New Sound System - Part 3: New Cables and a Single Surround Speaker

 I don't particularly like pulling my receiver out of the entertainment center. There are 100 wires and cables connected to it, and every time I pull it out I'm afraid one of them will come loose and cause me trouble, especially the speaker wires.  This has actually never happened to me, though, so as I was pulling the receiver out of the entertainment center last weekend I kept that in mind. I had a couple of changes I wanted to make to my system.

The first was to extend the sound. The theatre part of the basement is on one side, whereas the treadmill is on the complete opposite side. You can see the TV from the treadmill, but in order to hear the TV you have to have the volume up quite loud. Sarah wanted me to extend the sound with a speaker so that she can hear the TV while on the treadmill without shaking the house. I didn't think this would be difficult to accomplish, but that proved to be wrong. I first thought I could do this using Bluetooth to broadcast to headphones. This didn't work, however, because the receiver can only receive via Bluetooth, it cannot broadcast. I then thought I could set up a second audio zone. My receiver can handle up to three audio zones, with the theater section next to the receiver being zone 1. My plan was to connect a speaker to the zone 2 output and set it next to the treadmill, thus making a second audio zone closer to the treadmill. Despite my best efforts, I could not get any sound to come out of the zone 2 speaker. I might look into this zone 2 option a bit more, though to be honest there wasn't a lot of instructions on how to do this in the manual. It seemed fairly straightforward. I might look into getting a Bluetooth transmitter, if that is an option.

With this failure, I decided to use the zone 2 speaker as a surround speaker. I had a convenient way to hide the wires for the left surround, as well as a table to set it on which was in the perfect place. That wasn't the case for the right surround, as ideally I'd need to run wire under the carpet to hide it and I also don't have a good place to set it right now. With that being said, I've connected one surround and have the wiring connected to the receiver for a second surround, whenever I decided to do that project. It's a bit asymmetric, but at least provides some surround. I might be the only person on the planet who is running a 4.1 surround system.

The other change was to disconnect the PS4 to make room for the PS5. The PS5 has all kinds of audio and video upgrades from the PS4. This, in addition to the fact that a lot of movies streaming on my Apple TV stream in 4K, I decided to upgrade my HDMI cables. I was using a mismatch of HDMI cables, some I had purchased, others that came from my satellite (9 years ago) or that I got from various places. I won't nerd out on the differences between HDMI 2.0 and 2.1, but suffice it to say that if you want to maximize the audio and video your devices can deliver, you need to be running HDMI 2.1. Since I was connecting the PS5 (which involved moving my Apple TV to a different section of the entertainment center because of its large size), I thought this was a good time to upgrade all of my cables to the 2.1 standard so that I know what I'm running and make everything uniform. Of course to take advantage of the upgrades that come with 2.1, all devices connected have to be able to utilize HDMI 2.1. Currently half of my devices can use 2.1 - the PS5 and Apple TV. My receiver and TV do not support 2.1, so possibly more to come on this at some point in the future.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

 

As the title suggests, this movie tells the origin story of Wolverine. In addition to his claws, he's a mutant who doesn't age and has super healing powers. After fighting in many wars for the government, he agrees to join Stryker's Weapon X program to get revenge on Sabertooth, who killed his girlfriend. In doing so, his skeleton is infused with Adamantium, a metal alloy giving him additional strength, and thus becoming Weapon X. 

After reading about Wolverine in the Marvel Encyclopedia, I think the movie does a pretty good job explaining his origin story. Some details are changed (such as Sabertooth being his brother in the movie), but I've come to expect these changes in the Marvel movies. Since I wasn't a comic fan, it doesn't bother me. At times the movie gets bogged down by some questionable writing and too much fighting, but generally was enjoyable and worth watching if you're a Marvel or X-Men fan.

The cast of this movie was great, which has come to be expected in Marvel movies. I enjoyed seeing Liev Schreiber (from Ray Donovan) on screen, and even Patrick Steward makes a brief appearance. Of course, Hugh Jackman was the star, this being the first time he played the Wolverine character, with many more movies to come. Perhaps the most interesting actor in the movie was Ryan Reynolds, who played the mutant Wade Wilson before he was transformed into Deadpool. Interesting that Reynolds goes on to play the Deadpool character in the later released movies. I wonder if his casting in those movies had anything to do with this movie. Stryker even mentions the name Deadpool when transforming Wade in his Weapon X program.

Playstation 5 Deals

 

Despite launching in September of 2020, I was just now able to get my hands on a PS5. To be fair, I didn't really look much in 2021. However, starting in 2022, my interest piqued because a handful of games are being released that I think will be better on PS5 vs Switch (or aren't available on the Switch). I started casually looking at availability at some stores, and either they were sold out or had them available for an exuberant price ($800+). I wasn't willing to overpay (at least not yet), but it quickly became apparent that I needed to belong to discount clubs to get first dibs on new stock. We are already Amazon Prime members, and Sarah signed me up for Gamestop's discount club for $15 per year. The strategy at this point was to wait for a restock at Amazon or Gamestop, and try to snag one since we have memberships at those stores. Then something interesting happened.

Last week, my friend and work colleague, who I sit literally feet from several days per week, turned to me and asked if I wanted a PS5. I have casually mentioned wanting one since release, so it was completely random that he asked. He told me his friend could get one for me for retail price, so I said sign me up. The entire situation reeked of a scam. I half-way expected to have to pre-pay, just to receive a box of bricks. However, a few days later I received a screenshot of a receipt from the Playstation store. A few days after that, I was driving to Pittsboro, IN to pick up the console. I didn't even pay for it until I was back home. 

Apparently my friend's friend has a side-gig buying and selling difficult to find items. This isn't limited to game consoles. He also sells sneakers and Lego sets, among other things. The whole situation is just fascinating to me. The fact that these things are impossible to find in stores or online, and yet a random side conversation at work produced one in just a few days, is just bizarre. Driving to a friend's house to pick it up instead of a store is equally odd. It is one of the more memorable console purchasing experiences I've had. It probably takes the top spot on the podium, ahead of the second place experience of randomly finding the difficult to locate N64 on a Target shelf in Bloomington, and the third place experience of standing 6 hours in line at Wal-Mart for the Playstation 2, with my mom filling in for me for a couple of hours. 

A Marvel Crossroad

 

After finishing Shang-Chi last week, I am caught up with the MCU with the exception of two movies: Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Eternals. No Way Home just became available on digital, so I will plan on watching it soon. The Eternals got pretty poor reviews, and I still haven't decided if I'm going to watch it or just read a synopsis. The pace of new movies available to watch is going to slow way down. I still have some Wolverine movies to watch, and the Deadpool movies, but that is it for the movie agenda. I have to decide what I am going to do with the extra content in the form of TV shows, and that question just got a lot more complicated.

Up to this point, I have watched the Disney+ Marvel shows because they focused on MCU characters. I particularly enjoyed WandaVision and Loki. Later this month they are coming out with a show about Moon Knight, a character I've never heard of and is not involved in the MCU. Marvel has 100s of characters I've never heard of before, and thus there are 100s of possible shows that could get developed. While the previews look intriguing, I'm going to have to decide how much time to devote in these shows.

Complicating this decision is the fact that Marvel's Netflix shows have just come to Disney+, and there are several. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in America who doesn't have Netflix, and thus I've never had access to these shows in the past. I saw reviews on them, and some of them got really good reviews, and others not so much.

Based on what I've read, I will likely watch at least the Daredevil show. It got really good reviews, and I've heard that Daredevil makes an appearance in No Way Home, tying him into the MCU. As for Moon Knight, my viewing may depend on the ratings of the show and if the character gets pulled into the MCU. 

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

 

I didn't know what to expect from this movie as I am unfamiliar with the character. However, it got pretty good reviews and ties into the MCU so thought it made sense to check it out. It tells a compelling story about the Legend of the Ten Rings. Whoever possesses the rings becomes immortal and has endless power. Shang-Chi is trying to live a normal life in San Francisco, when his dad's army tracks him down to join him. His dad has the ten rings and is convinced his wife is still alive. However, in order to free her, he has to open a portal that will endanger the world. Shang-Chi disagrees with all of this, and vows to take the ten rings from his father to protect the earth. 

The storytelling was competent, and even though I'm not a huge fan of frequent hand-to-hand combat, the action scenes were good. Of course, at the end Dr. Strange's assistant Wong summons Sang-Chi through a portal for discussion, so I am sure we will be seeing more of Shang-Chi (in addition to the sequel) as the MCU moves forward. Overall it was an enjoyable movie.

Thrawn: Alliances

 

Thrawn is a character who is likely unknown by most Star Wars fans. With the exception of Ahsoka Tano's mention of his name in a season 2 episode of The Mandalorian, he has not appeared in any movies or live-action shows. And yet he plays a prominent role in the Empire's military rise after the Clone Wars. He is featured as a main character in the animated series Rebels, and there are several books written where Thrawn is the main character. Timothy Zahn has two trilogies focused on Thrawn's character. I've read roughly half of the Star Wars canon books, and Zahn's Thrawn books are among the best. He's portrayed as a brilliant military leader who studies art and culture to get an advantage over his opponent. Beyond that, however, it is interesting to point out that the Empire's military is led exclusively by humans, except for Thrawn. He is the only non-human (that I'm aware of) included in the Empire's military ranks, and he is a Grand Admiral at that. Zahn's books dive into Thrawn's backstory and describe how he was able to climb the Empire's military ranks.

Alliances tells two stories. Palpatine starts the current story, which takes place prior to Episode IV, by saying "I sense a disturbance in the Force." That's never a good thing. He sends Thrawn and Vader on a mission to investigate this disturbance. They discover an alien race called the Grysk, who according to Thrawn should not be underestimated in their strength. The Grysk are causing a disturbance in the Unknown Region, including kidnapping a group of Force-sensitive Chiss children, which is the disturbance Palpatine senses. We've learned about these Chiss children in Zahn's other Thrawn trilogy, Ascendancy. They are usually females between the age of 7-14, and are used as navigators. Interestingly, they are called Skywalkers. During their investigation, Thrawn warns Vader of the powerful nature of the Grysk. Some of his actions, however, cause Vader to question if Thrawn's alliance is really with the Empire or the Chiss Ascendancy.

The second story involves Anakin on a rescue mission for Padme. It takes place in the past, during the Clone Wars. Padme goes to a remote planet at the insistence of one of her handmaidens, who discovers a secret Separatist base. When Padme arrives, she discovers that her handmaiden has been killed. Through her investigation, she also discovers the Separatist base. After not hearing from Padme, Anakin goes on a solo mission to investigate, a mission not sanctioned by the Jedi Council. Upon arriving, he crosses paths with Thrawn, who is in the area on his own mission for the Chiss Ascendancy. Thrawn joins forces with Anakin to help him find Padme. Interestingly, the scene where Thrawn first meets Anakin is described in Zahn's book Chaos Rising. Thrawn and Anakin rescue Padme, and in the process discover that the Separatist base is using Cortosis to produce battle droids and armor. Cortosis has high energy absorption, and can distribute energy from blasters and lightsabers in a way that causes no damage. They are able to shut down the base and destroy the Cortosis mine, which is a good thing, because otherwise the Clone Wars could have been very different if the Cortosis droids and armor were further developed. 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

 

Ordinarily I would have not watched this animated Spider-Man movie. However, I kept reading about Miles Morales, especially after the PS5 game launched. My interest piqued because Peter Parker is supposed to be Spider-Man, so who was this Miles Morales character? After I discovered that Miles was associated with Into the Spider-Verse and began reading about this movie, it became apparent that I should watch it. It ranked very highly, including one article that called it the best Spider-Man movie ever made. At that point, the decision to watch it was made.

Initially I wasn't a fan of the animation style. I never read comics, and it wasn't apparent to me at first that they were trying to mimic the style of the comics (though it seems obvious now that I'm typing this). Not until they started showing the discussion bubbles on screen did I realize what they were doing. After this realization and a bit of mental adjustment, I really started to dig the look. The movie is alike a visual acid trip at times, being super colorful and bright (see below). It was really unique and visually appealing. The soundtrack was great too, and the music and audio effects were top notch.

Miles is a normal boy in NYC, similar to Peter but less dorky. Peter dies at the hand of Kingpin, who has built a contraption to travel to a different universe to save his family. When he does this, however, different versions of Spider-Man from different universes show up, including one of my favorites Peter Porker. They all team up to fight and defeat Kingpin. This concept of multiple universes is obviously being discussed in the newest Tom Holland Spider-Man, as well as Dr. Strange and the MCU, so it was interesting to see it in action in this animated film.

Kingpin was a new Marvel character to me, first introduced in Hawkeye. Seems like we will likely see his character in future movies as well. I know he was also in the Netflix Marvel shows which I have not seen, but more to come on that topic in the near future. Speaking of Hawkeye, Kate Bishop's character played by Hailee Steinfeld is in this movie. Several other famous actors appear as well, including Liev Schreiber, Nicholas Cage, Kathryn Hahn, and Oscar Isaac.

Consumer Electronics

 

When I was in junior high, I went through a big consumer electronics phase. We had moved to a new house and my bedroom was in the basement. Across the hall was a large room with our computer and a TV to play video games, which we called "The Cave". The Cave is where my interest in consumer electronics started. For the first time, I had a dedicated spot for such items. I bought a 27 inch CRT Sony Trinitron TV to play games on, and paired it with a stereo that had a 200 disc CD changer and surround sound. It was the first and only surround sound system I've ever purchased. For a variety of reasons (mostly financial), I haven't really been much into consumer electronics since then. Until now.

Beginning to watch movies is what sparked this. After upgrading my speakers in the basement to better perform for movies, I started to get ideas of how to improve other areas of the house as well. Watching movies and movie-like shows is a game changer, because I don't think the sounds makes too much of a difference when watching basketball. Movies, however, are different, and with apps these days streaming in 4K and with Atmos sound, I really start to think about the possibilities.

Currently, our main TV in the living room is a 2008 Panasonic plasma that is 42" in size. It is the best TV I have ever owned. The picture still looks fantastic. When we moved to our house in 2013, I wanted simple but expanded sound, so I bought a budget Sony soundbar for $350. It sounds decent enough. However, it doesn't have HDMI connections, and thus you can't use ARC, requiring a manual power press to use it. Because of this simple lack of feature, it mostly sits unused when watching TV (We do use it a lot for music, however, but not until we got an Alexa to pair with it.). Not only does it mostly go unused when watching TV, it is big enough that it blocks the volume IR receiver, so you have to raise your arm to an awkward position to get the TV to register a volume change. I would love to upgrade this soundbar to a new one that has HDMI ARC so that we can easily use it for TV sound every time we watch TV. Despite working OK, the nearly 10 year old Sony soundbar I have feels ancient compared to what modern soundbars can do. You better believe if/when I replace it, the new one will have Atmos capabilities. 

As for the TV, I love that old Panasonic plasma and feel bad for even thinking about replacing it. Much like the soundbar, however, it feels a bit old. My biggest issue with the TV is its size. We have a small living room, but even so I'd like to get at least a 55 inch for our main TV.  I've never been a big fan of LED TVs, but with newer OLED models, I've read they have great black levels (much like Plasma), so I'm sure I'd be happy with one of those. Obviously my old Panasonic doesn't have 4K. I've actually never experienced 4K so I don't have a big opinion. However, with movie apps streaming in 4K, and the PS5 playing in 4K, it makes sense to have that upgraded capability as well.

As I write this post, I think every reason I give above makes sense to justify upgrading. I think the biggest barrier (besides not wanting to pay for it) to upgrading is this mindset I have about not replacing things that work just fine. I think to some extent I have to drop that mindset, because when it comes to consumer electronics, when you are pushing 10 years old (or older), that is pretty damn old. The technology evolves fast.

Gran Turismo 7: Initial Thoughts

 

The Playstation 5 first launched over a year ago and I still haven't been able to pick one up. This has been a non-issue for me as there haven't been any major games that I've wanted to play on the system. That is about to change, however, as there are a handful of games on the horizon for 2022 that I am interested in playing on the system. The first of these games to release is Gran Turismo 7.

I've been a fan of Gran Turismo from the first edition. When the game released initially on the Playstation 1 in 1997, I had never seen anything like it. It had so many cars and configurations it was mind blowing. It was praised for its physics model and car handling characteristics. By the time Gran Turismo 5 came out in 2010 on the Playstation 3, I thought the series was getting stale. Although I thought Gran Turismo 6 was the best version of the game released at the time in 2013, the series seemed in dire need of an overhaul. I moved on to the Playstation 4 and skipped 2017's Gran Turismo Sport because it was mostly an online game. With that being said, it has been nearly a decade since I've played a Gran Turismo game. I was excited for the release of 7, and after reading a few reviews and watching a review video, I have a few initial thoughts.

First for the positives. The game is visually stunning. It looks amazing. A lot of the odd idiosyncrasies of the game are back. The weird menu system, the car cleaning, the grinding for credits, etc. A part of me finds all of this a bit annoying. However, it all is so oddly Gran Turismo that there is an element of nostalgia that makes me like it. One of the reviews I read liked the game to a Japanese RPG. I had never thought of that way before, but it kinda makes sense how you grind for credits to upgrade the cars "skills". 

Now, for the negatives. As mentioned above, by the time the series had entered the PS3 era, it felt outdated. Despite upgrades in other areas, I really felt the on-track action had remained stagnant and other series had passed it in this regard. After reading reviews and seeing the video review, my worst fears about this version seem to be true. The awful rolling starts are back. You start the race in last place, and by the time you take the green flag at the start/finish line, the lead car is half a lap ahead. At least in the video I watched, there were only 8 cars on track. There should be at least twice that many, if not 3 times as many. Multi-class races should be a thing too (I'm actually not sure if this exists in the game or not). Project Cars 2 was able to pull it off on the PS4 in 2017. Perhaps the most perplexing aspect of the game is its lack of damage, both visually and in terms of consequence for hitting another car. For a series that bases its popularity on its driving realness, it is hard not to feel like this game leans towards an arcade instead of a sim when you can just ram cars off the track with no consequence.

Despite the apparent lack of advancement of its racing, I'm looking forward to playing this game. It's at least in part due to nostalgia, but it is also because I like cars and driving games. Despite what I view as racing flaws, the game has a lot of positive qualities. So much, in fact, that I've only played one other GT racing game (Project Cars 2) since Gran Turismo 6 was released in 2013. Plus, once I'm able to play the game, I may be surprised at how it races.