Amazon link to updated 2016 model
Here's my TV experience.
I purchased an XBR-65X850C on Aug. 2. I returned it the following weekend on the recommendation of the store clerk where I bought it. It was exhibiting the same edge brightening described here on AVSForum.com He thought it might have just been a defective panel since I couldn’t really reproduce it on the in-store unit. However, we were in a brightly lit big box store.
I bought a second one same day I returned the first. Hung it that afternoon and unfortunately, same issue. And what’s worse is that this panel has slightly more flashlighting in the corners (I wouldn't return it just for that though).
Setup: backlight at 25. Used the THX optimizer from an old SD StarWarsIV disc to set black and contrast at night in a pretty dark room. (Sony BD Upres to 1080p, then TV to 4k, and I have to say I was amazed at the scaling and have nothing to complain about there.) The end of the video optimizer section plays the Falcon escape from Death Star scene. There’s a cut to C3PO sitting at the game table when the interior lights dim out momentarily. It doesn’t go pitch dark, you can still make out 3PO’s body shape in the dark. But for the half second the lights are out there is a huge bloom on the left side of the screen, at least 3 inches in.
I also have a Mac mini connected to another HDMI input. When I use the custom background color picker to switch things up I find that the edge bloom on both sides is most pronounced when the luminance is about 10-30%, saturation about the same, and the hue in the brown, orange, red, and into purple zones.
I’ve got a week and a half left to decide if it’s something I can live with or if I’ll take it back.
For a $2500 TV I expect better from Sony.
This article at Digitalversus.com suggests turning off Live Color to deactivate the Tristimulous blue light. I'll have to try that tonight to see if it has any affect.
Hey Sony, what gives?!
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UPDATE: 20150813
I checked and I already had Live Color turned off.
Last night I got a copy of Disney's WOW HD setup BD. I ran the Advanced setup and double checked it against the beginner setup files. Note that I don't have a calibration probe so all of the Advanced Color settings (gain and bias) are still at default values.
Here are the settings I landed on.
Advanced Settings: HDMI 1
-Brightness
Brightness:30
Contrast: MAX (This still showed the +2% super-white setup bar/star, but it's the best the TV seemed to be able to do)
Gamma: MAX (this only got me to 1.9 though, hoping to get to at least 2.2)
Black Level: 50
Black Adjust: off
Adv. contrast enhancer: off
-Color
Color: 51
Hue: 0
Color Temp: Custom
Color space: sRGB/BT.709
Live Color: off
-Clarity
Sharpness: 16
Reality Creation: Manual
Resolution: 40
Mastered in 4k: Unavailable in Manual mode
Random noise reduction: off
Digital noise reduction: Low
-Motion
Motionflow: off
Cinemotion: off
All that was set up in a dark room, at night, with only some ambient light from another room. There were no flares or noteworthy reflections visible on the screen from my centered viewing position, 15 feet away.
After the disc's calibration material there are a bunch of live action, stop motion, and computer animated clips of Disney movies to check your results. UNFORTUNATELY, viewing them, post setup, proved to be even more frustrating. Sony, you've made me so sad today.
Almost every clip contained some material that would cause the edge bloom to occur. I think I just proved to myself that this Sony model's implementation of "direct-lit" backlight is integrated in a way that will never satisfy my desire. I'm dismayed because I LOVE everything else about this TV's picture. When the edge bloom isn't there the picture is beautiful for an LED LCD. The blacks are deep with good shadow detail, skin tones are natural, and the up-res scaling is great.
I took pics with my iPhone of some of the worst offending scenes.
Here's the kicker. I actually work at the Disney Studio and I have access to view the uncompressed HD source files which make all of the downstream BD encodes, on professionally calibrated monitors and digital projectors. I'm really familiar with a lot of this material. I can assure anyone who questions my iPhone shots below, that the edge blooming DOES NOT exist in the source files. And for that matter you don't see it when watching the BD on a computer monitor.
I think I'm done with this model TV. Any suggestions for a comparably priced and featured alternative? Samsung? LG? ...Vizio M-series (can't believe I just name that one, but I was kind of impressed with the 70" I saw in store for only $1800. That and a Roku or AppleTV might do the trick)?
I'm not looking for perfection. If this issue were only half as bad I'd consider keeping it but I find myself staring at the edges of the screen and looking for the bloom instead of enjoying programs on my new 65" bundle of joy. I'm really a movie watcher so sports and gaming performance aren't deciding factors. Give me some clean 24P and good up-resing, with crisp blacks and good contrast and I'm a happy camper.
Tonight I can't wait to crack open the 4k player and see how the TV reacts to 4k sony-mastered content. Not holding out much hope...
Last night I got a copy of Disney's WOW HD setup BD. I ran the Advanced setup and double checked it against the beginner setup files. Note that I don't have a calibration probe so all of the Advanced Color settings (gain and bias) are still at default values.
Here are the settings I landed on.
Advanced Settings: HDMI 1
-Brightness
Brightness:30
Contrast: MAX (This still showed the +2% super-white setup bar/star, but it's the best the TV seemed to be able to do)
Gamma: MAX (this only got me to 1.9 though, hoping to get to at least 2.2)
Black Level: 50
Black Adjust: off
Adv. contrast enhancer: off
-Color
Color: 51
Hue: 0
Color Temp: Custom
Color space: sRGB/BT.709
Live Color: off
-Clarity
Sharpness: 16
Reality Creation: Manual
Resolution: 40
Mastered in 4k: Unavailable in Manual mode
Random noise reduction: off
Digital noise reduction: Low
-Motion
Motionflow: off
Cinemotion: off
All that was set up in a dark room, at night, with only some ambient light from another room. There were no flares or noteworthy reflections visible on the screen from my centered viewing position, 15 feet away.
After the disc's calibration material there are a bunch of live action, stop motion, and computer animated clips of Disney movies to check your results. UNFORTUNATELY, viewing them, post setup, proved to be even more frustrating. Sony, you've made me so sad today.
Almost every clip contained some material that would cause the edge bloom to occur. I think I just proved to myself that this Sony model's implementation of "direct-lit" backlight is integrated in a way that will never satisfy my desire. I'm dismayed because I LOVE everything else about this TV's picture. When the edge bloom isn't there the picture is beautiful for an LED LCD. The blacks are deep with good shadow detail, skin tones are natural, and the up-res scaling is great.
I took pics with my iPhone of some of the worst offending scenes.
Here's the kicker. I actually work at the Disney Studio and I have access to view the uncompressed HD source files which make all of the downstream BD encodes, on professionally calibrated monitors and digital projectors. I'm really familiar with a lot of this material. I can assure anyone who questions my iPhone shots below, that the edge blooming DOES NOT exist in the source files. And for that matter you don't see it when watching the BD on a computer monitor.
I think I'm done with this model TV. Any suggestions for a comparably priced and featured alternative? Samsung? LG? ...Vizio M-series (can't believe I just name that one, but I was kind of impressed with the 70" I saw in store for only $1800. That and a Roku or AppleTV might do the trick)?
I'm not looking for perfection. If this issue were only half as bad I'd consider keeping it but I find myself staring at the edges of the screen and looking for the bloom instead of enjoying programs on my new 65" bundle of joy. I'm really a movie watcher so sports and gaming performance aren't deciding factors. Give me some clean 24P and good up-resing, with crisp blacks and good contrast and I'm a happy camper.
Tonight I can't wait to crack open the 4k player and see how the TV reacts to 4k sony-mastered content. Not holding out much hope...
Here are the iPhone pics I snapped on Paused BD frames. Note that in most cases the phone was adjusting the exposure itself on each image so there is some variance but for the most part the images show what I could see on screen with my naked eye. In a couple cases I manually adjusted the exposure down to avoid white clippping, which actually lessened the blooming effect.
"black" that popped just before the WDS 3D Castle logo fade up. It wasn't pure digital black obviously. Looked like there was noise, compression or film grain causing the bloom.
iPhone exposure
Manual exposure.
Bolt, slight blue bloom on left, slighter on right
G-Force, slight blue bloom on left
Nightmare Before Christmas, not full frame, actually 1.66 side matted. This image is pretty clean for comparison
Nightmare Before Christmas, slight blue bloom on left edge
Nightmare Before Christmas, manual exposure, slight blue bloom on left edge but note that blacks are pretty clean on the left edge of dark sky where there is no bright object on screen toward the center
Nightmare Before Christmas, same as above but iPhone's native exposure
Pirates 3, blue/green bloom on left and right edges. Those bars should be uniformly black like in the middle of the image
Pirates 3, blue/green bloom on left and right edges. Those bars should be uniformly black like in the middle of the image
Up, iPhone exposure, blue bloom in shadow detail on left and right
Up, same as above but manual exposure
Up, iPhone exposure, blue bloom in shadow detail on left and right
Wall-E, this is the worst/best example. The red dust flying around the room should be fairly uniform in luminance, hue, and saturation across the whole screen.
Wall-E, green bloom on left and right edges
Wall-E promo graphic, blue bloom on left edge
