Tomorrow, Thursday, September 15th, I will be at CEDIA in Dallas, TX. Is there anything in particular that people here would like me to check into and report back on?

I am going to be getting a taste of 4K laser projection, and am going to be talking to Dolby about the possibility of Atmos expanding to 9.x.4 and 9.x.6 configurations (I am happy with 7.2.4, but this was requested elsewhere by 3 people already)....

Anyone want me to look into anything? I have a slightly shortened day with a private Samsung demo at 4pm and a private Epson demo at 5:15, which means that I will be losing about 2 hours of show floor time, but I also don't need to visit every Atmos/DTS:X demo this year like I tried to do in the previous 2 years because, well, I have Atmos at home.

Just let me know today.

4K blu ray players, anything new coming in the near future?

Tks, Nick.

Got it. Didn't see a whole lot of info listed for companies showing 4K players, but I will keep my eyes open.

Let me know if 8-Tracks are going to resurge the way vinyl did.

I think that there might be a booth catering to semi truck drivers and new technology that *might* be ready to replace their 8-tracks and copies of John Denver's greatest hits:



(Funny thing was that when I was looking for an 8-track image, I expected to see a lot of country music, but most of what I found was anything but country music.)

Oppo's 4k player please.

Yeah, I doubt Oppo will announce or show anything yet, but I will keep my eyes open.

SERENITY, I just might have a picture for you later today. Oppo was not out on display anywhere, but being in the right place at the right time makes all of the difference...

So highlights from today:
JBL's demo was incredible. 26 descrete channels playing Atmos and then they put them into "arrays" for DTS:X (7.1.4 soundtrack).

JVC and Sony both had mighty impressive laser 4k projectors... For a might price well north of $35,000 USD. They looked great.

Epson's laser e-shift (faux-K) and their bulb e-shift projectors honestly didn't blow me away. I think that my 5 year old JVC is just as good.

4K demos were all across the board for quality. I was never sure if it was the player or the display some times.

I did, however, catch a sneak peek at the upcoming Oppo UHD 4K player. I wasn't supposed to take a picture, and certainly couldn't get one of the back of it. The guy wouldn't give any specs, price, or release information to someone not wearing a press badge...



Yup. Pretty much looks like the previous ones...

Sweet! It is real. Thanks Nick. I guess we'll here more in the coming days from Mark at AVS.

Oh my gosh. I completely forgot to come back and update this with more info. Been busy traveling home today.

Name slated to be UDP-203 UltraHD Blu-ray player. $499 price. ETA end of 2016. No Dolby Vision (although, I am not surprised by this, but others thought that it should be there for some reason). It won't have Darbee technology in it, then again it IS 4K so not sure why it would really be needed, but some day I sure it will be hashed out.

Here is a picture of the back (not my photo, but it has been ripped off from so many "professional" sources and reused, that I have no idea where the original came from):

I wonder if it will have all the Oppo goodness that's was baked into the previous versions like the 105 etc. Was there anything else there worth pining for or has the whole home theater thing run its course. I have felt lost lately since there is nothing I really truly desire other than maybe an oppo player since mine is a bit old and has trouble with audio on some discs. Once you back home would be nice to hear about/see pics of your day there.

I felt like there was a real "lacking" feel to the show this year. Since I was there for the audio/video home theater aspect, I didn't care about installation technology, vendor/client management tools, etc.

So what do I mean by "lacking?" Well, there was the ultra high end market, which I think must be going strong. Low to mid-level stuff just was either on static (non-functioning) display, or were non-existent altogether. So that meant that if you wanted to actually demo something cool that you could afford you were out of luck. $35,000 laser 4K projectors, $150,000 on up audio systems, THAT is what it was all about... Previous years there were companies offering something in a more manageable price point for demo, but not even companies like Pioneer had anything to really demo. Paradigm was showing off their new ultra expensive speaker line and in a 2.0 audio only setting. Companies like Denon & Marantz showed off their new flagship Denon receiver, but used old speakers for most of their setup (new Boston Acoustics ceiling speakers for Atmos, but not sure who buys B.A. speakers anyway).

So all in all, with the next 2 years of CEDIA being in San Diego, I don't feel like I will miss out on a lot if I don't go.

Was the new Sony VPL-HW45ES anywhere on dispay?

That is an interesting prospect at ~2000$

Might have been on a static (non-powered) display, but that is boring. They really only showed their $30,000+ USD model.

Thanks for your time to post on your CEDIA visit, Nick. We appreciate it. I'm most interested in seeing what new 4K blu ray players are coming and will probably be in the market for an affordable 70-80" TV next year.

Several 4K players out and coming. Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, the upcoming Sony ("only available via a custom installer"), and Oppo. Don't forget about possible solutions from XBox and *maybe* even the upcoming Playstation platform. We know that the XBox One S will do UHD 4K blu-ray, but it needs a firmware upgrade to do immersive audio like Atmos. The upcoming Playstation won't do 4K movies, only games, but there was a new rumor circulating at CEDIA about that being a marketing thing for Sony. Why would someone drop big $$$ on an installer only version of a stand alone player if a lower cost Playstation can do the same thing? So the rumor is that Sony will release a future firmware update to allow for 4K blu-ray playback for the upcoming Playstation, but again you will be waiting a while.

Samsung and Philips have been at the lower end of performance, but also price. Panasonic has reviews of being the best out there right now, but of course costs more. Oppo should have a solid offering and be priced with the new 203 model inbetween the lower end and Panasonic. Sony is going to be up near $1000 MSRP from an installer, but at CEDIA talked about having "large profit margins" for installers, so actual cost should be a lot less. No idea on performance except that it was glitchy right now when used at the Sony booth for their 220" laser projection demo. Again, it is an early beta model that is months away from release.

Early reports have the new OPPO 4k (UDP 203) blu ray player at $499 USD.

I saw the info about the Oppo 203 as well and immediately wondered if they were going to, like before, eventually introduce a higher end unit like the 105/105D? As far as Dolby Vision is concerned from what I read so far, the literature didn't seem to commit one way or the other whether or not it was going to be installed on the Oppo unit. Surprising since the consensus of opinion that I have read is that Dolby Vision is the more flexible, superior system to HDR10 and, although quite limited in its availability, like HDR, is already available on a few Netflix titles. I guess we will have to wait and see along with other services like Netflix, Youtube etc. etc. especially with 4K material. I am a fourth Generation Oppo buyer so I am willing to wait and see what the final product looks like. I am sure it will be a winner.

The exclusion of Darbee is really no surprise since, although they have announced they have been working on it, there has been no commitment one way or another whether or not Darbee will ever introduce a 4K compatible unit. I already have two Darbees so I don't need another and if they do eventually introduce a 4K unit, I would prefer an external model anyway.

Of course, then again, all of this might be available in a software update later. To date, LG, with their top of the line OLED models have been the only monitors offering both HDR10 and Dolby Vision while Vizio, on their higher end models started out with HDR10 only and later offered Dolby Vision in a software update at no additional charge.

It is rather odd though that the rear panel of the unit displayed in the picture is exactly the same as the existing 103D so I am not sure it is a picture of the new model.

That *IS* the back of the box that they were running around with (secretly) at CEDIA last week as their upcoming UHD 203 player. Now, it was never connected up to anything, so it could have been a bit of a P.R. stunt... take an existing 103, put a new face on the front, carry it around in a black Oppo bag, and create some buzz...

Time will tell.

Thanks for your input on the epson projectors. I was actually pondering whether or not to try one to replace my sony es95. I think I'll wait another year.

For all the Oppo lovers waiting impatiently.

Oppo

I will have to correct myself on my previous post about the uncanny resemblance to the 103D. When I finally put on my glasses, the model in the picture shows 2 trigger outputs with no IR input. The 103D only has an IR input with no trigger outputs. There is also printing on the back making reference to DTS and Dolby audio, which is not on the back of the 103D.

Yep, it looks like it is "legit" after all, I should have looked a little bit closer. Also, it looks like my question about a higher end model was answered in the link "Socketman" made reference to in his post(i.e. UHD 205). No indication yet of the release date of that model.

I seem to be behind on my reading.

I remember listening to Pink Floyd's Metal and Tull's Passion Play for the first time on 8-track. Also, search on 'Gene Tracy truck stop tape'. Quality stuff...

So, what do you think of laser projection when it's good? It was good enough for me that I would actually go to a theater and pay a premium on the right (IMax) screen.