Basically the same here. Our Sony BR player is connected to the TV via HDMI and the TV is connected to our Qutest DAC via optical, so sound is through the hi-fi. Like you we’ve got no interest in surround sound and this set-up sounds fantastic - better than any soundbar at any price.
We did have a surround set up around 20 years or so ago at a previous property. We also had a projector then. The surround system was all Naim amplification with IBL’s front L and R and some small bookshelf size wall mounted Castle speakers for the rears. (chosen mainly for their size and the real wood black ash finish that matched the IBL’s very well). No centre speaker as there was a fireplace in the way. To be honest I wasn’t overly impressed with the surround effects. I didn’t really feel that they added significantly to the experience and most of the time almost all the sound was coming from the front speakers anyway. Maybe we just didn’t have it calibrated correctly. I wouldn’t have any interest in going down the surround route again anyway.
I would miss my tv surrounding system. I watch maybe one or two films a night. Stream from MUBI or bluray. Not much bang,wallop film making but the rear speakers gently warble and enhance the whole.
It has all been calibrated and coordinated professionally in my spare bedroom ‘cinema’. I would be lost without it and the pleasure it brings. I prefer it to our local bijou cinema. No visual distractions.Certainly a better seat.
New LG 65inch, Bp9000 Bluray,Anthem 540. Reciever,Rel 7 sub, Neat Iota speakers. Even the cabling is Tellurium.So not a lighthearted investment but compared to many of the wonderful HiFi systems pictured …starter kit.
I knew I was starting to get somewhere with my home cinema setup when I went to the ‘actual’ cinema and spent at least some of the time thinking ‘Blimey, my kit at home sounds way better than this’.
Then there’s having to share space with everyone from Sartre’s Hell. The drinks are cheaper and better quality at my house, too.
Ditto. It’s been decades since I was in a cinema that had better sound that what I use at home. Including IMAX theatres on three continents.
The volume is the main thing. Always a loud painful smear and that’s just on dialogue. I know the equipment used is often very high quality and I regular check the certificates of installation and calibration. But filling a high auditorium with sound is just a losing battle frankly.
Ditto the picture. I like a big screen as much as the next person, but some of the really big cinema screens are so big that even from halfway back they are larger than the main focus of your field of vision. You can miss things if you are not looking specifically at them.
I think it was around 2005 I invested in THX at home and it forever tipped the scales in my favor.
The screen size is the thing I really can’t compete with at home and, to be fair, there are films where watching it on a really big screen is quite an immersive experience, even though there’s as much in your peripheral vision as in your direct vision.
As well as seats that are as uncomfortable as pews in a penitent order’s crypt, certain light never go out during a performance. The clock,emergency exit,toilet indicator and all are in your direct view.
Catering is ice cream or a soft drink on sale only after the Pearl,Deane and Younger interminable adverts. It is very well attended and run by volunteers. I choose the Monday afternoon showings when it is not as crowded and I can search for a more forgiving seat.
Mum would never let me go to that cinema. It was known locally as the flea pit and in the scruffiest part of a poor fishing town from which she had managed to escape.
It was just about to be knocked down as a derelict building but a visiting academic managed to get a preservation order. The National Lottery has helped a lot with costs.
No National Anthem nowadays.
We used to have some decent jazz music. Derek Nash,David Newton,Art Theman,Spike Heatley et al but the promoter moved away,covid happened and the audience for jazz died off,literally.
Hi all, been trying out the Panasonic 820 BRO (UK model) I bought recently and several Blu Ray discs won’t play, I get a message saying they are incompatible.
All discs have been bought in the UK and I have watched them before on our old cheap BRP with no problem.
I play mostly music video and concert DVDs and BR discs on my 820 and have not had any problems with discs not playing.
Ive also watched a few 4K BR movie discs without any problems either on the 820, but I have not played any regular BR movie discs as yet on the 820 as I dont have many of those discs anyway.
Oz is same DVD and BR Region as UK, but Ive not had any disc playing problems with my 820 so far, and Ive had a Panasonic 9000 for well over 6 years and its never had a disc problem either and that has played a huge amount of 4K BR, regular BR and DVD discs with a lot of movies and music.
The first DP9000 I received from John Lewis was a non runner. It wouldn’t do aught after switch on.
I always thought the remote was the problem.
Fair dues they promptly changed it for a new machine without argument.
Ive tried a few regular BR movie discs on the 820 and they all played fine.
Check the Region Codes on the discs you are having problems with and make sure they are either Region free or offical UK Region B discs, it may be that the copyright protection/region control is more stringent on the 820, compared to your previous BR player.
All my BR discs are the correct region B code or region free so play OK for me and Ive bought quite a lot of BR discs from the UK to play at home in Oz.
The back of your disc box does not show the normal hexagon symbol with the region code in the middle or the normal symbol for region free/ multi-region which has three hexagon symbols all joined together with the region codes again in the middle of each hexagon - see attached photos with region code hexagons.
Your disc box shows no region code hexagons so not sure of the ligitamacy/origin of the disc, maybe, by default, no region code means its a USA sourced disc, which is region code A, which is why a UK based BR Player, like your 820, will not play the disc.
With some BR Players, you can mod them to be region free, at a cost.
Most new discs made in the US are actually now region free. But some players, rather than accepting that, demand a specific region and regionless isn’t one of them.
I think nearly all my recent discs have been region free.
My gut tells me that some other weird issue is a copper here.
Doesn’t look like a USA disc to me, it has BBFC age ratings, and Warner Bros Entertainment UK Ltd in the small print. Also the disc is marked UK-EU too. The circled C in FACT is the Federation Against Copyright Theft organisation logo.
I’d follow the (dated) advice on the insert first and see if there are any firmware updates for the player available.
The lack of ABC region marking usually means it’s region free, although sometimes companies put all three regions on the case to mean the same thing. Unlike DVD’s, BR’s do not have to have a region code, and I seem to recall Warners were one of the companies when BR first came out who opted not to use them. They may have changed by now if someone else bought them out.
