[Millemissen]

I hardly ever see or use the LG menu/OS (after having set everything up).
And I am not interested in a workaround.
However, since the screen mutes when you go from a video source to an audio source (e.g. B&O Radio), it must be possible to do this….and create an entry in the List for it.

We’ll see – in any case I will put that on my ‘wishlist’ for the support.

MM

[NQVHNWI]

As above, it seems Kaleidescape frequently updates titles as the studio updates. SD to HD to UHD…….HDR. You pay an incremental price for an update (titles are not cheap by any means so better buy titles you can watch over and over again).

I was watching Ready Player One a couple of evenings ago. The film is so so but the sound was incredible. There was a scene in the mix of the main battle scene and there is a pulsing low frequency throb which really hit the chest for a good half minute or more. The BL90s we’re doing their thing but it seemed (illusion??) the BL3s we’re giving a good account of themselves to the sound scene as well.

Finally, I just did a quick update on DTS-X vs Atmos. Seems Atmos is more widely adopted in cinema theatres – the bitrate may be less than DTSX but the produces smaller file packets. Again, too technical for me, I prefer to watch and listen to the material than dwell on the standards. A two minute background summary:

Dolby Atmos vs DTS:X – Which Is Better?

 

[beojeff]

I haven’t seen the mentioned issues. However, I’ve been seeing for weeks that if the Theatre has been in standby for over about an hour that starting the Theatre does not turn on the LG screen. If the Theatre has been sent to standby and is restarted within a short time, then the LG screen turns on and there is no problem.

[BeoMedia]

Try adjusting the input sensitivity on the BeoSound Theatre instead and see if that improves. It is in the settings.

[BeoMedia]

I also liked this function on the previous BeoVisions.
Would it work if you did AV-TV to the BeoSound Theatre. I.e. pull in the audio from the video aource to the speaker while it wouldn’t turn on the LG display?

That approach used to work on older BeoVisions as well.

[beojeff]

I’m not arguing for the superiority of one format over the other. Rather, I’m just pointing out that disc provides a far superior sound than streaming. Looking at the fact that nearly all streaming is one format (Dolby) neglects the fact that some disc content will only give us the best possible sound with DTS — just because they only offer that as the best sound. Movie collectors will have a great amount of movies that only offer the best audio in DTS format. Therefore, if we’re to enjoy the best possible audio on all movie content, we need both formats on the Theatre.

[NQVHNWI]

beojeff wrote:

I think what we can take away from this is that understanding the formats can be (unnecessarily) confusing when the user just wants it to work and enjoy the best possible sound………..However, the Theatre should be much more than just a cheap soundbar.

But I think it does attempt to do this.

1. I get the DTS-Dolby confusion on my part. But sorry, it is all confusing and overly complicated and whether it is DTS-TrueHD or Dolby-TrueHD, I think 99% of those baffled already with the thread get what I was trying to say.
2. Atmos IS Dolby-TrueHD with a height extension as a rule. Uncompressed.
3. DTS-X IS Dolby-TrueHD without height extension. Uncompressed.
4. You will only get the best sound (experience) in either case if you load up on the x.y.2 or x.y.4 configuration in Atmos, otherwise I would say DTS-X = Atmos.

The “User wants it to work and enjoy” bit. Well like everything in life, that depends on how much you want to put into it. Buying all the satellite Beolabs and Theatre to a 7.1.4 (or is the Theatres maximum 7.3.4??) standard means a pretty congested room. And you still have used only 10% of Atmos channels (I think it can do 128 channels of object based sound).

So at 7.1.4, you have already accepted significant downmixing, so the leap of not having DTS-X installed alongside Atmos is not a big one?

I would say this holds true if you are comparing one “soundbar” with format X against a “soundbar” with format Y? (and to add, listening to a BR-disk with finite storage capacity that would have been down-mixed significantly to fit it all in disc)?

To conclude, I think to “get the best sound and for it all to work“, means a dedicated home theatre room, perhaps more suitable home theatre equipment (dedicated, multiformat large scale receivers in a back-room, Kaleidescape etc….).

To have a BS Theatre and some Beolabs, I think implies a compact but compromised liveable homely setup for 99 out of 100 of us.

 

 

[Sandyb]

With a DTS encoded disc, surely can we not just get the disc player to output PCM to a Theatre?

I might be missing something, but I thought it was just a matter of choosing which device in your chain does the decode/ unpack of the source signal. So whether the player does, and sends out PCM, or alternatively it sends bitstream (i.e no decoded) onwards should not really make any / much difference.

Obviously with a Theatre not doing DTS-X, one would need to get the media / disc player to do the job and just send out PCM.

Or am I missing something?

[Sandyb]

With a DTS encoded disc, surely can we not just get the disc player to output PCM to a Theatre?

I might be missing something, but I thought it was just a matter of choosing which device in your chain does the decode/ unpack of the source signal. So whether the player does, and sends out PCM, or alternatively it sends bitstream (i.e no decoded) onwards should not really make any / much difference.

Obviously with a Theatre not doing DTS-X, one would need to get the media / disc player to do the job and just send out PCM.

Or am I missing something?

[beojeff]

I’m afraid that you’re still confusing things. There are two competing formats: Dolby and DTS. Each has lossy, lossless, and object-based versions. Object-based is more than just height channels. Some object-based soundtracks do not even use height channels. Discs often support some versions of both Dolby and DTS, but many offer lossless or object-based in only Dolby or DTS and not both. So we have to chose which soundtrack. B&O should just support both Dolby and DTS so that we’ll always be able to get the best soundtrack.

There is a huge difference in quality that you get between lossy and lossless. Why would you spend the money on BL90s and a Kaleidescape system if you’re not going to get the best sound from your system?

[beojeff]

I went to a pile of movies and pulled a couple as an example.

The US boxed set of “A Discovery of Witches” has DTS-HD MA only. Absolutely no Dolby options. If you’r player can decode and send in LPCM, you’re fine — but no if it doesn’t. The UHD of the movie “Jason Bourne” offers audio in DTS-X but no Dolby versions. If your player can decode and send the audio to the Theatre via LPCM, you’ll get a downmix that is not object-based. However, as it stands now we cannot get the full object-based audio (DTS:X) at all through the Theatre. This is why B&O needs to support DTS on the Theatre.

[beojeff]

P.S. On that same “Jason Bourne” disc, the Spanish track is DTS-HD (lossless but not object-based) and the French track is DTS Digital Surround (lossy). So there can be quite a variety of audio tracks on one disc that are not of the same quality.

[Sandyb]

well put indeed – and until now, and prompted by MM, I didnt realised that a player outputting LPCM is limited to multi channel and will downmix any object based audio. So I’m completely onboard with your sentiment. Whether anything actually changes on the Theatre w.r.to DTS-X, I doubt unfortunately.

It does worry me a little (and I’ve thought this since its launch) that the Theatre+LG is made / designed more for standalone use with streaming services, than the previous Beosystem focussed products. No matrix support, fewer PUC ports etc etc all add to this impression. Anyway, forgive the digression.

 

[NQVHNWI]

duplicate

[NQVHNWI]

BeoJeff,

In a surround sound system, you are defining “quality” by the sound format of the system and just added in my BL90s and Kaleidescape to the mix. But you fail to recognise that these systems have in their fibre a degree of back-compatibility because not everyone can fit or want to have 128 loudspeakers in their theatre room, nor can a BR disc (2 layer) hold more than 66gb of data. What is the “quality” you want to measure?

I keep repeating, DTS-X and Atmos are EXTENSIONS of TrueHD lossless sound. And the back-compatibility as far as I can determine with this morning readings it the system “trickles-down” to the most available format of the hardware.

“Quality” (again). Movie Playback on Kaleidascape with a 100gb file (4ogb more data than a BR disc to BS Theatre/BL90s/BL3s/G2 Panel in a 4m x 4m “open” room, 5.1 setup (arguably 5.2.0). No height speakers as yet. What is the “quality” you speak of?

a) Very clear fluid media playback of vision (but I wear glasses)

b) Very impressive 5.2 sound with ultra-low rumbles that probably irritates the neighbours as it bounces of the walls?

c) Impressive soundstage listening to sounds coming from my left side, forward to right front rather than rear/side/front and all shades of height in between?

d) The musical accuracy of the sound from the BL90s pumping “boom” into a relatively small room at rather quite high db levels?

e) Or is it one uncompressed lossless format vs another slightly different but essentially the same format?

The “quality” of what you speak in your opinion seems to be to have the latest and greatest video format/codec and pushing out sound from a single soundbar vs a different soundbar. (this argument is as old as Beoworld)

What I am saying it is a hell of a lot more complicated than a sound format that defines “quality” and when we consider “doing it properly in true HT style”, many may not like what our living space looks like. Where is the quality in that?

 

[beojeff]

A word of advice to getting the best possible sound out of your Theatre: Do not assume that just popping a disc in the player and pressing “play” will give you the best sound. Be mindful of your audio setting of the disc. Some studios do not play the Dolby Atmos track by default. For example, the UHD of “Bond” movies and UHD of “Game of Thrones” will not default to Dolby Atmos. Soon after receiving my Theatre, I sat through “No Time to Die” and only realized near the end when I checked the sound format through the B&O app that it was playing the Dolby 7.1 lossless track. Granted, the sound was fantastic. However, when I changed the audio setting of the disc to Dolby Atmos and rewatched a few scenes, I was truly blown away by the improvement.

[beojeff]

Mr. Ten Percent, please know that I respect you, and I certainly envy you for having BL90s and a Kaleidescape. However, you’re just not going to convince me that it doesn’t matter about getting the best possible sound format. I know this is an extreme example, but you’d certainly notice a difference between playing a VHS tape through your BL90s and playing a UHD disc with object-based lossless sound through your 90s.

[beojeff]

I will humble myself in admitting that I’m not innocent in not getting the most out of something. I never drive my Porsche over 60 MPH and asked my Porsche dealer about the convenience in having just one set of all-season tires. He gasped.

[NQVHNWI]

In the days when I had a V12V Aston, I used to love more than anything else cruising at 30-60mph rather than going bat out of hell at 200mph. (or even 100!)

Like the Porsche, you made a discerning choice buying the Theatre and like the Porsche, which you knew you could not fit a family of 8 inside but was a two-seater (assumed), we should all have had an understanding of what the Theatre can/cannot do? And like both of our motorcars – and my point, we can get the best quality for “us personally” by only driving at a fraction of the cars true capability or by not expecting it to do something it was never designed to do?

P.S. Remember telling my Dealer that Bridgstones were rubbish and to get some Pirellis on there (my preference). After a few “ifs and buts” I gave him two choices. One good for his business, the other not.

 

[beojeff]

We shall agree to shake hands and laugh, my friend.

[Author]

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