Podcast #1032: 2021 in Review

Happy New Year! For our last show of 2021 we go through some of the news stories of the past year. We also have a few listener emails and some end of year news. Five Home Theater Trends. Did they pan out? People will spend more money on their home theaters Shortening window between the theatrical release of a film and its release to home entertainment. The cost to build and create a great home theater setup has lowered dramatically. Source material quality will improve. Immersive audio such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X offer a high-quality sound experience to watching movies in the home. ATSC 3.0 started rolling out  42 markets are online today. More info here NextGenTV Ara tracked down wifi issues for the first part of the year Eventually ending up with the Netgear Orbi Tri Band Wifi System Harmony went end of life But fortunately there are some worthy replacements. The SofaBatton and the far more expensive Yio look to fill the void left behind by the Harmony exiting the market. But with better CEC and Matter will these remotes be needed? The SofaBatton has a good universal remote already available for $50 and a Kickstarter campaign for the Harmony Replacement is well underway for $100. The Yio is also a kickstarter that will run you $420. We did our 1000th Show! A big thank you to all our listeners and supporters who make doing this show worthwhile Apple Releases Spatial Audio  What do you think of this technology? Scarlett Johansson Sued Disney and won! Terms of the settlement were not released but it's safe to say the whole thing made Disney look bad. DirecTV's streaming platform got yet another rebranding What started as DireTV Now -> ATT TV Now -> ATT TV -> to DirecTV Stream Locast Shut Down A sad day it was! Dune was released on HBO Max to great Fanfare We didn't like/had no interest in the movie Matter Picked up Steam Samsung promised Matter support for SmartThings hubs, Galaxy devices, TVs, and fridges Disney+ Got Imax Support