Sony XBR-HX950 Owners' Thread (XBR-55HX9​50 and XBR-65HX95​0) - Page 94

Those rippling effects are more predominate on the larger panels 65" and to a lesser degree on the 55" panels none on he 46".

I just received my replacement tv from sony and of course after the shipping guys left on further examination I found these white vertical kinda looks like cracks but its under the glass this is my second tv I guess ill go for the third what do you guys think?

I've had my 55" 950 for a little over a month. As previously said, the ripples are only noticeable when I'm at an extreme angle with a direct light source reflecting. The ripples (as far as I've seen are only apparent on the top and bottom of the bezel and even then, very minor near edge of the frame. Didn't notice it for a few days as I have to be in an adjacent room at an extreme angle to notice them. Overall, this is a fantastic tv. For the size (55") and my own personal constraints (lighting), this is hands down the best tv available.

I've followed this thread for a while now, and as I haven't actively contributed... I feel like I should take this opportunity to throw in my two cents.


I upgraded from a 40" xbr4, which is still alive and kicking it in the bedroom. The xbr4 was great for its time, but I've been craving deeper blacks from day 1. I actually ended up getting one of the replacement accent bezels for the xbr4 around 4 years ago. I know opinions might differ, but I've always found the xbr4 design somewhat iconic and with a white bezel it became a centerpiece in the living room that friends and family always commented on.

I originally started seriously considered upgrading from the xbr4 around Nov 2012, and had my sights on something reasonable, around 46" and somewhere north of $1k. Over Thanksgiving, I happened to stumble into a Sony store and although I thought the 750 was a great tv... once I saw the "monolithic" gorilla glass design of the 850, I was sold. Not a huge fan of 3d, but I'm somewhat of a tech geek, and I walked away impressed with the active 3d demo's at the sony style store.

Anyway, fast forward a couple months of debating and store demo's, I decided on the 950. And here's why:

1) Blacks - Even with the tradeoffs in blooming (which I really only notice off axis), this tv delivers amazing blacks/contrast which in my limited experience is heads and shoulders above anything else available within my own constraints (<55", bright room, etc)

2) Design - I came close to pulling the trigger on the 850, and although that is a great tv, I felt that the overall design of the 950 had a price premium justification that the 850 fell short on. Coming from a flagship sony, I feel comfortable enough with sony (at least the current incarnation of the tv division), that I'm willing to shell out the price demanded for industry leading design.

3) Technology - Basically the same rant as what I just said. These local dimming sets aren't cheap to design/manufacture and I'm comfortable paying a premium for the seamless glass, local dimming, etc.

My critical analysis of this set is as follows, and it could be that parts of my experience are unique discrepancies that I'm willing to live with.

1) Blooiming - I notice it a lot of blooming in off axis viewing. It doesn't really bother me since when I'm sitting on the couch, it's near impercievable.

2) Viewing angle - Again, sitting on the couch, the picture is near perfect. The second I start to walk around, the blacks and colors start to wash out ever so slightly. Off angle, the tv is still better than everything else I demo'd, but it is what it is.

3) Cheap remote - Like almost everyone else, I've been using a harmony remote for the past several years and love it. That being said, when I kick this to another room, I'll be forced to use a remote more fit to a cheap bluray player than a remote comparable to my xbr4's.

4) Software lag - The menu doesn't feel as responsive as I expected it to. With technology where is, when I press the netflix button, I expect netflix to start loading almost instantaneously. I thought this could be a unique experience, but after fiddling around with other brands... this seems to be par for the course. I updated the software/firmware day one.

In the end, I'm overwhelmingly satisfied with the 950 as any quibbles I have with this tv are almost certainly exaggerated on competing models. No dead/stuck pixels. No banding. Very minimal clouding/uniformity issues that I've only noticed once while watching 3d content with local dimming off. Could've even been an artifact from the 3d video file (h-sbs), that I was demoing for friends. I have't tried to confirm since this, as I've never noticed it otherwise and I don't want to go looking for problems that aren't perceivable in normal viewing.

I was waiting to see what the 2013 sony models brought to the table, but was disappointed by the lack of gorilla glass, local dimming, and active 3d. I'm not really interested in 4k right now, and I can't see regretting the lack 4k until more native content is widely available and TWC upgrades their consumer bandwidth to handle such digital content.

My eyes must be bad I'm not seeing it

I couldn't see anything either from that pic. My guess is that what he is seeing are just tiny micro scratches/imperfections on the black painted part on the other side of the gorilla glass. Not uncommon at all on gorilla glass products such as these tvs, iPads, iPhones etc.

Hard to see between phone pix and forum posting

I think what he's talking about is directly to the left of the arm-rest on the couch.

I feel like I'mplaying "Where's Waldo" lol

Maybe if we stare at it long enough it will come out like those 3D stereogram photos

One thing that irks me on this set is the boot time. Often after I turn the TV on I want to change the input (since I have several devices plugged in). After I turn the TV on, the change input button does nothing for a while. I keep pressing it and nothing. Then eventually it shows a message "TV is booting on please wait" or something like that. Takes like 20-30 sec before it starts responding and changes the channel. I have never had this problem with another TV

That's strange. My 950 is the quickest of any sets I've owned. I have a Denon A100 reciever, DISH and the 950 all hooked up via HDMI and TV is on before my Emotiva XPA3 cycles on for sound. I'd say within 4-5 seconds of hitting my Harmony 1100 remote

Sorry guys the pic on the forumns didnt show it very well when I uploaded it to the forumns its about an inch to the right and below the bravia symbol and to the left of the couch arm looks more like a white smudge but on the pic on my phone looks clear as day I promise lol

We believe you...typed as my fingers are crossed...

lol thanks for the confidence...but I cant wait till I get the ps4 on my 950 tho!

What no Xbox...I have the slim right now

You are probably turning the set OFF (full off) it must be left in the standby mode otherwise it must completely fully reboot.

Agreed, it's almost like instant-on.

I can't see this screen being a problem in real world viewing.

Another one my good eyeball is burning. Time for some Visine

I can see what you are talking about now, took a while. It really is kind of in your face. I don't know how it affects real time viewing, but if it did, I would almost certainly return it.

I can see what you are talking about now, took a while. It really is kind of in your face. I don't know how it affects real time viewing, but if it did, I would almost certainly return it.

Considering that I don't use any of the apps at the moment. And I believe the firmware updates don't do anything for pq. And I've read of horror stories about fw updates. Is there any compelling reason I would want to?

I see it now.

It's under the glass right right where the black border ends and not scratches or cracks on the outer portion of the glass right?

Looks like a blemish perhaps caused when doing the black border on the inside portion of the Gorilla Glass. Per my previous post, I've seen similar blemishes mentioned by people in regards to Gorilla glass with Iphones and Ipads. I would not worry about this as long as it does not affect the image, meaning makes a pixel appear dead similar to if dust gets lodges under the glass blocking a pixels light output.

That being said, that weird blemish would cause my OCD to go into hyperdrive prompting yet another exchange.
Edited by cmay91472 - 2/26/13 at 9:43pm

nope PlayStation only! Lol

bingo! You found waldo! Lol well its got my ocd going and sony is sending me another tv I hope to god its my last tv

I called today and there sending me another one

Congratulations hopefully this set will work for you. I have to say Sony support was good with getting back with me. I emailed over the weekend and I had a reply < 12 hr. mark.

Let's hope so.... however, if both of the previous sets did not have any dead pixels, i'm not liking the odds on the 3rd set. In case it does have dead pixels, be persistent..... after all, if you already sent two back, what is another couple of exchanges gonna matter. Hopefully, the panel lottery shines kindly on you with this next one.

I wasn't aware there's off and standby. I just press the red button on the remote - isn't that how it's supposed to work?
How do you put it in standby - is there option in the menu or something?

I own both a PS3 and a Xbox Slim. The PS3 is used as only a blu ray player. They lost my business when they let my credit information get hacked and I was given poor service as I've had ID theft before. I purchased two XBox slim models and haven't looked back. I also forgot how nice the controllers were, namely the indentions on the thumb sticks.

Interestingly enough, the PS4 sticks and the rest of the controller look a lot like more XBox like in how it's thicker and the thumb sticks now have indentions so your fingers aren't always sliding off. Games look good, but I have a feeling I am going to only buy the next Xbox this go around should it have blu ray. Sony just hasn't given customers the respect they deserve with the PS3 IMHO.