a9g
Latest
Sony's 98-inch 8K TV will cost a staggering $70,000
Sony is finally nearing the release of its 2019 TV line, and you'd better brace for impact if you're hoping to buy one of its highest-end models. The company has detailed pricing and availability for the sets, and the 8K-capable Master Series Z9G will start at $13,000 for an 85-inch model when the series arrives in June, and a mind-numbing $70,000 for the 98-inch star attraction. While that's more affordable than Samsung's $100,000 Q900, it still makes the Z9G virtually inaccessible for anyone but wealthy viewers who insist on the best -- and don't mind that 8K content is still very rare, for that matter.
Sony's new 8K and 4K TVs will have Apple AirPlay too
AirPlay is everywhere at CES 2019, at least when it comes to TVs, and Sony's latest TVs are no different. The company announced that its Z9G Series 8K LCDs, A9G Series OLEDs and X950G 4K LCD TVs will all add support for Apple's AirPlay 2 and HomeKit protocols later this year. Similar to what we've seen from others like LG and Vizio, that will let users easily integrate them with other smart home devices that are compatible with Apple's protocols, and use AirPlay 2 features like synchronized multiroom audio. On Sony's TVs, this means blending Apple's tech with the Android TV platform they're based on. There's no technical reason why that can't happen, but it's an interesting wrinkle, and means that, like Vizio, users will have a bevy of options to choose between Google's Cast protocol and the Apple tech. Of course, a full-on iTunes app is still exclusive to Samsung's smart TV platform for now, but this is a start. So far there's no word on exactly when the feature will appear, or if it will extend to any older models, but we'll update this post if we get any more information.
Sony's 'super-large' 8K TVs are coming home this year
This year at CES Sony is one of the TV makers jumping into 8K with two "super-large" Z9G displays that are big enough, at 98- and 85-inches, to make use of the format's 33-million pixel resolution. According to Sony, these screens have "completely new" full array LED backlighting, plus a Picture Processor X1 Ultimate to manage the signal and upscale any lower-res video, which is important since 8K content will be hard to find for a while. Sony didn't mention much about content, but they are ready for IMAX Enhanced content, which will be available via the Privilege 4K service in the spring, and all of its TVs have support for Netflix Calibrated Mode. Plus, like so many other TVs we're seeing this week, all of the Sony models announced here will get support for Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit later this year. That high-res screen is surrounded by four speakers, with two at the top and two at the bottom, which Sony says can deliver an experience similar to its OLED TVs that deliver "Sound-from-Picture"reality. Assuming you have a home theater speaker setup (and for TVs like these we'd expect you would), it can also make the TV a center channel. It didn't call out support for HDMI 2.1 in the press release, but with 8K, as well as home theater equipment supporting features like Enhanced Audio Return Channel (eARC), we'd bet on having it.
