Sony XF90

[jaket]

I've just taken the jump from our 2008 Sony 40" to a new 2018 KD49-XF9005 with HT-XF9000... It should be delivered this week! I'm excited for a new tele and have some content ready to go on my Plex.

Anyone else purchased this tele or going to? Any calibration changes?

HDTV Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLDxEE9Wwng
HDTV XF90 vs XE90 VS XE93: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0GzpKxakZM
Rtings Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJwub9mnhuw&t=129s

 

[jaket]

Not sure about Amazon 4K through there app... Will let you know in a couple of days.

 

[jaket]

I was waiting to see what the XF90 would bring to the table (as I was looking for a 55" TV). As soon as the first couple of previews dropped I went and purchased the XE93.
It should look fantastic. The XE90 was a great TV, so the added processing power from the XF90 should just turn a great TV into an even better one.
Rtings have almost certainly got some recommended settings which should provide a good starting point.

Thanks. Didn't see the Settings on Rtings... New to having a nice tv or looking at review sites! Ha.

 

[jaket]

They can display through the App - although I had a lot of hassle getting it to do so. However I eventually upgrade to the latest firmware, which also gave me Dolby Vision and then I could get the app to display UHD content - what little there is of it.

Ooo, I saw the firmware update online however it didn't mention the XF90 range so glad Dolby Vision is there... Got a screengrab of the version?

 

[jaket]

I was ready to buy XF90, talked myself into it. Then saw a good deal on a XE90 and thought saving some money now would mean I can replace my old 42inch that actually gets more use than the main TV next year.

XE90 turned out to be not new and had some damage to the panel.

Walked away with an XE83 (Basically an XE80) But ended up spending only a part of the budget! Considering this TV is mainly used for Daytime tv..

One thing that has shocked me, is the onboard android isn't actually fast enough to play a 4k 10bit film directly. If you use Amazon or Netflix then it'll work as they are giving you 4k stream quality and trying to make sure it works well.

Take a 60-80Gb 4k MKV, the tv struggles to play without buffering (It has a cabled 1Gb connection). That's within Plex for Kodi.
Use Plex for Android and it fails to play it in native format and forces my server to transcode.

Then I went and tested the same movie on a Nivida Shield that is currently using Wifi... it played the file smoothly only buffering after about 10mins. So not perfect but quite good for wifi requiring 100Mbps constantly to direct play.

I can't find anything to say that an XF has a better SOC android than the XE.

EDIT - Also I can't find anything to convince me that the 'image processing' provided by the higher models applies to apps and are not limited to inputs over HDMI only.

Some good feedback. I will test out Plex with my 4K files and see how it behaves, I've got a mixture of lower bitrate 8-16Mbps 4K files and higher ones from 40-60Mbps so will be interesting to compare results to the XF90 to XE83.

 

[jaket]

is that higher bitrate h265 though, not lower bitrate (=> smaller buffer) and more efficient hevc ? ... what is the published codec/bitrate support.
Local media or network share should show best case capability

- you have probably seen vincents speed-up comments https://youtu.be/w3ZnPq06jjA

All my 4K are H265, Low Bitrate;
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main 10@L5@Main
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 2 h 12 min
Bit rate : 5 440 kb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.027
Stream size : 5.05 GiB (93%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No

High BitRate;
Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main [email protected]@High
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration : 1 h 31 min
Bit rate : 35.0 Mb/s
Width : 3 840 pixels
Height : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 (Type 2)
Bit depth : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.176
Stream size : 22.4 GiB (86%)
Title : MPEG-H HEVC Video / 34966 kbps / 2160p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / Main 10 Profile 5.1 High / 4:2:0 / 10 bits / HDR / BT.2020
Writing library : ATEME Titan File 3.7.6 (4.7.6.101)
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics : SMPTE ST 2084
Matrix coefficients : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries : R: x=0.680000 y=0.320000, G: x=0.265000 y=0.690000, B: x=0.150000 y=0.060000, White point: x=0.312700 y=0.329000
Mastering display luminance : min: 0.0000 cd/m2, max: 1000.0000 cd/m2

 

[jaket]

My TV + Soundbar arrived yesterday and calibrated according to Rtings - I must say i'm astonished it how amazing the picture quality is. I'm not an expert on sound either and its nice to hear some bass and clarity to action - Was watching Batman Begins in HDR and the bats in the cave sounds epic.

I'm streaming from Remote Plex - Internet is 72Mbps. The current Plex version 6.16.0 was giving my stuttering. Upon searching the Plex forums it appears there have been some issues since the switch to ExoPlayerV2 on Sony Android. I've manually downgraded to 6.12.0 and no longer encountered issues, Batman Beings was streaming with DTS at 51Mbps.

 

[jaket]

FYI for anyone buying an XF90 tv, Sony have just launched a sound bar offer worth £200.

Yes I got that from RicherSounds - £1578 for 49 and soundbar

 

[jaket]

the deal I'm looking at is a 65" XE90 for £1200 with £500 worth of vouchers to buy anything you want from sony. so essentially be buying a £500 sound bar for free. so a 65" XE90 and a £500 soundbar for £1200.

That doesn't sound too bad of a deal, the XE90 is last years model and this years model the XF90 has outperformed the XE90... If you have £500 vouchers the offer will make it easier to buy the XF90!

That seems too good to be true. Which store?

As above, last years model..?

 

[jaket]

Why do you say the XE90 has outperformed the XF90?

Mistake, I didn’t finish my sentance

 

[jaket]

Official sony store online



No you don't understand. When you buy the XE90. They will then give you my bad it's £400 worth of vouchers to use in their store. Which is sony store.

So I would then use the £400 to buy a £400 soundbar or whatever is in that region.

So you get the 65" XE90 and a £400 soundbar for £1200. So you are only paying £800 for 65" tv of this quality brand new with 5/6 year warranty included.

It's a really good deal. Nothing else comes close. It was a £2500 tv @ launch on it's own

Ah ok makes sense now.

FYI - I'm not seeing any grey bars on my 4k HDR content via Plex or Emby.

 

[jaket]

My KD65XF9005 arrives tomorrow with the HT-XF9000 soundbar to follow next week. Can’t wait - any recommendations for some gratuitous Netflix/Amazon 4K goodness?

Good choice,

Best colours are these three...

Stranger Things
Altered Carbon
Bright

The best colours overall is Blue Planet 2, looks fantastic.

 

[jaket]

I have Disney+ on my XF90

My main issue is the TV not being able to find the wifi when it turns on, so I have to manually select it and then it connects without issues.

I don't have that issue. I am plugged in via LAN now anyhow but its a shame its limited to 100Mbps!