Sony Z9J Master Series – What features does the 8K Master Series have?

There’s no other way to put it, the Z9J comes at a hefty price, but it also looks simply classy. While the Z9J isn’t quite as flat as most high-end TVs, it makes up for it with its slim frame and the materials used. The frame and back are made of metal and make a high-quality impression and don’t distract from the picture content, allowing for an immersive TV experience.

When wall-mounted, the Z9J cuts a really fine figure, even though it’s not the thinnest TV on the market. In addition, neat cable management is also taken care of when wall-mounted. The cables can be hidden by the rear panel and are only visible on the bottom of the TV. Many of the Z9J’s interfaces face the left edge of the screen, with all three HDMI 2.1 interfaces facing down. There is one HDMI interface facing the left edge of the screen, but this is not HDMI 2.1.

If you prefer to set up the TV with the feet, you’ll be pleased to know that the feet can be mounted in three variable positions. Thus, the Sony TV is prepared for all eventualities, such as small TV furniture or a soundbar positioned in front of it.

No OLED, no mini LED backlight – so what can you expect from this flagship model? Quite a lot!

The 10-bit VAVertical Alignment, type of LCD Panel panel has deep and even blacks and a contrast ratio of around 5000:1, which is achieved by the excellent Full Array Local Dimming feature that manages with comparatively few zones. Even though other manufacturers, such as Samsung, have considerably more zones with mini LED backlighting, the Z9J performs better and shows fewer annoying effects like blooming. This quickly shows that it is not only the number of zones that matters, but at least as much the dimming algorithm used. BloomingAdding a brighter area around bright objects on a dark background is not really noticeable in normal content, only in subtitles on a white background you can see bright halos around the letters, which should really be tolerable.

The Z9J can get incredibly bright with a peak brightness of ~3000Nits, which really benefits High Dynamic Range content in particular. This allows even delicate highlights in very bright content to be rendered accurately. In combination with the wide color gamut, this results in an excellent HDRHigh Dynamic Range – image/video with more dynamic range (contrast range) performance that leaves hardly anything to be desired. Not only very bright content is rendered well, but also gloomy settings are staged well. Black crush, i.e. the loss of details in very dark content, is not really noticeable on the Z9J.

In addition, the Z9J handles reflections exceptionally well and the viewing angle has been greatly extended by Sony’s X-Wide Angle layer, so colors don’t wash out as much from oblique viewing angles and black levels remain consistent.

What really sets the Sony TV apart, however, are Sony’s picture enhancement algorithms. The Bravia XR processor does an excellent job of optimizing color and brightness, producing a natural-looking image that lives up to filmmakers’ intentions.

For HDR optimization, the TV has Dolby VisionDynamic HDR-format with a color depth of up to 12 Bits and Mastering of up to 10,000 Nits available in addition to HDR10HDR10 Media Profile – HDR with a color depth of 10 Bit in the Rec. 2020 colorspace, HLGHLG or Hybrid Log Gamma facilitates the transmission and reception of signals by combining the SDR and HDR signals. If the device supports HDR, the HDR part of the signal is used, otherwise the SDR part. and HGIG. However, you have to do without HDR10+License-free, dynamic HDR-format in competition with Dolby Vision.

Currently, an 8K resolution does not really bring an advantage. On the one hand, there is hardly any 8K content and on the other hand, most users cannot even see the difference in their setup. A 4K vs. 8K double-blind study was conducted on this, which came to the conclusion that 8K probably brings less of an advantage for most users. The situation is different when you sit very close in front of a large TV. Here, 8K naturally has the advantage that the picture looks better, but you would have to sit very close to it, which is probably an exception.

Thus, the Z9J is less purchased for the 8K resolution than for the innovative features that Sony has saved for their absolute flagship model.

Motion handling is on par with other high-quality LED LCDLCD = Liquid Crystal Display – a type of screen using liquid crystals for creating the image TVs. The Z9J has a 120Hz panel with a response time of about 4ms, which only leads to a slight motion blur in fast movements. The XR processor does a good job here as well and minimizes this blur even further, making it less pronounced than on TVs with a comparable response time. And if that is still too much, you can use the Black Frame InsertionProcess that inserts black “blank images” as intermediate images. This makes movements appear finer and clearer. feature. This removes the motion blur as far as possible, but the brightness suffers a bit.

The downside of the low response time is the occurrence of stutter during slow camera pans. This phenomenon can be eliminated by activating the motion interpolationArtificial calculation of more frames than the source material has to offer feature. However, this can lead to the so-called Soap Opera Effect, which is not everyone’s cup of tea.

JudderInconsistent time frame due to the input frequency not mismatching the TV’s frequency (e.g. 24p via 60Hz) can of course be removed from all sources.

As far as gaming is concerned, the Z9J is a really great TV, even if you can’t really call it a gaming TV. It has a total of three HDMI 2.1 interfaces that make 4K@120Hz possible. At 4K@60Hz, the input lag is ~10ms, allowing for responsive gaming. It also has an Auto Picture Mode, which is an Auto Low Latency Mode for the Playstation 5, unfortunately Xbox Series X users are still left empty-handed.

Dolby Gaming can also be used with the Xbox Series X, since the Z9J supports Dolby VisionDynamic HDR-format with a color depth of up to 12 Bits and Mastering of up to 10,000 Nits as well as Dolby AtmosObject-based surround sound format with 3D-Sound from any direction. However, Dolby Vision does not work at 4K@120Hz but only at 4K@60Hz – whether that will be changed by an update is unfortunately highly questionable.

In terms of sound, the Z9J is also well positioned. The 2.2.2 channel sound system with a total of 85W (RMS) produces a well-balanced sound, which is quite sufficient for normal everyday TV watching. A majority of the speakers are located in the bottom of the TV and are supported by the two rear-facing subwoofers. To lift the sound upwards and make it more spatial, treble speakers are integrated into the frame. These are enough to make it seem as if the sound is coming out of the picture and involves the user in what is happening.

The Z9J also has a Room Correction feature, which allows it to adjust the sound to the acoustics of the room.

These features are all implemented quite well, so the Z9J performs much better than most other TVs, but it’s also a lot more expensive, so you probably won’t be satisfied with the integrated sound system.

A hi-fi system would match the sound to the great picture of the Sony TV. Both Dolby AtmosObject-based surround sound format with 3D-Sound from any direction and DTSMulti-channel-sound-system (Surround Sound) competing with Dolby Digital are available via the HDMI eARC interface for a real home theater atmosphere with immersive surround sound from all directions.

The Sony Z9J does not reinvent the wheel in terms of smart features. It uses Google TV as its smart operating system, but you could also call it a polished Android OS. The operation runs smoothly and intuitively, but it is unfortunately not completely free of ads – but that is normal for almost all manufacturers nowadays.

Thanks to the Google Play Store, the selection of apps is enormous and all common streaming services are already preinstalled, so you can immediately browse through your libraries at will. If navigating with the illuminated remote control is too cumbersome, you can also use Google Assistant as a voice assistant. Amazon Alexa requires a third-party device like the Echo Dot.

Apple users will be happy about Apple Homekit and the easy data exchange via Airplay. There is also a twin tuner that enables the USB recording function. But unfortunately, the Z9J does not have a timeshift function – as always with Sony.