Home entertainment technology and how to get the most bang for the buck
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We SCPD residents get Spectrum cable for Internet and TV. The equipment Spectrum uses is mediocre at best and outright terrible if you know anything about it. They give us 2x DVRs because one of them is insufficient to record a couple of shows and let you watch a third. It really is terrible. Plus you have these big ugly boxes on your TV stand(s).
Well, it turns out that you don't need these DVRs to watch Spectrum TV. They have an app you can use on most smart TVs, Apple TV, Amazon Fire stick, and other streaming devices. You can watch live TV using the app and you can watch shows you would record with a DVR with their Video On Demand in the app. So you can ditch those DVRs.
I recommend Apple TV. It simply is the best streaming device made - its menus are gorgeous and everything works very fast because it has a fast computer processor in it. It also supports the best in advanced video and audio capabilities offered by streaming services and 4K DVDs.
You will want to create an account at spectrum.com. You can use this username and password to sign in to many apps you can download for the Apple TV because we get some streaming services for FREE because of what we get with Spectrum.
For example, we get MAX for free, instead of having to pay $16.99 /month for it like everyone else does. But you have to sign into max using your TV Provider, which is Spectrum. And for that you need an account with Spectrum.
We also get access to any app that we have a channel for with our Spectrum HOA subscription - like ESPN and CNN and CNBC and others.
VIDEO
The TV you have matters if you want near theater (or better than theater) experience. You will want a BIG screen if you want 4K programming (which is gorgeous). The smaller the TV, the closer you have to sit to the screen to get the benefit of 4K. For example, for a 55" TV the recommended maximum distance from where you sit to watch to the screen is 7.7 feet. For a 65" the maximum distance is 9 feet. A 70" TV has about a 10 foot maximum recommended distance.
We have a 77" 4K TV and sit about 6 feet from it. Watching movies is an immersive experience.
My preference for brand of TV is Sony. They say you "pay the Sony tax" for the TV, but their software and hardware combination is as good as it gets. At the low end, Vizio is a "cheap" brand, but makes some fantastic quality screens.
AUDIO
For the longest time, we were stuck with low resolution picture tube TVs. Even with cable, programming was designed for this format. But while the state of the art in picture quality was stagnant for 30+ years (1960s through about 2000), the quality of audio vastly improved.
You may have heard of Dolby Labs (or just "Dolby"). What they have done over these years is provide TV programmers with better and better quality sound. Originally, we had a tinny sounding speaker on the TV but Dolby came up with stereo and ways to encode 5 channels of sound on a stereo signal (compatible with stereo players and with 5 channel players).
What do these channels get you?
With stereo, two people talking on screen, the person on the left's voice comes out the left speaker and the person on the right's voice comes out the right speaker. With 5 channel sound, you have 2 surround speakers to your left and right and front left/middle/right speakers. A race car sound might come from the rear right to the front right to the middle to the left as it passes by on the screen. It's exactly what you'd hear in a theater.
Today with streaming services and 4K DVD, they can provide 7 channel sound (add two more surround speakers behind you) to make the sound "stage" 360 degrees around you.
All audio formats, from stereo to the 5 and 7 channel surround formats also allow you to add a subwoofer to significantly enhance the low end or bass sounds. An explosion in the movie will have a much richer sound with the subwoofer.
If you see 5.1 or 7.1 or 2.1 as the audio format, it means 5 channels plus subwoofer, or 7 channels plus subwoofer. You will see these numbers while browsing movies to watch on Netflix or MAX or whatever services you subscribe to.
Stereo, 5 channel, and 7 channel sound are mixed by a recording engineer. He'll record the sound track so the race car's volume decreases in the rear right and increases in the front right as it passes by on your right, etc.
The ultimate audio today is ATMOS. Rather than clever mixing to make the sound surround you (SURROUND SOUND after all!), the engineer places objects, like a helicopter, in 3D space and as it moves in 3D space, the audio equipment decides the volume per speaker and which speakers the sound comes from. It's far more accurate.
ATMOS allows for as few as 5 speakers and up to 13 or more speakers. The idea is that the sound system is fed the 3D information about the helicopter and uses the 5 or 13 or 7 or whatever number of speakers you have to best present the sound.
What's particularly exciting about ATMOS is that it provides for more than a 360 degrees around you (SURROUND) sound stage. If add speakers in the ceiling, those will be used to provide "height" to the sound stage. You will hear rain and thunder from the ceiling speakers, the helicopter from the ceiling speakers, and so on.
The quality of the sound system you want is up to you. A sound bar and 2 rear surround speakers and a subwoofer is going to be really good sound. You will enjoy it.
Dolby's WWW site has diagrams for how to set up speakers for the various formats. For example, here's how they recommend you set up 7.1 speakers:
7.1 Virtual Speaker Setup
Set up your home theater with 7.1 virtual speakers enabled with Dolby Atmos using our PDF and guide for optimal sound. Experience your entertainment in Dolby.
(www.dolby.com)
If you have any questions or want my advice, feel free to ask here.
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Dont agree at all with your description of the Spectrum service. Their DVR's can record a tremendous number of shows at one time. I have about 30 one hour shows recorded on one DVR and am only 35% full. Their picture quality is excellent. I know about picture quality, since I worked in the video production business for 25 years. In addition, most newer TV's upgrade the picture from HD to 4K so ;you can enjoy outstanding picture quality......if your picture settings are correct. I have no complaints about Spectrum and their service is excellent if you need them.
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@Videoguy I wasn’t speaking to storage, but the number of tuners. If you have 3 tuners, you can watch 1 program while recording 2 at the same time.
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Mike,
Concur with almost all you have said. Especially about the crappy Spectrum DVRs. One of my biggest gripes about the DVRs is that they are separate and don't talk to each other. Almost every one of the seven places I've lived over the last 15 years have a main DVR in the living room and then a "slave" small box in the bedroom that will play anything off of the DVR. That way you don't have to have separate recordings in the bedroom and living room. There is only one DVR and the slave units act as an extension of the DVR. Spectrum doesn't offer this feature even for their market rate plans that non-SCPD customers have.
Currently, since the Spectrum DVRs are not great, I have a TiVo DVR. While the TiVo experience is the best in the DVR industry, I would not recommend them for SCPD residents as they require a CableCard and Spectrum no longer supports them and you need one from your cable provider to make a TiVo operate with cable.
If/when my Spectrum CableCard gives up the ghost, I will have two external options as I don't believe the Spectrum DVR is an option. My first choice will be DirecTV, as they have the second best DVR in the industry and is usually exceptional service. I've had DirecTV at six different locations across the US. Weather has hardly been a factor anywhere, and you can customize your service to match your desires. Like I've previously said, they have a slave unit for the bedrooms. Downsiides are that you have to have a dish on your property and that it can be expensive. But if you want some of the best tv service, you'll get it with DirecTV.
My next option is YouTubeTV. Not YouTube, but the full tv service that you run via an app on your tv or a set top box like those you've mentioned. It sounds similar to the Spectrum online service you described above. Many similar features. I just really like it because it mimics a DVR better than the Spectrum service.
I also have to agree with you that the AppleTV 4K set top box is the best in the industry. I've had AppleTV units since the first one they released and haven't found anything better.
I think you covered the audio side of things exceptionally well. Thanks for the write up.
Joe
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@Joe the whole point of my post was to explain how you can ditch the DVRs entirely and use the Spectrum App on smart TV or Apple TV or other streaming box. Whatever you record on the DVR is almost surely available through video on demand in the app.
I am truly surprised that Spectrum hasn’t upgraded the set top boxes they use. The ones they use are made by Arris, and are the same ones I had in San Diego in 2008.
If they have upgraded the boxes, they are giving us the old used ones because we pay so little for the services than non bulk customers do.
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@mschwartz I agree with your post, I was just offering a couple of different options, both for hardware and software options for watching tv. Wasn't trying to take away anything from what you said.
I was very glad to see your post as like you said, Spectrum DVR is junk. A few other options out there for those that want something different.
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@Joe said in Home entertainment technology and how to get the most bang for the buck:
@mschwartz I agree with your post, I was just offering a couple of different options, both for hardware and software options for watching tv. Wasn't trying to take away anything from what you said.
I was very glad to see your post as like you said, Spectrum DVR is junk. A few other options out there for those that want something different.
We decommissioned our TiVos and went with the Apple TVs.
The cable card requires another ugly set top box…
As far as bandwidth goes, people may think it really just takes 3-5 minutes to upload a photo they just took with their phone so they can include it in email or post it to messages. Just because people don’t know what they’re missing doesn’t mean that 20mbit up is good for most people.
I suspect that most people take photos with their phones.
