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"Official" 2014 Sony XBR-49X850B / XBR-55X850B / XBR-65X850B / XBR-70X850B Thread

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#1 · (Edited)
Since no one has started an official X850B thread I thought I would go ahead and start one.XBR-49X850B — $2,199.99XBR-55X850B — $2,999.99XBR-65X850B — $3,999.99XBR-70X850B — $5,499.99Marketing Specificationshttps://docs.sony.com/release/specs/XBR55X850B_mksp.pdfhttps://docs.sony.com/release/specs/XBR70X850B_mksp.pdfThe 65X850B is on sale on Sony.com for $3,299.99. That is $300 more than the 55X850B.


_____________________________

Added June 23rd, 2015
Provided by: Danabw


To get the most out of your x850b, we have compiled a spreadsheet with recommended picture calibration settings from experienced x850b owners, from both 70" (VA panel) owners, and 49"/55" (IPS panel) owners, so both types of panels used in x850b TVs are covered. Choose either option below:

Daniel Tonks' calibration settings are included and they are INCREDIBLY useful as he includes detailed descriptions of how each picture setting affects the picture, and even more importantly, when one setting has a significant affect on other settings.[/QUOTE]
 
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#2,045 ·
My first post, please be gentle :)

Hello everyone, first time posting, I found this forum while Google searching reviews of the TV and possible fixes for issues I am experiencing... lI wanted to see if I am the only one noticing these things. I am a long time tech fan and even bigger fan of TV viewing that puts you there in that moment. I am sorry if this is a really long first post, but I am hoping to find some help or guidance in figuring out what to do (and maybe bring up issues that others are experiencing as well?) as I continue to back read this entire thread.

I got the 55" 850B from Best Buy a week ago for $1,500 ($1,950 after tax and the 5 year coverage plan) I am on the fence about this TV however, as when it shines, it's the nicest picture I have ever seen on a TV, EASILY. Even when it's up-converting DirecTV at only 1080i, it's obvious that this TV is leaps and bounds prettier than my old Samsung, which I still think has a wonderful picture. When the 850B doesn't shine, it's distracting to see so much distortion or ugliness around objects when there is fast motion on the screen. I am not sure if the distortion is just that bad, we are sitting too close (about 7-8 feet away in my bedroom) or that my eyes get used to the picture being SUPERB 75% of the time, so that when fast movement occurs, it's jarring how much of a loss of quality there is. I have played with settings every time I have turned on the TV, but find that I must compromise certain features to get the picture to somewhere that is acceptable for motion and non-motion. If I could get the picture to look as it good as it does most of the time, all of the time, I'd recommend this TV to anyone and everyone.

I have been trying to do as much back reading as possible in this thread, but I still have a lot to go. Maybe I will get answers from that back reading, but this is what I am looking for so far and have not found answers to.

#1 . The slow action that occurs on the screen is amazing. Literally jaw dropping. Makes my girlfriend who isn't big on technology, go "Ohhhhhh, wowwww" when watching certain shows or playing Grand Theft Auto 5 on PS4.We saw it in Best Buy after I did a bunch of review searching the days leading up to the purchase and as soon as we saw it, we both could clearly see how much better the picture was than the other TV's around it. At home, even when not a 4K image, certain up-converted shows look real at times. Certain times, football looks like we are watching it through a window, especially close ups in between plays. 'Godzilla' on Blu-ray is just all sorts of beautiful. However, fast action, when motion flow is turned on, seems to get a lot of distortion around the moving focus of a particular screen. The only way to get most of the halo or distortion gone from the screen, is to turn the motion flow off, but that comes at a cost... I like motion flow, but hate the distortion field that floats around a player on the football field for example. Using the "football button" doesn't exactly give us the best picture setting for actually watching football, not that I have found anyways.

#2 . I like the way the screen looks with the motion flow on either at Standard, True Cinema or Clear, eventhough clear does seem to darken the screen a bit more... I find it makes it look like you're watching a live taping of whatever it is you're watching (especially helpful for live action such as football) I get that it is adding extra frames that might not actually be there from the source content. Sometimes, things look like they're moving too fast, but most of the time, we both REALLY like it and have trained our eyes in this week to expect more than 24 frames per second. Looking at my old Samsung 61" that is 1080 and really really nice, seems odd now :) We watch "House" on Netflix on the new TV and it just is a different level of immersion that we've never seen before, and we've watched that show for 10 years now ():

#3 . The screen is too shiny and reflective (as of this morning) I have heard a lot of people complain about it here, but only noticed it this morning with the Sun coming through my window and shining on my bed. During the evening, the picture is awesome sauce and there is no reflection in a dark room or even with my overhead fan light on, even with dark images on the screen. 'Godzilla' this morning though, near the end when he shoots the radiation into the mouth of the Muto, it is so dark that I could see my bed and myself clearly in the reflection (until Godzilla shoots the radiation and the screen lights up, then it is perfectly clear and you see no reflection) I was going to say this was a non-issue as I hadn't noticed it all week until the sun was shining as it was.

#4 . I'd prefer to lose the "Smart TV" aspect of the TV, as the web browser isn't all that awesome and wont show certain... shall we say, adult web sites haha To my girlfriend, this is the biggest problem as we went with the Smart TV because we thought we'd view porn easily without having to connect a lap top that can't produce 4K output anyways. Netflix IS sweet however, and looks better when watched from the TV, vs watching it through my PS4.

#5 . I would like to get the 65", as I know that 4K really lends intself to bigger screns, but $1500 was and is a lot of $ to me, so if the issues I am having with the 55" are only going to be made worse with the bigger screen in my small-ish room, then there is no point to spending the extra $1,000. My 61" was in the bedroom and was a bit too big, but since we got used to that in there, the 55" seems a tad-bit smaller, loses the theater effect.

#6 . With motion flow turned off, the overall clarity and immersion seems to be cut down, but it does tend to "fix" the distortion halo issue for the most part. I like motion flow and it gets another mention here because even without a lot of 4K content, the TV makes regular TV look better and certain 1080i shows look 4K, at least to us.

#6 b. When watching the 4k Netflix shows like Oceans or Flowers, the distortion is really noticeable even with motion flow turned off, when the screen does a wide pan of a vast field of flowers or something of that nature. It starts to look like a giant bunch of colorful noise until the scene slows down again. It's sad to see all those detailed flowers turn into a bunch noise instead of a clear view of a bunch of flowers. I figured 4K would keep the detail a lot better than that.

#7 . I have been playing Grand Theft Auto 5 on the PS4 and at times, it's EASY to say that is the best a video game has ever looked, the motion flow makes the game look and feel real at times, especially now that the PS4 version of the game got as nicely cleaned up as it did.. Other times, it seems (especially when driving really fast and buildings are flying past you) that the screen judders or jumps around/skips a bit. My theory on this is that since the game is only being sent from the PS4 at 30 frames a second and sometimes when a lot of action is going on, the game would slow down a bit on my old TV, the new TV is trying to fill those gaps/slow down moments and really over emphasizes the jumpy effect. It looks visually like what it sounds like aurally when a CD skips briefly. It's not an all the time thing, and when playing it on the old TV the issue doesn't really happen when just driving fast through the city, so it's definitely something that the 850B is trying to do and seems to be failing at.

#8 . I have until Jan 14th to decide what to do, with no restocking fee, I can return it to Best Buy with zero cost to myself.

Sorry for it being so long, and thank you if you read up to this point :) This has been my experience with this TV so far. I want to say it's the best TV I ahve ever seen, and it is at times. But unless I can figure out the distortion issues and get the motion flow to work without it wrecking fast action, I might have to save my $1500 until faster processing engine come out later this year. That is the best way to describe it... Like the TV would be perfect, if the engine behind it was processing faster. I am wondering if the 120 hrz refresh rate is the issue? Would 240 keep a clearer picture all the time and get rid of these halo distortion issues?
 
#2,050 ·
55" 3D - 540P or 1080P?

I've read conflicting answers about whether the XBR55X850B displays 3D in 540P/eye or 1080P.

I saw a consumer reports article that reported 540P and I am aware the 900 models were 540P in 55" but I've seen some other people post what seemed to be confirmations of 1080P/eye.

This is a make/break feature for me and if anyone could shed some light on this, I'd appreciate it.
 
#2,051 ·
I've read conflicting answers about whether the XBR55X850B displays 3D in 540P/eye or 1080P.

I saw a consumer reports article that reported 540P and I am aware the 900 models were 540P in 55" but I've seen some other people post what seemed to be confirmations of 1080P/eye.

This is a make/break feature for me and if anyone could shed some light on this, I'd appreciate it.



By the eye test, the 65" 850b is definitely 1080p in 3d on Bluray.
 
#2,056 ·
when i was at best buy today checking out the tvs, one thing that REALLY caught my eye as i walked back and forth was how great the side angle viewing was of this tv, almost every tv faded out from the side but both 850B's(55 and 65) they had up completely kept all their color from the sides, and im talking being a good 15-20 feet down, i was shocked at how bad all the other tvs were.
 
#2,058 ·
Hi Gents - after trying out a Sharp 70" 660U and quickly returning it and almost buying a Samsung PNFH5000 plasma I ended up with the XBR650B 4K set. Grabbed it Sunday from my local Best Buy at what seemed like a good sale price.

Ive only had it running for a day or whatever and am still messing with settings but so far, mostly so good. Love the thin bezel design and the stand. Nice looking set. The screen is a little more reflective than I expected but its no a big issue. Its actually better than the overly "matte" screens that IMO can hurt PQ.

First thing is first: My set has minimal or non-existent clouding/banding/edge bleed etc. Pretty good panel. The light bleed at the edges is also well controlled. Every edge-lit LED I look at has *some* bleed of some sort. Its the technology and it didnt hamper my enjoyment of the set. So, I got a "good one". :)

First PQ impressions are very favorable. The color accuracy and presentation is excellent on this set. Its plenty bright too and motion performance as a whole is fairly solid so far. The blacks are average but in fairness I havent fully tweaked the set just yet. I do NOT expect to be wowoed by black levels on an IPS panel but with everything else being so good I can live with "medicore" blacks which is what you'll get with this set.

One thing is for sure: The Sony upscaling engine is a beast. We watched Divergence on DVD last night and I swear it looked & had the depth of a 1080p blu-ray or better. Extremely clean image, good contrast, and loads of detail. Very impressed with the upscaling but I expected that since this is what I saw at the store. I prolly drove the BB guys crazy with all of my demo demands(1080 source, blu-ray, different feed, etc) but I wanted to be sure ALL content looked good since factory-fed 4K stuff always looks amazing. IMO, the Sony upscaling is clearly the best out of all of the major brands.

The 4K performance is stupid good but they all get that mostly right. No worries here. Just need more content!

Color accuracy, brightness, and image "pop" are all good right now but I do have to play with settings more. I plan on using Bigg Shooters settings to see what happens but as it stands, Ive made some basic tweaks myself. I expect to be able to make this set really shine. I just need some "seat time "with it. I know that you mostly turn OFF a lot of the enhancers, noise reducers, and all that crap. I also know to turn OFF any eco settings too. Ill get her dialed in and post back what I end up with.

We are not into 3D but did try a few sample videos from the YouTube app using the provided glasses. It works and looks fine to me. You have to stay mostly on-axis but pour seating arrangement would probably allow the four of us to do a 3D flick without much trouble. I did NOT see any ghosting or other problems with the quick demos I did using 3D. Its not my area of expertise though so take my comments with a grain of pepper.

Overall, after being totally underwhelmed with the 70" Sharp I tried, Im pretty sure that this set will be a keeper for me. I did notice too that the difference between a 70" set and a 65" set was NOT as big as I would have expected. The math says that the Sharp 70" has 15% more viewing area but from our main seats whcih are about 9-10 feet away it was hardly noticeable and clearly NOT worth the huge upcharge required to get a 70" set. 65" is plenty for our room and IMO you have to go up 8-10 inches in screen size to really appreciate it. Five inches of increase for a few hundred bucks would have been one thing...but almost $1000 dollars? No freegin way. Not even close.

So, over the next few days Ill be digging in hard and trying lots of content while I get the set dialed in. Very excited though. I was dead set on just getting one of the remaining Sammy H5000 plasmas but I just felt like I was being nostalgic and buying it just because its a plasma. I had a 50" KURO and a Panny Plasma too so I KNOW the plasma PQ is awesome. However, times have changed and its about screen size, performance in ALL conditions, Smart/Internet Features, and of course....the 4K upscaling makes everything better too. So, Im glad I stuck it out with LED/4K. I think I'll be happy.

Looking forward to chatting with ya'll XBR owners! Settings to follow in a few days here but as I said, Im using Big Shooters as a "base" and will go from there.

Cheers :)
 
#2,060 ·
According to Intel's docs:

Film Mode Detection (FMD) Variances – FMD determines if the input fields were created by
sampling film and converting it to interlaced video. If so the deinterlacer is turned off in favor of
reconstructing the frame from adjacent fields.

Basically this is pulldown detection to restore original film cadence. So, it IS all about deinterlacing! :) Sounds like the setting is choking on whatever the BBC is doing when it converts 25p to 60i (assuming you're in the US) - and likely other marginal interlacing situations as well. Incidentally, I see other online reports of horizontal banding relating to this setting.
 
#2,061 ·
Well, I am glad and went in and looked at that then. Not many of us running HTPC's, but maybe this will help some that are. Yes, I am US-based and also much appreciate your efforts/responsiveness!
 
#2,063 · (Edited)
I think you need to have either a toslink (optical) cable from the set to your receiver or use the ARC which I think is off HDMI #1 only...that will work only if your receiver can handle ARC. I use the optical myself.
 
#2,067 ·
Sony xbr vs samsung8550

Whew, just got done reading all the posts, very informative.


I'm upgrading from Samsung 46"750 which I've been very happy with, wife wants bigger set so we're looking at 65 850B. I'm comparing to Samsung 8550. My question is, if you had to make your purchase again, would you? How is the set for fast action sports like ice hockey and football?


Thanks for all your help.
 
#2,071 ·
Whew, just got done reading all the posts, very informative.


I'm upgrading from Samsung 46"750 which I've been very happy with, wife wants bigger set so we're looking at 65 850B. I'm comparing to Samsung 8550. My question is, if you had to make your purchase again, would you? How is the set for fast action sports like ice hockey and football?


Thanks for all your help.
I had these two sets as my #1 and #1a choices this weekend. The Sony slightly edged out the Sammy for me mainly because of the better viewing angles and IMO better upscaling. I felt the Sammy had better overall blacks though. Both have incredible color, brightness, etc, etc.

Its a "good" problem to have. Both are great and IMO are the top choices right now for 4K LED. The Sharp I tried wasnt 4K but it was junk. The LGs seem to be a lower-tier product. The Panasonic & Toshiba didnt cut it either.

Either one is a fine product but I preferred the Sony overall.
 
#2,070 · (Edited)
^^
I've got a similar situation with Netflix or Any other TV Apps. There appears to be no sound from the ARC HDMI 1 connection, but it's there. I just have to turn up the AVR volume quite high.
I also tought the HMDI ARC feature on HDMI 1 was faulty.
Try it and let me know.
It's a frustrating situation. My wife watches Netflix early in the morning, volume on the AVR high, if she switches to the DVR to listen to the news she better turn down the volume if she doesn't wake up the whole house.
 
#2,072 ·
^^
I've got a similar situation with Netflix or Any other TV Apps. There appears to be no sound from the ARC HDMI 1 connection, but it's there. I just have to turn up the AVR volume quite high.
I also tought the HMDI ARC feature on HDMI 1 was faulty.
Try it and let me know. It's a frustrating situation. My wife watches Netflix early in the morning, volume on the AVR high, if she switches to the DVR to listen to the news she better turn down the volume if she doesn't wake up the whole house.

O.K. so I'm not nuts LOL

See I have noting in fact Netflix/YouTube all play with no sound at all I can still hear the TV at full volume with them playing this is unacceptable for this kind of money.

I'm bring this back if it's faulty not paying 4,000 USD for this Crap called Sony and head for an hour for someone to pick up and say someone would call me back less than thrilled with that kind of service.
 
#2,077 · (Edited)
anyone have a direct comparison to how the xbr850b does against the samsung 7100/7150? i upgraded and im a little worried about the black levels. i am hoping for an improvement in black levels since this tv is more technologically up to date. my 7100 had garbage microdimming that i disabled by turning up the brightness because it completely dimmed the screen to the point that you couldnt see anything at all during dark scenes.
 
#2,079 ·
Hello Family new to the forum. I just plunked down $1499 plus tax for this beautiful TV. I'm setting it up with a Sanus ceiling mount and re-arranging some furniture in my bedroom to accomodate the set. I briefly turned the tv on today while still in the box to get a "look see" on what to expect. I connected the tv to my TWC Motorola set top box, via a Audioquest vodka HDMI cable. The picture I saw did not look 1080i'ish. There were "ghost" shaddows around the faces and bodies of people in the picture, the picture looked somewhat dark. Now I amd used to looking at my 2010 50" Panasonic VT series plasma that has a beautiful picture and I was dissapointed on what I was looking at. I kept changing the settings on the set top box from 480 to 1080 and nothing. Is it my HDMI cable that's not up par with this TV set? Or maybe because I was so close to the tv (about a foot or two) that I was seeing these blemishes?

My next question is should I invest in the Sony FMPX10 4K media player? this is a very expensive piece or can I get some 4k content with my future purchase of a Playstation 4?
Last question is when I hang this set up I need to run a long HDMI cable to my reciever (Pioneer Elite SC37) I'm going to go with a Bluejeans HDMI cable. Is this Bluejeans brand cable good enough for 4K content?
Thanks for the help.
 
#2,082 ·
I got my Sony FMPX10 4K media player for free when I bought my Sony XBR-70x850b at the end of October. I have no complaints (as it was free). I wouldn't have spent any $$$ to buy it though. I don't plan to rent / buy any movies, and use it for streaming 4K content from Netflix and Amazon (when they start 4K streaming).
 
#2,083 ·
I bought an FMPX10 to pair with my XBR65X900A (2013 model) as it lacks any way to play 4k streaming or the like on its own.

My FMPX10 has so far, worked without any issues at all. No audio dropouts on my Marantz slimline AV receiver from a couple of years ago. I got it at the pre-release price and got The Amazing Spiderman 2 as a free title.


I got it to future-proof my 900A, as the A-model 4k sets lack the HEVC.265 decoder for any kind of streaming. It won't play 4k from a USB stick either.

Now for the 850B, it at least has the option to stream content in 4k and directly play from USB sources itself. So I don't think it is as necessary as it is for the "A" sets from 2013 that can't.

I doubt the PS4 will *ever* be a viable 4k player, unless the hardware is redesigned to accommodate HDCP 2.2 copy protection.
 
#2,087 ·
So, I just came up with a different test for 3D processing resolution. It's using the same stepped line pattern as before, but this time the left eye only has half of the staircase, and the right eye half has the other half. Since the two eyes are then interlaced together by the TV, if we were getting a true 1080 lines of information delivered per eye, then you would have a complete unbroken stepped staircase totalling 2160 lines of effective resolution - meaning each horizontal row of pixels would have different information from the last (you wouldn't see any doubling up like I was getting on the first test).

And, with this test, I have confirmed that even the lowly XBR-49X850B is giving you the full 1080p x 2 in 3D mode.



HOWEVER, the set is blurring fine detail all to hell. These are 1-pixel-tall black lines at 1080p resolution, which the TV correctly processes to 2-pixel-tall black lines in 2D mode (see the photo in my previous post). But in 3D mode, the set blurs it into a fuzzy grey line spread over 3 pixels. Can someone with more experience with 3D tell me why smearing a 3D image like this might actually be desirable?
 
#2,089 · (Edited)
Morning gents, had a a chance to play around more last night the 65x850. Using BiggShooters excellent settings with a few of my own teaks I'm pretty happy with the set right now.

I do notice between source changes that my screen does have a little clouding in certain areas but I've seen this on basically every panel, especially when the background is more gray in color. Doesn't seem to affect regular viewing though.

I also have minimal light bleed in a couple spots but that doesn't seem to matter much under normal use. I think the best policy for us Edge lit LED owners is to look AWAY from the screen when changing inputs or first powering these things on. It'd save us a lot of anguish. :D

The black levels in my darkened room are actually halfway decent once you get the brightness dialed in. I'm actually running my brightness setting a tad lower than Big Shooter. I also am using the advanced contrast feature and have that on LOW for a little contrast boost that doesn't seem to muck the picture up.

Here are my current settings which are based off of Big Shooters but have some of my own tweaks. BTW - for all thats good in the world make SURE the stupid Eco Sensor is turned OFF! Mine was ON and degraded the picture quality immensely. Once I shut that off, it was like taking a grey veil off of the screen. I had it off initially but after a firmware update it was back ON! Careful!

Scene Select - CINEMA.
Picture Mode -CINEMA 1.

Backlight: 6(can be upped for a brighter room but for evening this was perfectly good)
Picture: MAX
Brightness: 48(still messing with this but its close. OK detail with decent black depth)
Color: 58(We prefer a little more color saturation. Shooters setting was close to 50)
Hue: G2(Im sensitive to red push on TVs so I always dial in a tad more green bias. YMMV)
Color Temperature: Neutral
Sharpness: 40

Noise Reduction: OFF
MPEG Noise Reduction: OFF
Dot Noise Reduction: OFF

Reality Creation: MANUAL
Mastered in 4k: ON
Resolution: 75(Shooter uses MAX but Im sticking with 75 for a while)
Noise Filtering: MIN
Smooth Graduation: LOW
Motion Flow: TRUE CINEMA
CineMotion: AUTO

Advanced
Black Corrector: OFF
Adv Contrast Enhancer: LOW(I feel this is worth having on the low setting)
Gamma: 0(Another debateable setting. -1 is too dark, and +1 washes out blacks, IMO)
Auto Light Limiter: OFF
Clear White: OFF
Live Color: LOW
White Balance - NO changes(all zeroes)
Detail Enhancer - OFF
Edge Enhancer - OFF
Skin Naturalizer - OFF

Display Area +1 (no overscan)
Power Saving - OFF
 
#2,090 ·
Some early morning comments for you!

Backlight: 6(can be upped for a brighter room but for evening this was perfectly good)
Picture: MAX
Brightness: 48(still messing with this but its close. OK detail with decent black depth)
Brightness will sometimes depend on source. Basically, if you want to maximize LCD shadow detail, then you want this as high as you can without actually affecting the overall black level (you don't want to make it dark grey). Basically, I've so-far left this on 50.

Color: 58(We prefer a little more color saturation. Shooters setting was close to 50)
Hue: G2(Im sensitive to red push on TVs so I always dial in a tad more green bias. YMMV)
Color Temperature: Neutral
I like a bit of a color boost as well (think I'm at 60 currently). The panel holds up quite well without appearing oversaturated.

Personally I'm used to calibrated D6500 color temp from my plasma, so I use Warm 2, but it's an acquired taste (and like coffee, addictive once you're used to it!)

Sharpness: 40
You might want to play around with this one. 35 is pretty much neutral, not doing anything territory. You might be able to tweak it a tad higher.

Noise Reduction: OFF
MPEG Noise Reduction: OFF
Dot Noise Reduction: OFF

Reality Creation: MANUAL
Mastered in 4k: ON
Resolution: 75(Shooter uses MAX but Im sticking with 75 for a while)
Noise Filtering: MIN
Oh, I would definitely stay far away from Max. Just because marketing called it "resolution" and we of course all want more resolution, doesn't mean the actual effect is good at an extreme level! It tends to make the picture overly harsh and jagged, with all sorts of fringing and other anomalies. In fact, I find the effect wholly unpleasant too much above a setting of 40, and daresay that if you turn this down, you'll be able to up the general sharpness and turn on Detail Enhancer to get an overall more pleasant picture. So far, I've just left this on Auto and haven't seen it doing anything close to the effect you get at 50 or above.

Smooth Graduation: LOW
Motion Flow: TRUE CINEMA
CineMotion: AUTO
I turn Smooth Graduation off. It basically smears away fine grain and texture in areas of subtle graduation, without doing anything for fixing obvious encoding banding like you might think it does.

Advanced
Black Corrector: OFF
Adv Contrast Enhancer: LOW(I feel this is worth having on the low setting)
Gamma: 0(Another debateable setting. -1 is too dark, and +1 washes out blacks, IMO)
Agreed on all of these.

Auto Light Limiter: OFF
Clear White: OFF
Live Color: LOW
White Balance - NO changes(all zeroes)
Detail Enhancer - OFF
Edge Enhancer - OFF
Skin Naturalizer - OFF

Display Area +1 (no overscan)
Power Saving - OFF
All good, but as mentioned above you might want to try Detail Enhancer on Low. It's another layer of sharpness, but I find it does different things to the picture than the general sharpness or Reality Creation, without adding unpleasant artifacts.
 
#2,094 ·
BB will be delivering the XBR-65X850B this Friday for our family room and hauling away a 34 inch Sony HD-CRT from our amusement room ...hope they eat their Wheaties before they come as the CRT is on the walkout level and is quite heavy. WE will move our Sony
60 inch LED from the family room to the amusement room. Anyway I have a few questions
I hope you can help me out with.
If you chose the inner position for the two stands are you happy with that?
What 4K videos from YouTube are really great and what format is best...IE MKV or MP4?
I thank you all for the posted information as I have made a number of notes regarding settings and will be trying all of Daniel Tonks settings first.:)
 
#2,097 ·
so according to an amazon reviewer today, the sony rep on the phone told them that HDMI port 2 is the only 4k port despite advertising that all 4 ports are 4k, so what are the real life ramifications of this? so when i get the tv tomorrow, should i hook my AVR into HDMI1 or will i get a better picture from HDMI2??
 
#2,098 ·
I'm curious about your experiences with 3D and movement. I've read a few posters that have indicated that the TV does not handle decoding 3D content properly and once it starts moving that there are huge artifacts (I believe the same person said that when they fed the TV a 4K 3D signal from a PC that these artifacts disappeared).

I've read other people say that they think the 3D is just fine -- albeit it limited to specific vertical viewing angles.

I'm having some difficulties reconciling these opposing observations.
 
#2,099 ·
before purchasing my xbr65x850b, i was looking at the LG9200 and LG 9500, i was sorta looking at the samsung 7250 4K as well but i figured since thats their lowest model, the 850 i assume is overall better, but when i was in best buy looking at the tvs, the 2 LGs looked horrible playing football on FOX this past sunday, i would say it looked aweful IMO. the 850b was definitely crisper, and this is knowing that FOX has a horrible HD feed on their football. either its because sony is just a better tv, or has a better upscaler.
 
#2,103 ·
I agree about the LG sets. Me and the wifey ruled them out immediately due to what I felt was a questionable picture. The 4K feed from its USB looked good but not as good as the Sony or the Samsung sets. And, yes, they were pretty lousy with the store feed of the football games.

The price difference was trivial between the three sets too so any extra "value" or money savings realized by the LG didn't work. The LG has an IPS panel and local dimming so perhaps the blacks would be sLightly better than the Sony but I doubt even that.

You made the right choice. This 65" XBR850 is a terrific set, IMO. Mine is getting dialed in nicely now with some more settings tweaks. I'm rather impressed! :)
 
#2,108 ·
Has anyone been able to stream 4K content from Amazon Prime Video yet?

I tried Orphan Black (S01E01) this morning, but it still came up in the regular 1080p. I wonder whether the app update is going to be needed for 4K content. Sony XBR-X850B series is supposed to be officially supported.

More info here:

Amazon press release about 4K
Amazon 4K in the news
I figured it out. You need to click the blue Ultra HD icon on the Home screen of the Amazon app. Then it takes you to the UHD content. Streams fine over a WiFi gigabit link, looks amazing!
 
#2,105 ·
Hi all... just joined the forum after a week of extensive searching. I need some expert advice, please. I just purchased a Sony XBR-65X850B on Black Friday and absolutely love the TV, until I really started diving into this whole 4:4:4 vs. 4:2:0 color debacle when running 4K (2160p / 3840x2160) @ 60hz. I don't want to restart a discussion based on that point... it definitely appears that the TV can't do 4:4:4 at that setting, but my real question is does this matter if I will NEVER hook this TV up to my computer? Are there any 4K Blu-Ray Players or other devices that do/will be supporting 4K (2160p / 3840x2160) @ 60hz at 4:4:4 color or higher (like Deep Color?) that'd I'd be missing out on? Besides this one flaw I'm positively sure that it's overall a better TV than the LG 65UB9500 that I almost bought for the same price as long as it isn't used as a PC monitor, but some future proofing is my concern too. I don't know / haven't found any solid information about Sony fixing this through a firmware upgrade (chances are if I return the TV they will upgrade the firmware the next day).

So my uses for the Sony XBR-65X850B are NetFlix 4K steaming, XBOX One, and Blu-Ray discs (but I don't want to miss out on the technology if the 4K players will be 4:4:4 when running 4K @ 60p... or will movies always be 30p or less for a while/forever? Ahhh!), and maybe stream a concert from the web using the built-in browser (because connecting my PC will screw with the colors!).

Ok, I'm rambling... see, my whole point is that I'm building a new PC to do .NET programming from home on so I'm in the market for another 4K TV... a 55". Clearly for use as a PC monitor, the LG 55BU8500 or 9500 seems to be the way to go instead of getting a Sony XBR-55X850B given it's current color limitation (barring any future firmware updates).

Am I better off keeping the Sony XBR-65X850B for it's planned usage or exchanging it for the LG 65UB9500? I'll be getting a 55" LG either way for my PC monitor.
 
#2,114 ·
From what I have read, there is no chance that the 850B will do 4:4:4 in 2160p60 because of a limitation of the chipset.

However, what has not been answered anywhere is if anyone has an HTPC connected via an HDMI 2.0 video card getting 2160p60 even in the 4:2:0 it should be able to do.

Remember that the manual says "PC Input" is limited to 1080p, so it's not a reliable source of info since we know people have connected 2160p30 over HDMI.
 
#2,106 ·
Good evening! I'm a first time poster and I love this forum. I bought the 55X850B on Sunday and got it set up last night. Tonight was the first night that I really had the opportunity to analyze it and tweak the settings. After doing so I put in the latest Godzilla Blu-Ray. Much to my dismay, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Initially I thought to myself "what are those bright spots"?....and then suddenly so much of what I had read on this board made sense. I can't believe how screwed up my screen is! The bright spots (most notable in the bottom left corner and top right) are a complete and total distraction. Based on my research all LED's have some defects. I wasn't expecting perfection, but when the flash lighting bleeds through so obviously then one must come to the conclusion that it's a defective product. On top of that, I find it inexcusable. I feel as though I have no choice but to return it. Anyone disagree? Surely I would have better luck a second time. I dropped a bucket of paint and increased the pixels, saved it to a flash drive and then displayed it on the screen.
 

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#2,145 ·
I had the same issue with the 65X. It probably wasn't as bad as yours, but the flashlighting and light bleed was more noticable on one side, and was really distracting when watching movies with the widescreen bars. I spent two weeks trying to minimize it. I decided to pay the extra and try the 70 (the black friday prices helped), since it has a different panel and active 3D. Wow. The difference is incredible. The picture is perfect, like I imagined it should be. I swear the problems with the 65 have to do with IPS panel and the passive 3D. The flashlighting was out of control when I put a 3D movie in on the 65. I tried it with the 70 when I got it last night and not even changing the settings, the 3D on Gravity looked good and had no flashlighting. The black looked black. If you can, I would take it back. You should be happy with the pq. I spent two weeks trying to make myself happy with the 65, saying it was probably a normal thing to deal with, and now I can say upgrading for the price difference was very much worth it! Plus I got the 4k media player for free buying the 70, so I actually paid no difference in price for the 65 if you consider the cost of the media player.
 
#2,111 ·
I must disagree that the 70" has much worse viewing angles. You have to get pretty far off axis before I notice much picture degradation. It may not be as good as the IPS panels but the better black levels equal better contrast and that is much more important to me. Keep in mind that the 70", because of it's larger screen size, allows for better off axis seating in any room. The black levels/contrast on my 70" provides an absolutely stunning picture.
 
#2,112 ·
I agree on the viewing angles of the 70". In the store, I didn't think it was that bad either. Not as good as the 65" that I own but not. A total wash out like some of of the other brands were.

As for black levels, with some tweaking effort I've been able to get fairly good overall blacks with my 65" set. We've watched a few movies now and while this set will never make me forget my KURO it's holding up decently for black level performance. And, everything else is pristine.:)
 
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