QUALIA 006 Owner's Thread - Page 544

Very nice! I am already noticing anomalies with mine, banding toward the bottom 4 inches of the screen, angling off with bad convergence toward the top right of the screen, just things that shouldn't be there.

The picture overall is better than the green blob filled screen of 2 days ago, but still not to the level it should be. May Howard Stringer and Sony enjoy a special toasty place in hell for all eternity. Damn them.

-Brian

My Sony Laptop died this week (earlier then it should...) and I was in the market for a new laptop. Did I buy another Sony? HELL NO!

Repeat after me, never buy another Sony product.....

At least it made me laugh when I purchased the new Laptop!

John

Hey guys, our thread still has legs. I'm suspecting in the coming months we'll all need Q replacements, so we'll start a new thread.

In the last year I've bought Samsung and LG LEDs, a camera, a Blu-ray player and two laptops. About ten other people bought TVs on my recommendation. Guess how many Sonys?

This will be my first year of DirecTV during football season. When I had it years ago, the loss of signal was so bad (central FL) I dumped it. Now it's hugely improved.

+1

I should have known better as they did the same with their SVHS recorder, the R5! Best picture and features around but you could not keep them running! Had bad PS issues and Sony never did resolve the problem. Had same issues with CamCorder as well, and the Clie PDA! Also, I remember the very good DVD player and then it had drawer issues!

Good idea. We are all "brothers/sisters in arms". Perhaps the first of us to buy a replacement (already have one former owner with a Laservue) should start the new thread called "Sony Anonomous" dedicated to people that were burned by Sony and bought something else. There are over 2400 posters on the "I have a defective Sony TV" facebook wall. If past experience holds, I have a little over a year to go on my 3rd OB. (be good if I could spell, lol).

I just got back from Europe (Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris trip) and forgot to dvr the vikings game (as a Minnesotan ouch). Ah well shame since I could have used my internet connection to update my tivo list at any time but running around Europe with a 11 month old and a 3 and a half year old somehow kept my mind and body too busy to think of other things . I may have to go buy the episode on amazon but knowing the ending and highlights may just ruin it too much.

Don't bother - Favre barfed, threw an INT, and the Vi-queens lost...Packer fans rejoiced everywhere, New Orleans partied, and all is well in the world :-)

[Spoken like a true Packer fan, right?]
-Brian

I went to the "Sony Electronics" facebook wall to post that anyone contemplating purchasing Sony should check out the "I have a defective Sony TV" wall. Found I couldn't make a post. Turns out that Sony blacklists anyone who has posted on the IHADSTV wall from posting on any of their sites. The founder of the wall reported that if you did manage to get on a Sony site, they would delete your post and "unfriend" you. Wish their engineers were as good as their internet trolling.

Sir Howard is a Brit, and is accustomed to the British libel laws where anyone saying anything negative about a product publicly can be sued for libel. Truth is not a defense, so forums such as this cannot exist in the UK or Australia, which has the same libel laws. Looks like he wants to give the USA the British treatment!

My GE warranty expires in February 2011. Had the OB replaced several years ago. Since I also had a 50" Pioneer Kuro plasma with better picture decided to just use Qualia for bluray and special TV broadcasts. Figured I could get more life out of OB with reduced use.

Never had green blobs, just a greenish tint in dark scenes before OB was replaced. Well I am now getting deterioration in dark scenes. Grainy but not green yet. I am thinking about running Qualia 24/7 without reduced power or high altitude to destroy OB before warranty runs out, because after that the set will be worthless if OB goes.

Does my plan make any sense? Does Sony have replacement OBs left? Will GE give me a cash settlement if parts are not available?

I really regret spending almost $15,000 for this set almost 6 years ago. I would be much happier with a large screen plasma. Wish Pioneer still made the Kuro. However, if I could get 2 more years with a new OB, then I would be happy to stay with Qualia.

Quickest way to fail a Q OB is to lose power to set while it is on, and have OB "cook" with lamp heat with cooling fan not running. This is what would happen if the power cord came out of wall and no UPS was on the set.

So far as I know, no one has "tested" the GE warranty. I have one that goes for another two years. The extended Sony warranty is gone, so if you have another failure, it's GE's responsibility. The warranty says "repair or fair market value at GE's discretion". I suspect that Sony still has refurbished OB's, so GE has to make the decision to buy one from Sony (at the so-called retail price of around $6K?), or pay you fair market value.

I'm on my 3rd OB, and they have lasted about 2 years, each. I'll still be under the GE warranty at my next "expected failure".

Pls let us know what happens, as there are several of us, here, with the GE warranty.

My Sony Qualia warranty runs until Jan 2012 because I paid Sony $300+/- back in 2007 for a 3-year extended warranty from my date of purchase in Jan, 2006. Plus I opted out of the class action lawsuit, which benefited only the lawyers as usual.

So Sony has to keep a few OB's around for people out there like me who paid them direct for an extended warranty.

My Qualia gets pretty heavy use and so far, for some reason, mine has yet to exhibit any blobs or degradation but I've probably just now jinxed myself for stating that. When it does go, probably before Jan 2012, and if I suffer a quick-fail rebuilt OB, I will sue Sony in small claims court.

Chris

Me too. I opted out, so at the next failure, I'll be suing, as well. As I stated earlier, there were so few that opted out, Sony may just settle with us if we ask for something that is fair. The lawyers to defend would cost more than settling, and there is nothing for Sony to protect, since they have the class action settlement. I'm expecting a counter-offer at my "demand letter", and we shall see.

TED, I have the GE Warranty, too. I am getting a 2nd "new" OB next Thursday and suggested to the Techs that they bring me a new Lamp under my GE plan. They said they would check and let me know Monday, but they said GE Warranty was taken over and that they no longer replace lamps! I will update everyone Monday. Is there anything with this Qualia that went right?

Sony likely made a crap-load of profit off them at $12,000+ each, and then they depreciated their legal liability to $700 after about five years of use. From Sony's perspective, that went really right for them. For the customers, I'm not so sure what went right--I guess they looked really good for a few years? To some, that may have been worth it?

Well, $6k per year is a bit much! I wonder when the last time was that GE paid for a lamp? I will find out Monday if what the repair place said was correct! I think I can call GE tomorrow, though!

I think my last lamp was at the end of last year. A lot of discussion at the time we were contemplating these GE warranties about whether lamp was covered. Upshot was that the "lamp" exclusion in the warranty referred to indicator lamps, and not a part integral to the functioning of the set. You might do a history search on this site to see if there is a stastement from anyone at GE on this subject. Push hard on the new company.

On a broader note, this just cements the notion that we cannot rely on the reputation of any company anymore. If it isn't required by law or regulation, a company will cut and run at the first threat to profits. They have no loyalty to us, and we should have none to them. Treat everything as disposable after the factory warranty expires and look at the annual cost as the purchase price divided by the warranty. If that seems too big, recognize that it's a risk YOU will take if you go ahead and purchase. My days of being an early adopter are gone, given the new corporate culture!

I agree...no more "first one on the block" to get a product!

I called GE and was told that the Projection lamp WAS covered and have a case number to give the OB repair place. I will call them Monday to tell them to bring out a new lamp. I was told that was in the Warranty so that someone would not call GE if a freezer light went out, but anything that needed a lamp to function, like a TV, was covered.

Hello all,
Does anyone know the status of the settlement from Sony? As I understand it, we should be getting a $700 check if we did not opt out of the class action suit.

Only if you had two optical block failures prior to 8/31/2010. If anything happens to your TV after 8/31/2010, in theory, the class action settlement, strips you of any legal rights to claim anything against Sony (if you did not opt out).

Well, UMR was over last night to calibrate my replacement for the Q (Mitsubishi L75A91). I still need some time to watch movies and other things to see how I really feel, but so far it looks great. Only goes to show what someone with some talent can do (as in this looks good but you might not get that from the printout). As it turns out, the Q excells in many areas over the L, but I'll take the problems over the < 2 years per $5K optical block (crosses fingers and toes). Some things I have noticed (for those of you thinking about this as a possible replacement). It does have rainbows (I think I mentioned that before), but they are not bad (mostly in dark contrasty scenes). It has some issues with faster motion pans (as in it starts to break up - TV, not the source). And finally if you want the color spot on (as in as good as it can get), you are going to have to get someone out with a good eye and experience to do it. Even with "decent" equipment you will probably not get what you expected (but you will be rewarded with a nice picture if you do). If you have questions, I may have answers...

Thanks for the Mits review. I think many of us are considering it as a future replacement for our terminal Qs. Aside from FP, right now there is not much out there reasonably priced over 65". I do believe eventually we'll see a 72" LCD/LED, as LG has the panels. But I can only imagine what the backlighting issues will look like in a dark room, especially if it's edge-lit.

I saw on UMR's Tweet site that he thought that a properly callibrated Laservue was a little low in brightness and would be better if in a light controlled environment. Your thoughts? His tweets were very complimentary of the Panasonic VT25, especially as to it's 3D performance.

It's plenty bright for me, but his number is correct (as it is from my TV, and it's cranked up all the way). My room is far from light controlled, but there is no direct sunlight (curtains). Given the difficulty to properly calibrate, if you want perfection, you need someone like him. His comments comparing it to a Plasma are correct (though the picture is "different" to me as I have a G9 Kuro too). My comment to him was I wanted something bigger than 70" and this seemed the only option. His comment to me was that I probably could have used a front projector in my room (lesson learned - but I'll stick with this, I was not willing to take the risk).

Thanks for your calibration report. I've included it in the rear projection (Post#1) list that's linked at the bottom of my post.

I feel real sorry for you guys that bought the Qualia sets, that was some insane pricing and most Qualia products in general weren't any higher quality than the lesser products they were based on/related to.

Without having to go back in the thread, what did you guys with Qualias ever get offered as replacements? They should have given you guys like 2 (possibly 3!) HX900s or LX900s for free! (I'm imagining they didn't but given you paid $15k for your sets...)

SXRD RPTVs were a disaster and Qualia another disaster. Unfortunately you guys got the net result of disaster-squared.

Gee, do you think so??........

Well, my OB was replaced today and was not even as good as the original. They came back and ordered a 3rd block! Guess what? It is as bad as the others. They will need to order yet another one. The Tech said he may have to pull the Q and bring it to the shop and keep trying OB's. He has taken pictures and Sony does agree that the OB's are bad, but they do not want to keep sending the Techs to my house. So, how many OB's do they need to try before they find one? I wonder if they will ever find a good one anymore?

P.S. You know the card Sony sends after each call? They give an email address to use if you are not going to give them a 9 or 10 in any field. Well, if you give a phone number in the email, they call you. The attitude of the person who calls is bad. They should not even call you back. She has said..."Well, you are working with a Sony approved facility so call them. What do you want us to do". She has also said "things do not last forever".

mp, i certainly would not let them take your set without leaving you a 70+ incher in its place ...

i wonder if something else is going on with your set since i seem to recall you indicating issues with yours almost from the outset...

Given Sony's performance, I would not be surprised if they are NOT rebuilding ANY OB's, and are simply sening out the exchange OBs with no refurbishment, at all. It's a shame such a formerly great company can even be suspected of such crap, but I put NOTHING past Sony of today. Ad for the new SLR Sony cameras--fat chance I'd ever buy ANYTHING from Sony again. I even had to throw away the last dozen DVD+R blank discs from Sony--they broke up in the last half of the recording playback.

No, not from the start, but I did live with the lack of color and bad black levels for a while!