4 days ago
You Asked: Is 100 inches too big? Will Mini-LED or Direct Lit last longer?
On today's episode of You Asked: Will a Mini LED TV last longer than Direct Lit? Is a 100-inch TV too big for your room? And… why do Sony headphones keep muting your music on their own?
Headphones muting themselves?
Jason asks: My Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones sound great, but sometimes they pause the music on their own. Specifically, I hear a tone. Then the music cuts out and resumes a few seconds later. It doesn't happen too often if I'm at home, but I recently did some traveling, and it happened a lot at the airport. Any idea what it could be and how to fix it?
Hey Jason. Thanks for the question. It SOUNDS—pun intended—like this is some sort of notification from your headphones. So I did a little bit of experimenting with my own Sonys to see what the issue could be, and it looks like your issue could be with Adaptive Sound Control and some of the settings within.
It's a cool function that allows the app to, quote, 'tailor the headphone settings to best match your lifestyle.' The app will learn how you use your headphones and switch the settings between active noise canceling and allowing ambient sound at optimal times based on the activity detected.
Those actions are Staying, Walking, Running, and Riding in a Vehicle. You can actually adjust the settings per action. By default, when Staying or Riding in a Vehicle, it's set to a Noise Canceling Mode, but when Walking or Running, there's a focus on Ambient Sound. This is probably for safety reasons so you can hear your environment, but again, you can make adjustments however you like.
But Jason, your issue seems to be with notifications from this app. So let's change that.
Within the Sound Connect App, head down to Adaptive Sound Control. Then press the three dots in the top right to access the Settings. If you have this notification tone turned on, you'll be notified every time the headphone settings are automatically switched. I imagine that's what was temporarily pausing your music—especially moving through an airport where you're doing a lot of Staying, Walking, and maybe Running as well. I'd suggest turning that Notification setting off and seeing if that fixes your problem.
Which lasts longer: Mini-LED or Direct Lit?
@adhipratama3347 asks: Which TV technology will last longer for extensive daily use? Will Mini LED last longer than Direct Lit LED?
I believe the answer here is yes—Mini LED will last longer, and it all starts with physics. What we know is Mini LEDs are smaller. That size allows for better picture control, only lighting up the parts of the screen that need to be, and creating greater contrast and HDR viewing. AND that smaller size means they're not being lit up as often.
A Direct Lit TV, on the other hand, sees more of its backlight used more often. It's less efficient, and over time, it just means you're putting more wear and tear on those LEDs at a faster rate.
Earlier this year, actually, Hisense published an article stating that their Mini LED TVs should last around 50,000 hours. But they did also note something that I've said often when answering a few questions like this: there is no exact number for how many hours your Mini LED TV will last, because different use leads to different outcomes.
But in your case, you're referring to extensive daily use—and yes, it sounds like Mini LED is the way to go for that.
I'll also note that you get what you pay for. If you're buying a Mini LED TV, there's a good chance it's one of the better TVs offered from any brand. It's going to have better and newer technology, which may also include improved care features designed to extend the life of your TV.
Most Direct Lit LED TVs are more budget-friendly models. So do what you will with that bit of information, but I think the facts point to Mini LED lasting longer.
Is 100 Inches Too Big?
@GOLFADDICT65 asks: I'm looking for a big TV for my 12 by 14 foot room that has no windows. I'll be sitting about 8–10 feet from the screen. I love sports and movies. I do not game. I want immersion. I will be adding a Sonos Arc Ultra and sub and rears. Should I go 100-inch Hisense U8N or 98-inch TCL QM8K or QM7K or 83-inch LG C5? Your thoughts are appreciated. I also have about 3,000 Blu-rays to watch. Cheers from Canada.
This sounds like a whole lot of fun, but I hope your golf game doesn't suffer with all of that Blu-ray watching. Maybe this is a winter project for you in Canada.
Anyway, in a room that size and given your 8–10 foot viewing distance, I think the LG C5 is the way to go for a few reasons.
One, you're in a room without windows, so it will be plenty bright enough. No need to get more nits out of the Mini LED options you listed. Also—and maybe most important—the OLED picture quality from the LG C5 is going to be a big step up from the TCL and Hisense options, especially at that size. Not that those options are bad by any means, but any imperfections will just be magnified.
And finally, you need to consider the size of the TV. You mention wanting immersion, and I totally get that. But we had TVs of a similar size set up in our studio last year, and they were just a bit too much at that distance from the TV. Actually, in hindsight, maybe we should have done more filming from the couch angle in those TV reviews to show that.
Anyway, 83 inches is plenty from 8–10 feet away, and some would say even that is still too big. You can find a few TV size-to-distance calculators online, and this one from Rtings indicates that on the long end of your range—10 feet—83 inches is still more than recommended.
I totally get wanting to be absolutely blown away by the TV during sports and movie viewing, but 98 or 100 inches feels like overkill. I know that TVs at that larger-than-life size are getting more affordable, and that makes it even more tempting to go after one, but I've literally seen people turn away a free 100-plus inch TV simply because it didn't fit well on the wall of their theater room.
All that to say: go with the OLED.
MacBook for Photo Editing?
Katie asks: I'm in the market for a personal laptop but not sure what to get. I like the idea of a MacBook, and I'm an iPhone and Apple Watch user, but I haven't used a MacBook in at least 10 years because I've primarily used my Windows work laptops. However, I'm getting to a place where I want my own device AND I want to start doing some photo editing. Any recommendations?
Hey Katie—great question, and one I think a lot of people have trouble navigating because there are so many options.
Sounds like you already know what you want here, but I'll kind of reiterate that a MacBook makes the most sense for you, particularly a MacBook Air. With the Apple Silicon chips, you can take a lot of guesswork out of all the CPU and GPU options you'd have to navigate with other manufacturers. Especially with the latest M3 and M4 chips, you've got a ton of power packed in for daily tasks and some creative work.
If you're going to be doing a lot of heavy photo editing with programs like Photoshop or running a few photo applications at once while editing, consider upgrading the Unified Memory. But otherwise, just working in Lightroom or something like that, the 16 GB option is fine. I do, however, recommend going with more than 256 GB of storage—that will get eaten up in a hurry. 512 GB would be a minimum, and honestly, one terabyte would be ideal. Take it from someone who's currently struggling even with one terabyte.
Since you're in the Apple ecosystem with a few devices already, a MacBook makes a lot of sense and will make for ease of setup and use between devices. If you want to save a little money, check out other retailers besides Apple themselves to see if they have some of the slightly older M3 models available at a good discount.
