Official Sony KDL-XXZ4100 Owner's Thread - Page 108

I just updated my 46Z. So far so good. I haven't had any of the problems that it mentioned, but I decided to update to keep the software current. This one took a little more time than the 203r update and the TV stayed on for the longest time before it finally rebooted and told me the update was complete. So remember to wait for that message.

Yeah...203r seemed to update very quickly.

No not as of yet I haven't. Everything else seems to be the same prior to the update, at least for my TV that is.

my z4100 has pretty bad red smearing/trailing. Will the 205 update fix it? I'm really nervous, because this is basically the only flaw on an otherwise perfect TV.

I wouldn't be so quick in updating my tv with a firmware that was released on Friday the 13. And 205 is sooo close to S0S. ;-)

On the serious note. I'm still on the 2.00, and the smearing is not as bad on this one as on the later ones. I would be interested if in fact Sony finally did something about it, so I can update my set as well. Thanks in advance.

Ok, I'm not really sure what this updated did, but i'm pretty sure it did not change the red smearing problem. After wrestling with sony customer support for an hour on the phone, I was extremely pissed that their tier 2 expert suggested that I have a repairman come in and repair my tv (when it is obvious the oroblem is an internal processing problem). The guy claimed they haven't gotten any calls of having a similar problem, so I need everyone here to call as well until we get this red smearing bullcrap fixed.

Sony cust service reps do not have a clue? I called a couple of weeks ago
about my audio drops and requested the firmware update and was told that as I was having audio drops with hdmi 1 as well as 4 that the firmware would not fix it and I should have sony repair come out. I knew from this forum that many others had drops on hdmi 1 that were fixed with the update, however, i deceided to make the appointment anyway as the tv was leaning forward on the stand which apparantly is another commom problem with this model. Anyway after waiting almost 2 weeks sony repair came today and although he brought a new stand that corrected the tv tilt, he did not seem to even be aware of the firmware updates. Concerning my audio drops, he brought a new board to replace, however, he indicated that I might want to try a different verizion box in case it is the bix HDMI port that is bad. I had not done that because I would get sound with my home theater system when the sound drop occured with the tv, however the sony rep pointed out that my as my home theatrer is connected via a digital optical connection not HDMI that it is possible that the verizion box has faulty HDMI port. Although I sincerly doubt this is the case, especially after this forum has confirmed that the audio drops are a common problem with this sony model, I deceided to hold off on him replacing the board to check it. I did this primarily because I am concerned that new board will have one of the other many problems with the picture that many people seem to be having and I have pretty much deceided that i would rather live with the audio drops,(and just use my home thaeter system for sound), rather than risk a picture problem. This is the primary reason I was hesitant to load the firmware for some peple on this fourm seem to suggest that there picture had adverse effects after the 203r update. I do not have the 205 update and am curious as others are to see if there are any adverse effects with the 205. But I did make the sony reps aware that maybe they should read this fourm.

For my 46Z, I have audio drops sometimes when I start watching TV (HDMI 1). When this happens, I would power-cycle my PVR (Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD) and the audio drops disappear. This may be a PVR issue.

I installed the 203r upgrade a few weeks ago. Will wait a bit before installing the 205r. So far, this TV is great; the viewing angle is no good but I don't know if it is better in other LCD.

that board he was going to replace would be an audio board, woouldn't it? and thus no connection to the display.

TVbc

I am considering installing the 2.05r update on my 46Z for one of the listed issues on the Sony eSupport website.

"Brief interruption of picture and sound on some digital channels".

What bothers me is the warning Sony posts in bold red text.

"WARNING!! This update is permanent. After performing this update it is not possible to return to or install a previous version of the system software. By downloading and installing this update, you acknowledge that you understand this update cannot be reversed."

What consequence can happen with this irreversible update that a bold red warning should be posted? Is Sony saying an update from them to address an issue they list can harm or cause other issues on a product they manufactured?

I've already installed the 2.02 update some time past to address audio dropouts with a good result.

It's most likely the PVR. I had to replace my 8300HD twice in the last two years due to specifically this issue. These PVRs are crap.

Does anyone still have 203r firmware? I wanted to try it before 205r. Sony website does not have it anymore. Please post it.
Thank you.

Thank you for the advice, I decided to take the risk and got 25ft VGA cable. The one I got is triple coax Hi-Res cable which has 3 separate coax cables inside for RGB signals. The cable is thick, but I have no problems running 1920x1080 via that cable to the TV. The shielding on the cable is pretty good as I don't see any iterference which was showing up when I was trying a cheap, thin VGA monitor cable before. Now I need a wireless keyboard and mouse. Video card on my PC has 2 outputs, so I can do surfing on the monitor and watch the movie on the TV at the same time.

I am not sure he told me it was the entire piece in the back where the hdmi inputs were, I told him I was hesitant to do it because i did not want anything to adversely effect my picture and he than suggested I hold off for now and try different cable box first and if that did not work try the firmware and then if still problems he would come back and replace the board?

do not think audio drops are a pvr problem at first i did as well for all i would do is rewind and the audio would come back, but then I did have some instances of drops on live tv not rewound, I have a verizon HD pvr box. In addition, I have read several other posts in this forum claiming audio drops
that did not seem to be limited to PVR and in one instance was with a dvd.

I am curious to know if the 203r update resolved the issue and if you noticed any other reactions to the upgrade good or bad with picture or otherwise.

I am udating to 205r as I am posting this.. UHGGGGGHHH...

I hope it will be OK

digital cable is well known for having digital audio dropouts I wouldn't rule out the cable service, even if a new cable box doesn't fix it I have read that it is often caused by the service itself and i have seen this happen on my onkyo surround receiver in our living room when watching digital cable next time it happens tune to an analog channel on the cable box ( lowest numbered channels are all still analog with most cable companies)

in fact now that i think of it, it was happening so much i tried changing from using coax digital to optical to see if it was a grounding issue between the receiver and cable box with no success, the problem hasn't come up in a long time though so comcast must have fixed what ever problem in my area awhile ago

'

exactly what he ssaid. When I use to have comcast I use to get audio dropouts all the time.

Audio dropouts...I thought it might be comcast also. But when it happens while going throught my sony DHG HDD250, I can rewind, and it does not drop on the second time through. I concluded that it was something with the TV, or the DVR would have recorded the dropout.

Cw

Yeah you are right about that. When mine would drop out it would be on the DVR recording as well.

If your using HDMI you need to understand that HDMI is a fragile connection that has no error correction capability with it's data streams and audio dropouts can occur periodically. Most Network data packets have error correction built in but 99.9% of HDMI cables have no error correction and this can be one of the causes of audio dropouts since data collisions are going to occur from time to time. Future versions of HDMI are supposed to improve in this area. Anyone that works in Networking understands the data collisions and the importance of error correction and huge amounts of data are being streamed - it's not a perfect scenario yet..

Hi everyone, lately I replaced my old Bravia X with a new 46"Z4500, all is good till I noticed something weird. Whenever I switch to HDMI inputs with the game consoles on I notice a split second flash on the screen with horizontal white lines near the bottom half. Then everything stays fine. The TV is connected to PS3 and Xbox360 all via separate HDMI cables. Do you think it's some kind of HDMI sync issue or the TV is faulty. It doesn't cause major problem but it's not normal. Any suggestions would be very helpful thanks.

Here you go. Not sure if the update is the same for all size TV's (I have the 46").

http://rapidshare.com/files/21141880...203r_.exe.html

Could be the handshake. I think mine does it too.

I find that interesting because as I stated in a prior post i do not get audio drops when using my home theater sound which is via optical. On numerous occassions i would lose sound on the tv via the hdmi and then turn up my home theter and would have sound out of my home theatre speakers while at the same time not haveing any sound on that scene from my tv speakers, i thus concluded it was not the broadcast service nor the cable box, but the sony cust rep advised me it may just be the cable box hdmi port and that the cable box optical is fine? If in fact the replacement of the tv board would have only effected sound not picture as someone in this tread indicated I guess I should have just had him replace the board?

Thank you for the quick response. Do you know if 203r is reversible? I am happy with 202r I have on my TV right now. But who knows may it will be better with 203r. I have 46" and I think the update file is the same for all sizes and even for several different models.

I updated to 205r last night from 202r. No problems whatsoever with the update.

I did notice in the release notes that 205 fixes a problem I did not know I had (well I did, but thought it was the power) with the set turning off then on briefly due to some sort of improper broadcast signal. My set has experienced this but each time I thought it was a problem with the power supply in the set or that the electricity went out. I did find it odd though that my UPS did not sound its alarm that the electricity went out, and now this explains what happened.

It didn't happen often, maybe 2 or 3 times that I recall.

yeah, hdmi audio is more or less the same thing as using coax digital audio, i have ran into audio dropout problems on coax on many differient devices over the years due to ac power fluctations. optical is always rock solid

if the optical is working fine then i recommend you use it you could try a decent power filter though i bet it could reduce or solve the problem. though if you have a stereo system why even bother with the tv speakers? if its because they are too loud try night mode or compresssion ect on the reciver so it will nominalize the sound levels and lower bass

i've lost audio from my ps3 twice now. i purchased my 46z a week ago. had to do a restore both times. i've tried switching the hdmi to a different slot, but it happened with both hdmi 1 and 3