Home Theater View

Review: LG CineBeam Q

by Avi Greengart

The market for portable cannister pico-projectors is still niche, but it has attracted the attention of larger brands like Samsung and LG. LG’s first entry strikes a nice balance between performance and design. LG’s take on the portable smart projector leans heavily on design, with premium specs for the category, but still aiming at plug-and-play use cases rather than full-on home theater. The CineBeam Qube HU710PB (which LG blessedly refers to as “CineBeam Q,” so I will, too) is a relatively compact rectangle with a rotating stand that doubles as a carrying handle. LG has finished the CineBeam Q entirely in polished metal, and the circles and squares esthetic gives it a modern-steampunk vibe that is unique to the category – and significantly more attractive than anything else out there.

Specs and Setup

The CineBeam Q features DLP with 4K resolution and a laser light engine that puts out 500 lumen with 450,000:1 contrast ratio. Focus is motorized but zoom is fixed – if you want the picture to be bigger or smaller, move the projector closer or farther away from the wall or screen (more on this later). LG uses webOS across its consumer video product lines. I’ve been covering consumer electronics long enough to have been featured in Palm’s original press release for the first webOS phone, and I haven’t always been a fan of its current use on TVs. webOS drives me nuts on my C2 77” OLED 4KTV because that TV is fed by multiple sources through an A/V receiver, and I just want the TV to act as a dumb monitor and webOS wants to be an entire computing and entertainment system. But on the CineBeam Q, webOS is a major positive over limited Android TV implementations: all the major streaming apps are available, including Netflix. webOS starts up quickly, too, eliminating the wait you usually have on Android TV projectors before you can get to content.

A 3 watt mono speaker is built in, and if that seems underpowered, it is. The built-in speaker does a reasonable job with clarity and tone, but it is clearly mono, there is no soundstage, and it doesn’t get all that loud. I found this to be one of the big drawbacks of the CineBeam Q. LG is bundling the XBOOM 360 XO2TBK, a 360 degree Bluetooth speaker, with the projector if you buy it directly from LG. In a demo at LG’s US headquarters, that was a great combination. In my home without the speaker, the CineBeam Q was hard to hear over its fan and my air conditioner, and provided nothing like a cinematic audio experience.

Unlike most cannister projectors, the CineBeam Q does not have an internal battery. The good news is that you’ll never have to charge it up or discover that your projector can’t make it through Oppenheimer in a single sitting. The bad news is that you need to have a power source nearby. Many people buy cannister projectors to use outdoors, and this requirement could make that difficult.

Setup requires an LG account, which requires you to give LG the ability to track and resell what you’re watching (if there is a way to get out of this, I didn’t see it). I also found setup extremely frustrating using the remote control until I realized that the infrared emitter on the remote is terribly weak; you must point the remote directly at the back of the projector rather than towards the content. Even after setup, I still encountered times when I didn’t point the remote at precisely the correct angle for my selection to register. IR emitters are a 10-cent part, and it seems that LG was willing to hurt usability to save 5-cents instead.

Unboxing the LG CineBeam Q

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Performance

All projectors have fans, and manufacturers advertise how quiet they are on their lowest setting (25db according to LG’s website). When I tested it in real world conditions, I wasn’t as impressed. It’s not loud compared to actual loud things, but I measured 42.5db three feet away from the seating position. The fan noise is definitely noticeable, and I found the pitch of the sound somewhat distracting during quiet passages even after I connected the CineBeam Q to my full home theater surround sound system.

Traditional projectors have lens shift to allow you to perfectly line up your image with a fixed or retractable screen. Portable projectors are less finnicky about their placement: they use fixed lenses and automatic digital keystoning to adjust the image to whatever surface you point them at, from any angle. This process sacrifices resolution for convenience, and as these cannister projectors are typically meant for more casual use, not cinephile purists, that tradeoff is understandable. The auto keystoning on XGIMI and Nebula projectors are slightly faster and more flexible, but LG’s implementation should be good enough for how most people use smart projectors. That said, when pointed at my 100” screen off-axis, I could easily see the loss of clarity down from its full 4K resolution.

No projector works well in a brightly lit room. However, for just a 500 nit projector, I was surprised by the apparent brightness with moderate room light control. LG advertises a staggering 450,000:1 contrast ratio, and while it didn’t make blacks into true black, the CineBeam Q provides excellent shadow detail in a dark room. Colors are another highlight: in Cinema Mode, the colors are well saturated, and when watching Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout, I could tell where the action was taking place just based on the color palette.

Comparisons 

I tested two other projectors alongside the LG CineBeam Q to see where it fits: my old Sony VPL-HW40ES, a 1080p SXRD projector spec’d at 1700 lumen, and XGIMIs Horizon Ultra, a dual LED/laser 4K HDR projector that puts out 2300 lumen. To give the projectors the best chance to shine (pun intended), I watched Encanto on 4K Blu-ray disc on all three. The Sony may be spec’d at 1700 lumen, and the colors are pleasing, but black levels are awful and cinema mode looked relatively dim on my 100” 1.1 gain screen. (I paid $2000 for this projector less than ten years ago. Sigh.) In comparison, the LG was shockingly good: much brighter, with greater color saturation and sharper resolution, despite being slightly off-center and the Sony having been permanently mounted and aligned on my ceiling. With some lights on, the picture looks acceptable; with lights off, the image pops like an LED TV (the CineBeam is still not quite as bright as miniLED or as contrasty as OLED). With full lights on, the image is viewable, but just barely. It is a projector, after all. Keep this in mind if you plan on using this to watch sports – some light control is necessary. The XGIMI is simply in a different class: it costs $500 more than the LG and isn’t really portable. Resolution, color fidelity, and highlights on the XGIMI Horizon Ultra are noticeably better in all lighting conditions. 4K HDR version colors become iridescent, contrast increases, and it looks like there’s significantly more detail in the image compared to the LG.

Conclusion

The CineBeam Q’s fan is a bit too loud, its speaker is not loud enough, and at $1300, it is on the pricey side for a 4K projector that only puts out 500 lumen. However, you get better-than-specs-would-suggest brightness and color from an incredibly stylish design with one of the best TV OS for streaming. There are no hoops to jump through to get Netflix running – there’s even a Netflix button on the remote. And it’s so pretty that you could leave it out on a coffee table all the time.

Disclosure: LG sent over the CineBeam Q for review. HomeTheaterView has no financial relationship with LG and does not accept affiliate payments. A market analysis version of this review was also published at Techsponential: HomeTheaterView is a Techsponential company.

Upgrading to Denon AVR-X8500HA -- is an "A" Worth $600?

By Avi Greengart

My home theater serves a test bed for various devices for Techsponential and Home Theater View, and while I was able to test the latest display resolutions on TVs in my soundbar test rigs, my main home theater setup was based on a Denon AVR-X8500H with older HDMI inputs. My main game console is an XBOX Series X and my reference display is an LG C2 OLED 4KTV, so I already had the content and display to fully support 4K/120 gaming, I was just lacking the thing in the middle to connect them while providing extensive surround sound.

Most solid-state electronics are essentially disposable these days, but Denon deserves credit for making the AVR-X8500H somewhat modular: there is a $600 upgrade package that swaps out the HDMI board and turns it into an AVR-X8500HA with (limited) 8K/60 and 4K/120 support (the AVR-X8500HA when sold on its own lists for $4700). I also considered selling my receiver and upgrading to Denon's new flagship, the AVR-A1H. That unit is a monster, with 15 amplifier channels and a $6500 price tag to match. I told Denon PR that I'd be interested in checking out an AVR-A1H when they have review units available, but I can't use the extra amp channels -- my theater room is too small to add a third row of in-ceiling Atmos speakers -- and I can't justify purchasing one at this time. The AVR-X8500H HDMI 2.1 upgrade board has been listed as $600 and "coming in April 2024" on Denon's site for over a year. It still reads that way today, but in June 2024 the site let me put it in my cart and buy it, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. 

So what do you get when you spend $600 to add an "A" to the AVR-X8500H? Part of the cost goes towards shipping. Denon does not allow end users to perform the upgrade themselves, so an authorized repair center mails you a box to send the 60 lb package to them and then back again to you. The packaging double-boxes the receiver but provides absolutely no guidance whatsoever on next steps. You need to figure out that you're supposed to break apart the styrofoam, place it in specific spots, place the receiver inside -- without antennas or remote control -- seal it up with packing tape (not included), and call FedEx Ground for a pickup. The service center was just as confused as I was -- a rep called to ask what repairs were needed. Denon has a lot of work to do on this experience - from website to packaging to service center processes.

The good news is that the process took less time than I expected -- I was only without a receiver for about a week Once I got the unit back, it looked like they replaced the entire front panel -- with new stickers attached! -- in addition to the new HDMI 2.3 internals around back. There were no changes to the 13 amplifier channels or processing but those are still pretty close to state of the art, so it's not missing much in that regard. At the end of the day, all the HDMI inputs were updated to HDCP2.3, but there is only a single 8K input. That input is also the only 4K/120 input, so if you want to connect both an Xbox Series X and a Playstation 5, you're out of luck. The last console Sony sent over is a Playstation 4 PRO, so that isn't an issue I'm currently facing, but Denon's newer receivers support 8K on all inputs, so that could be a dealbreaker for some.

Once back in my rack, it took me a while to figure out that you need to enable 8K support in the Denon's menu to support 4K/120, that only the 8K input supports 4K/120, and that there are similar settings that need to be enabled on the Xbox and TV. But somewhere between 3AM and 4AM I had Forza 6 working in 4K/120 on my 77" OLED with full surround sound. Despite the improved refresh rate I almost immediately plowed my virtual Subaru into the virtual wall at the virtual Nürburgring racetrack.

Was it worth it? Given how expensive it would be to sell and buy an equivalent receiver (or processor and amps) for my 9.4.2 channel Dolby Atmos system, it was a cost-effective upgrade. However, given the limitations of just a single fully futureproof 8K/4K120 input, it's probably only a matter of time before I need to do a full replacement.

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HomeTheaterView is a Techsponential company and does not accept advertising or affiliate payments. Equipment reviews/purchases disclosure:
Denon AVR-X8500H was originally purchased direct from Denon at a discount for reviewers.
The HDMI 2.1 upgrade package was purchased direct from Denon at full retail price. 
The Xbox Series X is a long-term review unit sent by Microsoft. 
The LG 77" C2 OLED was purchased at retail.

Review: TCL QM8 Was a High Performance 4KTV Value in 2023; In 2024 It's a Bargain

By Avi Greengart

In 2023, TCL chose to push quantum dot and gaming features down its line but leave miniLED backlighting only on its higher-end QM8 line. At launch it was a strong value with great contrast and color for less than bigger brands. In 2024, prices have come down further and new TCL models have been announced, but the QM8 will remain on the market for a while -- and it's now a bargain.

Introduction

In the U.S., TCL is best known for its televisions, but it is actually one of the largest consumer electronics conglomerates in the world. TCL runs its own factories and invests tens of billions of dollars in building its own display panel fabs in China. TCL's mobile division sells Alcatel and TCL branded featurephones, smartphones, tablets, modems, and more. The parent company also makes washing machines, refrigerators, and consumer IoT devices that are primarily sold in Asia.

All that said, in the U.S., TCL really is primarily a television company, and it has grown at the expense of larger, better-known brands by following two simple strategies: maximizing the initially small budget it had for marketing, and providing a lot of value to consumers. As TCL’s panels grew in size – and the company moved slightly upmarket at retail – TCL paid up for the ultimate U.S. sports marketing rights: it is now the official TV of the NFL.

Sports may move the marketing needle, but gaming and streaming drive higher-priced TV sales. For 2023, TCL moved desirable gaming features and quantum dot color down into lower priced tiers, while reserving miniLED backlight technology for its higher end QM8 line. The QM8 starts at 55” but doesn’t stop at 75” or even 85” — you can get an absolutely enormous 98” miniLED QM8. Pricing on the QM8 line started out reasonably, with the 65” at $1300 and the 98” only $5,000, but holiday sales and time have pushed those prices down significantly. The 65” that TCL sent over is now $1,000, and the 98” monster is just $4,000.

Unboxing and First Impressions

The first thing I noticed when unboxing the TCL QM8 was the attention paid to the rear of the set. Typically, mainstream consumer televisions look clean on the front, but the back has multiple different scalloped segments, with exposed screws, lots of cheap plastic, and a cramped input area on one side. The QM8 will almost certainly end up on a wall mount or sitting on furniture close to the wall, but on the off chance that it will be placed in the middle of the room, TCL took the time to make the rear of the QM8 presentable. The whole back area is a sculpted curve, with port areas covered up, and an attractive bass speaker in the center. Other than the speaker, it doesn’t cost TCL much to do this, it’s more a matter of priorities: the attention to detail on the back is one way that TCL is pushing this set past budget value segments and towards more premium value buyers.

TCL licenses operating systems from Amazon, Roku, and Google; this set is an Android TV version. Android TV OS 11 is functional, with all the apps you’d expect, plus a reasonable amount of Google integration with YouTube, any content you’ve purchased from Google, and home control. It is not as straightforward an interface as Roku or as theatrical as Fire TV, but navigating the interface on the QM8 was responsive. That's good, because TCL does not note which MediaTek chip it uses in the QM8 -- or even acknowledge that it is using one (it is). In contrast, Sony boasts that its (admittedly more expensive) Bravia Mini LED TVs use premium MediaTek chips for better upscaling. At least whatever TCL is using in the QM8 doesn't hold it back from responsive day to day use.

The QM8’s remote control is long and rounded. It fits nicely in your hand and is straightforward to use, but it is not backlit, the buttons are not overly differentiated by shape, and only the power, channel up/down, and volume up/down buttons have raised indicators to feel for. Like most TVs today – and all budget brands – TCL sells one-touch placement buttons on the remote to streaming channels. Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, and Apple TV are joined by TCL’s own TCL TV+ channel – ad-supported streaming linear TV, and TCL Home – a quick settings bar with its own login. TCL is hardly alone in trying to build an ad business around its TVs, but at least for the programming I watched, TCL doesn’t have a large advertising base just yet – each ad break repeated the same spots multiple times.

Performance

The QM8 is one of the first televisions I’ve had in for review that didn’t immediately make me turn to the Sonos Arc soundbar I have on my test stand. That doesn’t mean that I left the soundbar off – this is still not especially rich or directional sound, music is a bit flat and dialog could certainly be clearer. The "ULTRA-BASS" branding on the rear speaker is aspirational. However, you can get reasonably loud and clear audio out of the QM8’s internal speaker array, and that isn’t always the case even at this price point. If you plan on using this for news, cooking shows, and sports, you should be able to get away without an external audio solution.

TCL is pushing gaming features down even into its budget line, but it certainly doesn’t stop there, and the QM8 is a great match for 5^th generation game consoles from Sony and Microsoft. It also makes a reasonable PC gaming monitor, if by reasonable you mean absolutely enormous. The set has a dedicated low latency gaming mode, supports variable refresh rate, and will let you play games at 4K 144Hz or 1080 at 240Hz. There are also modes that smooth motion even further (great for gaming, turn them off for content, please).

I’ve saved the best for last: picture quality. If you are sitting on-axis, the QM8’s miniLED backlight array and quantum dot color combine to create compelling images that approach OLED contrast with even brighter HDR (High Dynamic Range) highlights. This is a superb TV for rooms with large picture windows and equally good in a dark room watching prestige TV in Dolby Vision. The QM8 hits peak HDR near 2000 nits and supports every HDR format (unlike Samsung) including HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision. Dolby Vision IQ is included, which auto-adjusts to account for room lighting; I found it somewhat unpredictable and turned it off, preferring Dolby Vision Bright or Dark depending on room conditions.

The title sequence for Foundation on Apple TV+ is a great way to show off Dolby Vision high dynamic range (there are several concentrated lights), wide color gamut (the shifting color beads), contrast, and resolution (the crisp narrow font on top of all the rest). Shadow detail in Fallout on Amazon Prime is excellent, and all the over-the-top gore pops against the muted color tones of the wasteland. The “Family Madrigal” introductory song in Disney’s Encanto is essentially a color saturation torture test – and the QM8 passes with [sorry for the pun] flying colors. If you want to see just how bright the HDR can get on the QM8, you can’t do much better than the opening sequence in Disney’s Encanto – until you get to the “Waiting on a Miracle” number, which could have been animated by Dolby itself as Dolby Vision demo. The QM8 can also do atmospheric, moody content with accurate skin tones.

Like all LCD displays, when sitting off to the side, brightness and color varies significantly; in that situation, or if you simply want the best possible contrast and color reproduction, an OLED is worth paying for. I also wish that the glass was a bit less reflective; the QM8 can go super-bright and outshine reflections from room lamps and windows, but muting those room highlights would still make for easier watching.

Comparisons and Conclusion

I have an LG C2 OLED one room over in my main theater area, and if you don’t have an OLED nearby for direct comparison, you’re unlikely to notice a big drop-off in picture quality with the QM8 even on scenes with white text on dark backgrounds, HDR reflections, or animation with wide color gamut. You probably also won’t notice the technically wider color range that the best OLEDs can produce, at least not on normal program material. However, you will notice about $1,000 more in your wallet.

The TCL QM8 2023 is not as bright as the 2024 models are going to be, nor is it an OLED for the ultimate in contrast and off-axis viewing. But when compared to similar miniLED TVs from Samsung and LG, it offers superb performance at a lower price. This value proposition becomes even stronger when you get to larger sizes, topping out at a projector-like 98” for 2023, and still highly competitive in 2024.

 

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Disclosure: TCL sent over a 65" QM8 4KTV for review but HomeTheaterView has no financial relationship with TCL and does not accept affiliate payments. A market analysis version of this review was published at Techsponential. HomeTheaterView is a Techsponential company; Techsponential has done limited consulting work for TCL's mobile group in the past.

Review: Edifier NeoBuds Pro 2 with Knowles Balanced Armature Drivers

By Avi Greengart

I met with Knowles at CES to discuss their components, and after a few demos I asked that they send over something that uses their balanced armature driver (tweeter) so I could hear it in the real world. A few days after I got back from Las Vegas Edifier sent over these NeoBuds Pro 2. I've been really impressed with the sound quality, especially after I turned off the bass enhance mode (EDM and rap listeners will want to keep it on -- it's good, just too much for me). That Knowles tweeter is nicely etched without getting fatiguing, and the 10mm dynamic driver provides controlled bass with enhanced mode off.

ANC is surprisingly good as well. It's not the absolute best I've heard (that would be the Bose QCII), but it's surprisingly close enough that you can use these as your only earbuds -- and these only cost $109 on Amazon. One sacrifice is battery life -- about 4 hours with ANC -- before you'll have to pop them back in the case to recharge. I also found the touch controls a bit finicky, but I'm not a fan of touch controls generally.

I found them comfortable to wear; your ears may vary. Edifier includes five different sizes of silicone tips, so most people should find something that works.

The feature set is full despite the mid-tier price point. High-Res audio, Bluetooth 5.3, wear detection, and spatial audio are all onboard. Wireless charging and multi-device pairing are not, but the sound quality is superb, the ANC is effective, and the price is right.

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Disclosures: HomeTheaterView is a Techsponential company. Edifier sent over NeoBuds Pro 2 for review, but HomeTheaterView and Techsponential have no financial relationship with Knowles or Edifier and we do not accept affiliate payments.

Review: XGIMI Horizon Ultra

By Avi Greengart

Technological disruption is often portrayed as coming fully-formed from an all-new thing that is superior to established options, but that’s not always how innovations w ork. Many disruptions come from products that provide lesser experiences at lower price points or appeal to a different set of customer needs than the industry standard. These products then improve over time and eventually hit a tipping point where their advantages overtake the status quo. The front projection market has been fairly static for a while, but that is starting to change.

Smart Portable Projectors Move Upmarket

Fitting millions of tiny mirrors on a piece of silicon sounds like science fiction, but Texas Instruments introduced DLP all the way back in 1987. It has been a mature technology since the days of the Intel 286, and it has been used in business and home theater projectors since the 1990’s. Over the past decade or so, companies like Anker’s Nebula have taken commodity DLP chips and put them in soda can-sized containers containing a battery, LED lamp, speaker, and a MediaTek processor with Wi-Fi. By adding Android TV and keystone software, this becomes a self-contained streaming media projection system. You can turn it on, point it at a wall (the keystone software automatically adjusts the image angle, no adjustments necessary), and start watching. Image quality and brightness are usually just adequate, but the portability and convenience make cannister projectors the perfect solution for taking on vacation or getting a big picture without requiring dedicated wall space. They can be cheap, too, with most units selling for $400 - $600, no installation, and usually no dedicated screen – though YouTube van lifers and apartment dwellers often graduate from hanging a sheet to adding an inexpensive pull-down screen.

XGIMI is one of the cannister projector pioneers, and the Chinese company has now sold over five million units. However, it is starting to move decidedly upmarket and its latest product threatening to displace enthusiast home theater projector brands. XGIMI (pronounced “ex-jimmy;” we asked) started with relatively dim, smart portable pico-projectors, but it now offers higher brightness UST (Ultra Short Throw) projectors and 4K HDR projectors using laser light engines. The XGIMI Horizon Ultra I've had in for review is unique: it takes most of the elements of portable smart projectors designed for quick and casual use, then adds serious image quality that should appeal to home theater enthusiasts. In fact, the Horizon Ultra is the first long-throw projector of any kind with Dolby Vision.

The Horizon Ultra runs on the MediaTek MT9629, which is certainly a capable processor, as it supports 4K and HDR, but it is far from MediaTek’s top of the line Pentonic series. By pairing the MT9629 with a 4K DLP chip and a home-grown hybrid LED/laser light engine, the $1799 Horizon Ultra is able to outperform home theater projectors that cost $6000 in some key measures – specifically, HDR.

The Horizon Ultra’s light output requires a lot of power, so the unit does not have a battery and must be plugged into the wall. The power brick is enormous, and the cable position can make placement challenging. The projector itself is also significantly larger and more of a cube than its cannister predecessors, though it weighs just 11.5 lbs. and is still small enough to tuck in a closet when not in use. Despite the power, the Horizon Ultra merely gets warm during use and is almost dead silent even from two feet away.

The Horizon Ultra is spec'd at 2200 lumen, which is bright enough for casual viewing and sports with the lights on. For serious movie and prestige TV watching, you're still going to want full light control to get the best image. In the cinema mode and in Dolby Vision colors pop without oversaturation. To get HDR, XGIMI uses a dual laser and LED light engine, and it works! In scenes like Wonder Woman crossing no man's land, the sparks of bullets off Diana's shield are markedly brighter than the rest of the image, and her lasso is obviously enhanced, too. Watching Foundations on Apple TV -- which has a "lets apply Dolby Vision to everything" mode -- was a treat. Wide color gamut and high dynamic range scenes abound. Like many 4K projectors aimed at the consumer market, the DLP engine that XGIMI is using is not native 4K - it uses pixel shifting to get there -- but it sure looks like 4K when the image is properly dialed in.

The Horizon Ultra’s origin as a portable smart projector can still be seen in its design – and its remote control. The unit’s built-in Harmon-branded speaker plays relatively loud and clean, even if it does not provide stereo or any spacial effects. However, people cross-shopping the Horizon Ultra with other home theater projectors won’t want a speaker at all and may never use the built-in Android TV functionality. They might prefer to save the space and cost of the speakers because they will be using one of the two HDMI 2.1 inputs instead with an A/V receiver or processor and amplifier. The remote control is also a victim of budget projector cost cutting, with no backlighting to speak of.

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There are other, more fundamental, design compromises for home theater use.

Black levels and projector placement are the Horizon Ultra's main weaknesses. My eight-year-old Sony 1080p LCOS puts out a markedly softer image (as expected) but slightly better black levels. The XGIMI blows it away on brightness and on modern benchmarks like HDR and color range. However, getting all that light output on the screen can be a bit of a challenge. On most home theater projectors, the distance, height, and left/right position of the mount are precisely calibrated to match the screen size by an installer or the DIY enthusiast. Cannister projectors are less fussy about placement: by including aggressive keystone correction and dropping picture quality in favor of convenience, you can just set them down anywhere and they adjust the image accordingly. The Horizon Ultra tries to split the difference. It has the same set-it-and-forget-it keystoning feature as its smaller predecessors, but using it robs the projector of resolution. Enthusiasts would prefer to adjust the projector physically and not lose pixels, but that can be difficult with the Horizon Ultra. It has a single tripod-style thread underneath that did not seem strong enough for ceiling mounting and it lacks any other standard mounting points. There is an optical zoom lens for distance (settings are buried in the menu) but no ability to tilt and no lens shift. The optional stand does add modest tilt angles, but it did not extend up high enough to use behind my seating position. I ended up having to use the keystone feature and adjust the image manually to fit my screen at the cost of lost resolution and light spill all around the screen. The resulting image still looks good, especially in a dark room and with 4K HDR content, but it would look even better if I could properly mount and aim the Horizon Ultra. At $1800, XGIMI is pricing the Horizon Ultra out of reach for casual users, but if you can’t place the projector in the right spot in the room to ideally fit your screen, it still might make sense to choose a projector from a traditional brand like Sony, EPSON, or Optoma even without Dolby Vision and even at a higher price point.

Conclusion

XGIMI is taking technology perfected in budget smart portable projectors and is bringing it to the enthusiast home theater market. The Horizon Ultra has HDR features that aren’t found on other projectors at any price, and if the placement works in your room, it is a bargain at just $1800. Going forward, XGIMI needs to improve mounting options and provide tilt and lens shift. But even as is, the Horizon Ultra is a disruptive product that should have home theater enthusiasts discovering the brand for the first time.

XGIMI sent over a Horizon Ultra and stand for review but HomeTheaterView has no financial relationship with XGIMI and does not accept affiliate payments.

Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED Smart TV Review: Better TV Tech, Much Smarter

By Avi Greengart, portions reprinted with permission from Techsponential

Amazon introduced the Fire TV set top box back in 2014 as a way to ensure that its Prime Video content would get pride of place in the user interface, unlike competing devices from Roku and Apple. Over time, Amazon shrunk down the form factor to sticks, Borgified them into cubes, and eventually chose to build the Fire TV interface directly into televisions in 2021. Amazon’s initial Fire TV lineup was clearly aiming for volume sales, and targeted entry level sizes and display technology. In late 2022, Amazon moved a bit farther upmarket with the Fire TV Omni QLED. The new series added quantum dots for better color, up to 96 zones of full array local dimming for better contrast and black levels, Dolby Vision IQ, and a larger 75” option. While the display technology was improved, the real differentiation was Amazon’s ambience mode and smart display functionality. 

Ambient modes on TVs are nothing new. At CES 2017, Samsung introduced a line of lifestyle televisions designed to blend better with the décor. The Frame cost hundreds of dollars more than a typical Samsung TV but it had a matte finish, a motion sensor, and a library of fine art and photographs so that it appeared to be a picture frame when not in active use as a television. The Frame was an immediate hit, and future versions added additional sizes and a light sensor, while retaining their premium pricing.

When Amazon introduced its own TV with an ambient display mode last year, you could be forgiven for considering it a poor person's Samsung Frame. The Fire TV Omni QLED lacks the matte finish and light sensor that make The Frame physically appear to be framed artwork on the wall, but it costs a fraction of the Samsung’s price. When the Fire TV Omni QLED launched late last year at pricing including $799 for 65” or $1099 for 75”, Amazon dramatically undercut Samsung but not equivalent QLED televisions from TCL or HiSense. On sale for the 2023 holidays, Amazon is much more competitively priced: $589 for 65”, $879 for 75”. The best value is the 55” set, at $439.

Amazon is leveraging the MediaTek MT9020 chip in the Fire TV Omni QLED to provide a series of smart experiences beyond just displaying artwork, photos, and videos when the TV is 'off.' In fact, the Fire TV Omni QLED is actually more of a gigantic Amazon Echo Show than a Samsung Frame clone. The Fire TV Omni QLED has always-listening Alexa voice control, a series of widgets, and all the smart home integration of a 10” Echo Show without a touchscreen. If an Amazon package is on its way, a notification can pop up on your TV. Ask Alexa for the weather, and you’ll get a 7 day forecast that takes over the bottom third of your screen. When someone rings your Ring doorbell, their image can automatically show up on screen and you can use the TV’s microphone to tell them not to interrupt your TV time.

MediaTek MT9020 is also used in Fire TVs from Xiaomi and HiSense that don’t have ambient mode, and similar MediaTek chips power the majority of 4K TVs on the market. MediaTek offers so much computing capability on today’s smart TVs that the only thing holding back most TVs from offering more capabilities is software. Proving the point, Amazon recently added its ambient experience to the Fire TV Stick 4K Max – a $60 streaming media stick. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max uses an even less-capable MediaTek processor, the MT8696T, as it is only needs to handle the computing and streaming needs, and not also control the TV display and audio hardware directly.

I have been testing a 65” Fire TV Omni QLED for several months. The initial setup prompts for an Amazon account, which shouldn’t be a surprise; you probably shouldn't be buying a Fire TV if you aren't going to use Amazon services. If you have other Fire TV devices you can restore settings from them and skip a few steps. You can opt into leaving the mic on even when the TV screen is off – this is essentially a very large, very flat Echo speaker. This is opt in, and Amazon not only flags this during setup, but makes it clear where the mic mute switch is for privacy. You can also use Alexa to navigate on-screen menus and choose content; this is never 100% foolproof, but I found the implementation on the latest Fire TV Cube better. Alexa correctly understood commands and wording more often on the Cube; I suspect that it simply has more microphones in its array.

There is an introduction to the Ambient Experience during setup, but it defaults to being off, and you’ll need to figure out how to turn it on later. Actually using the widgets and Ambient Experience ranges can be underwhelming or even frustrating. There are only a handful of widgets, and they aren’t terribly sophisticated. There are a lot of backgrounds to choose from at no charge, but I had to search Google to find out how to select them. You can adjust overall Ambient Experience settings in the main Settings>Display menu, but actually choosing what to display requires knowing a magic sequence of button presses: enter Ambient Experience by pressing the power button on the remote, and then pressing the menu button (the hamburger button/three horizontal lines). Once there, Amazon provides plenty of choices, including your own photos saved on still graphics, motion art and videos, fine art, regional collections, and even key frames from movies. The motion sensor in the Fire TV Omni QLED works well, putting the set into picture frame mode when you enter the room.

Like all Fire TV products, Amazon’s interface supports most streaming apps, and Amazon’s own Prime Video is given prime positioning in the menu structure.

Image quality on the Fire TV Omni QLED is a big step up from most other Fire TVs. I did notice some banding and digital noise in the opening sequence from LA LA Land, but the colors were rich and saturated in Movie Dark mode. It is not the brightest TV, but the set’s dozens of local dimming zones and Dolby Vision IQ ensured that high dynamic range content pops. The Batman streamed from Amazon Prime Video is a great test for black levels and shadow detail, as the cinematography and muted color grading match the depressing tone the director was after. The Fire TV Omni QLED did not do well here; in some scenes the levels of gray merged together making it hard to tell what was going on. For better high dynamic range and contrast, a mini-LED or OLED set is required – but that will generally cost a lot more. This is a good budget TV but it is still just a budget TV.

Like most TVs at almost any budget level, audio quality from the built-in speakers is not impressive, and a soundbar is recommended. Another option is to connect your Amazon speakers! During setup, the Fire TV Omni QLED noticed that I have a bunch of Echo speakers on my account and offered to connect them and use them for the TV’s audio instead. Smart.

Cleer Scene is a Pretty Versatile Bluetooth Speaker

by Avi Greengart

Cleer's Scene is a small horizontal Bluetooth speaker that stands out for its looks and versatility. The swoopy, color-on-color industrial design is absolutely gorgeous, especially in the red colorway that Cleer sent over. It may look round, but it is flat on the bottom so it won't roll away. Sonics are good; if sound quality is your primary purchase driver this isn't the last word, but at modest volumes it plays cleanly with an emphasis on midrange. This is a small portable speaker and doesn't play louder (or lower) than physics allows, but it can certainly fill a small room with sound. There are physical control buttons, AUX in, and a microphone so the Scene can double as a speakerphone. It's portable, fully waterproof (IPX7), has up to 12 hours of playback time, and costs a reasonable $99. 

Cleer sent over a Scene for review but HomeTheaterView has no financial relationship with Cleer and does not accept affiliate payments.