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Official Sony KDL-XXW850B thread

119K views 1K replies 169 participants last post by  clark17 
#1 ·
Just saw that these are now available at bestbuy, and saw that some people were due to receive theirs a few days ago. Does anyone have one yet? Comments?
 
#2 ·
I've seen this TV at Fry's in Fremont, CA. It looked good on my cursory view. It lacks the Triluminous display of it predecessor, the W850A or its new superior model, the W950B. I've seen no professional reviews, but the 950B got slammed for lousy black levels, poor uniformity and DSE in 2 reviews, which is probably not relevant to the 850B, but it was a surprise. The 850B appears to have a completely different screen than the 950B, the 950B being IPS. I'm waiting for more information.


Here's an earlier thread about the entire WXXXB line.
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1513305/sony-2014-w600b-w800b-w850b
 
#3 ·
I had the chance to extensively view the 60" W850B yesterday at frys, and I have to say, it is rather terrible. I noticed everything that the W950B was criticized for, however blacks were not terrible. It did have horrid uniformity, as well as many dead pixels. It was being shown next to the 2013 W802A, and that blew it out of the water in every aspect, including contrast. The W802A was also able to get noticeably brighter than the W850B. Before anyone says they were in vivid mode, they were not. I changed the settings on both tv's and the W850B was no match for the W802A. Even with the live color off on the W802A and live color high on the W850B, the W802A had noticeably more saturated colors. They also had the W800B, and that tv did not look half bad, in fact it looked better than the W850B. It too had many dead pixels though. The sony rep there also agreed with me, and told me that the W850B does not replace the W802A, but instead the W950B does. He told me that the W850B was the R550A replacement, and it indeed compares to it. Looks like there is not a 2014 replacement for the W900A.
 
#4 ·
UFO -- I just purchased the KDL-70W850B from Best Buy, expected to be delivered on April 4th. I'm mainly using it for gaming, but your comment is making me rethink the purchase and maybe I should cancel the order.


I'm not sure what else I would get, maybe the 65W950B, but I'd like to stay 70"+ for the TV.
 
#5 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by integrity23  /t/1523063/official-sony-kdl-xxw850b-thread/0_100#post_24543938


UFO -- I just purchased the KDL-70W850B from Best Buy, expected to be delivered on April 4th. I'm mainly using it for gaming, but your comment is making me rethink the purchase and maybe I should cancel the order.


I'm not sure what else I would get, maybe the 65W950B, but I'd like to stay 70"+ for the TV.

Picture quality on the larger sets has never been great. If you really want that size, and still want excellent picture quality, find a 70" Sharp Elite.
 
#6 ·

My pre-ordered KDL-70W850B arrived a week ago and I'm really disappointed with its uniformity. It really stood out in the skies on Bioshock Infinite last night. My previous TV purchase was a KDL-52XBR9 which had no eye-popping uniformity issues like this. Other than the uniformity though the Cinema scene mode looks really natural and still has great color. Netflix is able to seamlessly switch between stream resolutions/quality to avoid ever hitting any rebuffering which is important since my ISP seems to be at war with Netflix. And audio is good for TV speakers. Here's an iPhone 5s photo of the screen set to a medium gray. The line at the top is my mac's menu bar somehow being stuck up there, not a screen defect. No dead pixels I've noticed either. 

 

 
#7 ·
Eye-popping, for sure. That's horrendous. This problem, although usually as vertical bands, has plagued the HX850, HX950, etc. Maybe the percentages of bad panels are low, but I've shied away due to the "panel lottery". Of course Sony is not alone in this regard.


That appears to be some sort of panel deformity rather than typical poor uniformity. Regardless that appears to be seriously defective and the vendor/Sony owes you a rapid, free replacement.
 
#8 ·
I am a happy owner of a 55inch w802a am looking to get 65 or bigger TV so wanted to get the 70 inch version. After reading UFO comments about the 60 inch, I had to see it for myself. So I went to my nearby sony store and what UFO says is right. I got there and ask for the remote they were happy to give me it. I quickly change the settings to what my w802a settings are. The colors are not there, screen is darker and contrast was not good. I was hoping better for this TV kind of disappointed. On the bright side I also saw the 55 w950b. TV is good, might have to wait for this set they only had the 55 inch, 65 mighty come at a later time sony representative told me. The contrast is good, colors are there better then my 802a ( I also change the settings on this tv) they had I,robot on the this TV the black and whites were very good, even before I change the setting. The side of the TV is silver or white not shiny. The design of the tv from the side is thin on top and around 3inch on the bottom.
 
#9 ·
Here is my short review of the KDL-60W850B. I bought it last Saturday and delivered with the help of my wife. Warning: the box is big and very heavy due to the Wedge shape of the TV. Until now I am a happy owner of one of the best TV Sony produced up to 3 years ago and that is the KDL-55EX500 CCFL LCD.

The uniformity is excellent, TV works like a charm and has better picture than most of the new LED out there. OK, back to 850B.

I have returned the TV for two reasons. I hated the black painted frame which gave the TV sort of cheap look and having a 55" TV it just did not look bigger enough, I will wait for the 65" 950B and see how it goes. At any rate, here you realize that even the TV is the same and produced maybe on the same day (the TV was made in Mexico Jan 2014) my TV 850B comparing to my 55EX500 had even better uniformity. No clouding. flash light, vertical bands etc. Not perfect but excellent. I run all the tests Spears & Munsil, AVS forum calibration disk etc. all pass with flying colors. For HD BOX and blu-ray the picture was slightly sharper and brighter than on my EX500 but not large amount. I did not see any bluish tint in the dark scenes as on some other LED TV and the motion was typical Sony like, very good. No soap opera watching a movie. Input lag is approx. 20 to 22ms and playing my PS4 was pure pleasure but did not feel much different than playing it on my EX500 which is rated around 40 to 60ms depending who you believe. OK. hope it helps some people in their choices" to be or not to be"!
 
#10 ·
Here is a picture of the w802a next to the w850b. The w802a is on the left, and the w850b is on the right. Both tv's are set to cinema mode, with the same settings. Even if I turned love color to high on the w850b, it could not match the color saturation of the w802a.

 
#11 ·
Sony agrees with you and are shipping me a replacement and will pick up this defective one. Thanks for the suggestion!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Ball  /t/1523063/official-sony-kdl-xxw850b-thread#post_24546089


Eye-popping, for sure. That's horrendous. This problem, although usually as vertical bands, has plagued the HX850, HX950, etc. Maybe the percentages of bad panels are low, but I've shied away due to the "panel lottery". Of course Sony is not alone in this regard.


That appears to be some sort of panel deformity rather than typical poor uniformity. Regardless that appears to be seriously defective and the vendor/Sony owes you a rapid, free replacement.
 
#12 ·
Welp, I'm supposed to be getting a 60 inch W850B to replace my defective 60R550A in about a week or so. I hope I don't have to go through the trouble of yet another defective TV, but going by this thread and many others regarding modern TVs, I probably don't have a choice. I just sold my old LG 47LE5400 that I bought back in 2010 and I'm already starting to miss it because I never had any issues with it.
 
#13 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by *UFO*  /t/1523063/official-sony-kdl-xxw850b-thread/0_100#post_24546908


Here is a picture of the w802a next to the w850b. The w802a is on the left, and the w850b is on the right. Both tv's are set to cinema mode, with the same settings. Even if I turned love color to high on the w850b, it could not match the color saturation of the w802a.


I see that. But the TV set on the right (850B) seems to show more detail to me. For example on the 850B you can actually see the yellow sticker on the bottle with the text. Its hard to see this on the 802A.
 
#15 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by bestboy1  /t/1523063/official-sony-kdl-xxw850b-thread/0_100#post_24608327


I see that. But the TV set on the right (850B) seems to show more detail to me. For example on the 850B you can actually see the yellow sticker on the bottle with the text. Its hard to see this on the 802A.

No you can see it just as good in person, the picture just made it look that way. The picture is just to give you an idea on how washed out the w850b is.
 
#19 ·
My main concern with the CNET review is the bad bad 3D performance. Considering that The 850B is Sony's 2014 replacement for the 550A I must wonder why Sony decided to go Active 3D this year. A very high percentage of 550A owners here at AVS Forum spoke very highly of the Passive 3D performance yet Sony switched to Active this year. Hopefully CNET just had a poor sample to work with.
 
#20 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by andy sullivan  /t/1523063/official-sony-kdl-xxw850b-thread/0_100#post_24614804


How much do you think Sony paid him to say that the 3D sucked out loud? I'm having second thoughts after reading that review.

Part of a paid review is making it seem real. I can tell you right now, the w850b is one of the worst tv's Sony has produced to date. This is coming from a huge Sony fan.
 
#21 ·
I'm getting so many mixed responses on this TV. Between AVS Forum, Amazon Customer reviews, and CNET the reviews are all over the map. In just looking at what the 850 has compared to the 550A it would seem that other than Active 3d should should be a superior product at least from a spec standpoint.
 
#22 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by andy sullivan  /t/1523063/official-sony-kdl-xxw850b-thread/0_100#post_24618560


I'm getting so many mixed responses on this TV. Between AVS Forum, Amazon Customer reviews, and CNET the reviews are all over the map. In just looking at what the 850 has compared to the 550A it would seem that other than Active 3d should should be a superior product at least from a spec standpoint.

I would say the r550a and w850b are very comparable, but I would take the r550a over the w850b.
 
#23 ·
What is it about the 550A that makes you say that? Many have sent that set back and there must be a reason that caused Sony to stop producing it after only one year. Logic indicates that if Sony has decided to continue offering a 70" display for 2014 priced in the under $3,000 range that it would be prudent to eliminate the 550's problems. I'm no engineer but I think the X-Reality Pro engine is new as well as a different screen entirely. The short comings for the 70R550A for me was serious flash lighting, white blobs (all of these fall under the category of screen uniformity) and an overall picture that just seemed a bit blah. I would imagine most of the other major components will be the same with a few possible tweaks. Is there something that you know about the 850 series that makes you think other wise?
 
#24 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by andy sullivan  /t/1523063/official-sony-kdl-xxw850b-thread/0_100#post_24618796


What is it about the 550A that makes you say that? Many have sent that set back and there must be a reason that caused Sony to stop producing it after only one year. Logic indicates that if Sony has decided to continue offering a 70" display for 2014 priced in the under $3,000 range that it would be prudent to eliminate the 550's problems. I'm no engineer but I think the X-Reality Pro engine is new as well as a different screen entirely. The short comings for the 70R550A for me was serious flash lighting, white blobs (all of these fall under the category of screen uniformity) and an overall picture that just seemed a bit blah. I would imagine most of the other major components will be the same with a few possible tweaks. Is there something that you know about the 850 series that makes you think other wise?

They are both terrible tv's, but if I had to choose one, I would still choose the r550a. They both hare horrible clouding, backlight uniformity, and overall picture quality. The r550a has much better color though, as well as passive 3d, and for that I would take it over the w850b. I would stay clear of either though.
 
#25 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by *UFO*  /t/1523063/official-sony-kdl-xxw850b-thread#post_24618826


They are both terrible tv's, but if I had to choose one, I would still choose the w850b. They both hare horrible clouding, backlight uniformity, and overall picture quality. The r550a has much better color though, as well as passive 3d, and for that I would take it over the w850b. I would stay clear of either though.

Actually my being uber picky with the R550a's PQ is just me. My wife loves it and so does every single person that has seen it. I notice the flash lighting and the other screen uniformity issues. Being that the 850 is pretty new and not a lot of professional hands on reviews I don't see how you can come to such a conclusion. I guess I'll find out pretty soon. If there is any little thing I don't like about the 850 I'll certainly share my opinion.
 
#26 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by andy sullivan  /t/1523063/official-sony-kdl-xxw850b-thread/0_100#post_24618871


Actually my being uber picky with the R550a's PQ is just me. My wife loves it and so does every single person that has seen it. I notice the flash lighting and the other screen uniformity issues. Being that the 850 is pretty new and not a lot of professional hands on reviews I don't see how you can come to such a conclusion. I guess I'll find out pretty soon. If there is any little thing I don't like about the 850 I'll certainly share my opinion.

I came to that conclusion because I have personally seen, with my own eyes and hands, the r550a and w850b. I even posted a picture of the w850b next to the w802a to show how muted the colors are. Yes, a non-enthusiast would be happy with anything, but this an enthusiast forum.
 
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