OK, that's what I was thinking as well. I too prefer Apple handle my interface over Sony, LG, Samsung, etc.
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Sony's 2020 LED and OLED TV Lineup Rolling Out With HomeKit and AirPlay 2 Support
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While I would typically lean toward OLED for most people there are many factors that can come into your decision that would make you go the other way. When I bought my TV last year I had the choice of the litter, within reason, like yourself and ultimately went with the Samsung QLED Q90R. While not as good at under optimal conditions, under sub-optimal conditions (I have an incredibly bright living room and no lighting control such that a typical panel almost can't be seen - in summer that can mean it's bright well past 9pm) during the day and the Q90R with its anti-reflection panel can't be beaten. I also get 1600 nits of brightness vs the 700 nits of an OLED panel.
Which is better really comes down to your own specific needs but I would start with OLED… if you're heavily a movie watcher then specifically Panasonic as these have the best colour accuracy. In 2019/2020 (and the nearish future) for me that's high end QLED (the anti-reflection panel isn't in the lower end QLEDs) but that doesn't mean it will stay that way in the future as things progress and circumstances change (like a home change).
Dang! I love my Sony XBR65A1E...the only thing missing was AirPlay...One of the best OLED 4K TV's.
yes, you can deny them internet access, but you still have to wait forever for the "Smart" services to start up. I generally shout "* you, LG!" every time my LG OLED says "Smart Services will be available shortly" when first turned on, before I can change inputs or do anything. I really miss dumb TVs.
I wouldn't regret that in the slightest. The 900F is one of the best TVs (in its price segment) made in the last 5 years.
Personally, I have a 65" 900E that I absolutely love... but missing that Dolby Vision hurts! I _almost_ upgraded to 85" 900F recently... but held myself back by looking at the 8k stuff on the horizon...
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They still make them!
I just bought a "Sceptre" 65" 4k. It's as dumb as a rock. But, that's all that I needed due to hooking up an AppleTV 4k instantly. HDMI CEC works great - and it turns on and off with the AppleTV remote perfectly (and quickly).
I know what you're thinking (Sceptre?) - but they make a damn fine panel. The picture is actually pretty decent (after some amount of calibration). I have a legitimately nice 65" 4k TV for my main TV... and I wouldn't have been able to stand this one being horrible. Luckily it is not.
Oh? Should I mention that it was also only $350? Yeah - really.
So, a HomeKit-enabled TV: does that mean it works as the HomeKit hub for the house, or that it is a device (like a light switch or thermostat) that can be controlled using the HomeKit app/Siri and that still relies on having another device in the house to be used as the HomeKit hub?
Dolby Vision is worth it - Netflix has a lot of movies in Dolby Vision now. I have my Sony XE9305 and love it - Sony is still the king of video processing. I just downloaded AirPlay support from the Play store (payed app, but worth it) and I have all the features of a 2020 Sony TV. I have tried all of them, here is the best one:
AirReceiver AirPlay Cast DLNA â Aplikacje w Google Play
Wszystko w jednym wieloprotokoÅowym odbiorniku strumieniowym dla AirPlay, Cast i DLNA.
I just saw the 2020 the Sony TV's in the store and wow, they have come a long way in 3 years.
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Honestly no sense in buying one if your TV has AirPlay support, especially when you loose YouTube 4K support.
It's technically not impossible. But it will require "calibrating" the TV the way you calibrate your HomePod for aTV usage (otherwise you lose AV sync, because Apple doesn't know long many ms the TV image processing pipeline takes, and it changes depending on exactly what settings you have active on your TV.)
Right now while calibration works (and is, technically, kind of amazing) the UI for it is a godawful mess, and setting it up is a pain if you have your aTV performing content matching. It gets even worse if your TV is toggling between so many different settings and modes (eg "game mode" will of course have a much lower latency pipeline).
MAYBE Apple is talking to the TV people, trying to figure out some way they can collapse all this down to just a few numbers. Then maybe the TV can just report the numbers to the aTV and the AirPlay device, and these can be applied to bring everyone in sync?
Or alternatively write some code that uses the HomePod mics to listen to audio from the TV, convolute that against the audio that it is producing, and figure out the appropriate delay? That sort of solution would be the most robust to any changes in your setup (moving devices, changing TV or TV modes), but to get good frame sync, it requires that you have the TV audio on and loud enough when you perform a mode change (which is the sane thing to do anyway; and I guess they could throw up words to that effect on top of the TV image).
Bottom line is
- there are technical + UI reasons why it is not being done right now
- these can be worked around, but it takes some labor
- my guess is Apple is willing to do that labor (maybe already has) because the experience is so much nicer with HomePods adding to TV audio, and it's a good advertisement for the entire Apple ecosystem.
Next step: Apple light strips and have the AppleTV perform the same job as a Hue Play Sync box!
(This is actually a reasonably cool idea. It's technically quite feasible, and if you like this sort of thing, the Hue Play Sync sucks because it's keyed to an old version of HDMI so none of the good stuff like Dolby Vision gets through.)
Dolby Vision is worth it - Netflix has a lot of movies in Dolby Vision now. I have my Sony XE9305 and love it - Sony is still the king of video processing. I just downloaded AirPlay support from the Play store (payed app, but worth it) and I have all the features of a 2020 Sony TV. I have tried all of them, here is the best one:
AirReceiver AirPlay Cast DLNA â Aplikacje w Google Play
Wszystko w jednym wieloprotokoÅowym odbiorniku strumieniowym dla AirPlay, Cast i DLNA.play.google.com
I just saw the 2020 the Sony TV's in the store and wow, they have come a long way in 3 years.
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Honestly no sense in buying one if your TV has AirPlay support, especially when you loose YouTube 4K support.
That's not really true. Of course if you are strapped for cash...
But aTV also gives you a HomeKit hub (ie a base station that can run home automation when you are not home, and that can allow you to check on your device) and it allows you to play audio through both your TV speakers and your HomePod(s). This allows you to place HomePods at the back of a room while the TV audio is in the front, and you get a reasonably spatialized audio experience and flat volume across the room.
And I find the aTV interface much nicer (and faster) to work with than at least the LG WebOS interface (which people seem to agree is the best of the current TV interfaces).
And aTV gives you the aerial screensavers. Which may not sound like much, but, damn, these things are beautiful! It's a delight having them running on the TV as constant visual background. The TV makers try to do the same (like LG has an "art gallery" screen saver) and these are certainly nicely done, but they're no match for the Apple equivalent.
Finally I find that while AirPlay is really nice to have available as functionality from my phone or Mac, it's not how I want to watch a lot of content. The connection resets if you pause for too long.
Also if you have an aTV, you can use the Apple TV remote to pause and control the video, but I don't think that works with the TV remote if you AirPlay straight to the TV? Anyone know.
Of course these are pretty much all "nice to have", not "essential". But nice to have is nice to have. If your aTV lasts 4+ years, and costs ~$200, that's like less than 20c a day for something you use a whole lot! I think it's totally worth it.
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It won't be a HomeKit hub, that would require it pretty much to run an Apple OS. (It would have to have the whole Apple crypto+signing stack, full BT support, and, most important, a HomeKit hub needs to be able to run Automations, which means running the rules engine. Right now the HK rules engine is (pathetically) limited, but, oh god we all hope so, at some point soon hopefully HK automation will be basically the same thing as Shortcuts, meaning an HK hub has to be able to run a general iOS shortcut as much as that makes sense -- meaning things like being able to send notifications, open apps, and generally iOS functionality).
So what value is there in the HK support?
For now it's mostly limited to power on/off. What you would hope is that in the future you'll also be able to change characteristics of the TV. So for example you could create a scene named "TV Time", say "Hey Siri, TV Time" and have the TV switch to Cinema mode, while all your lights go dark. Then at the end of TV Time when you switch the lights back on, the TV reverts to some sort of "standard" mode, optimized for a bright room rather than a dark room.
(Or you could hook this toggling into an automation that's based on a light level sensor.)
Right now things like this are mostly a dream; pieces are here but much of the functionality is not present in either HK or the TV. But maybe with iOS 14...
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