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When I reviewed the impressive Sony 75X940D TV recently, I found myself wishing by the end that this 75-inch monster wasn’t the only LCD TV with direct LED lighting to figure in Sony ’s 2016 range. Happily that wish has now been granted with the announcement by Sony of a whole series of new 4K/HDR TVs that not only use direct LED lighting but do so to an unprecedented degree of accuracy.
These new TVs are dubbed the Z9 (ZD9 in Europe) series – a significant change in itself given that Sony’s has been stuck on ‘X’ designations for the past couple of years. Indeed, Sony confirmed that the “new ‘Z’ moniker designates a significant leap forward” – which means, hopefully, that Sony has essentially turned its direct LED lighting system up to 11.
The Sony XBR-65Z9D delivers a whole new level of backlight control. (PRNewsFoto/Sony Electronics)
The Sony XBR-65Z9D delivers a whole new level of backlight control. (PRNewsFoto/Sony Electronics)
At the heart of the Z9’s potential charms is a combination of direct LED lighting (where the LEDs appear directly behind the picture rather than around its edges) and a new iteration of Sony’s Backlight Master Drive technology where every single LED it uses can be controlled individually, rather than only clusters of LEDs being controllable separately as has previously been the case. (Though this is not to be confused with each pixel creating its own light, as happens with OLED technology.)
While Sony won’t be drawn on exactly how many separate, individually controlled LEDs are in play in the Z9s, the potential impact on contrast and light uniformity of such a fine degree of LED control is clearly immense.
LED beams
Sony’s innovations for the Z9 series don’t stop there, though. It also introduces something Sony calls a calibrated beam LED design, which can “gather the emitted LED lights in a spot and focus the drive area more narrowly to display higher contrast.”
