hi nick , i currently have a loan of a philips 37inch 5604 lcd , when the screen isnt showing an image , its dark , but i wouldnt call it black , more of a very dark grey , but its not distracting in any way because its uniform , ie there isnt one area that looks brighter than another , thats how your sony should be , my friends sony has patches of slightly brighter blue areas on his sony ,in the top right corner and a patch about 3 inches over from the top left , they are noticeable , even slightly in the daytime , but he doesnt even notice it , unless i point it out , what would you call that ?? light seepage , clouding , backlight bleed ? i guess its all of them , on your tv it sounds like backlight bleed for sure ...