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

[bhampton]

THat's something I forgot. I used to get iTunes gift cards for discounts at cost clubs and also PSN cards at a discount. Kind of hidden sales.

ATV+ is going up $2 which most people would say is nothing but that's a 40% increase over the previous 4.99 price.

I have had Apple one for a while because we used to subcribe to Music and lease some icloud and Apple one wasn't much more for everything ... But, no one uses the games or the fitness so with the increase I'll have to see if we go back to just a la carte.

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

Folks should still keep an eye out for sales of the Friday box set. I remember it was $70 a couple of weeks ago and most of us paid almost twice as much when it first came out.

I watched Nope on 4K disc last night and it is a demo release. The HDR video and Atmos sound was reference quality. Nope is still one of my favorite films of the year.

You should not give this another moments thought... the boxset is an absolute must have.

I only care about the first 4 entries and it was still worth the preorder price which I've totally forgotten.

With what Paramount has done with the first movie, there is no reason to wait for the imminent 4K releases of the parts 2 to 4... they will not look better than the blurays in the set.

Plus if you are 3D enabled, the whole set is worth it just for the unabashed 3D goofiness of part 3!

[Wendell R. Breland]

Finally got around to watching Jupiter Ascending 3D with Atmos last night and must say the 3D was quite good for a post process. One of the few 3D movies on disc with Atmos. IMO the Atmos track is quite good. No comment on the actual movie.



Good to see a post from Vilya.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by bhampton

THat's something I forgot. I used to get iTunes gift cards for discounts at cost clubs and also PSN cards at a discount. Kind of hidden sales.

ATV+ is going up $2 which most people would say is nothing but that's a 40% increase over the previous 4.99 price.

I have had Apple one for a while because we used to subcribe to Music and lease some icloud and Apple one wasn't much more for everything ... But, no one uses the games or the fitness so with the increase I'll have to see if we go back to just a la carte.

I checked my subscription and it has changed. So it will renew at the new price point in December to $69.99 from the current $49. I gotta find someone to go to Costco with now to snag one of those $44.99 gift cards up before then.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Finally got around to watching Jupiter Ascending 3D with Atmos last night and must say the 3D was quite good for a post process. One of the few 3D movies on disc with Atmos. IMO the Atmos track is quite good. No comment on the actual movie.

[Show spoiler]

Good to see a post from Vilya.

Thank you; it is nice to be back, but my return will be gradual as I still have a lot to work through.

I have that movie also, but I haven't watched it yet. I only bought it because it was in 3D. I had heard that it wasn't a particularly good movie, so onto the back burner it went and there it remains.

If only someone were around to remind me to watch The Wicker Man while I am on the subject of owned, but not watched, movies.

[cheez avenger]

Just made an order via GameFly for some 4K discs:

Lord of War 4K $8.99
Happy Death Day 4K $11.69
Species 4K $13.69
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 4K $13.69

Total was $52.55 with free shipping and sales tales tax. Species and Happy Death Day are both from Scream Factory and Eternal is from Kino, so those are some nice price reduction and will most likely come with BD and slipcovers. GameFly goes all the way even on used physical media.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Vilya

I had heard that it wasn't a particularly good movie, so onto the back burner it went and there it remains.

Sometimes the eye and ear candy can outweigh the qualities of the movie itself. It is one reason I rarely pay much attention to movie content reviews and is the reason we continue to rent. I we like then it becomes a purchase.

Another one we passed on was Warcraft but when I learned it was 3D with Atmos I purchased (May, 2021). On my list to watch. Our projector has a fairly new lamp so we are catching up on our backlog of 3D movies.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Sometimes the eye and ear candy can outweigh the qualities of the movie itself.

I personally adore Mila Kunis to a unreasonable degree so JA had plenty in the eye candy department.

I enjoyed Wicker Man on Steedeel's recommendation. I would even watch the apparently terrible remake at some point if I get the chance.

Picked up Nope today while in town.




I didn't love Nope when I saw it in theaters but I feel like I'll enjoy it much more on repeated viewings of which I'm sure there will be many. I think it was a little too much to figure out the first time through for me. I do wonder if 2 10" subs is really enough to do it justice. ... I guess they will do what they can.

[gotmule]

Originally Posted by bhampton

I personally adore Mila Kunis to a unreasonable degree so JA had plenty in the eye candy department.

I enjoyed Wicker Man on Steedeel's recommendation. I would even watch the apparently terrible remake at some point if I get the chance.

Picked up Nope today while in town.




I didn't love Nope when I saw it in theaters but I feel like I'll enjoy it much more on repeated viewings of which I'm sure there will be many. I think it was a little too much to figure out the first time through for me. I do wonder if 2 10" subs is really enough to do it justice. ... I guess they will do what they can.

I just grabbed the Steelbook for Nope on the way home. A movie buddy at work saw it in theaters and said it had the best use of audio he has heard since the original Jurassic Park. The guy I buy a lot of my gear from said it is the best sounding movie with the most ominous audio. I get to watch it on Thursday. Also grabbed Watcher for $12.99 at BB since I was there.

[gotmule]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Sometimes the eye and ear candy can outweigh the qualities of the movie itself. It is one reason I rarely pay much attention to movie content reviews and is the reason we continue to rent. I we like then it becomes a purchase.

Another one we passed on was Warcraft but when I learned it was 3D with Atmos I purchased (May, 2021). On my list to watch. Our projector has a fairly new lamp so we are catching up on our backlog of 3D movies.

“Audiophiles don’t use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment.” Love that quote from Alan Parsons. A lot of truth behind it. You can probably say the same for video.

[Warm Gun]

Sad to say the Z9X slows down with 4K content once in a while, whether I'm playing over the network or from the USB attached SSD. The picture will suddenly lag while the sound continues at seemingly the same speed. The movie I just watched only averages 55 Mbps, not high for 4K.

[cheez avenger]

A friend of mine in Texas went to Costco tonight and just emailed me a code I gave him money for and it renewed the ATV+ for another year. My total was $48.70 with their 8.25% sales tax. Still a bargain! I'm good till December of 2023. I'm almost tempted to get another since I hear they are stackable. I read on another forum someone that stacked them until January 2025.

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

Sad to say the Z9X slows down with 4K content once in a while, whether I'm playing over the network or from the USB attached SSD. The picture will suddenly lag while the sound continues at seemingly the same speed. The movie I just watched only averages 55 Mbps, not high for 4K.

Between the KODI and NVIDIA SHIELD devs, that box has had enough work done on it to minimize the stutters and audio dropouts to the point where most owners don't notice them and many others find acceptable. I stuck it out for most of that development to well passed the point of frustration. I still use the box for streaming.

What you are describing would make me absolutely lose my $h!t. I've had my Z9X for a few months now averaging 4 to 5 movies a week mostly uncompressed 4K DV with uncompressed ATMOS. Thankfully, I've not experienced a single issue.

[bhampton]

Enjoyed Nope a lot more on second viewing.

Too bad the steaming copy lacks the enhanced IMAX scenes that are incredible. Just another case of streaming not getting the full experience.



Edit - Also my Z9X failed to live up to my expectations though I never got stuttering from movies. It was the music playback that really showed me the bugs. I hope the new FW updates do bring it up to what I hoped it would be. Mine remains in storage and I'm sure I'm enjoy giving it another chance eventually.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by gotmule

“Audiophiles don’t use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment.” Love that quote from Alan Parsons. A lot of truth behind it. You can probably say the same for video.

Being a tech type my goal is a given level of performance that I can measure. Once I have all devices that meet that level I forget about the technicalities and just watch and/or listen.

Many audiophiles believe they can hear things they really can not. Example, many scoff digital audio sampled at 44.1 or 48 KHz and want music sampled at 96 or 192 KHz. A well designed 16 bit, 44.1 system can have ruler flat response to ≥ 18 KHz with very low distortion. For capture and production we had devices that were 20 or 24 bit @ 48 KHz.

True story, we had a audiophile visitor that claimed he could tell the brand of microphone connectors just by listening. As we had a large collection of Canon, Canare and Neutrik so I offered him the chance to identify them using a ABX test. He declined saying he was not familiar with our system.

Perceptual coding is proof that one can not hear like they believe they can hear. When I was younger we used our original recordings as source to test Dolby Digital vs straight on me. The DD encoder was set for 2 channel at 640 Kbps. I and some others statically could not tell the difference. Never tried at more channels and lower bit rates.

My preference has been and will continue to be lossless audio whenever possible. That way I do not have to wonder about the quality as that is as good as its gonna get.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Edit - Also my Z9X failed to live up to my expectations though I never got stuttering from movies. It was the music playback that really showed me the bugs. I hope the new FW updates do bring it up to what I hoped it would be. Mine remains in storage and I'm sure I'm enjoy giving it another chance eventually.

I've just started trying mine for music play back. Have all my music stored on a Samsung 128 GB flash drive plugged into a USB port. Going to look into ways to create playlist using a external device. If not possible then I will continue using my Synology NAS Media server and Oppo 203.

[crutzulee]

I'm not much of a music listener, but I understand that the ZIDOO team has been making a lot of strides in improving that aspect of the box.

As far as I'm concerned, they have absolutely nailed down the movie side of things and I have to remind myself of my experiences with the NVIDIA SHIELD. Updates are not always upgrades.

[Warm Gun]

So none of you have had 4K movies slow down on your Z9Xs? Then is there a video setting I can change? Someone on AVSforum told me it uses an older version of Android, causing occasional memory leaks. A reboot always fixes it.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

So none of you have had 4K movies slow down on your Z9Xs? Then is there a video setting I can change? Someone on AVSforum told me it uses an older version of Android, causing occasional memory leaks. A reboot always fixes it.

Sorry Gun, never used it for movie viewing, have watched a few TV recordings using it. Only bought it because at the time I was thinking of doing my own 8 bay Synology media server. But I procured the Zappiti NAS and Neo and use them instead. I will continue to look into using the Z9X as a music player.

I would send markswift2003 at AVS a PM and ask him to read your post there.

[crutzulee]

Originally Posted by Warm Gun

So none of you have had 4K movies slow down on your Z9Xs? Then is there a video setting I can change? Someone on AVSforum told me it uses an older version of Android, causing occasional memory leaks. A reboot always fixes it.

I used my SHIELD for years without issue. ALL of my playback problems started when they updated to the "latest" version of android...