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12 episodes with lcd tvs
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On this week's show DJ Briggs (Bright Side Home Theater) joins me while Braden is taking the month off. We discuss the Key Findings from the RTINGS.COM HDTV Stress Test and we read your emails and take a look at the week's news. News: Venu Sports Stays Below vMVPD Partners on Price DirecTV UX Update for Satellite Customers Is Its First in Five Years … And Perhaps Its Last U.S. Subscription Streaming Had Its Most Watched Week Ever Roku Most-Used Streaming Media Device Key Findings From Running 100 TVs for Over 10,000 Hours RTINGS.COM We have been following RTINGS.COM's accelerated longevity test on 100 TVs pretty much from the beginning. They started this experiment back in October 2022. They have some key findings out which led them to conclude that thin LCD TVs break faster under prolonged use. They concluded: The goal of RTINGS.com's ongoing 100 TV longevity test is to push TVs to the limits of their durability to examine failure points as they happen. One clear trend we've observed and investigated is that thin, edge-lit LCD TVs fail prematurely compared to LCD TVs with other backlighting technology. The results of this investigation are unequivocal: edge-lit TVs are inherently prone to significant durability issues, including warped reflector sheets, cracked light guide plates, and burnt-out LEDs due to concentrated heat. These problems manifest after prolonged use at maximum brightness, posing a significant risk to their long-term reliability. This analysis, corroborated by real-world observations, highlights a crucial consideration for consumers and the industry. As manufacturers continue to push for thinner designs, addressing these durability concerns is imperative to ensure consumer satisfaction and trust. For consumers in the market for an LCD TV to whom the durability of their purchase is important, we recommend prioritizing models with better heat distribution, such as direct-lit or FALD TVs, for improved longevity and performance.
On this week's show we compare Mini-LED vs OLED and we put a high end listening room based on products that were exhibited at this year's AXPONA show. We also read your email and look at the week's news. News: DirecTV and Dish Back Fubo in Its Spulu Antitrust Suit | Next TV Roku Upgrades Viewing Experience with New Features | TV Tech Hub: Smart TVs Now in Nearly 8 of 10 Homes | TV Tech Disney Plus Looking To Integrate Always-On Linear Channels Other: Credit cards abused again in second Roku hack affecting 576,000 - FlatpanelsHD NBCUniversal Launches Personalized, Hyperlocal Services via ATSC 3.0 | TV Tech Mini-LED vs OLED We are asked from time to time to recommend a particular TV or in some cases a technology. Right now, in our opinion, the best TV technology is OLED. But is it really the best overall? Let's take a look at OLED vs mini-LED in six important criteria. Sharpness and Resolution: Both OLED and Mini-LED TVs typically offer 4K resolution, with some models supporting higher resolutions. Therefore, in terms of sharpness and resolution, it's a tie between OLED and Mini-LED. Black Levels: OLED TVs excel in producing true blacks by individually turning off pixels. Mini-LED displays have not completely achieved this level of per-pixel control. In this aspect, OLED emerges as the winner for its superior black levels. Brightness and Contrast: OLED TVs offer deep blacks for infinite contrast ratio, while Mini-LED TVs can achieve higher brightness levels. Mini-LED takes the lead in brightness, while OLED wins in terms of contrast ratio. Color Quality: OLED TVs typically exhibit excellent color quality, often surpassing 100% of the sRGB color gamut. Although Mini-LED TVs may not reach these levels, this is more due to other factors like color filters rather than the Mini-LED technology itself. The winner in color quality is OLED. Viewing Angles: OLED TVs generally have wider viewing angles compared to LCD TVs, including those using Mini-LED technology. While Mini-LED TVs can vary based on the type of display used, OLED usually outperforms them in terms of viewing angles. Size and Price: In terms of size, both OLED and Mini-LED TVs are available in various sizes to suit different preferences. However, traditionally, OLED TVs have been more expensive compared to Mini-LED TVs, which could be a consideration for some buyers. Price and size considerations may vary based on individual preferences and budgets. So which one wins? It's our opinion that OLED has the absolute best picture but mini-LED is very close and unless you are looking at them side by side you won't notice. It really comes down to cost and since you can buy some really big mini-LED TVs for a quarter of the price, we give the nod to mini-LED. AXPONA 2024 AXPONA 2024 wrapped up last week. What is AXPONA you might ask? From their website: AXPONA is a three-day experience featuring multiple hotel floors packed with over 200 listening rooms. The Expo Hall featuring The Record Fair, The Ear Gear Experience, and seminars. Whether you're a serious audiophile, a newcomer to high-end audio or simply a music lover, you'll find everything you need to immerse yourself in your favorite sounds. It's very similar to “The Show” that we have out here in CA every year. This year it will be June 7-9 in Costa Mesa so come out and let's all go! While AXPONA exhibited products that most of us can buy, there are some that, quite frankly, are priced for people fly on their own jets. They probably don't even listen to podcasts, so let's make fun of them!! Kidding of course. Today, our very rich uncle who has $150,000 laying around has asked us to put a system together so he can listen to his extensive vinyl collection! Transrotor Tourbillon FMD The Tourbillon FMD is a premium turntable model with high-end features designed to deliver exceptional performance in the audio playback experience. The Transrotor Tourbillon FMD stands out as a top-of-the-line turntable with innovative features and premium construction materials aimed at audiophiles seeking unparalleled sound quality and precision in vinyl playback. With its advanced FMD bearing technology, dual tone arm support, and included accessories, it offers a premium and comprehensive audio experience for discerning enthusiasts in the high-end turntable market. $60K with Cartridge Fern and Roby Amp No. 2 Amp No. 2 is our second collaboration with Michael Bettinger who has been designing and building amplifiers for nearly 40 years. Integrated amps make building a great high fidelity audio system easy. Our goal in this project was to produce something that will turn your living room into the best listening room possible. Fewer components, cables, and cost, but delivering world class audio into your home. $8500 (Add $350 if you want Isolation Feet) Acora SRB Reference Loudspeaker Acora Acoustics loudspeakers are constructed using hand crafted, specially treated granite enclosures. The rigidity of granite far exceeds that of traditional particle board or wood enclosures. One of the benefits of this is as the SRB's drivers move to push air / create sound, the enclosure isn't absorbing this energy and dulling or smearing the sound. Another benefit of the Acora enclosure is it does not need internal bracing to “stiffen” the enclosure. This means no additional reflections inside the enclosure that will vibrate the low frequency driver and smear the sound. The SRB also utilizes world class drivers and a hand built crossover network, however the real secret to the Acora Sound is that you only hear these, not the enclosure. Sensitivity 86.5 db Frequency Response 43Hz - 35KHz 58 lbs each $37,000 pair
This week we look at Amazon's new home Internet service as well as a sneak peak at the best early Prime Day smart home products. We also read your emails and take a look at the week's news. News: It's official — LCD TVs won't see any further development YouTube TV Has Decided Some Sports Networks Are Not Worth It Comcast-Charter JV's Xumo-Branded Smart TVs Ready To Hit The Shelves Of Walmart…And Other Retailers Roku's next play: Smart homes Other: ATX Festival - TV Camp for Grownups Amazon.com: Febfoxs Projector with WiFi and Bluetooth HBO In Talks To License Originals To Netflix? - Dark Horizons Most HBO Max subscribers have switched to Max, despite launch issues and price rises | TechRadar ALR Projector Screens WILL Replace Your TV | Side By Side Comparison Everything We Know About Amazon's New Home Internet Service, Including Price & Launch Date The deadline for Amazon to have an operational home internet service is coming up fast. Well, it may be a few years away there is a lot to do to meet the FCC deadline or risk losing the spectrum it needs. This new home internet service from Amazon is currently code-named Project Kuiper. According to Amazon's CEO, it is now one of the main focuses of the company. Full Article here… From Smart Speakers to Smart Plugs, These Are the Best Early Prime Day Smart Home Deals So Far Amazon devices, Philips Hue lights, Kasa plugs, and even iRobot Roomba vacuums are on sale ahead of Prime Day 2023. Full article here…
Surprisingly, Sony did not announce any new TVs at CES 2023. Instead, the company opted to wait until March to unveil its 2023 lineup—and what a lineup it is! The highly anticipated second generation of QD-OLED is joined by new models of conventional OLED and LED-illuminated LCD TVs with upgraded processing and other new features that are sure to tempt any home theater geek. Host: Scott Wilkinson Club TWiT members can discuss episodes in the Club TWiT Discord.
Surprisingly, Sony did not announce any new TVs at CES 2023. Instead, the company opted to wait until March to unveil its 2023 lineup—and what a lineup it is! The highly anticipated second generation of QD-OLED is joined by new models of conventional OLED and LED-illuminated LCD TVs with upgraded processing and other new features that are sure to tempt any home theater geek. Host: Scott Wilkinson Club TWiT members can discuss episodes in the Club TWiT Discord.
This week we take a trip down memory lane and discuss Los Angeles free form radio from the 70s and 80s. We also discuss a technology that may make LCD TVs obsolete. And finally we talk about audio reviewers and whether it's worth listening to what they have to say. Plus we read your emails and the week's news. News: Hisense Logs Record 2022 TV Shipments, Now Second Largest in the World Xperi CEO's Bold Declaration: TiVo OS Will Power 7 Million Smart TVs By 2026 LG Display Calls Out Samsung QD OLED Screen Burn Other: HT Guys Listener Playlist Thank you Joseph MantelMount Freeform Radio from the 1970s and 80s The other day I was wondering about a DJ that used to work at KLOS in Los Angele. Her name was Linda McGinnis. She had a beautiful voice and was an excellent DJ. So I wondered if she was still on the radio someplace. As it turned out she had passed away in 2003. If you lived in San Diego or the Bay area during the 70's and 80's I am sure you heard her. However, in doing my search I found a couple of recordings that some had done and digitized off of an old cassette tape and posted on the Internet. It was an hour of Linda's daily show from October of 1981 replete with commercials of the day. It was a glorious trip down memory lane! This started my trip down the rabbit hole! I found many other recordings from the DJs of KLOS and KMET all making me sad for the days when radio had true artists spinning the tunes. Back then, at least on freeform rock stations, DJs would curate music for you and help you discover artists and bands you never knew you needed to hear. For the past few days, I have been listening to these recordings in my car with a huge smile on my face. Some DJs like Jim Ladd (from both KLOS and KMET fame) have freeform shows on Sirius radio. Jim can be found on Deep Tracks channel 27. Otherwise if you had a favorite DJ from your youth I recommend that you search his or her name and see if there are recordings from back in the day. You will thank me for this. Surprisingly, Apple Music Radio is old school with it's DJs. My tastes have broadened to include country music so I listen to Apple Music Country and find their DJs are very much like the DJs of the 70s and 80s. They create sets based on their mood, time of year, or what their listeners are requesting. The DJs are in the industry and based in Nashville so they have their fingers on the pulse of what is happening in the country music scene. I have discovered a bunch of country artists before everyone else in my circles. It's kind of fun being ahead of the curve like I was in highschool! I am giving my daughters music suggestions and they are wondering how on earth this old man knows about new artists before they do!! I haven't listened to the other Apple Music stations but I assume the same thing happens there. Do you have a favorite station that's old school? Let us know because it's probably available through an app. I am going to play about a minute of Linda on the radio. It made me sad and happy at the same time. Also, John in Cornwall there is a baseball comment in there that I hope you enjoy! Linda McInnes, KLOS-FM Los Angeles, CA December 28, 1981 (Restored Unscoped) Bob Coburn, Steve Downes, KLOS-FM Los Angeles, CA July 6, 1982-May 21, 1990 (Unscoped) Meta-display concept could retire LCD panels in big-screen TVs The metasurface display technology could replace the LCD layer in flat-screen televisions, bringing thinner panels, higher resolution, fast response times and lower power consumption. Full article here… The metasurfaces are 100-times thinner than liquid crystal cells, offer a tenfold greater resolution and could consume less energy. metasurface cells would replace the liquid crystal layer and would not require the polarisers, which are responsible for half of wasted light intensity and energy use in LCD displays. The new technology pixels are made of silicon, which offer a long life span in contrast with organic materials required OLED. Moreover, silicon is widely available and cheap to produce. The metasurface array could effectively just replace the liquid crystal layer in today's displays, which means manufacturers won't need to invest in brand new production lines to make panels. The next phase of research will be building a large-scale prototype and generating images, which is hoped to be achieved within the next five years. Once the prototype has successfully generated high-definition images it is expected the technology will be integrated into flat screens and available to the public within the next 10 years. A Room Full of Audio Reviewers Can't Hear Obvious Flaws A couple months ago, I went to a press event I decided not to write about. The reason I demurred is that I could hear crackling and hiss coming out of the speakers when nothing was playing. But it occurred to me that no one else noticed that the system—a six-figure rig with some well known high-end gear in it—had the noise floor of a transistor radio playing static. This is not the first or last time I've been in a room with audio reviewers who seemed to have no clue. I can recall one demo where the tweeter was blown on one of the speakers, and another where the source material turned out to be 96 kbps MP3. No wonder some of these folks avoid double-blind tests like the plague. Entire Thread on AVS Forum
Tom explains and debunks one of the most common myths about scrapping TVs. A lot of people think there are harmful gases when taking them apart.
Eigentlich wollte Samsung die Produktion von LCD-Displays für seine Fernseher schon länger einstellen, doch die Pandemie hat dafür gesorgt, dass das Interesse stark angestiegen ist und man die Fabrik doch noch weiter betrieben hat. Nach 30 Jahren ist aber jetzt Schluss. Komplett auf LCD-TVs verzichtet Samsung aber nicht.
The 16:9 PODCAST IS SPONSORED BY SCREENFEED – DIGITAL SIGNAGE CONTENT I'm just coming off a bunch of research and writing about direct view LED, so it would be reasonable to think I know my stuff. But this is technology that's evolving rapidly, and when you get into the weeds, there's still a whole bunch to learn and understand about LED. Gary Feather is the CTO at the Atlanta-based LED display manufacturer NanoLumens, which has been an innovator for many years in the large format display space. We've gone back and forth through the years, by email, discussing advances. He offered to put his headset on and have a podcast chat about some of the emerging and changing technologies he's seeing. We go into several things, most notably the rationale and use of displays that have engineered coatings that protect the screens from day to day abuse, whether that's accidental or intended. Gary has an electrical engineering degree, so acronyms and technical terms roll off his tongue like snarky remarks do with me. The result is a discussion that's maybe a little more technical than normal. But if you are into direct view LED, you'll learn some good stuff over the 30 or so minutes. Subscribe to this podcast: iTunes * Google Play * RSS TRANSCRIPT So Gary, thanks for joining me. I just recently finished a big report on Direct View LEDs. So I think of myself as something of a Mr. Smarty Pants about this stuff, but you sent me an email while you're rattled through a whole bunch of things that are happening in the space, and then I thought to myself, oh I really don't know much about this industry at all. The more you learn the less, so one of the things you talked about it, and first of all, let me back up here and just explain who you are and what you do with NanoLumens. Gary Feather: Sure. I'm Gary Feather, the Chief Technology Officer at NanoLumens. I've been with NanoLumens for seven years. I left Sharp corporation in the LCD business to get there, and we really had a great opportunity to see the evolution of LED display from discrete devices, SMT devices, and now the new evolutions we're seeing in the market. So one of the areas when I was over in China, about three years ago, I saw the first iterations of LED Display modules that had some sort of an epoxy coating on them, which is since being described in ways like an adhesive onboard or glue onboard. You're suggesting, or at least your email was suggesting that we're going to be seeing a much more of a shift to that sort of thing. Gary Feather: The industry is looking for wider application of LED displays and with that comes durability and reliability requirements. A surface that is coated is going to be dramatically more durable than one that has physical soldered devices. So generally the surfaces become an important aspect for both installations, as well as utilization of the display in active environments. Now, the idea with coating these things is because they're there, the LED chips are soldered on that they can easily be bumped off and they can be extraordinarily difficult to repair. I've seen lots of LED displays wherein the corners a few of the LED chips have been flaked off and other ones have been scraped off. So this certainly protects it. The concern that was being raised, at least in the early days of it was the image quality is not as good and there were worries about how the heat got out. Has all that stuff been resolved? Gary Feather: Like any problem you're trying to solve, you mitigate certain aspects to make them viable. Let's go way back to the LCD panels space. When LCDs first came out, the reflectivity of the screen was a problem. And so we used what was calLED the triacetate cellulose film on the surface so that it looked more anti-reflective. So surfaces have been an issue we've been addressing in the display industry really since the beginning of the industry. Now we have a really exciting space to work in. We have a surface that we engineer with the materials we choose, Silicons through all varieties of epoxy materials of which then the processing allows a surface treatment to be customized to that, which optimizes the application of the display. So I would suggest while it's not part of the display, it has the capability to greatly enhance display performance now and dramatically improve over time in the future. Is there any issue with the coating trapping the heat at all or does it go at the back? Gary Feather: Certainly the coating is an insulator. The management of heat and thermal calculations allow different approaches to get the heat out of the devices. Heat is a product of the efficacy of the LED, How many Candelas you get per watt, and then the brightness of the display is your Candelas per meter square. So depending on how bright you want the display and what the efficacy of the device is and what the physical size of the device is, management of heat then use those three parameters. That's an interesting aspect as we look at smaller LED dye, going from a standard size to the mini-LED to the micro-LED, the challenges of getting the heat properly out of that device to keep the junction temperatures in the range to ensure the reliability of the dye itself under operation. The other worry I've heard or at least had raised was the whole idea that because these are module tiles that you put on a kitchen or bathroom wall or whatever that if it's coated, you can't just replace an individual dead LED dye, you've got to replace the whole module. Is that genuinely an issue or a bit of a red herring? Gary Feather: Most anything can be repaired. The question is trying to monetize the value of that. So do you have an LCD or an OLED television? I do. Gary Feather: And how often have you repaired that? Let me count: zero. Gary Feather: Okay, so we know where we want to go, and so the red herring maybe is to live in a world where we repair things as a starting point. So we design it to be repaired. We design it to be disassembLED and we design it to then be worked on. That generally adds dramatic cost to a product. So as the maturation of the systems reach the levels that we know they will hit, a philosophy of repair has to be disregarded and you have to look at the fact that solutions will last for the life of the product and meet the customer's requirements. I don't want to downplay this as an issue. I just want to say we know the destination and we know we've moved magnitudes on that from the past where people were repairing things daily to monthly to yearly, and now sometimes never repaired at all. And these transitions we're talking about, they are critical to building a sustainable competitive market where LED if you will, Inorganic LED is able to rival any of the other display technologies that are out there. So when I first started seeing these glue onboard or hardened LED modules and cabinets, I thought, okay, this is the way the industry is going to go, and I've been watching it for three years now and I've seen a number of smaller to midsize Chinese manufacturers come out with products, but I haven't seen any of the major manufacturers come out with anything with the arguable exception of the microLEDish products from the big guys like Sony and Samsung and LG that have some sort of coating on it, but there doesn't seem to be much in the middle, is that going to change? Gary Feather: So you're saying other than the leaders in the market with regard to a vision for the future, putting coatings on their boards so that they meet these requirements you haven't seen the other smaller companies, which aren't major players doing it? I think you've answered your question. What I mean though, is I have seen four super-premium products, like Samsung's The Wall, Sony's Crystal LED, and LG’s Magnit, they have some sort of coating. I've seen from Cedar and CreateLEDs and companies like that, they have coated products, but I don't think I've seen stuff from Absen and Yuna Lumen and Layrd and some of those companies who are pretty big players. Gary Feather: Well, YunaLumen showed at ISE a year and a half ago or so roughly, the coated boards. Everyone has initiated an effort. They have to decide why they are doing it, what purpose are they adding, what benefit do they add to the display and why is this better than the other solution? So let's take a few other areas of why. If I want to wipe down a surface and in today's environment, wiping down surfaces may be an important aspect, I have to have a surface that's solid, that allows me to wipe it down. So now you see displays, LED displays for indoor that have IP5X and 6X ratings on the front. That would have been unheard of just a couple of years ago. So inherently we've increased the moisture capabilities of these displays. In addition to the fact that we've allowed you to have a surface that is cleanable, and that may be for dust and dirt, but it also may be for germicidal purposes and others related to our current environment with regard to the pandemic. So I think you see a lot of emphases too, as to the durability, you can hit it with a hammer. Not hard, but you can hit it with a hammer. You can try to pick off a part, but you can't. But now, more importantly, you're able to wipe down the surface and moisture condensation. Somebody accidentally splashing something on the display isn't going to have a negative effect because there are no open electrical circuits on the face of the display anymore. So these number of forcing functions will drive to the right solution. Let's talk a little bit about that surface though, so you talked about: It's an engineered surface and on the early CLEDis product or Sony micro-LED, in 2017, if you looked at it off, you could see dimples in the process they use to coat it. That was what they were using at that time. But the idea was you, if you realize you can have a shiny surface or a gloss surface, you can have a matte surface and these have been demonstrated at shows or you could have an engineered surface because within an epoxy material, over Silicon, which is much softer, but with an epoxy material, I can then go back and re-engineer that surface to accomplish a number of things with regard to the viewing and potentially optical effects of that surface to optimize the operation of the device. So I think the coding in general and the terminology used of glue onboard is probably not a good descriptor, but an engineered coated surface has a significant potential to change the way that adds value to the LED display. Yeah, the whole description of glue on board just seems to cheapen the product in a way. Gary Feather: I would agree with that, Yes. It sounds like a hack and I know that's not really the case. So is the whole idea of an engineered coating to be table stakes moving forward, like if you're going to have a large format display you really should have that? Gary Feather: Only in particular configurations. Outdoor displays, which still use coat. SMT devices and discrete LEDs, because they're adequate for and allow the performance and durability for the environments. There isn't a good reason to coat that display because the characteristics we're talking about achieving aren't necessarily even used in that application. They may have louvers for coating, to cover the sun. They have their own maintenance approach that they take to those displays. So I think you focus on mostly indoor display applications and those in which are in close proximity to people and/or in atrium areas where you're going to have weather conditions resulting in condensation and others and you want to build a more robust indoor solution for an atrium class area. NanoLumens did this gorgeous long LED video wall on a walkway at Charlotte North Carolina's International Airport, and that's going back two-three years now, I assume that doesn't have a coating on it, but that would be a good example of something that would benefit from that because of all the people walking along with the roller bags and everything? Gary Feather: Absolutely and that falls into that category of durability, and you want to be integrated with the display as some people have put films on the surface of the displays to result in that. It's literally a peel and sticks either by the tile or by the display, and that tends not to be, when it's not integrated, not to be a good solution for the durability, reliability that we talked about. Yeah. I've seen some of that. It didn't look very good. So tell me about Flip chips and SMT. Gary Feather: As you know, we're probably in what I call the fourth generation for LED exploitation into digital signage and as you highlighted early with the Magnit projects and others with LG, we have commercially moved into a space where LED inorganic devices for displays actually will move into the classic space we see with LCD type solutions in OLED. The transition though is, we started with all these monochromatic LED almost tubes at one point and in the first generation and all of us saw lots of signs that were either the yellowish colored signs or whitish colored signs that were monochromatic and then moved to the discreet LEDs in a triad position and that's your generation too. And it's a great solution mixing the colors with RGB and then that migrated to a more svelte designed with SMT, sticking them all in a flat package and soldering them down to the board. In all those cases, you are taking a dye, putting it in a package, testing it and statistically picking out the good from the bad, throwing away the bad ones after it was finished and determining what is then good for the next level of assembly. So you can see we're integrating things a little bit more each step. Now from SMT, we've got a two-step we're going to do here. SMT parts, if I don't have high confidence in pre-testing my flip-chip parts, then I can mount the flip-chip devices into an SMT package and have an RGB LED in an array to make a pixel in a package, and then I can pre-test it. Now, the reason somebody does that is if there are particular constraints with regard to the Chroma or the Luma, that is the exact wavelength and the exact brightness of the device, and you stick them down there without pretesting, the likelihood you'll get the performance you want is very small. So by pre-testing parts then you know that they're in the band you want, and what's typically calLED binning in our industry, and you can assure that when you put the whole display together, all the individual elements meet the requirements you have for a particular wavelength, a plus or minus so many nanometers and then a particular brightness or elimination from that device. So with that in mind, you can't jump all the way in. Now, if you can pretest in a flip-chip configuration the devices in what's classically now calLED a cartridge, then I'm able to check the devices before I mount them and then put them down. So here's where we need to realize that magic just occurred in the system. When we talk about a chip much like your home phone going from wired to your cellular phone being wireless, the golden copper wire bonds are going to disappear in the flip-chip. Now, the reason I care about that is because the number one reliability problem I have is associated with the metalization and the wire bonding, so I lose the wire bonding. I lose the epoxy. I lost all the assembly issues that made SMT dye mount wire bonds may be less reliable. And I moved to effectively weld two-terminal devices down at a surface, with no wire bonds and no chance of breakage. So a dramatic shift in that area, it means I might be able to pre-test the part, I put the part down by welding it, put it in an SMT package and I build something that's pretty much going to endure any kind of environment. So is the Flip chip and SMT, is this what's more commonly broadly known as a chip on board? Gary Feather: I think as you wrote an excellent piece the terminology has been used differently by everybody and I just cannot claim that you and I have the same terminology, but let's take this slowly. If the die is pre-packaged effectively into a format where it's bumped and ready to be mounted on a surface, that is flipped chip by definition, forget where it's going, but you're going to flip-chip the part. Now we've been flip chipping semiconductor dyes since the 80s. We bump them in a process, they have little bumps on them. Then we actually flip them upside down rather than wire bonding and reflow the whole device. I ran a facility in Texas instruments that did that very function. So the technology isn't new, but the issue being, you remove wire bonds, which is good. Now, how do I want to do that? As I said before, put them all in one package, just in one package and test it or put it on the whole board. If I put it on the whole board and let's say a typical board size is something like 150x337 millimeters. So I might break that down into a couple of chunks but I'll have 5,000 pixels on any one board. If I can't pre-test stuff, it would be hard to put down 5,000 at one time. So I flipped a chip a package and I tested them, but if I can pre-test them now I put them directly on the board and these are the options that we have today in the world today that go onto a polyamide board material. So you're mounting it right onto what you would classically call a PCB or a printed circuit board and that's good actually down to pixel pitches, probably around six-tenths to four-tenths where you can literally flip chip and then COB. So flip-chip, don't put them in an SMT package, flip chip put them right on the surface of the board. And when you do that, you get a C of RGB LEDs, besides C of RGB LEDs that are welded in place, not wire-bonded. Most of the early Sony solutions there, their particular displays were wire-bonded. So by removing that variable now, and you can pre-test the devices. Now you can put down more than three at a time and get them right. You may be able to put 3000 down and get them right. So the shift from the flip-chip is a methodology. COB is an implementation. You can see OB dye or you can see OB flip-chip. I strongly suggest you see the flip-chip. Okay. So what does all this mean in terms of manufacturing and for the end-users? Gary Feather: As we look at the application of the move towards flip-chip and the move towards COB, let's talk about flip chip first. A packaging company that sells LEDs taped in the reel, so you might put 2,500 on a reel will have classically bought a package from a packaging maker, they would have purchased the dye on a wafer from a wafer manufacturer, and then they would have wire bond machines and they would have sealant stations to put an array of these down, put the dye in the package with epoxy, bond the wires out and fill it up with material. So you can see in the supply chain, you have wafer manufacturers, you have package manufacturers, you have packaging companies that put them on a reel and then they send it to a company that does the SMT process. So that would be basically the standard process today. So there's another two step process for this: the company that's selling the taped devices with the LEDs on them wants a better device at a lower cost and by putting a flip chip into the package, as opposed to die, he can increase the reliability, the durability, if he's able to pretest that he can improve his yield and subsequently, he can still sell a package, but it's a flip-chip package as opposed to dye mounted package. So he can win on that. Now, when he does that, what he realizes is he can vertically integrate backward and try to pick up some of what's going on in the dye, cause he needs to know more about that function. And when he does that, he forms relationships with these LED manual factors and the companies building the flip chip devices. Then what immediately happens the company doing the flip-chip devices realizes why don't they just build the whole solution? Because why are they shipping things off to somebody to put it in this classic package? So from that perspective, the company building the LED might get absorbed quite a bit because he's been taken over by the guy making the die. So that's one area. The other area is your SMT company. So while they need to put parts on the back, if the front is COB, they really have no idea how to do any of that, they no longer can take flip-chip devices, put them on a board because it's not an SMT part anymore and build an array of those nd then reflow all those devices as appropriate and then coat those devices. So companies in the supply chain that classically did one side did the other side and then shipped it off to the company are now in a situation where they have to consider, they have to go somewhere else to have that work done. They don't have that tool and equipment. So the supply chain is evolving and streamlining as well? Gary Feather: Right and what you'd expect, and let's move all the way down to let's say LCD TVs, the glass is built with the switch, the optical light switch in it as part of making the solution by a company like Sharp or a company like Samsung or others, OLED fits in the same category. So as you can integrate more of these pieces together, certainly the overall output is improved in yield, the costs go down, the automation increases and subsequently it allows you to build a different model for that. So many people that were doing Parts of this job got absorbed into the totally more integrated solution. In this case, eventually a CPB based solution with inorganic devices placed in a more effective way on a large area board with results that give you the display performance you're looking for, that will result in a large area displays built that a factory, completely not tiLED in the 110, 120, 130 inch range with inorganic LEDs that you buy much like you buy an LCD or an OLED TV today is just bigger than those tech technologies can support and are not tiLED anymore, but completely finished and a finished product at home. And that's what you're seeing with the solutions from the big people, as you highlighted before Samsung and LG. Does all this make it easier for a company to spin itself up as an LED display manufacturer when they're not really manufacturing, they're just saying they're a manufacturer? Gary Feather: I list in our internal strategic competitive list 30 key companies that I think are integrated manufacturers. There are about 140 that are out there. So indeed today in LED-based displays, there are many people that are brokering talent from other people to provide solutions to customers and adding very little value to the actual solution. So in one way, it does allow that. On the other way, these companies may decide they want to be vertically integrated all the way to the customers. And so they may not open that up. So we have yet to see how that actually works as they fail. There are factories that are doing many LEDs today and some microLED capabilities, but the new factories built, we're in the 50 to 70,000 square feet, and they allow processing of a lot of materials. So I assume any serious customers will be considered until those factories are full. Let's talk about costs that have been coming down through the years. And I assume that's a function of buyer volume and manufacturing advances and everything else is this whole kind of shift going to also lower costs? Gary Feather: Absolutely. The integration of these functions will lower costs. Part of the cost is yield. If the yield increases, that's immediate money into your pocket, but let's look at the whole solution. We talk about how we have the LEDs certainly, and we have drivers for the LEDs that support that and then the controlling system that goes with that. The automation of these systems from this, these are mostly now today, pulse width modulation non-persistent displays that are constant current devices. So that's what we build. So basically we build a light bulb that goes on and off fast enough so you see the mixing of the RGB the way you'd like. As we look at the drivers, what's happened with the drivers is they used to be inaccurate and imprecise. And they were almost like analog, even though they're digital from device to device based on lead length drive, performance, voltage, and many other noise factors. So today, if you look at the newest release devices from the leaders in the industry, we have now integrated solutions in drivers that are so much more advanced. So what used to be in a single, it would take, say 64 packages are now in a single package associated with performance. So as you would guess, the cost has dropped as the level of integration has gone up much the same way with Silicon devices. So one of the big cost drivers in this is driver technology and driver technology continues to advance at a level that's quite phenomenal is the ability to control the LED and controlling the LED is absolutely the critical part of being able to create incredible images with LED technology. There's nothing like the speed, the performance, the color of an LED, and with the right driver in an amazing world opens up what people can do with these devices to give the user a perception that you otherwise never felt. Yeah, in doing the recent report I did on LED, I got the sense that the marketplace is shifting from being fixated with pixel pitch, and who's got the finest pixel pitch displays and so on to a more mature market that understands visual quality is everything and you need to have a great control system, great drivers and everything else. Gary Feather: That's absolutely true. Also, let's go back, this is the need, The need of the display initially was a sign and the sign basically is communicating fairly bold things in very large spaces, but the market shifted starting in 2014 to video displays. So what we're trying to do is replace and or meet the kind of performance with an OLED device. They realize it's all about what the user perceives and having worked with creatives In the Hollywood structure with regard to images and within the whole physical sciences, the best stories are told in the dark. So the black are so important for you to feel the life-like nature of an image and we are just now addressing contrast ratios that begin to be a priority to realize very little reflected light of the display results in our blacks because we're off, obviously when we're black, we're not like an LCD trying to hold back the light, so more like an OLED. But once the black is attained and reflected light is mitigated and the contrast ratio. it's higher, the image comes alive. So that's one factor. The other is a bit depth. As you go down for the brightness, the eye becomes so much more capable to see the black areas and you've got to make sure you don't stair step that, that it's a nice blend because that's what reality is. As you look at things and the result is it's the second area bit depth is accurate and precise. This resulted in images that do appear lifelike and there are about four other parameters, but those two I think is what really brings an image to life and allows for a story well told. This is all pretty technical for a lot of people. If I'm a reseller or particularly if I'm an end-user, how valuable is it to understand and get into the technical weeds on this stuff? Or is this something they don't really need to know? Gary Feather: I don't think they need to know it at all. In all honesty, not for any reason other than seeing is believing and you want simple messages to people about simple things. As I said, we're going wireless with the way we connect devices, that's a big deal. We're trying to emulate a lead contrast ratio, that's a big deal. We moved to the control set. You get the right color in the right spaces. No fake colors along the way in color matching across the whole CIE space that you've covered. That's a big deal. People can get that right color, reliable, durable, and looks real. That's probably the message. The details of that are having the marketing spend to give that information to people. So they get it in a way that's valuable to their customers because when you're done, you want to look at it and be wowed with what and that's the only thing the customer sees. All the technology you and I are talking about is effectively what is behind the product to assure that's attainable From my perspective, I think it's always good, particularly if you're making a six-figure decision to have at least a decent understanding of what's under the hood matters. Gary Feather: Right and I think we can put together information for people to ask the right questions to basically audit what they're getting to make sure they're not buying last year, the year before last solutions, which will be limiting and they're moving into the solutions that are not limiting going forward. All right, Gary, that was terrific. I think we should do this again sometime. Very insightful. Gary Feather: It's an interesting market and you're going to see, I think about a hundred million in flip chips this year at retail and probably as much as 500 million in 2022. So this shift is occurring pretty fast in a $6 to $7 billion industry. So I think that elements an important takeaway. Building durable products for long life, that's a great takeaway. And I think maybe the most important element is that LED now we'll begin to stand side by side in a larger format for what we've seen in the past with LCD and OLED. Okay, Gary. Thank you. Gary Feather: Thank you, Dave. Appreciate it.
On today's show we discuss Disney releasing Mulan on Disney+ with an additional $29.99 charge. Is this the world we have been hoping for? We also take a look at a really “cheap” 98 inch 4K TV. And finally we try to determine if the new TCL 8 Series mini-LED TVis Braden's next buy. All that plus news and your emails. Disney's ‘Mulan' coming to Disney+ in September for $29.99 Disney said on Tuesday, in a surprise move, that its blockbuster feature “Mulan,” which has been delayed from its theatrical release since mid-March, will hit Disney+ on Sept. 4, for a premium price of $29.99. The film will be simultaneously released theatrically in certain markets that have open theaters and where the company hasn't announced plans to launch Disney+. It will be Disney's first effort to sell content on Disney+, on top of the monthly $6.99 subscription. Full article here... Want a cheap 98-inch 4K display? Check out this behemoth from Xiaomi Meet the Redmi Smart TV MAX, a 98-inch TV that comes with its own white glove VIP installation service. Available at 19,999 Yuan (that's about US$2,800, £2,200, AU$4,000), this absurdly massive display is actually not all that expensive. The next cheapest 98-inch display on the market is the ViewSonic IFP9850, a touchscreen monitor that costs about three times more. Full article here… Or the: Samsung 98" QB98R Edge-Lit 4K UHD LED Display. $8999 at B&H TCL 8-series 4K UHD TV review: This TV gets as close to OLED as any LCD has come With thousands of mini LEDs forming its backlight array, TCL's 8-series Roku TV delivers blacks beyond what even the best LCD TVs from other manufacturers have managed. Full article here… TCL Q825 4K UHD smart TV (65-inch model 65Q825) $999.99 at BestBuy Quantum Contrast technology - Our new mini-LED backlight technology offers powerful and precise control of brilliantly bright and deeply dark areas of the image, delivering depth, dimension, and contrast. The viewing experience is improved throughout the screen. High-Performance Mini-LEDs - The 8-Series uses high-performance mini-LEDs to bring precise local dimming and smooth, uniform illumination. AiPQ Engine - Uses machine-learning algorithms to optimize color, contrast and clarity for an unrivaled 4K HDR experience. Wide Color with QLED color technology - Quantum dot technology delivers better brightness and wider color volume, matching the format used by most cinema screens and Hollywood content creators, for exceptionally vivid and lifelike picture performance. HDR - Provides images with superior color, contrast and brightness, so all your favorite movies, shows and games come to life in stunning clarity. Supports Dolby Vision, HDR 10, and Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG). From the article: OLEDs do starfields almost perfectly; the Q825 merely does them very, very well. It doesn't deliver pure black, but close enough that you have to look hard to see the difference. I kept throwing my most problematic material at it and the 65Q825 kept coming up smelling like roses. Mostly. It failed on one highly detailed pan, but I'm calling that an outlier as it aced others that should've exhibited the same artifacts. Screen conformity was also very good, though off-angle viewing isn't on par with some of the top-end LCD sets from Sony and Samsung. AT A GLANCE TCL Q825 4K UHD smart TV (65-inch model 65Q825) Super granular mini-LED backlighting delivers the most stunning blacks we've seen from an LCD TV. Quantum dots refine the color, and processing is top-notch. One of the best values in LCD TVs we've tested. Pros By far the best blacks of any LCD TV we've tested Excellent overall picture Cons Overpriced when not on sale No Bluetooth
LCD TVs for Movies, are physical discs dying?, RIP Ennio Morricone, AV and Movie news, best and worst Matt Damon movies, plus questions to the team...
This wee we discuss three articles: Seven of our best tips for your Sonos system - Popular Science MicroLED vs. Mini-LED: Which display technology will power your next TV? - Digital Trends Want free 4K from an antenna? Here's the 2020 TVs with Next Gen TV tuners built-in - CNET Seven of our best tips for your Sonos system - Popular Science Pair up your Sonos speakers Wake up to your music Play your music everywhere Customize your speakers to fit their rooms Get chatty with your Sonos speakers Save your Sonos playlists Stream directly from your laptop MicroLED vs. Mini-LED: Which display technology will power your next TV? - Digital Trends Size - Micro LED Price - Mini LED Brightness, black levels, and contrast - Micro LED Availability - Mini LED Want free 4K from an antenna? Here's the 2020 TVs with Next Gen TV tuners built-in - CNET Free 4K TV over the air is rolling out this year all across the US. It's called Next Gen TV, aka ATSC 3.0, and it promises a revolution not just in resolution -- for the first time you'll be able to watch 4K via an antenna -- but in how you watch broadcast TV. Over 60 stations in 40 markets already are, or are planning to start transmitting before the end of the year. TVs LG ZX: 77- and 88-inch 8K OLED TV WX: 65-inch 4K OLED TV with "wallpaper" styling. GX: 55-, 65- and 77-inch 4K OLED TV with ultrathin profile. These are all OLED and all relatively high-end. The mainstream-priced CX and BX models won't get Next-Gen TV tuners, and neither will any of the LCD-based (aka NanoCell) TVs LG announced. Samsung Q950TS: A bezel-less 8K flagship model in 65-, 75- and 85-inches. Q900: Step-down 8K model without that fancy styling. Q800: Entry-level 8K model. As of this writing, Samsung has only announced Next Gen TV support in its 8K TVs. None of the company's 4K TVs have Next Gen TV tuners. Sony X900H: 55-, 65-, 75- and 85-inch 4K LCD Though no pricing was announced at CES, based on the technology and model number, these are Sony's midrange models, and should be cheaper any of the Samsung or LG TVs listed above. None of Sony's higher-end OLED and LCD TVs for 2020 will have Next-Gen TV tuners. Tuners and set-top-boxes Most of you reading this probably aren't interested in getting a new TV just for Next Gen TV. Nor should you be. If you don't want to get a new TV, but still want to watch free over-the-air 4K TV, you'll be able to buy an external tuner. There were a few companies at CES discussing set-top-boxes, though neither pricing nor availability were made official. We'll likely get more info along those lines at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) expo in April. Zapperbox is one of those companies. It's working with BitRouter, a company that's been around since the early ATSC 1.0 days. Another company is Apollo, a company that works behind-the-scenes with public TV broadcasters. They're working on an Android-based modular system design.
Best of CES 2020 This week we take a look at the best of CES. From the Verge: Best TV SAMSUNG QLED BEZEL-LESS 8K Samsung's 8K Q950 has a stunning design with bezels so small they disappear to your eyes as soon as the screen turns on. The black space surrounding the displays on our smartphones is almost gone, so why shouldn't TVs get the same treatment? Samsung has pulled that off. This should be the future of TV design — but it should've been available in a 4K TV since buying 8K remains just as preposterous now as it was at CES 2019. —Chris Welch Best Smart Home Thing GE Smart Switches and Dimmers GE Lighting is introducing new smart lighting switches and dimmers to its C by GE line of connected products that do not require the use of a neutral wire. This allows the C by GE Hubless Three-Wire Smart Switch and Hubless Dimmer models to be installed in many more homes than most smart switches, including homes built before 1980. In addition, the new switches do not require a hub to connect to the internet or be used with the Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. The smart switches will arrive in the first quarter for $39.99 and up, while the dimmers are due in the second quarter for $49.99 and up. Homekit support coming soon via C-Reach Smart bridge Best Router Netgear Nighthawk Mesh Wi-Fi 6 is here, built into the latest iPhones and already in the pockets of millions of people. Except, it's been held back by one critical missing component: affordable Wi-Fi 6 routers, with the initial mesh options costing an outlandish $400 to $700. At CES 2020, Netgear changed that. The Nighthawk Mesh, available in March, includes two Wi-Fi 6 routers for $230. It's by no means the fastest combination out there, but it brings Wi-Fi 6 to a far more typical price, supports up to 1.8 Gbps of throughput, and offers 1,500 square feet of coverage per node. This is the kind of package Wi-Fi 6 needs to actually be put to use. —Jake Kastrenakes Best Vaporware: Samsung Ballie The demo video for Samsung's Ballie had all the hallmarks of a Kickstarter pitch: a contrived tale meant to sell a dream that technology doesn't support yet. In the video (titled, incredibly, “A Waltz For Ballie”) Samsung's “companion robot” is seen organizing a user's life like a tiny spherical butler: opening curtains, checking yoga poses, and cleaning up after the dog. In the actual demonstrations, however, Ballie seems merely capable of rolling back and forth a bit and going “bleep bloop” in an endearing fashion. Samsung hasn't announced a price or release date for the bot. And although it's certainly well-designed, don't expect to see this thing in stores anytime soon. Oh, and as proof that while history doesn't necessarily repeat itself, it does rhyme: you might have forgotten that back in 2016, LG announced its own spherical companion robot. That one rolled out of sight pretty quickly, too. —James Vincent From Engadget: Best home theater product Dolby Vision IQ Dolby Vision IQ takes a good thing (Dolby's enhanced spec for creating and displaying HDR content) and improves its application in everyday life. While some of us would prefer to watch every bit of The Mandalorian or John Wick 3 in a darkened theater room, that's not what's available. Beyond just tweaking the picture so it looks the best for the room you're in, Vision IQ is also going to make sure that different types of content, like action sports, documentaries or feature films, are presented with the settings that best match what's on-screen. It's tech that should make everyone's home theater experience better and more accurate. Best TV product LG CX-series OLED TVs LG's OLED sets have been among our favorite TVs for years, and they're no exception in 2020. LG has added a ton of new features like NVIDIA G-Sync support, which makes your games look smoother, and Filmmaker Mode, which disables motion smoothing and other unnecessary video tweaks. And they still have all the benefits of OLED, like an insanely high contrast ratio, inky black levels and rich colors. LG has also improved its image processing to sharpen objects and improve details in your video. They're so good that you'll wonder why so many TV companies are pursuing 8K TVs instead of catching up to the quality of OLED. From Digital Trends: Audio: Vizio Elevate The Elevate features upfiring drivers that, besides being just plain cool, can adapt the sound automatically, spinning upward to fire sound at the ceiling for 3D audio, or rolling forward for more power and musicality when you're jamming to your favorite tunes. Aside from that, the Elevate packs plenty of key features like a backlit remote, a dedicated input for your smart speaker, HDMI eARC connection for compression-free Dolby Atmos, DTS:X sound, and perfect audio sync from supported TVs. We don't know the pricing for this massive bar yet (fingers crossed it keeps the Vizio tradition of affordability going), but the Elevate is an impressive new soundbar that gets our gold star for the show. Smart Home: Lockly Vision Smart Lock Lockly includes the features that made its previous smart locks successful, like fingerprint unlocking, but adds a camera so the lock can double as a video doorbell. Instead of having to buy a smart lock and video doorbell separately, it's combined into one cohesive device. It's the ultimate smart lock for any home, including AirBnB households, because you can also send out time-sensitive pin codes. The camera adds the ability to check up on who's at the front door and monitor who is coming or going. The Lockly Vision also doesn't require a bridge to access remotely, can be unlocked with a key manually, and offers local storage. It covers the gamut of what you need in a premium smart lock. Video: TCL Vidrian I'm still impressed that TCL was the first to bring mini-LED to market, and this new version of it, which sees some 25,000 mini-LED backlights mounted directly to a glass substrate, is way beyond the competition. To put things in perspective, most TVs have standard LED backlights numbering in the hundreds. With 25,000 miniaturized backlights on glass, the TCL not only has tremendous control over luminance, it eliminates several layers in the LCD panel sandwich. It's more like an LCD panini, if you will. The result is an LCD-based TV that looks as close to OLED as I've seen yet. Color us impressed. From CNET: TV Vizio OLED TV Our favorite TV tech could soon get more affordable, thanks to Vizio. OLED TVs belt out the best picture quality available but until now they were only available from LG and Sony. Now Vizio, the third-largest TV brand in the US behind Samsung and TCL, is going to sell an OLED TV too. Vizio hasn't set a price yet but in our reviews the company's LCD TVs consistently deliver excellent image quality for the money. Forget all the impractical next-generation displays that you heard about at the show: Vizio's entry into the OLED race is the most exciting news of CES 2020 for TV shoppers. Locks August Wi-Fi Smart Lock August has been our favorite smart lock since it came out due to its retro-fit design that works with any standard deadbolt, as well as its open-armed policy towards working with the various voice assistants. The newest model addresses two persistent criticisms, the lack of built-in Wi-Fi (requiring an extra Wi-Fi adapter plug to make the connection necessary to control it remotely), and its large size. The newest model is 45% smaller than the original, giving it a much sleeker appearance on your door, and the built-in Wi-Fi adapter gets it online right out of the box. August says to expect a price tag around the $250 mark when it launches later this year. Soundbar Vizio's P-Series Elevate aluminum soundbar Innovations in soundbar hardware are few and far between -- these are slabs that sit of front of your TV after all. The addition of Dolby Atmos was one of the most significant in years, but the Vizio P-series Elevate takes this and adds to it in meaningful ways. The Elevate in the name refers to the motorized drivers which flip ceiling-ward when the soundbar detects a Dolby Atmos or DTS:X soundtrack for overhead effects. The rest of the time the drivers are used to bolster the stereo channels for a bit of extra heft. Meanwhile, the soundbar's aluminum construction helps add a touch of class. Home Entertainment Dabby Dabby is a home entertainment device that consolidates every TV streaming service, free video site and social media site into one tablet-like box -- saving you from toggling between all of the options when you're looking for a certain show or video. It also includes a subscription manager to help you keep track of all of your different services, how much they cost and how often you use them, to fight subscription overload. It costs $400 and ships in April. From Gizmodo Streaming Service for your Phone Quibi The new phone-only streaming service from the guy who brought you Dreamworks. But there are a lot of talented people making content for Quibi, and it's the rare streaming service that's still studio agnostic—with content planned from Disney even! But what's really cool is the way it serves up two different films with the same soundtrack. You decide the experience you get all by the orientation of your phone. — Alex Cranz Best TV TCL 6-Series of 2020 The cheap 4K TV keeps getting better. Not only is the 2020 TCL 6-Series outfitted with future-forward ports like HDMI eARC. It's also getting new backlighting with mini LED technology. This means that, whereas last year's model had 100 local dimming zones, the new model will potentially have thousands, which should greatly improve contrast and viewing angles. In other words, this upgrade could bring the picture quality closer to that of an OLED TV for a fraction of the price. — Adam Clark Estes Home Automation Linksys Wellness Pods By monitoring signal disruptions in your home's wifi, Linksys Aware turns your wireless network into a home security system that doesn't require any additional hardware to install. At launch the feature was limited, simply alerting homeowners to the presence of potential intruders while they were away, but in 2020 Linksys will be expanding what Aware is capable of through optional Wellness Pods that increase the feature's sensitivity, allowing it to detect someone having a restless sleep based on subtle movements and even their breathing rate. The Pods will also allow Linksys Aware to detect and react to someone falling, such as an elderly relative, triggering an emergency response which includes contacting help and even reassuring them through a smart assistant like Amazon's Alexa. — Andrew Liszewski
Recorded live in Las Vegas, The Verge's Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, and Ashley Carman discuss what has already been announced at the start of CES 2020 as well as what to expect throughout the week. Stories discussed in this episode: Amazon’s Fire TV soundbars will get Dolby Atmos, HDMI switching, and more later this year Samsung details its stunning bezel-less 8K TV Samsung’s new Sero TV can rotate vertically for your TikTok and Instagram videos LG unveils eight ‘Real 8K’ OLED and LCD TVs ahead of CES LG’s smart TVs are the latest to add Apple TV, and you won’t have to buy a 2020 model to get it Sony’s first TVs of 2020 include its smallest 4K OLED ever TCL will enable variable refresh rates for some TVs later this year Vizio’s 2020 lineup includes its biggest TV yet and first-ever OLED TCL’s new soundbar uses reflectors for more immersive Dolby Atmos audio Roku launches program to let third-party soundbars integrate with Roku TV Amazon’s Fire TV soundbars will get Dolby Atmos, HDMI switching, and more later this year Vizio’s new soundbar rotates its speakers for better Dolby Atmos surround sound Ring adds lightbulbs, solar power to its smart lighting lineup The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook is beautiful, fast, and expensive Segway’s newest self-balancing vehicle is an egg-shaped wheelchair My favorite thing so far at CES Dell’s Concept Ori and Concept Duet laptops imagine a foldable and dual-screen future Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold is a $2,499 PC with a folding OLED screen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The 7 Best LED LCD TVs - Summer 2019 (RTINGS.com) The editors at RTINGS.com have just updated their Seven Best LED TVs for the Summer and we bring those to you. RTINGS.com is a great resource when you are looking to buy a new UHD TV. They have the most thorough reviews of any site on the Internet. All the TVs that we discuss come with an in depth review that can be found at the links below. Best LED TV: Samsung Q90/Q90R QLED (65” Street Price $2500) The best LED TV is the 2019 QLED Samsung Q90R. It has impressive quality and an excellent dark room performance, thanks to the deep blacks due to the native contrast ratio and very good local dimming support. This TV is suitable for a bright room, as it can get very bright and can easily fight glare. HDR content looks full of saturated colors and bright highlights thanks to the TV's wide color gamut and high HDR peak brightness. It has a very fast response time that delivers clear and crisp motion, which is great for watching sports or playing video games. The input lag is very low even with motion interpolation, and gamers will also appreciate the auto low latency mode and FreeSync variable refresh rate support. Full Review Mixed Usage 8.7 Movies 8.6 TV Shows 8.6 Sports 8.6 Video Games 9.2 HDR Movies 8.5 HDR Gaming 8.9 PC Monitor 9.0 Pros: Very bright both in SDR and HDR. Excellent low input lag and gaming features. Remarkable motion handling. Cons: Some gray uniformity issues at the edges. CHEAPER ALTERNATIVE: VIZIO P SERIES QUANTUM 2018 (65” Street Price$1500) Mixed usage rating of 8.6 Best LED TV for Color Accuracy: Sony X900F (65” Street Price $1500) If you want the most accurate image, the Sony X900F is the best LED TV for color accuracy that we've tested so far. This TV delivers great picture quality, with an excellent contrast ratio, a decent full array local dimming feature, and great peak brightness. It also has outstanding accuracy out of the box and has a great wide color gamut, which is important for a good HDR experience. This TV also has excellent motion handling, with an outstanding response time, a nearly flicker-free backlight, and a versatile motion interpolation feature. It also has an optional black frame insertion feature, but it can't flicker at 60Hz, so there are noticeable duplications when playing 60Hz content. Full Review Mixed Usage 8.3 Movies 8.5 TV Shows 8.2 Sports 8.1 Video Games 8.6 HDR Movies 8.4 HDR Gaming 8.5 PC Monitor 8.3 Pros: Deep and uniform blacks Excellent motion handling Bright HDR highlights Cons: Picture quality degrades at an angle CHEAPER ALTERNATIVE: VIZIO P SERIES 2018 (65” Street Price$1000) Mixed usage rating of 8.3 Best Budget LED TV: TCL 6 Series/R617 2018 (65” Street Price $750 if you can still find them) If the Sony X900F is too expensive, the TCL 6 Series R617 is the best budget LED TV that we have reviewed. This TV delivers great performance for most uses. It has excellent dark room performance thanks to the deep contrast ratio and full-array local dimming system. It also has excellent low input lag, perfect for gaming or for use as a PC monitor. Unfortunately, there have been widespread reports of gray uniformity issues with this TV which may or may not have been fixed, so sports fans might not be pleased with this model. Full Review Mixed Usage 8.0 Movies 8.0 TV Shows 7.7 Sports 7.6 Video Games 8.6 HDR Movies 8.1 HDR Gaming 8.4 PC Monitor 8.3 Pros: Very bright in HDR and SDR Excellent low input lag for gaming Good local dimming and native contrast produce deep blacks Cons: Picture quality degrades at an angle Uniformity could be better CHEAPER ALTERNATIVE: TCL 4 SERIES/S425 2019 (75” Street Price$1000) Mixed usage rating of 7.3 Notable Mentions Samsung Q80/Q80R QLED: Excellent TV; less expensive than the Q90R, but lacks the One Connect box and has less local dimming zones. See review Samsung Q9FN/Q9/Q9F QLED 2018: Excellent TV; worse viewing angles, but some large sizes are probably worth it over the Q90R. See review Sony Z9F: Great TV with great picture quality, but the Vizio P Series Quantum is better. See review Sony X950G: Great TV, but the X900F is less expensive and performs similarly. See review LG SK9500: Good TV with wide viewing angles, but not very competitive. See review Vizio M Series 2018: Good TV, but the TCL R617 is better and cheaper. See review TCL 5 Series/S517 2018: Decent versatile 4k TV, but more expensive than the TCL 4 Series S425 for similar performance. See review Vizio V Series 2019: Decent TV, but the TCL S425 has better smart features. See review Vizio P Series Quantum X 2019: Excellent TV, but not worth the price difference over the 2018 Vizio P Series Quantum. See review
The editors at RTINGS.com have just updated their Seven Best LED TVs for the Summer and we bring those to you. RTINGS.com is a great resource when you are looking to buy a new UHD TV. They have the most thorough reviews of any site on the Internet. All the TVs that we discuss come with an in depth review that can be found at the links below.
Learn about why you can’t really “boost” your immune system; the benefits of some weird pupils you can find in the animal kingdom; and what Cody and Ashley learned at CES 2019, the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: You Can't Boost Your Immune System, and You Really Don't Want to — https://curiosity.im/2s5lM9V 5 Weird Pupils You Can Find in the Animal Kingdom — https://curiosity.im/2LPDDuK If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Shopping for a 4K TV is like trying to find a single wave in the ocean. Most TVs are indistinguishable from each other at a glance—unless your eyes happen to lock onto an OLED. When you look at an OLED TV, you tend to keep looking. You may not even know why at first, but it looks better. Even next to the best LCD TVs, an OLED, with its vivid colors and inky blacks will entrance you. It's simple actually: OLED TVs don't need a backlight.
Rtings.com: Real Life OLED Burn In Test on 6 TVs Walking through a large electronics store the other day something caught our eye on one of their OLED display televisions. While you'd like to hope it was the vivid, realistic images on screen, it wasn't. It was the obvious burn-in. And it was bad. You could clearly see a shadow of the bottom logo bar / ticker from content they must use regularly peeking through what would have otherwise been a stellar video presentation. The burn-in scare was one of the factors that ultimately led to the demise of plasma televisions. Will burn-in be the demise of OLED? To dig into the issue, we turned to our friends at Rtings.com. It just so happens that they are currently, actively running a real life burn-in test on 6 LG OLED televisions. While we used to dismiss burn-in issues with plasma once the technology matured, it looks like we may not be able to dismiss them with OLED yet. The technology just hasn't matured to where we can say it isn't an issue. Hopefully it will. If not, the test results at Rtings.com were eye opening for us. Enough to give us pause on purchase decisions, and certainly informative on how we would use an OLED screen if we owned one. The folks at Rtings.com ran a burn-in stress test to compare the results across three different display technologies: OLED and two types of LCD, In Plane Switching (IPS) and Vertical Alignment (VA). The results there are pretty dire for OLED, as are the comments from some of the OLED owners at the bottom of the page. And when you factor in that, as they point out in response to a comment “Burn-in on OLEDs unlike Plasma or CRT TVs is not caused by retention or stuck pixels, but instead due to cumulative degradation of the material through usage. This means that over time, OLED TVs will lose brightness across the whole screen progressively. Burn-in is simply a high contrast region of the screen where there was more usage than the surrounding area creating a visible shape.” It doesn't paint a rosy picture for OLED. For more information on In Plane Switching (IPS) versus Vertical Alignment (VA) for LCD TVs, see this article: IPS vs VA: Comparing LCD types found in TVs. But the real world test is a bit more “fair” than the stress test - especially on the OLED sets. Here's how they went about it. First, they “bought 6 LG OLED C7 which will play real, non-altered content. This should give you a better idea on what to expect depending on what you watch on your TV.” Then they simulated using them like you might. Goal The goal of the test is to provide an idea of the usage time of a 2017 OLED TV before burn-in becomes apparent, which will depend on your usage. To do so, we will replicate five different real-world conditions in an accelerated aging test. We will also independently test two different brightness ('OLED Light') settings with the same content to see the impact of this. Test Setup The TVs will all be controlled by a microcontroller to repeat a five hour on and one hour off cycle four times per day. The 'Screen Shift' option will be enabled on all TVs, and 'Pixel Refresher' will be performed before each set of measurements taken on each TV. They will all be playing real content (not test patterns), from live cable TV sources, video game clips or recorded sports. The brightness of all TVs (except the one identified below) will be set to 200 nits on a checkerboard pattern, with the content described below. The Content LIVE CNN - This test is considered a control, with the 'OLED Light' set to a brightness of 200 nits. LIVE CNN (MAXIMUM SCREEN BRIGHTNESS of 380 nits) - This is to show the relationship between burn-in rate and 'OLED Light' with the exact same content and over the same time period. FOOTBALL - Includes content from a variety of channels and with different teams, so overlays are located in different areas and team colors change. It includes many games to avoid too much repeating. LIVE NBC - The source is a live cable feed and should be representative for a range of general TV content. FIFA 18 GAMEPLAY - The goal of the content on this TV is to investigate the effect of a 'high risk' video game - one which has some bright, static areas which remain very consistent. CALL OF DUTY: WWII GAMEPLAY - The gameplay footage on this TV is to represent a relatively 'low risk' video game. It only has small areas which are static and an overall dim image without too many bright colors. Results (so far) Week 2: No issues are visible. Week 4: Uniformity issues are clearly visible on the 200 nits CNN TV in red and magenta slides (but not in normal content). This is unusual, as we would expect the maximum brightness CNN TV to show uniformity issues before the 200 nits CNN TV. The 25% window we used in January to measure the color gamut is also becoming more visible on this TV (and the FIFA 18 TV) as the weeks progress, even though we haven't displayed that 25% test pattern since January. We have contacted LG to understand why this is happening and will update this article as we obtain more information. Week 6: Only minor changes since week 4. Week 8: Increases in peak brightness across all TVs, but otherwise the measurements remain consistent. Week 10: LG engineers visited our lab, and we will post the results of their investigation and an update in the next few days. 04/10/2018: We contacted LG regarding the strange results in week 4. LG engineers visited our lab a few days ago and were able to confirm the 25% window on the Live CNN and FIFA 18 TVs are a result of a factory issue (see our video here). OLED TVs are produced in a hot process, and after cooling a 25% window is shown on each panel. Some TVs which haven't cooled completely can produce invalid results for the lookup table used by the 'Pixel Refresh' function, causing this 25% window to become visible. Only some 55" OLED TVs were affected during part of 2017. As this is not an issue with the panel itself, it is possible to apply a fix to the lookup table. LG will apply this fix to anyone who presents this issue to their support, for free, even after the warranty period has long expired. They have fixed our two affected TVs (see the uniformity photos below). Note that this doesn't fix other uniformity issues as the result of static content, only the 25% window caused by a factory defect. LG has also confirmed that there is variation between panels, which is why some OLED appear more prone to developing uniformity issues (as in the case with our Live CNN (200 nits) vs Live CNN (Max).)
Short Throw Projector Follow Up On Episode 836 we talked about the idea of short throw projectors for home theater use and asked the question: Why aren't more people using them in their homes? Their price per square inch of screen real estate seems like, at least on paper, the most cost effective way to get a huge screen at home. So why aren't they flying off the shelves? We had a ton of great listener feedback on it, so we decided to create a feature out of it. From Ed: My business is Classroom Technology, among other things. And you probably know that most classrooms today have either Projected images or LCD Panels at the front of the room. And I think the trend in Classroom Technology can inform the issue of UST projectors in homes. --- The trend in Classroom Technology is Toward LCD Panels. We are involved in several projects this summer when schools are taking out hundreds of Projectors that have 88-inch diagonal 16:10 screens and replacing them with smaller LCD Panels (75-inch 16:9 screen is a common size). So, they are replacing the 88-inch screen with a screen that is 31% smaller (in square inches). Why? Image quality. None of these projector images can compete with the dynamic range and clarity of an LCD. Even used primarily for data. --- It gets worse for Projectors when you think about it. In normal-size classrooms (which are bigger than most home theaters), schools are replacing projectors with LCDs that cost more than what a replacement projector would cost and have a smaller image. And they put more thought into this than the average home theater consumer. And remember, classroom LCDs are Digital Signage quality (PID standard) and cost about twice what a home LCD would cost. So schools are paying A LOT to move away from Projectors. So if schools are willing to pay for that image quality, why wouldn't you expect consumers to do the same? --- Put another way, let's say that one of these projector companies wanted to sell a lot of these projectors. Could you put them into Costco or BestBuy side-by-side with LCD TVs? That would be a tough sell. At a minimum you would need a special room. My thought is that the only group of consumers interested in Ultra Short Throw projectors would be the ones interested in Projectors in the first place. Which is a minority of the overall market. From Jim: I just finished listening to your episode about ultra-short throw projectors and while we are not a residential integrator, we have installed several of these commercially and thought I'd offer a couple points. --- Early attempts (8-10 years back) at UST projection was awful – a lot of issues with geometry, and it surely turned off a lot of people. --- UST projectors require a perfectly flat screen surface. Walls or conventional screens are no good – has to be perfectly flat. That said, the screen does NOT have to be exotic – just flat. Stop in at any elementary school, you'll see them everywhere projecting on whiteboards. --- As with any projection, for a quality image you want the picture to be aligned to the screen without using any electronic geometry correction. With UST projectors positioning the projector to match the image area is VERY touchy – you have to get the placement just right. --- All in all, if the environment was appropriate for projection and the placement situation was favorable, I would definitely consider a UST projector – particularly if it was laser-based. From Scott: About 3 years ago, I installed make shift home theater with short throw projector and couldn't be happier with the results on a relatively inexpensive setup at least video wise. A lot of people, when they finish their basements, ask me for help when it comes to home theaters usually on a budget. Since I do this for free, I wanted a way I could test things first to keep the “lifetime support” trips down to a minimum. --- Build: Optima got 1080p 3k lumens 3D DLP around $550 Denon X3000 Klipisch RF-62 reference series 7.1 but only using 5.1 using speaker stands STR-169100 Silver Ticket 100” screen white $200 Harmony Remote --- Sources: Windows 10 gaming computer Mac mini FireHD TV Apple TV Panasonic Blu-Ray --- Review: Setting up the screen would be ideal for 2 people due to the size. Putting the aluminum frame together and stretching it so it wrinkle free is critical but very easy with this brand. Hanging it is like hanging a big picture so a laser level and stud finder comes in handy. Since I wanted this easily removable I just have the projector on top of the center speakeer on a stand. Not ideal but works. Sitting about 3 foot away from the screen and 2 foot off the floor, I'm able to project a 100” 1080p image. --- This room has no windows and is small for a home theater at about 12'x20'. This projector was a little pain to dial in to the screen because I didn't have projector mounted and limited adjustments options. Startup time, heat, and fan noise are all the common negatives about projectors in general and are present here. Now for the positives, once dialed in, picture quality, brightness, and speed of the projector just is amazing for the price. I don't hear the fan from the couch with nothing playing. Playing a pinball simulator called pinball arcade, really shows the low latency and speed of the projector that some TVs fall short of. Because of the tight space, it perfect for my little man cave. From John: $0.02 from the perspective of someone that has used a projector as my main TV for over 10 years and who really wanted a short throw back in the day... 1) No marketing (as opposed to bad marketing). General market is uneducated about projectors in general, even less educated about variants like short throw. Industry has done nothing. Most of my neighbors look at the projected image on my screen and ask “where is the TV?" --- 2) No place to see short throw projectors in action. Even if you hear about it, where do you go to see and evaluate a few models? --- 3) Projectors are mostly the domain of professional installers or DIY geeks. Feeds the common wisdom that any projector costs a lot to buy and is complex to install. --- 4) Short throw projectors have little benefit as a replacement projector. If you already handled the necessary electronics, wiring and screen for a conventional projector, replacing it with a short throw will be MORE work than just getting a conventional replacement. --- 5) Short throw is an attractive conventional TV replacement, but the market for AV “components” is not mature. TVs are fundamentally monitors, but come bundled with tuners, web connection, HDMI switching, speakers, WiFi, universal remote and so on. Like a boombox for music, TVs are all-in-one, plug and play and frequently used as the AV system hub that all the other boxes plug into. As a TV replacement, short throws typically only handle the visual part (like a component audio speaker) and lack other functions handled by the old TV. Sure, there are other ways to wire up a system. But I would expect slow short throw projector sales if each install requires DIY reconfiguration and a hunt for new gear to replace what you got “for free” in your TV.
Steve reports back from the LG European technology event for the 2018 OLED and LCD TVs, best of the month, movie news and more...
Costco Shootout: Curved vs. Flat Costco has multiple TVs all lined up side by side. Some are worth comparing to each other, some are like comparing a Ferrari to a Kia. Both great for their own purpose and budget, but not at all similar enough to be compared. We happened to stumble into a Costco recently that had two 55 inch 4K LCD TVs side by side, one curved and one flat. And you can imagine we saw the challenge in that. We decided, right then and there, to do our own shootout of Curved TVs and Flat TVs, all other factors being the same. Both TVs in this case were made by Samsung. Both were side by side on industrial shelves with horrible fluorescent lighting. Both seemed to be set to the default, full bright, dynamic/showroom setting. Neither were professionally calibrated for sure. Both were 4k; both were LCD. As of this recording, Costco.com has multiple Curved and Flat TV sets available online. We compared two Samsung 55” TVs. They also have 65” versions of both styles available. There are many 55” models available at Costco.com two of them are the same ones we saw in store: Samsung 55" 4K Ultra HD Smart Curved LED LCD TV (Model: UN55JU670DFXZA) Price: $1,479.99 (or $1,297 from htguys) Features: Clear Motion Rate 120, UHD Upscaling and Dimming, Built-in Wi-fi with Full Web Browser, Quad Core Processor, PurColor Samsung 55" Class 4K Ultra HD Smart LED LCD TV (Model: UN55JU650DFXZA) $1,269.99 (or $1,197.99 from htguys) On sale for $1,179.99 After $90 OFF & Free Shipping Features: Clear Motion Rate 120, UHD Upscaling and Dimming, Built-in Wi-fi with Full Web Browser, Quad Core Processor, PurColor Visual Performance As you can imagine, both televisions are visually stunning, even without being calibrated. Both are 4K or Ultra HD sets, so the clarity of the picture was impeccable. Neither showed any signs of pixelation nor motion blur. The colors on both sets were very good. Neither showed like an OLED TV, but neither showed like the overly bright, washed out colors of the LCD TVs of yesteryear. Both can produce very respectable black levels - we aren't talking Kuro plasma - but a solid ‘A' for effort. No detail is ever lost in a dark scene; everything shows up with perfect detail. Which leads us to the actually clarity and detail in the picture. With the HD demo content we saw, the TV looked perfect. It was probably either a Blu-ray playing or a Blu-ray quality demo feed, so with high-quality 1080p the TVs are both amazing. We can only imagine that native 4k content will look at least as good and probably even better. We didn't see any overly compressed HD or standard definition content on the screen, but it stands to reason that both TVs would perform just like any other HDTV with ugly input. Garbage in, garbage out. To Curve or Not to Curve That is the question. If you buy the hype, and they typical price bump you see on curved TVs, you would naturally assume the curved set is better for some reason. Maybe not an important reason, but at least for some reason. The typical reason you get is that the picture will look more natural, because the screen matches the curve of your eye. From our side-by-side comparison, that was not true at all. From straight on, it was nearly impossible to tell a difference in picture quality or overall viewing experience. Moving away from a straight-on viewing angle the TVs did differentiate a little. The flat model seems to hold the most consistent off-angle viewing experience, while the curved TV could look different from wide angles. We couldn't tell for sure if the curve itself just reduce the off angle capabilities of the TV, or if some of the differences were similar to the geometric issues the cnet author mentioned, but either way, the flat TV had a better off-angle experience. Some articles online report the curved TV is better for a room with a lot of ambient light, the curve minimizes the reflection surface. Other sites claim the exact opposite, that the ambient light is reflected in strange, fun-house, hall of mirrors style - distorting the reflection and making it even more distracting. We had the same, consistent florescent lighting for both, so we weren't able to really verify either point of view. In our observations, they were roughly the same on ambient light reflection. Conclusion In our limited test and sample, we came to the same conclusion cnet came to, the curve is cosmetic. There's no real benefit in viewing experience nor picture quality on the curved screen. If anything, it reduces where you can use the screen by wanting to have the vast majority of your viewers coming from a straight-on seating position. Curved is like 3D: if that's what you're into, go for it. Have a blast. But if you end up buying a flat TV instead of a curved one, you certainly aren't missing out on anything.
Ultimate Home Theater in a Box for 2014 There are so many cheap Home Theater in a Box (HTIB) systems out there, most of which cost less than the price of a single good speaker! And none of them include a TV. You have to wonder how good a system that cheap can actually be? We thought, why not design a complete system, that anyone would be proud to show off but wouldn't break the bank. Our Home Theater in a Box(es) would actually look and sound really good! Minimum components for our system are a HDTV, Blu-ray Player, Receiver, and 7.1 speakers. For this feature we choose components that we either have direct experience with or have experience with a similar model made by the same manufacturer. In years past we would set a maximum price but this year we are not doing that. We are defining a system that can had by anyone who is serious about home theater. These systems will look and sound great by anyone's definition! Braden: Sharp LC-70EQ10U 70-inch Aquos Q 1080p 240Hz Smart LED TV ($1598) My list is all about bang for the buck, and a 70 inch screen for under $1600 fits the bill for me. Of course, you should have bought it when we had it in our HDTV buying guide and it was $100 less, but $1598 is still a good deal. This model Sharp is a great TV, and really, really big. You aren't getting a projection size home theater, but for most family rooms, 70 inches is more than enough. And if you can't control ambient light well, the brighter LCD will give you a better overall experience than a really big screen you can't see during the day. This one includes Sharp's proprietary Quattron technology incorporates a fourth yellow subpixel to the standard red, green and blue, giving AQUOS Quattron televisions 33% more subpixels than a standard HDTV, for a total of 8 million subpixels. It is a smart TV and has 240 Hz refresh. Onkyo TX-NR636 7.2-Ch Dolby Atmos Ready Network A/V Receiver w/ HDMI 2.0 ($449) Sticking with bang for the buck, Onkyo is my go-to brand for entry-level, bang for the buck receivers. If you want to get a bunch of features packed into a small price point, and a receiver that works well and sounds good, this unit from Onkyo is it. Five of the receiver's seven HDMI inputs support 4K video at 60 frames per second with support for HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2. The Onkyo TX-NR636 doubles the power with two 32-bit processing engines to decode and scale Dolby Atmos to to your home theater layout and to decode a huge variety of HD audio files. With 7 channels of high-current amplification, you can unlock the full experience with in-ceiling height channels or Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers to augment a standard surround sound home theater setup for stunningly detailed sound that comes alive from all directions, including overhead. It has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and the remote app streams any music stored on your phone or tablet. And it can even locate and stream HD audio from network-attached devices. Qdeo upscaling technology also converts low-res DVDs and games into full 1080p HD or all the way up to 4K if you have an Ultra HD display. Sony BDPS3200 Blu-ray Disc Player with Wi-Fi ($77) If you can get a Blu-ray player with all the apps you need to watch movies, TV shows and listen to music, there's really no reason to get an external streaming box. This model from Sony has Vudu, the most important app for streaming movies because they consistently have the best quality, and includes the other go-to apps like Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and YouTube. You can also wirelessly stream the display on your compatible Android device directly to your compatible TV with Miracast screen mirroring. Oh yeah, and it plays Blu-ray movies too. Klipsch RF-42 II Reference Series 7.1 Home Theater System with SW-450 Subwoofer ($1299) So I'm typically a Denon and a Klipsch fan-boy. Admittedly. Not ashamed. Denon didn't make my list this year because that Onkyo is really tough to compete with. But Klipsch did. A full 7.1 speaker system with two front towers, two bookshelves for the sides and two surround speakers for the rear (or vice versa depending on your room and acoustics), a center and a sub. The surrounds feature exclusive Wide Dispersion Surround Technology (WDST) that enables surrounds to reproduce localized and ambient sounds with unlimited placement flexibility. It is the most affordable set in the reference line, so you can always go bigger, but this set will get you movie theater sound in your home theater. Miscellaneous Logitech Harmony 650 Remote Control ($60) Hard buttons FTW. $60 for the mega-win. Great remote, ties all your devices together, has hard buttons for everything you need to do, and barely even changes the total budget at all. It's a no brainer. Add about $100 for cables and a power strip and you should be all set. Sit back and watch some HDTV. Summary Total cost, end to end, for a killer, big screen, 7.1 home theater: $3583. That's less than a 70” TV cost just a couple years ago. Ara: Samsung UN65H7150 65-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D Smart LED TV ($1,800) This year I am going with at 1080p TV because I think dollar for dollar you will enjoy it more than a 4K TV. This Samsung is an edge lit LED with some local dimming. It does not have as many zones as a direct lit LED but it still produces higher contrast and better black levels than most LCD TVs. Colors are realistic and vivid. Being a Samsung TV means it has a ton of gimmicky smart features that you may or may not like, but you can't fault them for packing it all in. Some notable features include: Voice Control, dual screen to watch TV and browse the web, and programming recommendations based on your preferences just to name a few. Its one of the best TVs that Samsung makes that's not 4K or curved! Samsung BD-F5700 Wi-Fi Blu-Ray Player ($70) I normally select the Oppo Blu-ray player but this year I went basic. All blu-ray players do a good job with Blu-rays. What sets apart the Oppo, and other high end units, is how they handle DVD. I figured that if you are buying this system you are probably not one who demands that last 5% out of the picture and this unit will work just fine for you. It has smart features but so does the TV and many receivers. We will just ignore those since the system has a dedicated smart box. Besides, only spending $70 on the Blu-ray leaves us more money for the speakers! Yamaha RX-V677 7.2-channel Wi-Fi Network AV Receiver with AirPlay ($550) I didn't go with a receiver from my buying guide because for this list I was looking for something that is approachable for most people (although some of you will think that this system is too much anyway). Easy setup and calibration, network features so you can stream music from your favorite service, great Yamaha sound, and Airplay for $550 make this an easy choice for my system. Hsu Research 7.0 Speaker Package and VTF-1 MK2 Subwoofer ($1,520) I am a huge fan of Hsu Research. My subwoofer always blows people away when I show them what it is capable of. Many have not heard their speakers and I can tell you you will be hard pressed to find better sounding speakers for the money. You'll be on your fourth TV before you want to swap these babies out! AppleTV ($90) Why get an AppleTV when your Blu-ray player and TV already support the same content. For me its about flexibility. Airplay makes it easy to stream content from my iOS devices to my TV plus I have a lot of purchases in iTunes so my music, TV, and Movies are in Apple's cloud and this device makes it easy to get to. If you are not into Apple you can swap out a Chromcast, Roku 3 or Amazon Fire for roughly the same price. Miscellaneous This is where we throw in everything else. But in this case there really isn't much else left. Well maybe a cool remote control. A Harmony Remote would tie it all together nicely but if you have a tablet or smartphone you may want to consider a Roomie or iRule remote. Which ever route you choose we are allocating $200. The last thing to consider are cables, power strips, and connectors. We will allocate an additional $250 for these items as well. Summary Last year I went a little higher end which cost ($7,810 plus taxes) more than most people felt comfortable spending, even for a nice system. This year I picked value without compromising on quality and that brought the whole thing in for $4,480 plus taxes!!! That's $3,330 less than last year! I never get tired of saying this but, this system comes in for less than my first HDTV!
Follow-up: IBM AS/400 (aka System i) and single-level store. Marco's Retina theory. PS4 and Xbone sales. Trying to care about CES. Who "needs" the Mac Pro? Justifying toys and improving quality of life with smart purchases. Panasonic’s new LCD TVs compared to great TVs of the past. 4K on Fox Sports, 4K's color space, and the chances of 4K catching on quickly. A Steam Box (its controller) as a replacement for a gaming PC. Three old men reminiscing about their teenage gaming years: Null-modem cables, modems, and special networking software. Modem initialization strings and SLIP. What killed LAN parties? Perhaps it was great 4-player N64 games. Three Moves Ahead Podcast. Voodoo 3D cards, their silly cables, and Sound Blasters. Sponsored by: Fracture: Photos printed in vivid color directly on glass. Use code ATP14 for 25% off. (Marco's app-icon Fractures) Ting: Mobile that makes sense. No contracts, and pay only for what you use. Squarespace: Everything you need to create an exceptional website. Use promo code MARCO for 10% off.
Early adopters are good and bad for society. On the one hand they keep prices of new technology unrealistically high by being willing to stand in a long queue to pay over the odds for a new phone or computer that in 6 months will cost half the amount. On the other hand they provide us with huge opportunities to laugh, who can forget the HD DVD debacle, where a bunch of early adopters bought their expensive new DVD players only to have them discontinued in favour of Blu-ray. The same people have spent twice as much money on Plasma screens, LCD TVs, laptops and multiple iPhones and iPads compared to the average person who waits 6 months more and gets them on special offer. The early adopter is never satisfied, the early adopter feels he's winning, but in fact is losing. Eager to put the boot in further we examine this strange product of evolution.
Many a dog has been observed barking at the television - but can they see what's going on in 'One man and his Dog'? Can they see images better on LCD TVs rather than CRT? Plus, we ask why one side of our brain is wired up to control the other side of our body. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
Hosts: Ivan, Bob, Phil, Keith, Tom, Chad. Starcraft 2, Halo 2 For PC recall, Plastic shield for LCD TVs, Ubisoft casual games, Wii carnival game, How long should a company support a game, Guitar Hero 3 songs, Virtual bank licenses, Second Life graphical improvement, Song from Doc Adams. (mp3) Length: 30:09, Size: 21774336
As well as the uual AV News, we discuss the death of CRT, the good and bad points of Plasma and LCD TVs and the importance of screen calibration.
Gannett News Service multimedia editor Leonard Fischer talks with David Woo, president of Westinghouse Digital, about the company's new LCD TV lineup and its growing market share.
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