Official Sony KDS-XXA3000 OWNERS THREAD! - Page 504

Can't be sure, but I work for an automotive supplier and since we produce OE parts we are contractually obligated to provide service replacements for 10 years from the end of production. I'm sure something similar is in place with Philips.

Hi guys,
My A3000 is showing a Blueish tint on dark/shadows scenes, I can't tell when did it developed this tint. I think it gradually degraded and up until now it started to bother me... is this something that can be user fixed by tweaking? with the tint or other settings? Which one?

Thanks for your help

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but this is one of the signs of the optical block going out. Mine turned green and got progressively worse quickly.

oh my!!
same thing on yours? ...green (as opposed to blue) tint in shadows?

Will it eventually go dark suddenly? or will the blue tint just keep increasing?

Mine got progressively worse quickly and became unwatchable. I was lucky and got in on the sony replacement program and was able to get a new tv for $200 but that has ended. I'm afraid you're out of luck. Sony knew the optical blocks were defective and a class action lawsuit caused them to extend the warranty through last year.

If you check the A2020 thread a couple of lines down, you will see that Sony is still making deals on that set, and the A3000 is a newer model by about six months. Don't expect a free tv, only a discount that brings the price of a new LCD set below a good retail deal.

'Blue tints in black' is unusual in an A3000, I would expect that from an E3000, but they can both be unpredictable.

Good morning!

This is Kevin Krause from Sony Support USA. I am sorry that you are having problems with your TV. If you email us at Sonylistens@am.sony.com we will be happy to see what we can do to try and help you out. In your email, please include a brief description of the issues you are having, any event ID numbers you may have, and your contact information.

Thank you,
Kevin Krause
Sony Support USA

Thanks Kevin,
It's nice surprise that Sony is listening...
My lamp went dead last knight. I will replace it and see if there are any changes in tint.
Could that have been the problem?

Today is first day of Christmas break for my kids so you can imagine the amount of pressure I'm getting to get that lamp replaced. Good excuse to go out and play, I say.

I just changed the bulb in my 60A2000 yesterday after being unable to get a bulb from Sony for months and it seems to have a very bluish tint but I need to do more analysis as I have only used it for a bit since the part came yesterday from Sony.

Hello again folks.

Just wanted to ask a quick question. My 55A3000 is still working perfectly, just as brilliant as the day I got it (actually hardly ever turn it on these days). However, I would like to sell it before something starts to go wrong. I have one new bulb installed and one backup bulb. Not a single thing remotely wrong yet (I am wondering if that's because of the dry climate in New Mexico? And my filtered air conditioning?).

Anyway, is there some place I should post this beast online or should I just try to sell it on local community Craigslist before Christmas? I will include my Panasonic Bluray player and all necessary cables. Is $700 asking to much you guys think? Thought I better ask in here before I list it for to much or to little, lol...

Rod

I just bought a new bulb and got it at newegg.com its a phillips and even comes with paperwork that tells you how to spot a genuine phillips bulb.......stamping ect......anyways with the cage attachment it was about 85 dollars but I tell ya what. the difference was night and day. My old bulb had about 4500 and was still working decent I just wanted a newer bulb. I had to turn down the brightness on the TV. it was that big of a difference. Anyways hope that helps you guys looking for a replacement bulb..

I'm always amazed at how use to an old bulb I get when I change it for a new one. Literally like night and day difference!

Same here, just a night and day difference. I changed mine when the light claimed it was time, however the old bulb was still working so I kept it as a short-term temp backup just in case. Wish the bulbs were like $10 I'd change it every spring haha.

So, no one has any idea what a great working 55A3000 is worth with roughly 8500 total hours on it?

Hi All,

Another proud A3000 owner here. Let me first start by saying I have been loving this TV since I bought it in 2008(!) and it has been absolutely trouble free since then.

Until about a month ago when the OE bulb finally died. So I have been running with a new bulb fine since then, until this past weekend when the screen started suddenly going completely black on me. The red standby light on the front blinks 35 times. It almost acts like the TV has been shut off and immediately turned back on and I am waiting a loong time (35 blinks worth) for the TV to warm up and come back on.

Finally the picture returns but much dimmer than before - for about 2 minutes. Then the cycle repeats itself. It seems like this happens once the TV has been on for a while. Wondering if somehow the TV is overheating or something? Is it safe to use??

I got the bulb from a Sony parts supplier as my father in law owns a small production studio so I am pretty sure it is a decent quality- if not OE bulb. He has been running the same model replacement bulb in his A2020 without issue.

I have searched and found 'trouble codes' for blinking up to 10 times - but 35 times? I have tried different HDMI inputs/cables etc. but all have not resolved the issue.

I'd consider a new 60+ inch LED TV from Sony, but the EX645 model does not suppport 3D and I don't feel like shelling out thousands of $ more for the top of the line 65HX950 unit (since Sony's 60"+ line of TV's is disappointingly limited in choices- basically they have the $1500 EX645 or the $5200 XBR- really?)

We just had our first baby 3 weeks ago and can't justify a $1500 tv much less a $5000 one.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Edited by ralfmalf72 - 12/27/12 at 12:23pm

Hi, guys. Been an owner of the 3000 for 4 years or so now. Have a couple of separate observations, if thats ok. The commonality is motion.

1. I had to spend the week at my parents because of the snow storm knocking out my power. I took the Avengers Phase 1 movies with me and watched them with my stepdad. I noticed the motion is significantly different on his tv than mine. It almost looked like a soap opera or home video. Just curious what it is doing on his set that this set doesn't. I personally didn't care for it but just curious for geeky purposes if there is a setting that does that on our favored Sony. Or maybe it is his blu-ray player?

2. I have come to notice what I can only refer to as a motion aura around people on tv, particularly when they are "close to the screen". I realized that I still had some custom settings made to compensate for the poorer quality of Uverse and now that I'm directv, the aura was pretty bad. There would be this short trail of clear aura-like lines around the edge of the person moving. I have just spent a good hour searching this thread and found lots of notes about the motion enhancer, naturalizer, and cinemotion. I popped in Avengers and watched a scene over and over again until I got rid of it. Then went to a football game on ESPN. Ended up with motion enhancer on high and all others turned off. I also turned off noise reduction, which I needed when I had uverse. Not sure which ended up getting rid of the aura.
Edited by bpeacock22 - 1/1/13 at 3:23pm

Well I just did a bit of research and found that this visual difference is called motion interpolation, or in the common tongue, soap opera effect. TVs take two frames and average them, putting the result in between them. This doubles the frame rate and takes away the film look. It's the same thing Peter Jackson did in filming The Hobbit at 48 fps--called HFR--except the TVs are faking it.

I, for one, find it jarring. Objects look separated from the background and unnatural. I'm glad the 3000 does not do this.

I too own the KDS60A3000 and another Sony tv. You mentioned in your post about frame interpolation and de-judder (maybe they're the same thing). Anyways, the A3000 does in fact have that feature you saw on your parents TV. You have to press the home button on the remote and go into the different picture options. You want to enable the Cinemotion feature for De-Judder and also change the motion option to Smooth. Actually, make sure you have it set to Cinemotion 1. You may have already know this but thought I would mention it in case you didn't. Let me know if you have any questions.

(Hoping some of you still subscribe to this thread)

This morning I cancelled my DirecTV service and connected my OTA antenna to the TV. Right away I could receive 15 channels. I rescanend the channels because I knew I have more available in my area. After the scan I could only get 5 channels and when I manually enter a channel that I previously could tune, nothing happens, just stays on "searching". How can I get the 15 channels back that I already had mere minutes prior to the rescan? All of my channels work on other TVs in my house so I know the antenna is working properly, signal is strong.

Thanks and Happy New Year!!

Well, nevermind about having ME on high. Wow did that produce some nasty artifacting when I watched "Fellowship of the Ring" last night. So now I've got ME and MN off and Cinemotion on Auto 1.

Incidentally, I was never able to reproduce the "soap opera effect" to the degree that I've seen on my step-dad's TV, a Sharp Aquos. (I've also seen it at a friend's house on their Samsung.) But I don't want to and I'm glad I don't have to deal with it. I need to turn on ESPN and watch the ticker to make sure there are no judder issues. But I swear when the credits were rolling on FotR, they were bouncing all over the place. However, that could just be how they were done, because when it got to the Fan Club part of the credits (on the extended edition), it was smooth scrolling. So many variables...

Hi, I just picked up a 60A3000 (used but fairly new bulb) from a member of my family. My PS3 is the source for blu-ray's and games.

I have two issues, one is that the image sometimes has a pretty high rate flicker/strobe. It isn't always there but comes and goes on random.

2nd, does the display accept a 1080p signal? With my PS3 it seems to only take up to 1080i? When I switch to 1080p output on my PS3 it just shows a blank screen. PS3 has a timer for you to not push anything, or push x to accept settings. So it defaults back and I'm fine, but if it can accept 1080p from HDMI, maybe I'm doing something wrong?

I would guess the flicker is the bulb. I had one do this until I had to replace it. Later when the replacement went out I put the flickering bulb back in and it didn't do it anymore...
The display does indeed take a 1080p signal. Not sure why this is happening. Might post in the Playstation forum here?

1080p works fine on mine. The flicker is weird, my bulb just popped when it went. Try changing your HDMI wire. Sometimes they go bad...that might solve both issues.

The solution to the flicker for me was to turn energy saving (or low power mode or whatever they call it) OFF.

Ok thank you all.

It is a relatively new bulb (less than 6 months with little use And it is Philips). Sometimes it will go for several hours and be fine. Yeah, i tried swapping cables (works fine taking 1080p with the same HDMI on another display) didn't make a difference.

Energy savings has always been off. I've tried making sure all other devices are off as well, like receiver, PC. No change.

Well it is under extended warranty so I put a call in. Sounds like they will decide if worth coming to take a look at the unit or just give credit to a different display.

You might also check to make sure you do not have the "Motion Naturalizer" feature on. It's a flicker inducer too.

Thanks, yeah I've given that a shot as well (with motion flow on and off). Oh well, set up to have a tech guy check it out.

Every so often I go to my A-3000 self check menu to see how many hours are on my latest bulb. This time I noticed that all the menu Items were not 00. (101 DTT-WOT is 05.) (011 DEV-ERR is 01) and (255 LAMP-ERR is 01) Does any one have a service manual that shows what these codes mean? The only thing I've noticed lately is the replacement bulbs dont seem to last as long. My original bulb lasted 10,048 hours. My latest bulb (Phillips OEM) has 4013 hours on it and is starting to dim and flicker.

This set has overall been the very best set to date. I would liike to keep it going for another year or so if possiable. If anyone could help me with the meaning of the above codes, I would be most gratefull. Thank you very much in advance.

Ben Music

Looks like my 55A3000 might be succumbing to the optical block issue.

Around last summer (when I made my 3rd bulb change) I noticed picture quality and colors did not seem quite as true as they used to. Black screens had a greenish hue to them, white looked a bit yellow. Through football season the grass color was a bit off (kind of a lime-green), but not horrible, so I didn't think too much of it.

As the NHL got back in business last month I noticed the ice, which is typically bright white, had become more eggshell in color. In addition, there are a lot of motion trails following dark colored jerseys on the ice and dark text along the boards. This has made watching the sport very difficult.

On a pure white screen, I notice that there are two fairly large faintly yellow blobs on the screen, one along the bottom-center, the other towards the top center and top right.

Not pleased with this development to say the least. What's the best method to go about getting this resolved? Planning on calling Sony tomorrow, unless there is a better way.

-Updating
Called Sony today, they directed me to a repair service that might have some optical blocks. Coming out Tuesday to diagnose. We'll see what happens.
Edited by HuskerTornado - 2/8/13 at 2:39pm

See my optical block web site (link in my signature below).

Definitely been there, it's a great resource.

At this point I'm looking to buy a refurbished block when one shows up for sale ($2400 for a new part that will fail at some point is ridiculous). I haven't found one in stock though over the past month.