Home Theater Geeks (Video)

34 Episodes

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HTG 416: CES 2024 Part 1 With Mike Heiss - Navigating the Next Wave of Home Entertainment Innovation

2024-01-1821:50

Scott Wilkinson chats with Mike Heiss about what he saw at CES 2024. In part 1, Mike talks about how TVs are now vehicles for ads and commerce, how AI was everywhere at the show, and how TVs are getting even bigger. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guest: Michael Heiss Want access to the video version and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

HTG 405: Value Electronics 2023 TV Shootout Part 1 - King of 4K TV

2023-10-1948:31

Scarsdale, NY, retailer Value Electronics hosts an annual TV shootout in which the flagship 4K and 8K models from major manufacturers are lined up, calibrated, and evaluated by a panel of expert judges to see which is the best. Robert Zohn, owner of Value Electronics, Jason Dustal, one of the calibrators, and David Mackenzie, one of the judges, join Scott Wilkinson to discuss day one of this year's event and reveal the King of 4K TV. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guests: Robert Zohn, David Mackenzie, and Jason Dustal Club TWiT members can discuss episodes in the Club TWiT Discord.

HTG 403: Optimizing Picture Quality 301 - Another lesson in how to defeat a TV's "enhancements"

2023-10-0517:35

TVs have gotten very smart—too smart for their own good, in fact. To see the best possible picture quality, you should really disable many of the controls that purport to improve it, but in reality, they make it worse. Scott talks about the controls that you should disable to get the best possible picture quality. Host: Scott Wilkinson Club TWiT members can discuss episodes in the Club TWiT Discord.

HTG 395: THX Spatial Audio Part 1 - Jason Fiber and Kasson Crooker discuss THX's new audio tech

2023-08-1035:27

THX has long been known for certifying the performance of commercial cinemas and consumer AV products. The company has also developed its own technologies, including its latest Spatial Audio, which expands 2-channel and multichannel audio into a fully 3-dimensional immersive sound field. In Part 1 of this exclusive interview, THX CEO Jason Fiber and Senior Director of Product Development Kasson Crooker explain what Spatial Audio is and how it works. Host: Scott Wilkinson Club TWiT members can discuss episodes in the Club TWiT Discord.

HTG 381: Leo's New Samsung QD OLED - Scott's impressions on the Samsung QN77S95C

2023-05-0433:09

Always at the forefront of technology, Chief TWiT Leo Laporte recently bought a Samsung QN77S95C, the second generation of a new flat-panel TV technology called QD OLED. While he was on vacation, Leo invited Scott Wilkinson to check it out at his home. The image is gorgeous, but the only UHD Blu-ray player Leo has is an Xbox Series X gaming console, which gave Scott some trouble when he tried to play a setup disc to make some basic adjustments. Still, the TV produces an exceptional image worthy of The Tech Guy. Get the Samsung 77-Inch Class OLED 4K S95C Series: https://amzn.to/415aeld Host: Scott Wilkinson Club TWiT members can discuss episodes in the Club TWiT Discord.

HTG 376: Optimizing Picture Quality 101 - Dramatically improve your video image with just a few tweaks

2023-03-3016:28

In most cases, when you buy a new TV, bring it home, take it out of the box, plug it in, and turn it on, the picture quality is preset to look rather garish and over-the-top. Many people think that's what it's supposed to look like, but it ain't necessarily so. Scott Wilkinson shows you how to make a few adjustments so the image looks much more natural and closer to what the content creators intended. The adjustments he discusses in this episode do not require any test patterns, just your TV's remote. As he mentions, manufacturers do not always use the same terminology for things; for example, Scott recommends a Picture Mode called Movie, Cinema, or Filmmaker, but in the examples shown on the screen (which are from a Vizio PX75-G1), there are no so-named Picture Modes. Instead, the best modes are Calibrated or Calibrated Dark; try each to see which you prefer. Both will give you a more natural, accurate image than any other Picture Modes. Host: Scott Wilkinson Club TWiT members can discuss episodes in the Club TWiT Discord.

HTG 374: Sony's 2023 TV Lineup - A new crop of sweet TVs from the top-tier brand

2023-03-1616:32

Surprisingly, Sony did not announce any new TVs at CES 2023. Instead, the company opted to wait until March to unveil its 2023 lineup—and what a lineup it is! The highly anticipated second generation of QD-OLED is joined by new models of conventional OLED and LED-illuminated LCD TVs with upgraded processing and other new features that are sure to tempt any home theater geek. Host: Scott Wilkinson Club TWiT members can discuss episodes in the Club TWiT Discord.

Home Theater Geeks Returns

2023-03-0701:46

After a 5-year absence, Home Theater Geeks is back! Scott Wilkinson offers a weekly dose of audio/video news, tips, and tricks to get the most out of your AV system, product reviews, or commentary—he has no shortage of strong opinions! Plus, he'll answer your questions, which you can submit via email to htg@twit.tv. And once in a while, he'll have a special guest on the show to chat about his favorite subject. You can still get legacy episodes of HTG for free on your favorite podcast apps. The new versions of Home Theater Geeks are only available ad-free on Club TWiT or Apple Podcasts. You can join Club TWiT for $7 a month and get everything the club offers, or just get the podcast for $2.99 a month. You can also get the ad-free audio versions for $2.99 a month on Apple Podcasts. Host: Scott Wilkinson Club TWiT members can discuss episodes in the Club TWiT Discord.

HTG 373: Audio Mastering at The Bakery - The secrets of audio mastering.

2017-09-2801:11:42

Mastering engineer Eric Boulanger talks about the process of mastering audio for music recordings. Topics include how he got into audio engineering after being a professional violinist, the process of mastering (especially for vinyl), the "loudness wars" (or as Eric prefers, the "loudness plague"), how he started his current facility called The Bakery, stories from mastering such titles as the soundtrack from La La Land and albums by Rufus Wainwright, Diana Krall, and Colbie Calliat, his involvement in Apple's "Mastered for iTunes" initiative, the real value of high-resolution audio, answers to chat-room questions, and more. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guest: Eric Boulanger Subscribe to Home Theater Geeks at https://twit.tv/shows/home-theater-geeks Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show.

HTG 372: HDR Deep Dive - Benefits and challenges of HDR.

2017-09-2101:06:49

Color-imaging scientist Jack Holm digs deep into high dynamic range. Topics include color volume, what artists might do with an expanded palette of colors and brightness, the actual dynamic range of most images, accurate versus preferred images, the difference between PQ and HLG HDR formats, the "look" of HLG, HLG's backward compatibility with SDR displays, the problems of delivering SDR and HDR streams, expanding SDR for HDR displays versus compressing HDR for SDR displays, the importance of the viewing environment, answers to chat-room questions, and more. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guest: Jack Holm Subscribe to Home Theater Geeks at https://twit.tv/shows/home-theater-geeks Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show.

HTG 371: CEDIA 2017 Roundup - What was hot at CEDIA 2017

2017-09-1401:14:59

Journalists Mike Heiss, Mark Henninger, and Tom Norton join host Scott Wilkinson to talk about what they saw and heard at the CEDIA Expo 2017. Topics include the new Sony projectors, such as the market-disrupting VPL-VW285ES ("4K for under $5K"); the new lower-cost JVC projectors; how none of the DLP projectors looked all that great (even the really expensive ones); ultra short-throw projectors, such as the Epson LS100; LED video walls; Samsung/SpectraCal auto-calibration; Fibbr fiber-optic HDMI cables; AV processors, such as the Emotiva RMC-1; speakers, such as the Definitive Technology Demand series and Creative X-Fi Sonic Carrier soundbar; the near ubiquity of voice control; our pics for the best video and audio at the show, answers to chat-room questions, and more. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guests: Michael Heiss, Mark Henninger, and Tom Norton Subscribe to Home Theater Geeks at https://twit.tv/shows/home-theater-geeks Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show.

HTG 370: Headphone Q&A - Answers to headphone questions.

2017-09-0701:07:10

Tyll Hertsens, headphone maven and editor-in-chief of InnerFidelity.com, answers questions from the chat-room. He starts with a new killer headphone for less than $100, then discusses a variety of topics, including dual- and multi-driver headphones, balanced-armature drivers, whether or not price correlates with performance, how measurements correlate with performance, wireless headphones, high-res audio on headphones, his measurement and review process, and more. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guest: Tyll Hertsens Subscribe to Home Theater Geeks at https://twit.tv/shows/home-theater-geeks Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show.

HTG 369: Bringing Cinema Home - Rating cinema performance.

2017-08-3101:12:17

Personal-cinema architect John Bishop discusses how he rates the performance of commercial cinemas with a 100-point scale, which provides a benchmark for how home cinemas should perform. In this episode, he focuses on the visual aspects, including viewing geometry, flat-field uniformity, light levels, screen materials, viewing angles, and other factors. Next, he offers ratings of various reference and commercial cinemas as well as some of the best home cinemas he has worked on. Plus, answers to chat-room questions and more. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guest: John Bishop Subscribe to Home Theater Geeks at https://twit.tv/shows/home-theater-geeks Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show.

HTG 368: All About Aspect Ratios - Getting the aspect ratio right.

2017-08-2401:11:52

Personal-cinema architect John Bishop talks about movie aspect ratios and how to accurately reproduce them. Topics include the aspect ratios of different movies through history, how some movies (such as Dunkirk and The Dark Knight) use more than one aspect ratio, his experience seeing Dunkirk in several venues with different projection setups, optical-anamorphic versus electronic aspect-ratio control, how electronic scaling affects resolution and contrast, the constant image-height approach to multi-aspect-ratio setups, answers to chat-room questions, and more. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guest: John Bishop Subscribe to Home Theater Geeks at https://twit.tv/shows/home-theater-geeks Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show.

HTG 367: Immersive Audio for VR - VR and binaural audio.

2017-08-1701:08:35

Audio engineer Bob Schulein talks about his work combining immersive binaural audio with virtual reality. Topics include the difference between VR for gaming and music recordings, different techniques for capturing binaural sound, head tracking, combining immersive audio with 3D video, Bob's latest project recording a bluegrass band in binaural audio and 3D video, binaural recordings from the artist's perspective, binaural playback with speakers, answers to chat-room questions, and more. We also play several clips with binaural audio, which can only be heard in the video versions of the podcast; the audio-only MP3 is mono, so no binaural effects can be heard in that case. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guest: Bob Schulein Subscribe to Home Theater Geeks at https://twit.tv/shows/home-theater-geeks Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show.

HTG 366: The World According to Bob Carver - Amp guru Bob Carver talks tech.

2017-08-1001:09:34

Audio legend Bob Carver talks about what he's been up to lately with his new company, Bob Carver Corporation. Topics include tube amps and why they continue to be so appealing, new approaches to tube-amp design, increasing tube longevity, amplifier topologies, the importance of the output transformer, the relationship between power amps and speakers, damping factor, Bob's latest power amps, line-array speakers, Bob's Amazing Line Source speaker, his thoughts on subwoofers, answers to chat-room questions, and more. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guest: Bob Carver Subscribe to Home Theater Geeks at https://twit.tv/shows/home-theater-geeks Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show.

HTG 365: Quantum Dots and MicroLEDs - What are quantum dots?

2017-08-0301:06:53

Nanomaterial expert Peter Palomaki talks about quantum dots and microLEDs and how they apply to video displays. Topics include what quantum dots are, how they function, what they're made of, why cadmium-based quantum dots work best but are toxic, new materials used in the shells of quantum dots, the current and future ways they're used in TVs, replacing phosphors in LEDs with quantum dots, microLEDs and how they might be used in video displays, manufacturing microLEDs, answers to chat-room questions, and more. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guest: Peter Palomaki Subscribe to Home Theater Geeks at https://twit.tv/shows/home-theater-geeks Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show.

HTG 364: Chat-Room Q&A - Answers to chat-room questions.

2017-07-2701:11:23

AVS Forum Associate Editor Mark Henninger and host Scott Wilkinson spend a pleasant hour answering questions from the chat room. Topics include why home projectors don't yet implement Dolby Vision, 4K/UHD projectors in the $2-3K price range, home-theater lighting control, whether we prefer the LG E7 or Sony A1E OLED TV, will there ever be a single HDR format, high-resolution audio, headphone virtualization, VR for movies, Dolby Atmos, and more. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guest: Mark Henninger Subscribe to Home Theater Geeks at https://twit.tv/shows/home-theater-geeks Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show.

HTG 363: 2017 TV Shootout - Digging into the annual event.

2017-07-2001:09:22

Video technologists Joel Silver, Matt Murray, and Mark Henninger join host Scott Wilkinson to discuss the 2017 TV Shootout held during CE Week in New York City. Joel headed the event, Matt set up the entire system and was one of the judges, and Mark carefully observed the proceedings. Topics include the competing TVs, the addition of a Sony BVM-X300 4K HDR OLED broadcast-reference monitor, the move from audience voting to video-professional judges, the establishment of three performance categories (dark-room, bright room, and streaming), system setup, calibrating the TVs, the judging criteria, the comparative performance of the TVs, the winner, how closely the OLEDs performed, how the LCDs fared, answers to chat-room questions, and more. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guests: Joel Silver, Matt Murray, and Mark Henninger Subscribe to Home Theater Geeks at https://twit.tv/shows/home-theater-geeks Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show.

HTG 362: Samsung QLED & HDR10 Summit - All about quantum dots & HDR10.

2017-07-1301:24:33

Video specialists Joe Kane, Geoff Tully, and Ron Williams join host Scott Wilkinson to talk about the two-day Samsung QLED and HDR10 Summit we all recently attended. Topics include what quantum dots are, current use of QDs in video displays, replacing color filters with QDs, using QDs as direct emitters under electrical stimulation, LEDs, microLED displays, the variability of HDR compared with SDR, Joe Kane's vision for reducing that variability, HDR10+ dynamic metadata, Florian Friedrich's new HDR stability test patterns, answers to chat-room questions, and much more. Host: Scott Wilkinson Guests: Joe Kane, Geoffrey Tully, and Ron Williams Subscribe to Home Theater Geeks at https://twit.tv/shows/home-theater-geeks Thanks to CacheFly for the bandwidth for this show.

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