My big complaint about the Twin View feature is that you can't leave the audio fixed on one window while you "surf" in the other. My 9-year old Sony 32" lets you toggle the audio from one window to the other. The XBR960 insists on fixing the audio on whichever window is selected. This makes it pretty useless to surf while watching a program, in my opinion.

I'm using the CableCard with TimeWarner Cable.

My biggest problem with TwinView is that it confuses my receiver in terms of audio. I use a Sony V555ES receiver, connected to both the optical digital and analog outputs (monitor out) of the XBR960. The V555ES is set to auto-set the input. So if I'm watching a Digital Cable or HDTV station, it automatically uses the digital input, and it automatically uses the analog audio input when I'm watching analog stations. This works perfectly when switching channels. However, as soon as I switch to TwinView, the audio output (from the receiver) stops, and the receiver looses connection. I have do back out of TwinView, then select a digital station to get the receiver back. Then it will continue to work fine until I select TwinView again.

I'm not really sure what is happening, but it means that I can't use TwinView. I don't know if the TV does not output audio properly when using TwinView. Since I'm using a Sony receiver I wouldn't expect any compatibility issues.

If I'm using the TV's internal speakers, there are no issues with TwinView audio...

Maybe this would work better if I used the "monitor out" audio connections on the TV instead of the "audio out". BUT, I still want to be able (wife and kids) to use the TV internal speakers sometimes. If I wanted to use the "audio out", I'd need to put them into "fixed" mode (not "variable"), and to do this required disabling the TV's internal speakers. So, it's no good trying this.

Any ideas?

I think we're stuck with Twinview the way it is. I agree with you, there should be a way to surf visually while the audio is locked--even if they had to lock it on either view (probably the left-hand view.) This was a big disappointment to me, too. (Wouldn't it be nice if the Firewire port allowed you to do a firmware upgrade? mmm...)

Mark

My 960 was delivered by Circuiy City today, and it's hard not to be blown away by the set. After a few hours, the "OMG" factor has worn off a bit and I've come to notice a distinct green tint in the upper right corner of the set (it's red/purple when the image has a blue background, and green the rest of the time). I have an appointment for an ISF calibration on 9/15 (the first appointment I could get). Is this tint something the calibration will be able to take care of, or is this something likely to be a permanent problem with the set? I'm about to give the set a quick workup with Video Essentials, which will hopefully improve things somewhat.

Originally posted by andrewjnyc
My 960 was delivered by Circuiy City today, and it's hard not to be blown away by the set. After a few hours, the "OMG" factor has worn off a bit and I've come to notice a distinct green tint in the upper tight corner of the set (it's red/purple when the image has a blue background, and green the rest of the time). I have an appointment for an ISF calibration on 9/15 (the first appointment I could get). Is this tint something the calibration will be able to take care of, or is this something likely to be a permanent problem with the set? I'm about to give the set a qiick workup with Video Essentials, which will hopefully improve things somewhat.

Any speakers near the set?

Turn it off and on a few times to degauss.

bob

Turning the set off and on again did it! I'm relieved. And After a quick work-up with Digital Video Essentials, the set picture is looking pretty darn fantastic. I dunno what caused the green tint--my center channel speaker is about a meter straight up above the TV, and the front right one is wall mounted about a meter (maybe 1.25m) diagonally up from the corner that had the tint. Is that close enough for them to have a detrimental effect on the image? Still, it looks great now and I know what to do if the tint comes back. It's a drag that I have to wait almost a month before I can have the ISF configuration, but the picture I have now is good enough that I won't have too much trouble living with it until then.

"The issue is that you usually get a bozo that makes the set worse than when he showed up!"

so sponge is that any worse than a tech from cc/bb/etc ? i'll answer for you. no its not.

like i stated in a previous post i have "good luck" <so far> with all my electronics <inc dishwashers, refrigs :)> and service people. if i'm not happy with service or a product i make sure i get that way.

no biggie. now if it was medical malpractice, or a bad boob job on my wife....

I just stopped by CC today and saw that the 34XBR960 was on sale for $1,900 and today was the last day of the sale. I ended up ordering the xbr and a sony ht system. I didn't care much for the sony ht system but since there's a rebate right now, so I practically get the ht system for free.

I spend nearly 3 hours there at CC..I can't believe it...frustrating but at least I ordered my set. First they told me they didn't have the tv in their warehouse and the CC computer systems are so bad, the salesman had to look up each store to see if they had one in stock. First he told me no stores had it and then I told him that it was stupid to have a sale if CC doesn't even have it in stock and I said he should honor the price if I had to come back. He had to check with his manager and when he came back out, he said they managed to find one at another CC in Yonkers, NY.

I could have had it delivered next week, but I'm going to be busy, so I'm having them deliver it on the first weekend in September...can't wait.

I'm anxious to see if the new batch CC will be receiving will have the previously reported problems (eg. tuner problem) fixed.

Also, about the $1900 sale price, aren't they required to give you a 30-day raincheck for that price? I think BB does that on their products. Too bad I wasn't near a CC when they had this price. I would have tried to haggle them to take another $50 so that the price of the TV and the stand would be $2200.

Regarding the XBR960, can anyone here who has the set please tell me if it is possible (and if you were able to) to send video from the digital tuner to a D-VHS (eg. JVC 40000) via the firewire connections? This is the only reason I want the XBR over the XS and an answer would really solve my dilemma. I posted this before but got no reply.

Thanks.

Hi all,

I know some of you had purchased the matching stand for the 960 when you got yours. However, I found the stand to be a bit cheap when compared to the TV and a bit disappointed that it would hold only 1 small component.

I am sticking with my current Bell'O AVS-4201A stand. It has three glass shelves, the top of which Bell'O says can hold *up to* a 36" Sony XBR TV. Here is the only possible problem though, which some have told me won't be one:

The top shelf is 40" wide by 21" deep. This means the back of the TV base will hang off the shelf by a couple inches at least. The width is fine since the TV is 39 1/8" wide. Do you think it will be okay for the back to hang off a bit like that? I'm afraid one night I'll hear a loud crack, which will be the top glass shelf breaking.

P.S. - I'm also guessing I got the width of the TV right and that the *widest part of the base* is 39 1/8" wide and will fit perfectly on the top shelf.

Thanks!

Originally posted by tennberg
The top shelf is 40" wide by 21" deep. This means the back of the TV base will hang off the shelf by a couple inches at least. The width is fine since the TV is 39 1/8" wide. Do you think it will be okay for the back to hang off a bit like that? I'm afraid one night I'll hear a loud crack, which will be the top glass shelf breaking.


Your stand should be fine. Most of the weight of the tube sets are in the front, as long as that is well supported it will be fine. I'm planning to get the Bell'o AVSC-2103 myself.

I know that certain picture tubes are repairable once the phospher is used up. Does anyone here know if the tube in the 960 is repairable? I ask because there is a good chance that Sony, in the not too distant future, will completely stop producing CRT televisions in favor of whatever digital display will be popular at the time (God help us if that is still LCD). If the tube is repairable, I won't have to settle with anything "new" if I still think that this picture (on the 960) is the best there is.

Originally posted by tennberg


I am sticking with my current Bell'O AVS-4201A stand. It has three glass shelves, the top of which Bell'O says can hold *up to* a 36" Sony XBR TV. Here is the only possible problem though, which some have told me won't be one:

The top shelf is 40" wide by 21" deep. This means the back of the TV base will hang off the shelf by a couple inches at least. The width is fine since the TV is 39 1/8" wide. Do you think it will be okay for the back to hang off a bit like that? I'm afraid one night I'll hear a loud crack, which will be the top glass shelf breaking.

You should be alright. The 960 is 24.3" deep. Plus, the heaviest part of the tv is towards the front, so a few inches off the back wouldn't concern me. Try it out. Just don't wiggle it excessively or go jumping up and down on the thing! :p Seriously though, I would look at the specs on your stand.

Funny thing is I've ordered a stand for my 960 that I don't actually own yet! I went with the BDI Axis 8024 3-shelf...325lbs top, 75lbs middle, 150 lbs bottom. Measurements are 22.5"H x 48"W x 27"D which will give me a few inches in the front and four inches on either side.:)

Hi all,

Thanks for the quick reply. I actually love my stand and think it will go perfectly with the 960, once I get it that is.

The store I got it from for 10% off plus no sales tax said they have about 45 ordered but only 10 or so available. Who knows where I am in *that* line? I was supposed to get the TV today (earlier than the original 24th delivery date), but it's not been pushed back to Aug. 31 for delivery. Looks like I'll be needing to take a day off of work ;-)

The store manager I spoke to said the guy who sold me the system should have said Sony is terrible with meeting delivery dates and that the original delivery date was only an estimate. Well, here's to hoping the 31st comes that much quicker.

In full disclosure, I just stumbled on another little - what I will call glitch -when using the XBR960 in twin view.

We all know(or all should know) that cablecards only decode 1 channel - so don't expect it to work on twinview. We also know that HDTV can only be displayed in the left panel.

However, if you try twinview with the cablecard in the right panel and tuned to a digital station that is non-HD, lets say anything above channel 99 or HBO in SD, it will not show in the right side.

I can understand why it won't show 2 HD panels (though I would prefer it would), but why it will show the the analog cable channels on the right and not the digital SD channels via cablecard looks like an oversight to me - especially if you aren't using the cablecard on the left side at the same time.

And as a footnote, I am beginning to see a black "shadow" appear on the left edge of my screen - about a quarter of the way up. I believe someone else commented about the same thing on this thread, but I can't seem to find it now.

I certainly hope the aperture is not going bad on this tube like it did on the 910.

Originally posted by yestfto73
I know that certain picture tubes are repairable once the phospher is used up. Does anyone here know if the tube in the 960 is repairable? I ask because there is a good chance that Sony, in the not too distant future, will completely stop producing CRT televisions in favor of whatever digital display will be popular at the time (God help us if that is still LCD). If the tube is repairable, I won't have to settle with anything "new" if I still think that this picture (on the 960) is the best there is.


I'm not so sure CRTs will go away anytime soon. This is a technology that, while old, is still developing. Samsung is coming out with some thinner tube sets next year and if the quality is any good, I think Sony will have to think long and hard about stopping production of CRTs. CRTs still give the best picture when comparing to other displays. If the price points of plasma and other thin displays come down significantly, then that may be another story.

Originally posted by TKO
Here's a screen shot of a 34XBR960. Is this worth fixing in the service menu or just return it? I was wondering how this compares to others.

Also on the same set, the HDMI connector is very sensitive to movement. If you barely touch the connector, the signal is lost on the TV.

Screen Shot (http://www.tabsoftware.com/download/xbr/geom3.jpg)

Photo placed in link to minimize bandwidth.


It's a good thing you used a medium format camera and then scanned in the image to prevent the lens causing "bad geometry" convergence at the corners of the image and lending itself to a less accurate image. :P

-C

So does anyone know someone from Sony who we can get the straight scoop concerning the supposed production halt to fix the tuner issues? All of my local stores are now out of them and claim wait times of several weeks. And I don't know if we can take a salespersons word on Sony production problems.

I finally gave up on set number three which had the same tuner problem as my other two sets. So I'm 960-less for a few months, until my back recovers from carrying the thing back and forth to the retailer six times! :-)

Seriously, it would be good to find out when a new batch of cured ones comes out so that I can come back to the land of HD. Watching the olympics is killing me now.

After two months on the waiting list I finally got my 960 yesterday morning!!!! First impressions:

1. HD picture (in PRO mode) is outstanding!!!! Believe the hype! This set definately is the reference standard for high def. content at the moment.

2. SD content is not that good, I'd say after calibration you'd probably get it to look decent.

3. Looking at the back of the set it says it was manufactured in August, and so far I haven't had a tuner problem at all.

4. It definately has geometry problems that are more obvious with 4:3 material in "Normal" mode (however these geometry problems are present with ALL contens in ALL modes):

With this type of material as we know, two horizontal black bars appear on both sides of the picture. There's a slight outwards curvature on both bars on the upper corners only. Also, when I bring up the directv guide on the screeen, you can notice that the hoirzontal lines accross it are very curved downwards.

Has someone seen this before? Did calibration fix the problem? I'm wondering if I should get Sony to come out and fix it or if I should get the set professionally calibrated to address this issue. I have had mix results with Sony technicians in the past, so I'm wondering if they'll be of any use. BTW I'm in the Plano, TX area.

Thanks,

My local Circuit City was setting up a 960 on their display floor this morning. It wasn't there yesterday. I asked the salesperson if they had them in-stock and he said that a shipment was due in a few days. I don't know if this answers the production halt issue but stores are definitely getting them in at this location.

Two weeks ago, I reported here that I have been having troubles with a tuner similar to the ones described in this thread. Last week, Comcast install digital cable with a cable card and I do not have anymore tuner problems. The tv takes few seconds to start and comes up with a clear picture for both digital, HD and analog channels. The tv worked fine after it was off for few days and it is ok every evening now.

Before that I had a standard analog cable and used internal tv tuner. I had problems with viewing after the tv was off for a while (I had to turn it off and turn it on).

So, I guess the problem is related to both: tuner and signal feed. If you have a proper digital feed you are OK, for other situations it depends.

I hope Sony will explain the situation, why it is happening and then I will try to fix it. In the mean time, I got really attached to the tv. I love the picture and the unit's functionality. I even got a memory stick to view digital pictures. They are really amazing, almost slide projector quality without all the troubles.

BTW, I am in the Boston area and it seems to me that CC here does not have any supply problems. They were willing to replace my set right away.

Mikhail

Here's the weekly update on my XBR960 -

The geometry problems seem to be getting worse. Instead of just having the corners bow, the whole right side seems to compress and bow. I ran a test pattern through my PC onto the screen (through component cables) that alternates between a large white bar in the middle 30% of the screen and then the inverse of that (white bars at the top and bottom with black through the middle). The parts of the screen where the white bars were clearly bowed more then the dark areas. You could actually see the bowing effect increase and decrease as the pattern switch back and forth.

A dark area has appear on the left side of the screen a few inches up from the bottom. It's noticeable whenever there is any solid colour in that area.

There seem to be other noticeable colour blemishes that are visible on an all white background.

I don't think any of these problems are from burn-in, because I keep the set in Pro mode with the Brightness at around 40% and the Picture at about 60%. I also watch a mix of material.

Originally posted by Phantastica
Here's the weekly update on my XBR960 -

The geometry problems seem to be getting worse.

Could be shielding. Are you using speakers close to the tv?

Hi everyone,

When I purchased my 960 from Tweeter in Boston a week and a half ago, they offered me their protection plan, which I turned down. I didn't want to leave there thinking they got me to buy more than I needed. I figured Sony's 2-year warranty was adequate.

Now, that I've read even deeper into the forums, I'm thinking I made a bad choice. With Sony's warranty, I'm assuming if I get a defective unit, I will need to ship it back to Sony. Couple other points: 1, Sony's warranty is only 2 years long. 2, The guy at Tweeter told me Sony only covers dead pixels in the main part of the screen, *not* in corners.

With Tweeter's coverage, which is under $200, I get a 5 year warranty, a 60 day defective return policy (from date of actual delivery), in-home repairs, coverage of all pixels on screen, and yearly maintenance (though I may just do ISF calibration).

Since I actually haven't received the TV yet (it doesn't get delivered until the 31st), I called and was told i could go into Tweeter to pick up the extra coverage.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks!

Originally posted by FreeflyKC
Could be shielding. Are you using speakers close to the tv?

No, I'm just using small bookshelf speakers that are a good distance away from the set. I question the shielding around the built-in speakers on the tv though.

..after a 2nd tech visit, my 960 has to be replaced. The geometry was eventually just too off to put up with, especially with static images such as my xbox games. It also has noticeable shadowing on both sides of the screen and seems to be getting worse slightly. It's especially easy to see against lighter or solid backgrounds. I was hoping for a repair, as it's probably even money that the next set will suffer from similar problems. I had similar problems with three 34HS510's, so at this point I'm wondering if it's just my environment(speakers have all been replaced and prior tv's exhibited the problems downstairs away from any other electronics). I tried to tell myself there are more important things to worry about, but when the bowing on the screen becomes noticeable to guests who see the set for the first time it's just plain unacceptable.

Can anybody that is successfully using the Scientific Atlanta CableCARD with this set send me a PM with the name of your cable company and city that you are in. Comcast still hasn't got my card to work. I would like some ammunition that others hace this working especially if Comcast has it working in some other area.

Originally posted by BloatedCorpse
..after a 2nd tech visit, my 960 has to be replaced. The geometry was eventually just too off to put up with, especially with static images such as my xbox games. It also has noticeable shadowing on both sides of the screen and seems to be getting worse slightly. It's especially easy to see against lighter or solid backgrounds.

It sounds like we're having an identical set of problems, so I guess there's a good chance that a replacement will suffer from the same problems (unless there was some manufacturing issue that has been sorted out). Did they give you an eta on a replacement set?

..no ETA on the return. The tech said sony would call. They usually call and request a fax of the receipt and then it takes a couple of weeks or so to get a replacement, at least that's how it was with my 510's. The delivery guys are pretty good about removing and replacing the set on your stand too. Phantastica, keep me updated on how your set works out.

Originally posted by Phantastica
Here's the weekly update on my XBR960 -

A dark area has appear on the left side of the screen a few inches up from the bottom. It's noticeable whenever there is any solid colour in that area.

There seem to be other noticeable colour blemishes that are visible on an all white background.

I don't think any of these problems are from burn-in, because I keep the set in Pro mode with the Brightness at around 40% and the Picture at about 60%. I also watch a mix of material.

BINGO.

Same issue i mentioned last week.

I have tech out on Thursday, bringing the Sony Magnet kit to fix the geometry, but this looks VERY SIMILAR to what developed in my 910 that was an apeture problem causing the whole picture tube to be replaced.

My fear is this is more of an issue than the ATSC tuner....as it's the second set i've had (910 and 960) to develop this and now several others have. Same Place on every picture tube.

Originally posted by tennberg
Hi everyone,

When I purchased my 960 from Tweeter in Boston a week and a half ago, they offered me their protection plan, which I turned down. I didn't want to leave there thinking they got me to buy more than I needed. I figured Sony's 2-year warranty was adequate.

Now, that I've read even deeper into the forums, I'm thinking I made a bad choice. With Sony's warranty, I'm assuming if I get a defective unit, I will need to ship it back to Sony. Couple other points: 1, Sony's warranty is only 2 years long. 2, The guy at Tweeter told me Sony only covers dead pixels in the main part of the screen, *not* in corners.

With Tweeter's coverage, which is under $200, I get a 5 year warranty, a 60 day defective return policy (from date of actual delivery), in-home repairs, coverage of all pixels on screen, and yearly maintenance (though I may just do ISF calibration).

Since I actually haven't received the TV yet (it doesn't get delivered until the 31st), I called and was told i could go into Tweeter to pick up the extra coverage.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks!

Get it. I did.....$40 a year. Replacement if they can't repair it (thats how I got my 960 after my 910 problems). Tune up the set once a year (though not ISF). And it covers lightning damage and electrical spikes that Sony doesn't.

Circuit City charges around $400 for the set. I see the $200 as a bargain I gladly paid....and it's already got me a new set.

Originally posted by michaelggray
Can anybody that is successfully using the Scientific Atlanta CableCARD with this set send me a PM with the name of your cable company and city that you are in. Comcast still hasn't got my card to work. I would like some ammunition that others hace this working especially if Comcast has it working in some other area.


People clearly don't read my posts :(

Yes I am using the SA Cablecard. It works perfectly.

I've said it before, I will say it again.

The original SA Cablecard software DOES NOT SUPPORT THIS SET, only some Panasonic models. YOUR CABLE COMPANY MUST INSTALL SERVICE PACK 1 on their end to use and 18 other HDTVs with cable card.

There is a Service Pack 2 out now, but the set works with CableCard and Service Pack 1.

Tell them they HAVE TO INSTALL SERVICE PACK 1 to the cablecard software on the headend or it will never work.

I ordered my 960 this past weekend from CC and it is due to be delivered on 9/4. I currently don't have cable or satellite but am interested in OTA HDTV.
I live about 12-13 miles from the transmitter according to www.antennaweb.org

Does anyone here use just and indoor/outdoor antenna connected straight to the 960 to get their HDTV? If so, what antenna do you use? I heard good things about the Zenith Silver Sensor and am considering it.

Originally posted by Yung
I ordered my 960 this past weekend from CC and it is due to be delivered on 9/4. I currently don't have cable or satellite but am interested in OTA HDTV.
I live about 12-13 miles from the transmitter according to www.antennaweb.org

Does anyone here use just and indoor/outdoor antenna connected straight to the 960 to get their HDTV? If so, what antenna do you use? I heard good things about the Zenith Silver Sensor and am considering it.

Hi Yung,

I used a Silver Sensor with the three different 960s that I had (all had problems with the HD tuners) and it worked fantastically! I think you'll find that it is a very highly recommended indoor antenna.

I live in Salt Lake City, about 15 miles from the two main antennas that broadcast HD here (about 30 digital stations, 5 or 6 of them are true HD 720p/1080i). It worked perfectly, even inside the house pointing at the antenna through a wall (not brick).

MW

Yung,

The 960's OTA DTV reception surprised me a little bit. I live about 5 miles from the local towers and am able to receive 3 out of 5 DTV stations without even connecting an antenna. I was not able to do this with my current DTV1080 satellite receiver. I think the signal strength was around 75% without the antenna. I use an outdoor antenna but did connect a small Recoton indoor antenna for testing and received all the channels with 90% or higher strength.

For comparison, the 960 is always around 98% and my DTV1080 box :( is usually 10 points lower.

Yung, I have no experience with indoor antennas. Based on 56Oval's response, maybe you should try the indoor antenna and take it back if it doesn't work properly for you.

I use an outdoor antenna with a mast-mounted preamplifier. I'm in Chicago, about 10-12 miles from the downtown transmitters. I am very pleased with my installation, but I must say the signal was intermittent until I turned up the gain on the preamplifier. So it appears to me that the signal needs to be fairly strong for the 960 to deliver a good picture.


Mark

Thanks for your reponse guys. I just moved into my house a few months ago and I know I have an outdoor antenna attached to mast on my chimney. I don't know the make of the antenna, but I am pretty sure its both VHF & UHF. I don't see a feed from the antenna into the house though, so I will have to get someone to look into that.

In the meantime, I may pick up the Silver Sensor. Buy.com has a variant from Phillips that is about $25, which is $5 cheaper than the Zenith model and it comes with free shipping. Is there any difference between the Zenith one and the ones from Gemini and Philips? I also read elsewhere on this forum that maybe the Zenith preamp ZEN-AA1 works well with the silver sensor to increase the gain.

HDTVFanAtic

I read your posts before, I knew that you and 1 other individual on these boards are using it successfully. I was looking to see if there also are others. Are you a COMCAST customer? I was hoping to be able to tell them that COMCAST has this combination working in such and such markets. Anyway I appreciate your response that you made previously and now.

My cable company says they are running Service Pack 1. I was under the impression that they needed service pack 2.

For those of you who had problems with the XBR960 - either with the geometry or the built-in tuner. When was your unit manufactured?

Watching spring board diving in the olympics on HDTV. Very heavy pixelation of the diver during the spinning. I tried using both the outboard HDTV tuner and built in tuner and got the same exact results. I thought the point of having an interlaced picture is to prevent this.

Does Pixelation occur because of weak signal strength?

Originally posted by triplex
Watching spring board diving in the olympics on HDTV. Very heavy pixelation of the diver during the spinning. I tried using both the outboard HDTV tuner and built in tuner and got the same exact results. I thought the point of having an interlaced picture is to prevent this.

You are seeing compression artifacts from the real-time MPEG-2 encoder used for ATSC broadcasts. At these data rates, the encoder can not keep up with motion, resulting in tremendous amount of block errors which are visible on every kind of display product, regardless of type. MPEG-2 does not become transparent until you reach well over 40 Mbit/sec (at least double what is used in ATSC).

Interlace does not ease this problem and actually complicates it at times (although modern encoders have proper tools to deal with it).

The only way to get better pictures is to pre-encode and fine tune manually as is done with stored content (e.g. movies). The bigger the display (and the closer you sit to it), the more you will notice these artifacts.

Move advanced compression systems fare much better than old MPEG-2 but we are stuck with this technology.....

Amir

I think it has to do with compression. MPEG2 is just not good enough for fast moving HDTV images.

Its like streaming movies off the net. You have good connection it will be smooth with very few pixles, however if you have slow connection fast moving objects will appear pixelated.

Manufactured July 2004

Bad geometry that could not be corrected by the Sony technician.

Originally posted by michaelggray
HDTVFanAtic

I read your posts before, I knew that you and 1 other individual on these boards are using it successfully. I was looking to see if there also are others. Are you a COMCAST customer? I was hoping to be able to tell them that COMCAST has this combination working in such and such markets. Anyway I appreciate your response that you made previously and now.

My cable company says they are running Service Pack 1. I was under the impression that they needed service pack 2.

I might have stated SP2 by mistake, but it is clearly SP1 that is needed. That is all BHN has here and I have no issues.

They did call me on Tuesday to make sure it was still ok as apparently the Panasonics contained in the original Software has gone to hell on them. I told them this cablecard still continued rock solid.

Originally posted by Yung
For those of you who had problems with the XBR960 - either with the geometry or the built-in tuner. When was your unit manufactured?

Manufactured in June. Bad geometry. A dark blotch on the left and right side. Blotchy solid colours.

Got my tv and hooked it up today. Very nice, and no complaints here.

One minor thing though... I hooked up my DVD player which plays at 480i. The tv only recognizes 4:3 at 480i, and not 16:9, so the normal mode was in a 4:3 format. I checked settings and the manual, and the tv bascially assumes that 480i signal is a 4:3 format, and anything better than 480i is 16:9.

re: blocking and compression

Amrim said it well: It's the format we're stuck with--it's not a fault of the '960.

To add a bit more: As you probably know, most stations transmit at least one additional signal on their digital channel. The bandwidth for this signal needs to fit within the standard channel assignment. So the broadcasters reduce the bandwidth of the HD channel in order to accommodeate other signal(s). In other words, the broadcasters are looking down the road to provide another revenue stream. Did the FCC shortchange us viewers? Well, today's HD is pretty darn good, but it could have been even better.

Mark

Just turned on my 960 for the first time 2 days ago. Geometry is terrible. On 4:3 images, bowing at the top and bottom on both sides is extremely obvious. Of course, it's not noticeable on 16:9 but 4:3 is going to drive me nuts. I called my retailer and requested a replacement. He offered to have a Sony Technician come to house to attempt to fix it. I told him that the set was too new to have it repaired. He insisted that that should be the first step. I insisted that that offer was not good enough and I wanted it replaced. He finally agreed but said that it would take about 10 days to swap it with another new one. This geometry issue is very noticeable to me because I had my previous XBR910 ISF calibrated which fixed a lot of minor problems including geometry. However, it cost me about $275 so I'm not ready to spend that kind of money until I get a set that is reasonably acceptable "out of the box". I haven't evaluated the picture quality yet because I was so disgusted that I just turned the set off and switched to my 27" TV. Hopefully the replacement set will be better. What a disappointment.

Originally posted by Yung
For those of you who had problems with the XBR960 - either with the geometry or the built-in tuner. When was your unit manufactured?

Serial# 8002135 - Bad Tuner
Serial# 8002210 - REALLY Bad Tuner (had to warm set up 5 min then recycle power) - Poor Geometry
Serial# 8002136 - Surprise surprise...bad tuner.

I believe there were all June/July

Wow. From a statistical standpoint, that's a pretty bad record. It's interesting that your 4th set was just one serial number off of your first one.

I wonder what small percentage of the folks buying this set are even aware of the problem reports on this forum?

Bob

Originally posted by 56Oval
Serial# 8002135 - Bad Tuner
Serial# 8002210 - REALLY Bad Tuner (had to warm set up 5 min then recycle power) - Poor Geometry
Serial# 8002136 - Surprise surprise...bad tuner.

I believe there were all June/July

Originally posted by TennBikeBerk
Got my tv and hooked it up today. Very nice, and no complaints here.

One minor thing though... I hooked up my DVD player which plays at 480i. The tv only recognizes 4:3 at 480i, and not 16:9, so the normal mode was in a 4:3 format. I checked settings and the manual, and the tv bascially assumes that 480i signal is a 4:3 format, and anything better than 480i is 16:9.

My DVD player has settings. It can be set for 4:3 or 16:9 but it has to be done within the DVD menus. It's default is 4:3. I'm just wondering if you have that same issue, because I watch 480i stuff in 16:9 w/ no problem. (after someone else went into the setup and change the default setting).
-C

Originally posted by billmail1
Just turned on my 960 for the first time 2 days ago. Geometry is terrible. On 4:3 images, bowing at the top and bottom on both sides is extremely obvious. Of course, it's not noticeable on 16:9 but 4:3 is going to drive me nuts. I called my retailer and requested a replacement. He offered to have a Sony Technician come to house to attempt to fix it. I told him that the set was too new to have it repaired. He insisted that that should be the first step. I insisted that that offer was not good enough and I wanted it replaced. He finally agreed but said that it would take about 10 days to swap it with another new one. This geometry issue is very noticeable to me because I had my previous XBR910 ISF calibrated which fixed a lot of minor problems including geometry. However, it cost me about $275 so I'm not ready to spend that kind of money until I get a set that is reasonably acceptable "out of the box". I haven't evaluated the picture quality yet because I was so disgusted that I just turned the set off and switched to my 27" TV. Hopefully the replacement set will be better. What a disappointment.

You are nuts.

None of them are going to be perfect out of the box. They won't spend that much time in the factory as 95% of the people are happy with them as is.

You paid for ISF on a set less than 6 months old but won't let them try and get the geometry right in your house.

Do you know that on the final adjustment Sony in San Diego points all these sets due west for the final adjustment.

Do you know they adjust them differently depending on which side of the Equator they are going?

Do you know that more sets in Florida and the further South you go have worse issues as it all has an effect?

And we aren't just talking Sony.

Let them adjust it in your house. Then take a replacement.

Geez.

OK guys, on the issue of the shadow or shading on the left hand side.

This can be one of 2 issues.

You hope that its a purity issue. That can be corrected with the magnets.

You hope its not the other. That can't.

The way you tell is with a sold color such as red. If the "shadow" is of a solid color, like yellow with a red screen, or purple or green on the other colors, then its purity. Magnets can correct that.

If it is grey or black, thats a much worse issue. That is "the shadow of death"....my term, not Sonys.

That's the same problems the 40 inch tubes have and most techs have given up trying to correct it. They believe its just a flaw in the manufactoring process.

If you hit the TV near the shadow and the picture "rings" continually for 5 seconds or so on the screen, then your apeture is going bad (that's what happened on my 910).

Mine was the purity issue. Magnets solved the problem shadowing problem. However, they still could not correct the geometry issues.

An interesting note. Tweeter in Florida had 2 shipments totally around 75 of these units. They are out of them now but expecting another shipment of 75 in the next 5 days (so much for production halt rumors, lol).

The 2 techs that work the 8 county area here have worked on 3. Mine is the only geometry/purity issue.

That stat says what I suspected, most people either 1) don't have that many issues with this set or 2) most people are just not as critical.

I believe it's the later instead of the former.

The tuner issue is evident in many ATSC tuners - not just Sonys. Some sets want you to turn on the source first, then turn on the set. Other sets want the set on and then the source.

Mitsubishi's HDTV go crazy if you turn on a source after the TV is turned on and even shut down.

It's the nature of the beast. If you can't change a channel to get a signal, and Mitsubishi makes you turn on things in certain sequences, good luck ever being happy.

Originally posted by TennBikeBerk
Got my tv and hooked it up today. Very nice, and no complaints here.

One minor thing though... I hooked up my DVD player which plays at 480i. The tv only recognizes 4:3 at 480i, and not 16:9, so the normal mode was in a 4:3 format. I checked settings and the manual, and the tv bascially assumes that 480i signal is a 4:3 format, and anything better than 480i is 16:9.

Make sure that your DVD player is set to 16:9 mode. The 960 definetely checks the ID1 flag on 480i and 480p material (it works great on mine at least), but your DVD player has to tell the TV... =)

Originally posted by triplex
Watching spring board diving in the olympics on HDTV. Very heavy pixelation of the diver during the spinning. I tried using both the outboard HDTV tuner and built in tuner and got the same exact results. I thought the point of having an interlaced picture is to prevent this.

I've noticed that all of the `water sports' have pretty bad pixelization. =( The bottom line is that there's just too much information there for the system to handle; the only fix is to either use a better algorithm that can compress that information better using the available bandwidth (like say, MPEG 4), or increase the bandwidth (ok, better encoders could also help).

In any case, interlacing both helps and hurts. It helps in that you've halved the original bandwidth by only sending half a frame at a time, but by doing this it also makes it harder for the compression algorithms to work. You've spread the spacial locality of the picture across two frames.

Originally posted by HDTVFanAtic
You are nuts.

None of them are going to be perfect out of the box. They won't spend that much time in the factory as 95% of the people are happy with them as is.

Geez.

BTW, I got my set delivered Monday. And it has bad geometry problems as well. The set was manufactured in August. So, it will be replaced.

Anyway, when you say 95% of the people are happy with the set, how are you coming up with this number? Did you do a survey that we're not aware of or something? This set was initially marketed for the videophiles to start with !! most people that don't care much black levels, gray scale, color rendition, red push etc. etc. already own a plasama, lcd, dlp or some other mediocre technology out there.

The point is, it's not too much to ask to have good (NOT PERFECT) geometry on a $2k television. If the problems are minor but yet noticeable, that's not acceptable to me. After spending 3 days with my tv, checking out every format and aspect ratio, the geometry is bad enough to notice. And good luck trying to adjust the particular 'bowing' problems through the service menu, it will not happen !!!!!! You can mask the problems a bit, but then another section of the screen becomes affected. Trust me on this one, I spent lots of time trying to rectify the situation.

So HDTVFanatic, it seems to me that about 95% of the people in this thread have had problems with this set and you are pefectly happy with yours. So, why are you still checking the thread? You must be nuts to be paying attention to a thread of problems that you currently don't have or or that you find neglegible.

Ok, I've looked at this thread for the past couple of months and it seems that a number of people have had problems with their sets -either bad geometry or bad tuner. However, it seems to be a small minority so far, as most people seem to be satisfied. My set is being delivered on 9/4 so I hope I am one of the satisfied customers.

Here is a list of reported problems that I have seen in this thread.

Reported AVS Serial Mfg Purchased/
Problem/Comments Member Number Date Received
Bad Tuner RJB in Phila ? ? 7/10/04
Bad Geometry JamisonBWolsh ? ? 7/14/04
Bad Tuner JamisonBWolsh ? ? 7/24/04
Bad Tuner/Bad Geometry JamisonBWolsh ? ? 7/31/04
Bad Tuner 56Oval 8002135 June/July ?
Bad Tuner/Bad Geometry 56Oval 8002210 June/July ?
Bad Tuner 56Oval 8002136 June/July ?
Bad Geometry Phantastica ? June ?
Bad Tuner snclawson 800458X ? ?
Bad Picture snclawson 800353X ? ?
HDMI problem HDTVFanAtic 8002496 ? ?
Bad Geometry in 4:3 billmail1 ? ? 8/24/04
Bad Geometry TKO ? July ?
No digital signal from cold start eganders ? ? ?
slight geometry problems in 4:3 Acksull 8002689 ? ?
bad geometry silvertone ? August 8/23/04

Others that reported they have no problems
No problems BTV Mark 8003116 ? ?
So far looks great rmacdoug 8004571 ? 8/18/04

There are a bunch more people satisfied with their sets from what I have seen than those with problems. Maybe we can keep this list going for those that have not reported in.

My TV has shipped today. I wont call the carrier until late Fri to see when they expect to deliver it.
Since the carrier is out of Phili, I really dunno when...but in my mind it's a one day run to NEPA at best.
We'll see and I will keep everyone apprised on its fate...fingers crossed !

Congratulations on the new TV!

Be sure to inspect the TV before signing for the delivery.

Here's a thread about a 34XBR910 that was damaged during delivery:

Sony KV34XBR910 Delivery Nightmare (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=379229)

Basically, the box looked intact but the tube was actually damaged.

Bob

Originally posted by kctobyjoe
My TV has shipped today. I wont call the carrier until late Fri to see when they expect to deliver it.
Since the carrier is out of Phili, I really dunno when...but in my mind it's a one day run to NEPA at best.
We'll see and I will keep everyone apprised on its fate...fingers crossed !

HDTVFanAtic,

I'm NUTS????? Are you asking a question or making a judgement?? In response to your comments:

1. I am not expecting "perfection" out of the box. I didn't have it on the 910 and I don't expect it on the 960. What I do expect is a 4:3 picture that doesn't draw a negative reaction from my wife (who knows very little about the technical side of TV but she knows what she likes and what she doesn't like). Since we spend a lot of time watching SD 4:3 (not by choice), the bowing problem is very obvious, very annoying, unacceptable and WE DON'T LIKE IT!! Not on a $500 27" set (also a Sony) and definitely not on a 34" HD set that should be setting the standard for Direct-View TVs.

2. Yes, I paid for an ISF calibration on my 910 but, guess what, an ISF tech normally knows what he/she is doing. Let's see...oh yeah...I think they are ISF certified. Are Sony techs certified?? And if so, by who's standard?? In my opinion, there is a HUGE difference between an ISF tech (who's level of professionalism can usually be measured and verified (the one I hired has quite a well-known and respected reputation) and a Sony Tech that might have been hired by the local TV repair shop last week. Sorry, but a TV that is only a few days old shouldn't need a visit by a Sony technician. I believe that is why retailers have exchange policies.

3. I don't care what direction Sony points their TV's when performing the final adjustments. If the alignment works in San Diego and not in New Jersey then the shipping box should be labeled as such. How far away from San Diego do I need to be to get a decent picture? And the last time I checked the map, NJ is still north of Florida so I guess my TV should be somewhat better than the Sony TVs sold in Florida!

4. As for letting Sony into my house to adjust my set - I don't think so - at least not the first one. My retailer's clock (for a return or exchange) starts when the set is delivered to my residence - not when I'm finally satisfied that Sony was able to properly adjust it.

My first 910 was great "out of the box" and it probably also came from San Diego. The ISF tech was able to improve it tremendously and I will have the next one calibrated as well but that shouldn't be necessary to see straight lines on the tube. Believe me, I can live quite happily with a less-than-perfect color temperature or white balance but extreme curves on both sides of the picture can really ruin a 4:3 viewing experience.

I know that Sony is not much better than the other manufacturers but I can tolerate a poor picture on a $1000 set much more than I can with a $2000 one.

Am I nuts??? I don't think so. I'm just a consumer who expects to purchase a HDTV that doesn't elicit comments from friends and family asking me "What's wrong with your new TV??". You should give HDTV viewers a little more credit for knowing a straight line from a curved one. Believe it or not, those of us East of San Diego know that the former is acceptable and the latter is not.

Please don't interpret my response as inflammatory or argumentative. It's not meant to be. I just don't like being called "nuts" for caring about the quality of my viewing experience and posting either my satisfaction or dissatisfaction on this forum.

Bill

I've got a good xbr960, serial number 4558. I didn't check when it was made.

Originally posted by RobertF
Wow. From a statistical standpoint, that's a pretty bad record. It's interesting that your 4th set was just one serial number off of your first one.

I wonder what small percentage of the folks buying this set are even aware of the problem reports on this forum?

Bob

I wonder how many people out there actually have bad ATSC/QAM tuners, but because they are just hooking the TV up via HDMI to their Satellite Receiver they don't recognize that their TV actaully has a problem????

I bet there a lot of them! Especially ones manufactured in June/July!

I am very certain that there are a LOT of them out there with geometry problems that people just don't notice. We are probably a much pickier group when it comes to demanding a set with perfect geometry. Me thinks there is still a lot of 'art' in the science of building huge tube televisons! :-)

I gave up for a few months on trying to get a good one. I even considered bailing ship and buying a Samsung 47" DLP. But the DLP chip only renders 720 lines. Ack. Not good on a big screen line that. Maybe late October I'll throw the dice again and hope for a good 960.... Best TV out there.

Originally posted by Ppuno
I've got a good xbr960, serial number 4558. I didn't check when it was made.

Could you post a screen shot while it's displaying a channel guide, something with a lot of horizontal lines (maybe even Avia) or just hit display to show the time in lower corner? I'm curious how your set is displaying in the corners. My serial number is 4408 manufactured in July and is being returned because geometry cannot be corrected to an acceptable quality.

56Oval, I'm doing the same. I'm returning my TV and will hold out for several months to see if quality improves and then repurchase.

Here are some pictures showing the 'bowing' problem, in wide zoom mode and 4:3 mode. My serial number is 8005787

another pic.

are your guys geometry problems mostly for sd OR hd OR both? i can understand when using zoom on sd the picture will get distorted.

Both. The geometry problems are also present with HD signal, though they're less noticeable. You can see it when you press the 'display' buttom during an OTA high def broadcast, you can see bowing on the boxes that display the info. about the channel. Nothing to do with any of the 'zoom' modes as the problem is very obvious when you watch 4:3 material in 'normal' mode. If you display the directv guide for example, you can pretty much tell the problem.

Tonight I was watching tv on my fairly new 960, when I heard a loud "pop" noise. Sounded like a spark almost, and it came from my tv. I think the picture flashed for a second too.

It would seem as though nothing happened. The picture, color, and geometry and just like they were before the pop.

When the pop happened, the tv had been on for at least 20 minutes, so it wasn't the degaussing. Any ideas?

BTW, what is degaussing?

Originally posted by silvertone
BTW, I got my set delivered Monday. And it has bad geometry problems as well. The set was manufactured in August. So, it will be replaced.

Anyway, when you say 95% of the people are happy with the set, how are you coming up with this number? Did you do a survey that we're not aware of or something? This set was initially marketed for the videophiles to start with !! most people that don't care much black levels, gray scale, color rendition, red push etc. etc. already own a plasama, lcd, dlp or some other mediocre technology out there.

The point is, it's not too much to ask to have good (NOT PERFECT) geometry on a $2k television. If the problems are minor but yet noticeable, that's not acceptable to me. After spending 3 days with my tv, checking out every format and aspect ratio, the geometry is bad enough to notice. And good luck trying to adjust the particular 'bowing' problems through the service menu, it will not happen !!!!!! You can mask the problems a bit, but then another section of the screen becomes affected. Trust me on this one, I spent lots of time trying to rectify the situation.

So HDTVFanatic, it seems to me that about 95% of the people in this thread have had problems with this set and you are pefectly happy with yours. So, why are you still checking the thread? You must be nuts to be paying attention to a thread of problems that you currently don't have or or that you find neglegible.

You're nuts.

75 sets sold. 3 service calls. 5%.
Very simple math.

YOU GET THE TECH TO ADJUST IT WITH MAGNETS, NOT THE SERVICE MENU.

GEEZ. Open the set yourself....take the subwoofer off the yoke if you are so inclined and look for yourself.

There will be 2-6+ magnets on the tube already. These magnets were applied in San Diego with all sets facing due west as a standard and adjusted with a compensation for North America.

It wasn't perfect to begin with and some worker slapped on some magents and hoped you would face the set west etc etc.

So you let a tech who cares more about it than the factory worker in your house to put on more magnets (actually better magnets as they are more adjustable than the factory magnets) try and straighten out the geometry. If he can't you send it back.

What is so hard about this concept?

Everyone shipping TV's back instead of giving a tech a shot at it, lots of luck as if you read carefully, those who have sent them back without giving a tech a shot at it aren't happy with the second one either.

That's not to say that a tech can fix every set, as has been the case - but its sure faster than going through 5 more sets and finally giving up.

Originally posted by billmail1
HDTVFanAtic,

I'm NUTS????? Are you asking a question or making a judgement?? In response to your comments:

1. I am not expecting "perfection" out of the box. I didn't have it on the 910 and I don't expect it on the 960. What I do expect is a 4:3 picture that doesn't draw a negative reaction from my wife (who knows very little about the technical side of TV but she knows what she likes and what she doesn't like). Since we spend a lot of time watching SD 4:3 (not by choice), the bowing problem is very obvious, very annoying, unacceptable and WE DON'T LIKE IT!! Not on a $500 27" set (also a Sony) and definitely not on a 34" HD set that should be setting the standard for Direct-View TVs.

2. Yes, I paid for an ISF calibration on my 910 but, guess what, an ISF tech normally knows what he/she is doing. Let's see...oh yeah...I think they are ISF certified. Are Sony techs certified?? And if so, by who's standard?? In my opinion, there is a HUGE difference between an ISF tech (who's level of professionalism can usually be measured and verified (the one I hired has quite a well-known and respected reputation) and a Sony Tech that might have been hired by the local TV repair shop last week. Sorry, but a TV that is only a few days old shouldn't need a visit by a Sony technician. I believe that is why retailers have exchange policies.

3. I don't care what direction Sony points their TV's when performing the final adjustments. If the alignment works in San Diego and not in New Jersey then the shipping box should be labeled as such. How far away from San Diego do I need to be to get a decent picture? And the last time I checked the map, NJ is still north of Florida so I guess my TV should be somewhat better than the Sony TVs sold in Florida!

4. As for letting Sony into my house to adjust my set - I don't think so - at least not the first one. My retailer's clock (for a return or exchange) starts when the set is delivered to my residence - not when I'm finally satisfied that Sony was able to properly adjust it.

My first 910 was great "out of the box" and it probably also came from San Diego. The ISF tech was able to improve it tremendously and I will have the next one calibrated as well but that shouldn't be necessary to see straight lines on the tube. Believe me, I can live quite happily with a less-than-perfect color temperature or white balance but extreme curves on both sides of the picture can really ruin a 4:3 viewing experience.

I know that Sony is not much better than the other manufacturers but I can tolerate a poor picture on a $1000 set much more than I can with a $2000 one.

Am I nuts??? I don't think so. I'm just a consumer who expects to purchase a HDTV that doesn't elicit comments from friends and family asking me "What's wrong with your new TV??". You should give HDTV viewers a little more credit for knowing a straight line from a curved one. Believe it or not, those of us East of San Diego know that the former is acceptable and the latter is not.

Please don't interpret my response as inflammatory or argumentative. It's not meant to be. I just don't like being called "nuts" for caring about the quality of my viewing experience and posting either my satisfaction or dissatisfaction on this forum.

Bill

Yes you are nuts....see my response to directly above. It applies to you as well.

I thought this was a thread regarding the Sony KD-34XBR960...Not third grade...

Originally posted by Yung
For those of you who had problems with the XBR960 - either with the geometry or the built-in tuner. When was your unit manufactured?

I didn't keep that info from the first set that had the tuner problems, but it was probably manufactured in June. The serial number was something like 8002xxxx. I remember it was in the 2000's. The current one I have that works perfectly is 8003057.

Still no problems at all with the second one. BTW, I will reiterate what I said about the picture out of the box. It looked pretty bad to me. But switching to Pro and a few other adjustments improved it dramatically. Just wanted to warn you new buyers about the picture out of the box. I know I was disappointed initially, but now I love it.

Originally posted by TennBikeBerk
Tonight I was watching tv on my fairly new 960, when I heard a loud "pop" noise. Sounded like a spark almost, and it came from my tv. I think the picture flashed for a second too.

It would seem as though nothing happened. The picture, color, and geometry and just like they were before the pop.

When the pop happened, the tv had been on for at least 20 minutes, so it wasn't the degaussing. Any ideas?

BTW, what is degaussing?

I've noticed something like this, too. What actually happened was the TV station had switched from either HD or SD programming to the other--I can't remember which way they switched. It was distracting, but didn't cause any problems.

"Degaussing" could also be called "demagnetizing." Many TV's and monitors now have this feature built-in, including the '960. It activates a coil that removes residual magnetism. What you'll notice is it removes any color impurities you may occasionally see on the screen.

Mark

GEEZ. Open the set yourself....take the subwoofer off the yoke if you are so inclined and look for yourself.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can't believe that someone on this forum would tell someone else to remove the back of the TV to have look. If they are lucky and nothing happens mybe they should also stick a knife into an electrical socket to also have a look.

HDTVFanAtic: Quit the "name calling" and get back to offering some useful (and safe) information more in line with the subject of this thread.

A pop that doesn't result in performance change would be odd. Most things that short out with enough current to make a sound like that, are also liable to cause some kind of grief somewhere.

It is possible that something is arching from the high voltage drive but that would cause some kind of picture anamoly when the pop occurs.

So here is another hypothesis. As a set warms up, its case expands and is very typical to hear it creek/crack (kind of like the sturcture in your house). I routinely hear this on CRT sets. I would not however, describe this sound usually as a pop.

Anyway, if the set is performing well, I would not worry about it. Keep using the set though to make sure if something is going to go wrong, it does so quickly so that you can get it fixed under warranty.

Amir

CNet has posted its review of this set:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_KD_34XBR960/4505-6481_7-30787600-2.html

My set has started to `POP' too. =( Or rather, the second one with the bad tuner has started to do this; the first one (good tuner) never did it.

It's definetely not the `creaks' from the TV expanding. Mine does that too, I'm used to that. =)

No, this would seem to be something arcing in the set. On mine I get a loud POP, the picture blanks out with a green glow, then comes back. It's been happening more frequently too. At first it only happened maybe every hour or so, but the other night it was doing it every 5-10 minutes! I unplugged the set and let it rest for a bit after that and it stopped doing it...but a day or two later it started up again. It dosen't really seem to matter which input I'm using (I've seend it using the internal tuner, component and HDMI inputs).

Needless to say, I'm not really happy about it. I can only guess that this isn't particularly good for the set when it happens.

Originally posted by silvertone
another pic.

I've got the same geometry problems. I actually posted about it back in mid-July when I was one of the first to get a 960. It's just like yours, picture is fine until you get to the last 4~6 inches of the left and right edges. All corners bow-in towards the center. Slight, but very noticable and annoying.

i am noticing a trend that a lotta earlier sets are having problems. I wonder if someone with a new set(>8004xxxx ) are experiencing those very issues.

i also noticed a lotta problem sets are from CC, maybe the same dude who is not handling those sets correctly.

My new set (good geometry, bad tuner and now `POP's) has a mid 4500's serial number. It was manufactured in July.

Originally posted by snclawson
My new set (good geometry, bad tuner and now `POP's) has a mid 4500's serial number. It was manufactured in July.

Mine is fresh out of the oven, manufactured this month. No tuner problems, no pops, but certainly geometry problems in all corners, and geometry problems on the bottom half center of the screen (bowing).

Originally posted by CaseCom
CNet has posted its review of this set:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_KD_34XBR960/4505-6481_7-30787600-2.html


The review is on the money about everything, unfortunately there's no mention whatsoever of the geometry. So, this review is half the story. No doubt in my opinion, if this set had ok geometry it'd be hands down the best tv ever assembled/designed.

Another new problem I'd like to report...

About once every few hours (regardless of how long the set has been turned on) the whole image has a massive "blip". The screen contracts from all sizes, get's dim, and looks slightly wavey. It all happens in less than a second and it's completely silent. Surely this isn't a good sign?

BTW, my power seems to be clean on everything else in our place and our old tv didn't do anything like this. If it was a massive power fluctuation then it would probably affect my computers too, but they're all fine.

Originally posted by silvertone
Mine is fresh out of the oven, manufactured this month. No tuner problems, no pops, but certainly geometry problems in all corners, and geometry problems on the bottom half center of the screen (bowing).

Hi Silvertone. Don't give up yet. Other sets have great geometry. Of the three that I owned, my first (even though it had the tuner problem) had almost perfect geometry out of the box. I had a vertical convergence problem in SD mode that I fixed with the service menu, and a very very slight horizontal convergence problem in the upper right corner, that I thought was livable.

I'd roll the dice and try for another one. <grin>

Originally posted by silvertone
The review is on the money about everything, unfortunately there's no mention whatsoever of the geometry. So, this review is half the story. No doubt in my opinion, if this set had ok geometry it'd be hands down the best tv ever assembled/designed.

Cool. Thanks for the link.

As for the lack of commentary on geometry, maybe they got a good tv. I mean, we all know that Sony has only produced 30 of these tvs total. Which is why no one can seem to get their hands on one. (Heck, JBW has gone through 10% of their total stock!) And 27 of you have complained about geometry so -obviously- 90% of the tv's are absolute crap... but maybe... just maybe... Cnet got a tv like mine. (I'm mean we've got a whole 10% here... why that's into double digits! :D

Good geometry (only the faintest hints, and the ISF guy did a great job removing 98% of the issue-you can only see it if you're within 2 feet of the tv)... No other problems or issues. Then they calibrated it, and it's... well... 8.8! They highest Direct-view rating! :cool:

But then... that's just my opinion...
-C

Well, I have to be honest. I was watching an NTSC show last night and in the very upper left and right corners there was a very slight bend in the picture. I have decided to return my unit and try another....This was very upsetting...

Not!! While I may have been lucky and got a good one, I was thinking to myself is this what these guys are talking about? I mean no disrespect but if this is the case, relax and watch the best unit $2200 can buy. You guys have made me want to start looking for a problem...And yes I saw a slight geometry issue last night.

While I have Direct and don't use the card slot and can see that would be a very big issue, I really don't see the geometry issues on my set nor do I want to spend hours looking for one...

Now my speakers are a different issue and maybe I shouldn't talk about looking for perfection...!!

Four weeks (or five weeks??) and my Sony is dang near perfection.....

-Rick


Originally posted by cad_3
Cool. Thanks for the link.

As for the lack of commentary on geometry, maybe they got a good tv. I mean, we all know that Sony has only produced 30 of these tvs total. Which is why no one can seem to get their hands on one. (Heck, JBW has gone through 10% of their total stock!) And 27 of you have complained about geometry so -obviously- 90% of the tv's are absolute crap... but maybe... just maybe... Cnet got a tv like mine. (I'm mean we've got a whole 10% here... why that's into double digits! :D

Good geometry (only the faintest hints, and the ISF guy did a great job removing 98% of the issue-you can only see it if you're within 2 feet of the tv)... No other problems or issues. Then they calibrated it, and it's... well... 8.8! They highest Direct-view rating! :cool:

But then... that's just my opinion...
-C

Congratulations, sounds like you got a good set. Personally speaking I don't think anybody is looking for the problem, in most of the posts the problems have been reported because they are pretty obvious. In my case I can live with the slight geometry problems on the corners, those don't bother me much. But, when I bring up my directv guide I'd like to see horizontal lines not sinosoudal waves. I could have a bought a $5k tv, but I didn't and bought this one because I value pefornmance and not size. It is our right as consumers to demand quality, by returning the sets or complaining about them we're sending the right message to Sony to pay careful attention to quality control in their future products.

Hi there Silvertone...

I guess what makes my mind spin is I work for a huge Mobility Solutions Company here in the Valley. We make Barcode Scanners, Wireless Hand- Held computers etc. I am very involved in Product Engineering Changes, Stop ship, etc. on our Products.

It still boggles my mind that there can be so many issues from some folks but like myself almost none? I understand that many are having problems but I don't understand why I am not. I have had this unit for four to five weeks so I must have one of the earliest? But once again, it's near perfection....????? It's a crazy thing no doubt....

Rick

Originally posted by silvertone
Congratulations, sounds like you got a good set. Personally speaking I don't think anybody is looking for the problem, in most of the posts the problems have been reported because they are pretty obvious. In my case I can live with the slight geometry problems on the corners, those don't bother me much. But, when I bring up my directv guide I'd like to see horizontal lines not sinosoudal waves. I could have a bought a $5k tv, but I didn't and bought this one because I value pefornmance and not size. It is our right as consumers to demand quality, by returning the sets or complaining about them we're sending the right message to Sony to pay careful attention to quality control in their future products.

Perhaps Sony is having some quality control issues with the 960s. The problems could be at the component level or even with assembly. But it's entirely possible that all 960s are not created equally. The fact that individual owners have had several 960s with a mix of problems could make one wonder about quality control.

Or is it possible that the sets could be damaged in transit from less than careful handling?

Bob


Originally posted by Newest Hobby
It still boggles my mind that there can be so many issues from some folks but like myself almost none? I understand that many are having problems but I don't understand why I am not. I have had this unit for four to five weeks so I must have one of the earliest? But once again, it's near perfection....????? It's a crazy thing no doubt....

Rick

Is anyone using (or has anyone used) the HDMI input (Video 7) from any source? My DirecTV HD DVR has HDMI and component out. The 960 will accomodate both signals but I'm not sure which one to use. Does anyone have any experience using the HDMI? Did the picture quality seem to look better than the component signal? Any problems with the HDMI connection? Do you prefer one over the other and, if so, why? I would just like some comments/experiences from anyone who is using (or has used) HDMI.

Thanks very much.

Bill

Bill,

I'm using a DVI-HDMI cable from the Hughes HTL-HD receiver to the XBR960. I use this Video 7 for Hi-Def channels only. The picture is excellent. Do I notice much of a difference as compared to when I had the component cable in? Not really, to be honest. I have not encountered any problems using the HDMI (DVI-HDMI) cable, audio or video. I toggle back to S-Video for SD. (Video 3)

The Hughes has a switch in the box which needs to be selected for either Component out or DVI out. Since I have it set the DVI I don't use the components at all.

This is my first post on this forum. Over the past two months, I've found the information here to be very helpful as I planned for, bought and installed my 960. I want to thank all of you for your contributions.

I've had my 960 for a week now, and am very happy with it. I have the seemingly common "tuner problem," but it actually seems to be happening less as time goes by. My geometry is very good, though a critical eye could spot minor bending in some situations. There has been no popping so far.

When I first hooked the TV up to my cable (no set top box), I had trouble getting HD reception. At the time, I didn't know about the tuner problem, and it certainly complicated my efforts. Eventually, I made several improvements to my cable line that allowed me to tune HD channels. In my case, I was able to receive most channels when the signal to noise ratio (SNR) reached 27. I was eventually able to get it up to 31-32, and feel I now have some room to spare if I need to do something that might degrade the SNR.

Here are the things that made a difference with my SNR:

* Switch from R-59 coaxial cable to R-6, which has a thicker wire. If your coax runs through a noisy environment (lots of electrical wires or other signals), consider R-6 cable with superior shielding (I saw some at Radio Shack, but didn't need it).

* Avoid splitting your signal. When the cable comes into my house it is immediately split three ways. The line that runs to my 960 was being split again to go to a Tivo and VCR. Each splitter in the line cost me 1-2 dB of SNR. Look closely at your splitter, too, as the different outputs may provide varying signal strengths (lower dB labels seem to indicate less degradation).

* Check the ends of your coax cables and avoid unnecessarily stringin together multiple cables. Each junction is an opportunity for problems. I am now running one 50 ft R-6 cable from the best terminal of my house splitter directly to the 960. A second line serves the Tivo and VCR.

As has been mentioned by others, the HD Olympics broadcast quality has been disappointing. At first, I wrongly though my reception or TV were to blame. I should have known better, since a digital signal is what it is, and you either receive it or you don't (you can't get "lousy" reception as is possible with analog signals).

I read one explanation on another AVS forum that made sense to me, but which I cannot verify. In the US, the networks have a certain amount of bandwidth in which they can pass signals on to their affiliates. This bandwidth is sufficient for a lossless HD signal. When the HD and NTSC content is the same, the NTSC content can be extracted from the HD signal (cropped and filtered, of course).

However, for the Olympics NBC is providing different content for HD and NTSC, so it needs to send two signals in its given bandwidth. Making room for the NTSC signal forces the HD compression to be "lossy," with the missing information showing up as blocks/pixelation. Since the compression is based on the similarity of one frame with the one before it, still shots and slow pans look great, while fast motion (swimmers and runners) do not. It's too bad this is the case, but it is not a problem we 960 owners can or have to fix.

OK, that's enough of a brain dump for now. Back to watching TV!

Ben

I've had my 960 for a week now, and I'm immensely happy with it. However, this has unfortunately been a week in which I've had to spend way more time than I'd like at the office, so I haven't been able to use the set quite as much as I'd like. Only last night did I get the chance to watch a 1.85:1 movie on the set--and, to my surprise, it appeared to fill up the entire screen instead of being slightly letterboxed. I double- and triple-checked to make sure the screen mode was set to "full" rather than any of the zoom or stretch modes. I assume this is the result of the unit's out-of-the-box overscan settings. Does that seem right? The only real evidence of overscan was a little bit of the opening credits getting cut off on the left side. I'm having an ISF calibration done in a couple weeks, which will address the overscan situation, and I don't plan to touch it myself until then. Still, it seems like a pretty significant amout of overscan, though maybe the difference between 1.85:1 and 1.78:1 comes out to less in real world terms than I thought it would.

Maybe there is hope...

I just got off the phone with Crutchfield to exchange my 960 after the Sony technician was unable to correct the geometry issues. I asked how many people have returned their 960. Crutchfield said they received a batch of 500 tv's and I am the first to return one. I didn't ask how many they have sold however.

Originally posted by Trumbore
This is my first post on this forum. Over the past two months, I've found the information here to be very helpful as I planned for, bought and installed my 960. I want to thank all of you for your contributions.

I've had my 960 for a week now, and am very happy with it. I have the seemingly common "tuner problem," but it actually seems to be happening less as time goes by. My geometry is very good, though a critical eye could spot minor bending in some situations. There has been no popping so far.

When I first hooked the TV up to my cable (no set top box), I had trouble getting HD reception. At the time, I didn't know about the tuner problem, and it certainly complicated my efforts. Eventually, I made several improvements to my cable line that allowed me to tune HD channels. In my case, I was able to receive most channels when the signal to noise ratio (SNR) reached 27. I was eventually able to get it up to 31-32, and feel I now have some room to spare if I need to do something that might degrade the SNR.

Here are the things that made a difference with my SNR:

* Switch from R-59 coaxial cable to R-6, which has a thicker wire. If your coax runs through a noisy environment (lots of electrical wires or other signals), consider R-6 cable with superior shielding (I saw some at Radio Shack, but didn't need it).

* Avoid splitting your signal. When the cable comes into my house it is immediately split three ways. The line that runs to my 960 was being split again to go to a Tivo and VCR. Each splitter in the line cost me 1-2 dB of SNR. Look closely at your splitter, too, as the different outputs may provide varying signal strengths (lower dB labels seem to indicate less degradation).

* Check the ends of your coax cables and avoid unnecessarily stringin together multiple cables. Each junction is an opportunity for problems. I am now running one 50 ft R-6 cable from the best terminal of my house splitter directly to the 960. A second line serves the Tivo and VCR.

As has been mentioned by others, the HD Olympics broadcast quality has been disappointing. At first, I wrongly though my reception or TV were to blame. I should have known better, since a digital signal is what it is, and you either receive it or you don't (you can't get "lousy" reception as is possible with analog signals).

I read one explanation on another AVS forum that made sense to me, but which I cannot verify. In the US, the networks have a certain amount of bandwidth in which they can pass signals on to their affiliates. This bandwidth is sufficient for a lossless HD signal. When the HD and NTSC content is the same, the NTSC content can be extracted from the HD signal (cropped and filtered, of course).

However, for the Olympics NBC is providing different content for HD and NTSC, so it needs to send two signals in its given bandwidth. Making room for the NTSC signal forces the HD compression to be "lossy," with the missing information showing up as blocks/pixelation. Since the compression is based on the similarity of one frame with the one before it, still shots and slow pans look great, while fast motion (swimmers and runners) do not. It's too bad this is the case, but it is not a problem we 960 owners can or have to fix.

OK, that's enough of a brain dump for now. Back to watching TV!

Ben

Ben, you've given some great tips regarding cables and splitters. But I don't buy the explanation of the bandwidth. First of all, every TV signal throughout the World is some kind of engineering trade-off. Our digital system (8VSB) is something we're stuck with, just like in the analog world we're stuck with NTSC. Anyway, the digital channels are on separate, discrete channels. There is no "borrowing" being done from the analog channel. Your 960's diagnostic menu tells you the "physical channel"--that's the 4.5 MHz channel assignment given to transmit digital signals. These are the same channel assignments we've always had! (The FCC didn't change the spectrum numbering sequence or channel bandwidth).

Now, a full-bandwidth uncompressed HDTV signal would take up a number of these channels (anyone know how many?--I believe would be a 270 mb. signal taking up 6 channels!) But of course, we DO have compression, so it's just a question of how much compression is still "acceptable." Well, of course all HDTV is not the same! 1080i "needs" more bandwidth than 780p, and 780p "needs" more than 480p. So, the broadcasters determine which format they want to transmit, and how many digital channels they want to squeeze into their spectrum. The bottom-line is that HDTV IS vastly superior to analog, but that there have been some very real engineering--and economic--trade-offs made. Therefore, those of us with superior TV's :) will be forced to watch some pixellation that others may not notice.

Sorry to get on the soapbox. It's just that I love my '960, and I know about some of the trade-offs the broadcasters are making.

Originally posted by billmail1
GEEZ. Open the set yourself....take the subwoofer off the yoke if you are so inclined and look for yourself.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can't believe that someone on this forum would tell someone else to remove the back of the TV to have look. If they are lucky and nothing happens mybe they should also stick a knife into an electrical socket to also have a look.

HDTVFanAtic: Quit the "name calling" and get back to offering some useful (and safe) information more in line with the subject of this thread.


Yes, if you don't want to know the truth, just like the Wizard of Oz, don't look behind the curtain.

If however you want to know the truth

1) In the California plant all the 960's are pointed due West as apoint of reference and then a factory worker (who probably doesn't speak english - not that that matters) sticks several magnets on the tube.

This can be seen by pulling the back off and removing the subwoofer which is mounted above the yoke.

These are actually INFERIOR magnets to the type Sony sends to the field. The field magnets have an actual knob to control intensity, where the factory magnets do not.

At the factory, they have a certain time to get it close and out it goes. 95% of the people won't notice or care.

2) The person at your house has a better interest in getting it right. They don't want to come back over and over - nor do they want the set returned.

3) Not all tubes will be able to be fixed. Some will have to go back.

4) The people shipping their sets back without letting a local tech try to do something better than the inferior factory magnets is a crybaby and will never get the set they want.

5) The Sony ATSC tuner is no different than any other. They all exhibit the same characteristics people are saying is a default. I have 5 others that do the exact same thing.

6) The Sony Tuner is superior to most. It pulls in signals that other will not

7) The Sony Tuner is ONE OF THE ONLY ONES that is working properly with the CableCards. Scientific Atlanta know admits there is a major problem with the Panasonic and other sets with their refresh. It causes blocking to get worse and worse to where the set has to be unplugged every day to reset it. This is due to SA building to tight specs and Panasonic and others not building to the tight spec. THE SONY IS THE ONLY ONE NOT REPORTING A PROBLEM.

End Of Post

End Of Post

"4) The people shipping their sets back without letting a local tech try to do something better than the inferior factory magnets is a crybaby and will never get the set they want."

What the hell is this remark for? Am I crybaby??? Let me see. On my first 960 I did call a tech to fix the geometry. I told him about the magnet. The tech said "magnets has nothing to do with the problem of geometry" He opens the back of the tv set, adjusts the yolk, and actually worsens the tv set and saying it is fixed. Tech KNOWS NOTHING!!!! get a sony tech to fix it.. NOT a third party!

Ben, there IS an example of "bandwidth borrowing" that I know of. Sorry I didn't think of this last night. (The beers may have clouded my thinking :) ) Perhaps this is what you read about on that other forum:

At the satellite earth station, there are two basic ways of uplinking the signals--Single Carrier per Channel (SCPC), and Multiple Carriers per Channel (MCPC). I don't know which system NBC might be choosing to use.

SCPC is pretty much what it says--one data stream goes into the satellite at a dedicated bandwidth. That bandwidth doesn't change, no matter what the program content is. Therefore, most broadcsters pick a relatively high amount of transpoinder space, so their programs look good when received.

MCPC, on the other hand, puts more than one signal within a given amount of bandwidth. Then, sophisticated encoders are able to "dynamically balance" the percentage allocation of this bandwidth--in real time--so that those programs that need more bandwidth at that instant "borrow" it from those programs that don't. So, for example, a camera panning down the football field needs more bandwidth than an anchorman reading a story. And, of course, a second later that football shot is locked on a graphic, while the anchorman scene changes to a police chase. So they "swap" bandwidth as needed. I can't explain it further than that, but it's done on a frame-by-frame basis and it's magic! Without MCPS technology, DirectTV and EchoStar would have a very difficult time competing with cable TV.

One of the leading encoder manufacturers is Harmonic. You might find more information at their website: http://www.harmonicinc.com/pa_digital_video.cfm

Mark

Just got my 34XBR960 delieverd about 45 minutes ago, and began watching Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers on it. The thing is *huge*. I don't recall it looking that big in the store. Nevertheless, the picture is great, will only get better after calibration, and, yes, the non-digital cable channels are, well, non-digital.

The serial number is in the low 80058xx's and was manufactured in August 2004. The geometry seems really great so far, except for some MINOR bowing in the upper left corner when watching LOTR.

The guys who delivered it said not to play with color/contrast for 2 weeks to let the unit "burn in". Any truth to that?

I am probably going to schedule an ISF technician to come within a month or so to calibrate every aspect of the TV. The guy I contacted, Jim Doolittle, based in Waltham, MA (about 7 miles from me), is apparently well-renowned and has been featured in high-end publiations. He said the 960 calibration would run $300 and that he has already done several of these sets.

Any comments/questions are welcome.

Originally posted by HDTVFanAtic


1) In the California plant all the 960's are pointed due West as apoint of reference and then a factory worker (who probably doesn't speak english - not that that matters) sticks several magnets on the tube.



Not that it matters? Then why mention it? We live in a wonderful age where we have a backspace key, which allows us to remove ignorant comments before posting them. Try using it the next time you feel like pointedly implying that only English speaking Americans can work magnets.

I'm sure there are a lot of us that appreciate you trying to educate us a little more about the manufacturing process, but it would be cool if you were less of an ass about it.

Tennberg,

I had my previous 910 ISF calibrated and it made a huge difference in the quality of the picture. Until you get yours done, I would recommend that, depending on what picture mode you are using, lower the Picture level to about 50. You may have to also raise Brightness a little but you should see an immediate improvement in PQ. Your ISF calibrator will do all of this for you plus a whole lot more. I think you'll really like the results and it is well worth the money. Good luck and let us know how you like it after calibration.

Bill

Tennberg,

I would put your 960 in Pro Mode and then drop the brightness, picture, and color down. Nothing should be past the 50% mark.

If you leave them higher during the first 100 hours on your set, it could prematurely shorten the life of your 960...UGH!

First post about my new 960:

Has some minor geometry problems: bowing at the top of 4:3 frame (more on the left than the right). Also there's some slight defousing of the image in the corners, though in my opinion this is no worse than any other large flat-screen tube on the market. Might have a tech come out to try and fix (whether he speaks English or not...) but if this is as bad as the picture gets, there's no reason to send it back.

I have no idea if my tuner is working as I'm using a HD cable box. If it's important for everybody's scorecard I can try the sucker out. Likewise, I can try and find the unit number and anything else that will help others.

I'm noticing a few things though, that I'd like help with (keep in mind this is the first HDTV I've owned):

1) When watching HD (God I love the Olympics) there seems to be a slight jerkiness in the image. It's hard to explain, but it only seems to happen on HD that's native video (NBC, Discovery HD). Could be a 1080i/720p issue, but I haven't watched anything on ABC yet. Movies on HBO and Showtime look rock solid (are they 720p?). Thought about DRC, but it's disabled with HD... and yes, SVM is off.

2) There definitely seems to be a bit of a lip-sync problem. I've noticed this today both on SD and HD. My video path is via component to the TV and digital coax to my receiver. Anybody else noticed this? Seems like it's not a line doubling issue as it's happening with HD.

3) Are the 4 different picture modes set to the same baseline? In other words, if I set Vivid and Pro to the exact same settings for a given input (including SVM, color temp, brightness, etc) will the picture look identical? I've never confirmed this, but I've always sensed that Sony has different baseline settings for these picture modes (ie: 0 Picture on Vivid is equal to 10 Picture on Pro).

4) Lastly, can anybody confirm that Color Temp Warm with Color Axis set to Monitor is closest to 6500K?

Thanks.

Doug,

To respond to your item #3, I remember trying the same thing on my 910 (all four modes at the exact same settings) and each picture mode was still different (some more than others). I wouldn't say that one mode was better than the other but there was a lot of discussion in the 910 thread about Gamma levels and black level retention (and some stuff that I still don't understand) that were set at the factory. Not sure if adjustments in the Service Menu would even things out but, unless you really know what you are doing, stay out of the Service Menu. Just set all of the user controls in each mode to the same settings and then cycle through all four modes. I believe you will see a distinct difference in each one. Your eyes will definitely let you know which mode you might like best and which settings should be "tweaked". Please remember that I am referring to the user controls on the front of the set only. If, after setting them all the same, you don't like any of them you can always select each mode in the Video menu and press the "Reset" button on your remote to reset all the user controls to the factory settings. If you still prefer something different (or better??) you might want to consider having the set ISF calibrated. They can really work miracles on the PQ. Good luck!!

Bill

Well, I need to amend my #1 above. The slight jerkiness is apparent when viewing SD through the HD connections as well. I am currently watching a Formula One race on Speed Channel and there is a difference in the picture when watching through Video 5, which uses a component hook-up from cable box, and Video 1 which uses a S-Video connection from the same cable box.

It could be the cables; I have not yet tried to swap them out, and they are definitely not top quality component cables. I'll also try the same cables on a different video input.

Otherwise, this could be a real problem.

Doug_L,

In response to your #1:

I just got my 960 today and hooked up my Denon 910 DVD player to it via component video to Video 6. I set the Denon to progressive scan and started watching LOTR: The Two Towers. Absolutely gorgeous. I can't wait to see what it looks like after an ISF calibration.

I then popped in The Fifth Element, one of my favorite DVDs. I noticed that the top of the picture was jumping/flickering a bit while the bottom was not. If I switched the Denon to interlaced, it went away.

I am not sure if this is a problem with the DVD player, the TV, or the component cables. They're Monster M-Series 1000CV, their top-of-the-line. It may be due to the fact that the cables are almost 4 years old (from a previous setup). I am contacting Monster Cable to see if I can exchance them since they have a lifetime warranty.

Any suggestions on things I can try to make this flicker go away?

I can almost gurantee that the cables are fine.

My guess is that it is the DVD player 'mixed' with the 960.

It is kinda like making a cake. On their own, each component of the cake is fine, but if you 'mix' them in the wrong quantities, the cake is no good.

Therefore, your DVD is fine, as you said at 480i, no problem.

The 960 is fine, but when you 'mix' 480p from your Denon with your 960 a problem pops up...

Hey segaboy,

I'm kicking myself for not finding this out earlier.

Searching the keywords "Denon 910 Sony flicker" on Google brought up MANY posts where people who have Denon DVD-910 players connected to Sony XBR TVs over component video would get flickers and jumps in the video in progressive mode. They also went on to mention that this does *not* happen with S-Video, with interlaced mode, or with non-Sony TVs, which I also found out to be true.

I called Denon and, surprise, they've *never* heard of the problem. They offered to "take a look" at it and see if they might be able to fix it. Estimated downtime: at least 2 weeks.

I left a message with the guy I bought the 34XBR960 from at Tweeter, saying we need to figure out this problem since I basically can't use the TV and DVD player the way they were meant to be used, and that I might need to return the TV if this doesn't work out (that should get his attention). I also purchased the Denon DVD player from that particular store, in addition to hundreds of dollars in cables, stands, etc. So, I'm hoping they'll pull through on this one.

I'll keep you posted.

Hey Tennberg, I live in Salem and I'm in the process in buying the 34XBR960 sometime in mid September (working on the house so I don't want any dust on the new tv). I would definite love to hear your comments from the ISF technician from Waltham once you get it done.

Originally posted by tennberg
Just got my 34XBR960 delieverd about 45 minutes ago, and began watching Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers on it. The thing is *huge*. I don't recall it looking that big in the store. Nevertheless, the picture is great, will only get better after calibration, and, yes, the non-digital cable channels are, well, non-digital.

The serial number is in the low 80058xx's and was manufactured in August 2004. The geometry seems really great so far, except for some MINOR bowing in the upper left corner when watching LOTR.

The guys who delivered it said not to play with color/contrast for 2 weeks to let the unit "burn in". Any truth to that?

I am probably going to schedule an ISF technician to come within a month or so to calibrate every aspect of the TV. The guy I contacted, Jim Doolittle, based in Waltham, MA (about 7 miles from me), is apparently well-renowned and has been featured in high-end publiations. He said the 960 calibration would run $300 and that he has already done several of these sets.




Any comments/questions are welcome.


Some people here make it so difficult to give a straight answer (not you).

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=4185968&highlight=brightness#post4185968

Originally posted by Phantastica
Not that it matters? Then why mention it? We live in a wonderful age where we have a backspace key, which allows us to remove ignorant comments before posting them. Try using it the next time you feel like pointedly implying that only English speaking Americans can work magnets.

I'm sure there are a lot of us that appreciate you trying to educate us a little more about the manufacturing process, but it would be cool if you were less of an ass about it.

Point is, they could give a rats ass about your sony. You are more likely to get someone who cares locally, not 10 feet from the Mexican Border.

As another post says on this page, an ISF tech has already done several 960s. Thus as I have already said, most people aren't sending them back a second or third time.

As I stated, 75 960s came into tweeter in Florida. They are sold out. Another 75 come in tomorrow. The techs have only been called out to 2 of the 75 in the 8 County area here. That says something in itself compared to those who have sent multiple units back here.

The crybabies who think they will get perfection out of the box from some worker who probably never saw a tv until recently sticking magnets on their set in 60 seconds or less versus someone in their house trying to make it work is ridiculous.

But some people just want to complain instead of trying to get a good TV to work.

Lets keep this civil :)

Got my 960 today - great picture. Had it on for about 1hr and turned it off. Now when I go to turn it on, I get a horizontal red line in the middle of the screen. Then the screen goes full red then gets extremely bright red before it shuts off. Whole process takes about 5 or 6 seconds. Does the same thing with nothing hooked to the inputs.

Any ideas, or is this a bad set?

For all of you that are having these problems, try:

1. Turn off the set.
2. Roate it 90 degrees, so that the set faces South.
3. Turn the TV back on and check.

All my bowing problems completey dissapear when I do that. As a matter of fact I get almost 'pefect' geometry. Now, that doesn't help me much since my living room is not laid out that way. A technician will be out here next week, not sure what he can do to aliviate the situation.

Originally posted by silvertone
For all of you that are having these problems, try:

1. Turn off the set.
2. Roate it 90 degrees, so that the set faces South.
3. Turn the TV back on and check.

All my bowing problems completey dissapear when I do that. As a matter of fact I get almost 'pefect' geometry. Now, that doesn't help me much since my living room is not laid out that way. A technician will be out here next week, not sure what he can do to aliviate the situation.

This is a bit hard to do and cumbersome with a 196lb tv.

Originally posted by Yung
This is a bit hard to do and cumbersome with a 196lb tv.


Mine is on a wood stand that slides very easy on my carpet.

Originally posted by silvertone
Mine is on a wood stand that slides very easy on my carpet.

I see, mine will be on a glass & metal stand...so that's the reason for my comment.

Got my new 960.

Small geometry problems, could probably ignore them, really only seem to show up when I've got a menu up that has straight line borders.

3 other issues that really bother me:

1) On SD source images (non hd channels) there is a brighter line that runs down the right side of the image between the image and the black bar.

2) Even on high def channels (I have comcast using components) there seems to be "snow" in places where I'd expect solid color, dots of slightly varying color that change constantly. For SD images the quality of the picture is even poorer, quite grainy.

3) Lip Sync issues when using my home theatre reciever.

Are others running into these issues? What should I do? I've got to say I'm not pleased with the picture quality. I expected much better. I just got rid of a 30" samsung HD and I thought the PQ on that was better than this new 960...

Bob

Originally posted by silvertone
For all of you that are having these problems, try:

1. Turn off the set.
2. Roate it 90 degrees, so that the set faces South.
3. Turn the TV back on and check.

All my bowing problems completey dissapear when I do that. As a matter of fact I get almost 'pefect' geometry. Now, that doesn't help me much since my living room is not laid out that way. A technician will be out here next week, not sure what he can do to aliviate the situation.


Silvertone is right. I had discovered this also and was about to post the same thing. Just the other night, my wife and I tried re organizing our furniture in our apartment. I moved my XBR960 all the way across the room and facing the opposite direction (I just slid it nice and slow on my carpet on its XBR stand.. wasn’t too bad). Turned the TV on and all of a sudden, my almost perfect geometry was all screwed up.
I then moved the TV back to its original location, and everything was near perfect again. I was relieved. Strange how sensitive these TV’s are. I really wanted to have my TV on the other side of the room.

Originally posted by ganleybob

3) Lip Sync issues when using my home theatre reciever.

Bob

I've observed lip sync issues for quite a few years now. In the past, audio was typically ahead of video. because video was fed through at least one "frame store" between the network and the local transmitter. Each frame store introduces a delay of up to one frame (1/30th of a second). To my eyes, lip sync looks "off" at 2 frames, but most people don't notice it until it gets to 3 or 4 frames. Many times, I've noticed analog broadcasts with terrible lip sync issues. (There are digital audio delay devices that they could employ to fix these issues.) Audio has always been the forgotten stepchild of television.

Now, in the digital age, we are introducing a brief AUDIO delay in digital home theater units. And I'm sure we have a brief delay processing the video signal. (I haven't tried comparing my '960 tuned to an analog channel side-by-side an analog TV tuned to the same channel--anyone else try this? My guess is the '960 does not introduce an appreciable delay--turn up the audio to see if you hear a slight echo between the two audio feeds.)

So, my point is that the broadcasters are doing a lousy job of ensuring correct lip sync. It's not the fault of your set. (My lip sync varies by program--obviously the TV would introduce a fixed delay.) If the network sends audio delayed 1 frame, and the local station delays it another frame, and it'll be 2 frames off, and you'll probably notice it. If the network is already off by 2 frames...well, you get the idea.

Clearly, the broadcasters don't pay nearly enough attention to the audio on HD channels. That will come as the audience grows--especially when the analog channels are turned off--but for now, we can't do anything about it. I'd have to grade them a B for video and a D for audio.



Mark

Damn it!!! I have no choice but to keep it facing NE. I didn't buy it yet but I'm anxious to see what it's going to look like.

Someone also mentioned that your geographic location also affects your geometry (eg. Florida horrible). Has anyone here tried this set in Northern NY or VT? Feedback would be appreciated.

BTV Mark:

Thanks for the input. Unfortunately I think that this has to do with the TV and here's why. I have both the 960 and the Home Theatre hooked up to the Comcast box. If I turn up the speakers on the 960, the sound is in synch. If I turn up the HT, the sound comes out a lot sooner than from the 960. Sometimes the difference is a lot eg: 1/2 second, other times it is closer. Either way I can't watch a talking head with my home theatre sound on it is too weird.

I've got it figured out!!

If pointing your TV south fixes the convergence problems... and you want to rearrange your room to have the TV on a certain wall....

Move to the North Pole!!

Every wall will face South!

(Oooops. I guess you need to move to the Magnetic North Pole for that to work though.)

Maybe that is the cause of all our convergence problems: Santa's little elves make these TV's at the North Pole and when they ship them down here below the Artic circle their convergence gets all jacked up!

Originally posted by ganleybob
BTV Mark:

Thanks for the input. Unfortunately I think that this has to do with the TV and here's why. I have both the 960 and the Home Tearer hooked up to the Comcast box. If I turn up the speakers on the 960, the sound is in synch. If I turn up the HT, the sound comes out a lot sooner than from the 960. Sometimes the difference is a lot eg: 1/2 second, other times it is closer. Either way I can't watch a talking head with my home theatre sound on it is too weird.

ganleybob, I haven't heard of this before. It sounds like the HT processes the audio "immediately," whereas the 960 properly delays both the audio and video by an equal amount. But since the built-in speakers on the 960 give proper performance, how can you blame the TV? It doesn't "know" you're using a HT system!

I suggest you feed the HT via the audio output of the 960. That way, you will keep audio and video synchronization.

Mark

I've got a Sony repairman coming by shortly to take a look at all of the problems that I've mentioned (geometry, dark patches), so hopefully he can tune everything up.

One other problem that I noticed this morning is that the HDMI input is MAJORLY sensitive. Depending on where I push in on the back of the tv, it can cause the DVI input to work, or not work altogether. I remember reading about another user having this problem too.

the hdmi being sensitive is a classic issue probably due to a cold solder joint on the connection itself. and being that the hdmi has a lot more wires say over an svideo port, that just means there is a lot more chance that a cold solder can occur on the board itself.

i've seen the same thing that happened to my svideo on my toshiba, the joint was cold solder and it was very sensitive to movement. I had to open the tv and resolder the joint which fixed it.

whatever u do the less wiggling the better or else u will eventually break the connection.

I've got issues with my Samsung HD841 outputting DVI to my 960. *via a DVI out to HDMI in cable*

All I get is snow, very fine pretty snow, but snow none the less. Same thing when I tried hooking the same cable to my computer's DVI out.

I'm wondering if I have the same issue as you with the plug in the back of the TV. Havn't tried wiggling the plug back there as it seemed pretty secure when I inserted it earlier.

--sanelijo

Originally posted by sanelijo
I've got issues with my Samsung HD841 outputting DVI to my 960. *via a DVI out to HDMI in cable*

All I get is snow, very fine pretty snow, but snow none the less. Same thing when I tried hooking the same cable to my computer's DVI out.

I'm wondering if I have the same issue as you with the plug in the back of the TV. Havn't tried wiggling the plug back there as it seemed pretty secure when I inserted it earlier.

--sanelijo

yours is probably a compability samsung dvi-hdmi sony issue than the hdmi port itself

OK guys, I could use a little help: SD really doesn't look too good to me, and I'm hoping you could all give me some advice.

Due to burn-in issues, I'm watching SD (4:3) primarily in Wide Zoom mode. This may not be completely necessary (burn-in) but I'd rather play it safe for the time being. Normal mode looks better, but still not good, merely acceptable.

My video signal comes into my TV two ways: 1) component directly from the cable box (Input #5) and 2) S-Video from the cable box via Marantz SR-19 receiver (Input #1). The signal definitely seems better using the components, with the S-Video feed showing crushed black levels and blooming reds.

My current video settings [this is from memory and approximate - so bear with me]
Pro;
Pic:45;
Brght:40;
color: 35;
hue: R1;
sharp:10;
color temp: warm
SVM: Off
DRC: Minimum values
Color Axis: Monitor

I find that there's still a great deal of video noise with the image, and black shadow detail seems weak overall (though this could simply be NTSC's limitations). I use Time Warner cable in Manhattan with a Scientific Atlanta 3250HD box, and I've got all outputs turned on (480i/480p/720p/1080i).

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I got my cablecard hooked up. It was the Cox guy's first time ever installing one. When we asked Cox about the cablecard, they asked whether we had one of two certain brands of televisons, and Sony wasn't one of them. The guy on the phone was surprised to hear about our tv.

Cox normally charges $59.95 for a cablecard installation, which is a total ripoff, and after talking to them about it, they got the price down to $19.95. Instead of being a 5 minute Cablecard installation though, the guy ended up having to rewire the cable in the house because we had RG59 instead of RG6.

High-def looks amazing on this tv!!!!!

I have had no problems with the high-definition tuner, except it takes about 3 or 4 seconds to tune into a high-def channel, which is kind of long. Even the 720p channels look much better than the 480i's.

Btw, what does NTSC mean?

Never The Same Color :-D hehe

Actually, it's National Television System Committee.

Lol. Does that bascially mean 480i 4:3?

Yes NTSC is 480i 4:3 everything else is ATSC.

NTSC = Never Twice Same Colour is also acceptable...X gets the square!

My XBR960 is being delivered by CC tomorrow morning...can't wait.

I'm looking forward to your review. I'm anxious to see if the new batch that your's will be coming from will have the tuner problem (from the previous posters' reviews) resolved. I'm hoping to go pick mine up in the next week or so...

I bought one last week at CC. Had a 10% off coupon that I bought off ebay for a few bucks....saved me $220 !!

The picture is really nice with HDTV. Standard Definition sucks !!

Ok, I just got my XBR960 delivered about 2 1/2 hours ago. I don't have cable or satellite and am just using about a 6 year old indoor rabbit-ear antenna from Recoton with UHF/VHF gain contol.

I ran the autosetup...it only took about 10-15 minutes since I am only using OTA. The Auto setup pulled in about 22 analog channels and 9 digital channels. Digital pictures look really sharp, I was watching some of the U.S. Open on ch 2.1

As for problems, well...I guess if you stand really close you can see some slight bowing on the the top left and right black bars when viewing in normal view but nothing to get your panties all bunched up about. Maybe I'm just not picky. I get bad reception on the normal channels, but digital is pretty good. Signal strength for CBS digital varies from 78-84 and it does cut out once in a while. I get about 91-94 strength from ABC HD. The other channels vary from 81-84 signal strength although NBC DT is pretty weak with signal strength in the mid-to-upper 50's..lots of pixelization on that channel when I do get a signal.

I popped in LOTR Two Towers and the picture was great with my new blue jeans 1694A component cables. I still get black bars on top and bottom though..I know there is suppose to be some..but its more than I thought.

Well, haven't played around too much..haven't really even read the menu, just put it on Pro mode as the factory default was vivid.

My TV was manufactured in August with serial # low 80063XX.

Post deleted

Apologize for the cross-posting - I have posted this subject on the DVD forum as well, but since this may be a problem only affects the XBR960, I thought I'd post here as well ...


Greetings all --

Just picked up the 1910 earlier today. Unfortunately, I bought a DVI-DVI cable as opposed to a DVI-HDMI cable so I did not have the opportunity to view the upconversion (my tv has an HDMI input). I'm using the component video connection in 480p instead.

The component (progressive) pic in 480p is simply amazing. the picture is very vivid and clear -- with great colors (I don't know how else to describe it since I am not quite the videophile :-) ). My previous player was an old Toshiba SD1209 (I think) - and it simply cannot compete with the 1910.

One interesting issue that I have encountered is that my XBR960 wrongly detects the signal from the DVD player as 4:3 -- eventhough the material is clearly widescreen (anarmorphic). To view widescreen material, I now have to manually set to 'Full'. With my old Toshiba player, the TV correctly picks up the 16:9 format. This matters to me because, when viewing SDTV in 4:3 - I usually use the 'wide-zoom' mode -- which stretches 4:3 materials with less distortion than the 'full' mode would.

In any case - has anyone else encountered this issue? Is this a problem that is specific with my TV? Incidentally, I did set the 'TV Aspect' on the DVD player to 16:9 Wide -- but the TV still detects the programming as 4:3.

Thanks!

D

Hmmm....the same thing happened to me when I was watching LOTR and Spiderman on DVD today. I just got the set today and I believe the picture came up in normal mode. I had to set it to wide zoom manually. I didn't check my DVD player setting though. I have the Pioneer DV-578A-S.

I have to say HD is simply amazing..when my signal doesn't crap out. I was watching some Disney CGI animated movie on ABC HD and the picture was simply beautiful. You can see every scale on the dinosaurs.

I'm just wondering what settings (brightness, color, contrast, etc.) most people are using in Standard, Pro & Movie mode?

Also what about Neutral vs. Warm?

I have only tweaked in a bit in Pro mode, changing brightness up to 35 and contrast up to about 34.

I would keep your settings on neutral. Warm adds some orangish tint to the picture.

After some experimentation, I'd recommend that no matter what the meters say, anyone with a 960 whose SD is crappy should try an amplifier on their connection.

I have Comcast cable. When I first got my TV the SD looked pretty good. Then it seemed rather variable. After the cablecard was installed, analog channels looked pretty bad, kind of grainy.

The cable guy who installed the cablecard replaced all the cable out to the street but the S/N on HD channels as reported by the 960 was still only 28-30 (QAM 256). The installer's said that as measured by his meter, my low freq S/N was good but at higher freqs, where HD lives, it was not good. I was not seeing any lost pixels so we left it at that. I didn't pay much attention to the analog channels until after he left.

Later I did get lost pixels in HD and it was worse with a VCR inline with the cable connection. The set was reporting S/N in the range of 27-29. I figured the next thing to try was an amplifier.

Got Comcast to send a tech out, he confirmed the S/N was bad at HD freqs. He eventually acknowledged it was not my cables or my VCR but a weak signal from the cable. Without any prompting from me, he stuck an amplifier on the connection to the 960.

I expected from what I had heard that I'd probably stop losing pixels on the HD channels. That did happen but now the analog channels also all look great. Better than I've ever seen on any TV.

I took that to mean that the tuner in the 960 does not deal well with marginal signals. Possibly that is why some people think SD is really bad on the 960 while others think it is good.

Your mileage may vary, all I know is that since the amplifier was installed, even the analog channels on my TV now look as good as I've ever seen analog TV look.

Originally posted by Yung
I'm just wondering what settings (brightness, color, contrast, etc.) most people are using in Standard, Pro & Movie mode?

Also what about Neutral vs. Warm?

I have only tweaked in a bit in Pro mode, changing brightness up to 35 and contrast up to about 34.

On Pro, I used Avia to adjust the Picture to 42, Brightness to 35, and Sharpness to 18. My room has light from windows, so this setting may be too bright for others. I wasn't sure using Avia if my Picture setting was too high, but the directions didn't seem to apply to this TV based on what I was seeing on the screen.

Any one else have opinions on their settings?

Originally posted by tennberg
Never The Same Color :-D hehe

Actually, it's National Television System Committee.

Technically, it stands for the National Television Standards Committee. This is a minor but important distinction ("standards" vs "systems"). The NTSC was established to set the TV standards of the day.

Mark

Newbie here...so excuse the post if it's already been addressed elsewhere...or if I responded to another post by mistake.

I just got my XBR 960 on Thursday. I absolutely love it. I've never seen such a crystal clear picture, but then again, this is my first HDTV.

I've noticed a small bowing effect in the upper corners in SD broadcasts, but I can certainly live with it. No bowing in HD however. I plan to have it calibrated in about a month. Unfortunately my box did not contain a set of Sony documents...must have fallen out in transit. (I noticed a slight bend at the bottom of the crate as the delivery guys carried it into my house.) Therefore I have no instruction manual.

My question is related to the audio out from the TV to my receiver. I'm connecting my HDTivo via HDMI, and settop antenna in to TV (I'm having someone install a rooftop antenna next weekend so I can use the HDTivo's tuner for the locals. In the meantime I'm relying on the XBR's internal antenna, and maybe my crappy settop antenna to pick up the local digitals) and then relay the optical audio out from the TV to the receiver. However, I don't get any audio to the receiver when I flip the to Video 7 (HDTivo). The receiver will only pick up audio from the TV when viewing content from the XBR's internal tuner.

Need some help so I can get the HDTivo's audio to my receiver without having to run a separate optical out from the HDTivo to the receiver.

thanks.

For anybody wanting to look at the 960, front, back, sides, and turn it around as you want and look the tv over, here is a link.

http://www.jellylog.net/~cote/horsey.html

Click on fullscreen and make the tv big. Just click with your mouse and hold down and turn the tv where you want it to be.

Originally posted by j_fo
Unfortunately my box did not contain a set of Sony documents...must have fallen out in transit. (I noticed a slight bend at the bottom of the crate as the delivery guys carried it into my house.) Therefore I have no instruction manual.
The instruction manual can be downloaded from Sony:

http://www.sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/en/documents/specifications/KD34XBR960.pdf

I just finished going through this whole thread, and I do remember someone mentioning audio problems with the HDMI. Can't remember the details though.

- Chris

Thanks for the link, Chris. I downloaded it and went through it. Unfortunately there is nothing there to address my issue. I'v already attempted changing the audio settings (set Speaker to "off" and Audio Out to "Fixed" or "Variable"). But nothing seems to work. I'll check the HDTivo user forum to see if I can find a setting change or work around.
thanks again.

Originally posted by j_fo
Thanks for the link, Chris. I downloaded it and went through it. Unfortunately there is nothing there to address my issue. I'v already attempted changing the audio settings (set Speaker to "off" and Audio Out to "Fixed" or "Variable"). But nothing seems to work. I'll check the HDTivo user forum to see if I can find a setting change or work around.
thanks again.

I think you missed my last comment that there has been a discussion in this thread about a problem with the audio on the HDMI input. Here's one post:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=4152357&highlight=hdmi#post4152357

This thread is so long that it's hard to go back and find a comment that someone made unless you can remember enough to perform a search. I found that post by searching for "HDMI".

Apart from that, I'm not going to be much help. I'm still trying to decide whether to buy a 960 or not.

- Chris

Here's an update to the issues I've been having with the geometry and dark spots on this screen.

The main Sony service technician for Los Angeles came by and made a few adjustments, which didn't really make any noticeable differences. He was completely not interested in re-doing the magnets to fix the bowing. He said that it was within factory specification, even though there was very obvious bowing along the outer 3-4 inches of the screen. He said that this tv wasn't designed for people like me, but rather for old people that wouldn't notice or care about geometry. I told him that I knew a tube wasn't going to be able to deliver perfect geometry, but that it seemed like there was a lot of room for improvement on this tv. He said that there wasn't, and that's why they stopped making the 40 inch tube. The geometry was awful, the colour purity was awful, and there wasn't anything the service guys could do to help it.

Anyways, the conclusion is that I'll just accept the geometry and dark patches the way that they are and perhaps go for a completely digital plasma/lcd/led set down the road. I definitely enjoy viewing and using this set, I'm probably just expecting too much out of it though.

What repair place did you use in la? I used "smith and larsen" based in Van Nuys. He said pretty much the same thing. If I have the geo problem on my next set (36xbr955) I will try to get sony to send a tech from the sony department, NOT from a 3rd party repair place who knows Sh*t. The geometry IS corrected without moving any magnets inside the tv set. The repair person would have to bring their own specialized magnet and de-magnitize the bad area...

It was the main Sony guy for the area, not a 3rd party technician. He said he was recently at the factory in Taiwan (or wherever it is) and he seems like he's been around for a while. He did, however, try to convince me that this set was 1080p. I said that it was obviously interlaced, because you could clearly see small lines (especially from a computer flickering). He said that despite what the specs said, these sets were all progressive.

Sorry for the stupid question, but the XBR960 is my first experience with HDTV. I was watching ABC DT on 7.1 and when in full mode, there is still black bars on either side. I know that ABC broadcast in 720p instead of 1080i, so will all 720p programming have black bars on the side in full mode on the XBR960?

The only programming on HDTV channels that is widescreen is HDTV programming. The channel that is broadcasting may be broadcasting digitaly (like 7.1), but most shows is SD, not hdtv- so you will get the black bars. Unless you use a satelite provider like VOOM or watch hdtv PBS (24 hrs hdtv), the ONLy HDTV is usually available between the hours of 8pm-11pm and that is with only a few shows then you will have widescreen. IMO, 16:9 sets are great, but if you watch alot of cable shows (most still in sd), 4:3 sets still rule the day. Maybe in 3-5 years 16:9 sets will be worthy...

I was checking out CC's website and they are announcing a 10% off all TVs sale. It looked interesting until I saw the small-print. Why is Sony XBR listed as an exclusion??? I don't want to pay more than $2200 for the TV and matching stand.

Does anyone remember what month it was when Sony started giving the free stand for the 910 last year?

Originally posted by Yung
Sorry for the stupid question, but the XBR960 is my first experience with HDTV. I was watching ABC DT on 7.1 and when in full mode, there is still black bars on either side. I know that ABC broadcast in 720p instead of 1080i, so will all 720p programming have black bars on the side in full mode on the XBR960?

As far as I understand it to be, material in both 720p and 1080i will display in 16:9 format. It could be that you were watching a show that ABC was not broadcasting in HD.

For example, I was watching NBC HD here in Boston last night (channel 807) and their broadcast of NASCAR (I mean, really, was there really NOTHING ELSE to show...) was shown in 4:3 format, even though I was on their HD channel.

As another example, I was watching CBS HD (804) and right before Cold Case came on, their broadcast was in 4:3 format. Once Cold Case came on, the broadcast switched to 16:9.

For now, this will be the norm, I think. We will still see these black bars until every show, every commercial, etc. is broadcast in 16:9 format.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong about this.

Originally posted by tennberg
As far as I understand it to be, material in both 720p and 1080i will display in 16:9 format. It could be that you were watching a show that ABC was not broadcasting in HD.

For example, I was watching NBC HD here in Boston last night (channel 807) and their broadcast of NASCAR (I mean, really, was there really NOTHING ELSE to show...) was shown in 4:3 format, even though I was on their HD channel.

As another example, I was watching CBS HD (804) and right before Cold Case came on, their broadcast was in 4:3 format. Once Cold Case came on, the broadcast switched to 16:9.

For now, this will be the norm, I think. We will still see these black bars until every show, every commercial, etc. is broadcast in 16:9 format.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong about this.

Thanks, now I am beginning to understand more. The thing with the ABC DT channel was when I clicked on Display on the remote it showed 720p. I saw some of that NASCAR race too...just flipping channels. : )
The picture was real sharp though.

When you go to display on the remote, and it says 1080i 16:9 or something like that, what does that mean precisely? Does that mean that is what the station normally broadcasts in? I don't think it is describing the current content, because it says 16:9 when you are watching a commercial with bars.

Originally posted by Yung
Thanks, now I am beginning to understand more. The thing with the ABC DT channel was when I clicked on Display on the remote it showed 720p. I saw some of that NASCAR race too...just flipping channels. : )
The picture was real sharp though.

Yung: I can only get my TV to display 720p in its on-screen display if I set the cable box's output on YPbPr to 720p. It is currently set to 1080i so that all HD channels will be in 1080i format on the TV.

Another example: The Jerry Lewis Telethon is on our ABC HD channel right now in Boston. The TV display says 1080i 16:9 but there are black bars on the left and right. Basically the HD channel is mirroring the analog ABC channel, so even though it's an HD channel and the TV will recognize it as 1080i 16:9, there are still black bars on it unless ABC does a simulcast in HD 16:9.

Originally posted by TennBikeBerk
When you go to display on the remote, and it says 1080i 16:9 or something like that, what does that mean precisely? Does that mean that is what the station normally broadcasts in? I don't think it is describing the current content, because it says 16:9 when you are watching a commercial with bars.

TennBikeBerk: Above should somewhat explain this. When I am on an HD channel, it will stamp everything coming in as 1080i 16:9 since my TV and cable box are set up that way. However, not every show/commercial on an HD channel will be sent out as 1080i 16:9. So, that's why some local commercials (e.g. Bob's Discount Furniture Store) or certain national commercials (e.g. Toyota) will show with black bars on the sides. Even some of the PGA U.S. Open is pillared.

A few posts back I had mentioned my disappointment with my new 960 because of geometry problems when watching 4:3 SD. Both sides bowed outwards at the top and bottom. It was very frustrating because I knew it was there but if we weren't somewhat fanatical about our video displays, we probably would not be reading this forum.

Anyway, I have a hardcopy of the Sony 960 Service Manual and went to page 21 where it shows illustrations of various picture distortions and how to correct them in the Service Menu. I've been in the SM before with my 910 so I wasn't hestitant about trying it. I followed the instructions, went to registers CXA2170D-2 Item 7 for the top left and right bowing and Item 8 for the bottom left right bowing. After changing each item....VOILA!!!! I now have perfectly straight and parallel left and right sides. Absolutely amazing how changing a few numbers can have such a dramatic affect on picture geometry. Needless to say, I'm MUCH happier with my set now. I don't intend to do anything else at this point because the picture looks, to quote my wife, "AMAZING"!!

WORD OF CAUTION: If you have never been in the Service Menu or are unsure of what you are doing - leave it alone. If the geometry problems really bother you, call an ISF technician to do it for you.

My wife and I are watching Harry Potter on our VOOM satellite and the HD picture is absolutely stunning!!!! This HD stuff can really be addictive. Even my 910 never looked this good. I'm impressed - at least for now.

Well, I was able to see the 34XBR960 side by side with the 34XBR910 today at a store and there was a noticeable better picture on the XBR960. Naturally they had the XBR960 on Vivid and the 910 on standard, but I adjusted the XBR960 to standard as well and took the Picture setting from 47 down to about 35 and I can still notice the XBR960 picture was better. I don't know if they had different feeds, but they were displaying the same program.

Originally posted by billmail1
A few posts back I had mentioned my disappointment with my new 960 because of geometry problems when watching 4:3 SD. Both sides bowed outwards at the top and bottom. It was very frustrating because I knew it was there but if we weren't somewhat fanatical about our video displays, we probably would not be reading this forum.

Anyway, I have a hardcopy of the Sony 960 Service Manual and went to page 21 where it shows illustrations of various picture distortions and how to correct them in the Service Menu. I've been in the SM before with my 910 so I wasn't hestitant about trying it. I followed the instructions, went to registers CXA2170D-2 Item 7 for the top left and right bowing and Item 8 for the bottom left right bowing. After changing each item....VOILA!!!! I now have perfectly straight and parallel left and right sides. Absolutely amazing how changing a few numbers can have such a dramatic affect on picture geometry. Needless to say, I'm MUCH happier with my set now. I don't intend to do anything else at this point because the picture looks, to quote my wife, "AMAZING"!!

WORD OF CAUTION: If you have never been in the Service Menu or are unsure of what you are doing - leave it alone. If the geometry problems really bother you, call an ISF technician to do it for you.

My wife and I are watching Harry Potter on our VOOM satellite and the HD picture is absolutely stunning!!!! This HD stuff can really be addictive. Even my 910 never looked this good. I'm impressed - at least for now.


Where can you get a hold of the 960 service manual? I have an ISF calibration on Oct. 1 and there are some *minor* geometry probelsm on the TV. The left black bar on SD material is at an angle from top to bottom, the two bars don't seem they're of even width, etc. I am also wondering if there is a minor tilt adjustment in the service menu. Basically, using the on-screen tilt correction, a good tilt correction would be something like -4.25, but since the tilt only works in whole numbers, this isn't possible. There is also some slight bowing across the entire top and bottom of the screens.

It would be nice to have such a manual on-hand when the ISF tech is here as this is going to be his first 960 calibration. He said he has done 20+ 910s, but I am sure Sony added even more options in the 960 service menu.

Thanks!

Hello,

My first post here; I hope it does not go astray.

I'm very interested in the 960 as a replacement for my ancient TV.

Has anyone successfully eliminated overscan from their 960? I only watch DVDs on my TV, and want whatever replacement I get to have zero overscan, even if it means underscan or compromising the PQ.

Thanks,

Steve

I called Sony Customer Service about 6 weeks ago and ordered it. I believe the price was about $35-$39 plus shipping. The manual contains all of the factory default settings for RF, 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i by input (RF, Video 5, Video 6, HDMI) and Picture Mode (Vivid, Standard, Movie and Pro). Hopefully, your ISF tech will have a copy with him.

Again, as a general precautionary note, the manual is a great tool for personnel who are knowledgable working in the Service Menu. Great pain and suffering await those who tread in unfamiliar territory.

Hope this helps!

billmail1:

I will send an e-mail to the ISF tech who is coming to work on my 34XBR960 to see if he has the service manual for it. It sounds like there are more geometry controls in the 960 than were in the 910.

I've attached a .gif that details the current geometry of my 960. Pardon the artistic skills, I only have Microsoft Paint :-)

When watching 16:9 formatted material, I don't notice any distortion in geometry. However, if I bring up the on-screen display of the 960, from left to right, horizontal lines are not prefectly straight. At the top of the screen, there is slight downward bowing at the edges of the screen. At the bottom of the screen, there is slight upward bowing at the edges of the screen. Is this something that can be fixed in the service menu?

When watching 4:3 formatted material, the black bars on the left and right are of uneven widths. The bar on the right ever so slightly angles in to the left going from top to bottom. The bar on the left angles in more than the right bar, but this time to the right going from top to bottom.

Also, the tilt on 4:3 and 16:9 material is off by maybe a quarter of a degree or less. I notice this with material at the bottom of the screen on ESPN or even the Comcast channel guide. If I were able to adjust tilt in the on-screen guide by fractions, it would be perfect.

Can all of these be fixed or greatly lessened simply through the service menu? The ISF technician doesn't use magnets, so that is out of the question. If these problems could be fixed, I'd fall in love with this set even more.

Tennberg, I too did not notice any geometry distortion when in 16:9 mode. They only became noticeable when watching 4:3 SD. That is when the black bars and slanted lines on the left and right sides became very obvious.
____________________________________________________________
When watching 16:9 formatted material, I don't notice any distortion in geometry. However, if I bring up the on-screen display of the 960, from left to right, horizontal lines are not prefectly straight. At the top of the screen, there is slight downward bowing at the edges of the screen. At the bottom of the screen, there is slight upward bowing at the edges of the screen. Is this something that can be fixed in the service menu?
____________________________________________________________

I haven't seen anything in the Service Manual that addresses horizontal bowing. There is some mention of using the VPIN register to straighten horizontal lines but I've never tried it. If there is a way, I'm sure your ISF tech will be able to do it.
____________________________________________________________
When watching 4:3 formatted material, the black bars on the left and right are of uneven widths. The bar on the right ever so slightly angles in to the left going from top to bottom. The bar on the left angles in more than the right bar, but this time to the right going from top to bottom.
____________________________________________________________

There is an illustration of this exact problem on page 21 of the manual. Register CXA2170D-2 Item 14 PPHA (Pin Phase) looks like it will adjust those left and right side angles. The good thing about this Service Manual is that it has illustrations of many different picture distortion problems (like the ones you described) and then identifies which registers and items to adjust for correction.

I agree that it might be a good idea to call your ISF tech in advance to explain the types of problems that you would like him to adjust and to also ask him if he has the Service Manual.

I can almost guarantee that, if you like your 960 now, you will absolutely love it after the ISF calibration. I've had two calibrations on my 910 and it made dramatic improvements to the Picture Quality. I too will have my 960 calibrated. It's a small price to pay for proper geometry, convergence, color temp and color balance (and a whole bunch of other "magical" things that they can do).

Please give us your post-calibration impressions.

Tennberg,

My ISF tech also would not use any type of magnets or go into the back of the set. I don't believe that is a normal part of any ISF Caibration. But in my case it really wasn't necessary. He couldn't make everything perfect. After all, it is a CRT tube and perfection is impossible but he definitely made any remaining imperfections much less noticeable. The PQ was so great that I stopped looking for problems and just sat back and enjoyed the picture.

billmail1:

Basically, I would love to get the ISF tech to make it so that any horizontal lines are basically horizontal and any vertical lines are vertical. I would also love to have him fix the black bar issue on 4:3 material, and slightly correct the tilt (in addition to all color, color temp, etc.).

It sounds like all of this is possible in the service menu as long as you know what values to set.

====================================================

Apparently, I started a new thread elsewhere--but this question belongs here. Sorry about the duplication!--Mark

====================================================

I've had my '960 for about 6 weeks. Great set, and I love it. I didn't feel it needed any additional calibration or adjustments.

However, a week ago, I noticed some minor registration errors during an ABC Monday Night Football game. (Reds had drifted out in the upper-left.) At first, I thought it was their camera, but I also saw the error on some other programming. Then I put in a test disk, and sure enough, my set has slowly drifted out of registration. I called my dealer (ABT in suburban Chicago) and they have a tech. coming out next week. The service writer said this call will be covered under warranty. But he also didn't seem to have a clue what I was talking about when I said "convergence errors" or "out of registration." I wonder if they will change their mind about covering this under warranty when they realize what I'm complaining about. Anyone have experience with this issue--especially with this dealer?

I have read this thread for a few months, and it seems everyone agrees to wait about 100 hours before having the set aligned. I'm probably at that amount already. Anyone else notice the set drifting out of registration? I'm pretty sure it wasn't like that originally, although I'll admit I'm getting used to the excellent picture--and therefore becoming more critical!

Mark

Why is the Circuit City website stop selling xbr960? I cant find it on their website...


Things that make you go HMMMMMM...........

Originally posted by Steve Barr
Hello,

My first post here; I hope it does not go astray.

I'm very interested in the 960 as a replacement for my ancient TV.

Has anyone successfully eliminated overscan from their 960? I only watch DVDs on my TV, and want whatever replacement I get to have zero overscan, even if it means underscan or compromising the PQ.



You'll be able to adjust the vertical and horizontal sizes through the service menu, eliminating any overscan. It's a very easy change to make. Just keep in mind that the more you pull in those outer edges, the more you'll be getting into the area that CRT's have a hard time with. It's almost guaranteed that you're going to start seeing heavier geometry distortion and convergence issues along the edges of your screen if you adjust it to a point that eliminates all overscan.

Originally posted by JamisonBWolsh
Why is the Circuit City website stop selling xbr960? I cant find it on their website...


Things that make you go HMMMMMM...........

I would assume they are out of stock. And really they don't need the online website to sell the sets when their retail stores are probably gobbling up all the stock. The xbr was one of the few tvs that CC excluded from their 10% discount. WHY? because ppl will still buy the set regardless of the discount so it behooves CC to get as much as they can from it.

Originally posted by JamisonBWolsh
Why is the Circuit City website stop selling xbr960? I cant find it on their website...


Things that make you go HMMMMMM...........

It should also be noted that Circuit City has updated their website recently so maybe they haven't linked up everything yet. The units are in the retail stores.

Anyone still getting the pops?

I got them for the first time this weekend. When I switched to my dvd player it stopped. Because of this I think it is possible it is coming from my cable. Any one has a solution to this problem.

Thanks

billmail1:

Does the 960 sevice meny have options for adjusting "horizontal pincushion"? The above problem I described with 16:9 on-screen displays can only be fixed with a horizontal pincushion adjustment, according to the ISF tech. He said the 910 did not have this option. I am hoping that the 960 has this option since it's newer and better and faster.

He also said he does not need the service manual, so either he is the smartest man on the face of the earth or just doesn't want to bother. :-)

Tennberg,

I've been looking through the Service Manual for the last 30 minutes and couldn't find anything that specifically addresses horizontal pincushioning. For example, on page 21, all of the illustrations show vertical error corrections while page 15 addresses dynamic convergence adjustments (however they are all verticle convergence corrections). On page 21, paragraph 2-9.1, sub-paragraph 4 states: " Complete V-PIN and V-CEN adjustments first and adjust HPTZ to straighten and parallel top and bottom lines". I'm not exactly sure what that means and, believe me, if I don't understand the instructions, I do not make the adjustment. That is the only reference to horizontal line corrections that I can find.

I wouldn't worry about you ISF tech not having a copy of the Service Manual. Since all ISF technicians are trained and certified to meet ISF technical standards, I would assume that they all have a good working knowledge of most, if not all, Service Menus. I know when my calibrator came out the first time he did not have the manual and did a great job. Unfortunately, my TV fried a circuit board a few weeks later which needed to be replaced by a Sony tech. Naturally, the Sony "tech" (and I'm being kind by calling him only that name) replaced the board, turned the TV on to make sure there was a picture and then left. I don't know which board he replaced but all of my calibrations adjustments were gone. Fortunately, I called my ISF tech and he came back about 1 month later and recalibrated the set while only charging me a "touch up" fee even though he had to start from "scratch". When he was done, again the the picture was stunning. I have the same hopes for this TV although I have to admit, this 960 beats the crap out of the 910 "out of the box". I'm sure the ISF calibration will only make it that much better.

Don't worry about him not having the Service Manual. He should be able to correct almost all of your problems through the service menu.

Please post your comments after the calibration is completed. I'm really anxious to hear your opinions.

Bill

What is this "service menu"? Do you need to plug something into the firewire port in the back of the tv makred "service only" or something to that effect? Or are you just discussing the normal menu that you get when you press the "menu" button the remote?

Originally posted by ghostrider1
Anyone still getting the pops?

I got them for the first time this weekend. When I switched to my dvd player it stopped. Because of this I think it is possible it is coming from my cable. Any one has a solution to this problem.

Thanks

Which pops? The ones where the screen silently convulses, warps, and dims in a fraction of a second?

I get those, regardless of the source. Once every few hours usually.

Originally posted by billmail1
Tennberg,

I've been looking through the Service Manual for the last 30 minutes and couldn't find anything that specifically addresses horizontal pincushioning. For example, on page 21, all of the illustrations show vertical error corrections while page 15 addresses dynamic convergence adjustments (however they are all verticle convergence corrections). On page 21, paragraph 2-9.1, sub-paragraph 4 states: " Complete V-PIN and V-CEN adjustments first and adjust HPTZ to straighten and parallel top and bottom lines". I'm not exactly sure what that means and, believe me, if I don't understand the instructions, I do not make the adjustment. That is the only reference to horizontal line corrections that I can find.

I wouldn't worry about you ISF tech not having a copy of the Service Manual. Since all ISF technicians are trained and certified to meet ISF technical standards, I would assume that they all have a good working knowledge of most, if not all, Service Menus. I know when my calibrator came out the first time he did not have the manual and did a great job. Unfortunately, my TV fried a circuit board a few weeks later which needed to be replaced by a Sony tech. Naturally, the Sony "tech" (and I'm being kind by calling him only that name) replaced the board, turned the TV on to make sure there was a picture and then left. I don't know which board he replaced but all of my calibrations adjustments were gone. Fortunately, I called my ISF tech and he came back about 1 month later and recalibrated the set while only charging me a "touch up" fee even though he had to start from "scratch". When he was done, again the the picture was stunning. I have the same hopes for this TV although I have to admit, this 960 beats the crap out of the 910 "out of the box". I'm sure the ISF calibration will only make it that much better.

Don't worry about him not having the Service Manual. He should be able to correct almost all of your problems through the service menu.

Please post your comments after the calibration is completed. I'm really anxious to hear your opinions.

Bill

Thanks, Bill, for all your help.

I'm deciding whether or not to mention that HPTZ setting to him or not. I don't want to come off as knowing more than him and telling him how to do his job (though I am the one shelling out $300...).

Nevertheless, Comcast is coming out this Friday to check my cable strength (INHD and INHD2 have been pixelating quite a bit), I am trading in my Denon DVD-910 for a 1910 next week (480p 16:9 incompatibility with my 960), and Jim Doolittle is coming on Oct. 1 to do the ISF calibration. What a month :-)

I wouldn't worry about coming on as "knowing too much" if you mention the HPTZ adjustment. IMO it will just let him know that you know something about PQ and value his expertise to make it even better. Just don't come on too strong. Be tactful and professional and he will be more than willing to listen and discuss your expectations. My calibrator was extremely pleased to have a conversation with someone who knew what he was doing. A good calibrator has nothing to hide and should be willing to gladly discuss his science with knowledgable customers. The more you know about what he is doing, the more likely you are of being pleased with the improvements that he just made to your set. My calibrator was very methodical in explaining each step of the process, how and why he was making the adjustments and making sure that I was satisfied with the results. Like any craftsman, he is happy when his customer is happy.

I too have Comcast and INHD and INHD2 are my favority channels. In fact, if Comcast did not carry those channels I would seriously consider dropping their service.

So your getting a new DVD player and a calibration. You should feel like Christmas is coming early this year.

Again, I would really be interested in your opinion of the calibration results especially since I can't get my 960 done until November at the earliest.

Bill

would assume they are out of stock. And really they don't need the online website to sell the sets when their retail stores are probably gobbling up all the stock. The xbr was one of the few tvs that CC excluded from their 10% discount. WHY? because ppl will still buy the set regardless of the discount so it behooves CC to get as much as they can from it.


I bought a coupon off Ebay. It was for 10% off any TV over...$100 I think it was. It did exclude closeouts/discounted TVs. The coupon didnt say anything about XBR !!

I took the coupon to Circuit City and saved $220 on my XBR960.

I live about 25 miles south of Richmond in Virginia.
I did a search for that TV to see where one was located, because my local CC didnt have it. There was one store in Richmond that had it...very very old store too.
The only other stores in VA it listed was near DC...about 100 miles away.
Strange that its limited around here.

Originally posted by JamisonBWolsh
Why is the Circuit City website stop selling xbr960? I cant find it on their website...


Things that make you go HMMMMMM...........

Yes, Hmm... Like...Hmm...when will JBW start posting useful things instead of his constant whining barrage? Really. It's not like most of us here haven't already accepted the fact that Sony is having quality problems with the XBR960. Hell, I'm on my second one and it's got both the `pops' and the bad tuner. I also had some yahoo come out to try and fix it (third party TV repair guy...there aren't any Sony techs in Utah) who didn't do a damned thing. The second repair guy is comming out on Friday. Sony of course claimes to never have heard of the tuner problem. =( It's a real drag, but your constant posts don't help and just add noise to the discussion.

In any case, please go and hassle Sony about your unresolved issues, instead of bugging the rest of us with your TV insecurity.

Originally posted by Phantastica
Which pops? The ones where the screen silently convulses, warps, and dims in a fraction of a second?

I get those, regardless of the source. Once every few hours usually.

I get those too; source dosen't matter. They started happening maybe a week or two after I got the set and have been increasing in frequency ever since. Originally it was just every couple hours, but sometimes they happen every couple minutes now!

The second repair guy is comming on Friday to take a look at the set. The first one took the back off, pulled the circuit board off the back of the tube...put aluminum foil on the end of it and then connected it though his multimeter to case ground and turned on the TV for a couple minutes. Needless to say, his `little trick' didn't do anything to help fix the problem... I called Sony back afterwards and told them I'd like to have a different repair company come out and look at it (since there are no Sony repair techs here in Salt Lake, they contract out to third party repair places).

As a side note (maybe it's a coincidence), my TV also has the `tuner problem.' How about everyone else who's got the `pops'?

With all the issues others have had out there, I do consider myself lucky that the set I got has performed wonderfully so far. I have had no "pops" coming from the set, the geometry seems to be really great, etc. I am not sure about the built-in tuner however, as I use a Comcast cable box.

The set I have was built in Aug. 2004 with a serial number 8005xxx.

I am not sure if Sony has a real quality control issue with these sets or if those with problems have simply been more vocal than those who have had no issues.

Originally posted by billmail1
I wouldn't worry about coming on as "knowing too much" if you mention the HPTZ adjustment. IMO it will just let him know that you know something about PQ and value his expertise to make it even better. Just don't come on too strong. Be tactful and professional and he will be more than willing to listen and discuss your expectations. My calibrator was extremely pleased to have a conversation with someone who knew what he was doing. A good calibrator has nothing to hide and should be willing to gladly discuss his science with knowledgable customers. The more you know about what he is doing, the more likely you are of being pleased with the improvements that he just made to your set. My calibrator was very methodical in explaining each step of the process, how and why he was making the adjustments and making sure that I was satisfied with the results. Like any craftsman, he is happy when his customer is happy.

I too have Comcast and INHD and INHD2 are my favority channels. In fact, if Comcast did not carry those channels I would seriously consider dropping their service.

So your getting a new DVD player and a calibration. You should feel like Christmas is coming early this year.

Again, I would really be interested in your opinion of the calibration results especially since I can't get my 960 done until November at the earliest.

Bill

Thanks again. I will defintely keep you posted on post-ISF calibration status.

As for the HPTZ adjustment, does the 910 service manual mention this option at all, or is it new to the 960?

I don't have the 910 Service Manual anymore so I can't say for certain if it was in there or not but the letters sound familiar and I've seen them before so there is a good chance that it is not new to the 960.

Bill

Originally posted by Phantastica
Which pops? The ones where the screen silently convulses, warps, and dims in a fraction of a second?

I get those, regardless of the source. Once every few hours usually.

I have had my 960 for about 6 weeks. This past weekend I was getting "the pops" when I turned the set on with it connected to my TiVo. when I switched the input source to tuner, I was still getting the pops but they lessened and then went away. I didn't get them again until Tuesday. I have been "pop-free" since Tuesday. I put in a service request via Sony's website and am still waiting for a response.

I have not had the tuner problems that I've seent people mention and my geometry is probably 95%. It's not perfect but according to the service guy "it's better than most."

Please keep us up to date if you get yours successfully fixed.

HDTVFanAtic,

I don't know if I missed it, but did you talk about the pops on the 960?

Do you have this problem? Do you know of a solution?

Thanks!!!

Well, the TV repair guy showed up this morning. I was able to show him the `tuner problem', since I'd left the TV off all night, but the TV stubbornly refused to `pop' while he was there. I guess that's the problem when you've got two issues that manifest themselves in completely different ways (TV's off for a while, or TV's on for a while...).

Anyway, the end result is that he did a factory reset (from the remote) on the TV and is ordering a new tuner and will be installing it whenever it shows up (in a week or so). He did say that the `poping' problem could be the tube arcing, which would mean that it would need to be replaced. In any case, the next time he comes out I'll have the TV on all morning to make sure that it will happen while he's there. I'm really not looking forward to having them replace the tube though. =(

Originally posted by Phantastica
Anyways, the conclusion is that I'll just accept the geometry and dark patches the way that they are and perhaps go for a completely digital plasma/lcd/led set down the road. I definitely enjoy viewing and using this set, I'm probably just expecting too much out of it though.

I just got an XBR910 (don't ask, I live in Canada) and had somewhat similar issues out of the box.

I had darker/bluer patches in the corners when displaying white or near white full screen. A quick landing adjustment (in the service menu) fixed that. (Thank god we had a similar issue on Sony computer monitors at work, otherwise I would never have figured that one out.)

The parameters you need to adjust to fix dark patches in the corners are:

LANDING - LT (left top), RT (right top), RB (right bottom), LB (left bottom).

As for geometry, you can improve it (and screw it up) quite a bit with all the geometry adjustments in the service menu. Don't expect anything perfect, though...

For more information on this, visit the XBR910 service menu thread on this board, it is quite informative.

As usual, all the disclaimers apply: YOU CAN SCREW UP YOUR SET IF YOU ARE CARELESS IN THE SERVICE MENU. IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO PROGRAM YOUR VCR -- LEAVE THIS TO AN EXPERIENCED TECHNICIAN. JOT DOWN ORIGINAL SERVICE MENU VALUES **BEFORE** YOU CHANGE THEM... yada yada yada...

-- Patate

Originally posted by 1212patatepoil

As usual, all the disclaimers apply: YOU CAN SCREW UP YOUR SET IF YOU ARE CARELESS IN THE SERVICE MENU. IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO PROGRAM YOUR VCR -- LEAVE THIS TO AN EXPERIENCED TECHNICIAN. JOT DOWN ORIGINAL SERVICE MENU VALUES **BEFORE** YOU CHANGE THEM... yada yada yada...

-- Patate

I notice alot of people say this when dealing with the service menu. Even if someone screws something up in it, can't they just use the "Restore To Factory Defaults" option?

Originally posted by Acksull
I notice alot of people say this when dealing with the service menu. Even if someone screws something up in it, can't they just use the "Restore To Factory Defaults" option?
Supposedly you can actually physically damage the TV if you do the wrong thing.

- Chris

Are Video 5 and Video 6 (the two HD inputs) on the 960 able to maintain separate color settings through the on-screen menu? My cable box is plugged into Video 5 and my DVD player is plugged into Video 6. Both are going to be ISF calibrated, and I wanted to make sure that they could be calibrated separately.

Thanks.

Originally posted by Acksull
I notice alot of people say this when dealing with the service menu. Even if someone screws something up in it, can't they just use the "Restore To Factory Defaults" option?

I think this "disclaimer" comes from the fact that the service menu is NOT user friendly, and you should be more careful than usual when your are using it.

I understand that "restore factory defaults" will indeed reset everything, but probably will NOT reset the TV exactly the way it was when it was delivered to you.

Apparently, some tweaking is done on an individual basis for every set.

Plus, if you DID tweak stuff on your own already, having to reset EVERYTHING just because you mucked up a single setting can be really painful.

I know that I don't want to do a factory reset now, after all the work I put into my set.

As for physical damage, I would say it is quite unlikely. Unless you act like a complete fool and start playing with parameters at random, it should be fine. Just stick with parameters that are well documented on this site (or others...).

-- Patate

I am having a issue with my tuner. After I do the auto channel programming I can press the channel + and channel - to surf all the channels. But then all of a sudden I lose most of the channels so when I press the + or minus it only cycles through a small number of channels. I can still get to a channel by pressing the number but can't get to that number using the channel + or -. Wonder if this mean I have a defective tuner?

I am wondering is anyone else has this issue. When I power on the TV I get a buzz sound. I am assuming this is from the TV deguassing. I have heard this same sound when powering up computer monitors. Anyway the issue is sometimes when I turn it on I don't get the buzz sound. I can turn the tv on and off until I am blue in the face and not get the buzz sound when powering it on. My question is does anyone get the buzz sound everytime they turn the set on?

I need help people.

I just bought the kd-34xbr960 and had RCN in NYC hook me up with there motorola dct6208.
I have my motorola hooked via component cables to the tv.
My regular digital cabl channels look terrible, very fuzzy and very grainy.

I have no coaxial cable going from the dct to the tv cause I was told I don't need it at all, and I even tried to do that and it didnt't fix anything.

The guy at PC Richard told me to make another input just for the regular digital channels from the extra video out in the DCT but this doesnt let me use the guide then on that input. I guess you can't use the DCT guide when using 2 inputs on the DCT box.

I tried changing the 4:3 setting from 480p to 480i and even off, and nothing seems to help.

Do I need the coaxial cable from the DCt to the tv (cable input) at all?
Everyone talks about the great quality that this yv has and I can only get that great quality onb the HDTV , not on the regular channels which I use the most.

PLEASE HELP, I will have the RCN guy come on Sunday to check it out, I might return the tv if it doesnt get better.

Right now the DTV on my tv screen is worse then the DTV I had on my 20 year old set last year.


Steve

Originally posted by triplex
I am wondering is anyone else has this issue. When I power on the TV I get a buzz sound. I am assuming this is from the TV degaussing. I have heard this same sound when powering up computer monitors. Anyway the issue is sometimes when I turn it on I don't get the buzz sound. I can turn the tv on and off until I am blue in the face and not get the buzz sound when powering it on. My question is does anyone get the buzz sound every time they turn the set on?

Triplex, I don't think the 960 degausses each and every time. Try unplugging your set for a minute or two--I think it will then degauss every time. Or, try the service department at your dealer.

By the way, degaussing is only necessary when you see some color impurity on the screen. Manufacturers put that capability in their sets to avoid service calls. It's a benefit to the user, but does not need to be done as often as it is. So personally I wouldn't worry about it not degaussing every time--unless you think it's a malfunction in your unit. :)


Mark

I've had my 960 for about a month now with no real problems, but I just noticed something odd: when playing supposedly 16x9 Xbox games (Burnout 3, Rallisport Challenge 2, Panzer Dragoon Orta), the TV tells me the signal it's getting is a 480p signal in 4:3! The Xbox is set to "widescreen" in the dashboard video menu with all three HDTV modes enabled. When I play a 16x9-enhanced DVD on my DVD player, the TV identifies the signal as 480p 16x9, and it also identifies the Xbox dashboard as 16x9. And the only 720p game that I have (Freedom Fighters) is also identified as a 16x9 signal. But whenever I pop in a 480p widescreen game, pow!, it tells me I'm in 4:3. Anyone got a clue what could be causing this? Is it possible I'm actually seeing the game in 16x9 despite what the TV says (because the image sure doesn't look stretched), or am I actually getting a 4:3 image because of a setting I missed (either on the Xbox or the TV)? Thanks in advance for your help!

Andrew,

Just a quick question. Do you have the HDTV a/v pack? Without that pack, you cannot get hdtv quality 16:9 widescreen.....

The Xbox is connected through component video cables, so I guess that means I have the HDTV a/v pack, right? I don't think there's another product that lets you use component video with the Xbox.

Originally posted by smandel44

My regular digital cabl channels look terrible, very fuzzy and very grainy.

Go into the diagnostics menu and check your signal strength. After I got my cablecard I was seeing the same kind of thing you describe. After Comcast installed an amplifier on my cable connection, all the channels suddenly looked great and have looked great ever since.

I've got RC2 and Panzer Dragoon Orta; I've played RC2 on the 960 and it definetely supports 16:9, but I do seem to remember needing to manually stretch the screen when playing in 480p (haven't played Orta on the new TV). I'll check the display information for it when I get home.

The TV definetely detects the ID1/WSS signal from my Sony DVD player when it's in progressive mode. It's possible that the Xbox isn't sending out that signal in 480p. Or it's possible that the abrupt change from the dashboard in 480i to the game in 480p messes the TV up somehow? I found a post on an hdtvoice forum about someone with an Xbox and a kv-30hs420 that's having the same problem:

http://www.hdtvoice.com/voice/archive/index.php/t-11359

Hey, thanks for the input snclawson...between your post and the one you linked to on the other board, I think I have a pretty decent understanding of what the issue is, though one point still confuses me: If I want to ensure that I'm seeing the proper 16x9 image, which widescreen setting should I use on the set? Zoom? Wide zoom? I've been using "full", which seems to be working OK, though I can't help wondering if the image is more cropped or distorted than I realize. Too bad the Xbox doesn't have a flashable BIOS to fix stuff like this...

In the menu, set Screen Mode to 'full' default. That's the conventional proper dislpay that will fill your screen without shrinking or cropping when there's a 16:9 broadcast. However, 4:3 'hd' upconverted material will still appear as a slightly larger square in this setting but it's still considered "Full".

Forgive me for asking a ridiculously silly question, but you mean 'full' on the TV's menu, not the Xbox menu, correct? That's the setting I've been using. The picture looks fine enough, but I can't help worrying that the something is being cropped because the TV sees the signal as 4:3 when it's actually 16x9. If I get the overscan set right (which should happen during my ISF calibration this weekend) will that keep anything from being cropped out?

okay i got my 960. I have adelphia basic analog cable.

I did the autochannel setup and said it found over like 200 DIGITAL channels which I never got before.

NOW when I scroll threw my channels I get like channel 99.65 or 101.23 which are various digital channels such as mtv2 or cbs hd which I never knew existed on my cable feed before.


MY QUESTION: Where can I see a channel lineup for those weird decimal digital channels? I tried titantv and its all whole number channels. Why am I seeing these weird channel numbers? thx

Also on some of the digital channels it tells me the resolution whether its 480i or 1080i etc. I think i was watching csi miami in HD, it looked good but not HD good not sure whats going on. anyways rambling.....

juandixon

Your cable provider is currently not encrypting some of the digital channels so the built in QAM tuner on the 960 is able to display them. For now this is a freebie but most cable providers are aware of this and are working on encrypting all channels.

As to the channel numbers, you will not find any channel mapping for them. The channel numbers are the internal channels used by the cable provider and are remapped to standard channel numbers by your digital receiver or cable card. I just took the time to create a channel listing of my own.

I'm a DirecTV subscriber and was also pleasantly surprised when my 960 was able to lock onto INHD 1/2, ESPN HD, Discovery HD, etc. from my cable provider.

Originally posted by andrewjnyc
Forgive me for asking a ridiculously silly question, but you mean 'full' on the TV's menu, not the Xbox menu, correct? That's the setting I've been using. The picture looks fine enough, but I can't help worrying that the something is being cropped because the TV sees the signal as 4:3 when it's actually 16x9. If I get the overscan set right (which should happen during my ISF calibration this weekend) will that keep anything from being cropped out?

Yes, I meant the tv menu, ot the xbox menu. I don't know why the tv is displaying 4:3 if it's supposed to be 16:9. I don't have an xbox but I understand as you you probably are aware that not every game is 16:9. If the game is 16:9 and you feel that it's being cropped, then overscan correction should help.

Just curious, do you also get the feeling that 16:9 HD TV channels seem cropped in the Full Display mode?

Originally posted by TKO
juandixon

Your cable provider is currently not encrypting some of the digital channels so the built in QAM tuner on the 960 is able to display them. For now this is a freebie but most cable providers are aware of this and are working on encrypting all channels.

As to the channel numbers, you will not find any channel mapping for them. The channel numbers are the internal channels used by the cable provider and are remapped to standard channel numbers by your digital receiver or cable card. I just took the time to create a channel listing of my own.

I'm a DirecTV subscriber and was also pleasantly surprised when my 960 was able to lock onto INHD 1/2, ESPN HD, Discovery HD, etc. from my cable provider.

Ah IC, thanks for the great explanation.

Juandixon,

U got your 960??? When did you place your order with the Sony Family Store?

My order was placed on June 28th and then officially entered into their system on July 12th...Still freiken waiting!!! :(

Originally posted by Segaboy
Juandixon,

U got your 960??? When did you place your order with the Sony Family Store?

My order was placed on June 28th and then officially entered into their system on July 12th...Still freiken waiting!!! :(

hey sega, i couldn't wait. i got a deal on the 910 stand for less than the sony family and i used a cc coupon for the 960 itself.

football season started, i am almost finish renovating my place and the tv was the cherry on top so I needed to have it. like a kid who couldn't wait till christmas to open his presents up. hehe. keep me updated on when u get urs, but I understand the line may be LONG.

Originally posted by Segaboy
Juandixon,

U got your 960??? When did you place your order with the Sony Family Store?

My order was placed on June 28th and then officially entered into their system on July 12th...Still freiken waiting!!! :(

This probably doesn't help much, but I placed my order at the Sony Family Store in Culver City on June 16th (before they were shipping) and I had my set in my living room in the first week of July. I suspect that I got in just before this set became a hot item. The same thing happened with the Grand Wega III's. They ended up being backordered for about 5 months.

Just to add some more info on the Sony Family Store, I ordered mine from them last June as well and had to deal with two sets being damaged during transit before ever arriving to my house. Now I've been told that a third set was sent out yesterday. Once again, I have my fingers crossed.

The refurbs are starting to show up at the Sony outlets -- and they're good!!!
I picked one up at the Wrentham, MA Sony factory outlet.
Note: Call ahead, as there may not be any left.

--

Since it was a refurb, I opted for the 5 yr. warranty as well. (Technically it the extends the manufactuer's warranty from 2 to 5 years.)

Great customer service from an outlet store!
When I had inquired about the 34XBR960, I was told I could have the floor model (with free 5yr extended warranty), or if I could wait, there were 4 "in-transit". I asked to them to call me when they arrived. And indeed when they arrived, I was called.
Finally, I was able to have them un-box it so I could check it out. (After doing the auto-program, and picture adjustments, I realized just how good a set this is!)
Only issue with the outlet store was that I did have a little wait at the loading dock, as someone else was loading their just-purchased 34XBR960.

Bottom line:
Limited availability (and can't order!), but great price...
A few hundred off since it's a refurb, but can get the extended warranty.
Because it was a refurb, it was checked and somewhat "fine-tuned."
A few hundred off since they don't deliver. [ I considered this "sweat equity."]
Give the 34XBR960 a good quality signal, and it gives you a great picture and great sound.


Details:
----------

Did have to rent a pickup as the box is large: approx 52" long x 34" wide x 37" high.

The weight is just over 200 pounds, so bring a strong friend or two to help lug it into your house.

Because of the issues noted in this thread [THANKS early adopters!!], I called ahead and made arrangements to have it taken out of the box and set it up with off-air antenna in the store. (I did have to explained that the early production models had issues and I wanted to verify the tuner was ok and there were no geometry issues.)

The serial number is on the box was in the low 8000500s -- definately a cause for concern. But did have a refurbished date of August 18th, 2004 (can you "cautiously optimistic"?)

-----

Hands-on report:

Looks like the refurbing has fixed the tuner and geometry issues!!!

The auto-program went fine and only took a couple minutes to find all the local Boston channels (from a "VHF rabbit ears/ UHF loop" antenna) inside the store. (Note: approx. 25 miles from the towers; there are also a metal frame spotlight rack hanging from the ceiling, the antenna was on top of the TV which was sitting on the floor, and people were also in the store. ) Eventhough I had to adjust the antenna to get a solid lock on the weaker digital channels, I am impressed with how good the tuner is. (Compares favorably with the 4th generation tuner in my Integra 912.)

Great news: No geometry issues! (Yes, the gray bars were slightly off, but you really had to be looking for it [and I was!]. I stepped back 5 feet and didn't notice it.)

I tuned to PBS-HD (which was showing "Travels in Europe"), and had to make a few adjustments to go from "[showroom] Vivid" to the more natural "Pro" mode. A few tweaks to lower the sharpness and adjust the brightness, contrast, etc. and it looked great. (Other shoppers were impressed!)
I was initially thinking I would need an ISF calibration, but let's just say, that's on-hold for now.

The only issue I noticed with the picture was the somewhat expected color fringing on the left 15% of the picture. (The floor model also had similar issues.) Really not that bad, and I will correct it after it has a couple hundred hours of "aging". [Service manual already ordered!]

Coming from a previous generation HD Trinitron, the clarity of the 960's super-fine pitch is definately noticable -- you do get more of the 3D "pop" effect.

Picture quality of the analog channels was "poor" as others have noted, but when I set it up at home with a better OTA antenna, it improved to "good" -- same channels, same set, just better quality signal. (aka "Garbage In, Garbage Out".) Hmmmm...

Picture quality from a DVD source is excellent, as well as SD from a Big Dish.

Picture quality from an HD source (Dish 921 PVR or Big Dish HD), was just short of HD studio monitor quality. [But for 1/10th the price, I think I can live with it!]

Picture quality from the "Nature in Motion" DVHS from Wilderness Video really showed the "upgrade" from HD-Trinitron to Superfine HD Trinitron, and it soundtrack really showed-off the 34XPR960's subwoofer.

No cosmetic issues with the cabinet -- it was in perfect condition.

Yea I've been watching the 34xbr910 at the Outlets since they came out, but haven't been there lately to see any 960's. I'm still balking at the price since it's more than I've ever spent on a tv, plus the weight is an issue since I live with stairs. I'll have to go see if they have it, but it's 30 miles away.

I've had my '960 since late July. It's a great set, and I've been very happy with it.

But I did notice a small amount of convergence error around three sides. In my opinion, this is not acceptable--I think the set has "burned in" a bit since it was new, and has drifted out of convergence.

So I called my retailer (ABT in Chicago), and asked for service on the set. The serviceman came on Friday. He looked at my set for about 5 seconds, and pronounced it within Sony specs. He stated--to my astonishment--that Sony calls for only 73% convergence accuracy around the corners. (Where did THAT spec. come from?) I asked him to tell me how that is determined, but he couldn't. He said the set was fine, but that he couldn't do that kind of adjustment in the field anyway. He stated it wouldn't be any better if they did take it in and align it. I told him I was not satisfied, and he should find out what the Service Manager would say about taking it in for warranty service. He said I'd get a call Monday or Tuesday.

So I'll keep everyone informed what they have to say. I guess that's why so many people have their sets professionally calibrated!

Mark

This has probably been asked before and I did see some reference to cable and firewire to D-VHS but not satellite so here are 2 questions:

1. Has anyone tried to record to D-VHS with a Satellite Receiver configuration?

2. Is it possible to record HD this way using the firewire connection on the tv?

does anyone know if the 960 forwards its digital audio from an hdmi source?

i only have one optical input on my receiver and would like to connect my system like this.

DVD PLAYER <---hdmi-->xbr960

xbr960<---digital optic-->audio receiver

so when I watch a dvd, will the audio get passed thru to the receiver? thx.

Wait, am I missing something? Can you not plug the DVD player's optical audio into the receiver's? Either way, you're out one optical audio cable and one and one optical receiver input.

Originally posted by Shivan
Wait, am I missing something? Can you not plug the DVD player's optical audio into the receiver's? Either way, you're out one optical audio cable and one and one optical receiver input.

here is my problem.

my receiver = 1 optical in

dvd player+ 960 = 2 optical outs

but since the 960 accepts hdmi which is BOTH video AND audio, I am hoping for it to FORWARD that audio signal to the receiver therefore saving me one port.

dvd player (via hdmi)+ 960 = 1 optical out

Originally posted by mikeny
This has probably been asked before and I did see some reference to cable and firewire to D-VHS but not satellite so here are 2 questions:

1. Has anyone tried to record to D-VHS with a Satellite Receiver configuration?

2. Is it possible to record HD this way using the firewire connection on the tv?

After first tuning to an OTA digital channel, I can go to the iLink menu and record it to the D-VHS.

I cannot do this with the component in from my Dish HD receiver.

I will test this with the HDMI port later this week when the DVI-HDMI cable arrives.

Bottom line:
The 34xbr960 can send the digital tuner output to the firewire ports (from the iLink menu), and it can be recorded. However trying to change away from the tuner caused a popup message asking if you want to stop the recording. If you answer yes, it will stop the recorder and change video sources. If you answer no, it will remain on that channel and the recording will continue. Note: you can go to full-screen mode so you can watch what is being recorded in full screen mode, but you can't select another input source from the full screen without getting the prompt.

Juan,
No, it does not forward HDMI audio through the optical audio out port. Unfortunately I can only get it to forward OTA signals through the optical port. I have the same problem with the number of ports on my receiver.

thx, i actually read the manual closely and even if it did, then it would be only be a 2 channel digi audio signal.

juandixon,

You could try an optical splitter. There are 2x1's that can be had for $10 or less. I've never tried one out, but for ten bucks it's worth a shot.

Good luck!

Originally posted by FreeflyKC
juandixon,

You could try an optical splitter. There are 2x1's that can be had for $10 or less. I've never tried one out, but for ten bucks it's worth a shot.

Good luck!

thx I never knew those existed yet, will give it a shot

Originally posted by jimg
After first tuning to an OTA digital channel, I can go to the iLink menu and record it to the D-VHS.

I cannot do this with the component in from my Dish HD receiver.

I will test this with the HDMI port later this week when the DVI-HDMI cable arrives.

Bottom line:
The 34xbr960 can send the digital tuner output to the firewire ports (from the iLink menu), and it can be recorded. However trying to change away from the tuner caused a popup message asking if you want to stop the recording. If you answer yes, it will stop the recorder and change video sources. If you answer no, it will remain on that channel and the recording will continue. Note: you can go to full-screen mode so you can watch what is being recorded in full screen mode, but you can't select another input source from the full screen without getting the prompt.

Well, that's fascinating. I don't have a D-VHS VCR, but I DO have a firewire mini-DV camcorder. So, I assume I could record SD programmng to the camcorder--right? Next question...what would happen if I tried to record HD material to the camcorder?

Mark

Jimg,

Thanks for your anecdotal on the D-VHS attempt from Dish network. It's too bad that when you say yes at that prompt the recorder stops.

BTV Mark,

Good idea with the DV camcorder. I would expect it to work and it would encourage me to look into buying an HD Camcorder. Then I would need to evaluate out if it's cheaper than HD Tivo; which is quite frankly way too much me, especially after just getting the 960. :)

Well, here's the story about the convergence error from ABT: No apology, no explanation. Just a message left on my answering machine that I need an ISF calibration for $500. Please call for your appointment.

Well, two questions: Can this be done in the home, and does anyone have any recommendations for the Northern Chicago suburbs?

Mark

1.) Yes , it can be done at home. It is done through the service menu.
2.) $500 is steep. I believe people can get ISF tech's for 250-350 depending on the tech. I would serach the groups and forums to find the BEST tech in your area. You just dont want anyone. Try to get references. Im sure there is a listing on the www, But I don't know of the site. Hopefully, someone can fill in the blank. If not, you can search the internet yourself...

Originally posted by BTV Mark
Well, here's the story about the convergence error from ABT: No apology, no explanation. Just a message left on my answering machine that I need an ISF calibration for $500. Please call for your appointment.

Well, two questions: Can this be done in the home, and does anyone have any recommendations for the Northern Chicago suburbs?

Mark

You can check out these sites.

http://www.docdvd.com

http://www.imagingscience.com/

Thanks, guys. Looks like a lot of info!

Executive Management was ok with the TV purchase, but I don't know how I'm gonna convince her I need the calibration...

Mark

Originally posted by BTV Mark
Thanks, guys. Looks like a lot of info!

Executive Management was ok with the TV purchase, but I don't know how I'm gonna convince her I need the calibration...

Mark

I agree w/ JBW. $500 is Way steep. I spent around $325 for mine as I recall, which included the $50 travel fee... (calibration itself was only $275-hehe... I said only... :P

Anywho, to offer my thoughts/opinions with absolutely NO PROOF on my part what-so-ever on the mini-dv cam recording...

The mini-dv cam to record HD I don't think would work as well as you'd hope... I think it would probably work, but if you're cam isn't HD (which mine isn't as I -only- spent 2k (there's that darn only word again)), I'm figuring you'll only get out SD quality (maybe very good SD quality but SD none-the-less....

That's why they have the Super-VHS or whatever it is that can record HD. Now, if you find you're able to get HD back out, please let me know, because I'll be all over that...

I've done a straight feed from the cam to the tv and a basic record and it's just nothing near HD quality... Welcome to the club ;)
-C
Ps. The ISF Calibration is worth it. I teased my friend before he got his, because his ran him around $500 (Rear projection)... but looking at it afterwards told me I was wrong...

Can anyone out there who has the 34XBR960 know if the set supports discreet
remote codes to select a video input, rather than having to cycle though video1/2/3/.../7.

Does the Sony remote provide this function?
Are there discreet codes I can learn from a OFA remote?

Originally posted by kdb209
Can anyone out there who has the 34XBR960 know if the set supports discreet
remote codes to select a video input, rather than having to cycle though video1/2/3/.../7.

Does the Sony remote provide this function?
Are there discreet codes I can learn from a OFA remote?

i really doubt it because all the IR is doing is sending signal that just says "hit". The tv receives that "hit" signal and just increments the video input.

Basically u want channel video 1, channel video 2, which is completely different logic than a single hit. I highly doubt sony went that extra step to program that feature. Be very nice if they did and if they did I am sure sony would market that as a feature in their spec.

Originally posted by juandixon
i really doubt it because all the IR is doing is sending signal that just says "hit". The tv receives that "hit" signal and just increments the video input.

Basically u want channel video 1, channel video 2, which is completely different logic than a single hit. I highly doubt sony went that extra step to program that feature. Be very nice if they did and if they did I am sure sony would market that as a feature in their spec.

I currently have a Samsung 46" DLP (HLP4663) that supports discreet codes.
The Samsung remote can only support cycling through the video inputs, but the
TV recognizes discreet codes to select any input. You need a preprogrammed
universal remote (like OFA) to generate/learn these discreet codes.

Does anyone know for sure if the 34XBR960 does or does not support similar
discreet codes?

Unfortunately the wife thinks the 46" Sammy is too big for our living room.
I have 30 days (well 23 days now) to convince her otherwise or the Sammy goes
back (sob,sob,sob,..) and I look for plan B - either a 34" direct view or a small
42" plasma.

kdb209,

The 960 does have discreet codes for all video inputs. They can be found at Remote Central (http://www.remotecentral.com).

Until yesterday I had the Samsung 46" DLP sitting right next to my 960. For the size of the room and picture quality I decided to keep the 960. This is not my main HDTV so I opted for picture quality over the size. Both sets are great but I thought for sports viewing, the 960 cannot be beat for color quality (blacks, etc.).

I just got a xbr 960 delivered a few days ago, but I wish I had found this message board before I bought it.

Anyway, after spending a lot of time reading through the posts I find that, just like my new set, many sets have geometry problems. Mine set had a D shape distortion all the way accross, which is very annoying, as well as a tiny bit of distortion in the extreme corners, which I wouldn't see if I didn't look really hard.

I also many posts about correcting some geometry issues in the service menu, but can't find anything about how to get into this menu. The kind of distortion I see can be corrected on digital trinitron computer monitors I have had over the years. I fact, I just made my 21" monitor look like my new TV by fiddling with the geometry settings. I also saw a post claiming that sony will sell a service manual to anyone for less than 40 dollars. Can anyone confirm these findings.

Otherwise, the TV is nice. I don't have HD yet (San Mateo, CA), but it should be piped out in a few weeks over comcast cable. The old analog cable looks much better than I expected, after turning off all that edge enhansement and stuff. I probably have 30 year old cable in the house, and it didn't look great on my 22 inch old sony. But its not any worse on the XBR960, just bigger and more obvious.

To sum up:
1. Can D shape distortions be corrected in the service menu?
2. How does one enter the service menu?
3. Has anyone obtained a service manual from sony?

Thanks, and I'll let everyone know if I get any improvemnts ever.

Vern

I've had a KV-HS510 for almost a year now and the vertical scanning bar problem which appears to be resolved finally, but now I have a 480p problem as well as an index problem. Anyway CC got tired of fixing it and authorized a return. I'm getting the 960 and I thought I might not be able to get into the 960 without spending a lot more money. I had gotten my 510 for 1699 when it was still retailing for 1999 so I thought they'd be talking about $500 more. Anyway when the CC associate pulled it up in his system it showed a large number in their warehouse (85) and a price of 1899, so I jumped at the opportunity. Apparently, it will be delivered tomorrow and they'll take the old one away.

My only fear is that I'm going to get shafted on the warranty as they warned me it's not likely going to be an evenly prorated refund. All and all though, I suppose $200 is worth the upgrade to move to the XBR series and integrated tuner. Now I just have to invest in a DVI to HDMI cable and some more firewires.

Originally posted by TKO
kdb209,

The 960 does have discreet codes for all video inputs. They can be found at Remote Central (http://www.remotecentral.com).

Until yesterday I had the Samsung 46" DLP sitting right next to my 960. For the size of the room and picture quality I decided to keep the 960. This is not my main HDTV so I opted for picture quality over the size. Both sets are great but I thought for sports viewing, the 960 cannot be beat for color quality (blacks, etc.).

TKO,

Thanks for the info. I have an MX-500 and an older OFA remote, so I should be able
to learn the discreet codes.

Since you have had a chance to play with both the Sammy and the 960, could you
comment on the picture quality between the two:

- HD
- DVD (480p)
- SD
- analog

How much tweaking did you do on each of the sets for PQ - none, pure SWAG,
DVE/Avia, ISF calibration?

Did you have any quality issues on the two sets (Lamp/Ballast on the sammy or
geometry issues on the 960)?

This will be my primary HD set. I would like to stay larger with the Sammy, but am
fighting a losing battle with the wife, and the 960 looks like the best option for plan B.
(I doubt I could get her to approve the cost of a decent 42" HD Plasma).

Thanks,

-kdb

You can call the Sony Service Center and request one, and they will send it within a couple of days. That is how I got my Service Manual for the XBR960.

Originally posted by BTV Mark
Well, here's the story about the convergence error from ABT: No apology, no explanation. Just a message left on my answering machine that I need an ISF calibration for $500. Please call for your appointment.

Well, two questions: Can this be done in the home, and does anyone have any recommendations for the Northern Chicago suburbs?

Mark

Here's a happy follow-up.

After a series of follow-up phone calls, ABT agreed to send someone out again. They made sure it was a different technician. This guy was sharp. He looked at the set, and readily agreed that the convergence was off a bit. But he told me up front not to expect TOO much. After about 30 minutes' work, I am much happier. There was a huge improvement, so I'm a happy camper. ABT is once again my favorite retailer.

How big an improvement? Well, those of us who buy this set and check this thread aren't your average TV viewers. We paid a lot for this set--and we expect it to give an excellent picture. But I'm a realist--I know nothing is PERFECT. But I believe this is as good as this set can be, so now I'm gonna settle down and enjoy it.

Mark

Mike3,

Am I reading your post correctly? Does Circuit City have the 960 for $1899? Their web site is still listing it for $2199. Anyway, good luck with the new 960 and I hope you have better luck with it. Keep us updated.

Have had the XBR since it's release date... it's even been calibrated...

But last night it started acting up (?) Normally when I hit the power, it simply turns off. Not last night.

The screen went mostly dark, except for the center (about 2-3 sq. inches), where I could see a swath of Red, a swath of Green, and one of Blue (imagine a mercedes-benz symbol, with each of the areas filled in with one color.)

That just sat there for a moment then faded...

Normally when I turn the tv on, I get the satisfying degaussing twing sound... but that wasn't the case when I turned the TV back on... (however, the picture and sound still worked just like always)...

Anyone know what this is or if I need to worry about it? Your help is greatly appreciated! :)

-C

Well I finally bought my KD-34XBR960 and got a pretty damn good deal on it at Cambridge Sound Works in Peabody MASS.

I guess there's a 10% off on the TV (until the end of Sept) plus a $25 dollar coupon at the store, a free SU34XBR1 stand ( 910 version which will fit), a 5 yr warranty for $179.99 and 0 APR for 15 months with minumum payments (they also had a 0 APR, no payment for 12 months but I rather start paying for the TV....hehheee) with a grand total of $2233.98.

The only problem the tv is backed up but they should receive a shipment sometime the 2nd week of Octber......worth the wait.

CC had the tv but didn't give me the 10% off and no free 910 stand....so I left......

Well I got the saddle, now I only have to wait for the horse to come...:D

Originally posted by cad_3
Have had the XBR since it's release date... it's even been calibrated...

But last night it started acting up (?) Normally when I hit the power, it simply turns off. Not last night.

The screen went mostly dark, except for the center (about 2-3 sq. inches), where I could see a swath of Red, a swath of Green, and one of Blue (imagine a mercedes-benz symbol, with each of the areas filled in with one color.)

That just sat there for a moment then faded...

Normally when I turn the tv on, I get the satisfying degaussing twing sound... but that wasn't the case when I turned the TV back on... (however, the picture and sound still worked just like always)...

Anyone know what this is or if I need to worry about it? Your help is greatly appreciated! :)

-C


Well, this could be anything--or nothing. Try unplugging the TV for a few minutes. Then plug it back in and turn it on.


Mark

I received my TV on Saturday after ordering it Thursday night from my local CC. I had 1700 credit for the hs510 that iwas returning and it cost me an extra $200 for the 960 and the warranty was something like $240 for a 3 year. It was in their system at the store for 1899, but I too see it on the website at 2199. It was only avaiable at the store via special order whatever that means.

I'm impressed so far. I picked up quite a few HD OTAs, but believe I used to pick up a few more with separate OTA tuners. I have to look into the cable card soon. Funny thing was that some of the OTA networks that I picked up appeared better than the QAM network feeds. I need to find a resource about my local QAM channels, that is what is available and and what channel numbers (in the Philadelphia area).

I also need to pick up a DVI to HDMI adaptor. I was shocked when I saw the price of the DVI-HDMI cable at my local BB & CC. The adaptor can be had for about thirty online.

I like the fact that some of the geometry can be adjusted right ouot of the box and via the main menu. I am far from an expert and I'm not sure I would no a convergence problem if I saw one, but I'm pretty pleased after a couple of days of having the TV.

I also like the firewire capability... I've had my cable box and a DV cam hooked up so far and it's seemless. The only problem with the firewire is it can't be treated like any other video meaning you can't do PIP or index or favorites or things like that.

I kinda wish I had a memory stick camera, but since I have 3 Kodaks I guess I'm out of luck... my 510 said that it would only display photos on memory stick take on a Sony camera. Is that true of the 960 too or would it be possible to display jpgs take on another camera and moved to memory stick? It would be nice to run slide shows on it.

I'll let you know more as I learn more.

Hi,

I apologize if this isn't the appropriate thread to post this subject, but it is regarding the 960. I have been torn between the 34xbr906 and the 36xs955 and have finally decided on the widescreen. My question is if I am able to "haggle" down the price at Circuit City, will I still be able to use one of those 10% coupons. I have seen them on ebay and the fine print doesn't say anything about excluding xbr's like most of CC's promotions. Also, I plan on using a large amount of gift cards to make the purchase. I know not to mention the gc's or the coupon while negotiating, but I want to be sure I can use the 10% if I get a lower price. The coupon says no valid on sale items, but I don't think haggling down would be a sale item.

Another related question is how do you negotiate? I am very bad at it. I was looking at the 960 the other day and just casually asked if there will be any sales and he said, no, the xbr doesn't go on sale. I am going to print out the page with all the prices and try that. Obviously, I want to get the best price possible and I am always amazed at hearing when people get a free warranty and free stand with their purchase. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thank you and I apologize for the long post.

Brett