[Cleop]

Oh, I agree there is definitely a defect. The amount of light bleed I'm seeing at the corners wouldn't be acceptable on a $500 Vizio. The question is, what is the root cause?

FWIW, my unit was assembled in Mexico.

 

[ferro]

Oh, I agree there is definitely a defect. The amount of light bleed I'm seeing at the corners wouldn't be acceptable on a $500 Vizio. The question is, what is the root cause?

FWIW, my unit was assembled in Mexico.

I meant a physical panel defect. You mentioned the FALD algorithm, but it will be the same in the US and Europe and should be causing the same issue, which is not the case.

A US-specific panel issue may be caused by the Mexican assembly process, a faulty batch of components, etc.

 

[Cleop]

I did notice this afternoon that if I stand right next to the TV at the middle of the panel and look outward toward the edges of the panel, there is visible light coming from a gap between the outer bezel and the panel surface at the two bad corners. I don't know if that means anything or not, but there is no light visible anywhere else around the screen.

One other thing: watching the Rose Bowl, I saw no flashlighting when the green field filled the screen, but after the sun went down, if a shot had dark sky, the flashlighting reappeared in the top left corner. I don't know if this suggests a problem with the panel, the algorithm, or something else.

 

[spajas]

Let me introduce myself. I'm from The Netherlands (Europe if someone did not know this ) and own the TX-65AX900E since a week.

I also have some issues to report and some are the same as I've read in this topic.

• In letterbox mode, the back-light is on as soon as there is some subtitle over the black bars (when the dimmer is enabled). Not only the back-light at the subtitle position is on, but the whole black bar! This will be seen as a breathing black bar every time subtitles are displayed. @panasonic: "Why not only enable the back-light at the subtitle position and leave the rest BLACK?". This back-light breathing is not visible when I shift the subtitles into the active display area (i.e, outside the black bars)
• Some 2.35 movies always have a lit black-bar. I think this has something to do with if the movie is anamorphic or not. If it is, the bars are black; if not, the bars are greyish.
• Bottom left is marginally lighter than the rest of the screen.
• When I set local-dimming to MAX, I see two darker horizontal bars on the screen from left to right. On at the top and one at the bottom. They are the edges of the back-light patches and disappear when set to MED, MIN, OFF
• Image retention. 20+ seconds of a static image/text/logo/etc will result in 1 - 3 minutes of image retention. It is not really visible at the seating position, but sometimes it is.
• black/white gradients in the menu are not nicely increasing from black to white but show stair-casing (i.e. irregular horizontal bars). This is not! the case with actual video but it is annoying.
• When the internal media player streams a video and the video shows something almost fully black (credit-scroll for instance), the outer part of the video is greyish black, including the sides (i.e. back-light is on) while the center is (almost) off. You will see a kind of tunnel effect.

Any finally... I think my TV is broken. Yesterday I wanted to watch a movie and I noticed seven (7) darker horizontal bars. Exactly at the edges of the back-light patches (8 rows; 16 columns). Changing local dimming mode did not have any effect .

If somebody want to know more or has any comment, I'm available.

 

[marcuslaw]

Spajas, has your unit been professionally calibrated? If not, have you tried the Review.com settings? Have you contacted Panasonic or your retailer? If so, what did they say?

 

[spajas]

@marcuslaw: No, not yet. I wanted to do that this weekend but I guess it has to wait. I did not try the review.com settings because a) I was unaware and b) I don't think these settings would solve this horizontal lines issue. I did not see it when I watched a movie the first time. It seems it appeared later. Anyway, I contacted my retailer and they are willing to exchange it. To be honest, I would expect this because I only used the TV for ~8h. And as you know, it's a very expensive piece of equipment. For that price, it has to be 'perfect'.

 

[eddysoft]

Reply:
In which country do you reside? Did you change any of the units settings around the time the problem began? Did you move the TV, for example remove the stand and hang it on a wall, when the problem began? Can you explain that picture?

Please respond in the owners thread.

Here we go:

I am from Holland.
Owning a 55AX900A for 6 or 7 weeks now.

First week was with the stand, but I found the angle in which the screen held over was too much.
So after 1 week I bought a nice wall mount.

I do not really know when the problem started. I thought the screen was 100% in the beginning. Fully uniform and 100% loving the natural looks this screen brings. (difficult to remember the first impressions, but this is what I can recall)

I am not sure when it begin, but since the last 3 to 4 weeks (maybe after the firmware update) I noticed a sort of clouding. At first, it looked like my screen was dirty from Fingers touches, but these kind of dirty dark clouds are behind the screen. I have tried every setting, different sources etc.. these clouds always stays unfortunately.

I hope my replacement unit that is ordered will not have any issues...!

Fingers crossed for Panasonic !!

to be continued...

 

[soapbox]

Every time I bought a Panasonic TV, it was a huge disappointment and heaps of hassle. I see nothing has changed.

I would rather wait a few months and get Samsung's JS8500 FALD. It has a much better potential to be a good screen.

 

[marcuslaw]

I am not sure when it begin, but since the last 3 to 4 weeks (maybe after the firmware update) I noticed a sort of clouding. At first, it looked like my screen was dirty from Fingers touches, but these kind of dirty dark clouds are behind the screen. I have tried every setting, different sources etc.. these clouds always stays unfortunately.

Wow. Those images come as quite a surprise. Though I think its still too early to draw conclusions, if reports (and images) like yours (cleop and review.com) continue to come in, I'm going to begin wondering whether there might be, at the very least, some sort of manufacturing issue with the AX900 (though perhaps not effecting all of them equally).

 

[spajas]

Well, got my replacement TV:

As you can see, same issue, including image retention . I'm fed up with this device. I requested a refund and I will continue my search for a 'better' TV. I know I will miss out on a lot of good things, but those horizontal lines are bugging me like ^$$^##.

 

[westa6969]

Well, got my replacement TV:

As you can see, same issue, including image retention . I'm fed up with this device. I requested a refund and I will continue my search for a 'better' TV. I know I will miss out on a lot of good things, but those horizontal lines are bugging me like ^$$^##.

OMG! That's horrific, appearing as horizontal bands or spatial zones of the fald alignment. Dang, that's worse than my budget $600 Panasonic 50" I bought for gaming last year. I'd be aiming for an OLED 65" or black bar bleed you can get on a Sub $2K LCD without those horizontal bands. Good Luck!

 

[Ph8te]

Well, got my replacement TV:

As you can see, same issue, including image retention . I'm fed up with this device. I requested a refund and I will continue my search for a 'better' TV. I know I will miss out on a lot of good things, but those horizontal lines are bugging me like ^$$^##.

That looks similar to what some P series owners see on their sets. It may be inherent to the new FALD that companies are using. It can get better, but there may always be "something" visible with solid color screens.

By better I mean via exchange. It's alms it as if because the screens are so thin the panel is showing through, thus exposing the separation horizontally in this case of the zone breakdown.

Sent from nowhere

 

[eddysoft]

Hi Spajas

That is bad news.

I find it unbelievable that these screens pass the tests @ Panasonic.
These screens costs 4.000 to 6.000 Euro !
This is how you get a bad reputation.

It is such a waist of time to replace TV's and get a credit note.

Are you going to buy an OLED 4K LG now ?

 

[marcuslaw]

The AX900 finally makes its appearance on Panasonic's U.S. website. If the link doesn't work, it's shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/TC-65AX900U (put "http://" before "shop" in your browser).

 

[spajas]

Well.... I think I have some good news (for myself)

My TV was not picked up by the carrier so I thought I would give it one more try. Another reason was that I've read a lot of complains about other TV brands / types which made me a bit nervous. What also helped was that the TV of 'Eddysoft' will be replaced by the service company so I expect / assume Panasonic provides good service.

This replacement TV was only on for 15 minutes to test the screen for the horizontal bars, no longer. Maybe it was better than my original one? And guess what, it appears to be.

Yes, you can see the bars but mostly with a special test screen. Sometimes it is a bit visible in a normal picture, but you have to look for it. They appear, in this replacement TV, when there is something dark grayish or almost white. And even then you will only see it sometimes. Bright skies, bright colors or 'flat' surfaces don't show the horizontal lines in 95% of the time.

Currently I'm quit happy. The colors are beautiful, the blacks are nicely black, the contrast is super and the screen is uniform. I've only looked at it for 1h or so, so this weekend I will spend more time with it. Hopefully it is good enough and I can keep it; that would be the best thing to do.

 

[marcuslaw]

The review of the 55" posted on Dec. 1, 2014 by digitalversus is not unknown to most as it is a translation of its French sister site lesnumeriques originally posted Nov. 24, 2014. Nonetheless, it is a better translation than what you'll get using Google. Here is the link to the digitalversus' translation: REVIEW / Panasonic TX-55AX902B, Disappointing for a UHD TV at this Price - Held back by an IPS panel with poor backlighting.

 

[Sympi]

i noticed seven darker horizontal bars...
65AX900

 

[Sympi]

...

 

[spajas]

That looks very similar as what I have. However, when watching normal video, it is only visible sometimes (darker yellow gray, some whites and blues, vertical panning, etc). Do you see it when watching normal video? And do you see it when you are not looking for it?
@eddysoft: what is the status of your replacement? How long did you needed to wait? Is it okay now?

Last question for other owners. It seems that letterbox dimming does not work in 'cinema' mode. When I pause a 1:2.35 movie and look at the black bars, they are dark in 'normal' mode. However, if I switch to 'cinema' mode, the bars are lit a bit and won't dim anymore. As if dimming is disabled (witch is not). Should this be the case? I would expect and assume not. Am I doing something wrong?

I do find the letterbox dimming somewhat disappointing. In 'normal' mode the bars are black but not always (which is unexplainable for me). Why? And if they are black and some subtitles appear, the WHOLE bar lights up. Why? Why not only behind the subtitles?

 

[eddysoft]

Update from Eddysoft:

Still awaiting the replacement unit.
Service partner ordered the unit. Takes 1 to 2 weeks.