Sony KDL40V3000 Review

[Vincent]

Please discuss our Sony KDL40V3000 review in this forum thread.

Warmest regards
Vincent

[Ron]

Hi all.

First post here.   

I'm really glad you posted the V3000 review, and I (hopefully) await the D65 calibration settings you used.  It would be great if you could also supply the changes you made to the service settings.  I realise these are panel specific, but non the less, I would like to try them for comparison.  Would this be a possibility?

Another question I have concerns the fact that the HDMI ports are not 1.3 compatible (I take it they are 1.2?).  Is this something I should be concerened with as I use a PS3 which IS 1.3 compatible...

Thanks in advance,

R.

[Vincent]

Hi Ron

Your PS3 will be compatible with the Sony V3000. HDMI 1.3 is a standard which includes xvYCC/ Deep Colour support... however there remain very few such sources available. Our article probably explains it better:

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Article/HDMI13.php

Warmest regards
Vincent

[Ron]

Hi Vincent,

Thanks for the link.

As you noted, there doesn't seem a great demand for HDMI 1.3 at the moment.  Having just purchased the V3000 however, I was hoping to be able to futureproof the TV for a number of years, and I wish I had researched this more thoroughly as I'm sure HDMI 1.3 (or higher) will become a standard in the future which looks like having some real benifit.

I do have to say though that this is the only downside to the V3000 I have encountered so far, and I am very happy with the TV otherwise.

Will you be publishing the V3000 D65 calibration settings you used for your review at any time Vincent?

As previously mentioned, I'd love to try your service menu setings you used for your review too.  I understand if you do not want to post these on your site for obvious reasons, but as I am familiar using/changing the V3000 service settings, could you possibly send them via PM?

Again, I look forward to hearing from you,

R.

[TheSwede86]

Thank you Vincent for another great review!

You are currently reviewing all the sets I'm interested in, it's a nice luxury to be able to learn from these reviews and avoid any rotten apples.

I second Ron's request that it would be great if you could post the D65 calibration settings you used to achive such an excellent result.

A question though, the Sony D3500 do you belive that the above mentioned calibration settings would work for it too or is it to big a chance to presume that it is, meaning that you might totally mess up a semi-good picture if you go about without having seen the original settings prior calibration?

As always we remain thankful for your reviews!

Thanks in advance - TheSwede86

[baker99]

Great, I have been waiting for you to review this set since I bought mine, I agree black levels aren't perfect but so far I like it.  I have been using settings from http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=666200 but would love to see a more professional set of settings.

[micks_address]

i have the 40d3500 and i found the same result with the colour diagram - green was to far to the right and could not be corrected - calibrated with spyder 2 probe with HCFR software

my settings are as follows:

picture mode: cinema
contrast: max
brightness: 50
colour: 50
sharpness: 5
colour temp: neutral
noise reduction off
mpeg noise reduction off
black corrector off
advanced contrast enhancer - off
gamma - low
clear white off
live colour low
colour space wide

with my service menu settings at:


R Drive 272
G Drive 244
B Drive 218

R BKG 508
G BKG 507
B BKG 495


That gives me:

The following hcfr profiles file (see attached)

[Ron]

Thanks for taking the time to post your settings micks_address. 

Do you know if the D3500 uses the same LCD panel as the V3000?  (I'll try your settings anyway, just to see what effect they give...)

It's interesting to see how varied your service menu settings are compared to other published settings on the internet.  I would have thought identical panels would at lease have similar settings.

R

[hekoheko]

http://www.samuraisoapbox.com/2008/01/29/sony-bravia-kdl-v3000-calibrated-settings/


Backlight:2 (This will depend on your lighting situation)
Picture(Contrast): 88
Brightness: 47
Color: 55
Hue: Middle
Sharpness: 30
Color Temp: Warm 2

Everything else off. Color space should also be Standard.

White Balance:
Red Gain: -1
Green Gain: -4
Blue Gain: 0
Red Bias: 0
Green Bias: -3
Blue Bias: 0

Also you should read about ps3:s RGB full, everything depends about the device that is sending picture to tv, RGB full/limited or YppC (or what ever that was).

So those settings are for PS3.

[baker99]

That looks like the US version of the v3000 to me, which has a 10bit panel, unlike the UK model which is 8 bit.

[hekoheko]

That is japanese version, which has XMB menus. 
Major difference is that on that TV you can set the TV to support either RGB FULL or RGB limited.

Anyway, Vincent's settings would be superb. 

[SuperGrover]

Hi Vincent, hi all!

Thanks for the review!
I already own the KDL40V3000 for a week and have discovered an effect that is quite annoying to me  :
When i move my eyes around the screen while watching scenes that contain edges with medium or high contrast (for example like a simple light text on dark background or like lights in dark scenes and many other scenes especially in dark movies), i see the egdes flashing to multiple shadow-edges in colours of blue and green. There is no difference whether the picture is moving or standing still.
I'ts a little bit like the rainbow-effect that is known from DLP-beamers.
As far as i know, the 40V3000 doesn't have a flashing backlight so that cannot be the reason?!

Does anybody here have the same problem (maybe on a different LCD-TV set from Sony)?
Vincent, did you notice anything like that during the testing?
Is there a technical explanation?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you very much (and sorry for my bad english)!

P.S. I know that some people have similar problems with plasma TVs (http://forums.hdtvtest.co.uk/index.php?topic=196.msg1052#msg1052),
but that can't have the same technical reasons as on a LCD?!

[schnitzelbaron]

@SuperGrover

I`ve noticed the same effect on my 46V3000 (my toshiba LCD doesnt´t show this effect). It´s pretty annoying, especially when you are watching "dark" movies. It would be very interessting to know, what causes this effect and if there is any solution to get rid of it.

Greets,

S.

[SuperGrover]

I just called the Sony inhome service concerning the "rainbow"-effect.
As they said the effect is not known so far but they will send out somebody to have a look at it on location.
Hopefully the technician will have got sensitive eyes...

[Vincent]

@SuperGrover and schnitzelbaron:

I did not see the effects you witnessed on the V3000, but then again I don't even generally see phosphor trails on plasma televisions nor rainbows on DLP TVs, as fortunately for me I probably have low retinal persistence.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, I'll see if I can find some sort of standardised test to flush this out on future television reviews. Let us know what the technician said.

Warmest regards
Vincent