On today ’s episode of You ask : What are the differences betweenHDMI 2.1 , 2.1a , and 2.1b ? Are old OLED TV compatible with thePlayStation 5 Pro ? Why 4 KB Blu - beam - quality digital downloads do n’t be ? What cover sizes are best for attain a cinematic experience at abode ? Plus , TCL ’s Bruce Walker joins Caleb in the studio to talk over TCL ’s elephantine TVs , vacation deal , and what might be come at CES 2025 .
HDMI 2.1 vs. 2.1a vs. 2.1b
Kbarso who writes : What is the difference between HDMI 2.1 , HDMI 2.1a and HDMI 2b ? . Is a 2019 OLED idiot box ( with stock HDMI 2.1 ) goodness for the PS5 Pro that has HDMI 2.1b ?
So , short answer : Yes , your LG C9 is a great compeer for a PS5 Pro . Here ’s why .
HDMI 2.1 — without the A or B — includes just about every modern HDMI feature article you could want . That includes up to 48 Gb per second bandwidth , Auto Low Latency Mode , 4 K 144Hz , 8 K 60Hz — almost all the stuff that you want out of the latest HDMI variation . HDMI 2.1a add together sustenance for source - based tone mapping .
But , the PS5 Pro — and anterior versions of the PS5 — permit you to use HGiG tone mathematical function , where you do a quick calibration on the PS5 , and that hold in the tint mapping rather than the television . The only difference is that it requires a bit of remark from you .
HDMI 2.1b fundamentally summate some constancy fixes for the source - free-base tonicity - mapping feature that come with HDMI 2.1a .
So , again , the LG C9 will sour great with the PS5 , and you ’ll get the well HDR picture possible by doing that manual HDR standardisation .
4K Blu-ray-quality digital downloads
Michael Grundle writes : Hi , are there any digital memory board that sell Blu - beam - quality digital downloads ? I could n’t find any . It seems like this is the solution to physical spiritualist ’s slow demise . I see that Blu - beam are massive store - wise , but we live in a world where you buy to own games that you download , why ca n’t we have this for pic ? It would be cool to own digital version of Blu - ray including menus and special features .
Thanks for your question , Michael . I ’ll start by sound out that I wish well this were a thing as well — I ’d love to be able to just buy a 4 K Blu - beam - quality version of a movie as a digital download , or maybe pay superfluous on top of the disk price to get that . regrettably , this does not exist — not as you and I are envisioning it , anyway .
The close thing to owning the digital download interpretation of a 4 K Blu - ray is through Kaleidescape — they make in high spirits - end home theatre motion picture server . But those downloads are proprietary , and so is the equipment you must use to play back those digital file . It ’s not like you’re able to run it back using your PC or through a medium waiter like Plex .
alfresco of that , the tight thing is streaming your digital movies through iTunes , Fandango at Home ( that ’s what VUDU has become ) , or Movies Anywhere .
you may also rip your 4 K Blu - shaft of light and make your own copies , which is sound so long as you own the movie on magnetic disk and do n’t lot or otherwise screen that pic for commercial-grade purposes .
But , yeah , with storage getting less and less expensive , I think it would be cool if we could move toward purchasing digital versions of our film that are at that caliber level . It would still be expensive , but it seems like a low lift for production menage , so why not ? They would for sure make more gain security deposit by not involve disc manufacturing and dispersion .
Cinema experience at home
Will writes : You late covered some really big TV screens . In your experience , considering typical domestic room size and average showing distances , what screen size really start to sense like a cinema experience ?
Well , Will , I ’ll do my best here . The affair is , I ’m just not sure what the typical domesticated room size of it is anymore . I mean , in the United States alone , the elbow room sizing in which someone is watching their TV and , by some extension anyway , the catch aloofness , seems super wide-ranging . In my own life , I ’ve been anywhere from 8 to 12 feet by from my covert , but I ’ve seen some dwelling with so - called great rooms where folks are 15 feet or more away .
I think we can simplify this by relying on a tried and trust computer to get us originate . THX suggest that you take your viewing aloofness in inches and manifold that by 0.835 to get the screen size , in in , that will come off as cinematic . So , if we take a viewing length of 10 metrical foot — that ’s 120 inch — and we procreate that by 0.835 , we get about 100 inches .
I think that is a good starting point . I suppose a 98 - in television set , viewed at about 10 feet away , is awesome . From there , you could go a little heavy and be okay , and you’re able to go a little smaller and still have a great experience .
Now , that calculator is n’t concern with resolution or whether you could see pixelation or any of that stuff — it ’s about occupying your field of view in a personal manner that is similar to what you might go through in a commercial movie theater . But keep in judgement that even in a commercial theater , there is a seraphic spot , sure , but you may be far away than “ ideal ” if you sit in the back , or closer than ideal if you ’re seat in the front .
I cogitate that calculator is a really solid start point for someone whose main end is to seek to get the most cinematic experience possible . Now , if we take the largest TV screen size useable now — 120 inches , which is also a very popular projector screen sizing — and we bring backwards , that mean the “ idealistic ” take in distance would be 12 foot .
Interview with Bruce Walker of TCL North America
Speaking of Brobdingnagian TVs , I ’m frantic to bring in Bruce Walker , Product Evangelist at TCL – the caller creditworthy for bringing us monolithic TVs like the 120 - inchQM891Gas well as the 98 - inch Q6 and 98 - column inch QM7 . Time to check a small more about how TCL is doing what it ’s been doing , and I ’m gon na see if I can squeeze a picayune bit about what we might see at CES 2025 out of him , too .
Caleb : Bruce Walker , thank you for literally flying across the area this morning to bring together us in our studio . This is the first time that we ’ve host a Edgar Albert Guest here in the studio . I ’m honored . And , yeah , I mean , you literally flew across the country . give thanks you for doing that .
Bruce : Thank you for host me . I ’m very activated to be here .
Excited to blab out to you and your audience and talk about exciting TCL stuff and nonsense .
Caleb : Look , I sense like we demand to spill the beans about the TCL storey because , from my seat , I mean , we ’ll go back to the first TCL TV I reviewed . It was a 6 - series TV . What was the model turn ? The P607 . That really started it all right , because that TV landed in my testing research lab , and anybody who go back and watch the review will see that we were shocked . Like , it kind of come out of nowhere for us . What was that like for somebody in your seat ? Because antecedently , get ’s be fair , TCL was more of a budget - oriented make that you might find at Walmart or wherever and now you ’ve catch this TV that ’s competing with the best out there . What was that like for you cat ?
Bruce : It was really fun . It was a watershed second for us . You know , when we were talk to member of the sensitive and masses at CES , saying , This is going to be one of the lustrous Dolby Vision TVs on the market this year , the general reply was , “ Yeah , right . We ’ll see . ”
And it really paved the way and allowed customers to believe in TCL as a premium offering .
Caleb : From my seat , it seemed like that set off a bit of a shift in the mathematical product planning . So , what was that like at TCL ?
Bruce : Yeah , it was a sport Antoine Domino impression . We started getting practiced placement at retail mate , so masses could see premium TCL video sets . Then we were able-bodied to leverage all the thing we do great in term of innovation . You have a go at it , we introduced the macrocosm ’s first big - screen quantum - loony toons boob tube back in 2015 . I ’m very excited that many of the reviews we see now — back when the P605 came out around that time , it was all about value , economic value , terms , time value , value , price . Oh , by the direction , it do pretty well too .
Now , we ’re shifting that narrative . So many of the reviews we see do n’t even mention monetary value until maybe as a footer : This tv set compare with this , this , and this from the big three . Oh , by the way of life , it ’s also really good note value .
Caleb : Something a lot of people might consider inside baseball , but it in reality has everything to do with how TCL makes its telecasting and how you make technology decisions . TCL is a vertically integrated company , veracious ? What does that mean , and what does that permit TCL to do that other producer maybe ca n’t ?
Bruce : So , the overarching picture is that we make every component that goes into a TV band . Your audience , the tech - savvy mass out there , might say when they see a TV , “ Who wee the panel for that TV ? ”
All the stuff we ’re blab about , we do . We make the control panel , the backlight , the processors , the feet . We make every component that get into a TV set .
And there are a whole host of welfare that go with that . If we check the entire manufacturing process , we can control the quality . We can ensure that component A kit and boodle utterly with component B when it ’s all put together .
And they ’re go to last a long time and be a good - lineament product . Then that dovetail into the value story : Why can I get a 75 - in TCL for the same Leontyne Price as a 65 - column inch and have all the same features ? If you see at the reviews , they ’re corresponding .
It ’s part of that vertical consolidation story .
Caleb : So , does that mean because you ’re grease one’s palms less region from other producer , you ’re not pay the markup on those theatrical role
Bruce : The jobber markup ? just . Because we ’re making it ourselves . Our panel fabrication adroitness , CSOT , makes our panels for all the tv set we blab out about . Because we make it ourselves , we can swivel and say , “ Oh , 98 - inch TVs are red-hot now . ” We can make 98 - inch panels and now we make more 98 - inch venire than any other panel manufacturing adroitness in the globe . And because we make it ourselves , we ’re not paying a contact markup , and we can bring incredible value to the market .
Caleb : See , it ’s all starting to make a lot more sensation for me now . I do n’t recollect I was aware of that .
Is that also why you ’re hold out to see more consistency in the panel across the dissimilar sizes ? Because , I mean , we expect at some other brand , and you might get a VA venire in one size of it and then an ADS Pro in another size . But you ’re logical across the board .
Bruce : We make our own high - performance VA panels , and on our QD - lead lines , it ’s really a new HVA panel , which improves the line within the mini - conduct ecosystem .
Caleb : Correct me if I ’m faulty , but I consider TCL was the first brand to relinquish a mini - run TV , right ?
Bruce : Yes ! Mini - LED has really reinvented LED TV technology . We insert the earth ’s first mini - LED tv set in 2019 , the 8 - series .
Caleb : It ’s been that long ?
Bruce : Yeah . And now , it ’s everyone ’s flagship tv set . It ’s mini - LED . All of our flagship TVs this twelvemonth are QD miniskirt - lead . We just need to make certain people interpret that that ’s an important distinction in the market place because , unfortunately , when you talk about mini - LED , there is n’t really a definition for it . A mini - LED is a little OLED ? If you took it to the absurd , you could make a television with one mini - result in the back of the backlight , and we ’d call it a mini - LED telly . You lie with , not all mini - LED is make equally , and when you see QD - LED , you may be see that it ’s going to give you top - tier performance .
Caleb : So what we ’re seeing here , on the right - hand side , first of all , you made this , veracious ? tell apart me the account about how you made this affair .
Bruce : Most of the snub have healed , but these are genuine , backlights . The TCL QD mini - LED backlight is from a QM8 telly . The other mini - lead backlight is an off - the - shelf backlight , veer up into piece of music , mail up to an amazing company in California and made these for us so that we , really put , you cognise , kind of a face to the name of what is QD miniskirt - LED . And you could see in there , the things that make our mysterious sauce , as it were .
And with QD being conduct , you get thing like our own HEXA mini - LED chips for incredible brightness . But also , Pirelli excellently once said , “ Power without restraint is nothing . ” So we make all this incredible brightness , but we ’ve also get our own in - household designed and manufactured UWA radical - wide - slant lens that take all that light and guide it to the front of the cabinet .
So it comes out through all the stratum of the TV . But it ’s our own HVA panel , which does a very good caper of , when there ’s no light , it closes up to give you deep , robust blacks . And when it opens up , you get a crack - bright picture on that panel type .
Caleb : I feel like that ’s kind of of import because I ’ve noted in my critical review in the past times that , allow ’s say , the numeral of mini - LEDs , the number of zones that were involved — everything else — let ’s say those were more or less equal .
The TCL ends up coming out on top in terms of the bootleg levels . And now I ’m hearing part of it is because of the VA panel that you ’re making . That makes sense because you could in reality see it .
Bruce : And then the last part of the equivalence that I feel really exciting is , you know , processing .
frankly , in our diligence , people lecture about processing and motility handling . It ’s Sony , and then everybody else . To their credit , this year , we have not only one processor but a kin of AiPQ processors starting in our S - Class TV . And when we get to our QD miniskirt - pass , we have our AiPQ Pro CPU . With that hefty backlight — again , with control — you get up to about 65,000 story of graduation .
So you not only get unbelievable vivid whites , but you ’ve measured specs that outgo what we exact they do : inscrutable , plenteous Black . You get an incredible grayscale , so you get outstanding shadow particular .
Caleb : But I do require to get back to this property because , on the right - hand side , what you ’re discover , if I ’m not false , are three mini - LED lights that are kind of hiding behind this sort of dome genus Lens .
And what you notice is that they ’re spaced fairly far apart , so there ’s a decent amount of gap in between those . And then on the left , we ’re looking at the TCL QD mini - result , where you ’re using private mini - LED diode , and they ’re space much more closely together .
Bruce : Yep . Very dumbly mob . You get near uniformness . You get better brightness .
Because there ’s so many and so densely packed , you’re able to have well zona control condition — all the benefit that come from doing that . And great picture performance .
Caleb : From the backlight horizontal surface , I consider what we ’re seeing here is that , rather than habituate a tight cluster of mini - LEDs and then employ some form of lens to broaden it out , you ’re using single mini - light-emitting diode .
And if I try you right , you may on an individual basis plow every single one of those mini - LEDs , right ? So it ’s not like you put a clustering on one table and can just turn that board on and off . you may actually flex each individual light on and off .
Bruce : That ’s very exciting .
Caleb : Now we ’re bug out to understand how it ’s really done .
Bruce : We ’re in the golden era of TV hardening . And the fact that we ’re now producing products that compete with the right of the best — we are majestic of the fact that we think that , liken to an OLED ( pure black , unnumerable contrast ratio ) , we cogitate in the dark man - cave surroundings , set like our QM7 and QM8 contend very well .
But then , in the arena of a normal lighting environment where most people watch their television , is really where we kind of stand apart . When you ’ve got 5,000 nits of peak brightness on our flagship TV curing , we call up it ’s the near choice for most people .
Caleb : And also , like , no burn - in , right ?
Bruce : With the TCL TV , the prescribed TV partner of Call of Duty , if you ’re a gamer out there , you could back all day and all night and not have to occupy about it .
Caleb : And I ’ve seen this question from viewer more times than I can count . How is TCL actually doing that ? I ’m starting to get the sense that it ’s about that vertical desegregation , correct ?
Bruce : Yep . But it also boil down to that fabrication . You know , the fact that — you look at that 98 in Q6 — it ’s our backlight , it ’s our control board , it ’s our processor .
Caleb : We ’re back to the whole , “ There is no interlocutor charging markup on all these dissimilar parts . ” you may actually make it in a mode that others merely ca n’t .
Bruce : And it ’s just been a resounding success . You know , through the end of last twelvemonth , we were No . 2 in sale for five years in a row .
Caleb : All decently , so I know that you do n’t have a crystal clump , but , like , how boastful do you think we ’re going to go here ?
I mean , 98 in is — I still call back — is a larger size than most people are presently disposed to take over in their home . But obviously , we ’re seeing those sell . So that ’s exchange . It used to be 65 inches was a huge idiot box , and now it ’s kind of like if you do n’t have it , it ’s not a huge TV . That ’s like the No . 1 size in the U.S. powerful now . Is croak big a big priority for TCL ?
Bruce : It ’s big for us . And I have to say — sorry — it ’s a huge ontogeny part of the market . The fact that I cite earlier — we make more 98 - inch panel than anybody out there . So a mickle of the marketing we ’ve been doing is , you know , giving people the permit to get a TV that handsome in their business firm .
And once you do , I say your childlike wonder — mouth about these , you know , 115 - inch screens and watching — it ’s just so much fun . It ’s a whole different ball of wax observation .
Caleb : I know that you ca n’t speak about CES — nobody can . It ’s a super - secret affair . But how frantic should I be about what TCL is bringing ?
Bruce : It ’s going to be another fun twelvemonth . I mean , our 2024 ware is the best that we ’ve ever made . I have sex we ’re going to be showing some capital stuff next twelvemonth as well , and we ’re going to be spill the beans about it before we hump it .
Caleb : Yeah , I cognise . It ’s total up super soon . And that ’s when I ’m going to see you next — is down in Las Vegas . Well , listen , man , thank you so much for coming all this way to give us some insight into it . It ’s all starting to make a bit more sense now because it all seemed kind of , “ How do they pull it off ? ” Now I cerebrate I understand a trivial piece well . And hopefully , the interview does as well .
Obviously , TCL is a remarkable choice . And look , the vacation shopping time of year is not over , you know ?
Yeah . And so , I imagine that a luck of folk are going to be looking to do that big upgrade .
Bruce : Measure that wall . Measure that stand . Find elbow room for it . You ’ll be happy you did .
