Official Sony HX929 Owner's thread (46HX929, 55HX929, 65HX929) No Price Talk - Page 456

Hi Rizzo,

I think you are probably correct about the Sony attitude and the 929. I still occasionally see some "slight" banding on my 65. However, during normal viewing, it really is not that anoying. Mine was manufactured in December 2011.

Frankly the overall picture on this set is really outstanding for the most part. I'm not totally sure it matches the photos that I have seen of your 929, but I am constantly amazed at how much better it is than the majority of flat panels that I see in other places.

I'm really quite happy and I'm not looking for anything "better" at this point. I think all of the flat panels have one problem or another, it just depends on what works for the individual.

Best Regards,

GPHVIDEO

Has anyone who has had a set replaced by Sony noticed a varying degree of blooming between sets? My replacement set seems to have way more blooming than my original. The bandijg issue I had with the first set is way better on the replacement but I swear the blooming is much worse .

I had severe banding on.my first 55 but the replacement is much better. Its still there but its minimal and only noticeable during hockey when the camera pans.

New Samsung 2012 UE65ES8005 65" model is not yet available in Europe. Here promised 08/2012 and ~ 12% more price. I strongly doubt that the blacks are still better in 920/923/929 than in edge led models in a dark room. The source movie quality counts so much more for the pleasure and the player, what is used. Oppo 93/95 with upgraded power supplies and clocks might add more to enjoy to any good big screen tv or beamer ? (see more in the Oppo thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...11806&page=292 )

Hi All,

The 65" arrived yesterday. It's still using all the default settings. I do see a slight banding issue, but only visible when viewing grey/light blue areas. It's not too much, but it is present.

I am wondering though:
- Black levels are very impressive, can't even notice the edge of the screen. Screen is handling tennis, fast sports perfectly.
- When watching movies, the banding cannot be seen

In short, I am quite happy with the tv, but it does annoy me to have banding. However, changing the set might be a hassle and no guarantee that the new set won't have it. Changing to a different 65" brand won't solve it either, because this tv is reviewed as the possible best so far. Downgrading to a 55" is not really something I'd like either.

Questions:
- Anybody seen banding getting less over time ? There was somebody, but he's somewhere in the 456 pages
- Any settings possible to see it less ?
- Is slight banding a reason to move to a different, likely inferior, tv. Which might also not be free of this issue.
- Does the visibility of banding increase/decrease depending on the source ? Haven't tried BluRay yet, and can only test it after buying a e.g. PS3 today/tomorrow

Sorry but instead I strongly doubt that in a dark room an "edgelit led" can do better than a "backlit led" like 920/923/929 in terms of blacks and general PQ!!

I'm one who observed this.

[quote=all999;22078741]Hi All,

Questions:
- Anybody seen banding getting less over time ? There was somebody, but he's somewhere in the 456 pages



I think that would be me. I still don't necessarily believe that this set has a "break-in" period, but it sure seems to be better now than when I first turned it on.

I will say that I have made a number of picture adjustments based on what some have posted in the forum. Maybe that is the difference, I really don't know for sure.

The SLIGHT banding that I still can see if the camera pans with a very light background is almost if not impossible to see in normal viewing.

Regards,

GPHVIDEO

[quote=GPHVIDEO;22080572]
I do believe the LED's do 'warm up' and get better with age( I don't know exactly how to explain), only in as much as, the set's picture matured at approx age of 6-8 mos with daily usage
the PQ was better than at any time before, even more so when viewing BR's This picture still blows me away.

Agree with Rizzo above. I've had my 55" since august and it is wowing me more now than then. Really love this TV. I was buying and selling my tv's every 3 months or so, for two years, 8 flagship models in all. This is the perfect Tv for my Day and night viewing needs.

My 55HX800 developed an issue. Sony was quick to respond. In the end I was offered a refurbished replacement or a generous cash-out. I went for the latter.

I've now joined the ranks of the 55HX929 owners club.
This set is phenomenal. Not exactly perfect but now that my lighting situation is more controlled, reflections are a complete non-issue. I miss the better uniformity of the HX800 panel but it's a small price to pay for the enhanced contrast, outstanding black rendering, superior color reproduction and the better overall speed (responsiveness) of this beast.

I just hope this one doesn't die like my last Sony.

Thanks for your replies.

So, basically it's either hoping the banding will get less and enjoy an otherwise very impressive TV, OR.. going down the road of returning this one, hope for a better one, and with a bit of bad luck ending up with a worse model. I don't see that I'll be able to swap them more than once over here.

Maybe contacting Sony directly would be an idea, or try to increase the trial period.

Right, Local Dimming outperformes Edge Lit in a dark room.

[quote=IMRIZZO;22080741]
I am completely agree with IMRIZZO. My 55HX929 PQ was very good at the beginning and getting even better over time. I started to notice improvement after 2-3 months of daily usage.

My 55HX929 restarted on it's own yesterday. Within I would say 2-3 minutes after turning it on I got a blank screen and the Sony logo showed up. I wasn't pressing any buttons on my remote at the time either. It almost seems like it crashed and rebooted. What could of caused this?

Had the same problem after an update. Called sony and they had me reset it. Pulled the plug for two minuites. Then right when you turn it back on you hit the up button on the remote while hitting the power button on the TV at the same time. Hold them both for a few seconds. It took me a couple tries to get the timing right. When it works you will get the new TV set procedure(starts chosing lanuage). You do lose all your setting as everything goes back to factory default.

The real question is, has anyone that has owned the 65 believed that the banding has not improved significantly over a month or two?

All we see are comments about people replacing over and over and those, like me, who saw major improvement over a few weeks to the point where it's a non-issue.

I don't recall anyone getting a replacement 65 and saying it was drastically better out of the box...

I've had my second set with banding for almost 4 months now (I refused a third set after inspecting it in store and finding the same banding). After some weeks with the set (I complained to the store the next day I received it and waited for a new batch to see if the problem had been solved but other sets were the same) I decided the problem was not tolerable to me from a flagship tv and talked to my vendor about it, now I am in the process of getting a refund.

They haven't collected the tv yet, in this time I haven't noticed improvement in the banding, it has not reduced over time, in my opinion, if it's more or less noticeable some days it depends on what I am watching, some scenes will never show it and it will always be present on others.

I've owned 3 sets...I've used 2 of them for over 3 months each and the banding never changed. I was using the exact same movies & games to compare the banding between the sets over time.

When the 3rd set came in with the exact same bands I then quit & got a full refund from Sony.
I now have a Panasonic 65ST30 which cost me almost 4X less than the Sony...it has it's drawbacks but has great screen uniformity and at 5000.00$ less...It's way better than SONY's FLAWED XBR FLAGSHIP !!!!

OT but, I own a Sony 32EX720 that does the same thing at least once a week..... Hope nothing serious. It's out of warranty, so I doubt calling Sony would be of any use.

Did this reset fix the rebooting issue?

Thanks Much,

I experienced the same problem after taking a firmware update pulled the plug went through the setup sequence ( a little tricky took 3 attempts) put my setting back to my calib. and right back in business with no problems since.

Anyone notice that DSE or dark blotches on solid color or white backgrounds that are normally revealed with "Standard" Motion Flow seem to nearly disappear with it set to "Clear"?

If these uniformity issues annoy you, I recommend flipping that setting and giving it a try. Clear can take some getting used to but it's a tolerable trade-off. If your screen uniformity is light to moderately bad, this might make the difference between hassling with a refurbished exchange (possibly multiple times...) or living with what you got, all else being equal.

My screen is away being replaced but what are the downsides to using Clear? Ta

Clear uses (along with clear plus) the lowest amount of frame interpolation meaning it doesn't add the soap opera effect, it also adds a scanning backlight which attempts to reset your eyes meaning motion should appear better.

In my opinion Smooth and Standard look awful and makes everything look like it is on fast forward, i use clear currently and don't see that changing.

Cheers

Aaron

Oic thanks. How do you define the Soap
Opera Effect because I find conflicting meanings. Ta

No problem, to me the soap opera affect makes everything look like it is shot on a camcorder, where the image looks unstable and shaky, also peoples movements look odd, as if someone has hit fast forward.

With clear i see non of these issues.

Thanks fella!

Yes it did fix it. It is a little tricky. When I didn't get the timming right sony told me to unplug it and start the whole procedure again. Also took me about 3 times to get it right

It is not being unstable and shaky. It is the clear smooth look of video vs film which traditionally shows at least a mildly grainy quality. Film makers make artistic decisions on how much and in what ways to employ that effect.

We have gotten used to jerky motion in films when we watch them in theaters due to the 24 frames per second rate. Somehow it seems even more obvious when we watch movies on TV. When sets compensate for this it tend to remove the grainy quality, hence the "soap opera effect."