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Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

engadget.com

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Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#141

Post by [deleted] »

timc3 wrote: post #133
trentnix wrote: post #77

Now there are more avenues for Samsung to shove bloatware down our throats. I have a modestly high-end home theater and it is utterly maddening waiting for devices to “boot” and “handshake”. And after the wait, I’m presented with another “User Agreement” to sign that insists on shoveling ads down my throat and harvesting data. How much do you have to pay for a quick boot, no ads, and a private movie or music experien…

What exactly are you waiting for. I have two Dolby atmos systems, denon receivers, Apple TVs, OSMC boxes on both, and LG Smart TVs disconnected from the internet. Start up time is less than a second.

[deleted]

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#142

Post by timc3 »

hedora wrote: post #83
tzs wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any article posted here about smart TVs draws a large number of comments about limitations and annoyances of smart TV platforms. 90+% of the things people complain about would no longer be a problem if they got a traditional A/V receiver, plugged all their sources such as streaming boxes and game consoles into the receiver, and just used the smart TV as a monitor (and as a tuner if they watch OTA television). Until t…

I don’t understand what an A/V receiver is for. Our setup: - An old LCD TV with 4(?) HDMI inputs and a few legacy ports. - linux box with hdmi out - apple tv with hdmi out - console with hdmi out - line out cable from TV to 1970’s receiver’s line in. - line out from sonos to another line in on the receiver. - roof antenna, with a Y to the TV and receiver - turntable - two extremely nice speakers (Before someone asks,…

Thats fine if you are happy with it, does the job no problem.

Its just I wouldn't want the TV doing the switching because you are still managing two remotes for that and I dont want the wiring to the TV, I would want more speakers and some basic room eq, delay correction and subwoofer management. And I always end up with more devices. I also want Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

My receiver does everything yours does and more, and the TV auto switches on and off but I am also been into this stuff for years.

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#143

Post by hsbauauvhabzb »

timc3 wrote: post #133
trentnix wrote: post #77

Now there are more avenues for Samsung to shove bloatware down our throats. I have a modestly high-end home theater and it is utterly maddening waiting for devices to “boot” and “handshake”. And after the wait, I’m presented with another “User Agreement” to sign that insists on shoveling ads down my throat and harvesting data. How much do you have to pay for a quick boot, no ads, and a private movie or music experien…

What exactly are you waiting for. I have two Dolby atmos systems, denon receivers, Apple TVs, OSMC boxes on both, and LG Smart TVs disconnected from the internet. Start up time is less than a second.

are you telling me the reason my tv turns on slowly is because it has internet access?

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#144

Post by jterrys »

esperent wrote: post #87
Animats wrote: post #7

must...have...name...brands Recently I was looking for a toaster. Target has a nice selection of toasters. Look down into the slots, and they are all exactly the same. There were, at peak, only three different VCRs. All those brands used one of three standard mechanisms. But you could get a hundred different cases.

Funny you should say that about toasters... Because I've been down a toaster buying rabbit hole over the past year and toasters are not all the same. I mean sure, a €20 toaster is gonna be the same as all other €20 toasters. But beyond that they have massively different build quality and toasting speed, and don't get me started on how hard it is to find a toaster designed for real bread instead of square supermarket…

commercial toasters, tvs, washing machines, you generally can't go wrong with spending a premium for something that was built to last a LOT of use. Speedqueen makes commercial washing machines with a consumer lineup that's serious about lasting a while. Easily set me back $1600, but then looking at the build quality and 10 year warranty I was like "ok, they probably mean it".

One thing I noticed about commercial build quality: simplicity. No touch bullshit. Small LCD displays. Here's some buttons and maybe a rotating knob. knock yourself out.

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#145

Post by timc3 »

keoneflick wrote: post #45
tzs wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any article posted here about smart TVs draws a large number of comments about limitations and annoyances of smart TV platforms. 90+% of the things people complain about would no longer be a problem if they got a traditional A/V receiver, plugged all their sources such as streaming boxes and game consoles into the receiver, and just used the smart TV as a monitor (and as a tuner if they watch OTA television). Until t…

You can have the TV still be a dumb monitor by using a TV box, but handle the switching of inputs if you have more than one input. The problem is that as video technology has advanced, it makes less and less sense to pay for video processing technology on a receiver. Your new TV supports HDMI 2.1 with 120hz and VRR for your new PS5. Does your receiver? Are you willing to spend $1000 to upgrade your receiver to simply…

But a lot only support that on 2 ports (though admittedly how many devices would you have doing that).

I think you hit the only problem I have with receivers being the upgrade of them as new versions of HDMI come out.

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#146

Post by domoregood »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #95
dsr_ wrote: post #4

There are lots of speaker manufacturers; I'm not too concerned about Polk and B&W. But! There are relatively few home theater receiver makers, and the Denon/Marantz siblings have been a big chunk of them for decades. (Sony, Yamaha, Onkyo, Denon. Nobody else covers the low and mid cost market.)

I have a Marantz receiver that I’ve been using for around a decade now and it’s been excellent, having done its job well the whole time and it having continued to get updates fixing or improving things (e.g. after Spotify bricked a bunch of stuff by deprecating its old API, Marantz issued an update using the new API). Given Samsung’s track record with enshittification and support timelines I’m worried that this acqui…

This is the enshittification comment I came here for.

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#147

Post by milesward »

trentnix wrote: post #77

Now there are more avenues for Samsung to shove bloatware down our throats. I have a modestly high-end home theater and it is utterly maddening waiting for devices to “boot” and “handshake”. And after the wait, I’m presented with another “User Agreement” to sign that insists on shoveling ads down my throat and harvesting data. How much do you have to pay for a quick boot, no ads, and a private movie or music experien…

Check out Schiit Audio.

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#148

Post by iwontberude »

hedora wrote: post #119
jeffbee wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Licensing is definitely strangling the market for Atmos decoders. If you have particular requirements you can always do it with ~$2k in Dolby software licenses and also ~$2k in converters. You cannot, unfortunately, DIY hardware for Atmos without an HDCP license. If you have one of those you can actually DIY something around a DSP like the ones Analog Devices sells preloaded with the IP. Then again if you have those…

Gee, look what fell out of the back of a truck: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/HDMI-1-4-Splitter-1-i... $25 minimum order (for ten) + shipping and tariffs. No idea if these work, but they’re the top internet hit. The metadata says they do.

Whenever I try to use these they don’t work with the latest hardware

Re: Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk

#150

Post by hapticmonkey »

trentnix wrote: post #77

Now there are more avenues for Samsung to shove bloatware down our throats. I have a modestly high-end home theater and it is utterly maddening waiting for devices to “boot” and “handshake”. And after the wait, I’m presented with another “User Agreement” to sign that insists on shoveling ads down my throat and harvesting data. How much do you have to pay for a quick boot, no ads, and a private movie or music experien…

AppleTV running Apple Music connected to my Marantz AVR. No ads. No privacy concerns. I get lossless stereo where available and Atmos on selected tracks. It's great.
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