AVexcel - Episode 159

**Patrick Norton** (0:00)
AVexcel Episode 159 was recorded on November 8th, 2021 Marvel goes IMAX, at least on Disney Plus. Three new AVRs from Denon. Just what does LG's latest firmware update do? Why TV picture presets are your friend? How to blow your data cap when you upgrade to a new TV? And quite a bit more. Don't forget to email askatavexcel.com if you got a question for us. And thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that supports us at patreon.com/avexcel. Heads up, next hangout for our patrons is Sunday, November 28th, 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m.

**Robert Heron** (0:30)
Pacific.

**Patrick Norton** (0:30)
We'll see you there.

**Robert Heron** (0:32)
Testing one, two, three. All right, I'm not blowing anything out.

**Patrick Norton** (0:36)
Ignorant weasels chewing on your soul.
Ignorant weasels. Do you have speed?

**Robert Heron** (0:43)
Yeah.

**Patrick Norton** (0:44)
Well, AVexcel, your guide to the best in home video and audio gear no matter what your budget is. I'm Patrick Norton.

**Robert Heron** (0:49)
Hey, I am Robert Heron.

**Patrick Norton** (0:51)
Robert and I have spent much of our adult lives, it seems, adjusting televisions so that the black bars that belong above and below cinematic presentations do not get stretched to fill the screen. I know both of us have done this in hotels. I know both of us have done this in bars.
I know both of us have tried to do this in airports.

**Robert Heron** (1:14)
You want to see that picture as intended, in the proper shape is what we're talking about. The aspect ratio of that content, it should not be altered.
And if it requires some black bars above or below, or even to the left or the right, depending on what format of content you're looking at, it's almost comforting for me to see those bars, knowing that, okay, I am seeing this in a proper presentation. The image is not being stretched or skewed or scaled unnecessarily.

**Patrick Norton** (1:42)
Plus people's heads don't look the wrong shape.

**Robert Heron** (1:45)
That's the worst. I'm not going to talk about some manufacturers who actually put out TVs that did not have a proper aspect ratio or proper presentation. Everything was distorted, no matter what you fed the screen. But that was a long time ago in the galaxy. Let it go. Breathe.
Breathe, Robert.

**Patrick Norton** (2:04)
The pain will pass eventually.

**Robert Heron** (2:06)
We don't know what a circle is.

**Patrick Norton** (2:11)
Anyway, that was...

**Robert Heron** (2:14)
Good times.

**Patrick Norton** (2:15)
Story for another day.

**Robert Heron** (2:16)
Yes.

**Patrick Norton** (2:17)
So November 12th, Disney Plus is bringing IMAX's expanded aspect ratio. My favorite quote on this is like, 26% more of your screen can be covered. This is essentially as part of the Disney Plus premiere of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings that's coming out November 12th. And IMAX's expanded aspect ratio is 1.9 to one, which is not quite all of a 16 by 9 screen, but is damn near all of it.
This is not the traditional IMAX 1.43 to one, which is very 4 to 3 slash 11 to 8 slash 3 to 2 And for those of you who are into historical presentation formats, I'm talking about traditional TV, the Academy standard and classic 35 millimeter stills. They're doing this for a lot of the lineup.
Ant-Man and the Wasp, Avengers Endgame, Infinity War, Black Panther, Black Widow, Captain America Civil War, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, and a movie that I desperately love, Thor Ragnarok.

**Robert Heron** (3:16)
Very cool.

**Patrick Norton** (3:17)
I guess most of these are actually originally shot in IMAX. So we shall see.

**Robert Heron** (3:23)
I like the fact that this 190 to 1, yeah, like you said, it's very close to 16 by 9, and it would minimize black bars on your screen. You would see, I believe, very thin ones at the top and the bottom on a display, like a typical widescreen TV displaying that content.

**Patrick Norton** (3:40)
Yeah. Yeah, there would basically be the tiniest bars above and below. I guess that's 26% taller, 1.9 to 1

**Robert Heron** (3:49)
Oh, then maybe the bars are on the side, actually. I am going to look into that a little more. That's an interesting, close match to what we already have as far as our traditional 16 by 9 TV. So all the better, I think, for watching, which is clearly some popular content.

**Patrick Norton** (4:04)
Yeah, Devinder Hardwar got into this in some depth on a gadget when he wrote this up. One of the things he points out is, I'm just going to quote the man, before this Disney Plus partnership, IMAX and DTS brought the IMAX enhanced home viewing format to a handful of TV streaming apps like Sony's Bravia Core, IMAX-ified films. So that's a tough word. They'll have a prominent label on their Disney Plus screens, and they'll also be able to launch the standard widescreen version if you prefer. I also am going to quote Mr. Hardwar. Physical Blu-ray collectors are already used to shifting IMAX aspect ratios in some films, most notably The Dark Knight, Tenet, and Mission Impossible, Fallout, but streaming films have typically lost on this perk.