Ultra HD (UHD or 4K) televisions still have a long way to go toward wide adoption, but companies like Sony are working hard to get the technology to where 1080p HDTVs are now. The Sony XBR-X900B series is one of the company's high-end, 4K television lines. It doesn't deliver the contrast and image processing tricks of the X950B series, but makes up for it with an impressive sound system the higher-tier line lacks. At $4,999.99, the 65-inch XBR-65X900B is a big investment when compared with high-end 1080p screens like the 60-inch Sony KDL-60W850B, and its black levels aren't quite up to snuff. Despite its picture flaws and the high price, it's a very attractive and full-featured television that offers solid performance. It's a shame there isn't enough readily available 4K content to make the investment worthwhile yet.
Design
The X900B is a striking HDTV, mostly because of its prominent, highly visible sound system. While most sets hide their speakers behind the panel or under the bottom bezel, the X900 shows off its six-driver stereo sound system proudly. The entire front of the HDTV is a flat layer of glass, distinguished by slightly elevated top and bottom bezels and six exposed drivers on the side. A 3.2-inch subwoofer, a 3.2-inch woofer, and a 0.7-inch tweeter each sit at either side of the screen on large, prominent vertical strips of black glass flanking the screen. The 2.2-channel sound system provides 12.5 watts to each tweeter/woofer pair and 20 watts to each subwoofer. The speakers are already more powerful than your average HDTV sound system, and you can further expand your audio capabilities with the $300 optional SWF-BR1000 wireless subwoofer.
The back of the HDTV houses four HDMI ports (including one that's MHL-compatible), three USB ports, a 3.5mm audio output, an antenna/cable connection, and 3.5mm ports for the included IR blaster and a serial controller facing left. Composite and component video inputs, along with an Ethernet port and an optical audio output, face directly back. The 65X900B comes with a helpful port replicator that extends the reach of three of the HDMI ports, a USB port, and the antenna/cable connection by a good six feet over one cable. It's helpful if you want to set up the screen in a carefully arranged home entertainment system, but the port replicator needs its own power supply, so that's another cable to plug into the wall. A simple direction pad that doubles as Volume Up/Down and Channel Up/Down controls sits on the lower-left corner of the back of the screen, along with Power, Home, and Source buttons.
Sony replaces its typically bland, flat remote control with an angular black touchpad controller that complements the X900's look. The remote is minimalist to a fault, with the touchpad flanked only by Power and Social View buttons above and Home, Return, Options, Volume Up/Down, and Channel Up/Down buttons below. The touchpad remote would have been better served with the addition of Input and Mute buttons, and playback controls, but thankfully Sony also includes a more conventional button-filled remote. That controller is a bit handier for switching between inputs outside of the X900's smart functions, thanks to its many dedicated buttons for inputs and menu selections.
Interface and Features
Like LG's WebOS interface, Sony's new HDTV menu system is focused more on content suggestions than direct source and app access, once you connect the screen to the Internet through Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable. Whenever you press the Home button and jump into the interface, you'll be greeted with content, not services. You can still switch between inputs fairly easily (at least, with the conventional remote; you need to flick through a few options with the touchpad remote), and jump to individual apps and online services, but the emphasis is clearly on raw content selection. The touchpad remote even lets you flick upward from nearly any screen to bring up a handful of suggestions.
The main menu is divided into Channel, 4K Movies, Movies, Album, Music, Apps, and PlayStation Now tabs, in addition to a handful of Android-like icons on the top-right corner of the screen for adjusting settings. The Channel tab shows a live program guide in a friendly, tile-based interface to show off what's on (though you can switch to a more conventional grid program guide). Like most HDTVs that integrate with set-top boxes, the X900B uses an IR blaster to remotely control your cable or satellite box, so you don't have to switch remotes when watching television.
The 4K Movies and Movies tabs show, respectively, featured 4K content and featured movies available through Sony's Video Unlimited service. The Music tab offers the same for songs through Sony's Music Unlimited service and music videos through VEVO. The Album tab offers screen mirroring, playback of local media, and a variety of photo gallery options. The PlayStation Now tab offers access to the still very early and unreleased service, which will offer PlayStation game streaming over the Internet if you pair a PS4 controller with the HDTV.
4K and 3D
Content selection is the biggest problem facing 4K HDTVs today, and without a broadcast or media standard for 4K video, that will remain an issue for the foreseeable future. Sony offers a few ways to get around this, to varying degrees of success. The X900B is Netflix 4K-compatible, so you can watch shows like House of Cards and Breaking Bad in 4K. However, you need at least a 25Mbps connection to get a reliable 4K stream from Netflix. YouTube also has some 4K content, but it too is limited by bandwidth. Unless you have a commercial-grade pipe at home, you shouldn't expect consistent UHD video from the Internet.
While you can't count on Netflix and YouTube for 4K video unless you have a truly prodigious Internet connection, Sony itself offers a solution that's much more reliable. Unfortunately, it's expensive and extremely limited. The upcoming FMP-X10 is a $700 media streamer that accesses Sony's Video Unlimited 4K library directly, and can download films to local storage for viewing without buffering. From a technical perspective, this is currently the best way to get native 4K films and shows on your 4K HDTV. However, it's both locked down to only work with Sony 4K televisions and, if it's like its predecessor the FMP-X1, it will need to authorize the connected television with Sony's servers to work at all.
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