Sony65KDX9005B

Robbo55 · 22 Jan 2015 at 14:44

I'm looking to buy a 4K smart LED TV.
I spent ages looking at the sony65KDX9005B especially at screen uniformity where there were no issues. It ticked all the boxes except when I tried to play a DVD. The result was unwatchable. I'm really disappointed. All the review say it upscale s well. Has anyone else had this problem?

Robbo55 · 22 Jan 2015 at 23:17

The source was a sony up-scaling blu-ray player BDP -7200.
It was connected via HDMI lead.
I was in the hands of the sony salesman who was doing a demo for me. I was unsure of settings he had selected, although the picture was set to 'standard'
He couldn't explain why it looked so bad - grainy, blocky, smudgy, judder.
After seeing the tv upscale blu-ray and HD sources very well I was shocked to see it perform so badly.
I've witnessed the same disc give good results on a panasonic AX902.
I have a large collection of DVDs so if I'm spending 3K on a tv I want to be able to watch them on it in good quality.

Robbo55 · 23 Jan 2015 at 00:59

lucid said:
Too many sets of processing (play and the TV both having a go) plus too much in the way of image "improving" features that just add noise and artefacts at a guess.

Thanks for that. Are you familiar with this particular set and do you rate it?
I will go back to the Sony centre and switch off some of the processing and play the disc using a regular blu-ray or DVD machine.
Any suggestions for a good all-rounder tv would be much appreciated, full HD or 4k, as the panasonics I've tried (802 and 902) suffer from banding, and the samsung (HU8500) I've seen seems to have motion issues/judder and really bad after sales. And now this with the sony!

Robbo55 · 23 Jan 2015 at 21:33

lucid said:
I haven't yet calibrated one, but too much processing is common to nearly all TV. As for a recommended set, I am afraid that we live in a post plasma world so much of what you describe with uniformity and banding is down to the inherent limitations of LCD screens. Calibration can help with motion, colour, true detail but can't change or improve uniformity or banding. Have you had a look at the HDTVTest Web site for their top choices?

I have read a stack of reviews and to be honest I take them with a pinch of salt now. I bought a flagship panasonic after reading a HDTV test where the reviewer said the set had excellent screen uniformity. As soon as I got it and switched it on I could see grey horizontal bands. I'm beginning to wonder whether it's worth spending around £2.5k on what at the moment would be an upscaling tv.

Robbo55 · 25 Jan 2015 at 20:11

Well today I ordered a sony KD65X9005b after finally sorting out the problems with poor DVD reproduction. The knowledgable sony rep had a very acceptable picture on the 65inch screen. The problem had been in other shops the sets were defaulting to 'demo' or 'shop' mode after 10 seconds even though you may have tweaked the picture settings. hence creating an over-processed, shimmering, grainy blocky PQ, The tv today was set for home use and we were able to switch off some of the processing and get a very decent picture considering if was low definition DVD. So I was happy that I would be able to watch my rack full of DVDs in decent quality, as well as my new Blu-ray Discs. So, as the tv ticked all the boxes for me, I bought one. Fingers crossed that if won't have terrible banding and bleed issues..