HDTV and Home Theater Podcast

This week's episode is a very special one: The HT Guys go on vaction. With limited time to plan and record, and no access to email or news stories, the guys still work hard to bring a short show together. Braden shares a story about bridging the past and the present and Ara recalls a very special moment for him from his time at Sony Pictures/ADSG. Until next week!

Today we have a field report from the E3 show in Los Angeles CA.

Father's Day Wish List Classic Movie Posters $10 - $17K What theater would be complete without movie posters? MoviePoster.com sells original as well as reprints of just about every major movie out there. Some are really inexpensive. Find out what your father's favorite movie is and surprise him with something to make his home theater a little bit more authentic! SVS SoundPath Subwoofer Isolation System $50 We all want a tighter low end! And for $50 SVS will give that to you. The SVS Subwoofer Isolation System are screw-in elastomer feet that decouple your subwoofer from the floor to eliminate room rattle and provide cleaner, tighter bass. And you don't need an SVS subwoofer either. They work with almost all subwoofer brands and sizes. Hue Bloom Lights $60 per light. Add $60 more for a bridge if you don't have hue lights. Use the bloom lights to create stunning indirect lighting to highlight furniture, art, or create bias lighting behind your TV. A bit on the expensive side but so very cool!! Custom Acoustic Panels $60 and Up This is a gift that has both form and function. Sometimes getting the most out of your audio is not necessarily about upgrading your equipment. Acoustic panels reduce or eliminate sound waves that bounce off walls and interfere with the sound coming from the speakers. When done right, acoustic panels will improve the audio of your current equipment without spending a ton of money. With custom panels you can take family picture and add that personal touch every Father (and Mother) would love to have in their home theater. Stovetop Popcorn Popper $25 When the best movie theater in the area is right in your living room, you need the perfect snack to accompany the feature film! Thanks to the Original Silver Whirley Pop Stovetop Popcorn Popper, you can have delicious, perfectly cooked movie theater popcorn in just 3 minutes! This popcorn popper also has a patented stirring system so you never have to worry about burning or ruining your popcorn – each kernel moves until it is popped Cup Holder Tablet Mount $25 Many home theater seats and couches include built-in cup holders. Some manufacturers sell tablet mounts that fit in their cupholders. But if yours doesn't, or you don't want to pay the premium, why not try a universal cup holder tablet mount instead? If your home theater is tablet controlled, you have your whole control interface right there at your fingertips, without having to pick it up off the coffee table. That's good living.

Canceled or Renewed 2018 If you're getting dizzy watching shows that were canceled a while ago, make a revival on a different network, only to have that network cancel some shows that were also quite popular, causing them to move to yet another network, or a number one rated comeback show that was practically guaranteed another season get abruptly canceled for crazy tweets, don't worry. We've got you covered. Here's the full list of what's gone, what's coming back, and what network to find it on. ABC Renewed The $100,000 Pyramid Agents of SHIELD American Housewife American Idol America's Funniest Home Videos The Bachelor Black-ish Celebrity Family Feud Child Support Dancing With the Stars For the People Fresh Off the Boat The Goldbergs The Gong Show The Good Doctor Grey's Anatomy How to Get Away with Murder iZombie Match Game Modern Family Speechless Station 19 Canceled Alex, Inc. The Crossing Deception Designated Survivor Inhumans Kevin (Probably) Saves the World The Mayor Quantico Roseanne Ten Days in the Valley Final Season The Middle – series finale aired May 22, 2018 Scandal – series finale aired April 19, 2018 Once Upon a Time – series finale aired May 18, 2018 CBS Renewed 48 Hours 60 Minutes The Amazing Race The Big Bang Theory Big Brother Blue Bloods Bull Criminal Minds Elementary Hawaii Five-0 Instinct Life in Pieces MacGyver Madam Secretary Man with a Plan Mom NCIS NCIS: Los Angeles NCIS: New Orleans The Price Is Right Salvation SEAL Team Survivor SWAT Young Sheldon Canceled 9JKL Code Black Kevin Can Wait Living Biblically Me, Myself & I Scorpion Superior Donuts Wisdom of the Crowd Zoo The CW Renewed The 100 Arrow Black Lightning Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Dynasty The Flash Jane the Virgin Legends of Tomorrow Masters of Illusion Penn & Teller: Fool Us Riverdale Supergirl Supernatural Whose Line Is It Anyway? Canceled Life Sentence Valor Final Season The Originals – premiered April 20, 2018 FOX Renewed 9-1-1 Bob's Burgers Cosmos (FOX/Nat Geo) – last aired in 2014 Empire Family Guy The Four: Battle for Stardom The Gifted Gotham Hell's Kitchen Last Man Standing – last aired on ABC in 2016-17 Lethal Weapon The Orville The Resident The Simpsons So You Think You Can Dance – airs summer 2018 Star Canceled Brooklyn Nine-Nine – moving to NBC The Exorcist The Last Man on Earth LA to Vegas Lucifer The Mick Final Season New Girl – series finale aired May 15, 2018 NBC Renewed America's Got Talent AP Bio The Blacklist Blindspot Brooklyn Nine-Nine – moving from FOX Chicago Fire Chicago Med Chicago PD Days of Our Lives Ellen's Game of Games Good Girls The Good Place Hollywood Game Night Law & Order: SVU Midnight, Texas Superstore This Is Us The Voice The Wall Will & Grace – through 2019-20 Canceled The Brave Great News The Night Shift Rise Taken Final Season Shades of Blue – premieres June 17, 2018 NBC has not made a decision on Timeless. They need to hurry up and just renew it!! Other Notables Renewed A Series of Unfortunate Events (Netflix) – through Season 3 American Dad (TBS) – through Season 6 on TBS/16 overall American Horror Story (FX) – through Season 9 American Vandal (Netflix) Archer (FXX) Ballers (HBO) Baskets (FX) Black Mirror (Netflix) Bosch (Amazon) Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO) Drunk History (Comedy Central) Fear the Walking Dead (AMC) Fuller House (Netflix) Future Man (Hulu) The Good Fight (CBS All Access) Grace and Frankie (Netflix) The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu) Homeland (Showtime) House of Cards (Netflix) Jack Ryan (Amazon) Jessica Jones (Netflix) Lost in Space (Netflix) The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Amazon) – through Season 3 Mindhunter (Netflix) Narcos (Netflix) Orange Is the New Black (Netflix) – through Season 7 Power (Starz) – through Season 6 The Punisher (Netflix) Ray Donovan (Showtime) Rick and Morty (Adult Swim) – for 70 episodes Runaways (Hulu) Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix) Shameless (Showtime) Shooter (USA) Silicon Valley (HBO) South Park (Comedy Central) – through 2019 Star Trek: Discovery (CBS All Access) Stranger Things (Netflix) Strike Back (Cinemax) Suits (USA) The Tick (Amazon) Transparent (Amazon) Van Helsing (Syfy) The Walking Dead (AMC) Westworld (HBO) Canceled Ash vs. Evil Dead (Starz) Chance (Hulu) Damnation (USA) Dice (Showtime) Disjointed (Netflix) I Love Dick (Amazon) Jean-Claude Van Johnson (Amazon) Lady Dynamite (Netflix) The Librarians (TNT) Mozart in the Jungle (Amazon) The Path (Hulu) Seven Seconds (Netflix) Final Season The Americans (FX) – series finale aired May 30, 2018 Halt and Catch Fire (AMC) – series finale aired Oct. 14, 2017 The Last Ship (TNT) Major Crimes (TNT) – series finale aired Jan. 9, 2018 The Mindy Project (Hulu) – series finale streamed Nov. 14, 2017 Nashville (CMT) – premiered Jan. 4, 2018 Portlandia (IFC) – premiered Jan. 18, 2018 Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix) – premieres May 30, 2018 Vice Principals (HBO) – series finale aired Nov. 12, 2017 Full lists Renewed Canceled Final Season

SVS Soundpath Wireless Subwoofer Kit Pretty much from the start we have been searching for wireless solutions to transmit audio from one part of the room to the other. Early attempts have been met with static, pops, and clicks. We have made significant progress over the years and today we are taking a look at the SVS Soundpath Wireless Subwoofer Kit ($90). This product is so simple to use there weren't even instructions in the box! Setup Connect the transmitter (clearly labeled on the unit) to the subwoofer output of your receiver via an included RCA cable and then connect the other end (3.5 mm) to the transmitter. The device gets power via USB. If your receiver has a USB connection you can use that otherwise SVS has included a USB power adapter. Do the same thing at the subwoofer and you are done. Place your subwoofer anywhere you want. The signal reached anywhere we put the sub in our medium sized room (15 X 20 ft). Setup time four minutes! SVS also includes double sided 3M tape to help lock down the device. Performance It just works! We tested down to 15hz up to 85Hz. The device is rated from 6hz to 22KHz but our subwoofer only goes to 15Hz and our crossover is set to 85Hz so that's all we tested to. We could hear no difference from the wired case nor could we perceive any delay. From our ear's point of view there was no difference in performance. HT Guys Recommendation The SVS SoundPath Wireless Subwoofer Subwoofer Kit unlocks the potential of your subwoofer by freeing you to place it in the best spot of your room! Now EVERY subwoofer can be a wireless subwoofer!

CNET's Guide to Smart Living While this may or may not be the year of home automation (or maybe it was last year?), the idea of making some aspects of your home more automated or "smarter" is becoming much more approachable and affordable. CNET recently put together a collection of articles about how to get into the game that offer some interesting tips and pointers. This isn't a definitive guide for the hard core home or life hacker, but it helps those who aren't yet in the game to dip a toe in the water. 4 Things to Consider Before Making Your Home Smart You'll need to decide on a 'brain' first Without a doubt, the biggest concern is fragmentation. It's certainly gotten better over the last few years, especially with the growing popularity of smart speakers like Google Home ($129.00 at Dell Home) and the Echo, and services like IFTTT that help fix the language barrier between different devices and services. But if you're not careful when choosing the smart products to install in your home, you'll find yourself with a home full of devices only using half of their potential. The best way to go about it is to pick a "brain" for your smart home -- be it Amazon's Echo, Google Home, Apple's HomeKit or Samsung's SmartThings -- and only buy smart bulbs, locks, cameras and other accessories or appliances that are compatible with it. Can your devices 'talk' to each other? Ease of use is another point of consideration. You're not building a smart home to make your life more difficult, and turning on any given light or appliance shouldn't be more complicated than its dumb counterpart. Cost Smart home gadgets are generally more expensive than their dumb counterparts -- and rightly so. A light switch that can be controlled with your voice (like the Lutron Caseta) and can be scheduled or controlled from anywhere in the world should cost more than a standard light switch. But outfitting an entire house with those smart switches will cost significantly more. And don't be so quick to believe the purported energy savings. The cost savings will depend on what technology you're upgrading from. And even the products that do use less energy than their dumb alternatives will likely take several years to make up for the difference in the initial cost. Wi-Fi and product security Finally, you should be concerned with security. Leave it to shows like Mr. Robot to feed us smart home nightmare fuel. While you can DIY a smart security system easily for less money than a standard security system ($39.99 at Amazon.com) would have cost you just a few years ago, like anything with a wireless connection, it's also susceptible to exploits and other security flaws. Your patchwork smart home security system is only as strong as your Wi-Fi password. And the same general security tip is still valid here -- give everything its own, unique password. 4 Clever Morning Routine Automations For Your Smart Home Slowly turn on the lights Getting a good night's rest is important. But just as important is how you wake up. No one likes waking up to a loud, abrupt alarm. Try waking up calmly to a gentle, gradual increasing light instead. It's more natural and will prevent you from being ripped out of deep sleep. You can do this a few different ways. Many smart bulbs, for instance, can be programmed to come on at a specific time, and often you can choose how long it takes for the bulbs to reach the desired brightness -- instantly, a couple of seconds or even several minutes. Create a schedule for the bulbs overhead or in a bedside lamp to slowly turn on to full brightness around the time you need to wake up. Create a schedule for overhead Lutron lights, LIFX bulbs in a bedside lamp or a Philips Wake-Up Light to slowly turn on around the time you need to wake up. Gently raise the temperature No one wants to peel off the cozy sheets early in the morning and wake up to a chilly bedroom. To avoid this, you can set your smart thermostat to slowly raise the temperature 30 minutes before you plan to get out of bed each morning. Like with slowly turning on the bedroom lights, this will help gently pull you out of sleep and make getting out of bed less jarring. Or maybe you need the shock of brisk morning air to help wake you up. If that's your morning trick, just set the thermostat to lower a few degrees before your alarm. Automatically make coffee Who doesn't like a fresh cup of coffee early in the morning? With your smart home, you can wake up to hot coffee every day. And making it happen is easier than you think. While they make smart coffee makers specifically for this, all you really need is any ol' dumb coffee maker and a smart plug. The one requirement for the coffee maker is that its power button is a toggle switch that will remain on, even after brewing has finished -- this is so you can control its power externally with the smart switch. Pretty much all smart switches can operate on a schedule, but if you've got one that's compatible with Google Home or Ech

Review Sony A8F from RTINGS.COM Today we have a review of a Sony A8F OLED TV from RTINGS.COM. The A8F is a OLED 4K HDR TV with 4K HDR Processor X1™ Extreme, Acoustic Surface™ technology and Android TV. The Acoustic Surface is supposed to produce deeper bass by vibrating the glass. We'll see if that is what the reviewers experienced below. It comes in three sizes 55", 65", and 77". Read the full detailed review at RTINGS.COM. Highlights below: The Sony A8F is a 2018 4k OLED TV with excellent performance for a variety of different usages. It has excellent picture quality, with perfectly deep blacks that looks impressive in a dark room. Motion handling is excellent due to the instantaneous response time, but this lack of blur can make low frame rate content appear choppy. Like the Sony A1E and other OLED TVs, it isn't perfect as the brightness changes depending on screen content and there may be risk of burn-in with static content. Design 9.5 The Sony A8F OLED TV is extremely well designed. The stand has a very small footprint and fits well in any decor. The TV is well built and there are no obvious gaps or loose panels. The TV has a very small frame and delivers an immersive viewing experience, especially when wall mounted. Picture Quality 8.6 The Sony A8F OLED TV produces excellent picture quality. It is able to produce true blacks and infinite contrast ratio, which combined with the perfect black uniformity, makes for excellent dark room performance. Can produce bright highlights and although the whole screen can't get that bright, it should be good enough to combat glare in most rooms. Color accuracy is good out of the box, and most people won't need to calibrate their set. It also has an excellent wide color gamut. It is prone to temporary image retention and could experience permanent burn-in, although we don't expect most people to experience this. Motion 8.8 The motion handling of the Sony A8F is excellent. It has a near-instantaneous response time and is flicker-free, so there is very little motion trail and only slight persistence blur. The perfect response time causes stutter, especially with 24 fps content, but this can be helped with the optional Black Frame Insertion feature or by enabling Motion Interpolation, but it is judder-free. It does not support a variable refresh rate, and there are no plans announced by Sony to add support for this in the future. Inputs 8.2 The A8F supports a wide variety of input formats and resolutions. It has low 4k input lag, but not as good as the LG C8. Like all Sony TVs, only HDMI ports 2 & 3 support full bandwidth, but port 3 is also the audio return channel. If you have a receiver which supports ARC and you are planning on connecting more than 1 full bandwidth device, you may wish to consider connecting your receiver using an optical (Toslink) cable. Sound Quality 7.4 The Sony A8F has an above-average sound. It gets quite loud and produces a decent amount of bass along with clear dialogs. However, their bass doesn't have any thump or rumble to it, and it doesn't have a room correction system either. For a better sound, a dedicated sound system or soundbars are recommended. Smart Features 8.0 The Sony A8F runs Sony's customized Android TV interface. The layout is very simple, there are multiple rows used to group similar functions together making it easy to navigate. The TV has performance issues when navigating the menus, as it froze repeatedly and animations were choppy. It is especially slow when accessing the menus from within an app. It has a great voice assistant, although it is not as good as the ThinQ AI found on 2018 LG OLEDs. Ratings Mixed Usage 8.7 - Recommended if under (USD) $2,300* Value for price beaten by LG C8 Movies 9.4 - Best Value for Price TV Shows 8.5 - Recommended if under (USD) $1,660* Value for price beaten by LG C8 Sports 8.6 - Recommended if under (USD) $2,310* Value for price beaten by LG C8 Video Games 8.6 - Recommended if under (USD) $1,200* Value for price beaten by LG C8 HDR Movies 9.1 - Recommended if under (USD) $1,680* Value for price beaten by LG B7A HDR Gaming 8.6 - Recommended if under (USD) $1,700* Value for price beaten by LG B7A PC Monitor 8.0 - Recommended if under (USD) $410* Value for price beaten by LG SK9000 * Pricing for 55" version

'Avengers: Infinity War' Box Office: A Rundown of the Records Broken 'Avengers: Infinity War' Box Office: A Rundown of the Records BrokenDisney and Marvel continue to push the superhero envelope at the box office, with Avengers: Infinity War serving up their latest victory. The mega-mashup smashed a number of records in its global debut over the weekend, less than three months after Marvel's Black Panther began its own historic run. Disney's VR 'force jacket' sends snakes wriggling over your body It was put together by Disney Research, alongside MIT. It's essentially a jacket stuffed with airbags and sensors that can be calibrated to simulate a number of different physical experiences. Disney highlights a few: the feeling of being punched, hugged, or having snakes slither all over your body. (I saw that we doubled up on this one in the News stories, so I dropped it to the bottom of news so we can do it there and just expand/opine, or we can push it to a longer mini feature. Whatever you want to do.) Royole Moon 3D Mobile Theater Review When you wear glasses like this, you are presented with the equivalent of sitting relatively close to a large projection screen, with your peripheral vision essentially filled by the image. Royole suggests that the Moon provides the equal of an 800-inch curved screen (about 66 feet) viewed from about an equal distance away. That's close to standard IMAX territory. The experience is akin to watching my 92-inch projection screen from a fairly tight 10 feet away, if not closer. In other words, the same highly immersive quality we attribute to the front projection/cinema experience is apparent in spades here and is made all the more so by the addition of some good-quality earphones.

OLED Burn-in Follow Up Christopher - As per episode #840 - I have a 55" Sony A1E that I purchased 9 months ago. I had it professionally calibrated and love it completely (except for the stupid swing-out base that they've done away with in the new model). I primarily watch movies (Opportunity UDP-203), Apple TV, TiVo and Netflix. I do not play games on it. No burn-in issues what-so-ever... so far... ;) Scruffy - Have a 2014 LG OLED with 8000 hours. Strictly cable box viewing, a few hours at a time throughout the day 7 days a week. No image retention or burn in issues ever. Getting a 55" 2018 OLED soon - no worries. Jack - I heard your recent debate about OLED burn-in. To me there is no debate. I purchased an oled65b6p in the fall of 2016. By summer of 2017, I started noticing something wrong. After a little investigation it was clear I had serious BI issues from watching MSNBC. In the attached red picture you can see where the old lower third was burnt in and can still read "live", they recently lowered the banner when the news ticker was eliminated. I see this most on reds yellows and shades of tan. Skin tone is really bad. Also, note the prominent left side of the NBC peacock (red orange yellow) in the yellow pictures. I contacted LG and they told me it is not covered by the warranty. I also contacted Abt where I bought the set and to their credit after a few rounds of negotiations they gave me a $1600 store credit (I paid $4K) and I'm keeping the bad tv for now. They initially offered a C7 LG OLED at a significant discount but I did not want to just end up with the same problem. I watch all sorts of programming but typically have the news on in the background while working which obviously caused this problem. The TV is great and near perfect (love the picture, the blacks and the HDR) but BI makes it unacceptable. I should not have to change my TV viewing habits because of issues with the technology especially when I pay top $$. It's going to take me a while to find a suitable replacement which is why I'm keeping this one for now. Steven - I have a LG OLED55B6P I purchased about a year and a half ago. We have primary used it to watch shows and movies. Even after this time, I still find myself on a weekly basis noticing how beautiful the picture is. I tell people my two favorite types of scenes are those with tons of color and black scenes. On the burn in issue, I have not noticed any issues. We probably have the unit on for five to six hours throughout the day. Though the types of content is dynamic (little to no tickers or other static elements). However, literally two weeks before your episode about the OLED burn in issue dropped I started to play my Nintendo Switch on the television. I am currently only playing Mario Odyssey. This game has dynamic content on the screen except for a coin counter in the upper left of the screen. Though it does go off during cut scene. At this point I have not noticed any burn in. Steven (a different Steven) - I purchased an LG OLED65B7A in early November 2017. Even though I owned a beautiful 55" Samsung Plasma about 5 years ago, I consider this the best TV picture I've ever had. I don't regret purchasing it for 1 nanosecond. For two years, I was unhappy with a Sony LCD TV that dimmed from the side and had uneven blacks. The OLED is amazing. When I walk by it and look at if from the side it warms my heart. It's perfect. I've only had the TV for about 5 months, but have not seen any evidence of burn in. That being said, I do not watch CNN or CNBC for hours a day or play video games. I do watch a fair amount of sports. Here is what CNET said on April 17th, 2018 about OLED burn-in: "All things considered, however, burn-in shouldn't be a problem for most people. That's why we at CNET continue to recommend OLED-based TVs, phones and other devices in our reviews. From all of the evidence we've seen, burn-in is typically caused by leaving a single, static image element, like a channel logo, on-screen for a very long time, repeatedly. That's an issue if you keep Fox News, ESPN or MSNBC on-screen for multiple hours every day and don't watch enough other programming, for example. But as long as you vary what's displayed, chances are you'll never experience burn-in." I did a lot of research about this before I purchased the TV and although some burn-in is permanent, I've heard a number of people say that apparent burn-in does repair itself sometimes. http://televisions.reviewed.com/features/what-to-know-about-oled-screen-burn-in-problems-causes-image-retention I think seeing burn-in is to be expected if Best Buy leaves the same picture on during business hours for day after day after day. But I will say this, if Braden is going to let his kids use the OLED for video games many hours a day, he should probably get a crappy LCD for them. And believe me LCD looks like crap compared to my OLED. No contest. However, I think CNET"s implication is that even if Braden's kids play a number of

Rtings.com: Real Life OLED Burn In Test on 6 TVs Walking through a large electronics store the other day something caught our eye on one of their OLED display televisions. While you'd like to hope it was the vivid, realistic images on screen, it wasn't. It was the obvious burn-in. And it was bad. You could clearly see a shadow of the bottom logo bar / ticker from content they must use regularly peeking through what would have otherwise been a stellar video presentation. The burn-in scare was one of the factors that ultimately led to the demise of plasma televisions. Will burn-in be the demise of OLED? To dig into the issue, we turned to our friends at Rtings.com. It just so happens that they are currently, actively running a real life burn-in test on 6 LG OLED televisions. While we used to dismiss burn-in issues with plasma once the technology matured, it looks like we may not be able to dismiss them with OLED yet. The technology just hasn't matured to where we can say it isn't an issue. Hopefully it will. If not, the test results at Rtings.com were eye opening for us. Enough to give us pause on purchase decisions, and certainly informative on how we would use an OLED screen if we owned one. The folks at Rtings.com ran a burn-in stress test to compare the results across three different display technologies: OLED and two types of LCD, In Plane Switching (IPS) and Vertical Alignment (VA). The results there are pretty dire for OLED, as are the comments from some of the OLED owners at the bottom of the page. And when you factor in that, as they point out in response to a comment "Burn-in on OLEDs unlike Plasma or CRT TVs is not caused by retention or stuck pixels, but instead due to cumulative degradation of the material through usage. This means that over time, OLED TVs will lose brightness across the whole screen progressively. Burn-in is simply a high contrast region of the screen where there was more usage than the surrounding area creating a visible shape." It doesn't paint a rosy picture for OLED. For more information on In Plane Switching (IPS) versus Vertical Alignment (VA) for LCD TVs, see this article: IPS vs VA: Comparing LCD types found in TVs. But the real world test is a bit more "fair" than the stress test - especially on the OLED sets. Here's how they went about it. First, they "bought 6 LG OLED C7 which will play real, non-altered content. This should give you a better idea on what to expect depending on what you watch on your TV." Then they simulated using them like you might. Goal The goal of the test is to provide an idea of the usage time of a 2017 OLED TV before burn-in becomes apparent, which will depend on your usage. To do so, we will replicate five different real-world conditions in an accelerated aging test. We will also independently test two different brightness ('OLED Light') settings with the same content to see the impact of this. Test Setup The TVs will all be controlled by a microcontroller to repeat a five hour on and one hour off cycle four times per day. The 'Screen Shift' option will be enabled on all TVs, and 'Pixel Refresher' will be performed before each set of measurements taken on each TV. They will all be playing real content (not test patterns), from live cable TV sources, video game clips or recorded sports. The brightness of all TVs (except the one identified below) will be set to 200 nits on a checkerboard pattern, with the content described below. The Content LIVE CNN - This test is considered a control, with the 'OLED Light' set to a brightness of 200 nits. LIVE CNN (MAXIMUM SCREEN BRIGHTNESS of 380 nits) - This is to show the relationship between burn-in rate and 'OLED Light' with the exact same content and over the same time period. FOOTBALL - Includes content from a variety of channels and with different teams, so overlays are located in different areas and team colors change. It includes many games to avoid too much repeating. LIVE NBC - The source is a live cable feed and should be representative for a range of general TV content. FIFA 18 GAMEPLAY - The goal of the content on this TV is to investigate the effect of a 'high risk' video game - one which has some bright, static areas which remain very consistent. CALL OF DUTY: WWII GAMEPLAY - The gameplay footage on this TV is to represent a relatively 'low risk' video game. It only has small areas which are static and an overall dim image without too many bright colors. Results (so far) Week 2: No issues are visible. Week 4: Uniformity issues are clearly visible on the 200 nits CNN TV in red and magenta slides (but not in normal content). This is unusual, as we would expect the maximum brightness CNN TV to show uniformity issues before the 200 nits CNN TV. The 25% window we used in January to measure the color gamut is also becoming more visible on this TV (and the FIFA 18 TV) as the weeks progress, even though we haven't displayed that 25% test pattern since January. We have contacted LG to understand why th

Channel Master SMARTenna+ We have been receiving HD OTA signals since almost the beginning. As such we have tried over twenty five different antennas from about five or six different companies. To date our favorite is the Mohu Sky. It works great for extreme fringe reception. But if you live close to the towers you may get away with an indoor antenna and for that our favorite is the Mohu Leaf. Channel Master has introduced a new indoor antenna that gives the Mohu Leaf a run for the money. The Channel Master SMARTenna+ is a mostly paper thin amplified antenna that can easily be placed inside your home and pulls in quite a few channels. There is a processor built into the bottom of the antenna which helps "Steer" the antenna to maximize the reception. No more moving the antenna around until you find the right position. Just press a button and the signal is locked in. Setup Channel master has come up with a "Push-On" connector to make connecting the SMARTenna trivial. You just push on the cable connector to the antenna and then push on the other end to the amplifier. Then you connect the output of the amplifier to the TV and finally plug the amplifier into a wall socket. You will see an LED blinking for about two minutes while it scans for signals. Once it completes the scan the LED will stop blinking. Now go ahead and scan for channels on your TV. Prior to installing the SMARTenna we did a scan with the existing Mohu Leaf which found 72 channels. We did the same scan two minutes later with the SMARTenna and found 70 Channels. Performance You would think that the performance would be the same since they both found about the same number of channels. But there were some differences that made us quite pleased with the SMARTenna. Even though the Mohu Leaf found more channels watching some of those channels could get annoying due to dropouts. Everything would be going OK and then it would just pixelate. In one case the Antenna could not reliably pick up the local CBS affiliate with the Leaf. With the SMARTEnna we had the same issue. However, the SMARTenna has a magic button that virtually moves the antenna to a more optimal position. And just like that CBS is on screen and no pixelation. The new antenna fixes the age old problem of trying to maximize the location of the antenna to pull in the most channels possible. Now you can have all the channels and not have to move the antenna around. Another issue you may experience with OTA signals is that the signal is fine for about an hour or so and then it's just starts acting up. This could be for a variety of things interfering with the signal. This did happen while watching a show on a channel that was a bit farther away than the main channels. When that happened we just hit the LED button until the signal came back! Room for Improvement While we can attest that the SMARTennas does live up to its name, there are a few things we'd like to see improved. The scan button is a great idea if you are in front of the TV watching. But if you are recording something and the signal goes away or if you want to record things on different channels that need the antenna to be steered it won't work. If the antenna was truly smart it would scan the frequencies and auto steer to get the strongest signal possible. Or at the very least it would be nice if there was a remote control that allows you to steer the antenna from your remote control. Then you can build it into you automation so that recording would still work. Conclusion We have a new favorite antenna. If you live within 35 miles of your TV transmitters and suffer from multipath interference this may be the best $90 you spend on your TV!

Short Throw Projector Follow Up On Episode 836 we talked about the idea of short throw projectors for home theater use and asked the question: Why aren't more people using them in their homes? Their price per square inch of screen real estate seems like, at least on paper, the most cost effective way to get a huge screen at home. So why aren't they flying off the shelves? We had a ton of great listener feedback on it, so we decided to create a feature out of it. From Ed: My business is Classroom Technology, among other things. And you probably know that most classrooms today have either Projected images or LCD Panels at the front of the room. And I think the trend in Classroom Technology can inform the issue of UST projectors in homes. --- The trend in Classroom Technology is Toward LCD Panels. We are involved in several projects this summer when schools are taking out hundreds of Projectors that have 88-inch diagonal 16:10 screens and replacing them with smaller LCD Panels (75-inch 16:9 screen is a common size). So, they are replacing the 88-inch screen with a screen that is 31% smaller (in square inches). Why? Image quality. None of these projector images can compete with the dynamic range and clarity of an LCD. Even used primarily for data. --- It gets worse for Projectors when you think about it. In normal-size classrooms (which are bigger than most home theaters), schools are replacing projectors with LCDs that cost more than what a replacement projector would cost and have a smaller image. And they put more thought into this than the average home theater consumer. And remember, classroom LCDs are Digital Signage quality (PID standard) and cost about twice what a home LCD would cost. So schools are paying A LOT to move away from Projectors. So if schools are willing to pay for that image quality, why wouldn't you expect consumers to do the same? --- Put another way, let's say that one of these projector companies wanted to sell a lot of these projectors. Could you put them into Costco or BestBuy side-by-side with LCD TVs? That would be a tough sell. At a minimum you would need a special room. My thought is that the only group of consumers interested in Ultra Short Throw projectors would be the ones interested in Projectors in the first place. Which is a minority of the overall market. From Jim: I just finished listening to your episode about ultra-short throw projectors and while we are not a residential integrator, we have installed several of these commercially and thought I'd offer a couple points. --- Early attempts (8-10 years back) at UST projection was awful – a lot of issues with geometry, and it surely turned off a lot of people. --- UST projectors require a perfectly flat screen surface. Walls or conventional screens are no good – has to be perfectly flat. That said, the screen does NOT have to be exotic – just flat. Stop in at any elementary school, you'll see them everywhere projecting on whiteboards. --- As with any projection, for a quality image you want the picture to be aligned to the screen without using any electronic geometry correction. With UST projectors positioning the projector to match the image area is VERY touchy – you have to get the placement just right. --- All in all, if the environment was appropriate for projection and the placement situation was favorable, I would definitely consider a UST projector – particularly if it was laser-based. From Scott: About 3 years ago, I installed make shift home theater with short throw projector and couldn't be happier with the results on a relatively inexpensive setup at least video wise. A lot of people, when they finish their basements, ask me for help when it comes to home theaters usually on a budget. Since I do this for free, I wanted a way I could test things first to keep the "lifetime support" trips down to a minimum. --- Build: Optima got 1080p 3k lumens 3D DLP around $550 Denon X3000 Klipisch RF-62 reference series 7.1 but only using 5.1 using speaker stands STR-169100 Silver Ticket 100" screen white $200 Harmony Remote --- Sources: Windows 10 gaming computer Mac mini FireHD TV Apple TV Panasonic Blu-Ray --- Review: Setting up the screen would be ideal for 2 people due to the size. Putting the aluminum frame together and stretching it so it wrinkle free is critical but very easy with this brand. Hanging it is like hanging a big picture so a laser level and stud finder comes in handy. Since I wanted this easily removable I just have the projector on top of the center speakeer on a stand. Not ideal but works. Sitting about 3 foot away from the screen and 2 foot off the floor, I'm able to project a 100" 1080p image. --- This room has no windows and is small for a home theater at about 12'x20'. This projector was a little pain to dial in to the screen because I didn't have projector mounted and limited adjustments options. Startup time, heat, and fan noise are all the common negatives about projectors in general and are present

Home Theater Seating, a Listener's Perspective The following is an email from long time listener and supporter of the show Stu Silberman regarding his family's experience with Home Theater seating. We liked it so much we thought we would share it with everyone. My wife and I just purchased home theater seating. It's wonderful. Along with video, audio, lighting, shades, automation and the other important items you educate us on, what we sit on has a huge impact on our enjoyment of the hardware and software. Turns out there is so much available, from many different brands. We went first to Best Buy and then to a locally-owned, dedicated home theater store. Best Buy was disappointing – they had only one set of recliners on display. The dedicated store was better in that they had a few for us to try, and sales materials on all the other options available. Our third try was the charm – we went to a furniture store, just to see what they had. We hit the jackpot. They had probably a dozen different styles to try, and surprisingly, a very knowledgeable salesperson. We ended up purchasing a model from Palliser. Here are some of the things we learned in our shopping experience: Recliners are available as singles, or as rows of two or more. They can be aligned straight or curved so that they each point to the center of the screen. Since you mix and match, you can design, for example, two straight in the middle surrounded on each end by recliners curved in. Boy do they come with features. Ours have motorized recline, motorized headrest, two memory settings, and lighted cupholders and ground effects with three colors and four brightness settings, which can be independently set. The LEDs were fun the first time, but they're standard, so we have them. Options include bass shakers, massage, and probably more. The arms have storage and come with grommets, so we ordered swivel tables. You can also get tablet holders and wine glass holders. As with most custom-ordered furniture, you can select the grade and color of leather, and they'll be delivered in several weeks. Since the floor model had a grade and color we liked, we ordered from stock and got them within days. After using them for a few weeks, I'm very glad we made the investment. Here are some things that I'd like to share from our experience: Our buttons are on the cupholders. Other models have buttons on the side. When you're reclined, the last thing you want to do is to have to get up to find the buttons to make adjustments. Make sure the buttons are where you can easily reach them. The motorized headrest is critical. Without it you'll likely have to use one or more pillows to get your head to a comfortable viewing position. The seats are higher than the couches we used. This works out well for us – we're still below the center point of our 65" tv on a standard-height tv stand, and it's more immersive. We ordered two seats in a in a curved configuration so that we're both pointed toward the center of the screen – the way I recommend going. The seats are not attached to each other – pros and cons. Pro: very easy to move to the perfect position. Con: there's not much weight holding them down, so you really have to put them in the upright position before getting out. While we had white-glove service included, I watched and they're easy to install for do-it-yourselfers. The recliners each come in two pieces, they're easy to move around the house and down narrow stairways, and hooking up the cables to power is foolproof due to modular connections. Like speakers, an investment in quality seating should last for several hardware upgrade cycles. I highly recommend comfortable seating as a sure-fire way to increase home theater enjoyment. Let me know if you have any questions. Interview with David Sanderson of ReelGood.com James from Illinois sent us an email tipping us off to a service at Reelgood.com. Reelgood is an extensive streaming guide, with every TV show and movie available to stream online. Browse through every TV series and movie and sort by title, release year, genre, IMDB rating, and, most important -- see where to watch it. Then play with a single click or tap. We have an interview with ReelGood.com founder David Sanderson

Short Throw Projectors There was a short throw projector on Woot! this week for $999. Not a bad price at all for the potential to have a 100" television in your family room or home theater. That got us thinking… Why aren't more people using short throw projectors in their homes? Their price per square inch of screen real estate is by far the most cost effective way to get a huge screen at home, and the install and setup is a snap. So what gives? Why aren't people using them. Let us first apologize if some of you reading or listening are using short throw projectors at home. We aren't saying that you are not a person. We're simply saying that to date, we haven't seen a short throw projector in use in any home we've ever been to, nor have we had anyone brag to us about how cool their short throw setup is. We're going to take a look at some pros and cons and see if we can come up with theories on why they haven't caught on. If you have one, or have had one in the past and decided to ditch it, we'd love to hear your take. What is it For those who don't know, a short throw projector is a home theater projector that, like a standard front projection system, can give you a very large display area in your home, often maxing out at 100" to 120". The big difference is that they bounce the image off a mirror or two and project that large screen from only a few inches or a couple feet from the screen itself, not from all the way in the back of the room. So you get a huge home cinema by placing the projector on a standard TV stand at the front of your living room, in the same place you might put a center speaker or a soundbar. *Aside: Remember the old school big screen CRTs that would fold down or you'd pull a box out into the room to beam the image up onto the screen? It's kinda like that. Only not. Pros and Cons The pros are obvious: the cost to purchase a 100" or 120" television is astronomical - unattainable for most of us regular folk. So the only way to get a home theater that size is with a projector. But projectors are difficult to install, often requiring a professional to run cables and power to the back of the room. But with a short throw, there's not need to run anything to the back of the room. You just set them on your TV cabinet and hook them up like you would any other television. No install cost, low projector cost, instant home theater. The cons, as you can image, are nearly identical to the cons for typical from projection systems. In both cases, most are 1080p still. While prices for 4k are dropping, the are still at a good premium and selection is limited. Also, both suffer from a lack of overall brightness, making the ability to control ambient light critical, especially for daytime viewing. If you have a bright room with a bunch of windows, most projectors, including short throw projectors, will be frustrating to use during the day. And projectors require screens. You can't really just beam the picture onto a wall and expect to be happy with the picture. That means a second product to buy and install, increasing the complexity of the overall system. On top of that, many short throw projectors require a special screen that has been built to match the projector. At least with typical front projection you can buy and install whatever screen you like. Not so with some short throw setups. Probably the only con that short throw projectors don't share with standard front projectors is that people can walk through the beam and block it from getting to the screen. Unless people routinely walk on your TV cabinet, you won't have that issue with a short throw. Options LG PF1000UW The short throw projector we saw on Woot! for $999 was the LG PF1000UW Ultra Short Throw Smart LED Projector with webOS 3.0 Smart TV and Magic Remote. The specs sound pretty compelling, even for dedicated home theater use, not just portable or temporary instant home theater for backyards or parties or other events. With webOS 3.0 built in, it's like buying a Smart TV, just with a bigger screen. The throw distance is really short; at just 5 inches away you can get 60 inches of home theater, or go to 15 inches back to get images up to 100 inches on screen. And it has a max brightness of 1000 lumen. You get full HD 1080p picture quality. We would have loved 4k, but 1080p is good too. The LED lamp is very efficient and will last up to an estimated 30,000 hours. That means the lamp does not have to be replaced for about 10 years if the projector is used 8 hours every day. And it has 4-corner keystone technology that allows for adjustment of each of the four corners of the image for ideal projection image alignment. LG PF1000UW: $1399 MSRP LG also makes the HF85JA with 1500 lumens for a $1599 suggested price and the PH450U with 450 lumens for a $599 street (Amazon) price. Optoma EH320UST The Optoma Ultra Short Throw 3D 1080p Projector EH320UST is another option in this category. This option is impressively bright. It can hit a peak brightn

Interview with Adam Pizzo. He is a home integrator specializing in Control4. Adam is based in Toronto and was kind enough to come on the show and talk about what a home integrator can do for your home. From homes small to large, new and old, Control4 delivers power and performance on one system that coordinates the technology in your house into complete, brilliant experiences—interactions that fit your lifestyle and are easy for your family to enjoy. With one touch, dim the lights, stream high-resolution music, turn up the heat, lock the doors and arm the security system. Check in on cameras or see who's ringing the doorbell—from wherever you are. It's a smarter living experience that you'll wonder how you ever lived without. The Control4® platform is the operating system of your smart home. By connecting to and managing the many devices in your home, this robust and reliable platform enables your favorite products to work together in orchestration, personalized to the way you live.

The Devices We Can't Live Without Research firm iQor recently commissioned an online survey called the Customer and Product Experience (CPX) 360 Survey (part 2). It was conducted online and polled 1,004 U.S. adults 18 and up living in a "smart household" environment from Nov. 9 to Nov. 17, 2017. The goal was to gauge customer experience and customer service expectations of buyers of consumer technology in today's digital age. All respondents indicated they own or regularly use: a smartphone, a computer (desktop, laptop or tablet), and two or more "smart" devices. Their findings were interesting, but they inspired us to conduct a less formal survey to gauge customer experience with and "addiction" to consumer technology devices in today's digital age. The survey was conducted via email and shared Google docs and polled two U.S. adults, both over the age of 18. All respondents indicated they own or regularly use: a smartphone, a computer (desktop, laptop or tablet), and two or more "smart" devices. All respondents also indicated they record a weekly podcast about home theater and consumer electronics. The iQor study found that consumer dependency on WiFi routers has surpassed the smartphone as the #1 technology US adults cannot live without for more than one day. They state that "as the life-blood for the connected ecosystem, a functioning WiFi router is necessary for consumers to enjoy smart devices and the connected lifestyle, including smart TVs and streaming devices, multiplayer gaming, tablets, voice controlled virtual assistants and smart speakers, telehealth devices and IoT-enabled security systems. Currently, nearly two-thirds of US adults (64 percent) couldn't be without WiFi for more than one day." And it isn't going to go away. The proliferation of smart devices is forecast to reach 20.4 billion globally by 2020, almost doubling from an estimated 11.1 billion in 2018. WiFi Router We have to say we agree with the iQor results on how critical working WiFi is in our own homes. It seems like almost everything these days needs an internet connection. Without it, lights stop working, sprinklers stop working, doors won't unlock, you can't watch TV or stream movies, can't stream music or blast it in a different room. Heck, you can't even see who's at your front door. Things go sideways fast, and if you've got kids, you probably don't even want to be home if WiFi is down. Of course there will be those who say they don't really need their WiFi routers. After all, like a generator or battery backup in a power outage, you can always run your critical devices through a portable access point from your cellular provider, or even use the WiFi hotspot capability on your phone. But if you do that, you're really just using a different WiFi router. Maybe not your main one, but it is a WiFi router at that point. No, we're talking about stepping back about 20 years and going without WiFi at all. Braden: 1 day Ara: 1 day Smartphone It's hard to fathom how quickly the smartphone has become such an integral part of our daily lives. It is your constant companion, your source of unlimited information, and an incredibly easy way to get in touch with others, whenever you might need to. It has become as critical in our lives as indoor plumbing or refridgeration. And we didn't even have them 20 years ago; but society would melt down if they disappeared. The beauty of a cell phone is that it can (typically) still connect to the Internet even if your home WiFi goes down. If you plan for it, you could probably go without your cell phone for a few days. Maybe turn it off for a long weekend to just unplug and recharge. (Notice that even our euphemisms for life without a cell phone involve cell phone like jargon). You'd need to make sure everyone knew you'd be out of touch so they didn't freak out. And you'd need to take everyone important to you with you on the quick getaway in case you need to reach them. But otherwise, it would be doable. Braden: 3 days Ara: 1 Hour HDTV Television is a key component of family time in many households, in the US and around the world. We gather the family around that glowing box to go on an adventure together, laugh together, learn, bond and just relax. Without TV, we'd be forced to talk, or go outside and throw a football around or take a walk, maybe find a new hobby or play a board game. That could be cool, but let's be honest, not for an extended amount of time. We've all probably had super busy weeks in our lives. Those weeks where work, family and other life circumstances all seem to crash in at once and there's just no time for TV. It's doable. You just have to have something to distract you. Braden: 1 work week Ara: 1 hour during Primetime DVR This is a unique one. In years past, we've included the DVR on our list of things we're the most thankful for. The DVR was, in its heyday, one of the most critical pieces of home electronics we owned. Tivo and ReplayTV changed the way we do television. Th

Hue Lights For many home automation is limited to lights turning on and off at prescribed times. Others would like the ability to control their lights while they are away from home. For these people full blown automation is not necessary. There are a growing number of products that will let you do this. They range from smart wall plugs to wifi connected light bulbs. One such solution are Hue lights. Hue lights are not the cheapest solution but from our experience they seem to be the most reliable and have the most options. Hue lights do more than just turn on and off automatically. They also can set the mood by changing color. They do cost more and for that you get the most robust and complete lighting system available. (Some) Hue Products Hue White and color ambiance Starter kit E26 $199 White and color ambiance LightStrip Plus $89.99 White and color ambiance Beyond suspension light $349.99 White and color ambiance Beyond Ceiling light $299.99 Motion Sensor $39.99 Dimmer Switch $24.99 Hue Bridge $59.99 And many many more! The Brains The Hue Bridge is required to control your system. This is where you can name your lights and setup scenes and scheduling. You are limited to 50 lights per bridge. If you want to connect more lights you can add an additional bridge. Fifty lights seems like a lot, but once you get started you will want all your lights to be Hue lights! You can also connect 12 accessories, remotes and motion sensors. More about those later. You will need an iOS or Android app to interact with the system and you can set it up to work from home or away. The Hue Bridge will also connect to Homekit, Echo, or Google Home. In our test we controlled the system by voice via Siri and the Echo with no issues. Installation Some people shy away from automation because it can be a bit complicated to get the system up and running. The Hue is straight forward but does require a little bit work to get right. First you download the app on your device and then go to the settings and scan the network for your bridge. Once found you will need to press a big blue button on the bridge. After it's connected more than likely you will need to upgrade the firmware. Now that your bridge is online you can start to add lights. Go to Light setup and add lights. Be sure that the light has power. Once found you can rename it and assign it a room. And that's it! You will immediately be able to turn the lights on and off and if you have color bulbs you'll be able to change colors. The lights will also need a firmware update. Our recommendation is to set it up to do those automatically during the day time. They take quite a bit of time. We did an update to activate some cool features but ended up waiting over an hour. If you are patient go ahead and do the update. Otherwise wait a day to start playing with the cool features that are in the hue lights. Performance Make sure you get the Gen 3 lights. The color is better than previous versions and you can get higher wattages. Our test included bulbs, LED strips, and the Hue Bloom. The Hue Bloom is a light that is designed to bounce it's light off a wall to give an indirect ambiance affect. Ours are setup behind the TV and can be synced to what is on the screen! When we set the lights to white we got bright white light. We could soften them up or select pretty much any color we wanted with a color wheel. The app has some pretty cool scenes that we ended up going with since our experimentation was kind of lame. Ara would take about ten minutes and set something up and his entire family would say nah. After three failed attempts he chose a pre-canned scene and everyone loved it. In the end he gave in and went with it. One of the reasons Ara dropped the VOCOLinc lights is because they would drop the wifi connection and lights would not turn on or they would stay on when they were supposed to be off. In the three weeks of using the Hue lights they have not failed once! I you want to go just a little beyond automated lights you can add the motion sensors and have lights turn on for you when you walk into your house or get up to go to the bathroom. They respond very fast too! There is also a dimmer switch that can control multiple lights. With this $25 accessory you can easily add a switch anywhere in the house that you want. Hue Apps There are a bunch of apps that add functionality to your hue lights. Some developed by Philips and others developed by third parties. These typically cost a few dollars. We tested an app that listens to your music through your phones microphone and then times the lights to the beat. It mostly works but there is some lag. We also downloaded a $3 app that watches your TV through your phone or tablet's camera and then matches lights, that you choose, to the color of what is on the screen. Conclusion Philips Hue lights are one of the coolest home automation products we have tested. The more you have the more the capability. The only complaint we have about them is

Facebook Fiona: New Competition for Amazon Echo, Apple HomePod, and Google Home If you haven't already invested in one of the many smart home speakers on the market, this summer you'll have even more options, as Facebook plans to unveil its own version of voice-enabled smart home speakers, called Fiona and Aloha. Unlike most of the smart home speakers available today, like Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod, Fiona and Aloha will each feature a built-in 15-inch touchscreen. As an extra perk, Aloha will also boast facial recognition technology, which will allow users to access Facebook (and likely launch other tasks) when the smart speaker's camera lens recognizes them. ClearStream View Wall-Frame HDTV Antenna Review: Nearly Picture Perfect By building the antenna into a large picture frame, Antenna Direct's ClearStream View is a unique solution to the visually challenging problem of how to hide an indoor antenna. ... the $70 ClearStream View is a large, black picture frame with cutouts for family photos. Concealed in its back is a flat HDTV antenna. The ClearStream View emphasizes design. The plastic 14.25 x 18.75 frame can fit in with any kind of decor (it can even be painted), and it hangs on a single hook or nail. The white collage mat, into which you insert personal photos or artistic endeavors, can accommodate nine pictures ranging from 3.5 x 3.5 inches to 3.5 x 5 inches. You could also simply put one large, say, Monet print in the frame. A Brief History of Aspect Ratios, a.k.a Screen Proportions This month, my Scientific American column tackles the new era of vertical video—videos shot and viewed as tall, thin rectangles, suitable for smartphone screens without having to turn them. It's kind of a mess: Vertical videos look ridiculous on TV sets and computer screens, but traditional horizontal videos play tiny and goofily on smartphones held upright. This isn't the first time aspect ratios (screen proportions) have changed—or have given society headaches. Here's a quick history lesson. (An aspect ratio is expressed as either a horizontal-by-vertical proportion, like 4:3, or as its resulting ratio, like 1.33. The smaller the ratio, the more square the picture; the larger the ratio, the wider the image.)

Apple HomePod You are probably well aware that Apple released it's smart speaker, the HomePod ($349) last week. As you would imagine you can't click a link without somehow landing on a page that has a review. Well we're adding our two cents to the discussion. But we'll try to be succinct. In a nutshell, if you are not in the Apple ecosystem you can stop reading (listening) right here. There is nothing so compelling that you should shell out your $350 and buy one. If you are in the Apple ecosystem, there are some benefits over the competition, but is it worth the premium? First and foremost the HomePod is about Apple Music and there it shines. It's pretty compelling to tell siri to play any song ever recorded and have it start playing. Of course you can do the with your phone and Airplay. So maybe not as compelling as I thought. Setup Plug it in, click a button on your iPhone, and your are done! That's it! If you have a HomeKit home, that information transfers over, as does your iCloud, and music settings. For Apple users this is a no brainer. All in all it look less than 5 minutes to get up and running. The HomePod uses it's microphones and and drivers to optimize the sound regardless of where it is placed in your home. This is done without any user intervention. Sound Before we discuss the things you can do with the HomePod, let's discuss the sound. After all, that's why Apple is charging a premium for the device. Apple claims the A8 chip can analyse the music in real time and adjust the woofer and seven tweeters to give you "amazing" sound. After spending a week with the HomePod we can say that the claims of amazing sound are pretty accurate. You won't find another smart speaker with this kind of bass or channel separation. The HomePod reproduces your music more accurately than its competitors giving you a richer and fuller sound. But it's all about the bass, and here we found it deep and satisfying. But… before we move on, let's discuss high quality audio for a few minutes. One of our favorite high quality speakers is the AudioEngine A5+ . The A5+ is a bookshelf speaker that runs $400. If you connect an Airport Express ($70 refurbished) to the A5+ you can turn an iPhone or iPad into a HomePod that is mobile. And it will sound better. Yes it will be more difficult to place the speakers, and yes it will cost about $150 more. But if you are interested in high quality audio, and you are all in for Apple products, this is a better system. Digital Assistant Even though Apple is touting the audio capabilities of the HomePod it does have some Echo like capabilities. To activate the HomePod you say "Hey Siri" then speak your command. You can get news, weather, sports reports. You can ask it simple math questions, set timers, check calendars, send/read texts, and of course control your HomeKit enabled home. See detailed list below. To do all of that the HomePod has six microphones that pick up your requests. We tested it when there was loud music playing or from across the room and it worked quite well. We did have one occasion where there were a lot of people in the house and everyone was talking over each other trying to pitt the Echo against the HomePod. Both devices got confused and the HomePod even said it was too noisy in the room for it to do anything. Under normal circumstances the HomePod heard and responded to every request we made. Future Enhancements Something that was pitched but didn't make the first cut was the ability to use two Homepods together to form a stereo pair. At first you might think that this is a bummer but really who can afford two of these things just to form a stereo pair. After a week with the singular device I don't think it's that important. The single HomePod does a great job at creating a wide soundstage. I am sure it will be better with two but not $350 better. You would be better served placing the second HomePod in another room. Which leads us to the other future enhancement. AirPlay 2 is the next generation of AirPlay. Currently you can only AirPlay from your mobile device to one remote set of speakers. Note - if you AirPlay from a computer you can transmit to multiple speakers albeit the same sone to each remote speaker. With AirPlay 2 you will be able to send your music to multiple HomePods and beyond that you can send one song to one HomePod and another song to a second HomePod. AirPlay 2 is not restricted to HomePods. There will be speakers from other manufacturers that support this functionality. Is the HomePod Worth It? It's an easy question for the non-Apple people. No it's not worth it. If you are an Apple person the answer is, it depends. The HomePod is expensive and yes the sound is very good. Not good enough that it's worth the premium in price alone. However, if your home is setup with HomeKit and you have an Apple Music account, then I do feel that the HomePod is something you should consider. Things you can do with the HomePod: General knowledge "Hey Siri, who

Disney's ESPN streaming service to cost $4.99, launch in spring And the company's Netflix competitor, a streaming service for movies from Disney properties like Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars, will arrive in late 2019. Braden: I'm mostly interested in the Netflix competitor and discussing how a Disney/Pixar/Marvel/Star Wars studio based streaming service could shake things up. Best Subwoofers of 2017 Most modern movie soundtracks and music recordings have at least one thing in common: abundant bass. Explosions, rockets blasting off, deep synthesizer notes, and many other elements consist of copious low frequencies that most speakers simply cannot reproduce. To experience the full effect of these subterranean sounds, you need a subwoofer. To help you select a good one, we present a list of the best subwoofers we've reviewed during 2017. Control4's New $350 Home Automation Hub: Affordable, Powerful IoT, No A/V Introduced at ISE 2018, the CA-1 home automation controller from Control4 'retails' for $350 and does everything a full-blown EA system can do except A/V -- ideal for home builders and consumers who want IoT controls, but not audio/video. With the CA-1, Control4 introduces their most affordable smart-home controller yet with Wi-Fi, ZigBee, and optional Z-Wave support. Braden: $350 for a dedicated controller isn't expensive at all. Add the detail that Control4 is every bit as sophisticated as any home automation system on the market and DIY home automation just got really interesting.

Five Reasons to Automate Your Home The HT Guys have been singing the praises of home automation for about ten years now. It starts slow with one device and then quickly becomes an obsession. But it's the one thing that we have added to our homes that gets no pushback from family members. So if you are thinking about going down the home automation rabbit hole and are looking for a way to justify it, we have you covered. This is our list of five reasons to automate your home! Convenience - Automation reduces the number of steps required to setup your home for the perfect evening. With a touch of a button or tap on your phone lights are dimmed, blinds are closed, and temperature is set to make watching a movie a perfect experience. And because your home is Smart, it will adjust for sunrise and sunset times year round. Did you leave your home with the heater on? Maybe the garage door was left open. Automation allows you to deal with this issues from the office. No need to rush home. This also leads to piece of mind. Speaking of which… Peace of Mind - You never have to worry about an appliance left on or weather the front door is locked are even if the garage door was left open. The other day I (Ara) noticed that my neighbor's garage door was left open. Fortunately I was home. I called him and asked if he wanted me to close it for him. He was very appreciative of that. Needless to say it would have been inconvenient for him to drive home and close it. Since we can't be everywhere, having a means to remotely secure your home does offer you some peace of mind! Security - This goes hand in hand with Peace of mind but we are separating it out to focus on those who want to steal from you. We know that in most cases thieves want easy targets and if your home looks like no one is home it's an easy target. To avoid this we can use automation to turn on lights. Sure you can turn them on with manual timers but if someone is casing the place they see a pattern. Automation can add some variability to the lighting sequence. You can also install cameras with sensors in your doorbell or place a camera in a window. If a crook sees a home that is highly automated he will probably just move on. Savings - Have you ever left for vacation and forgot to set your thermostat to vacation mode? Depending on the season, heating or cooling your home for no one is a waste of money. Without automation you would have to call a friend and hope that he or she has a way to get into your house and adjust your thermostat. Or just forgo the cost savings, which depending on where you live could be significant. With home automation you can just pull out your smartphone and adjust the thermostat from anywhere. No More Keys - With a smart lock you can enter you home without fumbling for keys. You can even create codes for specific individuals that have limited time access. On a recent trip we had a package that arrived after we left. We didn't want it sitting there for a week so I created a special one time use code for a neighbor and I asked her to take the package and put it inside the front door. I was alerted when she walked up to my door by my SkyBell doorbell. Then I received another alert when the door was unlocked. The door lock log stored the time and access number that was used to open the door for historical reference. Then when she walked into the home I received a notification from the motion sensor. And finally the whole thing was captured on camera. Without the automated door lock I would have had to ask her to keep the package at my neighbor's house and then get it the day after we got home which was Christmas. So no more keys hits on all the other points, Convenience, Peace of Mind, Security, and even Savings!

Samsung's MicroLED Bet We first stumbled across Samsung's new MicroLED technology when we were reading up on CES, and specifically the giant 146" TV the South Korean electronics giant had on display this year. A TV so big, they actually just call it "the wall." The technology intrigued us, and we thought it may have intrigued a few of you as well, so we took it on ourselves to dive a bit deeper into what it is and why we, as lovers of great televisions, should care. If you've been with the show for a long time, and we're talking about a really, really long time, you might remember how we used to get quite geeky in some episodes. The episode numbers were probably in the double digits, but there were so many TV technologies available back in those days that we dove deep into each one to explain, all the way down to the electron and photon level, how they worked. The episode on plasma emissive display technology was especially compelling. Today's show won't go that deep, but if Samsung is really betting on MicroLED, and choosing it over OLED altogether, it probably makes sense to dive in to some of the particulars and see how the two technologies differ, how they are similar, and the relative pros and cons of each. One of them may very well become the next dominant display technology. But just because one may be technologically superior to the other doesn't ensure it will win out in the end. Rest in peace, plasma. Rest in peace. Samsung in the Market According to a ZDNet article entitled Samsung's Micro LED bet will define its future in TVs, while Samsung continues to hold the number one spot in worldwide televisions sales, and has for quite some time, that number one position is anything but secure. Samsung needs to be worried about the future of its display division and has no margin to rest on its laurels while the rest of the industry pushes forward with OLED. Samsung needs to join the OLED revolution, or find their own alternative answer. They've chosen to go with MicroLED as that alternative. The article states: "Unlike its other businesses, Samsung's position as number one in TVs has never been cemented, that is accepted by its rivals, the media, and public, and this frustrates the VD {visual display} business no end. In memory chips, the company has been number one for over 20 years with a market share hovering around 50 percent. In smartphones, it's the biggest seller of Android phones, despite China eating away at its market share. And although having been number one in TVs for 13 years, a market share of around mid-20 percent translates as Samsung having to square up to more challengers than it does in chips and phones." Samsung has tried, and continues to try, OLED alternatives for its top-of-the-line television sets. They released their quantum dot (QD) LCD TVs in 2015 and later renamed them to QLED sets in 2017. But whatever name you use, Quantum Dot or QLED, neither surpassed OLED in color, contrast or clarity. Although QLED is a great improvement on traditional LCD or LED based sets, it simply isn't a big enough improvement to take on OLED. MicroLED is a much better OLED rival, but unfortunately it is far more difficult to produce and commercialize than the current QLED sets. QLED is an upgrade to existing technology and manufacturing. Like OLED,. MicroLED is a brand new way of doing things. How it Works MicroLED and OLED share a number of common traits, some of which are common to Plasma technology as well. The primary similarity, which is also a primary differentiator between both of them and the existing LCD/LED televisions on the market, is that they are both emissive, or self-emitting, technologies. That means each pixel is its own light source, unlike current LCD sets that require a dedicated backlight. A typical LCD TV uses a CCFL tube as the backlight, while the newer "LED" televisions use LEDs in place of the bulb as the light source. For those who own or owned a plasma, you know there are huge advantages for emissive displays, namely improved contrast ratios and deep, deep blacks. There are, of course, differences as well. While OLED uses organic material to create the diodes (thus the letter O in the name) MicroLEDs are really just the same, traditional LEDs that have been around forever, just shrunken down to microscopic sizes and placed into an array. A MicroLED is so small in fact, that each one measures less than 100 µm - less than the width of a human hair. While the underlying LED technology isn't new, the manufacturing process is very new, and creating a full panel array using such tiny LEDs is not an easy thing to do. Scaling the technology up to TV sizes from smaller form factors like smartphones and smartwatches, has proven to be quite difficult. How They Compare In the battle of MicroLED vs OLED, as we've already discussed, both emit light on their own without the need for a backlight. And it turns out they both have very similar performance capabilities. They both have a

Speaker Cables - What does High Quality Cost? I was going through some of my typical AV websites the other day and came upon an article at Electronic House about speaker wires and was very interested to see what a site for installers had to say about the subject. We have been saying for years now that you should buy high quality cables to get the most out of your system. However, we have also been saying that high quality cables don't have to cost a lot of money. We will examine the article, credited to EH Contributor, and give you our take. First assertion: Copper and silver are the two most common conductors used in speaker cables. Make sure the cable manufacturer is using high-purity conductors. A quality speaker cable manufacturer should be able to tell you what purity level the conductors are that they're using to build the cable. This makes sense and from physics we know that copper is good, silver is better, and gold is really good! But if you want the BEST, you are talking platinum. For that, may we recommend the Wireworld Platinum Eclipse 7 Speaker Cable New 7 Series? As one reviewer put it all that matters is sound. Two five meter cables will cost you a cool $40K! I recently decided to upgrade my audio system and decided that I needed a firm budget to keep costs under control and to avoid the temptation of overspending on products that are ridiculously overpriced. These cables fit the bill nicely. As I was about to put these in my cart, I had an existential crisis and thought that perhaps the $40k would be better spent on feeding, clothing, and housing an entire town of people in Africa. This only lasted a second however and I decided on the cables because really, the sound is all that matters in the end, am I right? Bravo Wireworld, bravo. All kidding aside, you are looking for cables made out of copper. You will find some really cheap cable made out of copper clad aluminum CCA. Those will work just fine and the vast majority of people won't notice the difference between CCA and solid copper. Since solid copper wire is not expensive at all, we recommend going with solid copper wire. Second assertion: Quality cable manufacturers will typically braid conductors together to ensure the conductors aren't running parallel next to one another. By running parallel, they could be acting like an antenna, thus making them more susceptible to picking up radio-frequency interference (RFI) from cellphones, Wi-Fi or traditional radio signals. This is true! But only if you can hear frequencies well above what the typical human can hear. In reality at 20KHz there is less than .01 db difference. However, if you don't believe instrumented test results. Go ahead and buy braided cables. Just don't spend a lot of money. Here is an option that will set you back about $25 for a pair of 10 foot cables - Monoprice Affinity Premium 14AWG Braided Speaker Wire with Gold Plated Banana Plug Connectors. If monoprice scares you, SVS has some high quality braided cables that will set you back $100 for a pair (SoundPath Ultra Speaker Cable). Third assertion: A well engineered cable can be hampered by a poor quality connector. Make sure the speaker cable you're interested in has a well engineered design and is made of conductive materials such as copper and silver. It is OUR assertion that the statement is true. A poor quality connector will hamper the cable. It's also OUR assertion that a high quality connector will make the install clean and easy to connect. We choose to use banana plugs for convenience and aesthetic. However, there is no sound quality difference between bare wire and banana plugs. Fourth assertion: Teflon is considered by most to be the best insulation for wire conductors. It is believed to have the least impact on the conductors. However, there are other insulation materials out there that work well, so do your homework before choosing a cable purely because it has Teflon insulation. Let's assume that the "It is believed to have the least impact on the conductors" portion of the statement is true. That doesn't mean that PVC insulation is bad. In fact, the difference is negligible at best based on instrumented test results. This was a throw away assertion. The author then states "However, there are other insulation materials out there that work well, so do your homework before choosing a cable purely because it has Teflon insulation". So why bother even making the assertion? At the end of the article the author makes three recommendations for speaker wire: AudioQuest Type 4 – $209.00 per 6' pair www.AudioQuest.com Kimber Kable 8TC – $401.00 per 6' pair www.Kimber.com Cardas Audio Iridium – $260.00 per 2m pair www.Cardas.com Which we think are ridiculous! Nothing in this article changes our recommendation. Buy high quality wire but don't over pay. With that said here are some recommendations we have. If you must have braided wire, and we don't think you need them, buy the monoprice wire we discussed earlier. For

CES 2018 CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is the world's gathering place for all those who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for 50 years - the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), it attracts the world's business leaders and pioneering thinkers. Samsung Samsung's absurd 146-inch TV is an entire wall — hence its name, 'The Wall' This hulking, 146-inch TV isn't just huge — it's also sporting a fancy display technology known as "micro LED," which Samsung says is at the heart of "the screen of the future." "Modular, MicroLED" sounds like a bunch of nonsense jargon, right? It's pretty much exactly that. Here's a simple breakdown of these new buzzwords: MicroLED, in the case of this TV, means, according to Samsung: "It is a self-emitting TV with micrometer-scale LEDs — which are much smaller than current LEDs, and serve as their own source of light." What that means for the average human being is that the TV doesn't need a backlight. In terms of the TV being "modular," that means anyone buying "The Wall" can customize it. "The screen can adapt to serve different purposes," says Samsung, "such as creating a wall-size display for multiple spaces." Put more simply, "modular" means that you could customize this set to be even larger (or smaller) than 146 inches. For Samsung's purposes though, the version being released this year is the 146-inch variety. (MicroLED explained) LG LG Will Show Compact UHD Laser Projector At CES LG is bringing to CES next week a home cinema laser 4K Ultra HD projector in a compact form factor. The LG ProBeam HU80KA can project 4K UHD video content from eye level on up to a 150-inch screen image at 2,500 lumens brightness. It can also play HDR 10 content. The projector's mirror reflector allows users to direct the projected video straight ahead or on the ceiling, eliminating the need to lift or adjust the projector, making it useful in a variety of settings, including outdoors, the company said. It is equipped with LG's WebOS smart TV platform, which gives users access to popular online streaming apps with 4K content. The projector, which supports HDMI 2.0, USB 3.0 and HDCP 2.2, has optical ports and Bluetooth to enable digital and wireless connections to external sound systems, as well as connectivity with iOS, Android, Windows, Mac and other smart devices. It also features a built-in carry handle. The HU80KA also has a 1.2x optical zoom so that users can adjust the size of their screen without moving it. No pricing announced. LG Display's crazy 65-inch OLED TV can roll up like a poster Although some concept big-screen TVs shown at past CES shows have been bendy, this is the first one that's flexible enough to spin up into tube form. LG's images depict it descending into a little box the size of a sound bar, but the company also talks about making the display portable. The secret, as usual, is its paper-thin organic light emitting diode display (OLED). Video Link - https://www.cnet.com/videos/lg-oled-tv-rolls-up-like-a-piece-of-paper/ Sony Sony's new soundbars can virtualize Dolby Atmos sound Sony always makes home audio products a part of its CES presentations, and 2018 is no difference. Perhaps most notable are the HT-Z9F and HT-X9000F, two soundbars that include Dolby Atmos surround sound. Of course, true Atmos requires overhead speakers, and these are just 2.1(HT-X9000F) and 3.1 (HT-Z9F) soundbars. As such, this requires some virtualization, which happens courtesy Sony's "virtual surround engine," which the company claims can replicate the wide soundstage Atmos provides. And regardless of whether you're watching content mixed for Atmos or not, the more expensive HT-Z9F include a "Vertical S" button that Sony says will provide virtual 3D sound. The HT-Z9F will retail for $900 and the HT-X9000F will cost $600 when they arrive this spring. The new A8F series TVs are the Japanese tech giant's latest foray into the field of OLED displays and sport an X1 Extreme processor. On the LCD side, there's Sony's X900F series, which also includes the X1 Extreme. Looking toward the future, Hirai said that Sony is working on an X1 Ultimate processor that will provide twice the processing power of the Extreme. Sony's LSPX-A1 projector looks like a piece of modern furniture, and it can sit just 9.6 inches from the wall. Despite that close distance, the 2,500-lumen laser projector is capable of beaming a screen that measures up to 120 inches diagonally. The same enclosure houses a Glass Sound Speaker with 360° sound, ensuring the best possible home theater experience without the need for any additional equipment. It's aimed at the highest segment of the high-end market, and will carry a price tag of $30,000 when it launches. Panasonic Panasonic introduced the FZ950 and FZ800 series line of OLED UHDTVs

Predictions for 2018 Voice User Interface will begin to flourish in Home Theater It's 2018 and we are very used to asking Siri, Alexa, or Google to turn on lights but it's not common that we can use our voice to control our home theaters. The Echo works with the Harmony and Simple Control remotes but it's still kind of limited. In 2018 we will see a Homekit like framework emerge that will allow disparite home theater devices to be controlled by voice. IPTV begins to erode traditional cable/satellite product Both DIsh Network and DirecTV said that their IPTV products we not replacements for their traditional offerings. Their original target market was cord cutters. The over the top service was an attempt to win back younger TV viewers. What is actually happening is that high dollar subscribers are seeing the value in IPTV. Watch anywhere and just about any device. The providers no longer have to worry about installing and maintaining hardware. A true win/win! Look for service quality to improve in 2018 and that will speed up the transition. The process will take many years to complete but 2018 will be the starting point. The forthcoming Disney Movie Service gives Netflix a run for the money Netflix is a streaming movie service that now creates original content making for a formidable force. Disney has been creating original content for years and now is getting into the streaming game. They have deep pockets and can buy up a lot of content and be the only service that will stream it. We are betting that Disney makes a big dent into Netflix's market share in 2018 Netflix will change the movie distribution model Netflix currently operates on both sides of movie distribution. Netflix Productions already works with theaters to distribute traditional motion pictures, they secured distribution rights to Kumail Nanjiani's The Big Sick for example. Netflix is also one of the largest producers of motion pictures, in fact Netflix will release more movies in 2018 than most major film studios combined. Most of them will go straight to streaming. But will they all? Netflix will get some of those movies into theaters and make them available for streaming at the same time. (Longshot Prediction) DirecTV will lose it's stranglehold on the TV rights for streaming the NFL For years the only way to watch out of market games for the NFL was to buy DirecTV's Sunday Ticket. That also gave you access to stream the games when you weren't at home. But with declining viewership due to how we watch TV nowadays the NFL will have to do something about it. They are making inroads with streaming on Twitter and facebook. But look for the NFL to offer something like what all the other sports do, an NFL package that will allow you to stream any and all out of market games to your set top box, tablet, and phone of your choice. Then when DirecTVs contract is up, look for every platform to offer a Sunday Ticket like product. 4G Optimized Streaming for the Home We still aren't sure if the removal of Net Neutrality will have any impact on our ability to stream from video services that may compete with the company that provides your Internet access, but there are potential issues there. And with 4G speeds in many areas easily capable of streaming high definition, we'll see a push toward using a new 4G device in your home, optimized for video streaming, combined with one of the streaming TV services (AT&T and DirecTV Now, perhaps?) to totally eliminate the need for cable or satellite altogether. Maybe you could have a second 4G device in the home is what you could use for all the Internet and email traffic.

Prediction Review for 2017 It's hard to believe that another year has gone by! With that it's time to see how we did with our 2017 predictions. This year's scorecard: Ara: 3/5 A very respectable 60% Braden: An awe inspiring 2/5. (.5 + .5 + 1) = Nailed it! Ara: DirecTV Now will announce more than 250K Subscribers by year's end We have no official number on how many subscribers there are to the satcaster's IPTV product and there are some missing pieces to the offering. I am betting that DirecTV will add a cloud based DVR and sign deals with local channels to really make this a service that you would make cutting the cord worthwhile. Well I am off to a great start! There were one million subscribers as of December 5th! And that with a service that doesn't have DVR. Networks will allow streaming of their live feeds without the need for a TV subscription This is the year the networks realize it's about eyeballs! It doesn't matter whether your viewers receive the signal over the air, through satellite/cable or via the Internet. It's about how many people watch your content. And add to the fact that streaming over IP means you can't skip commercials and it becomes a no brainer! I can't believe it hasn't already happened. So far the only network that I know of that does this is The CW. I guess the networks don't want to upset the cable and satellite companies. At some point with all the cord cutting that is going on this won't be an issue. I may have been a couple of years early on this. Apple will introduce a competitor to the Echo and Google Home It wouldn't be a prediction list from Ara without at least one mention of Apple on it. Apple already has all the pieces required for this type of product. Siri for voice, Homekit for automation, and the AppleTV for content. The only thing missing is the actual device. Look for that some time in 2017! Chalk up another prediction come true. Although it's not shipping, the Apple Airpod was introduced earlier this year and will be shipping soon! Look for a review when it arrives. Netflix will stream live sports Granted this is a long shot, but Netflix is looking for content and what better than live sports. This year twitter streamed live NFL games so why not Netflix? Then why not stream live network content and voila! Yet another IP based TV service. If I had only said Amazon Prime! At least I am batting 500. Virtual Reality will arrive thanks to live events This will be the year that you will be able to experience live events like a concert of sporting event from the comfort of your home. And you will have the best seat in the house!! Virtual reality has come a long way but who wants to watch a movie when the experience is marginally better. But watching a live concert or say the World Series from the best seat in the house. Well that's pretty cool. You would have a full 360 view of the show and venue. And if done right, they could use Dolby Atmos to give you 360 degree sound experience as well! I was worried about this one but there is a company called NextVR that uses headsets like Oculus, Playstation, Microsoft, and Google to put you right in the middle of the action of NFL, NBA, Concerts and more! If they get the NHL I may get one myself! Braden: Day and Date Movie Streaming It's going to happen this year. Either Sean Parker's 'The Screening Room' will finally go live, or someone else will figure out a way to work with theater owners to make this a reality. Could be someone we've talked about like Fandango, or possibly even a big theater chain. It happens this year. I hope. I'd like to claim partial credit on this one. Just because Bright was a flop doesn't mean we didn't get a true, first-run blockbuster movie in streaming form on the day it was released. Will Smith has dropped some terrible movies (Wild Wild West, After Earth, need I go on...) so Bright is a legit, first-run "blockbuster." Hopefully we get more in 2018. And hopefully they're actually worth watching. 80" Televisions for under $2000 Going to carry-forward yet again. I think I was just two years too early. Both OLED and 4K will push prices down for 1080p TVs. Wanting to capitalize on the desire for a larger screen, Manufacturers will push prices down for the big 1080p sets to get them flying off the shelves. So the price for a starter series 80" TV will drop to under $2000 at some point this year. Maybe Black Friday, maybe for another event, but it'll drop. Not sure if it's legit, but a site called Joe's AV has an 85" Samsung on sale right now for $1795 (Samsung 85inch Series 7 LED 4K Ultra HD - UN85JU7100FXZA). Phew. At least I didn't get blanked this year. It's the 2015 model, but that was the plan, the new stuff pushes down the price for the old stuff! Amazon or Netflix content on Traditional TV Either Amazon or Netflix will create and produce an original series, be it drama or sitcom, that will air on a traditional broadcast network using traditional weekly distribution. They already have a ton of c

Netflix: 'Creepy' tweet raises questions about how much the Company knows about Customers This Netflix 'Year in Review' stat is honestly un-bee-lievable Netflix, Will Smith bring the blockbuster home with 'Bright' Google: Year in Search 2017 (Global) Caavo, the universal remote control that uses machine vision, will ship on February 14th

Ultimate Home Theater in a Box for 2017 Each year we design a Home Theater setup that is considerably better than a typical home theater in a box. We have seen complete setups for less than $500 from manufacturers like Sony and Panasonic that quite frankly do not sound good. While our system costs more than a name brand HTIB your satisfaction will be dramatically more. Plus we include EVERYTHING you need to actually setup a home theater. Minimum components for our system are a HDTV, Blu-ray Player, Receiver, and 7.1 speakers. For this feature we choose components that we either have direct experience with or have experience with a similar model made by the same manufacturer. We are defining a system that can had by anyone who is serious about home theater. These systems will look and sound great by anyone's definition! Braden: LG Electronics 65UJ7700 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2017 Model) ($1047) I was tempted to go with the TCL 65C807 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV because of my love for all things TCL and Roku, but the LG is a hair cheaper right now ($50) and packs a little more future-proofing inside. The LG has WebOS 3.5 for the smarts. I've never used it, but it sounds like it could work. It is full 4k, and supports all three HDR specs, HDR10, Dolby Vision and HLG. It has local dimming for those awesome, inky blacks, it supports wide color gamut and has LG technologies for True Color Accuracy and Ultra Luminance. I really wanted to go with a bigger TV, but this one packs quite a punch at only $1047. Denon AVR-S730H 7.2 Channel Full 4K Ultra HD AV Receiver ($429) This year's theme is bang for the buck, and you can't make your dollar go any further than the receiver both Ara and I chose as our entry model for this year's Receiver Buying Guide. At the time we did the guide, the unit was on sale for $349. It is now running for $429, but still an excellent value. It has built-in HEOS wireless technology, Bluetooth, Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, Audyssey MultEQ, Dolby Vision compatible, HDR, and you can control it with Amazon Alexa voice commands. You also get full 4K Ultra HD, HDCP 2.2, HDR, BT.2020, Wide Color Gamut and 4:4:4 Pure Color sub-sampling. HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma) via future firmware update. Every feature you need to match the capability of the LG TV. LG 4K Ultra HD 3D Blu-ray Player with HDR ($149) Do you really need a Blu-ray player? Perhaps not. I haven't used one in years. But others swear by the quality you can only get on physical media. And if you're looking for good 4k content, that may be even more true. And besides, Ara and I agreed we needed one in the setup, so I had to include one. This LG unit is great for the occasional 4k Blu-ray movie night. It isn't videophile grade gear, but it's going to do a perfect job with 4K content, can probably hold its own on upscaling 1080p discs and supports HDR. What's not to love? Polk Audio TSi 300 7.1 Home Theater Speaker System ($1009) Speakers caused me the most consternation this year. I didn't know if I should go with speakers for Dolby Atmos, or just a classic 7.1, or maybe a 5.1 that could be upgraded to either, … too many options. So I took the cheap way out. The Polk TSi 300 system is an excellent value for a full 7.1 setup. It gives you flexibility to move some speakers around if you want to try some of the 3D audio formats. And, with tower speakers for the fronts, the setup looks legit in your home theater. The speakers aren't going to win any awards or change the way you perceive reality, but they will look great, sound great and absolutely compliment the Denon and LG. Summary Add $200 for a few cables and a remote and we're looking at an all-in cost of $2834. My total cost for a system back in 2015 that was a very similar 7.1 setup with a 65" TV was $1000 more expensive at $3960, and that was a 1080p TV, not 4K (granted the 2015 speakers were superior, thus explaining some of the cost difference). Ara: My theme this year is bang for the buck. I want to be able to get someone started in this hobby with a good system that doesn't break the bank. I am not getting the largest TV or best of anything. What my system will be is way better than any HTIB set you can buy and will make you happy every time you sit down to watch something. Sony KD55X720E 55-Inch 4k Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2017 Model) $698 I went with the Sony off of my TV buying guide. It checks all the boxes: HDR, Wide Color Gamut and a Smart TV to boot. But what really makes this TV special is that it does a great job with non-HDR content. This TV will serve you well now and when you are ready to upgrade in size you can move it out to a game room or man cave. Denon AVRS730H 7.2 Channel 165W AV Receiver with Built-in HEOS wireless technology $429 This receiver is my entry receiver from this year's buying guide. But there is nothing entry about it's set of features. The main thing here is that it supports 4K HDR as well as all the new object based audio codecs. This is a great e

HDTV Buying Guide 2017 It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and whether you celebrate Christmas, a different holiday, or nothing at all, we can all agree that somehow getting a new HDTV in your life on or around the 25th of December would be a good thing. If you happen to be lucky enough to have budget for a new HDTV this Christmas season, but still aren't sure which one to buy, we've got you covered. We each pick three TVs and one ultimate HDTV present for you to consider. Braden's Picks TCL 49S305 49-Inch 1080p Roku Smart LED TV (2017 Model, $349.99) Last year I had the 40 inch 2016 model of this TV. This year we're stepping it up to the 49 inch for only $100 more. If you bought the 40" last year, this year it's time to go bigger and move the old one to a different room. It's the only sensible thing to do. In fact, I bought my second TCL TV with the built-in Roku interface this year and consistently use both on a daily basis. Built-in Roku is awesome. The new TV is sitting on a shelf and plugged into power. That's it. (the old one is still mounted to the wall and plugged into power. That's it.) We can get to all the apps we need whenever we want. Do searches across apps, you name it. The picture and sound quality are consistent with last year's models. It's a great, affordable television LG Electronics OLED55B7A 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV (2017 Model, $1596) If you don't need or can't accomodate a gigantic television, but you want to rock a more standard size set by getting the absolute best picture money can buy, you get the LG OLED. Last year a 55 inch OLED was around $2000, this year that drops to $1600. Quite a price drop in a year. The price has dropped, but the picture quality has remained second to none. Even Samsung's Quantum Dot QLED sets don't measure up in side by side tests. The TV comes with what LG calls "Cinematic Color on Perfect Black" - which sounds like Marketing speak for "man OLED looks good." The set does have active HDR with Dolby Vision and the webOS 3.5 Smart TV interface, so it's an all around winner. TCL 75C807 75-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (2017 Model, $1999) Although there's room to argue that a 75" set from Samsung or Sony or LG (not their OLEDs, of course) may outperform the TCL in terms of picture quality and performance, we'd would posit that the difference would be so minimal, you'd need to include TCL on your list if you're looking for a really big, great quality TV for a great price. Not only does it include Roku, just like my bargain set, but it is full 4k, and supports HDR and Dolby Vision. At $1999 it's a tremendous value. It has 3 HDMI 2.0 with ports that all support HDCP 2.2 and one supports HDMI ARC. We're nearly to the point where a set top box is a thing of the past. It may sound like I'm shilling for TCL, but we get nothing from them. They've never sent us even so mush as a sticker. Ara's Picks VIZIO SmartCast™ D-series 43" Class Full HD LED Smart TV (2018 Model) $349.99 In this size class I'm not too worried about 4K. However, I did consider it just because you can't find a 1080p TV with HDR. But in the end, I went with a nice 1080p TV that only costs $350 from a tier 1 manufacturer. Yes I am calling Vizio a tier 1 manufacturer. This TV has a Full Array LED backlight that provides better light uniformity and picture performance. It's a smart tv that includes apps like Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and many many more. It comes with Chromecast built-in. Couple all that with a really nice picture and you have a TV that is perfect from a small room. Sony KD55X720E 55-Inch 4k Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2017 Model) $698 Sony has been building some nice TVs for the last few years and you don't have to pay a premium for the Sony name. This TV is perfect for a standard family room. While 4K is more or less a waste you do get the benefit of HDR and Sony's X1 processor. I have seen the X1 in action and it reallys does a great job of analyzing each frame to adjust the brightness to optimize the picture. And their X-tended Dynamic Range™ PRO does a good job of making non HDR content look much better. For those who don't want to add a separate set top box the X720E is a smart TV. Nice TV for well under $1,000! VIZIO SmartCast™ P-Series™ 75" Class Ultra HD HDR XLED Pro™ Display $3,500 Yes I chose another Vizio but can you blame me? I have owned the original Vizio P-Series for about 4 years and have loved the TV. This generation is so much better than the one I own. For instance the original does not support HDR or the wider color gamut. This TV has what Vizio calls XHDR Pro! That's just marketing for saying that the TV supports HDR 10 and Dolby Vision, which are good things! The 2017 P-Series has 128 LED zones (mine only has 64) to improve contrast and clarity. While it's not an OLED it still has deep blacks and for $3,500 you get a large format TV that will not disappoint. Ultimate Christmas Present Hisense 100 inch 4K Ultra HD Smart TV ($9999) So this isn't really

Receiver Buying Guide 2017 This week we get to spend your money on a new receiver for your home theater. Our goal with these guides is not necessarily about getting the latest product. It's about getting a good product at a great price so you may see some of last year's gear on the list. All these receivers are readily available online or at a big box store. We each pick four receivers in increasing price culminating in one 'money's no object' / 'dare to dream' receiver for you to consider. Note - These receivers have a ton of features which we won't be able to discuss in their entirety. So we have included links to the manufacturer's pages for your convenience. Prices stated are street prices from online retailers. Ara's Picks My goal for this year is that every receiver on my list will serve you well, now and into the foreseeable future. Nothing is future proof but these should last you at least five to ten years. Denon AVRS730H 7.2 Channel 165W AV Receiver with Built-in HEOS wireless technology $350 I didn't have a Denon on my list last year so I wanted to make sure I did this year. When you take a look at this receiver it's easy to see how this unit made the list. Of course it supports 4K HDR (Dolby Vision), but it also supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. The list of features is quite impressive: HEOS wireless multi-room music streaming, Built-in Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and AirPlay Capability, Audyssey Room Correction and the Denon 2016 AVR Remote app for easy setup. All of this for a measly $350. Unbelieveable if you ask me! Yamaha AVENTAGE RX-A770 7.2 100W AVReceiver $650 You knew my list was going to have at least one Yamaha on it. The one I chose this year is one that only a few years ago would have made my ultimate receiver choice. It supports 7.2 channels with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X 5.1.2 configurations. It will pass through 4K video with HDR and Dolby Vision. The RX-A770 is designed with the audiophile in mind from component selection to chassis characteristics. Almost all receivers are large rectangular boxes and this is no different but it just looks sleeker for some reason. For just three hundred dollars more than my entry receiver you step up to a machine with some pretty good pedigree. Onkyo TX-RZ1100 9.2 Channel 140W Network A/V Receiver $1,599 Onkyo is always a great bang for the buck product. You typically get one level higher in features for the price point. In years past there have been some issues with reliability mostly due to heat related failures. Most of these issues have been dealt with but it's always a good thing to make sure your components are in a well ventilated area. At $1,599 this is on the higher end of my list but from a feature point of view it's almost as good my top pick for this year. It supports 5.2.4 with built in amplifiers and can do 7.2.4 with use of two preouts. Of course it supports 4K and HDR, THX Certified, has audiophile grade components including a premium-quality AK4458 digital-to-analog converter from Asahi Kasei, and has Fire Connect Multi room wireless audio. Bottom line is that this is a high end receiver at a "reasonable" price. Pioneer Elite SC-LX901 11.2 Channel 140W Class D3 Network AV Receiver $2,499 I have owned three Pioneer Elite receivers over the years and have loved every one of them. But I have noticed that Pioneer kind of cheapened the line a bit by introducing some lower priced Elite models a few years ago. This unit is not one of the cheapened units by any stretch. And if you want to setup an Atmos or DTS:X setup in your home, this receiver has you covered without the need for an additional amplifier. 4K and HDR are supported and Apple's Airplay and Google's Chromecast are built in. The LX901 employs Pioneer's MCACC Pro Auto Room Tuning to get you as close to what the mixer wanted you to hear while their full band phase control eliminates lag which can interfere with how your ears hear surround effects making for an incredible home theater experience. Braden's Picks My take is a little different. I'm going to recommend you buy something that doesn't break the bank that does everything you need it to do for the next 12-24 months or so. Technology in this area just seems to be moving so fast. Right when we thought we had two HDR formats to contend with, a third pops up. Who knows what new audio, video, control, etc. technology will be big a year or two from now? I sure don't. If you really want to get more future-proof, buy an inexpensive(ish) processor (or receiver to use as a processor) and really, really good amps. From a technology perspective, like good speakers, the amps will last next to forever. You just swap the processor out every few years as technology advances. Unfortunately it's difficult to find an inexpensive/entry receiver with analog pre-amp outputs, they tend to only be on the higher end units. So my list has a really inexpensive option so you can swap it out in a year or two, and a couple with pre-amp outputs that you could swap o

What we're thankful for '17 Each year at this time of year we do a show where we discuss what we are thankful for. There are the obvious things to be thankful for like our families, especially our wives who put up with our home theater obsessions. And of course we are thankful for you, the listener/reader of our show. So as is tradition over the last many Thanksgivings, on today's show we give you our list of consumer electronics things we are thankful for. For 2017: Ara's List: DirecTV Now (IPTV) - This is a follow on to last years Cord Cutter. DirecTV Now and all the other IPTV companies have made it easy to take your TV with you on the go. Plus you don't need to install any special hardware. Download some apps and you are good to go. My TV bill went from over $200 to $35! It's not perfect. I'm still waiting on a cloud based DVR and the quality is less than DirecTV but It's still pretty good! Movies Anywhere - It used to be that if I bought a disc and it only had a Ultraviolet digital code I couldn't watch it on my AppleTV. Then I added Vudu which allowed me to watch the movies but I had to use either iTunes or Vudu. Now with Movies Anywhere I can watch them all in one app! Falling Prices and Larger Screens - 85 inches for less than $4K?? Are you kidding me. This is a no brainer. Or if your room isn't big enough for an 85 inch TV how about 55 inch UHD with Dolby Vision for $500? Yes it's a good time to be alive! Netflix/Amazon/Hulu - When I was growing up there were three networks for TV and only about 20 hours of programming. Sure we used to read and visit with people but where's the fun in that? Now with the addition of streaming we get more content than we can watch. Throw in HBO, USA, AMC, and others competing for your limited free time and you can pretty much guarantee that one of these networks will create content that you will be interested in. Now I just need to learn how to get by on less sleep! DIY Audio - I am having a blast building speakers. The quality is quite good. Can you buy better speakers for much less hassle? Of course you can. But there is something really gratifying about building and listening to speakers you built. You can start out with a simple kit or design something that says something about you. Either way you'll have fun! And since these speakers will probably still be working long after you are gone, you can leave a little of you behind for your family to remember you by. Braden's List Mesh Wifi - We just moved into a new house and it's a bit older than our prior house. The prior house had ethernet run to every room. The current does not so we have to rely even more on wifi. Not sure what the walls are made of in this old house, concrete, titanium, your-wifi-no-workatonium, but wifi is terrible. Without mesh wifi like Google Wifi, we'd be without Internet in places where we really want it. 4K Televisions - There's the obvious reason we've talked about to love 4K TVs or Ultra High Definition itself, it pushed 3D straight out of our lives. But it has also helped to push down prices of all TVs across the board - first by pushing 1080p TV prices down, then by starting a vicious price war for 4k TVs that has included a bunch of new bargain manufacturers. Just like the early push in HDTV, the bargain brands may not survive, but for now they're really helping us all get 4K TV upgrades. Netflix (also Amazon, Hulu, HBO online, etc) - The classic joke about Cable used to be that we had 300 channels but nothing to watch. Not anymore. When was the last time you even channel surfed? You don't have to anymore. If there's nothing on the DVR, or nothing you're feeling into at that moment, you just pop open one of the streaming apps and see what's there. You'll probably find a movie you remember coming out that you never saw, or a new series someone recommended that you haven't started yet. There's always something on now. Automation devices - Yes. I had this on my list last year. But honestly with every smart device I add, it just keeps getting better. That's the beauty of DIY automation, you can add to it in small steps, piece by piece as you have time and resources to get it done. This year I joined the automated door lock club and it's awesome. The kids don't need house keys. Friends and family can get in without having to hide a key. It's great. Also added a smart doorbell. It's super annoying, but also really cool too. Home Depot - I really wanted to say Amazon, but after the year we had with them, I just couldn't get myself to do it. It is an amazing company. And I bought the most items from them to help us prepare our old home to be sold and get settled in the new one, including a faucet and a new TV (but not that TV just yet). But the place I visited second most to get everything for the move out and move in was Home Depot. So I'm thankful for Home Depot always having just what I needed, and when they didn't Amazon did.

Black Friday 2017 Another year passes, another Black Friday approaches. This year there are some exceptional deals out there. The question is where to you put your focus. We are focusing on TVs since many want to upgrade to 4K HDR. There are some really good ones out there. We also throw in some UHD Players and home automation to round out the list. Resources: www.blackfriday.com www.blackfriday.fm www.bfads.net Target Samsung 65" Flat 4k UHD TV (HDR) - Black(UN65MU6300) $849.99 Regularly $1,100 LG 55" Class 2160p 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (Dolby Vision) - 55UJ6300 $499.99 Regularly $549 Polaroid 32GSR3000FC 32" Flat Panel 720p LED TV $89.99 Regularly $129.99 Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote $24.99 Regularly $39.99 Google Chromecast $25 Regularly $34.99 Sony Blu-ray Disc™ Player with Wi-Fi - Black (BDPS3700) $49.99 Regularly $74.99 BestBuy Sony - 75" Class (74.5" Diag.) - LED - 2160p - Smart - 4K Ultra HD TV with High Dynamic Range $1999.99 Sony - 65" Class (64.5" Diag.) - LED - 2160p - Smart - 4K Ultra HD TV with High Dynamic Range (No Model Mentioned) $1499.99 Samsung - 65" Class (64.5" Diag.) - LED - 2160p - Smart - 4K Ultra HD TV (No Model Mentioned) $749.99 LG - 43" Class (42.5" Diag.) - LED - 2160p - Smart - 4K Ultra HD TV (No Model Mentioned) $279.99 Sharp - 32" Class (31.5" Diag.) - LED - 720p - Smart - HDTV Roku TV $149.99 LG - UP875 4K Ultra HD 3D Blu-ray Player - Black $99.99 Pioneer - Elite 7.2-Ch. Hi-Res 4K Ultra HD HDR Compatible A/V Home Theater Receiver - Black $349.98 Regularly $499.98 Sonos - PLAYBASE Wireless Soundbase for Home Theater and Streaming Music - Black $599.99 Regularly $699.99 Sonos - PLAYBAR Soundbar Wireless Speaker - Black/Silver $599.98 Regularly 699.98 Google - Chromecast $19.99 Regularly $35 Google - Home Mini $29.99 Regularly $49 Wal*Mart Samsung 58MU6070 58" 4K Ultra HD Smart TV (HDR) $598 (Special Buy) LG UP870 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc Player $99 (Special Buy) Google Chromcast $20 Plus $5 Vudu Credit Regularly $35 Google Home with $25 Google Express Offer $79 Regularly $129 Netgear Arlo Wireless 3-Camera Bundle $199 Regularly $399 Sears This is the first year we didn't find any electronics in the Sears Black Friday Circular. There are great deals on appliances, tools, and clothing however! Costco (Items available now through the 27th of November) Samsung 75" Class (74.5" Diag.) 4K Ultra HD LED LCD TV (HDR) - $2279.99 LG 49" Class (48.5" Diag.) 4K Ultra HD LED LCD TV (HDR) - $379.99 TCL 55" Class (54.6" Diag.) 4K Ultra HD Roku LED LCD TV (Dolby Vision HDR) - $449.99 Sam's Club Vizio 65-inch 4K Smart TV (Model E65-E) — $598 Note: Vizio is now selling this set for $899, which might make this the best Black Friday deal on a TV yet. Polk 2.1 S1B Sound Bar — $129.88 Hitachi 49-inch 1080p TV — $278 XBox One S Console — $189 PlayStation 4 Console — $199 Vizio 80-inch 4K Smart TV (model E80-E3) — $2,498 (online only; free shipping) Hitachi 60-inch 4K Smart TV w/Roku inside: $498 (online only;free shipping) Samsung 85-inch 4K Smart TV (Model: UN85JU7100FXZA) – $1,200 off (online only; free shipping. Note: This Samsung TV normally goes for $4,698 at Sam's Club so, presumably, it will be priced at around $3500 for the Black Friday sale. JC Penny LG 65" Class 4K UHD HDR Smart TV $799.99 Regularly 1399.99 LG 55" Class UHD 4K HDR Smart HDTV $499.99 Regularly $799.99 Samsung 40" Class Ultra HD 4K Smart TV $329.99 Regularly $449.99 Google Home $79.99 Regularly $129.99 Samsung SmartThings Home Monitoring Kit $149.99 Regularly $249.99 Amazon Save $20 on Echo Dot, only $29.99 – the lowest price ever for Echo Dot Save $20 on All-New Echo, $79.99 Save $30 on Echo Plus, $119.99 Save $50 on Amazon Tap, $79.99 Premium brand 40-inch smart TV,$279.99 Sony 75-inch 4K Ultra HD smart LED TV (2017 Model), $1,999.99 Sony 70-inch 4K Ultra HD smart LED TV (2017 Model), $1,199.99 Samsung UN65MU8000 65-inch 4K Ultra HD smart TV (2017 Model), $1,297.99 Sony 65-inch 4K Ultra HD smart LED TV (2017 Model), $1,499.99 Samsung UN55MU8000 55-inch 4K Ultra HD smart TV (2017 Model), $897.99 Sony 55-inch 4K Ultra HD smart LED TV (2017 Model), $999.99 32-inch 720p TV, $69.99 49-inch 4k TV, $159.99 Save up to $40 on Schlage Smart Lock – Works with Amazon Alexa Best TV Deals 39" & Under 32" Polaroid LED TV for $89.99 at Target 32" Vizio Smart LED TV for $199.99 + $50 Meijer Coupon at Meijer (in stores starting 6am on Black Friday only) 40" - 58" 43" Vizio 1080p TV for $198 at Walmart 43" Samsung 4K Smart TV with HDR for $429.99 + $100 Dell Promo eGift Card at Dell 48" Element LED HDTV for $199.99 at Meijer (in stores starting 6am on Black Friday only) 48" Vizio Smart LED TV for $199.99 at Meijer (in stores starting 6am on Thanksgiving only) 50" Samsung 4K UHD Smart TV with HDR Pro for $424.99 with promo code BF17FLYER31 at Newegg.com 50" RCA HDTV for $199.99 at Stage Stores 55" Haier 4K UHD HDTV for $299.99 + $90 Kohl's Cash (doorbuster) 55" Sharp 4K Smart TV for $298 at Walmart 60" & Over 60" Sharp 4K UHD

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Mohu Airwave Review Last CES Mohu introduced a product that we really were excited to get our hands on. The Mohu Airwave is wireless device that integrates live, local TV with free streaming channels. The Airwave costs $150 and right now is only available at Best Buy. The Airwave is a combination Indoor Antenna/Tuner/Wifi Transmitter in one unit. The thinking here is that most homes have a spot or two in the house that has the best reception but it is not necessarily the spot where you can put a television. The Airwave solves this problem by allowing you to place the Airwave in the optimized location and then it can transmit the TV signal via wifi (or Ethernet) to Set top boxes or mobile devices thereby making your over the air TV available to any room in the house. Product Features Compatible with most streaming boxes, smartphones, and tablets Watch movies, TV shows, sports, news and more on all your devices via Mohu TV app. (Roku, AppleTV, FireTV available now. Coming soon to iOS, Android, and SmartTVs) Receives digital signals Possible available channels: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, The CW, Univision, and more. Wirelessly stream movies, TV shows, sports, news and more Via the Mohu TV app, AirWave allows viewers to combine live, local broadcast TV with free streaming channels. Free TV everywhere Just download the Mohu TV app on your compatible device, and it will automatically discover your AirWave device and walk you through a few simple steps to get set up. Free Broadcast TV Watch free live, local and streaming television on your favorite devices. Mohu ClearPix technology Dynamically responds to over-the-air signals and adjusts them in real-time, automatically improving image reception. Extended-range wireless provides smooth, fast streaming High-efficient wireless connection streams video with ease and speed. Setup Finding the best location in the house for placing your Airwave can be trial and error. But if you know where the transmitters are located and you have a window nearby start there. If you live within 30 miles of the transmitters you can pretty much place the unit anywhere. The first step is to log onto the Airwave's wifi network and give it your wifi settings so it can join your wireless network. Our unit immediately notified us of a firmware update which we applied. Once the update was complete we scanned for channels and we were surprised that it found about a hundred digital channels. This test was conducted in the Fresno area because we both live beyond the 35 mile limit of the product. Then the Airwave went ahead and populated the channel guide and we were done! The entire process took about 45 minutes to complete. By the way, our evaluation was performed on an AppleTV Performance Getting around the guide was a little tedious while using the scrolling mechanism of the AppleTV remote. This can be minimized by choosing favorites which can eliminate all the ridiculous digital channels that are out there. The guide shows what's on and what will be coming up for up to two weeks out. If you select a currently airing program the Airwave will tune to and start streaming the program. But this is where our frustration really started. It should be noted that while we conducted this evaluation we also had a TV with and Indoor antenna (Mohu) as a check on the TV signal. When we tuned to an HD channel we got nothing on the screen. Then we'd switch to the TV's tuner which showed us a glorious HD picture. So it wasn't a signal thing. Then we selected a .channel which was SD and we did see a picture but it was very choppy. Thinking that it wasn't the antenna, since Mohu makes some really good antennas and that the other Mohu antenna did not have problem with the TV signal, we connected the Airwave to the router via an Ethernet cable. And there we had better luck. The HD signal came in and it was pretty much stable. However, it still would have dropouts where the TV did not. Watching the SD .channels were quite good. No pixelation no dropouts. Mohu has acknowledged issues and is pushing out updates almost daily for both the Airwave and the apps. At this point the mobile device app is still being reviewed and was not available for testing. The following was posted on the AirWave Product Page The response to the AirWave launch has been overwhelming! We've received reports that some Best Buy stores are sold out, but units should be back on the shelves soon. And you can still order online! As with many new first-of-its-kind products, AirWave has a number of bugs and challenges. We are working diligently to address each issue as we discover it and are thankful to the users who have communicated with us to help us make AirWave the best it can be. We appreciate your patience with us throughout this whole process. For info on known issues and patch releases, visit the AirWave Software Updates page. Conclusion The Airwave is a great idea, one that really resonates with cord cutters. We have two issues with the produ

Battle of the Big TVs Braden is packing up all his earthly belongings and moving them, along with his family, to a new home. One of the items that isn't leaving, however, is the 100" projection screen in the family room. It's staying with the house. And there's nowhere to put it in the new house anyway. Instead, the family will be watching TV and movies on a more traditional television set. Just which one is still up in the air. We talked about an 86" LG television a few podcasts back (Episode 806), even jokingly called it Ara's next upgrade. As it turns out, it may actually be Braden's next upgrade instead. That set, the LG 86SJ9570 86-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV, served as the starting point for an epic spec sheet showdown that has yet to declare a winner. Other sets that are also in the running, in addition to the LG, are the Samsung UN85JU7100 85-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV and the Sony XBR85X850D 85-Inch 4K HDR Ultra HD Smart TV. Admittedly, it hurts dropping from a 100" screen to an 85" or 86" screen, but there are some very distinct advantages to the TV over the projector that will ease the transition. First of all, we should say that it is a bit ridiculous to complain about an 85" TV at all, we totally get that. We're sorry. But it is 15% less screen space, 15% less of a good thing. But the TV is 4K, and the projector is not. The TV is significantly brighter and for rooms that have difficulty controlling ambient light, will be much easier to enjoy during the day. So all in all, a win even accounting for the loss in screen size. LG 86SJ9570 86-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV Coming in at 86 inches, the LG is the largest set on the list. Of course the difference between an 86 inch TV and and 85 inch one is practically imperceptible, so that alone isn't enough to move the needle. The LG currently carries a price tag of $6996 at Amazon. Not bad for a 4K screen that size. It has a 4 star rating from 6 reviewers at Amazon, but only a 3 star rating from 2 reviewers at LG's own product page. Not great, but not terrible. Features Smart functionality gives you access to your favorite apps and content using webOS 3.5 Pairs 4K Ultra HD picture clarity with the contrast, color, and detail of High Dynamic Range (HDR) for the most lifelike picture Active HDR with Dolby Vision + HDR10 + HLG Full-array LED backlighting and local dimming produces excellent picture quality 120Hz refresh rate allows fast moving action scenes to be seen with virtually no motion blur (240Hz effective rate) Inputs: 4 HDMI (HDCP 2.2), 3 USB, 1 RF, 1 Composite, 1 Ethernet, 1 Optical, 1 RS232C (Mini Jack) 802.11ac Wifi Samsung UN85JU7100 85-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV It wouldn't be a TV shootout without at least one Samsung on the list. This set is a bit smaller at 85 inches, but it isn't the size that matters, it how Samsung uses that size to delight us that we really care about. A bit less expensive, this TV is going for $5278 at Amazon. That's a savings of around $1700. You can stream a lot of movies for $1700. It has a 4 star rating from 21 reviewers at Amazon, and a 4.5 star rating from 215 reviewers at Samsung's product page. That's a very solid showing. This TV has been on store shelves since 2015, so while the price is attractive, some of the features are lacking. Features 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution offers exceptional detail and true-to-life image quality. Advanced Samsung Smart TV Offers Easy Access to Content Equipped with Samsung Precision Black technology, the Samsung JU7100 Smart TV delivers exceptional contrast depth. Ultra Clear Pro viewing panel absorbs ambient light and softens reflections to deliver a clear, frustration-free viewing experience. With the Samsung Peak Illuminator feature, you'll experience brighter whites, sharper details, and more vibrant colors. The JU7100 Smart TV also features Samsung contrast-enhancing technology, which optimizes contrast across multiple zones of the picture to produce a richer, more dramatic sense of depth. UHD Dimming for Greater Picture Clarity View Everything in Higher Definition with UHD Upscaling Equipped with a quad-core processor, the JU7100 Smart TV lets you switch between apps with ease. 4 HDMI ports, 3 USB ports, 1 component-in, and 1 composite-in. It also features Built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi and supports Samsung Anynet+. Sony XBR85X850D 85-Inch 4K HDR Ultra HD Smart TV Like the Samsung, the Sony on our list is an 85 inch set. Even less expensive, this option is going for $4998 and even includes a 2 year Netflix subscription, effectively knocking a couple hundred additional dollars off of the already low price. It has a 4 star rating from a whopping 481 reviewers at Amazon and a 4 star rating from 186 reviewers at Sony's site. The set has been around since 2016. Not quite as old as the Samsung, but not as new as the LG either. Features High Dynamic Range (HDR) will change the way you look at TV. Combined with 4K Ultra HD resolution, HDR video content delivers exceptional

Best UHD Players In the run up to Black Friday we thought we'd give you a quick run down on the best UHD players on the market. There are no guarantees that these will go on sale but you can use these models as a reference point. The information come from three sites that we use for our own research. Tech Hive Best Ultra HD Blu-ray player for audiophiles and home-theater aficionados: Oppo Digital UDP-205 $1299. There is no better Ultra Blu-ray player on the market, especially when it comes to audio. It's not for the average user, but audiophiles, especially those seeking high-quality analog output, will appreciate the high-performance components and analog 7.1 surround output. Best Ultra HD Blu-ray player for most people: Samsung UBD-K8500 $299.99. If you want everything Ultra HD Blu-ray can deliver, but are on a tight budget, Samsung's UBD-K8500 is the player to buy. Just be aware that you might have to tweak some settings to clear up the judder issue with non-Samsung TVs. CNET Sony UBP-X800 $298. The Sony UBP-X800 4K Blu-ray player offers excellent design and oozes a "premium" vibe. Video quality is as good as any player we've tested. It's incredibly fast at loading apps and has some impressive features including Bluetooth streaming. It can be slow to load 4K discs. Limited number of audio outputs: no optical digital or stereo analog. The player requires a little hands-on fine-tuning to get the most out of music and DVD replay. No Dolby Vision. The Bottom Line, the Sony UBP-X800 4K Blu-ray player has impressive build quality and video performance, but the incumbent Samsung is better value. Pocket Lint Samsung UBD-M9500 $299.99. The Samsung UBD-M9500 isn't the most fully-featured Ultra HD Blu-ray player on the market - it lacks in the high-end audio stakes - but it's one of the nicest to use because Samsung has been paying a lot of attention to its user interface over the past few years. This 2017 model is leaps and bounds ahead of the K8500 of 2016, especially if you want to take advantage of the smart apps that are included, like Netflix and Amazon Video. It offers excellent performance on the video front, but is a little quirky on the design, with a curved body, so it probably won't match anything else you have in your AV setup. You probably won't ever get Dolby Vision support from Samsung, but you are getting a player that gives you a lot for the money, then the M9500 is worthy of your attention. If you're completely happy with your streaming services already then you might want to look elsewhere, perhaps to the K8500 player instead.

Z-Wave's New 'SmartStart' Dramatically Simplifies Home Automation Installs Tempow Makes Any Smartphone Smarter with Multi-Device Bluetooth Software Comparing Alexa, Google Assistant, Cortana, and Siri smart speakers

TCL C Series 2017 C807 (RTINGS.COM) This week we wanted to take a look at what on paper is an incredible TV bargain. Seriously, a 65 in 4K UHD that supports Dolby Vision HDR for about $1,100! We're talking about the TCL 65C807 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Roku Smart LED TV (2017 Model). The question is whether it's worth it? Read the full detailed review at RTINGS.COM Features: Roku TV smart functionality offers access to over 4,000 streaming channels featuring more than 450,000 movies and TV episodes Pairs 4K Ultra HD picture clarity with the contrast, color, and detail of Dolby Vision HDR (High Dynamic Range) for the most lifelike picture Edge LED backlighting with Dynamic Contrast produces deep blacks and excellent picture quality Inputs: 3 HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2 (one with HDMI ARC), 1 USB (media player), RF, Composite, Headphone Jack, Optical Audio Out, Ethernet The TCL C807 4k Roku TV is a decent LCD/LED TV with better than average build quality and design. It features a wider color gamut for vibrant HDR content and very low input lag for responsive gaming. Unfortunately, its blacks are not very uniform, and its picture quality deteriorates even at a slight angle. The TCL C Series C807 LED TV has an average picture quality. The high contrast ratio makes for a good dark room performance, with a high level of detail in dark scene. Unfortunately, the bad black uniformity and the lack of local dimming hurt the dark room performance in the end. When set in a bright room, the C807 performs better, since it can get fairly bright and deal decently with reflection and glare. The gray uniformity is average though and dirty screen effect is visible when watching sports like football. The very narrow viewing angle won't make it the best TV to watch sports event with all your friend since only people sitting right in front of the TV will have the best picture quality. Finally, HDR performance is ordinary since the TV can't really get brighter than in SDR and the lack of local dimming doesn't help even if it has a wide color gamut. The C807 has a below average handling of motion. It has an average response time, causing some visible trails to appear behind fast moving objects. It uses PWM to dim the backlight, but only at low backlight levels, and this isn't noticeable to most people. It can play movies from a Blu-ray or DVD player smoothly, but some minor judder is present when watching movies from a 60Hz source. Most people don't notice judder, so it isn't a big issue. The lack of motion interpolation features may disappoint fans of the soap opera effect. The TCL C807 runs the Roku TV smart platform, which is remarkably fluid to navigate and easy to use. It has a wide selection of apps to download and has a great companion app for phones and tablets. Its weak point is its remote, which has very few buttons and lacks some smart features found in the remotes of other platforms. Test Results: Design 9.0 Picture Quality 7.1 Motion 6.3 Inputs 9.3 Sound Quality 6.2 Smart Features 7.9 Usage Ratings: Mixed Usage 7.1 Movies 6.4 TV Shows 7.1 Sports 6.7 Video Games 7.9 HDR Movies 6.7 HDR Gaming 7.6 PC Monitor 7.3 Conclusion The TCL C807 is decent for a mixed usage. Its contrast is good, and it features a wide color gamut for HDR. Unfortunately, though, its motion and uniformity of the blacks leave a lot to be desired. Decent TV for watching series or broadcast TV in a bright room. The TCL C Series' brightness is decent, and its Roku smart OS gives very easy access to content. Unfortunately, though, it's not great at handling reflections. Mediocre TV for movies in a dark room. The C807 does have a good contrast ratio, but its poor black uniformity and lack of local dimming cause letterboxes to look cloudy and distracting. Mediocre TV for HDR. While the C807 has a wide color gamut and can reproduce smooth gradients, it cannot get bright enough to create a good HDR effect.

Comcast announces new streaming video service for cord-cutters Full article here The State of the (Wireless) Home Theater Comeback Full article here. Apple Invents a Smart Home Theater Audio System Designed to Deliver Optimum Surround Sound Full article here.

HDMI 2.1 Well you knew it wouldn't last forever, but HDMI 2.0 is about to become the old standard and you guessed it, you will need another cable. But do you really need to upgrade? The HT Guys will help you sort it out. What's New? Higher Video Resolutions Dynamic HDR eARC Game Mode 48G cables Let's look at each one in a little more detail: Higher Video Resolutions - 4K50/60, 4K100/120, 5K50/60, 5K100/120, 8K50/60, 8K100/120 10K50/60, 10K100/120. Right now there aren't any TVs on the market that can make use of these new resolutions nor are there any plans for content providers planning on supporting these new resolutions. Based on resolution support, we say no need to hold off a purchase based on the new resolutions. Dynamic HDR - The current HDR being used by the studios embeds metadata telling the television how to handle the image. This is done for the entire movie which means that some scenes look good and others not so much. It's a compromise. Dynamic HDR now embeds this data for each frame or series of frames. Note - Dolby Vision HDR already supports this on the current cable. You aren't missing much here. Buy a TV that supports Dolby Vision HDR and no need to wait for HDMI 2.1. eARC - Support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. While you will need new TVs and receivers to support this feature, you won't need cables. Today's current HDMI cable will support this. This is only an issue if you are using apps on the TV to provide the audio to your receiver and you want Dolby Atmos or DTS:X. However, if you want to buy a TV now that doesn't support HDMI 2.1, go ahead. You can fix this issue by buying a $100 set top box and provide the video and audio directly to your receiver without going through the TV first. Game Mode - VRR features variable refresh rate, which enables a 3D graphics processor to display the image at the moment it is rendered for more fluid and better detailed gameplay, and for reducing or eliminating lag, stutter, and frame tearing. Translation - Faster gaming! Our take, if you are a serious gamer you may be interested in this. The HT Guys are not gamers. 48G Cables - enable up to 48Gbps bandwidth for uncompressed HDMI 2.1 feature support including 8K video with HDR. The cable is backwards compatible with earlier versions of the HDMI Specification and can be used with existing HDMI devices. You will need this to make use of the new video capabilities. Our take, buy them after they have been out for a while and then buy from Amazon Basics or Monoprice.

New TV Shows for Fall 2017 As we get older, we gain a deeper appreciation for the subtle joys in life. And few things in life are as joyous an occasion as television premiere season every Fall. You've been waiting for what feels like an eternity for your favorite shows to come back for another season, and not just that, there will be a bunch of new shows that could become one of your favorite shows of all time. If you're interested, Entertainment Weekly has a great post with all the Fall TV Premiere Dates by date, time, and Network. ABC Alex, Inc. Premieres: TBA Midseason Stars: Zach Braff, Michael Imperioli, Tiya Sircar, Hillary Anne Matthews Producers: Matt Tarses, Zach Braff, John Davis Premise: Based on the podcast of the same name, the comedy follows Alex Schuman, an inquisitive journalist, husband, and father who dives headfirst into the brave new world of entrepreneurship when he quits his stable job and starts his own business. The Crossing Premieres: TBA Midseason Cast: Steve Zahn, Sandrine Holt, Rob Campbell, Jay Karnes, Simone Kessell, Grant Harvey, Tommy Bastow, John D'Leo, Kelley Missal, Marcuis W. Harris Premise: Refugees from a war-torn country start showing up to seek asylum in an American town. Only the country these people are from is America and the war they are fleeing is 250 years in the future. The local sheriff with a past, a federal agent and a mother in search of her missing refugee daughter drive this allegory with a surprising conspiracy at the center. Deception Premieres: TBA Midseason Cast: Jack Cutmore-Scott, Ilfenesh Hadera, Amaury Nolasco, Lenora Crichlow, Vinnie Jones Premise: When his career is ruined by scandal, superstar magician Cameron Black has only one place to turn to practice his art of deception, illusion and influence: the FBI. He'll become the world's first consulting illusionist, helping the government solve crimes that defy explanation and trap criminals and spies by using deception. For the People Premieres: TBA Midseason Stars: Britne Oldford, Ben Rappaport, Hope Davis, Anna Deavere Smith, Wesam Keesh, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Regé-Jean Page, Lyndon Smith, Ben Shenkman Producers: Shonda Rhimes, Paul Davies, Betsy Beers Premise: Set in the Southern District of New York Federal Court, known as the "Mother Court," the drama follows attorneys for the prosecution and defense "as they handle the most high profile and high stakes case in the country, all as their personal lives intersect. The Good Doctor Premieres: Monday, Sep. 25 at 10:00 PM Cast: Freddie Highmore, Antonia Thomas, Nicholas Gonzalez, Chuku Modu, Richard Schiff, Beau Garrett Premise: A young surgeon with Savant syndrome is recruited into the pediatric surgical unit of a prestigious hospital. The question will arise: Can a person who doesn't have the ability to relate to people actually save their lives? Kevin (Probably) Saves the World Premieres: Tuesday, Oct. 3 at 10:00 PM Stars: Jason Ritter, JoAnna Garcia Swisher, J. August Richards, India de Beaufort, Dustin Ybarra, Chloe East Premise: The one-hour dramedy revolves around Kevin, a down-on-his-luck man who is tasked by God with a mission to save the world. Marvel's Inhumans Premieres: Friday, Sep. 29 at 9:00 PM Stars: Anson Mount, Iwan Rheon, Serinda Swan, Ken Leung, Ellen Woglom, Eme Ikwuakor, Isabelle Cornish, Mike Moh, Sonya Balmores Premise: The eight-episode series will explore the never-before-told adventure of Black Bolt and the royal family. The Mayor Premieres: Tuesday, Oct. 3 at 9:00 PM Stars: Brandon Micheal Hall, Lea Michele, Yvette Nicole Brown Premise: When an outspoken, idealistic rapper runs for office as a publicity stunt and actually gets elected, he surprises everyone (including himself) when he has a natural knack for the job and slowly transforms City Hall. Roseanne Premieres: TBA Midseason Stars: Roseanne Barr, John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Michael Fishman, Lecy Goranson, Sarah Chalke Premise: The '90s hit will return for eight new episodes and will basically ignore the series finale, which revealed Dan (Goodman) died of a heart attack. Chalke, who played Becky after Goranson left the original series, will play a different character. Splitting Up Together Premieres: TBA Midseason Stars: Jenna Fischer, Oliver Hudson, Diane Farr Premise: The story of a couple whose marriage is reignited by their divorce. Based on the 2016 Danish series. Ten Days in the Valley Premieres: Sunday, Oct. 1 at 10:00 PM Stars: Kyra Sedgwick, Erika Christensen, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Felix Solis, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Francois Battiste, Currie Graham, Nelson Lee, Abigail Pniowsky, Josh Randall, Ali Stroker, Ella Thomas, Beth Triffon, Mark L. Young Premise: The 10-episode series centers on TV producer Jane Sadler, whose young daughter goes missing, mirroring the cop drama she produces. CBS 9JKL Premieres: Monday, Oct. 2 at 8:30 PM Stars: Mark Feuerstein, David Walton, Liza Lapira, Matt Murray, Linda Lavin, Elliott Gould Producers: Dana Klein, Mark Feuerst

David Dicks of Common Sense Audio Busts Speaker Myths In part two of our interview with David Dicks of Common Sense Audio, makers of Audio Nirvana full range drivers, we discuss and bust some Speaker Myths.

Sony XBR75X940 TV Review We were poking around the other day at RTINGS.COM trying to decide what TV was the right one to share with the podcast. What we stumbled upon was no ordinary TV. It currently sits at number one on the leaderboard for TVs measuring in between 70 and 75 inches. It's the Sony XBR75X940. Read the full detailed review at RTINGS.COM Full Review: http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/sony/x940e Best 70-75 inch TV: http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-size/70-75-inch Price at Amazon: $4298 Highlights below: The best 75 inch 4k TV that we've reviewed is the Sony XBR75X940E 4k Android TV. It's one of the brightest TVs we've tested, and it features a highly advanced local dimming feature that greatly enhances the blacks. It doesn't have quite as many dimming zones as the more expensive Sony Z9D, but we've found the performance to be very similar in practice. This gives it the best picture quality found on an LED TV at quite a competitive price compared to similarly sized OLEDs. The X940E is a great large 4k HDR smart TV. It produces some of the best blacks found on LED TVs, and it can get quite bright. The excellent local dimming and ability to display a wide range of colors results in a great HDR experience. The X940E has some motion blur though, which makes it less of a good choice for sports or video games but doesn't impact the excellent movie performance. TEST RESULTS Design 8.5 Picture Quality 8.3 Motion 6.0 Inputs 8.6 Sound Quality 7.2 Smart Features 7.8 Pros Very deep and uniform blacks Very bright Exceptional local dimming Cons Image degrades when viewed at an angle Fast moving objects often have visible trails 8.3 Picture Quality The Sony XBR75X940E LED TV has an impressive picture quality. Dark scenes look amazing due to the high contrast ratio and the excellent black uniformity, especially when the TV is in a dark room. When set in a bright room, the picture quality remains good, since the TV can get very bright to fight any glare from a bright lamp or window and it can also deal very well with reflections. The overall gray uniformity is average, but luckily not too much dirty screen effect is visible. The viewing angle is disappointing though, so the X940E is better suited for people who have a living room with a narrow seating arrangement, as the picture quality is best only when sitting in front of the TV. The X940E has excellent local dimming and a high HDR peak brightness, so highlights really stand out when compared to normal SDR content. The Sony X940E is really a top performer when it comes to HDR. 6.0 Motion The X940E has a mediocre handling of motion. It has a long response time, so motion blur may be seen depending on the content. For movies this isn't an issue, but for PC use or some games a long trail can be seen. The TV uses PWM to dim the backlight, but the frequency is high enough to not be noticeable. It is possible to reduce the frequency to clear up motion significantly. Some minor judder is present when watching movies from a PC or cable, but most people won't notice this. Fans of motion interpolation can introduce a strong soap opera effect on the 120Hz panel. 8.6 Inputs The Sony X940E supports all the common input signals, including HDR, and should be able to properly display any content. It has good 4k input lag, but its 1080p input lag may disappoint competitive gamers. 7.2 Sound Quality The X940E produces a slightly better than average sound, but like almost any TV, it will greatly benefit from being combined to an external sound system such as a soundbar. 7.8 Smart Features The Sony X940E ships with Android TV 6.0 Marshmallow, but received an update to Android TV 7.0 Nougat prior to testing. Nougat brings a few new features to Android TV, such as a picture in picture mode and multitasking menu, but it fails to address the main problems with the Android TV platform, namely ease of navigation, lag and frame drops, and a lack of smart features in the remote. Other smart features of Android TV remain unchanged. The Google Play Store still has a larger selection of apps than many other smart platforms. Content can be cast to the TV from a smartphone or tablet using the TV's "Chromecast built-in" functionality, or played from a USB drive connected to one of the TV's three USB ports. The remote has a built in microphone for voice search, which works well. 8.1 Mixed Usage Great TV for mixed usage, the X940E has excellent picture quality in most environments. It has some motion blur that might bother people more sensitive to it though. 8.7 Movies Excellent TV for watching movies. The X940E has some of the best local dimming available, bringing it close to OLED for most scenes. It's also able to turn off black bars found in movies completely which is great. 8.3 TV Shows Very good TV for TV shows. The X940E's upscaling of lower resolution content is as good as it gets, and it gets more than bright enough to be enjoyed in most environments. 7.4 Sports Good TV for watch

David Dicks of Common Sense Audio Busts Audiophile Myths We speak with David Dicks of Common Sense Audio makers of Audio Nirvana full range drivers. On today's show we discuss and bust some Audiophile Myths. Ara used the Classic 5 drivers on his latest speaker build. The Audio Nirvana 'Classic 5 FERRITE' ($178/pr) has a test bench frequency response from 73 hz (lower in cabinets) to almost 20,000 hz (varies by temperature). You can expect at least 95 db efficiency in any of our cabinets. It handles 30 watts continuous RMS (normal listening level will be about 1/10 watt). Impedance is 8 ohms. Voice coil is 1.2 inches (30 mm). Magnet weight is 1.7 lbs. Total weight is 4.3 lbs. The cone is made of paper. The surround is accordion style and made of treated cloth. The dust cap is a specially coated fabric material. The frame is cast aluminum.

Today's show has emails, news, HTIB, Movie Passes, Bricked Locks, and many more topics!

Wired vs Wireless Home Audio I recently read an interview with some home installers discussing wired vs wireless solutions for home audio. We have always said that nothing beats physical wires for reliability and speed. However, times have changed and and wireless has come a long way. So what do these experts think about the subject today? Note - these are the views of an A/V Installer and dealer. What is the benefit of a hardwired installation? Reliability, speed and cost. Less service calls factor into the mix as well. Our take - Reliability is less likely to be an issue today. There are more channels, when you include 5GHz networks. Plus there are new mesh routers out there from Google, eero Pro, and NETGEAR Orbi that provide better coverage of you home. Speed is also less of an issue with these routers. All of them support 802.11ac which gets you close to wired. And since we are specifically talking about audio, it's far less of an issue since even the highest quality audio uses less than a megabit per second of data. As far as cost goes, if you have a home under construction or are doing major renovations, a hardwired solution may be cheaper. However, if you in a home is not under construction, it will cost much more to open up walls. When would wired be better than wireless? When the home is under construction or major renovation. In environments that swamped with wireless networks. Our take - If your home is under construction then by all means wire every room! Don't forget the garage and even the bathrooms. Run wire everywhere you can think of. A thousand feet of Cat 6 cable is less than $150. You will need cover plates and connectors plus labor but even with all of that you won't spend more than about $500 for an extremely reliable network. Most of the interview dealt with wiring for data, however, since we are talking about audio we should consider speaker wire as part of the solution. If the walls in the home are open you can run speaker wire to a central point and connect it to a multichannel amp or other audio system. When would wireless be better than wired? If you can't easily get behind the walls or if you live in a rental. Our take - Agree What are the pitfalls of wireless whole house audio systems? RF interference that result in weak signals in some rooms. Our take - The lower frequency (2.4 Ghz) radio is great for longer distances but has to compete for fewer channels while the higher frequency (5 Ghz) radio has less interference but doesn't travel through walls as well as the lower frequency. This was the main reason for us to go with hardwired in our recommendations. But with the new mesh network wireless systems it's no longer an issue. For about $300 you can fully cover a 4,500 square foot house. What system is used in the majority of your installs? Wireless Our take - Wired is dead! ;-) Which do you prefer? Wired for reliability and to preserve wireless network bandwidth for applications that require a wireless connection. Our take - Like us, these guys have been in the game for a while and at the time, wired was really the way to go for the exact reason as they state. However, with 802.11ac there is plenty of room for streaming audio, video, as well as typical computer network traffic. What do the HT Guys think today? Braden can tell you first hand that his entire home has seen an improvement when he switched to his Google mesh network wifi network. Ara likes it because when we record in Braden's garage the signal actually makes it his computer. It looks like we have to modify our recommendations and start including wifi as a viable option.

Element 55" 4K Ultra HDTV, Fire TV Edition Review In addition to the plethora of native Smart TV interfaces on the market, we've seen TVs come out with the Smart interface provided by a third party like Roku or Google. Amazon has recently jumped into that group as well by partnering with TV manufacturers to bring the full FireTV experience directly into the television set. We got our hands on the 55" 4K model from Element and got to play around with it for a bit. We used model EL4KAMZ5517, with a going price of $649, but Element also sells the FireTV edition set in 65", 50" and 43". Features Fire TV Edition is a smart TV experience that seamlessly integrates your favorite streaming and live over-the-air content on a unified home screen (HD antenna required). Experience true-to-life 4K UHD picture quality with over 8 million pixels for stunning clarity, deep contrast, and brilliant colors. Refresh Rate: 60 Hz (Native), 120 Hz (Effective). The Fire TV experience is built in so you can enjoy over 15,000 channels, apps, and Alexa skills. Get universal search results across over 140 channels and apps including Netflix, Hulu, HBO NOW, SHOWTIME, STARZ, and Prime Video. The included Voice Remote with Alexa allows you to control live TV playback, launch apps, search for TV shows, play music, switch inputs, control smart home devices, and much more. Prime members get unlimited access to Prime Video, featuring thousands of movies and TV episodes at no additional cost. input/output options: 4 HDMI 2.0 including 1 with ARC, 1 USB 2.0, 1 USB 3.0, SD card, Ethernet, composite/component, headphone, optical audio out. Setup As you can imagine, setup for a FireTV based television is incredibly simple. Sometimes we remember back to the good old days when you had to align a CRT, or connect an HD video signal with 5 RGBHV cables. You had to put in some work to watch good television. Not anymore. We screwed on the feet, plugged the TV in, connected it to WiFi and we're ready in under 10 minutes. No cables to connect at all - except power of course. Once the FireTV interface came up it already knew who we were and connected itself to our Amazon Prime account. This is most likely because we bought the set from Amazon, and may not happen if you purchase it through another retailer. But nonetheless, it was a great touch. We spent a while finding our favorite content apps like Netflix and HBO, and we were ready to lean back on the couch and watch some HDTV. In other setups you may go a bit further than we did. If this is your primary TV, you may want to connect an over-the-air antenna so you can watch free, live TV. If you do that, your live TV integrates seamlessly into the FireTV experience. Or you may have a Set-Top box or Blu-ray player to connect. I that case you'd have to switch inputs to use those devices every time you boot up. Of course you can get live TV from an app like SlingTV, and you can get 4K movies from Amazon, Hulu, Vudu, etc. So you may be able to remove all those devices altogether anyways. Usage It is very clear from the first moment anything appears on screen that Amazon wants the FireTV experience to be incredibly easy and frictionless. The TV removes all the difficult setup questions, any strange configuration steps like scanning for channels, are handled for you. The TV is designed to make any user, with any grasp of technology, successful with it. In fact, the remote has voice search, so if you can't find something or can't figure something out, just ask it. If you use an over-the-air antenna with the Element FireTV set, you're going to love how tightly integrated the channel guide is with the rest of the FireTV experience. You get two weeks of guide info, which is cool, but you don't have a DVR, so how are into the future are you really going to browse? And while it's not a DVR, the TV does have a tiny amount of built-in memory, allowing you to pause live TV for a couple minutes if you really need to. This means you can make that quick snack run, answer a quick phone call, or take a quick bathroom break without missing anything. Amazon Prime members can also subscribe to premium content channels directly through Amazon. You can get channels like HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc. without the need for a cable subscription. If you subscribe to any of that premium content through Amazon, those channels will appear in your guide alongside the live TV channels. Amazon has done a great job of creating a full Cable TV experience for the cord cutter. Another cool, differentiating feature is that the channel info and guide are also integrated with Alexa and voice search from the remote. You can tell Alexa to go to a channel by name ("ABC, NBC, CBS, ...") so you don't have to remember the numbers. Review The Smart TV interface and incredibly simple user experience of the Element set are awesome. Unfortunately, that's where the awesome abruptly stops. Yes it's a 4K set, so the resolution is great. But everything else about t

2017 Products of the Year - Electronic House The Electronic House annual Products of the Year contest surveys many of the best and most innovative smart home devices on the market today. Everything from simple light switches to full-blown automation systems. The entries are submitted by manufacturers and are organized into categories so you can easily find the types of products that interest you. We will discuss a few of the winners but you should follow the link to check out all the devices that were considered. Some statistics: By 2020, more than 12 million U.S. household will have a smart water leak detector, more than 40 million will have a smart thermostat, nearly 50 million will have a smart light bulb, and nearly 14 million will have a smart home controller. Source: Parks Associates NUMBERS Service More than 35 million Americans will use a voice-enabled speaker at least once a month this year—an increase of almost 130 percent. Source: eMarketer Research firm Gartner forecasts that 20.8 billion connected things will be in use worldwide by 2020—and it's a movement that has industries, even those outside of the tech world, taking serious note. Insurance companies, in particular, are in a unique position to offer customers who add certain IoT devices to their homes special discounted rates on homeowner's insurance. In 2015 67 percent knew what smart devices were; in 2016, 97 percent said they knew the term.

Denon Unveils 'Fully Loaded' $1,000 AVR: Top 10 Smart Home Systems of Award-Winning Homes HDD Attends 2017 CE Week 4K Ultra HDTV Shootout

On today's show we discuss: Top 20 Blu-ray Market Share for the Week Ended 07/02/17 AMC wants to win back cordcutters. Spoiler alert: It won't Lennar's 'Wi-Fi Certified' Homes: Going All-Wireless is 'Big Disservice In Defense of Lennar's Wi-Fi Smart Home Strategy: 'Wireless is the Future