STACK #160 Feb 2018

DVD & BD

FEATURE

ADVANCED

ALL OF THE HITS Once you’ve set up your shiny new 4K Ultra HD rig, you’ll want some discs to truly show off its capabilities. These are just a handful of our favourite 4K demo discs here at STACK . Something old: Blade Runner , Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Lucy , Men in Black , The Dark Knight Something new: Baby Driver , Blade Runner 2049 , Dunkirk , John Wick 2 , Planet Earth II

LG 65C7T 65” 4K UHD Smart OLEDTV, Sony UBPX800 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player,

Pioneer VSX932 7.2 channel Atmos AV receiver, Wharfedale Diamond SW150BAV 10” subwoofer, 2x pair Wharfedale Xarus 1000 bookshelf speakers, Wharfedale Xarus XR centre speaker, Jensen EHT-2 round two-way architectural speakers

SIZE MATTERS It’s easy to bandy numbers about, but even easier to show the differences in resolutions of DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD visually. It would take approximately 24 pictures of DVD resolution to fill a 4K screen, or four of Blu-ray quality – the more dots, the better the quality that can be achieved when content is made specifically for the format. While most 4K Ultra HD TVs and players upscale DVD and Blu-ray pictures, the result uses calculated guesswork to resize the picture, so while it’s quite an improvement, detail is always lost compared to native 4K content. Atmos and DTS:X, both of which use different methods to create 3D sound – so what you hear can be precisely placed and moved around in three- dimensional space. It’s rather like being in a cool bubble of sound. Most 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays feature either one of these audio formats, and with a suitable speaker setup in place, the results they achieve really helps elevate the home cinema experience to new, previously only dreamed about levels. SOUND’S BRILLIANT While vision has taken a massive step forward with 4K Ultra HD, the audio boffins haven’t been caught napping. The latest cinema audio formats are Dolby

If you DO want to spend up big, this is the sort of setup that you can consider. The 65” LG C7 OLED is impressive-looking enough when turned off, but turn it on and wow. Have you ever noticed how LCD screens tend to lend a milkiness to blacks? That’s because they have lights behind the screen to illuminate their picture. Using the latest in picture technology, OLED provides perfect blacks – and vivid colour – with every single pixel of the screen able to be lit individually. It also makes for an insanely thin television that’s perfect for wall mounting. Sony’s UBPX800 is a dedicated 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player and media hub that will also play your current collection of DVDs and Blu-rays. It’s a solid unit, too – a REALLY solid unit. As for sound, the receiver and speaker combo above is just one example of the type of setup you can aim for if you’re looking for the best home cinema sensation that you can get. The 7.2 channel Pioneer VSX932 allows for various speaker setups, and is ready to rock with Dolby Atmos sound support. Here we’ve allowed for individual front left, centre and right speakers, two rear surrounds, a subwoofer that could really tell your neighbours who’s boss (tip: we’ve found it best to exercise some bass restraint), and two ceiling-mounted Atmos speakers. Setting it up may take some time, but the results will totally be worth it.

DVD 414,720 pixels

BLU-RAY 2,073,600 pixels

4K ULTRA HD 8,294,4000 pixels

Cost: ~ $7500

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