← All TWiT.tv Shows (Audio)
All TWiT.tv Shows (Audio)
Home Theater Geeks 490: TVs for a Bright Room
00:09:42
When ambient light is just too much!
Loading summary
Transcript8 lines
- [00:01]
Scott Wilkinson
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.
- [00:12]
Leo Laporte
This episode brought to you by Red Canary when cybersecurity threats hit fast, you need an MDR partner that moves faster. Red Canary delivers 24.7expert MDR support, total visibility and actionable insights. Plus it helps you detect four times more threats so you can stay ahead with without burning out. Red Canary clears the noise and has your back every hour, every incident. Get the backup you deserve. Visit redcanary.com difference to learn more. Today's show is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.
- [01:06]
Scott Wilkinson
Do you worry about how much someone drinks? Do you feel angry or depressed most of the time? Do you feel neglected or unloved? Do you feel that if the drinker loved you, she or he would stop drinking? If you answered YES to any of these questions, you are not alone. Not everyone trapped by alcohol is an alcoholic. Families and friends are suffering too. Al, Anon and Alison call 1-866-200-0223 or visit al anon.org help.
- [01:39]
Leo Laporte
Podcasts you love.
- [01:40]
Scott Wilkinson
From people you trust.
- [01:43]
Leo Laporte
This is twit.
- [01:55]
Scott Wilkinson
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. 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 8 or 9ft away from it. 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 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. 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 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 ratings.com r t I n g s.com 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 with shades. It's on Sony's site for 1600 bucks, 1598 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. And their best 55 inch TV for bright rooms is the Hisense 55 U8N, 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 gonna, you're gonna see a degraded image, it's gonna get look washed out. Blacks aren't gonna be good, colors aren't gonna be saturated. It also has poor handling of direct reflections, which again you say you can mitigate. As for the performance of the Roku TV after firmware upgrades, I've never heard of this cause and effect relationship. I mean, 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. You know, 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 not 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. 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 to get a set of Bluetooth headphones. 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 487. So be sure to watch that one for a little clue about that. But I wish you luck and wish you didn't have to have a TV in such a such a bright spot. But sometimes it is what it is and you do what you can and sounds like that's exactly what you're doing. Thanks for writing Edge. Now if you have a question for me, send it along to htgwit TV and I'll answer as many as I can right here on the show. And as you know, all of Twitch shows are now streaming live on YouTube but with ads. If you want to go ad free, join the club. Go to Twit TV Club Twit to join today. Until next time, geek out.
- [10:11]
Leo Laporte
Get your tech news exactly how you want it with TWiT TV. Tech News Weekly with Micah Sargent delivers quick hit coverage and exclusive journalist interviews, giving you the inside scoop on breaking tech stories in under an hour. Now for deeper dives, I hope you'll join me, Leo laporte, and a great panel of tech industry experts. That's every Sunday with this Week in Tech. We'll break down everything from AI breakthroughs to privacy concerns to cybersecurity alerts in the tech world's longest running and most trusted tech news roundtable. So efficient or in depth, the choice is yours. Subscribe to both shows wherever you get your podcasts and head on over to our website Twitter TV for even more independent tech journalism. Sam.