INITIAL IMPRESSIONS:
I'm currently running with my own settings with everything - backlight, brightness, contrast, colour etc set to 50%. That's because of two reasons -- I don't like abnormally saturated colours, and I believe that a high brightness will reduce the lifespan of the set which I want to last 10 years.
My initial impressions:
I'm a bit disappointed -- the brightness and black levels are definitely lacking. However, the colours seem true to life. I haven't made a side-by-side comparison with last year's EX650.
What made me choose this over EX650 is this: (my reply to a private question)
(1) If you buy EX650 you'll probably get showroom sets that have been lying unsold and on display for a long time. The dealer will probably fool you saying that they'll send a fresh piece from the godown, but as soon as you turn your back they'll take down the old used set, put tape on the carton and send it to your home. Unless you're very careful, it'll be hard to avoid this. In my case, too, the showroom set was sent -- but in any case as I explained in my post, it had arrived in the showroom the day before so it's OK. 2013 models have less likelihood of being used.
(2) I didn't have great expectations about sound from any LCD TV set, thin as they are. The sound is OK by LCD TV standards.
(3) One more important point is that Sony now supports .mkv. I've tested this. However, not all formats are fully supported -- on some, there's no sound. .mkv is OK, however.
(4) I'm still in the process of fully evaluating the picture. One thing definitely is true -- pictures in the 2012 HX series were definitely better. But then they were / are much more expensive, I couldn't have afforded them. HD pictures are enjoyable to watch but SD pictures look horrible. That's not a fault of this set, however -- on a large screen LCD of any make, SD pictures
would be a disappointment.
(5) The appearance is great.
(6) I think buyers can compare 2013 Samsung sets with this (in a comparable price range) before coming to a decision. Mind you, I'm NOT making a recommendation one way or the other, picture tastes vary from person to person. Some like vivid picture, some like natural looking pictures. I guess I'll have to watch more TV to come to a conclusion.
However, my TV viewing has definitely increased a lot. I don't know if that tells you something
