HDTVs, projectors, and surround sound systems.
Home Theater
Why do Blu-ray players have dual HDMI ports?
Episode 1431
Mike from
Mike says that Blu-ray players have dual HDMI ports because some legacy receivers don't support the higher bit rate HDMI 2.0a standard. So you can plug into the older HDMI port instead. But then you lose 4K capability.
Is Dolby Atmos really worth thousands for home theater?
Episode 1431
Scott from
Scott was in a big box store with a listening room and listened to a Dolby Atmos at Home demo and he was blown away. But is it worth thousands to outfit his home theater with it? Leo says no. Many modern AV Receivers now support Atmos. It's a standard like Dolby 5.1 was. The main difference is that Atmos at Home bounces sound off the ceiling for a more immersive audio experience. Leo says he can use dual HDMI outputs that would give him the ability to create a similar experience.
Scott Wilkinson on Home Theater
Episode 1430
Scott says that Vizio has a new higher end 65" UHD LED TV that includes Dolby Vision and HDR10 for $1200. Scott says it's a great TV and if he had a gripe, it's that the black levels aren't as dark as they could be. But for the price, it's a fantastic buy.
What 4K HDR TV should I buy?
Episode 1429
Kevin from
Kevin wants to upgrade his TV and is wondering if HDR is important. Leo says it is. He won't see a lot of HDR content just now, but moving forward everything will come out mastered for HDR. So he'll be on the right side of that by getting an HDR compatible TV. He won't really see 4K broadcast for the next few years, though. He'll get it from streaming sites like Netflix and Amazon. He'll also want to get a UHD-HDR BluRay player. Leo likes the Xbox One S.
Why is my TV not getting a signal?
Episode 1428
Vino from
Vino has a problem with his TV not getting the signal from DirecTV. Leo says it sounds like a bad handshake via HDMI. The settings may be wrong. He may have to change out the HDMI cable, though. Vino should also check to see if he has the most recent firmware.
Scott Wilkinson on Home Theater
Episode 1428
Scott joins us this week to talk about how HDR and 4K is about as good as it gets and moving forward, it's only going to be a "numbers game" as TV manufacturers try to lure you back into the showroom with fancy resolution numbers. But Scott says our eyes can only see so much, and the content is only going to be 4K at best for the foreseeable future.
Why is my SmarTV browser out of date?
Episode 1427
Manny from
Manny has an LG 4K TV and Blu-ray player. But when he uses the web browser, he gets a message that it's out of date. Leo says that's not surprising and he doesn't think he can solve that issue since browsers in Blu-ray Players aren't updated all that much. Manny should try using the browser in his SmarTV. It uses WebOS and that's supposed to be update-able. At least it should be updated more often than his Blu-ray.
Why does my Chromecast mirror all the time?
Episode 1426
Bill from
Bill has the original Chromecast, but he has problems watching content on it in mirrored mode. Leo says he won't want it to mirror. He'll want it to hand off the information to the Chromecast. Then his device just becomes a remote. If he's doing it from the browser, Chromecast isn't designed for that. He should use the Chromecast button inside the apps he's using, like Netflix or YouTube. Chromecast in Chrome has been beta and it could be that it just doesn't work anymore.
Scott Wilkinson on Home Theater
Episode 1426
Scott joins us to talk about a recent article he wrote on AVS Forum about whether 8K is already around the corner. We're going to see them at CES next January, you can bet. Scott says that 8K is a lot closer than we think, but that's only from the perspective of the TV manufacturers who want to sell upgraded TVs. Content is nowhere near around that same 8K corner. Scott says that TV manufacturers can do it so quickly because it won't cost them very much to transition to it in the LED lines.
Have you heard of TV Guardian?
Episode 1425
Tim from
Tim has a friend that developed a program called TV Guardian that removes all the bad words in movies and TV. Rich says that cable is starting to allow more and more profanity, so a device like this can be a good idea.
