A chance to talk to FlatpanelsHD's reviewers.
By preferreduser
#7496
Rasmus Larsen wrote:Our review of Sony X85C is online. It is a mid-range 4K TV and one of the first TVs with the Android TV operating system.
http://www.flatpanelshd.com/review.php? ... 1436424059

If you have questions please use this thread.

Enjoy.
I read this review a few times before purchasing the 55X850C on 18 Nov.
All in all Its very decent IMO and I'm picky I also have a Samsung
64 f8500 plasma so I believe I know what a good picture is .

That being said ofc. the review here was good as usual .

More recently Sony has updated the firmware quite a bit and improved the picture clarity a little, it has HDCP 2.0 and wideband HDMI 2.0a and HDR ready capability now ,and an HDR picture mode and BT 2020 and P3 DCI color space settings .

It actually works and plays HDR and P3 DCI .....not like a 600 -1000 NIT FALD panel but demonstrably better than 8 bit BT 709 1080p or 2160p .

I think it's a fair "HDR Ready "compromise at the *current price .

Sometimes I put it in Bt2020 or P3 DCI color space in standard or vivid mode ( mostly standard ) and set the live color at med ( back off the color saturation to 40-44 ) and the Black adj at med and adv Contrast enhancer to [off] it can add a lot of color detail without gross oversaturation on bt709 bit starved CATV or SAT programs or DVD's or any 8 bit material the results are mixed it's a case by case thing the results can be very good or way over done and solarized depending .......


.I haven't tried the color space manipulation on BD I suspect it may not need that at all on a good BD in fact it might ruin the pix ?

I'm thinking changing the color space does quite a bit other [or something else ] than changing the color saturation on 8 bit bt709 content the sliders don't change .

Maybe it invokes some algorithms to take advantage of a simulated wide color gamut like Samsung's SHUD dynamic color and maybe it alters the gamma and gain offsets and white balance when it's used on BT709 stuff or no ?

^^^^ I believe live color is the intended way for enhanced color or no ?

The best buy salesperson did mention turning [on] Triluminous on on 8 bit bt709 stuff to make the colors more vibrant ..I'm Assuming he meant live color ?

I don't believe Sony intended this color space changing business on bt709 content for enhanced color outside of the normal live color adjustments but it seems to work well on a lot of programs and you can fine tune it with the Live Color steps also, it's content dependant and YMMV and purists may not like it .

On Android it's still unstable and slow but slightly better with the 24 NOV Firmware update .

More individual selections <controls > of the apps on the home and discovery menus would be fine also


I wish they had not put the freaking Netflix button where they did on the Button remote it's to easy to press unintentionally and a direct button to the picture settings menu would be fine also instead of action menu
>scroll down > select picture adjustments .

Even with the persistent annoyances it's decent set for the money .

best regards
By felix68
#7554
Rasmus Larsen wrote:Our review of Sony X85C is online. It is a mid-range 4K TV and one of the first TVs with the Android TV operating system.
http://www.flatpanelshd.com/review.php? ... 1436424059

If you have questions please use this thread.

Enjoy.
Thank you for this great review! I found it by chance when surching for new Sony 2016 TV Models.
I own the same model KD-65X8505C (FW 3.317) now since a few weeks and my biggest concern is backlight homogeneity:
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I took several pictures from my TV screen with different black levels 100% - 90% and measured the brightness level at 50% picture hight along a horizontal line from left to reigt = 9 points per photo. Brightness measurements were done with Lightroom with Color turned to B&W.

Other test pictures and sample files I used: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nxqay527f1uc ... 2DcLa?dl=0

It seems that backlight homogeneity of my TV compared with your review from last year is rather different!
Is there anything I can do against - except sending my TV back for repair?

PS: Sony new Models from 2016 seem to suffer from same "disease": https://sonyeu1.i.lithium.com/t5/image/ ... bl-1&px=-1

Source: https://community.sony.at/t5/fernseher/ ... 057#M19962
User avatar
By Rasmus Larsen
#7555
Backlight homogeneity issues are very common on LCD TVs, and manufacturers appear to have not desire to fix the issue for good. Of course 65X8505C is has a direct LED module, which should reduce the issues but even with these TVs people often experience some issues. Edge LED based TVs are of course significantly worse but not every customer experiences it.

There is not much you can do to fix it yourself. A lower backlight level usually helps reduce the problem but it will not eliminate it. Depending on how bad it is, your best option is probably to talk to the retailer/Sony. But prepare yourself for the fact that almost no LCDs out there are perfect. I have absolutely no hope that this problem will be fixed on the 2016 models. It has been around since the early days of LCD TVs and will likely persist until we switch to a new display technology. OLEDs have better backlight homogeneity but not 100% perfect homogeneity either.
By john martin
#7660
Previously it is said, the Sony x850c can reproduce HDR but there can be no benefit. 100% wrong,
even on the 55" edge-lit model.

My experience;
Sicario, UHD BD(using samsung uhd player)- TV auto switches to HDR mode.
Stronger dark/bright contrast. Noticeable difference in a lot of parts of movie.
Parts in movie in tunnels near end where the shimmer of the water is very realistic, more detail in background,

The Martian UHD-BD, again TV auto switches. Again stronger contrast, shadow detail very good, again more realistic looking, stronger colour. Both movies paused and compared on enhanced HDMI Vs. SDR HDMI settings.
Marco Polo Netflix not as detailed as UHD-BD but colours 'pop' a lot more on HDR Vs. UHD 2160p, and again excellent PQ.

So I can only assume the direct-lit 65" must be a little better or at least as good a HDR performance.
It really must be witnessed but its a definate forward step up in PQ.
The XD930 looks like it has stronger shades of colour and is a lot brighter so is the superior TV no doubt, but I implore anyone to say HDR is of no benefit on the x8509c, because it just not the case.

I am buying TVs since the 1980s and know real advances Vs. gimmicks and HDR on the 55 X850c is certainly no gimmick. I wanted the Panasonic UHD player to connect to TV/AVR, but its too expensive and the Samsung does the job fine until we see more at better prices. :-)

@Felix, using Cinema Pro settings gives me pitch black uniformity and zero clouding. On standard daytime settings, if I use them at night it's not great but with above settings I have a very good trouble-free backlight using standard at daytime and Cinema Pro at night. You can tweak the settings yourself, but I didn't need to. Any Direct-lit set I owned always gave me brighter corners and no real benefit over good edge-lit models. You need a FALD set to really get an improvement.
If you keep scanning for backlight issues especially, you will have them all the time, just try the best settings and enjoy your TV :)