A chance to talk to FlatpanelsHD's reviewers.
By nbpf
#7846
Torben Rasmussen wrote:If you want a monitor, you probably need to buy, well a monitor. Several manufacturers have dedicated store or sign monitors, but they are not as sleek looking as the TV's are. I don't think it is fair to blame Z9D for not being a monitor. You would then need to do the same for every TV we review. You are of course paying for the TV OS, but if you prefer the TV is quite capable of showing HDMI content only, so you never have to look at Android.
Thanks for the feedback. Indeed, I'm torn between buying a big monitor and a small TV. I could not find many guidelines on this subject so far (specifically, on the advantages and disadvantages of big monitors vs small TVs in processing HDR data, in serving as output devices of media players, on HDMI requirements, etc.) and I very much appreciated your comments.
By neander
#7847
Torben Rasmussen wrote: You of course pay for the more advanced backlight control system, but whereas Sony (and Panasonic) would like to tell us that these multizoned devices are a brand new tech we have seen similar products before. Yes, there are a lot more zones, but you don't need "a lot" you need "a tremendous amount" to really compete with OLED.
There is "nothing" "new" with these TVs.. I have an old 2011 Toshiba 55ZL1, with 512 dimming zones so i am not sure what is so new with 630 and 512 zones on the Sony and Pana.. and it doesn't seem like they have definitively significantly improved the backlight either, and as long as not something revolutionary happens FALD will create blooming and especially with HDR.

Maybe we thought first the Pana and then the Sony would be that revolution.. (cos they insinuated it..) but it doesn't seem to have happened..

But we basically agree, :D
By nbpf
#7848
Torben Rasmussen wrote:.. If you want a monitor, you probably need to buy, well a monitor. Several manufacturers have dedicated store or sign monitors, but they are not as sleek looking as the TV's are. I don't think it is fair to blame Z9D for not being a monitor. You would then need to do the same for every TV we review. You are of course paying for the TV OS, but if you prefer the TV is quite capable of showing HDMI content only, so you never have to look at Android.
Well, it is not easy to find high quality sign monitors with suitable HDMI ports in TV sizes, is it? I am certainly not blaming Z9D for not being a monitor. If at all, I'm blaming Sony for not producing dumb, tunerless versions of at least some of their TV sets. Indeed, I am convinced that many manufacturers would be better off if they were offering meaningful customization options for a more limited number of devices instead of throwing at the market a huge number of TV sets, often impaired by poor designs (legs that require putting the device on large sideboards, feet that require perfectly plane surfaces, etc.) and virtually no customization option. Customizability is a key issue. Where would the car industry be today without flexible customization options? As far as I know Loewe, B&O and, to a limited extent, Panasonic offer some foot options for some of their devices and Vizio has a tunerless line of their TV sets for the US market. But that's it, more or less. The rest is a rather desolate landscape of more or less ill designed products that, in spite of ridiculously low street prices, will hardly find a way to a buyer's living room.
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By Torben Rasmussen
#7855
We can agree, that at least having the option would be nice, but I seriously don't see it happening any time soon. It probably wouldn't be promoted as a TV anyway, so we wouldn't find it in the same kind of stores as the TV's.

But this is perhaps a bit off-topic.