Smart-tv's and codec support

Fedora25 · May 10

I have a LG C2 at home with a JBL BAR 1000 since half a year. Using a 4k player i watch uhd blurays and i thought i reached peak codec support. The player and tv has display info and my soundbar confirms the used codec. The more i watched my movies and checked the stream info i found out the C2 does support Dolby Atmos but only passes 5.1 channels through, not 7.1. Recently i began streaming my 'legally' coppied movies and found out subtitels also have limited support. It frustrates me because i would think a high end 'smart' tv would just support it all. Right now i also bought a Shield pro for full codec streaming support and pass hdmi through the soundbar so the full audio codec reaches the soundbar first.

It all feels unnessecery and when watching reviews you never come a cross this kind of limitations. If i would ever upgrade i would get a C3 or C4 for the DTS audio support, but realisticly it would be a very minor improvement. Does anyone know why there is so little discussion about these limitations? I can imagine that a lot of people think their setup is configured correctly but the time it took me to find all the limitations and a work arround most people would never notice them and never use the full potential of their hardware.

jaslion · May 10

55 minutes ago, Fedora25 said:

high end 'smart' tv would just support it all.

The soc's in smart tvs are made as cheaply as possible to sell you advertisements and be just functional enough. They are usually the performance of a low end phone from years ago at best. With some exceptions.

I never connect my tvs to the internet and just get separate equipment as well the built in stuff is just kinda ass and with the primary objective of presenting ads and selling your data for additional profit.

57 minutes ago, Fedora25 said:

. Does anyone know why there is so little discussion about these limitations? I can imagine that a lot of people think their setu

For the above +:

Most people have a tv with MAYBE a crappy soundbar. Any higher end stuff is marketing fluff for on the box and they expect maybe 0.0001% of buyers to use. If those people complain it doesnt work proper tough shit is the stance these days.

I have a simple mini pc that does all my media for me and I work with those limitations. Everything else works via my simple ancient sony reciever with spdif. I get up to 5.1 if I want and consider that good enough. This setup is rock solid and doesnt care what junker of a tv I have in place :D.

Donut417 · May 10

2 hours ago, Fedora25 said:

Does anyone know why there is so little discussion about these limitations?

Because most people using a external streaming device. Its pretty much known that most Smart TV's suck. So even if someone has a smart TV they have an external device that they use smart features on. For example my mom has a lower end LG TV but uses a Roku Stick.

2 hours ago, Fedora25 said:

e limitations and a work arround most people would never notice them and never use the full potential of their hardware.

Most people dont care. I would argue your in the limited amount of people who are looking for perfection. Most just hook up the TV and deal with the default settings out of the box. Hell Im still using a 720p TV from 2009, because it works well enough for what I need.

BiotechBen · May 10

4 hours ago, Donut417 said:

Most people dont care. I would argue your in the limited amount of people who are looking for perfection. Most just hook up the TV and deal with the default settings out of the box. Hell Im still using a 720p TV from 2009, because it works well enough for what I need.

42-50in 2010's high end 1080p TV.

Looks so much better than a lot of "budget 4k" tvs, and there's no spyware or Adware that brings everything to a crawl, it simply is just a TV. Toshiba Regza was just an absolutely beautiful display, just absolutely fantastic, super bright, high dynamic range, color adjustment that actually did something, and skin tones that looked like skin tones, no washed out/overblown green or reds or blue. Even had BFI to take it from 60hz to a perceived higher refresh rate, and at least on the Regza: I actually kinda preferred it, it looked THAT good.

I will always take a higher quality panel over a bigger panel, the biggest I'll go is 65", and it'd be like for a C5 or an X95 from Sony.