We spent the entire week last week doing the tour of Sony Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan to get a closer look at their 4K technology and its commercial application as well as a better appreciation of the Bravia 4K.
We’re already quite familiar with 4K TV from last year so the debate about full HD vs. 4K is mostly settled.
We’re already very used to display resolution in smartphones that go as high as 441ppi. For ultra HD TVs, the highest resolution we’ve seen so far is about 80ppi only. That’s for a 55-inch 4K TV with a resolution of 3840 pixels × 2160 lines (8.3 megapixels, aspect ratio 16:9).
4K resolution becomes more logical for display sizes starting 55 inches and higher. At 84 inch, a 4K TV will have a pixel density of just 52ppi while an equivalent 84-inch 1080p TV will only have 26ppi.
Second, there’s also the misconception that 4K TVs are useless if there are no 4K content readily available. The fact is, all photos taken with an 8MP camera or higher are already 4K.
Most 4K TVs, including that of Sony, have the ability up-convert 1080p content to 4K. The result is a significant improvement in sharpness, color and over-all picture quality.
A side by side comparison between a Sony 4K TV and a competitor’s 4K TV. The one with more vivid colors is from the competitor. While the colors are more saturated, it actually diminishes the detail of the subject.
To demonstrate this, the engineers down-scaled a native 4K video into 1080p. They then played the 1080p video on a 4K TV alongside a similar TV playing the original 4K video. The resulting picture are very close to each other, almost indistinguishable.
Sony’s Bravia 4K TV are also paired with their proprietary Magnetic Fluid Speakers. It was developed from NASA but is now being employed as a standard for Sony’s TVs and dedicated speakers. This unique type of speaker dampening also allows for a slimmer form factor aside from delivering better quality audio.
To demonstrate this, Sound Engineers from Sony showed us a setup in one of their Listening Rooms the internal parts of the audio board. They explained the difference from the old model and the new model and pointed out the new parts (bigger capacitors, higher impedance, etc) that help make the audio output better.
They then played various music files and allowed us to switch the output speakers. The same was done with the Magnetic Fluid Speakers. There was general agreement that the one with MFS has the better sound quality, providing much louder and clearer audio.
Sony sound engineers explained that both improvements were done in their Sony Bravia 4K TVs and even at maximum volume, the speakers on the 4K TVs did not budge, producing the same good quality audio without the cracking noise we’d experience with regular speakers.
One of the highlights of the tour was a showcase of their 56-inch Sony 4K OLED TV which they showcased on CES 2013. The TV was very slim and the picture quality was simply awesome.
The tour gave us better understanding of Sony’s 4K ecosystem and much appreciation for 4k technology in general. Too bad we weren’t able to take videos and photos of the many other interesting stuff inside their museum of tech.
You can check out the other stories we have during our trip to Tokyo, Japan here:
Sony Vaio Duo 13 in the flesh, first impressions
Sony Xperia Z Ultra first impressions
Sony Vaio Pro 11, Vaio Pro 13 in the flesh
Sony showcases 55 and 65-inch 4K TVs in Tokyo HQ
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