Official Sony Bravia LCD Uneven Backlight/Cloudy Thread - Page 304

Just bought a KDL52Z5100 clouding and flashlighting in all four corners.
I would guess 35-40% of the screen affected.
Now my eyes just keep looking at the top corners when black bars come on during a HD movie, other then that the pictuce is to die for.
But it bothers the hell out of me, I want to keep it? but I should just return it and wait for something else?

Ditto here on the exact same model.

I bought my unit 3 weeks ago and now i'm debating whether i should take it back for an exchange or just get a refund and wait a while to see whats out there.

Weird since that Sony and Samsung pretty much use the same panels (with the S panel only circumstances).... there's something behind the control of who gets what maybe!

It has to do with the actual assembly of the entire tv. It seems that Samsung just has the process down a bit better than Sony right now.

It depends. In fact, CMO and AUO panels have better uniformity, and S-PVA panels seem to be the one with prominent clouding and flashlighting in comparison to both.

My XBR9 has serious flashlighting, enough at least that I'm not going to stay with an XBR9 unless I can find one that doesn't do this.

I have this issue on my new KDL46Z5100. Not super bad but I'm not sure if I should live with it or not. I'm still within my 30 day return window (just got the set). Top right corner, a few spots along the top.

I've turned the backlight down to 2. Not sure what else I can do.

The overall picture on this set is astounding from what I had (sony LCD projection that developed the blue blotch problem). So other than this issue, I so far like the set.

It sounds like I'd have to go though a number of different sets to find one that doesn't have it.

I like the samsungs too but I was told that they're having more repair issues than sony right now.

100% agree!

Ive been purchasing sony Televisions and honestly. Havent had one that had some major flaw and Sony wont do anything about it. Never buying Sony again after my blue blob issue.

Also isnt is true but a normal bulbed lcd tv is going to have some clouding no matter what? Ill admit though my last Sony (1 year ago purchase) w1000? Not sure it was horrid compared to my samsung. I went through 3 tv's and just said forget it...got the samsung and the picture blows away the sony.

WOW, this clouding and flashlight issue has really blown up in the last 2 years....

IMO I think the clouding/flashlighting issue is more of a "recent thing" - in the sense that, 2 years ago (2007) it was relatively minor (perhaps due to very stringent QC) and nowadays it's much more prevalent (perhaps due to cost-cutting in the QC department).

My own anecdotal evidence:

KDL32-S3000 purchased Dec. 2007:
- although black levels are pretty crap, the viewing angles are poor, and the contrast is pathetic compared to most year 2009 LCD TVs, there is NO flashlighting or clouding nor has there ever been any! I used to watch a lot of 2.35:1 aspect ratio movies in the dark, at night, so please take this as gospel

KDL46-W5100 purchased Dec. 2009:
- black levels are beautiful, viewing angles are much improved, contrast is much much better; but I have minor flashlighting (albeit no clouding). Compared to other people on this forum, my flashlighting is not that bad and it's not worth it for me to exchange (since I might get a "horrible" set belonging to one of the other guys here, LOL).

However it's a bit of a "shock" for me as I'm used to an LCD TV with ZERO flashlighting so having one with a small amount is still noticeable, especially when I'm watching 2.35:1 movies.

I was able to mitigate this slightly by performing the following:
- rubbing the screen with the microfiber that came with my "LCD TV Cleaning Kit"
- repeatedly showing a FULL BLACK and FULL WHITE 1920x1080 jpg file on my TV through the Bravia Photo Viewer
- turning on the "ambient light sensor" in the Sony's ECO menu

I don't know which one of these helped the most since I sort of did them all at once. :/
Chances are, it's the ambient light sensor which is doing the most help.

IMO
#1 "rubbing" the screen is only temporarily distorting the surrounding pixels and spreading your problem which makes you believe it's blending in... and seriously are you going to rub your screen with a mircofiber cloth before each dark scene in a movie? come on...
#2 flopping a full black to full white screen... is only going to make your pupils dilate back and forth
#3 maybe, but having the ambient light sensor ON in my opinion just makes for erratic brightness during different scenes while viewing movies in a dark room.

I've been away from this board for a little while because i've actually been enjoying my tv for the last 2 years. I'm getting back into the groove of tinkering and I wanted to see what people are doing. I've read that adding fans and rubbing the screen all help, so i tried these methods and came up short, but also discovered some interesting things. My KDL-40XBR4 has minor flashlighting in both upper corners as it has since the day i opened the box. I wanted to try the "added airflow" solution so i got out my sears air , set the pressure to 20PSI and started blowing air to various spots on the tv. What I found is that if I hold the nozzle a few inches away from the front of the screen and direct the air towards the corners where the flashlights are... THE FLASHLIGHTS GET LARGER AND BRIGHTER. The air coming out of the hose is on the cool side... so as I'm cooling the screen the problem worsens! So i stopped and it took a few mintues for the screen's corner to warm up again and get back to my normal dim flashlights. So i tried the "Rubbing" technique... circular motions with a microfiber cloth. All I got was some localized distortion... the harder I pressed the more the screen would brighten in that spot. No difference to the flashlights, but I did realize that in the UPPER RIGHT corner of my screen as I pressed lightly, the actually screen would move in a little in the direction I was pushing... about a 1/32". So something is NOT sealed tightly.

My theory is that there are seals in the corners that are not very good and cool air from the front of the screen is getting pulled through the corner and causing the flashlights... I believe the temperature of the screen where the flashlights are occurring are COOL gradient areas... I'll get a infrared temp gun from work and check screen temperatures over the weekend.

I have a 55V5100. I bought my first one a little more than a month ago. Right away I noticed a flashlight in the upper right corner and two clouds in the lower middle portion of the screen. It would have been acceptable to me except that I noticed the clouds in dark areas of programs. I returned it for another hoping for better luck. When I turned on the second unit, it was perfect...I was like, "could I be this lucky?" Well, after an hour I noticed two flashlights each in both upper corners. The flashlights are minor, but at least I dont have any clouding. Setting the backlight to 3 and pumping up the brightness to 53 helped a little. I tried massaging and screwing around with the screws but with no luck. It really doesnt bother me enough to go through the hassle of boxing the big ass thing. I almost strained my back returning it the first time. Anyways, my little obsession to completely eliminate the flashlights has waned and figured I'd just start enjoying the damn thing. I love the picture. If this thing craps out after the warranty period, no more Sony lcds for me until they learn how to fix the clouding and flashlighting. I'm tempted to try the fan thing. Does anyone know how the external cooling fan attachments work for the PS3? Maybe two of those badboys can be strapped on the back to cool down the tv.

Actually that's not how the light sensor works on current model Sony's. It basically sets the backlight to a fixed value based on current room brightness. So unless you are flipping on and off your room lights... there will be NO brightness changes in the program you are watching.

(once you enable ambient light sensor - the Backlight setting in the display menu will no longer work)

I was referring to when a movie scene is really dark and then flips to an extremely bright scene that lights up the whole room and then the ambient light sensor kicks in and dims the screen because it's getting all this reflected light off the walls (if the room is small enough.... maybe this is rare, but I've experience it.

Does anyone know where the light sensor is located on our sets?

Ah okay. I haven't experienced it, I think it's because the sensor on the W5100 doesn't respond to brightness changes right away (if I flip the light switch, it takes about 2-3 seconds for the backlight to change).
I watched Quantum of Solace blu-ray last night and didn't notice any such occurrences.

It'll be interesting to see your results.

Folks, I am reposting my post from the model-specific W5100 thread to this one, mainly because my question is about Sony Support's Warranty repair practices in Canada. Anyone who has experience with Sony Canada please let me know what I can expect! Thank you!

---
So, watching the 24 premiere last night is the first time in my 3 wks ownership that the flashlighting actually got on my nerves. There were a bunch of scenes shot in a moderately-lit indoor environment (the UN offices, some parts of the CTU office) and due to the show using the full 16:9 aspect ratio, there's a ray of light hanging in both the top left and top right corner that looks very out of place. It's different from watching a 2.35:1 movie since you can eventually learn to "tune out" the flashlighting since it's in the black bars and not part of the movie frame.

So... I am thinking of calling Sony Support and trying to get it serviced under warranty. I'm in Canada (Toronto). Has anyone else in canada ever tried this before and have they reported any success? Since I have a 46" I would prefer if they send somebody to my house who can do the service here (?) rather than making me pack the whole thing up and arrange for transportation to their HQ.

I checked some temperatures and really couldn't find a gradient over the flashlight area. The screen itself is definitely warmer at the top... and for some reason the left side fan was measuring much warmer than the right side. maybe i'll take some more reading and post the numbers later...

I've always thought that more heat = more visible flashlighting.

That would explain why there's no flashlighting visible right when I turn on my TV, and the flashlight "peak" appears to hit after the TV is on for about 45 minutes, and remains that way until its turned off.

Non-uniform screen temperatures cause clouding and flashlights (i believe). I blew 20psi compressed "cool" air at the front of my screen after it was on for a while and clouds began to form where i directed the air... I'll try a hair-dryer next.

Over on the XBR9 thread I reported that sony tech support is sending me a thumbdrive with an alleged fix to the cloudiness in dark scenes problem, by modulating the backlight. I find it hard to believe this could be the real solution, but hope springs eternal. Anyone tried this fix?

Never heard of such a thing Doug. Please let us know how it does.

Hopefully I should have the software in a couple more days.

As the XBR9 backlight cannot do any local dimming correction, I assume the "fix" will be to darken full screen black as fast as possible. I have noticed that engaging the Advanced Contrast Enhancer circuit works by decreasing the backlight (and therefore the cloudiness) and apparently simultaneously running the LCD pixels in a more open state to keep the signal as high above the noise floor as possible. Obviously this can only work up to a point in brightness if it is not dynamic. I can see the background noise level and cloudiness drop from a blank screen to black video when the circuit kicks in. Not clear if it is dynamic or a fixed setting. It reduces the cloudiness problem visibly, and is a definite improvement I would estimate by a factor of 4x. Conceptually it works similarly to Dolby NR, gain riding or a compander in the old analog tape days.

Ironically all the professional reviews I have seen defeat the ACE circuit for testing and therefore no discussion of its effects and no numbers on the contrast ratio improvement. It probably does not change the full black/full white ratio, but the apparent contrast is improved on screen.

I expect the "fix" will just do the same or possibly more aggressively. In otherwords the best that can can be hoped for is masking the problem rather than eliminating it, which is better than nothing.

interesting find...keep us updated

Well Sony's fix is nothing more than the update pkgaa0153pn which says nothing about cloudiness and doesn't seem to make any change that I can see. Either the two techs are seriously misinformed or one of the fixes just happens to set some of the picture settings to exactly what I had already found minimize, but not eliminate, cloudiness:

ACE on high
power on low
room light sensor on

You know what they say, when it sounds too good to be true...

i`ve had my xbr4 52" since 2007 and do have the extended warranty until april.

i explained this situation to the store manager where i bought the tv he said once the tech service checks out the tv and confirms the problem he said i will get an equivalent tv in terms of price.

I paid 3499 for my xbr 4, now i`m dreaming of what to get ,hope this works in my favor,

thought i`d share this, just your comments please