Sony XBR75X940D Thread

[Amused]

I figured I'd start a thread devoted to the Sony XBR75X940D.

So I just got this one delivered for 3700 last week and all I can say is, I am so glad I didn't go with OLED.

If I could have justified the cost of the nearly 9K the Z9D that would be the only model I would choose over this. But as it is, the full backlighting with local dimming on the 940D is nothing short of amazing, and watching 4K OLED demo material on this makes for the most amazing inky black levels I have ever seen on any set, while maintaining a contrast ratio that can still deliver more vivid colors and detail in shadows than OLED, which makes this set look far better than OLED in my opinion.

Out of the box the settings are so close, it's the closest to a calibrated TV I have ever seen pre-calibration, much less owned. After calibration it is nothing short of stunning.

Matched with a Samsung UBD-K8500 and 2017 nVidia Shield it excels with any and all content I throw at it. Making all 1080P content, as well as 4K HDR content look amazing.

I'm running it with a Denon x2200w for my surround sound.

No noticeable ghosting for me with regular content. No flashlighting. No globs of grey. Just inky blacks and vivid colors. Side viewing is as expected. Not great. But I'm an AV fanatic and am always sitting in the sweet spot so I don;t care about side viewing that much. But it is better than most side lit LEDs I've seen or owned.

My verdict: After a year of comparisons in 4K displays, this one is the absolute best for the money you can get right now. Hands down.

My 70 inch Sharp is in my bedroom now and I can barely stand to watch it anymore.

 

[ryanpick]

I figured I'd start a thread devoted to the Sony XBR75X940D.



No noticeable ghosting for me with regular content. No flashlighting. No globs of grey. Just inky blacks and vivid colors. Side viewing is as expected. Not great. But I'm an AV fanatic and am always sitting in the sweet spot so I don;t care about side viewing that much. But it is better than most side lit LEDs I've seen or owned.

So you can play this without smearing/trailing? Unfinished Swan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qADXXnPy4hA&t=77s

 

[phillyman36]

Can you post pictures?

 

[monkeydelmagico]

I've been pretty stoked with a Sony XBR 65 inch that I picked up for cheap. I find the greyscale/black to be quite good but not completely uniform across the entire screen. No edge bleed on the set I got. The motion accuracy is very good. Being able to track the puck for hockey games is a pet peeve of mine. The only other set I've ever had that motion tracked this well was an older Samsung.

 

[Amused]

In case anyone is interested, these are my settings after calibrating it:

Brightness: 30 (variable depending on room lighting)
Contrast: 96
Gamma: -2
Black Level 50
Adv. contrast enhancer: off
Auto local dimming: medium
X-tended dynamic range: off
Color: 52 (50 for oversaturated HDR material)
Hue: 0
Color temp: Expert 1
Point 1: R -1 G 0 B -5
Point 2: R -2 G 0 B -4
Point 3: R -3 G 0 B -3
Point 4: R -4 G 0 B -5
Point 5: R -3 G 0 B -3
Point 6: R -3 G 0 B -2
Point 7: R -4 G 0 B -2
Point 8: R -4 G 0 B -2
Point 9: R -5 G 0 B -4
Point 10: R -3 G 0 B -3
Sharpness: 50
Reality Creation: off
Random noise reduction: off
Digital noise reduction: off
Motionflow: custom
Smoothness: min
Clearness: min
CineMotion: off

 

[Amused]

So you can play this without smearing/trailing? Unfinished Swan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qADXXnPy4hA&t=77s

There is some slight smearing of darks on lights. But hardly ever noticeable in regular content. In fact, I have to pretty much do something like that video to ever really notice it. Otherwise, in movies and HDR content, I never do.

Just to be sure, I viewed the Avengers Civil War airport battle scene over and over again to try to replicate the videos I had seen on YouTube. But nope, not nearly as bad as those. In fact, unnoticeable.

Plus, the highly controllable motion control can be used for sports, and does a good job of making the hockey puck trackable. Then turn it back off for movies to avoid the soap opera effect.

 

[Amused]

Pictures of screen using my LG V20.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I have a hard time believing that it looks a lot better than OLED, but definitely looks exceptional, and glad to see Sony putting in the effort. Will be really interesting to see how their OLEDs turn out. Hopefully we'll start to see OLED live up to its potential (larger sizes for lower prices, and with exceptional quality), kinda surprising to see LCD seeing the advances it has at this stage.

Oh and ouch for the OP: https://slickdeals.net/f/9694472-75-sony-xbr-75x940d-4k-uhd-hdr-3d-smart-led-hdtv-2899-free-shipping

Not sure how BuyDig is for TVs, and that difference in price could easily be worth it if you encountered any issues and had to deal with poor support from a merchant.

I'm pretty impressed with Sony lately they seem to be having a renaissance, although I feel like a lot of their effort these days is on the high end stuff. Really can't say that entirely though since they make the sensors for seems like all the good cameras on phones (aside from I think maybe Samsung's but even then I think they use some Sony don't they?). They've gone whole hog into the high end personal listening audio market, and seem to be mostly delivering. And thankfully are staying largely away from making the mistakes (proprietary formats...). Although I was quite disappointed that the PS4 Pro didn't come with 4K Blu-ray support.

 

[Amused]

The problem with OLEDs is limited nits. 500 vs 1000 on a backlit LED. Yes, OLED has infinite contrast ratio but a good full array backlit with local dimming comes awfully close to infinite.

Honestly, to me, OLEDs look less brilliant in HDR content than full backlit LED panels. Also the colors are less vibrant and nuanced.

Ouch indeed. But yeah, I don't know BuyDig well and it's out of stock. But amazing price!!! Snag it if you can. At that price it's beyond an amazing deal for an amazing TV.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I just destroyed my 70" Sharp (first year model - was an awesome tv) so now in the market for a new one. Thanks for this review. Looks like a nice one.

Question though: how big is the base on it? I'm putting it on a center stand, not hanging it. It seems many stands on these 'thin' tv's are way too small.

 

[ahampleman]

The base is 19.5" w x 12"d

 

[darkswordsman17]

The problem with OLEDs is limited nits. 500 vs 1000 on a backlit LED. Yes, OLED has infinite contrast ratio but a good full array backlit with local dimming comes awfully close to infinite.

Honestly, to me, OLEDs look less brilliant in HDR content than full backlit LED panels. Also the colors are less vibrant and nuanced.

Ouch indeed. But yeah, I don't know BuyDig well and it's out of stock. But amazing price!!! Snag it if you can. At that price it's beyond an amazing deal for an amazing TV.

Right, but I'd rather have a very light controlled room than worry about getting all the blownout highlights of that level of contrast. Not saying that's all the Sony's extra brightness is good for, but I greatly value how a display handles dark scenes than super bright ones that would hurt my eyes to look at if I'm anywhere near the display (and yes, better sets would be able to get brighter and better handle bright scenes so that you can see detail without just massive HDR bloom washing everything out).

I hear good things about Sony's higher end sets the past couple of years, it's just I have yet to see any LCD offer the 3D-like color (namely not losing detail on dark parts of an image that are right next to bright/saturated parts) in person. Not saying it isn't possible (definitely do not have experience with more recent high end LCD sets, which seems like they have made some big improvements on LCD tech). Those pictures do look really good (and would be even better in person). LG is really going to have to step up on improving OLED if they don't want it to be relegated to niches, and even then stuff like MicroLED is going to push them even harder. Would be nice if we got some competition on the panels.

It's a bit of a shame that LCD crushed plasma since it was really nowhere near as good as it is now and still managed to force it out. I don't really care what tech does it, but I would love to see LCDs relegated to history sooner than later as well. Nice to see they won't go without a fight though (although I do also have to wonder where we'd be if they'd have put the money they've pumped into pushing LCD into competing with OLED panel production). I digress though.

For that quality at that size and price, the Sony would be incredibly tough to beat. Considering that I'd expect it would outlast a remotely comparable OLED (which would be both smaller and cost more), it is a no-brainer if you're looking right now. Projectors you'll have to spend basically orders of magnitude more to get something offering 4K and anwyhere close to that image quality (sure you could get a lot of extra screen real estate, but then you could put that money towards setting up the home theater and putting the Sony in it until OLED or laser projectors get good enough and cheap enough that then you'd be ready to upgrade).

 

[Amused]

Actually, because of HDR the detail remains in the low light areas when the bright lights of a car or light fixture are blinding like in real life. That's the whole point of HDR in the first place. And in a FALD panel with auto local dimming, it looks nothing short of amazing.

When in HDR mode, there is no "blown out." Seriously. This is the thing I was talking about, the near infinite contrast ratio.

And it can't be photographed, because the camera loses the detail in the dark scenes. It's something you have to see for yourself on a properly set up set.

This is why I like this set better than OLED. 1000 nits vs 500... both with infinite contrast.