AVForums Podcast: Episode 246 - 10th December 2018

Phil Hinton

Editor
Staff member
Joined
Jan 18, 2001
Messages
11,712
Reaction score
12,833
Points
6,438
Location
AVForums
00:00:38 – Legion of Santa Claus, beer sponsors, Panama hats, and Christmas parties
00:12:27 – Current Competitions
00:13:46 – Phil final thoughts on the Sony ZF9 and his initial impressions of the Samsung Q900 00:36:54 – Steve reviews the Yamaha MusicCast BAR 40 and BAR 400
00:44:39 – Editor’s Choice – Home AV
00:49:50 – Films opening this week – Mortal Engines, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Aquaman
00:54:06 – Disc releases this week – Christopher Robin, They Shall Not Grow Old, The Equaliser 2, The Meg, Alpha, Dynasties, and The Magnificent Ambersons
00:59:29 – Odeon charges £40 for a seat in its new West End Dolby Cinema
01:03:01 – Tom Cruise tells us to turn off motion smoothing
01:07:35 – RIP Gloria Katz
01:13:08 – Goodbyes

Presented by Phil Hinton with Steve Withers, Ed Selley and Mark Botwright

Note: If you are having problems with subscription services and Apps, please deselect and then re-subscribe to the podcast feed, thanks.

Subscription link: AVForums Podcast


Time: 01:13:49 | File Size: 106mb | Direct Link
 
Another great Pod guys.

Dynasties - concluded last night and will be my tv series of the month, overall fantastic series, and beautifully filmed, also looking great in HLG on a '17 series LG.

Enjoyed reading your Editors choice btw.

Looking forward to the last Podcast next week before the madness of CES.
 
Another great podcast, although it was interesting about SD on the Samsung 900, as Samsung keep saying that SD looks better with their 8K processing TVs, then it does on 4K TVs. (With the box being replaced when HDMI 2.1 comes about it is probably one of most future proofed TVs out there at the moment, although CES will probably see a deluge of 8K sets from other manufactures, knocking another nail in the coffin of high end 4K TVs)

As to the upcoming snake oil next week, (Can’t wait) you may like to look at some Nuclear Bunkers that are for sale (They come along quite often these days) as well as the Tin Hat.

Bill
 
Surprised to hear the "flagship" Sony ZF9 does such a poor job with black bars. My new and relatively inexpensive (to many here, certainly not to me!) LG 49SK8500PLA does a very good job with black bars in widescreen movies despite not having lots of FALD zones.

I think this is likely a software algorithm issue with the Sony rather than a physical one and something that could and should be fixed in firmware.
 
Bring on the £40 seats I say!
 
Thank you for the Podcast and especially the new Sony ZF9 review.

Last year I briefly owned a Sony ZD9 which was superb for SDR lower quality content due to the unmatched smooth graduation feature.

I replaced it after 3 weeks due to DSE and awful Android User Experience. Also lost faith in getting DOLBYVISION.


ALL THAT SONY NEEDED TO FOR 2018 FOR THE ZD9 SUCCESSOR IS:
1. Change the chip set/memory management so it can cope with Android. Just like they have done on 2018 Master series.
2. Add CMS for better Calibration.
3. Add 2 more 4KHDR HDMI INPUTS. SO = 4 IN TOTAL.

THE ABOVE THREE CHANGES WOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGH AND PERHAPS PRICE £300 BELOW LG OLED65C8.
 
Enjoyed phils thoughts on the ZF9 and Q900. Any way you can share that firmware for the Q900 over this way phil :D iv had the set for a month and a half now and im surprised theres hasn't been a single firmware update yet. Amazon prime 4K material doesn't work on it also at the moment so I wish they would hurry up and fix that issue.
 
Surprised to hear the "flagship" Sony ZF9 does such a poor job with black bars. My new and relatively inexpensive (to many here, certainly not to me!) LG 49SK8500PLA does a very good job with black bars in widescreen movies despite not having lots of FALD zones.

I think this is likely a software algorithm issue with the Sony rather than a physical one and something that could and should be fixed in firmware.

You might be right regarding the Algorithm. Perhaps the software requires further tweaks and tuning so that it can fit better to this new Panel.
 
It's a physical filter on the ZF9.

Nice call on Howard the Duck on Netflix, I only vaguely remember enjoying this as a kid, so I'll have to check it out considering how much everyone seems to lambaste it.
I managed 5 minutes before switching it off over the weekend.
 
I would imagine that most people would envisage the term "Dolby cinema" to mean something to do purely with the sound. Certainly nothing to do with the quality of the image or screen and proprietary dual laser projection technology..... Heathens.... Mind you at £40 a shot even I think not. Looking forward to next weeks poddy guys. Luv LT. ;)
 
Last edited:
Why not kill two birds with one hat?

20180622104557235_500.jpeg
 
Good to get a view from Movie Director/ Actor Tom Cruise on these matters.

Someone now quickly ask him:
1. which is better DOLBYVISION or HDR10+?
2. Viewing distance to screen size?
3. Headphones or HIFI Speakers?
4. TV - LED or OLED?
5. MP3 or Vinyl?
 
Looking forward to the upcoming article on which is best, Dolby Vision or Scientology?
 
Yeah thats what I'm thinking. the ultimate one chipset is mainly for higher resolution and more dynamic range, and going off the prototype from ces 2018 its likely to be a new model


I think the confusion would be in Brand positioning. Sony has already named their flagship models by branding them "Master Series’. So if they launched a superior model what would it be positioned as. Master Series plus.
 
Thanks gents, Phil's review of the ZF9 was intriguing - what on earth were they thinking when signing it off.

Can't wait for Ed's snake oil article and I trust there will be a view from Tom Cruise.

£40 for a cinema seat? I know Brexit and the exchange rate favours tourists, however that is extortionate especially when considering the number of films released each year that would " justify " such a price.
 
I think the confusion would be in Brand positioning. Sony has already named their flagship models by branding them "Master Series’. So if they launched a superior model what would it be positioned as. Master Series plus.
There's no reason why sony can't add more tvs in the master series. After the feedback on the ZF9, it seems sony needs to remove that tag lol..
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom