Sony’s 2015 4K lineup has high definition sound and uses Android TV

Sony has gone big on Android TV and sound in its new 4K smart TV range launched in Australia.

Sony 2015 premium 4K smart TV

Sony has released new flagship smart TVs in Australia that purport to offer the ultimate high definition experience: ultra high definition 4K TVs coupled with high definition audio as well.

Both the 75-inch Bravia X9400C and the 65-inch X9300C have powerful, forward facing magnetic fluid speakers that aims to deliver a higher quality of audio to match the 4K visual quality.

Of the 10 new smart TV’s in Sony’s 2015 line-up, 6 have 4K displays with screen resolutions of 3840 x 2160 pixels and the rest are 1080p full HD displays. The new models range in size from 49 to 75-inches.

The two new premium 75-inch and 65-inch sets cost $11,999 and $6999 respectively.

In what is a first for Sony, 8 of the 10 models are powered by Google’s Android TV operating system. The Asus-built Nexus player was the first Android TV to come to market in Australia, in April.

I got to try out the new 75-inch premium model and the sound from its speakers down each side of the set was strong and rich.

The 75-inch model comes with its own sub woofer as well. At this stage you can’t buy high definition FLAC audio files directly using an app on the TV. It would be a nice touch. You have to load your music via a USB flash drive or USB connected NAS box.

This year Sony has opted to stay with LCD displays rather than delve into the world of OLED (organic light-emitted diode) that LG is showcasing in its new range. And Sony’s new TVs are all flat.

But its new range boasts special features of its own.

The 4K models have Sony’s new 4K Processor X1 chip which it says optimises clarity, colour accuracy and contrast. They have what’s called an X-Reality PRO upscaling algorithm that converts lower-than-4K quality to 4K.

For most of us, the ins and outs of how upscalers work is too complex to fathom. Sony has documented a series of methods it uses to improve picture quality for those who want the details.

One of them is quite quirky. Sony tells me that when analysing a scene, the upscaler accesses a reference database in the chip set to determine the best way to improve picture quality. That sounds a lot of dictionary work at 24 frames per second.

With Sony adopting the Android TV operating system, the dye is cast between three smart TV manufacturers: Sony, Samsung, and LG. They each now have their own distinctive TV operating systems, with Samsung using Tizen and LG webOS, and here Sony Android TV.

I got to play around with Android TV and it is well organised and easy to use. You just scroll down the screen to get from one feature to the next.

The first row you see is a list of programs recommended by Google based on your previous usage. Next is a row of recommended featured apps that are basically TV catch up services and music services, for example ABC iView, SBS On Demand, Plus7, QuickFlix, Crackle, Billabong and Pandora.

Scroll further down and you encounter the Android apps that Google has authorised for use on its televisions. That’s a small subset of Android apps generally. Plex, Kodi and VLC Player are notable among the offerings. I am a big fan of Plex as it’s a classy way of accessing and displaying your home media content on a smart TV. Apps are available through Google Play on the set.

Following on there’s games and settings. Android TV has its own games separate to Sony’s PlayStation but they’re generally more basic. You can use a wide variety of devices when playing them. They include the TV remote, smart phone apps, and lots of gaming consoles.

Google Chromecast is built into the TV, and video playback can be controlled using not only the standard remote, but also smartphone apps and even smart watches. As well as a normal remote, Sony provides a remote with a trackpad which I found especially helpful when navigating third party apps.

This TV is a good example of how speech recognition is becoming more accurate and useful, across the manufacturers. With this TV, you either speak into the remote, or into the Sony smartphone app.

You can ask the TV whether you need to take an umbrella, and in sport, you can ask it for details of, say, the Parramatta Eels. The TV will tell you not only the last match score, but also where and when the team’s next match will take place.

Sadly, while cluey about Rugby League and Soccer, it didn’t seem to know so much about AFL, returning only a set of Youtube clips of recent action. Hopefully Sony will address this if they want to enjoy big sales in Melbourne and other southern capitals.

Using voice recognition, we could successfully ask the TV for the distance to the moon, and ask it to perform some basic arithmetic. You could ask the TV to switch to Blu-ray, the HDMI One connector, switch to a particular channel or open a chosen app.

Currently these new Android OS TVs do not record programs; Sony says this will happen next month via a software update.

The 4K TV also supports the HEVC and VP9 4K codecs for efficient and smooth 4K playback. All of Sony TV’s use Wi-Fi AC for faster data transfer. Netflix is available on all models.

On its thinnest model, Sony has given attention to where it places its ports on the back of the set. There seems little point in hanging an incredibly thin TV on a wall if the cable connections are sticking out the back at 180 degrees. Thankfully they can be plugged in sideways on the back so that you can have the TV flush against the wall.

Importantly too there are vent holes underneath the set at the back and another lot further up that Sony says will allow air to naturally flow up the back of the set so that it doesn’t overheat that close to the wall. So you can get the benefit of this thin form factor with the set mounted.

Manufacturers generally need to give as much attention to helping consumers neatly add the array of cables most do for Blu-ray players, gaming consoles and set-top-boxes. What’s the point of owning a beautiful-looking smart TV if ugly cables are running every which way?

Samsung’s one-connect box is one clever way of minimising cable clutter and a good model for manufacturers generally to follow.

Most of the new Sony TVs are available now through normal retail outlets such as Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Bing Lee and Sony kiosk centres.

Sony has also announced a series of high definition audio wireless speakers that can be connected to play the same content throughout your house if you wish, or connected in groups.

These speakers are reasonably expensive, costing typically $600 up to $1000, but they offer a better audio quality than many of the cheaper wireless speakers that we see in market. The new sound offering includes a completely wireless 5.1 surround sound audio set.