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Sony X900F: Does It Continue the SONY Heritage ?
UPDATE: In all fairness, I owe SONY an update and after using the TV daily for the last two months I've come to respect the picture quality of this TV. In watching network news, we can clearly see the difference in camera quality, especially when side by side interviews are taking place. The newer HD camera's pop out a clean, crisp image which 4K wishes it will do so well. Older camera's still show nicely but the clarity is visible. We will have to wait for COX to update with industry in the FCC's anticipated roll out of ATSC 3.0. Our question now is: are all these high end sets that we are buying, especially the very expensive QLED and OLED sets ... are they ATSC 3.0 ready or are they, as the FCC reports now, still NTSC at the core?
I also need to report that we have been successful going right to a DVD or right to NETFLIX or right to MSNBC or HIST Channel without jumping through hoops. Our initial fear was that SONY's lend-lease program would aggravate us sitting by sitting but it has not.
Bottom Line: We changed the overall rating to 5 Start based on the picture quality only. This is simply because the picture is so enjoyable and from one sitting to the next does not disappoint. No bleeding, blacks stay black but do not conceal the Film Noir images.
Our 1st SONY was a glass semi-flat Trinitron, a 12" art deco push button carry around TV which lasted 40+ years. Our 2nd TV's were Sony Trinitron FLAT SCREEN TV's which we kept until we could no longer lift them (Over 25 years). If the heritage quality persists in this X900F unit, we will not need to buy another. We'll simply enjoy the ride. Cheers.
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ORIGINAL REACTION TO THIS TV:
We've just set up our NEW Sony X900F. So don't take this as a final or full review. I will update as necessary. And we may not even keep the set.
We specifically requested (and checked the box for same) plain brown carton packaging. The Amazon order system agreed. For nought. It arrived in its original SONY box, advertising blazing so bright you could see what it was from a block away. So much for the first bump in the road.
After laboring to get the wall mount done and the TV hung, we sat back with one desire: to watch a DVD or Netflix show as a reward for a hard day. We just wanted to see how good, if at all, the TV was.
At power up, four small colorful "clocks" appeared, interacting with each other, and after 5 or ten minutes, these were replaced with a small gray swirling clock in the center. At least 30 minutes later the screen was still giving us the clock and now reporting it was "Checking For Updates". When this finally finished, the screen changed to a legal contract screen and it asked (sort of like Windows does) if we would download the updates now, including new APPS, and that it would take approximately 60 minutes to complete. Fortunately there was a "SKIP" option and so we moved on still hoping to watch a DVD.
The next screen was a Google instruction to log-in to Google. It wanted our GMAIL account & password and if not available, we needed to start one. There was no skip. We did have a GMAIL account, like many people, and so logged in just like we would log into GMAIL. Once in more legal screens related to Android and our willingness to abide by the US Laws regulating use. No skip button, no way out. ACCEPT or back out and do without the TV.
Exasperated, but knowing we could return the set, we hit the ACCEPT button and the TV then went Android feature by Android feature soliciting our agreement to install & use. This time there WAS a skip or a "no thanks". We opted out of the next four or five requests until the TV finally went to look for a cable connection or any live HDMI inputs. Finding none, I just pressed the "Netflix" button on the TV and everything became normal. We logged in, Netflix came right up and we finally were able to see the TV after an hour, maybe a little longer, of wondering "what in the world did we get into here ???".
I need to mention for those enamored with the idea of having your own 4K TV that its money better spent on a cheaper simply HD 1080P set. We are on COX cable. Cox has no 4K programming and has no plans to implement 4K.
Netflix prompted us, before showing us the selections, if we would accept UHD 4K streaming for only an additional $3.95 per month. We said "Okay". When we went to the Netflix selections, the UHD 4K selections were marked as such, about 1 in 75. In otherwords, NETFLIX has very few UHD 4K selections to stream. And it will probably be awhile because their portfolio of selections are simply regular DVD quality shows with a good many HD shows. The point here is: we were duped again.
So, no brown paper double packing, no warning that this TV was an Android device just like the smart phones, no warning that there was no way to just use the X900F as a simple TV or monitor, and of course, whenever you start up the TV you are aggravated by slow boot, incessant sales pitches, reminders that such & such is not set up, etc etc.
SONY & Amazon are like 3rd world Bazaar table sellers with glittering gold teeth, a smile to catch anyone's attention, but not a word of truth or helpfulness in the marketing of their products. My advice if you have not bought a set is get something simple like the Visio D series or just a large monitor and plug in what you want to use. If you already have a 1080P flat sceen.... keep it and save your money. The picture on the X900F isn't any better than 1080P because that is all companies are streaming or cabling. What a rip off.
We may or may not keep this aggravating thing.
Hope this helps someone.
Awesome TV, but Not for the Apps
In all, this is a great TV. Watching movies is awesome and there doesn't seem to be any motion blur while watching football (only watch a portion of one preseason game so far).
My only issues are 1) There seems to be a lag in loading internet content via apps, and 2) The apps seem to make the tv unresponsive. To be fair, I did NOT buy this TV to use apps, but thought it would be easier to give it a shot (I mainly use Netflix and Hulu).
Since I started using my xbox to run these apps, the TV hasn't required a reboot, and the content loads immediately (example: loading a Netflix show/movie on the tv would take 5+ seconds to load while the xbox is almost immediate).
In all, I would recommend this TV as an exceptional display, but not for the other features.
*I bought this TV a couple months ago.
Simply outstanding
It was finally time to replace my ten year old Panasonic 49" with something a step up. It arrived from Amazon well packaged (Thank you, Sony) and undamaged. I was able to use the old fully articulated wall mount as the 55" 900F actually weighed ½ pound less. Go figure, right?
There's not a lot I can add to the other glowing reviews... Ten years of tech progress and a very nice job done by Sony with their attention to detail (from exterior design to the controls and features) slapped a smile on my face right from the moment I turned it on.
I'd done my homework and upgraded everything in my system to 4k including the Xfinity cable box and a new Denon receiver.
My primary use is cable TV and it looks so close to the 4k streaming from Netflix and Amazon Video... An amazing job on the upscaling!
Worth every penny! Strongly recommend!
Pricey for LED but possibly also the best
When I first got this television it concerned my worst fears about upgrading to a 4K television. I watched 3 Blu-rays and they all looked off to me--even a 40-year-old slasher movie looked like it was shot on digital video instead of film. The feel of watching a movie and any of the original atmosphere or style were completely gone. I couldn't figure out why anybody would possibly want to watch movies on something like this and did some research on the internet. It turns out that the default display settings that this television ships with are not the ones anybody should actually use. They are designed to show off the set in a bright Best Buy showroom setting so they make the brightness, color and sharpness pop which shows off the capabilities of the screen but also makes everything look ridiculously unnatural. After changing the picture settings (detailed recommended settings for this model from professional tech writers are easy to find via an internet search) I finally began to appreciate what this television could do. Movies still looked like movies but the contrast and detail were far beyond what I could get on my 1080P television. The blacks were very, very black and the colors much more nuanced.
I have a 4K Blu-ray player and some 4K Blu-rays and the picture and sound are the best I have experienced on home video but there is a downside. With a 1080P television if you watched a well-mastered DVD using a Blu-ray player it could be difficult sometimes to tell the difference between a DVD and Blu-ray because the upscaling could be very effective. With a 4K television, it is very easy to tell the difference between a DVD and Blu-ray which makes watching your old DVD collection a lot less appealing.
I'm not using the built-in Android TV streaming stuff because I prefer streaming with my Nvidia Shield but this television can be used to stream Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube and others without an external device--but if you are accustomed to using Roku you will probably want to keep using it because the channel selection is much larger than you can get on the Android TV platform (which is what Chromecast, Nvidia, and this television all use).
From what I have read the picture quality on Sony OLED televisions far surpasses what any LED TV is capable of but it also costs twice as much as this set which is already one of the most expensive LED televisions currently on the market. This set isn't exactly a great value but if you want excellent quality and can't afford OLED it might be your best option.
Beautiful color accuracy
The colors are true and accurate right out of the box. Blu-rays look amazing. I put in Red Sparrow and it blew my mind. Even dvds are tolerable to watch, although not nearly as good as blu-ray. The legs are very heavy and thus very sturdy which is a big plus. The remote is comfortable in the hand. You can't go wrong with this TV.
Stunning detail!
I got the 65" and coming from a 32" TV this thing is huge. Picture is absolutely beautiful, crisp, vibrant and surprisingly accurate. I did not adjust the color setting other than changing from standard to Vivid settings and the skin tones are spot on in my opinion. I don't feel like the tones are incorrect. The picture I posted with my review don't even do justice as it looks way better in person. Watched Life of PI and Pirates of the Caribbean from Google play and both were stunning.
The Google voice control was quick and it got everything I threw at it correct the very first time.
Factory speakers were decent and loud enough for my living room(big improvement over my previous tv). I'm still going with a sound system anyways.
Still playing with the settings.
Initial impressions XBR85X900F
Received product yesterday, mounted it on the wall last night and so far I have only connected a 4K Apple TV to it as a source. Did some very minor tweaking to the video settings and plan to adjust settings to rtings.com recommendations this weekend. Will probably get it professionally calibrated after break-in period and will update review after both. Initial thoughts out-of-the-box are that the TV is well made. I agonized a bit between getting a 75" Z9D or getting the 85" 900F. I think if I had them side-by-side I would see a difference but the picture of the 900F on its own did not disappoint. Watched the opening scene of John Wick 2 in 4K HDR last night and the picture was great. The video panned smoothly, the contrast and blacks were really nice and I was pleased with the uniformity of the brightness given the size of the TV. Overall, I would recommend highly if you are looking for a large screen.
UPDTE 1: Adjusted settings over the weekend. Noticed some improvement in color accuracy but honestly that is about it so far. One issue I am having is that the 900F is periodically losing its connection with my 4k Apple TV. This has required me on several occasions to have to reboot the apple TV. From what I have read online, I am not alone. Not a huge issue, more of an inconvenience. Picture of TV is completely satisfying. I have marveled at it each night since I hung it on the wall. Great set. I will update in a month or so after professional calibration.
Update 2: I have downloaded the firmware updates on the 4k Apple TV and the Sony and can now watch videos in Dolby Vision. I have tried out DV and can't say I notice a huge difference. That may be more of a function of my eyes than the picture itself. The reason for the update was just to let people know Dolby Vision is alive and well on the 900F. Also, I have to say that I do notice a decent amount of blooming on the set. Overall I am still happy with the picture and have really only found the blooming to be distracting one time, while watching some scenes in the first Star Trek movie starring Chris Pine.
Sony is just better than Samsung - which has circuit board issues
Sony is just better than Samsung - which has circuit board issues. I go to Costco a lot and would have bought Sony there but they do not sell it. They push Vizio and Samsung instead - at a much cheaper price. I want reliability. The picture seems mostly the same. So the issue then becomes - how long will it last?
Love Love Love this TV... It's incredible
I love this TV and wish I had bought it months ago when I first saw it. It is the best quality picture I've ever seen.
THIS TV IS FANTASTIC IN BUILD QUALITY, PICTURE, AND MATERIALS - EXPENSIVE BUT WORTH EVERY PENNY!
This TV is nothing less than pure awesome. I love the picture. The blacks are JET Black. I was watching Space 1999 on this TV and the darkness of space was faithfully reproduced. On so many cheaper TV's you see the light bloom as if there is a bright spot in the darkness that takes away from the experience of looking into the deep black void of space. Night scenes are pitch black. There is a little motion blur when cars or planes are at the highest speeds.
The screen is killer huge and well lit when a bright scene appears. There is no dullness or softness of the image at the corners. The lines are crisp and sharp. The colors are intensely vivid. Video games play well on this TV and look good. This Sony TV even makes rough around the edges Fallout 3 look far better than it looks on my other cheaper TV's. I will be testing this Sony for the next year and if all goes well I will be buying a 75 inch Sony for my bedroom.
If you are going to buy this Sony TV pounce on it now and get it for much cheaper than its regular low Amazon.com price. This TV is usually $4995.00 I got this TV for about $4,700.00. Come on a cheaper price and superior quality. Oh and why I picked this TV over Samsung Offerings with 82 inch screens you ask? Easy you can't see the pictures for a side viewing angle very well if at all. This Sony lets you view it from the side and the picture is just as sharp as if you sat right in front of it.
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