Official Sony Bravia LCD Uneven Backlight/Cloudy Thread - Page 4

Oh, and this is unrelated to Backlight or Brightness settings. It appears the same no matter how I tweak these settings. Here are the settings for the pictures taken above....

Nice pics tome. Good job showing how the clouds affect dark scenes during programming.

What's the build date of the 46XBR2 you bought from CC?

October 06.

BTW, are people best handling this problem through Sony Service or just exchange of the set at the retailer? CC doesn't have another in at the moment and I am a little worried about transporting another bad set back and forth.

I could ask them if we can unbox the new set there and turn it on in a dark room. It is quite easy to see on the blank inputs.

-Tom

Thanks. It is quite apparent in dark scenes - and there are lots of dark scenes in regular programming. I didn't mention it to my wife, she is much much less picky then I am. She noticed it however and asked me if it was "normal".

-Tom

Man I really feel for all of you that have this issue. No matter how hard I crank up the brightness/backlighting on my Panel, I cannot get it to cloud - extremely linear as posted previously. My panel is ISF calibrated so I'm not sure if that plays a role, but I would say not. the XBR3 that I have was Mfg in Oct '06 - and I'm hanging onto mine

Again, if my panel was doing this I'd be pissed as well - these panels are not cheep by any means.

I originally set up an exchange through my place of purchase. Then I got ahold of the right people at Sony and they've set up an exchange through my local authorized repair center because they want to capture my set and take a look. I've e-mailed them pictures of my problem set in addition to others that have posted pictures here. The new set should be here next week.

I was told the best thing to do is call customer service and ask to speak to a product specialist. I think this will get you to tech support which is different than customer service.

I encourage everyone to talk with tech support so we can work towards getting this issue resolved.

Can we see a pic please? At this point I can't believe there are Sony sets without this problem until I see one with my own eyes.

I returned mine which was made in Oct. 06 same problem. I just got a refund and solved the problem myself very quickly. I don't play games with my hard earned money. Specially if I call customer service and they tell me "it's your HD feed" or "can you unplug the power chord?"

I tried to call Sony about the issue the first time but I ended up hanging up on them and they'll have to deal with a returned set. They can get cute and bs us all they want but we can get "cuter" by sending them right back to them.

Get a refund, send them all back..I bet the issue will get fixed then. The only ones being hurt by keeping the defective sets are the paying customers. Sooner or later the stores carrying them will say, "wait a minute we're getting these lcds returned and we have to eat the cost..we better stop buying these sets". Think Sony will fix the problem them?

I have been following this thread. Sorry to hear some of your issues.

My set was manufactured in Mexico with July 2006 build date. No clouds, dead pixels or backlight or banding.

Good luck

I am so glad I found this forum. I had purchased an XBR2 and thought I was going crazy. Every time we watched a movie with dark scenes I would see light patterns in the corners. After 3 weeks I couldn't stand it anymore and returned the set. The sales guys were hounding me saying the sets are never returned and making it seem like there was something wrong with me.

Glad to see I'm not the only one my only problem is what to do now...I really thought this was going to be the set but now I'm not so sure

So can we conclude that the older sets are fine and only the newer Oct 06 build dates have the problem?

Sure - I'll take some tonight but they are no different then the Pic that was posted previously that did not have this issue. I also run my TV's power via Rotel power conditioner - not sure if that is making the difference as well.

Nope - mine is Mfg in Oct' 06 and I have no issues of clouding.

Glad I found this thread. I'm not looking at picking one up until February (tax returns!) so hopefully the issue will be resolved by then. I'm definitely bookmarking this thread.

My settings are identical. The pictures I posted previously (post #65) are at Backlight 4, Brightness 55. And as stated in that post, the shutter speed on my camera was intentionally set slow to capture the problem in low light. It is slightly, but not overly, exaggerated in the pictures.

I disagree with the contention that this is somehow "normal" if the backlight and brightness settings are set to MAX. Normal would be a consistent, uniform backlight, not the splotchy, cloudy mess many of us are seeing.

In my mind, this is very clearly a manufacturing defect that occurred in recently-built sets. I stare at LCD panels 8 hours a day, and none of them exhibit this behavior. I'm confident that this splotchy backlight issue is an abnormality.

Swizz - I do plan to contact Sony at the phone number you provided, but I want to see what the repair guys I contacted have to say first. I just don't want to bump heads with them by attempting to open a second ticket with Sony on the same hardware. I'll post my results regardless.

mp

I did a test last night turning both the backlight and brightness to zero. I could still see the problem areas. Would this prove that it's not the backlights but the panel itself? Try it on yours and tell us what your results are.

If you contact Sony again you don't have to open a second ticket. Ask the customer service rep to transfer you to a technical specialist (I got a group in San Diego). If you've already received a ticket number from a previous contact you can reference it. They'll be able to look it up. The guys I've talked to on the phone have been very nice and easy to deal with.

I e-mailed the two pictures you took to them as well se they've seen yours.

Call 1-800-222-7669 and when you get someone on the phone ask to speak to a product specialist or technical support for the XBR2.

Here are some pics that represent the linear backlighting of my XBR3, and the great blacks. Again, my panel has been ISF calibrated; but as you can see, even when cranking up the backlighting/brightness - it's very linear [The white spec is not a dead pixel - rather dust on the camera lens]:

More...

Finally...

Mine must be the fastest case of being "in the club" and out of it.

As you saw I purchased a 46XBR2 last night and had the backlight showing during dark scenes. So, today I hauled the beast back to CC and it turns out they had another one in stock. We set mine up and the new one in their (mostly) darkened home theater room in the back of the store. The first set was worse but the second set also had the issue. It was kind of embarassing as I am sure they thought I was being too picky, especially on the second set, but they were nice enough about it.

As I talked to the manager more about it, he took me out into the store and showed me a whole bunch of smaller (30+" to 40") Sony sets that all exhibit this to varying degrees. He claims it is simply par for the course for these sets. He says most people never notice it or just assume it is "normal". He said they have never gotten a set back for this reason before.

I was torn about getting a third set, they were willing to order another one and when it comes in open it for me again to check it out. I decided, however, to get a refund.

So, on my way home I go to BB to examine their XBR3 in the Magnolia room more closely as I thought it did not have this issue. Sure enough on closer examination it does have this problem as well. It is harder to see there as the Magnolia room is not quite dark, though darker then the normal TV area at my BB. One more stop at a local appliance store and they have both an XBR2 and a 3 and both also have this.

I am really really really tired of the research and trying to pick the right set. I don't think it exists for me at this point in the various technologies. However, I need to get something (mainly for my wife). I am probably going with a plasma (maybe smaller, 42") for now to please the SO and reinvestigate things next year.

Color me frustrated.
-Tom

Again, I feel for thoes who having this "clouding" issue, for thoes that have it - it is terrible.

Anyone want to purchase my XBR3

Should we send this thread to Engadget? I think that would get Sony to pay attention. If they have a huge number of sets to recall, perhaps what we have is another "batterygate!"

Heck yes we should.

Now that is a good looking display!! That's what I expect mine to look like. Thanks for posting the pics.

These are some of the photos of my 46XBR3. As I mentioned earlier, build date is Aug 06 and no cloud/backlight issues. The bright spot at the top center is the reflection from my flash - ignore it. I set the room to be total dark.

I don't think it's unreasonable for us to want a panel with a uniform backlight. My biggest hang up concerning this issue is the price I paid for the TV. The XBR2 is an expensive TV. When my 32S2000 looks better at less than half the price of the XBR2 I take notice. If I bought a Polaroid or Westinghouse that had the problem I could probably accept it. My Dad and I have been Sony customers for years and we pretty much buy Sony exclusively so there's a level of quality I've come to expect from Sony and their products. In my opinion, the quality of my set doesn't live up to my expectations when I know it can. RLampke's pictures prove it. I guess the whole purpose of this little rant is there are people who would assume it's normal and accept it.

Paint me jealous. You can barely even tell it's on the panel looks so good.

That looks great. Lucky you! Wish I could have found one of those, I really liked the picture otherwise.

-Tom