Ethan Winer, co-owner of RealTraps and author of the book The Audio Expert, talks about how he became interested in music and audio technology as well as acoustic treatments, how he started several recording studios, his current home recording studio and theater, his use of REW (Room EQ Wizard) to measure the effects of bass traps on frequency response and decay times, peaks and nulls in a room, how moving your head even a few inches can dramatically change the sound you hear in a room, answers to chat-room questions, and more.

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Aside from football and flashy half-time shows (with the occasional wardrobe malfunction), the Super Bowl is known for the special commercials that advertisers create specifically to air during the game. And those advertisers pay a hefty price for the opportunity—this year, up to $5 million for a 30-second spot—to capture the eyeballs of well over 100 million viewers.

Normally, these commercials are kept under extremely tight wraps until they air, but LG decided to unveil its first-ever Super Bowl commercial a week before the big game this year. It’s a family affair, produced by Ridley Scott—who directed “1984,” Apple’s iconic Macintosh commercial for Super Bowl XVIII 32 years ago—and directed by his son Jake Scott. Familial connections exist in front of the camera as well—the commercial stars Liam Neeson as a man from the future telling his present-day self, played by son Micheal Neeson, about the coming of OLED TV and how that event must be protected from “them” (whoever “they” are).

“It’s a dynamic short film,” says Ridley Scott. “It’s about the race to be on the vanguard of innovation and to be able to create tomorrow’s technology.”
  
“My character is an enigmatic man from the future who has traveled back to the present day on a very important mission,” said Neeson. “He represents that inner appeal, that curiosity we have to find out about the future.”

I must say, it’s pretty cool:

In conjunction with the commercial, LG is holding a sweepstakes in which one resident of the US will win an OLED TV—specifically, a 55EF9500. All you have to do is follow LG Electronics on Twitter (@LGUS) and post a tweet with the hashtags “#OLEDisHere” and “#sweepstakes” before Saturday, February 6, at 11:59:59 PM Eastern time; for complete rules, click here.

While the sweepstakes prize is a 2015 model, the commercial features the 2016 Signature G6 with it’s “picture-on-glass” design and integrated soundbar that can be folded behind the screen. Still, it would be mighty sweet to win a 55EF9500, which is flat and HDR-capable using HDR10. Are you in?

The post LG Super Bowl Commercial appeared first on AVSForum.com.

According to a recent article from Digital Trends, Netflix is bullish on high dynamic range (HDR). Neil Hunt, Chief Product Officer at Netflix, is quoted as saying, “I think HDR is more visibly different than 4K,” and I couldn’t agree more. The benefit of greater pixel resolution is marginal for “normal” screen sizes and seating distances, but the benefit of HDR is immediately apparent at any screen size and seating distance.

The article also points out that HDR goes hand in hand with wide color gamut (WCG), allowing TVs to display a larger palette of colors over a greater range of brightness. Again, the benefit of WCG is much more obvious than merely increasing the spatial resolution from HD to UHD.

Netflix now streams its original shows Marco Polo and Daredevil in Dolby Vision HDR, and HDR10 is expected in a few months. Hunt says that, starting this year, the company will shoot and master its original shows in HDR, and the final product will include the metadata for both HDR formats. He expects that five percent of Netflix content will be available in HDR within a year, increasing to 20 percent by 2019.

Interestingly, Hunt says that Netflix will certify Dolby Vision and HDR10 TVs, though he didn’t mention any specific models. I’m not sure why that certification is necessary; if a TV conforms to the Dolby Vision or HDR10 specs, all Netflix has to do is master to those specs, and all should be well. Of course, we know that the 2015 and 2016 Samsung SUHD TVs all implement HDR10, and the Vizio Reference Series will offer Dolby Vision (if it ever actually becomes available to buy), as will the TCL X1. The 2016 LG OLEDs and Philips 8600 will be able to display content encoded in either Dolby Vision or HDR10, a dual-format trend that I dearly hope will expand to other makes and models.

In any event, I’m thrilled to see Netflix embrace HDR so fully, and I can’t wait to check out its new content on an HDR-capable display.

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If you care about picture quality, you can greatly improve the performance of just about any display by following these 12 simple steps.

As most AVS Forum members know, watching a TV as it comes out of the box is not ideal—it’s typically too bright and too blue for the best image quality at home. A professional calibration will ensure that it looks the very best it can, but that can cost several hundred dollars. This is unreasonable for many buyers, especially if the TV was relatively inexpensive—say, less than $2000.

Does that mean you must live with a bright, blue flame thrower? Not at all—there are several things you can do to greatly improve the picture quality without spending more than a few bucks. Here are 12 tips to help you tune up your TV, which will typically get you 70-80 percent of the way to the best possible picture quality that TV can produce; if you want that last 20-30 percent, you can always hire a pro calibrator—and those of us who are picky about picture quality do so gladly if we can.

To perform these tasks, you’ll need to open the TV’s menu system and find the cited controls, which often go by different names in different manufacturers’ products. I can’t include all the possible names here; I’ve tried to use the most common names, but you might have to do a bit of sleuthing to determine what the manufacturer of your TV calls these controls.

1. Select the most accurate picture mode. In most TVs, this is the Movie or Cinema mode; in some, it might be the Standard mode, and a few even have a Calibrated mode. After selecting this mode, you might think the image looks dim and dull, but give yourself some time to get used to it; the picture will look much more natural and realistic than the out-of-box mode.

2. Select the warmest color temperature. In most TVs, the color-temperature settings are often labeled Cool, Normal, and Warm or High, Medium, and Low. The Warm or Low setting is usually the closest to reproducing what the content creators intended. In the Movie or Cinema picture mode, the color temperature often defaults to Warm or Low.

3. Turn off all “‘enhancement” functions, such as dynamic contrast, edge enhancement, and noise filters. These usually do more harm than good to image quality.

4. Turn off overscan, which slightly upscales and crops the image. This is a holdover from the CRT days and is no longer necessary; in a digital display, it softens the image. In the TV’s menu, this parameter is often called something like Picture Size or Aspect Ratio, with selections that include various zoom settings; select the setting that displays each pixel exactly as it is in the video signal.

5. Turn off frame interpolation, which sharpens motion detail by synthesizing artificial frames between the actual frames in the video signal. But it also creates the soap-opera effect, making movies look like they were shot with a video camera. This parameter goes by many different names; here are some of the more common ones:

LG: TruMotion
Panasonic: Motion Picture Setting
Samsung: Auto Motion Plus
Sharp: Motion Enhancement
Sony: Motionflow
Vizio: Smooth Motion

6. Turn on backlight scanning or black-frame insertion to sharpen motion detail without frame interpolation. Some models do not offer separate frame-interpolation and backlight-scanning controls, but combine them into one control; in this case, turn it off to avoid the soap-opera effect. This parameter goes by many different names; here are some of the more common ones:

LG: TruMotion Clear Plus
Panasonic: N/A (combined with frame interpolation)
Samsung: LED Motion Plus, LED Clear Motion
Sharp: AquoMotion
Sony: Motionflow Impulse
Vizio: Clear Action

7. Adjust the backlight (LCD) or cell-light (plasma, OLED) control according to the amount of ambient light in the room; the image should not be too bright to watch comfortably over extended periods. Backlight scanning and black-frame insertion can dim the picture considerably, so the backlight should be increased if you use this feature.

8. Use a setup disc to adjust the TV’s five basic picture controls (brightness, contrast, color, tint, sharpness). For newbies, the Disney World of Wonder (WOW) Blu-ray is excellent; for more experienced users, I recommend Spears & Munsil’s HD Benchmark or Joe Kane’s Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics. Each of these discs costs around $30. Another option is the AVS 709 HD program available here to download for free. The THX Tune-Up app for iOS and Android devices is very convenient, and it’s also free.

9. Follow the directions for whichever disc or app you choose to set the brightness (black level) first, then contrast (white level). Go back and check the brightness again; these controls can be somewhat interactive, so you might need to go back and forth a few times to get them both right.

10. In most cases, set the sharpness control at 0 or off; higher settings apply edge enhancement that does more harm than good to the image. I’ve seen at least one TV in which a setting of 0 softened the picture quite a bit, while a setting of 1 was fine.

11. Setting the color and tint controls requires you to look through a blue filter at the test pattern or, better yet, setting the TV to display only blue, not red or green. Unfortunately, the blue filters that come with various setup discs aren’t always accurate for all types of TVs, leading to misadjusted controls.

12. With digital TVs, the tint control rarely needs adjustment, so leave it alone. If your TV has a “blue-only” mode, use that to set the color control; if not, use the blue filter that came with the setup disc or carefully adjust it while looking at content with natural skin tones; they should not look sunburned or sickly green.

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Anthony Grimani and Manny LaCarrubba, founders of Grimani Systems, discuss their new speakers that were first introduced at CEDIA 2015, including how the tweeter is based on the Acoustic Lens waveguide that Manny developed for Bang & Olufsen, the problems encountered by home-theater installers and how the company addresses them, the on- and off-axis frequency response of various speakers (including theirs), the importance of directivity and dispersion, using CAT5/6 cables to connect everything, answers to chat-room questions, and more.

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As virtually everyone knows, the Super Bowl is not just about football—the commercials are almost as eagerly anticipated as the game itself. This year, advertisers paid up to $5 million for a 30-second spot, and as in years past, many produced commercials specifically for this broadcast.

TiVo just announced the results of its research into which Super Bowl 50 commercials were most popular based on aggregated, anonymous, second-by-second measurement data from a sample of approximately 30,000 households with TiVo service. These data include the amount of time shifting and rewatching as well as the percentage of the audience watching at normal play speed; the most engaging commercials are determined by looking for spots with the largest increase in viewership relative to the viewership in the surrounding 15 minutes of programming.

According to Tara Maitra, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Content and Media Sales at TiVo, “Ratings for the game and the price tag for 30-second ad spots may have risen as usual, but ads this year felt ‘safer’ and less edgy.” I have to agree with this assessment, but they were still fun to watch.

TiVo also identified the top three moments during the game:

1. C.J. Anderson scrambles into the end zone giving the Broncos a 22-10 lead with three minutes remaining;

2. Super Bowl MVP Von Miller strips the ball from Cam Newton’s hand with four minutes remaining in the forth quarter with the Panthers down by 6;

3. The replay shows Cam Newton backed away from the scramble for the lost football.

Here are the top 10 commercials as determined by TiVo’s methodology; LG’s first-ever Super Bowl commercial, which I wrote about here, did not make the cut. Like the LG spot, in which Liam Neeson plays a man from the future warning his present self (played by son Micheal) about the coming of OLED TV, some of TiVo’s top 10 commercials also featured celebrities, such as Jeff Goldblum reprising his role as a Steve Jobs-like figure extolling the virtues of Apartments.com (in this case, singing a send-up of the theme from The Jeffersons), Amy Schumer and Seth Rogan hawking Bud Light, and Steven Tyler telling a self-portrait made entirely of Skittles to sing “Dream On” higher and higher.

What were your favorite Super Bowl commercials this year?

1. Doritos—Ultrasound

2. Mountain Dew—PuppyMonkeyBaby

3. Taco Bell Quesalupa—Bigger Than Everything

4. Buick Cascada—That Convertible’s a Buick

5. Pepsi—The Joy of Dance

6. Marmot—Fall in Love With the Outside

7. Apartments.com—Movin’ On Up

8. Bud Light—Raise One to Right Now

9. Skittles—The Portrait

10. Toyota Prius 4—The Longest Chase

The post TiVo’s Top 10 Super Bowl 50 Commercials appeared first on AVSForum.com.

Last Friday marked the start of a new era in home entertainment—the Samsung UBD-K8500 Ultra HD Blu-ray player became available at retail for $400. One of the first places to actually have units in stock is Los Angeles-based retailer Video & Audio Center. According to Tom Campbell, VAC’s Chief Technologist, all four locations—Santa Monica, Torrance-South Bay, Agoura Hills, and the Village at Westfield Topanga—quickly sold out of their inventory and then accepted full payment for a total of 103 more for delivery in a week or two. He says that one person even flew in from San Francisco, bought a player, and flew back the same evening! Meanwhile, several AVS members report having received shipping notifications from Best Buy and Amazon, and a few have bought the player at Fry’s.

Of course, the UBD-K8500 will play and upscale regular Blu-rays and DVDs, but more importantly, it’s the first commercially available device that can play Ultra HD Blu-rays with UHD native resolution and high dynamic range (HDR). At Video & Audio Center last Friday, the UBD-K8500 was playing two Ultra HD Blu-ray titles from 20th Century Fox—The Martian and Kingsman: The Secret Service—which VAC already has in shrink-wrapped cases and ready to sell starting on the release date of March 1, 2016. The movies were displayed on a Samsung UN65KS9800, the company’s 2016 flagship SUHD LCD TV, which should probably be available in the Spring.

Even better, it’s widely reported that over 100 Ultra HD Blu-ray titles are expected to ship this year from Fox, Warner, Sony Pictures, and Lionsgate. What a great time to be a home-theater geek!

The post Samsung UBD-K8500 UHD BDP Goes On Sale appeared first on AVSForum.com.

Dan Wiggins, CTO of Starke Sound, talks about how he got into designing speakers, transducers, and amplifiers; various voice-coil designs and his dual-gap and LMF motor; a parameter called BL, which is a measure of the force on a voice coil, and its impact on distortion; the basic types of power amplifiers and how he designed a 450 watts/channel pure class-A amp with continuously variable power rails, answers to chat-room questions, and more.

The post Speakers and Drivers and Amps, Oh My! appeared first on AVSForum.com.

Yesterday, I was a guest on The Tech Buzz podcast, hosted by Stephen Heywood. We talked about all sorts of home-theater coolness, including the near-ubiquity of 4K/UHD TVs at low prices, seating distances and screen sizes at different resolutions, the importance (or not) of 8K and beyond, streaming 4K, Ultra HD Blu-ray, high dynamic range, … Continue reading Scott on The Tech Buzz Podcast

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Last night, the 58th Grammy Awards show was held at Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA. But four days before “music’s biggest night,” the Producers and Engineers Wing of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences—the organization that hands out the golden gramophones—held its annual pre-Grammy party at The Village Recorders, a venerable, history-laden recording studio in Santa Monica.

The main purpose of the party is to honor a noteworthy producer or engineer—this year, it was Rick Rubin, long-bearded co-founder of Def Jam Records, who has worked with many top musical artists and been criticized for contributing to the “loudness wars” in which a recording’s dynamic range is heavily compressed in order to make it seem louder. Because of that—and the fact that most of the groups he produces are not my cup of tea—he’s not someone I would honor, but he is among the most influential and prolific producers in the business.

Still, the party was a blast with wonderful food and free-flowing booze courtesy of Ciroc vodka, and many manufacturer demos were set up in the various control rooms scattered among three floors of the building. Interestingly, a distinct theme emerged as I visited many of the speaker demos—the importance of controlled and uniform dispersion from monitor speakers at all frequencies. It was almost deja vu, since I had been talking about that very subject during my recent interviews with speaker designers Manny LaCarrubba and Dan Wiggins on the Home Theater Geeks podcast.

Here are photos from some of the demos that night, along with a few words about each one. Unlike most audio shows with demos in hotel rooms, it was wonderful to hear speakers in acoustically optimized recording-studio control rooms!

Allen Sides is a five-time Grammy Award-winning recording engineer, producer, and studio/speaker designer—and a guest on my podcast. His new HR4 monitors use a 1″ compression tweeter and 8″ aluminum-cone woofer in a sealed enclosure, and they emphasize horizontal dispersion in the high and midrange frequencies using sophisticated waveguides. Each driver is powered by an ICEpower class-D amp providing 125 watts, and the 2-way speaker specifies a frequency response from 35 Hz to 25 kHz. A 12″ subwoofer powered by an 800W amp can be added to the base of each speaker, extending the low end to 20 Hz (-3 dB). I heard a pair of the 3-way versions playing a variety of tracks, and it sounded superb throughout the room, with no distinct sweet spot—a primary goal of controlled-dispersion speakers. Even better, they cost only $9000/pair for the 3-way version. Yes, that’s a lot of money, but not in the context of high-end studio monitors or audiophile speakers.

Harman brought its incredible JBL M2 monitors (the large speakers partially visible behind the mixing console in this photo) along with two smaller models based on the technology developed for the M2 and a massive, passive Sub18—an 18″ subwoofer as you can probably guess from the model designation. The two smaller speakers are the 708 and 705, each with a compression tweeter in a carefully designed waveguide to match the dispersion at the crossover point and an 8″ or 5″ woofer, respectively. Anechoic frequency response is spec’d from 35 Hz to 36 kHz (-10 dB at the low end) for the 708 and 39 Hz to 36 kHz (-10 dB) for the 705.

I heard various tracks played on the 705s and 708s with no subwoofer, and I was shocked at how much bass these little guys could put out to match the sparkling highs and well-defined mids with little if any tonal coloration off axis. A 5.1 system with five 705s, a 12″ sub, and amplification costs around $10,000, which ain’t cheap, but I could happily live with it.

DTS was demoing an 11.1 DTS:X system with three JBL 708s for LCRs, four 705s for the side and rear surrounds, and four more 705s for the height channels along with two LSR6312SP 12″ powered subwoofers reproducing the LFE channel with no bass management. The speakers are sold with external amplification from Crown, now part of the Harman family, with DSP and memory presets to store and recall settings. When I was in there, they played Nigel Stanford’s amazing Cymatics video that had been mixed in native 11.1 object-oriented DTS:X, and the sound was sublime almost anywhere in the room.

Genelec was playing a pair of its new 8351 3-way, tri-amped monitors, which feature a concentric 0.75″ tweeter/5″ midrange in a waveguide that takes up the entire front face of the speaker. Behind the waveguide are two 8×4″ woofers that fire through slots at the top and bottom. The frequency response is spec’d from 38 Hz to 21 kHz (-1.5 dB) and 32 Hz to 40 kHz (-6 dB), and the waveguide is designed to achieve wide, symmetric dispersion, which means it can be used in a vertical or horizontal orientation. The sound was exceptional, as I’ve come to expect from Genelec—and as it had better for a list price of $4795 each!

Speakers weren’t the only things being demo’d at the party. Tidal was there with its music-streaming service, playing uncompressed CD-spec audio—which some call high-res, but I don’t. Still, it’s the highest-res streaming audio you can get today, so I guess it’s “high-res” in that sense. The music was playing on a pair of Sonus Faber Venere S speakers driven by a McIntosh MA7900 integrated amp, and it sounded great, although this particular demo was not in a control room, but rather in a lounge-type room with folks hanging out and chatting, so it was more difficult to judge audio quality.

I was a bit surprised to find a room dedicated to Google’s Chromecast Audio. Like the Tidal demo, this one was in a lounge, not a control room, with two pairs of Audioengine A5+ powered compact speakers, each with a Chromecast Audio. See Mark Henninger’s review of the Chromecast Audio for more info on this remarkable piece of consumer technology.

For more on the Grammys, I’ll be interviewing Mike Abbott, audio coordinator for the broadcast, this Thursday, 2-3 PM, on the Home Theater Geeks podcast. You can tune in live at live.twit.tv and join the chat room to pose questions about the show.

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Today, Sony announced the pricing and availability of its 2016 line of HDR UHD/4K LCD TVs. In the list below, the number immediately after “XBR” indicates the screen size:

XBR-55X850D: $2500
XBR-65X850D: $3500
XBR-75X850D: $5000
XBR-85X850D: $10,000
XBR-55X930D: $3300
XBR-65X930D: $5000
XBR-75X940D: $8000

All seven models carry Sony’s “4K HDR Ultra HD” logo, which indicates that the sets meet the Consumer Technology Association’s definition of HDR (basically, HDR10). They are not certified as Ultra HD Premium as specified by the UHD Association, and I suspect that Sony will not pursue this certification because the company often goes its own way.

The X850D is edgelit, while the X930D implements what Sony calls “Grid Array” backlighting. At CES, I tried to learn exactly what this means, but I was told that the patents are still pending, so no technical info was being disclosed. I got the impression that it’s a form of edgelighting with some new type of light-guide technology, but I don’t know for sure. I do know that only the X940D’s backlight is full array with local dimming (FALD).

All seven models went on pre-sale today, and they will be available from Amazon, Best Buy, and other nationwide outlets in March.

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If CES is any indication, 2016 will be the year of high dynamic range (HDR) video. Last year, we saw the first few HDR-capable TVs—specifically, the Samsung SUHD models—become available, and the Vizio Reference Series actually shipped right around the New Year timeframe. In addition, JVC and Sony introduced HDR-capable projectors at CEDIA 2015. But HDR standards were still being finalized, and very little HDR content was available.

At CES 2016, the UHD Alliance announced its Ultra HD Premium certification, which defines HDR for content, delivery, and display, and three companies—LG, Panasonic, and Samsung—unveiled TVs that have already been so certified. Also, a slew of other companies introduced HDR-capable TVs, most of which should be available sometime this year. Many of these new models implement the HDR10 system, while others implement Dolby Vision (DV), and a few can handle both. (There are other HDR systems out there, but none of them were associated with any HDR-display announcements I heard at CES.)

I am completely convinced that HDR will take UHD/4K to a whole new level, so it’s critically important for shoppers to know which displays can render it in its full glory. So I’ve created a list of HDR-capable displays—both TVs and projectors—that indicates the make, model line (which often includes several screen sizes), the implemented HDR system(s), and whether or not it carries the Ultra HD Premium (UHDP) certification. I’ve also divided the list into four sections based on the type of display: OLED TVs, LCD-FALD (full array, local dimming) TVs, LCD-edgelit TVs, and projectors. OLED TVs and projectors are best suited for light-controlled rooms, while LCD TVs have enough brightness to stand up to ambient light, though the full benefit of HDR can be seen only in a dark room.

Is it better to get a display that implements HDR10, Dolby Vision, or both? I suspect that HDR10-encoded content will be more common, but Dolby Vision-based content will be an important part of the market as well. A display that implements only Dolby Vision, such as the Vizio Reference Series, can’t decode and render HDR10 content in high dynamic range. On the other hand, a display that implements only HDR10, such as the Samsung SUHD TVs and JVC projectors, can decode and render Dolby Vision content in high dynamic range if that content includes HDR10 in the base layer, which is allowed but not mandatory. In many cases, Dolby Vision content could well use standard dynamic range in the base layer for backward compatibility with legacy displays. So in my view, the best possible choice is a display that implements both HDR10 and Dolby Vision.

I’ll be updating these lists as other displays become Ultra HD Premium-certified and new models are introduced by manufacturers. And if you know of any that are not included here, please let me know and I’ll add them to the lists.

If you want the best image that UHD/4K can offer now and in the future, you want one of these displays.

OLED TVs

** Note: the LG EG9600 processes and displays HDR only from its onboard streaming apps, not from an external HDMI source.

LCD-FALD TVs

LCD-Edgelit TVs

Projectors

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Michael Abbott, audio coordinator for the Grammys broadcast for the last 17 years, talks about the technical aspects of the audio production, including preparation, rehearsals, staging, signal flow, wireless/RF management, the use of pre-recorded tracks with live performances, the music-mix truck, combining the music mix with other audio elements, transmission of the final signal to CBS, the importance of multiple redundancies, some favorite audio moments, answers to chat-room questions, and more.

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Just back from the HPA Tech Retreat, industry consultants Chris Armbrust, Mike Heiss, Geoff Tully, and Ron Williams talk about what was discussed at the event, including the “triad” of UHD (increased spatial resolution, high dynamic range, and wide color gamut) and how high frame rate isn’t really included in the equation these days, HDR and its use in live broadcasting, the possibility of applying HDR to 1080p content, the state of development of ATSC 3.0 broadcasting, answers to chat-room questions, and more.

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As anyone who reads my articles on AVS Forum knows, I’m a big fan of Dolby Cinema, which combines Dolby Vision HDR projection, Dolby Atmos immersive sound, and several design elements in commercial theaters. When a movie graded in Dolby Vision and mixed in Dolby Atmos is presented in a Dolby Cinema, it’s the finest movie-going experience available anywhere. (For a list of Dolby Cinema locations around the world, click here; for a list of Dolby Vision-graded movies that have been or will be shown in Dolby Cinemas, click here.)

The company’s vision of a Dolby Cinema theater is very specific in terms of equipment and design. Along with dual Dolby Vision laser-illuminated projectors, an Atmos sound system, stadium seating, and a curved video-wall entrance, the design calls for a blue color scheme with the surround and overhead speakers completely hidden behind acoustically transparent cloth that forms large, flat facets reminiscent of a cut gemstone.

In this rendering, you can see Dolby’s design vision for a Dolby Cinema auditorium.

However, AMC—the exclusive host of Dolby Cinemas in the US—went a slightly different way. Of course, they have Dolby Vision projectors, Atmos sound, stadium seating, and a curved video-wall entrance, but the surround and overhead speakers are fully visible—in fact, they are backlit with bright red lighting until the movie starts.

AMC uses a red color scheme with highlighted surround and overhead speakers in its Dolby Cinema at Prime auditoriums.

Dolby’s original design can be found in the European Dolby Cinemas, but not in the US—with one exception. Located near the famous corner of Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood, CA, Dolby calls it the Dolby Cinema Prototype Theater. Its purpose is to demonstrate the concept to producers, directors, exhibitors, and other Hollywood big shots as well as provide a place where movies can be graded in Dolby Vision, which means it’s not open to the public.

Dolby purchased the old Vine Theater on Hollywood Blvd. and began renovations in October, 2014. The entire space was gutted, removing the concession stand and projection booth in the process. The building is 150 feet long, and the original auditorium was 120 feet long, but the new room is only 54.5 feet long, with 40 feet behind the screen/baffle wall and a new projection booth.

There are 70 seats in a curved, stadium configuration, which makes the sightlines completely unobstructed from all seats. They’re plenty comfortable but not reclining as the AMC Dolby Cinema seats are. Also unlike the AMC locations, these seats do not have tactile transducers; instead, the risers are made of wood that transmits the LFE vibrations to the seats (which I much prefer over buttshakers).

With only 70 seats, the Dolby Cinema Prototype Theater is more intimate than most commercial cinemas.

The curved screen is a 35-foot-wide, 1.85:1 aspect-ratio, matte-white, unity-gain, perfed material from Harkness, which supports the Dolby-specified peak-luminance level of 31 foot-lamberts in 2D and 14 fL in 3D from the dual Dolby Vision projectors. Dolby claims a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 from the projectors, compared with 5000:1 to 8000:1 from other laser-illuminated projectors and 2000:1 from xenon lamp-based digital-cinema projectors. (As a point of reference, Dolby says that Vision Premier film stock exhibits a contrast ratio of 8000:1.)

The sound system was provided by Christie, which also makes the Dolby Vision projectors. (AMC uses JBL sound systems.) Called Vive, the system includes both speakers and amplification—in this case, a total of 35 speakers with six subwoofers. Five speakers are located behind the screen along with four subs that reproduce the LFE only. There are 20 side and rear surrounds, with one sub on each side for bass-managed low frequencies, and 10 speakers on the ceiling.

The surround and overhead speakers in the Dolby Cinema Prototype Theater are hidden behind acoustically transparent black cloth that forms large facets on the upper walls and ceiling.

When I was invited to visit the Dolby Cinema Prototype Theater a couple of weeks ago, I jumped at the chance. Two movies were played on consecutive evenings: The Revenant in 2D from a 4K DCP (digital cinema package) and The Martian in 3D from a 2K DCP. I was especially interested in seeing The Martian in 3D Dolby Vision, since AMC has decided to show all movies in its Dolby Cinema auditoriums in 2D—a decision I applaud, BTW. Still, this was a rare opportunity to see Dolby Vision HDR in 3D.

As expected, The Revenant was quite brutal—so much so that I left less than halfway through the movie. Apparently, it was shot with only natural light, and the image was stunningly beautiful, with many shots that take full advantage of HDR. For example, I could see lots of dark detail in the deep twilight surrounding bright campfires, which weren’t blown out at all. There were also shots with the sun directly behind one or another character, and that person’s face was clearly visible with lots of detail while the sun was not a big blown-out blob. And as I’ve seen many times now, the black interstitials completely vanished with no hint of projector light on the screen.

In fact, the HDR image and Atmos immersive sound greatly heightened the sense of realism—which made the brutality of the bear attack and all the battles between the natives and trappers all the more intense. I can’t stomach scenes with a lot of blood and gore, so I had to leave, even though—or perhaps because—it was such a gorgeous presentation.

I had already seen The Martian in 2D at the Dolby Cinema at the AMC Burbank 16; see my writeup here. But I was curious about the 3D presentation in Dolby Vision, something I had never seen before. As you may know, Dolby Vision uses spectrum-separation glasses for 3D—each projector uses slightly different wavelengths of red, green, and blue, and the glasses filter out one or the other set of wavelengths for each eye. Also, by using two laser-illuminated projectors, Dolby Vision 3D can achieve a peak brightness at the eyes of 14 fL; by contrast, most theatrical 3D presentations have a peak brightness of around 3-4 fL at the eyes, which is why conventional 3D looks so dim.

Theoretically, this should work very well, and the 3D image of The Martian was much brighter than other commercial 3D. But there’s a big problem—the inner surfaces of the 3D lenses are highly reflective, and light bounces back and forth between those surfaces and the outer surfaces of prescription glasses, which I wear. The result is annoying ghost images floating around the field of view. I tried taking my prescription glasses off and using just the 3D glasses, which helped a lot, though of course the image was out of focus without my own glasses.

This confirmed that I much prefer Dolby Vision HDR in 2D, which is why I’m so happy that AMC decided not to use 3D in its Dolby Cinema theaters. Not only does it avoid the internal-reflection problem, but HDR 2D is much more dimensional than standard dynamic-range 2D, so 3D doesn’t add as much to the experience.

Regarding the Atmos sound in the Dolby Cinema Prototype theater, it was fully immersive with lots of sound objects throughout the hemispherical soundfield. However, as I’ve heard and written about before, the Christie Vive system sounded very bright—too bright to my ears, bordering on harsh (but not as bad as some Christie demos I’ve heard). I’m glad that AMC uses JBL equipment in its Dolby Cinema rooms; I’ve never been bothered by overly bright sound there.

The level measurements of The Martian were pretty much as I’d expect—Leq (RMS average over the whole movie) was 91.4 dBZ (flat), 90.2 dBC, and 81 dBA; Lmax (highest 1-second RMS level) was 118.6 dBZ; L10 (the level exceeded 10% of the time) was 92 dBZ; L50 (the level exceeded 50% of the time) was 83.1 dBZ. I didn’t have my measurement kit with me for The Revenant.

I was delighted to have the rare opportunity to visit the Dolby Cinema Prototype Theater and actually see a couple of movies there—well, one and a half movies, anyway. It confirmed my conviction that Dolby Cinema offers the best moviegoing experience available today.

The post Dolby Cinema Prototype Theater appeared first on AVSForum.com.

As the comments in my recent article about HDR-capable displays clearly illustrate, the definition of what makes a display “HDR-capable” is not entirely clear. So here is some further exploration of the subject.

I’ll start with “HDR-compatible,” which I define as being able to accept an HDR-encoded signal via HDMI. It says nothing about the display’s ability to actually render an HDR image with higher peak luminance, lower black level, and wider color gamut than standard dynamic-range displays can achieve.

But even “HDR-compatible” is somewhat fuzzy; for example, an HDMI 2.0a port is required to accept an HDR10 signal with its static metadata, but HDMI 2.0 is sufficient for Dolby Vision, which embeds its dynamic metadata in the signal itself. The metadata describes the characteristics of the image being transmitted—peak luminance, color gamut, etc.—and the display uses it to enable its HDR mode (if it has one) and adjust the image data to fit the display’s capabilities, a process called “tone mapping.” If the display doesn’t know what to do with the metadata, it will be ignored and the signal will (hopefully) be displayed in standard dynamic range with BT.709 color.

Then there’s “HDR-capable,” which I define as being able to accept an HDR signal and render the image on the screen with higher peak luminance, lower black level, and wider color gamut than standard dynamic-range displays can achieve. Of course, this means the display must be able to interpret the HDR metadata used in HDR10, Dolby Vision, or both and tone map the image data to its particular capabilities.

Here’s where things get really fuzzy! Displays have different peak-luminance, black-level, and color-gamut capabilities, so what are the minimum requirements for an HDR image? At CES this year, the UHD Association published its Ultra HD Premium specification that attempts to answer this question, at least for displays that carry Ultra HD Premium certification.

As you can see in the Ultra HD Premium specs above, the display, content, and distribution must have a pixel resolution of 3840x2160—no problem there, since all HDR displays use that resolution. The next display spec is somewhat less clear: The color bit depth must be “10-bit signal” (actually, 10 bits per color or 30 bits total for red, green, and blue). That means the display must be able to accept a 10-bit signal, which is used by all HDR content at this point. But does it mean the display’s imaging panel must have native 10-bit precision? Probably not.

Some manufacturers, such as Sony and Samsung, do not reveal the bit depth of the imaging panels in their TVs. They say that an 8-bit panel with good image processing (including something called “dithering”) can potentially render a better HDR image with less banding than a 10-bit panel with poor processing. That’s probably true, but if the panel is 8-bit, I contend that it’s inherently limited when it comes to HDR. After all, 8 bits gives you 256 steps from lowest to highest luminance no matter what the processing is, while 10 bits give you 1024 steps, which means inherently less banding and a wider range of colors. In this case, more is better in my book.

Speaking of color, the Ultra HD Premium spec calls for “BT.2020 color representation” throughout the signal chain—in other words, the color gamut represented in the signal must conform to BT.2020 (actually, use BT.2020 as a “container,” though the actual colors used in the content can be anything within that boundary). But there are no currently available consumer displays that can render the full BT.2020 color gamut, so the spec says the display must be able to reproduce more than 90% of the digital-cinema gamut known as DCI/P3, which is itself a smaller range of colors than BT.2020. Tone mapping, here we come!

But 90% of what, exactly? The area of the P3 triangle in the CIE diagram (shown above)? The coordinates of the red, green, and blue points (whatever 90% of a set of coordinates might be)? Assuming it’s the area of the P3 triangle, the red, green, or blue points may be off by different amounts in different displays. But in all of those cases, the displays’ triangles might all be more than 90% of the P3 triangle, even though they might render somewhat different colors on the screen.

The last spec is labeled “High Dynamic Range,” and it includes the peak luminance and black level as well as the EOTF (electro-optical transfer function), which determines how much light the display outputs in response to different brightness values in the signal. The EOTF is specified as SMPTE ST 2084, also called PQ (Perceptual Quantization). This is unambiguous; both HDR10 and Dolby Vision use PQ as the EOTF, so the display must be able to properly interpret and render it.

Notice that there are two peak-luminance/black-level specs: more than 1000 nits and less than 0.05 nits OR more than 540 nits and less than 0.0005 nits. (Interestingly, the higher range corresponds to a contrast ratio of 20,000:1, while the lower range corresponds to a contrast ratio of over 1,000,000:1!) The spec does not say why there are two ranges, but they obviously apply to LCD and OLED TVs, respectively. As you probably know, LCD TVs can achieve much higher peak luminance than OLED TVs, while OLEDs can achieve much lower black levels. An unfortunate omission is a specific range for projectors, which can’t reach anywhere near 540 nits of peak luminance on most screens, much less 1000.

What about displays that do not carry the Ultra HD Premium certification? In my view, to be considered HDR-capable, they need to be able to accept and understand HDR-encoded signals (with their associated metadata) and render them with higher peak luminance and wider color gamut than current HD content calls for—100 nits peak luminance and BT.709 color gamut. (The current HD system does not specify a black level, and LCD TVs are getting pretty good at deep blacks, especially FALD designs, but I would hope that HDR-capable sets have even deeper blacks than standard dynamic-range sets.) How much greater should the peak luminance and color gamut be? A factor of 2? 5? 10? That’s a totally open question, and we’re likely to see displays touted as HDR with capabilities all over the map.

One big problem is trying to decide if a display is HDR-capable based on the manufacturer’s specs. As I mentioned earlier, some companies do not reveal the bit depth of their imaging panels, and as we all know, peak-luminance and contrast-ratio specs are notoriously inflated using measurement techniques that do not correspond to real-world viewing. This is why Ultra HD Premium certification is valuable—displays undergo extensive testing by independent facilities to determine if they meet the specs, so there’s no need to rely on a manufacturer’s claims.

Some have suggested that edgelit LCD TVs inherently do not qualify as HDR-capable, but that is not true. For example, there are quite a few 2016 Samsung edgelit LCD TVs that are Ultra HD Premium Certified, so this is a non-issue. What’s important is whether or not the display can render an HDR image with sufficiently greater dynamic range and color gamut in response to HDR signals than the current SDR standard specifies.

Other than the question of what defines “sufficiently,” I’m convinced that an HDR-capable display—in conjunction with HDR content—can offer a much better viewing experience than anything we’ve seen up to now. That’s why I created the list of HDR-capable displays in the first place, and why I encourage shoppers to seriously consider getting one of those models instead of a display that cannot render HDR images from HDR sources.

The post What Does “HDR-Capable” Mean? appeared first on AVSForum.com.

AVS Senior Writer Mark Henninger and I spend a pleasant hour answering questions from the chat room, including lots of talk about high dynamic range, our dream audio systems, Dolby Surround upmixing, the difference between refresh rate and frame rate, frame interpolation versus backlight flashing, the importance of bias lighting, audio mixers, HDMI 2.0 and 2.0a, whether or not to buy a 4K/UHD TV now, optimum seating distances, in-wall speakers, 4K broadcasting, cleaning TV screens, and more.

The post Chat Room Q&A appeared first on AVSForum.com.

I saw an interesting article at TWICE today entitled “How DTS Envisions Its Future.” In it, DTS Chairman/CEO Jon Kirchner is cited as saying the company’s future growth will come from products using its Play-Fi wireless-multiroom system, the increasing use of HD Radio in cars, and mobile devices with DTS audio technology. By contrast, revenues from home A/V products, game consoles, and Blu-ray players and discs are declining.

In one quote, Kirchner says that in 2015, “we experienced greater than expected softness in Blu-ray and home A/V. These markets are in long-term decline. However, a delay in transition to next-generation [DTS:X] technology has also negatively impacted these markets last year.”

Speaking of which, several major studios have committed to releasing Ultra HD Blu-ray titles with DTS:X soundtracks, and several Blu-ray discs are now available with the company’s immersive format, including Ex Machina, American Ultra, and The Last Witch Hunter. In addition, DTS says there will be more than 60 DTS:X-capable AVRs, pre/pros, and even soundbars from many different brands by the end of 2016, though there are few in the market yet.

Deployment of DTS:X in commercial cinemas has been fairly slow as well, with 12 movies released in 2015. (By contrast, there were 49 titles released with Dolby Atmos last year.) Four titles have been released in China this year, and six Hollywood films are scheduled to have DTS:X soundtracks so far. But where can these soundtracks be heard? Kirchner says there are more than 70 screens that feature or are committed to feature DTS:X—a very small number compared to Dolby Atmos, which is now or soon to be available in over 1600 commercial-cinema rooms worldwide.

With such a late start, can DTS:X catch up with Dolby Atmos in commercial cinemas and home theaters? Will the dominance of DTS-HD Master Audio on Blu-ray help DTS:X become common on Ultra HD Blu-ray discs? Only time will tell, but if the revenues from home A/V and Blu-ray continue to decline, it seems the company has an uphill battle on its hands unless other parts of its business can take up the slack.

For example, Play-Fi is one area of expected growth, even after several manufacturers pushed back the release date of their compatible products due to technical issues. According to DTS, Klipsch and Rotel have “selected Play-Fi to be their wireless solution,” and Dish Network is working on integrating the technology into its Hopper DVR with a Dish Music app that turns the Hopper into a Play-Fi music zone.

But can Play-Fi catch up to the likes of Sonos and the myriad “Sonos-like substances” as my friend and industry consultant Mike Heiss calls similar systems? Granted, unlike Sonos and many of the other “substances,” Play-Fi is not manufacturer-specific and could be implemented in products from a wide range of companies, which is a definite advantage. But is it too little too late? As my wife’s grandmother used to say, if you live a little longer, you’ll find out.

The post The Future of DTS appeared first on AVSForum.com.

As an electrical and systems engineer in the television-broadcast and mastering industry, Andy Delle (Glimmie) is ideally suited to design a home-theater system that rivals any professional setup and far exceeds most consumers’ dreams. When I visited his dedicated home theater in Santa Clarita, CA, I was astounded by the amount of gear in the isolated equipment room—which resembles broadcast and mastering studios, complete with floating floor—and the complexity of the system that nevertheless operates very smoothly and efficiently thanks to Andy’s system-design skills.

Starting with an empty shell that a contractor added to his house in 2003, Andy built the interior of the theater entirely with his own hands. He also built many other components, including most of the audio amplification, signal switchers, and all the speakers and subwoofers from DIY kits and plans with drivers obtained from ScanSpeak, Vifa, Morel, Dayton, and other high-end providers. The entire theater is a DIY masterpiece!

Even with all the DIY, the total cost of the theater—including the contractor’s work and all the equipment—reached about $120,000. That’s a hefty sum by any standard, but it would have been much more if Andy had needed to hire someone to do what he is so qualified to do himself. And judging from the audio and video quality, ease of use, and comfortable environment, I’d say it was worth every penny—and then some!

If you’d like your home theater considered for HT of the Month, PM me with the details and a link to your build thread if available.

EQUIPMENT LIST

Sources

Media Server #1 (HD/Blu-ray/DVD)

Media Server #2 (uncompressed SD/LaserDisc archive)

NAS on gigabit-Ethernet dedicated network

Dish VIP612 HD satellite DVR

Pioneer CLD-95 LaserDisc player, SDI modified (for ingest to server only)

Mitsubishi D-VHS VCR (for ingest to server only)

AV Electronics

Lexicon MC8 pre/pro (AES-out modified, used only for AC3 and DTS audio; analog input and output section not used)

DIY digital processor (3 miniDSP miniSHARCs, 2 miniDSP 2×4 DSP cards; generic Asus I5 with 200 GB SSD for miniDSP management)

Lucid AES-88192 DAC (3, 8 channels each)

DIY 24-channel analog master volume controller (sets all gain trims and master volume)

DIY 110W power amps for LCR woofers (3, based on rebuilt Hafler DH220 modules)

DIY 60W power amps for LCR mids (3, based on rebuilt Hafler DH120 modules)

DIY 20W power amps for LCR tweeters (3, pure class-A)

DIY 70W power amps for surrounds (5)

DIY 75W power amps for heights (4)

Yamaha P2700 power amp (500Wx2 for front subs)

Stewart P600 power amps (2, each bridged for side subs, 300W each)

DIY 8×2 AES distribution amplifiers (3)

DIY monitoring computers (3, Windows 2000, running PAS Products Multimeter, RTA, Surround Meter; all with Lynx AES-16 I/O)

Repackaged Tektronix 764 Audio Analyzer (VGA only, internal CRT section scrapped)

DIY 16/2 analog mixdown unit for RTA

AV Processing

BlackMagic Teranex 2D processor

Darbee Darblet processor (legacy version)

Digital Vision DVNR-500 SDI image processor

Technike DX210 SDI NTSC/PAL decoder (used for LaserDisc-to-server ingest)

Sony BVX-D10 SDI color corrector

Sony DSC-1024 VGA scan converters (3)

DVDO VP50Pro scan converter

Videotek VTM420 VGA scopes (2, HD & SD)

Videotek VTM400 VGA scope (HD Only)

BlackMagic Ultrascope running on Win7/64 with Nvidia Graphics and Thunderbolt I/O

NEC 20″ CRT SVGA monitors (5, above main screen)

Asus 24″ LCD monitors (4, below main screen)

Samsung 19″ LCD monitors (2, equipment racks)

Various SDI/HDSDI/AES interface cards and bricks behind rack

AV Switching

DIY 16×16 RGBHV (SVGA) matrix switcher for monitor wall

DIY 8×8 HDSDI matrix switcher

Sony DVS1616 16×16 SDI matrix switcher

DIY 8x8x3 analog matrix switcher configured as 16×8 composite video and 8×8 AES (used for S/PDIF)

Belken 16-port KVM switcher

Projector

Panasonic PT-AE4000

Screen

Stewart GrayHawk (130″ wide, 16:9, 0.9 gain, not acoustically transparent)
DIY 4-way independent masking system

Speakers

DIY LCR (triamped with digital crossover)

DIY front heights (2)

DIY side surrounds (2)

DIY rear surrounds (3)

DIY subwoofers (4)

Cables

DIY using broadcast and IT-grade cable; equivalent to Blue Jeans cables

Control

DIY master controller (DOS computer, controls entire system)

iPad running iRule interfaced to master controller for total remote control

Power Conditioning

DIY balanced 6 kVA house feed (handles all but the servers in HT plus all TVs and DVRs in house via dedicated outlets)

Liebert GX2000 3 kVA UPS for servers, projector, storage (5-minute delayed shut off when system is off; dedicated 30A circuit)

Eaton/Powerware 1500 750 VA UPS for Dish DVR and house network/Wi-Fi gear (always on, fed from balanced power panel)

DIY balanced distribution power filter/controller with dedicated analog audio section (also includes power monitoring CPU)

DIY 3600W 3-circuit power sequencer for all power amps

DIY power controller for all servers and RAIDs (selected on/off depending on viewing source)

Seating

Octane XL400 (4, first row)

Generic leather recliners (3, second row)

Room Dimensions

Building footprint: 38 x 19 feet
Theater: 25 x 18 feet (11-foot ceiling)
Equipment room: 10 x 9 feet (11-foot ceiling)
Foyer: 10 x 9 feet (2-story ceiling)

The post HT of the Month: The GMG Theater appeared first on AVSForum.com.

I’ve been looking forward to Disney Animation’s Zootopia ever since I first saw a trailer for it. Even better, it was graded in Dolby Vision high dynamic range (HDR) with an Atmos immersive soundtrack for presentation in Dolby Cinema theaters, of which there are now 15 in the US and four in Europe. (For a complete list of locations, click here.)

Zootopia is being shown in the Dolby Cinema at the AMC Burbank 16 only during the day; in the evening, it’s replaced by London Has Fallen, which isn’t graded in Dolby Vision, nor does it have an Atmos soundtrack. I’m sure that’s because Zootopia is supposedly aimed at children, most of whose parents won’t take them out at night, while London Has Fallen is more adult fare and certainly more of a blockbuster. On the other hand, Zootopia has been kicking London’s butt at the box office; both opened on the same day, and Zootopia brought in $75 million in the US over the weekend (a record for Disney Animation) versus $22 million for London Has Fallen.

Of course, Zootopia is completely kid-friendly, with anthropomorphic animals living together in relative harmony. Particularly funny are the slow-moving sloths as clerks at the DMV, Yax the naturist meditating yak (voiced by Tommy Chong), Mr. Big the tiny arctic shrew (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) doing a great send-up of Vito Corleone from The Godfather, and pop-star Gazelle (voiced by Shakira) in a Latin-tinged nod to Adele.

But there’s much more to this story—in fact, it directly reflects one of the most important issues facing the world today: the fear and persecution of all Muslims because of a few extremist terrorists. This is not overtly spelled out in the movie, but the implication was perfectly clear to me, as I’m sure it will be to any adult who sees it.

As I’ve come to expect from Dolby Vision, the HDR imagery was stunning. The picture really popped with bright, saturated colors and super-deep blacks, and the shadow detail was exceptional, including the low-light shots (of which there are only a few). Particularly impressive was the shot of a speeding streetcar going off its rails at night, spraying bright sparks throughout the darkness.

After the movie ended, I stuck my head into one of the standard dynamic-range showings in progress, which looked very dull by comparison, with much lighter blacks, more muted colors, and less shadow detail. (Interestingly, there were many more people in that showing; I was one of only a handful in the Dolby Cinema presentation, perhaps because the ticket prices were $5 higher.)

The Dolby Atmos soundtrack was not as immersive as I’ve heard from other movies. Yes, there were moments when the sound effects extended throughout the room, and the music—beautifully composed by Michael Giacchino—was often mixed into the immersive soundfield. But I sensed more of the aural action taking place in the front than I’m used to.

The volume levels weren’t too bad: Leq (average RMS level over the entire length of the movie plus trailers) = 88.9 dBZ (flat), 80.5 dBA, 87.6 dBC; Lmax (maximum 1-second RMS level) = 107.5 dBZ; L10 (level exceeded 10% of the time) = 92.7 dBZ; L50 (level exceeded 50% of the time) = 80.2 dBZ.

Zootopia is a delightful animated movie that deserves all the accolades it’s getting. With plenty of elements to engage kids and adults alike, the story is a parable for our times. Even better, the Dolby Vision HDR version is spectacular, even if the Atmos soundtrack is not quite as immersive as I’ve heard in other examples. If you live near a Dolby Cinema, I highly recommend seeing it there—even if you have to ditch work or school during the day.

The post Zootopia in Dolby Vision HDR and Atmos Sound appeared first on AVSForum.com.