Sony 98X90L ... in the house!

[Sonnie]

It's literally in the house, but only in the hallway. Massive and heavy for sure.

Thanks to Robert at Value Electronics... he delivers another display for us.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Oh yeah! That's great! Now you just need to cut a hole in the wall to get that beast in the room!

 

[Sonnie]

The canvas-covered frame is taller and wider than the TV, and it made it in there, so this shouldn't be an issue.

I got a friend coming over tomorrow to help out... maybe we can get it up on that stand.

 

[Sonnie]

I'll need to put something over those feet to cut that reflection down.

 

[Sonnie]

The camera picture doesn't do it justice... this thing is crazy bright, even with the lights on. It pops like nothing I've ever seen before. Crazy good picture for sure.

 

[Robert Zohn]

Looks beautiful!

 

[Todd Anderson]

Excellent!

You can buy masking tape (tape covered with black masking felt) that would make those feet disappear without being distracting

 

[Sonnie]

Excellent!

You can buy masking tape (tape covered with black masking felt) that would make those feet disappear without being distracting

I have some black cloth electrical tape that did the trick, but I may pick up some of the masking tape, as it will be cleaner than the cloth tape.

This is so much more than I expected going from the PJ to the TV. It's hard to understand how it can look this much better than my JVC projector. It's so bright it almost hurts my eyes on some scenes. I had to turn the brightness from MAX down to about half of what it was. Unlike the PJ, the TV lights up the room considerably more with the lights off.

It makes me wonder if maybe I never had my PJ systems set up correctly, although I've had two high-end JVC units, and both were supposed to be spot-on out of the box in Cinema 1 (or whatever setting it was). Don't get me wrong, the PJ systems looked great, but this TV is absolutely stunning to look at. My wife could not believe it when she saw it. The Prime Video game last night was almost 3D... as were several shows I watched on NetFlix. I can honestly say I don't see going back to a PJ.

The 98" unit may be just the right size, although I would like to try out the 110" at some point when they get reasonably priced. I also can't imagine OLED being better, yet it claims to be.

 

[Robert Zohn]

The best picture quality is when the TV is set to the "Cinema" Picture Mode for low ambient light. Select the "Custom" Picture mode if you want a brighter picture or have higher ambient light.

 

[Sonnie]

I'll check that out ... thanks Robert.

 

[ChadG1516]

I have some black cloth electrical tape that did the trick, but I may pick up some of the masking tape, as it will be cleaner than the cloth tape.

This is so much more than I expected going from the PJ to the TV. It's hard to understand how it can look this much better than my JVC projector. It's so bright it almost hurts my eyes on some scenes. I had to turn the brightness from MAX down to about half of what it was. Unlike the PJ, the TV lights up the room considerably more with the lights off.

It makes me wonder if maybe I never had my PJ systems set up correctly, although I've had two high-end JVC units, and both were supposed to be spot-on out of the box in Cinema 1 (or whatever setting it was). Don't get me wrong, the PJ systems looked great, but this TV is absolutely stunning to look at. My wife could not believe it when she saw it. The Prime Video game last night was almost 3D... as were several shows I watched on NetFlix. I can honestly say I don't see going back to a PJ.

The 98" unit may be just the right size, although I would like to try out the 110" at some point when they get reasonably priced. I also can't imagine OLED being better, yet it claims to be.

Sonny,
Thanks so much for this review. I am in a similar position…looking to switch back to TV in my living room from a 120” screen with JVC PJ also. I have been stuck on the the oled hype vs a size that won’t seem tiny at my 12 ft viewing distance.

Chad

 

[JStewart]

Sonny,
Thanks so much for this review. I am in a similar position…looking to switch back to TV in my living room from a 120” screen with JVC PJ also. I have been stuck on the the oled hype vs a size that won’t seem tiny at my 12 ft viewing distance.

Chad

Have you tried reducing the size of the projected image to get an idea of how it might look to you?

 

[ChadG1516]

That is a great suggestion JStewart. I will do that.
I had a 80” vizio before going to the NX-7. I would like to go bigger than 80” but in OLED the only reasonable increase seems to be 83-85“ right now.
It was nice to read that Sonny could not imagine OLED being any better…I also have heard it is though.
My brother in law has a 55” LG OLED that he sits like 11ft from and he says he can never go back to led. I just read so much conflicting opinions on size vs quality and brightness of TV’s so Sonny’s opinion was very helpful for me.

 

[Sonnie]

I'll probably go to an OLED just to do it at some point, but figured I'd wait a year or so and see what prices do, as they just keep falling and falling from year to year... and getting bigger and bigger. The 98" was priced right and gave me the opportunity to test the TV route without costing too much. I was about to spend some serious bucks on an NZ9... glad I didn't now. My NX9 floored me when I first connected it... unbelievably gorgeous. This Sony did the same thing and is just so much brighter with even more pop than I thought possible. It does it with or without the lights off. I've taken my PJ down, and it will be going on the market soon.

 

[ChadG1516]

Oh man, same here to a “T”
I thought I would have to go the NZ 9 route also. I am so glad you made the jump and shared your thoughts.

 

[Sonnie]

The other benefits I enjoy are no more fan noise and no more waiting a minute for the image to appear... instant on with the TV and no fans.

I also have to admit that I have been struggling with some HDR viewing on the PJ, which is one reason I was looking at the NZ9... hoping it would be better. The Sony TV is HDR brilliance at a whole new level for me.

 

[Sonnie]

 

[JStewart]

View attachment 66722

View attachment 66723

Really nice job there setting that up! Looks great.

 

[mechman]

Smart move moving to a flat panel! I've been thinking about doing the same for the last year or so. I had my eye on the Hisense 100u8k for awhile now.

When you have a 100" or less image size, it makes no sense to stay with a projector.

 

[Mike Schramm]

What are your thoughts on having a panel professionally calibrated? I've heard mixed opinions. I can see why calibrating a projector is so important, but what about a panel?

 

[Sonnie]

I've been told there is not a lot of improvement in professionally calibrating these, and several of the videos I watched show they are very close out of the box. I don't know if my eyes would notice it, so I've about decided to keep the $600 bucks and blow it somewhere else. This was also somewhat of a test run for me, but I can tell you, I LOVE it in comparison to my PJ. Not that the PJ was bad, but this just appears better to my eyes, and the simplicity of setup and operation is much easier. It may be petty, but my favorite functionality part is not having to wait for it to warm up... power on and it's on. I do NOT like the built-in Google TV as much as I do the Fire Cube, so I'll likely go back to the Fire Cube for streaming.