Home Theater Geeks 508 Transcript
Please be advised this transcript is AI-generated and may not be word for word. Time codes refer to the approximate times in the ad-supported version of the show.
Scott Wilkinson [00:00:00]:
In this episode of Home Theater Geeks, I answer a question from Michael who has an LG B7A OLED and wonders about picture in picture or side by side viewing. I have the answer so stick around.
Leo Laporte [00:00:18]:
Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is Twit.
Scott Wilkinson [00:00:34]:
Hey there Scott Wilkinson here, the Home Theater geek. In this episode I answer a question from Michael S. Who writes I have a 2017 LG65B7A OLED TV and it seems that with the multi view setting that is side by side picture, you can only choose between the OTA over the air tuner input and and an HDMI input. The OLEDs tuner always has to be one of the inputs. You cannot have two different HDMI inputs displayed at the same time. Why is this? Is this the way on all LG OLEDs or for that matter on any brand OLED TV? Well, it's a great question. I reached out to my contact at LG who sent this response. On the LG OLED 65B7 the multi view only supports one HDMI input plus the built in tuner.
Scott Wilkinson [00:01:40]:
Unfortunately it does not allow for two HDMI inputs to be displayed side by side. As this is an older tv, there is a hardware limitation. Back when we introduced the OLED B7, most TVs including most LG OLEDs were only built with a single HDMI decoder. Major TV brands typically limit multiview to combinations like HDMI Plus, OTA Tuner or a streaming app or screen sharing. He went on to write. We did start offering two HDMI inputs from last year 2020 24, but it was only available on TVs with our Alpha 11 processor which were the top line models. If your listener wants to display two HDMI inputs they would need to purchase our OLED G4 from 2024 or OLED G5 or M5 from 2025. Other manufacturers may have done the same with their newer models as well.
Scott Wilkinson [00:02:53]:
So my contact confirms that what you are experiencing with your B7 is indeed how it is. It's a hardware limitation. There's only one HDMI decoder in the TV and that applies to whichever HDMI input you select so that only that allows only one HDMI input to be displayed side by side in multiview.
Leo Laporte [00:03:22]:
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Scott Wilkinson [00:06:12]:
Now, as I was researching this question, I found a B7A online user guide which seems to indicate that you can view two HDMI inputs side by side. Contradicting what my contact said. Now, my contact works at LG and knows his stuff, so I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but I thought I'd show it to you anyway. We'll put a link in the show notes for this online guide. Now, I've repeatedly reached out to my friend at LG to ask him about this discrepancy. I haven't heard back, so I am going to show it to you anyway. So you go to this online guide. You click on Enjoy Live tv.
Scott Wilkinson [00:06:56]:
Then you click on viewing two programs or external inputs simultaneously. According to the manual, you press the Home button on the remote control and run the MultiView app. You should see two images. You select either one and the audio for that image is played in the online manual. You scroll down to Selecting Input, click on the down arrow at the top of the screen. That's how you do it. Under each image there is a list of sources including live TV, the internal OTA tuner, and the TV's HDMI inputs. This should let you select two different HDMI inputs.
Scott Wilkinson [00:07:38]:
I'm surprised it says you can select the tuner for both images and display different channels. That's pretty surprising. That would mean there'd need to be two tuners in the tv. Now, the manual does have some caveats. It says Multi View may not be available for ultra HD channels. The Multi View and the recording feature, which is only available in certain countries, cannot be used at the same time. That may not apply here. Multiview may be limited depending on the device connected or the strength of the broadcast signal.
Scott Wilkinson [00:08:14]:
Okay, those are some of the caveats that they mention. Now, interestingly, I also found a Reddit thread about this very question. It concerns the LG C2 OLED which is from 2022, and we'll put the show the link into the show notes for that as well. And they're talking about the same problem. So there seems to be some confusion which I have not yet gotten to the bottom of except to say, and I believe this to be true. According to my contact, there's only one HDMI decoder in the B7 and most TVs, including those from LG and other manufacturers. And as a result, you can't show two HDMI inputs side by side in Multi view or picture in picture or whatever the TV is what, whatever the manufacturer calls it in their TV. You can do it in late model LGs, including the G4 from last year 2024, or the G5 or M5 this year from this year, 2025, because they have two HDMI decoders built in because they have a more powerful processor, the Alpha 11.
Scott Wilkinson [00:09:39]:
So I suspect, I'm pretty sure in fact, that what you're experiencing is just the way it is and there's nothing you can do about it except buy a new TV and an expensive one at that, a high end one, one of their top of the line ones to do that. And it's probably true of most other TVs, certainly the lower end models, maybe more recently the other manufacturers, high end models have two HDMI decoders as well. But it is what it is and I'm afraid that's all there is. But thanks for the question. Now, in some episodes of Home Theater Geeks, I answer listener questions just like yours, so send them along to HTG@TWIT TV and I'll answer as many as I can right here on the show. Also, if you have a home theater, I invite you to send me photos of your room from different angles and maybe a sentence or two describing the room and what makes it special to you. I'd like to feature some of your rooms, some of your home theaters in my Home Theater of the Month episodes, which I do here on the show, and maybe even have you on the show in real time to show us around your theater with your phone via Zoom. Wouldn't that be cool? Could be a lot of fun.
Scott Wilkinson [00:11:10]:
If you're interested, send me a send me an email to HTG@TWIT.TV and I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, geek out.
