IF I WAS asked to keep this review supremely short and to the point, I'd say Lumagen's new Radiance Pro 5348 is great, and you should go and buy it. But that would be ignoring a few things, one of which being the price – if all you have is a 4K display and a Fire TV box, this video processor is definitely not for you.
It also really needs to be installed by an integrator. This is because to get the most out of the 5348 you need additional AV equipment and software. And using a trained specialist will also mean you won't have to spend much time with Lumagen's onscreen menus, which remind me of a 1990s BIOS setup screen from a PC and take a lot of getting used to.
Making the most of it
Using an outboard image processor in a home cinema is quite uncommon these days, as people think the processor in their display or projector is good enough. But 'good enough is ...well, not good enough. What the 5348 aims to do is step up from good to outstanding.
This new model is an update on the previous 4XXX models [see HCC #263]. It adopts the same 1U-high and rather bland-looking chassis, with nothing to catch your eye-bar a logo and pair of status lights. Its talents include HDMI input switching, video scaling, the application of a 3D LUT (Look Up Table) for full colour calibration, HDR tone-mapping, and audio re-clocking.
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