Podcasts about rtings

No te olvides de dejarnos un ME GUSTA y un COMENTARIO Hoy tenemos las primeras impresiones de la nueva consola de Playstation 5 PRO con las primeras pruebas, hablamos de Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, los datos de Nintendo y muchas más noticias. Tenemos Celeste, Gumpei Yokoi, Los secretos de Project Zero, RTings, y DIgital Foundry. Hoy traemos EL SORTEO DEL LIBRO del MES y traemos ¿Que pasó con....? El libro que vamos a sortear entre los suscriptores el proximo mes. Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

No te olvides de dejarnos un ME GUSTA y un COMENTARIO Hoy tenemos las primeras impresiones de la nueva consola de Playstation 5 PRO con las primeras pruebas, hablamos de Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, los datos de Nintendo y muchas más noticias. Tenemos Celeste, Gumpei Yokoi, Los secretos de Project Zero, RTings, y DIgital Foundry. Hoy traemos EL SORTEO DEL LIBRO del MES y traemos ¿Que pasó con....? El libro que vamos a sortear entre los suscriptores el proximo mes.

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 take a look at the summer's best TVs according to RTINGS.COM. We also read your emails and take a look at the week's news. News: This ‘Google TV Streamer' set-top box is what comes after Chromecast Spotify HiFi likely to cost $17 or $18 a month Verizon Can Get Free NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV or YouTube DirecTV Warns FCC: Without Early Termination Fees, Our Equipment and Installation Costs Are Going To Be Paid For by Our Customers Upfront The  Best TVs - Summer 2024 - RTINGS.COM RTINGS.COM has published an article “The 8 Best TVs - Summer 2024” and we take a look at four of them. The article has the entire list. Best Budget TV - Hisense U6/U6K (Street Price $780 for 75” if you can find it) If you want to spend less, the best budget TV we've tested is the Hisense U6/U6K. It delivers a surprisingly great performance for the price. The Hisense has excellent contrast, so dark scenes look amazing in a dark room, with little blooming around bright areas of the screen. It also has good peak brightness in SDR and decent reflection handling, so glare isn't an issue in a brighter room. It has an excellent color volume, making this TV very colorful overall. It's bright enough in HDR for a pleasant viewing experience, and just like the Hisense U7N, it supports both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR, although it doesn't support advanced DTS audio formats. Full Review… Mixed Usage 7.4, TV Shows 6.9, Sports 7.0, Video Games 7.8, HDR Movies 7.5, HDR Gaming 8.0, PC Monitor  7.7 Best Mid-Range TV - LG B3 OLED (Street Price $1800 for 77”) The LG B3 OLED is the best mid-range TV we've tested if you want something cheaper and still want high-end features. It's a great mid-range TV and can be an excellent entry point into the OLED market. The TV has all the features of the more expensive LG C3 OLED, but the B3 is dimmer and has only two HDMI 2.1 ports. It still delivers outstanding picture quality, especially in a dark room, with its near-infinite contrast ratio delivering deep, inky blacks with no distracting blooming. Its built-in webOS platform is just as fast on this lower-tier model, and it still has very good image processing, so it has no issues upscaling lower-resolution content if you watch DVDs, cable boxes, or Blu-rays. It also has Dolby Vision HDR and supports DTS advanced audio formats, which is great for physical media as it tends to use DTS for their audio tracks. Full Review… Mixed Usage 8.7, TV Shows 8.3, Sports 8.5, Video Games 9.3, HDR Movies 8.8, HDR Gaming 9.0, PC Monitor 9.2 Best Bright Room TV - Sony BRAVIA 9 QLED (Street Price $3500 for 75”) If you need a TV for a room with a lot of lights on, the Sony BRAVIA 9 QLED is an amazing option. Its superb reflection handling and SDR brightness mean it easily overcomes glare in the brightest rooms, so you aren't distracted by reflections on your TV screen. As impressive as this TV is in a bright room, it's also spectacular for use in a dark room. It has exceptional contrast that delivers incredibly deep blacks that are close to what you get from an OLED, with almost no blooming, thanks to its highly effective local dimming control. It's also a great option for 4k Blu-ray collectors or those looking to get the most out of high-quality streaming services due to its support for Dolby Vision and DTS audio formats. Full Review… Mixed Usage 8.8, TV Shows 8.4, Sports 8.3, Video Games 9.1, HDR Movies 9.0, HDR Gaming 9.0, PC Monitor 8.7 Best Home Theater TV - Sony A95L OLED (Street Price $5000 for 77”) If you're looking for the absolute best TV for a home theater setup and don't care as much about the price, check out the Sony A95L OLED. Although it's a very similar TV to the Samsung S90C OLED, it's better for home theaters thanks to its advanced video format support. Compared to Samsung's HDR10+ format, the Sony TV supports the more popular Dolby Vision HDR, so you'll enjoy the most advanced HDR experience possible from almost any source. Sony's processing does a better job following the content creator's intent, so the brightness and colors of HDR content look the way they're supposed to. It also offers better audio format support than the Samsung, including DTS:X passthrough over eARC, so you can simplify your connection to your audio-video receiver by running everything through your TV without sacrificing audio quality. Full Review… Mixed Usage 9.2, TV Shows 8.9, Sports 9.1, Video Games 9.3, HDR Movies 9.3, HDR Gaming 9.1, PC Monitor 9.4  

On this week's show SVS officially launches their Ultra Evolution Speakers, Amazon Echo Dot with LED Display is the best home automation device, and RTINGS.com is not impressed with the Formovie UST Projector. We also read your emails and take a look at the week's news. News: One-in-ten borrow streaming passwords Warner Sets Rollout Date for Max in Europe Mediacom Launches Xumo Stream Box TCL Adds NFL FAST Channel to TCLtv Plus Streaming Service Other: Apple TV+ Is the New HBO | WIRED SVS Launches Ultra Evolution Speakers We had Nick Brown and Smith Freeman on the live stream last Friday where we talked about the speakers and had a fun time. At that time we could not discuss all the details of their new Ultra Evolution speakers. Well this week SVS announced the availability and pricing. From the Press Release: At first glance, the most striking design feature is the acoustically centered time alignment cabinet architecture. A curve in the front baffle aligns the sound emanation point of the tweeter and each driver on a vertical plane ensuring sound from each driver arrives at a listener's ear in the exact same instant. This maximizes phase coherence for a more convincing and immersive soundstage with pinpoint accuracy and imaging. For the tower models specifically, midrange drivers and woofers positioned above and below the tweeter allow for seamless crossover blending to create an idealized “point-source” where sound flows from a single point in front of the speaker to optimize dispersion characteristics. The diamond-coated aluminum dome tweeter is also completely new for SVS. Using a modern  technology called vapor deposition, a layer of diamond carbon is grown on the surface of the aluminum dome to improve rigidity and critical acoustic properties. This breakthrough in material science raises the frequency response well beyond the limits of human hearing resulting in effortless, airy, and unveiled highs with no measurable distortion. It also pushes low frequency extension of the tweeter deeper for more seamless blending with the midrange. Details and pricing on the new models are included below.   Ultra Evolution Pinnacle: 3-way floorstanding speaker - $4,999.98/pair Ultra Evolution Titan: 3-way floorstanding speaker - $3,999.98/pair Ultra Evolution Tower: 3-way floorstanding speaker - $2,999.98/pair   Ultra Evolution Bookshelf: 2-way bookshelf speaker - $1,199.98/pair Ultra Evolution Nano: Compact 2-way bookshelf speaker - $899.98/pair Ultra Evolution Center: 3-way center channel speaker - $799.99 Ultra Elevation: Versatile home theater speaker with multi-angle wall/ceiling mounting bracket - $899.98/pair   Ultra Evolution Nano and Ultra Evolution Tower models will ship later in Q2. Finish options will be limited at launch. All models will soon be available in Piano Gloss Black, Piano Gloss White, and Premium Black Oak Wood Veneer finishes. All SVS products are backed by a five-year unconditional warranty, 45-day in-home trial, fast and free shipping, expert lifetime support, SoundPoints loyalty program, and all the guarantees of the SVS Customer Bill of Rights. Amazon Echo Dot with Clock Best Smart Home Device Overall? I was reading an article on Tom's Guide titled “The best smart home devices in 2024” and saw that they deemed the Amazon Echo Dot with Clock ($50) as the best smart home device overall. I wondered why? Once you dive in, you can see how they got there. From the article: The name says it all: this is an Echo Dot with a clever LED clock built in its face. However, this seemingly simple addition adds a ton of functionality to the Echo Dot, making an even better smart home companion. In fact, we wish more smart home companies took Amazon's cue and make minor — yet effective — enhancements to already excellent devices. I started searching online and found other reviewers saying the same thing. The Dot does everything you'd expect a device of this type to do but it's the LED that sets it apart from its competition. And if you read some of the 65,000 comments you'll see a lot of others agree! The LED can display a clock, timers, weather, song titles, and more.  So do you think a $50 smart speaker with an LED display is worthy of the title “Best Smart Home Device”? Here is what some owners are saying: Replaced my 20 year old alarm clock I was looking for an "Atomic" alarm clock which automatically sets the current time and found this. I bought this Echo Dot for our bedroom when the old alarm clock finally quit working. This is bright, lights up when you speak and shows the time in the dark. Love it! A great clock for any room RTINGS what are you doing? Over at AVS forum a thread caught our eye titled “RTINGS what are you doing?”. The author of the thread was not happy with a review of the  Formovie UST Projector the site had posted. RTINGS gave the projector a 7.1 out of 10 for movies. Reading through the thread it was clear that owners of the Formovie were upset. One poster thought it was possible that the RTINGS methodology may be suspect.  Question for our listeners. If you own a product and are happy with it do you seek out reviews? If they differ from your opinions does it bother you? If you remember in 2023 Projector Central did a laser projector showdown where the Formovie UST Projector won best Best Ultra Short Throw Projector. So it may have been in the AVS forum posters mind that the Formovie was a really good projector. Projector Central did not say best projector but best ultra short throw projector. Most people agree that UST projectors are not as good as long throw projectors but they do have the ability to be viewed in rooms with plenty of ambient light. RTINGS strictly looks at the measurements it takes objectively. When they did, the Formovie UST projector did not fare well. If you look at the scores from the shootout you see that it didn't do much  better than what RTINGS said it did. If RTINGS did a UST shootout the F ormovie may have been the best one. It's just not the best projector.

RTINGS.com is one of the most successful product review sites of all time. Despite 'only' having a DR 75 domain and competing against sites like PCMag, Tech Radar, New York Times, the Wire Cutter, and CNET (all DR 90+ sites), they have over 4 million monthly organic visits. So how exactly did they pull this off?In this week's episode, Mark sits down Pauline Duthiel, Head of Digital Marketing at RTINGS.com to take a look behind the scenes at what SEO looks like at one of the world's most loved review sites - and it was nothing like we expected.____________________________________________A special thanks to our sponsors for this episode, Digital PR and link building solution, BuzzStream:https://www.buzzstream.com/link-building____________________________________________Full show notes:https://www.authorityhacker.com/podcasts/the-secret-to-rtings-seo-success/

On this week's show we look at using a two channel powered speaker with ARC as a soundbar alternative and we look at the best 85” HDTVs you can purchase today. We also read your email and take a look at the week's news. News: Dish Network Loses 314,000 Pay TV Subs Fubo Adds 173,000 Subs and Cuts Loss in Q4 Warner to Crack Down on Max Password Sharing Later This Year Fox predicts sports venture will reach 5M in 5 years Other: Best Smart Home Gadgets To Avoid The Cloud Kanto's new active speakers - with HDMI ARC - could be a nifty soundbar alternative The new Kanto Ren are well-connected, featuring an HDMI input for hooking up to a TV as well as a USB-C input for playing files up to 24-bit/96kHz from a source player. An optical Toslink supports up to 24-bit/96kHz transmission, and there's a single RCA input alongside a 3.5mm jack. If you don't want to plug in directly, they're also kitted out with Bluetooth 5.3. Outputs, meanwhile, come courtesy of a single sub-out line and a single USB Charge. The new units are supplied with a remote control and feature a choice of two extra sound modes – vocal boost and night mode. The latter does one of two things. if a subwoofer is connected, the sub-out signal will be switched off and the low-frequencies will only be emitted from the speaker itself. If no subwoofer is connected, the Ren's bass will be reduced, presumably so as not to disturb your lower-floor neighbors when they're trying to get some kip. There's also a quarter-inch hole at the base of the units for mounting. The new units will be on sale from July, priced at $599 per pair, and are available in a choice of six colors: black, cream, white, green, brown and orange. Potential system to rival the Kento Ren for $250 less: Arylic Bluetooth aptX HD Stereo Amplifier $140 paired with RSL CG3M BOOKSHELF SPEAKER $210 for the pair total cost $350 The 5 Best 80-83-85 Inch TVs - Winter 2024 RTINGS.com We talk about large format HDTVs all the time and they range in super expensive to pretty darn cheap. But what are you getting for your money. RTINGS.com has posted their list of the 5 Best 80 - 85 inch TVs. We run them down for you on today's show.  Best 80-85 Inch TV The best TV you can buy that's available in 80+ inches is the LG OLED83C3PUA ($3596). It's an excellent TV with stunning picture quality, especially in a dark room. It looks amazing in the dark thanks to its near-infinite contrast ratio that results in perfect inky blacks, with no distracting blooming or halos around bright highlights or subtitles. Combined with its high peak brightness and wide color gamut, the latest movies and shows in HDR look amazing. It's no slouch in a bright room either, as it's bright enough to fight glare, and its reflection handling is fantastic.  Mixed Usage 9.0, TV Shows 8.6, Sports 8.8, Video Games 9.4, HDR Movies 9.0, HDR Gaming 9.1, PC Monitor 9.4 See full test results. Best Bright Room 80-85 Inch TV If you're rarely in a completely dark room, check out the Sony XR-85X95L ($4498) instead. It's a slightly larger TV than the LG C3 OLED, making it the best 85-inch TV you can get if you want something slightly bigger. It doesn't have the same perfect black levels as the OLED, but it has a truly incredible contrast ratio and black uniformity, leading to extremely deep blacks. Plus, it gets much brighter than the LG, so it's a better choice if you're in a very bright room, as it can overcome more glare. It also delivers brighter highlights in HDR. This, combined with its excellent color gamut, makes it an impressive choice for watching content in HDR10 or Dolby Vision HDR. Mixed Usage  8.6; TV Shows  8.3, Sports 8.4, Video Games  8.9, HDR Movies  8.8, HDR Gaming 8.9, PC Monitor  8.7 See full test results. Best Mid-Range 80-85 Inch TV If you don't want to spend an arm and a leg but still want good picture quality, then a mid-range TV like the Hisense 85U8K ($2198) is a good alternative. It's significantly cheaper than the Sony X95L or LG C3 OLED but still delivers amazing picture quality. It's just as bright as the Sony, and its contrast is almost as good due to a better overall local dimming solution. The Hisense displays a wide color gamut, has surprisingly good image processing, and supports advanced audio and video formats like our top two picks, so it's an amazing home theater TV for a lower price than the Sony or the LG. Mixed Usage 8.5; TV Shows 8.0, Sports  7.9, Video Games  8.8, HDR Movies  8.8, HDR Gaming  8.9, PC Monitor  8.5 See full test results. Best Lower Mid-Range 80-85 Inch TV If you're on a budget but want better picture quality than the budget option below, the Hisense 85U7K ($1798) is the best lower mid-range TV we've tested available in an 80 to 85-inch size. It's a great TV, with very good picture quality and a wide selection of additional features. It's basically a dimmer Hisense U8/U8K with a nearly identical feature set. It's still bright enough for a pleasant viewing experience in bright rooms. Its contrast, while worse than the picks above, is excellent overall, leading to deep blacks in dark rooms. Like its more expensive sibling, it's a stellar home theater TV with very good image processing and support for HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and advanced DTS audio formats. Mixed Usage  8.2, TV Shows  7.8, Sports  7.8, Video Games  8.7, HDR Movies  8.3, HDR Gaming 8.7, PC Monitor  8.5 See full test results. Best Budget 80-85 Inch TV If you're on a budget and want a large TV, you'll have to spend more than if you were getting a smaller size. However, a few budget-friendly models are available in larger sizes, like the TCL 85Q650G ($998). It's a decent overall TV that doesn't cost nearly as much and still has much to offer. Unlike the models above, this TV doesn't have local dimming to improve its contrast, so it doesn't look as good in a dark room. It also doesn't get as bright or emphasize highlights like the Hisense U7K/U75K does, but it's still good enough to overcome glare in a bright room. Like the Hisense TVs, the TCL supports both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, but it doesn't have good image processing, so it's not a great choice for a home theater setup. Mixed Usage 7.3; TV Shows 6.9, Sports  6.9, Video Games  7.9, HDR Movies  7.2, HDR Gaming  8.0, PC Monitor  7.7 See full test results.

On this week's show we look at the 7 best TVs for your Holiday Shopping. We also read your emails and take a look at the week's news. News: YouTube TV looks to lessen live latency with broadcast delay feature Sorry, Stranger Things season 5 isn't likely to make its Netflix debut in 2024 Comcast Starts Doling Out Xumo Stream Box to Its Internet Customers Google TV is Getting Updated With 14 New Free Channels & A Speed Boost The 7 Best TVs For your Holiday Shopping If you are looking for an idea for a family gift for the holidays we have you covered. These are the 7 best TVs to make your holidays a little brighter. Plus these TVs will make watching the Rose Parade a spectacle of color and detail. This is comes from RTINGS.com Best Cheap TV TCL S4/S450G (50” $240 - 85” $799) - If you want something cheap that gets the job done, the TCL S4/S450G is the best widely available cheap TV we've tested. It's an okay entry-level TV, delivering   a surprisingly good picture quality for a cheap TV. It's a decent choice for a dark room, with its satisfactory contrast ratio and decent black uniformity. It has good reflection handling, so even though it doesn't get very bright, it's certainly good enough for a moderately lit room. The TV supports Dolby Vision HDR, but it isn't nearly bright enough for it to matter. Full Review here…   Mixed Usage  6.7, TV Shows 6.3, Sports 6.2, Video Games 7.1, HDR Movies 6.9; HDR Gaming 7.3 PC Monitor 6.6 Best Budget TV  Hisense U6/U6K (55” $448 - 75” $798) - If you want to spend less, the best budget TV we've tested is the Hisense U6/U6K. It delivers surprisingly great performance for the price. The Hisense has excellent contrast, so dark scenes look amazing in a dark room, with little  blooming around bright areas of the screen. It also has good peak brightness in SDR and decent reflection handling, so glare isn't an issue in a brighter room. It has an excellent color volume, making this TV very colorful overall. It's bright enough in HDR for a pleasant viewing experience, and just like the Hisense U8/U8K, it supports both HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR, although it doesn't support advanced DTS audio formats. Full Review here… Mixed Usage  7.4, TV Shows 6.9, Sports 7.0, Video Games 7.8, HDR Movies  7.5, HDR Gaming  8.0, PC Monitor 7.7 Best Upper Mid-Range TV LG C3 OLED (42” $896 - 83” $3996) - If you want a good home entertainment OLED but don 't want to get the expensive Sony A95L OLED, check out one of the best upper mid-range TVs we've tested, the LG C3 OLED. It's a premium TV that delivers stunning picture quality, especially in dark rooms; thanks to its near-infinite contrast ratio, there's no blooming around bright objects. It gets bright enough to fight glare even in moderately-lit rooms, and the reflection handling is incredible, but it doesn't use quantum dot technology, so colors aren't as bright as some of our other picks. The LG partly makes up for it with its versatility, as it has very good image processing, Dolby Vision HDR support with Dolby Vision gaming at 120Hz, and can passthrough advanced DTS audio formats. Like the Sony TVs, the LG supports Dolby Vision HDR, which is more widely used than Samsung's competing HDR10+.  Full Review here… Mixed Usage 9.0, TV Shows 8.6, Sports 8.8, Video Games 9.4, HDR Movies 9.0, HDR Gaming 9.1, PC Monitor 9.4 Best Bright Room TV (Sony X93L/X93CL (65” $1598 - 85” $3498) - If you mainly watch TV in a bright room, a TV with an LED backlight and higher peak brightness, like the Sony X93L/X93CL, is a better choice than the top two picks on this list. It's an excellent TV with impressive picture quality and an incredible peak brightness that helps it overcome glare in a bright room. It still looks good in a dark room thanks to its high contrast ratio and Mini LED local dimming feature, but there's more distracting blooming around bright highlights and subtitles in darker scenes compared to an OLED TV. Full Review here…   Mixed Usage 8.5, TV Shows 8.2, Sports 8.3, Video Games 8.8, HDR Movies 8.5, HDR Gaming 8.8, PC Monitor 8.6 Best Home Theater TV Sony A95L OLED (55” 2498 - 77” $4598) - If you're looking for the absolute best TV for a home theater setup and don't care as much about the price, check out the Sony A95L OLED. Although it's a very similar TV to the Samsung S90C OLED, it's better for home theaters thanks to its advanced video format support. Compared to Samsung's HDR10+ format, the Sony TV supports the more popular Dolby Vision HDR, so you'll enjoy the most advanced HDR experience possible from almost any source. Sony's processing does a better job following the content creator's intent, so the brightness and colors of HDR content look the way they're supposed to. It also offers better audio   format support than the Samsung, including DTS:X passthrough over eARC, so you can simplify your connection to your audio-video receiver by running everything through your TV without sacrificing audio quality. Full Review here… Mixed Usage 9.2, TV Shows 8.9, Sports 9.1, Video Games 9.3, HDR Movies 9.3, HDR Gaming 9.1, PC Monitor 9.4 Best TV Samsung S90C OLED (55” $1497 - 77” $2497) - The best TV we've tested is the Samsung S90C OLED. It's a fantastic TV with a great selection of extra features and incredible picture quality. It looks fantastic in a dark room thanks to its nearly infinite contrast ratio and perfect black uniformity, with no distracting blooming around bright areas of the screen. HDR content looks fantastic thanks to its high peak brightness, wide color gamut, and incredibly vibrant and realistic colors. Unlike some other TVs, the Samsung model doesn't support Dolby Vision HDR, nor does it support advanced DTS audio formats. It does support Samsung's less widely used HDR10+ format, which looks just as good as Dolby Vision. It's available in four sizes, 55, 65, 77, and 83 inches, although the 83-inch model uses a WOLED panel, so it looks different than the smaller sizes. Full Review here… Mixed Usage 9.0, TV Shows 8.6, Sports 8.9, Video Games 9.4, HDR Movies 9.0, HDR Gaming 9.3, PC Monitor 9.5

On this week's show Ara discusses his automated Holiday lights by Nanoleaf. And John Lyman was kind enough to review the 75” Hisense U7K which he picked up for $999! We also read your emails and take a look at the week's news. News: Chromecast With Google TV 4K is On Sale At Its Lowest Price Ever In a Post Black Friday Sale Streaming Services Will Double the Number of Pricing Tiers in 2024 Cord Cutters Will Outnumber Cable TV Subscribers By The End of The Year Sonos Plans To Launch $400 AirPods Max Rival, Set-Top Box And Much More Other: Finally! A home automation hub that makes sense--Homey Pro Review Chuck Ackermn's Amazing Light Show Nanoleaf Christmas Lights Review I recently bought the Nanoleaf Smart Holliday String lights for the sale price of $90. They are now at the regular price of $100 at the Nanoleaf Website. I just installed them and have mixed feelings about them. Features: 250 Addressable LEDs | 20m 16+ Million Colors and Tunable Whites Use with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Matter over Wi-Fi Control with Attached Controller, Nanoleaf App or through a Smart Home Ecosystem I connected the lights to my home prior to putting them up under my eaves. It was pretty straight forward and like pretty much every smart home product you buy it needed a firmware upgrade. The whole process took about ten minutes. Installation is like any other Christmas light installation right down to the frustration with the LEDs not wanting to lay flat against the eaves. Be prepared to do a lot of clamping to make your lights look like good little soldiers. The first pass was to make the lights completely hidden under the eaves. When it was complete, it looked good but not nearly bright enough to give the desired effect. Round two was to remove the lights that took forever to get perfectly installed and attach them to flush to the bottom of the eaves. Again taking time to make the wire look as uniform as possible. The lights don't look like Christmas lights and being flush should placate any HOA that has rules about leaving your Christmas Lights up all year long. Using the new configuration delivered the desired effect of being able to change how my lights look just by pressing a button. There are a lot of different scenes that people have developed so finding something you like is very easy. I may add a thin track to hide the wire but for now I am happy with the lights. There are other options out there that are far more sophisticated and can produce a dazzling light show. But those cost ten times the Nanoleaf's $100 price tag. Chuck Ackermn's Amazing Light Show Hisense U7K Review From time to time our very talented listeners share a review of a product that they have been using. Today, John Lyman was kind enough to review the 75” Hisense U7K which he picked up for $999! Features: Mini-LED - Full array local dimming Quantum Dot technology creates over a billion shades of color HDR -  Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG. 144Hz Game Mode Pro  2.1.2 50W driving 5 speakers including rear ‘overhead' speakers and a built-in subwoofer  Hands Free Voice Control Google TV Supports HDMI 2.1, Apple Home, Apple AirPlay, Wifi 6E, Wisa, NextGenTV Four or five years ago we redid our media room to make it more usable. The downside was I lost my beloved projector and 110” screen.  I originally replaced the projector with a 70” Vizio E Series after holiday pricing and our Costco rebate. I paid about $250 knowing I would be upgrading down the road.   This fall I was given the green light from the financial committee that I could upgrade the TV.  As much as I wanted a bigger screen, we decided that a 75” would be the best fit for the space and keep it safe from our 14-year-old son.   I started doing my research on the web and came away with a short list of TVs that was made shorter when a lot of last year's models were not available.    I ended up with about 8 TV's (Samsung, LG, etc.) in the under $1300 range and did a RTings shoot-out between them using their TV compare feature.  This gave me three finalists.  A Vizio P Series Quantum (2021 model), TCL Q7 and the Hisense U7K.   The Hisense U7K came out with the best overall score 8.2 with sports and TV viewing receiving a 7.8 and movies receiving an 8.3. These are the 3 things I care most about. The TCL Q7 came in a close second.   I then looked for an online review and saw great reviews about the Hisense and TCL - finding comparisons to the 2021 P Series was much harder.  Basically, it became a coin toss between the TCL Q7 and Hisense U7K. Reviewers liked both TV's.  I ended up picking the Hisense - why you ask - because I'm a good dad and they offered a free copy of NBA 2k24 Black Mamba edition with purchase (see above about my 14-year-old son).  Once I had the TV here I found this review from Caleb at Digital Trends Hisense U7K ULED mini-LED TV review: | Digital Trends basically calling it the Best TV for most people.  I have also recommended this TV to my boss who purchased the TV.  Once the TV arrived it took me about 45 minutes or so to get setup and mounted to my wall and hooked up to my Apple TV.  Out of the box the picture was good but with a little too much motion control.  However, once I turned on Dolby Vision on my Apple TV and selected Dolby Vision dark mode on the TV, the picture with a little fine tuning was amazing.  I have since fine-tuned the Dolby Vision custom for a great picture and family approved.  This TV has so many options to adjust the picture with detailed white balance if you are so inclined.  However, I started with the RTings Dolby vision settings and then tuned in what looked good for our family.   It was time to watch content so as a service to the audience I have sat down over the past few weeks and watched John Wick 1-4 along with football and redzone.  I picked the John Wick movies to watch in their entirety because they are really good movies, they have a lot of dark and bright content, and fast-moving action.  I have also watched John Wick 1 many times, so I was familiar with the film.   I streamed 1-3 through my Apple TV library (I own those) and # 4 on Starz.  I was amazed by how good the picture was and looking at John Wick in evening shots with black suit, black shirt, tie, and hair you could make out the different shades of black easily.  Nothing looked washed out.  The blacks looked really good.  In #4, the puffs of blood were red and visible.  I noticed how sharp and clear everything looked and the definition between black and bright objects seemed perfect. I didn't notice any blooming scenes.  I did get distracted when I was looking at everything and noticing the fine details but the action as it was so good and easy to follow.     I then watched about 8 - 007 title sequences and as a bond fan who has seen all these movies multiple times, I know them well.  During the white circle bouncing around the black screen, I could sometimes see a little blooming (more so with Connery and Moore), but you had to be looking.  I was amazed at the different levels of black in those scenes and noticed things I had never noticed in my many years of watching bond films.  I have also watched clips from Aquaman (for the color) during the fight in the Italian village again I was blown away by the color and brightness that was just right.  Watching football is really nice. I could make out the color of some of the players' eyes. The color is great and once I had the motion setting dialed in everything was crystal clear and realistic.   My son has enjoyed his gaming on this TV (plays a lot of Madden) and the picture does look better than before (sorry I'm not much of a gamer and you don't get many words from a 14 year) One con that has been mentioned in reviews is the viewing angle but the 75” uses an IPS panel for better off angle viewing and the picture is very good. The 65” and smaller use an ADS I believe.   I paid $999 for the TV but I'm seeing holiday pricing of $900.  This TV had the same price as the TCL Q7 when I was purchasing it.   I believe that Hisense, TCL, and other lower mid name recognition brands are using lower price point to get their name out in the market and build market awareness and will eventually raise their prices.  It doesn't hurt that they manufacture a lot of their components.  TV Settings: I started at RTings website (https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/hisense/u7k-u7-u75k/settings) and scrolled down to the Dolby Vision settings and then tweaked some and here are my current settings (but I'm still having fun tweaking as always: General - Automatic Light Sensor - Off Brightness settings: Local diming - High  Brightness - 100 Contrast 55 Black level 0 Dark Detail - Off Active Contrast - Low Color: Color 60 Hue 0 Color Temperature - Standard Clarity Sharpness 10 Super Resolution - Off Smooth Gradient low Noise reduction - low MPEG Noise resolution - Low Motion Enhancement - Film Motion Clearness - Off

Timestamps: 0:00 James is bad with holidays 0:10 dbrand sues for skin theft 1:52 Lenovo sues Asus 2:56 Chinese factories repurposing 4090s 4:00 UPDF 4:46 QUICK BITS INTRO 4:55 YouTube ad speedrun any% 5:28 Sonos to make headphones 6:05 Samsung burn-in/Rtings testing 6:37 Google's secret Spotify deal 7:16 Ubisoft's ad "technical error" News Sources: https://lmg.gg/llExK

On this week's show Ara orders Holiday lights that he plans on leaving up year round. We also compare the HDR formats and explain terms to help you understand what it all means. We also read your emails and take a look at the week's news. News: Roku's latest update adds expert picture tuning, sports favoriting and more Infamous ‘Turn-On' To Air On YouTube, Fastest Cancellation In TV History Netflix Still Having Ad-Supported Option Troubles? The Marketplace Decides AT&T Exploring Options for DirecTV as Pay-TV Subscriptions Continue Decline DIRECTV & DIRECTV STREAM Are Raising Their Prices Soon | Cord Cutters News Other: Canceled TV program “Turn On” Matter Smart Holiday String Lights Get festive with Nanoleaf Smart Holiday String Lights ($199 Pre-order)! The perfect decoration for your tree, or throughout your home to bring out the holiday spirit. Customizable color palettes and lighting animations set the Christmas mood in an instant, with just the touch of a button or a simple voice command. Sync with your favorite holiday songs to watch as your lights dance to the beat. Designed for both indoor and outdoor use. 250 Addressable LEDs | 20m 16+ Million Colors and Tunable Whites Use with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Matter over Wi-Fi Control with Attached Controller, Nanoleaf App or through a Smart Home Ecosystem Requires a Matter compatible smart home hub and iOS/tvOS 16.5+ or Android OS 8.1+ to connect to a smart home ecosystem. Differences Between HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision - RTINGS.com I was reading an article (Differences Between HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision) over at RTINGS.com to see which HDR format they thought was the best. In the article they did an excellent explanation of what HDR is and what terms like bit depth and tone mapping are. We throw those around all the time but have never really explained what they are and why you should care. So this week we do that!            

Timestamps: 0:00 important questions 0:09 Windows 12 Subscription rumors 1:22 Unreal Engine won't be free for non-game devs 2:54 Meta AI fallout 4:10 The Ridge Wallet 4:41 QUICK BITS 4:51 Apple almost switched to DuckDuckGo 5:32 TSMC 3nm ain't goin' so well 6:09 RTings.com tests shows OLED burn-in 6:43 Prada helping design NASA space suit 7:38 Google Japan makes a keycap hat News Sources: https://lmg.gg/OQuhN

This week we have a big show for you! We announce the winner of our speaker giveaway, talk about the “Telly”, a free TV with a second screen for ads. We also take our monthly look at the RTINGS.COM longevity tests and finally we discuss why cable companies may want to forgo hardware and just go IPTV. We also read your email and take a look at the week's news. News: Abode Announces Google Nest Integration B&O launches the world's 2nd 97-inch OLED TV, and it's much cooler than LG's Samsung admits defeat and reportedly inks deal for LG's OLED TV panels TCL Launches 2023 S Class and Q Class TVs Researchers find security flaw in Wemo Smart Plug, Belkin says it won't release a patch Other: Dynaflex (RCA) - Wikipedia Telly Free TV Winner of Reclaimed wood Speakers - Russell Cain Bastrop, Texas The streaming wars are over, and it's time for media to figure out what's next I'm calling it. The Streaming Wars are over. 2019-2023. RIP. The race between the biggest media and entertainment companies to add streaming subscribers, knowing consumers will only pay for a limited number of them, is finished. Sure, the participants are still running. They're just not trying to win anymore. Full article here… Key points: The media and entertainment industry is currently focused on raising prices and cutting costs. Disney lost 4 million Disney+ subscribers in the quarter, most of which came from India. At some point, the industry will need a new growth narrative. The most obvious candidate is gaming. RTINGS.COM Longevity Test Update RTINGS.COM Longevity Test Update How long until Cable and Satellite go 100% IPTV? WOW! Internet, Cable & Phone, a leading broadband services provider, today announced the company has signed an agreement with Google to offer YouTube TV as its dedicated live television offering. Through this partnership, consumers can purchase WOW!'s fastest, most reliable Internet, together with the industry-leading YouTube TV service, all on one convenient WOW! monthly bill. Full Press Release…  

Allison and Steve on Kilowatt Podcast CCATP #767 – Bart Busschots on PBS 150 of X – Bash Script Plumbing (Take Two) Dramatically More Engagement on Mastodon vs. Twitter Make Your Mac's Keyboard Klack like a Mechanical Keyboard RTINGS Helped Me Find the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3 Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker Support the Show Security Bits — 14 May 2023 Transcript of NC_2023_05_14 Join the Conversation: allison@podfeet.com podfeet.com/slack Support the Show: Patreon Donation PayPal one-time donation Podfeet Podcasts Mugs at Zazzle Podfeet 15-Year Anniversary Shirts Referral Links: Parallels Toolbox - 3 months free for you and me Learn through MacSparky Field Guides - 15% off for you and me Backblaze - One free month for me and you Setapp - One free month for me and you Eufy - $40 for me if you spend $200. Sadly nothing in it for you. PIA VPN - One month added to Paid Accounts for both of us

This week we look at the best passive bookshelf speakers under $600. We also revisit the RTINGS.com long term burn in investigation and we ask the question, “Is 1080p with HDR all we really need?” Pulse we read your emails and the week's news. News: Google Home app improves support for curtains, heaters, appliances, more Shares in Regal Cinemas' owner hit all-time low YouTube starts presales of NFL Sunday Ticket subscription Google TV Adds Hundreds More FAST Channels From Tubi, Plex and Haystack to Its 'Live' Tab Other: HT Guys Music Playlist on Spotify The best passive bookshelf speakers for most people We tested a bunch of five to six-inch speakers under $600 and picked our favorite. Full article here… Longevity Burn-In Investigative Paths After 3 Months RTINGS.com has been running a long term longevity test and we are more than three months in. The TVs are at 2400 hours of run time. If you watch your TV about 5 hours a day that's equivalent to almost a year and a half in just over three months. So what are they finding? Here are just some highlights. RTINGS.com has a very thorough investigation and explanation found in the article link: Longevity Burn-In Investigative Paths After 3 Months Three partial TV failures and one complete failure. The Samsung S95B OLED completely failed while the Hisense U7G, Sony X95J, and LG G2 OLED were deemed partial failures. Both QD-OLED displays are showing signs of potential permanent image retention Some of the Sony WOLED displays are also showing burn-in ( A8H, A80K, A80J, A90J, and A90K). After running a pixel refresh video they were able to nearly eliminate all image retention on the Sony A8H, A80K, and A90J. The Sony A80J and A90K, however, don't look any better, and it looks like this is a permanent burn-in on these two TVs. There were significant brightness fluctuations on a handful of TVs. While some of this variation can be explained by the margin of error of the test equipment, a few TVs warranted a deeper look to determine what was going on. HDR: Simply Better Pixels Do We Really Need 4K if HDR is So Good? SMPTE Life Fellow Mark Schubin has compared formats, frame rates and HDR to show what provided the best data option. Full article here… I asked Matthew Goldman, senior director, Media Engineering & Architecture for Sinclair Broadcast Group. and Tim Walker, senior product manager at AJA Video Systems the same visual quality question: With all things being equal, on a scale from 1 to 10, if 1080p SDR is a 1 and 4K HDR is a 10, where would you place 1080p HDR and 4K SDR? Both answered exactly the same: 1080p HDR sits at 8, while 4K SDR sits at 4  

Ep. 24 Best Filmmaking Cameras of Spring 2023 This week we make our own list of Best Filmmaking Cameras in the spirit of RTINGS.COM Some links below to product sites may be affiliate links and may result in a commission to the Camera Gear Podcast     Pre-show: Lucas' new 23mm 1.4 23mm 1.4 review MY 23mm f/1.4 (the oldy but goody) The new actually good 23 f/1.4 you should buy rather than the old one   Lucas' Legendary Lens Labyrinth: Seeing in the Dark Petapixel Article on the Noct More on the Noct The new Noct   OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm f/3.5 Macro IS PRO OM SYSTEM M.Zuiko Digital ED 90mm f/3.5 Macro IS PRO (Adorama)   BEST Flimmaking Cameras Spring 2023!!!!! Our inspiration (rtings article) Cameras in no particular order (no spoilers): Sony A1 (Adorama) Canon R5C (Adorama) Lumix BS1H (Adorama) Fuji X-H2s (Adorama) Canon R6 ii (Adorama) Lumix S5 ii (Adorama) Canon R8 (Adorama) Sony FX30 (Adorama) Canon R10 (Adorama) Sony FX3 (Adorama) Lumix S1H (Adorama) Canon C70 (Adorama) Sony A7III  

This week we ask the question, how big is too big? We discuss what is the optimal size screen for your viewing situation. We also give some recommendations for some large screen TVs. We also read your emails and look at the week's news. News: Paramount Plus to Hike Prices by as Much as $2 a Month, Likely in July Mini-LED TVs Are Hot Right Now — But A New Report Has Bad News ELAC Announces Varro Subwoofer Line Other: Support Cycle Kids I'm sorry but...Matter SUCKS (now) This MANSION Has a $1 MILLION Star Wars Theater! How Long Should A TV Last? To try to answer this question, RTINGS.com  decided to run 100 TVs that they still have in the lab from the last 2-3 years through a grueling 2-year accelerated longevity test to see how long they last. Each TV will run for either 20 or 15.5 hours per day, for a total of 126 hours per week, turning off eight times a day to simulate normal use. Every two months, they'll take uniformity and brightness measurements to see how they age over time and to look for any uniformity issues or change in brightness over time. Updates will be posted on their website (How Long Should A TV Last? Our 100 TV Accelerated Longevity Test - RTINGS.com) and their YouTube channel. What is the Optimal Size and Placement of my 4K TV We are asked from time to time what size TV should I buy for my room. We typically say, “No one has ever said I should have bought a smaller TV”. So we typically say buy the biggest one you can afford or that will fit in the room.  No one has ever complained about this advice. THX has some recommendations on how to calculate the optimal screen size for your room as well as where to place it. First let's take a look at placement.  For optimal viewing, THX recommends that your line of sight be more or less aligned with the center of the screen. They suggest 15 degrees or less, above or below the center. Our recommendation is if the only place to mount the TV is over the fireplace, you should move! For optimal distance from the screen in inches, divide the diagonal length by .835. So for a 70” screen the optimal distance is 7 feet (213 cm). The other way to use this formula is if you know the distance and want to calculate the optimal screen size if to take the distance in inches and multiply it by .835. So if you sit 10 feet (305 cm) away from where the screen would go, the optimal screen size is 100 glorious inches! So what have we learned today? We learned that the HT guys have been successfully advising our listeners about screen size without the pesky use of math for years. Get the biggest size TV that you can afford that will fit in your room! Spouse approval optional. Just tell them Ara and Braden said it was OK. Four Large TVs for under $1200 (Costco) Samsung 75" - TU700D Series - 4K UHD LED LCD TV $679.99 Features: Smart TV Powered by Tizen Crystal Processor 4K Works with Alexa and Google Assistant Crystal Display 3 Year Warranty + HDMI Cable   LG 75" Class - NANO80 Series - 4K UHD LED LCD TV $899.99 Features: α5 Gen 5 AI Processor 4K Local Dimming Active HDR10, HLG $75 Streaming Service Magic Remote Sony 75" Class - X80CK Series - 4K UHD LED LCD TV $1099.99 Features: 3 Year Manufacturer Warranty 1 yr. Bravia Core Streaming + 5 Movie Credits Premium Backlit Remote w/ Finder Function 4K HDR Processor X1 TRILUMINOS PRO Color LG 86" Class - UQ8000 Series - 4K UHD LED LCD TV $1199.99 Features: α7 Gen 5 AI Processor 4K 120 Hz Refresh Rate AI Sound Pro $75 Streaming Service Magic Remote with NFC Allstate 3-Year Protection Plan Bundle Included for 5 years of total coverage

This week we have three features provided by our listeners. Scott Hawk has thoughts on why CDs were considered superior to albums in the early 80s. John Lyman compares Records vs Airplay and Digital lossless and Tim Klevar reviews the Airfly Bluetooth dongle and the Sony Mark V headphones. Plus we have listener emails and news.  NBC Could Give Third Hour Of Nightly Primetime Back To Local Affiliates Samsung, Prime Video to Offer 8K Content From ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' Report: Budget-friendly Samsung displays on the horizon CD's Were Universally Recognized as Superior to Albums in the 1980s By Scott Hawk Back in 1985, cassettes were outselling records and you probably remember how terrible they were.  Cheap housings made them wobbly inside your player. Cheap tape material gunked up the heads and reels of your cassette deck with soot. They used Dolby B or no noise reduction. All this got worse if you kept them in your car.  For many people, records were not much better. Few people cleaned their records so pops, hisses and cracks were common. Plus, the record undergoes wear with each play since the needle is physically touching the grooves.  Plus, the stylus would also exhibit wear, reducing its ability to track the grooves on the record. A stylus starts off with a nice point but gets rounder over time.  So, play a record 300 times and the wear on the stylus and record obviously effects the sound quality. Most turntables were belt driven and the belts had been stretched, dried out or slipping which caused all sorts of wow & flutter.  Now, enter the CD. Even though CD players were at first expensive, within a few years all CD players sounded alike. Everyone who listened to music got an upgrade.  If you had a cassette tape, the new CD sounded amazing. And, if your tape was a few years old, the new CD sounded like it came from heaven.  If you had a worn out record playing on a worn out turntable, you also got a major sound upgrade.  And, if you listened to FM radio, you too got a huge sound upgrade.  Plus, they sounded great on the first play and the 300th. CDs were also indestructible compared to tapes and records.  No wonder everyone raved about digital music.   So, what happened since then? Today, getting a good music experience is much simpler. Any phone with even basic headphones stream good sounding music. And, nice sounding music can even come from a bluetooth speaker.  But to get music out of a turntable, you have to go through a process which has some attraction. It's certainly more of a process than using your phone. That process has some allure to it and the music will sound different. People can decide for themselves if something that sounds different is actually better. I think my own experience was not the most common. I was passionate about this as a kid.  I saved up to buy a fancy direct-drive turntable, with a floating suspension and a carbon fiber tonearm. I bought a Shure cartridge, installed it myself and adjusted the tonearm, tracking pressure and tracking angle. I'd buy a new album and play it twice … once to remove any manufacturing artifacts and then again to copy it to a Hi-Bias or Metal tape with Dolby C noise reduction. I splurged on a 3-head tape deck and cleaned it (and my records) religiously.  I'd only play the record again to replace the tape or make a mix tape.  I was very particular in getting the tape to sound as close to the record as I could.  So … a friend gets a CD player and loans it to me.  I go out and buy 2 CD's … Don Fagan's Nightfly and Dire Straits (first album).  Holy cow … it blew away my ears.  The highs on the cymbals were stunning. The dynamic range was astonishing.  The extra thump of the bass gives me chills to this day.  Even after all the effort I took to get the best sound, this new technology just ran the table. Record vs Airplay and Digital lossless a Listener's Test  By John Lyman With all the discussion I was curious about the difference in the following three formats: Streaming via AirPlay 2, USB to Amp streaming at highest rate vs a record. My setup for the test:   M1 iMac streaming to an Airport Express (Airplay 2)  - digital output into the receiver (10 Feet away) 2019 16” MacBook Pro connected to Amp using USB output set to 24 bit 192Khz  Pro-Ject Debut Carbon Evo Turntable - connected to a Cambridge Audio phono amp Amp is a Cambridge Audio CXA-81  Speakers are Wharfdale EVO 4.2  Sub is turned off and no EQ running Using Apple Music for digital content The songs I picked were  determined by the few albums I have and those that are brand new.  I also chose the first song on a side of the record so I was listening to the same thing from all sources.  I played about 1:30 minutes of the song. I went in the same order starting with streaming to Airplay, USB direct connect and then turntable. Songs used Elton John - Sweet Painted Lady (24 bit 44.1Khz  lossless from Apple)  Neil Young - Old Man (24 bit 196 Khz) Pink Floyd - Speak to Me/Breathe (24bit 96Khz) Overall I noticed the same thing  Airplay had the narrowest soundstage, was the brightest sounding of all, and the instruments did not stand out as much.  The horn on Sweet painted lady was not as pronounced.  In the chorus of Old Man where its a higher pitch and louder - the other instruments get lost.  Breathe you can't tell there are two voice at the beginning  USB Connection While Painted lady was at the same stream quality I could hear a difference. The soundstage was larger and I noticed a horn that I did not in the Airplay 2.  Old Man is where I really could hear the difference in the sound stage being a little wider and the instruments were clearer.  When they get to chorus its not as bright as the Airplay and I could easily make out the other instruments.  Breathe - I noticed there were at least two voices singing and again bigger soundstage  Album - WOW this blew me away on all three songs with a much warmer sound and clean.  Sweet Painted Lady had a great soundstage, the horn came out great along with the other instruments.  Old Man the chorus was not as high pitched as the others and I could make out more of the background singers. Speak to Me/Breathe - this is where I was blown away.  In the digital version the jump between Speak to me and Breath is very pronounced there is no ramp up to the louder music you just jump there.  On the album there was a ramp up and then the wall of music hit me.   Conclusion  I found that the higher bit rate/more information provided did create a better sound picture filling in the holes a little better because of the additional information.  I would also say the direct connection does make a difference as I noticed with Sweet Painted Lady.  However, with the majority of my listening being done during the work day or streaming around the house with a non-critical ear. I will continue to use Airplay 2 because it is easy.   However, for critical listening I will be using either a Mac hooked up directly or an Album with a good bourbon. Update  I wanted to send an update after this weekend.  I was reading an article about Open Core Legacy Patcher (OpenCore Legacy Patcher) that allows a person to install the latest Mac OS on older machines.  So I went through the process of updating my 2012 Mac mini that I use as media server.  This allowed me to load Monterey on that machine and take full advantage of Apple Music lossless on the machine and also Airplay to the machine from other devices.  I'm streaming the music over USB to my amp as it allows full 24/192 output (digital capped out at 24/96) when direct streaming.   I also received Supertramp's Even in the Quietest moments original album.  This album has a song called Fool's Overture that I have been using for speaker testing since the 90's. A great song because of so many instruments and changes really puts speakers through its paces. So I listened to this song from the album and again I noticed  a warmer and good sound stage. To me the bottom line is that both lossless and vinyl sound great for those dedicated music listening times.  The reason I believe those two give a better sound quality is similar to streaming vs a Blu-ray Disc the more information the better the end product will be and the better the sound stage.  Airfly & Sony Mark V A Listener's Review By Tim Klevar The Airfly is everything it promises to be. I bought the Duo and it allows two devices to connect. If you have cup phones and earpods, this or the Duo Pro is for you. There are two models of the Airfly: Duo and Pro. Both allow for two devices to connect. The Pro provides an “Aux in” function. The Duo is about $10 less expensive than the Pro, although neither are more than $55. Mostly, I think, cars and other things do not need this.  I bought the Duo. It works well, it is “elegant” in its design and function. It only has two buttons with dots. There is a single dot and double dot button used to connect and select the devices. Pressing either button connects to the device that was paired on that button. It charges via a USB-C port and has a USB-C to USB-A cable included. It is only about 6 inches long, but enough to get from an IFE USB to the AirFly. It is pretty cool.  The Sony Mark V headphones are everything they promise to be. I agree with Tom's and RTINGS analysis. While they do not come with aptX, they have the other main codecs, including LDAC. These seem to me to be better than the Bose 700's, which likely will not be upgraded until next year. On the other hand, the Mark V uses BT 5.2 and I was able to get about 40+ feet away from the source with no dropoff in quality or squeaks/pops. It was just as clear as when I was in the room. These work really well. They are not perfect. And pricey. But if you have the money, they are worth it. I believe it is better than the Bose 700s.  The noise canceling is super and the sound is excellent. I do not have one of the subscriptions to try the spatial 360 stuff. The ear cups fit nicely over my normal sized ears and provide a snug fit. There are only two buttons, one to power on and one to change the noise canceling levels, of which there are about 6 or 7. I have not yet been on a plane to see about engine noise, but around the house, it is a “dark” zone when I have these on. However, I notice that sometimes when I laugh or move my jaws just so, it pauses the video/audio stream and I have to double-tap the right cup to play again (I watch one or two episodes of Hogan's Heroes or Bob Newhart to relax my mind before I go to bed). It is still pretty cool that when I take them off, the stream pauses and then resumes when I put them back on.   The connection via BT was clean, and the Duke Ellington I listened to was sensational. All ambient noise in my home office was eliminated. The app is a little lame, and to get the 360 Spatial, you have to use one of 5 services, one of which is TIDAL, but the others were obscure to me (Deezer, Artist, mugs.net,, Peertracks)  I particularly enjoyed being able to use the conductive touch feature to raise/lower the volume, skip ahead and such. Just a quick swipe on the left earcup was all that was needed. They also include a 3.5mm cable for a wired connection if you run out of juice, but they are supposed to last for 30 hours at full charge. A nice thing, you can get a couple of hours with a 3-5 minute charge, although with the advent of more in-seat power this is not really a “feature.”  In theory you can use Aa-Lady to do things with the app, but I have not been able to figure that out yet. I also Have had issues trying to update the firmware. While I know that high-speed connectivity is coming, many do not have that and use the IFE system. This doohickey will let them use their BT headphones for which they paid a fortune.  

This week Ara is on vacation again but we didn't want to leave you hanging so we have a special show. We go back to the early 2000s and learn how Ara and Braden became pilots for a very brief moment. And we also look at the best 65" TV for less than $1000 Other: Join the Neat Exchange - Social Media for Whiskey Drinkers Ara's Woodworking Join the Flaviar Whisky Club and get a free bottle Best 65-Inch TV Under $1,000 (RTINGS.COM) The Hisense 65U8G is the best 65-inch TV under $1,000 we've tested (full review here). It's an impressive TV, with outstanding contrast, excellent black uniformity, and high HDR peak brightness. It has the Android TV smart platform built-in, with an easy-to-use interface with a large selection of apps, so you're sure to find your favorite streaming content. It supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, meaning you can get a great HDR experience from any streaming service or external source. Visibility won't be an issue if you want to use it in a well-lit room, thanks to its excellent reflection handling and amazing SDR peak brightness. It's also an amazing TV for playing video games, with an excellent response time, resulting in very clear motion with little blur behind fast-moving objects. It has low input lag and supports both FreeSync and G-SYNC Compatible variable refresh rate technology, which can help reduce tearing in some games. It's also great for PS5 or Xbox Series S|X gaming, with HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on two ports. 8.4 Mixed Usage  8.6 Movies  8.2 TV Shows  8.0 Sports  8.8 Video Games  8.6 HDR Movies  8.8 HDR Gaming  8.3 PC Monitor  Pros: Outstanding contrast. High peak brightness. Excellent reflection handling. Excellent response time. Cons: Image degrades when viewed at an angle.  

This week we take a look at the Hisense UG6 as the best budget TV (from RTINGS.com) and we take a look at a streamers dream site called “The Streamable”. Plus we read some listener emails and the week’s news.

This week we take a look at the Hisense UG6 as the best budget TV (from RTINGS.com) and we take a look at a streamers dream site called “The Streamable”. Plus we read some listener emails and the week's news. News: Ads Are Officially Coming to Netflix Disney, Apple and Amazon keep waiting as NFL considers Sunday Ticket offers 'Top Gun: Maverick' Soars As Tom Cruise's First Billion-Dollar Movie Dolby Vision Now Available On Hisense's L9G TriChroma Laser TV Best Budget TV (RTINGS.COM) The best budget TV we've tested is the Hisense U6G (Full Review) (65” $549.99). It's a great all-around TV that delivers good picture quality and offers performance that rivals some more expensive options, but you won't get some of the same features. For example, it has fewer gaming features than both the Hisense U8G and LG C1 OLED, but if you don't need those features, it's a great choice that'll save you some cash. If you tend to stream a lot of content, you won't have to worry about getting an external streaming device because the built-in Android TV has a ton of apps available to download. Even if you watch content from a cable box, the picture quality is good because it upscales lower-resolution content without any issue. It's also impressive when watching movies in dark rooms because it displays deep blacks with outstanding black uniformity. Unfortunately, if you want to enhance your movie-watching experience and connect a receiver, the U6G doesn't have eARC support to pass high-quality audio formats. If that's important to you, the Hisense U6GR is similar in performance and supports eARC. However, the U6G delivers the best picture quality for a budget TV and is easier to find. 8.0 Mixed Usage  8.3 Movies  7.8 TV Shows  7.7 Sports  8.2 Video Games  8.0 HDR Movies  8.1 HDR Gaming  7.9 PC Monitor  PROS Excellent contrast. Outstanding black uniformity. Decent reflection handling. Huge selection of streaming apps. CONS Image degrades when viewed at an angle. Ads throughout the smart interface The Streamable The Streamable is a website that helps you find the best way to stream anything. If you have wanted to know how to watch a movie or even find out if a movie is available to buy, rent, or stream through a service this website is for you! The website is full of useful information to anyone who streams their entertainment. There is a tool to help you find the best TV service for what you watch. It's called the “Service Matchmaker”. Here you can enter sporting teams or networks you are interested in and it will give you a list of services that support it. Note - the site makes a commission on any purchases you make through them.  Ara entered the Los Angeles Dodgers as a criteria and the only option was DirecTV Stream. Looks like he is not changing services soon. If I were a Rams fan Sling TV Orange package comes up as a possibility. However, so does DirecTV stream at a higher monthly cost. Even with the cost, Streamable says it's the better option based on the channels available and other features. But if I were strictly making a financial decision SlingTV is the way to go. Searching Top Gun Maverick yielded “Top Gun: Maverick is not available to stream with a subscription service.” Nor did it provide any insight as to when it would be available for streaming. But searching for Jurassic World Dominion revealed that it will be available for streaming on Peacock on October 7. A little more than 90 days after it hit the theaters. Not day and date but not six months later either. The site is pretty comprehensive in that you can search on sports, TV Series, movies, channels, devices, and more. It's really the streamers best friend. What we'd like to see happen with streamable Of course this is a pipe dream but why not. We'd like to see streamable integrated with smart TVs and set top boxes. It would also be nice if this integration automatically picked up the services you subscribe to. Displayed search results would be listed by the least expensive way to watch first with clickable links. If none of your services are able to stream a title then it would list options to stream if available, and clicking on them would take you to a one click signup page.   If you stream “The Streamable” should be your go to site!    

AVexcel - Episode 186 Recorded on June 28, 2022 Hosts: Patrick Norton and Robert Heron  The rundown: - DVD's dominance among discs - HDTVTest's Sony A95K QD-OLED review - RTINGS reviews the LG B2 OLED TV - Soundbar audio quality tips - Samsung QN900B calibration session - McIntosh MR89 AM/FM Tuner - LG's 16x18 DualUp Monitor - Netflix to offer ad-supported tier - 1MORE earbud deal - Auro-3D vs Dolby Atmos - Subwoofer crossover settings - Robert's PC monitor after a year - Hacks renewed for 3rd season - Your excellent feedback & questions - Email us ask@avexcel.com - What we're watching AVexcel is 100% powered by our excellent crew of Patreon supporters - thank you!  Visit www.AVexcel.com for links, show notes, contact info, and more!

This week we have a top ten list of what is popular on Vudu, five advancements that will “fix” the smart home and the best OLED under $1,500. Plus we read your emails and go through the week's news. News: Discovery+ is Bringing an Ad-Lite Version to the U.K. and Ireland NFL Exec: Sunday Ticket Deal Isn't Done Fox to Stream Big Ten, Big East Basketball Tournaments In 4K ViacomCBS Gets a New Name: Paramount Other: Black Leather - YouTube Black Leather - Spotify Join the Neat Exchange - Social Media for Whiskey Drinkers Ara's Woodworking Join the Flaviar Whisky Club and get a free bottle Top Ten Titles on Vudu This Week Ghostbusters: Afterlife Sing 2 American Underdog Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City House of Gucci Dune King Richard Redeeming Love The Matrix Resurrections Encanto These five advancements promise to "fix" the smart home in 2022 In less than a decade, smart home tech has gone from a luxury for the rich to something relatively commonplace. Even if you can't afford high-end Sonos speakers or a wall covered in Nanoleaf panels, you can probably afford an Echo Dot or a Lenovo Smart Clock. Yet adoption hasn't been as strong as some tech companies have been hungry for. There are reasons for this, but 2022 promises to lift some of the barriers and “fix” the smart home. By the end of the year, the smart home industry could look very different, and here's why. Full article here… Best 65” OLED TV Under $1,500 (RTINGS.COM) According to RTINGS.COM the best TV under $1,500 ($1,400 at Best Buy) with an OLED panel is the LG OLED65A1PUA from 2021. The A1 is a no-frills basic TV for people who don't care about the extra features. It delivers very similar picture quality to the high-end models, with the deep, inky, uniform blacks that OLEDs are known for. Full Review… Like all OLED TVs, it has superb viewing angles, so it's a great choice if you have a wide seating arrangement. It's not quite as bright as other OLEDs, so despite its superb reflection handling, it's not as well-suited for a bright room. It runs the LG webOS platform, which is easy-to-use and has a huge selection of streaming apps. It also supports casting from your mobile device, so you can easily watch content in a matter of a few seconds. Sadly, this TV has limited gaming features, so it's best-suited for watching TV shows or movies. However, it's still excellent for casual gamers who don't care about those extra features. Also, like all OLED TVs, there's a chance of permanent burn-in, but we don't expect this to be an issue for most people. Overall, it's an excellent TV that should please most people. Mixed Usage 8.5 Movies 9.2 TV Shows  8.0 Sports 8.0 Video Games 8.7 HDR Movies 8.6 HDR Gaming 8.5 PC Monitor 8.5 PROS Near-infinite contrast ratio. Wide color gamut. Perfect black uniformity. CONS Not bright enough for small highlights to stand out. Some stutter in low frame rate content. Can't remove judder from all sources.

On today's show we take a look at the top five  movie rentals for the week, discuss a movie called Nobody, invite ourselves onto The Bright Side of Home Theater Podcast, and answer the question, “What's the Best LED TV” right now. Pulse we read emails and discuss the news of the week. Don't forget to enter to win a fantastic SVS sound system to celebrate our 1000th episode. Top Five Movie Rentals for the Week 5 - The Croods: A New Age  - The prehistoric family the Croods are challenged by a rival family the Bettermans, who claim to be better and more evolved. 7/10 IMDB Rating, Rotten Tomato Critic Score 77 Audience Score 94 4 -  Willy's Wonderland - A quiet drifter is tricked into a janitorial job at the now condemned Willy's Wonderland. The mundane tasks suddenly become an all-out fight for survival against wave after wave of demonic animatronics. Fists fly, kicks land, titans clash -- and only one side will make it out alive. 5.5/10 IMDB Rating, Rotten Tomato Critic Score 62 Audience Score 74 3 - News of the World - A Civil War veteran agrees to deliver a girl, taken by the Kiowa people years ago, to her aunt and uncle, against her will. They travel hundreds of miles and face grave dangers as they search for a place that either can call home. 6.8/10 IMDB Rating, Rotten Tomato Critic Score 88 Audience Score 89 2 -  Wonder Woman 1984 - Diana must contend with a work colleague and businessman, whose desire for extreme wealth sends the world down a path of destruction, after an ancient artifact that grants wishes goes missing. 5.4/10 IMDB Rating, Rotten Tomato Critic Score 59 Audience Score 74 1 - Vanquish - A mother, Victoria, is trying to put her dark past as a Russian drug courier behind her, but retired cop Damon forces Victoria to do his bidding by holding her daughter hostage. 2.6/10 IMDB Rating, Rotten Tomato Critic Score 6 Audience Score 16 A movie Ara is waiting to be available for streaming,  Nobody  Emmy winner Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul, The Post, Nebraska) stars as Hutch Mansell, an underestimated and overlooked dad and husband, taking life's indignities on the chin and never pushing back. A nobody. When two thieves break into his suburban home one night, Hutch declines to defend himself or his family, hoping to prevent serious violence. His teenage son, Blake, is disappointed in him and his wife, Becca, seems to pull only further away. The aftermath of the incident strikes a match to Hutch's long-simmering rage, triggering dormant instincts and propelling him on a brutal path that will surface dark secrets and lethal skills. In a barrage of fists, gunfire and squealing tires, Hutch must save his family from a dangerous adversary and ensure that he will never be underestimated as a nobody again. 7.4/10 IMDB Rating, Rotten Tomato Critic Score 82 Audience Score 94 Best LED TV (RTINGS.COM) Knocking the Samsung Q80/Q80T QLED off it's perch as the best LED TV, the Sony X90J ($1599.99 MSRP 65”) 2021 model is the new king of LED TVs. With better contrast, local dimming, and a slightly cheaper price tag the Sony is a solid choice. The 6 Best LED LCD TVs - Spring 2021 from RTINGS.COM It feels well-built and comes with Google TV, giving you access to a ton of apps so you can easily find all your favorite content. Whether watching movies and shows or doing some gaming, most people should be happy with this model. It has a VA panel with a fantastic contrast ratio, producing deep inky blacks and making it well-suited to dark room viewing or gaming. It has a full-array local dimming feature as well to further improve contrast. It also performs well in bright rooms, with impressive SDR brightness that can overcome glare in most lighting conditions. If you like HDR content, you'll also be pleased with its HDR brightness, which is very good and makes highlights pop. That said, it doesn't technically have a wide color gamut for HDR, although it just barely falls short and should be good enough for a satisfying HDR experience. Unfortunately, it doesn't yet have the advertised variable refresh rate (VRR) support. However, it should be implemented in an upcoming firmware update. Aside from that, it still has a great response time for smooth motion in fast-moving content with minimal smearing or blur. It also has low input lag and two HDMI 2.1 ports, allowing it to display up to a 4k @ 120Hz signal from the Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5. All in all, this is among the best LED TVs we've tested. 8.1 Mixed Usage  8.6 Movies  7.7 TV Shows  7.5 Sports  8.4 Video Games  8.3 HDR Movies  8.3 HDR Gaming  7.8 PC Monitor

This week we help a listener future proof his new AVR purchase and we answer the question, “Where can you watch ATSC 3.0 Content?” We wrap up with the best Non-OLED TV available. We also read your emails and look at the week's news. Future Proofing your new Receiver Install We received an email from Brian who has recently moved and has an opportunity to setup a Home Theater System from scratch. He is in the market for a new receiver and wants to know what are the must have requirements for a receiver so that the receiver does not become obsolete in a year or two. Also, what is not important.  Must Have: HDMI 2.1 Support Includes HDCP - This gives you the most options in the future. While 8K may not be a big deal, there may be some new tech that transmits additional data through the HDMI cable and having the increased bandwidth (48 vs 18 Gbps) may come in handy. 4K HDR Support - This is pretty much a given now and standard on most receivers eARC support - We see a day when TVs will be able to support the set top box format of your choice with a USB style stick. eARC will be required to get the full audio capability  ATMOS, Airplay 2, Chromcast, Network Connectivity, Auto Calibration, Plenty of HDMI Inputs, Two Subwoofer outputs, Network/App Interface - These are all pretty much table stakes now but some budget AVRs may not support some of these features.  Not Required: 8K - while this seems like it should be twice as good as 4K you won't be able to see the difference on a screen less than 120 inches.  200W - More power is not required for most people. Going from 100W to 200W increases max volume by 3dB. 75w to 100W per channel is fine for the typical family/living room.  ATSC 3.0 Deployments ATSC expects 60 markets to launch NextGen TV by mid-2021. Full list here... Best 4K TV that isn't an OLED So you want the best 75 inch TV that money can buy? You check online and see that the LG CX OLED (RTINGS Review) is more or less the consensus choice for best TV available today. Then you realize the best TV that money can buy at $3,300 is $1,500 more than what you have available to spend. Now you're thinking, I want the best TV that $1,900 can buy.  Fortunately, we know of such a TV. It's the new Vizio P-Series Quantum X- H1. They even have an 85” model if you can spare a few hundred dollars more (RTINGS Review 2020 Model). RTINGS.com scores the Quantum X pretty high: From RTINGS.com The Vizio P Series Quantum X 2020 is great for most uses. It gets very bright and handles reflections well, making it a good choice for watching TV shows or sports during the day. It performs incredibly well in dark rooms, as it can produce deep and inky blacks for watching movies or playing video games. It has low input lag, a fast response time, and a high refresh rate to deliver an extremely responsive gaming and desktop experience. Unfortunately, its VA panel has narrow viewing angles, so it isn't the best option for wide seating areas. 8.3 Mixed Usage  8.5 Movies  8.0 TV Shows  7.9 Sports  8.5 Video Games  8.6 HDR Movies  8.5 HDR Gaming  7.9 PC Monitor  For comparison RTINGS.com rates the OLED: 8.8 Mixed Usage  9.3 Movies  8.2 TV Shows  8.6 Sports  9.1 Video Games  8.7 HDR Movies  8.8 HDR Gaming  8.6 PC Monitor   

Wyze Video Doorbell review: Spotty performance holds it back The Wyze Video Doorbell comes at an incredible price for an app-enabled live-streaming buzzer: $30. Nothing from major brands like Amazon's Ring or Google's Nest comes close to that level of affordability. That said, I experienced issues with the camera's performance on this video doorbell -- something I haven't encountered with other Wyze cams (more details on that in the section below). Full article here… Steven Soderbergh: The Reports of Cinema's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated We are only taking a look at a couple of questions from this interview. We recommend that you take a look at the entire interview linked here. Full article here… HDTV Buying Guide 2020 Tis the season for us to go shopping and to continue to help you spend your money - one of our favorite times of the year. If you or anyone in your life is looking for a new UHD TV this Christmas, but still aren't sure which one to buy, we've got you covered. There are some incredible TVs out there with fantastic pricing.  50 Inch If you are looking for a TV in this size category you probably have a small room and don't want to spend a lot of money. With that said, you still want a good TV for your home.   Hisense H8G Quantum Series Android 4K ULED Smart TV with Voice Remote (Street Price $525) When you consider the price and performance this TV is hard to beat. By the way, it comes in bigger sizes with similar values. RTINGS.com gives it a 7.8 out of 10 rating for overall use. Having full-array local dimming gives it great contrast and black levels.  The TV has a good color gamut which produces rich and saturated colors in HDR content. The HDR drops off in a well lit room as the TV does not get bright enough. Finally, off angle viewing is not the best. 65 Inch At this size we are not looking for a bargain but more a high quality TV that won't break the bank.  Vizio P-Series Quantum X 4K HDR Smart TV (MSRP $1530) This TV is great for most uses garnering an 8.3 overall rating from RTINGs.com. If you were turned off by the previous model due to its limitations in bright rooms, then this TV is for you. But it also does well in dark rooms with it's dark blacks which makes watching movies a joy. However, this TV has off angle viewing issues as fo most all LCD based TVs  75 Inch Now we are getting into serious TV watching here and will up the budget substantially. We also want a TV with as few compromises as possible. LG CX 77 inch Class 4K Smart OLED TV w/ AI ThinQ® (MSRP $3500) This OLED delivers excellent picture quality with the best black levels on the market. RTINGS.com rates it 8.8 overall and a whopping 9.3 for movies! If you are a movie junky this TV is for you, with the caveat that the room is dark. This is the only TV on our list that has no off angle viewing issues. The CX has a wide color gamut for HDR content. The only issue we have with the TV is the brightness. If you are watching in a bright room you may not be able to get brightness levels you like.  Ultimate TV (for Braden) Our Ultimate category was added specifically for Braden this year by Ara. He is trying to get Braden to buy something!! Even if he has to store it in his garage until the home is ready for it's use.  We all know Braden has an affinity for TCL but this TV is going into his main room so we are upping the game! 85" Class Q80T QLED 4K UHD HDR Smart TV (2020) (MSRP $3800) At 85 inches, this TV gets into the projector size category. I ruled out OLED out solely based on price but at $3800 this TV is not cheap. RTINGS.com gives this TV 8.4 overall. The Q80T is a wonderful all around TV. Great picture quality and contrast ratio combined with its high peak brightness makes it a great choice for use in bright rooms. But thanks to it's full-array local dimming, the Q80T has great contrast which allows it to perform well in dark rooms too. Finally of all the non-OLED TVs, this one has the best off angle viewing.  

On this week's show Ara's gives us his impression of the Tribit Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Earbuds that we talked about a couple of weeks ago. We also look at the  Vizio OLED TV Review by RTINGS.com. We also read your emails and take a look at the news! Tribit Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Earbuds  Last week Ara was on vacation and used the time to review his new and very inexpensive in ear Active Noise Canceling headphones. They are made by Tribit and are available from Amazon for $50.  So how did they fare? Well they are pretty good for $50. We could end it here and you really would have enough to make up your mind but of course we'll go into a little more detail.  The main reason we were interested in these headphones was because they have active noise cancelling so we'll get into that first. The ANC was OK. There was a reduction in outside noise but not as good as full size over the ear headphones we have used in the past. The key to making the noise canceling work is finding the right size ear tip. I tried three including the default size and as it turns out the default size was perfect for me! When you place the headphones in your ear you need to use a twisting action to kind of screw them into place. This gave me the tightest seal and best results for noise cancelation/isolation as well as general listening.     Speaking of sound quality, they did great for podcast listening and telephone calls. For music they were good too!. The bass, which was a feature that Tribit touted, sounded good. We used our go to bass test, the first five seconds of California Roll by Snoop Dogg. Again good, not great. Our $300 Sennheiser Momentums have much better bass response. But these things only cost $50! The phone mic quality sounds like you were holding the phone to your ear without a microphone. People listening on the other end had no issues hearing the conversation. Other Considerations Pairing - simple once you realize that the leads have a plastic strip on them and the headphones won't pair until you remove them. Clearly stated in the instructions but who reads that?? Battery Life - worked for my entire trip without a recharge. The longest continuous street was three hours before placing them back in the case which recharges the batteries.  You can get an additional hour and a half play time if you charge the headphones for ten minutes.  Comfort - if you properly size the ear tips they will be very comfortable. But after a three hour flight they were starting to irritate the ears. In fairness, no headphones we have tried have been free from irritation after prolonged usage.  Charging Case - Small and easy to carry in your pocket. USB-C connection. Volume Control - There isn't any from the headphones. This must be done from the device Other Controls -  double tap to pause, 3 taps to skip, hold right to activate/deactivate noise cancelling. Our Recommendation If you are very critical of your music, you will be better served with different headphones. If you are looking at these because of the ANC, well, it works but nothing that is going to make you say wow. If you are looking for good headphones with noise canceling and transparency mode that allows you to take calls or use for zoom meetings, you will be hard pressed to find anything better for the money. Vizio OLED 2020 TV Review The Vizio OLED 2020 is the first OLED TV Vizio has released and delivers impressive overall performance. Like any OLED TV, its ability to turn off individual pixels results in an infinite contrast ratio and perfect black uniformity. It displays an excellent color gamut for HDR content, but it doesn't get very bright in HDR, and large areas get significantly dimmer. Most gamers should appreciate the 120Hz refresh rate, near-instant response time, and low input lag. It's advertised to have variable refresh rate (VRR) support, but it doesn't work at all and there's screen tearing. The TV has a unique center-mounted stand that's designed to hold the Vizio Elevate soundbar. Sadly, the screen has the risk of permanent burn-in, which is typical of OLEDs, and our unit has noticeable temporary image retention, but this may vary between units. Full Review Here...

On this week’s show Ara’s gives us his impression of the Tribit Active Noise Cancelling Bluetooth Earbuds that we talked about a couple of weeks ago. We also look at the Vizio OLED TV Review by RTINGS.com. We also read your emails and take a look at the news!

4 places to avoid putting your Amazon Echo in your home  Your Amazon Echo is there to help when it comes to setting up your preferred music streaming service and setting reminders. However, it doesn't tell you the best and safest areas in your house to place the smart speaker. You're probably thinking, "Does it really matter where I put it as long as I can speak to Alexa from most areas in my house?" Our answer is yes. Full article here... The 6 Best TV's - Summer 2020 According to RTINGS.com. Full article here... Samsung Q800T QLED - 8.5  Mixed Usage The Q90T ($2199.99 for 65”) is an excellent TV for most uses. Nearly every type of content looks good on this TV, whether it's a low-resolution cable TV show or a 4k HDR movie. It has a fast response time and low input lag, and it also comes with FreeSync support to reduce screen tearing when gaming. However, there's a bit of dirty screen effect, which can be somewhat distracting when watching sports. LG CX OLED - 8.8  Mixed Usage  The LG CX OLED ($2299.99 for 65”)  is great for watching TV shows. It has excellent reflection handling and it has decent peak brightness to combat glare in most rooms. It upscales 720p content well and has good built-in speakers. Unfortunately, like all OLED TVs, it has the risk of burn-in, which could be a problem with constant exposure to static logos. However, it has impressive viewing angles for when you want to watch your favorite show with the entire family. Sony A8H - 8.7  Mixed Usage The Sony A8H ($2499.99 for 65”) is an excellent TV for most uses. It delivers excellent picture quality with its infinite contrast ratio and near-instantaneous response time. It upscales lower resolution content well, which is great for watching cable TV or sports. HDR content looks good thanks to its wide color gamut and decent peak brightness. Unfortunately, although its input lag is great, it doesn't support advanced gaming features like VRR. Additionally, like all OLED TVs, there's a risk of permanent burn-in. Vizio P Series Quantum X 2019 - 8.1  Mixed Usage The Vizio P Series Quantum X ( is an excellent TV for most uses. It looks great in almost any room but has narrow viewing angles, so it isn't as good for watching sports with a group of friends or playing co-op games. Fast movies and games look great, thanks to the fast response time, and games are responsive due to the low input lag. TCL 6 Series 2020 - 7.9  Mixed Usage The TCL 6 Series 2020 ($899.99 for 65”)  is a very good overall TV and performs well for most uses. It's great for watching movies in dark rooms thanks to its outstanding contrast ratio. HDR content looks great as the TV displays a wide color gamut and it gets bright in that mode. It also has great gaming features like quick response time and low input lag. Sadly, its local dimming feature results in blooming around bright objects. Also, it's not ideal for wide seating arrangements because it has narrow viewing angles. Hisense H9G - 8.4  Mixed Usage The Hisense H9G ($950 for 65” but may be hard to find) is an impressive overall TV. It's well-rounded and offers great performance for most uses. It's an amazing choice for watching movies in the dark as it has an outstanding contrast ratio and a great full-array local dimming feature. HDR content looks great because it gets bright enough to bring out highlights and it displays a wide color gamut. Also, gamers should appreciate its very quick response time and really low input lag. Unfortunately, it's not suggested for wide seating arrangements due to its narrow viewing angles.  

On today’s show we discuss the four places to avoid putting your Amazon Echo and the six best TVs of the Summer 2020 (as if anything good can come out of 2020 ;-). We go through listener emails and discuss some of the news of the week in an action pack episode!

Peppade av att just ha sett Apple-eventet är vi tillbaka i studion och försöker samla våra funderingar kring katalogstrukturer, kategorisering av filer och smarta etiketter. Det har kommit feedback i massor om Jezpers TV-letande och vi håller oss från att prata om Apple Watch series 6 och SE tills dess att åsikterna nyktrat till något… Ur veckans innehåll Försnack Buy me a coffee och stöd En podd om teknik Feedback TV-recensioner www.Rtings.com https://www.youtube.com/c/hdtvtest Canon EOS R Ämnen Personlig filstruktur Johnny Decimal SharePoint En podd om teknik Hemsida Skicka feedback Om oss Stöd podden Social media En podd om teknik på Twitter En podd om teknik på Facebook En podd om teknik på Instagram Jezper på Twitter Johan på Twitter Magnus på Twitter

In this episode, Kris and Erik discuss their recommendations for back to school gear including laptops, tablets, phones, monitors, ergonomic office equipment, and data backup..SHOW NOTES.Recommended computers and devices.Apple back to school deals (free AirPods).Apple Education.Tablets.iPad Air 3iPad Pro 11iPad Mini.Laptops.Lenovo X1 CarbonLenovo T490sMicrosoft Surface Laptop 3Microsoft Surface Pro 7Dell XPS 13Apple MacBook AirApple MacBook Pro 13”Apple iMac 27”HP OMEN desktops.Phones.Google Pixel 3aOnePlusPhone SE.Tech-Bytes.net: “Trickle-down technology”.Computer Accessories.*Evoluent VerticalMouse D*Logitech MX Vertical*Logitech K380 keyboard*Logitech K780 keyboard*Logitech Ergo K860 keyboard*Microsoft Sculpt keyboard and mouse.Sites for researching tech.RTings.comNYTimes The Wirecutter.Physiotherapy YouTube channels.AthleanXBob and Brad..Data backup.3-2-1 backup strategy Leo Laporte TWiT - https://twit.tv/shows/twit-bits/episodes/3019 .Local backup tools.See

How Will Streaming Services Retain Subscribers Gained During COVID-19? Customers are showing an increased lack of loyalty when it comes to streaming, so instead of focusing solely on attracting new customers, many services are pivoting and focusing on keeping the subscribers they have. Production has been shut down across the globe, so there's not a lot of new content to roll out except what was already finished. That means services are either scrambling to secure the rights to already published content or moving release dates forward as Disney+ has done with a filmed version of Broadway smash hit Hamilton (dropping a full 15 months earlier than planned).    A July 10 – 12 survey panel of 1,315 Americans on their current streaming and cable subscriptions found that 50% of respondents cite Netflix as their favorite service, with 8% signing up for the first time in the past 90 days. Analysts believe Netflix could report net sub additions of 15 million worldwide. Analysts also believe the likely giant spike in new subscribers increases pressure on Netflix for retention. More consumption of content suggests even greater need to replace content with something new. Questions - Have you started a new streaming service in the last few months? Have you canceled a new streaming service in the last few months? What would get you to leave? If new content stopped being released would you keep your service? Have your views changed in any way regarding streaming services over the past few months? Top 20 Movies by sales for Week Ended 7-4-20 Source: NPD VideoScan First Alert (based on unit sales from reporting retailers) Here are the Top Ten in reverse order: 10 Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn 6.1 out of 10 at IMDB -  After splitting with the Joker, Harley Quinn joins superheroes Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya to save a young girl from an evil crime lord. 9 Jumanji: The Next Level 6.7 -  In Jumanji: The Next Level, the gang is back but the game has changed. As they return to rescue one of their own, the players will have to brave parts unknown from arid deserts to snowy mountains, to escape the world's most dangerous game. 8 The Call of the Wild 6.8  - A sled dog struggles for survival in the wilds of the Yukon. 7 The Invisible Man (2020) 7.1 - When Cecilia's abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see. 6 Jaws 8.0 - When a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down. 5 The Mule 7.0 - A ninety-year-old horticulturist and Korean War veteran turns drug mule for a Mexican cartel. 4 Onward 7.5 - Two elven brothers embark on a quest to bring their father back for one day. 3 Top Gun 6.9 - As students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taught in the classroom. 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 6.6 - After discovering a small, blue, fast hedgehog, a small-town police officer must help him defeat an evil genius who wants to do experiments on him. 1 Force of Nature Rated 4.4 - A gang of thieves plan a heist during a hurricane and encounter trouble when a cop tries to force everyone in the building to evacuate. Sony A8H OLED TV Review RTINGS.com The Sony A8H ($2800 65”) is an excellent OLED TV that delivers incredible picture quality for any type of content and is a fairly decent upgrade over its predecessor, the Sony A8G OLED. It produces perfect blacks with its infinite contrast ratio, which is great for those who like to watch in a dark room. It handles reflections exceptionally well, and its decent peak brightness is enough to fight glare in brighter lighting conditions. It has wide viewing angles, so the image remains accurate even if you're sitting off to the side. Its response time is almost instantaneous and it has a low input lag; however, gamers might find the lack of variable refresh rate (VRR) support a bit disappointing. As always, there's a risk of permanent burn-in with OLED panels, although it shouldn't be an issue for most. Its Android TV platform is user-friendly, it runs smoothly, and you should have no problems finding what you need from the immense Google Play Store. Full Review 8.7  Mixed Usage  9.4  Movies  8.2  TV Shows  8.6  Sports  8.5  Video Games  8.8  HDR Movies  8.3  HDR Gaming  8.2  PC Monitor  PROS Perfect black levels. Low input lag. Near-instantaneous response time. Decent HDR peak brightness. CONS No VRR support. The article says that the TV is beaten by the LG E9 (2019) model which sells for $2750 for a 65” 8.8  Mixed Usage  9.4  Movies  8.3  TV Shows  8.7  Sports  9.1  Video Games  8.7  HDR Movies  8.8  HDR Gaming  8.7  PC Monitor   

On today's show we discuss How Streaming Services will retain subscribers, run down the top ten movie titles based on sales, and leave you with a review of the Sony A8H OLED TV. All that pulse your emails and a rundown of some news stories from the week.

  MLB TV: Please Give Us Our Refunds! if you ordered on February 4, or beyond, you had five days from the date of the order to cancel and get a full refund. That's a decent interval to accommodate those who develop sticker shock after their purchase. More... Vizio P Series Quantum 65″ Now Only $898 It's amazing how much TV you can get for your dollar these days. An excellent example is the Vizio P Series Quantum 65″ TV that is now on sale for $898. This is a truly full-featured TV that has a 200-zone FALD backlight capable of 1100-nit peak brightness, for eye-popping HDR. Quantum dots ensure this TV will deliver bright, vivid color for years to come without risk of burn-in. Remember last week we talked about this TV in our Best 4K TV for Spring. Here is a reminder of the RTINGS.com rating: 8.4  Mixed Usage  8.4  Movies  8.1  TV Shows  8.1  Sports  8.9  Video Games  8.5  HDR Movies  8.7  HDR Gaming  8.7  PC Monitor  Broadcast Network TV Shows that have been canceled: “BH90210” (FOX) “Fresh Off the Boat” (ABC) “Grand Hotel” (ABC) “The InBetween” (NBC) “Reef Break” (ABC) “Sunnyside” (NBC) Broadcast Network TV Shows that have are in their final seasons: “The 100” (The CW) “Arrow” (The CW)  “Blindspot” (NBC)  “Criminal Minds” (CBS)  “Empire” (FOX)  “The Good Place” (NBC)  “Hawaii 5-0” (CBS) “How to Get Away with Murder” (ABC)  “Madam Secretary” (CBS) “Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (ABC) “Modern Family” (ABC)  “Supernatural” (The CW)  “Will & Grace” (NBC) Broadcast Network TV Shows that have been renewed: “All American” (The CW) “America's Funniest Home Videos” (ABC) – through 2021 “American Ninja Warrior” (NBC) “Batwoman” (The CW) “Black Lightning” (The CW) “Bless the Harts” (FOX) “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (NBC) “Charmed” (The CW) “Dynasty” (The CW) “Evil” (CBS) “The Flash” (The CW) “Grey's Anatomy” (ABC) “Holey Moley” (ABC) “In the Dark” (The CW) “Legacies” (The CW) “Legends of Tomorrow” (The CW) “Making It” (NBC) “Mom” (CBS) “Nancy Drew” (The CW) “New Amsterdam” (NBC) – through season 5 “The Outpost” (The CW) “Riverdale” (The CW) “Roswell, New Mexico” (The CW) “The Simpsons” (FOX) “Supergirl” (The CW) “This is Us” (NBC) – through 2022 “Young Sheldon” (CBS)  

The 7 Best 4K TVs - Spring 2020 (RTINGS.com) The editors at RTINGS.com have just updated their Seven Best Best 4K TVs for the Spring 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 4k TV: LG B9 OLED (Street Price $1,900 65”) The best 4k TV we've tested so far is the LG B9 OLED. With OLED technology, you get an amazing picture quality that's suitable for almost any type of setting. It has exceptional dark room performance due to its infinite contrast ratio and perfect black uniformity, and its excellent reflection handling and good peak brightness make it a good choice for bright rooms too. Its out-of-the-box color accuracy is a bit disappointing, but on the bright side, it supports a wide color gamut to produce rich and vibrant colors in HDR content. Full Review 8.9  Mixed Usage  9.3  Movies  8.5  TV Shows  8.7  Sports  9.4  Video Games  9.0  HDR Movies  9.0  HDR Gaming  8.9  PC Monitor  PROS Perfect blacks and black uniformity. Image remains accurate when viewed from the side. Nearly instantaneous response time and very low input lag. CONS Has the risk of permanent burn-in with static content (see here). Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL) can become distracting at times. Best 4k TV Cheaper LED Alternative: VIZIO P SERIES QUANTUM X 2019 (Street Price $1,000 65”) If you'd rather not have to worry about the possibility of burn-in on an OLED TV like the LG B9 OLED, then consider the Vizio P Series Quantum X 2019. It has a VA panel with an outstanding native contrast ratio, and it also has a great local dimming feature that boosts the contrast even more, producing deep, inky blacks when viewed in the dark. And best of all, VA panels are virtually immune from image retention and permanent burn-ins. The most notable aspect of this TV is its incredible peak brightness. Combined with its excellent wide color gamut, HDR content is delivered the way it was intended, with saturated colors and bright highlights. Response time and input lag are both outstanding, but unfortunately, it has sub-par viewing angles, so images don't look as good when viewed from the side. Vizio's SmartCast platform is easy to use; however, it's still quite limited when it comes to app availability. Full Review 8.4  Mixed Usage  8.4  Movies  8.1  TV Shows  8.1  Sports  8.9  Video Games  8.5  HDR Movies  8.7  HDR Gaming  8.7  PC Monitor  PROS Outstanding peak brightness in SDR and HDR. Deep, uniform blacks. Great motion handling. CONS Image degrades when viewed at an angle. Best 4k TV For Color Accuracy: Sony X950G (Street Price $1,400 65”)  The TV with the best color accuracy out of the box is the Sony X950G. This TV has a great picture quality and a host of features to please most people. It has outstanding contrast ratio and impressive black uniformity, making it a good choice for dark room viewing. It even has a full array local dimming feature, though the performance is somewhat mediocre. If you have a wide seating arrangement, the VA panel can cause colors to shift when viewed from the side, but the larger variants of this TV has Sony's 'X-Wide Angle' feature to improve viewing angles, albeit at the expense of contrast ratio. Full Review 8.3  Mixed Usage  8.4  Movies  8.1  TV Shows  8.0  Sports  8.7  Video Games  8.3  HDR Movies  8.5  HDR Gaming  8.6  PC Monitor  PROS Outstanding peak brightness. Amazing out-of-the-box color accuracy. Great motion handling. CONS Poor viewing angles. For the remaining TVs will list category, model, price, and mixed usage rating. We'll also provide a link to the full review. Best 4k TV For Color Accuracy Wide Viewing Angle Alternative Model LG SM9000 Street price $1,100 65” Mixed Usage 7.9 Full Review  Best 4k TV For Color Accuracy Alternative for Gaming Model SAMSUNG Q70/Q70R QLED Street price $1,100 65” Mixed Usage 7.9 Full Review  Best Budget 4k TV Model Hisense H9F Street price $900 65” Mixed Usage 8.4 Full Review  Best Budget 4k TV (Cheaper Alternative) Model Hisense H8F Street price $600 65” Mixed Usage 8.0 Full Review 

The editors at RTINGS.com have just updated their Seven Best Best 4K TVs for the Spring 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.

By now you all know that we have been searching for the best large format TV to emulate a projector and screen. We know nothing beats a 120 inch screen but with that comes some drawbacks like installation, cost, and light control. Ara settled on an Ultra Short Throw Projector which does really well in a fully lit room. The entire setup cost him just under $4000. Braden is still looking for that one TV that will say buy me. Our friends at RTINGS.com must have known Braden was in the market for such a TV because they just published The 5 Best 80-82-85 inch TVs Winter 2020. Let's see if we can get Braden a new TV?

By now you all know that we have been searching for the best large format TV to emulate a projector and screen. We know nothing beats a 120 inch screen but with that comes some drawbacks like installation, cost, and light control. Ara settled on an Ultra Short Throw Projector which does really well in a fully lit room. The entire setup cost him just under $4000. Braden is still looking for that one TV that will say buy me. Our friends at RTINGS.com must have known Braden was in the market for such a TV because they just published The 5 Best 80-82-85 inch TVs Winter 2020. Let’s see if we can get Braden a new TV?

Network TV update and what are the best cheap earbuds from RTINGS.com

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.

More and more people are streaming content these days. At one time it was a cool novelty but today it's how many of us get our television. Netflix and Amazon are at the forefront of 4K UHD content followed closely behind by Apple, Amazon, and Google. So with all this content out there you may be asking yourself which TV should buy that works best with streaming content. Luckily for us the people at RTINGS.com have compiled a list of The 7 Best Smart TVs for Streaming. We'll run through the list but if you want the full details follow the link to the article on their site. Best Smart TV For Streaming: LG B8 With an overall rating of 8.8 the LG B8 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV is the overall best TV for streaming content. Coming in 55” ($1596) and 65” ($2596) it won't break the bank either. The guys at RTNGS say the B8 is as good as the more expensive C8! From the article: The picture quality is remarkable and equally good as the more expensive LG C8. The B8 displays perfect blacks and this makes dark room performance outstanding. It has a wide color gamut with vivid colors and bright highlights that look great when watching HDR. Viewing angles are very good, and this makes the TV suitable for a room with a wide seating arrangement. Movies 9.3 TV Shows 8.5 Sports 8.7 Video Games 9.0 HDR Movies 9.0 HDR Gaming 8.8 PC Monitor 8.4 Best Mid-Range Smart TV For Streaming: Sony X900F If your budget does not allow for the LG, Sony has you covered with the X900F LED UHD TV ($999) with an overall rating of 8.4.  The TV does not have the off angle viewing or same deep blacks as the LG OLED but it still has some chops of it's own. From the article: HDR content playback is excellent, as it can produce bright and vivid highlights with very accurate colors. Motion handling is excellent, as the TV has a fast response time and the ability to flicker the backlight to make motion crisper. 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 Best Budget Smart TV For Streaming: TCL R617 If you are budget constrained and are in the market for a streamer Braden's goto manufacturer, TCL, makes the list with the R617 and an overall score of 8.0. You can pick up the largest (75” 75R617)  in the series for $1900! TCL manufactures good TVs at very reasonable prices but don't expect them to compare to the OLED. From the article: the R617 is a very good TV with good picture quality. It can get very bright and has great HDR performance with saturated colors and highlights that pop. Dark room performance is also very good, thanks to the deep blacks produced by the high native contrast ratio and good local dimming. 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

QLED vs OLED vs LED The Super Bowl is right around the corner and that is a time when many Americans buy new TVs. Right now there are three competing technologies (QLED, OLED, and LED) readily available for purchase. With the help of RTINGS.com we try to help you make an informed decision. How do these technologies rate on 8 factors important to someone buying a TV. Black Level - Deep black will make colors look more accurate and vibrant   Motion Blur - Mostly an issue for video gaming or fast action sports. It manifests itself as a blur on the screen Viewing Angle - Measures how true the image remains when you view off angle. The farther off center the more the degradation. Color Volume - A measure of the ability to express all the colors that can physically be displayed (aka: the color gamut), at any given luminosity, up to the display's peak brightness. Gray Uniformity - Describes how well a TV is able to maintain a single, uniform color on the screen. Luminosity - Essentially brightness Image Retention - Burn In Price and Availability - Self Explanatory   QLED OLED LED Black Level Good Perfect Good Motion Blur Great Perfect Good Viewing Angle Poor Great Poor Color volume Great Good Good Gray Uniformity Average Good Average Luminosity Good Good Great Image Retention Great Poor Great Price and Availability Poor Average Great Table Courtesy of RTINGS.com  

The Super Bowl is right around the corner and that is a time when many Americans buy new TVs. Right now there are three competing technologies (QLED, OLED, and LED) readily available for purchase. With the help of RTINGS.com we try to help you make an informed decision.

Large TVs are becoming increasingly popular, with manufacturers releasing more models in the 70-75-77" range. The 2017 models in these sizes are becoming cheaper while the 2018 ones are now the flagships of each manufacturer. Rtings.com tested 33 TVs available in a 70-75-77" size and provided their recommendations for the best ones to buy in 2018.

Review Sony A8F from RTINGS.COM Today we have a review of a Sony A8F OLED TV from RTINGS.COM. The A8F is a OLED 4K HDR TV with 4K HDR Processor X1™ Extreme, Acoustic Surface™ technology and Android TV. The Acoustic Surface is supposed to produce deeper bass by vibrating the glass. We'll see if that is what the reviewers experienced below. It comes in three sizes 55”, 65”, and 77”. Read the full detailed review at RTINGS.COM. Highlights below: The Sony A8F is a 2018 4k OLED TV with excellent performance for a variety of different usages. It has excellent picture quality, with perfectly deep blacks that looks impressive in a dark room. Motion handling is excellent due to the instantaneous response time, but this lack of blur can make low frame rate content appear choppy. Like the Sony A1E and other OLED TVs, it isn't perfect as the brightness changes depending on screen content and there may be risk of burn-in with static content. Design 9.5 The Sony A8F OLED TV is extremely well designed. The stand has a very small footprint and fits well in any decor. The TV is well built and there are no obvious gaps or loose panels. The TV has a very small frame and delivers an immersive viewing experience, especially when wall mounted. Picture Quality 8.6 The Sony A8F OLED TV produces excellent picture quality. It is able to produce true blacks and infinite contrast ratio, which combined with the perfect black uniformity, makes for excellent dark room performance. Can produce bright highlights and although the whole screen can't get that bright, it should be good enough to combat glare in most rooms. Color accuracy is good out of the box, and most people won't need to calibrate their set. It also has an excellent wide color gamut. It is prone to temporary image retention and could experience permanent burn-in, although we don't expect most people to experience this. Motion 8.8 The motion handling of the Sony A8F is excellent. It has a near-instantaneous response time and is flicker-free, so there is very little motion trail and only slight persistence blur. The perfect response time causes stutter, especially with 24 fps content, but this can be helped with the optional Black Frame Insertion feature or by enabling Motion Interpolation, but it is judder-free. It does not support a variable refresh rate, and there are no plans announced by Sony to add support for this in the future. Inputs 8.2 The A8F supports a wide variety of input formats and resolutions. It has low 4k input lag, but not as good as the LG C8. Like all Sony TVs, only HDMI ports 2 & 3 support full bandwidth, but port 3 is also the audio return channel. If you have a receiver which supports ARC and you are planning on connecting more than 1 full bandwidth device, you may wish to consider connecting your receiver using an optical (Toslink) cable. Sound Quality 7.4 The Sony A8F has an above-average sound. It gets quite loud and produces a decent amount of bass along with clear dialogs. However, their bass doesn't have any thump or rumble to it, and it doesn't have a room correction system either. For a better sound, a dedicated sound system or soundbars are recommended. Smart Features 8.0 The Sony A8F runs Sony's customized Android TV interface. The layout is very simple, there are multiple rows used to group similar functions together making it easy to navigate. The TV has performance issues when navigating the menus, as it froze repeatedly and animations were choppy. It is especially slow when accessing the menus from within an app. It has a great voice assistant, although it is not as good as the ThinQ AI found on 2018 LG OLEDs. Ratings Mixed Usage 8.7 - Recommended if under (USD) $2,300* Value for price beaten by LG C8 Movies 9.4 - Best Value for Price TV Shows 8.5 - Recommended if under (USD) $1,660* Value for price beaten by LG C8 Sports 8.6 - Recommended if under (USD) $2,310* Value for price beaten by LG C8 Video Games 8.6 - Recommended if under (USD) $1,200* Value for price beaten by LG C8 HDR Movies 9.1 - Recommended if under (USD) $1,680* Value for price beaten by LG B7A HDR Gaming 8.6 - Recommended if under (USD) $1,700* Value for price beaten by LG B7A PC Monitor 8.0 - Recommended if under (USD) $410* Value for price beaten by LG SK9000   *  Pricing for 55” version

Today we have a review of a Sony A8F OLED TV from RTINGS.com. The A8F is a OLED 4K HDR TV with 4K HDR Processor X1™ Extreme, Acoustic Surface™ technology and Android TV. The Acoustic Surface is supposed to produce deeper bass by vibrating the glass. We’ll see if that is what the reviewers experienced below. It comes in three sizes 55”, 65”, and 77”. Read the full detailed review at RTINGS.com.

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).)

I første time taler vi om Thomas Heurlin, som blev inviteret i Go' morgen Danmark for at tale om sin pik. Sexolog Joan Ørting har fået laser-operationen 'Mona Lisa Touch' i skeden for at undgå tørhed. Filminstituttets nye direktør fik stillingen, han selv skrev stillingsoplaget til og i første omgang ikke søgte. Peter Aalbæks to døtre er drøntrætte af deres fars bare diller og høje cigarføring. Fagforbundet HK har rod i økonomien og er ramt af voldsomme interne stridigheder. Og så er der nyt i sagen om Peter Lundin, som nu har mistet retten til at se sin søn. Ditte Okman er vært, og i studiet sidder direktør i WeDoCommunication, Anna Thygesen, direktør i Impact Tv, Thomas Heurlin og model, Oliver Bjerrehuus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TCL C Series 2017 C807  (RTINGS.COM) This week we wanted to take a look at what on paper is an incredible TV bargain. Seriously, a 65 in 4K UHD that supports Dolby Vision HDR for about $1,100! We're talking about the TCL 65C807 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (2017 Model). The question is whether it's worth it?  Read the full detailed review at RTINGS.COM   Features: Roku TV smart functionality offers access to over 4,000 streaming channels featuring more than 450,000 movies and TV episodes Pairs 4K Ultra HD picture clarity with the contrast, color, and detail of Dolby Vision HDR (High Dynamic Range) for the most lifelike picture Edge LED backlighting with Dynamic Contrast produces deep blacks and excellent picture quality Inputs: 3 HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2 (one with HDMI ARC), 1 USB (media player), RF, Composite, Headphone Jack, Optical Audio Out, Ethernet The TCL C807 4k Roku TV is a decent LCD/LED TV with better than average build quality and design. It features a wider color gamut for vibrant HDR content and very low input lag for responsive gaming. Unfortunately, its blacks are not very uniform, and its picture quality deteriorates even at a slight angle. The TCL C Series C807 LED TV has an average picture quality. The high contrast ratio makes for a good dark room performance, with a high level of detail in dark scene. Unfortunately, the bad black uniformity and the lack of local dimming hurt the dark room performance in the end. When set in a bright room, the C807 performs better, since it can get fairly bright and deal decently with reflection and glare. The gray uniformity is average though and dirty screen effect is visible when watching sports like football. The very narrow viewing angle won't make it the best TV to watch sports event with all your friend since only people sitting right in front of the TV will have the best picture quality. Finally, HDR performance is ordinary since the TV can't really get brighter than in SDR and the lack of local dimming doesn't help even if it has a wide color gamut. The C807 has a below average handling of motion. It has an average response time, causing some visible trails to appear behind fast moving objects. It uses PWM to dim the backlight, but only at low backlight levels, and this isn't noticeable to most people. It can play movies from a Blu-ray or DVD player smoothly, but some minor judder is present when watching movies from a 60Hz source. Most people don't notice judder, so it isn't a big issue. The lack of motion interpolation features may disappoint fans of the soap opera effect. The TCL C807 runs the Roku TV smart platform, which is remarkably fluid to navigate and easy to use. It has a wide selection of apps to download and has a great companion app for phones and tablets. Its weak point is its remote, which has very few buttons and lacks some smart features found in the remotes of other platforms. Test Results: Design 9.0 Picture Quality 7.1 Motion 6.3 Inputs 9.3 Sound Quality 6.2 Smart Features 7.9 Usage Ratings: Mixed Usage 7.1 Movies 6.4 TV Shows 7.1 Sports 6.7 Video Games 7.9 HDR Movies 6.7 HDR Gaming 7.6 PC Monitor 7.3 Conclusion The TCL C807 is decent for a mixed usage. Its contrast is good, and it features a wide color gamut for HDR. Unfortunately, though, its motion and uniformity of the blacks leave a lot to be desired. Decent TV for watching series or broadcast TV in a bright room. The TCL C Series' brightness is decent, and its Roku smart OS gives very easy access to content. Unfortunately, though, it's not great at handling reflections. Mediocre TV for movies in a dark room. The C807 does have a good contrast ratio, but its poor black uniformity and lack of local dimming cause letterboxes to look cloudy and distracting. Mediocre TV for HDR. While the C807 has a wide color gamut and can reproduce smooth gradients, it cannot get bright enough to create a good HDR effect.

Sony XBR75X940 TV Review   We were poking around the other day at RTINGS.COM trying to decide what TV was the right one to share with the podcast. What we stumbled upon was no ordinary TV. It currently sits at number one on the leaderboard for TVs measuring in between 70 and 75 inches. It's the Sony XBR75X940. Read the full detailed review at RTINGS.COM Full Review: http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/sony/x940e Best 70-75 inch TV: http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-size/70-75-inch Price at Amazon: $4298 Highlights below: The best 75 inch 4k TV that we've reviewed is the Sony XBR75X940E 4k Android TV. It's one of the brightest TVs we've tested, and it features a highly advanced local dimming feature that greatly enhances the blacks. It doesn't have quite as many dimming zones as the more expensive Sony Z9D, but we've found the performance to be very similar in practice. This gives it the best picture quality found on an LED TV at quite a competitive price compared to similarly sized OLEDs. The X940E is a great large 4k HDR smart TV. It produces some of the best blacks found on LED TVs, and it can get quite bright. The excellent local dimming and ability to display a wide range of colors results in a great HDR experience. The X940E has some motion blur though, which makes it less of a good choice for sports or video games but doesn't impact the excellent movie performance. TEST RESULTS Design 8.5 Picture Quality 8.3 Motion 6.0 Inputs 8.6 Sound Quality 7.2 Smart Features 7.8 Pros Very deep and uniform blacks Very bright Exceptional local dimming Cons Image degrades when viewed at an angle Fast moving objects often have visible trails 8.3 Picture Quality The Sony XBR75X940E LED TV has an impressive picture quality. Dark scenes look amazing due to the high contrast ratio and the excellent black uniformity, especially when the TV is in a dark room. When set in a bright room, the picture quality remains good, since the TV can get very bright to fight any glare from a bright lamp or window and it can also deal very well with reflections. The overall gray uniformity is average, but luckily not too much dirty screen effect is visible. The viewing angle is disappointing though, so the X940E is better suited for people who have a living room with a narrow seating arrangement, as the picture quality is best only when sitting in front of the TV. The X940E has excellent local dimming and a high HDR peak brightness, so highlights really stand out when compared to normal SDR content. The Sony X940E is really a top performer when it comes to HDR. 6.0 Motion The X940E has a mediocre handling of motion. It has a long response time, so motion blur may be seen depending on the content. For movies this isn't an issue, but for PC use or some games a long trail can be seen. The TV uses PWM to dim the backlight, but the frequency is high enough to not be noticeable. It is possible to reduce the frequency to clear up motion significantly. Some minor judder is present when watching movies from a PC or cable, but most people won't notice this. Fans of motion interpolation can introduce a strong soap opera effect on the 120Hz panel. 8.6 Inputs The Sony X940E supports all the common input signals, including HDR, and should be able to properly display any content. It has good 4k input lag, but its 1080p input lag may disappoint competitive gamers. 7.2 Sound Quality The X940E produces a slightly better than average sound, but like almost any TV, it will greatly benefit from being combined to an external sound system such as a soundbar. 7.8 Smart Features The Sony X940E ships with Android TV 6.0 Marshmallow, but received an update to Android TV 7.0 Nougat prior to testing. Nougat brings a few new features to Android TV, such as a picture in picture mode and multitasking menu, but it fails to address the main problems with the Android TV platform, namely ease of navigation, lag and frame drops, and a lack of smart features in the remote. Other smart features of Android TV remain unchanged. The Google Play Store still has a larger selection of apps than many other smart platforms. Content can be cast to the TV from a smartphone or tablet using the TV's "Chromecast built-in" functionality, or played from a USB drive connected to one of the TV's three USB ports. The remote has a built in microphone for voice search, which works well. 8.1 Mixed Usage Great TV for mixed usage, the X940E has excellent picture quality in most environments. It has some motion blur that might bother people more sensitive to it though. 8.7 Movies Excellent TV for watching movies. The X940E has some of the best local dimming available, bringing it close to OLED for most scenes. It's also able to turn off black bars found in movies completely which is great. 8.3 TV Shows Very good TV for TV shows. The X940E's upscaling of lower resolution content is as good as it gets, and it gets more than bright enough to be enjoyed in most environments. 7.4 Sports Good TV for watching sports, the screen is uniform and bright, leading to no major issues with clarity, but the X940E does have some issues with motion which can cause fast moving objects to have long trails following them. 8.0 Video Games Good TV for playing video games. Input lag is low in 4k, which is great for keeping the TV responsive. The size and picture quality helps keep the experience very immersive. Some motion blur is present though, which can cause issues with clarity, but it can somewhat be circumvented by using a flickering feature. 8.7 HDR Movies The X940E does exceptionally well with HDR movies. It's one of the brightest TVs currently available, and the great local dimming and handling of gradients produce great dynamic range. It doesn't have the widest color gamut available, but it's wide enough to give a strong visual impact. 8.2 HDR Gaming Very good TV for HDR gaming. Little lag is present with a 4k HDR input which is essential, and the overall HDR performance is some of the best we've seen. 7.4 PC Monitor Good TV for use as a PC monitor. Supports all the relevant resolutions, even 120hz for better PC gaming. The input lag is also low, which makes navigating the desktop great. Unfortunately though, it does have a fairly narrow viewing angle, and long trails can be seen following moving elements such as scrolling text or the mouse cursor.

حلقة تكلمنا فيها عن لعبة بدايةً عن دوم فيست الشخصية الجديدة لأوفرووتش وبعدها تكلمنا عن عدة ألعاب منها لعبة سيارات الرالي Dirt 4 وأخيرا أسئلة المستمعينز المشاركين في الحلقة : سعيد الشامسي خالد الحوسني محمد الشامسي خالد الحمادي عدنان البستكي زياد الحربي الألعاب : Dead by daylight Dirt 4 Lost Dimension DragonBall Advanced Adventure   الأشياء اللي ذكرناها : Rtings  

Samsung Q9F QLED  TV REVIEW (RTINGS.COM) Back in May we introduced you to RTINGS.COM and mentioned that we would feature some of their TV reviews on our site from time to time. This week is the first of such reviews and we start off with the Samsung Q9F QLED (Buy Now 65 inch $4997 75 inch $9997). Read the full detailed review at RTINGS.COM Features: Get perfect color with over a billion shades and 100% color volume with our exclusive new Quantum Dots. Q | 4K HDR Elite+ with Infinite Array produces our best contrast and detail in the brightest and darkest areas on the screen at the same time. The no-bezel design and clean back finish look gorgeous front to back, whether mounted on the wall or sitting on a stand. Q | 4K Elite Black+ with Infinite Array delivers our most stunning shades of black and reveals the secrets hidden in the shadows with elite detail. The build quality of the Q9F is excellent. Compared to most other Samsung TVs, it really feels like a big step up which is worthy of their flagship TV. All of the parts are well made and feel high quality. The Samsung Q9F LED TV has a very good picture quality. The excellent contrast ratio, paired with the good black uniformity, make the Q9 a very good choice for a dark home theater setting. It can display very deep blacks and can reproduce dark scenes very well. When set in a bright room, the Q9 is as good as it gets, since it can get very bright to fight glare from a bright lamp of a near sunny window and it can deal with reflections amazingly. Unfortunately, the Q9F's gray uniformity is sub-par and dirty screen effect is visible on wide panning shots or when watching some sports like football or hockey. The viewing angle is also poor and as a result, the Q9's best picture quality is restricted to a narrow zone in front of the TV. Finally, the Q9 can really make HDR content shine with its high HDR peak brightness and large color volume. Small highlights can get very bright and the colors it can reproduce are really a step ahead of the competition. The only downside here is the limitation of the local dimming, which is poorly implemented and can't really help to make black deepers. The Samsung Q9F sounds quite poor, which is unfortunate for a TV of this status. While it isn't unbearable, it is worth spending on a set of speakers for an upgrade to the audio experience. The Q9F uses Samsung's 2017 Tizen platform, also called Smart Hub, which is very simple and easy to navigate and has a powerful voice command feature. The TV's remote has a built-in microphone for these voice commands, which can do many things like changing inputs and settings and searching for content. The center of the TV's interface is the Smart Hub itself, which provides access to apps and settings in an easy to navigate fashion. Menu animations sometimes have frame drops and lag, worse than last year's Smart Hub. The remote unfortunately has very few buttons, requiring the user to use voice commands or navigate the Smart Hub to do most things. Smartphones and tablets can cast content to the TV's apps, and content can be played from a USB drive in one of the TV's three USB ports. Test Results: Design 9.5 Picture Quality 7.9 Motion 8.9 Inputs 8.6 Sound Quality 5.7 Smart Features 8.0 Usage Ratings: Mixed Usage 8.0 Movies 7.7 TV Shows 7.8 Sports 7.8 Video Games 8.5 HDR Movies 8.6 HDR Gaming 8.5 PC Monitor 7.2 The Samsung Q9F QLED is a great 4k LCD TV with very good picture quality and exceptional rendition of colors. It can display a very wide range of colors and gets bright, making it quite good for HDR. Its input lag is quite low, and fast moving content shows very little blur, making it a good choice for both gaming and sports watching. Unfortunately, though, picture quality steeply declines when the Q9F is viewed from an angle, and its and its screen isn't the most uniform.  

RTINGS.COM On today's show we have an interview with Daniel O'Keefe of RTINGS.COM.  We will be publishing some of their reviews on HTGUYS.COM from time to time so we wanted to introduce their site to you. We'll also get a couple of TV recommendations from Daniel as well as a discussion on 4K and HDR. TV Reviews (140) Headphone Reviews (136) About RTINGS.COM Our goal is to help you find the best product to buy. That means straight to the point recommendations, based on in-depth and data driven reviews. We buy our own products, test them and then recommend which one is the best to buy. We put all the products we review under the same test bench, so they can be easily comparable. All our ratings are automatically calculated based on our test measurements. The formula used for the rating calculation can be found when clicking the next to the result. We spend a lot of time comparing the products side-by-side to validate our results. All our test methodology is also on our website so you can confirm the results yourself. We keep the products that we review until they are discontinued, so we can continually go back and compare them together, to make sure our reviews are still accurate.  

This week we discuss Ultra HD standards, Airports and Touch Bars. Follow-up McLaren shareholders have rejected bids, not looking to sell | Reuters (http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-motorracing-mclaren-idUKKBN13D28N) Show Notes 2016 MacBook Pro Keyboard vs. Magic Keyboard vs. iPad Pro Smart Keyboard - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw4Ri7XQk_M) xkcd: Standards (https://xkcd.com/927/) Wide color gamut coverage of TVs: Rec.709, DCI-P3, Rec.2020 - Rtings (http://ca.rtings.com/tv/tests/picture-quality/wide-color-gamut-rec-709-dci-p3-rec-2020) iPhone 8 to Feature All-Glass Casing in Order to Support Wireless Charging - Mac Rumors (http://www.macrumors.com/2016/11/23/2017-iphone-all-glass-casing-wireless-charging/) Apple Abandons Development of Wireless Routers - Bloomberg (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-21/apple-said-to-abandon-development-of-wireless-routers-ivs0ssec) Apple - Frankie’s Holiday - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFPcsYGriEs&) Gravity Light: A 360 Degree Magnetic LED Lamp – Indiegogo (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gravity-light-a-360-degree-magnetic-led-lamp-design/x/2876714) TP-Link Powerline AC1750 Extender, AV1200 Powerline Edition Review (https://hipsterpixel.co/2016/11/22/tp-link-ac1750-wi-fi-extender-av1200-powerline-edition-review/)