KDL-32EX403

[admin_exported]

1st post, a shame it is not a happy one.

Just bought one of these sets but have to say, so far it's been a massive disappointment.

Initially all seemed well, but noticed problems in low light scenes or when playing games. I noticed that shadow areas tend to be discoloured and suffer a weird halo effect.

To this end I connected the set to a computer and did a bitmap at 1920x1080 with a colour gradient from blue on the right, to black at the left. This shows exactly why the set has issues with shadows. The gradient is in no way linear, it's full of spikes and discolouration. At shades of blue near black, the set just gets it wrong and displays browns and greens. Approaching black, the colour/brightness actually goes up, then down, then back up again just on the verge of total black.

This explains the halo's and weird effects I'm seeing in shadow regions. They just look like egg whites plonked ontop as the edges of shaded regions are higlighted. Noise that should be so close to black that you can't see it shows up as a weird green/brown stipple effect, especially noticable on titles and credits of movies, which tend to have black backgrounds.

Console games look particularly poor on this set, as they tend to contain lots of low brightness transparencies for dust and explosions, or light shafts against black backgrounds, which is exactly what this range of sets don't appear to be able to handle at all. They look stuck on, and don't feather out to black correctly.

Ironic that a Sony set bought to play Playstation games makes the games look very poor indeed.

I have since had the set replaced by the retailer, but subsequent sets all suffer identical problems.

I attempted to contact Sony, but I'm getting the impression their scripts don't cater too well with well reasoned fault descriptions. All they seem to be able to suggest is to get it replaced, even after having it replaced. The retailer tells me that all the sets he has in stock from this range suffer identical problems, and believes it's an inherant design or manufacturing problem.

I also own a 3 year old 40V3000, which has a flawless colour gradient
and doesn't suffer any of the visible issues the EX403 range has, it displays the same colour gradient flawlessly, so it's not like I'm expecting too much in terms of fidelity from the set.

So, judging from the information given by my retailer it looks like I can't actually source one that isn't faulty, I guess it's time to try a different brand. A great shame, it will be the first non Sony TV in our houshold for nearly a generation.

Had great hopes for this TV, had been holding off until FreeviewHD was integrated but as it stands the picture on this range of sets when viewing dark scenes is the worst of any set I've ever seen. You might expect such problems with your Matsui's etc... but not from Sony.

It will be interesting to see a proper review of this set from the WhatHiFi review
staff, but for the minute, all in all, I'm gutted

I would be interested to hear of any other users viewpoints regarding this set, but for the minute my advice is "Avoid".

Unfortunately I don't appear to be able to upload the pics of the screen that shows it's abysmal colour fidelity, a limitation of this site

 

[Anonymous]

Have just spoken to my retailer about the issue again to try to find a solution, who says that he has tested his stock and this issue effects all 32/37/40/46" EX403 sets that he currently has in stock.

Not very promising.

 

[pete321]

I bought one of these as a bedroom TV within a few days of it's release and I have to say now that it's burnt in and I've got the settings to my liking, I'm pleased with the picture. Whilst it's not a match for my Pioneer 5090, I haven't noticed any issues with the colour gradient. After reading about your problems, I went and had a good look to see if I'd missed something, but colours are true in dark scenes, with the HD channels looking great. Blacks are also very deep. No backlight bleed that seemed to blight a number of previous sets, but it seems there may be issues with colour now, just not with mine I'm happy to report. I would add that I've got all the gismos turned off, my Freeview settings are:

Picture Mode: Standard / Backlight: Min to 3 (depending on amount of light in room) / Contrast: 92 / Brightness: 50 / Colour: 49 / Hue: 0 / Colour Temp: Neutral / Sharpness: Min / Noise Reduction: Off / MPEG Noise Reduction: Off / Film Mode: Auto / Advanced Settings: All off or 0.

Although happy, now that Play.com have the 32EX503 for £599, I wish I'd waited a bit longer, no doubt that the 100hz picture would give better motion than that on the 403.

 

[Anonymous]

Patango:
Initially all seemed well, but noticed problems in low light scenes or when playing games. I noticed that shadow areas tend to be discoloured and suffer a weird halo effect.

At shades of blue near black, the set just gets it wrong and displays browns and greens. Approaching black, the colour/brightness actually goes up, then down, then back up again just on the verge of total black.

This explains the halo's and weird effects I'm seeing in shadow regions. They just look like egg whites plonked ontop as the edges of shaded regions are higlighted. Noise that should be so close to black that you can't see it shows up as a weird green/brown stipple effect, especially noticable on titles and credits of movies, which tend to have black backgrounds.

Thank goodness it's not just me ! I've had a KDL-37EX503 for a week and have been moaning about exactly the same issue, no matter how much you fiddle with the settings you can't get it to behave - the colour on my 32D3000 and 40W4500 (cloudy!) don't suffer from this problem.

I had thought it was because it wasn't a Sony panel but this sounds like it's across the range. Have been thinking of returning to Play.com who will only take it back if faulty, had wondered if this could be described as a fault and now think it can be -- it's not just me being fussy !

 

[Anonymous]

armpowered:
Thank goodness it's not just me ! I've had a KDL-37EX503 for a week and have been moaning about exactly the same issue, no matter how much you fiddle with the settings you can't get it to behave - the colour on my 32D3000 and 40W4500 (cloudy!) don't suffer from this problem.

I had thought it was because it wasn't a Sony panel but this sounds like it's across the range. Have been thinking of returning to Play.com who will only take it back if faulty, had wondered if this could be described as a fault and now think it can be -- it's not just me being fussy !

Oh I had a EX403, but returned it and replaced with an EX503. I put my test pattern and colour gradients up on the 503 and it's perfect, almost as good as my dedicated monitor, so I'm surprised you're seeing this.

Pete seems happy with his 403 so maybe there's some variation in manufacture and we're just unlucky with our first purchases. As I say though, my 503 doesn't exhibit any of the problems the 403 was suffering.

 

[Anonymous]

Another Quality control problem. This EX range share the share parts bins but the question is the origination of the LCD panels??Clearly some dodgy panels are getting into production.

Test cards like Displaymate are often used invariably on PC LCD to assess color and contrast. This is often not used on TV reviews by any magazine I can think of.

I think the the THX set up tool would have detected the problems.

Frankly, I am now convinced this EX range is plighed by other issues not seen on the W or V series as well as the unknown possible backlight issue! Sony have indeed caught the Toyota bug of late.