Great bang for the buck GAMING 4K TV - VIZIO M-Series Quantum 8 4K HDR
ShortCircuit
·ShortCircuit
·2021-05-05
·
1,715 words · ~8 min read
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- I talk about this a lot, but it is absolutely mind-blowing
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how much TV you can get for,
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how does this open? Come on!
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(tape ripping) (box banging)
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What is going on?! Get off!
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(Linus exhales angrily) What is it stuck on? (box giving way)
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Okay. Now, I've talked about this before, how much TV you can get
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for shockingly small amounts of money these days.
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This is the VIZIO M Series Quantum 65 inch.
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A TV that only costs a couple hundred dollars more
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than an Xbox series X, and yet has the vast majority of the features
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that any gamer would care about. It's got HDR with luminance up to 600 nits,
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it's got 4K60 hertz support, it's got Dolby Vision,
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and it's even got support for HDMI 2.1 features,
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like eARC and variable refresh rate. So, VIZIO sponsored this video,
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where we're gonna be hooking it up to an Xbox series X and checking it out.
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It's actually shockingly light for a TV
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that has full array local dimming. It's got 30 zones in there.
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Hold on, one sec. (grunting) I'm a trained professional. Please do not attempt at home.
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So we got HDMI1 with eARC, got three more,
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comes at 2amp USB, so if you wanna power your bias lighting,
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or, like, a chromecast dongle or something like that, you'd run it off there,
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optical, and wired Ethernet. Wall mounting supported, power in over here,
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(Linus whooping comically) Where's my stand at? (Linus grunting)
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Hello? (box crashing) Ow! I'm a trained professional.
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(styrofoam clunking) Pretty sure it's in here.
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Hey! There it is! There may have been an easier way to do that.
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Someone's got to put the first nick in this new floor. Oh, yeah! How you guys like the new ShortCircuit set?
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Look at that, we got the computer corner up in there, we got the TV corner over there,
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that's where we'll be doing this video. Look. Conveniently, they're keyed,
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so there's no way to put them in wrong. Ah! Heck yeah, brother!
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- [Andy] Do you want a hand, Linus? - Nope, I'm good. And a one, two, three! (yells)
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(Linus laughing)
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Hey, look at that! It's almost like we designed the set for a 65 inch TV to go here.
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It's perfect! Oh, damn it!
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I'm three inches too short. That's what she said. That's okay, while we wait for an extension cable,
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we can open up this M series 5.1 sound bar
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that we're going to be pairing with the TV. It's got support for Dolby Atmos,
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it's got a total of nine speakers included between the soundbar, the subwoofer,
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and the two dedicated rear satellites.
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And I believe it actually also includes...
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Uh, that's interesting. So, there's the wall mounting brackets,
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that's what I was expecting to find, as well as, apparently, an AMD backplate
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that someone must have accidentally tossed in here
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when they were putting it away from the last project we used this for.
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I know that not everyone's into the whole soundbar thing, but as someone who recently made the switch,
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I know, I know, you know, the whole dedicated setup thing,
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dedicated amp and all that, it can sound better,
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even for the money, but there is something to be said for,
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just put it there, put that thing there, and then, like, two cables later, you're done.
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Now, because this is a fairly basic soundbar,
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you don't have a whole array of inputs. VIZIO does have higher end products
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that have got, you know, multiple inputs, and like, upward firing, rotating speakers and all that kind of stuff.
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But, what's nice about this one is, at least, unlike some others, you do get an HDMI input
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to replace the input on your TV that is consumed by eARC, here.
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So we just gotta do our power cable here, HDMI to the TV,
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and then, we actually get another USB for powering,
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you know, again, some kind of accessory.
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Not a chromecast though, I lied, because it actually has built in chromecast. Ha Ha!
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I mean, I guess you could just have another chromecast.
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If you hook up the surround speakers, they go into the back of the subwoofer, right here,
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and then you wanna run those, like, under your carpet, or wherever else, to either a wall bracket
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or you can get floor standing speaker stands if you're into that.
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Personally, I consider the rear channels to be somewhat optional.
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Not every type of content benefits in the same way that others do.
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I would say racing games are a great example of something where you're gonna want the rear channels,
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but not necessarily everything.
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That's clean. Isn't that clean? This is such a cool TV stand, 'cause it's, like,
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designed for next gen console ventilation, you know what I mean?
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Let's turn this baby on. There we go! Immediately we're greeted
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with all the usual suspects for apps, Netflix, AppleTV, Disney Plus, Prime Video, YouTube.
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Pluto? Plex, there we go. Tidal, Curiosity Stream.
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That's funny, I don't see Hulu on the list, but there's literally a Hulu button on the remote,
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so presumably, that'll work? There we go.
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(Linus laughing) Of course, my focus, for now, is on gaming,
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'cause that's what we're focused on, today. We're flipping into game mode.
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Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the warm color temperature
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that a lot of game and film modes default to, so I'm gonna change that to normal,
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and then we're gonna go into advanced picture. Yep, all these kinds of black details,
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super resolution things, you want that off in gaming so you have the best possible input latency.
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Get my full array local dimming. This TV has 30 zones, so we're gonna have a look at how that looks for games.
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Things like text might have blooming around them with only 30 zones, but in game,
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I'm expecting that to actually look pretty decent. Let's give it a shot, at least.
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Motion control, yeah, we don't want any clear action, any interpolated frames or anything like that,
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noise reduction, perfect! Wow, this all looks great. And then variable refresh rate, on.
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There we go, okay, that fixed that little bit of weirdness that we saw there,
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and game HDR, yep, okay! Looks like we're ready to rock!
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One thing to note though, guys, is we found the game menu on VIZIO TVs
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is not necessarily accessible unless you are plugged into a gaming source.
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So, now that we've got the Xbox configured, it pops up and we're able to make all those changes.
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All right! Nice! Balls.
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Oh, that's fine, the TV doesn't really need it right now. Man, given how affordable it is to add, like,
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just even a pretty basic or, like, mid-range soundbar
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to your TV, it is just horrible,
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oh my God. 8.2 gigs? Are you (beep)ing kidding me?
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I would even say you should spend less on your TV and make sure you have something other
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than your TVs built-in speakers for... 90 plus percent of people.
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While we're waiting for the update is actually a perfect time to show you guys what I mean about the full array local dimming.
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Because we've got this just, like, smooth, very neutral gray here, you can see the extra brightness
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in this area of the screen, right here. But when we fire up the game,
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I'm expecting it to be far less noticeable. Even the splash screen,
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you'd have a much harder time pointing out where the backlight is brighter versus darker.
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Give it a sec. I changed settings, so it just needs a second.
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Well, that's slightly less normal. We got the purple screen figured out,
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we have enabled HDMI 2.1 mode, and now we are good to go.
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Let's play some Forza! Oh yeah, and while you guys weren't looking, we got the surround speakers hooked up, too.
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This is an area where full array local dimming does show it's strength.
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When you've got something like black bars, 'cause those will look quite a lot more black
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compared to if you didn't have it. I love how it shows you racing lines,
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and I'm just like, "nah, forget it." (laughs)
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Ahhh! (laughs) Now the truth is, you're not gonna get the same kinds of dazzling brights
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and deep blacks as you might out of one of VIZIO's other sets,
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one of the brighter ones with more local dimming zones, or one of their OLEDs.
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But, for like, you know, $1000 by the time you include the surround sound set-up?
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Man, it's very hard to complain. That's great, once we got the latest firmware
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and everything? (snaps fingers) HDR, variable refresh rate, everything's just working.
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Now obviously, without support for 120 hertz, you're not gonna be able to run games at 120 FPS
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and get the absolute lowest input leg, but support for variable refresh rate,
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and the fact that it's running at a nice, smooth 60 hertz means that it does feel very fluid.
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- [Andy] Can we speak to the camera? - I'm playing video games, Andy.
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(all laughing off camera) All right, you know what? I gotta go. That's it for this video.
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If you guys are looking for a TV with great, vibrant colors, then you can't go wrong with one with Quantum technology.
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And of course, you can learn more about this and VIZIO's higher end models
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at their Quantum Color Month feature at the link
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in the video description. Don't forget to subscribe to ShortCircuit for more videos unboxing
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the latest and greatest technologies. Oh no. This brain-spider thing just killed me.
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I'm dead. Hope you guys like the new set! I sure do.