Video: Sony True RGB TVs

Hi, I'm JR, training manager here at Crutchfield. We are thrilled to introduce the latest additions to the Sony BRAVIA lineup, the BRAVIA 9 Mark II and the BRAVIA 7 Mark II, True RGB TVs. These models are generating plenty of buzz, and for good reason. They bring a whole new level of clarity and color to your home entertainment experience. Today, we're spotlighting what makes these TVs so exciting, and what you need to know before making your choice. Let's talk about the big upgrade. Sony's True RGB TV technology. This innovation uses separate red, green, and blue LEDs to create stunning visuals, delivering colors that are more vibrant and accurate than ever before. It's not just a step forward. It's a leap into the future of television.

For years now, LCD TVs have used small LEDs as a backlight. Those LEDs have always been either white or blue. And they've gotten smaller over the years, allowing them to be controlled in zones. We call that local dimming. But even with last year's TVs, it was still possible to see the light leakage or haloing caused by those diodes. By making the LEDs smaller and having a separate red, green, and blue diode for each individual LED, the amount of control over the light source behind the LCD panel is unprecedented. Because of this colorful backlight technology, there's no need for those color boosting film layers that some TVs use. Color is created directly at the light source, and the LCD panel's filters are only used for a final phase of color refinement, so they don't block as much light as they do in a regular LED TV where they must create all the color we see. This results in rich, natural hues and a more immersive viewing experience. The benefits are clear: enhanced color accuracy, brighter scenes, deeper contrast, and an overall picture that feels alive.

Whether you're watching movies, sports, or gaming, the Bravia 9 Mark II and the 7 Mark II make everything look spectacular. We recently had both the 65-inch BRAVIA 9 Mark II and the 7 Mark II in our video studio. They generated a lot of interest from around the building here at Crutchfield. We had visual artists, copywriters, photographers, and of course, our video team here in the room to really put them to the test. We first watched the demos built into our pre-production models. The demo material is content Sony provided that really shows off the true RGB technology. They might not be content people actually watch, but they are basically a torture test for the TV. Scenes with a black background and bright colorful objects moving in the foreground, fire at night, stuff that requires a ton of contrast. And of course, these TVs handled all of that with ease. So, we also put some real world content on. We watched live sports, YouTube videos designed to really test for light leakage or haloing, 4K Blu-ray movies like Encanto, Top Gun: Maverick, and Spider-Man, and streaming shows. We even watched some of the dark scenes in the last season of Game of Thrones. We can say with complete certainty that these are the best looking LCD TVs we've ever seen.

We detected no color banding as we watched scenes from Encanto that we know challenge even the best LCD TVs from years past. If you've seen Encanto, you might know the scene I'm talking about with the lone candle surrounded by its halo of light that grows darker all the way to black around the edges of the TV. We know this scene is difficult for most TVs. It takes powerful processing and excellent local dimming, or an OLED to display that bright candle to the dark edges without revealing the bands of brightness and colors. Not a problem for the Sony True RGB technology. Sports looked vivid, bright, and smooth. Top Gun looked cinematic, just the way Tom Cruise intended it to look. Spider-Man, with all of those crazy effects, looked pixel-perfect. And that dark scene from Game of Thrones looked bright enough to see details in the actor's clothing.

It stands to reason that in addition to the RGB LEDs, there's a very powerful Sony processor at work controlling all of those diodes responding to the HDR information, and really making the images look smooth, bright, and stunning. The BRAVIA 7 Mark II looks incredible, and it's better than any TV I've ever owned. The screen is inky black, colors look vibrant, and as I mentioned earlier, minimal color leakage or haloing. If you use your TV primarily for cinema at home during the day in a brightly lit room, or at night in a light controlled space, you're going to love the bright, warm, brilliant images on this TV.

The BRAVIA 9 Mark II is even better, though, with its anti-glare screen that had no problem giving us a super bright image, no matter how much room light we threw at it. It'll look as bright and beautiful in a light-controlled home theater room as it will in a brightly lit living room at high noon. It also has more RGB LEDs than the 7 Mark II, better sound, and a more elegant fit and finish. Both the 7 and the 9 are also available as a PRO model, which includes a backlit remote, a three-year enhanced warranty, Voice Zoom 3 enhancer for clearer dialogue, and more Sony Pictures Core credits for buying movies.

We used several different settings to determine which one we thought looked best. For Dolby Vision content, there were three choices. Dolby Vision dark, bright, and vivid. We liked bright the best. Now, if you're not watching Dolby Vision encoded content, you can choose from several picture modes: vivid, cinematic, bright, standard, dark, and IMAX enhanced. Vivid is indeed quite vivid. It really catches your eye at first, but IMAX enhanced mode was the sweet spot for us. It gave us the best contrast and the most detail in the dark scenes without turning all of the white snow in Game of Thrones into an eerie blue.

A lot of people don't think much about the pedestal until they go to put it on a piece of furniture and put a soundbar or a center channel in front of the TV. Some TV's pedestals can get in the way. Not a problem here. The TV mounts to a solid, heavy metal base with two feet that live completely behind the screen. That flat base is thin enough to set a soundbar over top of it, right in front of the TV. And the TV sits high enough that most sound bars won't block the screen. The incredible picture quality is certainly the star of the show here.

And like with any TV, we recommend you get a sound bar or a full home theater to really complete the movie watching experience. But I do want to say the sound on these TVs is pretty darn good. Solid bass, especially at lower volumes. And when I cranked it up to 100% volume, it was loud enough to be heard several offices away from our studio and with no distortion. Pretty impressive for TV speakers. As for sizes, the Sony BRAVIA 7 Mark II will be available in a 50, a 55, a 65, a 75, an 85, and a 98-inch screen. The BRAVIA 9 Mark II will be available starting at a 65-inch, plus a 75, 85, and a 115-inch screen.

The excitement is real, and we can't wait for you to experience Sony's newest TVs firsthand. If you want to talk to an expert before you buy your next TV, call or chat with one of our advisers. Thanks for watching.