Dolby Atmos is more of a known quantity and is already available in some games. It could improve your gaming in theory, as it places each sound in three-dimensional space “so you can pinpoint its location in the game,” Dolby said.

Introducing the next level of gaming.⁣
⁣
The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S are the first consoles ever with gaming in Dolby Vision® (coming soon) and Dolby Atmos® (available at launch).⁣⁣
⁣⁣@Xbox, welcome to gaming in Dolby. https://t.co/5lkpVT8ntb

— Dolby (@Dolby) September 10, 2020

While current Xbox One models support Dolby Atmos/Vision already, that only works with Netflix and other streaming media, not games. With the Xbox Series X and S, however, both Dolby Vision and Atmos will work with streaming media and supported games.

The Xbox One X technically supported Dolby Vision for gaming, but the feature never got out of Microsoft’s Insider testing phase. You can currently play several games on PC using Dolby Vision HDR like Battlefield 1, but there has never been full console support until now.

Dolby Vision generally offers a better HDR experience than regular HDR10, as it uses “dynamic metadata” that’s encoded into scenes ahead of time. That lets creators make the most of the extra brightness and color accuracy that HDR offers over regular SDR. The disadvantage of Dolby Vision is that creators and hardware manufacturers have to pay a license fee.

Sony has yet to announce any PlayStation 5 gaming support for either Dolby Atmos or Dolby Vision. In any case, since Dolby Vision has only ever appeared in testing and a few PC games, it’s not at all clear how much it will improve the gaming experience. In theory, however, it should offer more benefits than 4K by making games significantly brighter and more colorful.

MacOS Big Sur may be a worthwhile upgrade if you love to marathon TV shows. As 9to5Mac reports, users have discovered that Safari in Big Sur will play Netflix videos in 4K with HDR, whether you’re using Dolby Vision or HDR10. You won’t have to switch to another browser just to see more than a plain 1080p image. The upgrade comes thanks to long-expected support for HEVC in Apple’s web browser.

You’ll have to be picky about your choice of Mac if you want the full effect, either with the Big Sur beta or the finished release this fall. HDR is currently only supported with 2018 or later MacBook Pro models, 2018 or later Mac mini systems, the iMac Pro or the Mac Pro. You’ll need an HDR-capable monitor for the Mac mini and Mac Pro, too.

Much of DJI’s camera functionality comes from the numerous auto-shot and “smart” modes. Again, there are some new goodies here. DJI was eager to talk up the new “scene recognition” feature which sounds like the trick we’ve seen on flagship phones where the camera knows (or, rather, guesses) where you’re shooting and automatically optimizes the settings for you. DJI claims the Mavic Air 2 can detect five scenes: sunset, blue skies, snow, grass and trees. That might not seem a lot, but up in the air that’s most things covered we guess. Along with the aforementioned HDR mode, there’s also “Hyperlight” for when shooting in low light conditions.

Videos will benefit from two layers of stabilization now. The 3-axis gimbal as before, with some additional help from EIS (which we hope/presume is optional). The Mavic Air 2’s FocusTrack feature offers some updated tracking modes: Spotlight 2.0, ActiveTrack 3.0 and Point of Interest 3.0. The former is a hand-me-down from the Inspire 2, which locks the camera onto a target, leaving you to simply fly the drone. Active Track we’ve seen before, but this time it should be more robust at following targets even when they go out of view temporarily. The updated Point of Interest mode claims to be better at recognizing different surfaces and more dynamic tracking — again, we’ll have to wait and see what that really means once we test it. 

It’s not all about the fun stuff though, DJI has added some new safety features which might be less sexy, but certainly much appreciated. Most notably, the inclusion of ADS-B — which means the drone will be able to sense when something else (as in, actual planes etc.) is flying nearby. One last acronym for now, and that’s APAS 3.0 — something we saw introduced in the first Mavic Air. In short, it’s what allows the drone to fly around things that its sensors detect, and DJI claims it’s smoother and more fluid this time around. I’m very interested to see if it comes anywhere close to Skydio’s mind-bindingly good obstacle avoidance, something DJI hasn’t been able to compete with thus far in my opinion.

One last small, but important thing. It looks like DJI has updated the radio controller so that your phone will now perch on top, rather than clip in below. This might seem a minor detail, but as anyone with a larger phone will attest (especially if it’s in a case), clipping it into the old controller was clumsy at best. Let’s hope this new setup is simpler and more comfortable.

As rumored, the Mavic Air 2 will cost $799 at launch, but thanks to the pandemic, it’s only available in China right now, with a global rollout set for mid-May (around the 11th). DJI has a habit of semi-cannibalizing its own products, with new drones offering features even its flagships don’t have, and that seems to be the case here. Which is both great, and slightly confusing when it comes to deciding which one is for you. The premium Mavic Pro 2 series, with its superior camera, or the Mavic Air 2 with it’s longer flight time and new software tricks? Once we get it in for review, hopefully we can help you decide. 

I’ve tested a lot of mirrorless cameras and I’ve never found one that handles as well as the GH5s for video. It’s loaded with manual controls that make it easy to adjust important settings like ISO, white balance, shutter speed and aperture.

The flip-around screen is indispensable as I need to be able to see myself when doing standup or using the camera. For other types of shots, the 3,680K dot OLED makes it easy to film in bright sunlight. It’s relatively lightweight and easy to lug around, battery life is good and it has two dual UHS-II card slots, making it possible to shoot all day without changing memory cards.

Furthermore, you can set the camera to use shutter angle rather than shutter speed, which is important for videography. That’s because video looks more pleasing if the shutter speed is a multiple of the frame rate, i.e. 1/50th of a second when shooting at 25 fps. By setting the shutter angle to 180 degrees, that’s exactly what I get, regardless of the frame rate selected.

On the audio side, you can adjust the microphone socket to line (high) or mic (low) levels and power smallish lavalier-type mics. Using a relatively cheap wireless Rode lav mic and Rode shotgun mic, I’m able to record good-sounding audio without any assistance.

For standup, I use a smartphone and Panasonic’s camera app to remotely adjust settings, check the image and start and stop recording. The camera app takes a long time to connect to the camera, but it works well otherwise.

On a typical shoot, I’ll usually set the GH5s up on a fluid-head tripod and film the review camera, with the autofocus set and locked. Then I’ll film myself using the camera with the autofocus enabled in single point, continuous mode. For standups, I use the face-detection autofocus.

There’s no doubt that contrast-detect autofocus isn’t as good for video as the phase-detect systems in Canon or Sony cameras. There’s always a slight wobble as it overshoots focus then comes back, because that’s how contrast-detect AF works. When I first started using the camera, I (and our video production team) noticed this problem in a couple of early videos.

However, I’ve got to hand it to Panasonic for improving the autofocus system on the GH5s, via firmware updates, shortly after I acquired it. For the type of shooting I do, the autofocus now works fine and rarely misses focus. For instance, when I film myself handling a camera up fairly close to the lens, it tracks focus well when I’m moving it toward the camera or flipping it around. (It might not fare as well for less predictable run-and-gun shooting, so I’d recommend doing a thorough test before buying one.)

But what about the lack of stabilization for handheld shooting, you might ask? After all, the GH5 does have excellent in-body stabilization and the GH5s has none.

First of all, this isn’t too big an issue for me because I rarely shoot handheld. However, when I do (usually with an assistant operating the camera) I simply use one of Panasonic’s many stabilized lenses. My go-to lens is the very versatile 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0 lens which has excellent stabilization (plus great optics and very good macro capabilities, by the way). For stationary hand-held shooting, or with very smooth camera moves, that works just fine.

When it comes to photography, there’s little doubt that the GH5 and any other higher-resolution camera, particularly one with in-body stabilization, would be a better choice. Still, the GH5s is actually better for the dimly-lit trade shows or indoor hands-on sessions where I often need to film. I just have to be more careful about framing, knowing that I don’t have a lot of extra resolution to crop.

Also, I have to admit that I sometimes cheat on photos by just extracting them from the 4K video. This is only possible because the video is so outstandingly sharp and color-accurate.

Finally, once I’m ready to edit a video, the footage is easy to handle in post. If I’m planning to use Adobe Premiere Pro CC, I do have to convert the 10-bit 4K footage to a more easily editable format like Cineform or ProRes. However, with DaVinci Resolve 16 — which makes better use of my NVIDIA GTX 1070 GPU — I can edit the footage directly with no transcoding.

The 10-bit 4:2:2 video is easy to adjust, whether I use a log profile or not. I rarely see banding or other nasty artifacts in case I need to push the footage.

So in conclusion, yes, I’m definitely happy with the GH5s and don’t regret my decision to get one. It was a good camera when it entered the market and Panasonic has made it better over time.The only other camera I would think about replacing it with is Panasonic’s full-frame S1H, which is in many ways a full-frame version of the GH5s. However, that camera costs over twice as much and the lenses are also very expensive. Until something comparable comes along, the $1,800 GH5s is perfect for my needs, and that’s what counts the most.

The most affordable Spectrum monitor ($349) has a resolution of 2560x1440p and a refresh rate of 165Hz — smooth enough for most gamers. The mid-tier option ($489) has the same resolution but an even faster refresh rate, and the high-end Spectrum ($589) runs at 4K but has a slower refresh rate of 144Hz. All three have a 16×9 aspect ratio, 27-inch LG HDR display panels and a staggering amount of ports — two USB-C, three USB-A, one USB-B, two DisplayPort, one HDMI and one 3.5mm audio jack.

None of the monitors comes with a stand — Eve says that 47 percent of the community preferred to buy a Spectrum without one. The company will sell a $99 stand separately, though, which features height adjustment, a quick release switch and portrait orientation — great for coders and shmup players who prefer to game in tate mode.

Going by the specs (and the impressive performance of the Eve V) these could become go-to displays — if Eve doesn’t run into production problems like it did with its previous hardware, that is. The Eve V shipped to many backers months — and even a year for some — after promised delivery dates. According to The Verge, Eve’s CEO says that won’t happen again. Barring such hiccups, the company expects to ship the 1440p model in Q3 with the other two launching in Q4.

Another part of the demo showed a CG recreation of a temple in Japan, including areas where visitors aren’t allowed to go. The high quality of the scans used to create the temple combined with the goggles to make one of the more real-feeling virtual experiences I’ve ever had. That came despite the glasses’ small micro OLED viewing windows.

It was also a very comfortable experience thanks to swappable prescription lenses — while I haven’t had many issues with VR headsets, as a glasses wearer I’m still skeptical. It just happened that the last person to try them had a very similar prescription and I could see clearly as soon as I put them on.

The glasses certainly look a bit more fashionable than most VR gear, and don’t rely on a band or anything to hold them on. While Panasonic and its partner the Kopin Corporation expect to make a version available for commercial use next year, the working prototype I tried out was tethered to a computer powered by an RTX 2080 GPU. They were also still front-heavy enough that they might get uncomfortable with extended use, although the non-working prototype that showed what they’re planning to build was much lighter.

For that, you get features like 4K video at 60 fps, HDR (a feature missing on the Hero 7 Black), 12-megapixel photos and very effective electronic stabilization. What’s more, the Osmo Action 4K has similar resolutions and quality to the camera on DJI’s Mavic drone, so it’s easy to match up both cameras on the same project.

You can get the DJI Osmo Action 4K camera today only for $279 instead of $379, and by adding the code ENGADGETCAM at checkout, you’ll get an extra $30 off — bringing the final price to $249.

If you’re looking for a gimbal instead, Wellbots has another good deal. You can grab DJI’s Ronin-S (a larger and more rugged version of the Ronin-SC) for $629 instead of $749, a $120 discount. And by adding ENGADGETCAM code at discount, you’ll again get another $30, bringing the price down to $599. DJI’s popular gimbals aren’t marked down this much very often, so if you’re in the market, today’s the day.

TCL only recently introduced its new 6-Series and 8-Series 4K TVs for 2019, but their predecessors were among the most well-reviewed and highly rated TVs last year. The new 6-Series TVs add quantum dots to the mix, and start at $599 for a 55-inch version. However, there’s still some of the 2018-era TVs to clear out, and TCL has announced that Best Buy will sell the 55-inch version for just $399.

The sale starts at 2 AM ET on Friday morning and will run through Sunday night, or as long as supplies last. These 4K TVs bring excellent picture quality, Dolby Vision HDR and the Roku smart TV platform, however as The Wirecutter noted in a recent updates, there have been some complaints about color uniformity and lip sync issues when using HDMI-ARC. Still, it’s hard to find a TV this good at that price, so think hard — the sale starts in just a few hours.