HDR

Is 4K Blu-ray worth investing in?

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

Episode 1444

Isaac from Clinton, MS

Isaac has a nice Sony home theater system. But with 4K, he wants to know if the difference in quality is worth rebuilding it in 4K. Leo says that Blu-ray is not only 4 times the resolution as 1080p, it also has the high dynamic range and that's more important. If his home theater supports HDR, then there's no problem. If not, he may want to think about it. Moving forward, he can start picking up UHD HDR Blu-rays for his collection. Billy Lynn, Master and Commander, the BBC Earth series — all are excellent.

What OLED TV should I buy?

E7 OLED 4K HDR Smart TV - 65"

Episode 1440

Derek from Moreno Valley, CA

Derek wants to know if the QLED is as good as an OLED or Plasma. Leo says that the QLED isn't an OLED or a plasma. It's an LED LCD screen. Plasma is dead now because nobody makes them anymore and OLED is king now. If he wants something similar, then OLED is where he'll want to be. Additionally, he'll want to get 4K and HDR. It looks far better than plasma. Leo recommends checking out the 2017 Value Electronics TV Shootout.

Scott Wilkinson on Home Theater

Scott WIlkinson

Episode 1436

Leo got the Apple TV 4K yesterday and says it looks really good. Scott says there's some really great stuff in it and he thinks it could be a Roku killer. It's very polished and crisp. Scott says that the one problem the Apple TV 4K has is that the up conversion feature isn't the best and as such, anything you watch that isn't 4K at 60p doesn't look all that great. Apple is planning to address the problem with a TVOS firmware update 11.02 which will feature "auto switching" that will fix the up convert problem.

What 4K HDR TV should I buy?

B7A OLED 4K HDR Smart TV

Episode 1429

Kevin from Tahiti

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.

Chris Marquardt on Photography

Chris Marquardt

Episode 1425

Chris says that the iPhone X will give you technically better images because the camera has been improved. The Portrait Lightning is also a great new feature. Auto HDR has improved, with a wider color range. It also has a slow sync flash, which gives the background more light to make it look better. 4K/60 in video mode or 240 fps at 1080p. It has a lot of options. But just remember, even with all of these new photo features, it won't make a good photo composition for you. You still have to decide what looks best.

Apple Announces New iPhones, Apple Watch with LTE, and 4K Apple TV

Apple iPhone X

Episode 1422

This week, Apple christened the new Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park with the announcement of the LTE version of the Apple Watch Series 3, which shares your iPhone's phone number and will work independently from the phone. The Apple TV will be 4K with HDR, and 4K movies will be the same cost for rental and purchase. Any HD titles you already have will be automatically upgraded to 4K as well.

How can I create enhanced HDR photos?

Google Photos

Episode 1407

Burke from Richmond, VA

Burke wants to know if he can create enhanced images in Google Photos like HDR? Leo says he can do some basic enhancements through Google Photos, but for real HDR, he'll be better off using Photomatix. It's not cheap, though, at $100. There's probably some cheaper ones out there. He should check out Topaz Studio and StuckinCustoms.com for other recommendations.