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Sony's 2020 LED and OLED TV Lineup Rolling Out With HomeKit and AirPlay 2 Support

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Sony today announced pricing and availability for its new 2020 LED and OLED televisions, which it announced at CES in January to support AirPlay 2. Select Sony TVs will also be getting the Apple TV app at some point in 2020, but Sony has yet to confirm a date for that launch.

sony-tv-image.png

There are multiple new TVs available to order from Sony, all of which support Apple's HomeKit platform and AirPlay 2. With these integrations, streaming content from your iPhone or iPad to a Sony TV will be possible, and select integrations with Siri will be supported thanks to HomeKit.

While most of the new Sony TVs are up for pre-order, some are available now. This includes the 86-inch X950H 4K HDR LED TV for $4,498.00 at Amazon and Best Buy. This set has HDR, Dolby Vision, and IMAX Enhanced modes, and there's also a 49-inch model priced at $998.00 at Amazon and Best Buy.

Additionally, there's the X800H 4K HDR LED TV, which supports 4K content, Dolby Vision, and MotionFlow XR for less blur in fast scenes. In terms of smart TV features, users can control the TV with their voice by connecting to HomeKit and Siri, as well as Alexa and Google Assistant. There are numerous models of this TV that can be purchased today.

The rest of the Sony TV pre-orders include the A8H Bravia OLED 4K HDR TVs and the X900H 4K HDR LED TVs. Both of these have models that can be pre-ordered now at select retailers, and shoppers can expect a launch date sometime this summer. For more information on all of Sony's new TVs, be sure to check out the company's announcement post.

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Article Link: Sony's 2020 LED and OLED TV Lineup Rolling Out With HomeKit and AirPlay 2 Support
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/04/20/sonys-new-tvs-airplay-2/
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The Apple TV 4K box is better but it’s good to see this nonetheless. For my 2018 LG OLED, supposedly we are to get this an update in the fall.
 
Remember, Airplay support is one way only. Audio from this TV will not be playing over your HomePod. They have not been able to figure that out, or more likely it is a deliberate "feature". This is true of ALL airplay compatible TV's.
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kenni417 said:
i kinda regret getting the 2018 900f on november.
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Aside from being able to use Siri to turn on of off the tV, you are not missing much. Siri cant even control the volume.
 
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So, I'm curious.

Does supporting AirPlay and the Apple TV app mean that these "smart" TVs are subject to higher security requirements than TVs that don't support them? Does Apple insist on a more secure platform in order to include their services?

The reason I ask is that I've been avoiding "smart" TVs due to security concerns, and wonder if these newer models with Apple support may be more secure.
 
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JediKnightDub said:
Wanting that A9G 48-inch for my game room, that'll be amazing.
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I have a cabinet that can hold a 48” TV but not a 49”. I have a very off axis seating arrangement in that room so ended up buying a 43” Sony X800E IPS TV. It’s not bad during the day but at night the poor black levels are very obvious.

If the 48” LG OLED had been available at that time in 2018, I would have bought one.
 
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Excitedly awaiting complete specs, reviews and pricing for the new Vizio OLEDs so i can pick one up on clearance beginning of next year!
 
guzhogi said:
With all the add-ons you can get for a TV (EG AppleTV, BluRay player, etc.), a lot of these features are getting a bit redundant. I wouldn't mind a dumb TV. No AirPlay, no Netflix, nothing, but a 4K HDR screen, and a few HDMI inputs. I can add on what I want.
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I agree with you, but follow the money. Since these TVs are running Android, you can bet that Google and the TV maker are both making money off the data collected from these sets. There is no guarantee that a dumb TV would be less expensive. However, you can make these TVs dumb by turning off the wifi. That's what I do.
 
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pianophile said:
Waiting for Filmmaker Mode.
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is it really not available on 2020 sets? though isn’t it something that someone who already understands what it is can replicate on his own? It seemed to me like it was designed for people who were ignorant to the fact that DNR and motion smoothing were ruining their movies.
 
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Sony makes great TVs and so it's nice to see Airplay on them.

One thing though, did they announce pricing/availability of that smaller 48-inch OLED? I can't seem to find it.
 
zorinlynx said:
So, I'm curious.

Does supporting AirPlay and the Apple TV app mean that these "smart" TVs are subject to higher security requirements than TVs that don't support them? Does Apple insist on a more secure platform in order to include their services?

The reason I ask is that I've been avoiding "smart" TVs due to security concerns, and wonder if these newer models with Apple support may be more secure.
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I highly suspect that this overall effort to add HomeKit and Siri is a trojan horse - for the TV manufacturers.

One should already be aware of the massive data collection going on from smart TVs back to the manufacturer and their selected data analysis partnets.

But people using extra boxes such as PCs and Apple TV boxes don't get this data collected from them, at least not quite so overtly.

To add Homekit requires setting up connectivity, which is exactly what these manufacturers are after. They can then set up their own data pipe, slurping up everything their analysis partners want.

The TV manufacturing business has extremely low margins. Selling your data is how they make more money.

This is a quid pro quo, without them telling you what the deal is. It's not likely to be in your favor.

I would very much like to see if there's any security requirements for these sets.

I *hope* there is, but I doubt it.
 
zorinlynx said:
So, I'm curious.

Does supporting AirPlay and the Apple TV app mean that these "smart" TVs are subject to higher security requirements than TVs that don't support them? Does Apple insist on a more secure platform in order to include their services?

The reason I ask is that I've been avoiding "smart" TVs due to security concerns, and wonder if these newer models with Apple support may be more secure.
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The bigger problem you're going to have, and the question you're ultimately going to have to answer, is that no premium panel is going to be TV only. So the better the panel you want the less choice you'll have in this regard. Essentially my general advice to anyone that doesn't want "x, y or z" happening on their TV is to make multiple efforts at setting up the TV in the first place. You'll often find certain services won't work if you don't agree to the terms of use. It may take you a few shots at it to get the right mix of things to work and not work… no different to say a smartphone.

Personally I'm not seeing that Apple is wanting anything special on the security front other than the fact that the Apple TV app is implemented as it should be.

FWIW I quite like the fact that Apple TV is included with my TV. While I wish it supported iTunes Home Sharing and it supported Apple Music it has meant that there's one less "box" I need to have and mess with. And I love the fact that I'm only using the one, the one included with the TV, remote for everything, even my FIOS provider's STB.
 
Probably a stupid question, but...

If the disposable income is there: What's a better TV to get? An LED or OLED?
 
please take < 60 seconds to sign the “Bring AirPlay 2 and HomeKit to Current Sony Premium OLED and LCD TVs” petition on Change.org. A similar petition, originally circulated by LG TV owners last year, successfully encouraged LG to commit to adding the requested features to their 2018 smart TVs via a firmware update later this year. As of this post, almost 21,000 people have electronically signed the LG Airplay petition, yet there’s only 760 signatures on the Sony petition.

Bring AirPlay 2 and HomeKit to Current Sony Premium OLED and LCD TVs

https://www.change.org/p/sony-bring-...d-and-lcd-tvs?
 
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Bearygoodfries1 said:
Probably a stupid question, but...

If the disposable income is there: What's a better TV to get? An LED or OLED?
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Not a stupid question, but one that can't be answered in a binary fashion. Start with your use case. What do you want to do with your TV? Research the tech to find the pro and cons of each. Decide which is better for your use case. A good place to start (where I send my friends) is https://www.rtings.com/. They do pretty comprehensive deep dives using down to earth language that's easy to understand.
 
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Sony’s products still rock Bluetooth 4.2 and have the clunky android OS. I haven’t bought new sets yet, but having looked at LG and Sony for some time, the color tables and motion are the only nods to Sony over LG and that is based on last years stuff. This year LG improved again and also has a better menu system, Bluetooth 5.0, hdmi 2.1, OLED as they make all the panels, and seem to be the trend setters.
I’ve heard too many horror stories from Sony owners over the last few years sadly as they used to be a great product. But they outsource everything now and their customer service is non existent too unfortunately.
 
69Mustang said:
Not a stupid question, but one that can't be answered in a binary fashion. Start with your use case. What do you want to do with your TV? Research the tech to find the pro and cons of each. Decide which is better for your use case. A good place to start (where I send my friends) is https://www.rtings.com/. They do pretty comprehensive deep dives using down to earth language that's easy to understand.
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Also, consider if the room is bright. If so, LED, if medium to low light, OLED. Also, OLED is self emissive so you can get image retention and burn in if you abuse it. Both have ups and downs. But if you don’t pause images forever, continually subject the set to one type of content or watch shows with Tickers constantly on screen you would be ok with OLED. Just keep brightness below half as the brighter the display, the harder it’s driven and can result in images lasting longer or becoming stuck. But those blacks and per pixel lighting. OMG
 
BarrettF77 said:
Also, consider if the room is bright. If so, LED, if medium to low light, OLED. Also, OLED is self emissive so you can get image retention and burn in if you abuse it. Both have ups and downs. But if you don’t pause images forever, continually subject the set to one type of content or watch shows with Tickers constantly on screen you would be ok with OLED. Just keep brightness below half as the brighter the display, the harder it’s driven and can result in images lasting longer or becoming stuck. But those blacks and per pixel lighting. OMG
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Basically, if your most important use case is watching movies in darkened rooms... OLED all the way. TVs sold as "LED" today are really LCD with an LED instead of fluorescent backlight, possibly with local dimming zones depending on the model/pricepoint. The higher end LED sets could be a good compromise if you like watching film but also watch lots of sports or news programs on the same set. Mini-LED will improve on these existing LED sets, with more precise backlighting, when they become available.
 
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