The future of TV is so brigh, I gotta...
No, you know what, I'm not doing it. Not for this one.
I mean, I'm not that cheesy, right?
Welcome back, everyone.
I'm Caleb Denison, and this is my review of the Sony
Master Series Z9J LED slash LCD television.
Yes, a TV technology as old as... well, let's just say it's of legal drinking
age in the U.S. is still seeing improvements even to this day
and even with promising new technologies on the horizon.
For now, though, the Sony Z9J reads an awful lot like the pinnacle
of what an LED LCD TV can be. But is it?
And even if it is, does it have any business being as expensive as it is,
or are many of us just upset that something that looks so awesome
feels so out of reach?
Truth be told, I think this review is going to be part technical
analysis and part philosophical conversation.
Are things about to get weird?
I don't know. Stick around and find out.
Before we get into it I just want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you out there
who've been getting in the comments
and talking about these TVs and TV reviews in general.
I see you. Yes, you watching right now.
If you are commenting, I see you and I have a question for you.
What would you like to see me do differently in these reviews,
if anything? I love hearing feedback. Can't make any promises,
but I want to know what you think.
So get down into those comments and start typing.
And while you're down there, smash
like and subscribe, because every time you do, I feel it here deep inside.
I do. Thanks, as always. Much love. OK, let's review a TV.
All right, so where do I even start?
Actually, let's start
with a quick recap of our unboxing video in case you haven't seen it.
Here's what you need to know.
The TV comes packed in what some have referred to as a space suit.
Apparently, the Z9D did as well.
I didn't have the pleasure of unboxing that TV, so, good to know.
The TV is extremely heavy.
I mean it, get a pro to mount this TV to the wall
if you buy one. You can afford the TV,
so I know you can afford the pro install.
It's a Google TV, which means that I find it extremely easy to set up and use
and the UI is awesome because just about every
setting in here comes with an explanation of what it does.
So if you want to go messing around,
you can do so somewhat better informed than you might with other TV brands.
Did I mention this TV is heavy?
There is a tiny switch to turn off the internal microphone for Google assistant
so don't miss that during setup.
And the power button is also comically tiny
and precariously located near the input bay.
The HDMI inputs, by the way, are labeled in an interesting manner,
and I'll get to that in a moment.
Also, this TV does have an ATSC 3.0 tuner,
so if you live in an area broadcasting what most folks call
Next Gen TV over the air, you can access it.
Although at least here in the Portland, Oregon market,
I've been less than impressed so far.
Now, about those HDMI
inputs. As I mentioned in the unboxing, one is unlabeled save the HDMI part,
two are labeled 4K
one hundred and twenty hertz, and one is labeled
8K, 4K one hundred and twenty hertz.
Is there really a difference among them?
Well, I asked Sony, and unfortunately they hadn't gotten back to me before
I had to sit in front of this camera.
So I did what you might do at home.
And I grabbed the Xbox series, plugged it in to see what it had to say.
And I'm going to tell you about that in just a little bit.
Still, we know this TV does not support variable refresh rate right now.
And let's be honest, probably never will,
which is something I'm going to leave for the gaming section of this review
and my final takeaway. So stick around I'm getting there.
Yes, my enthusiast friends, I will not forsake you.
Let's talk about what happened when I pulled out the X-rite
i1 Pro, SpectraCal C6, and Calman Software.
And, you know, I'm going to start with the peak brightness measurements I got.
But first, let me just say this.
Outside of perhaps the Sony A90J
the picture presets in the Z9J
are the most accurate I've seen straight out of the box.
Pick Cinema or Custom,
don't touch it, just watch it. You'll be thrilled.
But if you do want to mess around with the settings, there are two in particular
which have a dramatic effect on how this TV performs.
Specifically under the brightness section
you have the Auto Local Dimming setting and the Peak Brightness setting.
Now, these do not necessarily work the way that you might think.
And they do seem to be in a sort of technical symbiotic relationship
with each other. Auto Local Dimming seems to have a profound effect
on contrast in general and also peak brightness.
And the Peak Brightness
setting has effect over both peak brightness and the average picture level.
Getting any more detailed than that requires a separate video.
And maybe I'll do that.
Should I do that?
Anyway, in SDR with no adjustments to the custom mode,
that's Auto Local Dimming medium and Peak Luminance off,
I got three hundred and eighty nine nits peak.
With Auto Local Dimming low
I got four hundred and thirty one, and with that setting at high I got three
hundred and eighty one which is interesting.
Now with Auto
Local Dimming fixed at medium and peak Luminance set to low,
I got seven hundred and eighty four nits, at medium I got fourteen
twenty two nits and set to high I got one thousand nine hundred and two nits.
That's for SDR people.
That is an insanely bright SDR image.
Don't take this TV outside.
But I mean you could take this TV outside and still see it in full sun.
Now with HDR, it was a similar yet different story.
I got variances depending on where the Auto Local Dimming setting was at.
But with Peak Luminance set to high, I was maxing out at about fourteen
hundred nits, which I thought was odd because the TV can clearly get much
brighter than that.
So I cruised over to the Cinema setting, and whoa!
Twenty five hundred nits peak right off the bat. So what was different?
Well it was the Advanced Contrast setting. Instead of off
it was set at Medium. So I replicated that over on the custom setting.
And sure enough
Twenty five hundred nits.
Now, just for grins, I went to Vivid mode
and it zoomed up to thirty six hundred nits.
Wow. Now folks, these are test patterns.
I have no idea what kind of Peak Luminance this TV can do with real content,
because I don't have a way to measure for it.
But I swear watching
some content in Dolby Vision Bright, where the scene was mostly dark,
but you had a couple of intensely bright highlights.
I would not be shocked to know that the Z9J was pushing four thousand nits.
Not at all surprised.
There were actually a couple of moments while I was watching Matrix Reloaded,
where I actually pulled one of these and said, wow!
Everything from the reflection of light in Morpheus’ shades
to the headlamps on the Audi that Agent Smith rolls in on,
they were so intense, I literally gasped.
Now, I don't want to skip over color accuracy, but the readings I got
were impeccable, both for low luminance color and high luminous color.
And the two point white balance needed very little adjustment
in most cases. An the default Custom setting
it was a little heavy on the blue.
I backed it off and I got under a Delta E of one for both bias and gain.
Unfortunately, I went to HDR and the two point white balance
looked better at stock settings.
So in the end, I found a happy medium and let well enough alone.
Anyway, if you want to hire calibrator for this TV, and I know you can afford it,
go ahead and wish that person the best, because they have some very detailed
work ahead of them. But you know what?
You could probably get away with just not hiring a calibrator.
The TV is just so good right out of the box
most folks wouldn't appreciate the difference, I think.
So that's brightness and color by the measurements.
What about black levels?
How's that backlight doing?
Because I'll be the first to tell you that
if that back light is slow enough that I see fluctuations.
I'm going to be very, very upset.
Well, sluggishness is not a problem for Sony’s backlight system.
I didn't get any luminance shifts in any of the content I watched.
None. Zero. And I love that.
As for halo and blooming, well, I'll be honest, this is a section
I've been wrestling with a great deal, so I'm not going to overthink this.
Let me just tell you what I saw, OK?
I usually use closed captions or subtitled text
to see just how good a TV’s local dimming and backlight control is.
And on the Z9J
you can clearly see the blooming right around the text.
And honestly, it's made worse by the fact that the text is displayed
so brightly because again, this TV can get super bright.
Step off angle a bit and it will become even more apparent.
The good news is, is that it's only around the text.
It doesn't bloom up into the middle of the screen or well off to the sides.
Now, if you count the local dimming zones, and you'll have to because even
with a gun to their head, Sony won't tell you
how many LED back lights there are or how many dimming zones are in play,
you'll note that there are fewer than many other TVs on the market,
certainly far fewer than a TV with a mini led back light system.
Yet, as is often the case with Sony TVs, I find their backlight system
to be so good most of the time, not all the time, but most of the time,
that doesn't seem to be a liability.
Now, before you once again
accuse me of being a Sony fan boy that loves all things Sony,
please note that I have been critical of the backlighting in a few Sony sets.
Yes, I think Sony has something to its argument that it's
not how many zones you have, but what you do with them.
But if we take the Z9J, backlight master drive monicker or no,
the system is clearly quite advanced and very good at what it does.
Blacks are deep black. Shadow detail is excellent.
I am not constantly bothered by the backlight like I am with so many other TVs.
Also, and this may seem like a side note, but this TV sounds fantastic as well.
It doesn't pull off fakes around especially well.
And for that I'm glad because I hate fakes around effects.
But it does have
a surprisingly wide stereo feel and it has excellent bass response
and overall fidelity. Doesn't have the direct from screen appeal
that you get from the A90J,
but when it comes to sound, I have zero complaints.
So that's the more detailed critical analysis.
Before I get into how it is to just watch and behold this TV,
let's talk about gaming.
The first thing you'll need to know if you're connecting and Xbox Series
X or s, the PlayStation five or a 4K Blu ray player
is that you need to turn on enhanced HDMI in the Z9J’s settings.
Go to settings, channels and inputs,
make your way to external HDMI input settings,
and then you can choose one of two enhanced HDMI settings options.
You may remember that stuff from previous videos, but here's the wrinkle.
HDMI one on this TV appears not to support
4K 120 at all. HDMI two and three do
and you have to make a call.
You can have 4K 120, but no Dolby Vision.
Or you can have Dolby Vision at 4K 60.
Or you can have Dolby Vision at 1080P 120.
And that's what we've seen before.
HDMI four, though, appears to be an enigma to.
Here we get much more granular information about chromo subsampling capabilities.
It's the only place for 4:4:4, 4:2:2, or 4:2:0 is mentioned,
and it's the only place that 8K support is explicitly mentioned.
This is interesting to me because that to me
means that this HDMI input is separate from the rest.
And physically on the TV, it is separate.
It's way off to the side.
Is it possible HDMI
four is not part of the MediaTek SoC handling the other HDMI inputs?
I've got an ask in and I will update when I can.
At any rate, you are not getting VRR on this TV.
That's just how it is.
So is this TV good for gaming? Absolutely.
You can get almost everything the latest gen consoles
can dish out right now except VRR.
And if you need that, well, then you need to look at a different TV.
But the HDR effect for gaming is fantastic.
The smoothness of motion is excellent.
Input lag is sufficiently low and color is just so rich.
I mean, some games
looked more beautiful on this TV than I've seen on any other display.
With that said, I don't think Sony is too concerned about
advanced gaming specific capabilities on this TV.
I don't think gamers are targeting this TV as the ultimate gaming experience.
Now, if you're sitting there and screaming at me on the screen saying, “Caleb,
it's so expensive, how can it not be the ultimate gaming TV?”
Well, you got a fair point.
I mean, if you pay this much, should you be able to do everything that can be done?
So the philosophical chat is coming in a moment.
But first, I want to step back and tell you what I think about this TV.
having watched it for many hours now. I love the picture quality.
If ever there was a TV that could woo me away from OLED,
this is it. Honestly, if you said “Here Caleb, you can have this Sony
A90J OLED or this Sony Z9J.
Your pick, which one do you want?” I'd have a really tough time deciding.
I mean, I still love an emissive display and the wide viewing angles,
but the way this TV pulls off HDR and the way it handles
its brightness power with such finesse, it's almost intoxicating.
Also, the fact that the back lighting system is so good
paired with that intense brightness makes it very difficult to see
blooming and halo because I mean, maybe it's just constricting your iris.
I mean, I watched several scenes in Gravity,
and not only did I see all the stars, but I also felt like
the blackness of space was never anything other than really deep black.
And as for shadow detail, I watched some of the darkest content I know,
and while the Sony didn't make anything more watchable or brighter than it was
made to, look, I didn't miss anything so long as the room was dark.
Also, the panel is pristine, no dirty screen
effect, just a tiny bit of vignette in the corners.
I tell you what, I might just take the Z9J over the A90J
if cost were no object.
The thing is, cost is an object for most of us.
I know a lot of us are thinking
“What right to Sony have for charging so much for a TV?”
To which I must answer “They have every right in the world.”
Sony can charge whatever it wants for this TV.
Is it right? Is it fair? Doesn't matter.
Is it right or fair that a Bugatti costs what it does?
I mean, Sony isn't going to sell a lot of these TVs.
It isn't going to make many of them.
It's a luxury item, pure and simple.
Most of us can't afford one, and that's just how it is.
But the Z9J does show us what Sony is capable of.
It's an outstanding display.
I think it sets the bar extremely high for LED backlit LCD display technology.
I think the XR cognitive processor does the best job I've seen of upscaling
and cleaning up images.
I think detail is as fine as I've seen on any TV, and Sony’s
reality creation algorithm really seems to have come into its own here.
Maybe because of the brightness capabilities. I mean, it's a flagship
TV to challenge all other flagship TVs.
And when you set the specs aside and you take the picture for what it is
after Sony does what it does, this is the Non-OLED TV to beat right now.
So if Sony's objective was to flex, it has done so successfully
and if it wanted to make its green with envy on the side.
Well, I think it's done that, too.
Thanks, as always, for watching, everyone.
How does the Z9J make you feel deep down inside?
Leave me a comment about that down below.
Don't forget to like and subscribe. And here’s
two other videos that I think you'll like.