Okay so I went to the Sony Centre in Nunnawadding and spent about 2 hours in front of the Z9D. If anyone else lives in Melbourne and is interested in doing the same, give them a call, and ask to speak to Ben, he was awesome, and let me bring an XBOX One S and try out anything I wanted. He also gave me the remote and let me change any settings on the TV.
First of all before I plugged in the One S, the demo footage was playing and I was instantly very impressed. Front on I couldn't see any blooming, and I got close to the screen, I was pretty much pressing my nose against it, and the contrast between the brightest highlights and the black right next to it was incredible and I couldn't spot any halo-ing.
All that changes when you go off angle though, and the weaknesses of LCD are immediately apparent. You can definitely see blooming at an angle, and that might be a dealbreaker for some, in my case, I'm never going to be anywhere but directly in front, so it's not an issue for me personally.
Anyway, he came over and we plugged the XBOX in, and spent quite a while trying to set it up properly. We kept getting a whole bunch of crosses on the 4K compatibility screen on the XB1. And playing anything with HDR turned on just looked shit, way over saturated and heavy contrast.
After a while we figured out that
the HDMI port had to be set to enhanced mode (bolded in case anyone else wants to go try it out, HDR will not work unless this is done), then we got 100% green ticks on the 4K compatibility scene. Before we got this stuff sorted out that, I was already impressed with the set. Gears of War and Forza both looked very good, and I was very happy with the input lag. But when we finally got HDR working, and we booted up Forza and Gears, holy smokes... it was a game changer. In the opening scenes of Gears you're storming a beach like location, and there is this intense blue lightning, which is just incredible on the Z9D. Forza is a similar story, the colours and HDR were incredible, the sky looked amazing, and the highlights of the sun reflecting off the cars and puddles looked insane.
Switching from HDR on to HDR off was like going from graded footage to LOG footage. It's amazing how what was originally impressive (the TV running in standard) quickly becomes shit compared to HDR, and also how quickly your eyes adjust to HDR and accept it as standard.
Next up I tested out Mad Max on 4K Blu Ray (sadly the only one I own), but similar results here. Black performance is outstanding, the TV looks like it's turned off during black scenes, and even with bright objects against a black background like the opening titles held up extremely well (I even went to the end credits, and was very impressed with how well it did pure white against pure black, I couldn't see any halo-ing on axis).
Things that impressed me in Mad Max were again the specular highlights, HDR really brings the picture alive, fire looks amazing, the sun reflecting off the steering wheel right before they enter the storm looked awesome, and then when they entered the storm the lightning was just crazy, the Z9D can get seriously bright, and it helps for HDR heaps.
At that stage I felt like I'd seen enough, and then went to The Good Guys to check out the OLEDs.
They didn't have the G6 on display unfortunately, just the E6, but I've been told the only difference is the soundbar, so it should more or less be the same.
The guys there also let me hook up the XB1 S, and try stuff out. Initially we had the same issues as the Sony, and the HDMI port had to be set to Enhanced Colour something, and the TV restarted itself, then we got all green ticks, and were ready to go.
Right off the bat, the OLED impresses with it's pure blacks, and glossier (than the Z9D) screen.
I started with Mad Max, and initially I wasn't happy as I could see motion artefacts all over the place, and there was a slight amount of SOE (very subtle mind you). Specifically in scenes with the cars that have the sticks sticking out of them (see below) when they swayed from side to side there was shocking artefacting.
So I asked the guys if I could muck around with the settings, and they were very happy to let me do so, so I turned off all TruMotion, Noise Reduction etc settings, and the image cleaned up remarkably, but once I did that, it introduced unbelievable judder in the image. Very evident in the first scene Furiosa is driving away, if you look at the clouds in the sky as they drive by and the camera pans across it was like the video was stuttering.
I tried mucking around with the settings a bit more, but any motion enhancement I turned on would bring back the SOE / motion artefacts. The guy in the store tried doing something with the OLED which turned it off (screen refresh or cycle) but it didn't fix anything. So I'm not 100% sure what the best settings are for it, it was my first time mucking around with an OLED. If anyone who has one has optimal settings to remove SOE without introducing judder let me know and I'll go back and try again.
Anyway, I wasn't satisfied with Mad Max, so then I tried Forza Horizon, and while it looked nice, and the blacks were very deep, it didn't have quite the intensity or impact of the Z9D, and I think that comes down to the peak brightness of the sets. Keep in mind, when I was looking at the Z9D, it didn't look too bright, or strain my eyes, it was only small parts of the scene that would go super bright, and if anything it just looked more true to life.
I noticed more reflections on the OLED, but I put that down to store conditions and the glossier screen, not really an issue.
Anyway I think that about covers it, sorry for the gigantic post, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask. As for what I'll be going with in December, after spending a good amount of time with both, it's the Z9D hands down, even if it was more expensive, I'd get it over the OLED. The motion issues I experienced with the OLED instantly cancel it out as I couldn't deal with that, despite the amazing quality of the screen and black levels. The Z9D simply had more of a wow factor also, and the HDR presentation was much more impactful.