Who still misses the good old Cracktro days?

[Harrison]

@Kin. I don't really use any dedicated media player any longer as smart TVs and Sky Q have pretty much everything needed these days. Plus subscribing to every streaming service I dunt need to hold much locally as everything I ever want to watch is 99% of the time available on one of the services. There are the odd exceptions, but it's not often.

I do have a 5 bay Synology NAS with 4TB drives in it that holds everything locally for instant access if needed. But again not needed that often these days.

And audio I never touch the massive MP3 collection I built over the years, or the 100s of CDs I own. Nearly everything I can ever think of is on Spotify. And it's matured into such an integral music streaming service these days. Able to seemlessly listen to it in the car, in any room via echo/alexa, directly though any smart tv, console etc. Pretty much every network connected device has spotify access these days.

There are exceptions. It doesn't have every more obscure Indie, gothic, metal, shoe gazing etc artist and album. And one thing missing are the video game audio albums and concert recordings. So there is still a place for alternative local collections.

[Demon Cleaner]

I used to have DUNE media players before, they're quite good. But as I'm only streaming from my NAS or watching Plex, Netflix, Prime or YouTube, I'm using the nVidia Shield, the normal model, not the Pro version even, as the only downside it has compared to the Pro model, is that it's less powerful for gaming. But the form factor was my main reason for buying it, it looks like a small 0.25l Coca Cola can and fits behind any other device I have, so you don't even see it. Remote control is fantastic, very small, responsive and has only minimum buttons, plus looks very fancy. Plus I'm using the built in Chromecast to send stuff from my iPad to TV.

I agree with Harrison that most TVs nowadays are smart, my Sony Bravia too, but navigating is much slower than with the Shield. Plus if I use the beamer, I need it, as the beamer has no built-in smart whatsoever.

Spotify is for people that don't listen to REAL music Nothing to do with obscure.

[Harrison]

Spotify has nearly everything that days. Most metal and alternative stuff. Actually quite hard to find things it doesn't have. F.ex. I just tried to think of something and whilst The Dead Kennedy's are on there I didn't expect to find their lead singer, Jello Biafra on there, or some of his other groups such as Lard, but it's all there.

[Harrison]

Regarding smart TVs. Many current models are adopting Alexa control. The Samsung 4K TV we bought last Dec does. Really annoys Tom that I can turn it off from anywhere. And interfaces are being less relevant recently because each streaming service has its own identify interface pn every device. I'd been hoping for proper convergence for years.

[Kin Hell]

Putting a disc into a slot-loader - boring

Being presented with a sliding tray to put the disc into - nice

Slotting a cartridge into a pop up mechanism - yeah baby

@ DC

Several folk I know tried pointing me to the nVidia Shield but it doesn't play Blu Ray disc menus. - It wasn't what I was looking for as a, ....more Professional Solution ....for a more.... "Home Cinema Experience".

@Kin. I don't really use any dedicated media player any longer as smart TVs and Sky Q have pretty much everything needed these days. Plus subscribing to every streaming service I dunt need to hold much locally as everything I ever want to watch is 99% of the time available on one of the services. There are the odd exceptions, but it's not often.
<snip>

But I'm 0ld School & like to sit down with a Real Movie & watch it on my Home Cinema set up whilst eating decent food. - Sky are Butt Munchers. Reduced all Sound to friggin Stereo & lets not even discuss BT.

I can still do above, even if the good old Cracktro day's are long gong. (Even my Miggy works through it)

Btw, anyone remember Laser Disc?

[Harrison]

I do agree to get the best image and sound you still can't match a BD. All streaming services compress video far more than physical media can deliver. But I must say that Disney+ and Netflix are not offering a lot of 4K HDR content and it looks really good. Shows up some of the higher compression and subsequent artifacting in some Sky content. Although some of the Sky 4k stuff is looking good. F1 is great in 4K.

As for Audio. Stereo? Most things are in 5.1 at least these days. Netflix, Disney and prime all deliver proper multi channel audio. And all films I've watched on sky have had proper surround sound audio.

[Kin Hell]

I do agree to get the best image and sound you still can't match a BD. All streaming services compress video far more than physical media can deliver. But I must say that Disney+ and Netflix are not offering a lot of 4K HDR content and it looks really good. Shows up some of the higher compression and subsequent artifacting in some Sky content. Although some of the Sky 4k stuff is looking good. F1 is great in 4K.

As for Audio. Stereo? Most things are in 5.1 at least these days. Netflix, Disney and prime all deliver proper multi channel audio. And all films I've watched on sky have had proper surround sound audio.

Sky Broadcasts are in just plain old Vanilla "Stereo".

Anything in UHD sounds like a frickin 2 bit sh!t boom box from the 80's with a Cassette shoved up it's ass!

[Harrison]

Definitely not in my experience. My reciever decodes most content to Dolby 5.1 and quite a lot of films in Dolby Digital Plus or Atmos. Most live Football matches are in Atmos. F1 is in 5.1 etc.

[Kin Hell]

Press the info button on your Sky Remote. It tells you what they're broadcasting in.

S = Stereo

[Harrison]

You have a problem with your setup then. Currently watching F1 qualifying in UHD with 5.1 through my Sony receiver.

I've always had Digital 5.1 since Sky+HD days and pro logic surround before that with analogue Sky.