Should I consider a new TV?

[Pa]

I don't know the details of you setup, but I doubt the color problem is the TV. How do the colors look with an antenna?

Antennas are pretty useless here in the mountains. There are several tall mountains between us and the nearest local transmitter.

I set the Picture Mode back from Cinema to Standard and skin tones look more natural now.

For audio, I'd skip ARC and just run a optical line to the receiver.

I have to use the optical output for my bluetooth hearing aid adapter.

 

[Pa]

I have to use the optical output for my bluetooth hearing aid adapter.

I see that there are optical audio two-way splitters available.

 

[bpdougd]

Most THX certified discs (DVD and Blu Ray) have an "optimizer" included. It is pretty basic (upside: pretty easy to use) and is free. Worth a try.

 

[Pa]

Most THX certified discs (DVD and Blu Ray) have an "optimizer" included. It is pretty basic (upside: pretty easy to use) and is free. Worth a try.

Thanks, Doug, I'll look into that.

I've got it adjusted pretty well now, and cured the synchronization problem by simply rebooting the TV.

I'm now waiting for an HDMI 2-way splitter from Amazon so I can connect both the old TV and this new one side-by-side. Then I can decide which one to keep.

 

[tenplanescrashing]

Couple things to unravel...
1. The review on rtings.com for this tv seem to be somewhat mixed. Not liked as much as previous Sonia Bravia sets (i'm a big Sony fan, but this one seems to be a little less liked). - https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/sony/x800h

2. If you have an audio system your inputs should go through the receiver then output to the TV. Essentially the TV only has one cable coming from the audio system. I say this blindly though because I don't know all the details of your system.

3. Most picture issues tend to be from the source not necessarily the TV if it is inconsistent. If it was the TV you'd have a bad picture consistently. A lot of these new TV's require firmware updates so check if you need that done. Hook it up wired or if it has wireless do it that way. If you have X1 TV service through Xfinity, look to swap out your box for a 4k box and try some 4k content through that. The existing boxes they offered up until about 2 or so years ago was 720p/1080i and not all TV's do a good job of upscaling, especially to 4k.

 

[Terri French]

When we have purchased new tv's I usually try to find an article like this to give me a starting place for setting it up. Maybe this could help you. Also a sound bar or surround sound might be a great addition for better sound. The internal tv sound is usually very poor, IMHO.
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/sony/x800h/settings

 

[Pa]

When we have purchased new tv's I usually try to find an article like this to give me a starting place for setting it up. Maybe this could help you. Also a sound bar or surround sound might be a great addition for better sound. The internal tv sound is usually very poor, IMHO.
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/sony/x800h/settings

Thanks, Terri. I had already found that article.

I want to run the TV sound through my stereo system as I did with the previous set, but it has no audio-out connections except for one optical audio, and I need to use that for my hearing aid adapter. I've got a few other ideas to try.

 

[Terri French]

Thanks, Terri. I had already found that article.

I want to run the TV sound through my stereo system as I did with the previous set, but it has no audio-out connections except for one optical audio, and I need to use that for my hearing aid adapter. I've got a few other ideas to try.

Good luck. Hope the new set works out for you.

 

[Pa]

Good luck. Hope the new set works out for you.

Thanks, Terri. I've got the sound problem licked now. I figured out how to activate the ARC (Audio Return Channel) function on the A/V receiver of my audio system.

 

[Mitchell]

Thanks, Terri. I've got the sound problem licked now. I figured out how to activate the ARC (Audio Return Channel) function on the A/V receiver of my audio system.

Jim, as far as optical audio splitters, it took me three tries to find one that didn't have some degredation and intermittent "popping" in the audio signal.

 

[Pa]

Jim, as far as optical audio splitters, it took me three tries to find one that didn't have some degredation and intermittent "popping" in the audio signal.

Thanks. That's why I decided to try again with the ARC. Since it's working now I don't think I'll bother with a toslink splitter.

 

[Pa]

I soon discovered another problem. When the sound is fed through the Audio Return Channel to the A/V receiver, the optical audio (toslink) connection is disabled. This means I can't simultaneously play the sound through the stereo for my wife, and into my hearing aids for me. I had no problem doing this with the old TV.

 

[FredAzinger]

Can you run your headphones off the A/V receiver....
That would seem to be the desirable place as they would then work with any program material from a source other than the TV.

 

[Pa]

Can you run your headphones off the A/V receiver....
That would seem to be the desirable place as they would then work with any program material from a source other than the TV.

Indeed it is desirable, but the hearing aid adapter requires an optical audio connection and the receiver has only an optical audio input. In fact, I haven't found any A/V receivers with optical audio output.

And don't most receivers defeat the speaker outputs when headphones are connected?

But thanks for the suggestion.

(p.s. it's a bluetooth hearing aid adapter that I need to accommodate. Headphones are of no use to me.)

 

[Mitchell]

Indeed it is desirable, but the hearing aid adapter requires an optical audio connection and the receiver has only an optical audio input. In fact, I haven't found any A/V receivers with optical audio output.

And don't most receivers defeat the speaker outputs when headphones are connected?

But thanks for the suggestion.

(p.s. it's a bluetooth hearing aid adapter that I need to accommodate. Headphones are of no use to me.)

Jim, that's why you need the optical splitter I spoke about.

 

[Pa]

Jim, that's why you need the optical splitter I spoke about.

I got the impression you considered them unreliable. Do you have one to recommend?

 

[Mitchell]

I got the impression you considered them unreliable. Do you have one to recommend?

This one wound up working well.

https://www.amazon.com/LiNKFOR-Digital-Splitter-Aluminum-Blue-Ray/dp/B07D1KHWGB

 

[Pa]

This one wound up working well.

https://www.amazon.com/LiNKFOR-Digital-Splitter-Aluminum-Blue-Ray/dp/B07D1KHWGB

Thanks a lot, Mitchell. Is it your impression that the signal out of this device is a good as the input?

Does it get power from a TV USB port?

 

[Mitchell]

Thanks a lot, Mitchell. Is it your impression that the signal out of this device is a good as the input?

Does it get power from a TV USB port?

Jim, I power mine from a USB brick plugged into the wall outlet not from the TV USB source. The two I returned were not powered. I suspect those passive optical splitters are just junk.

 

[Pa]

Jim, I power mine from a USB brick plugged into the wall outlet not from the TV USB source. The two I returned were not powered. I suspect those passive optical splitters are just junk.

So it's a standard USB charger, which was my actual question, not clearly stated I admit.

I suspected that a powered splitter would be required for reliable performance.

I was ready to order one of these last night but decided to wait until I tried getting audio through the stereo with the optical connection from the TV and I haven't succeeded yet. There is no button on the receiver remote to select the optical audio input, and it's not mentioned in the minimal manual supplied. It is discussed in a video on the Denon support site, but a different receiver from mine is used in the discussion and the menus are very different. I can't find the menu options the presenter uses.