Tom is buying a new TV today and wants to know what to get. Leo says it depends on his budget. If he's spending a few thousand, then OLED is the way to go. Better yet, he should get a larger size than he would think. If he's at less than a 10' viewing distance, 55" is OK, but Leo likes 70". HDR makes a significant difference if he likes to watch movies. 4K, for sure. But everything else in the chain has to be 4K HDR in order to get the benefit.
Richard got a Vizio 4K TV and suddenly it says his TV isn't capable of receiving 4K, when it has been for the last two years. Leo suspects there's a "handshake" problem between the DirecTV box and the TV itself, and it's usually the culprit of HDMI cables. He should try replacing the cable first. But he'll have to be sure to have a cable that is certified for high speeds of 18GB per second. Amazon sells them for about $10. He could also try another HDMI input to see if that fixes it.
Murray has an Apple TV 4K and it's not working with his LG TV unless he reboots it. Leo says it's probably an HDMI handshake issue. It could be a bad HDMI cable. Or worse, a bad HDMI port. Apple says to hold the menu/volume buttons down for 5 seconds. The Apple TV will run through resolutions until one wakes it up.
Scott says that when deciding between a smart TV or a TV with a Roku Box. The Roku is easier to update and expand. You can add some apps to your TV, but updates really are few and far between. Leo agrees. He prefers just a monitor and lets the streaming box like Roku handle all the content.
Best Buy is also having a killer one day sale today, and you can get a new 4K TV for under $400.
CJ is really into 4K HD Blu-rays, and he wants to know if he should buy a 4K HDR TV now, or wait until Black Friday? Rich says that streaming is the future and Blu-ray discs are going away. He's going to want to get 4K HDR with Dolby and HDR10. Those are the two standards. He can wait until Black Friday, but the best time to get a TV is just before the Super Bowl.
The day before the Super Bowl is the biggest TV buying day of the year — even bigger than Black Friday. That's because it's also the end of the model year and they want to clear out the old models to make room for the new models. Leo says that there are some times you want to wait for the latest and greatest, but right now is not that time. LCD and OLED TVs are still dominant and will be for a few more years until MicroLEDs take hold. So if you were waiting, don't! If you have an HD TV and wonder if you should buy 4K, now is the time because of HDR 4K TVs.
Scott Wilkinson joins us to talk about the Super Bowl and the commercials that everyone wants to see. Scott says that the Super Bowl is the most watched TV show of the year and half are watching the game for the commercials. This year, there's some interesting new things, including TIVO marking each commercial break so that you can skip the game and go to the commercials directly.
This week is the week to buy a new big screen TV, according to Scott Wilkinson. Everyone wants to watch the Super Bowl on a big screen 4K TV, and this week is a bigger week to buy than the week of Black Friday. Here's a list of great deals compiled by Scott from AVS Forum. Not only will the Super Bowl look great in 4K HDR, but also the Winter Olympics.
Now that Scott is outside of the fog of CES, Scott says that when it comes to TV sizes, 75" is the new 65", and as prices drop and the technology matures, the sizes are getting larger. And with microLED as a new technology, it's really remarkable. So much so that it could change everything and we'll be viewing micro and quantum dot LEDs in a few years.
Scott joins Leo to talk about how January is the big time to buy a new TV because the NFL playoffs are in full swing and people want their new TV before the Super Bowl. It's also the time that TVs get discounted because TVs we see announced at CES will begin selling in the Spring. Is there any upgrade we'll see in 2018 worth waiting for? Scott says maybe not, but CES always has something new coming and Scott has heard of something that is really exciting. But on the whole, Scott only expects incremental improvements, or what Leo calls "fins" this year.
