Sony 4K TV Review - Review
Television has sure come along way since it was first created. Back then it was a grainy black and white image, then we got colour and then we went big. TV's in the 90's had this habit of being massive in screen size and actual unit size. So when HD TV's and flat screens came into being about 15 years ago most people thought that we have reached as far as we can go with TV's. Oh how wrong they were.
Sony have recently begun to sell a range of TV's that produce what is known simply as 4K and they were kind enough to send me the XBR-65X900A a 65inch 4K TV to review. What is 4K some of you are probably wondering, is it better than my 1080p, do I need to start re-buying my collection of movies again. Well lets try to answer those questions now. 4K is a tv or monitor that has 4 times the current resolution of 1080p screens, which means in the same space you are now getting almost 8 million pixels where as before it was only around 2 million. What it equates to though is that once you see a 4K Tv in action your old one will look bland in comparison.
A look at the difference between the common resolutions.
When watching regular TV through the 4K screen we are at a severe disadvantage in Australia as there are few true HD free to air channels. Yes it is true we all went digital a while back that only applies to the signal type. Most of the content is still the 576p content we have been receiving for the past 30 years, and while it does look nice there are some major artifacts present on the screen. Watching the Today Show you notice it on the on screen graphics they use. Once you get a HD stream going things really look a whole lot nicer.
Loading up a standard Blu-ray with a video of 1080p looks clear and sharp on the 4K screen. In fact the TV is smart enough to be able to upscale it to a much higher resolution so you get the clearest image possible. In fact using the built in YouTube channel, the content through that even looks better. This is due to the X-Reality Pro chip that analyzes everything that is being displayed and provides the best colour match it can. There is no longer just Red, Blue and Green for your colour selection you are now presented with almost every shade of red under the sun and the TV selects this on the fly.
Yep, this TV is that smart it is able to choose what colour is needed as it happens. This is not a best guess, oh that might be red, so an orange will do. This TV will pick the truest colour of red to match the hue and contrast. So any Blu-ray you have will look the best here, but the same is true of your games. Loading up your PlayStation 4 will also provide you with the truest level of colour possible, but thanks to the MotionFlow technology behind the screen the refresh rates are the best they need to be. No more will the TV lock to a set refresh rate based on the manufacturer desires, the TV will scale it based on the image being displayed.
Of course this all for the stuff you currently own, what about all the new things yet to come. Well I was able to load up a copy of The Amazing Spider-Man from 2012 mastered in 4K and it looked amazing. It is hard to describe at how amazing it looked, with each frame of the movie looking incredible. For instance the level of detail being shown in the scene where Peter takes the lizard on in the school is incredible. You get a look at the lizard out in the natural light and it is staggering, how much detail on the scales of the lizard you can see. How the light bounces off the scales, how the attempts of Spider-Man to pry the lizards claws from his body reacts to each movement. If you saw this at the movies you might have noticed it, but seeing it up close in that much detail you can see just what 4K will offer down the road.
Check out these shots from The Amazing Spider-Man, the first is the standard 1080p with the second being a shot from the mastered 4K version of the film. Click on them to see them in full detail. Images come from HighDefDigest, click here to check out their review of the 4K release
If you are in need of a new TV then getting one that is capable of displaying 4K will make your existing collection of movies shine but it will do nothing for most of the free to air TV. If you can get one, then I say do it, because once you see 4K you wont want to watch anything less. So run down to your nearest TV store and check out the 4K range from Sony, you will be impressed.
