**The Mystery of Upscaling: Unraveling the Truth Behind the Marantz Receiver and Sony TV**

As we embark on our journey to understand the world of upscaling, we find ourselves at a crossroads. The Marantz receiver, a stalwart companion in home theaters, is often shrouded in mystery as it passes through its feed. What happens next? Who knows what the Marantz receiver is doing as the feed passes through it? The answer lies in understanding the native format of the disc and how the Sony TV handles it. If somehow the players output the native format of the disc, leaving all the upscaling to the Sony Phillip, we must ensure that the best upscaler in our system is doing its job well.

This brings us to a crucial question: how do we make sure the best upscaler in our system is doing the upscaling well? Since you have the Sony X95L, it's possible that there may be a feature working behind the scenes to undo the upscaling job done by your disc players and then re-upscale it from scratch. This specific feature was told about around this time last year, but it's been implemented in a way that's behind the scenes. Therefore, we need to actually go and ask everyone if you are confident that you know which component is the strongest upscaler in your system.

**The Role of the TV: The Strongest Upscaler**

If the best upscaler in your system is the TV, which it often will be, you need to disable upscaling in your other products. On a Marantz receiver, this means turning off the video processing - not the video output mind you, just the video processing. This can also be done on Oppo and Panasonic players as well.

But how do we know that our TV is doing it better? Perhaps we could compare how the Oppo does upscaling on that DVD before it gets to your Sony, then turn off the Oppo's upscaling and see if the Sony does it better. This would allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the performance of each device.

**The Dilemma of Soundbars with Dolby Atmos**

Meanwhile, we find ourselves entangled in the complexities of soundbars advertising 5.1 with Dolby Atmos. How would this work without upfiring speakers? Does the Soundbar downmix the signal or decode it, losing the height effects? A person might see a benefit from a 5.1 Soundbar with Atmos versus one without.

But here's the thing: Dolby Atmos is as much brand marketing as it is technology now. What that means varies so much, making it hard for us to see Dolby Atmos as the guarantee of something awesome that we want it to be anyway. The Dolby Atmos badge on a 5.1 setup could mean it's just processing and downmixing the Atmos signal to work with the speakers it has or it could mean that it'll provide virtual Dolby - our hope would be for the latter.

**The Elegance of High Sense Dual Cell TV Technology**

We also find ourselves reminiscing about high sense dual cell TV technology, which made an Innovative Splash but quickly died. The problem is that it was just a bit too dim in that high sense TV, such as the H9G. This technology is expensive to do well and is primarily used by Hollywood production pros who use it on tens of thousands of dollars worth of monitors.

**Conclusion**

As we conclude our journey through the world of upscaling, we find ourselves pondering what we've learned. The mystery surrounding the Marantz receiver and Sony TV has been unraveled, but new questions have emerged. We're left wondering about the role of the TV as the strongest upscaler, the performance of soundbars with Dolby Atmos, and the fate of high sense dual cell TV technology.

**Additional Recommendations**

If you're interested in exploring more videos on similar topics, be sure to check out two other videos that we think you might find interesting.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enOn today's episode of You Asked: Do you need HDMI 2.1 for your Blu-ray player  are Sony Smart TVs faster than they used to be how long should a QLED TV last will  2023 TV prices go down even further and whatever happened to dual cell TVtech welcome back everyone I'm Caleb Denison and this is You Asked the show where I answer  questions you asked in hopes that I can help you and others who have similar tech questions  if you've got a question for me please send it to youasked@digitaltrends.com and we'll see if your  question gets picked to be answered on the show let's get right into it with a question from John  Bautista who writes I have the opportunity to purchase either the Samsung 990c for $1,259 or  the Samsung 900c for $495 I mean I already know what I'm going to say here that price difference  of $764 comes down to the satellite speakers that are included and exclusive to the 990c as the 900c  contains the same soundbar and subwoofer as the 990c you know what I'm going to stop the email  there because it's a little too long and it's got too many numbers in it the bottom line is the idea  is that Johnny could save a ton of money if he bought the satellite speaker separately with a  less expensive Soundbar if he's willing to give up two drivers one in each surround speaker and the  question question is am I really going to miss anything uh or should I just go ahead and save  the money so Johnny I do not think you would miss much if anything without having the extra driver  in each surround speaker it can be nice if your satellite speakers have to go into like really  weird places or if you have perfectly placed sidewalls since they will give you some side  fill from reflected sound but I mean that's a serious savings and I would go for the savings  in this case 100% Brad Powick writes I am looking at upgrading to a new TV and the devices I will  be connecting are a PS5 Xbox series X and A Sonos beam Gen 2 but I also intend to buy a  Panasonic DP-UB820GNK 4K Blu-ray player with most TV brands offering only two HDMI 2.1 ports with  one being reserved as the eArc port are there any benefits in terms of noticeable picture and  sound quality in plugging in a dedicated mid to high-end 4K Blu-ray player like the ub820 into an  HDMI 2.1 port instead of a 2.0 port or do you get everything you need for a 4K Blu-ray player out  of a standard HDMI 2.0 Port thanks Brad I'm glad you asked because this is one of those questions  we need to revisit from time to time folks you do not need HDMI 2.1 for your 4K Blu-ray player  everything that player can do can be passed along at under 18 gigabits per second which  is the max bandwidth for HDMI 2.0 leave your HDMI 2.1 One Ports for your next gen game consoles or  high-end gaming PCs Lee Mize writes hi Caleb I have a Sony a8h 65 in OLED TV and the menu responsive  is pitiful especially with the latest Android OS update from Summer of 2023 is there a TV with a  built-in menu and smart TV functions that are quick and responsive hey Lee first off let me  just say I am sorry and I totally understand I cannot tolerate slow Smart TV navigation and  to be honest the a8h was never a speed demon to begin with even when it was brand new for  sure it is probably intolerably sluggish now I do have encouraging news for you though since 2021  Sony has used more powerful chips to run its Smart TV OS and that happens to be when they  started running the Google TV skin over Android which I much prefer I use an A95K from 2022 and  an A95L from 2023 and they are rock it fast the a80 series uh J K and L models same thing so if  you want to stick with Sony and upgrade please don't worry that you're going to suffer the same  with those newer TVs that you've been dealing with since you got your a8h you just happened  to buy a Sony the last year that they had those slower chips in them which I complained about a  lot in the reviews but if you like the TV and you're just sick of the sluggishness you could  always buy a Chromecast with Google TV and use that instead the interface will be familiar to  you and it runs plenty fast that way you don't have to replace the whole TV if you don't want  to but I mean if you want to I mean just do it you have my blessing not that you were asking  for it Tim Bryant writes I thought you might be interested to know I took the plunge and purchased  the Samsung S95C boy I am not disappointed I have side by side video clips that compare the two TVs  and the difference is staggering and the shop must have had a rubbish signal because the upscaling  is very good he says I heard on your latest you asked why you can't possibly respond to everyone  I completely understand wasn't really expecting an answer myself in fact when I went back and watched  some of your older us videos I found the exact answer to the question I had asked so it might  be worth mentioning that others may well find the answer in your back catalog love the channel keep  up the good work Tim thank you for sharing your story and by my sharing the story that you shared  I think we've accomplished letting folks know that an answer to their question may be in a  prior episode Elijah writes I've had a Sony X900H for a few years now and I've noticed I'm getting  a lot more vignetting in the corners than I used to is this normal aging for a TV is there a good  timeline or lifespan for a TV or a sweet spot time of ownership for replacement hey Elijah I  don't love that your TV's vignetting is getting worse after about 2 and a half to 3 years unless  you leave it on for about 10 hours or so a day like every day if you do have the TV on for that  long yeah I'm not shocked I say that because at our Digital Trends offices we run TVs all  day long and of those TVs that had vignetting it got noticeably worse after about 2 to 3 years I  remember one that we had that was just comically bad I can't believe we put up with it for so long  honestly anyway every TV is different but yeah with heavy heavy use I often see LCD panels start  to suffer after about 3 years or so I don't think I can make a call on a sweet spot for lifespan but  I got to say I really wish TVs lasted for at least 10,000 hours if you watch about five hours a day  every day that's about five years if you have it on for 10 hours a day every day that's about two  and a half years Weston writes I'm in the market to upgrade my TCL 55 S517 and I'm trying to remain  below $2,000 I've been looking at the 77in LG C3 and just missed the Amazon sale where this TV  dipped just below my budget before shooting back up to $2,500 I'm aiming to remain Vigilant on any  deals but don't want to purchase prematurely if prices will drop more significantly once the C4  lineup is available for purchase how far do you expect prices to drop on LG's 2023 lineup once  the 2024 lineup is available should I pull the trigger if it dips below $2,000 again or wait  it out until 2024's are released for even more potential savings Weston I'll repeat something  that I said a couple of episodes ago I think the best buying advice I can give right now is buy a  2023 TV if you can the 2024 TVs for the most part appear to show marginal improvements over 2023 TV  so if you can get a deal on a 2023 TV do that I don't know when the C3 will go down again but if  it went down before it is likely it will do so again and I think you probably have a few weeks  on that there's usually some time between when the new model comes out and when stock on the  prior year models starts running dry so I think if you hold out long enough you'll get what you  want I do not have however think it's going to drop that much below $2,000 with all of that  said I think you should seriously consider looking at the 77 in Samsung S89C OLED it  is just a spectacular TV and it's at about 1,800 bucks right now and in the interest of timing I  already emailed that information to you so let us know what you decided on Matt writes hey Caleb so  I've noticed that TV's bezels have been getting smaller and smaller over the years do you think  we will see more high-end TVs with no bezels in the upcoming years and do you think OLED or  QD OLED TVs will ever see bezeless releases hey Matt so the truth is we already have bezeless TVs  now there's basically nothing but a thin strip of metal holding the panel in place here on this Sony  A95L for example but I think you may be referring to the black border that you see around the screen  technically speaking that's not not a bezel we call that a border or a black Matrix border why  is that there I forget not going to lie I used to know this and I totally forgot uh I'm going  to be talking to some TV Engineers over the next couple of weeks and I'll ask them uh would you do  me a favor though and send an email in a couple of weeks so I don't forget to come back to this  question I appreciate it Philip Boyle writes with each component in my system able to do upscaling  and maybe doing it without me knowing it how do I be sure the most capable component is doing  this important task I just got an 85in Sony X95L partly because of its great upscaling capability  but if I play a DVD in my Oppo Blu-ray player the output is upscaled to HD by the player and if I  play it in my Panasonic Ultra HD Blu-ray player the output is upscaled to 4K by that player and  who knows what the Marantz receiver is doing as the feed passes through it what is left for the  Sony TV to do should I somehow get the players to Output the native format of the disc and leave all  the upscaling to the Sony Phillip I love this question yeah so how do we make sure the best  upscaler in our system is doing the upscaling well since you have the Sony X95L I think there  may be a feature working behind the scenes to undo the upscaling job that your dis players are doing  and then re-ups scale it from scratch that is a specific feature Sony told me about right around  this time last year and I think they implemented it but it's very behind the scenes so I'm going  to have to actually go and ask everyone if you are confident that you know which component is  the strongest upscaler in your system then let's let it do its job if it's early in the chain then  upscaling the upscaled image is rarely going to do anything but if the best upscaler in your  system is the TV which it often will be you need to disable upscaling in your other products so on  a Marantz receiver you would turn off the video processing not the video output mind you just the  video processing you can do that on the Oppo and Panasonic players as well but have fun with it  maybe do a comparison between how the Oppo does upscaling uh on that DVD before it gets to your  Sony then turn off the oppo's upscaling and see if the Sony does it better and let us know what you  find out nice system components by the way Jeremy Brewer hope I pronounce that correctly writes I  keep seeing many Soundbars advertising 5.1 with Dolby Atmos how would this work without up firing  speakers does the Soundbar down mix the signal or does it decode it and you just lose the height  effects would a person see any benefit from a 5.1 Soundbar with Atmos versus one without Jeremy if  that's how you say your name and I am so sorry if it isn't here's the thing and I apologize to  anyone who has had to hear me say this many times before for Dolby Atmos is as much brand marketing  as it is technology now to be fair the Dolby Atmos badge always means something technically but what  that is varies so much it's hard for me to see Dolby Atmos as the guarantee of something awesome  that I want it to be anyway the Dolby Atmos badge on a 5.1 setup could mean it's just processing and  downmixing the Atmos signal to work with the speakers it has or it could mean that it'll  provide virtual Dolby at most my hope would be for the latter and for the virtual effect to be done  well honestly it would depend on the Soundbar in question so I would look deeper into the product  literature to see what the hints on that might be hope that helps Robert krupka or krupka writes  does high sense dual cell TV technology still exist I remember it made an Innovative Splash  but now I don't hear of it yeah Robert it made a splash and quickly died the problem is that  it was just a bit too dim in that high sense TV I think it was the h9g it just didn't take off  the thing is dual cell technology is expensive to do well the monitors that use well one dual  cell are the sort that Hollywood production Pros use and they cost tens of thousands of dollars so  just not long for the consumer Market I'm afraid thanks as always for watching everyone what do you  think of this week's question let me know down in the comments below don't forget to like And  subscribe I'll see you on the next one and until then here's two other videos I think you mightlike\n"