Bad news for home theater enthusiasts

I recently had a few people over to watch a movie on my OPPO-205 to which I’ve added a linear power supply and improved IEC.  We then went through my library of movies on Blu-ray and even plain old DVD and compared portions of them to their streaming equivalent on my Apple TV and Xbox Series X via my gigabit internet, courtesy of Ting.  The video and sound goes through an Anthem 70, feeding a 77 inch Sony 4K OLED and a 9.2.6 system.  My living room has very slowly become quite the man-cave….  

We all agreed that with my setup, at least, the physical media looked, and especially, sounded noticeably better.  Even older movies that weren’t at 4K originally had deeper colors with better contrast, and the sound coming out of the OPPO was less compressed, especially in the upper registers.  The opening sequence of Maverick, for example, was so much more visceral coming out of the OPPO than when streamed via the Apple or Xbox.

Maybe this is due to compression employed by the streaming services?  Maybe my streaming devices just can’t match the hardware of the OPPO?  All I know is that I’m going to miss both the quality and the depth of selection that the Netflix DVD service provided.  Sure I can still buy some physical media, but being able to have a high quality borrowing library was great all these years.   

We are all going to become Blu-Ray/DVD hoarders the same way we are hoarding records, LOL.  

Wouldn't it be wonderful if OTA 4K broadcasts became a thing? I seem to remember one company who was doing 1080i or p cable broadcasts OTA until they got a court order to stop. The people in the community loved it. They said they'll be back but that was some 2-3 years ago.

Another valid reason to breaking up monopolies.

All the best,
Nonoise

Kaleidoscope is awfully appealing, but, most of the stuff I wanna watch is coming from non-kaleidoscope sources. And the fees for kaleidoscope movies are really annoying. I question the feasibility of this company staying in business.

Netflix premium can be very nice if the offerings are all recorded at this higher premium level, but many don’t do a very good job.

HBO is horrifying, Amazon movies can be good, peacock is horrifying and is bottom of the pack.

I run everything through an Apple TV and I’m not sure how much better one can do after you install a quality HDMI, Ethernet and power cord. As well as having a very nice processor, and tube amplifier and preamp, which is an absolute must. Video quality is not the challenge, it’s the audio.

@nonoise

You hit the nail on the head. Cable Internet infrastructure is the main problem in the United States. Most cable companies operate on physical cables that are 40+ years old and just cannot deliver higher speed Internet.

It should have been upgraded to fiber optic cable years ago, but it means a costly investment for them. When they advertise "fiber optic cable," it might mean they have it at some point in the line to your house, but not all the way. So basically it’s like taking a bullet train to the middle of Los Angeles, then being stuck in traffic for 2 hours for the last 10 miles to your house...