KDL 40W5500 what is this strange problem?

[Oldboy]

Hello all,

As always i'm after your wisdom here....i have noticed a rather strange problem lately with my 40W5500 that i bought before xmas. I'm pretty sure this isn't a backlight issue as i have that in the top corners under low light conditions and after the ammount of coverage in these forums i'm convinced this is something different.

During panning shots i get a really strange 'line' appear left centre of the screen, forgive me as i don't know how best to describe the problem but it is about 2cm wide and terrible when watching football. It seems as though the contrast and brightness of the screen are different in this area and the whole line (which runs top to bottom of the screen) seems to be tarnished with a strange shade of brown when viewed at closer inspection. The strange bit is that when the shots aren't panning it more or less disappears although when watching Empire Strikes Back last night the line was evident during those snow shots when the camera wasn't panning which has lead to this post.

Do i have a problem with my TV?? Does anybody have any ideas what this problem may be?

I should add that it occurs over ALL sources and that picture tweaking has no effect.......all comments much appreciated!

 

[matthewpiano]

Sorry to report that this sounds like a panel problem and it may well require a new panel.

We recently had a similar issue with a 32V4500. It required a replacement panel.

Is your set still under warranty? If it is, you need to act now to ensure that you get the repair done. Speak to your retailer and/or the local authorised Sony repair agent.

Please do not leave this because replacement panels are expensive - it can cost as much as £600-£700 to have a new panel fitted to a 40" set.

 

[Oldboy]

NOOOOOOOOOO!!! I don't beleive this yet more problems to deal with......arrrghhh Sony are not in my good books anymore, i had 2 TV's before xmas until i got one i could live with now this. Not a happy chappy. Many many thanks for the info matthewpiano!

The good news is my TV is under warranty, it is still only 3 months old so not even out of first year warranty and i got a free extra 3year warranty from Sony when i purchased.

Who do i go to first with the problem, do i contact my retailer or Sony in the first instance? And i presume i will be without a TV for some time then, 3-4 weeks? Could you tell me how your experience went with your panel please, was it fixed, how long did it take and am i liable for any costs?

Sorry for all the questions but the more info i can get the better, many thanks

 

[True Blue]

Your contract is with the retailer. Do not be fobbed off.

Any goods sold should be "fit for purpose" as this is now your 3rd TV in what appears to be six months I would be asking for a full refund.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Oldboy:Who do i go to first with the problem, do i contact my retailer or Sony in the first instance?

The retailer.

Oldboy:And i presume i will be without a TV for some time then, 3-4 weeks?

No. Demand a replacement or, if you prefer, a full refund. Tell them you are rejecting the set due to an obvious fault in a major component - the panel.

Oldboy:Am i liable for any costs?

No, none at all.

 

[matthewpiano]

Obviously it may still be a processing issue, but I seriously doubt it. It sounds exactly the same as the problem we had with our customer's 32V4500.

In the end we ended up replacing our customer's set with a 32V5500, because the panel was going to take far too long to arrive.

First port of call is the original retailer. Hopefully they will be able to provide you with a loan set if yours has to go away. You might even find that, in the circumstances, they are happy to replace the set. Either way, the retailer should be taking the hassle out of this for you. After all, you have been messed around enough already. To be honest I THINK YOU SHOULD PUSH FOR A REPLACEMENT SET.

I'm really sorry you've had so many issues. I can understand why you are not very happy and I hope things get resolved quickly and efficiently for you.

 

[Anonymous]

I have problems with my Sky + HD box. After reading some reports from others on variuos sites , one problem was vertical lines on screen. This was reported to be a problem with sky box,

 

[matthewpiano]

blackbelt2:I have problems with my Sky + HD box. After reading some reports from others on variuos sites , one problem was vertical lines on screen. This was reported to be a problem with sky box,

The OP experiences the issue with all sources so it can't be the Sky box. It is certainly a problem with the TV.

 

[Oldboy]

First of all a very BIG thankyou to everyone who has replied! Much appreciated and thanks for taking the time out to do so.

I'm always useless when it comes to dealing with retailers so the more knowledge i can get before making that call the better, i will call my retailer today and then report back with the outcome. However i am now wondering what to do, if i am entitled to a refund do i really want another W5500 with potential problems? Should i be aiming to change the set entirely and get something else or stick with it??

 

[Andrew Everard]

Only you can decide that, but if you've had three samples of the same set...

 

[matthewpiano]

The 40W5500 is a very good TV, but I can completely understand why you might have lost patience with it after the poor experience you have had. I can't believe your bad luck - we have had issues with older D3000 sets and the X3500 ones, but apart from that one 32V and a pixel issue on a 46W5500, we haven't had any other panel issues with the 2009 range. However, if I was in your position I would be seriously questioning whether I want to give the model a fourth chance to get it right. Also bear in mind that availability is getting difficult now that the set has been discontinued. I know that we have sold out of the set across both our stores, with the new EX503 coming in tomorrow.

You need to have a very frank discussion with the retailer and discuss the options, but make sure that you are happy with whatever outcome you reach.

Keep us updated. I hope you end up with a TV that you can enjoy, whatever make and model it turns out to be.

 

[Oldboy]

Thanks again!

If i'm being totally honest i don't really want another 40W5500 after the problems i have had so far. Before i speak to PRC (retailer) i would like an idea of what to get as a replacement if they decide it's apropriate (or do i demand a replacement?), and from having a look at the WHF reviews page i'm none the wiser as to what to get at the same price point (£750) and screen size. There seems no obvious choice and i don't want to get this one wrong! Any ideas on a replacement set very much appreciated, thank you.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Well, the 40in TV Supertest in our current issue would suggest that the obvious replacement would be the Samsung LE40B550, at £550.

 

[Anonymous]

the samsung may be the same size , but it dont have 100hz , if you like the 100hz (motionflow) turned on , when waching your sony , then you will probably not get on with a b550 ,in that case id consider a b650 ...

 

[Andrew Everard]

Although as we said in the test, the lack of motion processing doesn't seem to hamper the performance of the set one little bit.

 

[matthewpiano]

Have to say I've seen some of the Sharp LED-lit sets recently and was very impressed. Might be worth investigating. They seem to be a brand very much back on the up.

 

[Oldboy]

UPDATE: The problem has become intermitent and some days it is entirely free from the problem, i contacted my retailer who asked me to take the tv along to them so they could have a look at it which seemed fair enough and when i got to the store the problem was just not noticeable so i thought it was me and took the tv away with me as the retailer could find no fault. However as i said before the problem IS still there it's just become very strange that it seems to have good days and bad days, if i didn't know better i would say i have a gremlin living inside the tv lol!

I'm thinking of going back to my retailer now but with such an intermitent problem i'm not sure what to do?????

 

[Anonymous]

hey oldboy

i really hate it when that happens when you know you have an issue and it either does not rear its ugly head or the guy cannot see it or refuses to? like the guy in the sony centre i bought my set from said that he has sold 100's of the 40w5500 40w5710's and 40w5810's none had the backlight issue when i have personally seen 5 sets in low light all had it to some degree or another and he had the cheek to say that the review sample of the 40w5500 sent to whathifi was a pre production model and that that should have been stated in the review so what about all the other mags reviews? of the w's and various other models including the z's too oh and apparently he has not seen a dead pixel or stuck pixel in years and if you do get one it will be a whole line of em over the screen i see sets in stores often with pixel drop out must be returned sets! sony tech on the phone to me have denied there is a backlight issue????? What is wrong with these places sending someone out to have a look in our set up anyway i bought a jvc crt 4 years ago had an issue with screen position which i could not move so comet sent a bloke out who sorted it for me via service menue for free similar thing with a phillips set from tempo 13 years ago one thing that goes backwards is customer services and reliability that is for sure wow i have gone way off topic here sorry mate...

i hope your issue gets resolved one way or another oldboy at least you have 3 year warranty

 

[Oldboy]

Hi snakey,

Yep got to admit i felt like a total tool when i took the tv back to the retailer only for the problem to not be noticeable! I've no idea what to do if i'm being totally honest but it seems i have little choice but to stick with it or try to sell it and start again both of which are not ideal so i will be taking this further......i'm looking into my legal situation and once i'm confident i will be approaching the retailer again to find a solution but this time with the full knowledge of what i can and can't do. As for Sony and their sales people you are right they flatly refuse to accept there is a problem with clouding and that has been widely discussed in these forums many times despite reports from owners that say the opposite (myself included) and is yet more proof of sonys poor atitude to customer service and that it simply dosen't value it's customers opinions of which there must be many thousands!

That guy you spoke to was SO far off the mark it's unreal......why does someone so ill informed work in a Sony centre????? I had TWO Samsung tv's which arrived with pixel problems and both had pixels that were permanantly 'ON' ie the pixels were always bright white no matter what you did so i guess i just imagined that then and so did Amazon after they had checked the tv and confirmed the problem.....? Got to say you received brilliant service from Comet now if only Sony could take a leaf out of their book they may well get some credit for a change instead of being beaten up in every thread i look at.

My 3 yr warranty is of no use in this situation as far as i am aware.....i have to prove there is a problem.

 

[robjcooper]

Oldboy,

You said earlier that the problem manifested itself on some static snow shots in "The Empire Strikes Back". If this was a dvd you were watching, try it again and if the problem occurs, try and take some photographs of it. If it doesn't occur then, try later or on another day. As it is an intermittent fault, then eventually you should be able to get a shot or two showing the dealer what it is you are seeing. As this is your third set, and it is obviously not fit for the purpose you bought it, if you have evidence of this fault then the retailer will have no choice but to refund you. There are lots of new sets out soon and as it's only three months old there's no need to be lumbered with a turkey.

Good luck

Rob

 

[Oldboy]

Many thanks Rob!

Sounds like a plan to me, i have taken some pics of the problem whilst watching normal tv but it's a bit hit and miss getting it on camera so will try with 'Empire' later today as i should have more luck with that as i can pause the film lol. Now that you have mentioned it i think the time of day may well have something to do with it as this morning in bright morning sunlight it's quite hard to spot....now i'm wondering if this is a backlight problem as the clouding on the top corners reacts the same ie when in bright conditions the clouding is not noticable but during low light conditions you can't miss it. Either way i'm not happy and want to prove i'm not making this up which was the vibe i got from the retailer, therefore making me more determined than ever to replace this turkey of a tv.

 

[Anonymous]

hey oldboy (what i call my dad by the way)

I do not think the tv is a turkey in many ways i think the sonys are possibly the best well for me anyway but you have been unlucky there with this fault you have i went on to samsung 6 series after my w5500 did not like it atall too many gliches with 100htz sound delay to external sources some inputs were not centred on screen and could not adjust em plus backlight on that set had a torchlight effect at the top a quarter of the way in but brighter than the sonys i had 2 and both were poor oh also with pixel drop out but the thing that bugged me is the screen so shiny and once you get any thing on them other than dust you can never get it good again a ****** to clean.

Then i had a phillips 427409 2009 model which in many ways i liked mainly as it did not have any faults no pixel issues backlight was perfect but just too damn bright with no adjustment other than best pic or energy save so balacks appeared well not black especially when viewed from any kind of angle well the whole screen looked washed out and the input lag for games i reckon was at least 300 ms was less with the 100htz off and perfect pixel hd off but still high plus even though the 100htz and hd perfect pixel made the pic smooth well smoother than the w sonys even there was way too many gliches for my liking and it just looked fake really weird.so that set went back now i am back to sony

so in short i think some of us will be bothered by these things and others not it is weird because if i have issues with other things like say a camera say with the screen you can of course look past it but as the main thing for a tv to do is display an image then anything you notice you might think is a fault will bug the hell out of you well it does me anayway actually i wish all these companys would drop all the widgets and trickery and what ever else they are gonna do and just worry about making an awesome tv this 3d thing also bugs me too early i think bluray is just setting in now it is all gonna change again

take care oldboy i hope your issue goes away cuz i do feel it is a great tv hidden there

 

[Oldboy]

Hello Snakey,

Ha Ha like the nickname for your dad! Mine is just a reference to the film of the same name and i'm not actually old but i am a boy.

I had a Samsung 6series before my W5500 and had the same complaints as you but the pixel issues were what done it for me so i went with the sony w5500 and had a similar experience with this, i am currently on the 3rd tv and i'm of the opinion that this will end up going back too so to say i'm not impressed with this gen of tv's is an understatement....they all seem to have problems of varying degrees unless you want to push your budget up to the frankly ridiculous (for a TV lol) £2000 mark which put simply i don't have. And even then thoses lovely new Phillips models have had problems too with many threads appearing on here about them...it all seems like a gamble to me that you get a half decent tv which just can't be right?

I agree that in many respects the w5500 is a good tv but my eyes are constantly drawn to the obvious floors in the picture, the clouding in the top corners and that strange line under motion which has made it very difficult to appreciate what the tv does best. Like you say, it's very difficult to look past any fault as the only thing it needs to do is display an image and when you are constantly looking at it over a period of time it REALLY bugs me too!! I would be happy to just see the back of this current tv and hope that the next one is noticably better (whatever that may be).

Nice talking to you snakey, has really helped having someone to bounce this off and sorry if i've sounded like a complete moaner at times it's just very frustrating

 

[matthewpiano]

Oldboy

The retailer should be offering to test the set over a few hours with various different inputs.

Don't accept a product which isn't working to full spec. A TV is a big investment and it needs to be right.

I hope you manage to get your issues sorted out. The W5500 is a great set but I can understand why you are getting fed up with yours now.

All the best,
Matt.

 

[Anonymous]

Hei Matthew, I mentioned that you were really impressed with the latest Sharp LED-lit TVs.

Were they brand new models D920, 910,820 models ? Or LE series reviewed here ?

I am dying to see their new beasts. I think Sony will be using Sharp panels as well so we might expect some breakthroughs. And it would be really interesting to see what Sony, Philips and Sharp could do with the same panels, but different data processing.