Dull and Lifeless Sony Bravia needs replacing suggestions?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Dull and Lifeless Sony Bravia needs replacing suggestions?

gnfb

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#204489 4-Oct-2016 08:43

After a month in the UK with family and friends and latest model Tv viewing I came back to my Sony BRAVIA KDL40BX450 40-Inch 1080p HDTV. It now look looks dull and lifeless :(.

So I am taking suggestions for replacement. (Not Oled , just out of my price range.)

Under $1500

Under 50 "

Dont need freeview

What do you reckon?

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

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ratsun81

508 posts

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#1645051 4-Oct-2016 09:22

Have you considered getting the screen calibrated?

This can improve the look quite significantly. But of course this reduces the "new toys" factor :)

gnfb

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#1645062 4-Oct-2016 09:40

ratsun81:

Have you considered getting the screen calibrated?

This can improve the look quite significantly. But of course this reduces the "new toys" factor :)

Ok good idea something like this process? http://www.techhive.com/article/2079503/easily-calibrate-your-new-hdtv.html

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

I have two shops online allshop.nz patchpinflag.nz
Email Me

robjg63

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#1645100 4-Oct-2016 10:49

You have nothing to lose - but potentially a few dollars to save by having a fiddle.

Actually - if you want to be really brave you can get into the factory adjustment area:

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/987346/Sony-Kdl-40bx450.html#manual

Section 5 looks likethe area to look at.

Guess you would have to be a bit careful in there!

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

allio

885 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1645167 4-Oct-2016 12:09

I gave my old 2011 LG a new lease on life by calibrating it (using the built-in tool, not any fancy equipment or hidden diagnostic menus) and putting a simple bias light behind it (a 6500K LED bulb in a cheap Warehouse lamp). The combined effect was to massively increase the perceived contrast.

Otherwise head to the store and see what you like. Samsung panels tend to be the most saturated and contrasty, if that's what you're after, but that's probably down to their default calibrations rather than any inherent qualities.

ilovemusic

1439 posts

Uber Geek

#1645369 4-Oct-2016 18:32

warning - don't go into the service menus unless you know what you're doing.

something like the thx phone apps will probably get a better result than using the default settings but for best results call in the professionals.

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

Uber Geek

#1645425 4-Oct-2016 20:08

Sure, try calibrating it, but there's not a whole heap of adjustment that far down the Sony line unless you know what you're doing in the service menus. I recommend writing down ALL the settings before tweaking in the service area, there's no reset.

Masterpiece

247 posts

Master Geek

#1645464 4-Oct-2016 21:04

There is absolutely no need to go into the service menu, Sony's from around 2010 had all the controls you need in the user menu.

So you are aware, I do calibration as a side line biz to my day job. Have about 30k of gear to do it accurately, with more coming soon to tackle HDR UHD, although it is more or less impossible to correct the current new displays for HDR, can really only do rec709 with 4k resolution until the standards have been ratified.

Calibration can make a world of difference with some display's, but some because of design limitations can appear lifeless after calibration. The main reason was lack of luminance, either by design with limited power supplies as per late model plasma's or early units of LCD designs which had limited life span.
Calibration can have limited effect on luminance limited displays because the weakest link sets the absolute level of balance.

I mention the above because your reference has shifted with viewing newer models in the UK, come back to your display and find it lacking sum what. My guess, since you probably have never thought about calibration is that you at best selected a few settings which seemed right or you never went past a basic default. Hopefully that wasn't vivid...... if you used cinema or maybe standard you may still have headroom (lifespan) that may give you some pop. But which is a big but, when comparing new models with the older 3+ years old models you will never get the pop luminance you have witnessed. Unless you view in blackout conditions, unfortunately there always seems to be conditional arguments with visual stuff.

The current crop of LCD's can yield 300~600 cd^m2 and in some cases higher with the HDR models (Note the aim is 1000 cd^m2 and eventually in years to come 10000 cd^m2), in comparison when new LCD's from just a few years ago would typically top out about 140~180 cd^m2. But with aging, half life where the rated hours say 40000 hours the peak luminance will be half that of new, this slope is typically log shaped. So the worse dimming actually happens in the first 1/4 of the life span, in the example the display will look dim after 10000 hours.

I better note here despite the above that most grading for broadcast is/was done at 100 cd^m2, in the future it will likely be replaced with 1000~10000 cd^m2 UHD HDR.

The point of my long winded dribble, you need a measure of your display with a light meter, even a cheap lux meter would tell me something about how strong the display still is, then you will have some expectation about whether it is worth messing with or how to use an aging display better.

Tools you need,
A light meter, beg borrow one is fine. Something for camera work is just fine for this test.
Better still, if you know someone with a tristimulas meter for calibration, this is better(but might be hard work at this stage)

Here is a link to a FREE basic calibration disk.
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/139-display-calibration/948496-avs-hd-709-blu-ray-mp4-calibration.html

This mission, should you wish to except is to measure the peak white at 100% (white full field)

Me:"I'm not a robot!"

ET: "Maybe; you have some freewill, but you chose your path by arrangement"

Me "That sounds like a program with no freewill?"

ET: "We will catch up when you end this cycle"

Me: "Sounds like a 'KPI'!"

ET: "Did you read the terms and conditions?"

Me: .....

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networkn

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#1645479 4-Oct-2016 22:03

Masterpiece: There is absolutely no need to go into the service menu, Sony's from around 2010 had all the controls you need in the user menu.

So you are aware, I do calibration as a side line biz to my day job. Have about 30k of gear to do it accurately, with more coming soon to tackle HDR UHD, although it is more or less impossible to correct the current new displays for HDR, can really only do rec709 with 4k resolution until the standards have been ratified.

Calibration can make a world of difference with some display's, but some because of design limitations can appear lifeless after calibration. The main reason was lack of luminance, either by design with limited power supplies as per late model plasma's or early units of LCD designs which had limited life span.
Calibration can have limited effect on luminance limited displays because the weakest link sets the absolute level of balance.

I mention the above because your reference has shifted with viewing newer models in the UK, come back to your display and find it lacking sum what. My guess, since you probably have never thought about calibration is that you at best selected a few settings which seemed right or you never went past a basic default. Hopefully that wasn't vivid...... if you used cinema or maybe standard you may still have headroom (lifespan) that may give you some pop. But which is a big but, when comparing new models with the older 3+ years old models you will never get the pop luminance you have witnessed. Unless you view in blackout conditions, unfortunately there always seems to be conditional arguments with visual stuff.

The current crop of LCD's can yield 300~600 cd^m2 and in some cases higher with the HDR models (Note the aim is 1000 cd^m2 and eventually in years to come 10000 cd^m2), in comparison when new LCD's from just a few years ago would typically top out about 140~180 cd^m2. But with aging, half life where the rated hours say 40000 hours the peak luminance will be half that of new, this slope is typically log shaped. So the worse dimming actually happens in the first 1/4 of the life span, in the example the display will look dim after 10000 hours.

I better note here despite the above that most grading for broadcast is/was done at 100 cd^m2, in the future it will likely be replaced with 1000~10000 cd^m2 UHD HDR.

The point of my long winded dribble, you need a measure of your display with a light meter, even a cheap lux meter would tell me something about how strong the display still is, then you will have some expectation about whether it is worth messing with or how to use an aging display better.

Tools you need,
A light meter, beg borrow one is fine. Something for camera work is just fine for this test.
Better still, if you know someone with a tristimulas meter for calibration, this is better(but might be hard work at this stage)

Here is a link to a FREE basic calibration disk.
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/139-display-calibration/948496-avs-hd-709-blu-ray-mp4-calibration.html

This mission, should you wish to except is to measure the peak white at 100% (white full field)

If you are in Auckland and do projectors I might be keen to have you take a look at mine, which looks fine, but is likely because it's what I have got used to. I meant to get it done at the time I had it installed, but I didn't trust the installer with it.

Masterpiece

247 posts

Master Geek

#1645501 4-Oct-2016 22:54

ChCh but I do travel and projectors.

For projectors I would seriously consider a LUT box, although expensive they really make the best of the projector technology's.

Me:"I'm not a robot!"

ET: "Maybe; you have some freewill, but you chose your path by arrangement"

Me "That sounds like a program with no freewill?"

ET: "We will catch up when you end this cycle"

Me: "Sounds like a 'KPI'!"

ET: "Did you read the terms and conditions?"

Me: .....

gnfb

2609 posts

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ID Verified

#1645530 5-Oct-2016 00:12

Masterpiece: There is absolutely no need to go into the service menu, Sony's from around 2010 had all the controls you need in the user menu.

So you are aware, I do calibration as a side line biz to my day job. Have about 30k of gear to do it accurately, with more coming soon to tackle HDR UHD, although it is more or less impossible to correct the current new displays for HDR, can really only do rec709 with 4k resolution until the standards have been ratified.

Calibration can make a world of difference with some display's, but some because of design limitations can appear lifeless after calibration. The main reason was lack of luminance, either by design with limited power supplies as per late model plasma's or early units of LCD designs which had limited life span.
Calibration can have limited effect on luminance limited displays because the weakest link sets the absolute level of balance.

I mention the above because your reference has shifted with viewing newer models in the UK, come back to your display and find it lacking sum what. My guess, since you probably have never thought about calibration is that you at best selected a few settings which seemed right or you never went past a basic default. Hopefully that wasn't vivid...... if you used cinema or maybe standard you may still have headroom (lifespan) that may give you some pop. But which is a big but, when comparing new models with the older 3+ years old models you will never get the pop luminance you have witnessed. Unless you view in blackout conditions, unfortunately there always seems to be conditional arguments with visual stuff.

The current crop of LCD's can yield 300~600 cd^m2 and in some cases higher with the HDR models (Note the aim is 1000 cd^m2 and eventually in years to come 10000 cd^m2), in comparison when new LCD's from just a few years ago would typically top out about 140~180 cd^m2. But with aging, half life where the rated hours say 40000 hours the peak luminance will be half that of new, this slope is typically log shaped. So the worse dimming actually happens in the first 1/4 of the life span, in the example the display will look dim after 10000 hours.

I better note here despite the above that most grading for broadcast is/was done at 100 cd^m2, in the future it will likely be replaced with 1000~10000 cd^m2 UHD HDR.

The point of my long winded dribble, you need a measure of your display with a light meter, even a cheap lux meter would tell me something about how strong the display still is, then you will have some expectation about whether it is worth messing with or how to use an aging display better.

Tools you need,
A light meter, beg borrow one is fine. Something for camera work is just fine for this test.
Better still, if you know someone with a tristimulas meter for calibration, this is better(but might be hard work at this stage)

Here is a link to a FREE basic calibration disk.
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/139-display-calibration/948496-avs-hd-709-blu-ray-mp4-calibration.html

This mission, should you wish to except is to measure the peak white at 100% (white full field)

Just a quick thank you for such a significant reply. No light meter at present but will look into it. I did bring up "scene" on the menu and had a play . Got a bit more contrast and "depth?" of color.

Is an English Man living in New Zealand. Not a writer, an Observer he says. Graham is a seasoned 'traveler" with his sometimes arrogant, but honest opinion on life. He loves the Internet!.

I have two shops online allshop.nz patchpinflag.nz
Email Me

bfginger

1267 posts

Uber Geek

#1647922 9-Oct-2016 11:54

ratsun81:

Have you considered getting the screen calibrated?

This can improve the look quite significantly. But of course this reduces the "new toys" factor :)

A relative has a similar model and the default OOB settings were terrible which is the case with nearly any TV. I played around with the picture settings and improved it greatly.