Should I return my new Sony XBR4? (1 Viewer)

[Howie A]

Terri, I was just about to post a very similar message to gain some other opinions on a concern I had with my new KDL-46XBR4 when I came across your problem. You took the words right out of my mouth.

Ill give you a little back story. My last TV was a KDF-50E2000 - 720P RP, it was my entrance into HDTV. At first that set was not great. After some tweaking I began to fall in love with this TV. When viewing anything HD I was very impressed. It was not great with SD but that was to be expected, yet not horrible either. Never did I notice the any motion blur, or pixalization during camera pans or even slight movements like I am seeing with this TV.

Jump ahead a little my brother gets a Sharp Aquos, I would always see a slight ghosting/image noise on the TV with HD and SD images. After some research I found that his is a common flaw among LCD tvs. This flaw is what led many companies to come up with various solutions, for this TV it’s the 120hz
Well, I parted with that RP TV for two reasons. First, I have been thinking about upgrading to 1080P and second my mother inlaws TV just went. This is a great way to have my wife agree to the upgrade (no, it was not sabotage yet that would have been brilliant).

I started with budget in mind at first and picked up a Toshiba Regza 47" LCD (47HL167) which also got some good customer reviews. Right out of box this thing was a mess… This was my first flat panel LCD and I messed with every calibration disc I owned. After calibration the Toshiba did look much better yet it seemed blurry overall on top of everything else you have described above. The motion blur or ghosting was much more evident also. Long story short that one went back to CC. So I then realized that this was meant to be an upgrade after all and in the end I should not go for cheap, but for something with a great reputation and reviews. That is this Sony TV. I could not find anything that seemed to be a bad write up as far as professional reviews went. Most consumers seemed to be pleased as well.

One thing I did notice while viewing is that this TV sometimes gives a 3d effect to the shows, which might be good once I get used to it. I am beginning to wonder if my eyes just became so used to the RP that the flaws with this expensive TV just seem to be hindering the viewing experience. I am not saying that RP is without flaws I am only saying that I don’t recall ever having these problems with the last TV. After reading many posts, I find one popular message which comes up a lot that seems a bit odd. Why is it that we pay a bit more for all these feature that Sony includes to reduce these problems yet most places I have read recommend you turn off all the extra features?¬¬

Here are just a few questions, and info would be really helpful.
Does the 120Hz only come into play when viewing 1080P sources? Like BD or HDVD. Does this have an effect on SD and HD broadcast viewing? Also can this be shut off or is it built into the TV? What would be the benefit to turn this off?
There are times when this TV looks magnificent yet I keep seeing these problems and questioning if I should be shopping for another 1080P RP TV.

Is it unheard of to enjoy viewing a RP over a Flat panel?

I am wondering if this TV is so great for so many people what is it that I am doing wrong? Are there settings that might help to reduce these problems?
Would calling Sony get me anyway?

My other equipment is as follows:
Scientific Atlantic 8300HD DVR (cablevision also) (HDMI 1.3a)
Toshiba DR 400 Upconverting DVD (HDMI 1.3a)
Xbox 360 (Component)

 

[Terri M]

Howie: It sounds like you understand completely what I'm dealing with.

This set is expensive and considered high end. I chose LCD over Plasma because my kids will be playing video games on it and the room is full of windows. Perhaps a plasma would be better but I don't want to deal with burn-in issues and I don't think they have truly resolved burn in on plasmas.

You have tried a few different models and I give you credit for that.
I dread returning and trying to figure out which set would perform better.
I really don't think I will find anything better.

On a positive note, I watched some movies using an hd-dvd player and there is no noise visible. The picture is truly great although I need to tweak the settings because the colors are off. I really need to get a calibration disc.

But the regular viewing is really awful. You would never think that this was one of the highly recommended sets. I get extremely angry that you spend this amount of money on a tv and then you have to spend more dollars to have it calibrated!

Good luck finding answers as I have none yet for sd and hd viewing.
Please post any new findings since I would be very interested in knowing anything that might improve pq.

Right now I am pretty disgusted that I forked over $2600 for such a mediocre product!

 

[douglas-b]

I've been looking at lots of TV's in the last 6 months and I've only seen one LCD that looked good. It was a Sony Bravia that was just hooked up to a antenna pulling in local HD and it looked stunning. Everything else I've seen from any company was snowy, fuzzy, blurry and in general it looked like crap. For now...I'm keeping my RP TV that was calibrated by Gregg L. It might not be the latest technology but it looks real good. BTW the whole plasma burn in thing is greatly exaggerated. Calibrate it with a disk and enjoy it...

 

[Fredo the Sparky]

Alright, you guys have me scared! I have been looking into purchasing a wall mount flat screen, and since i enjoy playing games, I was looking into purchasing an LCD. I too believed the best looking picture came from the Sony Bravia. I currently have a RP Toshiba 57''. I love it. my only complaints are sometimes I see the motion blur while enjoying some HD programming. I have Directv, and while the standard programs are noticably grainy, its not too bad considering the size of the screen.

I guess my biggest questions are these;
1.Is it worth the money for the Bravia, and if so, is the XBR4 or XBR5 that much better than the V or W series?
2.Does the wall color matter? this is more of "daddy's space" than a home theater. was considering painting the wall silver (room is going to be White Sox colors)

 

[truebluetraveller]

Terri, I'm a bit late to the party, but I've been having EXACTLY the same problems with my new XBR4 and while searching for a solution, I found your post.

I bought this TV, after much consternation, to replace my old 42 inch Sony Rear Projection LCD (KFE42A10) which I loved, but thought it was time to make the leap to a bigger flat panel. I did all the research and had it down between the XBR4, XBR6 and Samsung A650 as the best rated. The Sonys seemed to get better anecdotal reviews with gaming than the Samsung (and I couldn't stand the red trim) and I thought the XBR4 had a nicer picture than the XBR6 for the price diff, so I took the plunge and got it (along with a new receiver and speakers). Anyway, lots of dough later, I get the package delivered and set it up with much eagerness. I hooked it all up with HDMI cables to my HD PVR cable box and, as you said... ugh. The picture looked terrible. SD was total garbage and nearly unwatchable, and my HD channels also looked terrible. Lots of noise, artifacting around the edges and bad colour. My benchmark is usually Discovery HD, since on my old TV their HD programs always looked perfect, but I tried all of them and they looked awful.

I called up the cable company (Rogers here in Toronto) and after them telling me endlessly that not all HD channels broadcast HD content (thanks for that revelation) they sent a technician out to look at it. He took a look at it and after checking the signal strength, pronounced that that is "just the way it is" and that my TV is just to big. He claims that the size means that all the flaws show up. I thought HD was supposed to be flawless??

I have subsequently tried hooking up the PS3 and playing both games and movies. They both look great (though not perfect) so I'm guessing it is the cable.

Needless to say, I am fuming mad and really getting upset at the whole situation. You pay all this money for a top of the line system and none of it works right. I also can't get my receiver (Pioneer VSX-1018AH-K) and surround system (Harman/Kardon HKTS 15) to work properly, but that's another topic...

Terri, I'm just wondering if you ever got some resolution to your problem, or if you ended up returning the TV? Greatly appreciate your input and assistance (and anyone else's for that matter) in resolving my conundrum.

 

[Terri M]

Hi TrueB:

Sad to say that I have not solved the problem. I am as non-techy as they get and I'm dreading revisiting this subject but it has been nagging the back of my mind lately since no one wants to watch tv in the room with the XBR4!
Games and dvd are ok but not great. I've calibrated according to some posts I've read and the colors look less than acceptable.

As I've said in previous posts, I have had all the cables checked. I really don't want to but, because I get very confused calibrating it myself I feel I should have a calibration expert come in. I never got the calibration disc because I just don't think I can do this myself.

I would call Sony and see if they can help calibrate your set and if they can't then I would return it! How big is the room you are viewing the set in and what size monitor did you purchase? If you are sitting too close it does look worse.

I'm one of those wimpy consumers who hates conflict and therefore I sit with this awful tv that no one wants to watch.

Let me know how you proceed.

Good Luck,
Terri

 

[truebluetraveller]

Terri, thanks very much for the quick reply. The picture seems to have gotten better since Rogers was here (I think they amplified the signal given that I was complaining) but overall the picture is hit and miss. Sometimes it looks great, and other times the colour and picture quality just look "wrong" (I'm not sure how else to describe it).

It's a 52 inch set and is in a fairly small living room, so I'm expecting a bit of an issue with pixelation, but not with colour and noise.

I plan on calling my seller and/or Sony this week and see what they say. I'll let you know what I learn!

Cheers.
John.