Lest Talk About HDTV's

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I'm not sure how many movies I'll upgrade to 4K on disc, 4K streaming looks pretty good.  With Amazon Prime you don't have to pay extra for 4K so that is nice, haven't checked on how it works if you buy a streaming movie or show.

Looking at my router throughput it looks like streaming 4K eats about 16Mbps continuously with spikes every few seconds up to 24Mbps.

This sore throat and clogged nose is getting worse, better stop messing with the TV and go to bed early.  And we have the time change this weekend, that isn't going to help...

[RVR II]

I'm not sure how many movies I'll upgrade to 4K on disc, 4K streaming looks pretty good.  With Amazon Prime you don't have to pay extra for 4K so that is nice, haven't checked on how it works if you buy a streaming movie or show.

Looking at my router throughput it looks like streaming 4K eats about 16Mbps continuously with spikes every few seconds up to 24Mbps.

Streaming is still out for me as my ISP polices my data package which just went up $5 to $59.95/month for basic internet speed of only 15mbps. There is no other ISP in my area because our local ISP owns all the lines in town and a new ISP would have to run their own lines in order to compete so we're screwed here

[ihavemyreasons]

Finally getting my first 4K TV. After wasting way too much time reading on all the different options, have a TCL series 6 65" being delivered tomorrow that I have to figure out how to hide from the wife until Xmas eve. Wanted a 70" - don't have room for anything bigger - replacing an old 50" plasma that is being moved to bedroom due to TV there dying. But went with the 65" and TCL despite never having heard of them before based on reviews - supposed to have best and brightest picture for anything less than $1,000 and has option to turn off all the smart tv features - have a Roku and a HTPC - don't need apps on TV itself. Google TV version was $300 less than version w/Roku on same set, so saved some money there.

[ihavemyreasons]

So my wife found the new TV Sunday morning...knew it was a chance she would as box was impossible to hide. Put it in extra bedroom that she doesn't go into very often, but...
So TV set up a week earlier then planned.
Wow...upgrade to 4K and 15 inch larger screen makes a big difference. Haven't watched any really crappy quality VHS era video on it to see how well it upscales and only watched a few minutes of true 4K video so far, but 1080p sources look a lot better than the 15 year old TV it replaced..
Remote that came with it kind of sucks - barebones remote geared towards streaming services. Took awhile to figure out the correct set up of my Harmony all-in-one remote, but after some trial and error got it working (standard Logitech recommended input settings don't work, had to set up commands to change inputs when switching between cable, Roku, and HTPC).
Getting TV to control the soundbar was rather frustrating as well - settings for CEC/Arc control were well hidden and I was about ready to give up and return the soundbar when the TV took a firmware upgrade and it started working.
All set for being watching the Packers suck in higher quality tonight.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I'm used to it now but seeing 4K for the first time was amazing, I think it was the Lost In Space series on Netflix that I was marveling how it looked as if I was watching it through a window into a real world.

I have 2 TVs that are supposed to have ARC over HDMI but I could never get either of them to work.  Fortunately I have a stash of optical audio cables so I use those to get over the air TV surround audio back into the sound systems.  Also fortunate that most TVs are still being made with those ports.

[Variety of Cells]

I'm used to it now but seeing 4K for the first time was amazing, I think it was the Lost In Space series on Netflix that I was marveling how it looked as if I was watching it through a window into a real world.

I have 2 TVs that are supposed to have ARC over HDMI but I could never get either of them to work.  Fortunately I have a stash of optical audio cables so I use those to get over the air TV surround audio back into the sound systems.  Also fortunate that most TVs are still being made with those ports.

I had trouble with the ARC over HDMI for a while.  To fix it, I ultimately had to update the firmware of my sound bar, and then stop using hdmi pass through on my sound bar that I had my Nintendo switch plugged into.  That fixed it for me.

[ihavemyreasons]

Watched the first half of the MNF game on the new 4K QLED, second half in bed on the old 50" plasma. 4K has depth to it (for lack of a better description) vs old TV picture just looking flat - really better than being there in person. Not gonna go out and get another 4K for the bedroom until old TV dies or becomes totally obsolete, but differences such that I'm very happy with the living room upgrade.

One thing I forgot to mention about getting Arc to work with soundbar was that the HDMI cable that came with it was part of the issue. Have found that cables that come with a lot of electronics these days are crap. In this case, I switched HDMI cables from the one that came with the soundbar and that seemed to trigger the firmware update that got it working. Switched cables back and soundbar lost connection. So bad cable was part of issue with Arc.

[ihavemyreasons]

Mounted a spare 32" Sony next to our new 4K and picked up a cheap chromecast HD dongle for it (because it doesn't interfere with any of the devices on the main TV). Gonna drive my wife nuts watching 2 games at once.

[ihavemyreasons]

My last annoying 4K post...but now that I've spent a bit of time w/ new TV, upscaling tech has come a long way. Pixelated crap in is pixelated crap out, but new 4K does a great job of upscaling and improving 720p or less input that was just OK on the way in. Much better than upscaling tech of past.