Weekend Roundtable: Christmas Wish List 2014

Each year around this time, we use a Roundtable to drop some last-minute hints about the gifts we’d like to see under our trees come Christmas morning. What would you like Santa to bring you?

Shannon Nutt

Unless someone wants to talk Jennifer Lawrence into making a Christmas morning appearance at my apartment, my biggest want lately has been an upgrade from my 5.1 home theater to a 7.1 system. Yes, I realize that Dolby Atmos is the new shiny thing on the block, but renting a place instead of owning kind of limits my options when it comes to audio. I just can’t go around drilling holes in the walls (or, in the case of Atmos, the ceiling). However, a reasonably priced 7.1 set up (hopefully with rear wireless speakers – again, so I don’t have wires running across the floor) is one of my goals in 2015. Sadly, this is one of those desires that I’m probably going to have to purchase myself, but hopefully I’ll get enough Amazon gift cards this Christmas to make the buy less of a hit on my wallet. By the way, if any of our readers would like to recommend a system, feel free to comment below!

Mike Attebery

For Christmas I’d like to upgrade my HDTV. I’ve been looking around, and a Samsung 50-inch 4K Ultra HD television fits in almost exactly the same space as my old 40″ 1080p set. Because of the lower profile edges, I could get ten more inches of screen in just about the same amount of wall space and have a spare TV to put in another room. That’s a win-win if ever there was one. Now I’m just hoping Santa brings me one. That, or I’ll have to dress up in the red costume and buy it myself in January.

Adam Tyner (DVDTalk)

I’m in kind of a pickle. On one hand, I really, really want that deliriously over-the-top boxed set of the ’60s ‘Batman’ series that came out a month or two back. On the other, well, I also really, really don’t want it. I tend to be the marathon viewing type, and as much as I dig the Adam West-era ‘Batman’ show, I don’t think I can mainline 120 episodes of that without losing my already tenuous grip on my sanity. Also, that collection is so expensive that I can get a massive stack of other TV-on-BD boxed sets for the same price. It’s the sort of situation where if I don’t get it, I’ll be disappointed. If I do get it, I’ll bemoan all the other stuff I could’ve gotten instead. Where’s Santa when I need him?

I’m betting I’ll have the fourth season of ‘The Walking Dead‘ waiting for me under one of the many Christmas trees I’ll see over the holidays. It sure would be nice to see the latest season of ‘Doctor Who‘ as well as the first seasons of ‘Penny Dreadful‘, ‘Fargo‘ and ‘Sleepy Hollow‘. Heck, I’ll take ‘Supernatural‘, ‘Arrow‘, ‘Continuum‘, ‘Orphan Black‘ and, thanks to my masochistic collectors’ mentality, maybe even ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘ and ‘Justified‘ while I’m at it. I meant to ask for a couple of ‘Adventure Time‘ season sets, the complete ‘Cowboy Bebop‘ set, and the third ‘Looney Tunes Platinum Collection‘, but I never quite got around to it. I’m typing all that out and wondering when I’d ever have time to watch all this anyway.

As far as videogames go, all I’ve asked for that I haven’t scored already are the remastered ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ and ‘Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’. I know, I know. The NES Remix Pack, ‘Little Big Planet 3’ and ‘Hyrule Warriors’ are on the top of my didn’t-tell-anyone-I-wanted-’em list.

Geez, this many paragraphs in, and I’m starting to feel like I might be a greedy little cuss. I’ll round this out with two things related to one of my other passions: offbeat musical instruments. I have a pretty sprawling collection of Moog gear already, and I’m chomping at the bit to add a Moog Sub 37 to the mix. It’s paraphonic! That could change everything! One of my favorite guitar pedals I own is a Rainbow Machine, and I’d love to pair it with another Earthquaker Devices stompbox, the mighty Bit Commander‘.

I’ve already gotten the greatest gift I could ask for: an editor willing to put up with that many hyperlinks in one Roundtable without banishing me forever.

Brian Hoss

I love tech of all sorts, especially in the office and home theater. That said, over the last year I’ve added or restored to use so much tech (from displays to speakers, to you name it), what I’d really like is some solid time to sink into it all. Catching up on some recent Blu-ray additions would be a great start. Of course, should an 8K display appear close to the Christmas tree, I certainly wouldn’t notify the authorities.

M. Enois Duarte

I love my audio, so that particular area of my system is in constant upgrade mode. Currently, especially with the recent addition of Dolby Atmos, I’ve been wanting a little more oomph in the bass department. I’m currently running three subwoofers through my Denon AVR-X5200W and a miniDSP but have been hankering for a fourth. What I’ve been eyeing is the PSA XS30se. Maybe Santa is listening or reading the blog this year.

Josh Zyber

I’ll echo what Brian said above. Time is at a real premium for me these days. I don’t need any more stuff at the moment. I just need time to catch up on my movie watching, my Blu-ray reviewing or – dare to dream – my sleep. All I want for Christmas is a Time-Out.

Have you been naughty or nice this year? Tell Santa what you’d like for Christmas in the Comments below.

13 comments

  1. Chris B

    Finally got my home theatre area in my basment up and running this year, and I’d sure like to replace my bargain basement (pun intended) Blu-Ray player with an Oppo BDP-103D ASAP…however at nearly 700 bucks Canadian, I know I’ll be waiting awhile…

    P.S. I’d love to dive into the world of Far Cry 4 over the holidays, here’s hoping it’s under the tree!

      • Chris B

        That’s what I hear! , I’ve been drooling over it and reading reviews online for the past few weeks. One of the main reasons I’d love one is I’m using a 2010 LG Plasma for a display and it definitely shows it’s age. The picture quality is what I’d call “pretty good” but not as crisp an vibrant as my Samsung upstairs which is a few years newer. I was hoping the Oppo could breathe a little life into Blu-Ray playback. Did you notice a substantial discernible difference in image quality when you started using the Oppo? Or was it “worth every penny” more for all the features and convenience it offers?

    • I’ve sunk 30+ hours into Far Cry 4 over the past week. I hope it’s waiting for you under the tree too! It’s in the running for (and probably is) my game of the year.

      • Chris B

        I remember getting Far Cry 3 in December 2012 and playing it incessantly over the holiday break, it’s becoming an unofficial Christmas tradition!

  2. This Christmas I wish for world peace….and an SVS pb12 plus or sb13 ultra. I didn’t want to come across as a completely selfish a-hole. I have also been craving a little more out of my low end and I’ve read alot of good things about these subs. This is definitely looking more like a new year resolution than a Christmas wish. I may have to sacrifice a lot of bluray buying next year to be able to save up for my new sub. Will I be able to do it? I hope so. There’s a lot of cool new Pacific Rim NECA figures coming out that I MUST have as well.

  3. William Henley

    I’m going to echo Josh – my tech is fine right now, I just need more time. What would be really useful is like an extra 96 hours a week of time off (yeah, just add an extra 4 days to the week) so that I can have time to catch up on everything. Other than South Park: The Stick of Truth, I cannot remember the last time I sat down to a good RPG on a console (Final Fantasy on the Android is getting played quite a bit, though, its great way to kill time when waiting somewhere on something).

    I guess if anything, an HDTV for the bedroom is fine, but the SD I have in there is so good, its not that big of a deal. I pretty much watch most of my stuff that’s older than 10 years old in there, so like all my SD television shows on my DVR, my DVDs and my laserdiscs I watch in there. I also have the Wii hooked up in there for the older Virtual Console games, because the delay on LCDs made many of those games almost unplayable.

    I do need to pick up a Blu-Ray burner for my PC (mainly to burn my home movies – my memory cards are filling up).

    Note to Shannon – most apartments let you drive nails into the walls to hang stuff up. I got a 7.1 in my apartment, and the rears and sides are hanging on the walls at ear-level, the fronts are on stands. I got a cord concealer to run wires across the floor (the cable comes in on the back wall, so I had to run that across the floor – the apartment won’t let them move the jack)..

    • Josh Zyber
      Author

      Shannon could also do Atmos in his apartment with upfiring speaker modules that sit on top of his front speakers and bounce audio off the ceiling. No holes in the walls or ceiling required.

  4. Kyle

    Aside from adding to my already backlogged collections of movies and games I would love it if Santa upgraded my 52″ Toshiba regza or my useful but extremely lacking 5.1 surround system. Also, since its been a year and still have yet to buy a “next gen” system Im anticipating an Xbox One under the tree 🙂

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