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Q I received an el-cheapo Victrola Vintage turntable for Father’s Day. Bypassing the built-in speakers, I eagerly connected the turntable’s RCA outputs to an auxiliary input on my Denon AVR X4200W receiver and played “Bohemian Rhapsody” from Queen’s Greatest Hits. I expected to be greeted by the warm, crackly sound of vinyl playing through my GoldenEar Technology Aon 3s (with help from a 12-inch JL Audio E-Sub), but instead heard a shrill, disappointing mess that lacked low-end and had virtually no stereo image. Comparing the vinyl to a Hi-Res digital recording I own of the same track, the vinyl sounded more like AM radio. Here’s my question: is vinyl all hype, or am I the victim of a low-end turntable? —Chris Wilson, Alpharetta, GA

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Q I’ve owned two high-end plasma HDTVs, but recently purchased a new LCD UHDTV (Samsung HU8550). Watching Blu-rays on the new set using an Oppo player and Onkyo NR929 AVR, I am seeing something disconcerting that I never noticed before with the plasmas: Whenever there’s a fade-to-black transition between movie scenes, the screen abruptly goes black for about 1-2 seconds in the middle of the transition/edit. Is this sort of thing typical for LED-backlit LCD TVs? It ruins the viewing experience for me. —Richard Rife via email

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Q The 4k content I see on UHDTVs in stores looks awesome. But when I ask the salesperson to flip the feed to regular HD (from Direct TV), the picture doesn’t look nearly as good. It looks worse, in fact, than the same content shown on the standard HDTVs, and certainly worse than on my 10 year-old Sony SXRD.  My question is, if I buy a new UHDTV, how can I make the picture look as good as what I’m used to seeing on my Sony? There isn’t much 4K content yet, so what I’d mainly be watching is regular HD.—Ben Soave

Q I have a Denon AVR-4310CI A/V receiver. Although I have speakers connected for all seven main channels, I have never heard a movie with 7.1-channel sound. My sources are Blu-ray and Verizon Fios HD. What do you think is going on? —Mister Phillip

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Q I have TVs connected to both of my Onkyo TX-NR636 receiver’s HDMI outputs and am finding that I need to have both sets switched on before the receiver will pass any video content. Any suggestions on what settings to look for?—Chris Hauer

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Q I have been reading about the new TVs for 2016 that were shown at CES. I’ve also read about ATSC 3.0, the proposed new broadcast standard (also shown at CES) for 4K “over-the-air” transmission. Will any of the TVs coming out this year be upgraded to ATSC 3.0 via a software update? —Paul Binder / via email

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Q I’m using a Marantz SR5005 AV receiver rated at 100 watts per channel to power a 7.1 speaker system. My surrounds sound like they’re getting enough power, but I’d like to add three external 200-watt monoblock amps to increase output to the front left, center, and right channels. Here’s my question: Will the receiver’s Audyssey MultEQ automated setup calibrate the system in a way that accommodates the added power? In other words, will I still get full power from the front three channels if I use external amps and Audyssey MultEQ? —Todd Hunt / via email