R. Stevens—April 19, 2021
Our previous Sony TV was a top-of-the-line XBR HD TV with an outstanding HD picture. After 12 years of continuous use, it was still working well with the same great picture, but we decided to upgrade to a new top-of-the-line Sony 4K TV. After some research online and a few YouTube reviews, we settled on the Sony A9G 55” OLED TV. At the same time, we also upgraded our AV Receiver to the Sony STR-DN1080 Receiver and kept our 5.1 Surround Sound speaker array intact. For anyone upgrading to a 4K TV, a little bit of preparation will ensure a spectacular audio and video experience. First, I purchased 3 new Ultra High Speed HDMI Cables. Although you only need High Speed HDMI cables capable of 18Gbps for 4K, I decided to go with cables that would handle 48Gbps for possible future firmware feature enhancements. I ran one of these cables between my Xfinity Cable box and the HDMI SAT/CATV HDMI input on the back of the receiver. I ran a 2nd HDMI cable between my new Apple TV 4K box and the Video 2 HDMI input on the receiver. On this receiver (and perhaps on other brands as well), it is important to connect the Apple TV 4K box to Video 2 and NOT Video 1. As per the instructions for the 1080 receiver, “The HDMI IN VIDEO 1 jack supports bandwidths of up to 9 Gbps. If your device supports high-bandwidth video formats such as 4K/60p 4:4:4, 4:2:2, or 4K/60p 4:2:0 10 bit, connect your device to an HDMI IN jack OTHER than the HDMI IN VIDEO 1 jack.” The Video 2 jack will support the necessary enhanced video requirements for flawless 4K TV performance. If you accidentally plug into the Video 1 jack, you will immediately see erratic picture performance and frequent blinking if you try to set the Apple TV box to the HDR or Dolby Vision settings. With the Video 2 jack, HDR and Dolby Vision perform flawlessly. I ran a 3rd HDMI cable from the HDMI Out (eARC/ARC) jack on the back of the receiver to the HDMI In (eARC/ARC) jack on the A9G TV. Using the receiver’s menu, I navigated to the HDMI signal settings for the input jacks and changed them all from the Standard Format to the Enhanced Format. Using the menu on the TV, I made sure that the HDMI In (eARC/ARC) jack was also set to Enhanced Format. One final note, specific to this scenario, whereby the Cable box and the Apple TV 4K box connect directly to the receiver and the receiver outputs those signals to the TV, I also turned the eARC/ARC feature OFF on the receiver and the TV since it is not necessary. With these important TV/Receiver cable and input/output jack prep steps in place, the picture on the Sony A9G 55” TV is absolutely spectacular !!! If you are obsessive about fine tuning your picture (as I am), you can also go to best-tv-settings.com and follow their recommendations specific to the Sony A9G. Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime TV, and Apple TV+ all offer 4K content and the crisp picture resolution, contrast, color, pure black, and pure white details will blow you away on this TV !! We love the Sony A9G and highly recommend it to anyone interested in a high end 4K TV upgrade. Read more
Old Fisherman—December 12, 2019
As most of the other reviewers have stated, the picture from this TV is really great. Are other cheaper sets just as good? I don't know. Suffice to say that the picture is really, really good. Read the other reviews for more information. I'm going to comment on some other areas that you should probably know about. Delivery and Packaging. - 10 years ago I bought another Sony Bravia from Amazon. Close to top of the line set. The delivery guys brought it in, unpacked it, attached the base, set it on the stand, turned it on to make sure it was working, and took away the packaging. This time, two guys brought it in, placed it on the floor and left. I asked about taking it out of the box and one guy said, " We don't do that." So I stood there wondering how I was going to handle unpacking this thing (this is the 55 inch set.) Luckily for me, Sony anticipated this. The packaging is so designed that the box releases from the bottom and you just lift the box off the set. The set is still held upright by a cardboard and styrofoam stand. But you do have to eventually lift it out of this stand and place it on its pedestal stand which slots into two slots on the back of the set. Make sure you have help because this is a heavy set. Sony has included detailed picture instructions for this whole procedure so it's fairly easy. Kudos to Sony for the packaging. Setup - You go through a basic setup procedure using the remote to help the set connect to your network (LAN or WiFi) and your cable or satellite setup (if you have either.) All of this is pretty easy and doesn't take long. Local channels and Streaming - I get my local channels through DirecTv which the TV set up for me in the original setup procedure. When you turn the set on the Home screen shows a list of streaming services as well as a box marked TV. If you choose the TV box the set automatically connects to the input that you chose for the TV input. The Sony remote changes channels and volume, uses the DirecTv channel guide, and the DVR listings just fine. Only thing it doesn't do is turn on/off the DirecTV box. It's no real problem because you can still use the DirecTv remote to do all of these things. The DirecTv remote does turn on the TV as well as the box. Streaming services. - The set's Home screen lists a bunch of streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and others. I subscribe to Netflix and Prime so the first time clicked on them I had to go through a sign-in routine but that's only once. I also subscribe to Acorn TV and Britbox and these were not listed. New apps can be loaded through Google Play Store and I found Acorn easily enough. I installed it and added it to the list on the screen. Since I have a hearing loss I use closed captions and subtitles but it seems the Acorn app on this TV does not recognize them even though there is a setup for captions on the TV. Also, Britbox isn't even in Google Play Store for this TV. This means I will be hooking up my Roku box to be able to access these two services. It's not a big deal but a minor annoyance. Am I happy with this TV? Yes I am. As I said the picture is outstanding. I replaced a 42 inch Bravia (which had a screen failure after 10 years and was not worth fixing) with this new 55 inch Bravia OLED. Even though there is a size difference the overall footprint of the larger TV is really not much bigger than my older one so it fits on the same TV stand. The pedestal mount on this new TV is really good, heavily weighted for stability, and I like the fact that it is a center pedestal rather than the skinny looking legs on other sets. If this one lasts as long as the other one I'll be very happy. Read more
