Sony Bravia XR 77A80J a keeper

Got in my new 77-inch A80J OLED TV on Friday afternoon after nearly a year of research.

First blush: my wife says it’s gorgeous and noticeably bigger than our 65” Pany plasma which now hangs in our bedroom.

Friday night I toyed a bit with picture settings and got it working with my new 7.2.4 atmos system powered by Yamaha and Emotiva; with Martin and Logan main speakers, 4 Klipsch in ceilings, 4 Sonance in walls and a pair of SVS 3000 subs. Of course my Oppo-203 does some key work as well with the UHD 4K discs.

Friday night I watched The Natural in generic 4K HDR And with Dolby Atmos. The new tech really pushed this classic Director’s Cut Edition to new territory. Rich picture sharp, deep colors were wild. Busting the lights at the end was perfect. The Natural on Blu-ray is nice but this is a much bigger animal.

Saturday I went a bit different with a 4K disc Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, extended version of Brave Heart. These enhanced Dolby Atmos discs produce the best audio out there for consumers. Rich colors and glorious music brought tears to my eyes. Its one of the late composer James Horner’s epic hits.

I followed William Wallace, sorry 4K couldn’t save him from his tragic fate, till his grisly end catching every drop of blood he shed.

An extended version of Gladiator in 4K Dolby Vision again underlined the beauty of the Spanish countryside and the CGI glory that was Rome. The bombastic music in Dolby Atmos by Hans Zimmer added was the best I’ve ever heard it.

I topped off the movie binge with Oblivion in 4K HDR10 with DTS-X sound. This excellent Sci-Fi capped a great day of sight and sound, leaving me thoroughly impressed with my A80J OLED.

The 77 inch is a tad less than the 83 inch version in the A90J I wanted. But the 83A90J OLED is still a cool $8000 and the still-to-come 85X95J LCR/LED TV will cost just north of $4500. So this x80J OLED at $3500 is the sweet spot.

Plenty of brightness for movies. Indeed it’s white scenes produce some glare and I had to dim it a bit.

Too knew to talk about burn-in but no signs of even temporary scene retention were noticed.

Can’t wait for football season because I did catch a quarter of LSU’s 2019 title run wins over OU and Clemson on YouTube on 4K.

Sunday I will tackle some war genre like maybe Blackhawk Down; 13 Hours at Benghazi; and Lone Survivor. Monday’s fare may include all sci-fi — Fifth Element, Starship Troopers and Bladerunner.