What processes 4K, AVR or OLED TV

[DACunknownthing]

Hi folks: I’m trying to figure out what component, Sony A8G or Yamaha 3080, actually processes the 4K signal. When the Yamaha resolution is set to “through”, the display doesn’t show the program being broadcast in 4k. When it is set to “auto”, every program shows as 4k. Not sure how this all works. Kinda funny, but prior to playing with the above settings, no Netflix 4k shows would show on display as 4k. However, Prime video did. I’m confused. Any help greatly appreciated! Cable box and 4kFirestick are connected to the Yamaha via proper HDMI

 

[Mr._Clark]

Hi folks: I’m trying to figure out what component, Sony A8G or Yamaha 3080, actually processes the 4K signal. When the Yamaha resolution is set to “through”, the display doesn’t show the program being broadcast in 4k. When it is set to “auto”, every program shows as 4k. Not sure how this all works. Kinda funny, but prior to playing with the above settings, no Netflix 4k shows would show on display as 4k. However, Prime video did. I’m confused. Any help greatly appreciated! Cable box and 4kFirestick are connected to the Yamaha via proper HDMI

I’m not 100% sure I understand your question. As far as I know most newer AVRs and TVs can upscale a 1080 signal to 4K. You can decide which one handles it. When you say “show on display as 4k” do you mean the image itself was not 4K or do you mean the TV indicated that the incoming signal was 4k?

If you set your AVR to handle 4K upscaling the input signal to the TV will be 4K. If you check the source signal using your TV menu it will indicate it’s receiving a 4K signal.

You could check your specific TV, to make sure, but I’d guess it automatically upscales to 4k as a default so the images themselves should be 4K regardless of whether it’s the AVR or the TV is doing the upscaling.

I don’t have Netflix but it appears to me that your incoming Netflix signal was actually 1080 whereas your Prime signal was 4K. It’s not clear to me if the Netflix content in question was supposed to be 4K? I seem to recall reading online somewhere that Netflix content that is supposed to be 4K is actually only 1080. The gist of it was that Netflix was switching to lower resolution during times of the day when internet usage was high in an effort to avoid bandwidth issues (take this with a grain of salt because my memory is not 100%, this was several years ago so this may not be an issue now, etc)

As a side note, some cable boxes default to a lower resolution. By way of example, the cable box on one of my systems was set to 720 at the time it was installed. At first I was annoyed because I didn’t have good picture quality and my TV indicated that it was receiving a 720 signal even though the cable company advertised it provided high definition. I went into the cable box settings and switched it to 1080i (4K is not an option). I also reset the audio settings in the cable box. For my system I set the AVR (Denon) to handle 4K upscaling and the picture quality (Samsung) is quite good. Some AVRs have options with regards to the upscaling. For example, mine lets you chose between 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 chroma sampling. I set mine at 4:2:2 because at least in theory it should provide a slightly better picture. But, I honestly didn’t compare the picture quality between the two settings and I also didn’t compare 4K upscaling using the TV vs the AVR

It doesn’t sound like this is an issue with your system, but yet another thing to check is the settings on your Firestick to make sure it’s outputting a 4K signal. One of my Rokus correctly senses that I have a 4K TV but a different one thinks the TV is not 4K so I had to force it to output a 4K signal

 

[Trebdp83]

It's all over the place. But, remember that a 4K TV will always upscale everything to its native 4K resolution. Anything over 480p is considered high definition. 4K in the home isn't quite 4K which is why the Ultra High Definition designation is also used. TV broadcasts are varied as some are at 480i , some at 720p and some at 1080i. There are a few 4K broadcasts of events. Many cable/sat boxes allow a fixed resolution setting for output to avoid black outs from resolution changes. So, set it at 1080p, and everything gets upscaled. Most streamers do not have a native resolution setting and automatically upscale to the TV's native rate, though HDR, chroma subsampling and frame rate settings can be made. Some will apply HDR automatically to all content. Apps, themselves, have only complicated matters because some apps will only output content in a certain format on certain streamers. It might be a 4K HDR movie @24Hz but, have a basic subscription or use the wrong streamer, and the movie will be presented in 4K SDR and 60Hz. Have a basic or mid level subscription and low bandwidth settings and you may only get 1080p out of the app. Yeah, it's a mess and there are far too many settings to apply for the best presentation. Just know that the TV will upscale everything to its native resolution no matter what you throw at it. The least processing of the signal along the way, the better. If a receiver is set to passthrough and the TV does NOT recognize a 4K signal while playing what is supposed to be 4K content, something is up at the source.

 

[DACunknownthing]

Thank you very much for the information. I have a Sony A8G and a Yamaha RX-A3080. The Spectrum cable box is connected via HDMI to the 3080, which is HDMI connected to the Sony TV. Originally 3080 set to "through". I changed it to "auto 480p up to 4K", and now when I check the resolution on the TV screen display it shows the 4k resolution. My thinking with the "through" setting was that the Sony may have/do better at upscaling, and that setting would enable it. Again, thank you! Now onto a different thread to see how to upgrade to atmos ceiling speakers and amp for 7.1.4.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Your cable box is crap. Because it is a cable box and all cable boxes are crap. They don't typically broadcast in 4K, and if they do it will be HIGHLY compressed. They also use cheap plastic and not exactly the highest quality parts. They want to extract your monthly fees with the minimal amount of effort on their part.

Still, let your expensive Sony TV do the upscaling. Sony is excellent at this. This is part of why you paid a premium for the Sony over just getting the LG with the exact same OLED panel in it.

Anything else you connect to the system should identify support for 4K signals and you should be getting mostly premium products. A good Blu-ray UHD player, a AppleTV 4K or nVidia Shield, or Roku Ultra. Don't get cheap 4K products with your premium setup. Still, be aware that just because a product supports 4K playback doesn't mean that the streaming service will actually provide it to you. Some are notorious for advertising 4K, but then not supporting it on a specific player... for no obvious reason.

 

[Mr._Clark]

I'm so tired of the crappy audio and video quality from my cable TV company that I'm actually planning to switch to OTA at some point. I've had numerous instances of a 1080 cable signal that was actually crap, apparently as a result of compression (or some other unknown degradation somewhere in the chain).

Several local TV stations have switched to ATSC 3.0, but so far the selection of ATSC 3.0 tuners is limited (to put it mildly) and they get mixed reviews. I'm not sure I want to dive into this just yet (@BMXTRIX I'd be interested in any insights you might have concerning ATSC 3.0).

Why Free OTA TV Beats Cable on Picture Quality

Free over-the-air TV offers a better-quality picture than cable. Your antenna will get you 4K before your cable company offers it, too. Here's why.

www.howtogeek.com

Editorial comment: It's odd that TVs are getting better at the same time 1) BluRays seem to be dying and 2) the quality of other content sources seems to be hit or miss.

 

[SithZedi]

I ditched my cable box last year and just stream. I also installed an OTA antenna in my attic and ran a coaxil cable to my 4k TV. I get about 40 channels in my area almost all are clear picture, better than streaming at times. Comes in very handy when we lose internet connections in storms. Am waiting to see if getting an ATSC tuner will be worth it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007RH5GZI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.antennaweb.org/results