Went 4K in the Studio

I was asked yesterday if I had considered Sony's newest 65 inch A8F OLED television. I had the opportunity to compare both the Sony 65 inch A1E OLED television (last year's model) and LG's OLED65C7P to the XBR65X900E that I purchased for the living room. While I thought the color, and particularly the black levels to be outstanding on both models of OLED TV's, I was convinced in side by side viewing that the color gamut and black levels with the full array LED back lighting on the Sony XBR65X900E was very close. Also, there is still quite a price gap between OLED panels and Sony's HDR Ultra LCD panels, particularly the 900E series. Sony's LED full array back lighted panels are tried and proven technology with an excellent track record for longevity and reliability. OLED is still an emerging and developing technology that has some history to be gained before I am convinced the price difference makes the technology worth it. Sony has only been in the OLED game with television for two years. Last year's Bravia A1E was Sony's first consumer OLED offering. Perhaps when the failure rate of OLED panels during manufacturing decreases more the cost will begin to drop to a more competitive level. Sony's newest 65 inch A8F OLED television is selling for $3,800.00. My XBR65X900E was purchased for $1,500.00 on sale. To my eyes the OLED's I compared it to did not justify such a price disparity. I have $3,400.00 total in the 49 inch, 55 inch, and 65 inch 900E series 4K televisions I purchased. That's $400.00 less than a single Sony 65 inch A8F OLED costs.

Then there is OLED burn in, a real issue with static images on the screen like the damn channel logos content providers love to keep pasted in the lower corner of the screen, and those tickers news channels park at the bottom of the screen. Like plasma and CRT before it, OLED can retain images on the screen temporarily, and perhaps even permanently, if it's left static for too long. This is an issue that disturbs me, even if the chance of it happening is remote. Then there is the lifespan of OLED compared to LCD and LED. At this time OLED lifespan is in the range of 15,000 hours, where LCD lifespan exceeds 60,000 hours. That is a substantial difference, especially for someone who uses a television many hours per day and plans to keep it as long as possible.

So, to answer the original question is yes, I considered OLED. My decision to remain with LCD technology that uses full array LED back lighting was not made lightly. I consider my money well spent on the three high quality Sony 900E series 4K televisions. I am extremely pleased with the picture quality. The future may see an OLED TV in my home but at this time I am not quite ready to embrace the current state of that art.
 
I’m going for the 77 inch Sony OLED once the price comes down to earth.


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Mike said:
I’m going for the 77 inch Sony OLED once the price comes down to earth.
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Mike.......No doubt it will be an absolute knock out to watch. The 77 inch Sony A1E series is tilting the scale at $10K. I would expect the 2018 version in the A8F series will probably be a bit higher. That's a lot of money for a television.
 
jdandy said:
Mike.......No doubt it will be an absolute knock out to watch. The 77 inch Sony A1E series is tilting the scale at $10K. I would expect the 2018 version in the A8F series will probably be a bit higher. That's a lot of money for a television.
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It sure is. What’s the 75-77 inch you would recommend?


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Mike said:
It sure is. What’s the 75-77 inch you would recommend?
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Mike.......I believe I would wait until Sony releases the 2018 version of their A8F series that just came out in 65 inch. The LG OLED looks really good, too, but I think Sony's processing prowess is worth sticking with them.


 
jdandy said:
Well, the Sony UBP-X800 4K Ultra Blu-ray player is going back to Best Buy today. I am returning it because it is unacceptably noisy. I watched the 4K version of Wanted last night in the bedroom and the disc spinning motor noise was audible over the soundtrack of the movie and particularly noisy during silent scenes. The Sony player has a great 4K picture but I can't tolerate the noisy drive, so back it goes to the retailer. Looks like I will be ordering a third Oppo UDP-203 for the bedroom. It is dead silent when operating. I don't know if something is amiss with the drive in the Sony UBP-X800 player, but I am not interested in trying another because of the 100 mile round trip back and forth to Best Buy to return it if it is like the first one. I'll just order another Oppo UDP-203 and be done with it.
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I am right in the middle of an experiment. I started last night with full dedicated seriousness.

1. Disc used: Atomic Blonde 4K UHD/HDR Blu-ray disc.
2. 4K Blu-ray players comparison: Sony UBP-X800 and Oppo UDP-205 universal 4K Blu-ray players.
3. Goal: To determine the amount of noise when the 4K disc is spinning in each player, from...
a) The beginning, when the movie starts.
b) The middle of the movie.
c) The end of the movie.
4. Practical: By putting my left ear each time from just two inches of each player, directly above their respective disc tray.
5. Scientific: By using a SPL meter @ the same distance as above and recording the results.
6. All tests are performed with the volume on mute.

I take my time, as I feel like it, so it might take few more days or more.

So far: Both players are noisier @ the beginning of the movie, with Sony slightly noisier.
Both players are real smooth in the middle of the movie, with the Oppo being perhaps slightly smoother.

In a very quiet room, @ normal viewing and listening activity, @ approximately seven to nine feet distance, both players perform quite well noise wise in my opinion. But that's me, and both players don't exhibit any deficiency as disc transport is concerned. I got lucky from the batches.

For someone extremely sensitive to noise and meticulous in eliminating the utmost lesser ones, Oppo 203 and 205 are a good choice. But the Sony X800 I found very quiet too, in comparison with the Oppo 205, and in particular with several other Blu-ray players in my systems...from Samsung, Sony...older players.
The Oppo 103 performs similar to the 205 and X800 noise wise.

Also, the shelf where the player sits is important.
Plus, a bedroom is usually pretty quiet for environment electronic noise...less gear.

I'm not done yet...to be continued, or not.
For now this is what my ears have heard. This is nothing official as there are just too many aspects to consider, but yes the Oppo players are quite quiet, and that Sony 800 is no small peanuts in the motor noise department from its disc transport mechanism. You can reduce it further by using absorption footing and shelving. ...Same for the Oppo.
* Decibels measurement wise is going to be a fraction of one decibel difference, so this test might be done very quickly, as it becomes irrelevant in real life movie watching activity and music listening.

By the way, in Canadian dollars the Oppo 205 costed me roughly ten times more than the Sony 800 player.
I know if means nothing, it's only money, but for many the Sony X800 player would do just fine noise wise.
Let see if Sony can come up with a real tank next...a Dolby Vision tank with the seal of Elevated Standard.
For now that role belongs to the Oppo 205.

And, later on this year Panasonic will introduce their new 4K players, among them the 820 and the 9000.
The 9000 seems like it could be quite quiet too.
 
Bob.......That's interesting, and I appreciate you performing the noise experiment. In my particular case the Sony X800 player disc motor was far beyond the noise level of either of my Oppo UDP-203 players, or my Oppo BDP-105, BDP-95, or the BPD-83 Special Edition. All of the Oppo players are inaudible from my seating position (approximately 12 feet from the player). I am waiting on delivery of my third Oppo UDP-203, but in the meantime I have put the Oppo BDP-95 in the bedroom in place of the Sony X800 that I returned. The Sony sounded like there was a battery operated hand tool in use in the room, a steady drone noise. The player sat on a solid oak chest of drawers. I lifted it off the chest of drawers during playback to see if some of the noise could be mitigated to no avail. Perhaps the Sony UBP-X800 was defective but I was not interested in trying a second one after my initial experience. I know the Oppo UDP-203 will satisfy me. No reason to look elsewhere.
 
Remember Dan, I just used a 4K BR disc, no other medium...no 1080p Blu, no DVD, no DVD-Audio, no CD, no SACD, just Atomic Blonde 4K disc.

But yes, the Oppo players are more quiet than the rest with all discs.
For USB sticks they are all about the same. ;)

* I thought about your Sony X800, and it is a possibility that it was noisier than other same Sony X800 players. It's very hard to determine the degree of this without having several of them from different owners who experienced different results noise wise. And also the same with the Oppo 203 and 205 because some owners have mentioned a high level of noise when playing 4K Blu-ray discs, in particular when loading them and @ the beginning of movie playback.

Some 4K BR discs are also more demanding (BD-100 with three layers).
And the 4K discs usually spin @ very high speed when loading them. They stabilize as the movie progresses. This is with all 4K players.

Anyway, I was interested in all of this because the Sony X800 has some heft to it, in order to reduce noise vibration. And it just happened that I use one, and a 4K Oppo player as well.

If I was just a little bit wealthier I wouldn't sweat one drop, and get an Oppo 205 in all the rooms with speakers and displays. ...Even on the airplane and the cruise ship. :cool:

It's too bad Oppo is closing doors. It is an indication of the times we are living in, moving forward.
But like the turntable Oppo players will keep spinning those 5-inch rainbow discs for still a very long time.
I will be dead gone within the next twenty years or so, but there will be Oppo players still spinning discs in our planet's orbit.
_____

** Hello to Ivan (Ferrari) and Terry (Mustang). ...Which one is less noisy? ...Tesla. ...The Roadster one orbiting in space.
 
wklie said:
Congratulations on the X900E. It is indeed one of the best buys of 2017 TV with very good picture quality and cost/performance.
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Peter.......Thank you. I came to the same conclusion after much research. I now own three 0f the Sony 900E Series televisions, a 49", a 55", and a 65", and three Oppo UDP-203 Ultra B;u-ray players, one connected to each television. They are all exceptional performers.
 
Yesterday afternoon I installed a fiber optic cable from the Toslink digital output on the new 4K Sony XBT55X900 installed in the studio to the McIntosh MX120 surround processor. Once I setup the digitial input on the MX120 for optical input I am now enjoying 5.1 surround sound while streaming Netflix and other Internet content providers. What a nice upgrade from listening to the television speakers while streaming Netflix, Hulu, and others. I don't know why I didn't think to do this when I first installed the TV. Better late than never.
 
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