Blacks appearing Grey on new Sony 4k TV

[Acehit]

I just recently bought a Sony BRAVIA | KD-43X75WL | LED TV. I must have spent hours collaborating the settings to get the best possible visual output but I have one problem, I can't get the blacks to appear black! I did some research and as it happens as I understand LED TV's are known for blacks appearing grey, and there is nothing you can do about it apparently. Some sources state that only Plasma TV's show black as black, but not LED TV's.

I tried adjusting contract, brightness, black adjust and nothing makes a difference. To be fair it is not that noticeable watching in daylight conditions but when I am watching a movie in pitch black conditions that is when you can notice it.

I must've spend just under 1k for this TV, so I don't really want to go through the hassle of now returning it and then forking out for a plasma but if that is the only option please enlighten me or is there any way I can get the blacks darker?

Thank you all in advance for your responses if I don't respond promptly.

[Ennio]

Don't know your tv but with LED, blackness has to do with what kind of backlight is mounted. When it's a lightsource for the whole panel, you can't do much other than dimming - if possible. Certain TVs have the backlight surface divided in multiple areas, each having their own backlight which the electronics will constantly auto-adjust.

As for black bars (both horizontal and vertical) , often there is a setting where you can adjust what color to use. Note that this concerns black bars that are not part of the video, but are created by the TV itself. As for movies, original discs usually have black bars in-video. Recodes often have the bars cropped out in which case the TV itself has to fill the non-used areas with black. Where HDR or Dolby Vision can show different from SDR video.

Plasma indeed can show very good blacks, but to my knowledge they don't come in 4K. OLED prices are dropping and I think these produce the best blacks because there is no backlighting. Every pixel emits its own light. Pixels in black emit nothing.

[Sharc]

I don't know your model, however the "brightness" adjustment is usually what actually sets the black level (by adjusting the 'backlight'). So when you adjust the "brightness" fully down (and increase the contrast) and still get greyish blacks it's probably a limitation of your TV.
Maybe someone who has this model will chime in.

https://hometheaterhifi.com/blogs/how-to-get-good-black-levels-with-an-led-flat-panel-display/

[usually_quiet]

Plasma TVs haven't been made since 2016. Plasma wasn't suitable for UHD TVs, so it faded away as UHD resolution became a standard feature for premium TVs. OLED, the replacement technology for Plasma, is only available for UHD TVs. LED TVs with lots of local dimming zones can come close to providing deep blacks.

However, Sony's X75WL line uses LED backlighting and doesn't have local dimming. That is to be expected since it is Sony's least expensive line.

[davexnet]

My relatively low end LG TV exhibits this but only on HDR material, standard dynamic range is fine.
Some of the shows, for example, Carnival Row on Amazon Prime looks terrible.

Using the Onn Andoid box I can set 4:2:2 chroma and turn on deep color for the HDMI port in the TV,
this helps quite a bit

[jagabo]

Make sure the TV isn't set for full range (0 to 255) input when your feeding it a limited range (16 to 235) signal. Both the source and the TV should be set to the same. I recommend limited range as that has been most common for many years.

OLED is the only choice now if you want true blacks.