Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Unlike speakers and laptops, I don’t purchase a lot of new televisions. I didn’t get a HD set until my Trinitron wouldn’t power on and I didn’t get a big screen LCD until I upgraded to a Blue-Ray DVD player. I had no intention of getting a 4K set until broadcast channels bragged about it, and I didn’t care if it was a “smart TV” or not because television manufactures abandon those sets a year or two after they sell them. Whatever 4K set I would own, it would get all its “smarts” from the latest edition of the Fire TV box. When I saw Element was integrating Fire TV into a 4K set, I was interested. (I have been secretly waiting for the Fire TV boxes got get an integrated tuner, this is the next best thing.) Setup was straightforward. After attaching the feet, you plug it in, push the power button and it starts up. The first boot gives you a tutorial and run-through of the interface. You can find them again under the Notifications Bell if you skip it. The boot time is a little long since you must wait for both the Element logo and the normal Fire TV startup process. After the first startup, it gets quicker. If are familiar with the Fire TV, you will be right at home, but I am glad I did not ignore the tutorial, without it, I would not have found how to scan for channels with my antenna. You find the antenna input, then push the menu button to find the Scan Channels option. After scanning for channels, I had one issue. The sound was horrible. I scanned for channels again, checked the settings on my Yamaha receiver, and tried again. It was still terrible, like there was static, or the television speaker was on with the receiver and I was getting an echo from the interference. I moved my mud-flap antenna and tried scanning channels again with the same result. I played around in the TV’s settings and found I had a software update waiting. The update fixed the sound issue. That’s another reason I like Amazon’s Fire TV ecosystem. Even my first generation Fire TV is running current software. I hope this set gets the same service. (OK better service, since I intend to keep the set longer than a $40 Fire TV box). I have been cable television free for four years. When Amazon announced the “channels” option for Amazon Video I knew it was the ecosystem for me. If you have not used the add-on channels feature of Amazon Video, you should, it’s as close to à la carte cable television as you can get. Add Netflix and you will not miss cable television. Add the integrated antenna TV guide and you have a complete package. It is so nice that I might spring for that outdoor antenna to clear up some weak channels my indoor mud-flap antenna cannot pick up (antenna TV is a long way from the four channels I had as a child). When you are in the guide, you can hit the menu button to add channels to a favorite list and filter out all the clutter, that should be enough to keep from a new antenna. A feature I did not expect is that the “live” channels of my HBO add-on channel are included in the guide. My favorite channel list is now the HBO channels, ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC, and the three PBS stations. (OK, and the Accu-Weather channel. I am guilty). When you hold down the Home button, you get a fly-out menu that gets you into the Channel Guide, where you can select inputs, your applications, the sleep timer and your picture and sound settings. Since I use a Yamaha receiver and Polk speakers, I can’t speak for the sound options. The options for adjusting the picture are limited to the usual presets and some advanced options. Before you spend a lot of time tweaking these, know that you will have to do so at least twice. Once for live TV, and again for Video. Since you are not switching inputs, this frustrated me, until I found the mode indicator at the top of the Picture Settings menu. You can tweak your settings for each mode, and that is a good thing. You Advanced Options are limited to Motion Smoothing, Noise Reduction, Color Temperature and Color Mode. If you want finer control, then you must start with the Custom Picture Mode setting to gain access to Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Tint, and Sharpness. If you are looking for finer adjustments, you are out of luck. For now, I have chosen the Standard picture mode, turned noise reduction and motion smoothing to their lowest settings, set the color mode to native, and chose the standard color temperature. The set comes with all these on their highest settings or auto along with the backlight at an eye-searing 100. I am playing with the backlight between off and very low (below 25) with nice results. The remote is the standard Fire TV remote affair, except the home, reverse, and menu buttons are above the ring (annoying). The prime video, Netflix, and Amazon Music buttons are a nice touch, and thanks to HDMI CEC control I retired my smart remote. Powering the set on, powers up my Yamaha receiver and the volume buttons pass through to my receiver as well. Overall, I am happy with the set. Since cutting the cable cord, the number of devices on my television stand have been dwindling, and that makes me very happy. Now if a set would just come with some really rocking speakers, you know like the consoles of old… UPDATE: This is a bright television, and like all models sold today the preset picture options work better in a showroom than a living room. In a dark living room, the brightness, especially the backlight, tears shadows apart and creates a pixelated or color washed effect. Most people fall for the marketing of extra features like HDR or even OLED in an attempt to fix those defects. But the fact is with eight million pixels at your command a calibrated set will beat a feature loaded set every time. You cannot adjust brightness and contrast on this box after selecting one of the picture presets. You have to choose Custom, then custom again to find everything set at a nice 50/50. Brightness and Contrast are the two most important settings, and there are test patterns you can use to help make those adjustments. I grabbed an application with those patterns, but the operating system went into another screen mode (application) when running the application, so it didn't do any good. I ended up using Game of Thrones, with its dark interior castle scenes, overly warm desert scenes, and overly cool winter scenes to arrive at the following the settings. The result is simply stunning. Picture Mode: Custom Settings Brightness: 45 Contrast: 75 (YMMV between 65 and 90) Saturation: 42 (enough to take the red out of the cheeks on the overly warm GOT scenes) Tint: 50 Sharpness 0 (just a joke on a 4k screen) Color Temperature: Standard (Warm was way too warm for me. Never choose cool) Noise Reduction: Off (or Low, Because most content is upscaled to 4k resolution, otherwise off is fine.) Motion Smoothing: Strong (Sacrilege!! You owe it to yourself to watch the opening sequence of GOT with Motion Smoothing at Strong or Intermediate. If feels 3D. This set benefits from either Motion Smoothing or Noise Reduction being on. If you use them both, keep them at Low) Backlight: 20 (As low as 9, not higher than 25) Color Space: Auto