[Tianchi.com home appliance channel] If the history of LCD display from the early 1970s by Japan's Sharp manufactured the first LCD monitor, then it has been more than 40 years. LCD TVs based on liquid crystal display technology are already a very mature industry. In the global TV share, LCD TVs account for as high as 99%. This also means that in order to achieve a major breakthrough in mature industries, it must be difficult. In 2016, Sony released the flagship TV Z9D, which is still the benchmark for LCD TVs today. Even on the CES2018, Sony brought new X9000F series, but it was only seen as an iteration of the flagship X9000E TV last year, not the successor of the Z9D. It is because the evolution of LCD TVs has slowed down that when OLEDs with thin, self-luminous, and flexible features come into being, they will gain so much attention. If you think about picture quality, current OLED TVs are not Dominated. However, on the CES2018, we still saw a surprise, because the domestic TV brother, Hisense, made a U9 TV with ultra-1000 backlit divisions, became the world's highest number of backlight LCD TVs, and won the CES "Global Annual Display Technology Gold Award. ". Hisense U9 TV on CES What does an ultra-1000 backlight partition mean? What changes will it bring to LCD TVs? As the strongest LCD TV in China, compared with Sony Z9D, is it better? In order to clarify these issues, we borrowed a 75-inch Hisense U9 and the same-size Sony Z9D TV, from the instrument test to the screen comparison, from the screen brightness, color gamut, contrast to HDR, 4K UHD Blu-ray video performance Force and so on, in order to understand what the ultra 1000 backlit division number can bring to Hisense U9 what kind of promotion, as well as these two representative LCD TVs who can be superior in picture quality. Of course, the following test results are only for the two products that we have obtained and are not responsible for all products. Flagship Super Screen Before the comparison evaluation begins, let’s get to know these two products. Hisense HZ75U9A TV Hisense U9 TV, currently on display, is a 75-inch version, and it is understood that there will be 65-inch and 55-inch versions. 75 inches in the LCD TV is considered a large screen, visual shock is self-evident. Hisense U9 is a limited-edition television of the 2018 World Cup. It has a global limit of 2,000 units. Each station has its own unique number. We have got "1117" in our hands. There is also the eye-catching "Zone 1000" logo, which shows that this is a backlit sub-1000 super TV. Hisense's ULED technology is still essentially liquid crystal technology, but dynamic backlight partitioning and quantum dot technology have greatly improved the display effect of traditional LCD TVs. On the screen, 4K (3840×2160) resolution supports popular HDR10 and higher Dolby Vision (Dolby Vision). In terms of performance, the flagship processor 6A938 from Mstar is used, which is also the top processing chip in the television field. Also equipped with 4GB of running memory and 64GB of body storage, it seems that this flagship TV, Hisense is also considered to be the capital of the. The U9's base design is very similar to the MU9600 series. In the same way, the former sound-designed sounders have joined the Grammy Gold Waves sound effects. Interface, 2 USB ports, 2 HDMI ports, 1 Type-C port, 1 TF card slot, 1 wired antenna port, 1 PCMCIA port, 1 HI-LINK port, 1 debug port, 1 Digital audio input interface, 1 network port. The addition of the Type-C interface makes this TV look very "forward." The remote control uses a minimalist design that supports speech recognition. Hisense upgraded its VIDAA system to VIDAA AI, enhancing its capabilities in speech recognition and intelligent control. Sony KD-75Z9D TV The Sony Z9D, which was introduced in 2016, is still the flagship TV of the Sony BRAVIA series. In terms of backlighting, it is equipped with a high-density LED light source structure and a dynamic backlight system master control system to achieve precise backlight control. In terms of picture quality, there is an advanced version of the 4K HDR image processing chip X1. The built-in 2 image database supports 14-bit smooth gradation. The firmware upgrade also supports two major HDR formats, HDR10 and Dolby Vision. Equipped with Android 7.0 system, support voice search function. For other information, please refer to our previous Z9D review, which will not be repeated here. Super 1000 backlight partition number in the end what awesome? Sony Z9D had already talked about a lot of information before, but for the Hisense U9 that was just released, many people are still not very clear. Hisense U9's largest product technology point is undoubtedly the number of sub-1000 backlight partitions, and accurately said to be 1056 (48 x 22) backlight partitions. This is also the world’s first LCD TV with more than 1,000 backlight zones. What is a backlight partition? Since the LCD TV adopts a passive light-emitting principle (OLED TV is an active light-emitting device), the liquid crystal itself does not emit light, and the purpose of imaging is achieved through the passage (open, closed, or partially closed) of light emitted by the backlight source behind the control panel. Therefore, the backlight structure is an important part of LCD TV imaging. For a TV without a partitioned backlight, as long as it is turned on, its backlight system will all be lit, so even if the screen shows a dark, because the liquid crystal molecules can not cover all the light of the backlight, it will cause the display of the black field white, In the case of high-contrast images, problems such as blurred image edges affect image quality. With the multi-partition solution, the backlight of the LCD TV is no longer lit or extinguished uniformly, but is divided into hundreds or even thousands of partitions, and the backlight system of each small partition is controlled independently. At this time, the backlight does not only light and extinguish the two states, but can independently adjust the brightness. In this way, the backlight can adjust the brightness of the backlight LED according to the brightness requirements of each area of ​​the display screen, brighter places are brighter, and dark areas are darker, which greatly enhances image contrast. Of course, the number of backlight partitions is also limited, because the number is more than one, once the backlight can not use high-power LED, but must use a large number of small LED, the increase in the number of LEDs, the complexity of the layout and other factors will greatly increase the cost Therefore, multi-zone backlighting is usually only used in high-end televisions. TVs with mainstream prices occasionally use partitioned backlights, such as the Xiaomi 4 TV, and the 65-inch version has a partition number of 10. Compared to the thousands of partitions, it is not an order of magnitude. The 75-inch Sony Z9D, it is understood that the number of backlight partitions is more than 800, but also at a very high level. The mark part is the light control chip of Hisense U9. With a multi-zone backlight, a dedicated light control module is naturally required. Hisense U9 equipped with its own control light chip, developed a secondary algorithm for dimming, can dynamically adjust the backlight peak brightness, dark areas where the darker, brighter lighter areas, give full play to the advantages of 1056 partitions. The dimming accuracy is 4096, so that each frame can achieve the best brightness. It can be seen that the challenge brought by the ultra-1000 partition is not only the improvement of manufacturing difficulty, but also the higher requirements for the backlight control system. How is the actual effect, then look down. Wider color gambit and Hisense U9 color performance is even better First look at the performance of color. Hisense U9 uses quantum dot technology, which is to insert a quantum dot film between the LED backlight source and the liquid crystal panel. The quantum dot film under the excitation of the LED light source will produce a true blue and green red component consisting of true color white light, under the NTSC standard, The gamut NTSC ratio of ordinary LED TVs is only 72%, and quantum dot LCD TVs can achieve color gamut coverage of 110%. This also corrects our misunderstanding of the color gamut of television. The material composition of the backlight determines the color gamut of a TV, not the LCD panel itself. During the test, we will restore both TVs to the factory settings. The default image mode is “standard mode†and turn off the automatic light adjustment function. The Konica Minolta CA-310 color analyzer was used to test the color of the two TVs. Through the conversion of the color coordinates, the gamut coverage of the two TVs was roughly as follows: From the data point of view, Hisense U9 using quantum dot material is much higher than Z9D, and it belongs to the real wide color gamut. In fact, in recent years, the entire television industry has been developing toward a wider and wider color gamut. What is the advantage of the wide color gamut? First, TVs with wide color gamut can more accurately restore HDR video and wide color gamut images. Because HDR video contains richer color information than ordinary video, if the color gamut of the TV does not meet the requirements, the ability to restore HDR video will be greatly reduced. Secondly, when restoring non-HDR video, the wide color gamut screen will also bring Better performance, such as the sky is more blue, the flowers are more colorful... Actual performance, see the following group. Left is Sony Z9D, right is Hisense U9, the same below Thanks to the wider color gamut, Hisense U9 is more colorful and bright when presenting red roses and strawberries. Of course, this kind of splendidness has not reached the level of overflowing, so that even with the hardware base of the wide color gamut, there needs to be a good color management system. For green grass, there is a big difference between the two when they are restored. The Sony Z9D will appear more intense, while the Hisense U9 will be smaller and fresher. However, in the shade of the water, Hisense U9 has more details in the shadows because the brightness of the overall picture is higher. The growing color gamut performance is the trend of television development. Sony Z9D, which was released earlier, apparently suffered a loss. However, in terms of color accuracy, neither of them has a color cast or an excessively unnatural phenomenon. Black level performance: purity or dark details? This is a question of choice Since both TVs use high-density partitioned backlighting, LCD TVs in the past have suffered from the problem of leak light and uneven brightness, which is no longer a problem. Hisense U9 screen shot Sony Z9D screen shot In the high-contrast picture, both of the black spots perform extremely well, the night sky is very pure, and the black spots dive deep enough. We use the instrument to test the brightness of both. The higher the peak brightness, the better the performance of the HDR high dynamic range video is. However, for the non-night sky, which is a typical high degree of contrast environment, such as the night room, more details, darker parts, performance will have any difference? Hisense U9 screen shot Sony Z9D screen shot The above is an SDR video under the condition of indoor dark light. Due to the limited latitude of the camera, in order to record as much as possible the details of the shadows, we selectively let the highlights overexposure. This is not the case. This frame reflects the different imaging options of the two. Sony Z9D in order to retain more details of the shadows, resulting in overall grayish screen, Hisense U9 screen is more pure, but lost some of the details of the shadow, such as the arm of the other chair in the lower left corner of the screen, Sony Z9D can see, Hisense U9 There is no reservation. These two methods of presentation are not on the basis of superiority or inferiority, but are different in the tendency of tuning. After many comparisons, we found that most of these situations occurred on the SDR video. Both of them can take into account both the purity and the darkness in HDR video. detail. Left is Sony Z9D, right is Hisense U9 Hisense U9 screen shot Sony Z9D screen shot Multi-zone backlight and high peak brightness are just born for HDR HDR stands for High-DynamicRange, which means "high dynamic range." If 4K resolution is to improve the picture quality by increasing the number of pixels, HDR mainly improves the human visual experience by improving the brightness range of the picture. According to relevant regulations, if the LCD TV supports HDR, the minimum brightness of the screen should be lower than 0.05 nit, the maximum brightness should be over 1000 nit, and the contrast ratio can reach 20000:1. The higher the contrast ratio, the more vivid the color of the image displayed on the monitor, the red is red, the black is darker, and the highlights are not too bright, resulting in a pale, clearer image and stronger layering. Obviously, in the hardware can not meet the requirements of the low-end LCD TVs, a wide range of nominal support for HDR actually only supports HDR decoding, and can not fully demonstrate the effectiveness of HDR. When the input signal source is HDR video, Hisense U9 will automatically identify and appear "HDR" logo, Sony Z9D can be viewed in image mode. In this group of flame scenes, the source of the video is HDR. The TV should show a sufficient amount of the high-light part of the flame, and the ash part retains the dark details. From the above it can be seen that both have a very good highlight performance, the flames are very hot, but the contrast of Hisense U9 is significantly higher, mainly charcoal and charcoal in the burn-out black is well reflected, appears the overall picture The sense of hierarchy is better. Left is Sony Z9D, right is Hisense U9 For this group, the overall picture is quite similar. However, the restoration of the ground still shows the same characteristics as the above group. Hisense U9's ground color is darker, deeper, and has a more layered look. Also benefiting from the wider color gamut, the lid's red Hisense U9 is more saturated and looks brighter. Hisense U9 screen shot Sony Z9D screen shot In the above group, at first glance, [Tao Wenxin 1] has no obvious difference. In fact, the sun is hidden behind the clouds. The entire scene presents a backlit scene. On the Sony Z9D, the golden light that shines through the clouds is reflected, and the entire screen looks more textured. Multi-zone backlighting and high peak brightness are undoubtedly crucial for the performance of HDR video. The details of the light perception and shadows that were difficult to perceive in television in the past have been extremely well presented on both televisions. Hisense U9 benefits from a higher color gamut, and can perform stronger color rendering in HDR video. Sony Z9D, on the other hand, performs finer details on performance materials such as light and metal. Big screen movie like a 4K UHD Blu-ray disc demo The previous tests were all 4K HDR videos we prepared. The next demonstration was 4K UHD Ultra HD Blu-ray movies. Both televisions have a large 75-inch screen, and with excellent picture quality, can be called a small movie theater. The player was a Panasonic Panasonic DMP-UB900 UHD Blu-ray player. The test disc selected "Billie Lynn's midfield battle" and "Spider-Man Returns." The former adopts the HDR10 standard while the latter supports two HDR standards, Dolby Vision and HDR10. Hisense U9 screen shot Sony Z9D screen shot If I do not label it out, I believe many people can't tell who is who. This is indeed the case. In most of the scenarios, the overall picture of the two is very similar, in terms of brightness, hue, clarity, etc. In addition to slight differences in the saturation of signal lights and body colors, they basically belong to the same level as the current top flagship. Hisense U9 screen shot Sony Z9D screen shot In this group of night scenes, the number of light spots is particularly large, and the backlight technology is very much tested. If the partitions are not sufficiently thin, it is difficult to display them all. Both TVs bring a high standard of play. To say the difference, Shanghai U9 should be slightly purer in the purity of the night sky. Hisense U9 screen shot Sony Z9D screen shot The midfield performance in "Billie Lynn's Midfielder" has rich colors and high-contrast images. Billy's face looks brighter on the Hisense U9, and the colors of the fireworks The two are basically equivalent. Evaluation summary: Both televisions are the flagship representatives of the current LCD TVs. They are just like masters, and the outcome is only insignificant. Hisense U9 with a higher color gamut coverage, the color performance is more bright and beautiful than the Z9D. However, with the powerful X1 EXTREME graphics chip, the Sony Z9D is more textured when presenting HDR images. Super 1000 backlight partition and higher peak brightness, so that Hisense U9 presents a bright picture, with the Sony Z9D finer adjustment and differentiation. Although the two TVs are not products of the same period, the comparison is not completely equivalence, but they all belong to the top flagships found at this stage. What is surprising and gratifying in the comparison results is that domestically produced TVs have already possessed the strength of the flagship industry's flagship, and they can even surpass some single items. It is also based on the product's self-confidence, the domestic TV brands represented by Hisense, began to actively go to the sea and achieved a series of achievements. Hisense TV's share of sales in the South African market reached 22.4%, and its share of sales in the Australian market was 19.6%, both ranking first. The large-scale introduction of Toshiba TV in Japan also further accelerated its globalization process. In the face of the upcoming 2018 World Cup in Russia, Hisense, as the official sponsor, once again has the opportunity to promote Chinese brands to the world. This U9 TV will undoubtedly be a brilliant Chinese high-end manufacturing business card.