HDTV and Home Theater Podcast

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Podcast #899: Cord Cutting, New TV Tech and Aereo Back from the Dead? Jun 07, 2019

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Cord Cutting, New TV Tech and Aereo Back from the Dead?

This week we discuss the top five Cord Cutting Stories to watch for this Summer, look at a new TV technology and bring Aereo back from the dead.

The Top Five Cord Cutting Stories For the Summer

Sling TV will launch at least two new models: an AirTV 2 - The AirTV 2 looks like an updated version of the black AirTV box and an AirTV player that is a fully powered Android TV player inside a stick/dongle format. According to reports, at least one of these new AirTV players is expected to be announced this month.

Amazon Channels coming to Canada - Amazon has announced plans to roll out its Amazon Channels service in Canada. Amazon is even promoting this as a way to compete with cable TV in Canada. Amazon has not announced a launch date other than to say it is coming soon.

Pluto TV Latino - Viacom is planning to launch a Pluto TV version for Spanish speakers. According to reports, Pluto TV Latino will launch sometime in the summer of 2019 and could be live as soon as this month.

Pluto TV Worldwide - Viacom has also announced plans to roll out Pluto TV into new markets around the world. Pluto TV is expanding into the EU, and you can expect even more markets to launch at any time.

Amazon Prime Video on Android TV - Amazon has confirmed that Amazon Prime Video is coming to Android TV this summer.(Some Android TV players already have a dedicated Amazon app, but most do not support an official Amazon app.) It is very possible that Amazon Prime Video will hit all Android TV players as soon as this month.

New TV Tech

The Hisense ULED XD is essentially two LCD panels bonded together, and then smooshed into a TV the same size as the one you currently have. Throw in the company's proprietary chipset, a bunch of buzzwords, and a whole mess of secret sauce and you've got something remarkable. Hisense says this technology will offer blacks as dark as midnight on a moonless night and the brightness of today's LCDs — all at the cost you've been craving. If it's true, Korea's powerhouses should be trembling. So how did the Chinese company do it?

More…

Locast - Watch Your Local Broadcasts for Free

Locast is a not-for-profit service offering users access to broadcast television stations over the internet. We stream the signal over the Internet to select US cities. We are trying to help

broadcasters reach people just like you over the internet.

Current Cities include - Denver, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston

The difference between and the defunct Aereo is that Locast does not charge you for the service. They are a non-profit and as such the Supreme Court has ruled that it is legal for Locast to rebroadcast the over the air signals. The have a donation page

Podcast #898: Thoughts on the State of Home Audio May 31, 2019

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Thoughts on the State of Home Audio

In a recent interview with TWICE Magazine Tom Summer of Yamaha shared some thoughts on the state of home audio. The following are excerpts from that interview.

What is Yamaha? - Tom states that Yamaha is the largest musical instrument in the world and that they produce 25% of the musical instruments that are sold world wide. Music and sound are Yamaha's expertise.

What is the Heath of the Home Audio Market? - It's healthy overall. Headphones are doing great, although, Yamaha is not a big player in that market. Smart Speakers, Sound Bars, and two channel are doing quite well. AVRs are are so so. It's actually down 3% but four or five years ago the AVR market was considered doomed.

Most of the sales were to 40, 50, and 60 year olds replacing gear to support newer technologies. Recently things have started to turn around with buyers in their 20s and 30s entering the market. Yamaha is not totally down on their future. They still have some customers that are not dying off.

Who are you selling to now? - The replacement market is a driver. Consumers who wish to use the latest technology like 4K and HDR are needing newer receivers. For younger buyers it's all about an immersive gaming experience. Finally, families still want a great experience when watching Netflix and Blu-rays.

What are the Important Features? - Simplicity is key but the most important feature is great immersive sound. However with immersive sound comes dialog that is hard to hear. Yamaha has developed Surround:AI (Artificial Intelligence) to make dialog easier to hear during loud action scenes. The other pain for consumers are the rear speakers. For that they have developed MusicCast Surround which is a wireless solution for the surround speakers.

What is the Biggest Market Challenge? - Time for people to sit and enjoy their system. Tom mentions that in Europe it's common for people to go home from work and pour a glass of wine to relax while playing music. In the US it's about squeezing in 30 minutes at lunch to stream the latest episode of a Netflix show. If you are not spending time with your TV then you really don't need a sophisticated system.

What is Yamaha's Play in the Smart Home? - Yamaha is all in on Alexa. They have incorporated the technology on quite a few products. The issue they have is when you are playing the music loud Alexa can't always here you. Apparently the solution is more microphones.

What is on the Roadmap? - Building out the MusicCast platform. Further improvements to the Vinyl 500 wireless turntable. Continue to develop two channel products. There has been great growth in the two channel market. It's still small but there seems to be a resurgence in high quality audio.

Podcast #897: Email and News May 24, 2019

Show notes

Braden is on travel this week so we have a short show for you this week. Email and News. Have a great weekend everyone!

Podcast #896: Best Overall 4K TV May 17, 2019

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Best Overall 4K TV

We get asked what's the best TV I can buy from time to time and we always reply with, "That depends on what you want to use it for". Few people have a specific purpose. Mainly it's for overall viewing. So when we ran across a page over at CNET that helps you select the best TV we thought it would be great to share it with all of our listeners.

CNET's Best TVs for 2019 allows the reader to filter their reviews based on criteria that is important to the reader. You can look at TVs based on Picture Quality, LED, 4K, or Size. For today we will look at CNET's best overall TVs for 2019. We'll link to the full review for each TV.

Best High End TV for the Money - LG OLEDB8P series 65" $2,500 (Full Review)

OLED TVs are the picture quality kings, and this is the 2018 OLED TV to buy. Its image quality is very close to the C8 and C9 (below) and while it's cheaper than either one, it's still an expensive TV.

Editor's Rating 8.7

Design 9

Features 10

Performance 10

Value 6

Best TV for the Money Period - TCL 6 series (2018 Roku TV) 65" $800 (Full Review)

No TV we've ever tested offers this much picture quality for this little cash, and its Roku TV operating system is our hands-down favorite. The TCL 6 series wins the value race.

Editor's Rating 8.6

Design 7

Features 9

Performance 8

Value 10

A Bit Better OLED Picture, A Bit More Money - LG OLEDC8P 65" $2,800 (Full Review)

A few hundred dollars more than the B8 gets you the C8 and its incrementally better image quality. It's a better value than the C9 below, so it gets a higher spot on this list.

Editor's Rating 8.6

Design 9

Features 10

Performance 10

Value 6

The Picture Quality King by a Nose - LG OLEDC9PUA series 65" $3,500 (Full Review)

If you don't care about cost and just want the best picture, the C9 is the way to go. It barely beat the 2018 C8 and B8, but for now they're superior values -- almost as good and much less expensive.

Editor's Rating 8.5

Design 9

Features 10

Performance 10

Value 5

Best OLED Alternative at 65 inches - Vizio P-Series Quatum 65" $1,250 (Full Review)

Vizio's best TV ever is only available in one size, but if you can't swing the price for an OLED TV and still want an amazing picture, it should be first on your list.

Editor's Rating 8.3

Design 8

Features 9

Performance 9

Value 7

Podcast #895: Sennheiser Momentum vs GoNovate Airo True Wireless Headphone Face-Off May 10, 2019

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Sennheiser Momentum vs GoNovate Airo True Wireless Headphone Face-Off

Recently my Bragi Dash Pro headphones broke which ended my love hate relationship with them. I loved how they were truly wireless, had great sound, and fit comfortably in my ear. I hated how the Bluetooth connection was flakey, the short battery life, and were really expensive. Granted they do far more than play music wirelessly. It could track your heart rate and was geared towards people who worked out.

So I was on the hunt for new truly wireless headphones and I found two candidates. One was a low cost Chinese brand that I had never heard of, GoNovate Airo and the other was a well respected manufacturer of headphones the Sennheiser Momentum. The Airo sells for $60 on Amazon while the Momentum is $300.

Features:

Momentum

Exceptional clarity - experience sound that's like 'being there' thanks to sennheiser category-leading truly wireless technology
Fingertip control - control your music, calls and voice assistant simply through intuitive touchpad technology built into both True Wireless earbuds
Stay aware - transparent hearing keeps you aware of your surroundings, allowing you to easily listen and chat wirelessly Without having to remove your earbuds
Extended listening - 4 hours of truly wireless listening becomes 12 with our compact charging case that gives you 2 full extra charges
Handle conditions - made for every True Wireless listening environment with durable, Tough, splash-resistant materials. (IPX4 rated)

Airo

Innovative Design: With the Airo truly wireless earbuds shark fins design and anti-sweat feature, they've been crafted to offer superior stability and comfort when exercising.
Clear Phone Calls: Featuring CVC 6.0 noise reduction and true stereo call making for crystal clear voice transmission.The left earbud can be used individually.
Superior Sound Quality: Airo's composite diaphragm material, provides 3D stereo HiFi sound. We've also packed in the latest and most powerful Bluetooth 5.0 so you receive the fastest and most stable transmissions speeds up to 10m away(For IOS).
Long Battery Life: With the Airo wireless headphones' Bluetooth 5.0 massively reduced power consumption breakthrough technology, you get an above standard 6 hours of playtime (at 30-40% volume,tested multiple units with iPhone). Plus, an additional 30 hours with the charging box, keeping you in control of your music for several days.
Advanced Design: Experience instant device pairing as soon as you remove the Airo wireless earbuds from their charging case. Control your music and accept or reject calls with just one button, and activate voice assistance to easily control your device while driving.

Head to Head

Sound Quality - There is a definite difference in sound between the two devices. The Momentum has a deep rich bass and warm sound. The Airo has decent bass and a brighter crisper sound. For music I would select the Momentum but for Podcasts and phone calls both work well. With that said the music sound quality improvement of the Momentum is not worth the $240 price difference. As far as phone call quality goes, both work well. Recipients of my call were able to hear me clearly on both headphones. Momentum wins this category based on its ability to give you rich deep bass and full warm sound for music.

Bluetooth - Pairing the headphones are simple and take all of about two minutes to do. Both are Bluetooth 5.0 and have a range of about 30 feet. But I found the Airo consistently kept the connection for about 40 feet. If you work in your garden or around the house that extra ten feet could be the difference between a good experience or frustration with the headphones. The Momentum had a rock solid connection via both the iPhone and MacBook Pro. The Airo would drop out from time to time not enough to make it unusable but enough where you noticed that it wasn't as good as the Momentum. However, this only happened with the MacBook. The connection on the iPhone was rock solid. Even though the Airo had a longer range I had to give the nod to the Momentum because the connection was rock solid all the time.

Fit - Both provide a solid fit and will stay in place. I wore them while walking and exercising with no issues. They stayed in place even under strenuous conditions. The Momentum were more comfortable to me but that may be due to my ears so your mileage may vary. The Airo claims it is sweat proof as does the Momentum. Actually, they are both IPX4 rated which means they can take water splashes from any direction. The Momentum wins this category but by the slimmest margin.

Battery Life - The momentum got four hours and forty five minutes of use listening at a comfortable level. I could have gone louder which would have reduced the battery life but it would have been unbearable to listen at that volume for an extended period of time. The Airo did meet it's advertised battery life of six hours at 30% to 40% volume. A win for the Airo!

Everything Else - The Momentum has a Transparency mode which allows outside sound to be allowed in. This is a big benefit for those who work in offices and need to communicate with others or those who workout outside. It allows you to hear things around you. The Airo blocks out noise, as does the Momentum with transparency mode off. The Momentum has a smartphone app that gives you more control of the headphones. There is a setting that allows you to adjust the EQ to sound to exactly how you want it. You can update the firmware through the app as well. I was not able to find a way to update firmware on the Airo. Both can activate your phones Smart voice Assistant. And of course they both have touch controls. The Airo's touch control is better than the Momentum but regardless of model you have to have a good memory to remember which does what and how many taps it takes to get something done. This one is a win for the Momentum mainly because of the app and EQ control.

Conclusion

Truly wireless headphones have come a long way and have come down in price dramatically from when I purchased my Bragis. Simple minimalistic headphones can be had for $60 or less. But in this head to head competition I have to give a slight nod to the Momentum because they sound a bit better and have more features via the app. If you throw bang for the buck into the equation the winner by a large margin would be the Airo.

Podcast #894: USB 4.0 May 03, 2019

Show notes

USB 4.0

The USB Promoter group recently announced that the latest specification (4.0) will be released towards the latter part of the year which means USB 4.0 devices should be available at sometime in early 2021. Here is a quick rundown of what you can expect.

Main Benefits

40 Gbps - By using two-lane cables some devices will achieve speeds up to 40 Gbps. Speeds of 10 and 20 Gbps will be considered low speed and will more than likely be used by smaller less expensive devices like cell phones and chromebooks.
Compatibility with Thunderbolt 3 devices - Some USB 4.0 devices will also work with Thunderbolt 3 devices.
Better Resource Allocation for Video - If you are using your USB 4.0 port for both video and data simultaneously the port will allocate bandwidth as needed. So if you are watching a video and copying files and the video is only using 10% of the available bandwidth the port will allocate the remaining 90% to data transfer. This mix will be adjusted on the fly as the video demands increase or decrease.

USB 4.0 will use the Type-C connectors and will be backwards compatible with older specifications.

Podcast #893: Master Quality Authenticated - MQA Apr 26, 2019

Show notes

Master Quality Authenticated - MQA

We recently received an email from Scott in Pine Arizona asking us to talk about MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) audio. We'll take a look at it from a 30,000 foot level in the hopes that you take a deeper look on your own.

What is MQA

MQA is an audio codec using lossy compression and a form of file fingerprinting, intended for high fidelity digital audio internet streaming and file download that was developed by the co-founder of Meridian Audio, Bob Stuart.

A good way to look at this compression is mailing a letter in an envelope. A 8 ½ X 11 sheet of paper won't fit into a standard envelope as it is. So if you have written a letter taking up the entire sheet you could come up with a short hand that would fit on a smaller sheet of paper and the reader would then have to decode the letter. They would probably get most of the letter correct but may miss a word here or there. Not enough to change the meaning of what you have written but it would not be the exact letter as you wrote it.

The alternative would be to take the full letter and fold it up and place it in the envelope. The reader would then unfold the letter and read it without any loss of meaning. MQA call this their 'Origami' folding technology. This is a very high level explanation of the process. The technical details and more precise explanation is found on their website (MQA Playback).

What Services Support MQA

Downloads

Streams

What Players Support MQA

Streamers - Partial List

Onkyo
Pioneer
TEAC
NAD

There are many more devices, including smartphones and portable players, that can help in the "unfolding" of the MQA file. Please check out the MQA website for more details (MQA Partners).

Finally there are MQA CDs. The website features six titles including the Doors Waiting for the Sun which has been remastered. The two CD and one LP set will run you $50. We looked and found it difficult to find MQA CDs but we figured why buy the disc when the downloads have no difference in quality. With that said we tried to download some Van Halen albums but were told that HighResAudio.com did not have rights to sell the album in the US.

There are other alternatives to MQA. For instance HDTracks.com offers high quality tracks that are not encoded with MQA. We found our Van Halen album available there in 96/24 and 192/24 for $17.98 and $24.98 respectively.

Hi-Res Audio is something that won't appeal to everyone. The music costs more and you need equipment that can handle the higher resolution files. Then there is the debate whether you can hear the difference or, at a minimum, is the difference is worth the added cost. Regardless, for the majority of us, there is no reason to bother. However, for a few of us, it's the only way to listen to music.

Podcast #892: Is Amazon Listening to You? Apr 18, 2019

Show notes

Today we are on travel but we pre-recorded a short conversation about an article over at Bloomberg that discusses Amazon employees listening to recordings of echo conversations. The conversations are then compared to what the echo thought was said. All in an effort to increase accuracy of the echo's voice recognition software.

Amazon Workers are Listening to What You Tell Alexa

A global team reviews audio clips in an effort to help the voice-activated assistant respond to commands.

Podcast #891: Interview with Gary Yacoubian of SVS Apr 12, 2019

Show notes

Interview with Gary Yacoubian of SVS

Last week we told you about the new speakers that SVS introduced, the Prime Pinnacle ($799.99 each) and this week we asked Gary Yacoubian President of SVS to join us on the show to discuss what went into the design.

Specs:

Tweeter | 1"
Midrange | 5.25"
Woofer | Triple 6.5"
Frequency Response | 29Hz-25 kHz (+/-3 dB)
Port Size | Triple 2"
Dimensions | 41.1" (H) X 8" (W) X 13.9" (D) (includes grille, feet and binding posts)
Weight | 57.1 lbs (25.9 kg)

All SVS speakers come with:

45 Day Risk-Free In-Home Trial, Fast & Free Shipping and Returns
5-Year Unconditional Warranty, 1-Year Trade-up Policy
Guaranteed Price Protection and more…

Podcast #890: Monoprice Monolith Cassette Series Smart Boombox Apr 05, 2019

Show notes

Monoprice Monolith Cassette Series Smart Boombox

Almost at the same time as when we started our podcast we discovered Monoprice. For us Monoprice was a company that built and sold high quality HDMI cables at a fraction of the price as big box retailers. They have come so far over the years to where they sell electronics, speakers and home automation products. But today we are super excited about their new high end product.

The Monolith Cassette Series Smart Boombox is a $1,300 piece of modern engineering that really puts Monoprice over the top! It's time to dig up your cassette collection with the built-in cassette player, listen to the latest tunes on AM/FM radio, or stream wirelessly with a BT connection. This boombox also includes a Smart Assistant so you don't even need to push any buttons! With two built-in speakers producing 1000 watts of Class D power, it's time to make the Monolith Cassette Series Boombox the life of the party.

This thing has some serious street cred too! Check out the features:

24bit/192Khz DAC: We took a pure, analog signal path and converted it to digital with our high resolution 24bit/192Khz DAC. To get the most out of analog, one must convert it to hi res digital.

Bluetooth with aptxHD: The best in CD quality Bluetooth wireless connectivity for your lesser quality cassette tapes.

AM/FM: Radio doesn't need to be confined to your car or streamed from your computer. Use the retro antenna to tune to your favorite station. Antenna will automatically point North for the best signal.

Smarts Inside: Easy to use, everyday functions that were once a simple press of a button, can now be accomplished with a turn of phrase:

Say "Monolith, Be Kind Rewind" and the player will automatically rewind the tape

Say "Monolith, Skip to next song" and the player will automatically skip to the next track.

Dual Speakers: 1000 total watts of Class D power with enhanced bass easily filling a large size room with deep, rich and detailed sound. Let's get the party started!

Dolby Noise Reduction: Dolby A, B, C, and S noise reduction formats included. Each format varies in effectiveness in reducing background hiss on all your favorite recordings from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

HX Pro: Adds additional high frequency headroom, improving the signal to noise ratio. It's so good, it's always on.

Compatibility: Type I, II, III, and IV compatible. Additionally, the Monolith Portable Cassette Player is also DCC compatible. We believe no format should be left behind.

Comfort: Comes with a memory foam shoulder cushion so you can hold the boombox for hours at a time.

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