Bravia X Series Patchy Backlight Bleed

[offshore]

HOWEVER... given that I have an extended warranty, what would stop me from claiming an exchange for a new display in say...oh... 3 years time?! If it's a manufacturing problem, is there a clause that says it must be identified and repaired immediately?

Most warranties have a clause to precisely that effect.

Something like "the customer must notify the manufacturer or authorised agent as soon as is practicable if a fault arises"..

[madska]

Hi I recently purchased the 40" x series, my family and I are really amazed how good the picture quality is, but then I came across to this forum, and learned some unpleasant complaint about this TV. At first I was extremely worried, I couldn’t wait to get back home and check out mine (was at work). I experimented it with a few different setting, first turned light censor on and power saving high, that made the pic very dark and didn’t look good at all, there is no visible Mura effect at all. And next turn the light censor off power saving off, the background immediately turned brighter, I turn off all the lighting and set back. At first I couldn’t find any white cloudy spots, but as I looked very closely, the bottom right corner seems some what brighter than other spots. Now it wasn’t noticeable at all firstly, and I had to really concentrate to notice it. On with the experiment, I chucked star wars movie in. the best movies with lots of dark scene to be tested. I was some how relieved to see that not many spots can be realized, or another word, I could hardly see any cloudy effects. (this was done at with light censor off etc, with brightness to 55, so it should be the brightest it can go rite?), I took a few pictures, I need some second opinion with my TV, if anyone thinks its ok, feel free to use it as a proof to Sony, and get a refund. I feel that all of you people here deserve a much better TV with your hard earned cash. If u can notice any cloudy effects on the pics, again feel free to let me know, I might be too old to realize it. Good luck to you all.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VTTX76T9

[Anthony123]

madska... ur pics look fine to me.... .nothing to worry bout!

[Crayons]

WTF, really? Your retailer will actually let you hold onto the TV till the new year and then swap it over...? Who is your retailer?

Yeah - great guy. He's a friend of a friend. I don't know that it's standard policy.

[Mr Ploppy]

I swapped my set over today and I know I said I would take an after photo of the set running for over 70 hours but I forgot last night. Sorry! I will say though that I could not see any difference at all. The new one is an another August build (all they had) and from day time viewing seems to be the best of the three so far. I will give it a good going over tonight.

[Crayons]

Good luck Mr Ploppy. Look forward to hearing your (hopefully good) report. Fingers crossed for ya.

[Mr Ploppy]

Thanks Crayons. Well this set is a lot better than the other two but the clouds are still there and evident in dark scenes. I knew I was unlucky but would never have guessed I was this unlucky. Seems to me that the August built sets slipped through quality control.

The thing I am wondering though is, how many people have bought this tv (august editions) and don't really care enough about the picture quality to notice the cloudiness of the backlight. How many of these people still have the picture set to the factory settings of "vivid". The HN salesman said I was the only one he has heard of with this problem. Surely 3 of 3 sets with this problem would indicate somethings not right.

I think I will give the sony customer line a call tomorrow and see what the go is. Do you guys think I should shoot for number 4???

The worst thing out of all this is relying on mates/relatives to move the set back and forth from HN.

[Crayons]

Mr Ploppy - I think you have hit the nail on the head. From the reports on this forum, and particularly the AVS forum in the US where the thread is now up to 64 pages, people are returning set after set with the same issue. I'd say that this means there is a huge batch produced which are mostly faulty.... and the vast majority of people don't notice it or think it's normal. It's only fussy people such as ourselves (and why wouldnt we be, when forking out this much cash for a TV?) that have recognised they aint right. Sony are banking on the great unwashed remaining ignorant.

Why not give 'em a call. I don't hold out much hope of a practical, helpful response but you never know your luck I spose.

So - you're having to transport the TVs to and from HN yourself? That sound a bit rough! If the TV is agreed as faulty shouldnt they do that for you?

[Gazzz]

I'm having the same problem with my schaub lorenz 42" lcd... picture attached

Rang the big picture people, and he seemed horrified of the problem, having (supposedly) not heard of it before on the S-L panels... But he did seem genuinely upset about selling me this panel and told me he'd get right on it. Maybe I'll ask him to check the replacement before I go to the trouble of transporting these bastard big boxes.

[niz]

While not directly addressing the problem of backlight bleed. I have been playing with the settings to somehow reduce the impact.

I've found that on my screen, by setting the "Adv Contrast Enhancer" to LOW it reduces the impact of the bleed on the screen. Yes, I do know that all the suggested settings I have ever read on the forums say to leave it off & that some think it introduces something artificial to the image, but on my set it seems to work. To my eyes....having it set to low doesn't seem to effect the quality of the blacks or the picture as a whole. BTW, I also have the power saving & light sensor both turned off with backlight at 3.

Just a suggestion.

[Trigg]

Where's the build date on these things? Just had my 52" delivered and has been up and running for 24 hours. The patchiness doesn't seem too evident in my panel!

HD DVD bloody looks awesome on these things!

[Craigus]

There a review the the 46" X-Series on goodgearguide:

http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/index.php/...1;pid;2422;pt;1

Basically, they say it sucks, although I don't know if the problems they described are due to the noise reduction, which is known in theses forum to cause problems (and can be switched off).

[Mr Ploppy]

Well I didn't get a chance to ring sony or HN, was a bit busy at work. Will do so after Chrissy. I think I will go for one more attempt, I like the set too much too give up on it! Yeah, i'm a sucker, i know.

There are a few things I am curious about. How many people here with the Bravias are suffering this problem and what month their sets were built and how many owners have acceptable back lighting? The other is how many with the equivalent samsungs are experiencing this cloudiness as well? Did samsung take all the good panels and leave sony with the crappy ones? Is it worth a poll? What do you guys think?

While I'm at it, I hope everyone has a great Christmas and new year, eat, drink and be merry, cheers!

[Mr Matey]

I think I'm going to cry.

Seriously, I got one of the first one of these (46x) in Sydney and called Sony Central within two weeks of purchase. They said to get Sony Service out there and if there was a legitimate problem they would swap it. Anyway the guy came out (really quickly actually) and the guy gave me a big talk about how this (light bleed from the left) was a problem with ALL lcd's and that on his one you could even see it on blue screens. Anyway I found that when I sit on the right side of the room I couldn't see it so I have just been sitting on the right. Now that there are a lot of them out I have been checking them in the stores and I have only found 1 other that has the same issues as mine. I called Sony before X-mas and told them that this was not normal and something was definitely wrong with the tv. They told me to leave the set on for 40 hours. Well it's still there and I have called the service centre again.

They said they had no record of the first service guy that came out. Can you believe that?

I will try Sony Central again and see what happens. Lucky I kept a record of my phone calls but I don't think that is going to help.

I can't believe I trusted the service guy that said it was just the way it is.

Hope you guys have better luck with yours...

[jordang]

I think I'm going to cry.

.....

Hope you guys have better luck with yours...

awwww crap. I wanna cry for ya. This, combined with Goodgearguides review has sent me careering back to the starting block. I had planned to wait until January to see if there was any price drops, and then was going to buy the 46x. :P

[MLXXX]

There a review the the 46" X-Series on goodgearguide:

http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/index.php/...1;pid;2422;pt;1

Basically, they say it sucks, although I don't know if the problems they described are due to the noise reduction, which is known in theses forum to cause problems (and can be switched off).

I am always suspicious about video image processing. Different manufacturers like to put their own stamp on their product, but oftentimes less image processing is better than more. Perhaps the reviewers did not disable enough of the image processing.

Has anyone examined their own 46" X-series Sony Bravia (KLV46X2000) critically with Blu-Ray or comparable source material, for any sign of the issues raised in the review quoted above (lattice effect, image noise, pixel fluctuation)?

I'd also note that although I am no gamer, I understand there are few xbox 360 games that create 1080p detail, even though they may upscale to 1080p. There seems no reason why the xbox 360 high definition component AV cable cannot be set to 1080i [or 720p] rather than 1080p and the great bulk of games should display well. And sooner or later, the xbox 360 should evolve to provide an HDMI (or at least DVI) output.

P.S. AndrewWilliams reports witnessing none of the problems; in the Sony Bravia "r" Series (sxrd) 60"-70" 1080p, Specifications, 1080p 50 and 60 over HDMI thread, here.

[Bodalenko]

Sets manufactured in September and October appear to be the worst hit by the cloud issue, and it is definitely a fault in the screen production. I read somewhere that it is caused by over tentioning of the screen surface, which is why it appears mostly in the corners. Anyone who believes they have an issue with the screen should IMMEDIATELY refer it to Sony and obtain a complaint reference No. I have dealt with Sony before and they will deny any issue and attempt to sweep it under the carpet, so there may be a real need to refer it to the ACCC. Please make sure you have all times/date/persons spoken to documented, and make your retailer do the chase up work as well. They were happy to take your cash and stock the item and as such have an obligation under law to make sure you got what you paid for. Mine (Good Guys @DFO Essendon) was great and took up my cause straight away.

I'm waiting for a new unit from the January batch due in 2 weeks. I already have an October version with the clouding and though it's not all that bad it will be going back, as will any others that are not 100% right. That's because I'm a perfectionist and not because the clouding is that severe. I think most of us who have the clouding issue will admit that unless you actually know what to look for and where/how to find it, it's extremely difficult to find especially under normal viewing conditions. It does not impact on the incredible detail and clarity of the picture, so for gods sake and your own sanity, if you haven't noticed it yet don't go looking for it!!!

By the way: that Goodgear review was a load of crap. I did my homework before buying the 46X and I've had the luck of seeing the Tosh 47" , Samsung 46" and Sony x 46" side by side and as far as PQ goes the Sony wins easily. It is by a country mile the best True HD display available, and that's despite this clouding issue. Goodgear bags the Toshiba and Sony then gives the Samsung POS a glowing review. Give me a break!!

Hang in there X series owners and hope to be X series owners and keep making as many waves as you can.

[MN-Robert]

Anyone got a December built one yet? Apparently they are in stock in some retailers.

[ray888]

... I have dealt with Sony before and they will deny any issue and attempt to sweep it under the carpet, so there may be a real need to refer it to the ACCC...

Crikey, is that why Sony is in fairly big trouble atm? What with the laptop battery recall and all. Has their QC gone down the tube so far? I remembers a time when Sony was "king".

I saw an X series 40" lcd Sony fed with a hidef video (I think 1080i) via component (15m, or so the salesman said) and the pq was decidedly worse than the S series fed by HDMI with the same source. Must admit I didn't see any backlight bleeding.

[Crayons]

By the way: that Goodgear review was a load of crap.

Agreed. Strongly suspect they didn't know how to configure the TV or have an axe to grind or are biased for some other reason (leave that one to your imagination). I have read some other reviews on GGG previously and there is often something spectacular to comment on, either good or bad, that other reviewers all seem to have magically missed.

[GaryCook]

An attempt to balance the story, from an enthusiast perspective, not a perfectionist view.

I have a September build 40X and I don't have a problem. Plus I have looked at a couple of other people's X's that claim they have an issue but when there is a program source, there is no visible problem. I can see some very miniscule clouding when there is no program source, but as soon as they were fed some input, the clouding completely dissapears. Yes, even in dark scenes. So I told them to move on, let's face it, why would you sit there looking at a blank screen all day?

I have not noticed any motion bluring and I watch a lot of sports. Sure there is crappy PQ on ESPN and some FoxSports generated programs, but that was visible on my CRT. So I expected it and it is in many ways better than I had hoped (ie; not as bad as I had been told it would be).

Overall I am very happy with the PQ of my 40X and every single person that has seen it working raves about it. On HD TV and SD DVD it is simply breathtaking. I am also most pleased to be able to say that the audio output (used for HDTV) is outstanding when fed into my audio system.

On a scale of 1 to 10, it's has to be a 10, because it is exactly what I expected it to be in the worst conditions (eg; via Foxtel feed) and far better than I expected on every other input source. Maybe that's because I knew what I was buying and didn't place excessively high (unrealistic) expectations on it.

cheers

[fRuItCaKe.]

I'm going to have a lok today at the various retailers (however I think the X series is overkill for me as an "everyday" set).

I'll post what the build dates are.

CHriso

[MN-Robert]

Crikey, is that why Sony is in fairly big trouble atm? What with the laptop battery recall and all. Has their QC gone down the tube so far? I remembers a time when Sony was "king".

That was a good 10-15 years ago.

[fRuItCaKe.]

Ok,

Domayne (Wollongong) 40X - build July 06, 46X build August 06

HN (Wollongong) 40X, 46X - Aug 06

[Craigus]

Sept 2006 46X

Some clouding in the top left (only noticable it in the evening and in dark scenes). Otherwise a great TV after some tuning.

I'll call HN tomorrow to see what they'll do.