Sony's High-End 4K HDR LCD TVs Start At $7,000

Megalith

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Would you pay 7k for a TV? Sony’s new Z-Series can supposedly compete with OLED, incorporating Backlight Master Drive technology, which offers new levels of brightness and contrast.

Backlight Master Drive is essentially a precision backlight technology that aims to provide the best lighting possible. There's a dense LCD layer atop the TV that is coupled with a unique lighting algorithm to do the job. Discrete LED controls prompts the TV to dim and boost each LED individually instead of lighting up entire zones. Meanwhile, a calibrated LED beam means the light focuses in on a specific area instead of leaking. This, Sony says, offers "unparalleled contrast and realism," leading to a deeper blacks and brighter images.
 
Why $7k for an LCD screen - even if they somehow got close to OLED with it - when you can get the real thing for as low as $2k?

Not a fan of LG at all, but Sony's not competing here imho.
 
Nope. My last TV was about $500 - it's a Vizio that has an ok picture. It replaced my Panasonic Plasma which I thought was much nicer.
When this Vizio fails, I'll probably keep the next one in the same price range or less.
But damn, some of these screens are beautiful. I bet seeing the Sony in person would be amazing. It's not that I don't want stuff like this, I've got a family and more important things to pay for.
 
Why $7k for an LCD screen - even if they somehow got close to OLED with it - when you can get the real thing for as low as $2k?

Not a fan of LG at all, but Sony's not competing here imho.

But OLED loses brightness pretty fast iirc, anyways, just bought a Samsung 4k TV for 600€ which will last me hopefully a long time, who knows what will be out by the time it dies.
 
What is it with all these comparison shots that always over exaggerate the before and after? I get it, it's simulated so you can get an idea but I have never seen a modern tv do that before pic.
 
Sony Z9D series, 65" $6999, 75" $9999, 100" $59,999. Should be up on Sony's website. AVS forum listed the 100" price. Yes from the pros over as AVS Forum, this TV in person, has almost 1.5 x the lumens calibrated then OLED which looked washed out compared to the Sony. Sony Announces Z9D FALD-LCD UHDTVs - AVSForum.com
 
When my wife and I got our own place she quickly took over my PC and 50 inch Panasonic Plasma. So around income tax time I went on a holy crusade that lasted two months looking for a suitable replacement.

OLED was the only brand new TV that could fill those big shoes, I tried to act out of denial but I couldn't find anything that met the dark blacks and eye popping colors against such deep dark blacks when playing my games.

So I didnt have enough for an OLED, we had a trip planned to visit family on the other coast. I searched far and wide for a used Panasonic Plasma that was at least on par with my wife's "new" TV.

A uhaul rental, First time drive into Queens, NY, and a long ass day and night where I didn't get sleep after a first shift I returned home with a 46inch Panasonic Plasma 2011 model same line as mine (the mid line with the light reflecting filter).

Korean BBQ dinner, uhaul, and used TV costs it probably reached the $700 range.

Was it worth it? Hell yeah! Is it sad I had to go through this at 2016? Sadly yea...

Obviously its a 1080p set, but I won't jump to 4K unless I have a OLED or QLED (whenever they land) TV set. Cause phosphorus displays are superior in image quality, and probably always will be. Still LCD has come much further than I ever expected and I am impressed with its strides despite its limitations.
 
Way to much, unless I win several million in the lottery :D

I doubt I'll ever pay more than $1,000 for a TV.
 
why not just buy an oled tv at that point?
Well for one thing, this will appeal to "elites" with lots of extra money. Whom are likely to have big, modern homes. Where the living room has an "open" design and lets in a ton of natural light. In situations like that, OLED can suffer.
 
I'm sure it's pretty, but damn.. I could buy a nice used car for that price.

Well for one thing, this will appeal to "elites" with lots of extra money. Whom are likely to have big, modern homes. Where the living room has an "open" design and lets in a ton of natural light. In situations like that, OLED can suffer.

But... Don't those homes come with copper rain gutters and push button curtains, plus a secondary man cave in the basement? That reminds me, I need to sweep my floor.
 
I'm sure it's pretty, but damn.. I could buy a nice used car for that price.



But... Don't those homes come with copper rain gutters and push button curtains, plus a secondary man cave in the basement? That reminds me, I need to sweep my floor.

yeah.. im thinking people that spend that will probably have a dedicated home theater room
 
Yes, i bought 2 pioneer 55 in" kuro's, one in 2008 and one in 2009. total about $11,000.00
 
Eh. Yeah. I only buy my TVs used and a year out-of-date. Way, way, way too expensive otherwise.

The 65" OLED went down to $2400 this year on an Amazon "Prime Day" promotion. Not bad, IMO.
I didn't buy it (very tempted to, though) but this year's model reportedly fixes the input lag of last year's, so I'll be on the lookout for something similar next year.

...And I'm taking steps to be able to afford it by then, too.
 
I upgraded from a Pioneer Kuro to an LG e6 OLED. Overall, I'm happy. Supports HDR + Dolby Vision. Sure, it's not going to have the brightness of the LCD, but it's still a beautiful picture. Sony's new TV doesn't support DV. But I guess the people who buy this TV are also the people who can afford to upgrade every year.
 
They said the same thing about plasmas (burn-in, doesn't last long, not bright enough, etc), but I was blown away by my Kuro since the first day, and I never saw anything close until these OLEDs. The 2016s have made strides and I think the longevity and brightness issues are similarly overblown. I don't have the need to upgrade to anything else for a while, maybe a 4K LG OLED after a couple more years of working kinks out and the price coming down more, but I doubt it'd be this. I just prefer the look of an emissive display, so to spend $5k+ on a LCD feels like a step backwards to me. I have the Kuro turned down a good deal in brightness even all these years later and it's still bright and vivid. Maybe some people want a showroom brightness broiler mode like for the open floor plan houses mentioned above, but cranking it up usually looks shoddy and washed-out, shame if you can't do anything about lowering the ambient brightness.
 
No

Not even if there are visible differences in the image quality.
 
I would never pay more for an LCD TV than an OLED TV.

Unless you are obsessed with having a super bright display, OLED is better. Hence all the marketing of brightness, the one thing LCD can do more of.

Sony might have a 1000+ zones on their new flagship LCD, but you will still have halos.

OLED has 8000000+ Zones. It also won't have weird viewing angle artifacts, or any other LCD foibles.
 
No thanks I love my LG 65EF9500 for $3200...best TV I've ever had by far...OLED for me..
 
Still haven't found a large enough difference in todays TV's to warrant buying a new TV (Even OLED) to replace my Panasonic 65ZT60. Give me an 85 Inch OLED for 5K, then we can talk.
 
Um, no. I saw a 65" Sony 4K TV on Slickdeals for $1100 today.

To be fair, there's a vast difference in quality between an $1100 TV and Sony's latest one. They're really made for really wealthy people or videophiles. Videophiles are a small group though, which is why cheap LCD TVs took off while better quality plasmas died. (Yes, current high end LCDs look better than plasmas, but it took how many years?) And right now, we have a known quantity of the LG OLED vs. an unknown in the Z9D series. It could be better than an OLED, but that would also mean a huge leap in quality increase for LCD TVs, as the OLED crushes current high end LCD TVs by pretty much every major reviewer, let alone cheap $1000 TVs.

Of course there is an audience for a sub $2k 65" TV, and that audience is bigger than the people purchasing OLEDs and the Z9D series. But it's like comparing reddit's PCMasterRace users' computers vs [H] computers or overclock.net computers.
 
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