KDL-46XBR9 has bright corners, is this normal?

[carios23]

Hi, I bought an XBR9 on Sunday at Best Buy. When I turned all the lights off to watch TV at night, I noticed the four corners of the TV are brighter than the rest. This is noticeable when the screen is black and I can notice it a little bit in the letterbox. Right now I am debating in returning this TV. I am not sure if this is the expected behavior or if I have to tweak some settings . Please feel free to share your thoughs

[edubb5]

Originally Posted by carios23

Hi, I bought an XBR9 on Sunday at Best Buy. When I turned all the lights off to watch TV at night, I noticed the four corners of the TV are brighter than the rest. This is noticeable when the screen is black and I can notice it a little bit in the letterbox. Right now I am debating in returning this TV. I am not sure if this is the expected behavior or if I have to tweak some settings . Please feel free to share your thoughs

That is why I went to Plasma! I had a SONY XBR4 that had those lights in the corners also. And they do not go away.... SONY would not admit it if you called them, but this is a issue that has been going on for a long time now with those TV's! They say that it go away over time... BUT NOT!!!!! I had my XBR4 for 3 years and it still had them. that is why I sold it and got a Plasma

[carios23]

I am a heavy gamer and I often watch stuff in my home theater PC. It was my understanding from what I have read that LCD was the way to go for me.

[edubb5]

Originally Posted by carios23

I am a heavy gamer and I often watch stuff in my home theater PC. It was my understanding from what I have read that LCD was the way to go for me.

Yea, for PC stuff! LCD is the way to go. But Movies and games do look better on a plasma. Take the SONY back and get a Samsung LCD

[edubb5]

And on PLasmas! I have a PS3 and a Xbox 360 and they look better on the Plasma than they did on my old XBR4!

[carios23]

Originally Posted by edubb5

Yea, for PC stuff! LCD is the way to go. But Movies and games do look better on a plasma. Take the SONY back and get a Samsung LCD

I am not too crazy about Samsung since I have had bad experiences before. But, this seems to be an issue with LCDs in general rather than brand.

[DarkhovaHT]

It's because the XBR9 uses Edge Lit LED's meaning the LED's that Light the screen are only around the edges so naturally u will have brighter corner♠s because there are no LED's lighting the middle of the screen....Samsung also uses the same method...Sharp on the other hand uses Full Array LED's which span across the entire screen so you wouldnt run into that problem.......

[carios23]

correct if I am wrong but the xbr 9 does not have led but WCG-CCFL backlight

[edubb5]

You can find this problem all over AVS

[carios23]

I was hoping this was a calibration issue, I will get in touch with sony before I decide to take it back to the store

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by carios23

correct if I am wrong but the xbr 9 does not have led but WCG-CCFL backlight

You are correct.

If your energy saving settings are too "bright", or if your backlight adjustment is too high, you will have this issue. I watch in a dark room and my settings are very dark. I can only see uneveness on a black screen, not while a movie is playing. My black bars are BLACK and uniform.

[carios23]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

You are correct.

If your energy saving settings are too "bright", or if your backlight adjustment is too high, you will have this issue. I watch in a dark room and my settings are very dark. I can only see uneveness on a black screen, not while a movie is playing. My black bars are BLACK and uniform.

I have been tweaking the backlight with some calibrations I found in tweaktv.com and it is not as bad now but it is there.

These are for the 52" but I assume it is the same for 46
Picture Modes
Picture Mode : Custom
Color Temperature : Warm 2
Aspect Ratio : Full
Picture Settings
Backlight : 3
Picture (Contrast) : 52
Brightness : 50
Color : 50
Hue : G2
Color Temperature : Warm 2
Sharpness : Min
MPEG Noise Reduction : Off
MotionFlow : Off
Cinemotion : Auto 1
Advanced Settings
Black Corrector : Off
Adv. Contrast Enhancer : Off
Gamma : -1
Auto Light Limiter : Off
Clear White : Off
Wide Color : Standard
White Balance : Factory Default

Thanks for the tip on the energy saving setting, I completely overlooked those. I will lower it to see how it looks.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by carios23

I have been tweaking the backlight with some calibrations I found in tweaktv.com and it is not as bad now but it is there.

These are for the 52" but I assume it is the same for 46
Picture Modes
Picture Mode : Custom
Color Temperature : Warm 2
Aspect Ratio : Full
Picture Settings
Backlight : 3
Picture (Contrast) : 52
Brightness : 50
Color : 50
Hue : G2
Color Temperature : Warm 2
Sharpness : Min
MPEG Noise Reduction : Off
MotionFlow : Off
Cinemotion : Auto 1
Advanced Settings
Black Corrector : Off
Adv. Contrast Enhancer : Off
Gamma : -1
Auto Light Limiter : Off
Clear White : Off
Wide Color : Standard
White Balance : Factory Default

Thanks for the tip on the energy saving setting, I completely overlooked those. I will lower it to see how it looks.

If you enjoy films to look like FILM, I recommend changing picture mode to "cinema" (huge improvement)

Turn Cinemotion OFF (for sure)

I run my energy saver on HIGH when the room is pitch black and I run it on LOW when the room has some light bleeding through the drapes in the day time.

Give those a try, you can always change back.

I LOVE my XBR after getting it tweaked just right.

[carios23]

Thanks, I can barely see the upper left corner now, the other 3 are minimal. It is only noticeable when the screen is all black. However, my wife says she does not see anything...lol

[starkent08]

id return it i went thru three samsung 750s this is known as a flashlight issue

[MookDaddy333]

I had this same problem 2 weeks ago when I bought a 52XBR9. I took it back, had the same problem and then took it back and went plasma. Best thing I ever did!!! It was noticeable during dark scenes and stuff and I knew it would bother me the whole time I owned it so I had to take it back. So don't keep it if you know you are going to regret it the whole time you own it...

[Lavalamp]

Darkhova, Sharp got that technology from Sony and Samsung who have had it for a year at least before sharp got it.

Back to the problem, this is called back-light bleeding or flash-lighting it can be a problem with just about any fluorescent back-lit LCD, or LED for that matter, In locally dimming LED's, the TV can dim the back-light in places where the panel is trying to display black, therefore eliminating the back-light bleeding through the screen.
Plasmas do not suffer from this because it is the gas being electrically charged that produces the brightness. That is why they look so much darker in the stores. they produce a more accurate color spectrum because they can start from a pitch black. The LCD has to start from a simulated black.
If you want an LCD look at sony's xbr8 line or samsungs A950 series. they are both last years tvs but are more than likely better than what is available now. they were ahead of their time and priced accordingly, that is why you don't hear much about them. Or you could go with a plasma, but if you plan on using it as a pc monitor or strictly for gaming just be careful about image retention which is more and more becoming a non-factor but it still exists.

[carios23]

the xbr8 is a little too much for my blood, I have read in avs forums that it might go away after 50 hours or so. I will give it a week or two, if the flash-lighting in that upper right corner does not decrease I might have to return it because is kinda distracting.

I am quite annoyed because I had a KDL-32S2010 32-Inch LCD that went to the bedroom that never had these clouding/flash-lighting problems. This is the first I heard of them.

[cawgijoe]

This is not a brand issue. If after adjustments are made you are still bothered by this issue, definitely return the set for another. These sets cost too much to live with issues such as this.The XBR9 is a great set when working properly.

[JR8300]

I went through 4 XBR9s (check out AVS thread) from BB and every single one suffered from Flashlighting in one or more corners. People who are saying this is on all LCDs are not 100% in the know (ironically some are plasma owners as if there is some raging competition between the two). I will say that every XBR9 that I have seen suffers from this issue. The 55"B650 that I picked up has zero clouding or flashlighting, I would be more than happy to post some pics. Keep in mind it also has auto dim which lowers the backlight in dark or pitch black scenes.

With the money I saved not buying the XBR9 I bought the 55" B650, the i1 calibrator and a new PS3 all for the same cost. It was well worth it.

Just thought I would add that there isn't a drop off in picture quality from the XBR9 to B650. The one gripe that I have with the B650 is the damn reflective screen. If I were you I would check out the panny plasmas (v & g series) and the samsung LCDs (650 series and up).