Felix has a Sony 4K TV and the screen is going black. He's only had it for two years. Leo says it sounds like it could be either a bad power supply or a failing component within the TV. Is the TVZ still under warranty? If so, contact Sony to get it replaced or repaired. But if it's not under warranty, it may not be worth repairing.
Frank bought a Sony XBR 800e. Three weeks after his warranty expired, it started having trouble. Leo says that while the warranty is expired, it's close enough that if he calls them and pleads his case, Sony may be willing to extend the coverage and fix it, and it's likely just a tuner that's gone bad. The other option is to use a third-party tuner. Leo recommends a TiVo or Channel Master product.
Joe just got the 12.9" iPad Pro and he loves it. Leo says it's the fastest computer they've ever made, but they have to let iOS keep up with it, instead of holding it back. Now he's looking at a Vizio P Series 75" TV or a Samsung Q7 model.
Murray has a Sony XBR 930D 4K TV, and it has horizontal lines across the bottom of the screen. Then it looks like it has a double image after awhile. Leo says it sounds like a hardware failure. Scott says that it sounds like LCDs are stuck open, or that the edge backlighting on the 930 are running a muck. Bottom line, it's broken. He may be able to have it repaired under warranty since it's under 2 years old. But if not, it'll likely cost more to fix it than buying a new TV.
While most people will be watching the Super Bowl tomorrow, Scott will be recording the game for the commercials, and watching the Puppy Bowl instead because he's just not into football. He loves the commercials, though. If you are into football, however, there are several options for watching the game.
Scott is back from CES and he put 25.5 miles on his feet, and that's just in the Central Hall! He saw the latest QLED system, which creates more white light to pass through the LCD panel and get color from filters. Quantum dots, however, aren't really LEDs, they're just really small dots of a material that can then absorb light and radiate another color. Scott says that OLED TV prices have remained consistent, while the quality of the screens has improved. OLED is still the best screen you can get.
Program note - Scott will be filling in for Leo during 4th of July weekend. Also, Home Theater Geeks is now live on Thursdays around noon. Guests lately include SMPTE engineers who are establishing the television standards for ultra high definition. We've had HD for over ten years now and the industry is moving into 4K in order to sell more TVs. They tried 3D and it didn't really go over too well. There is a new 3D technology called UltraD that's coming this year, but everything is in 3D. And it's not going to do much better. So now it's all about 4K. Leo wonders about high frame rate.
