All posts by Steve The Geek

Home Theater fanatic since 1999, I've been writing for multiple sites over the last 15 years regarding technology, mostly in French. I also blog for TousDesGamers.com and occasionally do technology talks with Jeff Fillion on RadioPirate.com and NRJ.

New Ultra HD Blu-ray Titles Confirmed

Just a quick note to let you know that a couple of new titles on Ultra HD Blu-ray have surfaced out in the latest weeks. All of those are pending officiel press releases but seem pretty solid.

Lionsgate will release Now You See Me on May 31st.

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Warner will release Point Break on Ultra HD Blu-ray, it seems with Dolby Atmos but I will wait to see the disc to confirm that, on May 17th.

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Finally, the 20th Century Fox should be releasing the new anniversary edition of Independence Day on Ultra HD Blu-ray on June 7th. According to Italian sources, it seems that the movie will be released with a DTS:X soundtrack, which would be a first for Fox.

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I updated the list of Ultra HD Blu-rays on the site, and will keep you posted if any release date changes.

Pride + Prejudice + Zombies on Ultra HD Blu-ray in Atmos

Sony continues to strongly support Ultra HD Blu-ray with the announcement of the day and date release of Pride + Prejudice + Zombies on Ultra HD Blu-ray on May 31st.

As with all of the Sony Blu-ray releases, the Ultra HD version will offer a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. Please note this is a new mix created for the movie as the movie was not presented in Atmos in theaters.

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Please note that I updated both the list of Ultra HD Blu-rays and list of Dolby Atmos releases on the site.

The 5th Wave on Ultra HD Blu-ray in Dolby Atmos

Continuing it’s strong support of the format, Sony Pictures just confirmed that The 5th Wave will be released on May 3rd on Ultra HD Blu-ray with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack.

Based on the press release, even if it’s not crystal clear, I tend to believe that the regular Blu-ray version will not receive Atmos.

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As usual I updated the list of Atmos Blu-rays and Ultra HD Blu-ray releases on the site.

DTS:X : First impressions

It is finally here. DTS:X, announced on December 31st 2014 and then delayed and delayed and delayed, has finally landed in our home theaters. Or at least for those who are lucky enough to have a Denon and Marantz receiver that already received the update. Because as of right now, there is no official date from the other receiver vendors (Yamaha said March, but no specific timeline yet while Onkyo/Pioneer are still very extremely quiet).

I did the DTS:X update to my Marantz SR-7010 as soon as the new format came out and spent a couple of hours experimenting with the new format and it’s up-mixer, Neural:X. I can say that the experience has been only positive.

Just so you know, my tests were conducted with a 7.2.4 layout in my dedicated home theater room, with a Top Front and Top Rear layout that has been installed according to Dolby’s recommendations for Dolby Atmos. An Emotiva XPA-5 powers my five main base layer speakers while the Marantz takes care of the surround backs and the four overhead speakers.

The first question I was asking myself when testing was of course if DTS:X would sound better or even any different from Dolby Atmos. I sampled both Ex Machina and American Ultra with their native DTS:X soundtracks. No surprise here : there is no obvious difference between DTS:X and Atmos over a 7.2.4 setup. I’m not sure the two movies used are great demo material for the format either, but some of the scenes in the opening for Ex Machina proved interesting from an ambiance perspective.

The second question for me was of course with the Neural:X up-mixer and how it compared to Dolby Surround. To test this, I started by being extremely impressed by the up-mixer with the DTS 2016 demo disc DTS Master Audio movie scenes. I don’t know if DTS had in mind to choose scenes that would work well with Neural:X but it was to the limit of asking myself if I should not lower the overhead speakers level.

Then the real tests begin. To test Neural:X against Dolby Surround, I used some material I watch often to compare audio changes, including the into to the first Hobbit movie and selected scenes from the bootleg edition of Almost Famous. I cannot say that I sensed a huge advantage to Neural:X compared to its Dolby counterpart, but it does offer a little bit more action in the overheads. I will happily use the new DTS up-mixer with any DTS based content and I would not regret Dolby Surround at all. The other advantage for Neural:X is with Front Wides in a 9.2.2 configuration, as they are not used by Dolby’s up-mixer.

In the end, I tend to say that the arrival of DTS:X has one main advantage : it should allow us to get even more object based mixes coming from studios. I’m really curious to see which format will be more present on Ultra HD Blu-ray. The format started with a lot of Atmos titles and only one movie in DTS:X, but I’m wondering if this is going to change over the next months as DTS:X becomes available in more receivers.

Peanuts to be the first Dolby Atmos from Fox on UHD Blu-ray

Recent pictures of the movie that made it to retailers now confirms that Peanuts will be the first movie coming from the 20th Century Fox to features a Dolby Atmos soundtrack.

As stated by Fox before, this will be reserved only for the UltraHD Blu-ray edition on the movie, as not even the Blu-ray in the same box will offer Dolby Atmos.

81PnRckHx7L._SL1500_As usual, I updated the list of Dolby Atmos Blu-rays movies on the site.

Daddy’s Home On Blu-ray With DTS:X

Paramount is strongly showing is support for DTS:X with the second announcement in a week. Not it’s time for Daddy’s Home, coming on March 22nd on Blu-ray.

Again it’s a new remix on the object based format as the movie was not released that way in theater.

I wonder if we are starting to see a pattern here with Atmos theater movies released in Atmos at home and 5.1/7.1 movies released in DTS:X. Let’s see how things turn out.

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As usual, I updated the list of DTS:X Blu-rays on the site.