Sony 4K TV: Splendid picture, not so splendid price
- Provides four times resolution of HDTV
- Sony launches downloadable 4K movie service
- Pricey%2C requires dedicated media player
Remember the exhilaration you felt after buying your first high-definition television? You reveled in live sports, movies and even were intoxicated by nature shows and other programs you barely knew existed before, just because of how detailed the picture looked compared with the TVs you'd watched for years. Not everything was pristine back then — the non-HD fare you still took in looked lousy.
Now, more than four years removed from the end of analog TV broadcasting and with an abundance of inexpensive flat panels to choose from, HDTVs are pretty common. While the initial excitement certainly has worn off, most of the HDTV viewers I come across are perfectly satisfied with the picture quality.
That may be terrific for you, the viewer, but it's not so swell for an electronics industry challenged with sinking profits. It's why the industry is now championing what it claims is the next be-all in television, and it's not 3-D. Instead, it's the 4K TVs, so named because they boast four times the picture resolution or sharpness of today's HDTVs. True, the discussion of next-gen TVs doesn't end with 4K. TV makers, for example, are also promoting emerging display technologies such as OLED (for "organic light-emitting diode) and yes you can have a 4K TV with an OLED display, as Sony and others have shown, but such TVs are going to take awhile.
Over the past several weeks I've been living with 4K, specifically the Sony XBR-65X900A that is taking up temporary residence in my family room. It's a thin and elegant 65-inch backlit LED beauty of a set, with a magnificent picture that's bolstered by more than 8 million individual pixels, and a vibrant color palette. (Yes, it does 3-D, too.) The sound is pretty special, too — with two powerful 65-watt front-facing speakers.
But getting consumers to trade up to 4K is not going to be easy. The newest sets, which you'll also see called Ultra HD TVs, require a considerable investment on the part of a consumer who not all that long ago plunked down loot for a new HDTV.
The Sony I've been testing lists for $5,499.99, and if there's good news about that lofty sum, it's that the price was just reduced from $6,999.99. Still, as much as I've been spoiled these many weeks watching this TV, it is difficult to cough up that kind of money.
You can choose an even larger screen, of course, but Sony's 84-inch XBR 4K model fetches $24,999.99. Another 55-inch model is "down to" about four-grand. Today Sony announces two new 4K models that are coming soon, at $3,499 for 55 inches and $4,999 for 65 inches. Sony is not the only 4K game in town, either, with all the usual electronics suspects pushing their own 4K TVs.
According to Consumer Electronics Association forecasts, factory shipments of Ultra HD TVs will grow from about 1,000 units in 2012 to about 23,000 this year. It's going to take awhile.
The questions being asked about 4K today parallel HDTV in the period before they started to take off: Most notably, is there anything to watch that exploits the latest technology? And is the picture that superior?
Sony is doing its part to address both questions, but don't expect an avalanche of 4K content anytime soon. The company today launches the Sony Unlimited 4K download video service with a library of more than 70 4K full-length feature films and TV shows, including early seasons of Breaking Bad. Titles come from Sony Pictures Entertainment and other movie production houses, with more than 100 promised before year's end. Consumers will be able to download 24-hour rentals for $3.99 (for TV shows) and $7.99 for movies. Or you can purchase movies for $29.99. Download times vary, but in general it will take about four times the length of the movie, so you might think about the flick you want to watch a day ahead of time.
For now you can download those movies only onto the Sony's 4K Ultra Media HD Media Player (model FMP-X1), which by itself commands — ouch — about $800. The proprietary player is preloaded with 10 movie titles, including Taxi Driver, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Amazing Spider-Man and Salt, as well as some seductive shorts that show off 4K in full splendor. The 2-terabyte box only works with Sony TVs. You can offload purchased films to an external hard drive to make room, without having to re-download the content.
I was blown away by footage of colorful marine life that was so vivid and realistic that you'd think you were scuba diving in your living room. The real clownfish put Nemo to shame — and, yep, the TV drew me back to nature. A friend quipped that the experience certainly was better than going to the local aquarium.
Probably the biggest and most pleasant surprise is how good regular TV looks. The TV can "upscale" whatever it is you are watching — a Blu-ray disc, live TV — through what Sony refers to as an X Reality Pro chip. You're not getting up to true 4K, of course, but everyone who watched with me was impressed anyway. I felt like I was courtside watching U.S. Open tennis.
While TV-production companies use 4K cameras, there is no cable or satellite 4K channel that has been announced. And despite speculation, nothing seems imminent on the possible availability of 4K Blu-ray titles.
Meanwhile, Sony has also released some Blu-ray titles that are "mastered in 4K" meaning they were created from 4K sources with expanded color. Titles include Godzilla, Men In Black and Moneyball. You can play these with any Blu-ray player and with PlayStation 3's.
But don't be misled by the "mastered in 4K" pitch — movies are encoded in the 1080p high-definition standard. The scenes looked fabulous — only not quite fab enough to spend all this extra money.
E-mail: ebaig@usatoday.com Follow@edbaig on Twitter
The bottom line
• Sony XBR-65X900A
• $5,499.99, store.sony.com
• Pro: Beautiful picture boasts four times resolution of HD. Splendid sound.
• Con: Expensive. Very little native 4K content, and Sony's new 4K download service requires additional $800 player.