AVForums Podcast

We celebrate First Contact Day with Simon taking a look at the new 4K releases of the Next Generation movies, whilst Mark reflects on the horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and its lavish new 4K release from Second Sight. Plus Tom and Mark argue over the score for Dungeons and Dragons, which may actually be a good new adaptation. Plus all the latest movie and disc news.

This week there's a look at Samsung and LG's 2023 TV prices for UK consumers plus reviews of the Sharp 55FN2KA LCD TV, Amazon's latest Fire TV Cube and an automatic turntable from Dual. We also hear about the kit a professional display calibrator uses and round up all of the latest news from the worlds of TV, Home AV and Hi-Fi.

We're back and going boxing for the first part of the podcast, talking about the Rocky films cleaning up in 4K, and Creed 3 reigning at the box office, and really looking at boxing movies and what makes them work. There's more DC at the cinema too with Shazam 2, whilst we STILL wait for The Flash which is still being touted as the greatest superhero movie ever made ever. And dinosaurs are back, with 65 proving a whole lot more fun than anything else Jurassic in years. And we look at some quality sci-fi/fantasy TV, discussing if they figured out how to course-correct on Picard, or are likely to fall at the last hurdle? And Mando’s back - does it make up for The Fett?

Phil reports back from Sony's European HQ where he got a close up look at the company's 2023 TV line up which promises even brighter QD-OLED models this year. There're also reviews of the pocket-friendly Sony HT-S400 soundbar and the impressive Yamaha R-N2000A integrated amp, plus all the latest news from the worlds of TV, Home AV and Hi-Fi.

This week we have an exclusive interview with Producer Jasper Sharp, from Arrow Video, taking a look at his background in writing, directing and now producing titles, some of the discs he has worked on, including Arrow's Battle Royale 4K and Ju-On The Grudge 4K sets, and his latest release, The House that Screamed, what it takes to get a disc out, sourcing the cuts and extra material, and what he thinks of the future of physical media.

We interview Philips' Danny Tack, Senior Director of Product Strategy and Planning, about the company's 2023 TV lineup and its plans for QD-OLED. Plus Ed reports back from the first Bristol Hi-Fi Show in over two years. There's a look at Netflix's Spatial Audio and a review of the HiFi Rose RS250A network streamer. We also discuss the first stages of planning a new home cinema build.

We're going small for this podcast and talking about the latest Marvel entry at the cinema, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantummania, the latest Marvel movie on 4K, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and the question that keeps popping up for most MCU fans - will it ever get back on track after Endgame? I guess with Feige's new 80-year plan he's leaving the answer to that question in the hands of his successor(s). So Mark's going to tell us about what everybody should really be watching right now - Eight for Silver - as well as talking about The Woman King on 4K and why Picard may be good again, Tom will be reviewing Ant-Man and singing the praises of Lockwood on Netflix, whilst Simon's still training for his Rocky 4K collection review. And, apart from Wakanda 4K, I'll be talking about Alice, Darling and Empire of Light, and the final season of Carnival Row.

This week; Phil looks at the latest Ambilight TVs revealed at the recent Philips event in Amsterdam and Jules fills us in on the ISE exhibition in Barcelona. There're also reviews of the SVS Prime Wireless Pro speakers and the NAD C 3050LE integrated amp. Plus, after the TV community’s hopes were raised with talk of support for 4x fully featured HDMI 2.1 ports, we talk about the disappointing news that the MediaTek Pentonic 1000 chip will still only cater for two, and what it means for TV manufacturers. There's also our usual AV and Hi-Fi news roundup.

For the first movies podcast of the year, Cas and the team catch up on what’s new in 2023, a plethora of Oscar-hopeful movies from the likes of Spielberg, Box Office bombs like Babylon and what went wrong, standout performances from none other than Brendan Fraser, Gerard Butler and David Bautista, and a lead vehicle for Mel Gibson. Plus loads of great TV, but where are all the 4K discs?

This week; Phil talks about his recent trip to Bowers & Wilkins while Ed takes a look at the company’s 705 S3 speaker. There’re also reviews of the Philips OLED+907 TV, Pioneer’s VSX-LX505 AVR and a power amp from Parasound. Plus, after our recent trip to Las Vegas, we ask if the lack of consumer 8K TVs at CES 2023 indicates that the technology has failed to take off and what it means for TV manufacturers. There’s also our usual AV and Hi-Fi news roundup.