Avforums Podcast

This week Mark takes a look at Poirot's A Haunting in Venice and Sleepy Hollow in 4K; Simon discusses why you need the Psycho Collection on 4K and how Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse might be one of the best films of the year and one of the best 4K releases of the year too, whilst I check out some streaming movies, wave 2 of The Film Vault Collection with Apollo 13's 4K set, and revisit Batman: Mask of the Phantasm in 4K, spurring us to look at some of the greatest - and worst - animated Batman movies.

This week, Phil looks at Panasonic's flagship MZ2000 OLED TV to discover whether the MLA and heatsink technology onboard push peak brightness past its rivals. The Yamaha Aventage RX-A4A AV receiver and REL 212/SX subwoofer are also up for review and Ed sizes up the New Classic NSC 222 and NAP 250 preamp and amp duo from Naim. There's also the usual round-up of all of the latest AV and Hi-Fi news.

This week we take a look at Fast X on 4K, The Wicker Man's 50th Anniversary 4K set, and Blood and Black Lace 4K, plus the latest TV shows, with Mark Dacascos entering Bruce Lee's Warrior Season 3, the return of Apple's Invasion, and an update on Star Wars - Ahsoka, whilst we review The Last Voyage of the Demeter, unceremoniously pulled from UK cinemas and likely to land on streaming at some time in the future instead, and take a look at some of the best (and worst) Dracula movies.

This week we take a look at the first in DC's new wave, Blue Beetle, and the movie with the best engine noises, Gran Turismo, both at the cinema, Gal Gadot's disposable actioner Heart of Stone on Netflix, and the digital releases of Jennifer Lawrence’s No Hard Feelings and Pixar's Elemental, look at the 4K discs of Razorback and Arrow's Weird Science, more Bruce Lee with Enter the Dragon on 4K, US discs like Kino’s release of Friedkin's To Live and Die in LA and Criterion's Thelma and Louise in 4K, as well as TV and streaming like Justified: City Primeval and the finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2.

This week, Phil reviews his first Panasonic TV of the year, the mid range MZ980 OLED, while the Ascendo ‘sub and sat’ home cinema speakers get an in depth check over from Doug. Martin puts the Primare A35.8 power amp through its paces plus, Phil and Jules talk about Calman Autocal and if it will threaten traditional professional calibration.

This week we take a look at the insane marketing monolith that is Barbenheimer, with Barbie having pulled in over a billion and Oppenheimer extending its run at IMAX; we commiserate the missed opportunity of a Ben Wheatley blockbuster with Meg 2, enjoy the Spider-Verse vibe of the surprisingly good Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Mutant Mayhem, and check out Gerard Butler's latest, Kandahar, coming straight to Amazon Prime as an Original; we review Jaws 2 on 4K, and the better-than-it-had-any-right-to-be Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves 4K release; we also look at a few TV shows which have come to an end - like Marvel's disappointing Secret Invasion - and a few that have come back - like Futurama.

This week we preview Hisense's affordable U7K Mini LED TV and look at two rather specialised AV devices; the ZVOX AV157 AccuVoice soundbar and the low profile Earthquake 'Couch Potato' CP8 subwoofer. And we ask why there can be such a price discrepancy between AV products aimed at the UK and US markets. Plus there'll be the usual round up of all of the latest home cinema and Hi-Fi news.

This week we take a look at Tom Cruise's latest must-see hit, the epic Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, and wonder whether 2023 blockbuster entertainment could get any better than that; we cover Wes Anderson's latest, Asteroid City, which is less engaging than the associated exhibition that’s running to celebrate the film in London, as well as Netflix's Bird Box spin-off, and a number of juicy new 4K releases including Evil Dead: Rise and Arrow's lavish Bruce Lee Box Set, as well as the original Avatar, and we also dig into some decent TV, including the Korean series Bloodhounds and the upcoming second seasons of The Bear and Asimov's Foundation, which promise to be every bit as good as the first.

This week Phil gets hands-on with Panasonic's 2023 TV line-up at the company's UK facility and also gives us his initial impression of Samsung's flagship QN95C mini LED TV. Plus, Doug updates us with his recent reviews of Perlisten's R-Series speaker package and the Marantz Cinema 60 AVR while Ed has a new set of music recommendations. There's also the usual round up of all of the latest AV and Hi-Fi news.

This week we're going to argue - a little - about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and its CG, and argue - a little - about Avatar: The Way of Water, and its CG, on 4K, also looking at old school practical effects in Ronin's outstanding US 4K from Kino, catching up on surprisingly classic cruise in 4K, with The Firm and Vanilla Sky in the UK, and Rain Man in the US, and discuss loads of TV, including Marvel's Secret Invasion on Disney Plus, Jack Ryan's final season on Amazon, Henry Cavill's final Witcher on Netflix, Idris Elba’s real-time Hijack for Apple, and the end of Silo.

This week we discuss Panasonic's OLED TV lineup for 2023 including its flagship MZ2000 with the new MLA panel. Phil's also been testing Samsung's new S95C OLED flagship with a 2nd generation QD-OLED panel and gives a preview of his findings, while Jules discusses his latest display calibration training venture. Plus there's the usual round up of all of the latest AV and Hi-Fi news.

This week we take a look at The Flash and Transformers 7 at the cinemas, and wonder why better films like Netflix's Extraction 2 are landing on streaming, we review the latest John Wick Chapter 4 on demo worthy 4K, the dino-sci-fi 65 on 4K, celebrate the return of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds with the Season 2 opener, survive Black Mirror Season 6, trash The Idol and Crowded Room, and get all nostalgic over Arnold.

This week, we speak with Spears & Munsil about their new UHD benchmarking package, Phil reviews the LG G3 MLA OLED Evo TV, Ian tells us about the Vision Pro reality headset from Apple and Martin tells us about the Klipsch The Sevens Powered Speakers. In our Hi-Fi section, Ed talks iFi Audio iCan Phantom headphone amplifier and Focal Theva No2 Speakers.

This week Cas recommends Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Sisu at the cinemas and Guy Ritchie's excellent The Covenant, now on Amazon Prime Video, and tells you to steer clear of Robert Rodriguez' latest, Hypnotic, getting tired of waiting for Criterion to bring 4K to the UK and importing their US release of Devil in a Blue Dress instead. Mark gave some Cocaine to a Bear, in 4K, and watched what happened, says The Changeling is a great unsung horror gifted a new lease of life with a lavish 4K Box Set from Second Sight, and gives us a preview of Arrow’s release of The Lighthouse on 4K too. Oh and he's seen Fast X and loved it. Simon's had a Knock at the Cabin in 4K, and suffered through Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in 4K, but not IMAX-enhanced Dolby Vision like on Disney+, which is still a thing unfortunately. He's also getting his hands on Sony's 4K release of 65, out today. And we’ve got some streaming TV to recommend too!

This week we compare LG and Sony's mid range OLED TVs for 2023, review BenQ's W2710i and TK860i DLP projectors, run through what caught our eye at the Munich High End Show and look at Zidoo's Eversolo DMP-A6 network streamer. We're also joined by the founder of the Professional Video Alliance Gregg Loewen who'll be explaining the services, training and certification this industry body offers. Plus there's the usual AV news and music recommendations.

This week Tom talks about the latest, good, Marvel movie, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, and Apple’s release of Michael J. Fox's Still. Mark has a meeting about Amazon's "Meetings: The Movie", Air, and both classic Musketeers movies in 4K, 1973's The Three Musketeers and 1974's The Four Musketeers. And Simon assesses Fear and Loathing in 4K and talks up Apple’s Silo and Netflix's Beef on TV, plus may give us a Brotherhood of the Wolf 4K unboxing!

This week we take a look at the second most expensive TV show of all time, the flashy waste of money that is Amazon's Citadel, from the Russo Bros., one of the most expensive French films of all time, Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan, a great Evil Dead sequel in Rise, the Superman 4K collection, Kieslowski's Three Colours Trilogy in 4K, and a bunch of good TV like Florida Man, The Diplomat, Yellowjackets Season 2, Dead Ringers, and Sweet Tooth Season 2.

This week Ed presents the AVForums Podcast and we discuss the latest HiFi, AV and TV news, Jules tells us all about his recent LG G3 MLA OLED calibration and why it just might be the TV of the year. Martin looks at budget home cinema with the Emotiva MC1 processor review, while Doug looks at a 5.1 system based on the new Bowers and Wilkins 700 S3 speakers. Plus, we get Ed's album, playlist and vinyl choices.

This week we talk about how Nicolas Cage might be the best thing at the cinemas at the moment - Renfield going up against the likes of Super Mario Bros., Assassin Club and Mummies - discuss the best and worst Superman sequel from the original series, investigate some good Gerard Butler on 4K in the form of Plane, Second Sight's latest lavish box set in Picnic at Hanging Rock 4K, Arrow's latest - Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch in 4K - and Arrow's upcoming release of the next highly anticipated Michael Mann release… Blackhat. Plus we catch up on Mando, Picard and some of the best other TV out there like The Last Thing He Told Me, The Night Agent, Slasher and Shrinking… but NOT True Lies.

We celebrate First Contact Day with Simon taking a look at the new 4K releases of the Next Generation movies, whilst Mark reflects on the horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and its lavish new 4K release from Second Sight. Plus Tom and Mark argue over the score for Dungeons and Dragons, which may actually be a good new adaptation. Plus all the latest movie and disc news.