Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i Home Cinema Choice

After a good number of years in the home cinema world, I thought I'd seen it all. Then came one of this issue’s custom install projects, where a curved metal slide enters through the ceiling to deposit film fans into the picture palace below. This is such a bonkers, joyous idea I'm already wondering how I can replicate it myself. It’s also further proof that no two home AV setups are the same. There are decor, seating and lighting choices to be made, and then there’s the hardware to specify. This month we take a look at a Dolby Atmos soundbar with a main enclosure no bigger than a Blu-ray player, and a Blu-ray player that earns much of its appeal from its ability to play old school Super Audio…

'There’s no need to rearrange your furniture or precisely position your speakers.' That’s the claim of Sony’s new HT-A9 home cinema package, where the company’s 360 Spatial Sound technology aims to engineer a phantom 12-channel experience from just four cabinets. The 30cm-high pearl-grey speakers, each smartly styled with a flat rear for placement against a wall, feature dual microphones to measure their relative positioning. The HT-A9’s Sound Field Optimization then 'synthesises the soundwaves' to create an immersive soundstage regardless of placement. The cabinets feature Sony’s X-Balanced drivers (also found on its Bravia TVs), plus soft dome tweeters and upfiring units. Dolby Atmos and DTS:X formats are supported, as are the 360 Reality Audio streams found on the Amazon Music HD and Tidal music services. Joining the HT-A9’s active speakers are…

Cape Fear [1991] Fabulous Films, BD Martin Scorsese followed up his award-winning crime epic Goodfellas (1990) by taking a deep dive into sweaty exploitation cinema with this loose remake of J. Lee Thompson’s 1962 noir thriller of the same name. A jacked-up Robert De Niro stars as Max Cady, the violent rapist freed from prison and seeking revenge on the attorney (Nick Nolte) who buried evidence that may have seen him acquitted. From its brooding beginning to insanely over-the-top final showdown on a storm-wracked houseboat, Cape Fear delivers pure pulp thrills, while Scorsese digs into his bag of cinematic tricks to bring a wild visual flair that matches the movie’s over-heated performances blow-for-blow. Meanwhile, De Niro once again goes full method, reportedly paying $5,000 to have his teeth ground down…

CREATED BY LEEDS-BASED installers Luuxx, this multi-purpose space mixes fun and high performance AV, and is ready for use as both a games room and an acoustically optimised home cinema. The owners, says Luuxx’s Michael Glarvey, had always wanted a home cinema but were unsure if one would fit into their plans for a dual-role space. 'They had earmarked a large L-shaped room on the ground floor for a versatile entertainment area accommodating a pool table, adjacent bar, a party venue and a cinema.' This, says Glarvey, was all doable. 'Then they hit us with the ultimate in abstract planning: a spiral metal slide would descend from the floor above to the centre of the space, conveying them and their guests between floors along a pretty hair-raising gradient whenever the…

Yamaha’s redesigned Aventage lineup of AV receivers raised a few eyebrows when first announced, with its smart looks and promise to deliver full-fat HDMI 2.1 support. The latter, combined with the pandemic, caused a number of delays, but at last the new models are here. The series is still headlined by the CX-A5200 11-channel AV processor and MX-A5200 power amplifier but for the AV receivers there’s been a complete overhaul. The flagship is now the 11-channel RX-A8A (£3,300), followed by the nine-channel RX-A6A (£2,300), seven-channel RX-A4A (£1,300), and seven-channel RX-A2A auditioned here. Below the Aventage range you'll find two other Yamaha AVRs – the five-channel RX-V4A (£450), and seven channel RX-V6A (£650). So the A2A has plenty of in-house competition. Indeed, comparing it to the more affordable RX-V6A finds some…

BLUESOUND HAS CARVED itself an enviable niche in the streaming audio market by the simple expedient of fitting its software to an extremely wide selection of products – plus licensing it to other companies – that can be used in multiroom setups, but are just as happy on their own. The latest iteration of the Node (replacing the previous Node 2i but not, for some reason, called ‘Node 3’) is a case in point. It’s perfectly capable of being part of a wider Bluesound ecosystem (where other products include the Vault 2i disc ripper/server, wireless Pulse speakers and even the Pulse soundbar), but just as readily functions as a standalone streamer. The Node’s internals stand up to scrutiny. A differential output Texas Instruments PCM5242 DAC allows for conversion of PCM at…

NOT CONTENT WITH a user base of 53million devices, Roku accelerates its migration from media player OS to smart TV technology, taking up residence in this affordable line of 4K flatscreens from TCL. TCL has actually launched two Roku models in the UK, the entry-level RP520K series, and the RP620K reviewed here, replete with Dolby Vision HDR and a higher-spec video processor. On the HCC test bench is a 55in model, but the set is also available at 43in, 50in, and 65in. The Roku interface will be familiar to many. An early pioneer when it came to streaming media players, we’ve seen it on an assortment of pucks and sticks. The iteration here is visually very similar, albeit with some niceties that reflect its TV integration. Suffice to say I felt…

DENIS VILLENEUVE, DIRECTOR of Blade Runner 2049 and the upcoming adaptation of Dune [pictured], recently sparked a lot of online back-and-forth about the bigscreen experience, when he proclaimed in an interview with Total Film that cinema 'is not just a product. It’s church.’ Which got me wondering: is cinema a church or are we just suckers at the face of capitalism? Villeneuve doesn't seem to be the shy, retiring type. Late last year he was a very vocal opponent of Warner Bros.’s decision to release its 2021 film slate simultaneously on the HBO Max platform and in cinemas. He even wrote a column for Variety in which he said Warner’s owner, AT&T Media, had 'hijacked one of the most respectable and important studios in film history' and 'killed the Dune…

WRATH OF MAN When the trailer for Wrath of Man dropped earlier this year, it was hard not to get excited about Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham teaming up for the first time since 2005’s Revolver. Sadly that trailer gave away key story elements, so we're on our best behaviour not to spoil the film for those wanting to watch it cold. The movie (a remake of 2004 French flick Cash Truck) stars Statham as ‘H’, an armoured truck driver with a skill-set that makes him insanely over-qualified for the job. The smartly structured narrative revolves around a heist, but to say any more risks giving away important plot points. Statham exudes swagger, playing a man who’s as hard as a coffin nail. He’s ably supported by a solid cast…

DUNE: LIMITED EDITION David Lynch’s 1984 bigscreen adaptation of Dune is a fascinating film. Packed with too much setup and plot for any single movie to handle (even when shorn of almost a third of its original running time at the behest of its financiers), its story is an incoherent mess of interplanetary politicking, Messianic mysticism and endless voiceovers. However, the images that Lynch creates are so strong, so bizarre and so unique that you can't switch it off. Picture: Dune’s 4K restoration hasn't benefited from any input from Lynch (no surprise given his feelings about the film), but is still nothing less than stunning. Framed at 2.40:1, the 2160p resolution brings superb texture and depth to the baroque sets and costume finery. Meanwhile, the film’s Dolby Vision/HDR10 grades and wide…

WITHOUT GREAT ACCOMPANYING poster art, can any film be considered an all-time classic? The answer, obviously, is no – which doesn’t bode well for any movie released over the past two decades. But the good news is that poster art appears to be back in vogue, with new movies being launched with stylish, painted one-sheets. While there have probably been isolated examples of arty posters over the past few years, I only really began to twig the resurgence with James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. The DC Squad are pictured busting out of a star backdrop, assorted weapons to all compass points, and explosions detonating behind a logo-crowning King Shark. It instantly recalls Frank McCarthy’s classic The Dirty Dozen poster art from 1967, which features Lee Marvin in Idris Elba’s 12 o’clock…

Motivated by the surging success of rival OLED, LCD TV makers are in a period of innovation that seems to be heading towards two final destinations: Mini LED and Micro LED. As their names imply, both these technologies are based around shrinking the light sources used to illuminate a TV’s panel. Only by doing this, the logic goes, can LCD push towards the degree of local light control that makes OLED TVs so popular, while maintaining the brightness and colour volume advantages associated with high-end LCD sets. As you might guess, Micro LEDs are smaller than Mini LEDs. The latter term tends to refer to lights of between 100 and 300 micrometres across, while Micro LEDs are between 50 and 100 micrometres. The slight crossover here has led to some…

SAMSUNG’S APTLY-NAMED NEW Terrace is a high-brightness QLED TV designed to operate outdoors. It’s blessed with proprietary antireflective technology, an absorbent layer that enables its images to shine out even when viewed in bright daylight. In truth, I didn’t get the chance to evaluate this when invited by Samsung to spend time with The Terrace at a demonstration event in London, as the weather remained steadfastly overcast. I’m assuming the location – the Four Seasons Hotel – wasn’t chosen simply to be ironic. The good news, however, is that The Terrace is also IP55-rated and therefore water-resistant, so when the drizzle arrived no one panicked. It’s easy to imagine this TV entertaining the bronzed and the beautiful beside a pool in Beverly Hills, but Samsung says there’s still plenty of…

AS THE SAYING goes, the best laid plans never work. The original idea for this install project from Essex company Cinema Rooms didn't involve constructing a whole new room-within-a-room – because the space, a former recording studio in an out-building, already 'sounded great' and was acoustically treated. However, once work began, it was found to be structurally unstable and the only option was a considerable overhaul. In came new stud walls, new ceiling, a floating floor and extensive soundproofing and acoustic treatments. The owner wanted an environment for watching movies, listening to music and gaming – but also somewhere they could use as a home office. Lighting was an important factor, and the end result is a system mixing wall-mounted Nanoleaf panels with main lighting from Philips Hue, allowing for a…

Launched in June to capitalise on the summer we're all meant to have spent watching sports, BenQ’s V7050i (or V7000i if you grab the white version) is the projector corp’s latest UST model, and an update on 2020’s V6000/6050. Promising quick-fire installation, bigscreen entertainment and integrated smarts, it’s desperate to relegate your flatscreen TV to runner-up status. But does it succeed? Not much has changed physically from last year to now. Like its forebear, the V7050i manages to turn its rectangular cabinet into something approaching a work of art. There’s a stylish cloth grille on its front fascia, funky looking ventilation along both sides, and an automatic sunroof that, when the PJ is powered up, glides back to reveal the lens installation underneath. Power down and it returns to its…

More and more soundbars these days – high-end ones, anyway – stretch the soundbar definition to breaking point by comprising much more than just a single speaker unit that sits under your telly. In fact, Samsung’s new HW-Q950A is arguably the most extreme example yet of a product blurring the boundaries between a soundbar and the once-popular ‘home cinema in a box’ concept. It ships with four components: the main 1.23m-wide, 6.95cm-high, felt-covered soundbar; an unusually large wireless subwoofer with an 8in driver; and two small but solid-feeling wireless rears. And just to further mark it out as the next step in soundbar evolution is its provision of 16 – sixteen! – channels. The main soundbar crams in nine: front left, right and centre; side right and side left; forward…

ON PAPER, THE Hisense 65U8GQ is the stuff of nightmares for the TV ‘establishment’. It sports a 65in 4K screen, direct LED backlight with local dimming, Quantum Dot colour technology, Hisense’s increasingly useful VIDAA smart system, IMAX Enhanced certification, and support for both the Dolby Vision and HDR10+ premium HDR standards – all for the grand total of £1,100. There’s nothing budget about the way the 65U8GQ looks, either. The screen bezel is on-trend narrow, with a lovely metallic finish, while the ‘boomerang’ desktop stand is centrally mounted. Both the stand and the screen enjoy good build quality, too. The presence on the rear of both a large subwoofer and a dedicated upfiring speaker alerts you to the set’s built-in Atmos sound system, while a solid set of connections includes four…

TIME ON TEST: Seven months REVIEWER: Steve Withers ONE OF THE main benefits of buying an AV processor rather than a receiver is the ability to partner the former with multichannel amplification of your choice. This enables you to create a system with significant more power than is possible with an AV receiver, where everything has to be crammed into one unit. But it also means you generally end up with a lot more boxes stacked in your equipment rack, particularly as power amps have begun to lag behind the channel-counts of modern home cinemas. The beauty of Storm Audio’s PA16 MK2 16-channel amplifier is it lets you enjoy the best of both worlds: the flexibility of separates system combined with a single Class D unit delivering 16 channels of…

Dynamic HDR conundrum In HCC #321, Steve May’s review of the LG OLED65C1 says 'the absence of HDR10+ is annoying.' Would that be more or less annoying than the lack of Dolby Vision on Samsung televisions? I'm considering buying either a Samsung QN95A or an LG C1 OLED. The LG has dropped in price recently so I'm leaning that way, but am still not entirely decided. I will be mainly using the TV for Freeview, streaming and 4K discs, no gaming. It also seems odd that with different studios making discs in either/both formats, and streaming services going for one or the other, that more TV makers don't take a leaf from Panasonic’s/Phillips' book and support both. Would that be a hardware problem? Trevor Mallery Mark Craven replies: Considering the…

Maigret: The Complete Series - Limited Edition Network is bringing restorations of all 52 episodes of the classic BBC murder-mystery TV series Maigret – unseen for over 50 years – to Blu-ray in one bumper boxset. First released in August as a networkonair.com-exclusive Limited Edition, Maigret: The Complete Series Blu-ray will be available from October 25. To celebrate, we have one copy of the Maigret: The Complete Series – Limited Edition (containing a Making of… book and the CD soundtrack) to give away! Question: Who wrote the Jules Maigret novels? Answer: A) Agatha Christie B) Georges Simenon C) Henning Mankell The Servant 4K Studiocanal is celebrating the centenary of acting legend Dirk Bogarde with a new 4K restoration of The Servant. Available to own from September 20 on 4K UHD…

The popular horror franchise bags itself a new leading man and a new villain, but can this stop its downward spiral? See p87 for our look at the 4K BD All prices quoted are approximate and may have changed HCC RATINGS KEY……

BOSS LEVEL Roy Pulver (Frank Grillo) is having a bad day. Assortments of assassins are trying to kill him. From the moment he opens his eyes, he’s fending off a machete-wielding mercenary, dodging a helicopter assault on his apartment, jacking cars and avoiding assorted mayhem, until he makes it to his local noodle bar, where he can catch a breath and learn how to become a master swordsman from patron Michelle Yeoh. Then it starts again. 'I used to complain every day felt the same,' opines Grillo in his noir-ish narration. 'Now every day is the same.' Boss level is director Joe Carnahan’s action take on the Palm Springs/Happy Death Day/Edge of Tomorrow time loop genre – think Groundhog Day blended with Die Hard. While there are gamer references from…

JBL L75ms ➜ www.jblsynthesis.com With its walnut veneer cabinet and foam grille, JBL’s new L75ms riffs on the brand’s Classic Series loudspeakers, but is more all-in-one entertainment system than traditional hi-fi. Priced £1,500, the feature list includes a five-driver array (fed by 350W of claimed amplification); 32-bit/384kHz DAC; network audio streaming (including AirPlay 2 and Chromecast); auto-sensing subwoofer output; and an HDMI ARC connection for partnering with a TV. HCC ONLINE… For breaking AV news, blogs, features and reviews visit www.homecinemachoice.com Follow us on Twitter @hccmag Like us on Facebook facebook.com/homecinemachoice…

1 Set an alarm for next year First announced in 2017, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV series – based on author J. R. R. Tolkien’s 'Second Age' writings – has been scheduled for release on Prime Video on September 2, 2022. Filming for the show’s first season, which has a budget rumoured to be around £350m, wrapped in New Zealand in August, and to celebrate Amazon released a first-look image (pictured above) showing… not much really. Four more series are planned, with filming for the second being moved to the UK. 2 Smart idea? Samsung has launched 'Smart Start', a tie-in with video-on-demand, music and fitness apps designed to give new owners of its smart TVs a taste of the premium content high life. Buyers of the brand’s 2020/2021…

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Ben’s V7050i 4K HDR laser projector targets movie lovers looking to go bigger than their flatscreen TV. We put it through its paces on p44 HCC RATINGS KEY……

2021 HASN'T BEEN a good year for many things but it’s been a cracker for 4K Blu-ray. A wealth of titles has already been released, and the run up to Christmas promises a bumper crop, including those from fan-fave label Criterion, which is entering the 4K disc space with some real gems. So, you're going to need something to spin all these new titles on. And what are the options if you don't yet have a UHD disc player? Many companies have left the 4K BD market, including Oppo and Samsung. Pioneer ostensibly soldiers on but its UK distribution appears to be in tatters. Panasonic and Sony continue to support the format, yet neither sell a do-it-all disc spinner able to handle 4K BD, Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio. Two…

THE ANNUAL GRUMBLES from certain quarters about OLED TVs only making relatively small technological steps forward every year do not apply to Sony’s new KD-65A90J. This 65-incher delivers two substantial new chapters in Sony’s OLED story: a new panel sporting a laminated aluminium heat sink, so that it can be run more brightly, and a new Bravia XR ‘Cognitive’ video processor. The first of these is exciting given that Sony’s previous OLED TVs, while typically excellent, have tended to run relatively dark. The new processor, meanwhile, sounds like a bold step away from the X1 Ultimate processing system it replaces. Its aim, essentially, is to tweak incoming images to make them more closely resemble the way our eyes see/interpret the real world. So, for instance, objects in a picture will…

WHENEVER AN ELECTRONICS brand gives a product a proper name rather than just another inscrutable number, as is the case with the LG Eclair QP5, you know you’re in for something a bit… unusual. Unusual here means a ‘designer’ Dolby Atmos-capable soundbar – think rounded corners, fabric sides, white as well as black finish options – that’s only 30cm wide and 6cm high. It also means a price tag (£700) that could get you a soundbar easily three times as big. As you might expect given how tiny it is, the Eclair QP5 ships with a wireless subwoofer. In fact, this bassmaker is many times larger than the main soundbar – but still enjoys an attractive rounded-edge design. Despite its diddy dimensions, the Eclair offers a five-channel presentation: left, right,…

IT’S NOT ALL the time that the announcement of a new bit of kit gives me real pause for thought. But I've just read a press release about a two-channel amplifier that claims a 400W power consumption… when it’s idle. This means that even if it’s not driving speakers, it’s probably sucking more juice than if you were to have all the TVs in your house blaring away at the same time. Of course, the amplifier in question – the VK-80i tube design from American brand Balanced Audio Technology – sells for around £10,000, so I doubt any potential buyers will be that worried about their electricity bill. About a decade ago, trade regulators in California voted for a ban on power-hungry TVs. At the time, much was made of…

I can't say I'm bothered much about a movie like Flash Gordon having its age rating altered by the BBFC [Film Fanatic, HCC #323]. Changing from PG to 12A is a minor tweak and I doubt it will put off any parents from letting their children watch it! But regarding age ratings, I only recently discovered that my Disney+ 'profile' was limiting the viewing choice to content the service thinks is suitable to under 14s. I must have set this during setup and forgotten, as we mostly use Disney+ for kid’s films and Marvel/Star Wars stuff. It was when I browsed through the Star library that I found Aliens and Prometheus were missing! It also wasn't intuitive what I needed to do to adjust my profile settings. Thought I'd share…

Welcome to the AV-Holic Hall of Fame – introduce yourself! I'm Mark Burton, 43, owner of a recruitment agency. How long have you been into home cinema, and what was the first setup you had? I purchased my first plasma screen in 2003 – a 42in Fujitsu – and since then I have been hooked! I bought my first projector the following year, and had my first dedicated cinema room about 10 years later. Upon moving to a new house in 2016, one of my prerequisites when finding a suitable home was somewhere that would give me the ability to have a proper cinema room, taking things to another level. However, things panned out slightly differently when moving in. The garage I had planned on converting wasn’t suitable, so, with…

CRUELLA Following in the footsteps of Maleficent and its sequel, Cruella is Disney’s latest attempt at rehabilitating one of its classic animated villains in a live-action movie. A prequel to 101 Dalmatians that relocates its story to the 1970s, the film follows orphan Estella (Emma Stone) as she makes the jump from small-time grifts to seeking revenge on legendary fashion designer Baroness von Hellman (Emma Thompson), and transforming herself into punkette fashionista Cruella in the process. Feeling like the cheeky offspring of The Devil Wears Prada and Joker, the film is a little messy and overlong, but also vampy, campy fun. Hardly cinematic haute couture then, but a lot better than the fast fashion you may have been expecting. Picture: Framed at 1.85:1 and sourced from a 4K Digital Intermediate,…

Hades Supergiant Games ➜ Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC ➜ £20 It’s taken a while but BAFTA-winner Hades has finally made it to Xbox and PlayStation. This isometric action game has proved an enormous underground hit (pun entirely intended) on Switch and PC, so now other console owners can find out what the fuss is about. It’s a 'rogue-lite' game, meaning that it randomly generates a maze of combat arenas each time you die, while also allowing you to keep bonuses, weapons and power-ups to make your initial progress a touch easier each time. Where Hades stands apart from many of its peers is that this gameplay mechanic is intertwined with the plot. You play Zagreus, the son of Hades himself, who wants to escape…

LUCA It’s fair to say that Pixar’s most recent big-hearted parable about overcoming prejudice and learning to embrace difference doesn’t come out of the venerable animation studio’s top drawer. This story of a sea creature who turns into a boy when he gets on dry land starts out promisingly but fairly quickly turns lightweight. And its initially cute and witty ‘fish out of water’ observations start to wane the more the film goes on, leading into an all-too-predictable finale. There are a handful of genuine laughs along the way, and the characters are likeable enough to make you care. The highlight, however, is the gorgeous CG animation, which pulls you into the warmth of the toon’s Italian Riviera setting. Picture: Luca’s high-quality animation is served well by a strong 4K HDR…