vickster
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Yes picture wiseThanks guys. That's now gone. Is the KD55XH9296BU the same as the 9005?
Yes picture wiseThanks guys. That's now gone. Is the KD55XH9296BU the same as the 9005?
I don't think RS T&C's say they'll beat Topcashback deals, but no harm in askingLooks like you were right as cant see the extra 10% off now - missed the boat again as all seem to be back up to £1199 except Currys with the extra 10% topcashback. Wonder if my local RS will price match Currys @ £1199- 10% cashback then beat by £20? £1060ish? Call in the morning and fingers double crossed
The XH85 has no backlight control at all, the entire TV will have raised black levels instead of some parts of the screen being dark, some light. Blooming is a by product of local dimming, but its a lot, lot better to have local dimming and good HDR from a TV nowadays than it is to avoid blooming altogether.Thank you Everybody I missed that one as well. I just need to be quicker
this week I had decided I would just get a 49x8505. I came to the decision that I wanted a 49 rather than a 55. And there weren’t any! I’ve decided not to go for the 49x9505 as the blooming issue would annoy me. If I’m honest I don’t watch that much telly to justify going for a 55 9505 And I think it’s too big.
but the 55 9005 might have been a nice comprise. I think we are getting to the point where some comprise might be required as models start selling out.
How do you find out the build monthReally happy with Sony refurbished TVs. My 77 oled is a October 2020 build in prefect condition and just 9 hours use
There’s a sticker on the back with the serial number on and a date of manufactureHow do you find out the build month
Nice one. There's no chance I'm checking that haha. Took me almost an hour last night getting it on the wall. Don't fancy taking it off just to check a dateThere’s a sticker on the back with the serial number on and a date of manufacture
I'm interested by this as it doesn't match my experience at all in terms of raised blacks within the picture in bright scenes. What did you watch, so I can compare?The XH85 has no backlight control at all, the entire TV will have raised black levels instead of some parts of the screen being dark, some light.
Have you seen an OLED in action? TVs are very good at making blacks look black when infact they are just really dark grey. OLEDs are the only TV with truly black reproduction. That is why their images look so good as the contrast is infinite. Colours pop. Even though your TV might perform well to your eye the reality is that even when your TV is showing a black image all of the backlights behind it are on. Put a black image up on screen and watch in a dark room. You will be able to see the outline of your screen. With an OLED you won't, it will look like the TV is off.I'm interested by this as it doesn't match my experience at all in terms of raised blacks within the picture in bright scenes. What did you watch, so I can compare?
My experience is that the picture clips really bright spots of the picture, but black is very dark (and certainly looks black to my untrained eye). I agree that there are times that the whole screen will brighten or darken as one, dependant on source (Netflix appears to be the biggest culprit even in HD) but to say that the XH85 raises the black level in bright scenes (which I what I think you're saying) doesn't match my experience (maybe it's doing something funky make the eye think it is still black?).
I wholly agree, which is the reason why I reckon that there are tricks at play in making dark look black to the eye. I also fully appreciate that the difference is more noticeable when placing TVs side by side.Have you seen an OLED in action? TVs are very good at making blacks look black when infact they are just really dark grey. OLEDs are the only TV with truly black reproduction. That is why their images look so good as the contrast is infinite. Colours pop. Even though your TV might perform well to your eye the reality is that even when your TV is showing a black image all of the backlights behind it are on. Put a black image up on screen and watch in a dark room. You will be able to see the outline of your screen. With an OLED you won't, it will look like the TV is off.
TVs with dimming zones are able to turn sections of their backlights on and off to try their best to replicate OLED experiences. This works to varying degrees but ultimately because you end up with 1 section being on and another beside it being off the "On" section bleeds into the darker "off" are. Most notable in subtitles.
I recently upgraded from a Fully Backlit (no dimming) TV to a Full Array local dimming TV and the black levels are extremely noticeable. Night and day if you forgive the pun.
Infact I have an image to show the difference. Like you I was fairly happy with the Dark levelsnon the bottom TV until I made the switch.
Hi all
Thank you for all the comments. Very helpful.
I had read a couple of reviews for both the 49 XH95 and the 55 XH95 by the same person. I am afraid I can't find the links.
In the review for the 49 he mentioned that blooming was an issue. I then watched a video that showed the problem and it was pretty bad on the 49 and the reason being is that there wasn't enough vertical diming zones.
The same reviewer also did a review for the 55 and said that blomming really wasn't an issue on this set.
I am almost certainly overthinking the whole TV buying process. I'm upgrading from a LG 43 set that was one of Dodge best buys last year so I suspect all sets that I am looking at will be an upgrade.
Newguy
Here you goIt's hard to judge the 49" when no-one really reviews it, it's all 55" and up.
Its simple. The XH85 does not have any dimming zones behind the TV, so it can't separated bright parts of the image from darker parts without raising the black level where its not intended to be raised. At circa 500 nits brightness that may not matter as much as the XH9505 with 1500 but having the nits to push out is part of what HDR is about.I'm interested by this as it doesn't match my experience at all in terms of raised blacks within the picture in bright scenes. What did you watch, so I can compare?
My experience is that the picture clips really bright spots of the picture, but black is very dark (and certainly looks black to my untrained eye). I agree that there are times that the whole screen will brighten or darken as one, dependant on source (Netflix appears to be the biggest culprit even in HD) but to say that the XH85 raises the black level in bright scenes (which I what I think you're saying) doesn't match my experience (maybe it's doing something funky make the eye think it is still black?).
My understanding of the Sony algorithm (after further research as a result of our prior discussions) is that it matches the source brightness until it can't where it then tones maps down and clips where it can't.
Whilst I am very happy with the XH85 (as I was going to be going for a Samsung TU8500 before and this is far better), this approach from Sony is the reason why I am looking out over the next year to see the difference between the 49XH95 and the 50XJ94 as the 49XH95 currently has twice the native brightness and tracks up to twice the nits (2000 vs 1000). If there is little between the models, I may just buy the older model.
Again, whilst I am happy with the XH85 I would pay an additional £100 for a far better TV in the 49XH95 if that's all I had to do. This isn't me trying to justify my purchase, and I have spent hours comparing the 4K SDR picture with the DV equivalent and the latter simply has much more depth in it to my eyes.
It'd be really useful if someone could do a side by side comparison between the XH85, XH90 and XH95 as I do wonder if some people are just looking at specs rather than the real world experience.
Of course, I am not an expert in this and am merely a normal person reporting what I see
I get there’s tests out there, I was interested in the tests you’ve done on the TV as it’s always useful to get real world comparisons.Its simple. The XH85 does not have any dimming zones behind the TV, so it can't separated bright parts of the image from darker parts without raising the black level where its not intended to be raised. At circa 500 nits brightness that may not matter as much as the XH9505 with 1500 but having the nits to push out is part of what HDR is about.
The black levels if the XH85 will be raised if there's a bright highlight, since there's no way for the TV to dim one part of the image whilst also brighten another. To do so the entire backlight has to go full, for only part of an image.
Take a look at some tests for local dimming at rtings.com and see the difference on FALD TVs compared to non-FALD:
Local Dimming on TVs: Direct-Lit, Full-Array, and Edge-Lit
Local dimming is a way for LED TVs to improve the contrast ratio in dark scenes by dimming zones of the backlight. This makes blacks appear deeper than they normally are without the feature.www.rtings.com
The test they use is also in the link, so you can use it yourself.
Perhaps you don't notice it because you don't own the XH90 or XH95, or perhaps you don't view an environment where deeper blacks are noticeable. Its really hard to gauge if you don't have something to compare the TV too. I've known people happy with black levels on TVs that have awful black levels, so it really just depends on so many factors..
I haven't done any tests on the TVs. To do so I'd need to buy different models and that's not something I have the finances for. It doesn't really matter though, there's plenty of other tests out there to draw conclusions from. The rtings.com link I sent explains it.I get there’s tests out there, I was interested in the tests you’ve done on the TV as it’s always useful to get real world comparisons.