Many problems Sony 46W4500

[Anonymous]

My set is now virtually free of "Clouding", when it arrived I had it in the top right and left of the screen, however over the 6 weeks or so that I have had it each week the clouding has got better and now it is barely noticeable.

I have managed to get the setting right for my 360, however for the PS3 I know that the picture can be better than it is currently is. I also have Sky HD and the picture is pretty good. I was wondering if someone could recommend some settings for the PS3 and Sky HD.

 

[Anonymous]

I am about 8 weeks in to owning my 46W4500

Clouding improved but still there.

Hopefully will improve again when i can raise the level of my screen and thinking i may add some amilight as well. Complete darkness does begin to strain my eyes after a while.

Would be interesting to find out the panels did need running in.

 

[Anonymous]

I've been running b/light on 3, reduced power and light sensor on since getting TV about 4 weeks ago. On these settings and with a table lamp (60w bulb) behind the TV, I'd eliminated the bleed totally, although it was already beginning to fade anyway. I've now gone back to default settings ie b/light 8, Standard power, light sensor off and although still using the lamp, I can see very very slight bleeding in the corners. However, this is a huge improvement from new and I'm starting to believe this "running in" theory.

I agree with Michael, on default settings and in darkened room, it does strain the eyes - the screen is so sharp and bright. In that respect I could probably afford to turn down the b/light without losing picture definition and eliminate the bleed again.

Overall I love the TV. The picture quality is awesome and HD DVD's are sublime. I'm happy I purchased the Sony and I'd definitely buy another one.

Rob

 

[Anonymous]

I found the backlight down to 2/3, which I have it on now was a bit dull. But if i put it back to 8, my retina's feel like I am looking at the sun. Backlight now permanently on 2 and love it.

Picture is awesome. Bolstering the TV with an 806 Onkyo, BD55 maybe a Sony S550. If it is as good (plus £100 cheaper) and some lovely B&W 685's

Can't wait.

 

[Anonymous]

I have also noticed my back light bleed is non existent when the set is cold and also is very dependant on picture content, for instance a 4:3 transmission with black vertical bars shows no sign of bleed/torch lighting but a widescreen movie with dark scenes will often show up the defect in the top right corner suggesting there may be a reflective element to the problem, when the defect is not visable the picture is simply stunning but this top right corner bleed is causing me to have a love hate relationship with this set.

 

[Anonymous]

I've just been reading WHF ultimate guide to new technology 2009, in particular their reviews of televisions and the sony's get incredible reviews. the 46w4500 for instance and i quote "this 46-inch sony's astounding picture sees it wipe the floor with the competition" and so on, but i'm sure you've all read this review it's published on this site. anyway after reading through the magazine i pick up the latest sony mag and to my surprise there's Clare Newsome writing an article

 

[Clare Newsome]

Yes, we've been through this before - I don't write anything different for Sony mag than I do for WHF (or any of the other magazines or newspapers I write for, promoting the WHF brand to a wider audience). If Panasonic, Pioneer, Sharp, Toshiba or anyone else asked me to write about AV for them, I would, as long as I was merely repeating our experiences on WHF.

Maybe you'd like to see some recent poor reviews of Sony products we've run? The Sony Gigajuke, perhaps (key product for the company - we think it's really disappointing). Or their most recent Bluetooth headphones?

Or the two Sony receivers that didn't win Awards because we highlighted the Sky+HD issues (and got them resolved). Or the Sony Blu-ray players that failed to win a single one of our Awards this year?

Or, if you want to stick to TVs, the Sony 37in we felt is outperformed by many in the market, especially the Award-winning Panasonic.

Fact is, whereas last year (when I was also writing tech and movie articles for Sony mag) Sony's TV didn't win a single Award from us, this year we feel they've really upped the ante with the 4000/4500 sets. And plenty of other reviewers agree with us.

Again, as i've said many times on this and other threads, it's a real letdown that there are some quality-control issues with the W4500 sets, and that Sony hasn't responded better to the situation, but we've yet to see a properly calibrated set with these issues.

 

[Anonymous]

Michael...you wouldn't mind posting your SD settings would you mate, just the ones for watchin normal telly? Just wanna see how they compare.

Cheers

Rob

 

[Anonymous]

After much deliberation I finally made my purchase on Tuesday at John Lewis. I was looking at the Sony 42W4500 and the Panasonic TH-42PZ80B, and I wanted a blu-ray player as well. I ended up buying the latter along with the Panasonic DMP-BD35 for £871 all-in (5 year TV warranty, 2 year blu-ray warranty, free delivery).

When I started my search I was leaning heavily to the Sony - it looks fantastic in the showrooms, although I notice most stores seem to be playing blu-ray versions of Cars or some similar computer generated movie, which I think really show off good LCD screens in their best light. The picture on the Panasonic plasmas is softer, some might say less clear, but my initial preference for the sharpness of the Sony has been overcome by the following, in order of significance...
[*]Sony's dissapointing attitude to the many reported problems. I don't care how good it is in the showroom - if I get a duffer I need to know that the manufacturer will stand behind their product and their customers. [*]The very good deal I negotiated with John Lewis (it took a bit of haggling, but once you understand the way they work with manufacturer offers a deal fell into place), the Sony would be a fair bit more expensive.[*]I wanted a blu-ray player from the same manufacturer as the TV, and the Panasonic is reputedly better at DVD upscaling than the entry level Sony.[*]The TV is in the corner of my lounge and viewed from up to 40 degrees off-centre, and I could just about notice a change in quality when moving to the side with the Sony.[*]Standard definition TV, especially sports, seemed my palatable on the Panasonic.
This was a really tough call, and if not for the reported problems with the Sony sets I may well have made a different choice. I was tempted to postpone my purchase until the issues with the Sony's reach some sort of conclusion, but I don't see that happening any time soon, and I suspect prices will go up as new stock imported at todays exchange rates starts to hit the shelves.

Delivery on Saturday 10th Jan, which is when I get to see my choice in the environment that really matters. Fingers crossed...

 

[Anonymous]

I meant to say 40W4500, not 42W4500 (doh!). Pleas excuse other typos as well.

 

[mikey2008]

It's fine, it really is. You will see backlight bleed at anything above 'backlight 2' in the settings (I think this is universal), but it's really not an issue to have the backlight on that value. Overall it's a cool TV and I think the detractors are specifically looking for minute problems rather than at the overall picture.

 

[Anonymous]

My 46W4500 will be in a skip in 3-4 years probably. I've decided to enjoy the CURRENT technology but look forward to the newer

 

[D.J.KRIME]

Clare Newsome:

but we've yet to see a properly calibrated set with these issues.

But how many members of "Joe Public" actually have either the know how or equipment to correctly calibrate their TV's? and IMHO using the THX bit on a DVD does not result in a properly calibrated TV!

The fact is that the vast majority of peple simply want to go and buy their new TV and get it home, turn it on and enjoy. Now seeing as this paticular model is one of Sony's higher end ones then IMHO both Sony's response and quality control stink.

 

[Clare Newsome]

I agree that people want to 'plug and play' - and I wish TVs shipped without retina-burning levels of brightness set as standard.

However, we readily offer TV set-up advice along with our reviews, and keep urging people to set their TVs up when they get them home, as it makes such as big difference. And yes, even THX Optimiser makes a big difference to the average set, and is something most people have ready access to.

If people choose to take our advice on what set to buy, but not our advice on the need to spend a few minutes setting it up, than that's their choice/loss: not much we can do about that, other than to continue to stress the importance of set-up.

 

[Anonymous]

Only just became aware of this thread as don't really look at much to do with TVs these days as still have my 46W2000 which I bought well over 2 years ago.

The 46W2000 suffered from the same bleed problems that you are mentioning. It bothered me a lot at the time and I didn't quite think it was acceptable when all the mags were raving about the amazing blacks on this set (not cloudy blues). In the end I couldn't cope any more with the stress and hassle and just accepted it.

It was always possible to reduce the effect by turning down the backlight (it was only really apparent when watching in a dark room in which case the backlight did not have to be on high) so thats what I did.

I find it difficult to imagine why the mags never write about this thing in the reviews (or when they do its a very small piece) yet somehow manage to see vibrant colours and images coming to life when using one HDMI cable over another. Clouding on Sony sets is just so obvious (not sure about other manufacturers) and not isolated to a few models and obviously not the old models. It should be incredibly easy to see in the state of the art testing facilities that WHF have.

 

[Clare Newsome]

We test in a dark room (as well as with lights on), and I repeat again that we simply haven't seen clouding on our calibrated sets. Sorry!

Also, we had both 40- and 46in models of the W4500 Sonys on public display at our Show last November, and even though they were only set-up with THX Optimiser, there was no visible bleed or clouding. OK, so a show floor not a pitch-black room on that occasion, but even so....

 

[D.J.KRIME]

Clare Newsome:

I agree that people want to 'plug and play' - and I wish TVs shipped without retina-burning levels of brightness set as standard.

However, we readily offer TV set-up advice along with our reviews, and keep urging people to set their TVs up when they get them home, as it makes such as big difference. And yes, even THX Optimiser makes a big difference to the average set, and is something most people have ready access to.

If people choose to take our advice on what set to buy, but not our advice on the need to spend a few minutes setting it up, than that's their choice/loss: not much we can do about that, other than to continue to stress the importance of set-up.

maybe it would be worth either on here or in the mag actually publishing the actual settings You came up with after calibration on TV's you review? I have seen sets that My firends (yes Clare I do have some, he he) have supposedly calibrated using the THX optimiserand they are still miles out. Luckly for them (and me) I invested in a Spyder which takes TV set up to a whole differant level but not many of us have readly avalible access to such equipment.

Maybe someone should start some sort of rental on a Spyder where the deposit (say cost of unit) is refunded upon safe return of the Spyder? (think there is a few quid to be made on ebay here!)

 

[Clare Newsome]

I agree Spyder rental would be a grand plan - it's a handy tool.

We also have some other plans in the pipeline to help people set-up their TVs more effectively -watch this space....

 

[professorhat]

I think publishing the settings would just lead to more arguments. Since everyone's room and conditions are going to be different so are the settings. In the event of a bad review, this would no doubt lead to claims of "I've followed your settings and they're wrong so why don't you review it with these settings etc. etc.". Plus some people prefer different settings. You say other people's are way off after they've calibrated with the THX tool, but is that way off to you or way off to them?

 

[D.J.KRIME]

professorhat:

I think publishing the settings would just lead to more arguments. Since everyone's room and conditions are going to be different so are the settings. In the event of a bad review, this would no doubt lead to claims of "I've followed your settings and they're wrong so why don't you review it with these settings etc. etc.". Plus some people prefer different settings. You say other people's are way off after they've calibrated with the THX tool, but is that way off to you or way off to them?

The help in publishing settings is that they could be adehered to as a GUIDE LINE and not say a list of setting set in stone as I agree that all or our eyes and viewing conditions differ and tweeking of any published settings maybe in order, but th fact lies that a vast majority do not understand just how these differant settings affect not only the overall picture but also that by tweeking say the picture gamma level can have such major knock on effect upon te sets contrast and brightness yet alone affect the whole colour palet.

In publishing a set of settings people would be able to see the differance each change makes giving a greater insight into just how each setting affects your TV, so even if you prsonally were not 100% happy with the mags printed findings you would still in turn have a better understanding of how to further tweek your set to a setting of which you prefer.

As for my coment on my mates TV still being way off after using the THX optimser lets just say one had a contrast setting of 90,brightness of 58 and sharpness set to 100! I think that equates to well off!

 

[Anonymous]

Clare, I would not expect to see any clouding unless in a dark room ... it would have to be awful to be visible in a shop or even during day time viewing.

I guess what must be happening is that Sony must cherry pick the sets they send for review to ensure they are as perfect as can be - and who can blame them. I would do the same.

 

[Clare Newsome]

That doesn't explain why my Dad's set - which he bought off-the-peg at Amazon - is cloud-free after set-up, too, including in a dark room.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

It would appear that Sony's quality control is rather Hit and Miss when it comes to these sets!

 

[Anonymous]

Clare Newsome:That doesn't explain why my Dad's set - which he bought off-the-peg at Amazon - is cloud-free after set-up, too, including in a dark room.

You advised your own father to bye one

Please tell me he did it without you knowing?

Surely he really wanted one of those plasma things.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Yes, I have encouraged everyone I know who's looking for a 40in set to consider the Sonys - while mentioning all the caveats i've repeated MANY times in this and other threads.

Dad didn't blindly buy: he had a good look round at sets before he bought, but loved the styling and performance of the Sony - so that's what he spent his pension on!