SONY SXRD 60"...WOW!!!

Any recommendations?

Just about to place my order for 60"SXRD. Should make a nice replacement for my 36XBR400. Only question is about standard def. programming quality. I'm on DirecTV and would like to know anyone's experience and/or recommendations. I have the HD package and am not too worried about that.

 

You will see lots of Directv artifacts on the SD Directv channels, but they will be there no matter what set you watch them on. I've found that SD channels can look pretty good on the SXRD if they are good to begin with. This is not the case with many HD sets I've seen. Most SD material, off air, dvd, vcr, etc does not have digital compression artifacts since they were not digital and not compressed. You'll surely see the lack of resolution and other analog picture problems such as color smear, grain, etc, but once again they are going to be seen on any set.

 

I have Time-Warner cable and SD looks pretty good...considering. Cable does display fewer compression artifacts.

 

Most of my SD channels look pretty good but of course I try my HD channels first if the same program is on both SD/and HD.

 

Some SD channels stink, most are nice - some are great. Depends on how much compression is used by the cable company. The Knick/Ranger games on MSG SD on Comcast are horrible. On the Hi-Def channel INHD2 they are extraordinary.

Does anyone have any reason why I should keep the HUGE box the TV came in?

 

If you've had it longer than the (30 day?) return policy of your store, then you should chunk it. If it ever has to be repaired, service companies are equiped to transport it without box.

Unless you plan on moving soon, I say dump it. And this is coming from a guy that keeps every box for A/V gear

 

I got rid of my box after the first month. It is too large to keep in storage.

 

Save everything too but this is a behemoth. I still have a Technics box from 1978.
Out with the recycling tomorrow. Thanks for the answers guys.

 

btw...the only problem I had with my set was a black mark (speck) that was static behind the screen in the upper right of the screen.

Well the PC Richards guy came by today and also saw the speck. He began to unscrew the rear cover of the TV and I looked at the screen and lo and behold, the speck fell off and disappeared. Yeah!!

Must have been something left over from the manufacturing that got stuck, shaking the TV up with a power drill screwdriver knocked the speck off the screen.

So now my SXRD is perfect!

 

To house the homeless?

 

What a statement that would make.

 

I have the top of the line Sony CRT 34". Sure it is a great picture, but it is hardly BIG SCREEN viewing. On top of that it weighs a ton. To me, you need to have at least a 50" set to get to large screen viewing that starts to approximate a theatre experience.

For most people the price of a SED set (when they finally get to market) will be very high. Canon and Toshiba are spending around 2 billion dollars in development and it will take years to recoupe that investment--hence the HDTV sets will cost A LOT. I'd be shocked to see it priced south of $10,000 for a 50" HDTV. It will be a few years before these SED's drop enough in price to be competitive price-wise with the more mature technologies (LCOS, DLP, plasma etc). Sure, it will undoubtedly have picture advantages (not to mention much lower power consumption and much lower heat), but until the price gets closer to that of the other comparably sized sets they will remain for those wealthy enough to buy them, those willing to blow their savings on them, or those willing to deficit finance them (not a good idea).

 

The two current SXRD sets are getting a $500 reduction in MSRP on 1/22, according to some AVS Forum members.

 

Great news if true. I heard this also and stopped my order. Hard to believe how fast this quality TV has dropped in price. A boon for the consumer.

 

I would believe it. TV's typically have a manufacturer's cost reduction about 6 months into it's run, and that is passed along to consumers. Sometimes it will even be $1k for the bigger set, and $500 for the smaller one. Happens with Mitsubishi's every year.

 

One user at AVS reported that he fed 480i and 480p test patterns into the set and that the 480p DVD was heavily filtered, reducing detail (very strange, IMO). Those of you watching DVD movies through non-upscaling players may want to try putting your player in 480i mode, and using the Cinemotion DRC for deinterlacing.

AVS members have also reported that the new MPEG-4 DirecTV still downresses the horizontal resolution of HDTV from 1920 to 1280. I guess this practice is here to stay.

 

Yikes! Down-rezzing to 1280x1080 even on locals?

Looks like FiOS is still gonna be the only way to watch true 1920x1080i HDTV.

 

Plus cable and OTA.

 

Well, ya OTA of course... I was meaning for HBO/HDNet/Discovery etc.

I thought I read somewhere on AVS that Adelphia or Comcast had some resolution issues.

 

Maybe so. I talked to Time Warner's chief engineer here, though, and he assured me that all they do is pass the signal right through (MPEG-2 1080i and 720p) and that they didn't even own the expensive, realtime high-def MPEG2 encoders that would be used to reencode a dozen channels down to 1280x1080i. Of course, in the long run you never know what might happen with any provider. My more immediate concern is the excessive subchannels in use here for both OTA and cable locals, especially on PBS. If they want to keep shoving through multiple standard-def subchannels during HD broadcasts, they should at least switch to 720p to reduce the DCT blocking artifacts.

 

Circuit City has the sixty incher on sale for $4,049 through January 28.

 

Frys had it for $3499.00. I tried to get a refund for the difference but they wouldn't bite. I was 30 days from delivery but not from purchase date. I paid $4199.00.

Btw it was only at that price for 5 days.

 

Yeah, KCET (LA PBS) used to have the best HD on TV. Those days appear to be long gone.

 

Has anyone had one of these baby's professionally calibrated yet?? Does it need to be?

 

I tell you, this is one TV that probably doesn't need calibration. If you use an AVIA disc or follow what settings other use over at AVS, you get a damn fine picture out of this TV.

I plan on a pro calibration once my HT is back up and running but for 99% of people, this TV is awesome right out of the box. I'm not kidding.

The HD on this set has ruined regular DVD for me.
I have to get the upcoming Sony PS3 and try a Blu-Ray disc.