Anyone have a Sony X8500D TV? Opinions on it?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Anyone have a Sony X8500D TV? Opinions on it?

georgea

49 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#205933 3-Dec-2016 10:25

Hi guys,

I came across a deal yesterday where you could get the Sony 55X8500D + PS4 Pro + $250 gift card for $2550, so basically the equivalent of around $1700 for just the TV. It was only for yesterday (with the gift card), so I locked it in, but I can pull out if the deal over the weekend if I change my mind.

I have googled what I think are the comparable models around the world (X85D X850D) and the reviews tend to complain about black levels/contrast in dark rooms and end up with mid level scores around 7/10. The reviews recommend other sets that have much better contrast (local dimming, etc) , but then if you go look at the price they are in the $3200 to $5000 (oled) price range, so it seems a bit rough to compare it to those models.

Anyway, does anyone have a X8500D TV? Any opinions on how they find it? Any regrets?

As an aside - I was a bit disappointed to hear the salesman say there is no dual tuner (for recording purposes), but sounds like most tvs skip that these days for some reason? Weird that things have gone backwards in that regard.

Thanks.

dafman

4054 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2652

Trusted

#1681628 3-Dec-2016 11:08

I take delivery of mine next week. I read the same reviews about black levels etc, but was happy with the picture next to the 9300 in the shop (standard and cinema modes).

I chose Sony over others for their upscaling and motion managment.

I'm waiting for Panasonic OLED in a couple of years, so will bank the $1,000 difference between the 8500 and 9300 to put towards the OLED at some future point.

Looking forward to android tv

georgea

49 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#1681704 3-Dec-2016 12:58

Hi Dafman,

Yeah, you pretty much summed up how I made the decision re: side by side comparison with x9300 and oled. Good to hear others think the same.

Geektastic

18009 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 8465

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1681712 3-Dec-2016 13:26

Got one on Black Friday for $1900.

The 9300 was $1000 more for same screen size and although it was a bit better I did not really think it was $1000 better.

I'd get the deal if you want the PS. They mentioned the deal to me at the time but without the gift card, so it was really no different from buying the TV and the PS at the advertised price!

georgea

49 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#1681717 3-Dec-2016 13:39

Sounds like you got a good deal! I assume you have been using it home already? Hows it going?

dafman

4054 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2652

Trusted

#1685807 10-Dec-2016 18:30

Ok, I finally took delivery of the my X8500D last night.

First impressions:

Hardware - it looks great. Thin bezels, thin screen, classy stand. Sony, you've nailed it.

Smarts - I have only scratched the surface of the smarts, but I am very impressed. Lots to explore here.

Android TV - I'm a Google user, how good is it to have Google on my TV! The voice search directly from the remote rocks!

Picture quality - very impressed. High def looks great. I watched the original Italian Job on bluray last night and was very impressed with the overall image and upscaling. It's not as good as my plasma, but I knew that, but it was better than I thought.

Not so great? In a dark room there is quite noticeable light bleed, particularly in the top right area, but you would hardly notice in normal viewing environments. Blacks aren't great in a dark room, the top and bottom bars of the Italian job were grey and inconsistent in colour (light bleed impacts here). BUT, I expected this from the reviews I had read. And to be honest, the picture quality is better than I expected, so not too bothered.

georgea

49 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#1685941 11-Dec-2016 07:39

Thanks dafman, was interesting to see your opinion on it. I've been meaning to leave a review too as I have had mine for a couple of days. Here is my impressions so far:

Hardware: I agree the TV looks great and no probs there at all. The remote however is a shocker. It's far far crappier in terms of quality, layout, feel, look and size than the remote from my 8 year old Sony LCD. But I assume at least it's possible to replace this with other 3rd party ones.

Smarts and Android TV: The concept is great and there is some very cool stuff (casting, voice control, etc), however it's very sluggish. Switching channels is slow and painful and therefore frustrating, so is turning the TV on and off and accessing the TV guide - which are all the main things you want to do. You end up continually overshooting your channel, or selecting the wrong thing, or not knowing if the TV is actually turning on as its so unresponsive sometimes. Once again the experience of these specific aspects is worse than my 8 year old Sony TV. Very disappointing. I'm really hoping this gets addressed in an update?!? Or perhaps it's just my TV given Dafman didn't mentioned it in his review?? It also has the occasional bug occur, although turning the TV off and on will solve any issues. I should add that I am on the latest version of Android TV for the TV.

Picture quality: Some items are stunning. I haven't tried a Blu-ray or DVD yet, but high definition items from YouTube are fantastic. TV channels however can be a mixed bag - some items are great, while others can be pretty average, but strangely its not always tired to the resolution of the show or channel (i.e. a show on a high def channel can look bad, while a show on a low def channel can actually look relatively good). I guess this is part and parcel of having a 4k display though. The contrast issue also probably affects this a bit, and I also haven't calibrated my display yet. Contrast is a bit disappointing sometimes (as per reviews), but not terrible. Calibration may help a bit here too I guess?

From the quick play round I have had with my ps4 pro, that picture looks great and impressive.

Also viewing angles are very good.

I haven't noticed any big issues with light bleeds or spotting myself, the screen is actually very consistent/uniform for me, but I'm yet to really watch some dark movies to really get a feel for it.

Sound is also fine (despite the reviews bagging it).

Conclusion: overall I'm perhaps a little disappointed at this stage as I was hoping for a big improvement over my 8 year old Sony TV, but in some practical areas it has actually gone backwards. What is actually the most annoying out of everything surprisingly is the performance and unresponsiveness of the OS in critical areas, which seems a very odd thing to be a problem really. I would have thought it would be simple to at least get the channel surfing/ freeview guide working well, which makes it even more frustrating they haven't and its worse than my old TV. On the screen quality side, it's early days and I need to calibrate it. I'll report back once I have had more time with it.