Sony Bravia XBR-HX929 review: Sony Bravia XBR-HX929

The first so-called LED TVs were local-dimming models, where the LEDs behind the screen could be dimmed or brightened in different areas to correspond to darker or brighter areas of the picture. The result was excellent contrast, on a level no other LCD-based TV could muster. Since 2007 when these TVs debuted, they've remained uncommon and expensive while so-called edge-lit models have populated store shelves and living rooms with abandon.

7.5

Sony Bravia XBR-HX929

The Good

The <b>Sony XBR-HX929</b> series produces deeper black levels than any current LCD or plasma TV, giving excellent overall picture quality. It evinces accurate shadow detail and color; offers plenty of video processing options; and can properly handle 1080p/24 sources. It has a beautiful, thin-profile exterior design with Gorilla Glass, and its Internet suite includes numerous streaming services and widgets as well as built-in Wi-Fi. Its 3D image shows minimal crosstalk.

The Bad

The extremely expensive XBR-HX929 shows some blooming artifacts, and its picture deteriorates more noticeably than usual when seen from off-angle. Its menu and Internet service design is lackluster, and Sony does not include 3D glasses. When displaying 3D, the image flickers when dejudder is turned off, and it deteriorates rapidly when you tilt your head.

The Bottom Line

One of the best-performing LED-based LCDs we've ever tested, the expensive local-dimming Sony XBR-HX929 competes well with the top plasmas.

The XBR-HX929, Sony's most expensive and, we're willing to guess, best-performing TV of 2011, is also the company's only local dimmer. It boasts that excellent contrast by way of inky black levels not found on any TV aside from the oft-cited Pioneer Kuro plasma, and improves upon the color accuracy of its predecessor XBR. In short, it represents the pinnacle of LCD picture quality, so if you're shopping in the extreme upper end of the TV market and were only going to consider plasma, the XBR-HX929 might change your mind.

Editors' note, June 12, 2012: The rating on this review has been modified from 8.0 to 7.5 to reflect a change in our ratings process to incorporate value. The XBR-HX929 is a current member of Sony's 2012 product line even though it was first sold in 2011. Numerous reviews of high-end TVs have been published since the initial publication of this review that may render obsolete some of the comparative statements herein, but we're not updating this review beyond the ratings. For current comparisons, check out the reviews on our Best TVs lists.

Series information: We performed a hands-on evaluation of the 55-inch XBR-55HX929, but this review also applies to the other screen sizes in the series. All sizes have identical specs and according to the manufacturer should provide very similar picture quality.

Design

The Monolithic glass runs nearly to the panel's edge.

Photo gallery:
Sony XBR-HX929 series

In our view the Sony XBR-HX929 is the best-looking TV this year aside from Samsung's thin-bezel UND6400 and UND8000/7000 models. Seen from the front it earns the company's Monolithic moniker: the panel is a featureless black slab when turned off, thanks to its one-piece face and darkened glass. The extreme edge is metallic-looking and very slightly set back from the main pane, and we love the low-profile swivel stand with its thin metal base.

The HX929 exudes class and high cost everywhere except the back panel, which is cursed by a small protrusion that houses the RS-232 port. Otherwise its profile is significantly thinner than last year's XBR-HX909, rivaling those of edge-lit LEDs.

That low-profile stand really makes the HX929 seem more compact.

We're big fans of Sony's remote. The logically sized and placed, flush-yet-still-tactile keys emit a satisfying low-pitched click. The concave shape along the clicker's length sends the thumb to the Home key and the middle of the big cursor control. We like the ability to control other devices via infrared or HDMI, but we wish the blue backlight also illuminated more button labels.

Sony revamped its Home menu this year, ditching the PlayStation 3/PSP-style XMB interface for a new scheme that creates a main horizontal bottom row and a right-hand vertical column flanking a smaller, inset TV image (tweakers fret not; the TV image expands back to full size during picture adjustments). The menu shows all of the horizontal options at once, but there are simply too many of them--10 total: Settings, Widgets, Applications, Qriocity, Internet Content, TV, Media, Inputs, Favorites/History, and Recommendations (which is removable...a good thing since it appears to be in-menu advertising). None of the main horizontal choices is labeled until you select it, so you must either remember Sony's quirky iconography or scroll a lot to find the right one. Each option has its own column of suboptions, for a total effect that can easily become overwhelming.

Submenus for Options and Favorites/History, as well as those dedicated buttons, help a little, and we appreciate that the numerous "small fry" niche video services are shunted into a submenu. Overall, however, we feel the company could have done a much better job of organizing the TV's numerous features and options.

Sony's HX929 has the first third-party advertising we've seen on a TV menu. Happily, it can be disabled.

Features

The main reason why the XBR-HX929 sits atop Sony's lineup--and the main reason it's so expensive--is full-array local dimming. Unlike on most LED TVs, which mount the little light-emitting diodes around the edge of the LCD panel, the backlight of the 929 consists of an array of LEDs placed directly behind the entire panel. In addition, different zones of the backlight can be brightened or dimmed independently to correspond with bright or dark areas in the picture--although Sony wouldn't tell us how many zones the TV has. This is our favorite kind of LED backlight, and in 2011 only the HX929, a few higher-end Vizios, and LG's upcoming Nano models have it (more info).

Sony doesn't include 3D glasses with the XBR-HX929, which is surprising considering the TV's high price. Given Samsung's 3D glasses promotion we wouldn't be surprised if Sony offered something similar later in the year. In the meantime we appreciate that Sony doesn't require purchase of a separate emitter this year, although we do wish Sony's newer, lighter 2011 glasses used Bluetooth and not IR transmission technology for synching. They are rechargeable, however, and charge up very quickly.

This model offers built-in Wi-Fi, saving you the cost of a USB dongle or other wireless alternative.

Less important but still mildly noteworthy are a few extras designed around a sensor and low-resolution camera that can respond to viewers in the room. The Presence Sensor automatically turns the TV off if it fails to detect a viewer in the room (see the EX720 review for details); the Position Control is said to automatically optimize picture and sound by detecting viewer position; and the Distance Alert disables the picture and emits a warning sound if a child approaches the screen. Aside from noting that the latter somehow differentiated children from adult viewers, we didn't test any of these features on the HX929.

A built-in sensor, complete with camera (Hi, Mom!), enables some esoteric functions.

In short, there are plenty of online choices for just about everyone. Unfortunately, as we noted of the company's Blu-ray players, Sony's standardized interface for most of the major video services, like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Amazon Instant, is worse in general than those services' default interfaces, in part due to relatively small thumbnail images. On the other hand, having the same basic interface for each makes them relatively easy to learn.

The main missing link is Vudu, and while many other services (namely Amazon VOD and Qriocity) can duplicate Vudu's VOD offerings, none currently offers Vudu's 3D on-demand or the superior image quality of Vudu HDX. We'd also like to see support for a major subscription music service, like Rhapsody or Napster, but doubt it's coming, since Sony is pushing Qriocity. The latter recently expanded from its VOD offerings to include a subscription music service, which is available on this TV.

We did a full writeup of the new Gracenote music identification service already, so we'll just include the conclusion here: "Despite its hiccups and occasional failures, we really liked the ability to identify music quickly and conveniently with the push of a button." There are also separate Video and Music searches powered by Gracenote that allow you to look up information on each, but don't yet lead to additional content.

The appeal of the numerous niche video services (Sports Illustrated, The Minisode Network, Blip.tv, Style.com, Howcast.com, video podcasts, and so on) is heightened somewhat by the ability to search across all of them. Unfortunately, that search doesn't include any of the mainstream services like Netflix, Amazon, or YouTube, and is a pain to use with the TV remote.

Sony's audio, widget, and photo service selection is top-notch--you get Slacker, NPR, and an exclusive classical music/video service (Berlin Philharmoniker); numerous Yahoo and FrameChannel (the second also a Sony exclusive) widgets; and no fewer than four onboard photo-sharing options, if you count the Flickr widget.

Unlike LG, Samsung, and Panasonic, Sony doesn't have an "app store" for its TVs. The Yahoo widget service is where you'll find Twitter and Facebook, along with numerous even less useful things to occupy your TV screen.

And, yes, the HX929 has a Web browser, although it's even slower and more annoying to use than the one on Samsung and LG TVs. After a few minutes of frustrated waiting for it to load the Sony Style home page, we feel comfortable saying that it should be avoided entirely.

Sony modifies the interfaces of many streaming services, including Netflix. We prefer the original.

Sony divides its picture presets into two groups: General (with three choices) and Scene Select (with eight, including Auto). Two of the Scenes, Cinema and Game, have two separate modes of their own as well. The total number of adjustable modes crests the double digits, which should be enough for just about everybody.

The available adjustments themselves are somewhat sparse by today's standards. The company didn't add the option to adjust dejudder processing beyond the four presets, and unlike some competitors it doesn't offer a 10-point white-balance control or color management system. A pair of wacky processing extras differentiates the XBR-HX929's settings from lower-end Sonys.

Color adjustments are not abundant by flagship TV standards, but you do get plenty of questionable video-processing tweaks.

The XBR-HX929's jack pack, as on many thin TVs, relies on sideways- and downward-facing ports as well as a breakout cable for component or composite video (you can connect one or the other, but not both). The headphone output is welcome, but the aforementioned bulge for the RS-232 port, which will only be used in custom installations, is not.

The jack pack's best feature is a headphone port; its worst is the bulky RS-232 port (top).

Performance
The Sony XBR-HX929 is the best-performing LCD-based TV we've tested this year, outdoing edge-lit models by virtue of superior black-level performance and very good color. Those exceedingly deep blacks don't sacrifice any shadow detail, but the local-dimming backlight does result in some blooming and off-angle issues. Overall, however, for picture quality the HX929 stands above all but the very best plasma TVs, at least when viewed from the sweet spot directly in front of the screen.

Picture settings:
Sony XBR-55HX929

The Cinema preset came closest to ideal on the HX929, enabling local dimming by default (unlike Custom) without being overly bright for darker rooms, as well as showing solid color accuracy and gamma. We used Custom for calibration since it offered the full range of controls without having to utilize Scene Select to get to the Cinema preset. The available 2-point grayscale controls were mostly adequate, although we'd have liked the ability to tweak 10 points. It also would have been nice to get some color management tweaks, although the primary and secondary colors were very good, as you can see from our test results.

Despite the relatively sparse color controls, we achieved excellent results. Unlike last year's HX909, the HX929 showed nominal color drift for an LED-based LCD, while the 2010 version shifted significantly toward blue in the first 90 minutes of so of on time. That difference alone made the HX929's picture significantly better.

For our image quality tests we checked out "Tron: Legacy" using the comparison lineup below.

Black level: Producing a deep shade of black is the HX929's specialty. The black areas of dark scenes, such as the letterbox bars above and below the image and areas of night sky, were the darkest in our comparison aside from the Pioneer. The darker the scene, the more the difference became apparent, and at times the Sony's screen seemed to blend completely into the blackness of our viewing room. The result was excellent contrast and pop in many scenes.

Blooming, in which that inky blackness gets brightened by adjacent lighter areas because the backlight zones aren't small or numerous enough, was more noticeable on this set than on the other local dimmers (aside from the 909). One big reason, we're guessing, is because the Sony is so black to begin with, but regardless, it's a visible problem, especially in letterboxed movies. In chapter 3 of "Tron: Legacy," for example, the bars were brightened in parts by a moonbeam (18:27), two ceiling lamps (19:46), a bright plastic dust cover (20:38), and a flashlight-illuminated bit of door (21:29). Aside from the bars we saw blooming in many scenes with bright elements surrounded by darkness, like credits, the PS3's menu displays, and other text. That said, overt blooming was less of an issue than on last year's 909, and in most scenes with normal program material--as opposed to graphics or text--we didn't find it distracting when watching even this relatively dark film.

Comparing the HX929 to the plasmas we also noticed that black areas brightened somewhat when they were surrounded by lighter areas, such as the dark space under the bridge (15:09). This effect was a more subtle form of blooming, but its result was that the plasmas showed better contrast, with a bit more pop, in many mixed scenes. We doubt the difference would be visible outside a side-by-side comparison, though.

The Sony managed excellent shadow detail in most areas, outdoing both the Samsung PND8000 and the HX909 at showing details in Sam's and the guard's clothing (13:30), while avoiding the somewhat too-bright shadows of the VT30. It matched the Vizio and LG in this department, while delivering deeper blacks than either.

Color accuracy: The Sony performed well in this area, beating its predecessor in dark areas and delivering excellent saturation and richness. The skin tones of Sam and Quorra on the motorcycle in Chapter 19 (1:57:18), for example, looked very close to our reference, as did the green of the trees and the overcast sky. We did detect a blue tinge and very slightly washed-out highlights at times, but it wouldn't be visible outside of a side-by-side comparison.

In near-dark and black areas the Sony did turn bluer, but not to the same extent as most other LED/LCDs. Since blacks were so dark the blue cast was not apparent, and shadows stayed relatively true, albeit worse (bluer) than the plasmas.

Video processing: With Motion Flow set to the Off position, the HX929 correctly handled 1080p/24 film cadence. All of the other settings introduced some degree of smoothing (dejudder), although Clear 1 came closest to Off, preserving a good deal of judder and keeping smoothness to a relatively low, albeit still easily discernable, level. As usual we wished for a Custom implementation similar to what Samsung provides, as opposed to having to select from presets.

Two of those presets, Clear and Clear Plus, use backlight scanning for maximum motion resolution. The other two, Standard and Smooth, do not, and come in at around 900 lines. As usual we couldn't tell the difference in normal program material between any of these settings, including Off.

We also checked out Sony's Reality Creation system and preferred to leave it set to Off for high-quality sources. The Resolution portion seemed to act a lot like a sharpness control, adding edge enhancement at high levels and softening the image when we turned it down. The Noise Reduction section might be useful (along with the three other NR settings) for some lower-quality material, but had no impact we could discern on high-quality sources.

We chose to turn on the Smooth Gradation control, however, choosing Low, because the default Off position left small artifacts around the diagonal lines on our Sharpness test pattern. We noticed no ill effects in Low, and no difference in false contouring regardless of which setting we used.

Unlike the 909 and most other TVs we've tested, the 929 failed our 1080i de-interlacing test, so you may see some minor artifacts in 1080i film-based material.

Uniformity: The screen on our HX929 review sample was quite uniform overall, with no obvious hot spots and similar brightness in the middle and near the edges. We did notice minor banding on occasion; when the camera panned up over the facade of Flynn's, for example (23:33), a pair of slightly brighter horizontal strips appeared in darker areas. This banding was infrequent and subtle enough that we didn't find it distracting--it was nowhere near as bad as we saw on the LG 47LX9500, for example.

Updated July 8, 2011: After this review posted, we were contacted by a couple of readers asking about the "crease." We missed it the first time around, but looking closely we see it now. It appears as a very slightly darker line running vertically along the left side of the screen, and can be seen most clearly in flat fields of color especially during camera movement. On our review sample we don't consider it a big deal, mainly because it ranges from invisible to barely noticeable in most scenes (see the video at 0:51 for an example), and as such it doesn't affect our overall evaluation. Like many such issues it can vary on different models, however, and we've heard reports of it being more noticeable or appearing along other edges of the screen. Sony is apparently aware of the issue, at least in the U.K., and we've contacted its U.S. representatives for an explanation. As of July 14, here's what we've been told.

From off-angle the HX929 fared poorly, as we expect in general from LCDs and in particular from local dimmers. Dark areas and colors washed out worse the others in our comparison (aside from the 909), and the difference in contrast--for example the lightening of letterbox bars on the far edge and slight rise in shadows--was visible from as little as one couch cushion to either side of the sweet spot at a viewing distance of 8 feet. Areas of blooming became, as usual, more apparent the further we moved off-angle.

Bright lighting: The Sony's glossy screen was a liability when bright lights and objects reflected therein; those reflections appeared brighter than on any other set aside from the Panasonic VT30. The Sony did preserve black levels quite well, however, outdoing the others aside from the 909 in this department. As usual, the matte-screened LCDs, from LG and Vizio in our comparison, looked best overall.

PC: The HX929 performed as well as we'd expect from a 1080p LCD-based TV with PC sources, resolving every line of a 1,920x1,080-pixel-resolution source via VGA with no edge enhancement or softness in text.

3D: We experienced issues testing the HX929's 3D performance and have asked Sony for replacement glasses.

Update August 30, 2011: We've had the chance to test the 3D picture quality of the XBR-HX929 with new glasses, and the short story is that the issues we saw originally are still there, putting a fly in the ointment of the TV's excellent overall performance. These problems won't affect the review score, since we don't take 3D picture quality into account when determining ratings, but they're still worth noting. To test 3D we again used "Tron: Legacy" and kept the set in its default Cinema picture setting.

The biggest issue in our book, and the one that made us ask Sony for replacement glasses, is significant flicker when dejudder (MotionFlow) is turned off. In that setting the entire image flickers visibly, increasing in intensity as the picture brightens (for example, when we turned the TV's glasses brightness setting from Low to Medium to High). The flicker is most obvious in bright areas, such as Flynn's dining room (Chapter 9, 53:12), but still noticeable in all scenes to a greater or lesser extent.

On the other hand, turning MotionFlow on to either setting (Standard or Smooth) causes the flicker to disappear. Of course, doing so artificially smoothes over the film cadence of 1080p/24, something videophiles may object to as much as the flicker. In our opinion the flicker makes the image unwatchable, and as much as we hate smoothing, if we had the HX929 we'd watch 3D with MotionFlow set to Standard, where the smoothing is less objectionable than Smooth.

The Sony's 3D image also deteriorates rapidly--losing the 3D effect and becoming rife with crosstalk, as well as brighter and discolored--when you tilt your head (to place one eye higher than the other relative to the horizontal edge of the TV screen). The LW5600's passive 3D also loses 3D during head tilts, but you have to tilt pretty far. With the HX929, even the slightest tilt of the head spoils the 3D. We don't recommend watching 3D with any angle but straight on (when you lay on your side and watch, provided the TV can even handle it, you're likely to experience discomfort after a few minutes), but the Sony's intolerance for even the slightest tilt is an issue.

We saw neither flicker nor extreme intolerance to head tilts on any of the other active 3D sets. We saw both issues, on the other hand, when viewing 3D on Sony's KDL-46EX720.

If you keep your neck straight and turn on MotionFlow, the HX929 delivers very good 3D performance. Crosstalk was minimal even in difficult scenes like the pattern on the floor of the dressing room in Chapter 5 (28:25) and the stripes on Quorra's suit in Chapter 9 (1:04:00). As expected for an LCD, the HX929 was also significantly brighter than any of the plasmas, with ample light output for even bright rooms, and colors looked fine in the default Cinema mode we tested.

Power consumption: The HX929 is unquestionably our new efficiency champ. Its local-dimming backlight enables it to underdraw the edge-lit competition after calibration, and it even surpasses smaller local dimmers (such as the LG LX9500).

Juice box
	Picture settings
	Default	Calibrated	Power save
Picture on (watts)	127.96	61.39	80.042
Picture on (watts/sq. inch)	0.1	0.05	0.06
Standby (watts)	0.26	0.26	0.26
Cost per year	$28.96	$13.66	$17.75
Score (considering size)	Good
Score (overall)	Good

Sony XBR-55HX929 CNET review calibration results

(Read more about how we test TVs.)