2023 Sony A95L (55", 65" and 77") [Owners' & Discussion Thread]

[MechaGodzilla]

2023 Sony A95L BRAVIA XR QD-OLED 4K TV | Official Video - YouTube

• The Cognitive Processor XR™ replicates how we see the real world to deliver a picture with wide dynamic contrast and natural colors.
• Thanks to QD-OLED experience our widest palette of shades and hues equally matched by pure OLED black and high brightness.
• With Google TV™ get access to all your favorite streaming apps in one place. And with Google Assistant™ simply use your voice to search and ask Google questions.
• Get high-quality 4K UHD movies on us with the BRAVIA CORE™ app.
• All your game’s picture settings and exclusive assist features in one place with Game Menu.
• Get the advantage in high-performance gaming with HDMI 2.1 features like 4K/120, VRR, and ALLM.
• Take your gaming to the next level with exclusive features for optimized picture quality while gaming and streaming on your PlayStation® 5 console.
• Experience immersive and engaging cinematic content as the creator intended with support for Dolby Vision®, IMAX Enhanced, Netflix Adaptive Calibrated Mode, and more.5,6,7
• Use Multi View to split your screen so you can simultaneously enjoy watching your favorite content from different sources at the same time.
• With Acoustic Surface Audio+™ and Dolby Atmos® support, hear true immersive audio with actuators that vibrate to produce sound from the entire screen perfectly matching the action.
• Acoustic Center Sync synchronizes the TV speakers with select Sony soundbars to reinforce the center speaker channel for clearer, fuller dialogue and more immersive sound.
• Bring back lost detail, with reduced noise, and see all your HD and digital content upscaled to near-4K resolution with XR Clear Image and XR 4K Upscaling technology.
• See blur-free picture quality in fast-moving sports and action-packed movies powered by XR OLED Motion.
• Multi-position stand with two variations of flexibility – standard low-profile setting for immersive viewing or raised to accommodate a soundbar.
• With the included BRAVIA CAM, Ambient Optimization Pro automatically adjusts picture and sound according to your room environment and you can video chat on the big screen.
• The Eco dashboard keeps all your energy efficiency settings in one place, making it easier to change them individually or in one go.

Official site links: US

[batman2000]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

2023 Sony A95L BRAVIA XR QD-OLED 4K TV | Official Video - YouTube



Official site links: US

I only thought this was going to have minimal upgrades but this better than I thought it crushes the Samsung but man the price is still going to be too high.

[samlop10]

Will be curious to see the results once they’re out in the wild and have been reviewed extensively. QD OLED looks great but I’ve seen owners have trouble with accurate colors in near-black content on some sets, so I will hold off and see if that’s been fixed before I consider an upgrade. It also sucks no 83” option is available… but 1st world problems lol. Might wait until next year to hopefully get an 83”.

[JoeJr81]

I think I’m finally going to upgrade from my Panasonic ZT60.

[Geoff D]

Oh FFS, why doesn't this have a narrow stand setting while the A80L does? They did the same shit with the A80J and A90J too! It might sound like a silly thing as a deal breaker but I don't want to have to buy a whacking great TV stand to put this on, I just want to put it on my current stand which holds my 65" ZD9 just fine. Typical Sony stupidity.

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Oh FFS, why doesn't this have a narrow stand setting while the A80L does? They did the same shit with the A80J and A90J too! It might sound like a silly thing as a deal breaker but I don't want to have to buy a whacking great TV stand to put this on, I just want to put it on my current stand which holds my 65" ZD9 just fine. Typical Sony stupidity.

Heh, yeah, only the 77" has the three-way stand. Don't get why they figure only people who buy the absolute largest size models need this.

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by samlop10

Will be curious to see the results once they’re out in the wild and have been reviewed extensively. QD OLED looks great but I’ve seen owners have trouble with accurate colors in near-black content on some sets, so I will hold off and see if that’s been fixed before I consider an upgrade. It also sucks no 83” option is available… but 1st world problems lol. Might wait until next year to hopefully get an 83”.

Sony has accurate colours, it's just Samsung's QD sets that don't.

I was troubled by early reviews mentioning a pink tint to blacks with ambient light. It's just reflection, which any TV has, except the QD layer just tints the reflection. So it's a non-issue way over-egged by reviewers.

[samlop10]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

Sony has accurate colours, it's just Samsung's QD sets that don't.

I was troubled by early reviews mentioning a pink tint to blacks with ambient light. It's just reflection, which any TV has, except the QD layer just tints the reflection. So it's a non-issue way over-egged by reviewers.

For the most part yes, but i wasn’t talking about the tint with ambient light, and the near-black color issues seem to be more of a panel problem (which both Samsung and Sony use the same type of panels from Samsung), and not an image processing (or color processing) issue, which is where Sony usually excels.

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/qd-...tures.3262518/

If you go through that thread in the link you can see the issues in both Samsung and Sony QD OLEDs from last year. It doesn’t seem to happen to everyone but some TVs are affected more than others on a case-by-case basis. It seems to be possible to fix this through a calibration process, but it’s not a simple calibration.

[oddbox83]

I can only speak for my own A95K, but I've seen nothing like that. If I had, it would have been right back to the shop for replacement!

Is it all that common or just a bad batch of panels? Because if it was common surely this forum alone would be littered with complaints.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

I can only speak for my own A95K, but I've seen nothing like that. If I had, it would have been right back to the shop for replacement!

Is it all that common or just a bad batch of panels? Because if it was common surely this forum alone would be littered with complaints.

Without wanting to pick holes in every argument (who, meesa?) OLED's operational history is littered with all sorts of weird crap that the masses have either not noticed or have excused as quirks ("it's showing you what the source really looks like!") that are eminently acceptable as long as the "perfect black" orthodoxy is preserved e.g. near black overshoot, banding, tinting, ABL, ASBL etc. I'm not saying you haven't noticed, I'm not throwing shade at yourself, it's more the "littered with complaints" line I'm contesting. People don't notice shit.

[oddbox83]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Without wanting to pick holes in every argument (who, meesa?) OLED's operational history is littered with all sorts of weird crap that the masses have either not noticed or have excused as quirks ("it's showing you what the source really looks like!") that are eminently acceptable as long as the "perfect black" orthodoxy is preserved e.g. near black overshoot, banding, tinting, ABL, ASBL etc. I'm not saying you haven't noticed, I'm not throwing shade at yourself, it's more the "littered with complaints" line I'm contesting. People don't notice shit.

Have you read our OLED threads???

[samlop10]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

I can only speak for my own A95K, but I've seen nothing like that. If I had, it would have been right back to the shop for replacement!

Is it all that common or just a bad batch of panels? Because if it was common surely this forum alone would be littered with complaints.

I don’t think it’s a batch per say, but more of a random thing. I have no idea how common it is, as Geoff says, the average consumer might not notice it. So if it’s pretty common most might not notice it. But it could also be rare, but it’s hard to tell.

[oddbox83]

If it's as bad as the caps over at AVS, surely it's very noticeable on sets that do have it!

It's no secret though that OLED has a panel lottery, regardless of type! Mind you, that's no different to LED - different cause and effect, but you can still get variation within models like DSE where one screen may be fine and another with awful uniformity.

I've definitely found my A95k superior in all ways to the LG B8, the latter being older and a lower spec model sure. The B8 did have equal sized horizontal banding on HDR content of a certain colour - it'd be just about visible on stuff like Spartacus 4K with those rich warm tones. Which was an oddity in itself - as I understand it, most OLED banding on screens that have it is vertical.

I'm not gonna be silly and say QD-OLED is perfect though - show me a TV that is and I want one!

[samlop10]

Originally Posted by oddbox83

If it's as bad as the caps over at AVS, surely it's very noticeable on sets that do have it!

It's no secret though that OLED has a panel lottery, regardless of type! Mind you, that's no different to LED - different cause and effect, but you can still get variation within models like DSE where one screen may be fine and another with awful uniformity.

I've definitely found my A95k superior in all ways to the LG B8, the latter being older and a lower spec model sure. The B8 did have equal sized horizontal banding on HDR content of a certain colour - it'd be just about visible on stuff like Spartacus 4K with those rich warm tones. Which was an oddity in itself - as I understand it, most OLED banding on screens that have it is vertical.

I'm not gonna be silly and say QD-OLED is perfect though - show me a TV that is and I want one!

I would have thought the same a few years ago. But there are so many image issues on blu-rays and 4Ks that go unnoticed by so many people that I would not be surprised if they do not notice issues arising from the TV/panel itself.

But yeah, short of a professional grading monitor that costs north of $20K (and are still pretty small in size), no display is perfect. For me these higher-end later WRGB models have reached a sweet spot that I am pretty comfortable with. QD-OLED, and perhaps the recent MLA, certainly have more potential, but as usual with most new tech, there are kinks that need to be worked out before the tech 'matures'. Thankfully OLED displays in general are not a completely new tech, so hopefully this new tech does not take as long to get better and there is less of a panel lottery.

[oddbox83]

Anyway, this thread reminded me on to get onto a UK based calibrator after I hung fire for a little bit after being told there were some potential issues with calibrating QD-OLED. I’ve got in touch with Ivan Samuel who reassures me his equipment does it just fine and the quote is very reasonable.

[grodd]

Regarding the near black problems. So far I've only seen the two or three people on the thread with the issue.

I was worried as well when I first started reading. So worried I went through all the screencaps and watched them on my own A95K. Thankfully mine looked nothing like his. I'm going out on a limb to say its not common.

For me I would say Sony's biggest issue is with the frame jumping on streaming media, and the auto dimming in Game mode on SDR.
(It also happens to a much less degree on HDR game mode and broadcast TV). I wish we could just turn it off completely.

[Deciazulado]

I see quoted "200% increase in brightness" in a few places (tho one place said 20%)

Taking the measurements from ratings.com, that would be:



Do you think they'll reach that?

(note: "pass" means the TV should be able to play the mentioned scene's actual brightness value with no problem)

Better than NTSC greens and P3 reds, plus cannon brightness seems great.

[CHASLS2]

Still not much of a jump from my A1E to jump on it.

[CHASLS2]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Oh FFS, why doesn't this have a narrow stand setting while the A80L does? They did the same shit with the A80J and A90J too! It might sound like a silly thing as a deal breaker but I don't want to have to buy a whacking great TV stand to put this on, I just want to put it on my current stand which holds my 65" ZD9 just fine. Typical Sony stupidity.

I hate Tv's that have the feet way apart. Never gonna work on my stand unless i lay a long piece of plywood across it.

[oddbox83]

I'll eat Werner Herzog's shoe if the TV hits all those estimated figures, and/or can sustain them on real content.

Probably only gets near to 200% brighter on highlights in otherwise darker scenes. Very bright overall scenes will likely be brighter, but not 200% brighter due to ABL, just like any OLED. Or, alternatively it might only be able to sustain those higher figures on very short shots, and will dim quickly with sustained very bright scenes.

I'm reasonably confident I won't be eating a shoe.