Configuring non 4k Receiver with Ultra HD Blu-ray player and 4k TV (1 Viewer)

[Mike Up]

You absolutely can achieve ceiling speakers if you choose to do so.

How can I have ceiling speakers and you claim you can't? I can assure you this is false and your only making excuses.

I will say this. Placing atmos speakers properly as in on the ceiling almost directly above you is more immersive than having rear speakers.

Your equipment is on the cheaper side of things. If you do go more expensive like Polk reserve and svs subwoofer. This in itself will be a massive upgrade to what you have now.

The same thing applies with a television. Once you get into the high end models like oled you won't go back!

My equipment isn't cheap, your just an elitist @ss who puts himself above others.

I can NOT, read CAN NOT, put Atmos enabled speakers on satellite speakers that are mounted to a wall! I also WILL NOT, read WILL NOT, cut holes in my ceiling for a format that could be gone tomorrow!

Rear Height Speakers WILL NOT, read WILL NOT, have the correct angle to the listening position. For someone who doesn't know me or ever will, sure thinks he knows everything!

I'll never go OLED in it's current form.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Stop with the insults and personal comments! Otherwise, the moderators will stop it.

 

[Robert Crawford]

One post has been deleted because the poster couldn't resist taking another personal shot at another poster. Next time, there will be thread bans issued. This is the last warning!

 

[JohnRice]

I just looked at reviews of the 2017 Vizio M60-C3, and it appears only HDMI 1 on the TV has HDR capability, so that is the port you will want to plug the Sony X800M2 into.

I had a feeling it had some HDR capability. Maybe not DV, but probably HDR10.

 

[punman]

I really don't think my Vizio M C-3 TV has any HDR features. Yes, it was purchased brand new in early 2017 but I am sure it is a 2016 model. In fact the quick set up brochure had a 2015 copyright on one of the pages.

 

[Mike Up]

I think getting a new TV first is in order. Your TV is only 4K30 compatible for HDMI inputs 1-4 and only HDMI input 5 does 4K60 right from Vizio's website and manual. ARC is HDMI 1 so with ARC, you'll only get 4K30. According to Rtings.com and Vizio, this model does NOT have HDR10 at all. BTW, this is a 2015 Television.

Rtings.com review

Rtings.com footnotes about HDMI 5 different measurements

Vizio M60 C3 manual Read p.14 HDMI input limitations and p.58 remember note

 

[punman]

Okay, maybe time to look for a new TV. In the meantime, should I be plugging my Sony 800M2 player into HDMI input 5 or does it make any difference?

 

[Mike Up]

Okay, maybe time to look for a new TV. In the meantime, should I be plugging my Sony 800M2 player into HDMI input 5 or does it make any difference?

You should be using HDMI 5 for 4K60 UNLESS you want to use 4K24 for films. Looks like HDMI 5 has better measurements on everything so I'd use that. I honestly like 4K60 better for most.

Since you are using your TV to do the HDMI switching, you'll only have 1 input to use to get the best resolution but still no HDR.

Your TV is your biggest limitation right now. You'll still be able to get excellent 5.1/7.1 surround with your Denon AVR-2311ci using ARC or even Optical output from a newer TV. You'll have the inconvenience of not having receiver on-screen menus for surround sound settings but you can use the receiver's display.

Looks like your AVR-2311ci is very similar to my AVR-2312ci. Only real differences I see is that yours has HD Radio where mine does not but has networking and internet radio instead. Both excellent receivers.

Good luck.

 

[JohnRice]

Best Buy has the 65” M Series on sale for $450. Hard to beat. It’s all most people want. Or the P Series for $780.

 

[Mike Up]

Those are good deals.

I'll say this, I was looking to buy a Vizio when I bought the Hisense. Many of my Co-workers cautioned me against Vizio from first hand experiences of their failures.

I took that into consideration but a big concern was that rtings.com noted that Vizio and TCL for that matter, aren't very good at converting lower resolution up to 4K. If you do all the conversions in your devices I guess it doesn't matter but I took that into account before buying. I honestly was looking at buying a Sony or the Hisense, and the Hisense made the best bang for the buck, WHEN I WAS LOOKING. Today, Hisense downgraded the new 65u6h with less dimming zones and lower peak brightness. I'm not sure what Vizio has to offer or Sony for that matter.

I will say, I'm not a fan of Samsung TVs in the least. I personally think they're garbage and use deceptive screen features to disguise their failings as CE dimming or frame dimming. Just my opinion. Besides, I couldn't even get their HDMI input to work with my receiver and found I wasn't the only one to have HDMI communication issues with Samsung.

 

[JohnRice]

Vizio TVs traditionally haven't upscaled to 4K from lower than 1080 very well, but that was zero concern for me. First, they do fine with 1080 HD sources, and I have all upscaling done before the TV. Either by the disc player or AppleTV 4K, both of which do an excellent job.

 

[Mike Up]

Vizio TVs traditionally haven't upscaled to 4K from lower than 1080 very well, but that was zero concern for me. First, they do fine with 1080 HD sources, and I have all upscaling done before the TV. Either by the disc player or AppleTV 4K, both of which do an excellent job.

It's a very good price as long as reliability isn't an issue.

 

[JohnRice]

…some things are just better left unsaid.

 

[punman]

I appreciate all the comments. As my concerns have now switched from receivers to TVs, I am going post my TV questions to DISPLAYS so you can follow me there if you wish.

 

[punman]

To continue my story, I decided to buy a new TV last week - a Sony OLED 65 inch A80K. I love the look of the OLED images. It reminds me more of my old plasma. Happy with my choice, but now back to my 12 year old receiver.
When watching TV channels on cable I seem to have two options: use the "crappy" built in TV speakers and watch in 4k or use my receiver and get great 5.1 sound but only 1080 as it cannot pass through 4k.

I don't have this issue with 4k Blu-ray as my Sony 800 M2 player has two outputs running video directly to the TV and only audio to the receiver so my Ultra HD movies get the best of both worlds - 4k images and 5.1 speaker sound. Also true of Netflix installed on the player.

So just trying to decide if I should upgrade my receiver. I have been really happy with my current one - a Denon 2311 but its two main limitations - won't give me 4k for cable channels and no Dolby Atmos or DTS X. Part of me wonders if 4k cable is that vital at the moment as I don't think many channels are broadcast in Canada in 4k anyways. When watching my non HDR, non OLED Vizio 4k TV upstairs (no receiver) in 4k, and then running downstairs to see the same channel on OLED but 1080, the OLED image is nicer. As for sound, Dolby TrueHD and dts-HD Master Audio sound pretty decent with my current receiver and I don't plan on adding more speakers for my setup. Am I missing much by not having DTS X or 4k cable TV?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I don't do cable TV -- have only ever bothered for 1 year long ago after my college days (unless you count something like SlingTV, which is cable-like streaming) -- but I'm pretty sure it's not worth bothering to get 4K from cable. As you noted yourself, 1080p cable on your OLED looks better than 4K cable on the Vizio. AFAIK, cable just sucks too much -- the bandwidth they give to it has generally been very lacking, leading to likely awful compression/encoding.

IF you're able to get 4K for everything else, including all the major streaming services you're interested, I wouldn't worry about it further (though I personally would probably upgrade for other reasons... like Atmos if you can actually use/do that in your HT space... or if you simply want better audio quality in general plus maybe cleaner wiring/connectivity/setup, UI/control, etc perhaps).

_Man_

 

[JohnRice]

When watching TV channels on cable I seem to have two options: use the "crappy" built in TV speakers and watch in 4k or use my receiver and get great 5.1 sound but only 1080 as it cannot pass through 4k.

I seriously doubt much, if anything on cable is actually in 4K. It's probably a non issue.

 

[punman]

Thanks JohnRice. Maybe then a non issue.
Another idea I had - just as Blu-ray player has two outputs one for sound, one for video, is there some kind of HDMI splitter I could use coming out of the cable box to send sound to receiver and video to the TV?

 

[Mike Up]

Thanks JohnRice. Maybe then a non issue.
Another idea I had - just as Blu-ray player has two outputs one for sound, one for video, is there some kind of HDMI splitter I could use coming out of the cable box to send sound to receiver and video to the TV?

Using a splitter will default to the lowest resolution. That's why I didn't use that on my AVR-2312ci. Instead, as I said, I put all 4K sources to the TV and used the TV's optical output to go to the Denon for DD 5.1.

Your new Sony Bluray has dual HDMIs, one for video and one for audio. The Video obviously goes to the TV where the audio goes to the Denon for HiDef Audio. Since this isn't a splitter, the audio HDMI has no video to detect the lower resolution of the receiver keeping it at 4K for the TV. This is a good method as even though there is no video on the audio HDMI going to the Denon, the Denon can still use it's own video overlay for on-screen receiver setup.

Now there might be a device that does the same as the Bluray player splitting the one HDMI output into 2 outputs, one with video and audio, and one without video but with audio. However, I've never seen one ever. Not really a market for one.

With a 5.1 system, I still put my vote in for either a Denon AVR-S960H @ $600 (AVR-S970H @ $900) or a Denon AVR-X2700H @ $800 (AVR-X2800H @ $1200). All are available on Amazon.

 

[JohnRice]

Thanks JohnRice. Maybe then a non issue.
Another idea I had - just as Blu-ray player has two outputs one for sound, one for video, is there some kind of HDMI splitter I could use coming out of the cable box to send sound to receiver and video to the TV?

I just know those solutions tend to create new problems and unreliability, so I just go for better options, but that typically costs $.