List Price: $6,499.99
Sale Price: $4,498.00
Today's Bonus: 31% Off
I just received this TV today and first off delivery was somewhat smooth with one or two bumps but nothing big. This TV is everything you hear about minus the silly speakers along the side bar edges. The 4K is something to see and with this set buying the Media Player along with it is essential since you won't have to bring a technician to upgrade your TV like the XBR65X900A. This set is already up to date and has the latest upgrades. Within 10 minutes I was up and running and turning this on it literally blew me away. The 4K and even the HD are beautiful with no sign of pixels and the 65" shows this off even more than I would imagine the 55". What I noticed is that Sony did a very good job of streamlining their applications and internet content and now has tons more similar to a Roku box. Also the menus and preferences are picture icons and are larger. They also did away with the flat stand and went to a chrome heavy duty ring which is heavier but they did do away with a feature I enjoyed which was the tilt screen and now it is totally vertical which I can live with.
The 4K content on the media player is quite impressive with all sorts of demos of how cool this set looks and they also loaded up 10 movies in 4K of all new titles and TV shows to show off how glamorous 4K looks. For this price, the picture needs to look pristine and it does and was worth every penny. I am very satisfied with this purchase. One thing, be careful ordering from Amazon when it comes to Ceva shipping, They came through in the end but the tracking was sub par and never clued me in to where this item was the entire time to delivery window. For those other reviews saying this is not worth it and not ready for prime time, just wait, Sony is not a dumb company,...remember they were the first to jump on board with Blu Ray loading it into the new PS3s. 4K is here to stay and you won't be sorry. I have owned 4 Sony TVs and not one has done me wrong. They also throw in 1 year of Hulu Plus and Netflix streaming so you can't go wrong there.
UPDATE 10/5: Watching this for a few days now it is truly impressive however it does require professional calibration from an expert (not Geek Squad). I hired one of the top experts in the Northeast to come out this week and calibrate this TV the right way. Yes it is an extra cost, but for this high end a TV, why not get the best. Without the right calibration, the black levels and dimming and color is off on the factory settings and trying to adjust yourself is pointless. Regular cable even in HD does not look great on this TV the way it comes shipped. Lots of washed out faces and blossoming colors. Also, not crazy about the stand. Not sure why Sony went to this giant silver stand, yet it is sturdy but looks strange to have this large raised ring at the bottom of this TV, plus prevents a sound bar from being used against the TV and putting a bar on top blocks the screen so I had to pull my Sonos bar way in front of the ring. The chrome ring looks a bit cheesy.
As for the 4K the newer movies much like Blu Ray are impressive like Total Recall and Amazing Spiderman. I tried watching a clip of Glory and although it was crystal, it was still not as striking as the newer movies. Once the calibration happens I am sure I will be more impressed.
Regular Blu Ray and 3D are great on this set. I tried out Tron Legacy in 3D and even with active 3D, it was pretty cool. Watched Star Trek III in blu ray and it was very impressive even for an older movie like that. Again, once the calibration happens, I am quite sure I will be blown away. One thing I will make clear, this set is very nice because the frame around the set is almost a slate/silver color and is very thin, unlike the 900A with the side speakers which to me looked horrible, this set is full 65" edge to edge and the screen is very large. Moving up from a 55" to this set it was quite a noticeable difference, but I have to say between this set and the Samsung's, I will go with Sony every time. They just know how to make TVs and don't have their hand in the mobile market distracting them from good quality video. I am sure by years end there will be tons more 4K content out there. For now, it seems they have just enough to wet the palate of the consumer and keep them wanting more. One thing that really impressed me about 4K is the sound is unreal. It blows Blu Ray sound away. So far so good on this set.
UPDATE 10/6: One thing I noticed walking into a Magnolia section of a Best buy is that all of their 4Ks are connected to high end Power Conditioners/Surge Suppressors. I rethought my home theater set up and began rethinking the Monster $100 power strip I had this magnificent piece of technology connected to and ended up buying a Panamax M5300-PM. For $576 what this does is not only protect the entire system from power surges, it evens the power out and actually projects a better picture and sound. I then viewed 4K again after connecting and it was even more impressive than before and the sound was unreal. I highly recommend adding one of these to your set up for peace of mind etc. Why not since you just dropped 5K on a TV, $500 is nothing. Also added a new Logitech Harmony Touch Ultimate remote to upgrade mine from the 900. This along with my entire Sonus surround system with playbar, sub and two Play 3s, I believe now this set up is complete.
UPDATE 10/10: I had the Set calibrated today by a 20+ year Professional Calibration technician with some high speed calibration equipment. Adjusted Grey Scale, black levels, color etc. What a difference. Sony was not off with factory settings he mentioned, however he adjusted to Custom Settings and adjusted all sorts of levels including Gamma and it is unbelievable. Everything is in natural tone like it should be and now this set is even more magnificent. This now looks like it should and the 4K really pops! Awesome!
UPDATE 10/12: This will be my last update since having this TV over 1 week I have provided as much info as I could. To conclude, the professional calibration needed to be tweaked. As much as the calibration wants to show "natural tones" and "what the directors see" when they film something, it was too dark and dim to continue watching. According to the calibrator, the extra settings Sony puts on TVs are to keep up with the competition such as motion control etc, however I disagree and it is all personal preference. My preference is for this TV to be set to brighter more elaborate tones so it pops which it now does since I adjusted accordingly. I could not get used to the dark almost black images so I had to go back a bit to what I liked. Not sure I would recommend professional calibration since most TVs today do a pretty good job of letting the consumer adjust. I did however purchase a calibration DVD to have in case I wanted to make further adjustments. In all, this is an amazing TV and I am very happy with this purchase.
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