Ok. This is going to be long…but maybe something through my experience will help you solve something faster than me.
I ended up with the Sony x800g 75” led 4k UHD HDR10 tv.
Lots of numbers there. And often times you will hear stuff used interchangeably.
• 4k isn’t all the same. So the term 4k related to the number of pixels on your screen.
o 1080p was previous HD (high definition) and was 1920x1080 pixels.
o 4k is generally 3840x2160
• UHD is ultra high definition which also refers to the resolution of 3840x2160, however there are two versions of this.
o One is 30hz. Normal movies and tv look “normal”
o 60hz is great for action movies and fast movement such as sports
• HDR/HDR10 also has two versions, but in simple terms, HDR is used to describe a certain grouping of picture settings to make your 4k look better. Higher contrast rates(darker black and whiter white). However there are 2 versions of this also
o 30hz for traditional movies and tv
o 60hz is great for those action movies and sports.
What happened for me. It was time for a new tv. I already had a Yamaha surround sound receiver that all my consoles, and fire/roku sticks, and blueray players plugged into, and one single cable going to my tv. So the setup of a new tv was going to be fairly painless. Find the tv, buy the tv, remove the old tv and replace it with the new one. I got home, got the new one in place and hooked up with one hdmi connection…and it didn’t do 4k. WTF! So I did some research and realized the roku stick that we use for amazon prime, hulu, and Netflix…wasn’t 4k compatible. So I went online, ordered a Roku Premier. I got it the next day, thanks amazon. Hooked it up, and it worked well…but the remote had to be line of site with the roku box. Unfortunately, my home theater setup made this a huge pain in the butt because the roku was hidden behind the Yamaha surround sound receiver. So, I returned this and ordered the Roku Streaming Stick +. Because these are meant to plug in behind the tv or to a surround sound receiver. This in place, and I ran the setup on the roku stick for display and it would do 4k uhd but only in 30hz. Fearing I had bought the wrong one. I took it upstairs to my lg 40” tv and plugged it in, turned on the tv. And the tv recognized the roku stick and I saw the screen go from normal black screen (kinda dark grey really) to true solid black with the HDR logo flashing on screen. When it showed the roku menu, I ran the same display setup and it clicked green check marks next to 4k uhd 30hz, 4k uhd 60hz, 4k hdr 30hz, and 4k hdr 60hz. And the movies (6 underground on Netflix) was just a freaking work of art. So now I knew that it was not the roku stick. So doing more research I found out that my Yamaha rx-v685 surround sound receiver would accept this beautiful signal and would pass through 4k but that the configuration had to be adjusted to do this. So I dug around in the menu, found the setting and clicked it into 4k. It looked okay on the new screen, but didn’t look amazing. So I went back to the google, and found out that my receiver would pass through only 4k uhd 30hz. So…it would look okay. But wouldn’t be jaw dropping. Did some research and found that I needed to buy the newer version of the receiver the RX-v683BL, that was $400 on ebay for a new in box one. It showed up a week later in a damaged box, but was fine cosmetically and functionally. I installed this new receiver with all the same connections and such. And ran the same roku display test, got it to do 4k uhd 30hz, and 4k uhd 60hz but it wouldn’t do 4k hdr 30 or 60. Annoyed at this point, I started scouring everything I could, and started seeing that folks said they solved this problem with better cables. I figured why not. So I found a set that had great reviews on amazon (info below) and those showed up two days later. I ran one of these from the new Yamaha receiver to the tv. Because the roku stick plugged in directly to a port on the back of the tv. Ran the test and got the 4k uhd’s working but only the 4k hdr 30hz working. I wanted the last step because I wanted the 4k resolution with the hdr picture quality with the 60 hz for high speed smooth movements. Annoyed again, I found that the tv instead of using HDMI port 1, needed to have me use HDMI port 2 or 3. I tried that, same. Then I went into the menu for the tv and found that there was a picture setting under settings>watch tv>external inputs>hdmi signal format>select the port 2 I was plugged into now and change it from standard to enhanced 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 mode. Tried again, the image was looking better but the roku still wouldn’t let me have the 4k hdr 60hz. So I checked the Yamaha receiver and the HDMI mode had to be in mode 1 as well as the roku stick had to be in ports 1-5. I ran the test again…still no luck. A final run at google and someone said there was a buried adjustment within the settings>advanced system settings>HDMI output and it also had to be set to the 4:4:4 or 4:2:2. Ran the settings and success! So when I boil it all down, when hooking something up to a 4k UHD HDR10(60hz) tv you need to have the correct device, the correct settings on the device, the right cable, the right port plugged in for the device, and also have the settings enabled for that device. I know that was long winded, but I figure I’ll use this story in the amazon review and maybe it helps someone sometime.
| Brand Name | Roku |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 9 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 3.7 x 0.8 x 0.47 inches |
| Item model number | 3810R |
| Batteries | 2 AAA batteries required. (included) |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Color Name | Model |
| Number of Component Outputs | hdmi |
| Special Features | Wireless |
