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Friday, February 28, 2014

Dear Dolby Labs....

So after receiving the proceeds of my interest free loan to .gov over the past year I decide to upgrade my TV. I'm giving the old one to Mr. Curmudgeon for the man cave to help insure domestic tranquility there for him and Mrs. Curmudgeon. 

So I have to really see what the new one can do. I received this today.







































After throwing away ST1 and ST5 I load of course the favorite of almost any fan, STII The Wrath of Khan.  

I am greeted with this display on the A/V receiver:
















Ok, I have been around the block with consumer electronics for some time. I sold Nakamichi cassette decks back in the day and they were equipped with Dolby "B" and "C" noise reduction. Then came the video stuff. Dolby 2.1, 5.1, 7.2, etc.

I have never observed this display on the receiver before.  Protip, set your PS3 or anything else to "Bitstream" to send to the amp. Let it figure out what you are sending to it and decode.

Dolby TrueHD is described here

The audio rocks. The picture is quite frankly impressive. 


Although most of my age only remember Ricardo Montalbán as a dude selling some leather on a Chrysler or as the ice cream uniform from Fantasy Island, he had a storied career as an accomplished actor. He owned this movie.  ILM did the effects and for the day they kept up with Mr. Montalban.     






7 comments:

  1. Makes me want to a) buy a fancy tv, b) buy a fancy receiver, c) buy a blu-ray player, d) buy the Wrath, and e) make some popcorn.

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  2. The Wrath of Khan totally rocks. Congrats on the new toys, and enjoy!

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  3. Must be nice to still be able to HEAR the difference... sigh

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    1. I think I can turn it up enough for you NFO!

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  4. After the travesty of STI (the only scene worth a damn was in the dry-dock when the Enterprise came to life --- yes, I cried) The Wrath of Khan was TRUE Trek. The cheers at the end was truly deafening. My ears rang for days.

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    1. You are correct. The dry-dock scene was worth it. Everything else, not so much.

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