Yikes, Wayne. That is a lot of challenges. Didn't mean to strike a nerve. I've seen some of the pictures you've posted of your home: inside and out. You've got a beautiful home, so I guess it's a bit of a trade off. I'll take some pictures for you in January to show you what it's like in Wisconin. .

Life is all about compromise. I guess you do a lot of shopping on your vacations back to the US and that's why you toted your XMC-1 back without you in a suitcase. Damaging that would certainly have been disappointing. Anyway, I'd definitely keep those series on your list to look out for. Amazon Prime or Netflix may offer them on streaming as well... Hopefully you have no issues with satellite and /or Internet and I didn't hit another issue. I have days that it is difficult to keep my foot out of my mouth...

Cheers,

T Cobe

Yes, Bro T. we are truly blessed and NO, you can keep that white stuff you guys get in Wisconsin during the winter.
It is HOT here the past few days, but a fan does the trick most of the time. And I can take off more clothes, but COLD, no thanks.
Had enough of that in Wyoming and the North Sea!!!!
Netflix (not over here), streaming movies, don't get me started. Actually I am not sensitive to that point at all now, I just got a fast enough internet and NFL Gamepass, I am one happy camper, I can watch all the games and then a lot more too!!!!!!
But I just got a big package from Amazon so I am doubly a happy camper now. SACDs, CDs, Blu-rays, books, I am in touch with the artistic world again. My chickens, ducks and fish will not know what has gotten into me!!!!!
So, right now, I have a TACET DVD-Audio playing with all 5.1 channels surrounding me listening in glorious surround sound to:
Auryn Series 9: French String Quartets
French wine (great but can't drink it any more), French cheese (love it) and now String Quartets, what will they think of next????
Boys this is awesome!!!! Each instrument a discrete channel. Playing on T 2s, T 3s and SC X with some help from a FF5 I am guessing, subtle if so.
Blu rays to come soon.
Happy Listening, I am having fun now.
God Bless,
Wayne

I had a friend over last night and he had never seen SALT. So we watched that and once again I loved that move, the sound is great too.
Night before that he had not seen "The Blind Side" one of my favorite movies. GREAT MOVIE!!!

OK, it was "Get Hard" tonight.
Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart, it can't get much more hilarious than these two, and it is a funny movie.
GROSS, and terrible language, but funny if you can handle GROSS.
PQ was good, more than I wanted to see when Ferrell HAD to do nude scenes, he always has to take his pants off.
SQ was fine, DTS-HD MA 5.1 but nothing reference here.
Not Recommended with any kids around. Not really recommended, but funny,.
God Bless,
Wayne

Well brothers,
Here is one you MIGHT like.
Watched "The Rewrite" on blu ray.
Good picture, and pretty good sound in DTS-HD MA 5.1.
The thing is here, the background music is the stuff my elevator loving brothers here would love for the most part.
The songs sound great, even though they are not my kind of music, I thought of my brothers here.
So recommended for my brothers, otherwise not that great a script or movie, marginal recommendation.
God Bless,
Wayne

I was finally able to watch Avengers: Age of Ultron this morning. I own most of the Marvel movies and even though I watched this in the theater, I wanted to add it to my collection. Of course, I was looking forward to viewing it again in my theater with my Triton cinema.

In terms of the movie, it was not too different than the last film. It is inline with the Infinity Stones plot that all Marvel roads seem to be going down. Much like the last movie, our heroes have a hard time uniting and are their own worst enemies. One primary villain and a ton of faceless bad guys to defeat. The cast is great and the writing is solid. If you've enjoyed the Marvel superhero movies, there's no reason you shouldn't enjoy this one as well.

PQ was good. Nothing stood out, either good or bad. With all the action and CGI, that's an accomplishment. The picture just didn't seem to pop in terms of color or contrast like other Marvel movies like Guardians of the Galaxy. There was still plenty of detail and I would rate the PQ a solid 4/5.

Sound on the other hand, was quite lack luster. Technically, the dialogue was not very clear, the dynamic range seemed limited, and the movie was quieter than most which required a little more on the volume dial. Luckily, I have plenty of watts in reserve. Though the theatrical release was Atmos, they neglected to include it on the Blu-Ray release. I'm sure there will be a later "special edition" or 4K release with Atmos... In total, I just do not feel the sound was immersive. There was, however, a TON of LFE and this will definitely showcase a good sub and make a bass head smile. I'm giving this effort a 3/5.

I'd recommend this film if you enjoyed the other Marvel movies and the previous Avengers film. It was entertaining and had its moments but I won't be adding this to my home theater demo list. It may be better to rent this one in anticipation of a better version to come. We're only a few months away from UHD Blu-Rays...

Cheers,

T Cobe

Well friends of Israel, or at least friends of Jewish peeps in NYC,
I watched "Fading Gigalo" tonight, written and directed and starring John Turturro and Woody Allen. Funny. Odd, weird and some naughty bits too.
The PQ was fine, the sound was not reference, it was only Dolby True HD 5.1 after all, but the score was good and sounded great, and IF you watch it Bro Anthem, the ending credits were you and Bro. T. Cobe's kind of music, saxaphone and all. And the sax sounded surprisingly natural, well recorded and not irritating at all.
I would not watch this with the kids, but I do recommend it as funny, weird humor with a LOT of heart too. I got a good few chuckles out of it.
Oh, and did I say Sofia Vergara is in it??????
God Bless, Wayne