Home Theater fanatic since 1999, I've been writing for multiple sites over the last 15 years regarding technology, mostly in French. I also blog for TousDesGamers.com and occasionally do technology talks with Jeff Fillion on RadioPirate.com and NRJ.
This is a first set of impressions on my new 4K set, the brand new Sony XBR-65X850C which is part of the 2015 lineup of Sony 4K televisions. I’ve spent the last week and half with the television and I finally think I’ve seen it enough to give you some feedback. The following topics are thrown in no particular order, but at least you’ll be able to hear about the different aspects of the television.
Image Quality
The 65X850C is using a VA panel with direct LED lightning instead of the edge lit models of last year. This is to me a huge improvement and it is obvious in term of image uniformity and almost complete lack of blooming and clouding from the backlight. The result is an image that is almost completely uniform. The only complain is the four corners of the screen that suffer from a certain level of light loss, so when a very bright image is displayed, you’ll notice some darkness in the corners. Nothing too critical, at least way less annoying than clouding.
From the press release provided by Universal yesterday, it seems that The Gunman, featuring Sean Penn, Idris Elba, Ray Winstone, Mark Rylance and Javier Bardem, will be presented with a Dolby Atmos track on Blu-ray.
Similar to John Wick, this would be exclusive to the Blu-ray as the movie was not presented with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack in theater. It seems that Universal is strongly pushing for the format now.
How Reviews Are Done On NextGenHomeTheater.com : Here are some ground rules for review on this site. The first thing is that the movie itself will never be reviewed, as this is not the intention and tastes and opinion regarding movies are up to the viewer. Furthermore, the review will concentrate on the next generation element of the content, so in this case the Dolby Atmos track, while presenting the other aspects. A Blu-Ray 4K would for example be reviewed for visual performance only. There will not be any grades either, just comments and a purchase recommandation in the conclusion.
The Movie
I imagine that most of the home theaters fan will have already seen Gravity once it initially came out and are looking at this Diamond Luxe Edition blu-ray because of the new Atmos track. If you did not see it, well it tells the story of two astronauts, played by Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, who end up stuck in space after a debris field hit them while doing a space walk to upgrade the Hubble Telescope.
Last Thursday was the official announcement of DTS:X at the DTS headquarters in California. I was pretty eager to learn a couple of things at the event, including if my current Onkyo receiver would be updatable to support the format and which movies were going to be announced by DTS on Blu-ray.
Surprisingly, the most important part of the announcement is that DTS is going back in the commercial theater business through a licensing program that will allow them to install their technologies in cinemas around the world. We were awaiting an home-theater only announcement, and finally it seems that the strategy is pretty different, thus delaying the home theater implementation a little bit more that I had in mind.
In the home, DTS:x confirmed what we already knew regarding the format, which is extremely similar to Dolby Atmos with the differences depending mostly on the way the receiver companies will implement the format. Dialogue volume management, which is a great feature in itself, will depend on the studio implementing it or not in their movie mixing, hopefully they will.
DTS did not announce any partnership with studios and no title on Blu-ray, we are looking more at an end of the year timing, like it’s been the case roughly with Atmos.
On the receiver side, if you don’t have the high-end Denon X7200 or Marantz AV8802, you’re out of luck for a firmware upgrade it seems. According to the press release, they are the only two that will receive an update this fall, while the different companies will release new receivers supporting DTS:X at the same period. Onkyo confirmed to me on social media that they will not be any upgrade path for any of their receiver, including the 1030 or 3030. It’s a letdown, but not a surprise as it just confirmed the rumours.
So it looks like the next real updates on the format will be only this fall, time to go back to Atmos and listen to the available movies. Of course, I’m already on board with updating this fall to DTS:X, as soon as receivers and titles are available. I will keep you updated with any news in the meantime.
The movie that won the Best Sound Editing Oscar in 2015, American Sniper, will be available on May 19th with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack.
For my friends in Quebec, please note that for the first time in North America, it seems that the movie will be coming with a French Dolby Atmos soundtrack to.
Finally, after weeks without any announcement, Warner Brothers confirmed that they will release the science-fiction movie Jupiter Ascending on June 2nd with an english track in Dolby Atmos.
How Reviews Are Done On NextGenHomeTheater.com : Here are some ground rules for review on this site. The first thing is that the movie itself will never be reviewed, as this is not the intention and tastes and opinion regarding movies are up to the viewer. Furthermore, the review will concentrate on the next generation element of the content, so in this case the Dolby Atmos track, while presenting the other aspects. A Blu-Ray 4K would for example be reviewed for visual performance only. There will not be any grades either, just comments and a purchase recommandation in the conclusion.
The Movie
Unbroken tells the tale of war veteran and olympic athlete Louis Zamperini who survive 47 days in a raft at sea after his warplane crashed just to have to go through even worse things afterwards. The movie is directed by Angelina Jolie and the screenplay adaptation of the novel has been done by the Coen brothers.
A quick update, after weeks without any next generation home theater news, to let you know than in an invitation sent to media outlets yesterday, DTS announced that details regarding their new 3D object-based audio format DTS:X will be given at an event hold in their headquarter on April 9th in Calabasas, California.
More details to come in a mere 10 days, which should ramp up again interest in new home theater titles with object based audio.
I need to start this post by officially thanking Onkyo for the great customer service they gave me after my initial receiver arrived with a major issue, either due to a bad unit or to transport from the online retailer I purchased it from. On a late Friday night, the social media people on the Onkyo team replied to me through Twitter and helped me confirm the issue and start the replacement process.
Onkyo then went over the usual level of service as they did accept to replace my unit instead of sending it for repair as my retailer did not have any in stock to help me. Instead of being stuck without my home theater for weeks, the replacement unit was shipped on the next business day. This is tremendous support and it is definitively a good way to keep customers with the brand.
Having said that, I’ve been using the receiver for a week now and I can say that I’m very happy with the experience. To start, I picked the Onkyo TX-NR1030 because of its support of 11 channels. The receiver includes amplification for 9 channels and you can connect an additional stereo amplifier to go up to a reference Atmos implementation of 7.1.4. To do this, I added a AudioSource AMP-100 stereo power amplifier, simple but efficient and because it’s used for the height back speaker, it can provide the required power for a good price.
The connections behind the Onkyo TX-NR1030 are interesting, the speaker connectors are more accessible than the previous models I owned.
The switch from my previous system at 5.1.2 (with an Onkyo TX-NR737) is noticeable and a great improvement. Not only does the two additional height channels add a more dimensional effect to the height layer, but the addition of two surround speakers also support better the 360 degrees effect, even better with Atmos movies and object positioning. The TX-NR1030 has enough power to drive the 9 channels in a very efficient way and the sound quality is very good.
The Atmos demos (available as downloadable on Demo World) are impressive in 7.1.4 and the thing that surprises me is that different the trailers are now my favorite ones from when I tried in 5.1.2, mainly because of the added dimension and sense of movement.
The receiver configuration tools is quite well done and the AccuEQ calibration works well. I have a read a lot about it being inferior to Audyssey that was used before by Onkyo, but I cannot judge as I did not use it before. I played multiple sources with and without AccuEQ room correct enabled and my final selection is to keep it on as it improves the dynamics and the clarity of movies.
I also appreciate the net functionalities of the receiver, including DLNA and Spotify Connect. My only grudge with the feature is with the file server mode as it only support some shares and not the ones my router and NAS provide, it seems too tied to typical Windows file servers.
In a nutshell, I can say I’m very happy with the receiver and with the new 7.1.4 setup it can support. My only hope is that Onkyo will confirm an upgrade path for the receiver to DTS:X when it’s officially announced next month, I’ll keep you updated on this.
How Reviews Are Done On NextGenHomeTheater.com : Here are some ground rules for review on this site. The first thing is that the movie itself will never be reviewed, as this is not the intention and tastes and opinion regarding movies are up to the viewer. Furthermore, the review will concentrate on the next generation element of the content, so in this case the Dolby Atmos track, while presenting the other aspects. A Blu-Ray 4K would for example be reviewed for visual performance only. There will not by any grades either, just comments and a purchase recommandation in the conclusion.
The Movie
John Wick tells the story of a retired hitman who needs to go back to work after a bad gang hurt the little things he still had and loved in life. The movie tells a story of revenge, with a linear but efficient storyline and a great visual universe.
