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Anamorphic Lens in a Modern 4k Home Theater, Part 2 – The Panamorph Paladin DCR

Josh Zyber — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 20:00:15 +0000

After installing a 4k projector in my home theater, I questioned whether an anamorphic lens is still the best way of achieving Constant Image Height display. Although my first tests using an older model suggested that I was better off without it, our friends at Panamorph were gracious enough to lend me a new Paladin...

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Dolby Atmos Beyond 7.1.4 – Part 6: Reconfiguring Everything (Again)

Josh Zyber — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 17:00:17 +0000

My seemingly never-ending project to incorporate an absurd number of speakers into my home theater has undergone another major overhaul since I last provided an update. While, no, I haven’t squeezed any more speakers into the room, I have rewired and re-assigned several of them – hopefully for the better. Most home theaters are content...

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Bringing Old Game Consoles Back into Service

Josh Zyber — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 15:00:52 +0000

Lately, I feel like my home theater is moving backwards. Despite upgrading to a high-end 4k projector, I’ve also felt compelled to pull some very old equipment back into usage. First was a Laserdisc player, and now a bunch of my old video game consoles. I’ve mentioned in this blog plenty of times before that...

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JVC Makes Major Improvement to HDR Tone Mapping

Josh Zyber — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 12:00:49 +0000

HDR tone mapping remains the most confusing and frustrating aspect of 4k High Dynamic Range video, and is especially difficult on home theater projectors. Always at the forefront of the best projector image quality, JVC has issued a firmware update for its current line that may not completely solve the problem, but comes pretty close....

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Is There Still Room for Laserdisc in a 4k Home Theater?

Josh Zyber — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 16:00:58 +0000

For obvious reasons, my home theater has primarily focused on Blu-ray and Ultra HD content, plus cable TV and streaming at a minimum of high definition quality. Even so, I still like to keep older formats around. Recently, I dusted off my old Laserdisc player and hooked it up again. Laserdisc was the format that...

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Is an Anamorphic Lens Still Useful in a Modern 4k Home Theater?

Josh Zyber — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 12:00:49 +0000

After about a month of breaking in my new JVC DLA-NX7 projector, I finally decided to remove it from the shelf it was sitting on and move it to my ceiling mount, which I guess means that it’s a keeper. In doing so, I was also forced to decide whether to reinstall my anamorphic lens...

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Unboxed: JVC DLA-NX7 4K HDR Projector

Josh Zyber — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 17:00:11 +0000

For a longtime self-professed videophile, you’d think I would have upgraded my home theater to 4k quite a while ago. I hesitated for a few reasons, chief among them that I was waiting for the right home theater projector that met all my needs and requirements. With the arrival of a new JVC DLA-NX7, I’ve...

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IMAX Enhanced Audio Examined, Part 4

Josh Zyber — Thu, 23 May 2019 12:00:20 +0000

Earlier this year, the IMAX Corporation and DTS introduced the new IMAX Enhanced variant of the DTS:X sound format, and I wrote a few articles trying to get to the bottom of what it really is or does. Just as I thought I understood it, a recent firmware update changed some ways the format works....

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JVC and Panasonic Try to Figure Out HDR Tone Mapping

Josh Zyber — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 12:00:19 +0000

High Dynamic Range video is both the most exciting aspect of the 4k Ultra HD format and also the most confusing. With their new flagship products, JVC and Panasonic have teamed up to simplify HDR tone mapping (the process by which an HDR signal is adapted to fit within the limitations of an HDTV or...

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Dolby Atmos Beyond 7.1.4 – Part 5: The Front Wide Experiment

Josh Zyber — Tue, 29 Jan 2019 18:00:22 +0000

It’s been a while since I last provided an update on my ongoing attempt to expand my home theater beyond the conventional channel limits allowed by Dolby Atmos or DTS:X. Never satisfied, I’ve now crammed 17 speakers into my room. If you can believe it, in some ways this has actually simplified matters since my...

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IMAX Enhanced Audio Examined, Part 3

Josh Zyber — Thu, 03 Jan 2019 17:00:21 +0000

As I’m still trying to figure out the new IMAX Enhanced audio format, I’ve done some additional playing around and discovered a strange use that was likely not intended by the designers. If you really wanted to, you can activate the mode on DTS-encoded DVDs. You probably shouldn’t, though. Yes, I said DVD, not Blu-ray....

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IMAX Enhanced Audio Examined, Part 2

Josh Zyber — Wed, 26 Dec 2018 17:00:18 +0000

Last week I shared my first impressions of the new IMAX Enhanced audio format, available on select A/V receivers and two movie discs to date. Additional testing has answered some of the questions I had, but I’m not sure I like those answers. Both IMAX and DTS have been stingy with details about exactly what...

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