HDTVs, projectors, and surround sound systems.
Home Theater
How can I cut the cord on my satellite service?
Episode 1073
Debbie is looking to cut the cord and cancel her satellite service. Leo says that the good news is most of the programming on TV, except live TV, is available over the Internet through Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Vudu, etc. With all that, who needs satellite or cable? Debbie wants to know how she can get that content from the internet on her TV.
Can I attach a second DVR to a cable box?
Episode 1073
Judy wants to know if she can buy her own DVR and use it with the same cable connection as the rest of the apartment. Leo says she could get a TIVO or a ChannelMaster that would do this, but since it won't have its own cable card from the cable company, it would need to connect to the set top box that's already there. This means she'll need an IR blaster so that the DVR can communicate to the cable box to change channels at the appropriate times. Some set top boxes have a link cable that the TIVO would understand, so she could hook it up that way.
Scott Wilkinson at NAB
Episode 1073
Scott is back from NAB in Las Vegas, where he says the show has become more for content creators and not just for broadcasters. GoPro had a huge presence there, as did Blackmagic, Canon, Panasonic, JVC, and Sony, which all had broadcast quality consumer cameras. Scott likes that the technology he sees there ends up trickling down to the consumer market.
Can I use a VPN to get around ISPs throttling Netflix?
Episode 1071
Steve from
Steve signed up for a VPN in order to bypass the bottlenecks brought about by his ISP and Netflix. Leo says that's an interesting solution as the data would be encrypted and the ISP wouldn't know what the data is. Leo says ISPs are slowing down the traffic by 33%, and it's terrible that they do it. VPNs could be a solution to that. However, it also delays his signal because of the overhead of encryption and decryption that would be required. Since Netflix is paying Comcast now for preferred traffic access, a VPN would actually slow the signal down.
Why does AT&T's U-verse look so compressed?
Episode 1071
Rob from
Rob has AT&T UVerse and looks really compressed. Leo says he hears that complaint all the time. It's likely that U-Verse does use a lot of compression, even though it's fiber, so they have no loss of bandwidth. On top of that, channels also are compressed. So there's compression all along the line. This is why broadcast HD is always the best, because there's no compression over-the-air.
Scott Wilkinson and NAB in 4K
Episode 1071
Scott is heading to NAB this week to see what the professionals are doing with 4K. Scott is interested because it will largely impact the standards of ultra high definition moving forward, and that will greatly drive the consumer market. But how will content be graded by pros to take advantage of the new standard? That hasn't been determined yet and Scott will see where it's going at NAB. There's also trends in high dynamic range and color gamut, which are going to provide a broader range of colors with ultra high definition.
Amazon Launches Fire TV
Episode 1071
Amazon announced Fire TV this week, a device that is positioned to compete with AppleTV and Roku. Leo says it pretty much does the same things, but for an extra $40, you can get a wireless game controller to play games on it. Leo says it's essentially a computer running an Android OS; a smartphone minus the screen. It runs a quad core Snapdragon processor with 2GB of RAM, and will play Android games. Apple and Roku plan to implement this as well, but Amazon beat them to the punch.
Can I use a DVR with an HD antenna?
Episode 1070
Jim from
Jim is in the process of "cutting the cable," and he's looking to get a good HD antenna. Leo says that over-the-air signal is the best quality HD because it's uncompressed. Leo advises using AntennaWeb.org. It'll not only tell him what stations work best, it'll also give him recommendations for the best antennas. There's also TVFool.com.
Scott Wilkinson and HDMI 2
Episode 1069
Scott attended a webinar this week on HDMI 2.0, a new home video connection cable standard. He said it's a bit confusing. You can use the same cables you have now, which is a nice thing, and HDMI's category 2 cables have a bandwidth of 10.1 gigabits per second. Even though HDMI 2 is 18GBps, they can still work. It's not necessarily about the version number, it's the list of features it brings to the party. It depends on what the manufacturer decides to support, though.
Can I run both DirecTV and cable on the same TV?
Episode 1068
Jim from
Jim wants to run both DirecTV and Time Warner Cable off the same TV. Leo says he can do it via the HDMI ports on the back of the TV. Then he can just switch from one source to the other. But he'll need a separate cable for it. Can he do it wirelessly? Leo says that wireless HDTV is a difficult thing. It's always best to go wired through HDMI.
