Displays

Displays / HDTV / Television

Samsung Launches “Micro RGB TV”

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

New display tech — and object of lust — alert: Samsung is launching yet another backlighting technology that it is calling micro RGB TV. This “uses red, green, and blue Micro-LEDs to unlock hyper-real color and contrast.” Samsung is claiming an industry-first 100% color coverage of BT.2020 and Pantone Validated colors. The technology supports 144Hz refresh rates for gaming and “Micro RGB HDR+” (but no Dolby Vision or specific brightness claims). Samsung is also using its best glare-free coating (that should significantly increase viewing comfort and apparent contrast), 4K AI upscaling, Dolby Atmos speakers, and Bixby AI for its visual search and voice interface.  
The first set is 115″ and shipping in the U.S. and Korea for $30,000. I should be getting eyes-on with one at Samsung HQ in the coming weeks.
Press release: Samsung Launches World First Micro RGB TV, Setting New Standard for Premium TV Technology

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Displays / HDTV / Television

TCL A1: TCL Cautiously Enters the Portable Projector Market

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

TCL is an enormous, vertically integrated TV manufacturer: TCL runs its own factories and invests tens of billions of dollars in building its own display panel fabs in China. (TCL also has enormous mobile and home appliance divisions.) Like most big brands, TCL initially ignored the surge of portable projectors out of China because they didn’t initially target TV buyers, but it is now dipping its toes into the market as the product category grows and we start seeing some cannibalization of traditional entertainment displays. TCL is late to this trend; Samsung went first with the Freestyle launched at the Covid CES in early 2022, and LG joined last year with the CineBeam. With the $500 TCL A1, TCL is trying to find an entry point in the small projector market that balances its reputation for picture quality and value.

TCL gets off to a spectacular — if not terribly sustainable — start with its packaging. Opening up the cardboard shipping box you get a thick Styrofoam inner case that not only protects the projector but acts as a carrying case in the future, complete with attached shoulder strap. Unfortunately, while it is reusable, the styrofoam is not recyclable, and the packaging also involves plenty of single-use plastic bags and protective film. Still, the out of box experience feels premium.

The carrying handle pushes all the way through the housing to act as a stand for tilting up to 15 degrees. Using it engaged the auto keystone feature, which was effective. There is definitely a hit to the projector’s 1080p resolution when using keystone, but it was not as bad as the Yaber T2.

This is TCL’s first projector, and the company leaned in on picture quality and value at the expense of brightness. TCL only specs the A1 at 360 ANSI lumen — even with the lights off, it’s not a particularly bright picture and HDR is not supported at all. However, with the lights out, color is excellent and contrast is good. I watched the opening sequence of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel S3E1 and the USO showgirls’ costumes looked wonderfully rich and saturated while the American flag backdrop had just the right amount of desaturation to look realistic. Even with keystoning, objects and people in sharp focus were clear. However, turn the room lights on and the picture gets badly washed out. You could use the TCL A1 for sports with the lights halfway up but I really wouldn’t recommend it. Similarly, despite TCL’s marketing materials, I wouldn’t use the A1 as an outdoor movie night projector unless it is actually fully dark, especially since people tend to push image size to the maximum when watching outside.

This smart projector runs Google TV, making setup straightforward with the Google Home app. Unfortunately, the on-screen guide skips a step — just opening the Google Home app isn’t enough to get you to the QR code scanning stage, you need to manually tell the app to set up a new device. Next, you’ll need to download a 1.17 GB firmware update. Download speeds were dismal when I tested it, taking nearly an hour for full setup despite my gigabit Fios connection; it could have been a server issue, but more likely the projector’s slow Wi-Fi and storage. Make sure that you unbox and set this up the day before the big game or you might miss it.

One odd feature in Google TV that I somehow had to set up twice (once in the app, and then again on the projector’s setup wizard) is a flexible screensaver that can display artwork or your choice of different Google Photo albums. This is a great feature on Google Home smart displays and traditional TVs, but who is going to leave the lights off and the projector on for a screen saver to make sense?

The remote control features quick access buttons for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Navigating Amazon Prime was especially slow and frustrating on the A1; at times I couldn’t be sure if my button presses had registered. There is also an HDMI input around back on the A1 for game consoles and media players.

The TCL A1 features dual 8w Dolby speakers that offer some limited stereo separation for the person sitting directly behind it, but not off to the side. The projector’s fan noise is relatively low, and the speakers don’t have to work hard to mask it for basic TV and movie sound. That’s good, because while the A1 can play loud, the speakers distort when played at higher volumes and there isn’t much bass. That isn’t unusual for a projector of this size, but TCL is pitching the A1 as a Bluetooth speaker — with flashing RGB lights on the side! — and it just isn’t a very good one.

This is a transportable projector, not a portable one. It must be plugged in at all times, and a big, heavy power brick sits in between the projector and the outlet.

For its first product in a new category, TCL was fairly cautious with the A1, and the result is something the company can build on. The A1 doesn’t push the envelope much, but it gets many of the basics right: Google TV provides a solid foundation, the industrial design looks nice in a family room, it ships in its own case, and it has a pleasing picture provided you use it in a room with full light control. However, at $500 it isn’t cheap, the audio could be better, and many customers in this category will want more light output, more portability, or both.

Disclosure: TCL provided the A1 for review. TCL did not sponsor this review and Home Theater View does not accept affiliate payments. Home Theater View is a Techsponential company; TCL has been a Techsponential advisory services client in the past.

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Displays / HDTV / Television

Yaber T2 Keith Haring Edition

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

20250128_173119Portable cannister projectors are not only becoming a big business, they allow small companies like XGIMI or (what was a small company) Anker/Nebula to move up the value chain. These companies, mostly coming out of China have names that you may not have heard of that nevertheless have sold hundreds of thousands or even millions of devices. Yaber was formed in 2018, shipped its first projector in 2019, and claims it hit over two million units sold by 2022. As it moves upmarket, Yaber sought out stylistic collaborators to stand out, and it launched a Keith Haring version of one of its larger portable projectors in 2024 partly covered with the late illustrator's iconic pop graffiti figures.  

I picked up a review unit of Yaber's T2 Keith Haring edition at IFA in Europe, and when I went to test it in the U.S., the first challenge was finding a plug converter kit (units sold in the U.S. should come with the appropriate plugs in the box; all can run on 100 – 240V). I had one in my travel bag, so that didn't take long, but it set the tone for what was to follow. In the U.S., Yaber is selling the base T2 model for $340 or as the T2 Plus for $400 with a Google TV dongle. The Keith Haring Edition is only sold in the Plus version in the U.S., which is a good idea (see below), also for $400, so there is no upcharge for the artwork. My press version also included a wonderful Keith Haring carrying case, which does not appear to be on sale in the U.S. at all. That's a shame. 

The good:

  • Setup was straightforward. The carrying handle doubles as an angled stand and auto-keystoning worked well to center the image on my projection screen. (Most users will have a blank wall rather than a proper projection surface, but that should be even easier.)
  • The Keith Haring designs on the projector are delightful and yet are somewhat restrained — this looks like a projector with artwork on portions of it to add character, not a distracting art piece. That's crucial for something that is supposed to disappear when you are watching content.
  • The JBL speaker in the T2 is clear and plays loud enough to be heard over the fan. Yaber includes a Bluetooth speaker mode, and I can absolutely see people using this that way.
  • Yaber allows for physical HDMI connection and casting via app or NFC.
  • Yaber built the power supply into the unit itself — no bulky power brick lying halfway to the outlet.
  • There is an internal battery that is spec'd at 2.5 hours so this can be fully wireless.

The bad:

  • Unfortunately, once I tilted the projector up enough for the keystoning to work, the 1080p starting resolution dropped enough to be noticeable. The image was reasonably bright (it is spec'd at 450 ANSI lumens), but not terribly sharp. The colors were not especially well saturated, even with my lights off. If you buy this projector, make sure to put it on a stand or counter that is tall enough for the image to hit the wall without needing much keystoning. You'll probably also want to use an off-white 
  • This is a non-smart projector. You will need to either connect it to an HDMI source, buy the version with the Google TV dongle, or cast content from your phone or laptop.
  • I had some difficulty casting content to the projector from my Samsung Galaxy S25. It isn't using Google's own tech, so there are a million different permissions you need to set, and at the end of the process I managed to stream photos from Google Photo and videos stored on my phone using the VLC media player but not Disney+. This is not surprising; copyright material generally can't be streamed to devices.
  • This is a portable projector with a nicely integrated carrying handle, and the press version of the Keith Haring Edition came with a great padded travel case. However, the Yaber T2 is a lot bigger than cannister projectors that are far more portable. That, and the fact that you're probably going to want to plug in a media or game device via HDMI, make it not nearly as portable as other options that are fully integrated.

The Yaber T2 costs $340 (or $400 with a Google TV dongle), which is more than reasonable for the specs, but not for the picture quality I saw in my testing.

 

Disclosure: Yaber provided the T2 Keith Haring Edition for review. HomeTheaterView has no financial relationship with Yaber and does not accept affiliate payments.

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Displays / PC Convergence / Television

LG MyView Smart Monitor: A 4K TV for Those Who Also Need a Premium PC Monitor

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

ThumbnailLG’s MyView Smart Monitor combines a 32" 4KTV, a 32" PC monitor, and an OS that theoretically allows you to do light computing. This is not a random combination, or simply about space saving, it reflects the reality that work, personal computing, and entertainment share key technical similarities and are often done in a shared space. I spent a few months with the 32” MyView Smart Monitor (32SR85U) to see how well LG has addressed each use case individually, whether a converged product makes sense, and, if so, whether LG’s approach is the right one. This review will focus on the TV and PC monitor aspects; for more on why it fails as a computing platform and market analysis, check out my report at Techsponential.

MyView: A 32” 4K Smart TV

The MyView Smart Monitor is a good TV for small spaces. It starts with industrial design and inclusion of a TV remote control. While many desk monitors are intended to be viewed only head-on, LG gave the MyView an attractive white plastic shell even around back that won’t look out of place in a kitchen or family room. (The black-on-white compliance logos on the webcam and the lack of a cover for the ports are the only real misses.) The MyView remote control has quick access buttons for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+, along with LG Channels. The MyView remote control uses infrared instead of Bluetooth or proprietary RF schemes, but in practice this wasn’t an issue; the emitter appears to be quite powerful and the remote doesn’t need to be pointed directly at the monitor to work. The MyView is also LG Magic Remote Compatible, adding an air pointer and voice control capabilities. Techsponential’s reference TV is an LG C2 OLED with a Magic Remote; it’s fine, but MyView owners won’t be missing enough to justify a separate accessory purchase.

The MyView does not have an OTA HDTV tuner, but LG uses webOS across its smart TV line, so there is solid app support for all the big streaming options. Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit compatibility allow casting content from iOS or MacOS devices without an Apple TV. There is also a webOS Divx HD player for playing video files off of USB memory sticks. Still, the internal apps or casting are the best ways to get content to the monitor as there are just two HDMI inputs, and neither supports eARC.

I watched several episodes of Agatha All Along using the embedded Disney+ app and was mostly satisfied. Resolution was good enough to tell when the cast was approaching a forbidding castle; you could see where the road set ended and the green screen CGI started. The MyView’s colors shift significantly when viewed vertically off-axis, and the image gets washed out. Fortunately, this is also a desk monitor, so it is unlikely to matter in the real world: nobody is going to mount this over a fireplace – but you should keep this in mind if you plan to mount it higher or lower than eye level.

Like most modern flat panel televisions, the included speakers cannot reproduce much bass, and the midrange and treble are tinny. A soundbar is highly recommended.

However, considered just as a 32” TV, at $600, it is wildly more expensive than other small 4KTVs (Sony and Samsung have 32” 4KTVs at $500 before sales, and 42” 4KTVs start around $140). Unless you specifically need a 32” 4K set (and not 42”) and value use as a PC monitor, the pricing won’t make sense.

MyView: A 32” 4K computer monitor

The LG MyView is an excellent monitor for productivity and light content creation. The 31.5” 16:19 IPS panel has a claimed 178 degree viewing angle, and although there is definite color shift off-axis, the image is sharp and colors render nicely when connected to Windows or MacOS laptops. Color gamut is specified at DCI-P3 95%; while this isn’t designed for professional color grading, it should be excellent for productivity and content creation. There’s a nice anti-glare coating. In direct comparisons I found that it’s not quite as good as the $200 nano-texture option for the M4 iMac, but it is still effective at reducing glare. The MyView’s listed 1,000:1 contrast ratio appears accurate: black levels don’t approach OLED, but then neither does the price point. The MyView has HDR10, and at 400 nits I was able to see some specular highlights, but HDR is not this monitor’s forte.

Gray-to-gray refresh response time is claimed at 5ms, which is fine, but refresh rates top out at 60Hz, so this monitor won’t work for serious gamers. The fixed 60Hz refresh rate on both MyView monitors hurts LG’s case for converged entertainment with a gaming laptop, PC, or current generation game console. I suspect that if the current MyView line gets an upgrade for 2025, that is where LG will focus improvements.

The stand moves up or down by a few inches and tilts slightly forward and backwards; there is a VESA mount if you need more flexibility. You can connect a PC via HDMI or USB-C; an HDMI cable is included, but not a USB 3.2 Type-C Gen 2 cable, which you’ll need if you want a single connection that also powers a laptop at up to 90 watts. I did not have one on hand, so I tested the monitor over HDMI.

The inclusion of speakers is a bonus for a computer monitor. It lacks bass and fullness for music, but it’s a nice inclusion for things like YouTube instructional videos.

The magnetically attached webcam unfortunately is not accessible by connected PC’s (possibly unless you have that USB 3.2 Type-C Gen 2 cable). In my testing it was only available to the internal webOS apps – more on this below.

$600 is on the high end of the price range for a 32” 4K IPS monitor that only refreshes at 60Hz and lacks NVIDIA and AMD anti-tearing technology for gaming. However, the anti-reflective coating, reasonable brightness, good color reproduction, and internal speakers all add value. If this were just a computer monitor, it would be a bit overpriced, but not unreasonable.

However, LG also sells a similar monitor/TV combo that has many of the same features, the MyView 32SR73U, for $380. It lacks the webcam and only supports 65w over USB, has slightly less accurate color reproduction (DCI-P3 90% vs 95%), doesn’t have an anti-glare coating, and it isn’t as bright (250 nits vs 400). The consolation is that the contrast ratio is higher (3000:1 vs 1000:1). While the monitor itself isn’t as nice, as a combination product for roughly the same price as more basic 4K monitors or 4KTVs, that one will makes sense to many more buyers.

 

Conclusion

With the MyView Smart Monitor 32SR85U, LG is trying to combine three products in one: a relatively large 4K computer monitor, a relatively small smart TV, and a light computing platform, just add keyboard and mouse. LG succeeds at two out of three: it’s an especially nice productivity monitor, a reasonable TV, and a miserable computing platform. It makes sense for those who have shared spaces for work and entertainment like a home office/guest room or kitchen workstation.

Disclosure: LG sent over the MyView for review. HomeTheaterView has no financial relationship with LG and does not accept affiliate payments. A market analysis version of this review was also published at Techsponential: HomeTheaterView is a Techsponential company.

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Displays / HDTV / Television

Review: LG CineBeam Q

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

by Avi Greengart 20240312_110246

The market for portable cannister pico-projectors is still niche, but it has attracted the attention of larger brands like Samsung and LG. LG’s first entry strikes a nice balance between performance and design. LG’s take on the portable smart projector leans heavily on design, with premium specs for the category, but still aiming at plug-and-play use cases rather than full-on home theater. The CineBeam Qube HU710PB (which LG blessedly refers to as “CineBeam Q,” so I will, too) is a relatively compact rectangle with a rotating stand that doubles as a carrying handle. LG has finished the CineBeam Q entirely in polished metal, and the circles and squares esthetic gives it a modern-steampunk vibe that is unique to the category – and significantly more attractive than anything else out there.

Specs and Setup

The CineBeam Q features DLP with 4K resolution and a laser light engine that puts out 500 lumen with 450,000:1 contrast ratio. Focus is motorized but zoom is fixed – if you want the picture to be bigger or smaller, move the projector closer or farther away from the wall or screen (more on this later). LG uses webOS across its consumer video product lines. I’ve been covering consumer electronics long enough to have been featured in Palm’s original press release for the first webOS phone, and I haven’t always been a fan of its current use on TVs. webOS drives me nuts on my C2 77” OLED 4KTV because that TV is fed by multiple sources through an A/V receiver, and I just want the TV to act as a dumb monitor and webOS wants to be an entire computing and entertainment system. But on the CineBeam Q, webOS is a major positive over limited Android TV implementations: all the major streaming apps are available, including Netflix. webOS starts up quickly, too, eliminating the wait you usually have on Android TV projectors before you can get to content.

A 3 watt mono speaker is built in, and if that seems underpowered, it is. The built-in speaker does a reasonable job with clarity and tone, but it is clearly mono, there is no soundstage, and it doesn’t get all that loud. I found this to be one of the big drawbacks of the CineBeam Q. LG is bundling the XBOOM 360 XO2TBK, a 360 degree Bluetooth speaker, with the projector if you buy it directly from LG. In a demo at LG’s US headquarters, that was a great combination. In my home without the speaker, the CineBeam Q was hard to hear over its fan and my air conditioner, and provided nothing like a cinematic audio experience.

Unlike most cannister projectors, the CineBeam Q does not have an internal battery. The good news is that you’ll never have to charge it up or discover that your projector can’t make it through Oppenheimer in a single sitting. The bad news is that you need to have a power source nearby. Many people buy cannister projectors to use outdoors, and this requirement could make that difficult.

Setup requires an LG account, which requires you to give LG the ability to track and resell what you’re watching (if there is a way to get out of this, I didn’t see it). I also found setup extremely frustrating using the remote control until I realized that the infrared emitter on the remote is terribly weak; you must point the remote directly at the back of the projector rather than towards the content. Even after setup, I still encountered times when I didn’t point the remote at precisely the correct angle for my selection to register. IR emitters are a 10-cent part, and it seems that LG was willing to hurt usability to save 5-cents instead.

Performance

All projectors have fans, and manufacturers advertise how quiet they are on their lowest setting (25db according to LG’s website). When I tested it in real world conditions, I wasn’t as impressed. It’s not loud compared to actual loud things, but I measured 42.5db three feet away from the seating position. The fan noise is definitely noticeable, and I found the pitch of the sound somewhat distracting during quiet passages even after I connected the CineBeam Q to my full home theater surround sound system.

Traditional projectors have lens shift to allow you to perfectly line up your image with a fixed or retractable screen. Portable projectors are less finnicky about their placement: they use fixed lenses and automatic digital keystoning to adjust the image to whatever surface you point them at, from any angle. This process sacrifices resolution for convenience, and as these cannister projectors are typically meant for more casual use, not cinephile purists, that tradeoff is understandable. The auto keystoning on XGIMI and Nebula projectors are slightly faster and more flexible, but LG’s implementation should be good enough for how most people use smart projectors. That said, when pointed at my 100” screen off-axis, I could easily see the loss of clarity down from its full 4K resolution.

No projector works well in a brightly lit room. However, for just a 500 nit projector, I was surprised by the apparent brightness with moderate room light control. LG advertises a staggering 450,000:1 contrast ratio, and while it didn’t make blacks into true black, the CineBeam Q provides excellent shadow detail in a dark room. Colors are another highlight: in Cinema Mode, the colors are well saturated, and when watching Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout, I could tell where the action was taking place just based on the color palette.

Comparisons 

I tested two other projectors alongside the LG CineBeam Q to see where it fits: my old Sony VPL-HW40ES, a 1080p SXRD projector spec’d at 1700 lumen, and XGIMIs Horizon Ultra, a dual LED/laser 4K HDR projector that puts out 2300 lumen. To give the projectors the best chance to shine (pun intended), I watched Encanto on 4K Blu-ray disc on all three. The Sony may be spec’d at 1700 lumen, and the colors are pleasing, but black levels are awful and cinema mode looked relatively dim on my 100” 1.1 gain screen. (I paid $2000 for this projector less than ten years ago. Sigh.) In comparison, the LG was shockingly good: much brighter, with greater color saturation and sharper resolution, despite being slightly off-center and the Sony having been permanently mounted and aligned on my ceiling. With some lights on, the picture looks acceptable; with lights off, the image pops like an LED TV (the CineBeam is still not quite as bright as miniLED or as contrasty as OLED). With full lights on, the image is viewable, but just barely. It is a projector, after all. Keep this in mind if you plan on using this to watch sports – some light control is necessary. The XGIMI is simply in a different class: it costs $500 more than the LG and isn’t really portable. Resolution, color fidelity, and highlights on the XGIMI Horizon Ultra are noticeably better in all lighting conditions. 4K HDR version colors become iridescent, contrast increases, and it looks like there’s significantly more detail in the image compared to the LG.

Conclusion

The CineBeam Q’s fan is a bit too loud, its speaker is not loud enough, and at $1300, it is on the pricey side for a 4K projector that only puts out 500 lumen. However, you get better-than-specs-would-suggest brightness and color from an incredibly stylish design with one of the best TV OS for streaming. There are no hoops to jump through to get Netflix running – there’s even a Netflix button on the remote. And it’s so pretty that you could leave it out on a coffee table all the time.

Disclosure: LG sent over the CineBeam Q for review. HomeTheaterView has no financial relationship with LG and does not accept affiliate payments. A market analysis version of this review was also published at Techsponential: HomeTheaterView is a Techsponential company.

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Displays / HDTV / Television

Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED Smart TV Review: Better TV Tech, Much Smarter

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

IMG_3200By Avi Greengart, portions reprinted with permission from Techsponential

Amazon introduced the Fire TV set top box back in 2014 as a way to ensure that its Prime Video content would get pride of place in the user interface, unlike competing devices from Roku and Apple. Over time, Amazon shrunk down the form factor to sticks, Borgified them into cubes, and eventually chose to build the Fire TV interface directly into televisions in 2021. Amazon’s initial Fire TV lineup was clearly aiming for volume sales, and targeted entry level sizes and display technology. In late 2022, Amazon moved a bit farther upmarket with the Fire TV Omni QLED. The new series added quantum dots for better color, up to 96 zones of full array local dimming for better contrast and black levels, Dolby Vision IQ, and a larger 75” option. While the display technology was improved, the real differentiation was Amazon’s ambience mode and smart display functionality. 

Ambient modes on TVs are nothing new. At CES 2017, Samsung introduced a line of lifestyle televisions designed to blend better with the décor. The Frame cost hundreds of dollars more than a typical Samsung TV but it had a matte finish, a motion sensor, and a library of fine art and photographs so that it appeared to be a picture frame when not in active use as a television. The Frame was an immediate hit, and future versions added additional sizes and a light sensor, while retaining their premium pricing.

When Amazon introduced its own TV with an ambient display mode last year, you could be forgiven for considering it a poor person's Samsung Frame. The Fire TV Omni QLED lacks the matte finish and light sensor that make The Frame physically appear to be framed artwork on the wall, but it costs a fraction of the Samsung’s price. When the Fire TV Omni QLED launched late last year at pricing including $799 for 65” or $1099 for 75”, Amazon dramatically undercut Samsung but not equivalent QLED televisions from TCL or HiSense. On sale for the 2023 holidays, Amazon is much more competitively priced: $589 for 65”, $879 for 75”. The best value is the 55” set, at $439.

Amazon is leveraging the MediaTek MT9020 chip in the Fire TV Omni QLED to provide a series of smart experiences beyond just displaying artwork, photos, and videos when the TV is 'off.' In fact, the Fire TV Omni QLED is actually more of a gigantic Amazon Echo Show than a Samsung Frame clone. The Fire TV Omni QLED has always-listening Alexa voice control, a series of widgets, and all the smart home integration of a 10” Echo Show without a touchscreen. If an Amazon package is on its way, a notification can pop up on your TV. Ask Alexa for the weather, and you’ll get a 7 day forecast that takes over the bottom third of your screen. When someone rings your Ring doorbell, their image can automatically show up on screen and you can use the TV’s microphone to tell them not to interrupt your TV time.

MediaTek MT9020 is also used in Fire TVs from Xiaomi and HiSense that don’t have ambient mode, and similar MediaTek chips power the majority of 4K TVs on the market. MediaTek offers so much computing capability on today’s smart TVs that the only thing holding back most TVs from offering more capabilities is software. Proving the point, Amazon recently added its ambient experience to the Fire TV Stick 4K Max – a $60 streaming media stick. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max uses an even less-capable MediaTek processor, the MT8696T, as it is only needs to handle the computing and streaming needs, and not also control the TV display and audio hardware directly.

I have been testing a 65” Fire TV Omni QLED for several months. The initial setup prompts for an Amazon account, which shouldn’t be a surprise; you probably shouldn't be buying a Fire TV if you aren't going to use Amazon services. If you have other Fire TV devices you can restore settings from them and skip a few steps. You can opt into leaving the mic on even when the TV screen is off – this is essentially a very large, very flat Echo speaker. This is opt in, and Amazon not only flags this during setup, but makes it clear where the mic mute switch is for privacy. You can also use Alexa to navigate on-screen menus and choose content; this is never 100% foolproof, but I found the implementation on the latest Fire TV Cube better. Alexa correctly understood commands and wording more often on the Cube; I suspect that it simply has more microphones in its array.

There is an introduction to the Ambient Experience during setup, but it defaults to being off, and you’ll need to figure out how to turn it on later. Actually using the widgets and Ambient Experience ranges can be underwhelming or even frustrating. There are only a handful of widgets, and they aren’t terribly sophisticated. There are a lot of backgrounds to choose from at no charge, but I had to search Google to find out how to select them. You can adjust overall Ambient Experience settings in the main Settings>Display menu, but actually choosing what to display requires knowing a magic sequence of button presses: enter Ambient Experience by pressing the power button on the remote, and then pressing the menu button (the hamburger button/three horizontal lines). Once there, Amazon provides plenty of choices, including your own photos saved on still graphics, motion art and videos, fine art, regional collections, and even key frames from movies. The motion sensor in the Fire TV Omni QLED works well, putting the set into picture frame mode when you enter the room.

Like all Fire TV products, Amazon’s interface supports most streaming apps, and Amazon’s own Prime Video is given prime positioning in the menu structure.

Image quality on the Fire TV Omni QLED is a big step up from most other Fire TVs. I did notice some banding and digital noise in the opening sequence from LA LA Land, but the colors were rich and saturated in Movie Dark mode. It is not the brightest TV, but the set’s dozens of local dimming zones and Dolby Vision IQ ensured that high dynamic range content pops. The Batman streamed from Amazon Prime Video is a great test for black levels and shadow detail, as the cinematography and muted color grading match the depressing tone the director was after. The Fire TV Omni QLED did not do well here; in some scenes the levels of gray merged together making it hard to tell what was going on. For better high dynamic range and contrast, a mini-LED or OLED set is required – but that will generally cost a lot more. This is a good budget TV but it is still just a budget TV.

Like most TVs at almost any budget level, audio quality from the built-in speakers is not impressive, and a soundbar is recommended. Another option is to connect your Amazon speakers! During setup, the Fire TV Omni QLED noticed that I have a bunch of Echo speakers on my account and offered to connect them and use them for the TV’s audio instead. Smart.

PXL_20221102_151927583 IMG_3198IMG_3198IMG_3198

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Displays / HDTV / Industry / Television

Lessons From Panasonic’s Plasma Day

- by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Tc-p50x1 On Tuesday, I, along with a handful of tech journalists, was invited to attend a briefing by Panasonic in New York to show off their latest line of plasma televisions. The emphasis was on the technical capabilities of Panasonic's plasma technology relative to the latest LCD with LED backlighting.  Some things I learned:

  1. Never have a Japanese engineer who doesn't speak fluent English give a marketing presentation to journalists. Yes, there was a lot of technical detail included, but the fundamental reason Panasonic was doing the briefing was to spin the technical detail, otherwise they would have just provided a white paper. While the presentation itself was pretty good, it was agonizingly slow going in parts, and key points just weren't made well.
  2. Plasma's burn-in issues are a thing of the past. Non-issue with current sets. Now, the legal guys haven't gotten the message, so you still see a warning in the manual not to allow static images to linger on the screen, but some of the sets are deliberately marketed as better for gaming (which they are). The manuals need to be updated and this issue needs to be taken off the table.
  3. Plasma is actually brighter than LCD over smaller areas. This is irrelevant overall – the sample images on the LCD during most of the presentation jumped out at you in a way that plasma does not. Ergo, consumers prefer LCD at retail. (It's more balanced on calibrated sets in a home environment, but on bright images, LCD is superior, and on dark images, plasma rules.)
  4. Plasma has markedly better color than LCD, especially off-angle. Sadly, this is basically impossible to see in retail environments with uncalibrated televisions.
  5. Maximum energy usage on a plasma is still high if you display white fields all day long, but Plasma and LCD are pretty close in terms of energy consumption on real-world program material. LCD is still better (and has a much better number on the energy use sticker), but it's not a reason to disqualify plasma any more.
  6. Plasma is much, much better for resolving high definition when there is motion in the image. This is a key fact that Panasonic should be marketing hard, especially since the LCD competition charges more for sets that try to compensate by speeding up refresh cycles, and they are still noticeably worse on test patterns and real world content.
  7. How a TV is set up at retail is critical: the LCD set they had on hand for comparison showed more stars in a starfield, and none of us cared that the gamma of that set may have been off – there were far more stars visible on that TV than on the plasmas. And we actually know what gamma is – the average consumer never touches picture controls when they get their TV home.

All in all, I came away with a better understanding of why I still prefer plasma over LCD for most uses, and why most consumers are buying LCD anyway – and are unlikely to change any time soon.

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Displays

Mailbag: Is Calibration Worth the Expense?

- by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Email A reader asks: I’m
thinking of having my Hi Def Sony XBR2 calibrated by Best Buy. Is this
worth the $300.00 or not? Appreciate any advice.

Calibration was an absolute necessity back in the tube days,
but with the advent of digital panels (plasma or LCD), getting – and keeping –
settings accurate (or reasonably close) is much easier to do yourself.
However, an installer can often get into service menus and offer finer level of
control. Is that worth $300? If you’re a perfectionist watching movies,
definitely. If you are a casual viewer watching reality TV shows, definitely
not.

If you plan to go the full calibration route, make
sure that the folks at Best Buy have ISF certification before you agree
to anything; simply getting a tech to your house messing around with
service menus can make things worse rather than better.

If you plan to calibrate your set yourself, you should buy one
of the calibration DVDs on the market ($30 – $50); not only do they provide
instructions on the different settings and how they interact, they are chock full of test patterns designed to make it much easier to see the differences as you
make changes.  

If none of that seems worth the hassle, at least page through the different settings your TV comes pre-programmed with. The "Vivid" setting is designed to stand out on a showroom floor in poor lighting, and it will burn your eyes (not literally – I hope) if you watch it that way at home. The "Cinema" or "Movie" mode is usually the most accurate. If that mode seems too dim, leave it there anyway and give yourself a few minutes to adjust your eyes to seeing subtle color differences again.

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