Sony's high-end KD85X9500B, 85-inch, 4K TV.
In a bid to spur the market for 4K television sets during the Christmas buying season, Sony is offering customers a portable USB hard drive that contains a selection of 4K movie titles, of which five can be accessed and viewed on your new TV.
The TVs that qualify for this promotion include the X95 Series, X90 Series, and X85 Series. The smallest and most inexpensive TV to qualify is the 49-inch KD49X8500B, which costs $2499, while the biggest and most expensive is the KD85X9500B, which is an 85-inch behemoth with a $19,999 price tag to match.
Only TVs bought between 28 October and 31 December from authorised Sony dealers are eligible to receive the hard drive, and the hard drive must be claimed within 14 days of purchase, though Sony states that this claim will be done automatically when bought from the Sony Centre or a Sony Kiosk. The hard drive will then be sent out via post for customers to receive it in four to six weeks.
If bought from an authorised dealer, you will need to provide a photo of the TV’s serial number as part of the proof of purchase when claiming the drive on Sony’s site, so you’ll have to have the TV delivered within 14 days. Full details are on Sony's site.
Up to five movies can be accessed (unlocked) from the hard drive, and only after the hard drive has been plugged in to the TV and accessed through the menu system’s ‘The Privilege Movies’ app -- the TV also needs to be connected to the Internet. The selection of movies is only 10 deep, and it includes the following titles: Captain Phillips, The Amazing Spider Man, The Amazing Spider Man 2, Ghostbusters, Premium Rush, SALT, Battle: Los Angeles, Money Ball, The Patriot, and Total Recall.
Your selection of movies is final, and you can’t chop and change to watch the remaining five. More importantly, Sony has put a restriction on the content so that you can only watch these movies up until 30 September 2015 [Update: Sony has now extended this to 30 September 2016]. The 4K movies will be accessible for unlimited viewings up until then, but not after that date, as the licence for the content will have expired.
This puts a dampener on the promotion, even though you still get to hold onto the hard drive and use that for other purposes after the movies are no longer viewable.
