New Sony Z9G 85" 8K TV
 

I admit I am tardy in posting this, but last month I saw the new Sony Master Series 85" 8K TV at an event at a local audio retailer in Charlotte, Audio Advice. While I am more audio-focused than video, I have to say this TV was stunning. Nothing I have ever seen comes close. The clarity, the vivid colors, black levels - everything was almost overwhelming. Of course, at $13K, so is the price. :yikes: The content they initially showed was from a computer and was native 8K. Then they showed HD and 4K content upsampled, which was surprisingly good. For a brief moment, I started thinking about buying one. Then reality set in with practical considerations like when will 8K content be available? What do I do with my Bryston SP3? I don't even have the 4K upgrade for it, as I am only watching standard HD today. I checked with Bryston and they have no announced roadmap for 8K support. I am not even sure when the SP4 will support 8K. So for the time being, I sit on the sidelines dreaming of what may be......somewhere down the road.

The 8K moniker is as you surmised - a marketing label.

The real amazing performance are how it handles real world material.

1. 4000 nits. Today, OLEDs are rated for about 750-850 nits. The last flagship from Sony the ZD9 was 1800 nits. Samsung got close to 2000 nits but got it by fudging the tonemapping.

HDR content on discs/movies can be rated for 1000 nits, 2000 nits, 4000 nits, 8000 and even higher. On a display with lower nit ratings, the video processing has to remap (aka tone map) the brighter mastered image to fit in the available display brightness.

The ZG9 will go all the way to 4000 nits with no tonemapping (which I believe will cover a huge majority of movies today).

2. Full Array LED backlight with one of the highest dimmable zones - this allows the display to get close to OLED black levels.

3. Sony X1 grade video processing.. makes motion look incredibly natural (especially for sports) and also one of the best upscaling in the business - making even 1080p look like UHD material.