Last week I wrote about the home theatre upgrades in the context of how it improved my videogame experience. This time I want to expand upon that to explore how it makes an even bigger difference to video (film/TV) content. When I was looking into getting a soundbar it was mostly to help improve the situation around dialogue in video content. For gaming this was less of an issue. During my visit to a store to look at a soundbar the sales assistant was quite concerned the moment I mentioned gaming in the context of a soundbar. I was quickly told that a soundbar wouldn't make much difference when it came to gaming. I realised I shouldn't have led with that as sound for gaming was a benefit rather than the driving force behind my decision. Yes, proper surround sound has improved my gaming experience, but for the intended use with video content, the difference with and without surround sound has been night and day. Except, to really round out the experience, I still had one more purchase to make; and that was a dedicated 4K Blu-ray player. Yes, I have my PS5 Pro - with a disc drive - that can play these discs. Except, for some reason, which Sony have never explained why, the PS5 does not support Dolby Vision at all? HDR10 is fine, but Dolby Vision is a noticeable improvement, plus you don't need to tweak any settings for it. The other issue I had is that LG for their TVs no longer natively support DTS audio. Yes, more 4K Blu-rays have moved to focusing on Dolby Atmos, but, if you happen to look at your (standard) Blu-ray collection you'll notice that a good chunk of them have some form of DTS audio; even better if they have DTS HD MA. The way around LGs TV restriction is to plug your device that plays the discs directly into the soundbar. Even though it is also LG this piece of hardware does support DTS. Except despite the soundbar supporting HDMI 2.1 pass through I don't really want to risk restricting the PS5's video output at all. These factors informed my decision to get a dedicated player1 as then I could plug that directly into my soundbar. I would also still have just enough inputs for my TV which are taken up by the following; Google TV Streamer, PS5 Pro, Switch 2, and the soundbar going into the eARC port. By having a dedicated player means that I get Dolby Vision support for 4k discs and also DTS support for all discs. It also helps keep my setup quite organised. Everything is playing nicely with CEC on for the media devices, but off for the gaming devices. Although, with the latter this is actually due to the systems themselves. The PS5's CEC controls take over when they shouldn't on the LG and with the Switch 2 there is a weird quirk that affects many owners where every now and then the screen will briefly flicker on and off. Initially I thought this could be a HDR issue (as I didn't get it with the Switch 1) but I was getting it with SDR games as well (I'm not referring to when switching to them). Someone in a Nintendolife forum post mentioned that turning off "match TV" solves the problem, and so far it has. I've talked about the rationale behind all of this, but what about the experience? In short, it's phenomenal, far more impactful than with games. Unsurprisingly this does vary between content, but I've been surprised by ones I wasn't expecting. The complete Cowboy Bebop Blu-ray collection has a really good DTS 5.1 mix. The dialogue is clear and the music (which is excellent) surrounds you, but not in a gimmicky way. Last night I watched Oppenheimer for the first time since seeing it in the cinema when it came out. I was slightly let down when I first watched it, in large part because it was tiring trying to understand what everyone was saying, which is crucial for a film essentially about people talking with the occasional explosion. This time though, not only could I hear most of the dialogue (plus the added benefit of subtitles as a backup) the score hums along in the background. I was engaged and immersed throughout the 3 hours run time. This film does not have Dolby Vision support, but it is a DTS HD MA mix, so I was still benefitting from the dedicated player. I have also slightly tweaked the Filmmaker Mode HDR settings so that the TV isn't doing dynamic tone mapping for the HDR, instead leaving the disc alone. I've been wanting to get back into watching films on physical media. Partly because I'm fed up with streaming plans getting worse, but also because even if you do pay the extra for the 4K plan, you're not getting "true" 4K, even if your internet connection is good. Let alone high quality sound. Both elements are compressed in order to stream it to you. It's why game streaming is still a bad idea to be the norm. Whereas with the disc not only does it offer higher quality, it's also consistent. Even standard Blu-rays are better than 4K streaming. This is also helped with upscaling. This can be from your device or the TV. In my case, I set the player to 1080p and let the TV, with its more powerful processor, to do the upscaling. It's subtle, but the picture looks good on a 4K screen. Yes, it's not as good as an actual 4K image, but it's a very good middle ground. This is why I also like it when 4K films come with a standard Blu-ray as well. Since getting the player I've gone in deep building up my library from the small, mostly Nolan based, collection. I had some money saved up (partly from selling my Xbox Series X) and have got a nice mix. Some I've seen before, some I haven't. I've even got some more standard Blu-rays as well. Needless to say, I now have plenty of things to watch for a good while. Does everyone need to do this? No, 4K is a luxury. But, I do recommend people to get a standard Blu-ray player if they want to wean off streaming. The quality is still going to be better. Plus, Blu-rays are actually pretty affordable, sometimes even outright cheap. I've got some brand new from HMV and eBay ranging from £3-4! Physical media might still be considered "niche", but things are starting to shift. When I was in HMV yesterday it was rammed with people buying different types of physical media. I was also talking to the manager about an order and he was saying they have the good "problem" of being very busy recently, which is reassuring to hear. The Panasonic UB450. Yes there is the technically better UB820, but at the moment stock is still very low in the UK. Plus, it's almost double the price, and the 450 does exactly what I need. Plus, it's physically smaller so it fits in nicely beside my PS5 Pro.