AVForums Podcast 30/03/2020: Samsung Q950TS 8K QLED TV and JVC N5 4K Projector reviews and more...

Phil Hinton

Editor
Staff member
Joined
Jan 18, 2001
Messages
11,712
Reaction score
12,833
Points
6,438
Location
AVForums
00:00:00 - Start
00:00:24 - What have we done this week?
00:14:00 - Current Competitions
00:15:10 - Phil reviews the JVC DLA-N5 4K Native Projector
00:29:26 - Steve reviews the Samsung Q950TS 8K TV
00:47:56 - Ed reviews the Naim NAIT XS3
00:51:24 - Upcoming reviews in April
00:54:41 - Ed's playlist, vinyl and album of the month
01:00:50 - Film of the month
01:05:33 - Films opening this week
01:07:41 - 4K and Blu-ray releases this week
01:11:12 - Disc of the month
01:13:25 - TV and Streaming releases this week
01:14:17 - Our initial thoughts on Disney Plus
01:24:46 - Best TV shows of the month
01:35:55 - Goodbyes
01:37:31 - Ends

Presented by Phil Hinton with Steve Withers, Ed Selley, Cas Harlow and Mark Botwright

Note: If you are having problems with subscription services and Apps, please deselect and then re-subscribe to the podcast feed, thanks.

Subscription link: AVForums Podcast


Time: 01:37:25 | File Size: 187mb | Direct Link
 
Last edited:
I've just checked Disney+ and Battle Beyond the Stars is not on there, although as I said in the podcast it is currently available on Amazon Prime. I don't want to be the guy who says I told you so... but I told you so!
 
Question is, how well does the Samsung Q950TS 8K work as a monitor and for gaming, do they still do their horrible 120hz PWM in all modes besides movie mode, which BTW seem to be the only one the reviewers take a serious look at. The 120hz PWM creates super annoying image duplication in 60 fps games. Also Samsung haven't supported proper sRGB and 444 chroma at the same time the last couple of years AND the color accuracy has saturated BUT looked weirdly off on orange and yellow colors compared to my Sony W900 and ZF9.
Show less


REPLY
 
@Ed Selley

Also, one of the best things about having to buy new tyres before handing a car back is that, in a roundabout way they are not your tyres, so leaving a large part of them on the tarmac is less of an issue lol.

I did got out in the Stinger the other day to collection something from Go-Outdoor the day of the lockdown. It's an ace road anyway, but good timing meant it was empty. Had much fun and actually did my first dry launch control.
 
I've just checked Disney+ and Battle Beyond the Stars is not on there, although as I said in the podcast it is currently available on Amazon Prime. I don't want to be the guy who says I told you so... but I told you so!

I havent watched that movie in a very long time, as I have Prime, and the time seemingly, i might just have to check that out.

Anyone know if Starcrash is available on any of the streaming platforms. Im sure its terrible to watch now but used to love it as a kid. Knightrider with a lightsabre! :rotfl:
 
Last edited:
I loved Battle Beyond the Stars as a teenager for two reasons... both of which were provided by Sybil Danning. I'll say no more, but if you've seen the film you'll know what I mean.
 
I couldn't wait for your review @Phil Hinton of the N5 so picked up the N5 and absolutely love it, X35 owner upgrading. I also agree that they will get more expensive, we have seen the JVC entry point go from £3k to £6.5k of their X/N series since 2012. I don't see that trend reversing.
 
I loved Battle Beyond the Stars as a teenager for two reasons... both of which were provided by Sybil Danning. I'll say no more, but if you've seen the film you'll know what I mean.
.......frantically presses Amazon button on TV remote.
 
I havent watched that movie in a very long time, as I have Prime, and the time seemingly, i might just have to check that out.

Anyone know if Starcrash is available on any of the streaming platforms. Im sure its terrible to watch now but used to love it as a kid. Knightrider with a lightsabre! :rotfl:
Starcrash is also available on Prime.
 
I loved Battle Beyond the Stars as a teenager for two reasons... both of which were provided by Sybil Danning. I'll say no more, but if you've seen the film you'll know what I mean.

.......frantically presses Amazon button on TV remote.


I hadn't heard of Battle Beyond the Stars nor of Sybil Danning, but having just frantically googled and some photographs came up, I fully see what Mr Withers means! :)
 
Ha ha ha @Casimir Harlow @Ed Selley Cas has completed Netflix, so was John Oliver correct in his latest episode when he said he was afraid of getting the Netflix end screen?

I, er obviously have a legal backup that is playing on my computer.

Screen Shot 2020-03-31 at 1.06.56 am.png
 
Thanks gents for this week's episode which is one of the look forward to moments of the week, especially with the current situation. Now that various media outlets are broadcasting from their respective homes, the quality of your production is noticeably better than a number of established organisations.

Look forward to all the planned reviews mentioned. Think more films ( not the big budget movies ) will be premiered at home in the coming months as the studios seek to maintain some form of cash flow. As for £15.99 a movie with limited viewing, I'm not sure that is good value on occasions. We saw The Invisible Man for £4.50 each ( Meerkhat movies ) at our local Odeon and took our own drinks/snacks as usual.
 
Think more films ( not the big budget movies ) will be premiered at home in the coming months as the studios seek to maintain some form of cash flow. As for £15.99 a movie with limited viewing, I'm not sure that is good value on occasions. We saw The Invisible Man for £4.50 each ( Meerkhat movies ) at our local Odeon and took our own drinks/snacks as usual.
So assuming there's two of you, that's £9.00. I notice some of the premiere streaming movies are priced at £9.99, which presumably would work for you, especially as you don't have to leave the comfort and safety of your own home.
 
Great podcast.

I am sceptical about the TV prices - I feel it could go anywhere.

On the face of it I agree prices could be high with low availability.

But on the other hand we already know busy activity in China is up in March and is likely to really ramp up in April.You could consider South Korea taking a similar but time delayed response but not that much behind.

Now China is already worried about demand worldwide and you could guess South Korea will be feeling the same within the next few weeks.

It looks possible Japan could be entering a bad time - so production could be massively down. Thing is Japan really isn't that critical in electronics production for consumer goods anymore.

So one way to look at this in China/South Korea there are these massive production plants which are designed to run at full production to be viable. Not only that they have massive supply chains which are also locally to production in the Asia region.

There have been reports in China of pay cuts and lay offs up to now. How will the Chinese authorities look at this? I don't know.

How do Chinese authorities look at how hey have subsidised production plants like LG OLED. Are there clauses that they must employ so many people for these subsides they have accepted? Does this mean they just have run production up to a certain value? Does that mean production plants would need to be closed permanently if they don't meet the original stipulations in the contract which gave them subsidies?

I just think it's up in the air at the moment where TV prices will go.
 
Guys, why no mention of the current quality of streaming during the crisis? Disney+ looks pretty much like DVD at present, also it tends to jump a frame every 5 minutes. Certain titles across Netflix and Prime have high compression too. I watched El Camino last night, and it looked like an old Youtube video when there was motion. I know there's a good reason for doing this but I thought you might find it technically interesting.
 
Thank you for the Podcast.

On Disney+, I would rather they not offer a 7day free trial and we get all Mandalorian episodes.

Sod Sky.
 
Guys, why no mention of the current quality of streaming during the crisis? Disney+ looks pretty much like DVD at present, also it tends to jump a frame every 5 minutes. Certain titles across Netflix and Prime have high compression too. I watched El Camino last night, and it looked like an old Youtube video when there was motion. I know there's a good reason for doing this but I thought you might find it technically interesting.
Because I'm not seeing these issues with the content I have viewed on streaming services. Atmos is missing on D+ but every other platform seems fine to me on my connection. I have heard people saying the same as you have, indeed Cas had an issue last week with some content, but where I am up north, I haven't seen any problems, so far.
 
Because I'm not seeing these issues with the content I have viewed on streaming services. Atmos is missing on D+ but every other platform seems fine to me on my connection. I have heard people saying the same as you have, indeed Cas had an issue last week with some content, but where I am up north, I haven't seen any problems, so far.
Hi Phil, you can check the reduced bitrate on Sony UHD tv’s when watching Netflix by pressing the i button. It should show 15.25mbps for 2160content, but instead is only 7.62mbps for 2160content.
As I recall on LG UHD TV’s the i button is accessed on LG WEB OS App via Mobile device = iPhone.

Perhaps you know this already and so what your saying is you don’t notice a reduction in sharpness even at half the bit rate.

so many threads people are pretty much talking about the reduced bit rate. I can easily notice it on Netflix, AppleTV+ and [Disney+ could be sharper].
 
Because I'm not seeing these issues with the content I have viewed on streaming services. Atmos is missing on D+ but every other platform seems fine to me on my connection. I have heard people saying the same as you have, indeed Cas had an issue last week with some content, but where I am up north, I haven't seen any problems, so far.
Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney and Now all look good on my C9 as well. But even if they didn't it doesn't matter. People are dying, so if we have to put up with low-res content for a while, then so be it. We did discuss the issue the week before, and agreed that now is a good time to have a big collection of physical discs.
 
Last edited:
Hi Phil, you can check the reduced bitrate on Sony UHD tv’s when watching Netflix by pressing the i button. It should show 15.25mbps for 2160content, but instead is only 7.62mbps for 2160content.
As I recall on LG UHD TV’s the i button is accessed on LG WEB OS App via Mobile device = iPhone.

Perhaps you know this already and so what your saying is you don’t notice a reduction in sharpness even at half the bit rate.

so many threads people are pretty much talking about the reduced bit rate. I can easily notice it on Netflix, AppleTV+ and [Disney+ could be sharper].
Yes, Netflix is using 7.62mbps based on the info on my C9, but it still looks good to me. Makes you wonder why Netflix doesn't do it all the time, it would probably be good news for people with slow internet connections.
 
Last edited:
@Phil Hinton FYI there are 3 Marvel films missing from Disney+

2008’s The Incredible Hulk.
2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming.
2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Due to Universal and Sony holding distribution rights for Hulk and Spiderman respectively.

Other good documentaries on Disney+ include:

Empire of Dreams (Star Wars Doc that was released with the 2004 DVD's - it is the full 2.5 hr version).

The Imagineering Story is a Disney+ original, documentary series, about building all the Disney theme parks starting with Disneyland and Disney World. Although like the Mandalorian annoyingly it is being released weekly, when all of it is available already on the US version.

Also check out the Fox movies back catalogue like Home Alone 1 and 2.
 
For a change, Mr Withers, I'll respond to a podcast the next day, rather than on the Friday or Saturday! I have three observations about the Samsung television, which I'll break up into three different posts.

One, I think you say in the podcast that the Samsung Q950TS 8K television is available in 65", 75" and 82" sizes. I know it's confusing with the various Samsung model ranges, but I believe you had said in post #121 of the review thread that it comes in 65", 75" and 85" sizes. I personally never liked the 82" size, it's not far enough removed from the 75" size so I'm glad that the 8K flagship comes in the 85" size. However, I was , searching for Samsung 8K televisions at the Sevenoaks Sound and Vision website. I notice that their model numbers for the Q950T series do not end with a letter S, which denotes slim? I'm not sure if the absence or presence of the final S is the difference between pre-production sample and the production sample?
 
Two, you note wryly in summary towards the end of the piece that "Every year they (Samsung) squeeze a bit better performance out of the (LCD) technology, much to my surprise." Funny you should say that! One of the AVF reviews that really sticks in my mind (which I why I can recall it immediately!) was your review of one model in probably my all-time favourite television range, the Samsung JS9500 series, away back in the first half of 2015. And in your review of the Samsung UE78JS9500 television you wrote, in the High Definition Performance section: "In fact it's hard to see how they could really squeeze any more performance out of an LED LCD TV." So not only have Samsung been surprising you for at least five years Mr Withers, your phraseology has remained consistent over that time! :)
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom