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Sony TV darkness problem?

Old 05-08-16, 09:35 PM
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Sony TV darkness problem?

I have a Sony 50" something or other. Fairly new. So the picture seems to get lighter and darker on its own. I can see the changes especially to darker on the screen for no particular reason. And dark scenes are really to dark.

I'm not sure I am describing this well at all but when I put on the cable guide or show information the picture also gets brighter when it's on and then slightly darker when it goes off. It's almost like an ambient light thing but I have all those settings turned off and pretty sure I've gone through all the settings to fix this to no avail.

Anyone know what I am talking about and can help?

Thanks in advance.
Old 05-09-16, 04:25 AM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

https://us.en.kb.sony.com/app/answer...ically-on-some
Old 05-09-16, 08:31 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Thanks CM, but I don't have options like those on my tv...
Old 05-10-16, 05:04 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

where's Jay G. when you need him??
Old 08-26-16, 08:56 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Anyone have any help on this? It still happens and it irks me. Lightens up just a tad when something is prompted on screen...
Old 09-05-16, 07:36 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Really getting frustrated over this...
Old 09-19-16, 07:25 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Really, no one? I'm starting to get bummed...
Old 09-19-16, 07:28 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Maybe it's time to spend some of that hard earned teacher's salary of yours on a new 4K TV?

Or unless this TV of yours is fairly new and cost a fortune, then you could take it in for servicing via Sony. Are you still under warranty?
Old 09-19-16, 07:38 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Maybe you should post the model # of your set, rather than "something or other," so someone who owns the same set can tell you about their experiences with or it, or someone could look up the manual online and see if there's some setting or feature that needs to be tweaked.
Old 09-19-16, 09:10 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Originally Posted by DJariya
Maybe it's time to spend some of that hard earned teacher's salary of yours on a new 4K TV?

Or unless this TV of yours is fairly new and cost a fortune, then you could take it in for servicing via Sony. Are you still under warranty?
Just not ready to upgrade all my shit yet. Just got this one, but don't know if still under warranty and couldn't get it into service anyhow. Will get model # soon...
Old 09-19-16, 09:17 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Sony KDL50W800C 50" 3D Smart LED TV
Old 09-20-16, 02:57 AM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

I've had bad luck with Sony stuff in the past- I would be very hesitant to buy from them again.
Old 09-20-16, 09:59 AM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Did you try to go in the menu and do a factory reset or restore to factory settings?
Old 09-20-16, 04:12 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Originally Posted by mattysemo247
Did you try to go in the menu and do a factory reset or restore to factory settings?
No, only because I don't want to lose all my other settings. I have no idea what I changed and didn't ya know?
Old 09-20-16, 04:45 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

I have an LG & had the same problem. Look for something in the setup menu called backlight dimming & set to zero. These seems to be one of those useless HDTV features like motion enhancer that nobody in their right mind would ever use.
Old 09-20-16, 05:39 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Originally Posted by Eddie W
I have an LG & had the same problem. Look for something in the setup menu called backlight dimming & set to zero. These seems to be one of those useless HDTV features like motion enhancer that nobody in their right mind would ever use.
Looked through all picture settings and that doesn't exist on my tv. Thanks though.
Old 09-21-16, 07:13 AM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

My Panasonic plasma has two controls that is 'auto dimming'

1. C.A.T.S - 'reacts' to room lighting condition, and changes brightness
2. Auto gain control - automatically controls the brightness of excessively dark or bright signals on screen to maintain accurate reproduction of details.

I can turn both of them off if necessary.

Sony may have something similar.

If your TV is less than two years old it should be under warranty ( one extra year with most credit cards)
Old 09-21-16, 08:30 AM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Originally Posted by OldBoy
No, only because I don't want to lose all my other settings.
Just take a pic of the picture setting with your phone before resetting it. It's worth a shot if it's causing this much of a problem. And if that doesn't fix it, then you know something is wrong with the TV.
Old 09-21-16, 06:46 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

I think that's what I'm afraid of, something being defective. Too much hassle to ship back and forth, plus it's mounted. It's not that bad I guess. I try to overlook it, but it's on certain streaming services, like Showtime Anytime where it is prominent. I just started watching Ray Donovan, fucking love it, and it happens with that app mostly. Quite a difference with the Vudu ep. I bought. Almost wish I had the seasons in vudu. Eh, i guess Ill live but it would be nice if it was as simple as a setting I have wrong...
Old 09-23-16, 04:48 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

I'm almost sure this is some sort of "feature" designed to improve black levels. My Vizio has something similar --- it divides the LEDs backlights into zones and dims or brightens certain areas based on picture content. I found it annoying and turned the feature off.

You could try following the recommended settings here, which will turn all that kind of image processing nonsense off: http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/sony/w800c/settings
Old 09-23-16, 06:25 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

I glanced through a couple of manuals online and couldn't find anything. (And they were pretty much worthless with regard to settings.)

Agree with Salty that it sounds like some kind of feature or setting.

One other possibility is that it could just be a normal thing; if you're going from a dark image to an image that has a lot of (pure?) white on it, that could have the effect of brightening the whole picture like the brightness/contrast was suddenly adjusted. I've seen some computer monitors do something similar.
Old 09-23-16, 08:05 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Yeah, I don't know. It's not that bad, but I'm so anal that I notice it and it slightly irks. I'll try to follow that Salty guide. I think I do have most those settings exactly. Just not sure I can follow those pics...
Old 09-23-16, 10:13 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

I agree, the manuals I found online for your TV were practically useless.

If it helps at all, I used rtings.com's recommended settings for my Vizio UHD TV recently as a starting point and was very happy with the initial results. I've made a few tweaks, but their recommendations were very good.
Old 09-27-16, 12:13 AM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

Resetting the TV won't hurt as long as you write down all of your current settings beforehand. I have all of mine written down just in case I have to do a reset someday. Saves a lot of time from having to get the test patterns out and re-adjust everything- but why the hell can't any TVs default to the RIGHT settings to begin with??
Old 09-30-16, 09:22 PM
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Re: Sony TV darkness problem?

One thing I like about my Vizio is that I can create and name custom settings so I can tinker and still revert to my preferred settings without having to write them down.

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