Hey, remind me. Is anyone on the board using D-BOX in their systems? I can't imagine I'll ever splurge for it, but I'm still curious about it. It would be nice to hear someone's first-hand experience.

I almost had a first hand experience with it when I went to do the structural wiring for my new house, unfortunatly the system was down, controller physically removed, and we didn't get to experience it .

I think once I've moved and have a dedicated theater space I'll be tempted to try it out. I do notice the logo on movies and dream, though.

Think they'll have a version of Kentucky Fried Movie that actually blows cigarette smoke at you?

I should make the effort to go there (they are based in Montreal), but I keep forgetting about it. Maybe next year!

I posted my experience with it several years ago. Boy, you'd have to dig through my posts here to find it, but it's there...

Found it...

http://www.axiomaudio.com/boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=6511&Number=77297#Post77297

Ahh, thanks. I was pretty sure someone had mentioned it before. $4K is pretty steep for one chair. If it was half that price, I might consider it. Even then it would be quite an internal debate.

Yeah,I hadn't looked at the pricing in a while. I would almost lean towards one of their platforms where you could put multiple seats or a couch on it depending on the price.

I liked this comment from this review of the Universal Motion Platform 100:

I wonder how many porno movies there are out there with that code built into them?

Yeah, the D-Box is a pretty awesome but expensive system. Cuz of that you won't find them in the average HT right now.

However the plan as relayed to me by my local shop that sells D-Box is that the price will be coming down considerably over the next few years. The motion decoding will be built into select HT AVR's in the coming years so no separate controller will be required. Also, in the movie theaters they are talking about introducing select seating with D-Box (extra $ per ticket?) so the general movie going population becomes familiar with the technology. This will hopefully set the stage for better home adoption with more accessible pricing.

I sure can't afford it right now, but I do love to sit in on a demo whenever I drop into my shop!

"average HT"

Does that mean a few Panasonic satellites stacked on top of a monstrous entertainment center, with an 8" bass module shoved into a corner, and a 46" LG LCD?

Good point Ken,
What is an average HT? I guess we would all have a different idea of what that means.

What I meant to say was it will one day be more affordable which in turn will likely make it find its way into more HT's.

Cheers,

Yeah, I think within the last decade or so HT's have become very popular among the rich. They all want to have the best HT in town. But as far as middle class goes, serious HT's (and my idea of serious means moving beyond a 32 inch screen and a pair of tower speakers) are still fairly rare.

I'm sure the numbers are steadily going up, but I still doubt more than 10% of the middle class owns a reciever and a 5.1 or better surround system.

While I was up in Lynnwood visiting my sister, my dad and I ran across a store called Theater Xtreme. We stopped in just to see what they had. It was kind of cool to see the different demo rooms, but I didn't really audition anything in-depth since I knew I wasn't buying anything. I was also turned off when the salesman was saying how expensive cabling could be for a home theater. They didn't have any D-BOX stuff, but I did ask if they'd ever tried it, just in case they had an opinion. The salesman said they used to carry it, and people always thought it was cool, but that it just didn't sell.

Yeah, that seems to be the issue. Cool, but too expensive. I am amazed any stores manage to carry it as the sales must be dismal.

I would think they'd do better as an internet company. Cut out the middle man & slash the prices in half. That way you'd only be paying what a regular love seat &/or chair would cost you, not double.

Of course how many people would be willing to buy furniture they can't sit in first to see if they like it? Yeah, scratch that idea as well.

Calling ClubNeon. Chris, I finally got a PS3 Slim to replace the PS3 I gave away, and I notice there's a setting to output audio via multiple connections now. Does this allow audio to be bitstreamed via optical for the D-BOX while simultaneously outputting Linear PCM via HDMI for the lossless codecs? Just curious at this point, since I'm still not ready to get into D-BOX. It sure would be handy if I get to that point, though.

I was wondering the same thing. But the dual audio out has some pretty serious limitations. Trying to remember what they are...

Oh, it's right on the setting's help text. Assuming that your primary output would be the HDMI, the optical would only get 2-channel, 48 kHz PCM. So no, that doesn't allow the D-BOX to work while still being able to use the lossless audio over HDMI. The only way D-BOX works with the PS3 is to set the primary output to Optical, with Bitstream. Which results in the lossy core audio. So it's compatible, as they say, but at a loss.

Hmm, that's too bad. Thanks for the reply. Do you know of any players that DO allow what I'm after?

Oppo's players may be able to bitstream the core codec while bitstreaming the lossless to HDMI. I don't know for sure.

I emailed OPPO with the question, so we'll see what they say.

Nice!

Well there ya go, Oppo saves the day again. I remember the 1st time I ever saw an Oppo logo, I thought they must be the newest generic electronics company trying to pan for all the bottom feeders of the market. Turns out they set out with a plan to be 'Giant Killers' offering as good or better performance for a fraction of the cost! I think its great!

I just hope they don't go the way of Hyndai and start raising priced once they feel they're established.

Right now, I've got five disc players in my rack:

-One for BluRay
-One for HD-DVD
-One Oppo for SACD and DVD-A
-A CD recorder
-A DVD recorder

I'd love to get the latest and greatest Oppo to support them and whittle this list down, but the truth is that it will only replace my Blu player and current Oppo.

Oh when, oh when, will they introduce a Blu and HD-DVD player that handles SACD and DVD-A and happens to record Redbook CDs and DVD-Rs?

Yes, this was a rhetorical question....

Could you replace your HD-DVD titles with Blu-Ray's? Then the Oppo 83 could play all of your media. A $50 dollar DVD burner in your computer records both DVD's & CD's. Or you could foot the bill for a Blu-Ray burner & have all three bases covered.

Voila, down to one unit & your computer. Just sayin.