Japanese electronics giant Sony has launched its new flagship television set in South Africa. And it’s a steal at just R279 000!
The main selling point of the new 84-inch TV is its resolution – at 3 840×2 160 pixels, it’s four times the resolution of the 1080p flat panels common in homes today. The industry calls it 4K technology, or ultra-high definition.
Sony’s TV, called the KD-84X9000, serves up 8,3m pixels and, because of this high resolution, it’s possible to sit much closer to the unit without seeing individual pixels, making for a more immersive viewing experience, says Sony SA senior brand manager Andrew Fraser. Even though the screen is a gigantic 84 inches diagonally, it’s possible to sit as close as 1,5m away from the screen. In fact, that’s the optimal viewing distance to appreciate fully the 4K resolution.
Native 4K content on the Sony is simply breathtaking. But the problem is there is almost no native content available — and even Sony’s own Blu-ray format is designed for 1080p resolution, so large online downloads of an average of 120GB/movie will be necessary. Broadcasters are unlikely to be quick to move to the new format either given the cost of the additional bandwidth needed and the fact that few consumers will have 4K sets for some time to come.
To try and counter the lack of 4K material, Sony has included an upscaling engine in the TV. This dynamically upscales high-definition Blu-ray material to ultra-high definition. In a demo seen by TechCentral, it works well.
Unsurprisingly for a TV this pricey, there’s also full Internet access, the Opera Web browser, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Skype. And Sony throws in a Skype camera and Blu-ray player into the bargain. Oh, and installation is also included — the KD-84X9000 is no lightweight: with its stand, it’s almost 100kg!
Fraser won’t say how many of the TVs the company expects to sell in South Africa. “We’re not disclosing numbers, but 40% of our estimation was presold,” he says. “We will hit our targets, which at first I thought were quite ambitious.”
The TV goes on sale in selected high-end retail stores in the first week of December. Sony rivals Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are also expected to bring 4K sets into the country soon. — (c) 2012 NewsCentral Media
