CES 2019 speculation & the facts

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by samlop10

Yeah, I mean, it’s possible the actual consumer units will be better, but at this point blooming should not be a noticeable thing in a premium model given the current technology available. I mean, seriously, miniLED is already possible and Sony is still focusing on features for marketing purposes while actual improvements in PQ seem to be bottom priority. I wonder how their selling numbers are with the Z9F.

I’m not saying the Z9G should’ve had 10,000+ zones (not that I would have complained), but at the same time, it doesn’t sound like it has many more than the Z9D, which the biggest model barely had 1,000 zones. Now Vizio just announced a model with 480 zones and Sony can’t even seem to go past 1,000 on their premium models. Like I said, hopefully the consumer units are better, but so far this is just disappointing. At this point, ~3,000 zones should be entirely feasible on consumer displays.

It really bothers me that something like wider viewing angles (but also streaming and other so called "smart" related things) get such attention and priority. All I really need my TV to be is a no nonsense monitor with the best possible picture quality available for it. I wish every manufacturer would have at least one such TV available in their lineup.

Another thing I will have to deal with at some point eventually, is the lack of 3D on whatever TV I might end up with in the future.

[MechaGodzilla]

I find it interesting how much variance there is in the "X9" series this year. Last couple of years, the X900E and X900F series were more homogenic across all sizes, but this year we get:

49" - X90G (X1 Extreme processor, unlike the X1 Ultimate-equipped X95G series)
55" and 65" - X95G without X-Wide Angle
75" and 85" - X95G with X-Wide Angle

So it's pretty much three different TVs. I'm guessing they skipped "X-Wide Angle" for the 55" and 65" sizes because of the lower number of dimming zones on these upper mid-range/lower high-end TVs, which decreases the smaller you go? A possible positive of this is that the smaller models may actually have better contrast than their big brothers, go figure.

[samlop10]

Originally Posted by DJR662

It really bothers me that something like wider viewing angles (but also streaming and other so called "smart" related things) get such attention and priority. All I really need my TV to be is a no nonsense monitor with the best possible picture quality available for it. I wish every manufacturer would have at least one such TV available in their lineup.

Another thing I will have to deal with at some point eventually, is the lack of 3D on whatever TV I might end up with in the future.

Completely agree.

As far as 3D goes, I’ve resigned myself to either get a projector in the future for 3D movies or get a good VR set. Really sad companies got rid of 3D on TVs since some films (like Gravity, Avatar, etc.) really benefit from it. But c’est la vie, I guess.

[samlop10]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

I find it interesting how much variance there is in the "X9" series this year. Last couple of years, the X900E and X900F series were more homogenic across all sizes, but this year we get:

49" - X90G (X1 Extreme processor, unlike the X1 Ultimate-equipped X95G series)
55" and 65" - X95G without X-Wide Angle
75" and 85" - X95G with X-Wide Angle

So it's pretty much three different TVs. I'm guessing they skipped "X-Wide Angle" for the 55" and 65" sizes because of the lower number of dimming zones on these upper mid-range/lower high-end TVs? A possible positive of this is that the smaller models may actually have better contrast than their big brothers, go figure.

Imagine that turns out to be the case, lol.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by JohnAV

Yes only to the x800. There is a updated model from Sony with the new UBP-X800M2 4K UHD Blu-ray Player With HDR coming that add's Dolby Vision this spring

While I am very glad to see the UBP-X800M2 get Dolby Vision HDR processing power, its to bad HDR10+ is not also offered by Sony. Another issue is instead of designing a entire new and improved Blu-ray player and calling it UBP-X900, instead this new UBP-X800M2 appears to be exactly the same as the UBP-X800 model but with a faster chip that supports Dolby Vision HDR. Everything else remained the same like no rear USB jack, no USB 3.0 technology, no 1Gbps Ethernet connection. Perhaps the list price might be slightly higher for the UBP-X800M2 which is fine sine it offers Dolby Vision HDR.


Pioneer and Panasonic with their players that they came out with appear to be doing more then Sony. Sony just made minor changes to the existing 2017 UBP-X800 for the year 2019, which is not a good sign. In the past Sony would always or almost always come out with a new Blu-ray player from the ground up. I hope that in 2020 we are not nearing the end of production life for Sony Blu-ray players because of streaming increasing in demand over physical media.


So are we not going to get a replacement for Sony's 2017 flagship UBP-X1000ES that would add Dolby Vision HDR?

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by samlop10

Completely agree.

As far as 3D goes, I’ve resigned myself to either get a projector in the future for 3D movies or get a good VR set. Really sad companies got rid of 3D on TVs since some films (like Gravity, Avatar, etc.) really benefit from it. But c’est la vie, I guess.

Watching 3D movies on a VR set will never be able to replace a TV or projector IMO. Ofcourse the PSVR is purely technically speaking the least capable, but I can't imagine watching a full movie on any other VR headset will be that much better and more comfortable for that matter (if it is actually possible on other VR sets as well that is).

You probably can imagine my irritation the past couple of years, because of TV manufacturers adding one useless feature after another on their TVs, while omitting the one feature that actually holds importance to me (3D).

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

While I am very glad to see the UBP-X800M2 get Dolby Vision HDR processing power, its to bad HDR10+ is not also offered by Sony.

Since they are now using a newer Mediatek SoC they likely will add that later. Yes David Susilo mentioned Sony Canada verified it was a using a Mediatek upscaling chip in his x800 review.

[nick4Knight]

Originally Posted by DJR662

All I really need my TV to be is a no nonsense monitor with the best possible picture quality available for it. I wish every manufacturer would have at least one such TV available in their lineup.

Another thing I will have to deal with at some point eventually, is the lack of 3D on whatever TV I might end up with in the future.

At some point? You got a 75" ZD9 lol I mean, you'd imagine that is a 10 year set and you're 3 years in. Plenty of years for 3D support.

Wait for MicroLED to reach the prices you got the 75" at and you're golden for phase two of 4K bliss? Who knows the Avatar sequels might lure some manufacturers back into the fold for 2K 3D support again.

[David M]

I know there's a good amount of talk about MicroLED (emissive is always the goal for me), but Samsung showed me a 2019 QLED-branded LCD that impressed me that will actually be on sale this year. They've made more changes to the internal panel structure and also added some kind of coating on the front layer to better tunnel light. The off-axis viewing quality looked seriously improved as a result.

They had a clip of a 2.35:1 letterboxed movie with a lot of red in the picture (usually not fun on PVA LCD from the sides) - and the off-axis quality was really impressive, especially for LCD. It wasn't in darkened viewing conditions so it was hard to get a full view, and it was a pre-release product, but it left me surprised and interested.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by DJR662

It really bothers me that something like wider viewing angles (but also streaming and other so called "smart" related things) get such attention and priority. All I really need my TV to be is a no nonsense monitor with the best possible picture quality available for it. I wish every manufacturer would have at least one such TV available in their lineup.

Another thing I will have to deal with at some point eventually, is the lack of 3D on whatever TV I might end up with in the future.

Yep yep yep yep. Could not give a flying **** about 'smart' features, I don't need a viewing angle so vast that I can view it from two doors down, I don't even need a TV tuner. Just gimme a display that's got PQ that's as badass as can be. Ta muchly

[wxman2003]

Originally Posted by alexanderg823

With such an emphasis on all of these 85"+ screen sizes, the big question is who do they intend to sell these to?

You'd think with so much focus on TVs that are $15K+ this year there must be a huge market for them... But I would assume that wouldn't be the case.

I can't recall a CES I've seen before where there was such a widespread focus across all manufacturers on 5 digit televisions.

It's simple, they really have nothing new to offer with smaller screens. It's all incremental improvements with 4K now. So they have to try to impress with size and 8K. It's like mobile phones. The companies like Apple, Samsung, etc, are running out of ways to impress with their new phones every year.

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by DJR662

It really bothers me that something like wider viewing angles (but also streaming and other so called "smart" related things) get such attention and priority. All I really need my TV to be is a no nonsense monitor with the best possible picture quality available for it. I wish every manufacturer would have at least one such TV available in their lineup.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yep yep yep yep. Could not give a flying **** about 'smart' features, I don't need a viewing angle so vast that I can view it from two doors down, I don't even need a TV tuner. Just gimme a display that's got PQ that's as badass as can be. Ta muchly

I'd also like to see the same philosophy applied to the sound as well. As impressive as it is what Sony and the others do with the sound on their OLEDs for example, if someone is paying that much for a TV - and they care about audio - then chances are they already have, or are planning to get, an external solution. And a receiver + speakers (or a couple powered speakers for a simple 2.0 system), or even a good (by soundbar standards) soundbar is going to be superior to what the TV offers.

Could be cool to see TVs that focused on picture and picture alone, and then sales would prove whether there's a market for such a thing...

[Fendergopher]

Well, at least it's going to be fun to see how all these models perform throughout the year. I'm pretty interested in how Sony's wide angle tech performs this time around.

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by David M

I know there's a good amount of talk about MicroLED (emissive is always the goal for me), but Samsung showed me a 2019 QLED-branded LCD that impressed me that will actually be on sale this year. They've made more changes to the internal panel structure and also added some kind of coating on the front layer to better tunnel light. The off-axis viewing quality looked seriously improved as a result.

They had a clip of a 2.35:1 letterboxed movie with a lot of red in the picture (usually not fun on PVA LCD from the sides) - and the off-axis quality was really impressive, especially for LCD. It wasn't in darkened viewing conditions so it was hard to get a full view, and it was a pre-release product, but it left me surprised and interested.

Any idea if Samsung is making contrast sacrifices like Sony did?

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by Fendergopher

Well, at least it's going to be fun to see how all these models perform throughout the year. I'm pretty interested in how Sony's wide angle tech performs this time around.

Oh yeah, personally I'm not at all as disappointed as many others are. I never expected any major breakthroughs this year, so I'm not let down that we got more of the same with (relatively) minor improvements.

Panasonic jumping aboard the Dolby Vision train is good news and has made them a real contender for me (I'm in the market for a new TV, will probably bite this year). The Sonys are also of interest. I'm looking forward to reviews, reactions and thoughts on these new tellies, from professional reviewers and your average user alike.

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by nick4Knight

At some point? You got a 75" ZD9 lol I mean, you'd imagine that is a 10 year set and you're 3 years in. Plenty of years for 3D support.

Wait for MicroLED to reach the prices you got the 75" at and you're golden for phase two of 4K bliss? Who knows the Avatar sequels might lure some manufacturers back into the fold for 2K 3D support again.

I really can't wait till the day they will anounce at CES that 3D will be "brought back", be it the old passive/active way or glasses free if they can figure out how to do it properly.

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by DJR662

I really can't wait till the day they will anounce at CES that 3D will be "brought back", be it the old passive/active way or glasses free if they can figure out how to do it properly.

There was the CES 2019 demo I saw online. Still using animations.

Hologram At CES 2018 - YouTube

[LordoftheRings]

Originally Posted by Jameron4eva

Panasonic GZ2000 OLED Gets Dolby Vision! It's World's 1st TV to Support DV & HDR10+ - YouTube

I'm a subscriber to Vincent's videos; I saw it not long before you posted it...that's very good news.

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

I'd also like to see the same philosophy applied to the sound as well. As impressive as it is what Sony and the others do with the sound on their OLEDs for example, if someone is paying that much for a TV - and they care about audio - then chances are they already have, or are planning to get, an external solution. And a receiver + speakers (or a couple powered speakers for a simple 2.0 system), or even a good (by soundbar standards) soundbar is going to be superior to what the TV offers.

And this is why I skipped the Sony X940C in 2015.

[Agent Kay]

Sony brings the Z pain, Samsung and Panafonics bring the tech.
Gold star bring beer and ambient light sensors?
Quaint