HDR

Black Friday is coming this week and Scott says there's going to be some amazing deals on Samsung TVs. And you don't have to wait in line to get them, you can shop online. Scott is seeing deals of up to 60% off really good JS UHD models that have high dynamic range. Scott says it's likely to clear out inventory to make room for the 2016 models which will come out in the Spring. Leo says that the deals are unbelievable, especially coming directly from Samsung. Sony is going to have some deals as well, but we haven't seen details yet.

Scott joins Leo to talk about the new Chromecast audio. He says that the key for him is if it'll have the Tidal service, and if the quality is there, it could sound just like a CD. And what's cool is that it'll be available in any room in the house. Leo says not only that, but it empowers any wireless speaker to be a stereo. The real question is latency, especially in party mode. Scott says that Google will be bringing that in a firmware update. Leo also says if they tie Google Now to it, the party is over for Sonos.

Scott says that the AVSForum has been redesigned so that it's easier to get the editorial content. Scott also says that there's a lot of HDR movies coming in theater including The Martian, PAN, and the Maze Runner Scorch Trials. Scott's really looking forward to The Martian. The book is fantastic, and according to reviews from the Toronto Film Festival, the film is really faithful to the book.

Scott says that Vizio has dropped 3D completely from its entire line of HDTVs and is moving towards High Dynamic Range. Leo says that some people are confused between HDR and high frame rate, or HFR. Scott says that some TV makers are still in the HFR camp and many people don't like it because of it makes the image look like a soap opera. Scott also says that LCDs can make the problem worse with motion blur and then frame interpolation is applied that makes the image look even more plasticy. How can you get rid of the soap opera effect? Look for black frame insertion.

Scott saw "Pixels" and he enjoyed it because it appealed to his inner nerd. The graphics are gorgeous. He went to see it because it was shown in Dolby Vision's High Dynamic Range. There's only five theaters in the US that support it. The next movie in HDR will be Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.

Scott really wants to see Inside Out because it's being shown in high dynamic range laser projection. But he's busy getting ready for CE Week, the midterm CES conference in New York. While there, he's also going to attend the Value Electronics TV Panel shootout between the best TVs from each of the manufacturers. Joe Kane is also doing a presentation on High Dynamic Range TV, which Scott says looks stunning, and that Samsung will be first out of the gate to offer an HDR TV.

This week on HTG, Scott is having on Jim Hellman, an expert in high dynamic range cinema and how it's really making the movie image pop and will be a main focus in the standards of 4K and ultra high definition.

Scott says that HDR will change the way we see movies. But Leo believes that it could be much ado about nothing since people are generally happy with their HDTVs. Scott says that HDR has the promise to drive people back to the theaters, rather than wait to watch movies on their home theater system.

Scott returns from NAB this week, after spending a week walking the halls and seeing the latest in broadcast and film technology. Leo says that it's become more and more about that, rather than the inside technology of engineers. There's a lot more focus on streaming media. Scott agrees, and says that TWiT is ahead of that curve, blazing the trail. Scott says he likes to go to NAB because seeing what broadcasters are working on points the way to what consumers will go with. And 4K was everywhere.

Scott was at the SMPTE Tech Conference this week and saw the new high dynamic range video displays. HDR video is the latest hot thing, and it creates some incredible high dynamic range of the image. Leo says our brains do HDR really well, but it's a challenge in video. Scott says that high dynamic range cameras are going to be needed and the latest generations of digital cinema cameras have over 14 stops of dynamic range. So they can do it. It requires 12 bit color, but the current video systems are only 8 bit.