***Directly below describes my original problem...post #5 the repair results***

Technical question. I purchased a 60 inch Sony SXRD set back in Feb. When the TV arrived there was a slight green area in the upper center that went away after a reasonable warm up period (15-30 minutes).Starting in July I noticed the following:

Upon power on the entire center was green with a purple ring around it. This would fade with warm up as well for the most part, but when watching letter boxed content or when the screen would flash black the lack of uniformity was very evident (purple on the top and bottom…almost a ‘glow’ and greenish in the center ).* Blacks in the center were still dark.

Now the problem is much worse. There is now a purple tint along the top and bottom with dark AND bright content (It’s not constant like you might have seen with a old CRT and an unshielded speaker but it’s there more or less depending on what is being displayed). Areas of shadow are often (but not always..more dependent on content rather than source if you know what I mean) purple rather than black, black hair seems to have a purple ‘aura’ around it, the set appears washed out overall with a blue push (Warm 2 looks very ‘cool’ now) and skin tones (although it varies based upon the actor) contain a lot of blue. *This is occurs on all inputs (PS3 via HDMI, HD-DVD player, Time Warner HD-DVR).

The problems seem very obvious to me, but two repairmen have said that they 'don't see it'.

Now finally my question: Are there technical means to test for color uniformity that do not rely on the subjective view of the tech? That take the entire path of the image into account? To me it's enough that a black screen is not a uniform black throughout (when it once was) but Sony appears to disagree.

I'm actually expecting Sony to tell me the unit is in spec despite earlier models having similar problems and what I perceive as a noticable loss in picture quality in only 5 months of ownership. Of course if that happens I'm done with them forever but that's another story...

Not sure of the technical term but the common term here is "green blob" and "Purple Haze." (Look in the xx2020 thread for details/descriptions)

I had it on my 1st xx2020 set.

It was easily seen using a test disc with all white background(maybe use a jpg/bmp file if you don't have a test/calibration disc). Using the Warm1 or Warm2 also made it more visible.
The center would be light green with a purple ring that surrounded the green blob in the middle.

I let my set run for 3 hours and the color faded but using the test disc, you could definitely tell that it's still there.

I believe most who have had this issue tried to get their optical block replaced.
This has resolved some peoples issues and not others.

Is the set under warranty ?

Defective OB...That's the problem.

Thanks for the replies.

Set is still under warranty.

And I agree that it's probably the OB so not sure why Sony is dragging this out as long as the have. They claim to have seen little of this on the A2000's and while I agree that it seems to happen less than on the XBR1's I doubt it's entirely gone.

I just got the set back...And while it’s changed I’m not sure it’s changed for the better yet…

Clarity is still good (some people say it looks blurry after an optical block change so nice to have avoided that) and the blacks are uniform and dark again rather than purple. Since this was the most distracting problem for me I’m mostly pleased.

I say mostly because on a white background the green blob/purple ring wackiness is still there. The pattern has changed though and I imagine that’s due to the differences in the optical block. When a light blue sky is displayed the upper right tends to be purple and the left center a bit green. You can see the same pattern on a white JPEG (loaded via the PS3).

The purple black was the worse problem so I’m just going to leave it at that for now since I doubt based upon my experience with them so far that Sony will do anything for me. Can’t say I love the set like when I first got it but I don’t hate it anymore either which will have to be good enough. :(

For those of you who have had this done is this typical?

Monitor the issue week by week and if it gets worse, get it looked at again.
If it stays the same, it's a matter of if you can live with the current state of the display for the lifetime of the TV. Just make sure to make your decision within the warranty period to get it covered for free.

I emailed the rep at Sony I've been dealing with for the last few weeks to tell him what happened. Can't say he's been all that helpful but I suppose it's worth a shot. The upper right corner is currently pretty bad: Ice is very purple on the hockey game I'm watching.

Honestly if they say give it back to the repair center I'm going to tell them no...since the wouldn't repair it onsite OR take it down to ground level from my third floor apartment it was just too much of a pain in the butt to have to do that again.

I left the next step up to Sony. At this point I would like a Sony rep to take a look at it. I doubt that anyone who sees it would say it's acceptable...if they can't make that happen I want it replaced.