(^74) [ February March 2019 [soundandvision.com
Sound & Vision(December/January, February/M10016-2303. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing offices. Single copy price is $6.99. (ISSN 1537-5838) (USPS 504-850) February/March, April/May, June/July, August/September, October/November) by AVTech March 2019, Vol. 84, No. 2. COPYRIGHT 2019 BY AVTech MSubscriptions:edia Americas, LLC., 26edia Americas, LLC. All rights reserved. Published six times a year U.S., APO, FPO, and U.S. Possessions $12.99 for 6 issues. 0 Madison Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, NY
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(shown at right). Audio was mono and the picture panned and scanned, the 4:3 image hobbling Geof-frey Unsworth’s glorious widescreen cinematography. The original VHS release was truncated from 143
minutes down to about two hours, reportedly due to a lack of videocassees longer than a T-120. American audiences were finally given a widescreen version with the release of the 1990 laserdisc.
Color and overall picture quality le much to be desired, but at least the marvelous and vital composi-tions were finally set free. Not much changed until Superman entered the digital age with the 2001 DVD.
This marked a pivot to a longer, director-approved “Special Edition” cut, complete with a version-specific commentary with Donner and creative consultant Tom Mankiewicz. This was the only cut of the
movie on five-inch disc until the 2006 “Ultimate Collector’s Edition” DVD tin, which included the long-overdue theatrical version. Not until the 2011 “Motion Picture Anthology” Blu-ray boxed set appeared
was the original 1978 cut available in high definition. Then, in 2017, Wmany a fan’s dream come true with the “Extended Edition,” a sprawling three-hours-plus kitchen-sink arner Archive Collection made
cut that restored footage only seen in TV airings, but now presented in leerboxed form on Blu-ray.Which brings us to 2018, and a new Ultra HD Blu-ray that honors the past while delivering the best
of today. I’ve seen this movie more times than I can count, and in 4K I spoed lile bits of background action I’ve never noticed before. Of course, there’s more detail exposed in the mae paintings, as well as
real precision in the waing wheat stalks of Smallville. The organic peculiarities of focus, from the lenses, filters, etc., are beautifully maintained. Grain is sometimes substantial, and not only in the process shots.
producers appear to have seled on a happy medium that is both vibrant and faithful. HDR10 and Dolby The film’s color balance has been tweaked a few times over the past 17 years, and for the 4K disc the
Vision impart a pleasing pop to the 2.40:1 image. There’s also a subtle beauty to the color range that wasn’t there before, with more nuance in the fleshtones, although some makeup is also noticeable.
tastes, and that provides the basis for the Ultra HD Blu-ray’s new Dolby Atmos mix. Somewhat surpris-The first DVD packed a remixed, modified 5.1-channel soundtrack reimagined for contemporary
ingly, the disc defaults to a high-bitrate Dolby Digital 5.1-channel presentation...which marks the home entertainment debut of the original 1978 theatrical six-track! Ioan Allen of Dolby Laboratories once
explained to me that this was the first 5.1-channel soundtrack (pre-dating even evidenced by its split le/right surrounds and directional dialogue. While it doesn’t offer the whiz, crash, Apocalypse Now) as
and boom of modern tracks, it is nonetheless anThe 4K disc ports commentary by producers Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler that is repeated on the exhilarating and enveloping audio accompaniment.
bundled Blu-ray, but only with a subset of the many super extras of the past. For picture and sound, this new disc is a champion, but don’t banish your old discs to The Phantom Zone just yet. Chris Chiarella
SUPERMAN
A Supreme Legacy
remaster class
2006 U
ltimate^
Collecto
r's^ Edit
ion^ DVD
2011 Mo
tion^ Pic
ture^ An
thology
BD
2017 Ext
ended^ E
dition^ B
D
2018 4 K
Ultra^ H
D^ Blu-r
ay
2001 D
VD^ ("Spe
cial^ Edi
tion"^ Cu
t)
INyears, but also because it is the sort of thrilling PART BECAUSE it has now endured for 40
cinematic entertainment we never seem to tire of, Superman has appeared on just about every
home entertainment format, and deservedly so. The first comic book blockbuster, director
Richard Donner’s visually stunning epic stars Christopher Reeve as the only survivor of a
brilliant but arrogant alien culture who finds his place in our world as a god-like protector.
two-CED set for the RCA SelectaVision system Superman debuted on home video in a James^ Arn
dtapitol
CD
(^14) [ April May 2019 [soundandvision.com
4K, 8K, and Planned Obsolescence
Your February/March 2019 issue had a small clip mentioning 8K broadcasting in Japan. Here
in the U.S., 4K has just been seling in, with streaming and discs stepping up to fill a broad-
cast TV void. And now, all of a sudden, 8K is on the horizon. When will this madness stop?
You buy some gear and before you turn around it has become outdated. This applies equally
to the entire electronics field: You start salivating for one product, buy it, and then they start
you salivating again. But if you wait, you will never buy anything. Planned obsolescence?
John Fair
Via email
While it’s true there will be many new 8K TVs
arriving in the U.S. in 2019 from a range of
manufacturers (see Wide Angle on page 16
for details), you’re right that 4K is really just
now seling in. And while the benefits of the
extra pixels that 4K provides maers most
at large screen sizes—projection systems,
in particular—it’s the other elements of the
Ultra HD format such as high dynamic range
and an expanded color gamut that deliver
the most impact. Overall, I’d say we’re in
excellent shape with our current 4K/Ultra HD
video ecosystem. Any additional benefit that
8K will bring is yet to be determined, since
Sound & Vision has yet to test an 8K TV. One
thing we can say, however, is that the 8K
infrastructure Japan’s NHK is developing for
the 2020 Tokyo summer Olympics does not
have a parallel here in the U.S., where we’re
still waiting for next-gen 4K broadcasting
to take off. So, the content that 8K TV buyers
will be viewing on their new sets with few
exceptions will be regular HD and 4K/Ultra
HD upconverted for 8K display.—AG
Soundbar to the Rescue?
I have no hearing above about 3.5KHz, so
speech, especially amidst background
noise, is very difficult for me to decipher.
I gather that some films have a dialogue
channel that goes to the center speaker in
a home theater setup. Here’s my question:
Is there a TV or a soundbar that has the
necessary electronics for it to act as a center
speaker? I have a 2.1-channel setup that I’m
happy with for music listening, but it’s not so
good at conveying movie dialogue.
Dr. G. Goundry
Via email
Soundbars are all-in-one systems that
reproduce the le/right and center channel
information in a soundtrack, and in some
cases, surround (and height) information as
well. There are even some models specifi-
cally designed to emphasize dialogue and
separate it from background elements in a
soundtrack for hearing-impaired users (see
our review of the Zvox Accuvoice AV
TV Speaker on page 22). Soundbars are
generally not designed to be integrated with
an existing stereo system, however. What
you can do is use it when watching movies
or TV, with the set’s HDMI, optical digital, or
analog output feeding the soundbar’s input,
and then switch over to your regular stereo
system for listening to music. As for the idea
of using a TV as a center speaker, Sony’s
new A9F Master Series OLED models feature
sound transducers mounted on the back
of the screen that provide much improved
performance over a typical TV’s speakers.
The A9F sets also provide connectivity
options that allow the TV’s built-in audio
system to to convey the center channel infor-
mation in a conventional surround sound
setup.—AG
Superman on VHS Controversy
I wanted to throw in a correction to Chris
Chiarella’s “Remaster Class: Superman”
article (February/March and soundandvi-
sion.com). In it, he claims that the Superman
VHS was truncated to fit on a T-
videocassee. That is incorrect. The
Betamax version was 127 minutes long and
truncated. The VHS was the normal length.
Craig Lenti
Via email
Chris Chiarella responds: Hello Craig, and
thank you for taking the time to write in. In
truth, I did not come across a beta copy in
my research, although I’m not surprised that
its running time was similarly truncated. To
your point about the VHS edition of Super-
man being the full running time, while that
might have been the case in later home
video releases, some early VHS versions
were indeed presented at either 127 or 129
minutes, approximately. That decision
was made “...so that this program could be
made available on a single videocassee,”
according to a note in the package from
“WCI Home Video.”For those unfamiliar with
the situation, the most glaring change was
the condensation of the end credits, which
ran over eight solid minutes and were the
longest ever at the time, requiring a second
piece of music (John Williams’ beautiful
“Love Theme”) to play beneath them.
Consider the Source
Last fall we moved and our 30-year-old CD
player did not survive the trip. As a former
subscriber to Audio, Stereo Review, and
Video, I thought a subscription to Sound &
Vision might help point me in the right direc-
tion for replacing the CD player. Needless
to say, that did not happen. Looking at the
magazine’s 2018 Top Picks, I see that all of
the “sources” are lumped together in one
category. Well, all two of them, that is. As
someone who bought Audio’s annual equip-
ment guide every year, I am disappointed. I
suppose you can only choose among the
components you looked at, and I can forgive
you for not reviewing cassee decks, VHS
players, turntables or equalizers. (All of
which I still use, plus a reel-to-reel and a
Beta VCR.) But you have to test something,
and the most reviewed type of electronics
seems to be video projectors, which I will
never have a use for. I admit to being old-
fashioned, and I am learning a few things
from reading. (Streaming! Who knew?)
But could you review components that a
person like me would be interested in once
in a while? And no, I don’t mean an Edison
Phonograph.
William Pinkney
Via email
Sorry to say it, but the reduction of source
component reviews in Sound & Vision
reflects the rise of audio/video streaming as
a viable, high-quality alternative to physical
media playback. And while it doesn’t make
sense for us to devote space to CD players
(although we do review the occasional
letters
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