Thanks Kudzu9. I've been all through the settings as deep as I can go. Been racking my brain trying to figure it out. I will call Verizon tomorrow and get educated on the signal and cable box, though our man box is HD. I believe our bandwidth is plentiful. From there, I'll call our Magnolia Sales Rep through Best Buy (didn't know he was not a blue shirt until he rang us up). The Magnolia reps are VERY knowledgeable though.

I'm running out of time with Best Buy's 15 days return period with only 6 days left.

BTW, what model # did you get and how do you like it? We originally went for a 55" Samsung and left with the Sony.

Thanks for the informative link.

I got the Samsung UN55JS700DFXZA. It was on sale a few weeks ago at Costco online for under $1000, but it's now back up to $1500. However, at the moment, they do have a very similar 55" Samsung model that is also 4K UHD and it's available for under $1000: Costco - Samsung

debo,

We have an Older 42" Magnavox 1080p, a New 32" Magnavox 1080p, a New 48" Vizio 1080p and an Older 19" Vizio 720p, none of them are the 4k UHD! We have Comcast as our Cable Provider. The Analog Channels come in like yours Blurred and Pixelated. The HD Channels however are awesome on all TV's! Our Box in the Front Room is an Older Motorola and the Boxes in the other rooms are all Adapters and are all New Models (not sure what brand). Doesn't matter what box the signal is coming thru here, the Analog looks IMO horrible.

Before Comcast we had FIOS thru Verizon. Our Boxes were all Brand New Motorola Boxes when we first got FIOS TV. The Analog Signals were the same as we have with Comcast, just horrible, the HD was Great!

If you would hook your FIOS Box up to an Old CRT TV, your Analog stations would look crisp and clear. These CRT TV's were made for the Analog Signal and the present day LCD, LED, Plasma, etc... are made for the Digital HD Channels!

I too have tried all settings available on the TV's to adjust these channels. I've also tried adjusting the Cable Box itself using settings the cable companies don't tell you about and don't want you messing with! I didn't find anything that helped!

I called Verizon and was told our main HD box and signal is spot on. He said that standard channels will be blurry compared to HD. While I know that, the channels are too washed out/dull, and as my engineer DH put it, bleached looking, even with color/contrast/other adjustments. Maybe I'm expecting too much, but, than I expect more from this new one than my 9-10 year old set provides. That's not the case.

For 1-1/2 weeks, I have spent much time calibrating the setting to no avail where I say, ok, this is acceptable. The colors, etc. looks different from non-HD channel to channel - some better, some worse with washed out pic, boring colors, etc. I'm noticing that even some of the HD channels aren't as POPPING SHARP as I've seen on other sets. I've even tried settings that were used from a pro technician. I have a call in to the Magnolia/Best Buy sales rep who sold us the set however, I highly doubt he can tell me anything different than tried myself. While this is a good TV, I think perhaps it is less superior than what I was expecting from an HD TV. Maybe it's just the brand. We'll will be returning the set this weekend before the return period expires so we're not stuck with a $1,200 set that we'll regret keeping in hopes that we will find the correct settings, constantly complaining about the "yawn" of the picture. Luckily, we still have the old projection Sony to put back in it's home of the last 9 years.

debo-

Even though I responded to you above, I'm not an expert on these sets since I have only had my own 4K set for 6 weeks. However, I just don't think that what is happening with your set is a normal experience or acceptable. I will admit that I spent some amount of time fiddling with my new set until I was satisfied with the color and appearance of the image (or at least found the compromise that was best for me when switching from channel to channel). Previously, I had had a Panasonic plasma screen for 10 years, and it took a little while to adjust to viewing the new LED/LCD screen because the different technologies present color palettes in different ways. I wish you luck and hope you get this worked out. I will point out that if you want to try another set, with no risk, Costco has a 90 day, money back guarantee with their electronic goods. If you tried another tv, it would tell you whether the problem was with the set you just bought, or if there is something unique to your situation with the way the signal is delivered and/or the box communicates with these new types of tvs. Good luck, and please post back if you make any progress.

P.S.: I'm curious to know what the Verizon rep did to insure that your box and signal were "spot on." Maybe that is true because this problem just arose when you tried out the new set, but that still wouldn't entirely reassure me that the signal-tv match was perfect. And I have had problems in the past that needed to be addressed with my cable that couldn't be detected by someone sitting in an office. Also, being told that the picture would be "blurry" for normal vs. hi-def programs sounds like the rep was not really listening to you.

Last question: what kind of cable are you using between the box and the set? Do you have a new HDMI cable that you know is in good shape?

We were told that if a program isn't formatted in 4K UDH it will have the grainy look until program is formatted I. 4K UDH. It was the same before tv shows were in HD, they weren't as beautiful as you saw at BB, but lucky for us as most shows were formatted in HD it stopped being an issue. Also the screen clarity will be as good as the transmission capability. IOW, Your real clarity output will be only as good as the input, which may or may not support full 4K UDH. I hope this explanation is clear. Finally, a guy at BB says the beautiful color programs displayed on the TVs are specifically created in color combos to enhance what potential buyers see at the store and is a little better than what you'll actually enjoy at home.

We have the 900A and I use these settings

SONY XBR OPTIMIZED PICTURE SETTINGS.
Accessing the picture controls is simple; press the menu button on your remote
and navigate to the picture settings menu where you'll see most of the
controls. To find some other controls you may additionally have to enter the
"advanced settings" or the "picture options" sub menus (name
may vary depending on model). Don't worry about making any
"mistakes." You can always reset the picture settings to factory
default if necessary. Consult your user manual for additional guidance.

PICTURE SETTINGS.
Picture Mode: Custom
Contrast (Picture): 90
Brightness: 50
Color: 54
Tint: R1
Sharpness: 50
Color Temperature: Warm2
Backlight: 7
Aspect Ratio: Full (Dipslay Area = +1)
Miscellaneous: Motionflow = Clear, CineMotion = Auto, LED Dynamic Control = Low
(All remaining settings set to OFF, or 0)

jrb451-

I'm curious about how much difference you saw between picture quality with the original settings and what you have now. And did you have any problems like the ones plaguing the OP?

I never did the comparison with different settings. I got these from a review of the TV in some tech publication and decided to go with them right out of the box since they'd conducted the tests in their lab. Lower definition (480) pictures will show up badly on any large TV. Think about it. They used a 3:4 format that you stretch if you set it to fit your screen and you're not getting any more pixels. You're viewing a 32" picture on a 55" screen. It's going to look distorted.

I went out to install a UPS back-up/"power scrubber" on a friend's 47" XBR and found that she was viewing the picture through RCA component cables rather than HDMI. There's lot's of things that can affect picture quality.

Are you suggesting that a component cable connection is inferior to an HDMI one? Maybe, but that's something I've never heard.

Component = analog & HDMI = digital, No?

Snidely-

HDMI is superior in my experience. A couple of years ago I was hooking up a DVD player and was curious whether the type of connection would make a difference, so I put in a DVD, chose a scene with a lot of detail, and froze the picture. Then I switched the connection back and forth between RCA cables and an HDMI cable. The HDMI connection produced a clearer, more detailed picture. I'm not saying that the picture with the RCA cables wasn't adequate; it's just that the HDMI cable was clearly better.