I've only seen rumors that there might be a new "4K Blu-ray" standard by the fall. It'll doubtless be even longer before the studios actually provide 4K content on disc. In the meantime, the only 4K servers are the proprietary servers available from Sony and RED. They download their content from...
I suspect the original poster has completely forgotten about his query. It was back in July, after all.
However the networking line raised a red flag for me. If you want reliable straming of audio and video, you need to use hard-wired connections: Ethernet or power-line networking, for example...
Giancarlo,
What kind of budget is involved?
Preamp/processors (which don't include amps) tend to be more expensive than the equivalent receivers (which do include amps). This apparent contradiction is strictly because of the economies of scale in manufacturing. Far more receivers are made than...
Make sure the HDMI cables are certified as "High Speed", especially if your receiver is going to be more than a meter from the TV. "Standard Speed" cables cause viewing problems (image glitches and/or "sparklies") when they're used to watch full HD (1080p) movies. You should not have to pay a...
If your TV has more than one HDMI input, one option would be to plug the new Blu-ray player directly into the TV. If you haven't already, connect the TV's optical audio output to one of the optical audio inputs on the Panasonic HTIB.
Your TV might or might not pass surround-sound through from...
There are many different video encoding methods which can be used to record video on a Blu-ray disc. Stand-alone Blu-ray disc players support very few of them. You'll need to get a computer with a Blu-ray drive if you want to view more of the different formats. Apparently, you have some discs...
Speakers and room acoustics have the most effect on the quality of the sound you'll hear. Electronics are a distant third, although room equalization software can make a big difference. Don't forget that you'll need sound treatments (absorbers and diffusers) on the interior walls. Otherwise the...
You should have received an e'mailed notice from D&M Holding: Pandora made a change to their service which broke Denon, Marantz and McIntosh streaming. Firmware updates will be available within the next few days to fix the problem. Some models have already been updated..
My understanding is that current Panasonic players are limited to 2-channel audio when streaming Netflix, but Sony players' Netflix app can do 5.1 surround sound.
Also, no BD players support Flash, which is still used by many movie sites.
In other words, connecting your computer to your hifi...
This year's Sony BD players have been getting good reviews, and are much less expensive than Oppo players. For example, the BDP-S590 often can be found for only slightly more than $100. Mine had no problems at all while playing Inception.
That sound is mechanical parts rubbing against one another. I suspect the arm which carries the disc-read-head is rubbing against something.
In other words, the player is starting to fail. It might be something that's easy to fix, or not. If the drive is still in warranty, you should be able to...
Could you use a direct VGA connection?
Many laptops have a 15 pin VGA video output port and many TVs have a VGA (RGB) video input port.
Inexpensive VGA to HDMI video converters are readily available.
See...
Some modern receivers and pre/pros (e.g. some from Denon and Marantz) include features which are claimed to improve the listenability of low-bitrate mp3 recordings. I can't vouch for them, though -- I don't listen to many mp3 tracks.
You can probably find some pre-owned manual graphic equalizers on one of the auction sites like ebay or craigs-list. They're similar in concept and easier to use but can't do as good a job.
Another alternative is to upgrade your receiver to one which has built-in room equalization software. But...
Just to get back to the original question, don't forget that the Marantz pre/pro includes room equalization (Audyssey MultEQ XT) while Rotel and Arcam do not. In most cases, EQ can make a significant improvement in the accuracy of the sound you hear.
My understanding is that Anthem's ARC...
You might check the cable box to see if it includes the option to internally upscale all of its channels to 1080p.
I'd expect video processing delays in the TV to vary depending on the resolution of the video coming from the cable box (which varies from channel to channel), and that the delay...
The problem might be caused by the DirecTV box. Satellite and cable boxes have the most problematic HDMI implementations. Try unplugging the satellite box from the receiver and reconnecting the player to the receiver to see if that works. If it does, the next thing to try is to connect the...
Computers with HDMI or DisplayPort "video" outputs usually provide both audio and video signals using that same connector over the same wires. If you're running Windows, connect your laptop's HDMI port to your TV and then look to see if the TV is shown in the audio "Playback devices" menu. That...
The problem could be due to the player requiring HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection -- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection) to be supported by the display. Many older TVs that use DVI connections don't have it.
Try plugging the player directly...
The speakers are the most important part of the package: they have the most effect on the quality of the sound that you'll hear. The traditional rule of thumb is to spend about 2/3 or more of your budget on speakers and the remainder on electronics. If at all possible, you also should spend some...
Some players are not bit-perfect. In particular, the current generation of Sony players (390/590/790) have a bug when the default RGB output encoding is selected. Their RGB encoding has a reduced color gamut. Their YUV encodings are correct, though.
Supposedly a similar problem was found in and...
Connect BD player and cable-box HDMI to the TV to get the best video, including 3D.
Connect digital audio from the BD player and cable box to the receiver to get the best audio until you can upgrade your receiver to one which can handle HDMI. (The Sony BDP-S590 does not have 7.1 analog...
Putting a sub in a corner tends to accentuate a very narrow range of low frequencies -- the ones corresponding to your room dimensions. This plus having the main speakers set to full range would explain why movies seem to have excess bass.
You might want to consider doing a "sub crawl": put the...
For single-disc playing, any cheap "commodity" Blu-ray player ( < $200) will work just fine if an HDMI connection is all you need. You'll have to look carefully at features if you need either an optical or an rca digital connection: some have one or the other or both or neither. If you want...
To a certain extent, Audyssey audio processing, which is available in many modern AVRs, can compensate for less-than-optimal speaker placement. Trinnov processing, like that provided in Sherwood's R-972, supposedly does a much better job of steering audio among speakers. Unfortunately...
You don't need to do anything special with your stereo cables. Just plug them into the receiver. Make sure you do the settings in the Wii to tell it you're using only two speakers. Then select Dolby Prologic decoding in the receiver. It'll decode the surround sound and send it to all the...
If you've run the room equalization, then a volume setting of -20 +/- 5db is normal for movies. Pop music CDs usually need to be turned down to almost -40 -- they're intentionally recorded very loud and compressed. If your wife doesn't like the volume as loud as you do, that's something...
Make sure that the AVR is still configured to send video from the correct inputs to its output. You'll have to dig out the manual and step through the AVR's menues. It could be that something broke in the move. It could be the TV, the AVR or the cable(s). Carefully inspect the...
"3:2 pulldown" refers to timing. It is the terminology used for the mapping of 24 frames/second movie film images into the 60 interlaced fields/second of standard definition analog video. It's irrelevant for most modern progressive digital displays.