Autumn 2023 TV Advice

[ryanosaur]

What’s your state of mind and time worth to you? If your credit card balances are where you want them, buy the TV. I get it. I agonized over my TV purchase as well for too long. One day, I woke up and raced to U-Haul to get the van and got it done. No regrets. There will always be a better deal. You can save a few bucks here and there but you can never get back the time. You could have been enjoying the LG C3 for a while now. Honestly, you’re gonna’ have to change the title of the thread from Autumn to Winter at this rate. No pressure, of course.

Oh D@mn! Nu-uh, you didn't!!!



There will be a TV in house by the beginning of December. Well before winter starts.

(I'm doing another google search to see if I can figure out the firmware question)

 

[Trebdp83]

 

[Trebdp83]

Didn't go so well. I could have been mature about it, but f#%k it, I have an Onkyo.

 

[ryanosaur]

This from Marantz Australia:

Marantz Australia

Today's firmware update makes the Marantz AV8805 13-channel processor the world's first IMAX Enhanced AV component, alongside Denon's AVC-X8500. Learn more about IMAX Enhanced here:...

www.facebook.com

Marantz Australia
October 30, 2018 ·
Today's firmware update makes the Marantz AV8805 13-channel processor the world's first IMAX Enhanced AV component, alongside Denon's AVC-X8500.
Learn more about IMAX Enhanced here: https://www.imaxenhanced.com/
This firmware release also adds eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel) for Marantz SR6012 / SR6013 and above. eARC requires HDMI cables marked as 'Standard with Ethernet', or 'High Speed with Ethernet'.

 

[ryanosaur]

This from Marantz Australia:

Marantz Australia

Today's firmware update makes the Marantz AV8805 13-channel processor the world's first IMAX Enhanced AV component, alongside Denon's AVC-X8500. Learn more about IMAX Enhanced here:...

www.facebook.com

To be fair, there are still a lot of questions around this announcement as several other conversations seem to also come up in November 2018 discussing HDMI 2.1 on TVs... So this is a very confusing track to follow right now. And I don't know if I have the patience to burn up time communicating with Marantz Support.

 

[Trebdp83]

The eARC feature will only be necessary for devices that support 4K @120Hz connected directly to the TV that are outputting lossless multichannel audio.

 

[snakeeyes]

Think only affects gaming for the audio if you want to push lossless audio for next gen HDMI 2.1 console back thru the TV to the AVR. So I would just live with the downmix audio thru ARC and use DSU upmixer for games.

Your streamer (Apple TV 4K or Firestick 4K Max) and 4K Dolby vision player can plug to the Marantz 6012 and you can enjoy Dolby vision HDR or regular HDR10 shows and movies in all the lossless audio formats.

 

[Trebdp83]

The LG C3 can actually re-encode lossless multichannel signals to fit within the ARC spec. The rub is that HDMI-CEC will need to be ON in both the TV and receiver and the process may result in audio sync issues.

 

[Mr._Clark]

Damn, I thought I got screwed when I bought my first Sharp aquos. Almost 3k for a 32” LCD. Why…..

Yeah, tell me about it. I paid $5K for an 80" Aquos about 10 years ago. An 83" LG G3 is $5K on Amazon right now, and that's actually quite a bit less than $5K in 2013 dollars taking into account inflation.

On the other hand, the G3 was not option 10 years ago so I didn't choose the Aquos over the G3.

 

[ryanosaur]

Bah!
My Sony x900f has started acting up with a well known defect that affects Dolby Vision playback.
I’ve seen this on occasion but never knew what it was. As my TV has started doing this more and more frequently, further research shows it’s a hardware defect and nothing s software update can address.
Lucky owners have reported getting a new TV from Sony under warranty…
Perhaps I’m lucky mine waited so long to act up? Perhaps not.

Fuel for the fire.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Didn't go so well. I could have been mature about it, but f#%k it, I have an Onkyo.

What's crazy is all they need to do is look at the current specifications for the product as listed on their current web page....
https://www.marantz.com/en-us/product/av-receivers/sr6012

It lists: ENHANCED ARC - YES

So, yeah, if it doesn't support it, then something screwy is going on. I did believe that eARC was a hardware requirement/need, not something firmware could handle. But, the included hardware could have been built to support eARC, before it was finalized, and then needed a firmware update to actually get it working.

But, any capable 4K receiver that maxes out at 4K/60, will be good for everything under the sun except high frame rate HDMI 2.1 sources. 4K/120 gaming is about it.

 

[Trebdp83]

Yeah, many products are out there with sufficient hardware waiting for firmware updates to activate one feature or another these days. I thought this was one of those cases.

 

[ryanosaur]

For any interested lurkers... The Hisense U8K went back up to ~$1050.

 

[ryanosaur]

Just when I thought things were coming together, 1 of our main clients decided he was wrapping up his operation, likely for good. Surprise!

Perhaps no TV this season.

*hyperbolically grumpy sigh

And right as my Dolby Vision started sh!tting the bed, too. At least video games still look awesome!

 

[Tankini]

Walmart has Sony's OLED 65 A90J new going for 1398.00. That was Sony's flagship 2021 model. I had it in my cart put in my payment information hit submit my card got declined. I know I had the funds in my bank account, but Chase blocks the transaction.
.
I got a fraud alert text message on my phone lol. Asking if I recognized the transaction to submit yes or no I submitted yes. Went back on Walmart's website and took it out of my cart.

Lol. Thing about that A90J which is a very nice OLED it's still a 2-year-old tv new, but more than likely sitting in a warehouse somewhere they trying to unload them, site said 500+ units sold. Electrical component still age even if not being used, still has two years on them.

 

[panteragstk]

Damn, I thought I got screwed when I bought my first Sharp aquos. Almost 3k for a 32” LCD. Why…..

Oh man. You were one of those people? I'm sorry.

Those early LCD and Plasmas were so expensive, and looked terrible.

I paid $150 for my kids 32" LCDs. It's incredible how far down prices have come.

 

[Trebdp83]

Just when I thought things were coming together, 1 of our main clients decided he was wrapping up his operation, likely for good. Surprise!

Perhaps no TV this season.

*hyperbolically grumpy sigh

And right as my Dolby Vision started sh!tting the bed, too. At least video games still look awesome!

Well, s#%t. You’ll get no more peer pressure from me. Go TP that f#%ker’s house. Do it! Oops.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Oh man. You were one of those people? I'm sorry.

Those early LCD and Plasmas were so expensive, and looked terrible.

I paid $150 for my kids 32" LCDs. It's incredible how far down prices have come.

Oh yeah for sure I went for a ride on that one. Looking back it was totally stoopid. But at the time there weren’t many options. Funny thing is I still use it as my office computer monitor/bedroom display. It’s fine for quick books and casual viewing. We live in great times for displays fo sho.

 

[snakeeyes]

Just when I thought things were coming together, 1 of our main clients decided he was wrapping up his operation, likely for good. Surprise!

Perhaps no TV this season.

*hyperbolically grumpy sigh

And right as my Dolby Vision started sh!tting the bed, too. At least video games still look awesome!

I guess I’m lucky that I only have HDR10 so I don’t know what I’m missing with Dolby Vision. I’m waiting probably another full year to buy a TV.

 

[ryanosaur]

I guess I’m lucky that I only have HDR10 so I don’t know what I’m missing with Dolby Vision. I’m waiting probably another full year to buy a TV.

I wouldn’t be able to quantify it! But to have a hardware fault that you can’t turn off… then must watch something streaming that flashes different hues is really distracting and angry-making.

FWIW, a friend brought the BluRay of Barbie over and it played fine. I have some DV Discs that I need to try out and see if the problem persists.

The first time I saw it was earlier this year watching the Drakes movie streamed from Netflix. I thought it was just the stream. Hadn’t really seen it much until we were powering through Ahsoka on Disney+.

Oh well.

I’m still holding out hope I can do something this season. It will either be a55” C3 or A80L if the sales kick in, or a coin flip between the TCl QM8 or the X90L… again depends on sales. Or I try again in Feb when the Super Bowl Sales occur.