Yes, it is broken, we already tested this, as mentioned in the “Supported Resolutions” section of our review. When sent a 4k @ 120Hz signal, text is very blurry, as shown here

Oct 27, 2020 12:32 PM By  Adam Babcock

Yes, it is broken, we already tested this, as mentioned in the “Supported Resolutions” section of our review. When sent a 4k @ 120Hz signal, text is very blurry, as shown here

Adam, what were your personal impressions on using this “broken” 4K-120hz on the 900H ?

• Was the text/icons hard to read at 4K-120-4:4:4 ? Or its not noticeable from a normal TV viewing distance ?
• Was the Picture Quality decreased by this blur when playing a video file, or watching an online browser stream/video, or actual 4K-120 rendered PC gaming ? Are they blurry as well ? How much of a deal breaker is this for those wanting to use 900H for RTX 3080 PC gaming and video/browser watching usage via PC ?

Also, will you able to contact official Sony and inform them of this 4K-120 blur issue please ?

Oct 27, 2020 01:51 PM By RtingsUser334758

130

Adam, what were your personal impressions on using this “broken” 4K-120hz on the 900H ?

• Was the text/icons hard to read at 4K-120-4:4:4 ? Or its not noticeable from a normal TV viewing distance ?
• Was the Picture Quality decreased by this blur when playing a video file, or watching an online browser stream/video, or actual 4K-120 rendered PC gaming ? Are they blurry as well ? How much of a deal breaker is this for those wanting to use 900H for RTX 3080 PC gaming and video/browser watching usage via PC ? Also, will you able to contact official Sony and inform them of this 4K-120 blur issue please ?

I can’t offer my personal impressions, unfortunately, as I’m not part of the testing team, I haven’t seen it personally. I’ll forward your questions to that team though, and I’ll let you know what they say.

We don’t contact manufacturers to report issues, but Sony reads our reviews, so we wouldn’t be surprised if they already know about it.

Oct 27, 2020 01:59 PM By  Adam Babcock

I can’t offer my personal impressions, unfortunately, as I’m not part of the testing team, I haven’t seen it personally. I’ll forward your questions to that team though, and I’ll let you know what they say. We don’t contact manufacturers to report issues, but Sony reads our reviews, so we wouldn’t be surprised if they already know about it.

Thanks for all your work on this.

Oct 27, 2020 01:59 PM By  Adam Babcock

I can’t offer my personal impressions, unfortunately, as I’m not part of the testing team, I haven’t seen it personally. I’ll forward your questions to that team though, and I’ll let you know what they say. We don’t contact manufacturers to report issues, but Sony reads our reviews, so we wouldn’t be surprised if they already know about it.

Can you ask them to test if this blur is also present at 1080p@120 (and maybe at 1440p@120 too - some owners have gotten it to work on RTX 3080) ?

HDTVTest has published the statement of Sony. Look here at 9:30 https://youtu.be/Cf1bSseyyDE

The blur is by design and will most likely not be changed because they seem to have real serious issues with 4K120 although the blur is also present at 1080p120

Here is a photo that shows that this is also clearly visible in games as long as textures are good enough to actually benefit from native 4K: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/owners-thread-for-the-sony-x900h-no-price-talk.3125278/post-60200801

mass return incoming?

Sony, If you possibly read this, this is not an acceptable solution and your answer is also unacceptable. There is no bandwidth issue with this TV as it has HDMI 2.1 and other manufactures do not have a problem displaying a crisp true 4K 120Hz image. You either have a hardware limitation with this TV or somehow we are not getting the whole story as if this was a true HDMI 2.1 TV this would not be an issue. I would not have bought this TV if I knew this is how 4K 120hz was going to work on the X900H. So now I am out of luck with an HDMI 2.1 TV which I cant display a crisp 4K 120Hz Windows desktop image with my new RTX 3080 card. And this also affects the clarity of games at 4k 120Hz within windows.

RTINGS, As you are a top respected review site you must be able to get this to people in Sony that can give us an acceptable answer to this? Thanks for taking the time to respond.

I think they are having a hardware limitation with their 120Hz panels. 1080p blurs as well, but it is far less noticable because it is already blured a bit because of upscaling. Maybe this is also the reason why they did not 1440p120 as well.

I doubt that Sony will recall their whole X900H series as most customers would not even notice, but honestly selling this TV as “ready for PS5” was really not a good idea.

Oct 27, 2020 08:12 PM By andrgin

74

I think they are having a hardware limitation with their 120Hz panels. 1080p blurs as well, but it is far less noticable because it is already blured a bit because of upscaling. Maybe this is also the reason why they did not 1440p120 as well. I doubt that Sony will recall their whole X900H series as most customers would not even notice, but honestly selling this TV as “ready for PS5” was really not a good idea.

I really wasn’t expecting to hear that response from Sony on this. If this is the way Its going to stay, Sony should be offering buy backs on this thing.

Oct 27, 2020 01:51 PM By RtingsUser334758

130

Adam, what were your personal impressions on using this “broken” 4K-120hz on the 900H ?

• Was the text/icons hard to read at 4K-120-4:4:4 ? Or its not noticeable from a normal TV viewing distance ?
• Was the Picture Quality decreased by this blur when playing a video file, or watching an online browser stream/video, or actual 4K-120 rendered PC gaming ? Are they blurry as well ? How much of a deal breaker is this for those wanting to use 900H for RTX 3080 PC gaming and video/browser watching usage via PC ? Also, will you able to contact official Sony and inform them of this 4K-120 blur issue please ?

I spoke with the testing team, and they all said that it’s pretty bad, looking like a badly upscaled 1440p image. Text and icons are hard to read, and there’s blur over everything. It’s not always noticeable, and in some cases, it might be okay, but the general consensus here is that it’s a deal breaker.

Oct 27, 2020 08:32 PM By  Adam Babcock

I spoke with the testing team, and they all said that it’s pretty bad, looking like a badly upscaled 1440p image. Text and icons are hard to read, and there’s blur over everything. It’s not always noticeable, and in some cases, it might be okay, but the general consensus here is that it’s a deal breaker.

Please have them update the review with Sony’s response to this and to warn off people for buying it as an HDMI 2.1 PC monitor like I did if this is Sony’s response to this.

Oct 27, 2020 09:14 PM By andrgin

74

You can still use it as a PC monitor without any problems and enjoy a good image quality at 4K60. In the current form it is basically a 60Hz panel.

Yes but I bought it for the HDMI 2.1, I already have a Samsung I could have done that with and saved myself $1100.

This needs to have a separate big reddit thread to spread awareness that 120hz on 900H is broken

Sign the petition for this issue…Rtings, help us bring visibility to this!

Make Sony fix blurred 120hz image on their PS5 ready x900h/x90ch https://www.change.org/p/sony-make-sony-fix-blurred-120hz-image-on-their-ps5-ready-x900h-x90ch?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_25514016_en-US%3A3&recruiter=630156518&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=tap_basic_share

This is very upsetting as the number one reason I bought this TV was for 4k@120hz. I got a PS5 and a 3080, if Sony is not going to fix it then why did I even get this TV I could have kept my old TV.

Oct 27, 2020 05:50 PM By andrgin

74

HDTVTest has published the statement of Sony. Look here at 9:30 https://youtu.be/Cf1bSseyyDE The blur is by design and will most likely not be changed because they seem to have real serious issues with 4K120 although the blur is also present at 1080p120 Here is a photo that shows that this is also clearly visible in games as long as textures are good enough to actually benefit from native 4K: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/owners-thread-for-the-sony-x900h-no-price-talk.3125278/post-60200801

I am really very concerned. I’ve spent so much money believing I was buying a decent HDMI 2.1 TV. I don’t want to accept that if 120 FPS cannot be achieved natively. Please rtings contact sony and ask for an valid Statement about this.

Oct 27, 2020 05:50 PM By andrgin

74

HDTVTest has published the statement of Sony. Look here at 9:30 https://youtu.be/Cf1bSseyyDE The blur is by design and will most likely not be changed because they seem to have real serious issues with 4K120 although the blur is also present at 1080p120 Here is a photo that shows that this is also clearly visible in games as long as textures are good enough to actually benefit from native 4K: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/owners-thread-for-the-sony-x900h-no-price-talk.3125278/post-60200801

The Sony statement is such a shame. It makes me sick.

Oct 27, 2020 06:22 PM By Rkss

27

mass return incoming?

yep returning my 85" x900h.

Oct 28, 2020 01:45 PM By Scott19

48

The Sony statement is such a shame. It makes me sick.

Their answer doesn’t make sense. 40Gb is plenty bandwidth for 4k/120Hz as shown by LG.

Oct 28, 2020 10:04 PM By WarpedTrekker

21

Their answer doesn’t make sense. 40Gb is plenty bandwidth for 4k/120Hz as shown by LG.

in avrforum is a post eith sony support interaction where say promise a firmware fix for november to fix 120 fps behaviour. We will see.

Oct 29, 2020 06:34 AM By Scott19

48

in avrforum is a post eith sony support interaction where say promise a firmware fix for november to fix 120 fps behaviour. We will see.

We can only hope.

Oct 29, 2020 06:34 AM By Scott19

48

in avrforum is a post eith sony support interaction where say promise a firmware fix for november to fix 120 fps behaviour. We will see.

I would take anything customer support said with a grain of salt.

Oct 29, 2020 06:34 AM By Scott19

48

in avrforum is a post eith sony support interaction where say promise a firmware fix for november to fix 120 fps behaviour. We will see.

You got a link for that AVforum as I can’t find it anywhere where Sony said it will be fixed. If it’s due to bandwidth limitations which shouldn’t be a problem. Considering the X90H uses the MediaTek 5895 SoC which supports 48gbps bandwidth and processing it seems a Sony problem. But if it is hardware limitations it will never be fixed.

This is not a bandwith limitation. That statement is marketing bs. There seems to be a hardware problem with the panel at 120Hz that they are trying to hide with the blur. It just is more visible at 4K and I believe this is also the reason why they initially did not support 1440p120 either.

What hdtvtest received was an official response from Sony that is intended to be shared. When reading behind the nice wording the core message is “it will not get fixed”. You will not get reliable information of that sort from an average support guy. These guys are there for reporting important bugs or claiming warranty. This is the case for every big company.

Oct 29, 2020 05:53 PM By andrgin

74

This is not a bandwith limitation. That statement is marketing bs. There seems to be a hardware problem with the panel at 120Hz that they are trying to hide with the blur. It just is more visible at 4K and I believe this is also the reason why they initially did not support 1440p120 either. What hdtvtest received was an official response from Sony that is intended to be shared. When reading behind the nice wording the core message is “it will not get fixed”. You will not get reliable information of that sort from an average support guy. These guys are there for reporting important bugs or claiming warranty. This is the case for every big company.

There shouldn’t be a hardware problem though considering the X90H uses the MediaTek MT5895 SoC that is specifically made for HDMI 2.1 on 4K and 8K TVs. That hardwares purpose is purely for 4K120 and 8K60. Everything Sony have said has been complete lies and a joke. They should remove the PS5 ready slogan from it as it’s not even remotely close to being PS5 friendly with a bullshit 4K120 implementation.

Oct 29, 2020 05:53 PM By andrgin

74

This is not a bandwith limitation. That statement is marketing bs. There seems to be a hardware problem with the panel at 120Hz that they are trying to hide with the blur. It just is more visible at 4K and I believe this is also the reason why they initially did not support 1440p120 either. What hdtvtest received was an official response from Sony that is intended to be shared. When reading behind the nice wording the core message is “it will not get fixed”. You will not get reliable information of that sort from an average support guy. These guys are there for reporting important bugs or claiming warranty. This is the case for every big company.

Also Sony themselves in their statement said due to bandwidth limitations because of 4K120 that was one of the reasons for the blurry downgrade.

Like I said this is just a marketing excuse. It has nothing to do with bandwith as it happens in lower resolutions as well, but less visible because 1080p is already blured because of upscaling.

We do not know what the exact reason is, but I doubt it has anything to do with HDMI at all.

Oct 29, 2020 06:23 PM By andrgin

74

Like I said this is just a marketing excuse. It has nothing to do with bandwith as it happens in lower resolutions as well, but less visible because 1080p is already blured because of upscaling. We do not know what the exact reason is, but I doubt it has anything to do with HDMI at all.

Agreed something else Is happening here that seems To be Sony’s fault but they are blaming bandwidth.

What should I do guys?, I bought the X900 hoping to be a decent 4k120hz experience but I’m not sure if they are going to fix it or not, can I make a claim saying that I want a refund due to misleading advertising? Or do you recommend me to wait and see :( why do we need to be part of their bad ways of making things

I have less than 2 weeks for returning my 65" Sony X90H and I will do everything I can to return it.. I am going to pay a bit extra for the 55" LG CX now.. how disappointed I am. I was hoping to get a smooth 4k/120 .. while I have not seen it. I am completely sure once the console is available. I will have issues with this TV and I rather be safe than sorry

Oct 29, 2020 05:16 PM By ShaunyBoy1903

33

You got a link for that AVforum as I can’t find it anywhere where Sony said it will be fixed. If it’s due to bandwidth limitations which shouldn’t be a problem. Considering the X90H uses the MediaTek 5895 SoC which supports 48gbps bandwidth and processing it seems a Sony problem. But if it is hardware limitations it will never be fixed.

here is the link from support about firmware Update.

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/owners-thread-for-the-sony-x900h-no-price-talk.3125278/post-60203467

SONY YOU FAIL! As a manifactur of ps5 and big on videoludic industries are not you able to compete on gaming TV market? Are you joke?. You dont have a gaming monitor line so you dont risc to make inner cross market competition. Do you still think TV ‘s like only as cinema movie proiector? TV now are center of domestic entertaiment , where gaming take a big chunk . Your future is to lose this market as happened with smartphone Sony if you want go “ MIRAI” you need to bring out a tv che meet market demand . 120hz 4:4:4, low input lag ,integer scaling, and good quality in game mode without tricks are whats we need!

I’ve done waaaaay too much research for my new TV and went from wanting a Q80T to the X900H as going by rtings figures the brightness is roughly the same in peak and sustained on average but the X900H has Dolby Vision. Could care less about HDMI 2.1 (I’m primarily a PC gamer). Have been keeping an eagle on eye on firmware releases and all the associated problems affecting the X900H (reboots, blurry 120Hz) and just don’t want to deal with that especially considering the price ($3K AU). I had paid for a 75" X900H and was awaiting delivery and walked into the store to cancel it and was drawn like a moth to a flame to the X950H. Watching a high bitrate Sony demo showing the X950H next to the X900H made it clear - it’s the X950H for me. Everything looks about the same between the two in terms of colour accuracy and contrast BUT the X950H HDR highlights made me physically smile and utter the words “woah dude”. The image quality in the demo video was significantly better to my eyes in terms of sharpness as well. Ended up getting the X950H instead (man did I teach Sony a lesson :p) and can’t wait for it to be delivered. Re gaming, I might hook up an old gaming rig with an Nvidia 1080 and just framelock it to 60fps and enable fastsync. I can more than happily live with that for driving, fighting and RPG / adventure games (friends don’t let friends play FPS’s with a joypad). Good luck to all the X900H owners. I’m sure Sony will fix it. Issue though is all the stress it’s causing customers. Surely isn’t worth it from a reputation point of view. Sony could at least put out a statement to rtings, Quantum and HDTVTest to ease peoples minds. That statement they gave Vincent is just ridiculous. There’s no hardware limitations on that chip. It’s a quad core at a high clockrate. Lesser chips can do 4K 120Hz with VRR no problems. Also i have loved watching all three review channels - rtings is to the point, quantum is a legend and Vincent is my spirit animal.

Oct 30, 2020 06:38 AM By luci

1

I’ve done waaaaay too much research for my new TV and went from wanting a Q80T to the X900H as going by rtings figures the brightness is roughly the same in peak and sustained on average but the X900H has Dolby Vision. Could care less about HDMI 2.1 (I’m primarily a PC gamer). Have been keeping an eagle on eye on firmware releases and all the associated problems affecting the X900H (reboots, blurry 120Hz) and just don’t want to deal with that especially considering the price ($3K AU). I had paid for a 75" X900H and was awaiting delivery and walked into the store to cancel it and was drawn like a moth to a flame to the X950H. Watching a high bitrate Sony demo showing the X950H next to the X900H made it clear - it’s the X950H for me. Everything looks about the same between the two in terms of colour accuracy and contrast BUT the X950H HDR highlights made me physically smile and utter the words “woah dude”. The image quality in the demo video was significantly better to my eyes in terms of sharpness as well. Ended up getting the X950H instead (man did I teach Sony a lesson :p) and can’t wait for it to be delivered. Re gaming, I might hook up an old gaming rig with an Nvidia 1080 and just framelock it to 60fps and enable fastsync. I can more than happily live with that for driving, fighting and RPG / adventure games (friends don’t let friends play FPS’s with a joypad). Good luck to all the X900H owners. I’m sure Sony will fix it. Issue though is all the stress it’s causing customers. Surely isn’t worth it from a reputation point of view. Sony could at least put out a statement to rtings, Quantum and HDTVTest to ease peoples minds. That statement they gave Vincent is just ridiculous. There’s no hardware limitations on that chip. It’s a quad core at a high clockrate. Lesser chips can do 4K 120Hz with VRR no problems. Also i have loved watching all three review channels - rtings is to the point, quantum is a legend and Vincent is my spirit animal.

Where is scott1174 when you need him. Quantum is a legend? Haha

I just got the X90H like a week ago in preparation of next gen console arriving. I live in the middle East region. So mine is called X9000H. I know that the firmware update rolled in USA and I think UK as well. But I have no idea why it didn’t roll out yet in the middle East. And nobody from Sony social media accounts are replying to my question. Anyone here has an idea ? Or maybe Sony will read it here. Cause I know for fact that they read their TV’s reviews and feedback on rtings

I would not bother so much about this update unless you need eArc as 4K120 is useless on this TV anyway. Also the update added a lot of bugs like sound glitches or random TV restarts. It is a very buggy TV in general.

Oct 29, 2020 06:08 PM By ShaunyBoy1903

33

There shouldn’t be a hardware problem though considering the X90H uses the MediaTek MT5895 SoC that is specifically made for HDMI 2.1 on 4K and 8K TVs. That hardwares purpose is purely for 4K120 and 8K60. Everything Sony have said has been complete lies and a joke. They should remove the PS5 ready slogan from it as it’s not even remotely close to being PS5 friendly with a bullshit 4K120 implementation.

Are you sure about MediaTek MT5895 SoC over tv processing and hdmi 2.1 capability? I had always thought that SoC onboard modern tv are only for smart TV feature not for post processing/ scalimg/ FRL -TmDS compresission at all. It was my mistake i always thought that sony limitation over hdmi 2.1 full bandwidth and relative croma subsampling 4:2:0 was due X1 processimg limitation.

Nov 01, 2020 02:24 AM By Thundra74

29

Are you sure about MediaTek MT5895 SoC over tv processing and hdmi 2.1 capability? I had always thought that SoC onboard modern tv are only for smart TV feature not for post processing/ scalimg/ FRL -TmDS compresission at all. It was my mistake i always thought that sony limitation over hdmi 2.1 full bandwidth and relative croma subsampling 4:2:0 was due X1 processimg limitation.

Sony didn’t use a dedicated X1 chip in the X90H they loaded all the software onto the MT5895. So the SoC is doing everything for this TV which could be putting a lot of stress on it and that’s why there is limitations.

Oct 30, 2020 02:09 AM By Scott19

48

here is the link from support about firmware Update. https://www.avsforum.com/threads/owners-thread-for-the-sony-x900h-no-price-talk.3125278/post-60203467

Yeah I eventually found it on the forums while scrolling through. I don’t believe a word customer support say. I know another update is coming for VRR and ALLM but can’t see this being fixed. They confirmed to Vincent Teoh it was bandwidth and hardware limitations within the TV. So if that’s the case we are stuck with blurry downgraded 4K120.

Dolby Enhanced mode it is then. Sony better implement DV on the UHD player on PS5 for their “PS5 ready” TVs. If you can’t do 120 no blur they should at least allow full functionality to the other mode.

Nov 01, 2020 04:15 AM By ShaunyBoy1903

33

Sony didn’t use a dedicated X1 chip in the X90H they loaded all the software onto the MT5895. So the SoC is doing everything for this TV which could be putting a lot of stress on it and that’s why there is limitations.

Do you have a source for that? They are actively advertizing the X1 chip for the XH90.

Nov 01, 2020 04:15 AM By ShaunyBoy1903

33

Sony didn’t use a dedicated X1 chip in the X90H they loaded all the software onto the MT5895. So the SoC is doing everything for this TV which could be putting a lot of stress on it and that’s why there is limitations.

Not sure where that’s coming from, its advertised as using the X1 chip, the X95 has the X1 Ultimate chip.

Nov 01, 2020 04:17 AM By ShaunyBoy1903

33

Yeah I eventually found it on the forums while scrolling through. I don’t believe a word customer support say. I know another update is coming for VRR and ALLM but can’t see this being fixed. They confirmed to Vincent Teoh it was bandwidth and hardware limitations within the TV. So if that’s the case we are stuck with blurry downgraded 4K120.

Vincents answer was also from customer support? Both Statements are not officially confirmed?!

Just look at the wording of the statement. This is official language and was most likely written by Sony press department.

Nov 01, 2020 07:32 AM By andrgin

74

Do you have a source for that? They are actively advertizing the X1 chip for the XH90.

They can advertise the chip as it still has all the features. But instead of it being a dedicated chip on its own it has been loaded onto the MT5895. Watch Vincent Teoh X90H review video and go to 7:45 and he tells you all video processing is done by the MT5895 as it doesn’t have Sony own dedicated chip. https://youtu.be/GZWZ7kfWe1g

Nov 01, 2020 08:15 AM By Niverive

14

Not sure where that’s coming from, its advertised as using the X1 chip, the X95 has the X1 Ultimate chip.

It’s coming from Vincent Teoh Himsef. He mentions in his X90H TV review that all video processing is done by the MT5895 as it doesn’t have the dedicated X1 chip. Go to 7:45 and listen to what he says. It can still be marketed as having the X1 as it still has all the features but it’s loaded on the the MT5895. https://youtu.be/GZWZ7kfWe1g

So they are are just using the name X1 for the MediaTek chip? Dontknow about the image processing capabilities of this SoC, but the CPU part is really garbage (performance about the same as a 6 year old smartphone CPU according to Geekbench), so I am not really surprised if it cant handle 4K120.

I found different things about the chips.

E.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/bravia/comments/gtz950/sonys_decision_not_to_include_an_hdmi_21_port_in/ “The MT5893 in the X950H does support up to 4K/120p but with the 18Gbps bandwidth limitation of the MediaTek chipset it would only be able to do so at 8-bit 4:2:0.”

What I meaning, this tv uses a worse chip according to various sources. And it seems that the MT5895 is theoretically valid to work with 4k@120FPS