Ask S&V

Q I was recently in Best Buy asking about speakers for Dolby Atmos. I was told that to get Atmos I would have to change out my current setup and buy a new set of Atmos Speakers. Is that true? —Wendell Blue

A I own a Panasonic plasma TV and a Denon AV receiver. When I connect my sources directly to the TV, the picture looks great. But when I run my Oppo BDP-105 Blu-ray player, cable TV box, and Amazon Fire TV media player through the Denon using HDMI cables, the picture quality degrades. Is there a way I can work around the picture quality problems caused by my AVR? I want to continue using the AVR for audio switching and prefer to not have to connect sources directly to the TV. —Henry Yeboah / via e-mail

Q I just bought the new Apple TV 4K streaming box and am wondering how to get the best picture and sound from it. My system consists of an LG OLED Ultra HDTV and a Marantz SR7010 receiver. Should I route the signal from the box through my Marantz receiver via HDMI, or connect it directly to the TV? —Mike Franchek

A I would connect the Apple TV 4K directly to your TV — for now. Here’s why.

Q I am trying to find a TV with low light intensity since my eyes are extremely sensitive to light. I have been told that an LCD TV with a full array LED backlight will let me dim the screen’s intensity without compromising picture quality. Is this true? If so, how does that work? —Patrick Forte

Q I am buying an LG OLED TV that supports the Dolby Vision high dynamic range (HDR) format. Will my Denon receiver support Dolby Vision as well? What other things will I need to make Dolby Vision work? —Dave Poulson

Q I'm a big proponent of physical media and was an earlier adopter of the Ultra HD Blu-ray format. I understand that certain movies may have been shot in 4K or higher resolution (or on 35mm film, which provides enough detail to scan at 4K), but then mastered for release from a 2K digital intermediate. I’ve been able to appreciate the benefits of the Ultra HD format almost immediately thanks in large part to high dynamic range, but am bothered that some disc titles are mastered at less than Ultra HD resolution. It seems like we’ll soon be seeing "New 4K Remaster" versions of movies previously released in Ultra HD. What’s the issue here? —Jason Acosta

Q I recently upgraded my TV to an LG 65B7P OLED. My receiver is an older Pioneer model that I'm loathe to give up. I plan on using an Xbox console, either the One S or the forthcoming One X, as my 4K source. Here’s my problem: both Xbox versions provide only a single HDMI output. I know I could use the TV’s HDMI ARC port to route audio back to a receiver, but my Pioneer doesn’t support that feature. Another problem is that HDMI ARC doesn't support the Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA lossless audio codecs. Which gets me to my question: Is there some kind of HDMI splitter I can buy that will let me route the Xbox’s output separately to the TV and AVR? —David Becker