DEG Second Quartet Home Entertainment Report – Here are details from the second quarter 2016 Home Entertainment Report compiled by the Digital Entertainment Group for their members: Consumer spending on home entertainment products were up 6% from the year earlier. More than eight million UHD TVs have now been sold. Overall physical sales of Blu-ray discs grew only 3%, while in the same quarter last year it grew 35%. More than 45 UHD titles are now available on HD Blu-ray discs with sales of some 288,000. Electronic sell-thru or digital HD grew nearly 9%, driven by theatrical content. VOD platforms were up more than 7% for the quarter, and 95% of all U.S. homes have at least one HDTV. Blu-ray playback devices are in more than 85 million U.S. households.
Award-winning Farmer Plays Classical Music to his Pigs – Farmer Paul Howland, in Beccles, Suffolk, says his herd’s favorite radio station is Classic FM. He said “It calms them down…so they’re generally happier.”
On Sir Neville Marriner – He is the most-recorded conductor in the classical world. His standards and measures are unequalled, yet he speaks to the notion of British finery and wispy subtlety. One of his many recordings was recently reissued by Pentatone in a four-channel version, since it was originally recorded in 1978 for quadraphonic vinyl release. It is the Carmen Suites and the L’Arleseienne Suites of Bizet (PTC 5186 234).
Consumer-friendly First Person Headsets – FPV flying is where the pilots of drones wear video specs to see what the drone sees. Now Yuneec has their SkyView goggles (for $250), which, with a compatible controller – allow to fly from the best seat in your house. The SkyView is a five-inch 16:9, 720p display which connects to any HDMI video source, not just drones. Avegant also has the Glyph, which costs $700. You can also plug your iPhone in with an adapter and then view anything you do on our handset.
New Marantz AVRs with Dolby Atmos & DTS:X – Marantz will ship next month the SR6011 AV Receiver which is 9.2 channels and 110 watts per channel. ($1399) It also has Audyssey automatic room acoustic correction and comes with a measurement mic. Another feature is hi-res audio playback with support of AIFF and FLAC up to Double DSD. The SR5011 is 100 watts per channel at 7.2 with Atmos and DTS:X support ($899). Both can play back UHD video, and include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and AirPlay connectivity as well as music streaming.
