Official Sony KDL-EX640 Owners Thread - Page 3

I've been asking myself the same question over the years. Why is USA being deprived of the best models by TV makers? If there was an advice that Sony should follow is give customer the best possible product and forget about making lower quality BS. Seriously. Rebuild the damn reputation and go back to being number one already. I'm not a Sony fanboy or anything but I've always remembered Sony as being the best, and it pains me when I know that they are half-assing it here in the states. I mean, look at Apple, they charge a premium but it's pretty justifiable. I've had a Macbook for 4 years and not even a hiccup from the damn thing. I understand that they want to keep their product line short and sweet but common, Europe is seeing a 40" model of the HX850 model, why can't we have it here??? Final advice for Sony is Uniformity, please, please fix this problem for your TV's, not cool.

Agreed - I'm looking for a 40" and was plannign on getting the 40ex640. Do you think it is worth getting? I don't want to get a vizio and a couple of reviews have basically said to gt the vizio, otherwise if you're looking for the big three, get the sony 40ex640. Do you agree?

i added a comment in duplicate - how do i delete a post. I found the edit button but cannot find delete button

Does this TV really have a scanning/strobing backlight? I recently bought a BX450 and was very happy with it... except I suddenly noticed the "retinal smearing" spoken about in the following thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1433254/lcd-motion-blur-eye-tracking-now-dominant-cause-of-motion-blur-not-pixel-persistence

I bought it to replace a Vizio that had developed a green vertical stripe. Anyway, since I loved the picture quality of the BX450... EXCEPT for the retinal smearing which strangely I didn't notice on my Vizio (which was smaller and had an inferior picture otherwise)

So, to make a long story short I bought the 40" EX640 and returned the BX450. Problem is... I was expecting to find the "clear" motionflow setting, which I thought didn't add the extra frames/interpolation but just enabled the scanning/strobing backlight. However, I only see "standard" and "high" as settings. Which do indeed improve motion quality in some respects, I'm STILL seeing the retinal smearing. It's not improved at all! It's like I can see two frames behind whenever something moves quickly across the screen or even when someone moves their arm fast.

Why am I suddenly noticing this when on a supposedly much inferior 60hz Vizio that was 3 inches smaller, I didn't?

I even drove an hour just to find a place with this TV in stock... do I *really* have to get a mega huge 50" that would be just way too large for this room to get proper backlight scanning/strobing? I don't feel like returning another TV. I'm also still confused why I'm suddenly noticing this phenomenon when I never noticed it before/? Maybe the pixel response just isn't very good on Sony displays, and I'm noticing that instead?

Edit: I just noticed under the "advanced" setting there is "LED Motion mode", when turned on dims the picture, and it *might* help some with the motion issues I'm seeing... but not as much as I'd hoped.

Edit 2: This TV and the 450BX both are pretty much perfect color wise without any adjustments (switch to cinema or custom), and I think the picture is so sharp that I'm noticing every defect in the source material, including any motion issues. I almost wish it was a little less good so I didn't notice all of this stuff. All I can figure is I'm noticing this stuff now because it's such a large display for this room and the picture is just that clear.

I wish I could just get a 37" because 40" is just enough too big that I'm noticing this stuff I wouldn't otherwise. Also, I know the color is near perfect on this TV... because my professionally calibrated computer monitor.... if I display the same image on it and this TV with the default "Cinema" or "Custom" settings it is nearly identical.

Edit 3: Turns out only the models with Motionflow XR 960 have the "clear" setting which will actually fix the retinal smearing. The PQ on the BX450 is as good as this set and is half the cost. It also doesn't have the cotton balling on the edges due to the horrible coverage of the edge LED backlighting. So unless you really want a "smart" TV with useless internet features you can get on your PS3 or Roku then just get the BX450. I'm pretty depressed I returned my BX450 for this thing that costs twice as much and has inferior backlighting.
Edited by damag0r - 11/6/12 at 11:40am

Honestly. After a firmware update and breaking the TV in more I never notice the backlight issues anymore. Seems to have fixed itself somehow?

I'm still wondering if the motion quality on this set isn't so great though... anyone else want to comment regarding motion quality and/or blurring?

I just put my video card in "clone" view mode and displayed the same scene over and over where I'm noticing the blurring... and the level of blur is virtually the same between both displays. So... it isn't the Sony... it is indeed the damned "eye tracking/retinal smearing" type blur which isn't related to pixel response or an issue with the display... it's just something inherent to LCD displays... and this 40" is too large for the room and I'm noticing it more simply because of that... Not to mention the PQ is so much better on this TV than my last one I'm noticing this effect more since I have nothing else of bother to distract me. Oh well... I think I'm basically screwed until OLEDs come out because the "LED motion mode" I believe does the black frame insertion and it's not helping any.

End result, very satisfied with this set.... However... I'm still not convinced it's significantly better PQ wise than the much cheaper BX450. I also cannot tell the difference between 60 and 120hz.

I keep noticing something weird about the brightness of the backlight on this thing... it seems to get brighter at times and gets "stuck" that way... and the picture looks overbright and kind of washed out... and some flashlighting is noticeable. It seems to happen most often if I switch it to the hdmi input my computer is plugged into and l leave it on a black background for a long time.

To fix it is fairly simple though. I switch to an input without a signal... turn it off and back on.

I thought I was imagining things at first, but I'm quite sure now I'm not. Is this supposed to be some sort of automatic backlight adjustment feature gone wrong?

does anyone know if this tv is compatible with a vesa 400x400 wall mount (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vogels-Original-VFW-040-wall-mountable/dp/B000HUZYDG/ref=sr_1_43?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1352770888&sr=1-43) ?
Thanks in advance.
edit: Do you recommend this model? I have the following options: this Sony, the Samsung eh5000 or the Philips 4000 series, the Sony being a little bit expensive than the rest.
Edited by Andrei Pavel - 11/12/12 at 7:02pm

I have the Sony and love mine.

I just got the 55" EX640 and it told that there was an update available so I said yes and it said "Starting software update" but when it got to 79% it stoped... It´s been like that for an hour now. What should I do? I don´t want to turn it off.

upd: I turned off/on my router and nothing. :-/
Edited by Alerasus - 11/14/12 at 3:33pm

When I first setup mine I searched for updates also, it took FOREVER to get to 5% (I would estimate at least 30 mins!) not sure why. It eventually errored out and I didn't bother trying yet because I wanted to play with the new set.

I purchased the KDL46EX645 just yesterday and am pretty pleased with it so far. Keep in mind I've only had a few hours to make these observations, viewing cable HD content (1080i I believe). I attempted to watch something in bluray and that's when I discovered my damn PS3 won't read bluray discs anymore! Anyway, I applied the CNET calibration settings found here. Btw I have this set in my bedroom.

Setup was easy, menus are easy to navigate, and no complaints about the remote or anything else really for that matter. Wifi setup was a breeze during initial setup; and I haven't had a chance to play with the other smart features such as Netflix, Hulu, etc.

I was very satisfied with the picture quality. It wasn't until later at night with all the lights off where I noticed the negatives which I read in some other threads. I noticed flashlighting in the four corners. It wasn't terrible by any means, in fact, I don't think a "normal/non-avs person" would notice it. The only reason I noticed it was because the HBO movie I was watching had the two black bars on the top and bottom. If it were any other picture that filled the screen completely I likely would not have noticed, unless it were a completely dark scene maybe. The blacks aren't too deep and could be better. I'll play with the calibration settings to try and fix those two problem points.

Other than that, I'm a pretty happy camper at this point. I will continue to keep this thread updated with any other findings... (while I fix my broken PS3 ). Hope some of you find this review helpful.

Everyone is selling it $1349. Why is it not on sale for BF?

I cant pick it up until tomorrow as everybody is closed. Hopefully they have new one at this BB place.

Can this thing browse from your computer share directory and play .mkv movies?
Edited by chong67 - 11/22/12 at 3:42pm

Sony Stores in Canada have the 55EX645 for $1199, do you have Sony stores in the USA ?

I can play mkv moves either by streaming from my DLNA compliant Mac using PS3mediaserver (a free multiplatform app) or by storing the files on a USB stick or a USB external hard drive connected to the USB port on the TV. Works very well and I no longer have to convert mkv files to some other format. The user interface with either of these methods is butt ugly and you see otherwise invisible files but the movies are there and they play. I prefer the USB method over streaming - it loads and starts the movies faster and I do not have to have the computer on. The only hitch I have run into is with one that had an incompatible audio format (sorry I can't remember what that was) )

Update: It is DTS audio that the 55ex645 did not recognize but if I use PS3mediaserver to stream that same video to a PS3 and then play the movie from that PS3 it plays beautifully. Let me further add that an SSD connected to the USB of the TV works wonderfully fast. Some longer movies load quite slowly but the SSD cured this.
Edited by demoetc50 - 11/24/12 at 8:29am

So does Future Shop and BB Canada.

I was almost out the door to get this particullar unit to replace a late-Oct 2008 KDL-52W4100 (+ extra 2 Yr Service Plan), due to a recent horizontal line issue.

But, I 1'st phoned SONY Canada's https://www.fastracservice.ca/sed/init.do , gave them the info and sent them a copy of the orig. receipt (with the extra Service Plan, purchased at a long gone SONY Store), and they mentioned that they'll offer some type of resolution to the issue (within 7 - 10 days).

Awesome! Will let you know how it turns out.

I think it's 300x300.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ByueKF6uo_0J:www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony%2B-%2B55%2522%2BClass%2B-%2BLED%2B-%2B1080p%2B-%2B120Hz%2B-%2BSmart%2B-%2BHDTV/4756863.p%3Fid%3D1218522130334%26skuId%3D4756863+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Brought home a new KDL60EX645. The picture on this thing is great, however I am having some video issues. It appears that the TV is skipping frames or appears choppy on certain channels or inputs. For example I watched a football game today on channel 3 and the picture was great, but then last night The Big Bang Theory on TBS was choppy. Xbox 360 has no playback issues at all, while some movies played through XBMC on the Apple TV also experience choppiness. I tried messing with the Motionflow and CineMotion settings with no improvement. What could be the problem? Everything is hooked up via HDMI by the way

HDMI signal is usually all or nothing so the HDMI cable itself is pretty much eliminated from the equation. Is the choppiness random parts of any program? During "fast" scenes? Are you positive it's not the source of the video (e.g. cable box)?

Sometimes my Comcast cable will be choppy but it usually resolves itself or I'll change the channel and it's gone.

Also the fact that you stated the XBOX playback has no issues sort of points to the video source again; being that cable or Apple TV via wifi or whatever it uses (never really read about it).

So is Sony replacing 640's with the flashlighting effect?

Does anybody know good custom settings to use for gaming (Xbox, Wii U, etc)?

I've been trying to find good settings from the web and have no luck so far.

Call them and ask.

Anyone know of any good settings in Standard Mode? I find the Cinema settings to be just too yellow for regular viewing in normal lighting.

To those who have this set I was considering the 40" version of this (40ex640). What I was wondering is does this have the option to shut off overscan so that it shows the whole native 1080P as 1:1 with no annoying scaling and cropping of the image?

Also for PC input does it allow for 1:1 pixel mapping of a VGA source that is 1280 x 720 (720P) so that it shows as-is with a border and no stretching?

I know in the past Sony likes to decide for me what I should like and doesn't give options to change settings to what I actually need. Is this set more flexible that way?

I did, got nothing, the runaround, hence the post here.

I just purchased the 46EX645, so I assume this would apply to yours as well. I hooked up via VGA cable and was able to output at 1280x1024 with no stretching or cropping of image. Output was very crisp and clear. My son's been using it to watch online video and has had good luck. Couldn't get it to do 1080p, but I'm getting a new laptop soon with HDMI, so I didn't worry about it too much right now.

Color me confused. If Sony won't help, what can we do? I guess I'm lucky with my EX640. I have almost imperceptable flashlighting in only one corner and it's so minimal it doesn't bother me in the least. You can only see it in a dark room when a black screen is showing on the TV. Good luck.

Yup, at least here in Canada, Sony is replacing sets with flashlight effet.
During the last year, I had 5 Sony's DEL if you count one panel replacement. Yes, you read that right, 5! They were all having banding or flashlighting, so I got it exchange at my local store for a Samsung Plasma, and it was the best move I could make. Trust me, go for the plasma. Forget about DEL. I had 3 EX620 and 2 EX640 and they were all crappy. Since I have my plasma, there is no problem anymore!
To those who can't see flashlight effect or banding, don't look for it 'cause once you see it, you can't see anything else! But i'm sure that they are all having some kind of issues, you guys just can't see it, and it's good for you!

Some of you may already be aware of this but I just learned last night that the TV remote works with the PS3. (Cool story bro)

true for the ps3 slims and newer, not for my ps3 phat

Maybe a dumb question. If I have a Directv tuner, Blu Ray and Media player connected to the TV via HDMI, can I use the Optical out on the tv to my A/V receiver? Will it pass DD 5.1 through? Thanks.