Sony X9005A Owners

[Jonnie1266]

Hi,

Is there anyone out there who still owns one of these first generation 4K televisions ?

If so has anyone bought the new Amazon Fire TV with 4K Ultra HD (@ £80) and tested that 4K is available ? To quote Amazon:

"Tip: If your Fire TV is connected to a compatible Ultra HD TV, the Movies and TV sections on the main menu include “4K Ultra HD” categories, where you can find popular titles available to watch in UHD."

 I understand that the unit would need to be connected to HDMI port 4 of the television which had the update to HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 protocol but I wonder if this is enough (other than having a minimum of 15Mbps internet connection of course)

Can anyone confirm if this television is compatible please ?

Regards,

[Jonnie1266]

P.S.

I am thinking of purchasing the new FDR-AX53 4K Handycam. Does anyone know if 4K can be played back straight from the camera through HDMI port 4 or would I need the dreaded, overpriced FMP-X5 (4K Media Player With 4K HEVC Decoder) to play it through ?

Regards

[Anonymous]

Hi @Jonnie1266

The first gen 4K TVs does not have the HEVC codec natively built into the TV, therefore anything that needs to decode HEVC content needs the external. FMP-X5. 

For the camcorder: this uses XAVC-S for 4k resolution:

http://www.sony.com/electronics/handycam-camcorders/fdr-ax53/specifications

Your TV doesnt support this:

http://pdf.crse.com/manuals/13FS900111/EN/codeclist.html#5

But the FMP-X5 does:

http://helpguide.sony.net/hv/fmpx5/v1/en/contents/TP0000536206.html

Cheers

[Caledonian_TV]

---

Quinnicus wrote:

Hi @Jonnie1266

The first gen 4K TVs does not have the HEVC codec natively built into the TV, therefore anything that needs to decode HEVC content needs the external. FMP-X5. 

For the camcorder: this uses XAVC-S for 4k resolution:

http://www.sony.com/electronics/handycam-camcorders/fdr-ax53/specifications

Your TV doesnt support this:

http://pdf.crse.com/manuals/13FS900111/EN/codeclist.html#5

But the FMP-X5 does:

http://helpguide.sony.net/hv/fmpx5/v1/en/contents/TP0000536206.html

Cheers

---

...And the camcorder doesn't uncompress (decode) its own footage on playback? 

You'd certainly not be able to play footage back off the storage card. And the FMP-X5 has no card slots either...

But via HDMI? Why not exactly?  

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

---

@Caledonian_TV wrote:

But via HDMI? Why not exactly? 

---

Thats a very good question.  I mis-read the question and hence muddled things up.  Mea Culpa.

The FMP-X5 doesnt even have a HDMI input... Just USB.  And according to Sonys X5 manual, you connect a camcorder to the USB port - why would one do that?  scratching my head as 4K camcorders have HDMI out port (its mini cousin).  Sounds to me that Sony is trying to advertise s feature that is unnecessary.

So, from :

http://sony-eur-eu-en-web--eur.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/37222/~/do-the-4k-tv-models-supp...

[Caledonian_TV]

The USB will be a means of file-transfer basically... 

Some camcorders can output a transport stream (TS) in much the same way as they once might over Firewire...  For instance tape-based cameras (and for that matter VCRs) need to have some means by which a TS can be 'captured' by an edit programme and then 'wrapped' as a file. - Obviously that's an unnecessary step with a tapeless workflow; we just stick the cards in a card reader!

A lot of consumer/prosumer equipment seems to support TS playback... And indeed E-E output when in standby...

That's possibly why they included it on this slightly-strange X5 device.  

[Jonnie1266]

@Anonymous@Caledonian_TV

Cheers guys, very helpful. I appear to have got you thinking at least ! I spent several hours trying to figure this one out and could not for the life of me think why I should need the X5 to play back 4K camcorder footage but I could find no literature to support this. Well done finding the article, at least I should be able to watch some raw 4K at long last !! No mention in the article over choice of HDMI, I guess then that this does not matter ? So, part 'B' solved

Regarding the Amazon Fire TV, it is a stand alone unit much like the X5 which has a HDMI connection to the television. So long as the television HDMI port supports HDCP 2.2 I thought it should work for if Amazon are streaming using H.265 I would presume that the 'box' would deal with this much like the X5 ? Lets be fair it's a damn sight cheaper alternative which does everything and more than the X5.

Regards

[Caledonian_TV]

The very nature of HDMI is such that it is delivering uncompressed video...  Assuming your set has the 'upgrade' to HDMI 2.0  it should display the video from your camcorder... 

Similarly, I would think it will be OK with other devices. - The emergence of new codecs and file structures and transmission standards means that a future requirement for external boxes will be inevitable. And ultimately any and all of these will need to comply - as a minimum - with HDMI 2.0... Possibly for decades!  - Just as, back in the day, domestic VCRs were almost always fitted with a UHF modulator... 

[Jonnie1266]

Hi,

Cheers for the information - it is quite a challenge trying to make my "4K" telly actually accept and play 4K material as it is an early model (that'll be my fault then because I couldn't wait !). I can happily say that it has HDMI port 4 upgraded to HDMI 2.0 and with that the HDCP 2.2 protocol installed.

The only piece of the jigsaw that is missing is the new 4K compression codec H.265 as Quinnicus mentioned, which of course is now in all 4K televisions

For my set this should mean that any streamed consumer 4K material, so long as the 'box' that comes with it can handle H.265, will be able to play so long as it is plugged into the correct HDMI 2.0 port.

Regarding a personal 4K camcorder surely it should play through any of the HDMI ports as it is my own material and therefore does not need to be HDCP compliant and is definitely not H.265, it will be XAVC S ?

On another note I am slightly stuffed for the future when the 4K players with theatre systems start to emerge as port 4 on my set is not ARC so I will have to add an optical cable I suppose (cheaper than a new telly) to get the audio.

Regards

[Caledonian_TV]

Well...

To playback any of the surround systems properly you will need a proper A/V amp and speaker set-up.  In this case you would choose an amp which handles whatever formats you require, and use the amp as the 'switcher' for your sources in the system... 

You're at no great disadvantage in this scenario...  The TV is essentially acting just as a monitor. - For off-air viewing you will indeed need an optical cable (I think mines was a fiver!) to return off-air sound to the system, but since this is at best Dolby E it's really not a problem.