Marc and I went to a small Sony show yesterday in Long Beach and saw the amazing 98" 8k LCD with Sony's Master Backlight Drive. We were blown away by the stunning picture, it was breathtaking - you could put your face right up to the screen and not see any pixels. The demo video was the classic Rio Carnival showing every nuance of the parade floats and dancers, some of that good, some of it not so good if you get my drift (cellulite is never pretty) ... and the fireworks! Marc was especially impressed on how pure the whites were from the flashes. Even the sound coming out of the 4 front facing internal speakers was incredible; definitely enough quality to replace a center speaker, saving space and money.
A couple of things that I learned that may impact a decision to dip your toe into the world of these LCD's; they are heavy. The 98" (boxed) weighs about 400 pounds and the 85" weighs around 210 pounds. They they put out a lot of heat so climate control most likely would have to be addressed and they use 1352 watts and 1077 watts, respectively, so a dedicated 15 amp circuit is required. They are also ready to upgrade to HDMI 2.1 when the firmware update comes out.
That monster 98" is huge and also comes with a monster price tag, but the 85" is stunning as well and has a much more palatable price of $12,999. These units are due to start shipping around the end of June; the 85" will be much more readily available than the 98".
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