Sony Bravia 2015 Range...

oHUTCHYo

oHUTCHYo

oHUTCHYo

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Been patiently waiting for this new range with a view to upgrade from my aging 50" Panasonic G20 to a 65" of either of these two...

X85C
http://www.sony.co.uk/buy/x8500c-series?sku=KD65X8507CSU

X93C
http://www.sony.co.uk/buy/x9405c-x9305c-series?sku=KD55X9305CBU

Both are now available to pre-order, expect availability April.

The Sony range are more attractive to me than the Samsung range, mostly down to the intangible brand lust but also that Sony always have the better sound chipsets, one of the few remaining manufacturers that allows full 5.1 passthrough on SPDIF optical as well as other perks of how they handle audio in general compared to other TV manufacturers.

The whole smart aspect looks very well implemented too, with Android etc.

I'm a huge TV/Movie buff and typically stream MKV Bluray rips with DTS from my NAS. Also enjoy the odd PS4 gaming session. Very much looking forward to buying one. Still trying to figure out the core differences between the two which I need or can sacrifice.

Discuss :)
 
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You might want to check that. My W905 reads DTS over the network but converts it to DD. You can't get DTS to pass through to the amp. It's a known limitation, because Sony didn't want to pay for a licence for a sound format that is never broadcast on TV shows.

However, my Sony Bluray player will read the same file across the network and can output DTS to the amp, because that expressly has a DTS decoder for Blurays.

Sony does have a bit of a history of not willing to spend pennies on specifications it considers unimportant, even though customers would spend pounds to get the extra features. For instance, the ethernet ports on their TVs are fast ethernet, not gigabit, and just various little niggles that won't matter to you until you really want them (like DTS pass-through across the network).
 
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Steampunk said:
You might want to check that. My W905 reads DTS over the network but converts it to DD. You can't get DTS to pass through to the amp. It's a known limitation, because Sony didn't want to pay for a licence for a sound format that is never broadcast on TV shows.

However, my Sony Bluray player will read the same file across the network and can output DTS to the amp, because that expressly has a DTS decoder for Blurays.
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I'll read more before I can say for certain, but a Sony rep gave me a demo of the current (now old) flagship model in store (the model with the silly built in LEDs in the bezel) and it truly did playback DTS rather than downsample to 2.0 - unless I was led awry and it was perhaps putting out DD5.1 as you say.

Either way, thanks for the heads up and will check that out.

Steampunk said:
Sony does have a bit of a history of not willing to spend pennies on specifications it considers unimportant, even though customers would spend pounds to get the extra features. For instance, the ethernet ports on their TVs are fast ethernet, not gigabit, and just various little niggles that won't matter to you until you really want them (like DTS pass-through across the network).
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Just spotted your added comments in your post. Your comments truly ring home with me, this is exactly what I want in a TV, those little things either now or a year down the line, those little bits of clever functionality you may suddenly want. However my perception was I'd find this in a Sony set more so than a Samsung? Interesting! My G20 always leads to disappointment in this matter, I usually find its capped at X or limited to Y. Them again it was only a £1200 mid range set when I bought it.
 
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HEADRAT said:
"The world of 4K: a huge choice of 4K content today

Really, what content is that then?
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Hehe, yeah, I struggled to even find some free true 4K content to download on a USB stick to use as testing material when checking out TV choices.

Still, personally, it's about the right time for me now to invest £2K-4K on a new set, so I damn sure want 4K capability. 3D on the other hand, meh, I'd happily pass on if I had the option.
 
oHUTCHYo said:
I'll read more before I can say for certain, but a Sony rep gave me a demo of the current (now old) flagship model in store (the model with the silly built in LEDs in the bezel) and it truly did playback DTS rather than downsample to 2.0 - unless I was led awry and it was perhaps putting out DD5.1 as you say.

Either way, thanks for the heads up and will check that out.
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Sorry, I'm misremembering, and the W905 outputs DTS to 5.1, but definitely not DTS. I know because the TV identifies a DTS soundtrack, but the amp shows 5.1, where the bluray player shows DTS and the amp then correctly identifies DTS.

This has also come up several times in the AV Forums huge W905 threads, and no one has ever been able to make it work. There just isn't a DTS pass-through from network -> TV -> amp.

I wouldn't be surprised if the new TVs have the same issue, because the W905 was their flagship model a couple of years ago, and it wasn't down to tech limitations, it was down to licensing/stingyness and the Sony product design philosophy. Something like that is an important little detail that will not be on the specs, and even Sony won't know straight off. You wouldn't believe the hassle I had getting Sony to confirm the speed of the network port on my TV.
 
oHUTCHYo said:
Just spotted your added comments in your post. Your comments truly ring home with me, this is exactly what I want in a TV, those little things either now or a year down the line, those little bits of clever functionality you may suddenly want. However my perception was I'd find this in a Sony set more so than a Samsung? Interesting! My G20 always leads to disappointment in this matter, I usually find its capped at X or limited to Y. Them again it was only a £1200 mid range set when I bought it.
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I think you may find that other makes offer different things. For instance, Sony can be stingy with licensing (they won't play Divx because of licensing, but they do play Xvid because it is free - rename your files). There can also be issues with Sony because they are tied into requirements for other parts of the business, such as format support (no support for .SRT files), the blu-ray business to think of (no support for DTS pass-through), enfocement of Cinavia DRM, etc.

Sony do tend to excel in the core functionality of picture and sound, but there have been a few of their TVs that initially reviewed poorly, and then got massively better in a few months after some firmware upgrades, although the reviews are rarely updated.

Samsung is generally accepted to be better for apps, such as support for Plex, etc, though they seem to have more variability on picture eg, they are known to change panel types as production requires.

In short, don't be an early adopter, read the experiences of those who are over at AV Forums, and that's the only way you'll find out about all those little gotchas for the fine details that are not in the specs and that Sony tech support won't even know about.
 
HEADRAT said:
I'd rather have an 1080p OLED than a 4K LCD.
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Can you expand on that pal? Is the image quality truly that different? Understandably like for like 1080p it would, but 1080p OLED versus 4K LCD?

My greatest concern is generally moving from plasma to LCD and being disappointed in the blacks/dark scenes?
 
oHUTCHYo said:
Can you expand on that pal? Is the image quality truly that different? Understandably like for like 1080p it would, but 1080p OLED versus 4K LCD?

My greatest concern is generally moving from plasma to LCD and being disappointed in the blacks/dark scenes?
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Go and look at OLED in John Lewis, and consider the availability of 4K content, and what 1080P content looks like on a 4K TV.
 
Steampunk said:
Go and look at OLED in John Lewis, and consider the availability of 4K content, and what 1080P content looks like on a 4K TV.
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Yeah you guys already have me sold on the idea, I'll have a run to Newcastle at the weekend to look in John Lewis. I've never seen an OLED in the flesh. I'd quite happily consider staying with 1080p if it blows me away enough.
 
oHUTCHYo said:
Yeah you guys already have me sold on the idea, I'll have a run to Newcastle at the weekend to look in John Lewis. I've never seen an OLED in the flesh. I'd quite happily consider staying with 1080p if it blows me away enough.
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Oh wow, you are not allowed to buy an expensive LED until you have at least seen OLED in the flesh. LED technology is full of image issues and compromises, and lots of clever tech to try and hide those issues. In some ways, they've actually gone backwards. One step forwards going from tube to LED backlighting, then one step backwards going to edge-lit LED to make it a centimetre thinner for people to hang on walls.

OLED just doesn't have those problems to need them fixing in the first place. Prices are falling and as you're looking at £2700 TVs, you need to check out OLEDs before you put money down on LED. I would then check AV Forums for any gotchas on particular models.
 
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oHUTCHYo said:
Can you expand on that pal?
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4K LCD are pretty nice but I can't see the point when the is zero content for them.

Friend of mine has an LG OLED and it simply astounding, find yourself a decent shop with a demo room and you'll see what I mean.

Blacks are "ink black", colours are super vivid and have amazing contrast, I've seen LCDs that come close but OLED wins IMHO.

If I had the cash I'd buy an OLED 1080p, if I was rich I'd wait for a OLED 4K ;)
 
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Fair bit of 4K stuff on Netflix. :) Working my way through Daredevil at the moment(fairly decent series from Marvel for a change). House of Cards next, then there are several other series to try, Bloodlines, Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad, Marco Polo. Its becoming more popular all the time.
 
Arguably.

Only seen the LG curved ones and wouldn't want curved, utterly pointless.

Cant fault the picture on mine at all, 4k or otherwise. 1080p also looks superb. :)

65" is also 6 grand.
 
chroniclard said:
Fair bit of 4K stuff on Netflix. :)
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Is it really 4k though, I would like to see some stats on the bitrates they are using (the very briefest of Googles):-

http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/netflix-begins-4k-streams/

As we and others expected, Netflix's streaming 4K video, delivered at 15.6 Mbps, still showed signs of compression, and the test concluded "we still think that reference-level 1080p Blu-ray transfers like 'Oblivion' look cleaner especially during busier sequences." On the other hand, HDTVTest says it looked appreciably better than Netflix's previous best, its so-called SuperHD.

At least with Bluray we can get decent bitrate 1080p, any of the 4K content we can get our hands on is pretty low bitrate 4K.

Oooh look at what has just been posted:-

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/55eg960v-201504224046.htm


At the end of the day, there’s no perfect display, and for most people the LG 55EG960V/ 55EG9600 will provide the best overall picture quality among TVs available to buy new on the market at this time of writing.

BEST IN CLASS

HEADRAT
 
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