“I bought the Sony X900E 49-Inch 4K TV, which I got a great deal on (open box). My problem is, when watching a DVD, a dark scene is almost totally black, no detail. Never happened with my old TV. Is this normal? A daytime scene is great, though.”
Answer This Question
1-2 of 2 Answers
That is not normal. I did just buy this particular TV at a BB store (even though my name isn’t showing “Verified Purchaser” here). I tested my TV with a DVD player for you, and it doesn’t do this. If you’re using a yellow-red-white cable to connect your DVD player to this TV, that’s your problem. A Blu-Ray player should only be connected to this TV using an HDMI cable. But a DVD player should only be connected to this TV using component cables (with either HDMI or component, in my opinion, five- to ten-buck cables are good enough). Component cables are not yellow-red-white but rather red-blue-green (with a red-white cable for audio). Carefully match the right color at each end. Try a different component cable if you have or can borrow one, to be sure your cable isn’t the problem. If you do all that right and still have this issue, there’s a small chance your TV is defective, since it was open box, which usually means somebody already returned it, maybe for this reason. Usually though BB open box TVs are perfectly fine; the TV just didn't meet somebody's needs. The better possibility is that your TV has incorrect picture settings for the DVD player input. And if that's the problem, you can fix it by changing the picture settings as follows. Playback a DVD, and when you get to a problematic dark scene, pause it so you see the dark scene displayed on the TV. You’ll watch this still image as you adjust the settings. On the TV remote, hit the ACTION MENU button. In the menu that pops, navigate using the down arrow to “Picture adjustments” and select it with the center button in the wheel. The “Picture adjustments” menu should pop on the right for the DVD player input. (Note: you can and should customize your picture settings differently for each Input. The TV remembers your settings the next time you use the same input.) Select “Picture mode” with the center button and scroll down past Custom to “Cinema home” and select it with the center button. Now scroll down to “Advanced settings” and select it. Then select “Brightness” *under Advanced settings,* (not “Brightness “under “Picture adjustments”). You can experiment with all the settings there, “Color” etc. as well, but first try moving “Gamma” and “Black level” under “Brightness” (select each one first, then use the right arrow button) until the shadows look less muddy. You should be able to retain total black in the right places while retaining detail in shadow area. If it’s not possible, something else is wrong, either the TV or the DVD player/cable setup. Even with the best settings, older DVD discs and players do not have sufficient resolution to look their best on this TV. (Though shadows should have detail, the picture will still look fuzzier than on an older or smaller TV.) Consider getting an upscaling Blu-Ray player and another HDMI cable for this TV. That will still play your DVD discs with slightly better detail on this TV. Then you should rent or buy new discs in Blu-Ray for best results. Blu-Ray really pops on this TV. Also 4k Blu-Ray is worth considering with this 4k TV. Good luck!
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.Hi BklynGuy, I ran into this. After going through the scenes and types of play modes you will need to set it properly. If this is like an anime/animation DVD like Star Wars Rebels for example then you will need to set the Picture Mode to like Animation. So depending on what DVD Movie/Video type you are watching you will need to changing the picture mode to best reflect what you are watching. Trust me I had to do the same thing. When you get this TV make sure you set aside an hour or more to play with the settings and to know which TV modes to use for which DVD content you will play. You can also go into Advanced Settings and play with the darkness/shader settings and that should allow you to control the darkness gradient.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.