I've recently bought a 55" Sony A8 (and appreciate all the great advice on the forums!) It's a replacement for this Sony Bravia KDL-40EX503 40in LCD TV Review | Trusted Reviews The colours and black levels on the A8 are notably better, it's brighter, and it's nice having a bigger screen I'm thinking of sending it back in the free returns period for a couple of reasons, though:
I'm going to spend more time trying to tweak things this weekend and watch it side-by-side with the old TV. Is it daft to return this, though? I can see that the TV is far better than my old one in many ways, but I'm not sure I'm enjoying it more - in the course of a 1hr show a couple of things will happen to kind of distract me and break the illusion. I think it's partly that I'm being more critical of the A8 cause it's a new TV, but I also seem weirdly sensitive to these things.
I'm also not sure what I'd try next if I do return this. I seem to be weirdly sensitive to motion processing and judder on this screen (my partner can see issues if I rewind to a bit and point them out to her, but isn't at all bothered by this when watching normally). Sony is meant to have particularly good motion processing? Nothing wrong with my old TV, but I've got money saved for a new one and a bigger screen would be nice...
I know I'm being extremely picky in complaining about a very nice TV, too, and worrying about whether I'm happy with a new OLED is definitely a 1st world problem!
- I've played a lot with motion settings on HDR/DV content,, and nothing looks quite right. Either I'll notice judder a couple of times in a 1hr show with the processing set relatively low, or I turn it up and motion occasionally looks 'wrong'.
- artefacts are far more noticeable on standard HD like iPlayer compared to my old TV - everything from water looking weird to juddering motion again.
- the Sony's software interface just isn't great. Everything from the Amazon app randomly having lip sync issues to the occasional crash to a power consumption warning every time I turn down the brightness. I know this will mostly be resolved when I buy a nice UHD streamer, but it's still annoying!
I'm going to spend more time trying to tweak things this weekend and watch it side-by-side with the old TV. Is it daft to return this, though? I can see that the TV is far better than my old one in many ways, but I'm not sure I'm enjoying it more - in the course of a 1hr show a couple of things will happen to kind of distract me and break the illusion. I think it's partly that I'm being more critical of the A8 cause it's a new TV, but I also seem weirdly sensitive to these things.
I'm also not sure what I'd try next if I do return this. I seem to be weirdly sensitive to motion processing and judder on this screen (my partner can see issues if I rewind to a bit and point them out to her, but isn't at all bothered by this when watching normally). Sony is meant to have particularly good motion processing? Nothing wrong with my old TV, but I've got money saved for a new one and a bigger screen would be nice...
I know I'm being extremely picky in complaining about a very nice TV, too, and worrying about whether I'm happy with a new OLED is definitely a 1st world problem!
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