Official Sony KDL-xxV5100 Thread - Page 4

Can't really say I've noticed that.

As I stated earlier. There is a light blotch on the upper leftand a very very faint on on the upper right. The one on the right I cant see unless a no signal black screen is on and Im concentrating on looking for it. The one on the left is there but under normal viewing it does not effect the picture at all. On a letter box black bar you can see it a little but not much. Both my SXRD sets had brighter spots in one corner that were worse so this doesnt bother me.

Also the Sammy had 2 that were way worse.

In the end. All of these technologies suck imo next to a CRT set. But all of these are better than old crt projection. They all have something wrong and coming to these forums dont help. At a certain point ...flash this and cloud that. discoloration this on a blank screen and a pixel out here all has to be forgotten and jsut shut the hell up and enjoy the set. If your worried about all this crap your never going to enjoy anything. Just my opinion

Just wondering guys. Does anyone know how to go back and choose home or store mode again?

I am betting that in store mode the dimming thing is gone gone gone

Edit- I found it....I am testing this now. My TV is now set to Retail mode.

This is the Instructions to reset the Set. (This will reset All settings) Try at own risk.
RESETTING TO FACTORY DEFAULTS
Use the following instructions to restore the User Controls and Channel Memory settings to the preset factory conditions.
1. While holding down the arrow up on the Remote Commander, press the POWER button on the Front Panel of the set. The set restarts and displays the initial setup screen.
This may take several minutes.

nmarion wrote about it in post #72, but he said it didn't help any.

Edit Retail mode is fail. Goes to default settings every few minutes, Sorry guys. I tried. Lucky for me it doesnt bother me in the least

Anyone in the NYC area willing to sell their 5100 series box? i mean the cardboard box it came in. Mine was discarded by the building super, and now b&h won't let me exchange it.

Or if you're in NYC and interested in buying my 2 week old 5100 at a great discount, also let me know!

Thanks,
-JC

so i just picked up a 40V5100 today and was wondering how far off the calibration specs ive found on last years w models would be.

I looked there but it only said 1080pHD 16:9 ect. no 24p or anything

Auto Dim is too annoying for words. Trying to watch LOST tonight, and the damn thing goes so dark you lose almost everything. I'm going Sammy.

just a quick question, not to take attention away from my previous question, but if everyone seems to have such a problem with auto dim, then why use it?

its a built in function on most all sony TV's you cannot turn it off.

as an owner of an auto dimming 32xbr6, I'm surprised that so many are having major problems with it. I take it sony has made it worse on these new sets than their previous ones because the vast majority of us 08' model sony BE2 powered TV owners on here don't have much of an issue with the dimming, I mean we wish we could disable it but it does not happen enough to want to return the TV's

on my 32xbr6 it takes an exceedingly dark image on the screen to cause it to happen and simply put the vast majority of moveis. games, and TV shows do not have images dark enough to cause it to happen that often

After a few days of watching, the auto dim thing still doesn't bother me too much. It turned on twice during some very dark scenes in episode 4 of Planet Earth(BD). I also watched a couple of BDs on it, the picture is perfect, no auto dim during BD playbacks. So I am keeping this TV unless something goes seriously wrong in the next few weeks.

is that so ? my impression is that auto dimming is a pretty big problem from reading all the various owners' etc. threads for the different sony 2008 models (except the xbr8).

i wonder if some of this stuff isn't such a problem on the smaller sets, such as your 32", just because of screen area.


TVbc

try pressing the info button and see what it displays

Here is what I notice. The auto Dim seems to be worse under certain lighting or calibration settings.

One of the big ones seems to be that with the gamma setting to off the set dims much more.

I did some more calibrating with DVE and found that the Gamma settings is proper at low not off.

With my current settings Auto Dim doesnt seem to ever make the set to dark to see. And it has a proper calibrated image.

For info sake I view the set in very bright day time and in a room lit by the TV itself and a 2 25 watt bulbs at night.

I have been trying to get information from any XBR6 owners about the auto dim feature. As posted above, I am returning my 52V5100 tonight and need to decide upon a suitable replacement. I have been looking at the Samsung 750 and also the XBR6. As I did enjoy the Sony picture, the dimming was too noticeable. I watch the TV in a predominantly dark room, whick I think increases the dimming problem. Anyhow, if the XBR6 has a firmware fix, or perhaps less noticeable dimming, I might try another Sony. Any XBR owners have any thoughts?

Man, I don't know what you guys are watching, but the auto-dim rarely happens to me. I was watching Step Brothers last night on blu-ray and it happened once, but only because the screen faded to black. But as soon as the picture came back it switched back on in a split second. It's yet to bother me or affect my viewing.

And I'll ask again, did anybody not get a manual with their tv?

I don't think that has anything to do with it, when mine dims its very noticeable, the thing is in um let say at least 40 movies I have now watched on my TV only one has caused auto dim during the movie and even the credits on a black screen only cause it briefly until some text shows up and then its back to norm

I think its more likely that SerialMike is correct in his statement that the TV's have have major problems with the dim need a rough calibration. i've done it to mine with the DVE HD basics disc and i've messed with my picture settings from there to attempt to make the dim happen even less but the more i mess with the picture from that setting the worse the autodim gets! Its also worth noting that I've read reviews of XBR6's and they also said autodim was a problem untill they calibrated the TV then it became almost a none issue because it happened allot less and the black levels were still watchable if it did happen with no loss of detail.

If my settings are left at the semi calibrated setting I very rarely see the dim happen in movies or on my PC/playing console games. on broadcast TV via the built in tuner I have never seen it happen.

If my settings are left at the semi calibrated setting I very rarely see the dim happen in movies or on my PC/playing console games. on broadcast TV via the built in tuner I have never seen it happen.[/quote]

I've calibrated my 46" 5100 many times over now and it has no effect at all on the auto dim hell I find myself in. Last night I tried to watch Usual Suspects, and within the first 20 min. the auto dim cycled 17 times during low light scenes. I brought my laptop to the store and plugged it in only to find the exact same results on display models, so I know this is a model wide problem.

-JC

it really does sound like sony has made this problem worse than it was then, perhaps when everyone is returning their TV's sony will wake up and finally give us a real way to shut it off

Amen brother. That would be good day indeed.

P.S. I'm inclined to agree that this new 2009 "S" 5100 series must be worse than the other models just based on comments in this thread. I have no real world evidence to support this though.

-JC

Well this is a V series thread so maybe us V series are not getting quite as bad a results as the S. Maybe that is what the issue is.

Wow... The way some of you talking... I might be better going off getting the 46W4100 instead of getting the new V5100... I'm into BD movies & anime big.. But mostly the tv will be for watching sports & playing video games .... At the same time... What do you think have the better 120hz processor.. The 4100 or 5100???

.... I was checking out the stats on the upcoming 5100Z & the new xbr 9... The contrast is 100,000 .I haven't heard anything on the 5100W as of yet If they even have one coming out that is....... What do you guys or ladies think about that??? Also if anyone here has an xbr7... What do you think of it???

IMHO I would snatch up a W4100 while you still can, everyone that owns one loves it go read the owners thread its a tried and tested good sony TV the V5100 does not offer anything better and is possibly worse due to this auto-dim issue apparently effecting these models more so than last years sony's

I just read a very interesting post elsewhere that says the auto dim is based on the input of the signal.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...7#post16282077

While I don't know if this is true or not, I have my PS3 & DVR connected to my 46v5100 via HDMI and do notice auto-dim.

Those who do and don't have the auto-dim problem, how is your signal connected to your set?

Thanks!
...pjpg

I hooked up my 52V5100 last night and my wife and I watched "Twilight" (terrible first movie to watch on a new set... not my choice). I only witnessed the auto-dim 2-3 times, and that was when the set faded to complete black - I even think 1 of those times was when I exited the DVD and returned to the Xbox360 dashboard. My 360 is currently connected via component cables.

The only settings that I changed from default were to turn off things like ACE and the Light Sensor, but I didn't change any of the "real" calibration settings.

I plan to watch some of the really dark scenes from "Changeling" today via HDMI from my laptop. I'll post my experience.

*On a different note* Anybody with this set, or a comparable Sony set, notice that their TV leans slightly? When looking at my TV, it is rotated counterclockwise a bit. The lower left corner is about 4cm from table, while the lower right corner is about 5cm. During the unboxing and initial viewing I was braced for the auto-dim, and it's this slight lean that got me. I'll probably just put an extra pad underneath the stand.

Measured here, no lean.

Yep my W did the same thing. Notice anything about where all the inputs and heavy hardware (and subsequent cable added weight) are on the TV. Left sided on mine. Thus to me, it seem the extra weight equals a little downward shift. I've had mine counter wedged with some slim books to slight over correct it for now 6 months. I am just about ready to pull the books out and see how it stands.

I had the lean issue. I wedged some small cardboard squares under the mount and it is now fine.

I have had my set dim once when it was going to a commercial and back. I have not had this happen to me in any blu-ray movies or ps3 games. Most of my settings are default for now until I have more time to play with it.

I couldn't make it through "Changeling" for a full second viewing (too many estrogen-fueled movies in the last 48 hours), but the set did auto-dim once in the first 30 minutes. It happened at about 11 min 30 sec into the movie. Angelina Jolie is looking around the neighborhood for her son at night, and the only bright thing in the shot his her pale face. The screen dimmed to almost black. Again, this was via HDMI from my laptop.

I'm now going to try "Pitch Black" and "V for Vendetta" on my Xbox360 HD-DVD drive using component.