Sony XBR-HX950 is making me unhappy... Is it just me? (mini review)

Originally Posted by patniemeyer 

Having been very happy for six years with my 46" Sony Bravia KDL46S2000 I ordered a new 65" XBR-HX950.
I didn't have any particular expectations or requirements other than bigger and presumably better. So I was really surprised that my experience so far has been kind of negative. In many ways I feel that this TV is worse than the one it is replacing.
It is big and occasionally produces a beautiful picture... But overall what I notice most are flaws and a very inconsistent experience.
I have a mix of issues, some of which are personal taste... But let me put them in order of annoyance:
1) I can't get a decent picture setup that looks good for normal TV viewing, especially news and broadcast stuff. I'm not looking for perfection, just something reasonable. I've spent several hours going through settings and experimenting and my settings seem to line up with what I've read on this forum. What I've found is that they'll look great for one particular scene and then the next will be horribly off. e.g. watching the election coverage was bouncing between people who look pinkish/blue and overly "vivid" to crazy orange pancake flat. With a middle of the road setting the Daily Show looks like it was filmed under a heat lamp... Everything is glowing orange. Even within a single broadcast between scenes there will be jarring color discontinuities. I thought the set must be automatically switching modes or something... but it's not. There's something wrong with the color management that is amplifying differences in white balance in a very weird way that is just horrible... The "cinema" setting seems to reduce this effect and dulls the weird color issue a bit, but also dulls the images... They are soft and lack contrast and saturation... with seemingly no way to recover it.
I'm open to the possibility that there is some magic setting that will fix all of this... but I'm skeptical. I'd love to hear if other people experience this. I'd be happy to post some pics.
2) Viewing angle washout is bad. I guess I'm just used to high quality laptop displays now but I thought viewing angle problems were a thing of the past. Walking over 45 degrees washes out the image and just makes me sad. I never noticed this on my older Bravia... How could the phenomenon have gotten worse on a six year newer TV?
3) Highly reflective glossy screen - I can see every light in my room when the scene is dark... I was so spoiled by the matte screen on the old Bravia that this is even more hard to accept.
4) Build quality / ripples in glass - If you have a 65" sheet of glass that acts like a mirror any deviation from flatness is very noticeable... Where the glass meets the body near the top I see small but noticeable ripples / bulges... The top edge of the glass deforms a bit where it's mated to the body and so all of your room light reflections are a little distorted near the top... It's not an issue when the TV is on, but I notice it every time I walk by the giant black mirror in my living room...
5) The stand is the ugliest thing I've ever seen... If I keep the TV I'll probably have to cover it or spray paint it black... It's just a large silver ring shaped distraction near the TV.
6) There is an option to turn off the glowing Sony logo on the front panel, but not the red, yellow, and green xmas tree power and status lights... Why do I need a light to tell me that my TV is on or off? I guess I could cover them somehow.
Ok... So as far as good points -
1) As I said it occasionally produces a really nice picture...
2) The DLNA server is useful... I can send photos from my iPhone to the TV. It's slower than AirPlay but works reasonably well...
...
In summary - I'm having second thoughts about this TV. If it's going to have this many issues I may as well get a cheaper one.
I'd appreciate any advice on settings or confirmation if others see the poor build quality... Maybe I have a bad set?
thanks
Pat

Originally Posted by patniemeyer 

Having been very happy for six years with my 46" Sony Bravia KDL46S2000 I ordered a new 65" XBR-HX950.
I didn't have any particular expectations or requirements other than bigger and presumably better. So I was really surprised that my experience so far has been kind of negative. In many ways I feel that this TV is worse than the one it is replacing.
It is big and occasionally produces a beautiful picture... But overall what I notice most are flaws and a very inconsistent experience.
I have a mix of issues, some of which are personal taste... But let me put them in order of annoyance:
1) I can't get a decent picture setup that looks good for normal TV viewing, especially news and broadcast stuff. I'm not looking for perfection, just something reasonable. I've spent several hours going through settings and experimenting and my settings seem to line up with what I've read on this forum. What I've found is that they'll look great for one particular scene and then the next will be horribly off. e.g. watching the election coverage was bouncing between people who look pinkish/blue and overly "vivid" to crazy orange pancake flat. With a middle of the road setting the Daily Show looks like it was filmed under a heat lamp... Everything is glowing orange. Even within a single broadcast between scenes there will be jarring color discontinuities. I thought the set must be automatically switching modes or something... but it's not. There's something wrong with the color management that is amplifying differences in white balance in a very weird way that is just horrible... The "cinema" setting seems to reduce this effect and dulls the weird color issue a bit, but also dulls the images... They are soft and lack contrast and saturation... with seemingly no way to recover it.
I'm open to the possibility that there is some magic setting that will fix all of this... but I'm skeptical. I'd love to hear if other people experience this. I'd be happy to post some pics.
2) Viewing angle washout is bad. I guess I'm just used to high quality laptop displays now but I thought viewing angle problems were a thing of the past. Walking over 45 degrees washes out the image and just makes me sad. I never noticed this on my older Bravia... How could the phenomenon have gotten worse on a six year newer TV?
3) Highly reflective glossy screen - I can see every light in my room when the scene is dark... I was so spoiled by the matte screen on the old Bravia that this is even more hard to accept.
4) Build quality / ripples in glass - If you have a 65" sheet of glass that acts like a mirror any deviation from flatness is very noticeable... Where the glass meets the body near the top I see small but noticeable ripples / bulges... The top edge of the glass deforms a bit where it's mated to the body and so all of your room light reflections are a little distorted near the top... It's not an issue when the TV is on, but I notice it every time I walk by the giant black mirror in my living room...
5) The stand is the ugliest thing I've ever seen... If I keep the TV I'll probably have to cover it or spray paint it black... It's just a large silver ring shaped distraction near the TV.
6) There is an option to turn off the glowing Sony logo on the front panel, but not the red, yellow, and green xmas tree power and status lights... Why do I need a light to tell me that my TV is on or off? I guess I could cover them somehow.
Ok... So as far as good points -
1) As I said it occasionally produces a really nice picture...
2) The DLNA server is useful... I can send photos from my iPhone to the TV. It's slower than AirPlay but works reasonably well...
...
In summary - I'm having second thoughts about this TV. If it's going to have this many issues I may as well get a cheaper one.
I'd appreciate any advice on settings or confirmation if others see the poor build quality... Maybe I have a bad set?
thanks
Pat

Originally Posted by patniemeyer 

Having been very happy for six years with my 46" Sony Bravia KDL46S2000 I ordered a new 65" XBR-HX950.
I didn't have any particular expectations or requirements other than bigger and presumably better. So I was really surprised that my experience so far has been kind of negative. In many ways I feel that this TV is worse than the one it is replacing.
It is big and occasionally produces a beautiful picture... But overall what I notice most are flaws and a very inconsistent experience.
I have a mix of issues, some of which are personal taste... But let me put them in order of annoyance:
1) I can't get a decent picture setup that looks good for normal TV viewing, especially news and broadcast stuff. I'm not looking for perfection, just something reasonable. I've spent several hours going through settings and experimenting and my settings seem to line up with what I've read on this forum. What I've found is that they'll look great for one particular scene and then the next will be horribly off. e.g. watching the election coverage was bouncing between people who look pinkish/blue and overly "vivid" to crazy orange pancake flat. With a middle of the road setting the Daily Show looks like it was filmed under a heat lamp... Everything is glowing orange. Even within a single broadcast between scenes there will be jarring color discontinuities. I thought the set must be automatically switching modes or something... but it's not. There's something wrong with the color management that is amplifying differences in white balance in a very weird way that is just horrible... The "cinema" setting seems to reduce this effect and dulls the weird color issue a bit, but also dulls the images... They are soft and lack contrast and saturation... with seemingly no way to recover it.
I'm open to the possibility that there is some magic setting that will fix all of this... but I'm skeptical. I'd love to hear if other people experience this. I'd be happy to post some pics.
2) Viewing angle washout is bad. I guess I'm just used to high quality laptop displays now but I thought viewing angle problems were a thing of the past. Walking over 45 degrees washes out the image and just makes me sad. I never noticed this on my older Bravia... How could the phenomenon have gotten worse on a six year newer TV?
3) Highly reflective glossy screen - I can see every light in my room when the scene is dark... I was so spoiled by the matte screen on the old Bravia that this is even more hard to accept.
4) Build quality / ripples in glass - If you have a 65" sheet of glass that acts like a mirror any deviation from flatness is very noticeable... Where the glass meets the body near the top I see small but noticeable ripples / bulges... The top edge of the glass deforms a bit where it's mated to the body and so all of your room light reflections are a little distorted near the top... It's not an issue when the TV is on, but I notice it every time I walk by the giant black mirror in my living room...
5) The stand is the ugliest thing I've ever seen... If I keep the TV I'll probably have to cover it or spray paint it black... It's just a large silver ring shaped distraction near the TV.
6) There is an option to turn off the glowing Sony logo on the front panel, but not the red, yellow, and green xmas tree power and status lights... Why do I need a light to tell me that my TV is on or off? I guess I could cover them somehow.
Ok... So as far as good points -
1) As I said it occasionally produces a really nice picture...
2) The DLNA server is useful... I can send photos from my iPhone to the TV. It's slower than AirPlay but works reasonably well...
...
In summary - I'm having second thoughts about this TV. If it's going to have this many issues I may as well get a cheaper one.
I'd appreciate any advice on settings or confirmation if others see the poor build quality... Maybe I have a bad set?
thanks
Pat

Originally Posted by Flavius 

I have the 65" and I love it. Here are my responses to your complaints:
1) Your settings are off and sound completely uncalibrated. Try my settings from the settings thread.
2) The viewing angle is much better than the Samsung ES8000. But most LCDs today are PVA/MVA type technology, not IPS, so yes, there will be viewing angle contrast shifting.
3) Not nearly as reflective a screen as my Samsung A650 TV. And about equivalent to the ES8000 and Samsung plasma I had in the reflectivity department. Nothing special about it.
4) I wasted a minute of my life trying to see this bending on my 65HX950. I could not. Sounds like you got a lemon.
5) Seriously? I don't find the stand to be a problem. Put a black velvet tarp over the damn thing if you do.
6) Seriously seriously? They are totally unobtrusive. If you think they're are bad, I think you'd absolutely freak over the size and position of the red LED on the Panasonic 50 series plasmas. Always on and very close to the screen. Anyway, try black electrical tape.

Originally Posted by Hdfanboy444 

Just exchange it for one more 65 and if its still bad go back to the 55.
The other option is to try locating a 65hx929 as well

Originally Posted by greenslime 

Flavius,
I used your settings right off the bat. The same settings on my 55 made the tv look SPECTACULAR!
Using the same settings on my new 65 feels like trying to polish a turd.
Makes me wonder if I got a bad panel on the panel lotto on this one.

Originally Posted by patniemeyer 


6) There is an option to turn off the glowing Sony logo on the front panel, but not the red, yellow, and green xmas tree power and status lights... Why do I need a light to tell me that my TV is on or off? I guess I could cover them somehow.

Originally Posted by Garloo57 

Patniemeyer , I agree with your thoughtful and accurate study which is basically the same interpretation I have on the XBR55HX950... Again, most of the problem I've experienced with the 950 has been with the over the air broadcasts. As you mention inconsistency from one scene to the next the transition quality is usually quite different and is annoying.. I too, have spent the last week flipping through the channels both HD and non HD broadcasts as I wanted to check how over the air broadcast signals and content differ in quality on the 950 (55") and the 929 (55"). I concur with your findings especially on the Daily Show, it appears as though it was shot under heat lamps for french fries at McDonald's and Stewart has a unnatural luminous glow.. .. As I said previously, I was the owner of a XBR55HX929 ... I had gone through 3 sets from Best Buy to get the one that was void or nearly so of a minor dark spot in top right corner panel. I had hoped to get it fixed but Sony does not repair their panels they just swap out sets. I then tried the 55" 950 model which was delivered and exchanged out for my 929 last Monday. The arrangement I had was to test the 950 and see if I liked it if not they,Best Buy would return my 929... Well after a few days of flickering power due to Hurricane Sandy I decided to go back to my 929 because of the overall dissatisfaction with the over the air broadcast quality. I must say this for anybody out there that cares to listen I've owned XBR's since the first models were introduced in 1986. I also have a 32 inch XBR2 ( vintage 2007) that is still delivering a better "television" viewing experience .. Since this thread is about the 950(55") I can say that without a doubt it is a fine television for viewing Blu-ray and select over the air broadcasts.. However the inconsistency of the picture quality for the over the air broadcasts is inferior to that of the 929. The 950 (55") also has a substantially narrower viewing angle than the 929. So for you folks out there that are anxious to purchase the 950(55) and have not already owned or had access in your home for a period of time with the 929, it is a great television. However if you're like me and I'm sure many others out there, if you want to enjoy consistent over the air broadcasts it can drive you nuts on the 950 to see the inconsistencies from one scene to the next or from one network to the next. Whether you use the standard factory settings or opt for Flavius's settings or some where in between it still doesn't improve the overall image for television viewing, which after all is what most people do still look at during the week. This is where the 929 shines, deep blacks, vibrant colors and consistency that the 950 does not have in the over the air broadcasts. Amazingly I found out from Best Buy three days ago that although I was promised verbally and in e-mail they would hold my 929 while I made my decision, somehow my set was sold! And currently they have no other factory sealed 929's at least in the New England region. They may have a display model or two to chose from. So I am basically PO at the the Best Buy staff for dropping the ball on this one. I am presently dealing with an apologetic store manager to get this resolved... In closing in my opinion 950 the newest Sony Flagship, is great for high definition experiences with Blu-ray. However, if you're looking for television that is accurate and enjoyable to watch your regular shows and sports (whether it be high definition over the air or standard broadcast) the quality and exciting experience of the 929 and the wider viewing angle is far superior to the 950...
Now I must bounce back and forth with Best Buy and see if they can locate a new 929 for me.... I am still a Sony loyalist....

Originally Posted by Garloo57 

As A follow up I have not heard from either Sony nor Best Buy... I will add that the 55" 950 I currently have also has a pair of bad pixels ... I agree with Patniemeyer on the over the air broadcast quality.. it is a crap shoot with the 55" 950 and is maddening... Blu-ray viewing is great but if you are watching "television" it is very inconsistent when compared with the 55"929