Sony introduces high-end ZD9 TV series with HDR

[Geoff D]

I used to sell these TVs and personally speaking I've gone from a NX810 to a X9005A to a X9005B to the ZD9 and aside from the passive A series it's always been there or thereabouts re: ghosting/crosstalk: one disc will look great, the next awful and that kind of inconsistency pissed me off so much I gave up on it. Broke my heart because I love 3D, but I can't abide Sony's active presentation of it.

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by DJR662

You must have a different ZD9 than I have then cause apart from the occasional and inevitable crosstalk (why Sony still opted for active 3D on their 4K sets is still a mystery to me), I think there is nothing wrong with the 3D picture. Yes, some movies will exhibit more crosstalk than others, especially with subtitles and other bright parts on dark backgrounds but that's active for you. I've come from a NX810, then a HX920, along with a HX850 until I got my two 4K TVs and the HW 55ES PJ and I have seen Sony's (active) 3D only get better throughout the years.



IMO Dredd is great in 3D and it's the way to watch it, there are some shots/scenes that have amazing depth to it like when characters are falling down from a building. That scene in which Ma Ma is taking a bath also looks awesome with the water moving in slow motion, same goes for when Dredd pushes her through a window at the end of the movie, so many great scenes in 3D.

haha, that's just so strange how we could have such different experiences. I should give it another shot...

Should I set my Oppo resolution to "Auto" or "Source Direct" for 3D?

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I used to sell these TVs and personally speaking I've gone from a NX810 to a X9005A to a X9005B to the ZD9 and aside from the passive A series it's always been there or thereabouts re: ghosting/crosstalk: one disc will look great, the next awful and that kind of inconsistency pissed me off so much I gave up on it. Broke my heart because I love 3D, but I can't abide Sony's active presentation of it.

Fair enough.

The first gen NX810 was pretty horrible with 3D but I think the HX920 and HX850 did a decent job depending on the movie. The HW 55 ES was a major step up in the 3D department and I love the 3D picture of my XD9405 and ZD9 (perhaps I'm more forgiven ). I will give My Bloody Valentine 3D another spin on those TVs, it's been a long time anyway since I have seen it and it's a torture test for crosstalk. Also will give a couple of those older Dreamwork titles like Monsters vs Aliens a try as these were also proned to have a lot of crosstalk on lesser sets.

Originally Posted by pbz06

haha, that's just so strange how we could have such different experiences. I should give it another shot...

Should I set my Oppo resolution to "Auto" or "Source Direct" for 3D?

I'm not familiar with the Oppo but I always have direct on my players. It's funny should mention Passengers in your previous post cause I thought that was a mediocre 3D presentation.

[JimShaw]

I am extremely excited.

This morning I received an e-mail from Robert of Value Electronics.

It took awhile for V.E. to break-in my new TV using slides from white to dark grey, red, green and blue. At the same time watching for panel flaws and problems.

-----------------------------------

Morning Jim,

Your beautiful 75” Z9D is being calibrated today and will be packed and shipped tomorrow via YRC. I would estimate delivery to your home Tuesday, 9/12 or Wednesday, 9/13.

------------------------------------

I sold my Samsung JS9500 and replacing it with the above. This will be my first Sony and hoping I love it.


.

[DJR662]

Got my X800 back and after hooking it up, I entered Geoff's settings. Only difference is for SDR I kept my own white balance settings (color is at 54) and left gamma at -2. Quickly watched random scenes from Miss Peregrine for HDR and Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun Li for SDR and it looks great.

Playing around with those in store HDR demos now. I really wish it would be possible to assign a certain picture mode (Pro in this case) so the TV would automatically revert to that whenever HDR content is being played. Same goes for 3D. Having to manually switch to Pro for HDR, Home for SDR and Custom for 3D viewing can get tedious at times and if I forget to switch back to Pro after watching HDR content, the picture settings are wrong. Guess this could be easily "fixed" with a firmware update...

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by DJR662

Got my X800 back and after hooking it up, I entered Geoff's settings. Only difference is for SDR I kept my own white balance settings (color is at 54) and left gamma at -2. Quickly watched random scenes from Miss Peregrine for HDR and Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun Li for SDR and it looks great.

Playing around with those in store HDR demos now. I really wish it would be possible to assign a certain picture mode (Pro in this case) so the TV would automatically revert to that whenever HDR content is being played. Same goes for 3D. Having to manually switch to Pro for HDR, Home for SDR and Custom for 3D viewing can get tedious at times and if I forget to switch back to Pro after watching HDR content, the picture settings are wrong. Guess this could be easily "fixed" with a firmware update...

Yes that's annoying so I've been thinking about sticking to Pro for both. Contrast at 86 is good for HDR and close enough for SDR. Luckily the Gamma, Brightness, and XDR switch automatically depending on the signal so it's a good compromise.

[Geoff D]

Yeah, the contrast is close enough on both that you could use one setting for both. And in my case the white balance adjustments are exactly the same between SDR and HDR, but I still like keeping the two modes separate, just in case. And I'm used to switching between modes from my previous TV anyway, I needed very different settings for proper SDR and converted SDR.

One odd quirk of the ZD9 is that sometimes it activates the Motionflow when switching between modes and inputs, I also noticed the other day that the colour temp was far bluer than what it should be (I could see it in the menus) even though it was still showing Expert 1, and as soon as I changed Expert 1 to the next one and put it back again the temp reverted to its warmer look.

[DJR662]

I never understood why Sony hasn't kept 3D/HDR/2D SDR picture settings completely independent from each other with their recent TVs.

On my previous Sony TVs you could change all picture settings within in the same picture mode independently from each other for 2D and 3D which made it all so easier. Now we have to manually switch picture modes on our pricey high end TVs. I emailed Sony customer service about this when I got my XD9405 last year, and they actually said it would be possible to change this via a firmware update. I guess not many people have complained about this to them because obviously nothing has changed in that regard. It's little things like this that can annoy the hell out of me.

Another thing that bothers me is when I use Pro Cinema (on both my XD9405 and ZD9), the Sony AV receivers that are connected to them therefore automatically revert to Sony's "HD Digital Sound Cinema" sound field mode which is something I do not want. I need to manually press the "Auto Format Detection" button (so I have the sound completely untouched without any additional unwanted processing) on the AV receiver's remote every time I go from Custom or Home to Pro.

Another issue I'm having is that I cannot directly select a source on the AV receiver using its remote. I first need to go to the TV's HDMI port to which the receiver is connected, and only then can I use the AV receiver's remote to select a source that's connected to the receiver. With my previous Sony TVs I did not need to do that, I would just press a button on the receiver's remote and it would automatically show the selected source on screen.

Still generally speaking I have to say the ZD9 is much more stable and responsive in overal performance than the XD9405. I'm still pulling my hair out from time to time with the latter due to all kinds of different issues.

[clemdog]

Perhaps someone can help me out with something that's confusing me with my 75ZD9.

I currently have all my sources routed thru my Denon 4300 to HDMI 3 on the ZD9. And that works fine... However I seem to recall reading somewhere that I can't run anything with HDR into any of the other HDMI inputs on the set? That can't be true...can it?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by clemdog

Perhaps someone can help me out with something that's confusing me with my 75ZD9.

I currently have all my sources routed thru my Denon 4300 to HDMI 3 on the ZD9. And that works fine... However I seem to recall reading somewhere that I can't run anything with HDR into any of the other HDMI inputs on the set? That can't be true...can it?

Completely untrue. It boils down like this:

HDMI 1 - will accept a 12-bit 4:2:2 4K24 HDR 2020 signal. Converts a 4K60 HDR 2020 signal to 4K60 SDR 8-bit 4:2:0 as per 10.2 Gb/s HDMI bandwidth limitations [well, the conversion is done by the player once it reads the TV's EDID telling it that only 8-bit 4:2:0 4K60 is permitted on that HDMI socket]

HDMI 2 - if set to Standard then the above applies, if set to Enhanced (which uses the full 18 Gb/s bandwidth) then it will enable 4K60 HDR as well as 10-bit 4:4:4 HDR for 4K24.

HDMI 3 - same as HDMI 2 plus the ARC feature for use with AVRs.

HDMI 4 - same as HDMI 1.

And in case anyone says "but the manual and/or some other forum says this:" I can only say I'm not making this up, I've tried all the inputs and they work as stated above. Photos available upon request.

[clemdog]

Perfect! Thanks for the info.

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yeah, the contrast is close enough on both that you could use one setting for both. And in my case the white balance adjustments are exactly the same between SDR and HDR

My TV was ISF calibrated for 2D SDR. Would you say I could use those white balance settings for HDR as well? If that would be the case then I just might consider using Pro for both SDR and HDR, that way I would only have to switch picture mode when watching 3D.

[Geoff D]

Without measuring both on a properly profiled meter (one profile for SDR, another for HDR) then it's tough to say for sure, it's just how it worked out on my set. I did my colour temp on the HDR side first, redoing it recently as I did because of what was said in a review of the Sony 65" OLED to avoid the Bias controls in the white balance because they mess with the black levels, and just for the hell of it I tried an SDR cal (using the GCD disc) with the exact same white balance settings and it was damned near perfect. But it's tricky to call it outright without an objective measurement.

[elwaylite]

https://www.avforums.com/review/sony...v-review.13315

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxJA...ature=youtu.be

For anyone interested in the ZD9 little brother. I continue to be impressed by the 940E, Blade Runner looked outstanding in UHD this past weekend.

Chad B had to cancel because of Hurricane Irma hitting our area, so I opted to move with a C6 HDR2000 and Calman Home Theater yesterday. Spent some time talking with the calibrator from Value Electronics for pointers, and will prob tinker with my 940E Friday night.

Also, if anyone is interested, Calman has a Mobile Forge beta (pattern generator) you can sideload to a Sony Android TV, as opposed to using on a Fire Stick, etc...

I did it last night and it seemed to load fine, so I will find out once I try and connect them:



http://www.avsforum.com/forum/139-di...l#post54781174

[pbz06]

I'll check it out later. I like to keep up with little brothers, big brothers, and distant cousins.

Thanks!

[elwaylite]

Time for some fun

[elwaylite]

This was by far the easiest cal I ever did. I followed calibrator recommendations, reset Cinema Pro to stock, adjusted the backlight to where I wanted it (had 15 which I knew was too bright) at 10, which was 45 footlamberts. Since I don't use day/night, I have been using around 45fL for a few years as my all the time mode.

Black level at 50 was perfect in both SDR and HDR, left Contrast at 90. I knew the image was very blue, and the pre results showed that, looks a lot better now in the brighter scenes (you could see a purplish blue around people against a sky, etc...).

As far as white balance, all I had to do is RGB High, to get the 80% looking pretty nice, and then when I ran the full thing, the results were under two so I left it alone. I've learned not to obsess, and I did not even touch the 10pt.

What I love is once you trigger HDR Cinema Pro, the WB adjustments are carried over, the the results are great. Sony's decision to take the SDR WB and map to HDR was brilliant IMO, I wish more would have done that. I also hope they follow the same suit with Dolby Vision, because not many can really calibrate it yet.

With 10% or larger patterns, HDR nits were lower as you can see. With a 5% pattern it hit 1200 nits. I think in reviews the folks hitting over 1300 used 2%.

Any questions, ask away, I made some notes.

SDR Results


SDR Color Checker


HDR Results


HDR Color Checker

[mutelight]

For those of you not following the thread at AVSForum, there has been a new firmware released.

https://esupport.sony.com/US/p/model...3#/downloadTab

Changelog just says the PS4 style "improves the general performance".

[gkolb]

Originally Posted by mutelight

For those of you not following the thread at AVSForum, there has been a new firmware released.

https://esupport.sony.com/US/p/model...3#/downloadTab

Changelog just says the PS4 style "improves the general performance".

Interesting that this applies only to the 75".
The 65Z9D had no update available when I checked 5 minutes ago. [Edit: check was on the website link for 65"; not from my TV.]

[dominica]

Originally Posted by gkolb

Interesting that this applies only to the 75".
The 65Z9D had no update available when I checked 5 minutes ago.

Its for all the model of the Z9D. The link just pointed to the 75



https://esupport.sony.com/US/p/model...d#/downloadTab