specs.

I am totally IR and RF control* but remote and base station is RF. No pointing of remote for many years now. I had a small device attached to my Marantz remote which sent IR commands to a base station via RF. I have a IR pickup device connected to my IR distribution system so I can use factory IR remotes if needed.

Have you tried to play a Blu-ray title with VC-1 encoding? It is my understanding the Amlogic SoC devices has real problems with this codec. I know for certain later Amlogic SoC devices will not output frame packed 3-D.

*Have a URC MX-5000 that does IR, IP and RF but never use it.

I don't know what frame packed 3D is. The Z9X 8K doesn't play 3D anyway. They dropped it. But VC-1 plays fine. I just tested the Deliverance Blu-ray.

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

I always wanted a single control. In the 80's started with a Fox 800, good control but the back light was almost worthless. In the 90's moved to a Marantz RC2000MKII, great back lighting but LCD was hard to read. Early 2000's purchased a URC MX-850, finally had a IR & RF remote that could be programmed on a PC. Always wanted a Philips Pronto but were out of my price range.

[Show spoiler]
Fox




Marantz

Man.. I remember that MARANTZ remote being at the center of every HT I ever drooled over in the pages of SOUND and VISION, HOME THEATER magazine etc... I can't remember, but I'm assuming it came stock with a flagship receiver of the day in addition to being sold as a standalone piece of A/V gear that I wouldn't have been able to afford at the time...

It's funny, but even now that I can afford to just push the boat out and buy whatever gear I want, I still take great pride and have way more fun scouring for deals through the various local buy and sell avenues.. and passing on my gear to someone else at a different stage of the HT journey...

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by Vilya

While not as extraordinary as my last piece of news, today is my birthday! I made it another year! That's two things to in the span of just 4 days!

for everyone! Just don't ask me to blow out the candles.

[Vilya]

Thank you everyone for the Happy Birthday wishes!

I acquired these three titles with birthday gift cards:

and

I am aware that the two Kill Bill movies on 4K disc are getting less than an enthusiastic reception over in their respective threads, but after reading Geoff D's review of Vol. 1 I decided to give these a chance. What better way to gamble on a purchase is there than with gift cards?

[red_5ive]

Originally Posted by crutzulee

Man.. I remember that MARANTZ remote being at the center of every HT I ever drooled over in the pages of SOUND and VISION, HOME THEATER magazine etc... I can't remember, but I'm assuming it came stock with a flagship receiver of the day in addition to being sold as a standalone piece of A/V gear that I wouldn't have been able to afford at the time...

It's funny, but even now that I can afford to just push the boat out and buy whatever gear I want, I still take great pride and have way more fun scouring for deals through the various local buy and sell avenues.. and passing on my gear to someone else at a different stage of the HT journey...

Yep. I still have mine. It hasn't been in use since I picked up a Harmony One I think back around 2008'ish (which lasted about 8 years), and I've stuck with Harmony since. I have no reason to keep the Marantz other than that's the kind of crap that I horde.

When I heard the announcement that Logitech was discontinuing Harmony, I bought up the remaining stock on 700s at my local store. So I'm good for a while as long as the database is still available in one form or another. Would be nice if they open-sourced it.