Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

The place for all discussion on gaming hardware
User avatar
Fudoh
Posts: 13015
Joined: Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:29 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Fudoh »

There is no added lag. Actually it's even a little faster than the standard mode. HDTVtest got confused by the readings of Leo's tester.
User avatar
Konsolkongen
Posts: 2309
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 8:28 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Konsolkongen »

Hurray! :D

Actually, and this seems really weird. I started getting mild headaches too, especially when playing darker games. However, I found that using the Impulse mode on the "Game-Original" preset over the "Game-Standard" preset made it a lot more bearable, to the point where it's not a problem anymore. I can't see any difference in the picture by doing this, so it MAY just be that I switched around just as I got used to the flickering :p

The flickering is quite noticeable on all white screens, no matter the mode. But that happens so rarely that it shouldn't matter :)
User avatar
Xyga
Posts: 7181
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 8:22 pm
Location: block

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Xyga »

I meant the Motionflow features (which the W6 do not have) produce lots of lag.

Wasn't talking about the strobing mode. But it's cool that it doesn't even add a few ms.
Strikers1945guy wrote:"Do we....eat chicken balls?!"
User avatar
Konsolkongen
Posts: 2309
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 8:28 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Konsolkongen »

Yeah the other motionflow settings add an amazing amount of lag, making pretty much everything unplayable :)
lostinblue
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 12:17 pm

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by lostinblue »

I don't have a Sony W6 hence the motionflow confusion.

I thought one of the Motionflow preset bifurcations was strobing and X-Reality Pro was, well, inteligent frame creation shenanigans so I thought it was Motionflow.
User avatar
Konsolkongen
Posts: 2309
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 8:28 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Konsolkongen »

Impulse (strobing), is a motionflow option :)
User avatar
RGB32E
Posts: 1400
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2009 12:50 am

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by RGB32E »

Konsolkongen wrote:Impulse (strobing), is a motionflow option :)
Are you more satisfied with your W9 in Game-Original with Impulse than your S2 Panasonic? I've been getting minor IR on my 12k hour XBR8 when playing retro games with static backgrounds and have started itching for a W9a before they're gone. The W9B replacement doesn't appear to use as good of a panel (black level and native refresh rate), and it's unknown what makes it "Triluminos".
Last edited by RGB32E on Thu Feb 27, 2014 8:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Xyga
Posts: 7181
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 8:22 pm
Location: block

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Xyga »

Konsolkongen wrote:Impulse (strobing), is a motionflow option :)
Oh well ! :lol:
We should name the Sony MotionFlow options by their names to avoid confusion.
The 'laggy' ones are Clear, Clear Plus et sumthin else ?
Strikers1945guy wrote:"Do we....eat chicken balls?!"
User avatar
RGB32E
Posts: 1400
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2009 12:50 am

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by RGB32E »

Xyga wrote:
Konsolkongen wrote:Impulse (strobing), is a motionflow option :)
Oh well ! :lol:
We should name the Sony MotionFlow options by their names to avoid confusion.
The 'laggy' ones are Clear, Clear Plus et sumthin else ?
Impulse is the only motion flow option available in Game or Graphics modes on the W9A.
lostinblue
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun May 19, 2013 12:17 pm

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by lostinblue »

Now I'm confused to hell and back, W650A and W705B have strobing/impulse but no motionflow then?

Sorry for being a tough costumer.
User avatar
Fudoh
Posts: 13015
Joined: Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:29 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Fudoh »

yes, that's what Sony means by Motionflow XBR 200 these days...
User avatar
Konsolkongen
Posts: 2309
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 8:28 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Konsolkongen »

RGB32E wrote:
Konsolkongen wrote:Impulse (strobing), is a motionflow option :)
Are you more satisfied with your W9 in Game-Original with Impulse than your S2 Panasonic? I've been getting minor IR on my 12k hour XBR8 when playing retro games with static backgrounds and have started itching for a W9a before they're gone. The W9B replacement doesn't appear to use as good of a panel (black level and native refresh rate), and it's unknown what makes it "Triluminos".
Actually between the Panny S20 and the Sony W9 I had a 51" Samsung E6500 Plasma which unfortunately got some burn-in from a channel logo :(
Yes I'm very satisfied with the W9 there are pros and cons compared to a plasma of course. What you might not have expected is that the black level of the W9 (with LED Dynamic control: Low) is actually much better than the E6500 Plasma..! To be fair the 51" version of the E6500 didn't have inky black colors, but still I'd never have expected the W9 to perform better in this regard :)

The motion resolution on the W9 with impulse is perfect 1080, where it was 900 on the E6500. I have compared a 900 to a 1080 Plasma, before and didn't really see any difference. However there's a noticeable difference between the 1080 motion resolution on the W9 and a similar on a Plasma, because a plasma regardless of 900 or 1080 will have a certain amount of dittering in a moving picture anyway, which makes the W9 look cleaner. The slight ghosting that can occur in Impulse mode, can for the most time be compared to "green ghosting" on a plasma, which was never a problem IMO. On certain bright objects, scrolling across certain dark backgrounds it can look pretty ugly on the W9 though. Think Sonic CD world 2, bad future, which is probably the very worst example I have seen. But all in all it hasn't bothered me since it looks great otherwise :)

The DLNA streaming absolutely sucks compared to the Samsung which would play pretty much anything you threw at it. The W9 is way too picky in this regard, when it works it's great, but most of the time when I use it I'll end up having some kind of problem with it.
3D on the W9 is pretty much exactly the same as the E6500. Both have been praised for their 3D capabilities and they are supposedly among the better ones our there. Well I think both sucks for gaming which more often than not suffers from heavy crosstalk. I expect it will work better for movies as it did on the E6500, but 3D just sucks either way :) The W9 and the included glassed does support Sony's 3D SimulView though, which on paper is a fun feature for the games that support it. It does work, but it looks like ass :D

But pretty much everything else Fudoh wrote about the W6 is true for the W9 as well :)
User avatar
Xyga
Posts: 7181
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 8:22 pm
Location: block

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Xyga »

Update regarding the issues I had with my W6 unit;

Picture too yellow;
I definitely believe it's bad factory calibration now, because everything looks much more natural with -10 green gain, or even lower.
Starting from neutral, because warm 1 & 2 are like 'there's only one time of the day: sunset' and I would have to push the red gain almost all the way to the left to make it watchable.
I don't have real calibration tools unfortunately, so I used the vp30's patterns and the greyscale looked allright (at least to my eyes it did) with these settings. With warm settings the red/orange tint was way too obvious.
Now it's pretty much impossible to fine-tune colors without proper equipment, but this tv will be used for gaming 95% of the time so I don't really need it to be 'perfect'.

Losing sync with VP30;
Turned out the culprit was a bad HDMI cable, the VP30 and W6 are innocent.
The W6 doesn't want old or low-class stuff to touch her, she's picky like a young catholic bourgeoise. ^^
Strikers1945guy wrote:"Do we....eat chicken balls?!"
User avatar
Xyga
Posts: 7181
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 8:22 pm
Location: block

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Xyga »

While various display forums focus on the new 2014 W7 and W8, I'm wondering about the new 2014 W6; any idea how they fare and why they're so much thicker ?

KDL-40W605B (W600 in the US)
KDL-48W605B
KDL-60W605B

Haven't found any reliable information yet...
Strikers1945guy wrote:"Do we....eat chicken balls?!"
User avatar
Fudoh
Posts: 13015
Joined: Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:29 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Fudoh »

In Europe Sony raised the type description by +100, meaning that the W700 is what the W600 was last year. W900 = last year's W800 and so on.... My guess is that the new W600 is maybe a repackaged R series model from last year ?
User avatar
Xyga
Posts: 7181
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 8:22 pm
Location: block

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Xyga »

Could be.

However, although last year's W6 and this year's W7 are pretty much the same, this year's W8 are different from last year's W9 (fewer MotionFlow settings on 42" model, apparently no 'triluminos' stuff).

It's not always just model names switching, they have made a few technical changes here and there, some very minor, some more important.
The new W6 series could be something different from the R one, who knows.
I doubt many websites and forums will provide decent info on this year's W6 before long though...

Not a single IPS panel left in the W family by the way. Don't know if we should be happy about that, last year's W8 had awful blacks and uniformity, but faster pixel transitions and better motion handling (some people prefer that over decent blacks, contrast and uniformity...)
Strikers1945guy wrote:"Do we....eat chicken balls?!"
User avatar
Fudoh
Posts: 13015
Joined: Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:29 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Fudoh »

However, although last year's W6 and this year's W7 are pretty much the same, this year's W8 are different from last year's W9 (fewer MotionFlow settings on 42" model, apparently no 'triluminos' stuff).
this year's W8 series is new, but this year's W9 series are the same IPS machines as last year's W8.
Not a single IPS panel left in the W family by the way.

2014 W9 - read the HDTVtest.co.uk review. Really bad.
Last edited by Fudoh on Mon Mar 31, 2014 1:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Xyga
Posts: 7181
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 8:22 pm
Location: block

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Xyga »

Wut !? :shock: Completely missed that lol. Going to read that review now.

EDIT: my god it is indeed atrocious. :|
In light of this you're probably right about the relabeled R.
Crap, this is stupid.
Strikers1945guy wrote:"Do we....eat chicken balls?!"
User avatar
Konsolkongen
Posts: 2309
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 8:28 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Konsolkongen »

Yeah avoid the 2014 W9. I was really shocked when I read their review. It started out so promising too, with the most accurate grayscale they had ever seen, and then ended in total misery :D

The W7 and W8 are probably the ones to buy this year.

Great that they at least kept the lag in place :)
User avatar
Fudoh
Posts: 13015
Joined: Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:29 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Fudoh »

The W7 and W8 are probably the ones to buy this year
I'll buy a 65" X950B *IF* the models comes to Europe :mrgreen:
User avatar
Xyga
Posts: 7181
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 8:22 pm
Location: block

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Xyga »

Fudoh wrote:I'll buy a 65" X950B *IF* the models comes to Europe :mrgreen:
Any hints on how Sony plan to handle 4K upscaling ?
I am already imagining some crazy 60ms or 100ms delay even in game mode.
Strikers1945guy wrote:"Do we....eat chicken balls?!"
User avatar
Fudoh
Posts: 13015
Joined: Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:29 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Fudoh »

The first 4K models were in the 2.5 frames range.
User avatar
Konsolkongen
Posts: 2309
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 8:28 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Konsolkongen »

Xyga wrote:
Fudoh wrote:I'll buy a 65" X950B *IF* the models comes to Europe :mrgreen:
Any hints on how Sony plan to handle 4K upscaling ?
I am already imagining some crazy 60ms or 100ms delay even in game mode.
Crappy for sure. That's how they did it with last years 4K models.

They are trying to smooth out the picture when really both 720p and 1080p scales perfectly to 4K. In fact that's the only thing I find fascinating about 4K, but to my knowledge all manufacturers are butchering the upscaling.

What they should do is just convert 1px in a 1080p source into 4px, and 1 px in a 720p souce into 9px.

Code: Select all

# 4K native

## 1080p upscaled
##

### 720p upscaled
###
###
User avatar
Fudoh
Posts: 13015
Joined: Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:29 am
Location: Germany
Contact:

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Fudoh »

On some review (Panasonic maybe?) I read that a simple next neighbour scaling engine is available in the menus....
User avatar
Konsolkongen
Posts: 2309
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 8:28 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Konsolkongen »

Awesome :)
User avatar
brentsg
Posts: 2303
Joined: Sun Jul 12, 2009 9:01 pm
Location: St. Louis, MO USA

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by brentsg »

So i'm now looking at the 2014 Sony models, after originally gunning for a 2012 XBR.

It's just now becoming clear that my need to research everything to death is interacting with my shortening attention span in ways that don't allow me to ever buy anything of significance.
Breaking news: Dodonpachi Developer Cave Releases Hello Kitty Game
User avatar
Pasky
Posts: 694
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:58 am

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Pasky »

So what is the 2014 equivalent for this TV? I've always been a fan of Sony TV's and it's about time I bought a new LCD.

EDIT:

KDL-40W600B

I'm looking at that model. Does it support 240P natively? I don't use any scalers such as a framemeister.
User avatar
Xyga
Posts: 7181
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 8:22 pm
Location: block

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Xyga »

W600B is NOT the equivalent of last year's W6 (the one reviewed here) or this year's W7.

It's a shame but it looks like the W7 is not available in the US.
Looks like the W800B is your best choice over there (seems to be the equivalent of the W829B available in Europe, correct me if I'm wrong).

EDIT: Canadians have more luck http://store.sony.ca/42-w700-led-intern ... Series-TVs
Strikers1945guy wrote:"Do we....eat chicken balls?!"
User avatar
Pasky
Posts: 694
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 3:58 am

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Pasky »

So does it do 240P natively? (The W006B and the W800)
User avatar
Xyga
Posts: 7181
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 8:22 pm
Location: block

Re: Sony W6 series LCD review - 2013's best gaming TV

Post by Xyga »

Natively... not sure. Read Fudoh's review on the first page, according to him 240p is not handled well in any case.

No idea about the W006B, but again it's diffrent from the 2013 W6 and 2014 W7 that are of interest.

W800 -> most probably like the 2013 W6 and 2014 W7.

Whatever, you won't find any TV that's good at 240p by itself.
Strikers1945guy wrote:"Do we....eat chicken balls?!"
Post Reply