On today’s episode of You Asked: Why don’t wireless OTA antenna kits exist, and is it even possible to get your antenna signal transmitted wirelessly? Can a mirror magically make your TV look several times better? What’s the best TV for anime? And can an in-ceiling speaker surround system be really impressive?
Signal interruption fix
Martyn from “across the pond” writes that after wall-mounting their LG G-Series OLED, there was some kind of signal interruption between their antenna (or aerial) and their TV. After hooking up their TV to the coaxial cable connection for the antenna, nothing happened. There’s probably a fault in the cable, however it’s routed through the walls in a Victorian home, so digging it out and replacing it isn’t an option. They looked into getting a wireless transceiver kit and were disappointed to find out that, apparently, no such product exists. So, the question is: What’s the solution?
I’ll spell out that solution shortly. First, why in this day and age of wireless-everything boxes is there not a box that just takes a TV antenna signal and wirelessly beams it to a receiver connected to your TV? Often, the location of the TV is not the best place for an antenna. There’s clearly a need to be able to put the antenna where it should go, put the TV where it needs to be, and then wirelessly beam a signal from one to the other to avoid the hassle of running a cable through the house or, in this case, replacing an existing faulty coaxial cable.
The reason that no wireless transmitter and receiver can just take a raw TV antenna signal and send it over the air wirelessly? The signal itself spans a broad range of the wireless spectrum and is heavily modulated. The equipment needed to wirelessly retransmit a signal like that is restricted to professional video folks. Not only is the signal too complicated to re-broadcast – and actually illegal to do so without a broadcasting license – it would be extremely susceptible to interference, likely with other wireless devices in a home.
In the US, this is heavily regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). That’s why you won’t find a TV antenna that doesn’t have a coaxial cable attached to it.
What can you do? The key is to connect a tuner to the antenna itself at the antenna’s location. The tuner demodulates the signal and turns it into a video signal, and that demodulated, display-ready video signal can then be wirelessly transmitted throughout the home over Wi-Fi.
That’s what OTA tuners and DVRs – like Tablo and SiliconDust – do. They take the signal from an antenna, process it, and then make it available to watch via a Wi-Fi network. The SiliconDust HDHomeRun Flex Duo 2 is a box that will allow you to watch up to two different channels at the same time from anywhere you have internet. You can watch broadcast TV through their app, which is available on iPhone, Android, Xbox, Apple TV, Roku, and LG (I’m not sure about Samsung Tizen – you’d want to double check).
This device isn’t a DVR, but it can become one if you add an external hard drive, which allows you to not only watch live TV, but also to record up to two channels at a time, whenever you want, wherever you want.
The Tablo devices are similar, but most of those are DVRs – so you’re buying a DVR on top of the wireless TV solution. However, the pricing is very competitive. I don’t think the Tablo brand is available in the UK or Europe – I’m guessing that’s where you are since you said “across the pond” – but there are likely other brands available. Just look for an OTA DVR or a device similar to the HDHomeRun.
Why does my TV look better in the mirror?
This next question is wacky and kind of a mystery.
Oliver writes that they have a Sony TV near the entrance of the house, and opposite to the TV is a mirror. They swear that the mirror makes the TV’s picture quality significantly better – jaw-dropping, in fact. What’s going on here? Is this mirror magic? How can a mirrored image look better than the image source?
There are several potential factors at play, and it’s likely a combination of them that makes the TV look better in the mirror than viewing the TV directly.
Mirrors don’t actually reflect 100 percent of light – they absorb some of it. Most mirrors have a black backing – without it you could see through them, like a two-way mirror – that absorbs some of the light shining on them. This means some of the brightness of your TV will be knocked down, but it may also cause the TV to appear to have better black levels than it actually does because any blooming is erased. The contrast of the TV may appear to be superior in the mirror, even though the total brightness has been knocked down.
In fact, the reflected mirror image might make an LCD TV look like an OLED TV (with perfect black levels that are jaw-dropping to see). Also, the mirror will help counteract some of the TV’s own anti-glare measures. When the TV is viewed directly, some low-level light smearing and rainbow effects from anti-glare treatments are going to be visible. The mirror, again, will knock that effect down, making the TV look even better.
A mirror could also mute image artifacts because, in practice, it is actually distorting the image.
Is this magic? No, it’s science, but probably seems like magic.
Best TV for watching anime (or whatever)
Andy writes in wondering what is the best TV for anime?
I get this type of question – which TV is best for anime, sports, or movies – quite often, but it’s worth talking about periodically.
To address this topic, let’s start out by talking about speakers. When I worked at a loudspeaker company, people would come into the showroom looking for speakers that were best for rock, EDM, jazz, classical, or country. I understand why: Many folks want speakers that make the music they love sound as good as they want it to.
The best speakers will sound amazing no matter the music genre. If they can sound true to the source – the way the music was meant to sound – they are great speakers. That means that they need to be able to cover the full spectrum of audio frequencies in a balanced way and steer clear of distortion. After that, it’s a matter of taste. Do you want your speakers to put out a ton of bass? Then you need a speaker that can put out a ton of bass. Do you like super aggressive, hot treble that sounds crisp and clean? You’ll want a speaker that can play super high frequencies at very high sound pressure levels without distortion (you might want a horn-loaded tweeter, like the kind you find in a Klipsch, for example). A speaker may sound great for classical or all-acoustic jazz because the bass demands for those genres tend to be lower than for hip-hop or R&B. The treble and upper midrange demands tend to be lower for classical and acoustic jazz than, say, rock, which involves a lot of loud, crunchy guitar distortion.
So, for classical and acoustic jazz and some folk music, a really great bookshelf speaker may be all you need. But for music that places higher demands on the bass or treble regions, a larger tower speaker may be needed. You could also add subwoofers to bookshelf speakers to get closer to what you want. The best speakers, however, can do all, regardless of the music genre.
Apply this logic to TVs. The best TVs are content-agnostic and display everything beautifully. That’s not to say that you can’t target a TV that is sufficient for your more limited needs as opposed to shooting for the moon. (If you’re just doing a bunch of short, in-town driving trips, you could get away with a B&W i3 and its limited range rather than get a Tesla, right?)
The most important aspect of picture quality is contrast. You want the best possible black levels and the brightness will depend largely on the viewing environment and individual tastes. If you just watch TV news, where the image is nothing special, then who cares? Get the brightest TV you can afford and call it good. If you watch a lot of sports, a high refresh rate is important (but I would argue a high refresh rate is always important).
However, for anime, movies, high-quality TV shows, and even high-quality YouTube content, the needs are the same: high contrast, which starts with the best possible black levels, and then accurate, vibrant color. For the image to look good, you’ll need decent processing – that counts for all genres of video content.
If cost is no object and you don’t watch anime during the day with sunlight pouring into the room, get a 55-inch OLED TV that you can afford.
Can in-ceiling speakers sound great?
D’Chris writes that he’s closing on a new construction home soon and the builder offers pre-wiring for a 5-channel in-ceiling speaker system. D’Chris knows that the ear-level LCR (left, center, right) speakers would be preferable, but also wonders if they went ahead with the in-ceiling wiring, could the front in-ceilings be repurposed for Atmos channels?
The first thing that comes to mind: Why won’t they wire the LCR for in-walls instead of in-ceilings? Is it because of how the room is set up? If it’s new construction, they should be able to do whatever you want. Also, the wiring runs for in-walls will be shorter than in-ceiling. (Did they already put the sheet-rock up? They can fish it, no problem.)
If in-ceiling is the only option, that’s fine. If you have the means, get it wired up. Go ahead and get in-ceiling speakers installed: Get a high-quality speaker made from a well-respected audio brand – and one that can be aimed at your listening position.
In-ceiling systems can sound awesome if they are set up right and the speakers are well powered. Some in-ceiling speakers even come with their own enclosures – they aren’t the open-baffle design, so they can sound more refined – and less is left to chance.
If you decided it wasn’t good enough – and I do think you’ll be pleasantly surprised – you can continue using the back two speakers as surrounds, set up bookshelf or floorstanding speakers up front, and then use two of the three front in-ceiling speakers as Atmos channels. The center speaker would just be the odd one out. (Most receivers and processors that you’re likely to consider don’t have processing that would allow you to task that speaker as a center-front Atmos channel.)
I’d take discreet front channels in the ceiling with some decent separation over a three-channel passive soundbar any day. I hope that helps and if I missed something, let me know.
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