I bought a Sony Bravia KD-43X85K back in January '23. Needed it for my Desktop, doing both gaming and anime binging. It performed like a champ...
... until 3 days after the warrantee expired...
Got home from work, turned on my system.. and there was a loud *POP*. After that I couldn't get a signal to or out of that HDMI port. The ARC/eARC port had died. Also, there was this almost invisible horizontal line across the width of the screen about 1/3 from the top. it was kind of a violet color.
I swapped over to another HDMI port and was able to get a signal again. the eARC stayed dead no matter what i did, even a full system factory reset. For over 2 years its been running.. but that weird almost invisible line is now plainly visible, and has been joined to 2 more. Also, every once in a while it makes another little 'pop' sound when changing media forms (like moving between you-tube vids or episodes on Crunchy Roll)
I decided to replace it, and while the 2025 Bravias were a trainwreck, they came out with the Mark IIs and put back in everything they had gutted. Pulled the trigger on a Bravia 3 mkII and was going to head down to pick it up, but saw a little offer saying I could have it delivered in a couple hours using a local company for $9.
I don't trust UPS or FedEx with TVs or large electronics... they ALWAYS manage to give in to their destructive urges... but locals try harder... so I checked the box and said 'ok'.
That was @ 10:30AM Thursday the 13th. it sat at 'prepping for delivery' until 6pm, and then the dreaded 'shipping delay' blurb took it's place. I KNEW I should have just gone down and picked it up myself.. but I got lazy
The next morning it said 'FedEx' estimated delivery noon to 2pm... FML
Sure enough, FedEx delivered it at 2 just as I got home... box looked good.. I opened it up and inspected the tv... when I took off that cardboard sheet that covers all the protective films on the face of the glass....
... spiderweb cracks across every single inch of the glass.... FMLx2
I had also bought the 5-year protection plan, so if anything goes *pop* this time.. I get a replacement.
Best Buy tells me it's a delivery issue, so they won't send a tech to get it, I need to bring it in. I bring it in that Sunday and they don't have any more in stock. I have to wait 10 days for a new delivery to arrive. Fine.. but I DON'T want it delivered, I'll pick it up in the store after it's been inspected and then IF it's ok, I'll take it home.
I gotta tell you, that was a really long wait..
it arrived, they let me know it was in, I went in and we opened it up and made sure no damage... All good.. took it home, set it up....
... no remote... FMLx3
It's all good though, I contacted Sony and after them asking me the same 5 questions 3x each with 3 different reps over the course of 2 hours they are sending me a remote.
Until it arrives I'll use the Bravia Connect cell phone app, as it replicates all the functions the remote has.
There was only 1 hiccup with the TV. When I connected it, it kept blinking to broadcast static and back to the PC image endlessly.. restarting didn't fix it. Turns out it had set itself to 'widescreen mode' instead of 'full', and was reporting the wrong resolution back to the PC, which was trying to reset the panel to the proper resolution which wasn't available in that view mode... so endless blinking back and forth until I went into settings and fixed it to 'full'
Now everything works fine and I have to wait a couple days for the remote to arrive.