I got a notice from either Panasonic or Amazon saying that the software on my Panasonic plasma would no longer be updated (yeah, no shit, it had been clunky for a year). But the email gave me a code for $25 off a new Fire Stick (even the 4K!). There's a back-to-college sale on Amazon so I was able to use the coupon code to get another stick for $14. It will rotate between the bedroom/office TVs. The interface has worked quite well in the living room although setting up all the passwords/codes is a pain. My wife noticed that when you paused a scene on prime, it will give you little icons saying what actor is in the scene. It's saved a few arguments while streaming X Files.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
how old is that Panasonic? what model?
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
2012 Panasonic VIERA TC-P55ST50
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
That Viera is 3 years younger than my dumb 50 inch Viera Plasma. TVs should be dumb and provide the video inputs possible. Let an external box which can be updated more easily handle streaming and audio pickoff. It’s taken way too long get TV designs updated to handle updated audio output (Like hdmi 2.1 or EARC). Let the receiver pick the audio off and send the video to a stream box and then to the TV.
PS that Viera has the display panel that Panasonic started making after getting the Pioneer Kuro patent. Still looks great on HD content. Just doesn’t upscale like current 4kUHD models. I looked at a Samsung 75” 8k Q900 at Best Buy yesterday. Not going to buy, but no LED-LCD tv has lower screen reflections than that, and it looks fabulous off axis, almost as good as an OLED. An OLED has to be in a dark room just like that plasma to appreciate the dynamic range. A good buy for now would be a 65 inch Samsung Q80 which is good on reflections and off axis, but ~$1900.
The 75 Q900 was $6000.
If you're contemplating buying ANYTHING electronic, better do it before December when the next round of tariffs kick in.
So what's the latest on video technology and availability? I assume that instead of tariffs we're now dealing with supply chain issues.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
For home TVs and one gaming monitor it’s the QD—OLED technology going on sale this year. OLED TVs have a white pixel to help it achieve brighter highlights, but that makes color inaccurate. So QD-OLED has a blue oled layer display and the blue light for each pixel passes to red and green pixels composed of quantum dots which convert the blue to the appropriate color. Blue pixels are a pass through. Much more efficient and achieves color volume and brightness that no OLED has achieved.
While QD-OLED TVs are surprisingly priced economically compared to top performing TVs in recent years, they are limited to 55 and 65 inch sizes for now. Eventually it’s expected in 2023 that larger sizes will be a available and price will be good. The off axis performance with color is like plasma, which is very important for large screen TVs because of the larger off axis angles of pixel locations.
MicroLED TVs still only apply to billboard size TVs and I wonder if technologists will ver get the price and density down to the room size TVs.
So I was staying at my brother's a couple weeks ago and spent a fair amount of time in front of his big 4K OLED whatever-the-fuck TV. It seemed to me that often the picture looked more like CGI on some programs. Others were almost 3D. Is this the fault of the video feed or the TV itself?
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Most likely the settings on the TV. These fancy-pants TVs come from the factory with the color saturation and the sharpness levels turned WAY up, the the point where everything looks cartoonish. If you back them down a bit -- comparing the picture to real life until it looks "normal" -- you can get a much more realistic image. I know they do this in stores to make the TVs "pop" to shoppers walking by. I do not know why the factory settings are all +11.
There is a change of heart BTW. More of the high end TVs have what is called filmmaker mode that gives a calibrated, but not perfectly calibrated mode. Sony never did the shock and awe, default video, setting, but the did have a Vivid mode. Calibration is done for review of TVs and involves an instrument sampling light from the screen.
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