My Rant on Sony TV's

[H/Kthunder]

So, i recently purchased a Sony 40" LCD 1080p tv directly from their store. I got the TV, was really excited about it and at the time, i was fixing up my game room to place it in. So 1 month later i finally set it up and turn it on, very nice picture. Then half an hour later, i see 2 bright spots on the top corners of my screen. I try changing settings, pressing on the screen, but it didn't go away and was very noticeable on dark scenes and movies with black bars. I google the issue and find a lot more on this clouding issue that some TV's experience, Sony and Samsung being more notorius for it. I call up customer service and the guy walks me through hard reset. Come on? Really? You gotta be an idiot to believe that this is gonna fix the problem. I told the guy i want a tech to come out and take a look at the problem. Then i get a call from the service unit or whatever it was and they ask me to send a picture of the problem. Seriously? So i went ahead and took a picture, circle the problem on the picture just incase they miss it and email it to them. Couple of days later, i get a call from the service center saying that the clouding spots are normal, as told by their engineers and they could not do anything for me. Seriously.....normal?? And that was concluded by their "genius" engineers!

How stupid can these engineers be to say clouding issues are normal. We as consumers pay hundreds and thousands of dollars buying their product and what we get is a product with mediocre quality- if even.

SONY- IF YOU MAKE A SHITTY PRODUCT, ADMIT IT. BUT I GUESS STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES!

 

[j_garcia]

Have you calibrated it yet? I presume this is an edgelit LED LCD? They are known to do this; my Samsung does it. I found that simply adjusting the backlight to a realistic level works wonders. A quick calibration brings the level to about where it should be, which is FAR lower than the ridiculously bright factory settings. For some reason, this is most noticeable when the display is first turned on and fades after a few minutes, but can still show up in dark scenes.

 

[H/Kthunder]

Hello J Garcia,
It's actually a regular LCD TV and not an LED. Yes, i have calibrated my tv. I even have the backlight turned down to "0". The spots don't appear until 30 mins after the tv has been on. Some people have mentioned that sometimes these screens don't sit right in the frame, causing slight bent or pinching to create clouding effect. So far I have tried loosening those 2 corner screws to see if it was too tite and also gently massaged the corners with a microfiber as some have suggested. But so far no luck.

 

[ImcLoud]

I have a Sony 32" lcd {about 3 years old} that I used to have in my loft and seen very little use, when ever there is a dark picture you can see this lighter mark almost half way through the picture in the center and in 2 of the corners... I only paid $650 for the tv so I didnt bother sending it back , and now its just sitting in a closet in the basement, but yeah anyway, Sony Tvs suck lately... I had an 36" bravia tube tv about 9 years ago I bought 5 years before that {them are approximate timelines } and I gave it to a friend of mine to put in his office and he uses it every day, its huge heavy and square but it still works like the day I bought it... that thing has to weigh 250lbs...

 

[slipperybidness]

I've been preaching against Sony quality and especially customer service for years. If it ain't a Playstation or a Walkman, then I stay clear. Case closed.

Sounds like a classic case of the Sony run-around, denial of problem etc. I had a friend that worked the phones at Sony customer service, the basic goal was to frustrate the customer until they stopped calling.

Is it too late to ship the TV back? Gotta check electronics as soon as you get them home and not let them sit for a month.

 

[j_garcia]

I was never a fan of Sony LCDs. Sony doesn't have the integration right on the LCD TVs. Samsung makes their panels, but Sony builds the rest of the TV and creates their own software for them. Samsung clearly won't tell them all the "tricks". If you are going to get an LCD, Samsung would be my first choice because they do it better than anyone else.

I've owned a few Samsungs and still own one Sharp as well, and they've both done well so far.

It sounds like in this case, it may be a bad panel. I'd look at a different model or a different brand.

 

[Grador]

My father has a Sony led tv, and I find its picture to be outstanding. Unfortunately I also had to deal with customer service, a row of pixels crossing 1/3 of the screen stopped responding to the green channel. For me though they were just shy it fantastic. They sent me a refurbished unit with almost no hassle.

 

[MDS]

If the 'clouding' is very noticeable on most scenes then it is possible that the panel is defective in some way but keep in mind *all* LCDs exhibit that problem to one degree or another.

I can clearly see clouding or 'flashlighting' as the call it (white streaks in the corners) on my Toshiba LCD. Once you lower the backlight from the default torch mode they are less visible. I can only see them on the credits screen of a movie when the text is white and the background is black so I don't really care too much about it.

Uneven lighting is just a fact of life for LCD.

 

[H/Kthunder]

I agree with the runaround the customer department gives its customers....a nice way for them to lose one. And yes, i shouldn't have let it sit for a month, cuz now they will only give me a refurb and i just don't want it to turn out to be worser than my current set.

Whats up with these manufacturers and their quality control? Tube tv's lasted decades and now it doesn't seem these flat screens can make it 5 years sometimes. I have a Sharp 32" LCD i bought back in 2005 and there is absolutely no clouding issues at all.

At least now, i will never ever buy a Sony TV.

 

[j_garcia]

Sony was sort of the king when it came to mass market CRTs, but they weren't ready for LCD IMO.

 

[Grador]

Sony was sort of the king when it came to mass market CRTs, but they weren't ready for LCD IMO.

The funny thing is they were among the first to jump on it. I remember when LCDs started popping up in our circuit city, the first one was a sony. It certainly did take them a while to improve from there though.

 

[Hi Ho]

The ironic thing, in my view, is that Sony made some pretty nice plasma sets years ago. I see them every once in a while and I can't help but wonder why they gave up on them since they look better than any of their LCD sets did for many years after they stopped making them.

 

[slipperybidness]

The ironic thing, in my view, is that Sony made some pretty nice plasma sets years ago. I see them every once in a while and I can't help but wonder why they gave up on them since they look better than any of their LCD sets did for many years after they stopped making them.

Reliability and customer support from Sony are both sub-par. I just don't understand why people keep purchasing Sony products.

 

[j_garcia]

I got excellent customer service on my PS3. The fact that it died after 3 years did not make me too happy though.

 

[slipperybidness]

I got excellent customer service on my PS3. The fact that it died after 3 years did not make me too happy though.

Fair enough. I should qualify my stance....I do own a PS3.

Now, the PS3 is nowhere near as user-friendly as the XBOX 360.

 

[Hi Ho]

Reliability and customer support from Sony are both sub-par. I just don't understand why people keep purchasing Sony products.

I agree completely. I work in the service industry and we see a lot of Sony issues. Their support from a dealer perspective is decent enough. I've never dealt with them as a consumer. I don't own any Sony products.