11 replies to this topic

[t1000]

Hi there all.

I'm looking for a low-mid range panel to replace my old Pio 506HD 50" in the bedroom.. it's on the way out.

I have been looking over the Sony models and found that the one display that comes close to the "look" of plasma (smooth,natural,  non-grainy picture) is the EX720, when properly calibrated with brightness and contrast dialed down and the panel taken out of "torch" mode.

I was just wondering whether other owners of the EX720 might have opinions and comments to share in relation to the overall smoothness of the picture quality on the EX720 once it's actually in the home and used for normal DVD viewing, bluray, streaming etc. I've very cognisant of the fact that the stores that have these things on display always chose high quality Bluray content and quite often it's common to get the panel home and see a million flaws that weren't visible in the store.

I am a little fussy on picture quality owing to the fact that my main HT is kitted out with a Pioneer  60" Kuro.. if the EX720 could get even "close" to that once correctly calibrated I'd be happy. I don't expect it to match it..... but LED/LCD scares me a little because I've seen a LOT of panels in the last few weeke and a lot of them look "grainy", "noisy" and "dotty" even when displaying high resolution content (maybe this is because the stores don't calibrate them ?).

Any opinions and experiences would be a great help.

Chris

Edited by t1000, 28 February 2012 - 03:11 PM.

[davep]

If you want the "look" of a plasma.... why not just buy a plasma?  It'll be cheaper anyway.

[:)]

yep go a plasma

[t1000]

I'd considered plasma, but the issue here is that for the bedroom 55" is the perfect size. 50" is too small and 59" is too big. The only plasma in the 54-55" range is the pana and frankly I'm not a real fan of it.

Still seeking opinions on the Sony if anyone can help.

Edited by t1000, 29 February 2012 - 06:17 AM.

[kulfi]

How about taking some low-quality video content on a USB drive to the store and checking out the quality on the TV ?

[t1000]

Well, for the first time ever I purchased an LED/LCD over a plasma. Found a deal at JBHFI for the Sony 55" HX820. I took the advice here and took in some dodgy AVI video content as well as a decent Bluray and the worst transfered DVD I own, the original XMEN film.

Bought it home and am overjoyed to say that this panel is just wonderful, and bear in mind I have only ever owned Pioneer plasmas including the 60" Kuro. The blacks are inky (not Kuro black but close enough) the overall picture quality is immaculate and the motion and processing is great. In day viewing I can't tell much difference between black areas and the bezel, but tonight in a dark room will be the true test. The whites are better than my Kuro for sure, but they have a different feel to them.. while the Kuro seems to take a very (read: very, very, very) light grey/off-white and "process" it into white, the Bravia just says "here is the white.. I don't need to mess around with it". The dynamic-edge dimming seems to work quite well too, the last Bravia I was was a 52" XBR3 model a few years ago and it's backlight turning off was distracting.. not so on the HX820.

The menus, while a little slow to respond and oddly laid out provide a WEALTH of picture tweaking options, would keep any pro or chronic tweaker happy, but not unlike my Kuro, I managed to get exceptional results by merely dialing down a bit of backlight and some colour.. pretty close to what pleases my eye disptite leaving a lot of the bullshit "bells and whistles" settings enabled. That said, I'll be experimenting with settings for a solid two months to see if I can get even more out of it.

The Internet TV thing is a minor bonus, I already stream NetFlix through my AppleTV2 but being able to do it from the panel is ok too.. need to play around to see which processes the stream better, which is faster etc.


Overall I'm over the moon with this panel .. seems that LCD/LED has come a long way since I last played with one.

1000

Edited by t1000, 08 March 2012 - 05:40 PM.

[Owen]

Wait till you see it in the dark, plenty of TV's look decent in a non dark environment.

Edited by Owen, 09 March 2012 - 08:29 PM.

[Baboy]

The lights on but no ones home  

[t1000]

Spent a few dark nights with the HX820 now and the picture quality is just beautiful. One hell of a panel, no regrets at all

[re-boot]

Owen, on 09 March 2012 - 08:25 PM, said:

Wait till you see it in the dark, plenty of TV's look decent in a non dark environment.

I don't think the blacks on my VT25 Plasma are any better under dim to dark conditions than my KDL-40X3100 Bravia LCD to be perfectly honest.

The Bravia blacks don't float either, so that's another plus.

[jliang70]

The brilliant white you are seeing are more likely the result of blue push of the LCD/LED panel.  I actually did a greyscale adjustment on a Sony LED this afternoon and I found I need to reduce Blue gain quite significantly and blue offset a touch less to bring the greyscale in line to 65K.

[TheFrog]

If a Kuro owner is happy, that can't be too bad....