Podcast #715: What we are Thankful For 2015

Each year at this time of year we do a show where we discuss what we are thankful for. There are the obvious things to be thankful for like our families, especially our wives who put up with our home theater obsessions. And of course we are thankful for you, the listener/reader of our show. So as is tradition over the last many Thanksgivings, on today's show we give you our list of consumer electronics things we are thankful for.

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What we're thankful for '15

Each year at this time of year we do a show where we discuss what we are thankful for. There are the obvious things to be thankful for like our families, especially our wives who put up with our home theater obsessions. And of course we are thankful for you, the listener/reader of our show. So as is tradition over the last many Thanksgivings, on today's show we give you our list of consumer electronics things we are thankful for.

For 2015:

Ara’s List:

1. Apple Music - and by extension all other music services. Being able to stream pretty much any song I want at any time is fantastic. I even like the Beats One music channel. I pay 5 times more per month (five Radios but only one family subscription for Apple Music) for Sirius Satellite radio. If Apple gives me a Country music channel similar to Beats One, it's bye bye Satellite radio! Sometimes you need a DJ.
2. OLED - To be honest, I never thought OLED would make it since LEDs have gotten so much better for a fraction of the cost. But it's nice to see prices coming down and screen sizes going up. In actuality, I am thankful for OLED buyers. Thanks to you, I will be able to afford my next TV, which will be OLED.
3. DIY Speakers - This year I got into DIY Speaker building, well assembly anyway, but you do have to pick the right components! I have had a ton of fun and build some fantastic sounding speakers for a fraction of the cost. Next up is a subwoofer! More on this to come in the upcoming year!
4. Dolby ATMOS - How can I not be grateful for a technology that gets me to go out and spend more money on a new receiver and speakers. All kidding aside, anything that immerses the viewer into the movie is a great thing.
5. Netflix/Amazon/Hulu - There is so much HD content out there and now with these guys they are creating even more. And the best part is a lot of it is in 4K and some even use HDR and the wider color gamut! Most of the content is decent but there are some really great shows that are big network quality in production value. So much so that every out of work actor should rejoice!

Braden’s List:

1. Amazon Prime Now - This may not be entirely home theater related, although I have used it to buy batteries for remote controls and even a new TV for a bedroom. The idea that you can get almost anything you need, including home electronics, delivered to your door in two hours or less is absurd. There are so many times I didn’t want to have to run out to the grocery store to get something. Now I don’t have to. Need banana plugs to make speaker/amp/receiver installation easier? Yeah, they’ve got that.
2. Front Projection - I recently took a few of my boys to see a movie in the theater. Ignoring the fact that we spent way too much money to see a pretty bad movie, and had we waited to watch it at home it would have only cost $5-6, the experience was sub-par. The film was grainy and full of static. The sound was muddled and the surround sound was almost non-existent. For the entire two hours of the movie I just kept telling myself how much better it would have been to watch at home. Front projection is awesome.
3. Dish Network / The Hopper - Dish Network is doing a great job adding features to their existing service. They’ve added Pandora integration into the Hopper and Joeys, they added Netflix to both as well. They have a new sports app in the DVR that helps you locate games, news, etc for your favorite sport of favorite teams. They now have a wireless Joey even. But the single biggest feature is Auto-Hop. Whenever that question comes up at the beginning of a show, I do a little happy dance on the inside.
4. 4K TV - This is a little odd for me, since I still don’t own a 4K TV, to be thankful for Ultra High Definition, but it isn’t what you think. Now that 4K is the new big thing, how often are we hearing about 3D? It’s almost as if we’ve filed 3D away under the “do not care” category and completely left it in 4K’s wake. For that reason alone UHD is worth more than words. All we’re hearing about now is 4K TV penetration, 4K content, 4K Blu-ray, and on. Sure it might get old after a while, but for now I’m really thankful for the lack of 3D talk.
5. Home Automation - Automation is a fun hobby. Something happens, you want to do something in your house, and after a while you start to think of ways you could automate that task. It’s a strange, but very fun, addiction. Although I haven’t started playing with it yet, I can’t wait to get the Amazon Echo working with the Insteon gear in my home. Voice control for home automation? Yeah, that’s next level. Alexa, lower the lights and set the temperature to 72 degrees. Done. I’m in.  

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Comments

[Stevie]

Hello,

I agree in the point, that I want to watch new movies directly at my home, without the need to go to a cinema. I don't need to drive there and I can make breaks whenever I want. The only problem with home-theaters, I think, is the quality and you mustn't bother the neighbors. But I don't listen at high volume with a wall shaking sub bass anyway. I just want to understand what they saying and the effects are loud enough then anyway. When 4K Projection gets cheaper, it will be good, 8K better, if we get wall size high resolution OLED-Screen, that we don't need a front projector anymore it will be best.

But I don't agree to your 3D opinion. 3D immerses one more into the movie than only 4k. It doesn't look natural somehow, but I like it. I think it's just a thing you can get used to. I don't own a 3D TV, but when i checked those in the stores I noticed the strange look, perhaps pixelstructure with shutter technique, just as with polarization technique. I think that will be a point which will be better on 4K 3D. I hope it will not die.

Do you know more about the upcoming 4K devices, like the TVs and Bluray-Players? I guess 3D support will be safe, but is the High Frame rate support, 48 pictures per second. included? I would like to see the hobbit in the way it was shot. I always wondered when they brought HDTV, that they didn't increase the pictures per second too. Even the TV Channels would be better with doubled frame rates.

thank you for the show,regards.