News: displays and their technologies

[lgans316]

Originally Posted by Brian81

Not often. I have had to do it before, and it is a hassle. I figure when big TVs end up on Craigslist, it either has to do with an upgrade or a move. What if you have a nice set you are partial to due to feature set and you want to take it with you? Keep the large storage box indefinitely, just in case? Or pack it and hope it doesn't break? It would be much easier with a small box. Yet as I said, I don't think the tech is a suitable replacement/compromise yet.

The 'Z' series (G / H / J) are super heavy. My arms were in pain for couple of hours when I moved 75ZH8 from one room to another and mounted it on a custom table top stand. However, the build quality is first rate.

I am still keeping a tab on 75 or 85Z9J. If its around £3000 like the 75ZH8, I might try it out. If its better than the 65ZD9, I will keep it and sell the 65ZD9.

Now that I am so used to 77, everything under 75 looks super small.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by DJR662

Seems to me you really are expecting to replace your current set this year. Has the band gotten any worse?

Slowly, but definitely getting worse. I think five years is plenty and this TV has been amazing in that time, so now I really gotta start looking to replace it. Got some cash saved but I won’t be diving in headfirst for anything, will give it a while and check various forums for real-world feedback.

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Not “better than the x95K” for dimming but better than the top end 4K LCD for that year, so it follows that the Z9K will do the same again to the X95K is my fear here.

Ohh, that's what you meant. Well, while that may end up being the case, I don't think it's necessarily because of the local dimming algorithm. The Z9J had more zones than the X95J, and the Z9K will have more zones than the X95K. If there's a discernible difference between the two, it will come down to that more than anything I would think. But even if the X95K is second best in that regard, it will almost certainly be better than the Z9J on down from last year. For example, the X95J has 60 zones in the 65" model, while the zones on the equivalent size X95K are rumored to number in the hundreds.

Regardless of whether you end up going with the X95K or A95K, the sound will definitely be an upgrade over your ZD9! It's cool that Sony have returned to putting more effort into the built-in audio on their high-end tellyvisons, as they did several years ago. Caleb said he was impressed by the audio on the X95K, and that doesn't surprise me:

[Geoff D]

Something that I have missed like crazy is the Mickey Mouse ears from those 2013/2014 Sony 4K TVs. I make a big song and dance about not having separates or even a sound bar and I just can’t go back to them, my ears can’t take it, but I LOVED the sound on those TVs as I got surprisingly meaty bass and a damned good faux surround effect from them, all without blasting my earballs to shit.

I’ve said this before but one time I forgot to turn on my AVR and I got like an hour into a movie before I noticed it wasn’t on, the sound was that good/my hearing was so rubbish, I knew then and there that I could do away with my separates. Took a while after that before I sold it all, but sold it all I did and I don’t regret it for a second. I miss it, but I don’t regret it.

So while the ZD9 retains that rather good surround effect it does of coursh have no bass or body to it, the menu screen for Fury Road sounds like two wasps fighting inside a tin can. Part of wanting to upgrade the TV is indeed to get betterer sound as well as picture.

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Something that I have missed like crazy is the Mickey Mouse ears from those 2013/2014 Sony 4K TVs. I make a big song and dance about not having separates or even a sound bar and I just can’t go back to them, my ears can’t take it, but I LOVED the sound on those TVs as I got surprisingly meaty bass and a damned good faux surround effect from them, all without blasting my earballs to shit.

I’ve said this before but one time I forgot to turn on my AVR and I got like an hour into a movie before I noticed it wasn’t on, the sound was that good/my hearing was so rubbish, I knew then and there that I could do away with my separates. Took a while after that before I sold it all, but sold it all I did and I don’t regret it for a second. I miss it, but I don’t regret it.

So while the ZD9 retains that rather good surround effect it does of coursh have no bass or body to it, the menu screen for Fury Road sounds like two wasps fighting inside a tin can. Part of wanting to upgrade the TV is indeed to get betterer sound as well as picture.

Yeah, I remember you sharing that. And I too have started to value the built-in audio more lately as I've damaged my ears as well. I now have mild tinnitus, and would like to get decent sound while protecting my hearing as much as possible. By most accounts, the built-in audio on Sony's new high-end TVs is good enough to replace a decent soundbar, which sounds great to me. A full AVR + speakers setup is simply too much power for a room that's on the smaller side, so a good-sounding TV will do me fine.

[samlop10]

I'm thinking of upgrading to a 77" Sony QD OLED next year if that becomes available. I am still a little apprehensive on that because of Sony's undefeatable raised blacks on their OLEDs in near-black gradations which do not seem to align with the source very well at times (e.g. Vincent mentions this in one of his video reviews where he compares how it raises the blacks on Arrival even though they are not supposed to look that raised); but it might be a compromise I can live with given the brighter panels and better color volumes (I read or watched somewhere, can't remember where, maybe Digital Trends, that the A95K reached 90% of the Rec. 2020 gamut ).

As for the X95K, it sounds like it might finally be able to compete with the Z9D. Crazy how long it took Sony to get there, again that is. It's nice to see it is brighter but I cannot say I could get over the blooming. It would take me out of whatever I am watching too much. I was hoping miniLED would get to the thousands of discrete dimming zones to the point blooming would be practically unnoticeable, but it seems microLED for consumers will become a thing first before miniLED gets there, if it gets there at all.

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Not surprised that the Z9J had betterer dimming with less zones, Sony are reserving the bestest algorithms for the 8K sets and that sucks donkey dick.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Not “better than the x95K” for dimming but better than the top end 4K LCD for that year, so it follows that the Z9K will do the same again to the X95K is my fear here.

Returning to this, I was looking over the article again and saw this:

Sometimes Sony’s approach has played to my personal preferences — see the Sony Z9J review — and sometimes it hasn’t — see the Sony X90J review. With the former, I was flabbergasted that the Z9J performed as well as it did with as few dimming zones as it apparently had. With the latter, I felt like more dimming zones might have yielded better performance for the X90J. Perhaps, I thought, the “Goldilocks” position would be somewhere in the middle.

I'm guessing that's the part you were referring to? I think you misunderstood what he meant. What he's saying is that the Z9J impressed him by performing as well as it did with what he thought was a relatively low number of zones, while he felt the X90J (which, of course, wasn't the top 4K model of last year - the X95J was) could have used more zones because it reaches a point of not having enough of them.

To put things into perspective:

55" X90J - 24 zones
65" X90J - 32 zones
75" X90J - 48 zones

I'm not sure about the exact number on the Z9J, but I do know the 75" has in excess of 300 zones; several sources claim 360. That's a huge difference, and obviously the Z9J is going to outperform its little brother with such an advantage. By most accounts, the X90J does a heroic effort of using what it has to work with to the fullest, but you can't completely escape the physical limitations of such a low number of zones.

The Z9K and X95K Mini LED models are supposed to have many more zones to work with than their predecessors. Allegedly. Even the X90K (a regular LED LCD and not Mini LED) has been claimed to improve on the X90J. We'll have to wait for reviewers to get their hands on these TVs and count the zones to know for sure, though.

[Waboman]

It’s still lcd. I had a Casio lcd watch in the 70’s. Really no different than a Z9D. Less blooming and no dirty screen on the Casio tho.

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by Waboman

It’s still lcd. I had a Casio lcd watch in the 70’s. Really no different than a Z9D. Less blooming and no dirty screen on the Casio tho.

Technically, OLED goes back to the '70s as well.

What's wrong with that decade, anyway? It gave us lots of great stuff!

[lgans316]

The nit who**re in me is not finding anything exciting about the X95. It could be beat the ZD9 but the early reviews doesn't look that promising.

Hoping Z9K delivers.

[samlop10]

Originally Posted by lgans316

The nit who**re in me is not finding anything exciting about the X95. It could be beat the ZD9 but the early reviews doesn't look that promising.

Hoping Z9K delivers.

Yeah sounds to me like it could match the ZD9/Z9D in terms of local dimming but surpass it in other areas that become the standard, such as with gaming features and better color gamut & volume. Still not enough for my tastes to pick it over an OLED though.

I can see the Z9K being better with the local dimming. Maybe if it performs extremely well with how it handles blooming I might consider it as my next upgrade over the QD OLED. 8K is so useless though, but that could be the least interesting thing about the model lol. Decisions decisions…

Shame Rtings stopped reviewing Sony 8K models though. It would have been great to see how it compared to the other models with their metrics and tests.

[Waboman]

On her Majesty's liquid crystal service. Even the Queen says if you want lcd get a calculator.

[PaulGo]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Something that I have missed like crazy is the Mickey Mouse ears from those 2013/2014 Sony 4K TVs. I make a big song and dance about not having separates or even a sound bar and I just can’t go back to them, my ears can’t take it, but I LOVED the sound on those TVs as I got surprisingly meaty bass and a damned good faux surround effect from them, all without blasting my earballs to shit.

I’ve said this before but one time I forgot to turn on my AVR and I got like an hour into a movie before I noticed it wasn’t on, the sound was that good/my hearing was so rubbish, I knew then and there that I could do away with my separates. Took a while after that before I sold it all, but sold it all I did and I don’t regret it for a second. I miss it, but I don’t regret it.

So while the ZD9 retains that rather good surround effect it does of coursh have no bass or body to it, the menu screen for Fury Road sounds like two wasps fighting inside a tin can. Part of wanting to upgrade the TV is indeed to get betterer sound as well as picture.

The 2015 940C also has great sound with quality speakers on both sides of the screen. My son has that set and he added a sub-woofer attached to the earphone jack that through the menu could be configured for a sub-woofer. Does the Z9D have a sub-woofer jack?

[lgans316]

12.5 W + 12.5 W + 20 W + 20 W + 5 W + 5 W + 5 W + 5 W (2 midrange speakers, 4 tweeters, 4 subwoofers).

No sub out on Z9J. Panasonic OLEDs have it.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by PaulGo

The 2015 940C also has great sound with quality speakers on both sides of the screen. My son has that set and he added a sub-woofer attached to the earphone jack that through the menu could be configured for a sub-woofer. Does the Z9D have a sub-woofer jack?

It does, and I've got my old BK XLS200 hooked up, but have only used it a couple of times because it's hard to integrate it properly with the TV speakers. Not bothered about keeping it though, I really should put the sub on eBay.

[MechaGodzilla]

The latest generations of (premium) Sony TVs have done away with the ability to connect a subwoofer via the headphone jack.

Maybe it's because Sony figure the TV's built-in speakers are good enough to function as a complete sound system on their own. Maybe it's because the latest TVs can be connected to the latest soundbars (as well as the HT-A9 speaker system), where the TV takes care of the center channel while the soundbar/other speakers take care of the remaining front, surround, etc. channels.

Whatever the case, I'm not too bothered. I'm sure I'd be fine with the TV itself without feeling the need for an external sub. It's the deepest bass I'm most sensitive to anyhow.

[unberechenbar]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

The latest generations of (premium) Sony TVs have done away with the ability to connect a subwoofer via the headphone jack.

Maybe it's because Sony figure the TV's built-in speakers are good enough to function as a complete sound system on their own. Maybe it's because the latest TVs can be connected to the latest soundbars (as well as the HT-A9 speaker system), where the TV takes care of the center channel while the soundbar/other speakers take care of the remaining front, surround, etc. channels.

Whatever the case, I'm not too bothered. I'm sure I'd be fine with the TV itself without feeling the need for an external sub. It's the deepest bass I'm most sensitive to anyhow.

I didn't even know that was possible. Has that been a feature on TVs for a long time?

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by unberechenbar

I didn't even know that was possible. Has that been a feature on TVs for a long time?

You mean being able to connect a subwoofer to the TV? No idea how long they supported that! I just know they did, and now Sony don't anymore.

[lgans316]

Originally Posted by unberechenbar

I didn't even know that was possible. Has that been a feature on TVs for a long time?

My 77A80J has a S-centre in meant for integration with Sony HT-A9.

Think A90J / Z9K come with traditional center channel terminal.

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