Help! GT30 has a strange clouding effect....what is it?

Quick update, my replacement for the faulty 42GT30 should be delivered tomorrow a week after i paid the extra cash for the Sony KDL46HX853. This week has gone very slowly as i waited for a call from Richer Sounds regarding when the tv would be delivered but i got a call on tuesday to say they could deliver in on friday so i'm eager to see how the Sony performs tomorrow and really hope there are no issues with it, no backlight bleed please.

Of course i will report back once it's on the wall, calibrated and i've had a chance to test it out with some content and i have to say that i can't wait to see an end to the issue with the GT30 and to test out the Sony fully

hi oldboy i hope everything goes okay with your new tv as i know from reading your previous threads that you have had lcd/led tvs in the past with backlight bleed and im sure a bit reluctent to return to this technology so fingers crossed i am still very happy with my gt30 no such issues as you had look forward to hearing your first impressions of your new sony

Thanks but it would seem the KDL46HX853 i have now does indeed suffer from backlight bleed in the two bottom corners of the screen but it's very strange as during normal tv viewing it's fine and with bluray it's fine but when you pull up the tvs menus it's there and with the web browser and apps it's there too but it's only visible under low light conditions.

Of course i've yet to get to grips with the myriad of features on the tv and it's not calibrated yet so i'm hoping over the weekend i can eliminate the instances of bleed i am seeing, i have to say i was very disappointed to see the bleed though given that the WHF review did not mention any with their sample. I know it doesn't seem to impeed into the main viewing experience of tv and movies but it's still frustrating when my bog standard cheap Samsung 32 inch LED tv that i have in my bedroom shows no sign of any bleed!

Apart from that though the tv itself is very impressive indeed and the picture quality is sublime with deep inky blacks the like of which i've not seen on any LED/LCD before and it has some serious talent with motion, throw in my BDP500 and the motion with blu ray is astonishing with no judder atall. I can't pass final judgement until i calibrate it today and tweak the various options on offer but it's very impressive so far, if it wasn't for that bleed it would be near perfect.

Good to hear you have no issues with your GT30 and i hope it continues like that for you in the years to come my friend

Oh one last point to make is that the tv turned up without the promised 2 pairs of 3D glasses, a poor example of customer service from Richer Sounds when you would have thought that they would want to ensure that the order was delivered correctly due to the issues i have already had with the GT30. I gave them a call and was assured that it was a mistake from the courier and that i would get a call from the courier yesterday to arrange a delivery day for them, that never happend of course so i guess i'm going to have to continue to chase them for the glasses which isn't good enough really eh.

hi oldboy glad your first impressions of the tv are good and i do hope after calibration the backlight bleed you have diminishes as i have read that in the past you have had i think 5 sony tvs with these issues and quiet a fight to get them sorted i must say it is a good looking tv but i was very surprized when i read you had gone back to this technology i really thought yo were a plasma fan hence why that was one of the reasons that made me choose my gt30 as to led because of the issues with led still im sure you will sort the tv out with calibration and you will be 100% happy in the end hope you get your glasses soon as well regards

3937edwards,

Thanks for the best wishes. Yes it would seem the backlight only affects things like menus and the apps oh and also the game mode and i beleive it's because the local LED dimming is turned off for all of these modes because the issue almost disappeared when i switched the feature back on in the game mode but it adds processing so i'm not sure if i will leave it on or not. With tv and movies after calibration there is no bleed atall which is the most important thing and the blacks are inky so i'm very happy, if the bleed had affected the picture with tv and movies i would have returned it tbh.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the picture quality on the Sony and those extra screen inches make a real difference in my living room and makes movies far more immersive, there are many pros and cons between the two techs though and yes it's true i am a plasma fan but i've been very impressed with just how close the HX853 gets to a plasma image.

The main problem for me with plasma was that if i wanted a larger screen size the cost would be a major factor, to be honest i had every intention of just replacing the GT30 with a GT50 of the same screen size but after a few demos i was so impressed with the Sony HX853 and the extra screen size i would get for a little extra cash that i couldn't help myself as the allure of a larger tv was too strong to resist.

I do still love a plasma image but there are so many pros and cons between the two techs, for example my HX853 deals with contrast much better than the GT30 with punchy whites but on the other hand colour is more natural on the GT30 mainly because the Sony has no colour calibration tools which seems a major oversight to me, it's no disaster but with a few slight adjustments it would be far better.

I could go on but it could become a long list of pros and cons but the main thing is i'm happy with this tv and surprised at just how close it gets to a plasma image, that doesn't mean i won't buy another plasma in the future though if i decide to buy an even bigger tv at some point

To be honest, I don't think it's backlight bleed at all, if it only affects the menu & not the picture.  Even my laptop suffers from "backlight bleed" when the blue Windows screen comes up, but completelyt disappears when the desktop comes.

It certainly does look like it bigboss, a quite large intrusion on the bottom left which is like a shaft of light and a smaller definate cloud in the bottom right of the screen. It's there on game mode with the tv and clearly visible during dark images in exactly the same way as with the menus and apps, i should add that the darker the room the worse it looks, it's not a deal breaker as i said but just strange that it's not there during movie playback. I watched The Dark Knight last night and didn't notice the effect once and that has to be the darkest film i own....if it's not light bleed then what is it??

Quick update:

My 3D glasses should be with me on friday as i got a call from Richer Sounds today to arrange delivery so a full resolution is in sight at last, just a shame the glasses never arrived with the tv in the first place.

At least the matter is now coming to an end and i did get a good resolution from Richer sounds in the end so many thanks again to John Clayton and Stephen from Richer Sounds HQ for all their help as without their intervention after my various communications i doubt i would have got a satisfactory resolution

I'm very happy with the KLD46HX853 and just hope i get no issues in the future, one final mention to all of you who contributed to this thread...another big thank you for all your help and advice as it was invaluable as ever