New Plasma TV

Netflix and Prime built in. That'll be more important when I get it hanging downstairs (I've got my Roku in the bedroom).

Also downstairs it will be wired. I think the reason I want completely blown away by Planet Earth 4K was the wifi.

wprager wrote:Netflix and Prime built in. That'll be more important when I get it hanging downstairs (I've got my Roku in the bedroom).

Also downstairs it will be wired. I think the reason I want completely blown away by Planet Earth 4K was the wifi.

I don't know if you plan on buying one, as it's not necessary right now, but 4K blu rays are much better than streaming 4k.

Ev wrote:

wprager wrote:Netflix and Prime built in. That'll be more important when I get it hanging downstairs (I've got my Roku in the bedroom).

Also downstairs it will be wired. I think the reason I want completely blown away by Planet Earth 4K was the wifi.

I don't know if you plan on buying one, as it's not necessary right now, but 4K blu rays are much better than streaming 4k.

But then you would need 4K Blu Rays? Physical media should go bye bye.

tim1_2 wrote:

Ev wrote:

wprager wrote:Netflix and Prime built in. That'll be more important when I get it hanging downstairs (I've got my Roku in the bedroom).

Also downstairs it will be wired. I think the reason I want completely blown away by Planet Earth 4K was the wifi.

I don't know if you plan on buying one, as it's not necessary right now, but 4K blu rays are much better than streaming 4k.

But then you would need 4K Blu Rays?  Physical media should go bye bye.

I’ll take quality over streaming. Discs are quality.

I hardly watch any movies any more. I certainly don't but any more. Last shiny disk I got was Mary Poppins on Blu Ray - it was a Christmas present a year or two ago.

Watching Team Canada now. Looks HD.  I didn't expect it to look any better, I'm just glad it doesn't look worse. I don't know how you can screw up upscaling to 4k (just double quadruple each pixel) but some sets are known for being pretty poor at up-scaling. We were picking up a media stand at Leon's a few weeks ago and I checked their TVs. Several 4k sets had TSN HD on, and it looked really bad. And done of those sets were not RCA or Sanyo (I think there was even a Sony in the mix).

Anyhow, HD looks good. Maybe I can play with the settings and see if Motion Rate 360 makes any difference.

wprager wrote:Watching Team Canada now. Looks HD.  I didn't expect it to look any better, I'm just glad it doesn't look worse. I don't know how you can screw up upscaling to 4k (just double quadruple each pixel) but some sets are known for being pretty poor at up-scaling. We were picking up a media stand at Leon's a few weeks ago and I checked their TVs. Several 4k sets had TSN HD on, and it looked really bad. And done of those sets were not RCA or Sanyo (I think there was even a Sony in the mix).

Anyhow, HD looks good. Maybe I can play with the settings and see if Motion Rate 360 makes any difference.

I have the actual tsn 4K channel and it looks great. TV channels won’t look great because they aren’t even 1080p. Especially on crappy store model settings. Check out rtings.com who will have settings for your tv

Sorry, not Motion Rate (I think that's Samsung). Vizio calls theirs Clear Action. But because it's only a 60 Hz display they play with the backlight instead of using the native 120 Hz to interpolate and insert a new frame. This doesn't produce the soap opera when I hate but I also did not see any noticeable improvement. Picture is less bright, overall, as the backlight is repeatedly turned off.

My old set is a 120Hz so its motion interpolation results in a pretty strong soap opera effect.

Ev wrote:

I have the actual tsn 4K channel and it looks great. TV channels won’t look great because they aren’t even 1080p. Especially on crappy store model settings. Check out rtings.com who will have settings for your tv

I won't be able to get TSN 4k without paying extra for a 4k capable box. That's not gonna happen.

What settings are you taking about? Are you saying rtings.com has calibration strings? Where? I remember finding calibration settings got my old set and, to be frank, they weren't any better than what I got just playing with the various settings.

tim1_2 wrote:Hey, it's SSF!  Welcome back, old friend!  Hope all is well.

Could be better, could be worse.

wprager wrote:I got a Roku "stick". I guess it doesn't do 4K but does pretty much all else. Stick it on behind the tv, the remote doesn't need line of sight. Just $50.

The tv itself comes with a built in Chromecast. Ugh. But at least we all have Android phone phone's, and they have a sw upgrade so launching apps like Netflix uses the tv remote and menus.

The P-series is DLNA.

I was going for the stick but they were out of those. I overspent because I wanted something right away. I regret nothing...

wprager wrote:

Ev wrote:

I have the actual tsn 4K channel and it looks great. TV channels won’t look great because they aren’t even 1080p. Especially on crappy store model settings. Check out rtings.com who will have settings for your tv

I won't be able to get TSN 4k without paying extra for a 4k capable box. That's not gonna happen.

What settings are you taking about? Are you saying rtings.com has calibration strings? Where?  I remember finding calibration settings got my old set and, to be frank, they weren't any better than what I got just playing with the various settings.

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/vizio/m-series-xled-2017/settings

SeawaySensFan wrote:

wprager wrote:I got a Roku "stick". I guess it doesn't do 4K but does pretty much all else. Stick it on behind the tv, the remote doesn't need line of sight. Just $50.

The tv itself comes with a built in Chromecast. Ugh. But at least we all have Android phone phone's, and they have a sw upgrade so launching apps like Netflix uses the tv remote and menus.

The P-series is DLNA.

I was going for the stick but they were out of those. I overspent because I wanted something right away. I regret nothing...

I have two Roku boxes and they are great. Even better when you start running Plex on your PC to handle all your "downloaded media" and then getting the Plex app on the Roku.

I love Roku.


Buuuut....

There is no Crave TV app, no Amazon Prime (which is weird, because they have it on Roku in the US), and no streaming of generic web content.

Well, the new TV is finally having in the family room. And the 55" is in the bedroom. I won't have trouble reading the guide.

tim1_2 wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:

wprager wrote:I got a Roku "stick". I guess it doesn't do 4K but does pretty much all else. Stick it on behind the tv, the remote doesn't need line of sight. Just $50.

The tv itself comes with a built in Chromecast. Ugh. But at least we all have Android phone phone's, and they have a sw upgrade so launching apps like Netflix uses the tv remote and menus.

The P-series is DLNA.

I was going for the stick but they were out of those. I overspent because I wanted something right away. I regret nothing...

I have two Roku boxes and they are great.  Even better when you start running Plex on your PC to handle all your "downloaded media" and then getting the Plex app on the Roku.

I feel like a fool for not finding this thing sooner. I really like Spaghetti Westerns and this gives me access to about 100. So far all are nice widescreen prints. Also, it works great for NHL.tv which is the main reason I got it.

Anyone have experience with cheaper sound bars? I liked the doing of the Bose Solo at Costco, but the price jumped about $40 and I don't think the sound difference is worth it. It's also like to get a little more separation.

Does anyone have experience with sooner of the cheaper sound bars out there? I would probably just stick with the older LG bar we have (with wireless sub) but I can't get it to work with the Rogers remote.

I bought this super cheap Samsung sound bar two years ago for my bedroom TV and it's done the job very nicely:  http://secure1.ncix.com/products/?sku=106588   (Samsung HW-J250)

It's certainly nothing fancy, but does have Bluetooth which has been helpful a couple times.  I think I paid about $120 on sale.

If you want to check out a decent online store for home theatre stuff, including sound bars, Gibbys is actually pretty good:

https://gibbyselectronicsupermarket.ca/product-category/tv-video/tv-sound/sound-bars/