Is 4K HDR HDTV Now Mainstream TV Tech?

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
I'm not going to get a Vizio. I don't like their bovine scat of "tuner free" as if they've somehow sanitized the fecking TV of some undesirable aspect. The more I think about it, the more I give Vizio the Thumbs Down.


It's actually an undesireable feature for most. Most get their TV via a cable/sat/fiber provider or over a streaming provider. And when ATSC3 comes around in the next few years that tuner will be obsolete. IMHO GoogleCast is much more of a feature than a tuner. The D-series still have tuners if you need them.

We've got 3 Vizios, 2 in the house and one in the camper. All are great sets and great values for the $$.

 

[JustinH]

My mother in law's husband bought a Tunerless Vizio TV from BJ's Wholesale club, then wondered why he couldn't plug the off air antenna into it.

Back to the store it went.

Now I see that Sams club is writing in bold letters that it is tunerless and explaining what that means to the laymen.

 

[alarmguy]

Originally Posted By: itguy08
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
I'm not going to get a Vizio. I don't like their bovine scat of "tuner free" as if they've somehow sanitized the fecking TV of some undesirable aspect. The more I think about it, the more I give Vizio the Thumbs Down.


It's actually an undesireable feature for most. Most get their TV via a cable/sat/fiber provider or over a streaming provider. And when ATSC3 comes around in the next few years that tuner will be obsolete. IMHO GoogleCast is much more of a feature than a tuner. The D-series still have tuners if you need them.

We've got 3 Vizios, 2 in the house and one in the camper. All are great sets and great values for the $$.


Disagree, for this reason.
Over the air TV signal is superior to Cable and Satellite. Pay TV services compress the signals producing a less sharp picture.
Its like night and day upon careful examination.

Not to say pay TV isnt acceptable but free over the air TV picture is much better.

SO if your one to appreciate that fact, no matter how you look at it, Vizio is not the brand to buy.

It blows my mind (not directed at you in anyway) that people, many young, feel they need to pay for TV, what for?
Answer - Because corporations trained them to pay.

Here is a quote from the very link you provided and I know it is true because I confirmed this myself when we went over the air many years ago.
My first reaction and my wifes, was what a great picture and FAR exceeds picture quality of streaming and pay TV when the option exists to use the Antenna. Only as the article states, Blu Ray does exceed, its close though.

Click for more

"OTA HD is still some of the best looking HD (other than Blu-ray), so with any luck, OTA 4K will be high-quality too."

 

[alarmguy]

Correct to my post above, the quote was not from a link you provided, I thought I deleted that statement and as we know in BITOG we can not go back and edit once time expires

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: alarmguy
Pay TV services compress the signals producing a less sharp picture.
Yup, and some providers compressed their streams more than others. I used to have DirecTV (satellite), which used reasonable compression levels. Alas, satellite has its own quality problems related to weather interference. Then I switched to AT&T U-verse which uses a much higher compression. When you sit fairly close to the TV, like you should, to take advantage of that glorious 1080 image, then you see the compression artifacts, especially around text. And if the video content has a lot of action in it (like sports), then it really gets bad - the entire screen becomes an unintelligible pixelated blur.

 

[itguy08]

Originally Posted By: alarmguy


Disagree, for this reason.
Over the air TV signal is superior to Cable and Satellite. Pay TV services compress the signals producing a less sharp picture.
Its like night and day upon careful examination.


My eyes must be bad or our local channels must compress their OTA streams too much to do the subchannels. The camper TV on OTA and the picture from DirecTV look pretty darn close. Even comparing the picture from the 70" in the living room to the 40" in the camper. That may be true on some systems (Cough COMCAST, Cough).

Netflix looks great but we do have a decent Internet plan.

Quote:
SO if your one to appreciate that fact, no matter how you look at it, Vizio is not the brand to buy.


You buy the Vizio D series with tuners.

Quote:
It blows my mind (not directed at you in anyway) that people, many young, feel they need to pay for TV, what for?
Answer - Because corporations trained them to pay.


I hear you - I'd love to ditch it all but there is some shows we enjoy watching on cable. Might look into some other options though. And if I went antenna I'd want a box like the ChannelMaster with DVR functionality built in so we can watch on our schedule, not theirs.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
They took the tuner out of some models, not all. Mostly higher end units - if you're using it in a home theater, typically the built in tuner will never be used as most would prefer a DVR. I know I've never used it, I have an OTA antenna and it goes into a DVR.


I remember they used to call these tunerless TV HD ready. Can they really advertise it as TV as is?

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: dishdude
They took the tuner out of some models, not all. Mostly higher end units - if you're using it in a home theater, typically the built in tuner will never be used as most would prefer a DVR. I know I've never used it, I have an OTA antenna and it goes into a DVR.


I remember they used to call these tunerless TV HD ready. Can they really advertise it as TV as is?


No, that's why they call them 'Home Theater Displays'.

It's been 20 years since I've used a built in tuner on any TV, and I have an OTA antenna on my roof that I am using right now.

 

[alarmguy]

Originally Posted By: itguy08
Originally Posted By: alarmguy


Disagree, for this reason.
Over the air TV signal is superior to Cable and Satellite. Pay TV services compress the signals producing a less sharp picture.
Its like night and day upon careful examination.


My eyes must be bad or our local channels must compress their OTA streams too much to do the subchannels. The camper TV on OTA and the picture from DirecTV look pretty darn close. Even comparing the picture from the 70" in the living room to the 40" in the camper. That may be true on some systems (Cough COMCAST, Cough).

Netflix looks great but we do have a decent Internet plan.

Quote:
SO if your one to appreciate that fact, no matter how you look at it, Vizio is not the brand to buy.


You buy the Vizio D series with tuners.

Quote:
It blows my mind (not directed at you in anyway) that people, many young, feel they need to pay for TV, what for?
Answer - Because corporations trained them to pay.


I hear you - I'd love to ditch it all but there is some shows we enjoy watching on cable. Might look into some other options though. And if I went antenna I'd want a box like the ChannelMaster with DVR functionality built in so we can watch on our schedule, not theirs.


Just to be clear, I only speak of the superior free video with an antenna vs pay TV on the major networks main stations. ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX. Im not getting into sub channels.

Yes, depending on your PAY TV service, it may be hard for some to see a significant difference in quality and for others to see a large difference in quality but the story here is, the free over the air picture is always equal at worst and normally better then the one people pay for, its indisputable, weather or not someone has an issue with their TV or set up, cant help them there.
Bottom line, free over the air TV with an antenna will beat streaming and pay TV picture quality on the major networks main stations.

Channel Master DVR+ is a must have. Fantastic device, works EXACTLY LIKE ANY PAY TV BOX.
We have been using their products for years and would never not have one. DVR+ was the best one ever, full TV schedule and acts EXACTLY like ANY pay TV box.
Bad news is, they discontinued them! GEEZ! Went to some cheap streaming piece of [censored].
I was going to get my son and daughter in law one for Christmas and that is when I found out.

Good news is TIVO makes one, purchased it, still have to get to my sons house and hook it up./
This is what I bought them

 

[alarmguy]

I never caught that before, twist of words from Vizio, the majority of their products no longer have tuners so they call them displays, and Vizio does not call them TVs.
BUT the thing is, the advertisements from the retailers were or still are, lacking pointing out NO tuner.

No doubt it created a huge amount of confusion at first until properly labeled boxes started appearing as most people would expect a product bought in a store to have a tuner, no matter the words use.

I have to admit, "Display" sounds really nice compared to "TV". But its just a way to cheap out on a tuner. In fact, TVs can be called displays too. Its no different, play on words, cheap on not including tuner.

More or less, having a "Home Theater Display" is a play on words by Vizio to cheap out for profit.
)

 

[SubLGT]

Wait a little. 6K SHDR is just around the corner.