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2017 Sony XBR 900E owners thread (No Price Talk)

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#1 ·
On Saturday I took delivery of an XBR65X900E. I like it so far, but my wife says it is too bright. We came from a 2007 46in Toshiba Regza LX177. I had to look up the date and model number on the back when we moved it on Saturday. My 6YO has mostly figured out the Android TV interface having come from Amazon Fire TV (it took like 10 minutes), but my wife has not tried yet and is a little apprehensive.

There has been some information I have found which was saying there is alot of display bloom, but I don't really see much display driven blooming. Some images do show a bloomed haze around a light at night, and others do not show a bloomed haze around lights at night, I think its haze in the air within the recorded image scene driving the blooming in a few cases.

HDR is pretty nice. We watched an episode of Blacklist last night and there was a scene where they showed a city view in Paris shot from above with a drone (or helicopter), and the range of color from bright street lights to whites on marble buildings to bright sky to dark shadowed streets was pretty impressive. Blacklist was a 1080 recording and it looked good with the upscaling. Watched episode 1 of Grand Tour in 4k, and it was also pretty impressive. Maybe this is how all 4k HDR TVs are though, and I'm just naive.

At one point when I was setting it up, my wife got bored and started watching Chicago PD on our old TV via PS Vue. Once I got the 900E set up, I played the same episode of Chicago PD and fast forwarded so the two image streams lined up within about one second of delay. From old 1080 to the new 1080 signal upscaled, there is quite a difference in detail. My wife did not like it at first, but she is thinking the old TV is how it should of looked because that is how it did look for the last 10 years.

I plan to run the zone test and some pictures. I see there is another user who has the 55 inch version, hopefully there will be more information rolling in soon on the other models. Sorry my initial pictures are pretty lousy, I'll be taking more tonight and this week.
 

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#11,281 ·
OK guys, last night I picked up the 75" 900E! Got it hung up and started watching demos and clips, and almost everything is looking just stellar, even using just the built-in picture modes. I don't know much about calibration, so I will have to try some of the settings lists posted in this thread. Anyone care to link a few in reponse here so I can get a head start without scrubbing the whole thread?

FYI - This is my first 4K or HDR panel, so it's all new to me.

I have yet to look at the manual, but one initial question. Is there a button to show what the current display settings are being used, like "2160P, HDR" etc? In the built-in Youtube app I kept going to the settings to see if it was a 1080p video or a 4k video. And I don't have any idea if a given video is in HDR or not. What do I look for?

So I started with this following list of demos :

For the most part they look stunning. But a few things jumped out. On the ones with the little red "F ETC" badge in the lower left corner, when the rest of the screen goes mostly or totally black, there is a very large bloom from there into the screen. Will some of the posted setting alleviate that kind of thing?

Also on the "Super Black Video" :
I noticed the scenes such as the neon tavern and carousel had a lot of bloom around them, but it almost looked like compression artifacting as well. How do these scenes look for you guys?

I need to hard-wire the set or use a hard-wired streaming box to better handle the throughput of 4k. On wifi right now.

But overall, a majority of the content in those videos made me think I was watching on an OLED, or close to it. Just very very nice!

Thanks for the information!
 
#11,282 ·
OK guys, last night I picked up the 75" 900E! Got it hung up and started watching demos and clips, and almost everything is looking just stellar, even using just the built-in picture modes. I don't know much about calibration, so I will have to try some of the settings lists posted in this thread. Anyone care to link a few in reponse here so I can get a head start without scrubbing the whole thread?

FYI - This is my first 4K or HDR panel, so it's all new to me.

I have yet to look at the manual, but one initial question. Is there a button to show what the current display settings are being used, like "2160P, HDR" etc? In the built-in Youtube app I kept going to the settings to see if it was a 1080p video or a 4k video. And I don't have any idea if a given video is in HDR or not. What do I look for?

So I started with this following list of demos :





For the most part they look stunning. But a few things jumped out. On the ones with the little red "F ETC" badge in the lower left corner, when the rest of the screen goes mostly or totally black, there is a very large bloom from there into the screen. Will some of the posted setting alleviate that kind of thing?

Also on the "Super Black Video" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHDLvdJ5OGY&t=61s
I noticed the scenes such as the neon tavern and carousel had a lot of bloom around them, but it almost looked like compression artifacting as well. How do these scenes look for you guys?

I need to hard-wire the set or use a hard-wired streaming box to better handle the throughput of 4k. On wifi right now.

But overall, a majority of the content in those videos made me think I was watching on an OLED, or close to it. Just very very nice!

Thanks for the information!

Just remember that the native Youtube app on this display does not support HDR. So you will need a supported device such as a Chromecast Ultra.
 
#11,283 ·
Just remember that the native Youtube app on this display does not support HDR. So you will need a supported device such as a Chromecast Ultra.
Ah, good to know. Kinda weird though. Do the other built-in apps support HDR?

That being said, though...when it is playing HDR or not, is there something on the 900E that will tell me so?

I do notice the UI being kind of sluggish. I will likely hook up a streaming box to it. Chromecast Ultra / Roku Ultra / Shield? What will give me the most mileage? Is the Shield worth the extra $$? Suggestions on favorites from you guys?

Thanks!
 
#11,284 ·
Ah, good to know. Kinda weird though. Do the other built-in apps support HDR?

That being said, though...when it is playing HDR or not, is there something on the 900E that will tell me so?

I do notice the UI being kind of sluggish. I will likely hook up a streaming box to it. Chromecast Ultra / Roku Ultra / Shield? What will give me the most mileage? Is the Shield worth the extra $$? Suggestions on favorites from you guys?

Thanks!

Netflix and Amazon Instant both play HDR10. If you have Plex or Kodi installed, you can use sites such as 4kmedia.org to download videos to an external hard drive, NAS or USB Flash drive, then stream them. This site contains HDR files as well, and both Plex and Kodi will play them.

To see if you are playing HDR content, on the remote press "Action Menu", the scroll down to Video Settings, a new menu will appear, and at the top-right of the display you will see HDR. If it's not there, then you're not viewing anything in HDR.
 
#11,285 · (Edited)
OK guys, last night I picked up the 75" 900E! Got it hung up and started watching demos and clips, and almost everything is looking just stellar, even using just the built-in picture modes. I don't know much about calibration, so I will have to try some of the settings lists posted in this thread. Anyone care to link a few in response here so I can get a head start without scrubbing the whole thread?
It just so happens I have scrubbed for you :)
Check out Post # 10997 for a spreadsheet with many user and website settings. Good luck!
 
#11,286 · (Edited)
OK guys, last night I picked up the 75" 900E! Got it hung up and started watching demos and clips, and almost everything is looking just stellar, even using just the built-in picture modes. I don't know much about calibration, so I will have to try some of the settings lists posted in this thread. Anyone care to link a few in reponse here so I can get a head start without scrubbing the whole thread?

FYI - This is my first 4K or HDR panel, so it's all new to me.

I have yet to look at the manual, but one initial question. Is there a button to show what the current display settings are being used, like "2160P, HDR" etc? In the built-in Youtube app I kept going to the settings to see if it was a 1080p video or a 4k video. And I don't have any idea if a given video is in HDR or not. What do I look for?

So I started with this following list of demos :



For the most part they look stunning. But a few things jumped out. On the ones with the little red "F ETC" badge in the lower left corner, when the rest of the screen goes mostly or totally black, there is a very large bloom from there into the screen. Will some of the posted setting alleviate that kind of thing?

Also on the "Super Black Video" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHDLvdJ5OGY&t=61s
I noticed the scenes such as the neon tavern and carousel had a lot of bloom around them, but it almost looked like compression artifacting as well. How do these scenes look for you guys?

I need to hard-wire the set or use a hard-wired streaming box to better handle the throughput of 4k. On wifi right now.

But overall, a majority of the content in those videos made me think I was watching on an OLED, or close to it. Just very very nice!

Thanks for the information!
So the blooming...You can minimize it a lot but maybe not get rid of it totally when we're talking about a bright highlight on a dark background. The LEDs aren't as focused as they could be and this tv doesn't have enough dimming zones to eliminate completely. That being said, try these settings and see how much better it gets. The 2 biggest things that are going to effect blooming are brightness and Xtended Dynamic Range- For all non-HDR content, i turn Xtended Dynamic Range off and I also keep my brightness between 20 and 30 depending on room lighting. 30 is plenty bright in a well lit room. Dropping black levels down to 45-45 and gamma to -1 helps with black levels too. Full list of settings below.

Remember, the different picture modes are just "slots" Meaning you can change whatever setting you like and use that for a particular "setting" The nice thing (or annoying thing depending on how you look at it) is that the different picture "modes" can be customized for each specific input or app. So let's say you use the Standard setting on HDMI 1 for your cable box and you tweak all the settings within the Standard picture mode.

If you launch Netflix or Amazon Instant Video you can customize the Standard picture mode (or whatever preset you want to use) within that app and it will not effect how you have it customized for HDMI 1. This way you can have different picture modes for each input- example being Dark Room (Say you use Standard or Cinema Home or whatever) or Well Lit Room (using a different picture mode, say custom or cinema pro or whatever)

I have my Directv box on HDMI 1 and i (my kids actually( typically watch cable tv during the day, so i like the picture a little brighter, my 4k Blu Ray player on HDMI2 and my Xbox One S on HDMI 3 and they all have different picture settings. I hope this doesn't confuse you, i hadn't intended this to be this long when i started typing...lol

Anyways, try these settings. I find them to be a good starting point for pretty much everything and you can tweak to your liking.

For non HDR content my settings are as follows
Backlight 25
Contrast 95
Color 55
Light Sensor Off
Gamma -1
Black Level 47
Black adjust Med
Adv Contrast Enhance Off
Auto Local Dimming High
Xtended Dynamic Range Off
Color Temp Warm or Expert 1
Live Color Off (or adjust to personal preference)
Sharpness 60
Reality Creation Off
Noise reduction off (digital noise reduction on low for DirecTV)
Smooth Gradation Low
Motion Custom
Smoothness 1 or 2
Clearness Min
Cinemotion Med (or off if you don't like soap opera effect)
HDR Mode Auto
HDMI VIdeo Range Auto
Color Space Auto (sometimes i use BT 2020 for blu ray and it looks great (John Wick 2 for example, some look over saturated)

When you turn the brightness down and turn xtended dynamic range off, it might not look as "WOW!" initially but just give it a little time to set in. Plenty of wow and not as many distracting artifacts or blooming. I also hated Expert 1 color temp at first but i gave it some time and found it to be better in the end.
 
#11,287 ·
All,

Given BB's superbowl sale, I'm considering a 75" x900e. My new room has windows in the back of the room and floor-to-ceiling windows on the side. My 65" Samsung plasma is practically unwatchable because of all the reflections. Will this tv work in my room?

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Ken
Sorry but I will have to disagree with one of the other replies. I have the 75" with windows on the opposite side of it which faces North and I do get reflections. The brightness doesn't matter or help mitigate them. Watching during the day isn't a great experience...at night is just fine. If you are buying the 900E in hopes of ridding yourself of reflections I'm afraid this isn't for you. OTOH I still think it's worth it for the great picture it provides in-spite of daytime reflections.
 
#11,288 ·
Will the XBR 900e be updated to HDR10+. If not, might it be possible for a TV with HDR capability such as the Sony 900e with out native HDR 10+ functionality make use of HDR 10+ metadata if connected to an external processor such as HDR 10+ capable UHd Blu-ray player or preamp video processor. It would seem that the XBR 900e already has the ability to display the HDR material and only requires changing parameters from the metadata provided by
HDR 10+ standard.
Already answered this:
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/166-l...rs-thread-no-price-talk-371.html#post55510694

Looks like it's not going to happen. See article above for full explanation.
 
#11,289 ·
This is going to be a silly question but I can't find the specifics anywhere. I am looking to upgrade my Bedroom TVS from the 830c to the 900e series. My problem is that all my TVS are Wall mounted and all cables are run behind the wall. I understand that the 900 e series uses a power brick. How long is the cable connection from the TV to the brick? I guess that is the DC end.
IIRC units larger than 55 i.e. 65 75 " have a straight power cord, w/ built-in transformer. Why? maybe the bigger units are better able to dissipate heat.
 
#11,290 ·
Remember, the different picture modes are just "slots" Meaning you can change whatever setting you like and use that for a particular "setting" The nice thing (or annoying thing depending on how you look at it) is that the different picture "modes" can be customized for each specific input or app. So let's say you use the Standard setting on HDMI 1 for your cable box and you tweak all the settings within the Standard picture mode.

If you launch Netflix or Amazon Instant Video you can customize the Standard picture mode (or whatever preset you want to use) within that app and it will not effect how you have it customized for HDMI 1. This way you can have different picture modes for each input- example being Dark Room (Say you use Standard or Cinema Home or whatever) or Well Lit Room (using a different picture mode, say custom or cinema pro or whatever)
.
Joshua thanks for that bit of info. :)
I have not yet started that adjustment process ( can't do that sorta thing when the GF is about and want to start with a dark room adjustment) knowing I have that much control is great!! Be nice if one could easily back up ones setting, there is a way for pros to do this I think but I am not quite ready to fiddle too much. :eek:
 
#11,291 ·
Joshua thanks for that bit of info. :)
I have not yet started that adjustment process ( can't do that sorta thing when the GF is about and want to start with a dark room adjustment) knowing I have that much control is great!! Be nice if one could easily back up ones setting, there is a way for pros to do this I think but I am not quite ready to fiddle too much. :eek:
That's the nice part about the different pre sets being "slots" Set one preset up one way and set another one up a totally different way and they will be saved until you change them. There are like 8 or so presets that can be changed to whatever you want, you just can't change the names but every other aspect is adjustable.

The settings I gave you will be great for a dark room. Also, get some bias lighting to help with blooming, it will improve blacks and perceived contrast dramatically. Check out the youtube video i posted on bias lighting a page or 2 back.
 
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#11,292 ·
That's the nice part about the different pre sets being "slots" Set one preset up one way and set another one up a totally different way and they will be saved until you change them..
How do you handle the change from HDR to Non HDR on the same source?
 
#11,293 ·
How do you handle the change from HDR to Non HDR on the same source?
It auto changes when you have hdr content playing. The only thing that really changes is that it will put brightess to max, contrast to max, and xtended dynamic range to high,

You can adjust it too, i turn brightness down and contrast down a little to help with blooming. But those settings will stick for hdr content when it detects it.
 
#11,294 ·
This is going to be a silly question but I can't find the specifics anywhere. I am looking to upgrade my Bedroom TVS from the 830c to the 900e series. My problem is that all my TVS are Wall mounted and all cables are run behind the wall. I understand that the 900 e series uses a power brick. How long is the cable connection from the TV to the brick? I guess that is the DC end.
IIRC units larger than 55 i.e. 65 75 " have a straight power cord, w/ built-in transformer. Why? maybe the bigger units are better able to dissipate heat.
No. Only the 75" has a built in PSU. The 49 & 55, and 65 have unique external bricks. The 75" is built in because the TV literally has more room to accommodate it.

That said, most mount their bricks on the TV, so the length of the cable is irrelevant to the TV. The power cord to the wall is a standard computer type cable which can be purchased in any length necessary, though in my case, I bought a shorter cable to plug into the power strip mounted behind my TV.
 
#11,295 ·
wweeelllppp just ddid a lil diggin on ARC and it is basically suppose to pass 5.1 audio from TV sources (i.e. apps) straight thru one hdmi cable str8 to the AVR, thereby, removing an extra audio cable that would have gone from the TV to the receiver and seem slike, for most tvs, it does not pass 5.1 audio, only stereo, from hdmi sources to the receiver but i need to pass 5.1 from hdmi sources. So i tried both arc and optical to no avail. looks like i need to connect to my AVR but i need to replace with a 4k one..

guess tiime to upgrade and i am looking at the Denon X2300W. is that worth the upgrade? will i notice any difference? Do I need to replace my current speakers and speaker wires?

the denon 1712 i have is 90W
the denon X2300W is 95W
my audio wires are 14AWG CL2 Rated 2-Conductor Speaker Wires
my speakers are in my sig
5.1 pass through on these TV's does work quite well. They are actually some of the few LCD's that have been proven to pass through Dolby Atmos (see my previous post here). I'm not at my TV but if I remember there are some HDMI settings that neet to be set to Auto1 or Auto2 for passthrough to work correctly...
 
#11,296 ·
How do you handle the change from HDR to Non HDR on the same source?
The ability to calibrate your display for both HDR and SDR using the same input is possible. I highly recommend it considering HDR's brightness and contrast recommendations compared to SDR material.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
 
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#11,297 · (Edited)
I got excited very briefly when I saw

This software update (version PKG6.2818.0070NAA) provides the following benefits:

Improves general performance of the TV
Adds support for Dolby Vision™ content DolbyVision

then drilled down to see this

(XBR-55A1E, XBR-55X930E, XBR-65A1E, XBR-65X930E, XBR-75X940E, XBR-77A1E only)
After the latest Android update for my Sony X900E the audio is making nasty crackling sounds when pausing and unpausing live TV or shows I have recorded on my DVR.

Same problem happens whether I use external stereo speakers or the TV’s built in speakers.

I've tried resetting the FIOS box and changing HDMI cords, but the problem remains.
 
#11,298 ·
Sorry but I will have to disagree with one of the other replies. I have the 75" with windows on the opposite side of it which faces North and I do get reflections. The brightness doesn't matter or help mitigate them. Watching during the day isn't a great experience...at night is just fine. If you are buying the 900E in hopes of ridding yourself of reflections I'm afraid this isn't for you. OTOH I still think it's worth it for the great picture it provides in-spite of daytime reflections.
I certainly appreciated everyone's input.

I'm looking at the x900e for two reasons, larger size for my new room and something that can better handle the bright/reflective room. Although I like my 65" plasma, it is getting up in age. I fully realize that no TV today can be reflection-free in that brightly lit room like mine.
 
#11,299 ·
I certainly appreciated everyone's input.

I'm looking at the x900e for two reasons, larger size for my new room and something that can better handle the bright/reflective room. Although I like my 65" plasma, it is getting up in age. I fully realize that no TV today can be reflection-free in that brightly lit room like mine.
We have the 65" X900E in a bright room - directly opposite a large window (covered with shutters to block as much light as possible - our skylights have covers on them as well). The screen is fairly reflective - not the worst I've ever seen, but it's something to consider if you watch a lot of TV during the day.
 
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