What’s with the old intro & outro music? Growing pains. Apple has a new, expensive Apple TV 4K. And Joe Klusnick makes his first AHA HT appearance to share his slideshow from his in-person visit to Value Electronics.

Pictures shown in this episode: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD8iWw

00:00:00 – Intro

Where’s that new, placeholder music Rob mentioned?

00:03:41 – Stay Tuned After the Questions!

Joe Klusnick visited Value Electronics in New York in person, and he makes his first AHA HT appearance to share the photos he took.

– contact Joe on AVS Forum: https://www.avsforum.com/members/jskmdwk.7537874/

00:05:14 – Personal Updates

A busy week for Rob. Not too much to be said by Tom.

00:13:52 – AHA Movie Club!

We’re going to watch “The Last House”, which is available on Netflix. And next week, we’ll record a full spoiler discussion. Join us!

– Too Many Cooks: https://youtu.be/QrGrOK8oZG8

00:16:44 – What We Watched

Rob watched Coyote vs. Acme. Tom watched the first two episodes of VisionQuest.

00:30:25 – Contact Info

Our new email is: Question at ActuallyHonestAdvice dot com

Our new YouTube is: https://www.youtube.com/@ActuallyHonestAdvice

00:31:38 – Listeners of the Week

Our Listeners of the Week are Dan for his PayPal donation, plus our 117 Patreon Patrons, as well as Csaba for sending some AHA HT logo artwork for us to consider.

We also appreciate the notes of gratitude from: Rob S, Infinite Gary, Michael, Ilango, and Fred. Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

In the news:

00:40:02 – News: Apple TV 4K 4th Gen

It’s new. It’s barely any different. It’s much more expensive: https://tinyurl.com/mrxhs37m

QUESTIONS:

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Welcome to the 1st Actually Honest Advice Home Theater Podcast episode! Pardon our dust. It’s a bumpy start. And farewell to AV Rant. It’s AHA HT from here on out.

NVidia Shield TV Pro gets a $100 price hike, despite being over 7 years old. HDTV Test crowned their picks for the Best OLED and Best TV Overall for 2026. And we introduce our Monthly Movie segment.

Pictures shown in this episode: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD7vNm

00:00:00 – Intro

Introducing Actually Honest Advice Home Theater! AHA HT.

Pardon our dust. We are beyond open to critiques, suggestions, and help!

And we have our new website: https://actuallyhonestadvice.com/

And our new YouTube address: https://www.youtube.com/@ActuallyHonestAdvice

00:07:08 – New Monthly Movie Segment

We’re going to try some new things, and see how they go.

One new idea is basically a “book club” but for movies. We’ll pick a movie ahead of time, everybody can watch it, and then at the end of the month, we’ll chat about it.

For the end of October (we’ll record on the 27th), the Monthly Movie is: “The Last House”. It’s available on Netflix.

00:13:01 – Contact Info

We have new email addresses, too!

Question at ActuallyHonestAdvice dot com

Tom at ActuallyHonestAdvice dot com

Rob at ActuallyHonestAdvice dot com

00:17:32 – What We Watched

Tom watched the first 2 Seasons of Overlord. Rob watched Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu.

00:34:26 – Listeners of the Week

Our Listeners of the Week are our 116 Patreon Patrons over at: https://www.patreon.com/actuallyhonestadvice

We also appreciate the notes of gratitude from: Aaron, Gurinder, Infinite Gary, Dev, and Karl. Thank you to everyone for listening!

In the news:

00:37:11 – News: NVidia Shield TV Pro Price Hike

It’s been available for over 7 years, but the NVidia Shield TV Pro got a big price increase, and the tube-shaped Shield TV has been discontinued: https://tinyurl.com/4zpkx76z

00:39:21 – News: HDTV Test Crowns Best TV of 2026

After crowning the Sony Bravia 9 II as the Best LCD, HDTV Test went on to crown the Best OLED, and Best TV Overall: https://tinyurl.com/mpps8ab9

QUESTIONS:

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We’re Actually Honest Advice. Your podcasts for honest advice. And we’re starting with Home Theater!

AHA HT

Tom and Rob certainly aren’t new to podcasting. We recorded over 1,000 episodes of a show called AV Rant. But after well over a decade, we decided to freshen things up a bit!

When we first decided to make the change, we thought it would happen fairly quickly. Boy, were we wrong! But we recorded this quick introduction episode to walk you through our thought processes and the reasons why we decided to make this big change.

For now, these episodes will show up both here and in the old AV Rant feed. If you have Home Theater questions, submit them to Question at ActuallyHonestAdvice dot com. We’ll answer your questions, honestly.

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This is the last AV Rant ever! But don’t worry; the podcast lives on. AHA!

New Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K fails to impress. The Paramount Skydance – Warner Bros. Discovery merger is complete, and the whole thing is just called Skydance now. HDTV Test determined the best LCD TV of 2026.

Pictures shown in this episode: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD6Pzj

00:00:00 – Intro

It’s the last AV Rant episode! But we’re not going away. We’re just changing to a new name and a new brand…little by little.

Pardon our dust: https://actuallyhonestadvice.com/

00:22:18 – Happy Birthday, Tom!

Yup, he’s a year older.

00:23:34 – What We Watched

Tom’s been watching the World Athletics Ultimate Championship. Rob watched Soulm8te.

00:35:41 – Listeners of the Week

Our Listeners of the Week are our 116 Patreon Patrons, as well as Aaron for sending another movie code, and Brandon and Nelson for offering to help Dazz and Patrick, respectively.

We also appreciate the notes of gratitude for keeping the podcast going from: Vince, Dazz, Brandon, and Billy. Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

In the news:

00:40:18 – News: Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K

It’s slim, it’s got a better remote, but with its limitations, we wouldn’t buy one: https://tinyurl.com/3p3phym5

00:43:05 – News: Paramount – Warner Bros Merged

The lawsuits were settled, so Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery have merged to form…Skydance: https://tinyurl.com/bdh92wyt

00:47:58 – News: HDTV Test Best LCD of 2026

No real surprise which LCD TV won the shootout. And now it will take on the OLEDs: https://tinyurl.com/38nu7npm

QUESTIONS:

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AV Rant #999.9y: Liminal Rob, Tom Crawls

RTings’ How To Use a Smart TV Offline guide. Samsung ending QLED? LCDs getting more expensive. What we watched wasn’t for us.

RTings made a step-by-step guide for How To Use a Smart TV Offline. Samsung appears to be winding down their QLED TV moniker. All LCDs will get more expensive. And we watched and read popular content that isn’t for us.

Pictures shown in this episode: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjD6ghQ

00:00:00 – Intro

00:04:20 – What We Watched

Rob watched Backrooms. Tom read the first three books in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.

00:42:06 – Listeners of the Week

Our Listeners of the Week are our 119 Patreon Patrons, as well as Aaron for sending movie codes for us to test.

We also appreciate the notes of gratitude for keeping the podcast going from: Mike, Rob S, James, Adam, Aaron, Bertrand, Galen, Jorge, Dev, and Ilango. Thank you to everyone for continuing to listen!

In the news:

00:46:21 – News: RTings’ Smart TVs Offline Guide

A helpful, step-by-step guide for how to use pretty much every brand of TV without any internet connection: https://tinyurl.com/zxv9fkr7

00:50:44 – News: Samsung Ending QLED?

Recent production cuts suggest the QLED moniker is stepping aside: https://tinyurl.com/ew4nmhhp

00:53:44 – News: LCDs Getting More Expensive

The manufacturers of the actual LCD panels have warned that prices are going up: https://tinyurl.com/4rbk6w7j

Comments:

00:56:25 – Comment: Ilango – Sofabaton X1S Success

He had his Sofabaton X1S Remote sitting in its box for a long time. But now that it’s finally open, it turned out pretty good.

QUESTIONS:

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