Sony KD-65ZD9 Review: Best HDR TV

With less than three months to go before the curtain falls on 2016, Sony’s KD-65ZD9 has catapulted itself as the frontrunner for our “TV of The Year” award. A general release towards the second half of 2016 gave the ZD9 (otherwise marketed as the Z9D in the USA) the opportunity to overtake rival TVs launched in spring/ summer when it came to raw specifications, and didn’t the Bravia television take full advantage.

Sony ZD9

Blessed with the highest peak brightness and number of full-array local dimming (FALD) zones ever recorded on a consumer TV (at this time of publication), not to mention an excellent dimming algorithm that kept haloing/ blooming and luminance fluctuations to a minimum, the Sony 65ZD9 delivered by far the most glorious HDR (high dynamic range) images we’ve witnessed to date. And it’s no slouch at at SDR (standard dynamic range) either, as you shall see once we delve into the nitty-gritty later in this review.

The 65in Sony ZD9 we’re testing today is joined by the 75-inch KD-75ZD9 and the mammoth 100-inch KD-100ZD9. The Bravia KD65ZD9 retails at £3,999, which frankly is good value considering the outstanding performance on show.

Calibration

Our Sony KD65ZD9BU review sample presented a few quirks for calibration. First, many of the settings including [Colour] and [Adv. colour temperature] are shared between SDR, HDR and 3D modes within the same picture preset on the same HDMI port. This means that if you use a single source player (for example the Panasonic UB900) to watch regular Blu-ray, 4K BD and 3D Blu-rays on the Z9D, you’d have to manually switch to different (calibrated) picture presets if you’d like to experience the best image quality from each format.

Also, on our review unit, the Basic [RGB Gain] and [Bias] values remained the same across different [Colour Temperature] settings within the same preset, preventing us from using [Colour Temperature] as a shortcut to apply separate day and night post-calibrated settings to other HDMI inputs on the KD-65ZD9.

Last but not least, the onboard 10-point white balance controls were displaced unless [Contrast] was decreased to a value that’s far too low. Fortunately, making adjustments using only the 2p white balance system was enough to attain accurate greyscale on the 65Z9D. Our calibration gear included a profiled Klein K10-A meter, DVDO’s AVLab TPG signal generator, and Spectracal’s CalMAN 2016 software.

Greyscale

Pre-calibration RGB Tracking
Pre-calibration Delta errors
Pre-calibration RGB tracking and delta errors (dEs)
Post-calibration RGB Tracking
Post-calibration Delta errors
Calibrated RGB tracking and dEs after 2-point white balance adjustments

Gamma

Pre-calibrated Gamma tracking Post-calibrated Gamma tracking
Pre-calibration gamma tracking (2.35) Post-calibration gamma tracking (2.44)

Colour

This was probably the one rare occasion where we wished Sony had implemented a more advanced colour management system (CMS) on a Bravia TV beyond the basic [Colour] and [Hue] controls. As you can see from the CIE graph below, our 65-inch ZD9 sample painted most colours in a slightly oversaturated manner. Theoretically, lowering the global [Colour] setting could work to rectify the oversaturation, but unfortunately in practice, doing so also increased the colour luminance errors, making it a no-go.

Nevertheless, potential owners will be pleased to know that despite this mild oversaturation, only 1 out of 140 patches measured in the Colour Checker SG chart exceeded the humanly perceptible threshold of delta error (dE) 3. In other words, colours would mostly look accurate and realistic in real-world content.

Post-calibration Colour saturation tracking
Post-calibration colour saturation tracking
Post-calibration colour errors
Post-calibration colour errors (<3 not appreciable to the eye)
Post-calibration colour checker
Post-calibration Colour Checker SG test
Post-calibration colour checker errors
Post-calibration Colour Checker SG errors (<3 not visible to the eye)

Benchmark Test Results

Dead pixels None
Screen uniformity Very good
Overscanning on HDMI 0% if [Screen Format] “Full” & [Display Area] “Full Pixel” or “+1
Blacker than black Passed
Calibrated black level (black screen) LEDs dim down/ shut off
Calibrated black level (4×4 ANSI) 0.029 cd/m2 with optimised [Auto Local Dimming]
Black level retention Auto-dimming with full black screen
Primary chromaticity (Rec.709) Slightly oversaturated
Scaling Best we’ve seen on a consumer TV
Video mode deinterlacing Decent for SD; excellent for HD
Film mode deinterlacing Passed 3:2/480i & 2:2/576i with [Film Mode] engaged, though flickered with 3:2/1080i & 2:2/1080i
Viewing angle (cone) 65°
Motion resolution 1080 with [MotionFlow] “Clear” & “Custom
Digital noise reduction Optional; effective when engaged
Sharpness Defeatable edge enhancement
Luma/Chroma bandwidth (2D Blu-ray) Full luma; chroma horizontally blurred except in [Game] & [Graphics] modes
1080p/24 capability No judder in 2D or 3D
2160p/24 capability No judder
Measured panel refresh rate 120Hz
Measured peak brightness 1870 cd/m2 (after calibration to D65)
Measured DCI-P3 coverage 95%
Input lag (Leo Bodnar tester) 42ms in [Game] & [Graphics] modes; 45ms in HDR
Full 4:4:4 reproduction (PC) Yes for 3840×2160@60Hz with [HDMI Enhanced Signal] on

Power Consumption

Default [Standard] mode* 195 watts
Calibrated [Cinema pro] mode 89 watts
HDR [Cinema pro] mode 275 watts
Standby <1 watt

*Note: [Light Sensor] was engaged out of the box by default.

Picture Quality

Black Level & Contrast

The VA-type LCD panel implemented on the Sony KD65ZD9 yielded the joint-deepest native black level (i.e. without the help of local dimming) we’ve measured from a Sony 4K television to date. After pegging peak white to our normal dark-room target of 120 cd/m2, our light meter recorded a figure of 0.048 cd/m2 from the central black patch on a 4×4 ANSI chequerboard pattern. On a full-field black raster, black level came in at 0.041 cd/m2 with [Auto local dimming] disabled.

Subpixel structure
Macro photo of subpixel layout indicating VA-type LCD matrix

Of course, no owner in his/ her right mind would spend this much money on a FALD LED LCD and not turn on local dimming. An optimised [Auto local dimming] setting would deepen blacks even further to 0.029 cd/m2 on a 4×4 ANSI chequerboard pattern, and pretty much unmeasurable on a full-field black raster since there were enough dimmable zones to shut off the LEDs at the centre of the screen.

Sony’s local dimming algorithm was so good, and the halos so well-controlled, that we were struggling to determine the exact number of independently dimmable zones. Using our own custom-authored test pattern containing a small white box crawling horizontally then vertically against the edges of a black screen, and after forcing HDR mode to exaggerate the haloing/ blooming, we counted 36 vertical columns and 18 horizontal rows, giving a total of 648 dimming zones. We’ll be the first to admit that this is only a guestimate, and the true number probably lies somewhere between 600 and 650.

To clarify once and for all, OLED – thanks to its self-emissive display characteristic – remains unrivalled in terms of black-level reproduction and intra-frame contrast. This was most apparent in starfield scenes: on the Sony 65Z9D, the stars looked dimmer (though still entirely visible) and the blacks slightly brighter when compared side-by-side against an LG OLED TV. Note that the following photos are included for the sole purpose of demonstrating the exact scenes described; please refrain from drawing conclusions from these photos since it’s impossible for our SDR camera to fully capture the actual difference visible in person.

The Martian
The Martian Blu-ray opening scene. Left: LG OLED; Right: Sony Z9D

Outside these challenging if infrequent examples, the Bravia KD-65ZD9 put up a credible fight against OLED in the black level department. Helped by 648-zone local dimming and exemplary halo suppression, the Sony managed to hold its own in this shot containing a bright logo surrounded by black backdrop:

The Martian logo
The Martian Blu-ray (timecode: 00:00:47)

Where the ZD9 edged ahead of the OLED was in the area just above black. As Sandra Bullock was hurling through space in Gravity, her silhouette appeared more distinct against the night sky, even if the LG OLED rendered the stars brighter and the blacks deeper. To reveal similar amounts of shadow detail, the LG’s [Brightness] and gamma would have to be adjusted to such an extent that the 0 cd/m2 blacks were ruined, or near-black artefacts were harshly exposed.

Gravity
Gravity Blu-ray (timecode: 00:16:19)

The Sony 65ZD9 also handled above-black region in a cleaner fashion than the LG OLED. In Skyfall (one of the best Blu-ray transfers of all time), the LG delivered the sequence where Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) approached the chapel with more depth and dimensionality, but we could see the pixels dancing away in the night sky, whereas it looked more stable and less noisy on the Sony.

Skyfall
Skyfall Blu-ray (timecode: 02:09:45)

Video Processing

The upscaling quality on 2015 and 2016 Sony Bravias has been good though never stellar, but the KD65ZD9 – featuring the Japanese maker’s new and improved X1 Extreme processor – is a totally different beast. According to our tests, the display boasts the best standard-def upconversion we’ve seen from a consumer-grade TV so far, outperforming even that delivered by the superb OPPO 103 Blu-ray player.

A 576i SMPTE RP-133 test card looked amazingly clean and sharp on the Sony ZD9, with no noticeable ringing, fizzing or junk pixels. Until today we’ve consistently rated Samsung as having the best in-TV scaling solution not necessarily because it’s the sharpest, but because it’s the most forgiving – our opinion may now change with the 65ZD9.

We’ve previously lamented the omission of [Smooth Gradation] from Sony’s 2015 and 2016 Android-based Bravia TVs, so imagine our delight when we discovered that this wonderful video processing feature has been reinstated on the KD65ZD9BU. For the uninitiated, [Smooth Gradation] is a useful option (we’ve only seen it offered on Sony televisions and projectors) to smooth out on-screen contouring by utilising the internal video processing’s higher bit depth. Here are the results when applied to an 8-bit gradient ramp from the AVSHD test disc:

Click on the options below to compare modes:
[Smooth Gradation] off | [Smooth Gradation] on

Smooth Gradation off

Motion

The Sony Bravia KD-65ZD9 was capable of delivering a motion resolution (as judged via the horizontally scrolling lines in Chapter 31 of the FPD Benchmark Software Blu-ray disc) of 1080 lines or even higher with [Motionflow] set to “Clear“, though this incurred a slight luminance drop (due to backlight scanning) and mild soap opera effect (SOE). This level of motion clarity could also be achieved by optimising the [Smoothness] and [Clearness] options under the [Motionflow] “Custom” submenu.

We found we didn’t need to push [Smoothness] and [Clearness] to as high as the values required on the Bravia X94C or XD94 to obtain 1080 motion resolution, underlining the ZD9’s superior motion processing. Just like [Motionflow] “Clear“, some soap opera effect (SOE) was unavoidable if [Motionflow] “Custom” was optimised to provide the sharpest motion, but it’s truly mild and acceptable – we’ve always found Sony’s film smoothing to be less offensive than other TV manufacturers’ anyway.

[Motionflow] off [Motionflow] Custom
[Motionflow] “Off” Optimsed [Motionflow] “Custom”

In case it isn’t clear (pun intended), [Smoothness] and [Clearness] dictate the amount of motion-compensated frame interpolation (MCFI) and backlight scanning injected into the image respectively to boost motion clarity. Cranking [Clearness] to “Max” activates black frame insertion (BFI) but locks out the [Smoothness] control. While this resulted in supremely sharp motion without interpolation artefacts or soap opera effect, the picture became overly dim and flickery, making it unwatchable. Sony aficionados may remember experiencing the same outcome on older Bravia televisions with [Motionflow] set to “Impulse“.

Although we observed some black trailing/ smearing (where dark objects moving across a lighter background leave a visible trail) in torture test videos, we were hard-pressed to spot any in real-life viewing. However, if you’re sensitive to this type of motion smearing, Samsung’s quantum-dot-based SUHD TVs and certainly the LG OLEDs (what with their near-instantaneous pixel response time) will produce cleaner motion.

Viewing Angle

HDR

Once calibrated to D65 white point, the Sony KD-65ZD9’s peak brightness in HDR mode could be sustained above 1800 cd/m2 indefinitely (measured on UHDA-specified window sizes), peaking around 1870 cd/m2 at the start. This figure represents the highest we have on record at this time of writing, surpassing the peak luminance generated by the previous record holder, Samsung’s KS9500/ KS9800, by a magnitude of nearly 400 nits. Full-field peak brightness reached 745 cd/m2.

Taking a leaf out of Panasonic’s book (for the DX902/ DX900), HDR mode can be manually forced on through a new [Video options] submenu available on the Sony Z9D/ ZD9. To preserve the highest peak brightness, [X-tended Dynamic Range] should be left at its default value of “High“: peak luminance dropped to 1180 and 890 nits with [XDR] “Medium” and “Low” respectively.

As mentioned before, the KD65ZD9 carries over most picture settings from SDR to HDR mode within the same preset on the same HDMI input, with the notable exceptions of [Brightness] (which is bumped to “Max“) and [X-tended Dynamic Range] (which defaults to “High“). This situation is different from the step-down Sony XD93 and XD94 series which kick into a separate [HDR video] mode upon detection of the appropriate HDR metadata, thus allowing for separate SDR and HDR settings.

What this means is that to get the most accurate image, you either have to feed HDR material into one HDMI socket and SDR into another, or calibrate HDR in a separate picture preset from SDR (which requires manual switching every time you change sources from SDR to HDR and vice versa). For a seamless experience without needing to fiddle with the remote, we certainly prefer the Samsungs which allow for independent SDR and HDR settings within the same preset, or the LGs which go into dedicated HDR presets.

With this mini-rant out of the way, HDR mode on the Sony 65ZD9 actually calibrated very well. Greyscale could be flattened to a neutral D65 across the entire luminance range:

Post-calibration RGB Tracking in HDR mode

After adjusting [Gamma] to the correct value, the television tracked PQ (perceptual quantisation) EOTF (electro-optical transfer function) accurately until around 200 nits, after which light output was rendered slightly brighter that what’s stipulated by the ST.2084 standard:

Post-calibration PQ tracking in HDR mode

DCI-P3 coverage reached 95%, and colour tracking within Rec.2020 was reasonably good considering there’s no onboard CMS:

Post-calibration saturation tracking in HDR mode

Having satisfied ourselves that our Sony KD65ZD9BU review unit had been calibrated to its best possible level in HDR mode, we watched our usual selection of 4K Blu-ray movies in a side-by-side comparison first against a 2016 LG OLED, and then against a Samsung Ultra HD Premium LED TV that we had in for review. Before detailing our observations, here’s a short primer.

What we’re about to write has seldom been explained, but one key reason why HDR video looks so impressive is the depth cues it’s able to provide. In real life, we judge depth and dimensionality through a number of ways, of which one is how light bounces off different surfaces. By supplying the headroom for specular highlights to be expressed in a more defined and accurate manner, HDR allows viewers to instinctively position different objects on screen based on the shape, intensity and directionality of the reflections, delivering a supremely immersive, 3D-esque image with tons of “pop” and depth.

Now, in theory OLED’s pixel-level illumination should give it an unassailable advantage in portraying specular highlights with the kind of precision even the best FALD LED LCDs with the highest number of zones can only dream of, but LG’s OLED televisions suffer from a few problems. First, peak brightness even on the 2016 flagship G6 couldn’t go beyond 800 nits, reducing the range through which subtle gradation of highlight detail can be faithfully rendered, especially when HDR content is mastered to 1000 or even 4000 nits.

Worse still, due to suboptimal tone-mapping (this is not entirely LG’s fault, since many Ultra HD Blu-ray discs are purposely encoded to defeat tone-mapping) and colour channel clipping, bright highlights would frequently get blown out on LG OLEDs. If a spot of well-defined reflection on a metallic object gets smeared out to a large shapeless area, it will distort the sense of depth you perceive from said object owing to loss of light directionality.

As you can already guess, the impact that the Sony KD-65ZD9’s 1800-nit brightness capacity bestowed upon HDR images was profound. Lightning struck with blistering brilliance; flames bristled with intensity; and chrome vehicle grilles glistened beautifully in Mad Max: Fury Road. Even during more mundane indoor scenes in The Martian, reflections off the eyes and shiny objects infused a very precise sense of depth and 3D-ness to the viewing experience.

We’d like to tip our hats off to Sony’s engineers for keeping haloing/ blooming artefacts fantastically under control (provided you sit mainly on-axis) in the face of such searing brightness. Of course the Z9D’s 600-plus FALD zones helped, but we’ve witnessed the Panasonic DX902 – whose number of dimmable zones wasn’t too far behind at 512 – exhibiting obvious rectangular grid-shaped halos in testing scenes containing bright objects against a dark background.

Without doubt, the local dimming algorithm on the Sony KD65ZD9 was superior to those implemented on its two chief FALD competitors when it came to HDR presentation. The Panasonic 65DX900’s was over-aggressive at times leading to blotchy darkening; while the Samsung KS9500’s was erratic, sometimes not engaging dimming when it’s called for. Sony’s local dimming system not only produced the inkiest blacks without crushing shadow detail, but also manifested the least blooming/ haloing. HDR output on the Bravia ZD9 also appeared remarkably free of posterisation (unless it’s in the source), something that cannot be said of Samsung’s 2016 KS lineup.

Back to Z9D vs LG OLED whose limited peak brightness and colour channel clipping also combined to strangle colour volume at the top end of the luminance scale. For example, during the Time Square sequence in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Electro’s bolts of electricity carried a distinct blue hue on the Sony 65ZD9, whereas they were whitening out on the LG OLED. A similar difference was noticed in Mad Max: Fury Road where the Sony would render flames in fiery yellow; the LG OLED, muted orange.

Please note that the following photo was inserted merely to illustrate the TASM2 scene referenced, and is not representative of the true difference seen in person – OLED’s off-axis blue tint made the captured image look bluer than it actually was.

Electro bolts
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (timecode 00:53:29). Left: LG OLED; Right: Sony Z series

Even though the Sony 65″ ZD9 had been judged to only resolve highlight detail up to 1500 nits in specialised test patterns, we actually saw very little – if any – loss of bright highlights in comparison with a Samsung UHD Premium TV deemed to be capable of resolving 4000 nits. Here are a couple of frameshots (photo exposure intentionally lowered to fully capture highlight detail) from Pan 4K Blu-ray which has been mastered to 4000 nits:

Pan
Pan (timecode 00:19:10). Left: Samsung SUHD TV; Right: Sony 65Z9D
Neverland
Pan (timecode 00:19:28)

3D

Shipping with two pairs of active-shutter glasses (ASG) included, the Sony KD65ZD9 put on an above average tri-dimensional performance. The Bravia TV passed full HD 3D resolution, and displayed 24Hz, 50Hz and 60Hz 3-D material (be it film- or video-based) without judder as long as the correct [Motionflow] setting was selected.

Crosstalk was faint and unobtrusive, and the stereoscopic image looked punchy enough with convincing layers of depth, but our main issue was increased flicker possibly caused by the screen’s higher luminance output… we even tried some third-party glasses which unfortunately didn’t improve things. Sensitivity to flicker is very individual, so your mileage may vary, but LG’s 4K OLED televisions deliver a better and less fatiguing extra-dimensional viewing experience.

Gaming

The lowest lag times on the Sony ZD9 could be found in the [Game] and [Graphics] picture presets, measuring 42ms according to our Leo Bodnar tester. [Auto local dimming] had be disabled, or else input lag would go up a tad to 45ms.

Input lag HDR input lag
Input lag in [Game] preset Lag in HDR [Game] mode

The Bravia KD-65ZD9 joins a growing number of 4K TVs which allow [Game] mode to be enabled for playing HDR games on the Xbox One S or the upcoming PS4 Pro. Since engaging [Auto local dimming] was necessary to hit the peak brightness demanded by HDR without washing out the blacks, input lag in HDR [Game] mode came in at 45ms.

Conclusion

We’ve been long-time admirers of Sony’s video processing particularly when it comes to local dimming algorithm and motion smoothness, and when record-breaking stats are added to the equation, the result is nothing less than spectacular. Some may complain that the Bravia ZD9’s peak brightness and FALD zone count fell far short of the 4000 nits and 1000 zones showcased on the company’s “Backlight Master Drive” prototype at CES, but Sony needed to make a domestic television that’s quasi-affordable for the masses, and in any case the KD-65ZD9 comfortably delivered the most mesmerising HDR presentation we’ve witnessed so far.

For HDR playback, the Sony Z9D/ ZD9 outperformed other 2016 top-tier FALD LED LCDs in the following ways. The TV featured more balanced local dimming and less haloing/ blooming than Panasonic’s DX900/ DX902; more effective dimming and less posterisation than Samsung’s KS9500/ KS9800; and a punchier picture with greater highlight detail resolution than Sony’s own already impressive XD94… the benefits conferred by higher peak brightness and increased FALD zones did not go unnoticed.

LG OLEDs still held the upper hand in outright black-level response, SDR “pop” and viewing angles by virtue of being able to switch every pixel – all 8.29 million of them – on and off independently of each other. But the ZD9’s blacks got close enough (especially with the help of bias lighting), and some quarters may prefer its near-black performance, motion smoothness and class-leading upscaling over OLED’s.

Where the Sony Z series pulled ahead of LG’s OLED TVs was, predictably, in HDR. Here’s the rub: because OLED’s absolute blacks and innate contrast make even SDR content look like HDR anyway, what distinguish true 4K HDR are the specular highlights and wider colour spectrum. And our hearts sank a little every time we spotted missing highlight detail or muted colours in brighter parts of the HDR image put out by the OLED. LG’s Dolby Vision support may overcome these shortcomings, but until the arrival of DV discs and players (none are available to buy on the market at this time of writing), the jury is still out.

As sumptuous as the 65ZD9’s pictures were, there’s still room for improvement. Colour saturation tracking could be tighter; input lag could be lower; HDR settings should be saved separately from SDR rather than shared within the same picture preset; and we’ve never been fans of the clunky and occasionally unstable Android TV platform. But at the end of the day, these were minor niggles considering the KD65ZD9’s overall image quality.

Sony has a strong pedigree in producing LCD-based televisions par excellence, such as the Bravia W2000 (the first LCD to give plasmas a run for their money) and the W905 (probably the best 1080p LED TV ever made). It’s early days, but when we look back in a few years’ time, the Sony KD-65ZD9 may well be remembered as the display that first demonstrated the true potential of HDR without being hampered by any significant flaws – it’s the poster child HDR has been screaming out for. Barring some exceptional performances from Loewe and Philips OLED models which we’ve yet to review, the Sony ZD9 will likely end up being the best HDR TV we’ve tested all year.

Note: If you’re considering buying this television, please support this website by making your purchase from our sponsor Crampton & Moore Leeds – call 0113 2446607 and ask for store manager David (who also organises our annual TV shootout event), quoting HDTVTest for advice, best price and first-rate service.

Best in Class

32 comments

  1. Very detailed review as always but please use high resolution pictures in the review, I can’t even see good enough these tiny (550×170) pictures at the comparison pictures :)

  2. Paying OLED prices for a measly LCD. “But but but it’s brighter! Perfect for HDR now, and obsolete by next year!”

  3. Now that’s what you call a review, well done Vincent I agree 100% with what you’ve written, that’s a very accurate unbiased review.
    Truth, you could argue OLED is obsolete now, seems to me the ZD9 has more legs than OLED will ever have, why is it seemingly so hard for some poeple to accept that an LED TV can actually be very good, it beggars belief really…
    Agree with Adam M about the pics btw, need bigger to be able to see the differences

  4. I’m curious what custom motion settings you found that were “optimal.”

  5. Good review. I’m curious what the calibrated settings were for both SDR and HDR?

  6. For me the award is a bit of a cop out.

    Is it the Best TV??
    Is it the Best LCD??
    Is it the Best HDR TV?? (Which you seem to suggest)

    If it is simply the best HDR TV then things are moving so fast in that technology that it no doubt will be superseded in a few short months and it may be a false market buying this TV mainly for it’s HDR performance.

  7. Thanks for the test. One remark if you allow, you should specify what are the Classes where TV are Best in.
    Here are we talking about HDR TV in general (i.e LED/OLED) ? LED TV only ?

  8. What firmware did the set have when you reviewed it?

  9. @Andy Guy
    Did you actually read the review? Seems to me that’s not the case.

  10. The input lag is really putting me off. Maybe I’ll never notice, but I’ll know it’s there, and I’ll know someone with a Samsung will only be seeing half that delay…

  11. Can we have access to full resolution comparison images ?

  12. The LG OLEDs Dolby Vision content is spectacular. This can be seen in programs like Marco Polo on Netflix. I wish you had compared that to the Sony’s hdr. I suspect the DV content may be superior because it adjusts luminance frame by frame with metadata. Admittedly the HDR 10 content on the LG OLED can result in clipping because of mastering at 1000 nits or higher, but with DV this problem disappears.

  13. @Vincent Teoh

    Great Review. You mentioned the LG OLED having a relatively small colour volume. Do you think this could be due to a reliance on the white sub pixel for high luminosity ?

    Might we see nit measurements of the RGB Channels in future reviews ?

  14. Okay so let’s recap, crappy black levels, high input lag but bright and expensive as hell yet you call this best in class. Oh come on give me a break.

    I had a Samsung 40A656 about 8 years ago with much better black levels doing 0,023cd/m2 with a 4×4 ANSI patern without any crappy dimming crushing black levels. All these LCD’s actually have worse black levels than high-end LCD’s from years ago. Back then this site made a huge deal on black levels but now is simply ignoring the fact these black levels are in fact pretty poor. My now very old 42GT60 (monitor) absolutely destroy these overpriced Wide Colour Gamut building lights in every aspect. Much higher contrast, better black levels and better motion handling all with lower input lag to booth. That wasn’t even the best PDP you could buy. Not bragging or anything but these 3000+ euro paperweights are seriously overrated as is HDR and OLED strenghts are seriously being downplayed.

  15. The technical detail you include in these reviews is really impressive, you should be writing or consulting for the more mainstream outlets if you don’t already, I’m pretty sure some of them wait for you to publish your findings and then use it to form the basis of their reviews anyway, techradar always seems to publish a couple of days after you with the high end sets like this, always saying the same things minus the calibration info, no idea why they don’t just pay for your services.

  16. Thanks for the reviews as always. However like others mentioned we need high res uncompressed images. Thank you.

  17. So its the best led 4k hdr tv out there. No suprise sony engineering behind it.
    atleast with this tv you wont have problems what you get with lg oled. It seems like every lg oled screen performs differently no surprise there its LG

  18. @H6rdc0re
    Obviously, you have not understoood how a dirct LED backlight works, the contrast depends on the content, in many scenes the ZD9 can reach almost OLED contrast. To demonstrate this, just look in this test at the part “Kontrast i Czer?”:
    https://hdtvpolska.com/sony-zd9-kd-65zd9-test-flagowy-telewizor-ultra-hd-z-direct-led-i-hdr/

  19. Hi, please what’s the input lag outside game mode, I never use game mode in games cause the image quality isn’t good, so I always try to find the input lag outside game mode, I hope you always tell us in your reviews, in some TV’s the input lag is 90ms or 100ms outside game mode which is still not bad for most games, but at around 130ms you start to really feel the delay, thank you so much.

  20. @Chris: Input lag was 107ms in [Cinema pro] mode.

    Warmest regards
    Vincent

  21. Hi, you said in this review that cranking clearness to max is overly dim. How much nits could you achieve with everyone maxed out?

    On my W905 I used to play videogames with Impulse mode enabled, it gave me a perfect motion resolution.

  22. @Olivier: I measured 54 nits with [Clearness] Max, and [Backlight] + [Contrast] Max.

    Warmest regards
    Vincent

  23. @Vincent Teoh: thanks! So it’s way too dark. On my W905a it was about 100 nits.

  24. Well, seems you have an E6 bad calibrated. I have one too, but mine is well calibrated.

    Here is a pic from Gravity: http://i.imgur.com/Oe4wvYD.jpg

    If you want the best near black details without loosing the blacks, you have to increase the 5 IRE luminance at 20 point White Balance.

    To archive the same detail like my E6, the blacks will increase to 0.005 nits. Nothing especial and much better than any LCD LED.

    This is not a negative opinion, but seeing these comparisons, you induce many readers in error.
    Increase the luminance level and try from yourselves another comparison, but this time fair.

  25. *I meant 0.0005nits.

  26. Patrik Gårdewall

    whats the purpouse of these HUGE photos you post?
    is it for us to compare the two tvs?

    l

  27. Patrik Gårdewall

    Pheux: thats a grainy mess in that gravity photo
    i hope it is your phone and not your oled ;)

  28. Patrik Gårdewall

    For Reference on that Gravity scene
    9000 patches 3D LUT calibrated KRP-500M (volt modified) with an color dE of .025
    120cd/m2 peakbrightness and Gamma 2.3
    http://privat.bahnhof.se/wb192876/500M_Gravity.jpg
    you should just be able to see the contours of the spacesuit.
    anything more is wrong setup or display limitations that you cant do anything about.

    this scene is one example where there are details hiding that you should not see.

    Pheux: you are way out of here with your calibration and your tv.
    i know that OLEDs have floating blacks and also floating gamma but that photo is scary wrong.
    have you calibrated the set to 400nits peakbrightness and a gamma of 1.9 or?
    it sure looks like it :)

  29. No. You are wrong with your assumptions.
    I increased the 5 IRE luminance level to prove that it’s possible to increase near blacks in Oleds without messing with Gama and Brightness.

    And no, I do not have the E6 calibrated as shown in the picture. The point was to prove what I previously mentioned. As my iPhone camera cannot capture all the light from the TV, I increased the luminance level to 25 with the purpose to be visible all the details.

    I have brightness at 53, Gamma BT1886 and 5 IRE Luminance Level at 10.

  30. Hi, please according to this site https://hdtvpolska.com/sony-zd9-kd-65zd9-test-flagowy-telewizor-ultra-hd-z-direct-led-i-hdr/

    The input lag is 27ms, should I believe them? thank you so much.

  31. As an owner of the first 55″ flat oled tv for the bedroom for more than a year I have to agree with this review. I spent around an hour watching a ZD9 HDR demo loop and was just simply in awe of it’s image. Those extra nits really seem to do something to bring out depth in the image. My next living room tv set might just be a zd9.

  32. I KNOW you HDTVtest guys won’t give out a ream of settings w/ref to calibration, but when you mentioned setting the gamma to the correct point to get the PQ EOTF to track correctly where did you set it? Come on, divulging one lickle setting ain’t gonna kill ya….

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