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Sony launched its new TV and soundbar lineup April 17 with the tagline “Cinema is coming residence.” However a month earlier, they invited me to journey removed from residence—from the East Coast to Sony Photos Studios in Culver Metropolis, Calif.—for a behind-the-screens preview of the philosophy and know-how that went into the 2024 fashions.
Ecto-1. Johnny 5. BRAVIA 9. Our two-day tour of the lot showcased utilized science of the previous and current. Film props and filmmakers giving Sony engineers props. Traditional characters and new naming conventions. I discovered myself in JEOPARDY! and on a holodeck. It was a soup-to-nuts, lens-to-living room take a look at mastering screens, residence theater setups, and the push to slim the hole between creators and shoppers.
Seeing what we’re not seeing
Sony’s new TVs embody 4 fashions and two essential acronyms: BRAVIA and HDR. The “Greatest Decision Audio Visible Built-in Structure” model has been a part of Sony’s televisions for nearly 20 years however is now the unifying label for the BRAVIA 3, 7, 8, and 9 screens, in addition to the BRAVIA Theater Bar 8 and Theater Bar 9. For anybody used to Sony’s units just like the X95L, X90L, and so on., X not marks the spot besides on the SKU. (The A80L can also be gone—no extra separate LED and OLED sequence—however that didn’t match the final sentence’s wordplay as effectively.)
The BRAVIA 9 is now the Mini-LED flagship, with essentially the most expanded, genuine distinction, whereas the BRAVIA 8 is an OLED different. The BRAVIA 7 is a extra approachable Mini-LED, whereas the BRAVIA 3 is an entry-level LED. Is making purchasing easier than the earlier system the rename of the sport? Debatable, and it doesn’t assist that the flagship A95L will stay in the marketplace. On the very least, the brand new monikers make it clear that the BRAVIA 9 is the set Sony considers the true peak of this 12 months’s improvements—peak brightness notably.
On to that second acronym. The power to show off each diode independently permits OLED screens unbeatable black ranges and distinction, given a low-light setting to point out its finest. However in relation to HDR, or Excessive Dynamic Vary, the height brightness ranges achievable by a Mini-LED display permit for extra management over superb highlights and luminance that may stand as much as rooms with extra pure gentle.
Sony’s brightest 4K TV up to now (50% brighter with 325% extra dimming zones), the BRAVIA 9’s Excessive Peak Luminance units out to slim the hole with OLED’s pixel-level management whereas enhancing the power to carry out precisely wherever individuals need (or want) to arrange their TV, not simply in an optimized residence theater or demo den. Sony hosted its product reveal all through the studio lot, and invited administrators and cinematographers to talk to us, to strengthen the half the corporate performs in each stage of the cinema sign chain—from skilled Venice cameras like these used on Prime Gun: Maverick to sound design to color-grading screens. And it’s Sony’s perception within the potential of HDR to protect the element and intent of each body that explains why the primary, foundational display we noticed was one none of us will ever purchase.
Shining a light-weight on backlighting
The HX3110 is an if-you-have-to-ask-you-can’t-afford-it 31-inch 4K reference monitor with a dual-layer LCD panel able to shade grading as much as 4,000 nits. So far, most movies are mastered to 1,000 nits due to the restrictions of earlier screens. With the NX3110, even the smallest highlights might be displayed with out clipping, and a couple of,000/1,000 nits settings permit filmmakers to make sure particulars translate to any present show situations. And the gradients on show have been compelling. But it surely’s that 4,000 nits future that knowledgeable the event of the BRAVIA 9’s native dimming and backlight processing.
Handing out sun shades, our hosts had us flip to the opposite aspect of the darkened room, draped in blackout curtains. On one desk was a BRAVIA 9 with out its LCD panel, with an intact TV on the ground in entrance of it. To the aspect have been two units from a competitor in an equivalent association. Can the BRAVIA 9 attain the brightness ranges or shading of a tens of 1000’s of {dollars} skilled monitor with out clipping? No, however it did demo the “XR Backlight Grasp Drive” and newly developed IC (LED Driver) system’s response time and object recognition, in addition to exhibit the colour quantity and specular highlights, which emulated a number of the HX3110’s vivid copy admirably. The bare backlight, effectively, illuminated the extent of definition 22-bit channel management can produce. And a granular grasp of every part and present additionally means 20% much less energy consumption, based on Sony.
This may also come into play in one in every of Sony’s new partnerships. The BRAVIA 7, 8, and 9 will all function Prime Video Calibrated Mode, a function introduced on the occasion by B.A. Winston, VP of know-how for Amazon Prime Video, that auto-adjusts image settings for the content material streaming (motion pictures, TV, stay sports activities, and so on.), display kind, and the sunshine circumstances within the room. (Prime Video joins related processing for Netflix and the Sony Photos Core app.) IMAX Enhanced, Dolby Imaginative and prescient, HLG, and HDR10 assist—plus 4K 120Hz, VRR, ALLM, Auto Tone Mapping, and different “Excellent for PS5” options for avid gamers—be certain all the image mode packing containers are checked.
As for the BRAVIA 8 OLED, it’s 10% brighter whereas being 30% slimmer than 2023’s A80L. The BRAVIA 7 is 790% brighter than final 12 months’s full-array LED X90L. But it surely’s the BRAVIA 9 that’s an improve from each angle—together with the viewing angle, which exhibited low off-axis desaturation. I stay up for testing one to deliver all of the shadowy particulars into the sunshine.
BRAVIA TV fashions and costs, as soon as obtainable
BRAVIA 9 Mini LED
- 85″ Class (84.6″ diag): $5,499.99 USD MSRP
- 75″ Class (74.5″ diag): $3,999.99 USD MSRP
- 65″ Class (64.5″ diag): $3,299.99 USD MSRP
BRAVIA 8 OLED
- 77″ Class (76.7″ diag): $3,899.99 USD MSRP
- 65″ Class (64.5″ diag): $2,799.99 USD MSRP
- 55″ Class (54.6″ diag): $1,999.99 USD MSRP
BRAVIA 7 Mini LED
- 85″ Class (84.6″ diag): $3,499.99 USD MSRP
- 75″ Class (74.5″ diag): $2,799.99 USD MSRP
- 65″ Class (64.5″ diag): $2,299.99 USD MSRP
- 55″ Class (54.6″ diag): $1,899.99 USD MSRP
BRAVIA 3 LED
- 85″ Class (84.6″ diag): $1,799.99 USD MSRP
- 75″ Class (74.5″ diag): $1,299.99 USD MSRP
- 65″ Class (64.5″ diag): $999.99 USD MSRP
- 55″ Class (54.6″ diag): $849.99 USD MSRP
- 50″ Class (49.5″ diag): $699.99 USD MSRP
- 43″ Class (42.5″ diag): $599.99 USD MSRP
