My wife said no

We built a tiny gaming and home theatre setup where you'd least expect it... a storage locker, featuring Sony's broad lineup of tech!

- Sony reached out to sponsor a video about their new WH-1000XM4 headphones that pack up to 40 hours of battery life, seamless multi device switching, and active noise cancellation that’s among the best in the biz, but hold up! 

I don’t wanna do a video just about these headphones when there is so much more sweet Sony tech to look at. So they sent over a little care package with a TV, a sound bar, and we’ve got a bit of a problem. Where am I going to put all this stuff?

My wife’s going to kill me if I try to overhaul the living room again. So, I was in a bit of a bind for exactly where to put this, the personal micro theater. Now, the setup isn’t without its downsides, and well get into that, but in actual function, it’s kind of fantastic. There’s everything I need. Mini fridge for the bevies, popcorn at the ready, and most importantly for us, a whole lot of tech. So come on guys, and I will give you a little tour. Colin, you have outdone yourself. This is freaking ridiculous.

Step one of this crazy project was finding someone who was willing to let us convert one of their storage lockers into a home theater.

- Yeah, easier said than done. I contacted like six, only one got back to me, and actually would let us do it. There were a couple issues we had to sort out. This unit doesn’t have power, so we ran a really long extension cord, and also were in the basement, so we don’t have any internet, so to speak. We got like one bar when we tether a phone, but it’s just enough.

- But we did manage to update the TV, and now we’ve actually got the 4K 120 Hertz update running on it with support for ER. So its officially PlayStation 5 ready, even though we don’t actually have a PlayStation 5 quite yet but we brought along a PC so we can show off that capability. Now, in terms of size, obviously I don’ expect anyone to actually build a home theater in a storage locker. The rental rates actually don’t make a ton of sense.

But... - Definitely.

- If you were looking for inspiration for how to fit an amazing movie watching or gaming experience into a very small space, how big is this thing?

- This is 5 by 10. So I decided to go for long way, so it makes getting in a lot easier.

- And we actually ended up with still a little bit of room, like enough to fit a cooler.

- Nice. - Yeah.

- One of the best things about this setup is other than the tech, we spent almost nothing on it. So, on top of this used TV stand that we scored on Craigslist for 50 Canadian Rubles, you can’t miss the huge Sony X900H 65 inch TV. Now to say that the fitment here is tight would be an understatement. I cannot actually get my fingers through here. And you might think that the image gets cut off a little bit where it sits behind the door track, but you’d be wrong. Because when you’re sitting in this repurposed lazy boy with a $20 cover on it, you can actually see every corner of the television perfectly.

Now, we needed to be very careful exactly where we position the TV, cause there’s actually a little like hooked thing on the edge of the door that would scratch down the entire side of the screen if we had it too close. But the way that it is right now, everything is peachy. (door rolling down)

Yes. (door rolling up) Confirmed peachy. (chuckles) Especially after the latest update, this Bravia packs a ton of features. 

We’ve got a 4K panel with support for HDR10, at 4K 120 Hertz, and Dolby Vision at 4K 60 Hertz. Its running Android TV, with Apple airplay baked in as well, If you’re part of that other ecosystem. Your beautiful HDR content won’t be spoiled by huge hotspots, Like the displays of old because it’s got a full array LED backlight, and it’s got your next gen gaming consoles covered with support for HDMI 2.1 gaming specific features, like auto low latency mode. Then we’ve got this guy running just a single cable down to what is honestly going to be one of the most fun parts of our show today, the sound bar. In the interest of honesty, as good as the ST 5000 Sound bar looks in our setup, it’s totally overkill, but I love it. 

The wireless sub fits perfectly next to our chair here, meaning that we are going to be able to feel what we’re watching, and the seven, that’s right, count them, seven front firing speakers are no slouches either. Now there are two additional top firing speakers over on the edge here, and here, which are intended to bounce sound off the ceiling. But, if you look up, there’s nothing to reflect off of because it’s actually noise isolating insulation up there. So, we won’t be making the most of the Dolby Atoms certification that this bar comes with.

That means it will be mostly acting as a more traditional surround sound setup, and hub for all of our inputs.  Because it has 4K HDR Pass-through, it really simplifies the install, and keeps all the wires down low. If this was a more conventional installation, say if we were a wall mounting the TV at home, that means less cables to run up and side your wall. And one extra nice thing that’s not in the script is it actually has three HDMI inputs,

which is more than the typical one to two. Set up for this puppy couldn’t be easier. We hope. We haven’t actually tried this ahead of time, so you’re about to see a live demo.

To pair you just tap your phone. Its over here on the side. That took me a second to find in our space constrained location here. And... Oh, that was easy. Okay, nice. Now Colin loaded up Spottily with some Monster cat music, and we are about to try this out.

Well, Oh, that sub in a space like this. My poor popcorn maker. Wait a minute, hold on a second. Does Sony have a feature where your phone vibrates with the bass?

How do I, how did I not know about this? 

I was like, what the heck, why is the phone vibrating?

I’m like, someone calling?

- Colin It’s adjustable too, when you change the volume, there’s a little scroll, its right beside the volume thing.

- Oh my God, that is so funny.

Is it a Spottily feature?

- Colin No, it’s across the device.

Its hardware level. That is a lot of sound. Right? 

Next thing I want to try is a movie. I actually haven’t heard of this movie. It’s called Your Name, apparently. Well, it’s not my little pony, but I guess it’ll do. I hate to do this to your guys, but see you later. Some of you will probably have figured this out, but there’s a reason that we only applied sound-deadening to the front and back of the room. That’s because we actually want the sound bar to reflect off of these sidewalls here for the optimal movie watching experience. This is absolutely crazy. 65 inches is like as big as you can go for like a near field viewing experience. Like you could totally put something like this in a bay of your garage, Man, the art in this movie is beautiful. Dialogue on the sound bar sounds so good.

Like, sorry, it’s probably like a little loud right now, but it’s really good. And even when music’s playing in the background, or there’s other effects, like I am really impressed so far. Yes, the video is sponsored by Sony, but I’m legit by law not allowed to tell you guys anything, I don’t actually think if I’m offering an opinion. This thing sounds great, especially considering the conditions. Of course, some people are less into the most crazy loud setup, and more into a stealthy sneaky setup. And that is where these come in. These are the next generation of Sony’s flagship WH-1000 lineup of noise canceling headsets, the WH-1000XM4s.

And they are, well, let’s call them our secret weapon for a stealthy viewing experience. Sony has improved on the already great XM3s with a handful of new features including multi-device support, which allows you to pair to both the TV, and say, for example a phone with the idea behind it being that you get super seamless switching between the two. It’s a little tough to demo somewhere where both of our phones are struggling to grab even one bar of signal, but that’s fine, I can still show you guys how it works. With the headphones paired to both the smartphone and sound bar, which I’ve already taken home,  so its paired to the TV, using the Sony Connect app, I can watch content on the big screen, and should a call come in, a quick double tap of the right ear cup will seamlessly switch devices over to my phone,

and pause whatever I’m watching on the TV.

Also, if you’re a gamer on the go, the active noise cancellation is some of the best out there. So you can focus on pony noobs, rather than the noise around you. It was a bit hard to show you in the storage unit because it was under so much concrete and metal. Back to the locker. Another cool feature that I wasn’t aware of when we started shooting that Colin configured on these is when you start talking, it can actually mute your content so that you can carry on a conversation with someone. And that’s really important when you consider how excellent the noise isolation on these headphones is. And not just isolation, which is already very good, but their active noise cancellation. So I don’t know if you guys can hear, can you hear the music when it’s going?

Okay, well, it’s not going anymore. It just turned off because I’m trying to have a conversation with you, and it enables transparency mode so I can hear you just fine. So you go ahead and say something, Andy. That’s a shame. I love working with you, Andy. This transparency feature is actually super handy, because when the noise cancellations kicked in, I cannot hear a word you’re saying. Because of like the masks I don’t even have the benefit of like lip reading at all. Like I can’t even guess. And that is in no small part thanks to their new generation micro-rays, so it works freaking awesome.

The one last thing I’m supposed to tell you guys about is, of course, the return of their touch controls on the right ear cup. And then all that remains is to... where’s my popcorn?

Sit and enjoy some movies and gaming.

- See you later boys. - Well, enjoy. 

Intel made their own Macbook