Sony XBR-75Z9D

amirm

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Apr 2, 2010
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I saw them at CEDIA and they are impressive sets. The best of any LCD right now. OLED can still beat them but in brighter spaces, they are the king. Some of my images that I shot with my DSLR, playing HDR content:

75 inch:



65 inch:



100 inch:



And a bit on how they get their good contrast without as many haloes/distortions:
 

XV-1

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May 24, 2010
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I have the 75X9400C and i love it. killed off my poor Pioneer Kuro.

Can only imagine how much better the Z series is.
 

audioguy

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I saw those sets at CEDIA and I would agree that they are king. I just installed (but have not calibrated) a distant second cousin [XBR 75 inch 850C] in our family room ( use a PJ in our theater) and while it is clearly not up to your new TV, still miles ahead of what is replaced - a 2006 Samsung 720P 50 inch. Until it is calibrated, it is actually too bright - but watched the Notre Dame game in 4K from DirecTV last night, and the image is quite good.
 

RBFC

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Chuck,

I am interested in the DirecTV 4K service. Any firm thoughts at this stage?

The picture on this set is incredible. I totally believe it when they say it is the brightest set on the market! We watched a part of Kung Fu Panda on it with the kids. The blacks, which play a big role in that film, were very good and the picture was so clean it was as if you were watching the movie for the first time. Very happy so far!

Lee
 

RBFC

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If you look at my photos, you will see a small white light below the picture, the "logo" power-on light. You can then compare the thin bezel of the set with the blacks displayed. For instance, look at the screenshot of the light coming through the slotted walls of the shack. The contrast that this set generates is beautiful.

Lee
 

audioguy

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Apr 20, 2010
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Chuck,

I am interested in the DirecTV 4K service. Any firm thoughts at this stage?

The picture on this set is incredible. I totally believe it when they say it is the brightest set on the market! We watched a part of Kung Fu Panda on it with the kids. The blacks, which play a big role in that film, were very good and the picture was so clean it was as if you were watching the movie for the first time. Very happy so far!

Lee

RE: 4K DirecTV. Very nice but like 4K on my Sony PJ, given the PJ (and TV) up convert everything to 4K, the differences between 4K and 1080i up converted are not dramatic. The game was broadcast on regular TV (1080i) AND 4K so I switched between them (unfortunately not too quickly given the way the DirecTV system works -- or maybe it was HdMI handshake issues. Nonetheless, the 4K picture was awesome and given very little incremental cost to get the service, I am glad I did it. One of the DirecTV channels runs most of the time with all kinds of stuff and when they show nature material it is breathtaking.

The blacks on my TV are not as good as on yours - plus the set has not been calibrated. But given the use for this set (casual watching and sports) the picture is off the charts. As for brightness, mine is too bright right now (never thought I would say such a thing about a TV).

All of that said, even my wife likes the new TV !!!
 

Keith_W

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Mar 31, 2012
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And a bit on how they get their good contrast without as many haloes/distortions:

I suspect that this graphic is a little misleading. The Z9D has more dimming zones than the competition, this is true. But they still have less than 1000 dimming zones. Nobody knows exactly how many, because Sony is being tight lipped about this spec. Looking at that diagram, you would think that the Z9D's FALD system has thousands of these LED's which can be individually controlled. I was quite excited when I first heard about this, but sadly it is marketing, not reality.
 

Keith_W

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I just found out that Australia (a.k.a the Land of the Winners) will not be getting anything larger than a 65" Z9D.

This is a real pity, because I was hoping for a decent 75" TV. At the moment, your choices are - low end Samsung, LG, Sony, or Panasonic. Nope, none of the high end 75" brands are represented here. No 75" LG OLED. And now no 75" Z9D.

Hooray for us. Bloody Sony.
 

YashN

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Jun 28, 2015
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Looks right like Sony: the blues are too blue, the greens are too green and the reds are too red. Each colour is separately too saturated or something. Hope the controls can subdue this somehow.
 

RBFC

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I haven't had the set calibrated yet. What you see is out of the box. I took down the youtube shots because the app doesn't allow me tp pause the video, so all those shots were blurry. Couldn't tell when using my phone, but obvious when I looked on a larger screen.

Of course, there will be those who criticize before asking pertinent questions about calibration, etc. I'm ok with how the set performs pre-calibration, displaying the quality that is not yet maximized.

Lee
 

amirm

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Apr 2, 2010
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Looks right like Sony: the blues are too blue, the greens are too green and the reds are too red. Each colour is separately too saturated or something. Hope the controls can subdue this somehow.
You are not serious, are you? You can't possibly judge the color fidelity of a set from a picture taken, then posted on a web and viewed on a computer display. It is like judging a home audio system, from youtube camcorder recording, and the played back on computer speakers!

Good grief....
 

YashN

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Jun 28, 2015
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You are not serious, are you? You can't possibly judge the color fidelity of a set from a picture taken, then posted on a web and viewed on a computer display. It is like judging a home audio system, from youtube camcorder recording, and the played back on computer speakers!

Good grief....

Of course I can't judge by only these pics, but I can judge from having a Sony TV myself and from having seen a lot of them and that was a bit of a tongue-in-cheek jab as it's the kind of picture and colour you would expect from a Sony.

I'm far more serious than you are anytime of day, really.

:p

Sony themselves make it a high point of marketing the colour-processing chip or algorithm in their literature for their TVs, so you know what to expect. I'd find it for you if I was really bent on justifying myself to you, which I'm not.
 

YashN

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Jun 28, 2015
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Yash is a 4K video expert, he has a pair of Canadian eyes. :b ...And he has zero bias about Sony. Lol

The Sony chip I'm referring to above: think about what that would be in terms of audio gear: that would be audio gear with processing to enhance the bass, enhance the highs, enhance this and that, all separately. When you notice it, it's quite artificial and unbalanced.
 

RBFC

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Thanks for the comments, Yash. You're entitled to your opinion. Do you feel that these color issues can be ameliorated through calibration? As I said, the picture is as the set came out of the box. What set(s) do you feel offer truer color presentation, and do they come out of the box with more accurate settings?

Lee
 

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