Official Sony KDL-xxHX800 Owners Thread

I just picked up the 55HX800 at my local Sony Style store in Columbus, OH. I am thrilled with it so far. Prior to looking at this set, I was debating between the Sony EX700, EX500, Sharp 810, and Samsung C8000. After spending about an hour at Sony Style with the HX800, there was no going back. The 3D content looks great, but I'm even more impressed by the 2D quality. In fairness, I'm coming from a Samsung 46A550 so this is big step up. The colors are more vibrant and the contrast is noticeably better than my sammy. My girlfriend and I are in awe of the picture right now. I've been checking out most of the Samsung's, Sharp's, and Sony's between $2K and $3.5K at Best Buy recently. In my opinion this Sony looks the best as far as 2D goes. It has some of deepest blacks I've seen on an edge lit LED. I can't really compare it to many sets over $3,500 as they are out of my price range, and I didn't look at them much. The 2D converted into 3D is just mediocre, but the native 3D content looks on par with the 3D sets I've looked at. I don't notice any flashlighting, clouding, or banding with this set so far. I haven't noticed any input lag with two games I've tried. I'll wait to pass final judgment when my girlfriend plays guitar hero on expert, as she will certainly notice. There is some noticeable glare but my TV is only about 10 feet from a sliding glass door to my balcony. I haven't calibrated it or messed with the settings too much yet. If anyone has some recommended settings then please share them. Here are a few pics.

The Sony logo is not backlit, unless I am missing how to turn it on. I got to look at both the HX800 and a prototype version of the 900. I was not as impressed with the 900 considering how much it cost. It was a great set, but I really wouldn't give it much of an edge picture wise. Again, this was just a prototype that I viewed, and perhaps the retail version will look a bit better. I believe you have 30 days to return the set, so try the 800 and return it for the 900 or 909 if you're unhappy. I think this is the first time I've bought a television where I'm not regretting my purchase, and wishing I had spent more for something a little nicer

I was watching the Dark Knight, Ponyo, and playing games earlier. I haven't really noticed any flahlighting yet. I've mainly kept the dimming feature on the low setting. I'll keep an out for it, and report if I see any.

The viewing angles for non 3D content is great. The 3D content viewing angles are pretty bad. You have to be close to center ,and even tilting your head too much can even throw it off a bit. I would venture that most of the 3D televisions aren't much better. The panel is glossy. I can't be sure, but I believe it is plastic. The deep black panel really made it stand out from the rest of the displays at the sony store.

I tried to take some more pics tonight, but the camera is terrible in low light. I'll try to get some more soon. To anyone concerned with input lag, rest assured there is very little from what I can tell. My girlfriend played a few Guitar Hero songs on expert. She was consistently getting 5 stars and felt no noticeable lag in game mode. She feels like there is less lag on this set in game mode than our Samsung A550 in game mode.

I did watch some soccer, and it looks great. The television handles fast motion flawlessly. I still need to play with the settings more because the blacks are crushing a bit.

I don't think it is quite as glossy as the newer samsungs, but I would say it is certainly more glossy than my A550. I didn't notice any flashlighting at first, but after watching some soccer today I noticed some at the bottom. I have not noticed it on blu rays or games for some reason. It is very faint and by adjusting the settings I can make it almost impossible to distinguish.


I would love to run an input lag test as described in the lag test thread, but I don't have CRT monitor. I also don't have rockband 2. I know this doesn't help much ,but I ran the calibration test on Guitar Hero 5. I ran it a handful of times and consistently got 0 ms on the video calibration. My girlfriend was getting over 95% last night on hard/expert songs and 99% on normal. She swears the mistakes made were user error and not due to lag. Do you know of another way to test for lag?

I must forewarn you that these were taken with a crummy point and shoot Nikon in low light with the flash turned on. That being said, these by no means do the tv picture justice. The tv is in game mode with local dimming turned off as well. I may be able to borrow an SLR to take some decent pics over the weekend.

Yeah, I was in the same boat eye balling the Sharp 60 inch 810 I was trying not to spend over $2.5K on a tv, and it was a contender amongst the first wave of televisions I looked at. The color seemed a little off to me, and I hear clouding is a big issue with it. It still looks like a good television, and I'm sure it's great for gaming. I probably would have been happy with it until I saw this bad boy. It was love at first sight and the rest is history. Jeez, I really feel like I'm in the wrong line of work and should be a Sony wholesaler instead