SONY 2024 TV's- some big changes

[Tweaky]

22 hours ago, juggernaut1 said:

Have you followed the Sony support troubleshooting article regarding blinking lights?

 

https://www.sony.com.au/electronics/support/articles/00145302

 

From personal experience dealing with a damaged SONY A95K 18 months ago , I can tell you that what is written about blinking lights and error codes at that SONY link can be way out of date when it comes to models released over the last 3/4 years.

 

I tried using it to get a damaged QDOLED screen to boot up, which it was eventually able to do, but only after I had rung SONY tech support, and they gave me a quite different set of instructions [Button presses and power ON sequences ] to the ones mentioned on the website to deal with the same problem.

 

Depends what the problem is I suppose, but if nothing happens when using that websites instructions, definitely ring SONY support [But don't start a service ticket, it will effect your warranty ] and first ask about the blinking light codes and sound [beeps] for your model TV, if they say go to the website, tell them you already tried and nothing happened [if true], and could they cross check the latest error codes/lights for your TV and tell them what they are [They might sent you a email containing them]

I'm pretty sure the SONY tech I spoke to was in either the Philippines or Malaysia, which is where SONY TV's for the Australian market are made.

[juggernaut1]

The link i provided was last modified 08/05/2024 - so fairly recently. I noted their are different trouble shooting articles for different TV's. Worth a try I suppose. 

[Tweaky]

On 27/05/2024 at 6:16 PM, LoveKnight said:

Seems like Bravia 9 can not compete with flagship Oled TVs with contrast, blooming control but winning in details and colours, two of the best things from Sony. I have eyes on Bravia 7. 

 

On 28/05/2024 at 5:58 PM, Snoopy8 said:

The first proper review (vs impressions) of Bravia 7

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/sony/bravia-7-qled

 

PROS

• Incredibly bright.
• Fantastic contrast thanks to its Mini LED local dimming feature.
• Stays true to the director's intent, with excellent accuracy out of the box.

 

CONS

• Disappointing viewing angle.

Shame about the viewing angle because it brought down the Sports and TV shows scores in a bright room (which I have).

 

After just watching the review of the Series 9, I can see MINI LED/LCD has improved in some sections, but still some very similar problems from previous generations.

 

PRO's

Brightness and contrast is improved, and blooming is well contained, but seems source dependent.

Seems a lot sharper than SONY's QD-OLED/OLED's, the gloss screen has a lot to do with that.....both a blessing for sharpness/clarity, and a curse with reflections

 

CON's

Screen reflections are still very annoying [most noticeable with Demo of Demon Souls game at 30.09 ] you see the yellow lights either side of half way reflected in the screen.......I'd find it very hard to go back again to a TV that had this problem, even in a totally darkened room, I know from experience that the light coming off the screen can hit a glass/gloss surface and reflect back on to the screen

 

Screen vignetting is still noticeable, [ see 27.02 ] Horizon Zero Dawn game, Greyish / dark gray all around screen and softening of images at corners, seems pretty well controlled and confined to around 1cm inside the frame, it doesn't seem to extend that far into the image.

 

Shallow viewing angle compared to OLED - I've lived with both, not much of a problem if you can sit directly in front of the TV, but if you can't, and have to sit at a angle of 25 degrees or more from the screen, well you'd be losing 70% of the PQ, so what's the point?

 

Trying to get a good demo of any of the 2024 TV lineup is going to pretty much impossible unless you go to a specialized dealer.

Reason being is that when being demo'd in all dept stores, the store will more than likely have the TV in SONY's DEMO picture MODE = VIVID preset, and that preset it is none defeatable, unless you change the picture mode.

So they are setup to dazzle and compete in among the other over bright, over colour saturated Samsungs.

 

Would I buy a series 9 ?

In some regards it does things a lot better than my A80K does and A95K did......Far better sharpness and clarity, and I know that with a proper calibration can give the closest to a 3D image you will get, even a pro calibrated QD-OLED won't quite match that....This is true with all top of the line LED/LCD TV's

 

I'd miss the infinite contrast of a OLED, and even though the Black levels of modern Mini LED/LCD's are pretty good, there is still what I see as a slight white mist over everything in comparison to a OLED [Which is the backlighting ]

 

I'd love to have the brightness levels of the series 9 available to my A80K, this is where the 9 totally wipes the floor over OLED, even QD-OLED.

 

I could even easily live with the much more shallow angle of view, although I can watch my OLED from the kitchen at a 45 degrees angle from the screen with no drop in PQ, I don't watch from the kitchen unless cooking, usually I'm directly in front of the TV.

 

The deal breaker for me would be the screen reflections, even though I have a light controlled room, there is always something that annoyingly reflects back onto the screen, which is something I haven't had to suffer with the OLED, and it is not missed at all.

[Cevolution]

23 hours ago, juggernaut1 said:

Have you followed the Sony support troubleshooting article regarding blinking lights?

 

https://www.sony.com.au/electronics/support/articles/00145302

 

I was aware of all of that info before you linked to it. Essentially every troubleshooting suggestion in that link is useless when it comes to the 5 blinking red light fault with the a95L, and the info does not state what the fault is… The 5 blinking red lights with the a95L means a TCON board fault (I haven’t entered the service menu to check, but if I were to I have no doubt that it would be identified as a TCON board failure), it’s been confirmed all over the internet by people who have experienced this issue with their a95L TV, as well as people in the industry such as D-NICE and Classy Tech, which is why Sony in North American are instantly replacing peoples a95L TV’s that this has happened to with a brand new one. There is no troubleshooting that can assist when TCON boards are defective in the a95L in general.

 

Another reason why that troubleshooting in the link you provided is useless is, for most who have experienced the TCON board fault with their a95L it isn’t a situation where the red light consistently blinks and you can no longer use/turn the TV on because it has stopped working altogether, the TV still works after the 5 blinking red light TCON board fault has happened… When the TCON board fault has been triggered and the 5 red light sequence is flashing, you press the on button on the TV remote and the TV turns back on. What makes the defective TCON board issue a major concern is how long will the TV last long term, when there is a known defective part inside of it.

Edited May 30 by Cevolution

[LoveKnight]

Many problems to last year flagship oled TV A95L I think we should wait more to be certain that this year Sony has better quality control on their new TVs lines.  To all TVs released this year Bravia 7 is the only model that I am interested in. No doubt that Oled is superior and is leading in technology but to my research online many top calibrator models do not use oled panels any more like Eizo, Sony and some brands in America.  

Edited May 30 by LoveKnight

[juggernaut1]

8 minutes ago, Cevolution said:

I was aware of all of that info before you linked to it. Essentially every troubleshooting suggestion in that link is useless when it comes to the 5 blinking red light fault with the a95L

 

Just follow the procedure - let me simplify:

 

Step 1:

 

.......try the troubleshooting procedure below.

 

Step 2:

 

If the procedure cannot solve the issue and the Red LED is still blinking, check how many times it blinks and then contact support.

 

 

 

[Cevolution]

16 minutes ago, juggernaut1 said:

 

Just follow the procedure - let me simplify:

 

Step 1:

 

.......try the troubleshooting procedure below.

 

Step 2:

 

If the procedure cannot solve the issue and the Red LED is still blinking, check how many times it blinks and then contact support.

 

 

 

I think you need to do more research on the TCON board fault with the a95L Ian., rather just googling possible troubleshooting methods and posting them, when they are pointless and irrelevant in this situation with regards to this particular fault. It appears that you’re the only person that requires it to be simplified… There is nothing to solve because the red lights are no longer blinking, and the TV is working.

 

It’s a fact that a95L TV’s manufactured before April 2024 can have a defective TCON board inside. Which means the TCON board 5 blinking red light failure will likely continue to happen over and over again, possibly substantially reducing the life of the TV, unless the part is replaced.

Edited May 30 by Cevolution

[juggernaut1]

Just call support and be done with the drama.

[Cevolution]

1 minute ago, juggernaut1 said:

Just call support and be done with the drama.

I will when I get a chance, I have been too busy at work this week.

[juggernaut1]

All good then 

[Snoopy8]

1 hour ago, Tweaky said:

Would I buy a series 9 ?

In some regards it does things a lot better than my A80K does and A95K did......

The rtings side by side comparison of the Bravia 7 and the A80K support your observations, with reflections poor on the Bravia 7 but much better brightness.

 

 

I note that the rtings have started the Bravia 9 testing and it will be interesting to see how it scores in the reflections and viewing angle, 2 criteria which are important in my north facing family room.

[Tweaky]

11 minutes ago, Snoopy8 said:

The rtings side by side comparison of the Bravia 7 and the A80K support your observations, with reflections poor on the Bravia 7 but much better brightness.

 

 

I note that the rtings have started the Bravia 9 testing and it will be interesting to see how it scores in the reflections and viewing angle, 2 criteria which are important in my north facing family room.

The one big caveat with the A80K/L is/was the ultimate brightness, even in HDR mode, it really is quite dim TBH, especially when compared to some of the LG OLED's, but then again, the LG's can suffer a lot more from the "Panel Lottery" when it comes to banding etc.

 

I've been very lucky with that, first with the A95K which panel was faultless, and my 77" A80K which has shown a similar pristine panel.

 

With the current economic down turn worldwide, I can't see much happening in regards to major technological advancements in TV's.

LED/LCD is at its limits already, and QD-OLED now not far behind and MICRO LED is still in teething, with a high failure rate.

 

I think they might end up giving up on MICRO LED and go straight to Direct View Quantum Dot technology.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/home-entertainment/this-top-secret-prototype-display-will-blow-your-mind/

[LoveKnight]

If your A80k still works great then I think no need to upgrade to a better TV. Besides if you insist to upgrade then you need to buy a new TV in high-end class like LG G4 oled and that costs a lot of money. The Bravia 9 TV still has pros and cons like blooming control not as good as G4. Future techonology is something uncertain. The miniled was not hyped in the past years as oled but now a few years recently it is being massy produced by most of China brands and be better by time. Some models now can rival with oled models.    

 

[Tweaky]

4 hours ago, LoveKnight said:

If your A80k still works great then I think no need to upgrade to a better TV. Besides if you insist to upgrade then you need to buy a new TV in high-end class like LG G4 oled and that costs a lot of money. The Bravia 9 TV still has pros and cons like blooming control not as good as G4. Future techonology is something uncertain. The miniled was not hyped in the past years as oled but now a few years recently it is being massy produced by most of China brands and be better by time. Some models now can rival with oled models.    

 

If I was going to replace my 77" A80K [No intention off doing]  I'd get a 77" A95L instead, but considering all the problems in firstly getting one, and now the reported TCON board failure, which from reading the AVS forum is a terminal problem, that isn't going to happen.

 

I've still got a 65" Sony A95K with a broken panel that I never bothered getting fixed......it only lasted 9 weeks before it took a hit in a accident.

[Cevolution]

2 hours ago, Tweaky said:

If I was going to replace my 77" A80K [No intention off doing]  I'd get a 77" A95L instead, but considering all the problems in firstly getting one, and now the reported TCON board failure, which from reading the AVS forum is a terminal problem, that isn't going to happen.

 

I've still got a 65" Sony A95K with a broken panel that I never bothered getting fixed......it only lasted 9 weeks before it took a hit in a accident.

It’s unlikely that you’ll ever be able to purchase the a95L ever again in Australia, unless Sony Australia rerelease the model here… The a95L was available for 3 months only here in Australia before it was officially discontinued, from the end of October 2023 until mid to late January 2024. The most hilarious thing about it is plenty of people that wanted an a95L here in Australia didn’t buy one because they were holding out for a better discount or end of line bargain, however the cheapest prices for the a95L on record here in Australia were all early on within weeks 1-5 after it was released here.

 

It’s a great TV PQ wise, in several areas/ways it’s unmatched by any other OLED TV to date including LG’s G4… Despite the a95L having a few issues, the main negative being the faulty TCON boards. Evidently practically all of the issues with the a95L can be rectified by a firmware update that apparently is being worked on, it’s only the TCON board issue that’s hardware related. Therefore provided Sony Australia handle the TCON board faults professionally and well for customers that experience it who have managed to get there hands on one here (like Sony North American are doing for USA customers that have bought an a95L there), then purchasing an a95L in the limited time they were available here will mean it was still a good purchase, and people that own it here in Australia will pretty much own the best consumer TV on the market to date.

Edited May 30 by Cevolution

[Tweaky]

9 hours ago, Cevolution said:

It’s unlikely that you’ll ever be able to purchase the a95L ever again in Australia, unless Sony Australia rerelease the model here… The a95L was available for 3 months only here in Australia before it was officially discontinued, from the end of October 2023 until mid to late January 2024. The most hilarious thing about it is plenty of people that wanted an a95L here in Australia didn’t buy one because they were holding out for a better discount or end of line bargain, however the cheapest prices for the a95L on record here in Australia were all early on within weeks 1-5 after it was released here.

 

It’s a great TV PQ wise, in several areas/ways it’s unmatched by any other OLED TV to date including LG’s G4… Despite the a95L having a few issues, the main negative being the faulty TCON boards. Evidently practically all of the issues with the a95L can be rectified by a firmware update that apparently is being worked on, it’s only the TCON board issue that’s hardware related. Therefore provided Sony Australia handle the TCON board faults professionally and well for customers that experience it who have managed to get there hands on one here (like Sony North American are doing for USA customers that have bought an a95L there), then purchasing an a95L in the limited time they were available here will mean it was still a good purchase, and people that own it here in Australia will pretty much own the best consumer TV on the market to date.

I had the same situation when I bought my 65" A95K.

I pre paid for it several months before it finally arrived in Australia, when COVID was just ending, and they were trickling into the country a few hundred at a time.

By the time mine arrived the price had dropped and I was reimbursed the difference plus the delivery charge was dropped.

If Sony had had a 77" A95K version back then I would have ordered it, and I know from conversations at the AVS forum that a LOT of people worldwide were holding out for one, which is more than likely part of the reason for not being able to currently get one.

 

I don't think anybody was expecting to wait as long as they had to for the A95L to appear, and certainly weren't expecting the almost none existent supply, very surprising discontinuation in Australia at least [unsure if the same has happened elsewhere] and TCON board problem.

 

I'd already replaced my broken 65" A95K with a 77" A80K, sure the ultimate PQ isn't quite the same, but the larger size sort of made up for it.

Buying one 77" TV in November only to replace it the following January seemed unjustifiable to me at the time, especially as I had already taken a loss of $5500 when the A95K panel died in October.

 

Given the unforeseen problems with the A95L, in Australia at least, I'm glad I didn't let the FOMO didn't come into play.

[TBH the thought of re boxing and selling on a slightly used 77" A80K really wasn't something I wanted to try and do]

 

Unless SONY suddenly decides its not going to do QD-OLED any more, I'm sure a A95L [updated] or replacement will appear back on the Australian market.

Then again they could decide to just leave the QD-OLED TV market to Samsung.

[juggernaut1]

Had a firmware update come through my A95L last night.

 

 

[Snoopy8]

28 minutes ago, Tweaky said:

Unless SONY suddenly decides its not going to do QD-OLED any more, I'm sure a A95L [updated] or replacement will appear back on the Australian market.

Then again they could decide to just leave the QD-OLED TV market to Samsung.

I think the hint is already there that Sony will drop QD OLED.

Bravia 9 : flagship Mini LED

Bravia 8 : OLED (replace A80L)

Bravia 7 :  Mini LED

 

Lots of doubts on the Bravia 9, including here, but the test results over the next few months will show whether the Sony hype is real or not.

[Tweaky]

1 minute ago, Snoopy8 said:

I think the hint is already there that Sony will drop QD OLED.

Bravia 9 : flagship Mini LED

Bravia 8 : OLED (replace A80L)

Bravia 7 :  Mini LED

 

Lots of doubts on the Bravia 9, including here, but the test results over the next few months will show whether the Sony hype is real or not.

 

It seems strange that SONY would drop QD-OLED since they have won TV of the year with their implementation of the technology for the last few years.

But maybe there are hidden factors that the general public don't know about, like prospective long term failure rates of QD-OLED panels.

 

If that's true [Pure speculation on my part] then I could see why they would go into a sly form of damage control, and just bite the bullet and cease production of QD-OLED.

 

There is certainly a lot of Hype around the Series 9, but TBH I think unless setup with the correct settings to within a inch of its life, most people won't really see the benefits of the new backlighting.

 

If true to form, your average mug will a Series 9 thinking its the best TV available, but still run everything at MAX [because its brighter], and if a gamer, probably have it on VIVID mode to boot [Because it makes the colors pop ]

Totally ruining what could be a great picture.......I've seen it happen time and time again.

[Snoopy8]

52 minutes ago, Tweaky said:

But maybe there are hidden factors that the general public don't know about, 

My speculation is that the Samsung panels are very expensive for Sony...

 

54 minutes ago, Tweaky said:

If true to form, your average mug will a Series 9 thinking its the best TV available, but still run everything at MAX [because its brighter], and if a gamer, probably have it on VIVID mode to boot [Because it makes the colors pop ]

Totally ruining what could be a great picture.......I've seen it happen time and time again.

Why does it matter? We account for a small group of people who care about the PQ, but the vast majority (average mug) make Sony the most money.    

[Cevolution]

2 hours ago, juggernaut1 said:

Had a firmware update come through my A95L last night.

 

 

The update was showing for me on Tuesday or Wednesday, I left it for a bit after noticing it, I didn’t install it until later on Wednesday night… There is nothing major in the update, hopefully a major update that fixes what needs to be fixed isn’t too far away.

[Tweaky]

3 hours ago, Snoopy8 said:

My speculation is that the Samsung panels are very expensive for Sony...

 

Why does it matter? We account for a small group of people who care about the PQ, but the vast majority (average mug) make Sony the most money.    

The QD-OLED panels are pretty cheap to make from my understanding, no more so that the WOLED panels Sony gets from LG.

 

I think the problem might be that since SONY has delegated the A95L a MASTER SERIES TV, like the A95K before it, for which it holds very high QC standards for those TV's, possibly Samsung hasn't been able to manufacture / supply SONY with enough of them at that required QC level, especially the 77" model.

Sony might be having to return a whole load of QD-OLED panels to Samsung that don't make the grade.

If true, this would certainly be a explanation for the scarcity of the A95L

 

SONY might of come to the conclusion that Samsung just can't fill their needs, so have decided to slowly and quietly phase it out, with Australia the first region for that to happen.

 

Again, pure speculation on my part.

[LoveKnight]

Now with mass miniled productions from China. Sony switched to other panels for better prices. In the end, Sony is still a company and they want most of profits from TVs they sell. 

[Tweaky]

6 hours ago, LoveKnight said:

Now with mass miniled productions from China. Sony switched to other panels for better prices. In the end, Sony is still a company and they want most of profits from TVs they sell. 

True.

Panasonics new top of the line TV is considered one of the best available, and it sources its panels from TLC

Like SONY, Panasonic can make a purse out of a sows ear because of its expertise over decades in video processing.

[Cevolution]

9 hours ago, Tweaky said:

True.

Panasonics new top of the line TV is considered one of the best available, and it sources its panels from TLC

Like SONY, Panasonic can make a purse out of a sows ear because of its expertise over decades in video processing.

It’s quite a shame that Panasonic and Sony generally offer the highest quality TV’s PQ wise, that are awarded best TV’s of the year in objective testing and shootouts, but they haven’t positioned themselves in the market as manufacturers of display panels for consumer TV’s and devices like LG and Samsung are doing… It’s a sad states of affairs that 2 companies like Panasonic and Sony which sell the best TV’s didn’t develop OLED technology and have to buy panels off of their competitors who generally make inferior TV’s PQ wise as brands, in a perfect world it would be the other way around, LG and Samsung would be purchasing WOLED and QD-OLED panels off of Panasonic and Sony.

Edited May 31 by Cevolution