Sony Electronics announced today the Z series, the next generation in television display technology. The new flagship Z series sits atop Sony’s current X series line-up of 4K HDR Ultra HD TVs, which includes the X930D and X940D.

The new "Z" series promises to bring 4K High Dynamic Range (HDR) "to a new level with ultra-contrast and even more realistic, accurate color, in order to express what the content creators truly intended," according to Sony.

The Z series has adopted the Backlight Master Drive technology, which Sony introduced as a prototype at CES 2016. The Backlight Master Drive is precision backlight boosting technology, which expands brightness and contrast to tap the combined potential of 4K HDR. To further enhance contrast, the Backlight Master Drive features a dense LED structure with an accurate lighting algorithm, discrete lighting control, and an optical design with a calibrated beam LED.

Previously, local dimming was controlled by zones with several LEDs. The discrete LED control feature allows the Backlight Master Drive to dim and boost each LED individually. With the latest local dimming algorithm, the Backlight Master Drive delivers total precision for even greater contrast and realism. The Backlight Master Drive also has a optical structure: a calibrated beam LED design. It gathers the emitted LED lights in a spot and focuses the drive area more narrowly to display higher contrast. It also reduces light diffusion and the flare effect that can be seen on other full-array LED TVs.

Additionally, the Z series features a newly developed 4K image processor, the 4K HDR Processor X1 Extreme, which is further refined with 40% more real-time image processing power compared with the previous 4K Processor X1.

By analyzing images in each scene and correcting the color and contrast of each object individually, object-based HDR remaster can reproduce scenes with the detailed texture. This technology also upscales HD content to near 4K HDR quality. In addition to the up-scaling database, the 4K HDR Processor has a database specifically for noise reduction. This processor searches through the thousands of picture patterns in these unique databases, analyzing each pixel individually in real-time. The dual database processing removes unwanted noise and up-scales every image to a 4K-quality image.

In addition, Super Bit Mapping 4K HDR creates a smoother picture. With 14-bit powerful signal processing, it breaks up the solid bands of color of 8-bit (FHD) or 10-bit (4K) source, up-converting 14-bit equivalent gradation with 64 times more color levels.

The Z series also runs on Android TV with Sony’s exclusive user interface.

The Z Series 65" and 75” class 4K HDR Ultra HD TVs are available for pre-sale today, and will be on-sale at Amazon, BestBuy.com and other dealers across the U.S.

XBR65Z9D, 65" class (64.5" diagonal), $6,999 MSRP, available summer 2016
XBR75Z9D, 75" class (74.5" diagonal), $9,999 MSRP, available summer 2016
XBR100Z9D, 100" class (99.5" diagonal), pricing and availability details to be announced later this year