HDTV and Home Theater Podcast

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

Ara and Braden discuss how home automation can ease your mind when you are on vacation.

Samsung Q9F QLED TV REVIEW (RTINGS.COM) Back in May we introduced you to RTINGS.COM and mentioned that we would feature some of their TV reviews on our site from time to time. This week is the first of such reviews and we start off with the Samsung Q9F QLED (Buy Now 65 inch $4997 75 inch $9997). Read the full detailed review at RTINGS.COM Features: Get perfect color with over a billion shades and 100% color volume with our exclusive new Quantum Dots. Q | 4K HDR Elite+ with Infinite Array produces our best contrast and detail in the brightest and darkest areas on the screen at the same time. The no-bezel design and clean back finish look gorgeous front to back, whether mounted on the wall or sitting on a stand. Q | 4K Elite Black+ with Infinite Array delivers our most stunning shades of black and reveals the secrets hidden in the shadows with elite detail. The build quality of the Q9F is excellent. Compared to most other Samsung TVs, it really feels like a big step up which is worthy of their flagship TV. All of the parts are well made and feel high quality. The Samsung Q9F LED TV has a very good picture quality. The excellent contrast ratio, paired with the good black uniformity, make the Q9 a very good choice for a dark home theater setting. It can display very deep blacks and can reproduce dark scenes very well. When set in a bright room, the Q9 is as good as it gets, since it can get very bright to fight glare from a bright lamp of a near sunny window and it can deal with reflections amazingly. Unfortunately, the Q9F's gray uniformity is sub-par and dirty screen effect is visible on wide panning shots or when watching some sports like football or hockey. The viewing angle is also poor and as a result, the Q9's best picture quality is restricted to a narrow zone in front of the TV. Finally, the Q9 can really make HDR content shine with its high HDR peak brightness and large color volume. Small highlights can get very bright and the colors it can reproduce are really a step ahead of the competition. The only downside here is the limitation of the local dimming, which is poorly implemented and can't really help to make black deepers. The Samsung Q9F sounds quite poor, which is unfortunate for a TV of this status. While it isn't unbearable, it is worth spending on a set of speakers for an upgrade to the audio experience. The Q9F uses Samsung's 2017 Tizen platform, also called Smart Hub, which is very simple and easy to navigate and has a powerful voice command feature. The TV's remote has a built-in microphone for these voice commands, which can do many things like changing inputs and settings and searching for content. The center of the TV's interface is the Smart Hub itself, which provides access to apps and settings in an easy to navigate fashion. Menu animations sometimes have frame drops and lag, worse than last year's Smart Hub. The remote unfortunately has very few buttons, requiring the user to use voice commands or navigate the Smart Hub to do most things. Smartphones and tablets can cast content to the TV's apps, and content can be played from a USB drive in one of the TV's three USB ports. Test Results: Design 9.5 Picture Quality 7.9 Motion 8.9 Inputs 8.6 Sound Quality 5.7 Smart Features 8.0 Usage Ratings: Mixed Usage 8.0 Movies 7.7 TV Shows 7.8 Sports 7.8 Video Games 8.5 HDR Movies 8.6 HDR Gaming 8.5 PC Monitor 7.2 The Samsung Q9F QLED is a great 4k LCD TV with very good picture quality and exceptional rendition of colors. It can display a very wide range of colors and gets bright, making it quite good for HDR. Its input lag is quite low, and fast moving content shows very little blur, making it a good choice for both gaming and sports watching. Unfortunately, though, picture quality steeply declines when the Q9F is viewed from an angle, and its and its screen isn't the most uniform.

From the DTS Website: DTS Virtual:X bridges the gap between our DTS:X codec and the reality of so many consumers' homes, allowing you to enjoy multi-dimensional sound regardless of room size, layout, or speaker configuration. The Key Benefits of DTS Virtual:X technology: Delivers an unprecedented acoustic performance regardless of speaker configuration or room layout -- enhanced bass, crystal clear dialog, and enveloping sound thanks to Virtual Height and Virtual Surround processing based on psychoacoustics (not reflective surfaces). Delivers immersive sound experience regardless of room layout or speaker configuration (stereo, 2.1, 3.1, 5.1, 7.1, etc). Supports ANY CONTENT DTS VIRTUAL:X IN A/V RECEIVERS Enjoy immersive audio today; add more speakers tomorrow for the full DTS:X immersive experience! DTS:X technology in Audio / Video Receivers allows them to deliver a fully immersive audio experience when all the speaker channels are connected, but sometimes it is not practical due to environmental reasons to connect all the speakers. In fact, our research shows that less than 10% of consumers connect the elevation ("height") speakers to their A/V Receiver. Well, not immediately. That's ok. We know you're planning to do it at some point. DTS Virtual:X in an A/V receiver means you can enjoy an immersive sound experience today, from as little as 2 speakers connected to your AVR. And it gets better with every speaker you add, so the upgrade path is easy. So, go ahead, buy that A/V Receiver you've always wanted. Just make sure it has DTS Virtual:X so that you can enjoy immersive sound now and add those height speakers when you get your next bonus for a full DTS:X experience. DTS VIRTUAL:X IN SOUND BARS Multi-Dimensional sound from a stereo sound bar? Now you're talking! Sound Bars are a great way to enhance the audio experience from your TV. In fact, approximately 24% of US Households have them. And some of the new sound bars include upward-firing drivers to mimic the height channels of a 9.1 channel or 11.1 channel immersive sound system. But oftentimes the audio from those upward firing drivers in a sound bar is blocked by the TV itself or dispersed by a vaulted ceiling or other environmental factors. So, while a sound bar will make the audio from your TV sound better, it will not deliver a full immersive sound experience. Until now. DTS Virtual:X Technology in sound bars puts you in the middle of the action. DTS VIRTUAL:X IN TELEVISIONS You won't believe this is the sound from your TV! Most people today have at least one TV in their home. And, as TV's have become lighter and thinner, the demand for larger screen sizes has increased. In the US market alone, 86% of US consumers now own a TV greater than 40" (18% now own a TV of over 60"). Larger screen sizes provide a more immersive viewing experience, but the audio experience from a TV alone is compromised since a thin form factor limits speaker driver size and placement. DTS Virtual:X technology provides an immersive, multi-dimensional sound experience without the need for larger drivers or additional speakers added to the TV set. WORKS WITH ANY CONTENT The great thing about DTS Virtual:X post processing technology is that it will work with the content you have today as well as any Blu-Ray, UHD Blu-Ray or other content you might buy tomorrow. Go ahead, take out that first DVD you bought and experience new life brought to it thanks to multi-dimensional sound that DTS Virtual:X provides. Enjoy immersive audio from Blu-Ray or Ultra High Definition Blu-Ray discs.

On today's show we discuss the following articles along with your emails and news: Tips From THX: Getting the Most Out of Your Home Theater Best Speaker Designs: Top 7 Trends in Speaker Styles and Performance

Interview with David Dicks of Common Sense Audio We speak with David Dicks of Common Sense Audio makers of Audio Nirvana full range drivers. Ara used the Classic 5 drivers on his latest 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.

We discuss emails, news, and various topics for this episode.

RTINGS.COM On today's show we have an interview with Daniel O'Keefe of RTINGS.COM. We will be publishing some of their reviews on HTGUYS.COM from time to time so we wanted to introduce their site to you. We'll also get a couple of TV recommendations from Daniel as well as a discussion on 4K and HDR. TV Reviews (140) Headphone Reviews (136) About RTINGS.COM Our goal is to help you find the best product to buy. That means straight to the point recommendations, based on in-depth and data driven reviews. We buy our own products, test them and then recommend which one is the best to buy. We put all the products we review under the same test bench, so they can be easily comparable. All our ratings are automatically calculated based on our test measurements. The formula used for the rating calculation can be found when clicking the next to the result. We spend a lot of time comparing the products side-by-side to validate our results. All our test methodology is also on our website so you can confirm the results yourself. We keep the products that we review until they are discontinued, so we can continually go back and compare them together, to make sure our reviews are still accurate.

Tivo Update, One Year Later… Last May, on Episode 740, we talked about moving to a Tivo based system for home television instead of a (typically) much more expensive standard Cable or Satellite package. We built our system around the Tivo Bolt and a few Tivo Minis for whole-house DVR. The idea was that if we could get rid of all the Cable company or Satellite company boxes and just get down to the one CableCard needed for the Bolt, we could drastically reduce our monthly television bill. Braden has been living the experiment for the last year. So is it all we thought it would be? The Good There are some huge advantages to the Tivo, some we knew we were in for, others we didn't realize until we'd had the system for a while. The first, and most obvious, is the cost savings. The prior satellite package, with all of its Hopper and Joey boxes, rang in at just around $180/month. The new Cox bill, with one CableCard, is only $72*. A savings of almost $110 per month. Sure, you have to pay the Tivo annual fee of $150, knocking your effective savings down by $12-ish. And there's the upfront cost of the hardware. But once you hit break even on the hardware costs, it's all gravy. *notes: Of the $72 Cox bill, only ~$52 of that is the Cable TV package, the rest is additional taxes and fees. Watch out for those. The review from a year ago quoted the Cable package at $40. Braden was missing some channels the family wanted and had to spring for an expanded package. And then there's the unified search feature. Want to find a specific movie, show, actor, actress, etc? Search for it in the Tivo and it'll find it across your Cable subscription or any of your connected streaming apps. This isn't unique to Tivo, but it is really cool. We didn't realize how much we'd love it. Opening each app, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Amazon, CBS, HBO, etc to try to locate content is cumbersome. Doing the search once and seeing all the ways to get it, is great. And for paid purchases or rentals, it lists the prices at each service so you can compare. What's more, if you add a OnePass for a show, it'll fill in all the prior episodes for you in your queue in case you missed some by the time you found the show. It's really cool. Let's not forget about the commercial skip feature. When you're watching a standard TV show on the Bolt, you have the option to click on the green 'D' button to instantly skip over an entire commercial break. We were worried about losing the AutoHop feature when we dropped the Dish Network Hopper, but it turns out the Tivo implementation is vastly superior. AutoHop only works with prime time content from the big 4 networks. The Tivo feature supports the 20 most viewed networks (listed here) from the hours of 4:00pm to midnight - with plans to add more networks in the future. So many networks and shows, it truly feels like it applies to everything. The Bad But it ain't all rosy. It turns out Tivo has some warts. Three warts to be precise, but they can be incredibly annoying. The first one is that the Tivo Mini constantly loses connection to the main Bolt unit. We have no idea why. Sometimes a reboot will fix it. Sometimes rebooting the Bolt will fix it. Sometimes you have to force one or the other to reconnect to the Tivo service to get them talking again. When they won't connect, you can't view any live or recorded content on the Mini. The unified search feature is a bit of a saving grace, if you have recorded content you want to watch that is also available on a streaming service like Hulu, you can still get to it, but if you just want to watch TV, you'll have to put your troubleshooting hat on. Another annoying thing we've found with the Tivo we still aren't sure is entirely the Tivo's fault. Occasionally when you try to tune in some channels you'll get an error message on the screen about not being able to find a signal for that channel. The channel below it works fine, so you know you paid the bill, but that channel just won't come up. If this hits you when you're trying to record a show, it obviously kills the recording. We don't know if it's a Tivo issue or a Cox / CableCard issue. But if you're paying for all those channels, you should really get all those channels. Luckily we've only seen this on the higher number channels that we don't watch as often. The third one is weird. We have one Mini that will constantly lose connection with its remote control. Only happens on one specific Mini. We've been back and forth with Tivo support and still no luck. It's probably a bum Mini, since we've tried multiple remotes and they've all been hit by it, but as of yet, no offer from Tivo to replace the Mini for us to see if we can get one that works reliably. Currently the only fix is to completely unplug the Mini and reboot it. When it comes back up the remote works great. It's possible you'd never see this issue since we only see it on one of three, but Tivo Minis don't reboot very fast. Having to sit there for 5-7 minutes waiting fo

LeEco uMax85 Ecotv - User Comments We at the HT Guys are always striving to find TVs that can closely mimic the experience that a projector gives you. Shortly after CES we discussed the LeEco uMax85 Ecotv which, from a screen size perspective, is identical to a projector experience for all but those with a dedicated theater room. The uMax85 is a whopping 85 inches, 4K, supports wide color and HDR and only costs $5,500! No way you're getting a 4K HDR projector for that much! But is the umax85 the holy grail that eliminates the need for a projector? Today's show will be a little different. We take you on a journey from rollout (Feb 2017) to today and we let users from AVS forum discuss what they like and dislike about the TV. But before we start, here are the stats: Features: 4K Full Array Backlight & 448 Active Local Dimming Zones The uMax85 features best-in-class 448 active local dimming zones with full array backlighting to ensure every inch of its 85" screen offers the highest possible realism, contrast and viewability at any time of day. Fluid Motion™ 1920 The Fluid Motion™ 1920 helps reduce motion blur and judder, preserving a high degree of clarity even during rapid-fire action scenes. Dolby Vision™ and HDR10 The uMax85 features Dolby Vision™ with HDR10 (High Dynamic Range) which radically improves your viewing experience. It enables a wider, richer range of color, brighter whites, and deeper blacks for more natural, true-to-life colors. 3D with Active Shutter Glasses Dimensions 75 x 46 x 15.8 inches w/ Stand 149.8 lbs w/ Stand 75 x 42.8 x 2.4 inches w/o Stand 141.6 lbs w/o Stand 02-09-2017 After so much excitement for the uMax85, I feel like this thread (and all uMax85 discussion) has gone stagnant. With the caveat that I am not a trained eye by any means, here are my impressions: Unboxing is about as simple as can be, as long as you can get the TV up the stairs or in the elevator. Once you unbox it, you realize the TV is, as we all hoped, big! All of my friends are incredibly impressed with the size. The fit and finish is good and the leeco home screen is bright and pleasant. The 3d is active and works well, in my opinion. However, I would like to know what other glasses are compatible. The SmartTv features are relatively smooth, but as I've mentioned before, my tv will not hold an internet connection. Half an hour into watching anything on a TV-based app, the TV says there is an error and stops playback. I have to do a full reboot to get it back. As with other forum members, I have the same issues with ARC and local dimming. Also, when I first watched a movie, the motion smoothing feature was turned all the way up, which created artifacts and terrible SOE. After I turned it off, that all went away. The issues I am really displeased with are screen uniformity and halo effect. I constantly see vertical shadows in the screen, and now I'm fixated on it. When I turn the local dimming off and back on, the uniformity is *better* but the halo effect is terrible. I would really like to resolve this issue. I should also note the obvious. This screen is so big, that if you play standard resolution (or even HD) content, it looks grainy. However, UHD content looks spectacular. 02-11-2017 Okay, so I have had my UMax 85 for several weeks now and here is what I think. Overall, this is a great TV for the Price/Size ratio. LeEco really needs to come out with an update to fix the local dimming issue. Very annoying to have to fix it every time you turn on the set. The ARC issue is not that big of a deal to me as I just ran an optical cable to fix that problem. Like other users I set the motion setting to off to eliminate the soap opera effect. Also, I mostly watch sports and with it on there is some pixilation in fast moving objects. I have noticed like others that with the local dimming on there appears to be a halo effect that takes place. The uniformity on my set is good but not great. The screen door effect is also very obvious when you have a bright background and the camera pans the bright background. Very noticeable if you turn on a hockey game. This is a bummer for me because I notice it. My wife does not see it unless I point it out to her. In fact several people were over for the Super Bowl and nobody noticed any of my gripes here. Everyone did talk about how nice the TV looked and how big it was. I am a picky person when it comes to my displays. No way am I an expert, and maybe if someone gets this thing professionally calibrated some of my gripes will disappear. The bottom line is I wanted a large screen and on paper this thing has all the bells and whistles. In person the TV looks good/great most of the time. With a firmware update and some calibration it should look great all the time. If I were to go back and do it all over again I would do it. I think the value this TV offers is untouchable by other manufactures. I am happy with this purchase. I hope everyone who is still waiting on their sets can use o

Hulu Live TV Beta This week Hulu released their paid beta for live TV. That means you have the privilege of paying $40 a month to help them find their bugs. But in all honesty it's actually pretty good minus a few user interface issues that should get buzzed out with feedback from everyone paying $40 a month. The interface was intuitive and made sense. Hulu is already somewhat organized around TV shows, so it feels like a bit of an app-based DVR. Add live content behind that and it simply feels like it belongs there. You don't feel like you have two separate sides to the same app. Live TV flowed seamlessly in the interface. Pricing isn't too bad. You get 50+ channels for $40. They have a good selection but some channels are missing. There is no AMC or Viacom, and Discovery networks. You do get locals in in LA we get even get some independents but no CW. Included in the price is the basic Hulu subscription so you can watch programs through the Hulu app with commercials. For an additional $3 you can get the commercial free version of Hulu. That makes up for some of the limitations of the DVR which we talk about later. The only "Pay" channel they have is Showtime and that will cost you an additional $9. Hulu's guide is pretty innovative but it takes getting used to. You can decide what content (genre) you are interested in and then select live. The guide will then show you what is on right now. Or you can just say show me what's available regardless if it's live and you have way more options. At that point it hit us! Who cares when it aired if I can chose when I want to watch it. You can pause fast forward and rewind shows and some allow you to start at the beginning even if you started watching mid show. On shows that are streamed you can't skip commercials. At this point in time you can pause and move the playhead to anywhere you want in the program but if a commercial starts you are stuck for the duration. When it comes to the DVR you get some basic functionality included in the monthly service fee. You have a 50 hour limit and you can't skip through ads. There is no word as to how long you can keep your recordings for. If you want full DVR capability you need to pony up $14.95 a month. That also gets you 200 hours of record time. But you can skip content that is recorded. If the show is available through the network streaming you will get the streamed version with non-skippable ads. But we found the ads to be about a minute and a half. If you paid the extra three dollars for no commercials this becomes the best of both worlds! You don't use any DVR space and you don't even have to skip commercials. Pay the $3! Two streams are included with your monthly fee but you can go unlimited (at least while you are at home) for an additional $14.95. This add-on gets you three streams when you are away from home. At launch Hulu live supports iPhones and iPads, Android phones and tablets, Xbox One, AppleTV 4, and Chromecast. Support is on the way for FireTV and stick, Roku, Samsung TVs and Blu-ray Players, as well as Macs and PCs. In all, this is a very good start and we can't wait to see what more competition will do to this space!

2016 - 2017 TV Scorecard Each TV Season we like to preview the shows that are coming up as well as wrap up the year with which shows are coming back. On today's show we'll go through the major networks and give you the information you need to determine whether it's worth binging on a show this Summer. We'll also cover some shows from the cable networks as well as streaming services like Amazon and Netflix. Checkout our spreadsheet with the most current info. We'll update it as the year winds down. 2016 - 2017 TV Scorecard

We discuss various topics this week.

Youtube TV Youtube has just entered the IPTV market and if you live in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, or Philadelphia you can sign up today. Like the other IPTV services available you can sign up for only $35 a month with no commitments and you can cancel anytime. Unlike the other services there is only one plan with a few add on channels. For the most part the typical channels are available but there are some pretty big omissions. In LA, you get ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox. No CW or the other independents. But where the service fails for us is that there is no HGTV or DIY, AMC, TBS, Nickelodeon and many others. The image below depicts the actual channels you get But the service does have a DVR and it's actually quite good. You add shows by hitting the + (plus) button in the user interface. There are no options for setting a season pass or just recording new episodes. You simply get every episode that airs regardless. We were concerned about this at first but then realized that it doesn't matter. You get unlimited storage space and there are no recording conflict. The shows are aggregated in your library and categorized as Shows, Movies, Sports, or Events. Going into a category lists all your recordings and if you record a show that is in a current season and in syndication for previous seasons you can select which season to watch. In a way you can select a show like "How I met your Mother" and wait a few weeks and you will end up with multiple seasons worth of the show. Another cool benefit is if you start to record say "24" all the episodes that Fox puts up online will automatically be available to you. That is a great way to catch up with a show that you missed from the start. You only have access to the shows that the network actually posts. For some ABC shows you only get five episodes. If you record the show, you get access to everything you recorded. It should also be noted that if your record a show that the network also streams you will get the streamed version including non-skippable commercials. The DVR has all the benefits of a typical cable DVR, you can pause, skip and fast forward. Fastforward is achieved via a slider that you drag. You can not fast forward shows you did not record. You'll have to watch commercials just like on the network apps. So if you think you might be interested in a show. Just set it to record. You have unlimited space and it is available for nine months. It took a bit of getting used to but we felt liberated to the point where we just started recording everything and then decide what to watch later. Another place the service breaks down is TV support. The only way to watch it on a TV is via a Chromecast device. They give you one free when you pay your first month's bill. You can only hope that they develop a native app for the main set top box platforms. The service is available on PCs/Mac, iOS, and Android. Our take… it's a good start. They really need more channels and need to support the main set top box platforms.

Theater Solutions SUB8S Slim Powered Subwoofer Home Theater without a subwoofer is like pumpkin pie without whipped cream, chips without salsa, a burger without fries. Some things are just meant to go together. And when you don't have them both, you don't really get the full experience of either. Typically, to get good bass in your home theater, you need to have a giant subwoofer the size of a small coffee table in the room somewhere. But they aren't always easy to place. If that's your dilemma, the Theater Solutions SUB8S 250 Watt Surround Sound HD Home Theater Slim Powered Active Subwoofer ($109.99) might be your answer. About the Subwoofer This slim versatile sub comes with stands to set up in any area, a mounting bracket to attach to a wall or the slim 4 3/4" height can slide under most furniture. The 8 inch long throw bass woofer has a frequency response of 35-150 Hz +/- 2dB. The port design smooths air flowing in and out of the cabinet, reducing turbulence and port noise. The ports also increase linearity, lowers distortion, reduces 5th order harmonic distortion and provides an increased output as high as 2-3dB. A black wood finish, cabinet feet, 115 AC cord, included RCA cables, RCA "Y" adapter, stand mounts and hanging mount with mounting screws round out this subwoofers fantastic details. Setup Setting up the Subwoofer, at least connecting up the audio to make it go boom, is really no different than any other subwoofer. It needs to be plugged into power. Then you run your LFE output from your receiver into the Sub. That's it.There are a couple knobs you can adjust, but once you get them dialed in, they are pretty much 'set it and forget it.' If you want to mount the sub to the wall using the included bracket, tack on a few more minutes to get the bracket mounted to the wall and the Sub hung up on it. But overall, setup was a snap. Performance Performance is what really matters in any home theater component and subwoofers are no different. In most cases, unless you have motion actuators in your furniture, the subwoofer provides the only noise your body can actually feel during a movie or song. We must say that considering the size of the woofer itself, the size of the amplifier and the size/shape of the cabinet, we weren't expecting much from this sub. But it turns out we were pleasantly surprised. It packs a decent boom for a subwoofer of its size. With any content we played, when the level was set too low (which tended to be anything below half way) you simply couldn't hear it. Crank the output volume a little and it would come to life. Anything between 50 and 100% on the gain dial would give you a decent bass response. Because of the unique shape and features of the subwoofer, placement ends up being a bit more difficult than you'd think. The placement of a subwoofer in a room, and it's proximity to walls, especially corners, can change bass response dramatically. Putting the SUB8S in a convenient location may give you less than ideal performance. But you bought it for that location, so you're kinda stuck. By default is sits on four legs and fires down. You can also set it on its side using a pair of included stands. The last option is to mount it to the wall using an included wall mount bracket. It is incredibly versatile in that regard. Assuming where you want it to go gives you the bass response you need, it's great. If not, you'll end up with a subwoofer in the wrong spot anyways, so you could consider a more traditional unit that has stronger, deeper bass. What we noticed was that, although the SUB8S sounded really good for an 8" sub, it doesn't match the expectations of someone in need of heavy, dedicated bass for a home theater. If you want to feel the bass, feel the explosions, it probably won't get you there. If you simply want to expand the low end for listening to music, or add a bit of umph to some movie and TV watching, it fits well. Conclusion Overall the SUB8S is a great subwoofer for its size and price. It will not outperform your current setup at home, unless you are lacking a sub or still have the speakers that came with the HTiB when you bought it. Due to its lack of umph and the unique challenges in placement we had to give the SUB8S a bit of a knock. Our take is that you probably don't want to use it in your home theater, but if you have a room that could use a bit more bass, and you can run power and an LFE line to under your bed or couch, throw one of these under there and you'll be glad you did. It's a solid option for a loft, game room, bedroom, etc.

D-Link Omna 180 Cam HD The D-Link Omna 180 Cam HD (MSRP $199.95) camera is the first camera that makes use of Apple's HomeKit technology. It's not a ugly bulky wifi camera that most are used to but one that can be easily integrated into your home, while still providing a complete feature set in 1080p resolution. Installation is as easy as plugging it in, opening your homekit app and aiming your phone's camera at the unique ID. That alone adds the device to your homekit automation system and transmits all wifi settings for your home. Within two minutes the device is on your network and in your home ready for you to set up automation rules for its use. Features: 180° Field of View – Widest angle lens on a fixed camera. You can see an entire room with one camera. D-Link also does something with the image so it doesn't look like you are looking through a fisheye lense. Looks best on an ipad. 1080p HD Quality Video – Rich detail and crisp image quality Motion Detection – Push alert notifications and recording whenever movement is detected. In fact the motion detection is so go you won't need other motion detectors. You can trigger your automation rules based on movement on your home. I (Ara) ended up returning two motion detectors since two cameras covered the entire first floor. Two-Way Audio – Built-in microphone and speaker for two-way communication. Other than verifying that this works I have not had to use it daily use. But it may be a great feature for looking in on individuals who may need extra support. Local Recording – MicroSD card slot for local recording based on motion detection trigger. What's cool about this is that you don't need a third party service to review triggered recordings. Night Vision – See up to 16 feet in complete darkness with built-in IR LEDs. Live Viewing – View on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch with any homekit enabled app. Conclusion If you are in the iOS ecosystem and have an AppleTV Homekit is the way to go. It is so easy to mix and match devices from multiple vendors. It would be cool if Apple provided a web interface for setting up and monitoring your system. The D-Link Omna is a little on the expensive side but the ease of setup and quality of picture make it a camera you will want in your home!

Invention roundup From time to time we talk about new ideas we've come across on some of the crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. Some we happen upon ourselves, some we get alerted to by listener emails, tweets, etc. But these sites are literal treasure troves of inventions and predictions of what our homes, our home theaters and our lives may look like in a few years. Instead of just waiting for one of these ideas to come across our desks, we decided to do some digging to find out what the inventors of today are working on to provide a better future for the rest of us. In some cases a future that's starting to resemble Science Fiction or the Jetsons. For those who aren't familiar with crowdfunding, it's pretty simple. Someone has an idea, maybe even a prototype, but they can't afford to finish development, go to manufacturing and bring the idea to life on their own. So they look for help. Instead of getting a big check from a Venture Capital firm and giving up a large percentage of their company, they ask for your help. For a small donation you usually get early access to the product or other perks associated with it. If there's a product you think could really improve your life, you can help fund it and make it a reality. Indiegogo has a comparison of the two sites on their site. Obviously slanted, but a good description of how they work and how the two platforms differ. Moodo - The Smart Home Fragrance Box (Indiegogo) Moodo is the first smart device that gives you complete control over the way your environment smells and feels. Made for the home or office, Moodo enables you to change the ambiance instantly using a simple smartphone app. Smell is the strongest of our senses. It's arguably the sense most influential on your mood. It's also the next logical step in an increasingly personalized world. Your environment is what you make it- your ideal lighting, favorite decor and your music - now you can control the elusive dimension of fragrance. "OK Google, make it smell like Summer Rain in here" Moodo is the world's smartest fragrance diffusion machine. Play with the app's dials to control the intensity of each of the four capsules and explore the possibilities. Set it so you wake up to a citrus filled kitchen on weekend mornings, or take over as scent-DJ and switch up the mood in seconds. Then save your custom scents to the app. Or share them with your friends. And don't forget to set it to get romantic when the kids go to sleep. It's all up to you. And your nose. Moodo Starter Pack - $149 USD + Shipping Get your Moodo with a starter scent-family of your choice (4 capsules) at our special crowdfunding pricing for a limited time. Good for 2 months of normal daily use. We'll contact you when the campaign is over to get your choice of scents. See our scent families on the campaign page below. Retail value $249 Items included: Moodo Box, 4 fragrance capsules (1 set) Hayo: Create Virtual Remote Controls for Your Home (Indiegogo) Hayo connects to your favorite smart home platforms and products (like IFTTT, Wink, Sonos, Nest) and gives you the ability to control them with simple hand motions. The system starts by 3D-scanning your room and lets you create virtual remote controls on top of objects (like furniture) or right in mid air. Want to make your coffee table a play button for Sonos? Or place an on/off button for your HUE lights right above your bed? Hayo can do that. It's like using the force for your home. One Room : One Hayo - $219 USD + Shipping Get ONE Hayo at 27% off, before everyone else. **For the next 200 backers. **Hayo will retail for $299 Superscreen – Supercharge your phone with a 10.1" HD display (Kickstarter) The features of a $600 iPad in a $99 device. Superscreen gives you the benefits of a tablet with the power & convenience of your phone. Superscreen is a new way to experience the digital world you have set-up on your phone. It does everything a tablet can do, everything a casting product can do, PLUS everything in your phone in one affordable great looking device. Never stretched or zoomed: Your smartphone 4x bigger and better. Superscreen perfectly scales your content in full HD so nothing gets blurry or chopped. A familiar touch: Full multi-touch and orientation control, plus support for a stylus. Faster than Wi-Fi: Superscreen's patent pending technology transfers data between your phone at industry leading speeds as far as 100 feet away regardless of obstructions. SUPER PAIR - TWO SUPERSCREENS - For a pledge of $198 or more. Free US & EU shipping included. (The $99 package has sold out) Support us now and receive an exclusive Kickstarter price of 67% off (expected retail $598). Color: Midnight Black or Ivory White. Choose your color(s) after the campaign ends. INCLUDES: 2× Superscreen, 2× USB A to USB C Cord, 2× Type A to USB A Wall Charger ESTIMATED DELIVERY: Dec 2017 SHIPS TO: Anywhere in the world Eye - The Smart iPhone Case (Kickstarter) Add to your phone a: 5 inch dis

In Wall Subwoofers We recently received an email from Jim in Carlsbad CA asking why there weren't many reviews of in wall subwoofers. This got us thinking about it. It seems reasonable because how many reviewers are going to commit to ripping a hole in their drywall to test out something that they are going to have to give back when they are done? So how do you make an educated decision? This is one of the situations that you may have to rely on other members of the audio community who are not professional reviewers. Whether it be AVS Forum, Amazon customer reviews, or one of dozens of consumer sites people love to share their experience. The trick is how to separate truth from BS. A general rule of thumb we use when looking at consumer reviews is that 10% of the reviewers hate everything and 10% are too easy on any given product. So they typically cancel out. If you get 80% good ratings then you are looking at something that is a good product. We use this rule for anything we buy online. By the way, most in wall subwoofers are passive so your receiver will need an amplifier available to drive it. If you don't have an available amp you will need to factor one into the cost. Before we look at some in wall options let's look at some of the pros and cons of going this route. Most of these are the same for in wall speakers as well. Pros: Space - Since these are mounted in wall they do not take up space and thus are easier to fit in with any decor. They typically have high spouse acceptance factor as well. Increased Gain - Mounting in the wall will use the space between the studs as an enclosure to extend the bass. Cons: Installation - If you are not handy cutting into drywall you will need to hire someone to install the subwoofer increasing the overall cost. Amplification - In wall subwoofers will require an external amplifier. Since most receiver do not amplify the subwoofer output you'll need to buy a separate one increasing the overall cost. Fewer Upgrade options - once you get your subwoofer installed you are pretty much committed. Unless you can find another model that is the same dimensions. It's not like you swap out subwoofers all the time but you may upgrade in a few years. In wall makes that upgrade more difficult. Calibration - You have heard of the subwoofer crawl right? You won't easily be able to find the right spot for your subwoofer. Since the cavity of the wall is used to extend the bass no SPL measurements will be the same as those taken when the subwoofer is in it's final location. If the position is more important you will have to take other measure to get the audio just right. Here are three in-wall subwoofers that have received an 80% or greater favorable rating by consumers: In the low price category we have the Aria In Wall Subwoofer 10 Inch Passive 200W max $30 (Monoprice). Monoprice does not even try to pretend this is a subwoofer replacement but more of a "bridge" to help offset the frequency gap of compact speakers. But at $30 it may be perfect for casual listening. The subwoofer gets 4.5 out of 5 stars from 39 reviewers. The biggest complaint is that it's installation instructions are not clear. Specifications Impedance - 8 ohms Frequency Response - 35 Hz to 3.0 kHz Power Handling Capacity - 100 watts nominal / 200 watts max Woofer - 10" Non-press Cone Woofer Sensitivity - 88dB ±2dB (1.0m/2.0V) Cut-out Dimensions - 10.6 x 10.6" Overall Dimensions - 11.9" x 11.9" Mounting Depth - 3.6" Our mid price subwoofer is the Klipsch Architectural RW-5802 300 W RMS Woofer $499. This one rated 5 stars but from only 4 users. The RW-5802 sits in an enclosed cabinet that should make it easier to install and reduce vibration and sound in adjacent rooms. Specifications Dual 8 (30.5cm) front-firing, cerametallic cone, cast aluminum frame driver woofer Sealed integrated enclosure for maximum installation flexibility 45-140Hz Frequency Response 90dB Sensitivity at 1-Watt 1m Dimensions - Height 20.8 x Width 11.8 x Depth 3.7 Our high end in wall subwoofer is the Definitive Technology In-Wall Sub 10/10 $800. This is also an enclosed cabinet which makes installation easier. It scores a perfect 5 stars from all three reviewers! Specifications Outer Dimensions: 15-1/2" W x 21" H Cut-out Size: 14-3/8" W x 3-13/16" D x 19-7/8" H Frequency Response: 16 Hz – 200 Hz Nominal Impedance: 4 ohms Driver Complement: One 10" Long-Excursion Woofer coupled to a 10" Infrasonic Radiator Enclosure: Non-resonant Sealed Medite Weight: 30 lbs. In doing research we also discovered the Theater Solutions SUB8S 250 Watt Surround Sound HD Home Theater Slim Powered Active Subwoofer $98. It's not an in wall subwoofer but it is pretty cool nonetheless. It only measures 4 and ¾ inches high so it can be placed under a lot of furniture. It also comes with a wall mount that allows for it to easily be attached to a wall. Just be sure to buy 90 degree adapters for your RCA cables. So it's kind of the best of both worlds. It's not huge so thin

Live TV Streaming Options We have friends, and you probably do as well, who are constantly asking about options for cutting the cord or otherwise reducing their high monthly cable or satellite bill. We have experience with a couple of the options, but not all of them. In an effort to better serve those friends of ours that need our help, we decided to compile a "compare and contrast" on the three main options available today: SlingTV, Sony Playstation Vue and DirecTV Now. Feature Comparison SlingTV Playstation Vue DirecTV Now Starting Cost $20 $40 $35 Channels 30+ 45+ 60+ iOS yes yes yes Android yes yes yes AppleTV yes yes yes Roku yes yes no FireTV yes yes yes Chromecast yes yes yes PlayStation no yes no Simultaneous Streams 1 (3 at higher tier) 5 2 Local channels yes* yes* yes* Cloud DVR beta yes no * not in all markets. Some markets may get a national feed or only on-demand content. Sling.TV When SlingTV hit the market, it was revolution. The first of its kind. Since then many more very similar offerings have followed, but there's something to be said for being the first to market. Dish has more experience than any of their competitors. May not matter too much anymore, but in a brand new market, the spoils often go to the player who works out all the kinks the fastest. Sling TV has just added a beta of a cloud based DVR option, making the service a bit more compelling. Sling's DVR only gives you 100 hours of total recording time. Better than nothing, and similar to what you get from many cable and satellite DVRs, but being a cloud service, we'd expect a bit more storage. PlayStation Vue Sony jumped into the fray with a very compelling offering right out of the gate. The were the first to offer a cloud based DVR to augment the service. SlingTV's answer to the cloud DVR at the time was to just store all the shows for a short time after they aired. If you missed an episode, you could still catch it the next day. If you missed it the next day, sorry. Hopefully Hulu's got it. PlayStation Vue's cloud-based DVR will store your shows for up to 28 days. You can record as much as you want, but if you don't watch in 28 days, you'll be off to Hulu or buying episodes at Apple, Amazon, or waiting for the full season to hit somewhere like Netflix. Better than one day, but again, being a cloud based service, you should be able to get more storage than that. DirecTV Now Not to be outdone by their longtime rival Dish Network, DirecTV came to the table with DirecTV Now. Also a very compelling offering right out of the gate, DirecTV has a couple of unique twists that may set it apart for some of the audience. For example, if you have AT&T for cell phone service, you can stream DirecTV Now to your mobile devices without it counting against your bandwidth limits. If you have AT&T and watch a lot of TV on the go, that could save considerable amounts of money on your monthly bill. Unfortunately DirecTV Now still doesn't have a DVR option, putting it way behind the others in that area. But wait, there's more… While there are three options available today, there are many more coming very soon. So far two have been announced as official offerings: one from YouTube and one from Hulu. We can see some compelling features to both of those. Hulu, for one, with their giant catalog of TV content, could build a very interesting offering when combined with live TV and a cloud DVR. Beyond those two, rumors abound that companies like Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Walmart/Vudu are working on live TV streaming services as well. This market could be very crowded by the end of 2017. Of those "rumored" to be working on a Live TV service, Amazon seems like they're quite close. If you sign into Amazon Prime Video, you already see a listing of available "channels" you can watch right there from within your Amazon account. They are mostly premium channels you can subscribe to like Starz and HBO, but extending this concept to include live channels if you subscribe to them shouldn't be too much of a stretch. Amazon already has the full array of new and catalog content, like a mashup of Netflix and Vudu. And Amazon has storage figured out (the recent S3 outage aside), so a cloud-based DVR should be a no-brainer. Compare and Contrast One of the most important factors for deciding which service is right for is what channels you get for the money. Ideally you get the most channels for the least money, but you also need to make sure you're getting the right channels - the ones you actually watch. Playstation Vue and DirecTV Now offer over 40 channels with their base subscription tier. Sling TV only has 30 channels in the base tier, but it costs significantly less at only $20 per month. If you're a CBS fan, you'll need to augment any of the services with the CBS All Access service since neither DirecTV Now nor Sling carry CBS at all and PlayStation Vue has some local CBS news feeds across the country, but coverage is spotty and not the full CBS network. As an a

LG 65UH6150 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV We have been talking about 4K TVs for about three years. We were pretty early to the 4K scene and as being early adopters we missed out on TVs with HDR and support for the wider color gamut. Such is the problem with being an early adopter. But we knew it was only a matter of time before one of us would buy another TV and this time it would support HDR and Wide Color. As it turns out Ara was the one who recently purchased an LG 65UH6150 (Buy Now $1079) and is quite pleased with what LG has sold him. Features: 4K UHD IPS Panel - in-plane switching maintains consistent color regardless of viewing angle HDR Wide Color Gamut 4K Upconverter TruMotion 120Hz - reduces motion blur on fast moving objects WebOS 3.0 Smart TV - The latest generation of LG's exclusive Smart TV platform Installation and Setup The TV is relatively easy to get off the truck and into the house. You will definitely need a pickup truck to get this home. While it will fit in a lot of SUVs laying flat it is not recommended to move such a large TV like this. The glass is heavier in a large TV and going over a bump could break the screen. Shipping weight is 72 lbs (32.7Kgs), it's only 60 lbs when you get it out of the box. You lift the box off of the TV and then carefully attach two legs with a philips screwdriver. Once on the TV stand we connected power and an HDMI cable from the AppleTV. We didn't bother connecting a FireTV since the TV comes with an Amazon app that is capable of 4K HDR and Wide Color Gamut. We also opted to use the built in Netflix app since it too supported HDR and 4K. The first thing we did was connected to our 5Ghz wifi network and once connected the TV notified us of a firmware update. The update took about 20 minutes. Once that was completed we logged into our Amazon and Netflix accounts and we were good to go! There are more apps than Netflix and Amazon but that was all we were interested in. Other apps include: Hulu Channel Plus Youtube Vudu Pandora Crackle Spotify And more We did not do any formal calibration or did we tweak the settings. We simply set the TV to Cinema mode for the majority of our viewing and HDR Effect when we were watching UHD Discs or streamed content that supported HDR. There are ISF calibration setting levels for those who want to have the TV calibrated. Note - to turn on 10bit color go to the General/HDMI ULTRA HD Deep Color setting and turn this on per HDMI input. If the device does not support 10 bit color it may not work in this mode. Performance We recently did a review of the Oppo Digital UDP-203 (Podcast #777) where much of the viewing was done on this TV. For the performance portion pertaining to UHD discs we'll just repeat that here. We'll also add watching 1080p television content and streamed 4K HDR content from Netflix and Amazon. Overall the TV has great color and good blacks. In content that was encoded with HDR the Blacks looked almost plasma like. Other times they looked like they had a tinge of gray. We found that much of the picture performance depended on what you are feeding the TV. The other pleasant surprise was the speakers. Typically it's hard to hear dialog on modern TVs. This one did not have that problem. UHD Disc First up was "Keeping up with the Joneses" Other than the noticeable improvement in detail there wasn't much of an improvement. There were scenes where I could notice more realistic color and shadow details. This is a limitation of the disc not the player or the TV. Which brought us to a revelation. You really need to pay attention to your entire chain to get the most out of HDR. That includes the content. While I felt the Oppo and TV did a great job with the movie, I was let down by the movie itself. Next up was Independence day Resurgence. This was another disc that didn't meet my expectations. There are a lot of dark scenes and HDR should have made a bigger difference. The shadow detail really didn't look better than the Blu-ray. Again this is a limitation of the content. I had high expectations for Magnificent 7 and the LG did not disappoint! The detail and color were so lifelike it felt as though I was transported to the wild west. I found myself watching the detail at times and not the movie. It felt like I was being introduced to HDTV for the first time. Skin tones were the most natural I have ever seen. The beard/stubble on Chris Pratt's face was so detailed I felt that he looked too groomed for the wild west. The detail in the dark scenes were really pronounced. In fact the blacks seemed almost plasma like. The war paint on Red Harvest's face looked so good, again, it was almost too good! There were no visible artifacts that I could see even when I got up very close to the screen. This is why you want to upgrade your HDTV and Blu-ray player. Streaming Content For this I watched content on Amazon Prime and Netflix. On Amazon Prime I viewed Bosch and Man in the High Castle. The Man in the High Castle is already

Hollywood Post Alliance Retreat Summary: ATSC seminar consisted of multiple panels of experts discussing a wide range of topics Covered the basics of what ATSC 3.0 can do (Ultra HD support, name your frame rate up to 120 fps, high dynamic range, wide color gamut, object audio, personalization and scalability) Receivers are in the works. Some interesting concepts like LG's ATSC3.0 to WiFi gateway Using Interactivity to enable more ads. Awesome. Drew analogies to HbbTV in Europe. Again more talk about advertising. Content production: more possibilities on what can be done: object oriented audio, changing video settings (frame rate, etc) as a plot device, and interactivity London Olympics content "portal" an awesome idea HDTV Expert - Turn Back The Clock? Summary: Sharp parent Hon Hai considering building LCD panel facility in the US Only interested if the US will donate the land (charge $1 for it) Sharp getting ready to break ground on a Gen 10 LCD fab in China for $8.69B. proposed U.S. LCD fab should be similar size and same generation But… LCD factories are mostly automated so there wouldn't be all that many permanent jobs created once construction is completed. And many of the permanent jobs will likely require college degrees in the sciences (physics, engineering, and chemistry). The biggest obstacle to building the plant will be the finished cost of the panels $10 is all it takes to upgrade any HDTV or monitor with bias lighting Use the promo code GT8OMP06 at checkout and get the Vansky White Bias Lighting Kit for just $9.99, or the Vansky Multi-Color Bias Lighting Kit (you can set it to any color you want) for $11.99. Trust us… you won't regret it. Here are some key details from the product page: ALLEVIATES EYE-STRAIN — Adds a Subtle Backlight to Your Monitor, Reducing the Eyestrain Caused by Differences In Picture Brightness From Scene to Scene In Movies, Shows and Games. OPTIMAL VIEWING EXPERIENCE — The Color and Brightness of the LEDs Are Carefully Calibrated, Making Blacks Blacker and Colors More Vibrant. EASY INSTALLATION — The Led Light Strip is 35.4 Inch and Can be Cut With Scissors On the Cut Marks (White Lines) to Fit The Desired Size of Your TV. The USB Cable is 47.5 Inch. Use the 3M Adhesive to Attach to Almost Any Surface, Flexible Strips Bend to Your Desired Positions. Attention: Ensure the Back of Your TV is Free From Dust Before Install to Avoid Falling off. QUALITY ASSURANCE — High-brightness 27 LEDs Last Up to 100,000 LED Lighting Hours. WHAT YOU GET — Vansky Bias Lighting for HDTV With On-Off Button, Spare 3M Adhesive Tap,Spare USB Wall Charger, Together with 45 Days Money Back, One year Guarantee and Friendly, Easy-to-reach Support.