Sony XBR9 picture fluctuations?

Hi Everyone,

Has anyone come across this issue on their LCD screens, where the picture saturation & luminance fluctuates? Intermittently?

Whether watching cable or a DVD, the picture will periodically lose perhaps 10-20% of its color/luminance, then come back. Sometimes it'll happen once and then that's it for a while, and sometimes it'll happen repeatedly over a couple minutes.

I don't know if this is a backlight issue (where the backlight adjusts based on screen brightness); the early sets of this model did have a backlight problem but that was subsequently fixed, and my set has the latest firmware on it.

I complained to Sony after I had ruled out my cable and DVD players and they sent me another set. This one still does it, but not AS badly as the previous set. The saturation & luminance drops seem to be confined to the reds/oranges in the picture, and sometimes skin tones.

Anyone know what this is? Or what could be causing it?

Thanks a lot.

Thank you... I actually do have all the controls turned off, except for the backlight. When I turn this off, the entire screen goes black... so it can't really be turned off. I guess based on your suggestion, it's not supposed to do this...?

(What does macro vision do to the picture? I can see the issue I'm having with stuff piped through on Time Warner cable as well.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon 

I wonder if it might also be worth checking to see if there is a "screen saver" type function engaged which "steps down" video brightness after a fashion.  I had such a problem with a set I have.  It was as if the HDMI signal wasn't letting the set know NOT to kick into a darker mode. 

On the phone with Sony right now (their Tier 2 or 3 engineering dept), just asked them this, they said 'no'.... but thanks for your suggestion. They seemed to be stumped on this one... :(