Home Theater Geeks 490 Transcript
Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show
00:00 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
In this episode of Home Theater Geeks, I answer a question from Bob, who needs to replace his TV in a very bright room, and he has a couple other questions, so stay tuned.
00:14 - Leo Laporte (Announcement)
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00:31 - Scott Wilkinson (Host)
Hey there, scott Wilkinson, here, the home theater geek. In this episode I answer a question from Bob, who writes my wife says I need professional help, so I'm turning to you. My wife says I need professional help, so I'm turning to you. Our main TV is in the worst possible spot on a wall that faces south, so bright and ever-changing light conditions are the bane of its existence. But because of space and room configuration I'm pretty much stuck with it. I can manage most glare issues with window shades, but the room can still get quite bright at times. I'm limited to 55 inches, which is plenty big because we sit eight or nine feet away from it.
01:16
We currently have a TCL Roku Smart TV and while it was okay initially, I have become very disappointed in it as Roku keeps upgrading the software and the performance has become unacceptable. It freezes up pixelates and sometimes just plain shuts off. I have another older LED TV in another room. The picture is poorer but it does not experience the pixelation and random issues of the Roku TV. The Roku is also wirelessly connected to a very fast internet source for smart TV features. The remote seems to have lost some range. I have to be close and directly in front of the TV to get it to work, and I've tried replacement remotes with the same result. I think the TV has just reached its end of life.
02:08
My goal is to find a 55-inch TV that has great brightness, to help with the ambient light issue, and maybe a more traditional remote with some programmable buttons. If some sort of wireless headphone option was available, my wife would probably send you large quantities of baked goods. My hearing is not good. Budget is secondary consideration, as long as the recommended TV is of good quality and can address our issues Well. Thanks for the questions, bob. Let's see if I can help. It's really unfortunate that you have no options for the TV's placement in that room. I wish you did, but sometimes people don't and you probably don't. So you need a TV that has high brightness.
02:58
As you have surmised, my first thought was the Sony Bravia 9, which is their 2024 top-of-the-line flagship LCD model, led, and it has very high brightness, but it doesn't come in 55 inches. It starts at 65 and goes up from there. So I went to ratingscom R-T-I-N-G-Scom, which is my go-to site for TV reviews. They do a great job, and I looked at their review for the Bravia 7, which does come in a 55-inch size and the review gives it very high marks for brightness and processing as it should because it's a Sony and black levels. It gets low marks for a narrow viewing angle and handling of direct reflections, which you say you can mostly mitigate with shades. It's on Sony's site for $1,600, $1,598 on Amazon and it uses Google TV for the smart TV functions instead of Roku. Now, in ratings, also publishes their best of series in a variety of categories and they even have a best 55-inch TV article which I highly recommend. We're going to put the links to these in the show notes, by the way, but show them to you here as well.
04:33
And their best 55-inch TV for bright rooms is the Hisense 55U8N, which is under $700 at Best Buy and Amazon. So you know roughly half of what the Sony is, also a Google TV. Like the Sony, it even scores slightly better than the Bravia 7. And according to ratings review of the Hisense U8N, it also works well in a dark room, making it good for watching at night. However, it also has a narrow viewing angle, like the Sony, so you need to sit directly in front of it to get the best image. If you're sitting off to the side, people are going to, you're going to see a degraded image. It's going to look washed out. Blacks aren't going to be good, colors aren't going to be saturated. It also has poor handling of direct reflections, which, again, you say you can mitigate.
05:36
As for the performance of the Roku TV after firmware upgrades, as for the performance of the Roku TV after firmware upgrades, I've never heard of this cause and effect relationship. I mean, it doesn't say it can't happen, but I've never heard of it. I'm more suspicious of the wireless internet connection. Even if it's fast, as you say, wi-fi is notoriously unreliable for streaming audio video content. Perhaps something is going on with the Wi-Fi that happened to correspond with your update issues. That may not be it, I'm just guessing here, but Wi-Fi can have the problems you specify pixelation, all kinds of weird stuff. What I suggest for troubleshooting is that you try a wired connection. So get an Ethernet cable it might have to be a really long one, but it doesn't matter, they can be really long and connect it to your router or your Internet source and directly to the TV. See if the problem remains. If it does, then it's probably not the Wi-Fi, it's probably something else. But I honestly have never heard of updating the Roku software, causing pixelation and other problems.
06:52
Now, regarding the remote, have you tried changing the batteries? It seems unlikely that all the remotes you tried would have low batteries, but you never know. What you are describing sounds to me like low batteries. So when you get a new TV with a new remote and fresh batteries, presumably that problem should disappear. Now, regarding headphones, I just did an episode on Bluetooth headphones with TVs episode 487. So you might want to take a look at that one as well. But Bluetooth headphones work with just about any TV these days, any modern TV. So it shouldn't be any problem if you buy one of these newer TVs, uh, to get a set of Bluetooth headphones and and it should work. There might be a bit of a procedure involved in setting it up properly, which I talked about in that episode, episode 47. Uh, so be sure to watch that one for a little clue about that. But uh, I wish you luck. I wish you didn't have to have a TV in such a bright spot, but sometimes it is what it is and you do what you can, and it sounds like that's exactly what you're doing.
08:13
Thanks for writing in Now. If you have a question for me. Send it along to htg at twittv and I'll answer as many as I can right here on the show. And, as you know, all of Twit's shows are now streaming live on YouTube, but with ads. If you want to go ad-free, join the club. Go to twittv. Slash club twit to join today. Until next time, geek out.
