Sony's 2022 a/v line-up

[Robert Zohn]

Tune in tomorrow 11am ET, Jan. 4th to Spare Change's Youtube channel for a detailed presentation of Sony's 2022 a/v product line-up. I'm the guest speaker along with Brian the channel owner of Whisper Status 74 and Shane of Spare Change as the moderator.

Registration is open now!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-k9...ature=youtu.be

[MechaGodzilla]

D-Nice posted a little "teaser" re: Sony's 2022 TV line-up which has me curious:

Sony might be more interesting on the LCD side compared to OLED for 2022..... unless they made some very late changes to their line up. For their 2022 LCDs, I can possibly see a label "Return of the JeDi" being used.

Sounds like those who have been clamoring for a true successor to the Z9D may finally see their wish come true this year..?

[RalphoR]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

D-Nice posted a little "teaser" re: Sony's 2022 TV line-up which has me curious:



Sounds like those who have been clamoring for a true successor to the Z9D may finally see their wish come true this year..?

It would be a dream come true Would it be an LED or micro/mini LED? Could the "D" mean 3D instead?

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by RalphoR

It would be a dream come true Would it be an LED or micro/mini LED? Could the "D" mean 3D instead?

I bet their first LCD with Mini LED backlight. Probably just the Z9K, though it would be nice to see it on the X90K and/or X95K as well.

[unberechenbar]

Sounds interesting. It'd be great if they returned to the backlight master drive.

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

Sounds like those who have been clamoring for a true successor to the Z9D may finally see their wish come true this year..?

Not holding my breath, but would be great if true.

Originally Posted by unberechenbar

Sounds interesting. It'd be great if they returned to the backlight master drive.

Has to be the original BMD for me though (not the watered down version as found on the Z9G) and without X-wide.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

D-Nice posted a little "teaser" re: Sony's 2022 TV line-up which has me curious:



Sounds like those who have been clamoring for a true successor to the Z9D may finally see their wish come true this year..?

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

[lgans316]

https://hdtvpolska.com/test-recenzja...ie/?showfull=1

https://hdtvpolska.com/sony-zd9-kd-6...dr/?showfull=1

Many owners of both Z9J and ZD9 say they like the Z9J picture quality over the ZD9 despite 300 lesser zones on the Z9J.

Also look at the links above to get an idea of the contrast ratio and peak brightness.

My luck with ZH8 / Z9J ran out as both of them had serious panel issues. Now have the 77A80J. Contrast and light control are key and I can see why the A80J looks better than the ZD9 for HDR (under 1000 nits) consistently. Coming to black crush, it's a tough subject. I don't know which TV is representative of black crush. On the OLED, there is a 10-20% drop in shadow details compared to the ZD9. I think the ZD9 blacks are a bit milky which means black level and shadows are a bit overexposed. Sometimes it feels like watching a completely different movie !!!

[Robert Zohn]

Join us today at 11am ET to learn the facts about Sony's 2022 TV line-up. We'll also be discussing LG's TVs for the 2022 model year.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by lgans316

https://hdtvpolska.com/test-recenzja...ie/?showfull=1

https://hdtvpolska.com/sony-zd9-kd-6...dr/?showfull=1

Many owners of both Z9J and ZD9 say they like the Z9J picture quality over the ZD9 despite 300 lesser zones on the Z9J.

Also look at the links above to get an idea of the contrast ratio and peak brightness.

My luck with ZH8 / Z9J ran out as both of them had serious panel issues. Now have the 77A80J. Contrast and light control are key and I can see why the A80J looks better than the ZD9 for HDR (under 1000 nits) consistently. Coming to black crush, it's a tough subject. I don't know which TV is representative of black crush. On the OLED, there is a 10-20% drop in shadow details compared to the ZD9. I think the ZD9 blacks are a bit milky which means black level and shadows are a bit overexposed. Sometimes it feels like watching a completely different movie !!!

Well done on murdering your doppelgänger, it was most disconcerting having them big up an LCD TV. Normal service has been resumed.

Piss-taking aside, if using a mini-LED backlight means they can put in 2000-ish zones and have individual control over them per Backlight Master Drive then that could result in a ZD9 killer, especially if they leave out x-wide angle too.

As for your shadow detail conundrum, I'd say the sweet spot is in-between. LCD will pollute near black and make it look brighter, OLED will crush it down or risk chroma overshoot.

[lgans316]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Well done on murdering your doppelgänger, it was most disconcerting having them big up an LCD TV. Normal service has been resumed.

Piss-taking aside, if using a mini-LED backlight means they can put in 2000-ish zones and have individual control over them per Backlight Master Drive then that could result in a ZD9 killer, especially if they leave out x-wide angle too.

As for your shadow detail conundrum, I'd say the sweet spot is in-between. LCD will pollute near black and make it look brighter, OLED will crush it down or risk chroma overshoot.

I was truly pi**ed to have 2 lemons ZH8 and Z9J (faulty panels). Here is how the Z9J looked after turning it on.



My 77A80J is being replaced as it has two 3 inches wide vertical bands on the right showing up in real world contents.

Winning panel lottery takes patience, perseverance and luck.

So looks like Z9K will have mini-LEDs which means you are right about it being a potential ZD9 killer.

Sony being Sony, they could still implement X-wide angle filter but I will give Sony some credit for building the 'Z' series like a tank.

[MisterXDTV]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Well done on murdering your doppelgänger, it was most disconcerting having them big up an LCD TV. Normal service has been resumed.

Piss-taking aside, if using a mini-LED backlight means they can put in 2000-ish zones and have individual control over them per Backlight Master Drive then that could result in a ZD9 killer, especially if they leave out x-wide angle too..

Sony BRAVIA XR MASTER Series Z9K 8K HDR TV (Google Assistant / Hands-free) - YouTube

Z9K mini-led: starts at 75"

[Geoff D]

And for an 8K set that's not gonna come cheap. In British pounds, five grand at the minimum, prolly nearer six or seven. Still got that ****ing x-wide angle shite though.

[MechaGodzilla]

The 4K X95K also includes Mini LED backlight and Backlight Master Drive. Comes in 65", 75" and 85". Sure to be more affordable compared to big bro Z.

[lgans316]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

The 4K X95K also includes Mini LED backlight and Backlight Master Drive. Comes in 65", 75" and 85". Sure to be more affordable compared to big bro Z.

Sony has been cutting corners on their 4K flagships for few years but I am hoping X95K will have similar number of zones + features as the Z9K which means we get an affordable alternative.

[RalphoR]

A95K
A90K
Z9K
X95K
Not an easy choice this time.

[DJR662]

Would like to know more about the BMD that is being implemented here; discrete control or still zone based and will it have the "calibrated beam design"? Or did Sony perhaps find a way to do without these?

Also, as a "I-use-my-TV-strictly-as-a-monitor-for-disc-based-content-only" type of person, these sets do contain a lot of stuff I have zero interest in (8K included).

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by lgans316

Sony has been cutting corners on their 4K flagships for few years but I am hoping X95K will have similar number of zones + features as the Z9K which means we get an affordable alternative.

Well, just the fact that it has Mini LED and BMD (in any form) is more than we've seen on the 4K models in years. So in that sense it doesn't feel like corners have been cut, relatively speaking. But we'll see as we learn more over time.

Originally Posted by RalphoR

A95K
A90K
Z9K
X95K
Not an easy choice this time.

A95K (55" and 65") and Z9K (75" and 85") are QD-OLED and 8K respectively, so we can infer that these will be vair 'spensive (only have to look at the previous 8K Z9s to see that).

A90K comes in 42" and 48", while A80K comes in 55", 65" and 77". These will be close in performance and are sort of meant to complement each other, from what I've seen.

X95K comes in 65, 75" and 85" as mentioned above. X90K (traditional LED backlight rather than Mini LED) is available in the same sizes as its big brother, while adding a 55" model.

So depending on what screen size a person desires or requires, that will go a long way to make the choice for them. I wonder how well the A90K will do among all those people who want smaller OLEDs. LG's options are for sure going to be more affordable.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by DJR662

Would like to know more about the BMD that is being implemented here; discrete control or still zone based and will it have the "calibrated beam design"? Or did Sony perhaps find a way to do without these?

Also, as a "I-use-my-TV-strictly-as-a-monitor-for-disc-based-content-only" type of person, these sets do contain a lot of stuff I have zero interest in (8K included).

It's been that way for years though re: the monitor thing, it's a shame they don't make the option available to strip out all of that crap. I literally don't require anything more in a display apart from the TV's internal processing and HDMI sockets!

8K itself is going to be part of the package on 'premium' sets from here on out though, I just don't want to have to pay over the odds simply because something has '8K' on it. Unfortunately that phenom hasn't plateaued yet.

But yeah, I do sincerely hope that they're going to fine-tune these like they did with the ZD9. And having each LED as its own dimmable zone is a MUST, it's not enough to go balls-out with miniLED but still only have dimmable clusters of the little buggers. If that means having another ridonkulously over-engineered beast then I say go for it.

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

8K itself is going to be part of the package on 'premium' sets from here on out though, I just don't want to have to pay over the odds simply because something has '8K' on it. Unfortunately that phenom hasn't plateaued yet.

Yeah, that won't happen until 8K has taken over as the standard. And I won't care about owning an 8K TV before I "have to", when it's the only option! Right now it's only on the highest of high-end, and those sets are too rich for my blood.