Best TVs of 2017
2017 has seen high dynamic range technology giving rise to the very finest TVs.
The powerful app of the 65Z9D is that it merges up Sony’s exemplary color and clarity technologies with a new high-end backlight system that’s apparently been tailor made to deliver maximum HDR impact while minimizing LCD TV’s typical light clouding/inconsistency problems.
How does it do this? First, it puts more than 600 LEDs directly behind its screen rather than around its edges. Second, it provides enough electrical and processing control to enable every single one of these LEDs to produce its own light level independent of its neighbors.
Lastly, new ‘calibrated beam’ technology focuses the LEDs more narrowly on the brightest parts of the picture, to give them more punch and expand the sense of contrast.
The Sony XBR-65Z9D rewrites the picture quality rule book. Promising as all this sounds, though, the 65Z9D (known as the KD-65ZD9 in Europe) doesn’t make the best first impression, thanks to its rather drab design and tedious set up procedures.
Where the design is concerned, the set isn’t wholly devoid of flair. Its side edges, for instance, are finished in a distinctive gold color, while the black, center-mounted pedestal stand is made from high-quality brushed aluminum. Sony even provides detachable covers both for the connections and for the unusual flat ‘column’ that runs down the center of the TV’s rear.
The thing is, though, that hardly any of these design touches are visible when you’re sitting down in front of the TV. So when viewed in the way most people usually view their TVs, the 65Z9D frankly just looks like a large black rectangle with a pretty boring (and fairly chunky by today’s standards)
Sony has tried to liven up the 65Z9D's rather drab looks with some gold edging.
Some of this is down to the 65Z9D using the Android TV system, bringing us into Sony’s second generation of Android TVs.
The 65Z9D’s connections when you uncover them are up to flagship TV spec. Highlights include four HDMIs capable of handling 4K HDR feeds, a trio of USB ports for multimedia playback, and Ethernet/Wi-Fi options for accessing the internet or files stored on other DLNA-enabled devices on your network.The TV also supports Bluetooth connectivity for your smart devices, and has built-in Google cast support if you have devices that support that.
The 65Z9D is powered by the latest version of Sony’s X1 chipset, X1 Extreme, which is claimed to provide over 40% more processing than its 2015 edition. It also introduces key new features for improving the upscaling of standard dynamic range and HD content, and boasts a new Super Bit Mapping engine that upscales 8-bit and 10-bit (4K) sources to 14-bit before delivering the picture to the screen in a bid to reduce potential color striping problems.
Sony provides a useful range of picture presets during both standard and high dynamic range playback, as well as still allowing you to adjust all the picture settings when it’s running in HDR mode.
Sony is arguably the best brand around right now for providing effective picture presets right out of the box.
Talking about consistency with LCD HDR TVs regarding how well their backlights handle bright HDR highlights when they appear against very dark backdrops. What makes this all the more impressive is the fact that the brightest HDR image elements the 65Z9D produces really are intense. Sony’s calibrated beam and ‘X-Tended Dynamic Range’ (which manipulates power distribution to give more to bright areas) technologies enable it to hit luminance peaks even brighter than the 1400 nits or so achieved by Samsung’s KS9800 (called KS9500s in the UK)
The 65Z9D’s ability to combine such unprecedentedly bright peaks with what are arguably the deepest black levels I’ve seen on an LCD TV to date without generating really messy backlight issues enables it to deliver the single most spectacular and immersive HDR picture.
LG OLED TVs like the OLED55B6, to be clear, deliver even more accurate light controls than the 65Z9D. After all, every single pixel in an OLED TV produces its own light.
However, while this means that dark HDR scenes look even cleaner on an OLED TV than they do on the 65Z9D, OLED TVs can’t currently achieve even half the brightness the 65Z9D can. So they can’t deliver anything like as great a sense of HDR’s luminance range as Sony’s new beast.
Sony’s light management is so effective on the 65Z9D that it even manages to deliver outstanding shadow detailing in dark areas alongside the extreme dynamics. In fact, there’s more shadow detail on the 65Z9D than there is on LG’s OLED TVs when they’re running in HDR mode!
The color handling isn’t all about raw spectacle, however, Sony’s processing and the screen’s native 4K resolution combine to ensure that there’s almost infinitely subtle toning in notoriously tricky areas like blue or grey skies and skin tones. This ensures that images always look dynamic in a natural way, rather than artificially forced.
It’s important to stress, too, that the 65Z9D remains almost completely free of the color banding problem noted when watching Ultra HD Blu-rays in the most accurate Movie mode on the Samsung KS9800.
As if the 65Z9D’s contrast, brightness and color performance weren’t already jaw-dropping enough, it also excels with detailing. I’d previously thought that Samsung’s UHD TVs were the ones to beat for sharpness and clarity, but the 65Z9D does even better.
The 65Z9D retains its stellar sharpness when there’s movement in the frame too. Even with no motion processing in play the picture looks much less disturbed by judder or blur than it is with many rival UHD TVs. But if you still feel the need to clean things up without being bothered by unwanted side effects Sony’s True Cinema motion setting is exceptionally well designed.
Its flare for dynamic but natural colors continues unabated in SDR mode, for instance, and it’s possible to add some almost HDR-like brightness peaks via the X-Tended Dynamic Range options without the image starting to look uneven or unnatural.
Black levels and shadow detail continue to look outstanding too, and the local dimming system works even more effectively with SDR, displaying essentially no haloing issues at all.
Yet more brilliance comes from the 65Z9D’s upscaling of HD sources. HD sources look remarkably detailed once they’ve been through Sony’s X1 Extreme’s processors, yet the detail isn’t accompanied by significant amounts of noise. The upscaling processing is uniquely clever, too, at recognizing the difference between natural grain and real noise in an HD source.
Unlike Samsung’s KS9800 – or any of Samsung’s 2016 TVs, the 65Z9D supports 3D playback and if you’re still a 3D fan the 65Z9D does a pretty good job with it, delivering a good sense of depth, unusually rich colors, strong levels of detail and exceptionally natural-looking motion.
One last area of the 65Z9D’s picture to cover is input lag: the amount of time the screen takes to render its images. This is an important feature for gamers, so it’s slightly disappointing to report an input lag measurement of around 40ms when using the 65Z9D’s Game picture presets.
With both the Xbox One S and PS4 now supporting HDR gaming, however, it’s good to discover that you can activate the 65Z9D’s input lag-reducing game mode even when the set is running in HDR mode.
The powerful app of the 65Z9D is that it merges up Sony’s exemplary color and clarity technologies with a new high-end backlight system that’s apparently been tailor made to deliver maximum HDR impact while minimizing LCD TV’s typical light clouding/inconsistency problems.
How does it do this? First, it puts more than 600 LEDs directly behind its screen rather than around its edges. Second, it provides enough electrical and processing control to enable every single one of these LEDs to produce its own light level independent of its neighbors.
Lastly, new ‘calibrated beam’ technology focuses the LEDs more narrowly on the brightest parts of the picture, to give them more punch and expand the sense of contrast.
Where the design is concerned, the set isn’t wholly devoid of flair. Its side edges, for instance, are finished in a distinctive gold color, while the black, center-mounted pedestal stand is made from high-quality brushed aluminum. Sony even provides detachable covers both for the connections and for the unusual flat ‘column’ that runs down the center of the TV’s rear.
The thing is, though, that hardly any of these design touches are visible when you’re sitting down in front of the TV. So when viewed in the way most people usually view their TVs, the 65Z9D frankly just looks like a large black rectangle with a pretty boring (and fairly chunky by today’s standards)
Sony has tried to liven up the 65Z9D's rather drab looks with some gold edging.
Some of this is down to the 65Z9D using the Android TV system, bringing us into Sony’s second generation of Android TVs.
The 65Z9D’s connections when you uncover them are up to flagship TV spec. Highlights include four HDMIs capable of handling 4K HDR feeds, a trio of USB ports for multimedia playback, and Ethernet/Wi-Fi options for accessing the internet or files stored on other DLNA-enabled devices on your network.The TV also supports Bluetooth connectivity for your smart devices, and has built-in Google cast support if you have devices that support that.
The 65Z9D is powered by the latest version of Sony’s X1 chipset, X1 Extreme, which is claimed to provide over 40% more processing than its 2015 edition. It also introduces key new features for improving the upscaling of standard dynamic range and HD content, and boasts a new Super Bit Mapping engine that upscales 8-bit and 10-bit (4K) sources to 14-bit before delivering the picture to the screen in a bid to reduce potential color striping problems.
Sony provides a useful range of picture presets during both standard and high dynamic range playback, as well as still allowing you to adjust all the picture settings when it’s running in HDR mode.
Sony is arguably the best brand around right now for providing effective picture presets right out of the box.
Talking about consistency with LCD HDR TVs regarding how well their backlights handle bright HDR highlights when they appear against very dark backdrops. What makes this all the more impressive is the fact that the brightest HDR image elements the 65Z9D produces really are intense. Sony’s calibrated beam and ‘X-Tended Dynamic Range’ (which manipulates power distribution to give more to bright areas) technologies enable it to hit luminance peaks even brighter than the 1400 nits or so achieved by Samsung’s KS9800 (called KS9500s in the UK)
The 65Z9D’s ability to combine such unprecedentedly bright peaks with what are arguably the deepest black levels I’ve seen on an LCD TV to date without generating really messy backlight issues enables it to deliver the single most spectacular and immersive HDR picture.
LG OLED TVs like the OLED55B6, to be clear, deliver even more accurate light controls than the 65Z9D. After all, every single pixel in an OLED TV produces its own light.
However, while this means that dark HDR scenes look even cleaner on an OLED TV than they do on the 65Z9D, OLED TVs can’t currently achieve even half the brightness the 65Z9D can. So they can’t deliver anything like as great a sense of HDR’s luminance range as Sony’s new beast.
Sony’s light management is so effective on the 65Z9D that it even manages to deliver outstanding shadow detailing in dark areas alongside the extreme dynamics. In fact, there’s more shadow detail on the 65Z9D than there is on LG’s OLED TVs when they’re running in HDR mode!
The color handling isn’t all about raw spectacle, however, Sony’s processing and the screen’s native 4K resolution combine to ensure that there’s almost infinitely subtle toning in notoriously tricky areas like blue or grey skies and skin tones. This ensures that images always look dynamic in a natural way, rather than artificially forced.
It’s important to stress, too, that the 65Z9D remains almost completely free of the color banding problem noted when watching Ultra HD Blu-rays in the most accurate Movie mode on the Samsung KS9800.
As if the 65Z9D’s contrast, brightness and color performance weren’t already jaw-dropping enough, it also excels with detailing. I’d previously thought that Samsung’s UHD TVs were the ones to beat for sharpness and clarity, but the 65Z9D does even better.
The 65Z9D retains its stellar sharpness when there’s movement in the frame too. Even with no motion processing in play the picture looks much less disturbed by judder or blur than it is with many rival UHD TVs. But if you still feel the need to clean things up without being bothered by unwanted side effects Sony’s True Cinema motion setting is exceptionally well designed.
Its flare for dynamic but natural colors continues unabated in SDR mode, for instance, and it’s possible to add some almost HDR-like brightness peaks via the X-Tended Dynamic Range options without the image starting to look uneven or unnatural.
Black levels and shadow detail continue to look outstanding too, and the local dimming system works even more effectively with SDR, displaying essentially no haloing issues at all.
Yet more brilliance comes from the 65Z9D’s upscaling of HD sources. HD sources look remarkably detailed once they’ve been through Sony’s X1 Extreme’s processors, yet the detail isn’t accompanied by significant amounts of noise. The upscaling processing is uniquely clever, too, at recognizing the difference between natural grain and real noise in an HD source.
Unlike Samsung’s KS9800 – or any of Samsung’s 2016 TVs, the 65Z9D supports 3D playback and if you’re still a 3D fan the 65Z9D does a pretty good job with it, delivering a good sense of depth, unusually rich colors, strong levels of detail and exceptionally natural-looking motion.
One last area of the 65Z9D’s picture to cover is input lag: the amount of time the screen takes to render its images. This is an important feature for gamers, so it’s slightly disappointing to report an input lag measurement of around 40ms when using the 65Z9D’s Game picture presets.
With both the Xbox One S and PS4 now supporting HDR gaming, however, it’s good to discover that you can activate the 65Z9D’s input lag-reducing game mode even when the set is running in HDR mode.
The price for this TV stands at $5,999 (£4,000 in the UK ), producing the best all-round picture quality of any TV this year.
Comments