LG C9 Reciever

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Considering upgrading my Panasonic ST50 plasma and the old Onkyo TX SR700 to more current tech. Obviously, almost any receiver will get bring me into the current decade and be a worthwhile upgrade, but I am a little troubled by seeing that my old 29lb receiver which I know suffered controversy for not outputting full rated power to all channels driven when I bought it in like 2002 is a solid 5-7lbs heavier than most of the middle tier receivers on the market today. I get it that they have cut costs with power supplies for the new formats, etc.

The C9 apparently has most of the latest tech ability and I'd like to try to find a receiver that won't kneecap it too much. I haven't yet nailed down everything, but I'm sure I would at least want eARC for example to accommodate streaming formats. It looks like the C9 has pretty advanced refresh rate capability and I"m not exactly sure how a receiver might hamper that. I honestly really have no idea - like a future Xbox Scarlet hitting 120fps possibly idk. I guess you just have to concede that you will have to accept compromises to keep the price reasonable.

I'd like to keep it below $1,000 too. I've been eying the Denon AVR-3600H to see if a Black Friday sale comes along. I've seen that it already has been on sale for $899 since it was released. It had a pretty nice review on the Youtube channel for this website. At least it apparently has potential for being a clean source for an external amp, etc.

I'm only running a 5.1 speaker setup currently. I might actually consider adding Dolby Atmos ceiling speakers in the future though. So, I could make use of the extra channels. I've currently got 5 Ascend CBM-170 bookshelf speakers and an Adire Audio Rava sub.

Any suggestions on what else I should consider? I've seen several really attractive deals on previous year model and older new receivers available, but some are missing eARC for example and they might be a little light compared to what I have currently without the ability to really add external power even if they do have the preamp output. I didn't know there was a problem until I watched that review on here honestly.

Thanks!

 

[slipperybidness]

Get the Denon and call it a day.

NOTE--Don't hang your hat on eARC or ARC working flawlessly! It is absolutely a crap shoot, and if you purchase based on that, you may be surprised to learn that the info used to make your purchase decision becomes a moot point when it does not work!

That being said, ARC and CEC work pretty well for me with my Denon 4400 and LG C8, so that is promising for you. There are a couple of small quirks, but it does work well for the most part.

 

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I suppose I'm also thinking in terms of the C9 being a vastly improved 'smart tv' over my old ST50 that can only do 720p Youtube natively for example. I've been using my original XBox One for all of my streaming since I got it, but it's not 4k obviously so it's not going to be a great source for streaming content to get started and that eARC would be key to getting audio back to a receiver until I figure out what I might do for an external 4k source to switch through whatever receiver I decide on.

This would be the kind of thing it might be nice to have a handle on before I move forward so I can at least know what to expect in planning and budgeting for a 4k system. I gather the XBox One X does a poor job at handling color as a 4k Blu-ray player and that's sort of a bummer. It would be nice to chalk up the cost of a new XBox One X validating itself to cover the base of 4k Blu-ray player and it could temporarily, but that would be a disservice to the C9.

I'm not even sure what my options would be if I did rule out depending on eARC to handle audio output to a receiver. A cheaper previous year model receiver option and a really nice 4k Blu-ray player with streaming to pick up streaming options possibly idk.

I've been ignoring what all has been happening in home theater for a long time and it's a little mind-boggling to start trying to sort through what is important and most cost effective as solutions.

 

[slipperybidness]

Do you have a reference claiming that XBox One X does a poor job handling color? I have not heard of this before.

 

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Do you have a reference claiming that XBox One X does a poor job handling color? I have not heard of this before.

I'm referring to a review I saw on YouTube from these guys:

I'm not sure I followed it to the letter, but it talks about the color science behind how color information is stored on 4k Blu-ray discs and how that is converted for a television by a player. It's something like it takes the color information from 4:2:0 and instead of converting it up to 4:4:4 it turns it into RGB more like a computer would than a standalone player for high fidelity color. That's probably not exactly what they said. Watch the video. It sounds like they know what they're talking about.

To me 4:2:0 needing to get up converted from the disc standard sounds a little dissapointing frankly. I'm not a video expert though. I'm sure there is a reason. Storage limitations I'm sure.

 

[Pogre]

I always thought 4k movies looked great on my Xbox 1x.

 

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I always thought 4k movies looked great on my Xbox 1x.

I did get the C9 and a Black Friday sale Xbox One X. It looks pretty amazing to my eyes too, but it has already hit a snag that is apparently somewhat common. One of the Black Friday sale 4k discs that I bought, Ex Machina, refuses to play and that's a huge bummer. I see that Oblivion is another disc that has been known to have issues too in this Youtube review/response to an update on the Xbox One getting the color issues fixed. I sure hope I didn't buy any more discs that turn up not playing for me. I didn't think to see if there was a list of known discs that won't play, but before I open any more of what I got maybe I should.

Overall, still pretty fantastic. I'm not entirely sure why it apparently still won't pass Dolby Vision if it has whatever licensing it might need to process it from streaming, but whatever. For the price and what all it can do I guess it is still a bargain in context of $500+ players maybe being the price-point of getting Dolby Vision from your discs.

The C9 is blowing me away. My ST50 plasma blew me away when it was new too though. I'm particularly amazed by the skin tones. Wow! I haven't even really attempted to dig into any advanced picture settings. I've seen claim that these are pretty good out of the box and I have to say I can't really imagine it being calibrated doing much better than the baked in picture settings; Cinema Home looks nice for slightly more pink skin tones, ISF Dark Room looks good, etc.

 

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I've been eyeing the Denon 4400/4500 for a receiver now. Same ballpark in price as the 3600 with a bit more power and frankly I will probably never use an external amp. I don't have towers for my fronts. Honestly, I was considering the 3600 because the video from here made sense that the ability for it to disconnect the amps for clean strong signal output would be of significant benefit for an external amp. I'm not sure if the 4400/4500 do that too?

Anyway, if the 4400 is almost identical to the 4500 I might just save a couple hundred and order one of these 4400 models going for under $1k currently before they dry up. I was hoping to find a black friday blowout on them, but it didn't happen. I'm waiting for my credit card rewards to roll in from the tv and xbox to help fund the receiver. If the 4400 models dry up I might wait a bit longer to see what happens on the 4500 price. It's a 2018 model itself now I guess and seeing big discounts.