Mu8000 vs Mu9000 vs Sony X900e

[olcrazylegsmcgee]

I hate to disagree with everyone, but I have now owned both the x900e and MU9000. I had two problems with the MU9000 and several problems with the x900e. I'm quite suspicious of rtings.com and quantum apotheosis at this point... Here's my take on these two tvs by comparison (I am leaving details about sound out as I use a soundbar) Note that I was able to get the MU9000 and X900E both on sale so they were both around $2500.

x900e:

pros:

- superior local dimming to mu9000 - this is expected to be better with full array backlit LEDs over edge lit LEDs (with the exception perhaps of some special edge lit LEDs that have multiple rows of lighting)
- color range is a bit better, but only seems to come out in 4k content and you really have to tweak the settings on this (it does add an extra pop when you get it right)
- picture in picture is nice although I couldn't seem to get it to work for two cable channels (only two separate inputs)
- remote plays nicely with PS4

cons:

- very dark.. if you have a few windows you will have a miserable daytime viewing experience with movies
- wireless adapter can't handle bandwidth necessary for 4k content (you have to wire it directly to an LAN cable)
- OS is super laggy and unintuitive
- remote has to be pointed at a very specific position to work
- MOTION BLUR! the motion blur is terrible - this goes beyond the soap opera effect which you can mostly get rid of with the right settings
- bad input lag
- Sony touts all this extra video processing, but I was unimpressed on upconversion of older content (samsung does better but upconversion on both seems to introduce judder although the judder is mostly bearable on both)
- some details like lines on faces are really clear, but finer details especially in moving shots, like sweeping shots over a sandy beach or over water, can not be handled by this tv (planet earth II will give you some good examples of this)
- the remote has a dedicated netflix button... $3000 tv with a dedicated netflix button... they should just give you the ability to make netflix super easy to access on the tv like with Tizen OS
- IR Blaster? Seriously? More wires?!
- seems only to know how to handle standard frame rates, but struggles when frame rates change
- vignette effect is very noticeable on white screens - I feel like I'm watching InstagramTV if that were a real thing
- blooming is surprisingly pretty bad although this may be due to my smooth motion settings which I'm using to reduce the soap opera effect as much as possible

overall on this tv I feel like Sony did the absolute bare minimum on everything just to get features that people tested without focusing on the actual overall picture quality and experience

MU9000:

pros:

- excellent picture with better contrast and still gets pretty deep blacks despite poor local dimming
- fast and responsive OS with less of a learning curve - easy to customize shortcuts so your favorite programs are very accessible
- I would argue that it's aesthetically more pleasing although the stand takes up more room
- excellent up-conversion of older content
- supports HDR and HDR10+ and doesn't seem to ever struggle handling whatever is thrown at it (the sony on the other hand feels like it wouldn't even be capable of dolby vision even if they wanted to offer that upgrade down the road)
- no motion blur unless you want it (I really don't understand why people like this effect - I think companies did this by accident by not having enough processing power and then decided they would call it a "feature")
- acceptable input lag for gaming
- does not struggle when frame rates change
- better cable management - the one connect box is awesome
- modern and minimal controller although the lack of a number pad is annoying at times

cons:

- dynamic mode can get very dark at times and it seems nonsensical.. I find it's best to avoid this mode
- my PS4 Pro seemed to have an issue where it was cutting out periodically when streaming 4K HDR content or playing 4K HDR games - folks seem to have this problem with the PS4 Pro in general, but I have not experienced it yet with the x900e (will update this thread if I experience it between now and when I get my MU9000 replacement) - the workaround was to set
the resolution to 2160 YUV420, but I'm still not clear if this is a PS4 Pro problem or an issue with several models of TVs across various brands
- the reason I returned my MU9000 in the first place - stuck pixels - hoping this was just a QC issue that is not widespread, but I will update this thread if I start to have similar issues with my new MU9000

Overall I was very satisfied with the MU9000 and happy to be getting it back. I thought the x900e was going to be the better TV, but I have to say I was just not that impressed by the x900e.