Official Sony KDL-XXZ4100 Owner's Thread - Page 48

I guess compared to a surround sound system audio isnt that good but you really think the built in speakers are bad? I was really impressed with the sound on this TV for just built in speakers,as long as i boosted the trebble,bass and turned the surround on.

The built-in speakers were not bad at all, they just were not anything exceptional.

I mean this, if your going to want the audio to match the quality of HD video, then you will want some real surround speakers.

For watching news tv, soap opera's and the like, the built in speakers are perfectly fine.

Is the Black version better than the Silver?
Which colors do you guys prefer?

personaly i think silver is nicer but i got mine in black because my BB only carries the 40" in black

Mine is black, because big river had a larger discount on the black than the silver, and I wanted to pinch pennies . (actually, like 150+ dollars).

That's ridiculous since they both have the same list price on the Sony website.

I did enough reading and finally decided to get the KDL-46Z4100 to watch the Olympics. A good sale and free Blu ray player was enough to close the deal. This Sony Z looks way better than the Vizio VO47 I had and returned due to the poor black levels. I've been judging picture quality via live Olympics HD broadcase using both our TimeWarner STB and using the internal tuner as well as Blu ray DVDs. PQ seems to better via the TV tuner, but it could be because our STB hookup is via component cables. I just bought a DVI to HDMI converter to try out to see if the STB DVI is better with the uncompressed HDMI stream. I've set my SA Explorer STB output to support everything, hoping that there will be less if not no conversion to loose any quality from the original broadcasts.

The TV Guide IPG appears to be broken. I'm still waiting for it to finally load via the coax cable, but it never loads. It says it will take a couple days when the set is off to load, but after completing the first step, it never finishes the remaining 3 - 4 steps. What is this TV Guide IPG supposed to do? It's been 6 days, the GUIDE doesn't seem to work since it hasn't loaded yet. I'm thinking about connecting it to a roof HDTV antenna, instead of my cable company RG-58 (split from the STB). For now, I use the TimeWarner STB guide.

I've done a side by side test with our KDL-40V3000 vs the 46Z4100. Although the 40V3000 is a very good LCD and has denser pixels (due to the smaller screen), the Z4100's 120Hz and better contrast ratio makes the PQ superior to the V3000. Guess you get what you pay for, the Z cost a lot more than the V.

Finally making good use of our NetFlix upgrade to Blu ray DVDs. Although our Sony BDP-S300 has frozen a number of times on certain DVDs, when we get it to work, it does awesome 1080p/24. I'll search the Blu ray postings to determine what DVDs are the best to "tune" up our settings (in addition to trying a few settings you all have been posting).

Still exploring all the Z's features. PC hookup worked great off my ThinkPad T42 with the full 1920 x 1080 resolution. Very sharp, good colors, great YouTube, but now the YouTube lower PQ is more visible. But its easy to read Web pages from across the living room.

I haven't tried plugging in the Ethernet port yet. I wanted to make sure everything worked before I attempted any upgrades or Internet. Besides updates, can the Ethernet port do anything else? Still having fun and reviewing all the threads on things to try out. Haven't seen the sparkles yet and still need to hookup our Playstation 2 and Wii, but I'm out of component inputs.

Did I scoop the AV bigwigs? What do I win? I'd like to win some added time to the return policy at Video Only -- my thirty days are up...

When no one else responded to my intial post about the z4100, I thought I could be in possession of a dud set, or have been cursed with a faulty optical nerve.

There's so much I like about this set - the primary one being that it is a 46" that sits less than 29" on its stand. Anything taller doesn't fit in my shelf. The picture quality is very close to the xbr4. In comparison, blacks and motion are handled better by the z4100, color and off-angle axis are better on the xbr4. Overall, it has great PQ.

If you are happy with your set, no need to read further.

But the phenomenon which I described earlier does continue: a red trailing on the edge of a moving object, most often seen with flesh tones near hairlines. I have tried every conceivable variant of picture setting, hdmi vs component, etc. in an attempt to get rid of the trailing. I thought I could identify every typical problem with LCD tv's, but this one seemed new.

The whole experience of my first two LCD tv's has made me pine for the ol' CRT. Although I prefer the matte-finish screen, finer pixel size, lower power consumption and overall look of how an image appears on LCD screens, plasma simply shows motion more like a CRT. Although nearly every aspect of the z4100 is satisfying, if I could exchange it for a set that fit in the shelf, had nearly identical specs, and did not have the 'trailing' problem, I would. And I think that I may now put a set's handling of motion above screen reflections and possible burn-in issues.

A question - why did Sony feel it necessary to release this series in North America anyway? Sandwiched in between the top of the line XBR and the competent mid-level W4100, it possesses such minor improvements over the W4100 on its spec sheet, it simply seems like a redundant model line.

If someone has the time and energy to find out if the 'red trailing' can be remedied in a firmware upgrade, please let us know.

I thought this was the set... Cheers.

May be for that reason here in Chile Sony doesn't sell the W4100, only the V4100 and the Z4100

Haha, all I can say is that, there is just a big enough difference in PQ between the z4100 and the w4100 that those who deny that are comparing bang for the buck, rather than what each machine can actually do. Upon proper calibration, a better backlight, a 10-bit panel, and other features such as live color creation technology all contribute to the z4100 having a better PQ than the w4100.

And for the guy that claims to have seen the red trails, can you please post a video or a picture or something, because I am not looking for flaws from my TV, but for the mere fact that I have not seen anything of this sort for over 3 weeks, of assorted 1080i/720p/1080p/480i viewing, keeps me a bit skeptical.

Does anyone have a link or literature from Sony that states that they:

1. Finally acknowledge the sparkle effect.

AND

2. Are currently working on a fix for it on the Z series?

An earlier post in this thread alluded to this, but I haven't read anything further.

I don't disagree that the Z-series is superior to the W-series -- I just don't see the point of the model from a marketing perspective. And I'm one of the suckers who will pay $400 more for a better picture, even if the improvement's not worth $400.

And as the guy who has seen the red trails on the z4100 (after having watched an xbr4 for six months) -- it is unlikely that I will be able to capture the phenomenon. The effect comes from the video moving in real time, not easily captured by a still camera or a video camera -- but I'll give it go and return with the results... or at least jot down some of the instances on blu-ray where I think the problem is most obvious.

Cheers.

It took almost a full week for the rest of the TV Guide to finish loading and start working. Last week Friday, I plugged the set into my TW digital cable and hooked up the HD STB as well. This way, I can test the TV tuner and use PIP. Well last night, after almost the full week, the TV Guide finally loaded and now when you press "GUIDE", it shows all the programming and allows you to interactively select a show and the TV will switch to that channel off the guide (just like the STB does). Has anyone else had problems getting this feature to load up for the first time?

I'm really happy with the slim bezel, since it fits in my entertainment center so well. I wanted to get the XBR4, but it was too wide and cost was a bit high too. Anyway, I'm now starting to looking for sparkles and red trails with the right content.

Why look for these things, if you don't see them in your normal tv viewing then don't worry about it. Once you see them it will bug you until you get rid of the TV. Personally I have never seen sparkles or red trails in 2 weeks with this set.

+1

TV Guide on mine loaded up overnight as advertised both times (I reset the TV at one point, so I had to re-do TV guide setup).

Just got the 46Z4100 and looked for a calibration thread. I know there is one but I can't find it. Anyone give me a link???

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1045779

Got my 40Z two days ago and no sparkles so far. Picture terrific, no sparkles. Ran the monster calibration and blacks come out just fine as does everything else. Monster disk pretty basic though. Set fits perfectly in my corner alcove, no reflection problem.

Ordered this set from Amazon the previous Friday, delivery guys brought it into my living room, set it up and checked the functionality. Excellent. Meanwhile my cancelled order with B&H continues to astound. The shipper, Manna, called me on Friday looking for the damaged set, wondering if I had it or had seen it! Of course I told them no. It will be a long time before/if I get a credit from B&H. In the meantime I have a charge dispute filed with AmEx so I don't have to pay the charge or the interest.

Taurus 2007, Thanks...................

We need a little more than that to believe you really have no sparkles. How is your source connected and what are you watching? And have you ever seen the sparkles in person before (or on YouTube), so that you can definitively say your set is OK?

You got to be kidding. Many of us (probably most) have never seen sparkles. Why do people find it hard to believe that many sets do not have them.

Because on most sets they only show up with an HDMI connection, and some people aren't using that, And I've seen lots of post from people who at first said they had no sparkles and then later they found them. It's quite a subtle effect and some people won't see it until it's pointed out exactly what they should look for.

I'll put it this way. If you do not want to see the sparkles, then you will not see them. However, if you do, you will. Like I said though, my fix should come soon, unless that sony technician I spoke with was just ********ting me to get me to hang up. I really hope he didn't do that, but I should find out by monday/tuesday.

lol i bet he was....if he wasnt why hasnt anybody else gotten the same answer?

Thats kind of a dumb question Who cares what color others prefer get what you like and what will go with the rest of your setup

I have had HDMI connections for 3 weeks, and I can defiantly state that I have not seen any sparkles. Man, I don't know why I visit this thread anymore as I am enjoying my 46Z immensely and have no problems with my set. Most of us that have the set are enjoying the great PQ, features, external appearance etc of this set and are not looking for all sorts of inherent faults.

I won't notice any red trail and all that other crap, and I am not going to be looking for it either. I did see a green and yellow blur on my set a few days ago, but then I realized it was just Usain Bolt breaking world records at the Olympics........

Captured my thoughts exactly (and made me laugh with that last bit...)
I've been running mine off HDMI only for over a month with no noticeable defects.

If you haven't seen them yet, then probably best not to keep looking for them.

HDMI DVD connection, had TV about three weeks, maybe, and watched about five movies. No sparkles. I've seen the videos that demonstrate them, so I know what they look like.