Many problems Sony 46W4500

[Anonymous]

Ted77:

Just to add this ongoing forum page (...& to repeat what I have just posted somewhere else...)

Anyone else wondering about this particular forum page....

Thw w4500 - everywhere rates it as an excellent tv...if you go to the shops and view it seems an excellent tv...BUT it seems that half a dozen new members (I am too!) have hijacked a forum page with repeat messages about something which could be faulty set!!...

A cynical person may think they had motives to increase Panasonic sales against those of Sony!?!?

A paranoid person could question whether there is only one unhappy customer with a few what hi-fi accounts and a few happy contented plasma owners contributing...

I have to admit Im suspicious of some of these posts. Whilst I feel there are some genuine posts, I also think there are posters on this thread with alterior motives -

EDITED BY MODS

I bet there are just as many faulty sets from other manufacturers. The reviews Ive heard from other sites on the W4500 are very favourable.

The only reason Im on this thread at the momment is that Im looking to move my Sony 32D3000 into the bedroom and get a 40" for the living room and want to choose the right model. The picture on this set is fantastic for both SD and HD with no issues whatsoever. I think I will go Sony again - for me its a question of whether the 100 Mhtz processing is necessary as most reviews of the W4000 report no problem handling motion.

 

[Anonymous]

Ted77:

Just to add this ongoing forum page (...& to repeat what I have just posted somewhere else...)

Anyone else wondering about this particular forum page....

Thw w4500 - everywhere rates it as an excellent tv...if you go to the shops and view it seems an excellent tv...BUT it seems that half a dozen new members (I am too!) have hijacked a forum page with repeat messages about something which could be faulty set!!...

A cynical person may think they had motives to increase Panasonic sales against those of Sony!?!?

A paranoid person could question whether there is only one unhappy customer with a few what hi-fi accounts and a few happy contented plasma owners contributing...

You can prove these posters are the same person can you? No, I did not think so. Why don't you have the courage to actually name the people who you think are working for Panasonic? A non paranoid person might think that you are talking out of the top of your hat.

How do I know you don't work for Sony? I find it rather suspicious that there are certain people, you are one of them, who seem obsessed with promoting Sony. There is someone on here who works for The Sony Centre, and they are very welcome to post here giving their views, so your juvenile conspiracy theories don't hold any water at all.

 

[matthewpiano]

Very Annoyed:Ted77:

Just to add this ongoing forum page (...& to repeat what I have just posted somewhere else...)

Anyone else wondering about this particular forum page....

Thw w4500 - everywhere rates it as an excellent tv...if you go to the shops and view it seems an excellent tv...BUT it seems that half a dozen new members (I am too!) have hijacked a forum page with repeat messages about something which could be faulty set!!...

A cynical person may think they had motives to increase Panasonic sales against those of Sony!?!?

A paranoid person could question whether there is only one unhappy customer with a few what hi-fi accounts and a few happy contented plasma owners contributing...

You can prove these posters are the same person can you? No, I did not think so. Why don't you have the courage to actually name the people who you think are working for Panasonic? A non paranoid person might think that you are talking out of the top of your hat.

How do I know you don't work for Sony? I find it rather suspicious that there are certain people, you are one of them, who seem obsessed with promoting Sony. There is someone on here who works for The Sony Centre, and they are very welcome to post here giving their views, so your juvenile conspiracy theories don't hold any water at all.

I am that person and I completely agree with Very Annoyed that basically accusing posters of using this forum for the commercial gain of a competing manufacturer or technology is going too far. Internet forums operate on a basis of trust and we have to give this trust as much as we can. On the other side, I do think this thread is getting to the point where it is going round in circles and that those who are unhappy with their sets would find it much more productive pursuing some answers through their retailer. Contrary to suggestions by some, Sony UK take customer satisfaction very seriously but react on information and issues raised by their approved retailers and their customers rather than on forum chit chat.

 

[Anonymous]

I do not work for Sony and I don't get this whole 'fanboy' idea of zealous brand loyalty. I bought a sony because it was well reviewed, and my W4500 had major clouding and backlight bleed issues from day one. Sony call centre refused to take any action, and a follow up letter to Sony received no response so the TV has gone back to the retailer (who took it back without question when I mentioned clouding). I spoke to John Lewis Welwyn about this last week when looking for a replacement (was thinking about just getting another w4500), and the guy at the store said they'd seen some customer returns on early W4500s but none recently. Decided to go for a panny plasma anyway, because having seen backlight bleed I knew I'd always be paranoid about it from now on if I bought LCD.

None of this is that big of a deal. Buy the tv from a reputable retailer, just be prepared for the (remote) possibility that you get unlucky and get a lame duck set like mine, in which case you swap with very little hassle or fuss. That goes for any TV by any brand.

 

[Anonymous]

First of all thanks to everybody for your valuable opinion about the W4500 and its pros/cons. I post from Spain (but I'm not responsible for the Bravia's assembly

).

The question is that I've ordered one of this Bravias (40W4500), obviously before reading all this issues related to clouding, bleeding, flickering, etc. I'm still in time for refuse the order, but -even with those possible problems- I (still) like this TV very much. I consider that W4000 is not an change option, perhaps the problems are the same...

I supose that I could receive different kinds of advice and tips, but I'd be happy to receive them. In fact, I'm eagerly waiting Clare to open her Dad's TV set

, her opinion his quite important for me!

Can someone help me?

Thanks again!

 

[Anonymous]

Kuto:

First of all thanks to everybody for your valuable opinion about the W4500 and its pros/cons. I post from Spain (but I'm not responsible for the Bravia's assembly

).

The question is that I've ordered one of this Bravias (40W4500), obviously before reading all this issues related to clouding, bleeding, flickering, etc. I'm still in time for refuse the order, but -even with those possible problems- I (still) like this TV very much. I consider that W4000 is not an change option, perhaps the problems are the same...

I supose that I could receive different kinds of advice and tips, but I'd be happy to receive them. In fact, I'm eagerly waiting Clare to open her Dad's TV set

, her opinion his quite important for me!

Can someone help me?

Thanks again!

Hi there, not sure exactly what your asking, however, as an owner of a 46w4500 with some of these issues I'd make sure you get one from a good retailer who will exchange the set if your unsatisfied. Do you watch in the dark or a lit room, if you normally view in a well lit room non of these issues will be detectable, in the day or with the lights on my set does look stunning with bluray and xbox 360 its only at night with the lights off the issues become apparent. As of now I'm waiting for the shop to get new stock in to exchange mine.

 

[Anonymous]

Thankyou Villain210! My retailer is a spanish Internet shop, they offer the possibility of exchange if broken or malfunction. I suppose that clouding, etc. isn't included in "malfunction", after Sony's answer related to settings... that scares me a lot!

What about free TDT channels (SD) in W4500? I'm going to spend many hours watching then, I fear.

Thanks a lot! (and sorry for my english).

 

[Anonymous]

Scientific Test (well sort of) on 40w4000, 46w4000, 40w4500 and 46w4500

I have been reading the thread and it made me uneasy about the purchase decision that I was about to make. I wanted the 46W4000 and then found out 4500 is even better so waited and as I am just about to buy it this whole thread started.

So the other day I went to comet North Shields and played with 40w4000, 46w4000, 40w4500 and 46w4500 for over an hour. They were really good and gave me the remote(s) left me to my own devices. I checked as much as possible this backlight problem and didn't see any .

All sets were in their most garish settings (dynamic or whatver) to show as much brightness and colours. Mr Bond was doing his Blu-Ray stuff, madagascar or kunfu panda was doing their stuff as well and not a sausage. I put the sets to movie mode, again nothing didn't see any bleeding/clouding whatsoever. I put the sets to an AV input which had no av source hence the screen was .... well black and again no clouding. Some sets were running SKY Sports News and they were OK as well.

My Conclusion:

I owned pioneer 427x and now 46 Sharp.

Pioneer suffered from incredible image quality but also terrible banding on uniform colours (like footy pitch). Also image retention. It had to go back.

Sharp my current TV. What a come down from Pioneer. Seeing the Freeview first time I thought poooooo. But calibrated properly and all is good. But it locks up during HDMI input changes. Can't be doing with that. It has to go.

Sony (my potential new purchase). It's sony. Name says it all. 5-year warranty from JL. It's Sony (did I say that before?) Seal of approval from WHF mag, but bad review from another site.

If I am going to buy it but not gonna go and look for clouding. In other words not going to go out of my way to look for it. I'll see during my normal viewing conditions will I notice it. If I don't all is good. If I do please refund me my money JL. Move onto Samsung.

Whatever we buy we are going to see pro's adn con's with our choices.

Plasma: Great picture, heavier, more power consumption, not as bright, better blacks, no image blurring, image retention, excellent SD pictures.

LCD: Brighter, lighter, less energy consumption, image blurring, no image retention, SD pictures not as good, not as good blacks.

So there is choices to be made and I would take the above into account before I make a choice as I am sure we all do. To mitigate the problems which may arise I buy from a reputable company (pay a little extra) like JL. With a purchase like this if I can help it I will not order over the internet even though most of them are excellent companies.

By the way Clare you are gorgeous.

 

[Anonymous]

Kuto:

Thankyou Villain210! My retailer is a spanish Internet shop, they offer the possibility of exchange if broken or malfunction. I suppose that clouding, etc. isn't included in "malfunction", after Sony's answer related to settings... that scares me a lot!

What about free TDT channels (SD) in W4500? I'm going to spend many hours watching then, I fear.

Thanks a lot! (and sorry for my english).

Hi, can't say the issues bother me when watching SD TV that much, the issues mainly affect dark scenes in movies, maybe some TV shows, if your main concern is SD TV then you probably would be best looking elsewhere, if you want a top quality bluray picture (like me) then this is the way to go if you can get a good set.

Sony's response in my opinion is a load of rubbish, they are saying basically turn the backlight down, wow I'd have never have thought of that, I thought you were suppose to leave it on MAX (sarcasm). You can turn it down to MIN and turn power saving onto reduced power with light sensor on and all it does is give you a very dull picture, you need the backlight on about 2-3 to give a decently lit picture, and the less said about the reduced power option the better.

 

[Anonymous]

trained_killa:

So the other day I went to comet North Shields and played with 40w4000, 46w4000, 40w4500 and 46w4500 for over an hour. They were really good and gave me the remote(s) left me to my own devices. I checked as much as possible this backlight problem and didn't see any .

I'm guessing it wasn't that dark in comet huh? because to look at mine during the day or a decently lit room you wouldn't notice any of those things either, it looks fantastic, these issues only become apparent when you've got it in your home environment and its dark at night.

 

[Anonymous]

Villain2100:trained_killa:

So the other day I went to comet North Shields and played with 40w4000, 46w4000, 40w4500 and 46w4500 for over an hour. They were really good and gave me the remote(s) left me to my own devices. I checked as much as possible this backlight problem and didn't see any .

I'm guessing it wasn't that dark in comet huh? because to look at mine during the day or a decently lit room you wouldn't notice any of those things either, it looks fantastic, these issues only become apparent when you've got it in your home environment and its dark at night.

I know what you are saying. I took that into account. It was faintly illuminated. There was no spotlights or direct lights coming onto it. in fact I can honestly say it was positively dimmed down. despite that i din't see any. I am talking about not just 1 set here but 4 so law of averages at least one had to be rubbish.

 

[cmf]

ok guys figure this out.

my girl friend bought the sony kdl40d3500 in february and it clearly had the clouding and backlight bleed. I notied it all the time when i was watching dark scenes.

Over the last few day I have been playing around with the tv trying to see how bad it really was. i was surprised, its all gone . I have had it on the av channel with the screen just blank and it looks pretty good. if i am being picky there is a tiny bit of bleed on the top right corner but it is barely noticeable ( about the size of a pound coin). I have checked this after the tv has been on for five minutes and five hours and same results. these checks were done in complete darkness.

this i think is great news, well for her at least. does this mean that this problem goes away after a "breaking in" period ?

has anyone else noticed an improvement with their w4500 tv.

 

[Anonymous]

The clouding on my 2.5 year old 40w2000 is still there! although its got no worse and isnt really that bad but its still there! dam LCD's

 

[Anonymous]

After two weeks my 40w4500 has arived (bought on the recommendation of WHM), in that two weeks I have been reading this thread with a deep sinking feeling and dreading seeing these problems on my tv.

Afer watching this TV for two days now, at different settings day and night, I have only one word to use 'AWESOME'

There are none of the issuses highlighted on this thread (thank goodness) and the picture quality is just out of this world.

Incidently when i questioned the internet retailer why delivery was taking so long they told me that one of my ordered items (the sony tv) had been delayed by the factory. So maybe they are 100% checking these units before they leave the factory now, but thats just a guess.

 

[Anonymous]

Good news for those who are waiting for a 40W4500! But, as you said, perhaps yours is one of the "good" ones (more likely 40'').

 

[Anonymous]

8035jason:So maybe they are 100% checking these units before they leave the factory now, but thats just a guess.

That would be great.

Anyway, my question would be this: is it possible that the Z4500 series doesn't have this 'unacceptable clouding' bug? I'm really thinking about buying one of them.

 

[cmf]

8035jason:

After two weeks my 40w4500 has arived (bought on the recommendation of WHM), in that two weeks I have been reading this thread with a deep sinking feeling and dreading seeing these problems on my tv.

Afer watching this TV for two days now, at different settings day and night, I have only one word to use 'AWESOME'

There are none of the issuses highlighted on this thread (thank goodness) and the picture quality is just out of this world.

Incidently when i questioned the internet retailer why delivery was taking so long they told me that one of my ordered items (the sony tv) had been delayed by the factory. So maybe they are 100% checking these units before they leave the factory now, but thats just a guess.

could you please tell us model nu, date made and place made.

 

[Anonymous]

Received the 46W4500 two days ago and I have the backlight bleed and clouding issue as well. I have used the TV all weekend to see if it would clear any but its made no difference.

My TV was made in Spain and manufactured 10/08. I will hopefully get a replacement for it which is issue free as in every other respect this television is superb.

 

[Anonymous]

Had mine a week now and the clouding is still there. I thought i would persist and see if it settled but no luck.

A call to the retailler tomorrow to see about a swap.

Need to be able to view the new TV after an hour or so see if the new set has the same issue.

 

[Anonymous]

8035jason:
After two weeks my 40w4500 has arived (bought on the recommendation of WHM), in that two weeks I have been reading this thread with a deep sinking feeling and dreading seeing these problems on my tv.

Afer watching this TV for two days now, at different settings day and night, I have only one word to use 'AWESOME'

There are none of the issuses highlighted on this thread (thank goodness) and the picture quality is just out of this world.

Incidently when i questioned the internet retailer why delivery was taking so long they told me that one of my ordered items (the sony tv) had been delayed by the factory. So maybe they are 100% checking these units before they leave the factory now, but thats just a guess.

I doubt it sony LCD's where same two years ago and there was a hell of lot of fuss and noise then about backlight issues two years later and guess what???? It is a great TV ive been looking at them today and the detail they muster up is awsome, But im going for a new 46 panny plasma looks more natural to my eyes

 

[cmf]

just been reading a new review of the 40w4500, here is what it had to say about the backlight problem.

Screen/ Backlight Uniformity

Out-of-the-box, we witnessed an alarming amount of patchy unevenness ("clouding"), and backlight bleed on the top left and bottom right of the LCD screen when watching very dark scenes on the Sony KDL40W4500 in a dimly-lit viewing environment. However, proper calibration (hint: set [Backlight] to "Min") attenuated these to negligible levels. only the harshest critics would still complain about the remaining trace of backlight bleed at the top left corner, and lightness at the sides of the screen.

this is the second top review site that has tested a model with this problem so I guess it is alot more common than first thought. the reviewer still goes on to highly recommended this tv.

 

[Anonymous]

Can't believe people are still buying this faulty piece of *** that Sony are selling and selling for a premium price and for those people that already have them with faults stop accepting it, don't live with a faulty set bring it back and complain and tell them you want a discount for your trouble.

I'm now going for a samsung series 7.

rob

 

[Anonymous]

Anyone with just a bit of advice for direction

If my retailler will allow me to return my set i exchange, and a new set is not any better or worse than my current set. My option is to look at the Panny 46 plasma

What major differences am I looking at. i.e the obvious comment of ''no clouding,backlight bleed'' Becasue other than the clouding problem I can;t fault the picture, its amazing. I just saddens me I may have to change. I love the picture and the look of the set, but I hate clouds!!

 

[Anonymous]

Yes will post this info for you tomorrow, watching too fast too furious at moment and cant take my eyes off the screen.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey why are you saying this TV is faulty, mine is excellent there is NO evidence of the problems posted here and the picture really is fantastic.Sometimes I think people just hate a certain make and just want to prove a point. Just for your info Samsung and Sony screens are same!!

Anyway I'll try to post some pictures to prove there are no issuses with my TV.

Also wouldnt mind hearing from Clare Newsome to see what happened with her dads TV