I have a KDL-32XBR950. I can not receive unencrypted QAM256 bradcasts from Comcast cable. Is this a Sony problem? I'm really pissed.
This one was not easy to find good info on. From what I've been able to find this is a 32" LCD monitor (found on Canadian SonyStyle, not found on USA SonyStyle).

Being a monitor, it does not have a digital tuner nor does it have a QAM tuner, which is why it cannot pick up the unencrypted hd cable broadcasts.

Did someone tell you this had a QAM tuner?

It has a QAM tuner. It appears to be a QAM64 tuner not a QAM256 tuner. Comcast broadcasts in QAM 256. Here is an ad.

Enjoy remarkable resolution and image clarity with the KDL-32XBR950 32" LCD WEGA Flat Panel Television. Digital Reality Creation delivers amazing picture resolution from any source, and CineMotion technology makes your movies look their best. Advanced Memory Stick media allows you to view high definition digital images and the Built-in ATSC/QAM tuner provides high definition broadcast. No matter where you sit, the picture is great, thanks to Digital Reality Creation. Upgrade to an LCD WEGA ... order the KDL-32XBR950 today.

that seems pretty useless then. i've pulled in HDTV over QAM in 3 or 4 different markets and only seen QAM64 used for digital music channels. all the locals are on QAM256. Any way you can test another tuner on that same line?

I have 3 other tuners, 2 LG LST3410A's and 1 MyHD-130 card. All three work perfectly and show the unencrypted digital Comcast channels. I would like to find out whether the SONY tuner is supposed to process QAM256. If so, it is broken.

and CineMotion technology makes your movies look their best.

if its the same as a Bravia is recommended to use a progressive scan player rather than using Cinemotion

anyways you know this is the CRT forum, right?

Okay, after working things out with the settings on this TV, I am pretty happy with it. However, I 've noticed, especially on the component inputs, that the vertical center is shifted right a fair amount. I cannot find anything to let me adjust this in the standard menu. I don't know much about the service menu (don't even know how to access it), but I'm a bit hesitant to try and use it. Is something that is easily done? And how do I do it?

Thanks!

Hello everyone.
I just purchased the tv a few days ago and should be receiving it next week. After digging around for information on the tv a friend of mine linked me to these forums where I quickly became submerged in all these long posts:D Hopefully configuring the television won't be too tough as it is my first HDTV, and I recently purchased an xbox 360 so I hope that plays well on it, not sure if I should select 720p or 1080i on it. But anyways to my main question, I am looking into getting a cable card but was wondering what kind of outputs these TV's had. I own logitech z-680 speakers and the speaker pod only has connections for coaxial and optical. My question is, to get 5.1 digital surround sound with a cable card, could I connect my speakers directly to my tv via coaxial or optical?
Also one more question. I haven't been able to test the xbox 360 dvd playback yet, but I hear it isn't all that great. Bestbuy has a sale on TOSHIBA HD Upconversion DVD Player (SD-4980). I am not too familiar with how that would work, but would the dvd quality on my normal dvd's (lets take for instance my 24 dvds) look considerably better with a dvd like that? I purchased an HDMI cable off of ebay, it was pretty cheap but didn't look that bad, besides I am not going to spend 150 bucks on monster cables I can't afford:(

Okay, after working things out with the settings on this TV, I am pretty happy with it. However, I 've noticed, especially on the component inputs, that the vertical center is shifted right a fair amount. I cannot find anything to let me adjust this in the standard menu. I don't know much about the service menu (don't even know how to access it), but I'm a bit hesitant to try and use it. Is something that is easily done? And how do I do it?

Thanks!

Easy is a relative term. The Sony Service Codes thread has attachments that explain exactly how to adjust screen position. But, basically, here's how to do it - Enter the Service Menu by pressing the following key-sequence - "Display - 5 - Volume Up - Power On" (make sure your remote is controlling the TV and not the DVD or Cable box) This will take you into the Service Menu. Use the 2 or 5 keys to navigate to 2107D-2 set of codes. (2 moves forward through the sets, 5 moves in reverse - either way you'll eventually get there). Then use the 1 key to move forward (4 moves backward if you overshoot) through the 2107D-2 set of adjustments until you get to HPOS (Horizontal Position) - it should be the second code (#1). Then use the 3 & 6 keys to actually adjust the horizontal position. When you have it centered (best to use a calibration disc through your DVD input image to make sure), press Mute, then Enter to "write" the new setting. Stay away from keys 7-0.

If while in the Service Menu, you get scared, you can just turn the TV off and then back on - the old settings will revert - no harm done (assuming you haven't written anything to memory). Lastly - the first thing you should do when you enter the Service Menu is to WRITE DOWN THE ORIGINAL VALUES BEFORE YOU CHANGE ANYTHING. You don't have to copy all the values - just those you plan to change.

When you're done with this - you've joined the club of Sony calibrator addicts. There are so many other adjustments you'll want to make to correct settings not properly set at the factory. Just read the Service Codes Thread to find other addicts and lots of other good info. Good luck.

Outstanding, thanks!

Although, it took me a little while to figure out I had to start with the TV off! :rolleyes:

So, if you don't mind answering here, the other question I had is where is the overscan setting in the menu? You gave great directions to the HPOS, and I'm too lazy to search the service code thread.

Thanks again!

The vertical settings are VSIZ and VPOS under 2170D-1.
The horizontal settings are HSIZ and HPOS under 2170D-2.

Thanks, seems obvious when written out, but without seeing it, I'd never know.

Hello everyone.
I just purchased the tv a few days ago and should be receiving it next week. After digging around for information on the tv a friend of mine linked me to these forums where I quickly became submerged in all these long posts Hopefully configuring the television won't be too tough as it is my first HDTV, and I recently purchased an xbox 360 so I hope that plays well on it, not sure if I should select 720p or 1080i on it. But anyways to my main question, I am looking into getting a cable card but was wondering what kind of outputs these TV's had. I own logitech z-680 speakers and the speaker pod only has connections for coaxial and optical. My question is, to get 5.1 digital surround sound with a cable card, could I connect my speakers directly to my tv via coaxial or optical?
Also one more question. I haven't been able to test the xbox 360 dvd playback yet, but I hear it isn't all that great. Bestbuy has a sale on TOSHIBA HD Upconversion DVD Player (SD-4980). I am not too familiar with how that would work, but would the dvd quality on my normal dvd's (lets take for instance my 24 dvds) look considerably better with a dvd like that? I purchased an HDMI cable off of ebay, it was pretty cheap but didn't look that bad, besides I am not going to spend 150 bucks on monster cables I can't afford

optical output from your TV to your logitech speakers
xbox360 can be set on either 720p or 1080i based on your preference if the game is 720p, if its 1080i, then set the xbox360 to 1080i
this is cause these TVs are 1080i TVs, so 720p inputs get converted to 1080i
the xbox360 will do the same thing if you set it to 1080i and the game is only 720p
so its just a preference of which devices converts 720p to 1080i better

try places like Monovision.com for cheap cables, for higher quality but still cheaper than Monster CRAP! try ramelectronics.net, bluejeancables.com
also I have had good luck finding the PureA/V (Belkin) cables on Amazon for good prices
and that Toshiba upscaling DVD player is a piece of crap

try the new Sony, its about 200 MSRP
the Oppo DVD players are suppose to be great at 200 as well
and the Panasonic S77 is 200 as well

those are probably you best options
unless you want just a progressive scan DVD player

Thanks for the reply!



Pertaining to the xbox 360, which do you think is the better upscaler, that or the tv? I must say I am a bit confused here. Games will say what they are to be run in right? For instance lets say Perfect Dark 0 runs in 1080i, will I have to set my tv to 1080i and my xbox 360 to 1080i? Or lets say I want the TV to upscale to 1080i, would I have to put the tv on 720p and the xbox on 1080i to get the tv to do it or vice versa? Sounds like it may be a pain having to switch that for different games, but it is no big deal.

I read a post earlier that said "The Xbox 360 renders all games natively at 720p, so it's only natural that everything coming out of the 360 looks great at that resolution." So I wasn't sure what would be best. I also wasn't sure if all 1080i signals the tv received was just an upconverted 720p signal. Sorry for the redundant questions I just want to make sure I am good to go once the tv arrives.

As far as the dvd player goes, you wouldn't suggest the Toshiba? I don't know anything about the upscaling dvd players , whether or not their quality would be substantially better than that of a normal dvd player.

Hopefully the tv is easy to configure, I can't wait to get it!

Outstanding, thanks!

Although, it took me a little while to figure out I had to start with the TV off! :rolleyes:

So, if you don't mind answering here, the other question I had is where is the overscan setting in the menu? You gave great directions to the HPOS, and I'm too lazy to search the service code thread.

Thanks again!

There are a lot of settings that can be adjusted to correct overscan, although another poster has already mentioned the main ones. Just realize that changing only a few might not do it. You're basically adjusting the raster with the settings we've mentioned. Yet, you've skipped the first step which is to CENTER the raster. To do this, you have to reduce HSIZ and VSIZ until the edges of the raster are visible. THEN, you can center the image. Then, after centering of the raster is complete, you then set the raster's edges so that overscan is at the point you desire. However, you're still not done because different inputs may display differently (some may be shifted to the left, whereas other inputs are shifted to the right. Some have described this as the picture within the canvas (the canvas being the complete raster). The additional settings are in MID-2 and MID-3. But, before you start doing this, you need to take a week's vacation from work and begin reading the Sony Service Menu Codes thread. Of course, at the rate Nitewatchman and KenTech post, you might never get caught up.

An alternative is to plop down the couple of hundred bucks it would take to get an ISF tech out to your house to do all of this for you (well maybe not ALL, if you read these forums often enough).

Again, good luck.

Thanks for the reply!



Pertaining to the xbox 360, which do you think is the better upscaler, that or the tv? I must say I am a bit confused here. Games will say what they are to be run in right? For instance lets say Perfect Dark 0 runs in 1080i, will I have to set my tv to 1080i and my xbox 360 to 1080i? Or lets say I want the TV to upscale to 1080i, would I have to put the tv on 720p and the xbox on 1080i to get the tv to do it or vice versa? Sounds like it may be a pain having to switch that for different games, but it is no big deal.

I read a post earlier that said "The Xbox 360 renders all games natively at 720p, so it's only natural that everything coming out of the 360 looks great at that resolution." So I wasn't sure what would be best. I also wasn't sure if all 1080i signals the tv received was just an upconverted 720p signal. Sorry for the redundant questions I just want to make sure I am good to go once the tv arrives.

As far as the dvd player goes, you wouldn't suggest the Toshiba? I don't know anything about the upscaling dvd players , whether or not their quality would be substantially better than that of a normal dvd player.

Hopefully the tv is easy to configure, I can't wait to get it!

Just leave the XBOX at 1080i and you'll be happy. I've switched between 720p and 1080i and there's hardly any difference on this TV. When the XBOX is set to 1080i, the XBOX does the upscaling and the TV receives a 1080i signal. When the XBOX is set to 720p, the TV does the upscaling to 1080i and reports the signal as 720p. 1080i CRTs tend to soften a 720p picture, so I'd just leave the XBOX at 1080i if I were you.

Also, you can't set the TV's resolution manually.. it will detect the signal coming in and adjust the resolution automatically.

The antenna and cable seem to share the same settings. For example, if I set my Pro settings to look good for OTA HD, I have to use those settings for cable. Is there a way to change that, or how do you handle it? Maybe use one of the other settings (Standard, Movie, etc.) and just change to it when using cable?

Pertaining to the xbox 360, which do you think is the better upscaler, that or the tv? I must say I am a bit confused here. Games will say what they are to be run in right? For instance lets say Perfect Dark 0 runs in 1080i, will I have to set my tv to 1080i and my xbox 360 to 1080i? Or lets say I want the TV to upscale to 1080i, would I have to put the tv on 720p and the xbox on 1080i to get the tv to do it or vice versa? Sounds like it may be a pain having to switch that for different games, but it is no big deal.

I read a post earlier that said "The Xbox 360 renders all games natively at 720p, so it's only natural that everything coming out of the 360 looks great at that resolution." So I wasn't sure what would be best. I also wasn't sure if all 1080i signals the tv received was just an upconverted 720p signal. Sorry for the redundant questions I just want to make sure I am good to go once the tv arrives.

As far as the dvd player goes, you wouldn't suggest the Toshiba? I don't know anything about the upscaling dvd players , whether or not their quality would be substantially better than that of a normal dvd player.

Hopefully the tv is easy to configure, I can't wait to get it!

I do not know which has the better scaler, PC gamer myself
Perfect Dark I thought was a 720p only game, that means you will either have to use the xbox's scaler or allow the TV to scale

some games AFAIK will actually render the games at 1080i in that case you want to send 1080i to your TV

and by the way, there is no setting of the TV, if the TV receives 720p it converts it to 1080i, if it gets 1080i, thats what gets displayed

since you are worried about switching, in the case the TV has a better scaler(meaning send 720p to TV) and some games can actually be render at 1080i, I would just set the xbox to 1080i
I doubt the xbox has a poor quality scaler and its seems to be a easier conversion than 480i to 1080i ot 720p

and yes every 720p feed received by the TV is scaled to 1080i, this is normal for all HD CRT TVs


the Toshiba player is just a generic upscaling player, meaning not made by Toshiba, its scalerand deinterlacer(DVDs are 480i) are poor quality and as far I am concerned cheap Toshiba products have poor build quality

I have had more than one Toshiba product that would not last over a year
and they were sub hundred dollar purchases

if you do not want to get spend two hundred on a player
consider a progressive scan model

I can post reviews of the Toshiba if you would like, its poorly rated as well
also I can try to make progressive scan recommendations as well

Wow thanks for the help:) You guys helped answer all my questions, in regards to a progessive scan upscaling dvd player I have been looking around at some of the samsung ones, I will definitely look around on the forums some more and see what would work best. Thanks again!

It has a QAM tuner. It appears to be a QAM64 tuner not a QAM256 tuner. Comcast broadcasts in QAM 256. Here is an ad.

Enjoy remarkable resolution and image clarity with the KDL-32XBR950 32" LCD WEGA Flat Panel Television. Digital Reality Creation delivers amazing picture resolution from any source, and CineMotion technology makes your movies look their best. Advanced Memory Stick media allows you to view high definition digital images and the Built-in ATSC/QAM tuner provides high definition broadcast. No matter where you sit, the picture is great, thanks to Digital Reality Creation. Upgrade to an LCD WEGA ... order the KDL-32XBR950 today.


But the 30xs955 has a QAM256 right?

For those of you wanting a good price.. American TV in the midwest now has this TV for $699.

Also would you guys say this tv probably has the best resolution displayble in a 30 inch tube for the sub 'thousand's of dollars pricetag? (read less then 2 grand)..

It has 1440 lines of resolution out of the 1920 right? I'm under the impresion alot of HDTV's (even lcd) that aren't 2k plus, dont really display ALL the resolution of full 1080i HDTV.. Am I wrong on this assumption? After learning that i was pleasently surprised to find this one gets 1400 ish lines, its closer.. and even more than my Pioneer 64SD in the living room (projection) which the manual quotes has "over 1000" lines of resolution..

Wow thanks for the help You guys helped answer all my questions, in regards to a progessive scan upscaling dvd player I have been looking around at some of the samsung ones, I will definitely look around on the forums some more and see what would work best. Thanks again!

no different than the Toshibas, I think they are even made by the saem OEM company

man you sure seem to be attracted to the crap players

I really suggested the best 200 dollar upscaling players

poineer has a 100 dollar, progressive scan player that would be a good option
and the discountinued Sony 775(I think), was another good option

But the 30xs955 has a QAM256 right?

yes

It has 1440 lines of resolution out of the 1920 right?

1401

I'm under the impresion alot of HDTV's (even lcd) that aren't 2k plus,

no but they have better vertical resolution 768p vs 540 (1080i)

dont really display ALL the resolution of full 1080i HDTV.. Am I wrong on this assumption?

no, only 1080p TVs will display all the resolution of 1080i

After learning that i was pleasently surprised to find this one gets 1400 ish lines, its closer.. and even more than my Pioneer 64SD in the living room (projection) which the manual quotes has "over 1000" lines of resolution..

there are some rear projection CRTs that have more resolution than the SFP Sonys
but not many

Amazon has it on sale for $739 + $50 shipping making the total one of the lowest I've seen. Quite a few web sites have in stock now - seems like there's still some supply of this set. Belmont TV here in the DC area (the last store to sell it I think) took it off their web site.

hey anyone mind posting some pics of there TV doing various things

1. Watching SD
2. Watching HD
3. Playing Games
4. using on screen menu
5. using computer
6. and back of the tv

thanks

Do you know what the shipping options are I saw it on Amazon via J&R music for 699 plus 79 shipping, but on J&R site the shipping cost is much higher. I dont want some UPS guy trying to carry this huge thing by himself and dropping it half way to the door

Amazon has it on sale for $739 + $50 shipping making the total one of the lowest I've seen. Quite a few web sites have in stock now - seems like there's still some supply of this set. Belmont TV here in the DC area (the last store to sell it I think) took it off their web site.

Do you know what the shipping options are I saw it on Amazon via J&R music for 699 plus 79 shipping, but on J&R site the shipping cost is much higher. I dont want some UPS guy trying to carry this huge thing by himself and dropping it half way to the door
It certainly won't be via UPS. I am kinda worried about what kind of shipping Amazon has set up for just $50 for this 150+ lb box. Shipping probably depends on the area of the country - Amazon probably ships via the nearest warehouse via various shippers. It could very well be some guy by himself dropping the TV box on some pallet in your driveway. It's things like this that makes me want to pick it up instead of relying on some shipper.

edit: being worried when I saw that Amazon was down to just 4 units left I went ahead and ordered it. I have a feeling Amazon will be out of them within the next day or so.

hey anyone mind posting some pics of there TV doing various things

1. Watching SD
2. Watching HD
3. Playing Games
4. using on screen menu
5. using computer
6. and back of the tv


crutchfield has pictures of the rear of the 34" XS955, its the exact same

as far as using a PC monitor, its not very good as any other CRT HDTV, this is because they are not progressive displays, they are 1080i displays

even when you send 1280x720p to the TV, it gets converted to 1080i and there is a noticable flicker which gives me headaches

I do use mine for XP Media Center Edition, it works great for 10 ft interfaces

I didn't know this set has 1440 lines of horizontal resolution? Where is this documented? Also, does anyone know what the vertical resolution of this set is?

I know someone who is considering buying one of these or a 1024x768 plasma, who would very much like to know.

Thanks.

as far as using a PC monitor, its not very good as any other CRT HDTV, this is because they are not progressive displays, they are 1080i displays

even when you send 1280x720p to the TV, it gets converted to 1080i and there is a noticable flicker which gives me headaches

Eye of the beholder. I use mine with a PC and have no problem. I can use my PC as an upscaling DVD player that way. I do seem to have stairstepping issues at times, but I think it's my DVD player software. I haven't really looked into it yet.

I plan on changing my display card, but I'm waiting for the copy protection issue to be resolved (for HD-DVD and Blu-ray).

Eye of the beholder. I use mine with a PC and have no problem. I can use my PC as an upscaling DVD player that way. I do seem to have stairstepping issues at times, but I think it's my DVD player software. I haven't really looked into it yet.

I plan on changing my display card, but I'm waiting for the copy protection issue to be resolved (for HD-DVD and Blu-ray).
if you have a Camera do you mind posting some pics, thank you!

Eye of the beholder. I use mine with a PC and have no problem. I can use my PC as an upscaling DVD player that way. I do seem to have stairstepping issues at times, but I think it's my DVD player software. I haven't really looked into it yet.

I use mine as a DVD player as well, and have no problems, but view a webpage at 1080i vs on a fixed pixel display at 1080p or 720p, the difference is staggering

1080i sucks for PC usage, and no matter what you are willing to deal is really of no concern

the fact is PC monitors are not interlaced for a reason, the flicker and jumpy text is hard on the eyes and causes strain

if you are going to give me the BS of well, I send 720p to the TV, well 720p is not displayed natively, and scaling always softens the picture

so not only are you looking at a flicking, jumpy image but now its soft

well at least the text is large enough to read!
oh if you use any of the underscanning options additional scaling on the PC side
enjoy your super soft image

and enjoy your eye strain and how far can you actually sit from the TV and still read a website like this for extended periods of time

not happening..........

on a simliar sized LCD at 720p native or 768p native (no scaling), the text can be clear read at windows default text size from about 6 feet

the clarity is there which will never be on a CRT

go post your thoughts on CRT HDTV usage as a PC monitor in the HTPC forum here,
they will tell you enjoy the eye strain

if you have a Camera do you mind posting some pics, thank you!

if you think I am just full of it and are choosing to ignore my warning cause its not what you want to hear

do some more research, I would never replace a PC monitor with a 1080i CRT!!!

Eye of the beholder.

whatever man, if I strain hard enough I can read text for a 480i CRT as well
whats your point

that its good enough for you?

furthermore you are foolish to advice people of purchasing a TV for PC monitor use, cause you are willing to deal with which most will not

I use mine as a DVD player as well, and have no problems, but view a webpage at 1080i vs on a fixed pixel display at 1080p or 720p, the difference is staggering

1080i sucks for PC usage, and no matter what you are willing to deal is really of no concern

the fact is PC monitors are not interlaced for a reason, the flicker and jumpy text is hard on the eyes and causes strain

if you are going to give me the BS of well, I send 720p to the TV, well 720p is not displayed natively, and scaling always softens the picture

so not only are you looking at a flicking, jumpy image but now its soft

well at least the text is large enough to read!
oh if you use any of the underscanning options additional scaling on the PC side
enjoy your super soft image

and enjoy your eye strain and how far can you actually sit from the TV and still read a website like this for extended periods of time

not happening..........

on a simliar sized LCD at 720p native or 768p native (no scaling), the text can be clear read at windows default text size from about 6 feet

the clarity is there which will never be on a CRT

go post your thoughts on CRT HDTV usage as a PC monitor in the HTPC forum here,
they will tell you enjoy the eye strain



if you think I am just full of it and are choosing to ignore my warning cause its not what you want to hear

do some more research, I would never replace a PC monitor with a 1080i CRT!!!



whatever man, if I strain hard enough I can read text for a 480i CRT as well
whats your point

that its good enough for you?

furthermore you are foolish to advice people of purchasing a TV for PC monitor use, cause you are willing to deal with which most will not
hey i believe you, i just want to see how it looks in a actual home not any of the "Tv only but white background stuff"!

It certainly won't be via UPS. I am kinda worried about what kind of shipping Amazon has set up for just $50 for this 150+ lb box. Shipping probably depends on the area of the country - Amazon probably ships via the nearest warehouse via various shippers. It could very well be some guy by himself dropping the TV box on some pallet in your driveway. It's things like this that makes me want to pick it up instead of relying on some shipper.

edit: being worried when I saw that Amazon was down to just 4 units left I went ahead and ordered it. I have a feeling Amazon will be out of them within the next day or so.

biker 19,

Thanks for the heads up on this being listed on Amazon! I just ordered one when it was down to only 3 left. The last 2 were sold about an hour later. After reading all the post in this thread I decided to pick one of these up to replace my 12 year old Sony 27" XBR. This will be my first step into the world of HDTV.

Eye of the beholder. I use mine with a PC and have no problem. I can use my PC as an upscaling DVD player that way. I do seem to have stairstepping issues at times, but I think it's my DVD player software. I haven't really looked into it yet.

I plan on changing my display card, but I'm waiting for the copy protection issue to be resolved (for HD-DVD and Blu-ray).
I tried using my Sony set as a system monitor and the PQ was just not there, regardless of the resolution. These direct view crt sets are not intended to be used this way.

biker 19,

Thanks for the heads up on this being listed on Amazon! I just ordered one when it was down to only 3 left. The last 2 were sold about an hour later. After reading all the post in this thread I decided to pick one of these up to replace my 12 year old Sony 27" XBR. This will be my first step into the world of HDTV.
I had a feeling this sale would be noticed and they would be gone in short order - now I just have to worry about the delivery. :eek:

Okay, so I FINALLY recieved my 30XS955 yesterday.

Very, very nice.

My XBOX 360 looks amazing on it!

Also, I know many people say this TV is discontinued, but check this out. On the back of the TV, the manufactured date (or whatever that date is) says January 2006! This baby is right from the factory! :)

I bought it for $799 at a local TV store here in Wisconsin. They had it ordered from Sony.

Wow...great deal.

I am having a horrible time with black levels on my set. Games and sports look great, but when I pop a movie in with any dark scenes, I mostly see black.

I bought the avia dvd and tried using it, but I really struggled understanding what exactly it was asking for.

did you watch the entire DVD? or just goto the test patterns

but basically what you are suppose to do is turn down the contrast and brightness, then go back and with the test pattern for brightness, set the black level where its still black and not grey by turning it up
it should also have some blacker than black bars so you can make sure you got bright enough

then you do contrast on the contrast text pattern by turning up the whites until the whites almost glow or bloom but not quite

then go back the brightness test pattern and verify it still looks good
then the same for the contrast test pattern if you made any adjustments on the brightness test pattern

at least thats how DVE explains it

So if I take the time to use the avia dvd correctly, it'll fix the black level problems?

So if I take the time to use the avia dvd correctly, it'll fix the black level problems?
It's a process. But, yes, if you follow the guidance you should get to good levels. You must go back and forth with contrast and brightness as they affect one another and trying to get it all right on the first try just doesn't usually happen.

That being said, what the disc proposes to be best, or right, may still not suit your tastes. When that happens you'll need to adjust brightness to taste.

Come back when you've given this your best and ask more questions if you have them. The good folks here are all ears and really like to help. ;)

Hey guys!

Question...should I have this plugged into a surge protector? Or straight to the wall outlet.

If I should get a surge protector, what should I get? And whats the cost?

Thanks a bunch!

If I should get a surge protector, what should I get? And whats the cost?

definitely try to protect your equipment

I recommend this one

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000068CNU/sr=8-21/qid=1141614938/ref=sr_1_21/002-3978574-2955251?%5Fencoding=UTF8

one heck of a deal and high quality

Cool. Thanks!!

I'm noticing something odd. About three inches down from the top of the screen is a pencil-thin horizontal line. There is another one three inches up from the bottom. It's difficult to see from a distance, but it seems to be there all the time. Any ideas what could cause this? Is it normal?

I'm noticing something odd. About three inches down from the top of the screen is a pencil-thin horizontal line. There is another one three inches up from the bottom. It's difficult to see from a distance, but it seems to be there all the time. Any ideas what could cause this? Is it normal?
Totally normal with all Trinitron monitors. Don't give it another thought. ;)

I'm noticing something odd. About three inches down from the top of the screen is a pencil-thin horizontal line. There is another one three inches up from the bottom. It's difficult to see from a distance, but it seems to be there all the time. Any ideas what could cause this? Is it normal?

Yup, thats normal.

The Super Fine Pitch screens have them (same as the XBD960). There are 3 of them (one in the middle as wel as what you've seen.

You can only really notice them if the screen is a bright color.

Anyways, in an attempt to sound like I know what I'm talking about, the lines are dampening wires...which hold the aperature grille to the screen....or something like that. :D

Okay, thanks guys! I can't notice it from a distance, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't something wrong. :p

So if I take the time to use the avia dvd correctly, it'll fix the black level problems?

Not necessarily - on my set when I have the black level adjusted to meet Avia or DVE, there are still parts of the picture that are too black - I believe this is because the Gamma of the set needs to be adjusted (and I'm not yet ready to tackle that one). Gamma is the black curve I believe, sort of like an equalizer for a stereo, as opposed to just using the bass and treble (or tone control). According to KenTech, a properly adjusted Gamma will bring up the mid-black level.

Just letting you know that you might still be dissapointed by only adjusting the single black level.

I just saw a TV ad from American TV (chain in the midwest) for a "30" Sony w/HDTV Built-In for $699." The 30XS955 is the only such set, isn't it? Their website doesn't have it there. Maybe they have a few left they are trying to get rid of - if so, I'm guessing that's a great price? (I got mine from JR a couple months ago)

http://www.americantv.com/

They've had that price for over two weeks.. I'm sure it's going to be very hard to find/get one there now.

They've had that price for over two weeks.. I'm sure it's going to be very hard to find/get one there now.
I see, never noticed it before. They must have at least one left if they're still running the ad :p. But it is the XS955?

The picture in the ad resembles the XS955.. Sony doesn't have any other 30" with an integrated HD tuner so I'm assuming that's the TV American is talking about.

the ad says digital cable ready on both the 30" and 34"

that means XS955 or XBR960
(of course there was no XBR960 30" though)


digital cable ready means cable card and QAM tuner (ATSC)

Thought I'd post my experience with the KD30XS955.

I was in the market for a 30" 16x9 direct view CRT. I checked out BestBuy, and all the major electronics retailers in the area. This was to be my first step into HDTV. I had a few requirements: built in ATSC/QAM tuner, decent PQ, lots of inputs, etc. None of the ones in the stores really fit the bill. Then, reading through this thread, I found out about the KD30SX955. Just what I was looking for! I've owned a 20" Sony for about 6 years and have had no problems with it.

Searching online, the only place that seemed to have it was JR. I knew JR had been in the industry for quite a long time, so I felt pretty good about purchasing from them. I place the order on Sunday, 03/05. Also picked up a Repair Master 3 year extended warranty for good measure. On Monday, I check the order status and found that it had shipped! Cool!

I patiently waited. On Thursday AM, I called JR and got the shipping tracking information from the freight company. They had used Menlo Freight, which is affiliated with UPS. I called UPS and spoke with a lady who said my TV was scheduled to arrive on Friday. Nice! I had Friday off from work anyways.

So, I get home from work about 4:30 PM. There on my door was a note from UPS. They had stopped by around 12:30 and I needed to call a number to schedule a redelivery. So I go in the house, notice a message on the answering machine, but think nothing of it. Call up UPS quick and tell them to redeliver tomorrow and I would be home. I read through some mail, etc. Finally, at 4:55 PM, I think to check the answering machine. It was a message from the delivery guy. He gave me his cell phone to call him back if I made it home by 4:30. He would be in my area and would be able to stop by and drop it off. Doh!! I quickly call him back and find out he is still in the area and would be by in 10 minutes. Awesome! He shows up in a very non-descript looking van. I help him get it in the house down to the basement. All is good. The box looked a bit dirty, but otherwise looked fine. I dismantled the box, and the TV looked fine! There did not appear to be any damage from shipping! January 2006 MFG date on the back. I managed to slide the TV across my basement floor to a cable jack. Powered it up and got the setup screen. I then proceeded to auto-program the channels and it spent about 50 minutes doing that. When it finished, I had all my SD analog stations, and it found all the HD local affiliates. (No need to pay Charter a monthly fee for that!) Spent about an hour watching various stations. The HD programs looked awesome! I then left to go snowboarding for a couple hours.

I came back with a friend of mine after snowboarding, and we checked out the new TV. Caught the tail end of some prime time HDTV programming. As we were watching the news, suddenly the picture flashes, and the set goes into protection mode. Yikes!!!! Ok, what was that? I go over and unplug the set, wait a bit, and plug it back in. I then try the power button. The TV powers up, but the screen immediately goes to a very bright gray with retrace lines visible. After a few seconds, the TV goes into protection mode with 7 blinks of the LED. Crap! :eek: So, I leave it unplugged over night. This morning, it's doing the same thing. So, I call up Sony and get the number of a local authorized repair facility. Call them up, and give them my info. Now I'm waiting to here back from them to schedule a service appointment.

Doing some research on the internet, it appears that a 7 blink code may be excessive HV condition. Based on the very bright screen, that seems likely.

So... the TV worked great for all of two hours. :( Bummer. Glad I got that extended warranty. Anyone else experience this type of problem? Maybe I'm just an isolated case?

What's HV?

7 flashes mean Horizontal Deflection Stopped, you would get no picture. Occurs either when a +B overcurrent is detected (IC5007) or overheating is detected (Thermistor TH5002). This is straight out of the service manual.

See my post in the big Sony Service Code thread. Do this to see how many times the error was logged by the tv.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7281877&&#post7281877

HV - High voltage. I do faintly see the on-screen display of the input source just prior to the unit going into protect mode. It doesn't seem like a horizontal deflection issue. IMO

HV - High voltage. I do faintly see the on-screen display of the input source just prior to the unit going into protect mode. It doesn't seem like a horizontal deflection issue. IMO

Try the self diagnostic test screen and see if the fault is logged as 7. H-Stop.

Well... I tried it, but couldn't make out any text. The screen is so bright so that if there was something on the screen, I'm not sure I could see it. And it's only up for a few seconds before the thing goes into protection mode. :confused:

I purchased my last Sony ever last year. SONY has gone to hell in two area, delivering what they claim and delivering a working device. Please understand, this is from someone who has had at least 3 working Sony TV's in my home since 1971.

The set I purchased last year to replace my wonderful Sony 25" ProFeel system is a KDL32XBR950. The picture it delivers is outstandingalbeit not as good as my 3 gun CRT projector. My problem is that the tuner does not process 256 QAM only 64 QAM. When someone sells a TV claiming it receives digital cable, it should. This one does not. Their service people will not acknowledge that 256 QAM is necessary. I assure you, I will never buy another Sony. I used to buy a new TV evey 2 to 3 years. It was always a Soiny. NEVER again. I urge you Random Damage to check whether your TV will receive QAM256. If not, send it back. I bought mine on the WEB and could not. I bought an LG tuner and now I can receive 256QAM.

Sony KD-30XS955 has a cable card and therefore I would guess works with QAM256 cause as I understand it QAM64 is only used for digital music stations normally

further there have been no reported problems from those using cable card

Mine works fine with QAM256.. all of the music choice stations I get are QAM256 also.

I'm starting to get a weird click on click off.. it sounds like the TV is turning on and off quickly at random times (but all it's doing is making the noise). It happens both when the TV is on and when it's off... anyone else experience this?

All HDTV's that are DRC (digital cable ready) support QAM64 and 256.
All cable HD will be QAM256. All other programming can be 64 or 256 (provider dependant).

I recently ordered a KD30XS955. American TV www.americantv.com says they have 60 in stock at their Waukesha, WI warehouse. It is still available for the rest of the day today for a pretty impressively low price. It's an instore deal only, unfortunately, but definitely worth checking out if you are within driving distance of Wisconsin/Illinois/Missouri.

Here's the ad: http://www.americantv.com/current_ad.php?page=this_weeks_ad&ad_page=3.5pg7

They also have the KD34XBR960 in stock quite inexpensively as well. I couldn't justify spending an extra 400 bucks on the 34 inch personally, but it's still an amazing price.

I've seent he 1400 number thrown around for this TV but thought that was the horizontal resolution. can anyone clarify how many lines (vertical resolution) the 30xs955 has?

the vertical resolution is 1080i meaning it displays only 540 lines at once
therefore it is very probable there is overlap between each field

horizonital resolution is usually the only number used in measuring CRT HDTVs or dot pitch

I finally got around to hooking up everything to the TV and found one problem. When I connect the left audio channel of my DVD player to the audio in (Video 6) to the TV I get a pretty loud hum (no hum on the right channel). The hum was not there when it was hooked up to the previous TV. Any ideas?

One thing I dislike - you have to turn off the internal speakers to turn on the audio out - they should have been independant of each other.

I thought audio out didn't work for inputs above #4???

I thought audio out didn't work for inputs above #4???
I'm pretty sure they all work - I have my FIOS DVR on input 6 and it works - when you turn off the internal speaker. :(

I'm a newbie to this forum and also just recently purchased a kd30xs955 set. Love the TV so far, but I have what may seem a ridiculous question. I have adjusted the tilt to a +4 in order to get a level screen. Everything looks great except when I am watching OTA HD content and an upconverted 4:3 commercial comes on ... because of the pillarboxes on either side of the commercial, it is pretty obvious that the screen is tilted. I can adjust the tilt back down to a lower level so that the pillarboxes are perfectly vertical on commercials but then my horizontal is off during programming and other inputs. Do I just live with a tilted screen during 4:3 commercials knowing that my tilt is adjusted correctly, or do I pick a happy medium setting for tilt so that nothing is perfect but nothing is that far off? I could always switch to another channel during commercials but that seems obessive. My wife says I am being paranoid ... I appreciate any thoughts on this. I have read many threads here but haven't seen any postings about this, so maybe it's something most people don't worry about?

if it tilted during a commercial, then its always tilted

I would pick a medium between perfectly vertical bars and perfectly horizontal

if it really bothers you though, you should consider calling a Sony tech to do an adjustment

Of course, you are right about it always being tilted. I just don't notice it when the screen is filled (as it is with HD content). An adjustment of +4 is the only way to get horizontal lines, such as sports tickers or the actual bars for tilt adjustment, to be truly level. I wonder if everyone else just lives with it or doesn't notice the tilt of the picture on 4:3 commercials with pillarboxes, or what. You are probably right about picking a medium setting, although maybe I will call Sony service and see what they say about it. Thanks for the quick response, this is an excellent resource and you guys are great!

Thank you all for your previous help, this forum is great! I'm back with some more questions.

I'm a bit confused on the whole "up-converting" bit. I understand this tv (and all/most HDTV CRTs) upconvert all signals to 1080i. Obviously a incoming 480i signal can only be improved so much, but technically it is displayed at 1080i, becuase that is all the TV does, right?

Well, if my TV upconverts and displays all signals at 1080i, what is the point of getting an upconverting DVD player? I realize I'm probably missing a key idea here, but I don't get it. Is there a difference in having the DVD player make the conversion, and the TV make the conversion, especially if the DVD player is progressive, and this CRT only does interlaced? Please enlighten me here.

I am planning on getting an Xbox 360 this summer, and have my PC attached via components (w/ 2 9ft runs joined with connecters - and a good picture for recorded TV and DVD play). How do I find out if my PC DVD drive upconverts? The video card resolution is at 720p for the TV, but thats the video card, not the DVD, and that makes a difference, right? Does the 360 upconvert DVD to 480p or even 720p maybe? Between my PC and the 360, is there reason to buy a upconverting DVD player?

How do you use the guide, it seems worthless? Remeber, I am OTA only here. I had tried the Samsung Slimfit TV before this one, but all 3 I tried had major geometry issues among other things. However, it's guide allowed me to see what was on many other channels at once, what was coming on in the future and to scroll without changing channels (IIRC). I can't seem to get the Sony's to do anything usefull. Basically it pops up the display veiw and the the channel list, but only shows the current show and when I scroll across channels, it changes the channel. Am I doing something wrong?

Finally, I'm really stumped with a performance issue on the component inputs. I noticed my vertical center was shifted left and with your help, fixed that, ... sort of. My PC video card has a custom resolution tool that draws a box on screen, that I can make bigger/smaller. I used this to center the screen and thought things were great. So the PC is centered on the full setting. Since the PC input is HD (720p), I have the HD screen size options. So, one night I'm watching "The Office." Here things are confusing. "The Office" was broadcast in SD (all I can record on the PC for now). However it was in widescreen format with boxes above and below. Which means on my TV, I had large vertical boxes on left and right, and thinner horizontal boxes bounded by the vertical boxes on the top and bottom; thats a lot of black onscreen! I decided to zoom in to have it fill the screen. When I did that, the picture was shifted right, the right side was cut off, and I had a black vertical bar on the left. I didn't check, but I'm pretty sure if I reset my vertical position, it would then be centered (but the full screen would be back to left shifted). What is going on? It's not that big of a deal, I hardly ever used that zoom setting, but I'm real curious.

BTW, I get audio out on both components, broadcast, and A/V. Haven't tried the HDMI yet. I'd take pictures, but I don't have a digital camera.

Thanks again in advance for your help and input!

Thank you all for your previous help, this forum is great! I'm back with some more questions.

I'm a bit confused on the whole "up-converting" bit. I understand this tv (and all/most HDTV CRTs) upconvert all signals to 1080i. Obviously a incoming 480i signal can only be improved so much, but technically it is displayed at 1080i, becuase that is all the TV does, right?

Well, if my TV upconverts and displays all signals at 1080i, what is the point of getting an upconverting DVD player? I realize I'm probably missing a key idea here, but I don't get it. Is there a difference in having the DVD player make the conversion, and the TV make the conversion, especially if the DVD player is progressive, and this CRT only does interlaced? Please enlighten me here...

Thanks again in advance for your help and input!
When your tv receives an analog or digital standard definition (SD) signal the DRC circuitry gives you options. You can select "Interlaced," "Progressive" or "CineMotion." If you select Interlaced then the tv upscales the signal to 960i, not quite 1080i but very close. If you select Progressive then the tv deinterlaces the signal and displays 480p. CineMotion is like Progressive but also adds film to video features like reverse 3:2 pulldown.

Upconverting dvd players - many of us have tried these players and found them wanting, just not that big a deal. Others find them to be a real nice addition to their systems. There are differences when the tv does the job (video processing) versus the dvd player.

First off, the only way your tv can upconvert a dvd signal is if you have the dvd player set to output 480i, and your tv is set to "Interlaced." This can work for some dvds, but not all. If the material on the dvd is video based, like tv series discs, then it works best. If the material on the dvd is film based, then there's processes that need to be performed to kind-of convert the film based material to video, and this requires some help by either the player or the tv. If you set the tv to CineMotion then your tv is essentially substituting for what a progressive scan dvd player could do. However, going this way may add unnecessary digital to analog (and vice versa) conversions, which only serve to degrade the picture quality - and the screen output is still only 480p.

By having the dvd player handle the processing all of this is done in the "digital domain," so to speak. Since the disc is inherently digital, and the video processors in the player are solid state, the processing is all digital. Once finished, the player sends the signal to the tv (this involves one D/A conversion) and then the tv sinply displays the signal on the screen. If you have the tv do this then the digital material on the dvd is converted to analog for transmission to the tv, the tv then converts it to digital to do the film to video transfer, then the signal is converted back to analog for display to the screen.

Upconversion - I tried a Samsung upconverting player (DVD-H850) and did not like the picture quality (crushed blacks). But I could clearly make out the "sharpness" that was added and it looked quite nice. But I couldn't handle the black crush and returned it. I let things go for awhile until I learned about the Oppo upconverting player. By now I was not really interested in upconversion so much as the chip set the Oppo offered for video processing. On a dvd player shootout last year this Oppo player was rated as high as 2nd for overall picture quality - second only to a $3,500 Denon player. The magic comes from the video processors in the Oppo player, including Faroudja processing. Bottom Line - this player does a much better job of processing video than my tv ever could. I used the HQV Benchmark DVD to prove this, and the player scored higher on all of the video processing tests than the tv did.

Upconversion has its place so long as you select the right player. And Oppo's not the only one out there that does a good job. The HQV Benchmark DVD is a super tool for evaluating the video processing capabilities of both tvs and dvd players.

So I just got my my new Sony 30xs955 and the first thing i notice is that the top left of my screen is lighter than the rest of the tv. My greens look light green when compared to the rest of the screen. Is this a problem with the tv or is it possibly from my surround sound receiver or xbox 360 which r to the left of my tv.or maybe my center channel speaker that I have on top of the tv. I know subs can mess up the image but Im not sure about regular speakers. please help m figure this out before i end up spending 250 on an isf calibrator.

So I just got my my new Sony 30xs955 and the first thing i notice is that the top left of my screen is lighter than the rest of the tv. My greens look light green when compared to the rest of the screen. Is this a problem with the tv or is it possibly from my surround sound receiver or xbox 360 which r to the left of my tv.or maybe my center channel speaker that I have on top of the tv. I know subs can mess up the image but Im not sure about regular speakers. please help m figure this out before i end up spending 250 on an isf calibrator.
God forbid any of us should deter you from getting your set calibrated by an ISF trained calibrator.

Just schedule it. Don't worry - be happy. ;)

First remove any speakers from proximity of the set to eliminate possible magnetic effects on the screen. It's possible you have an un-shielded speaker nearby.

Anybody have their PS2 hooked up to the XS955? God of War seems to be the only game that doesn't allow display positioning. I need to move the image just a little bit horizontally and it won't let me. There's a good inch of empty space on the left side of the TV while the game is playing in "Full" mode. I see a vertical and tilt adjustment option in the menu, but no horizontal. If anyone can help, I appreciate it.

Have the same problem with God of War and GT4. Wasn't sure if it was the display or the PS2 causing this. And don't have a progressive scan DVD player to see if it does the same thing. Doesn't make much difference with GT4 though, cause I play it at 1080i.

Oh yea, your grid pattern makes my tv squeel like a pig (a high pitched noise) does anyone else know when your volume is up a bit

Yep, only noticed it with the crosshatch pattern on DVE.

Finally, I'm really stumped with a performance issue on the component inputs. I noticed my vertical center was shifted left and with your help, fixed that, ... sort of. My PC video card has a custom resolution tool that draws a box on screen, that I can make bigger/smaller. I used this to center the screen and thought things were great. So the PC is centered on the full setting. Since the PC input is HD (720p), I have the HD screen size options. So, one night I'm watching "The Office." Here things are confusing. "The Office" was broadcast in SD (all I can record on the PC for now).

you have to understand that your video card really not doing anything to what the Sony displays
what is it doing to figuring out what size you want your desktop to be and then it scales the 1280x720p image to that size, then it fills the unused area with black bars around the scaled desktop
it still outputting the full 1280x720p that way your TV will accept it as input

and by the way, the Office is in HD on NBC, if you are recording it in SD thats a limitation of your capture card
and your TV is 1080i native not 720p, any 720p inputs are scaled up to 1080i, and will make your DVDs and recorded TV softer in appearance

I strongly suggest using 1080i unless the flicker of the display does not bother you and you actually try to use the display as a PC monitor

also underscanning as you were doing by "centering the desktop" causes scaling as well further softening the image

I suggest watching a DVD your way underscanned at 720p, then my way at native 1080i (1920x1080i)

you will see how much better the image looks my way but the final decision is yours

How do I find out if my PC DVD drive upconverts? The video card resolution is at 720p for the TV, but thats the video card, not the DVD, and that makes a difference, right? Does the 360 upconvert DVD to 480p or even 720p maybe? Between my PC and the 360, is there reason to buy a upconverting DVD player?

your DVD drive only spins the disc and reads the data, your video card and DVD software are doing the scaling to 720p
the xbox360 outputs 480p at best for DVDs

configuring the PC correctly will beat out almost any less than 1000 dollar DVD player

Well, if my TV upconverts and displays all signals at 1080i, what is the point of getting an upconverting DVD player? I realize I'm probably missing a key idea here, but I don't get it. Is there a difference in having the DVD player make the conversion, and the TV make the conversion, especially if the DVD player is progressive, and this CRT only does interlaced? Please enlighten me here.

its all about the scaler being used, many times the scaler in a upscaling DVD player is much better than the one in a TV, but really it will depend on how much you want to spend on an upscaling DVD player

Is anyone using a CableCard with their 30XS955? I am going to pick up a CC this week from my cable co. They are a small operation and it took some work to get the CC from them. Anyway, they said I could bring in my STB and pick up the CC. I know that typically a technician is required to call in some info to get it to work. I am going to install it and then call them and hopefully they will be able to get it working with the info I provide. That brings me to my question. Has anyone done a self-install of a CC with the 30XS955? If not, was anyone present during the installation and do you know what info the technician needs? Thanks for your help.

I *basically* did a self-install of my CableCard. The RCN technician that came to my house was absolutely clueless, so I said I'd be more than happy to climb behind my TV. I slid it in, and he had to make two or three calls to the home base before they finally sent the appropriate activation codes. I assume that, if you're doing a solo self install, that you'll just call in to your cable co. and they'll connect you to a tech to send the activation codes...

But, it finally worked and I was really happy with it.... so good luck!

(I have since switched to Comcast, both because they had a special deal that is saving me about $50/month over RCN, and because my wife really missed having an on-screen program guide...)

Is anyone using a CableCard with their 30XS955? I am going to pick up a CC this week from my cable co. They are a small operation and it took some work to get the CC from them. Anyway, they said I could bring in my STB and pick up the CC. I know that typically a technician is required to call in some info to get it to work. I am going to install it and then call them and hopefully they will be able to get it working with the info I provide. That brings me to my question. Has anyone done a self-install of a CC with the 30XS955? If not, was anyone present during the installation and do you know what info the technician needs? Thanks for your help.

When you insert the cablecard, the numbers you need will appear on screen. You then call the cable co and they'll ask for that info. They enter it into their system then send authorization to the card. Soon after you should have all of your subscribed channels. That's what I observed when the technicians installed it for me (yes there were two for a lousy cablecard install that I could have done myself). They also redid a lot of my wiring because it wasn't up to their standards.

Thanks for the info guys.

So I set up the PC to display at 1080i. Then I put a DVD in my Xbox, quality was what I had expected and what I was used to. Then I threw the DVD into the PC and played it, expecting maybe a minor improvement (I even moved up close to try and get a "good" look at the detail). I was blown away at the difference! Not quite SD -> HD, but still and incredible improvement in quality and crispness, I know how I'll be watching DVD's from here out! Many thanks. When I originally set the PC resolution, the flicker at 1080i killed me, and I didn't think that it wouldn't be an issue with TV and DVD play. Since that's all I use the PC to do on the TV, it's a great idea to set at 1080i (noticible difference from the 720p as well).

I understand the video card doesn't affect the TV, just establishing the tool I used to center the display (I entered the service menu and adjusted HPOS, so the box was centered). Also I understand why "The Office" was not in HD, I'm going to get an HDTV Wonder soon, so I can watch HD through the PC. However, the fact remains that even though the Full screen is centered, some of the other zoom settings are not? Also with the XBox on component in, after adjusting HPOS, the Zoom, Wide Zoom, and Full are all centered. But in Normal, the pillarboxes on left and right are different sizes after adjusting HPOS, however the image within the pillarboxes is centered. Just odd.

Thanks again for the advice/input, I'm real happy with the PC DVD display now, and think I'll stick with that.

No info on the GUIDE? Anybody out there use it?

I have been looking to upgrade to hdtv and have read alot about this model. The store I found them at said they just got them in and they were new. hhgregg. $899 was the price. I hope I made the right choice. I currently have directv with tivo. I want to keep that for now - I like my tivo. I am going to try to get ota hdtv. I need to use an indoor antenna in an apartment. I tried out some old rabbit ears and I picked several local stations - they are not coming in great - a little snow and ghosting. What can I get to help this out? There are alot of posts on antennas. Did I make a good choice?

I have been looking to upgrade to hdtv and have read alot about this model. The store I found them at said they just got them in and they were new. hhgregg. $899 was the price. I hope I made the right choice. I currently have directv with tivo. I want to keep that for now - I like my tivo. I am going to try to get ota hdtv. I need to use an indoor antenna in an apartment. I tried out some old rabbit ears and I picked several local stations - they are not coming in great - a little snow and ghosting. What can I get to help this out? There are alot of posts on antennas. Did I make a good choice?
Good choice of TV, not so good on antenna. Depending on distance from signal and construction of building you may or may not get something much better with another antenna. Look up your location on antennaweb and see what they recommend.

When you insert the cablecard, the numbers you need will appear on screen. You then call the cable co and they'll ask for that info. They enter it into their system then send authorization to the card. Soon after you should have all of your subscribed channels. That's what I observed when the technicians installed it for me (yes there were two for a lousy cablecard install that I could have done myself). They also redid a lot of my wiring because it wasn't up to their standards.

Thanks for the help guys. I got the CableCard and installed it today. As you said kevbeck122, they asked me for the Host address and Data address when I called them. After they activated it I had all my channels.

they are not coming in great - a little snow and ghosting.

thats not HD, it sounds like your choice in antenna was so poor you cannot even pick up digital TV

Since I installed the CableCard I am no longer able to search for channels. In the menu of the KD-30XS955 both "Digital Channels" and "Autoprogram" menus are disabled. I am assume this normally happens once the CC is installed, but it is frustrating. The reason is that my cable company was piping through two digital channels (PBS and ABC) but they were not offering their customers any support in getting the channels. What that meant was that I was able to view the channels when I did a scan for channels because the KD-30XS955 has a built-in tuner. Now I no longer have those two channels after the CC install and I have no way to scan for them. Anyone know anything about this issue?

The manuel says the TV won't let you search through the main menu once the CC is installed. I had this problem too when my CC was installed.

What I suggest to you is to go to the main menu, then down to settings (I think thats it - the last option) and to cable card. Then select reset. The TV will turn off, and then back on 15 sec later. Wait a minute or two then hit select. The TV will do a quick scan for channels.

The installer couldn't get it to work the hour he was there, but I got it fixed 10 min after he left. Couldn't be happier!

Chris

Since I installed the CableCard I am no longer able to search for channels. In the menu of the KD-30XS955 both "Digital Channels" and "Autoprogram" menus are disabled. I am assume this normally happens once the CC is installed, but it is frustrating. The reason is that my cable company was piping through two digital channels (PBS and ABC) but they were not offering their customers any support in getting the channels. What that meant was that I was able to view the channels when I did a scan for channels because the KD-30XS955 has a built-in tuner. Now I no longer have those two channels after the CC install and I have no way to scan for them. Anyone know anything about this issue?

If they aren't mapped to any channel on the cablecard, you probably won't get them anymore. There are a few channels (mainly on demand preview channels) I can get through the QAM tuner no cablecard that I don't get anymore with cablecard.

I haven't seen this asked yet, and I searched the thread -- is there anywhere in Canada where I can order this TV? If I order from a US dealer, I'm going to be paying half the price of the TV in shipping and duty.

Looks like i'll be ordering this monday :). right now i'm seeing 3 places with it in stock, that appear to be reputable: J&R, Etronics, and ABT Electronics. The prices are pretty competitive.

Any recommendation for one of those 3? I have concerns about the delivery...

One concern is stairs. I live in 3rd floor apartment, and the stairs are outside. J&R/ABT both do freight/common carrier, and ABT does UPS/DHL Ground (according to their site). I know it depends on the carrier but i've never taken a delivery this big. would any of them get it to my door?

The other concern is scheduling. I want to know when to be home for this. I've tracked UPS packages a million times but I've heard stories with the freight companies about getting a delivery date of thursday, and they show up on tuesday wanting to know where you are.

Delivery will vary depending on carrier and like the cable guy, scheduling stuff for a certain time is not their strong point. You are not going to get this TV delivered by UPS.

Eagle, who delivered my set from Amazon, was off by one day (late) from their tracking info and called 3 hours before delivery. They showed up with two guys - so delivery to the front door might be possible. It could be that the freight company uses a single driver to deliver this thing - front door delivery on a third floor apt. will be less likely then.

I have been looking to upgrade to hdtv and have read alot about this model. The store I found them at said they just got them in and they were new. hhgregg. $899 was the price. I hope I made the right choice. I currently have directv with tivo. I want to keep that for now - I like my tivo. I am going to try to get ota hdtv. I need to use an indoor antenna in an apartment. I tried out some old rabbit ears and I picked several local stations - they are not coming in great - a little snow and ghosting. What can I get to help this out? There are alot of posts on antennas. Did I make a good choice?

You need to go somewhere like Best Buy and get at least a UHF antenna. You'll probably want one that can do VHF as well, but that depends on whether any stations in your area are broadcasting on the VHF band. You can find out by going to antennaweb.org and inputing your zip code. While you're at antennaweb, be sure to note the compass orientation of your favorite channels. You'll want to make sure your antenna is pointing in the right direction.

One concern is stairs. I live in 3rd floor apartment, and the stairs are outside. J&R/ABT both do freight/common carrier, and ABT does UPS/DHL Ground (according to their site). I know it depends on the carrier but i've never taken a delivery this big. would any of them get it to my door?

The other concern is scheduling. I want to know when to be home for this. I've tracked UPS packages a million times but I've heard stories with the freight companies about getting a delivery date of thursday, and they show up on tuesday wanting to know where you are.

do not let UPS or DHL handle your TV, OMG remember ace ventura? well maybe not quite that bad but pretty close

I ordered from J&R and they will deliver it to your door but not upstairs. i live on the 3rd floor also and it is a real pain getting it up those steps.

I got my TV from JR and they delivered it to my 5th floor apartment. Granted I had an elevator.

I imagine a tip might help you get it up the stairs.

I am a complete newb both here on forum and with the 30xs955 (I just got it yesterday), so I apologize if this is a dumb question. I'm wondering what the degauss cycle sounds like? When I turn on my set after it has been off for a while, there is a loud, fast hum that lasts maybe 1 second. Then I hear some faint clicks. After all that, the image comes up. I seem to remember old tvs back in the 80s making that kind of sound. I've searched the thread and found several references to the degauss hum. Is that what I'm hearing? Is this something unique to trinitrons, as my old 27" SD tv does not do this? The wife is freaking out that something is wrong with this new set, and I want to reassure her if possible! ;) Thanks.

yeah the sound is normal, and as you described above

the crackle sound eventually goes away, at least on mine it stopped doing it after some use

yeah the sound is normal, and as you described above

the crackle sound eventually goes away, at least on mine it stopped doing it after some use

Thanks for letting me know, kny3twalker. I thought it was probably normal, but my wife wouldn't believe me. :D

Thanks for the feedback. I ordered early this morning from ABT, since they have a sale going on through today. they ship common carrier like J&R.

I hope they actually have a set in stock and they ship it today. website says it's in stock but i know these things are disappearing. If they don't have one, I'll get it from J&R. Been very nervous since it disappeared from B&H, crutchfield, and sonystyle.

i'm fully prepared to tip the delivery guy or move the tv up stair by stair :) whatever it takes.

Has this set been discontinued? The one I got yesterday from HHGregg had a January or February 2006 manufacturing date on the back (I can't remember which). The salesman there said they'd only been selling the tv for three months or so. If it hasn't been discontinued, why has it been removed from sonystyle?

I posted this as a thread earlier, but I think I may get a better response from this thread.

I don't know what kind of problem this is, but im guessing its a geometry issue. I've read about the service menu fixes and played around a little but can't find anything to fix this.

You can look at the pics and see how the left edge of the green box is straight and the right edge is sort of choppy. the last photo is just a pic of the entire right edge. But do any of you know what is causing this problem or more importantly how I can correct it.

Thanks for any help.

Has this set been discontinued? The one I got yesterday from HHGregg had a January or February 2006 manufacturing date on the back (I can't remember which). The salesman there said they'd only been selling the tv for three months or so. If it hasn't been discontinued, why has it been removed from sonystyle?
I still say that Sony has to have something in the 30" range as an HD tube set -they'd be losing too many sales to others in the category. At this point they have no HD sets below 34". Granted, the 30" set might not be the current XS955 but I have to believe they'll have something.

well they're going to have to put a tuner in whatever it is, so it'll probably be a 30xbr970 - hs tube with a tuner. glad my xs955 has been shipped :)

Robirt,
It's hard to tell from the jpg what the problem may be. Do all three guns have the same issue? If so it may be a geometry problem as there is only one horizontal deflection circuit and it would affect all the guns (color channels) in more or less the same way. The first thing to do is check the alignment of the guns. The best and easiest way to do this is via the internal test patterns.

While in normal mode turn the volume all the way down, then turn the set off and bring it back up in service mode. Press the 5 button three times to bring up the QM/INFO section. Press the 1 button once to display the QM/Pattern section. Press the 3 button once to display the cross hatch test pattern. Check the farthest right vertical line for straightness and alignment of the colors. This will tell you right away if there is really an issue as shown with your jpg on the external test pattern.

All of the patterns will remain on the screen until you turn the test generator off by returning to a setting of 0. This way you can select a pattern and then make adjustments to your set with the pattern in place.

There is also a crosshatch pattern that shows the alignment of the color guns in relation to each other. Press 1 again to change to the QM/GPTN section. Press the 3 button 3 times to bring up setting 3.

AS ALWAYS TREAD WITH CAUTION IN SERVICE MODE.

I hope this helps, if you need more info post another request and I will try to help.

If you live in the KC area and need an ISF calibration I can do that as well.
Larry

I don't know what kind of problem this is, but im guessing its a geometry issue.

If, as I understand the picture, the right vertical edge is irregular as opposed to perfectly straight then that would be a vertical linearity fix in service mode.

An isf calibrator could clean that up but its more fun and cheaper to do it yourself.:)

I searched this thread and Sony's support site, but I didn't see anything about this. I am seeing red, mostly horizontal, lines on my new set when the screen is black. They were very visible on a black menu screen while watching a dvd last night (the player was in progressive scan mode). I do have to get closer to the set than I normally site to see them. They appeared to be about and inch apart, and they curved up towards the top of the screen on the right side. After I turned the dvd player off, the number of lines seemed to double.

What are these lines? Are they normal, or is there a way to get rid of them?

I am seeing red, mostly horizontal, lines on my new set when the screen is black. They were very visible on a black menu screen while watching a dvd last night (the player was in progressive scan mode). They appeared to be about and inch apart, and they curved up towards the top of the screen on the right side. After I turned the dvd player off, the number of lines seemed to double.

This definitely sounds like retrace lines which is usually a horizontal blanking issue. However if it's a blanking problem the lines shouldn't have color.

The set may need to be serviced for proper adjustment.

This definitely sounds like retrace lines which is usually a horizontal blanking issue. However if it's a blanking problem the lines shouldn't have color.

The set may need to be serviced for proper adjustment.

Is this typical for a new set, or was I just "lucky" enough to get one with issues?

Robirt,
It's hard to tell from the jpg what the problem may be. Do all three guns have the same issue? If so it may be a geometry problem as there is only one horizontal deflection circuit and it would affect all the guns (color channels) in more or less the same way. The first thing to do is check the alignment of the guns. The best and easiest way to do this is via the internal test patterns.

While in normal mode turn the volume all the way down, then turn the set off and bring it back up in service mode. Press the 5 button three times to bring up the QM/INFO section. Press the 1 button once to display the QM/Pattern section. Press the 3 button once to display the cross hatch test pattern. Check the farthest right vertical line for straightness and alignment of the colors. This will tell you right away if there is really an issue as shown with your jpg on the external test pattern.

All of the patterns will remain on the screen until you turn the test generator off by returning to a setting of 0. This way you can select a pattern and then make adjustments to your set with the pattern in place.

There is also a crosshatch pattern that shows the alignment of the color guns in relation to each other. Press 1 again to change to the QM/GPTN section. Press the 3 button 3 times to bring up setting 3.

AS ALWAYS TREAD WITH CAUTION IN SERVICE MODE.

I hope this helps, if you need more info post another request and I will try to help.

If you live in the KC area and need an ISF calibration I can do that as well.
Larry
Larry,

Would you happen to know if this would also work on the KV-34HS420?

I suggest calling Fry's today for a great deal on the 30sx955

My 30xs955 is being delivered tomorrow, sounds like it's just gonna be me and the truck driver. My apartment is on the 3rd floor, any suggestions on a fair tip?

I would have someone there to help. With large deliveries to my home, a single level no steps rambler, no truck driver ever would do any more than what was on the manifest. Insurance reasons prevent them from helping by entering a private home. Perhaps you will get lucky and an independent owner/operator will deliver the TV. I would offer at least $50.00 to bring it inside. He will probably do it for $100.00. I know I would.

Thats about what I was thinking. Thanks. Actually the stairs are outside so he doesn't have to come in at all. Originally they said it would be delivered next week so this caught me by surprise, and I don't think i'll be able to get anyone else today.

Hi all,

I just got this TV and am very happy with it. I have a MCE PC with a NVIDIA 6600 card. I hooked up the DVI cable, used Nvidia's 1080i preset, and the picture looked perfect after playing around with the under/over scanning compesation.

Now I just have to find someone to help me bring the thing upstairs!

I did a bad thing :(

the freight company called right before lunchtime to deliver the set. The driver helped bring it up the stairs and even pull it out of the box and put it in place (entertainment center). I turned it on real quick, everything looked fine, and I went back to work.

Now, 5 hours later, I get home from work and turn the set on. The right-side corners are green and pink! Now I realize that my floorstanding speakers (right next to the entertainment center) aren't shielded.

Since my old tv wasn't wide enough to fill the space, I never noticed

So it sat there next to the speaker for 5 hours. Is this something that will clear up or have i damaged the set before I could even watch it?

Other than that, great TV. looks much bigger in the house than it did in-store.

nevermind, a reset fixed it. kick @%#

So, how much did you tip him?

$60. I didn't even have to ask for help, he helped me get it up the stairs, unpack it, and put it in the entertainment center.

congratulations Leehro
welcome to the KD-30XS955 club, its nice to have a beautiful TV with a beautiful picture

it sure is pretty. i've been using pro mode checking out the other picture settings as well as the DRC settings. Can't believe anyone would actually use vivid. my god that's awful.

anyways, I know the DRC Interlaced basically "upconverts" to 960i. is this a similar picture to what upconverting players look like on this set? I have a 300 disc sony changer that i'm not about to change anytime soon, but it only does 480i over component, so i've been using cinemotion for movies, which i'm very happy with. no flicker there.

wow, looks like the set has disappeared from J&R again. glad i didn't have to wait any longer.

Cinemotion will be a smoother image than using interlaced
cause Cinemotion performs the 3-2 pulldown

check out 100fps.com

Yeah i know what it's doing, and that i'm getting 23.976fps 480p on the screen after cinemotion does its thing.

I was just wondering about the benefits of upconversion to 1080i (or 960i with this set's DRC), especially when dealing with film sources. people seem to go nuts over upconverting dvd players but i just don't see the point if you're watching film source that is on the disc as 480p.

DVDs are not 480p though, they are 480i

I searched this thread and Sony's support site, but I didn't see anything about this. I am seeing red, mostly horizontal, lines on my new set when the screen is black. They were very visible on a black menu screen while watching a dvd last night (the player was in progressive scan mode). I do have to get closer to the set than I normally site to see them. They appeared to be about and inch apart, and they curved up towards the top of the screen on the right side. After I turned the dvd player off, the number of lines seemed to double.

What are these lines? Are they normal, or is there a way to get rid of them?


I am getting the same thing but I'm not too sure what color they are. At first I thought white but now when I look they seem almost light blue. Call sony, they told me it is a problem. I am still waiting on a tech to call me back.

anyone know why i have a vertical halo on the right side of the screen???? Heres a pic and a arrow (kind of) to show you.

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i...00/SSPX0027.jpg

and i also need help you can read my problem in this thread

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7374665#post7374665

any help would be much appreatied

Quick heads up for those of you who purchased this set in the past 90 days at one or more of the good closeout prices ...

I just purchased an Extended Service Warranty tonight through SonyStyle ... I quoted price paid in late December from J&R ... no proof of purchase price was required ... and ended up paying $96.99 for the $500.01-$700 5 Year Plan.

Seems to be a pretty good deal ... the customer rep I dealt with is named Lenny ... number for SonyStyle is 877.518.7669 ... not sure if I can offer Lenny's extension ... but PM me and I can give you his direct line ... real easy to deal with!

Just got my 30XS955 up and running after returning a Sanyo to Wal-Mart. Not in the same class as the Sony and with the closeout prices couldn't resist getting the Sony. Nothing against the Sanyo as it was worth what I paid for it and produced OK HD... Only took about ten minutes to scan digital channels and found everything that was out there... not the case with the Sony... did not find INHD 1&2, TNT or Discovery... some of my favorites... tried rescanning and going into Hidden but there is no signal at the old numbers from the Sanyo's channel list I compiled. Did not find them anywhere in the channel search. as I have already returned the Sanyo I don't have anything to compare with... any idea what happened? I think I read someplace that there are two bands of HD cable and maybe my set is only reading one? I have all of the locals, the analog cable and some of the sd digital channels and Universal HD...my scan showed 77 analog and 212 digital channels with 18 shown... tried pulling the plug and rescanning... Diagnostics shows I am getting 30db and AGC of 20 on most of the HD channels... Any help would be appreciated as I like the pictures this box puts out and the custom picture settings... hope I don't have to go with a digital cable box...

My Sony KDL-32XBR950 gets squat. Since the two sets are of the same vintage I am surprised that you get as many digital channels as you get. The "different bands" you refer to may be QAM64 and QAM256. QAM256 is what most cable operators use today..

I think i am too late for the extended warranty. I called them shortly after I got mine in November and they wanted close to $200 because they told me was based on retail price, not what I bought it for. I don't think they would let me sign up now.

Just got my 30XS955 up and running after returning a Sanyo to Wal-Mart. Not in the same class as the Sony and with the closeout prices couldn't resist getting the Sony. Nothing against the Sanyo as it was worth what I paid for it and produced OK HD... Only took about ten minutes to scan digital channels and found everything that was out there... not the case with the Sony... did not find INHD 1&2, TNT or Discovery... some of my favorites... tried rescanning and going into Hidden but there is no signal at the old numbers from the Sanyo's channel list I compiled. Did not find them anywhere in the channel search. as I have already returned the Sanyo I don't have anything to compare with... any idea what happened? I think I read someplace that there are two bands of HD cable and maybe my set is only reading one? I have all of the locals, the analog cable and some of the sd digital channels and Universal HD...my scan showed 77 analog and 212 digital channels with 18 shown... tried pulling the plug and rescanning... Diagnostics shows I am getting 30db and AGC of 20 on most of the HD channels... Any help would be appreciated as I like the pictures this box puts out and the custom picture settings... hope I don't have to go with a digital cable box...
This maybe a case of a cheap set having a better tuner - the Sony design is at least 2 years old and with ATSC/QAM tuner chips going through a new generation seemingly every year it could be that the tuner portion of the Sanyo was newer and could get more channels.

Lance,

The guy I spoke to at SonyStyle was more interested in making the sale ... and didn't seem at all concerned about the list price ... ALL he wanted to know was what I paid ... which put me in the $500.01-$700 bracket ... and S/N ... I've never filed my warranty card ... and according to him the set is NOW discontinued ... so there is ... so to speak ... no retail price to use for comparison purposes!

PM me and I'll give you his extension ... and it's up to you whether you want to fudge the purchase month ... just make sure it was in December!

- Alan

As most of you probably know the 30XS955 has two TV inputs in the rear (labeled "Cable" and "UHF/VHF"). Right now I have my OTA antenna connected to the UHF/VHF input. What would happen if I connected the coaxial cable from the wall to that UHF/VHF input? Would I get all my analog cable and unencrypted digital stations from my cable company?

No.. plug the coax from the wall into the cable input and you'll get analog cable and unencrypted digital. You can use OTA and digital cable at the same time.. no need to rescan for both.

No.. plug the coax from the wall into the cable input and you'll get analog cable and unencrypted digital. You can use OTA and digital cable at the same time.. no need to rescan for both.

I didn't fully explain the problem. I have a CableCard installed, therefore I cannot rescan with my Cable input. I want to see if my cable company is piping through any other unencrypted digital channels so I need to scan for digital channels. When a CC is installed the scan feature is disabled. So that brings me back to my original question: can I run a cable from the wall into the cable input in my 30XS955 labeled UHF/VHF?

I didn't fully explain the problem. I have a CableCard installed, therefore I cannot rescan with my Cable input. I want to see if my cable company is piping through any other unencrypted digital channels so I need to scan for digital channels. When a CC is installed the scan feature is disabled. So that brings me back to my original question: can I run a cable from the wall into the cable input in my 30XS955 labeled UHF/VHF?

I'm pretty sure that the QAM tuner will work with both the "cable" and "uhf/vhf" inputs on the back of the tv. But you would need to press ANT on the remote and rescan on the "uhf/vhf" input to get all of the unencrypted digital channels after connecting the cable to the "uhf/vhf" input. I don't have a cable card so I can't fully relate to your situation, but it seems like a fairly easy thing to test yourself (you can't really screw anything up by trying to plug your cable into the "uhf/vhf" input and rescanning, so give it a go :) )

Someone in the local HDTV threads can probably tell you what the cable co is showing in the clear. Don't make service choices based on what's available today in the clear - all channel lineups from all companies change with time. Unless it will screw things up, just pull out the CC - what's left are the unecrypted channels.

My SONY requires that cable be connected to the cable input and antenna to antenna. Otherwise, it will not pick up some of the channels on each delivery system. For example, there are no UHF channels selectable on the cable input.

I noticed a 30" Sony HDTV on sale at HHGregg in yesterdays sales paper.

It doesn't list the model # in the ad.

Does anyone know if this is the 30XS955 or something else?


Thanks,


Danny

Quick heads up for those of you who purchased this set in the past 90 days at one or more of the good closeout prices ...

I just purchased an Extended Service Warranty tonight through SonyStyle ... I quoted price paid in late December from J&R ... no proof of purchase price was required ... and ended up paying $96.99 for the $500.01-$700 5 Year Plan.

Seems to be a pretty good deal ... the customer rep I dealt with is named Lenny ... number for SonyStyle is 877.518.7669 ... not sure if I can offer Lenny's extension ... but PM me and I can give you his direct line ... real easy to deal with!

Just a tip for those who just purchased a extended warranty from Sony. I initially purchased one with my xs955. I checked Sony for local service centers for a issue I had (I am still under the factory warranty). Out of three for my area, one told me I had to lug it in because I was too far, another say I was far but they would come and take the unit for any service (I later found out from another member here that they were "morons"), and the last one said no problem and came out to look at my issue. I was not happy with his customer service and his knowledge of my set. I cancelled my extended warranty when I called and they said they could not confirm who would be coming out unless I started a claim. My guess is it would have been one of these three and I certainly didn't want any of these three screwing around with my set. I decided I'd rather pay more for a trusted local servicer by me.

Just hooked up my cable box DVR 8300HD using an HDMI cable. Is it possible that this set does not pass through digital audio? I know I am getting it to the tv and back out of the analog outputs but there is nothing on the digital audio out. Digital audio out of the TV's tuner is fine... I have the digital out on the 8300 set to HDMI and I can hear it switch on and off when I select it listening to the analog audio out on the TV...

Anyone expecting a PM, you must allow incoming PMs. :)

Getting back to an earlier post regarding limited QAM channels I could get with the Sony vs. the Sanyo... it seems that TWC began scrambling all of the QAM channels except OTAs on March 28th while I was on vacation and before I setup the new Sony... I guess they got me beat which is why I got the 8300HD cable box. Welcome to cable TV.... wish I didn't have so many trees to the south in my yard.... hard to get the satellites....

I dont want to violate the rules but is under $700 a good price on a new 30XS955 from BB or does Frys have a better price??

I dont want to violate the rules but is under $700 a good price on a new 30XS955 from BB or does Frys have a better price??
I think the best price I've seen was $699 - you have to look at the overall price, including shipping. If you factor that in, the deal from Amazon was one of the best deals. :cool:

I dont want to violate the rules but is under $700 a good price on a new 30XS955 from BB or does Frys have a better price??

Can you still get them from Best Buy? They are not in stores or on the website so I'm assuming you have to order it? If so, that's the price!!! Might have to look into this.

About a week ago I posted about wanting to connect my cable to the UHF/VHF input and scan for channels. Well I did that and I only picked up analog channels 2 through 15. I even rescanned for digitals but it did not find any. So apparently the UHF/VHF input is not the same as the Cable input. I am able to pick up digital channels through the UHF/VHF input with my OTA antenna so I have no doubts that the input is fine. My observations seem to be consistent with those of MrHifi.

About a week ago I posted about wanting to connect my cable to the UHF/VHF input and scan for channels. Well I did that and I only picked up analog channels 2 through 15. I even rescanned for digitals but it did not find any. So apparently the UHF/VHF input is not the same as the Cable input. I am able to pick up digital channels through the UHF/VHF input with my OTA antenna so I have no doubts that the input is fine. My observations seem to be consistent with those of MrHifi.
So the bottom line that the QAM tuner is only available thru the cable input, the ATSC tuner only thru the antenna input and NTSC tuner thru both inputs - kinda makes sense.

I noticed a 30" Sony HDTV on sale at HHGregg in yesterdays sales paper.

It doesn't list the model # in the ad.

Does anyone know if this is the 30XS955 or something else?


Thanks,


Danny
If you don't know yet, it was a 30XS955, and I got one. It was the display model and they knocked another $100 off the price. I love it! You might call around to see if there are any still available.

So the bottom line that the QAM tuner is only available thru the cable input, the ATSC tuner only thru the antenna input and NTSC tuner thru both inputs - kinda makes sense.

I don't think that's right. I can pick up the HD broadcast on my cable input. So the ATSC tuner works with both inputs.

I bought one in November for $763 from BB. Had some issues with it so Sony is buying it back. They offered to exchange it for a remanufactured unit or a discount on another tv. My $763 credit plus another $1000 could get me a 32" XBR LCD Bravia, awesome deal since they are going for $2600. $1500 for the 40". Although very nice and pretty much the best lcd out there, just not good enough for me yet.

So with the reman unit, I was worried because this tv is almost 2 years old now so would I get a 2 years old tube on my reman unit??? No way really to tell and until it showed up in my house I wouldn't know what kind of condition it was in, and no returns allowed, I didn't like that option.

So I started looking at the new XBR970 34 " CRT. I found out that it doesn't offer the SFP tube anymore(basically an updated HS420 with the XBR label on it). Not happy about that. The 34XS955 is discontinued and is still $1699.

The bottom line is that this seems to be the LAST of it's kind from Sony as they are phasing out their large CRT tvs according to a Sony rep and don't have a 30" line this year. I started calling around and to my surprise I found a new one in the box at a BB near my house for $699. That baby is getting delivered Sat!!!!!

I think this is the BEST quality TV for it's size anywhere by anyone. Am I right or what? :)

Forgot to mention....I was almost hoping that they had one open...Here's a coupon for 20% off open box tvs if anyone is interested.....

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcmcat70500050005&type=category


UPDATE!!!!! The tv was NOT a new one it was a floor model. I ended up speaking with the store manager who gave me the tv for $498 plus ordered a new remote from Sony.

^Nice, thanks!

I don't think that's right. I can pick up the HD broadcast on my cable input. So the ATSC tuner works with both inputs.
Are you certain that the HD channels you're picking up on your cable input are from the ATSC tuner exclusively?

Are you certain that the HD channels you're picking up on your cable input are from the ATSC tuner exclusively?

Yep - I have a splitter on my coax - one goes to the cable box, which is connected to the TV via components, the other goes straight to the cable input. I also have an indoor antenna hooked up to the UHF/VHF.

On the cable input, I pick up every unencrypted digital channel, including the HD broadcast nets - for me, that's only NBC on 4.1 and 4.2 and CBS on 10.1. (Damn you, Sinclair and TW!).

Prior to installing a CableCard in my 30XS955 I had the cable running as SCriss described. I had my coax split and running to the following three things:

30XS955 Cable Input
Motorola STB (connected to 30XS955 with composite cables)
HTPC (with a Hauppagge PVR-350)

In addition, I had my OTA antenna connected to the UHF/VHF Input of the 30XS955. I was able to get ABC HD and PBS HD OTA as well as through the Cable Input. I subscribe through a small local service provider which does not offer equipment for HD yet. However, they are passing the streams so that if you have an HD tuner, you can pick up the channels.

Unfortunately, I don't know the difference between QAM and ATSC so I don't know exactly what is going on inside the 30XS955.

Check out this 30xs955 price at:

http://www.hotbuyselectronics.com/item_detail.php?item_id=109755


also here is some info on them:

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff151697.htm

I always take these things with a grain of salt. I like to call the companies and feel them out on the phone after I have googled up various people's problems with them...

I bought mine at 6ave.com when they were on sale at a very low price.... Ordered on a Thursday and received on Monday.... no problems... set was perfect right out of the box...Feb 2006 manufacture date... price has since gone up a couple hundred bucks and is only available in their showrooms...

I got my XS a few months ago, but since I'm away at school at the moment(the XS is at my house), I haven't really had a chance to mess with it too much. What I did do though, was hook up my 360 to it. It had overscan and things were shifted to the right to much, so i went into the SM and adjusted the horizontal and vertical settings so I wouldn't have too much Overscan.

But here comes the problem:

Well today I hooked up my PS2 and the image is shifted to the right. There is like maybe a 2 inch black line on the left side of the screen indiciating that it's too far over to the right. Well when I fix it, the 360 picture is then messed up. What do I do?

My 360 is set to 1080i by the way.

I used Avia through my 360(which is on video 6) to fix the overscan, but why is that affecting the PS2(on video 5)?

For your info the game I tested was Shadow of the Colossus. I had it on progressive scan(480p) and 16x9.

Could somebody help it is hugely distracting and makes playing PS2 games almost impossible.

What do I do, do I just go back to the nomral SM settings or what :(

Smokey Bones, I know the 360 only runs DVD playback at 480p --- so this might have an effect when you're trying to adjust for 1080i games.
The demo of the NBA LIVE, has a screen geometry test image in the Options menue that runs 1080i --- you can download that for free, to try and adjust further. (so after you work the color from your AVIS DVD, try adjusting your geometry with that 1080i game)
I know GRAW and Oblivion have been good testers for overscan, since graw has that blue HUD that's all the way out to the corners (and it has a lot of bright geometric menues on an otherwise black screen)
Oblivion has a few menues that really reach out far to the edge of the screen, mostly the character creation menue when you start a new game.
I hope games really start to set better standards for 1080i overscan, the developers even have a "window" on their dev-units to see the avg overscan.

speaking of that, I know Shadow of the Colossus - the developers compensated for people's overscan, so on some sets I've had the image underscans (termonology??) leaving black edges. So there might not be a great way to get rid of this (untill you can play your PS2 games 1080i on the PS3 backwards compatability :p )

this weekend I got a 34XS955 (man it's awesome, love the Hi-SCAN) --- but i also have rough overscan that I need to fix.
Have i missed any good tutorials for the 955's?? what stuff do you guys usually tweak in the SM (how do you even get to the SM, i'm used to Samsung) :rolleyes:

thanx for all the help guys

What I did was I put this 1080i test pattern on my computer. I've got my 360 hooked up to the same network as my comp, and so I streamed the test pattern through my network until it appeared onscreen.

That's when I went into the Sm and adjusted the overscan to where everything was pretty much equal all around according to the 1080i test pattern I was using.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think I even used AVIA to fix the overscanning. I remember when I put it in my 360 I was thinking WTF why is the picture still off center, but then I remembered that the 360 outputs at 480p.

So does this mean I can't play any games that are less than 1080i on my set w/o the picture looking messed up or what :( ?

What I did was I put this 1080i test pattern on my computer. I've got my 360 hooked up to the same network as my comp, and so I streamed the test pattern through my network until it appeared onscreen.

That's when I went into the Sm and adjusted the overscan to where everything was pretty much equal all around according to the 1080i test pattern I was using.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think I even used AVIA to fix the overscanning. I remember when I put it in my 360 I was thinking WTF why is the picture still off center, but then I remembered that the 360 outputs at 480p.

So does this mean I can't play any games that are less than 1080i on my set w/o the picture looking messed up or what :( ?

I haven't messed with the SM of the SONY --- but like the Samsung i used to have, deflection accounted for all the resolutions ------ so adjusting overscan for 1080i had a big impact on 480p :confused:

if, with the SONY you can specifically tweak calibration for a 1080i it shouldn't have an effect on 480p ----- but the 360 sends out terrible feeds for DVD, I know that for sure ------
If you have a gamecube, try the 480 progressive games with that ---- the component cable for the cube (only ordered through nintendo, since there's a certain conversion chip they have to manufacture into the unit) does some of the best convirsion, and has an extremely pure picture - it might offer a better example (i'll try that out tonight too --- my cube last night looked great even on such a hi-res TV)

I'm gonna' try tonight to twiddle with the overscan, I'll see what effect it has on Colossus as well.

but from working in the games industry, i've seen first hand how impure images can be sent out ----- there's adjustments, and 'industry standards' for overscan and some companies look over it (only having to provide a patch later to correct it)
it's something not to obsess too much about, games come in all shapes and colors :p it'll be a while before they start to develop their own standards. The best thing to do is what you're doing, worry about the current standards for TV's, and just count bad over/underscan againsts a developers "production values" :D

Yeah I'll try a different game when I come home for the weekend. Maybe NCAA 06. Now if that game doesn't fill the screen(and it's from EA), then I def. know it's something w/ my TV.

Just wondering, does anyone know the resolution of the tv itself and not it's "native resolution?" I mean how many horizontal pixels by vertical pixels does it have? If anyone knows, I'd very much appreciate a response.

Just wondering, does anyone know the resolution of the tv itself and not it's "native resolution?" I mean how many horizontal pixels by vertical pixels does it have? If anyone knows, I'd very much appreciate a response.

The 30XS955 is a CRT analog display. Pixels are used to describe digital monitors. It is described as 1080i, but I have never seen a claimed horizontal and veritcal resolution. My guess is it likely displays about 800 lines of horizontal resolution but maybe somebody has precise information.

Chris

I believe with the super fine pitch tube, this set displays about 1,440 lines of horizontal resolution.

I read that too justsc! :)

that's why this pretty much is THE best screen for HDTV!!!!!!!! PERIOD! All you losers who have "good" lcd monitors...forget it!!!!!!!

They CANNOT compare to crt technology!

I'm waiting until SED comes out next year before I spend my hard earned $$$.

Mark my words!!!! YOUR LCD MONITORS WILL NOT LAST! :)

YOU'VE wasted your money on a cool looking flat tvs that UNDER PERFORM every CRT in the world!

I believe with the super fine pitch tube, this set displays about 1,440 lines of horizontal resolution.

16/9=1440/x Solve for x, vertical resolution =810.

Is this a proper application of algebra?

Are the adjustments you are making to Input5 really affecting Input6, or are you just seeing a difference between how the screens are displayed? The reason I ask is that, as I have learned from the "Sony Service Codes" thread, the settings are Input AND resolution dependent. What would seem frustrating is, actually, quite flexible. Just to appease the "Scientific Method", try and plug the PS2 in to Input5 and see what you get.
I too been struggling with the effects of the 2170D-1, 2170D-2, and MID2 settings.
If you have any question, please feel free to ask.

Bryan

16/9=1440/x Solve for x, vertical resolution =810.

Is this a proper application of algebra?
A vertical resolution of 810 could be correct, but that's not the subject of conversation. I was referring to Chris's guestimate of the XS955's horizontal resolution.

I read that too justsc! :)

that's why this pretty much is THE best screen for HDTV!!!!!!!! PERIOD! All you losers who have "good" lcd monitors...forget it!!!!!!!

They CANNOT compare to crt technology!

I'm waiting until SED comes out next year before I spend my hard earned $$$.

Mark my words!!!! YOUR LCD MONITORS WILL NOT LAST! :)

YOU'VE wasted your money on a cool looking flat tvs that UNDER PERFORM every CRT in the world!
Whoa! Careful there...

I've seen LCD direct view and rear projection sets that give crt sets a genuine run for the money. My best friend just bought a Sharp Aquos 45" 1080p LCD set that is awesome. The only tv that compares includes Sony SFP tube. But the SFP tube does not blow this set away, not even close, it's just a bit better. Between Sharp's sets and Sony's SXRD rear-proj sets, those of us so proud of our killer crt sets will clearly have something to turn to when we move on - and we won't be disappointed.

Same here steve;)

I have to admit i have seen a few that knock my sony away.

16/9=1440/x Solve for x, vertical resolution =810.

Is this a proper application of algebra?
No, since CRTs have almost infinite resolution along a single horizontal line - it is afterall an analog thing.

You guys steered me in the right direction with my retrace lines issue, so I thought I'd throw another one out to the forum. I'm having an issue with my 1 month old 30xs955. It has had this since the beginning, but I only recently started thinking it was a real problem. Anyway, I am seeing a green or sometimes blue line down the left side of the image of 4:3 content on my tv. This is noticeable in video coming from my satellite as well as 4:3 content coming OTA from my antenna. It is visible most of the time, and appears to change color depending on what the background colors are. Sometimes I can't see it at all, but that is usually when a light blue or green background is onscreen. It is always on the left side, and never on the right. I'll try to attach pictures to this post. I've also noticed the same blue or green highlight along the left hand side of bright objects in the middle of the image, regardless of the image ratio of the content. That has been harder to get a picture of, so I don't have anything to post.

Do these pictures look familiar to anyone with this set? If so, is it something that is fixable? Anything in the service menus? I've tried adjusting the regular video menu settings (edge enhancement, color, contrast, etc) to no avail. The guy that came to fix my retrace lines said this was something in the video feed from the provider. I find that hard to believe given that it is on all channels, and on both the satellite and OTA.

Thanks for any insight you might be able to give!

Tanglemac76, I don't have any revelations about your problem but have you tried connecting a DVD player to the 30XS955 and running a 1.33:1 DVD in Normal mode? Do you see the same lines? Since you have tried satellite and OTA antenna and witnessed it with both I doubt it is a problem with your cable connections in the rear of the set. Also, if you use the "Full", "Wide Zoom", or "Zoom" screen option with 4:3 content, do you observe the colored lines at the edges of your set (of course you might not because of overscan, but it's something to check)?

You guys steered me in the right direction with my retrace lines issue, so I thought I'd throw another one out to the forum. I'm having an issue with my 1 month old 30xs955. It has had this since the beginning, but I only recently started thinking it was a real problem. Anyway, I am seeing a green or sometimes blue line down the left side of the image of 4:3 content on my tv. This is noticeable in video coming from my satellite as well as 4:3 content coming OTA from my antenna. It is visible most of the time, and appears to change color depending on what the background colors are. Sometimes I can't see it at all, but that is usually when a light blue or green background is onscreen. It is always on the left side, and never on the right. I'll try to attach pictures to this post. I've also noticed the same blue or green highlight along the left hand side of bright objects in the middle of the image, regardless of the image ratio of the content. That has been harder to get a picture of, so I don't have anything to post.

Do these pictures look familiar to anyone with this set? If so, is it something that is fixable? Anything in the service menus? I've tried adjusting the regular video menu settings (edge enhancement, color, contrast, etc) to no avail. The guy that came to fix my retrace lines said this was something in the video feed from the provider. I find that hard to believe given that it is on all channels, and on both the satellite and OTA.

Thanks for any insight you might be able to give!

See the Sony service codes thread. I forget what parameter can fix this, but it's one of the horizontal geometry adjustments.

Tanglemac76, I don't have any revelations about your problem but have you tried connecting a DVD player to the 30XS955 and running a 1.33:1 DVD in Normal mode? Do you see the same lines? Since you have tried satellite and OTA antenna and witnessed it with both I doubt it is a problem with your cable connections in the rear of the set. Also, if you use the "Full", "Wide Zoom", or "Zoom" screen option with 4:3 content, do you observe the colored lines at the edges of your set (of course you might not because of overscan, but it's something to check)?

I tested a 1.33:1 DVD, and I did see the greenish line down the left hand side of the image. Any of the other screen options that makes the image fill the screen results in the green line being off the screen, presumably due to overscan.

I also saw a good example of the green showing up in the middle of the image last night. It was on the left side of an actor's face, when they were backlit.

See the Sony service codes thread. I forget what parameter can fix this, but it's one of the horizontal geometry adjustments.

That would be great. I wonder what it could be though, seeing as this greenish line shows up in the middle of the screen along actors' faces as well?

To follow up to my earlier question, another piece to the puzzle might be what I see in the menus. Even with the tv on an imput with no video source connected, the menus all look a little strange. The horizontal lines are grey, but the vertical lines look blueish.

Interesting development... Not sure if it's just a coincidence but when Time Warner updated my SARA software on my SA 8300HD I began having problems with HDMI. When I switch video inputs on the TV to HDMI from the 8300 cable box I get just snow and no audio. If I power down the TV and back on the problem clears up. No way to test this with other HDMI as I only have it for the box. If I unplug the HDMI cable when snow is present the input goes black and goes back to snow when I plug it in. If video is present it goes black and back to video. Very strange. Could it be a communications problem? Wonder if anyone has seen this problem? Haven't tried a cold boot on the box yet. Did power off the TV for several minutes. Did not do a hard reset on the TV yet as I did not want to screw up my settings if it's a TW problem.

Does anyone else have a problem with the HDMI cable just falling out? I bought a cable from HDTVsupply.com and the cable is very thick, and therefore heavy, but I had to use packing tape to hold it to the back of the TV. Is my socket Loose, or do HDMI cables just not have much grip? It is a big cable, but it seems like it should snap in more solidly.

Dr.

Does anyone else have a problem with the HDMI cable just falling out? I bought a cable from HDTVsupply.com and the cable is very thick, and therefore heavy, but I had to use packing tape to hold it to the back of the TV. Is my socket Loose, or do HDMI cables just not have much grip? It is a big cable, but it seems like it should snap in more solidly.

Dr.
This sounds very odd. I've seen and used lots of HDMI cables, but I would never characterize any of them as being thick or heavy. HDMI cables are almost identical to USB cables for computers, except they have a slightly larger connector. I could easily see a set failing to hang on to an exceptionally heavy HDMI cable, as there's no twist lock or screw-in type connector. I would look into another cable or rig-up something to take the weight off the connection.

I noticed that my 960 TVGuide tells whats on and when the show ends when
I watch the svhs input,But none of this info shows up on The HDMI conection
whats with that,the cable Box or the tv??

Does anyone else have a problem with the HDMI cable just falling out? I bought a cable from HDTVsupply.com and the cable is very thick, and therefore heavy, but I had to use packing tape to hold it to the back of the TV. Is my socket Loose, or do HDMI cables just not have much grip? It is a big cable, but it seems like it should snap in more solidly.

I have a Monster HDMI cable that is also quite thick. My cable did not fall out of the HDMI input but I had to push it in with extra force to make sure it did not fall out. You would think if HDMI is going to be the new standard they would make it so the connection fits in the slot more securely.

This sounds very odd. I've seen and used lots of HDMI cables, but I would never characterize any of them as being thick or heavy. HDMI cables are almost identical to USB cables for computers, except they have a slightly larger connector. I could easily see a set failing to hang on to an exceptionally heavy HDMI cable, as there's no twist lock or screw-in type connector. I would look into another cable or rig-up something to take the weight off the connection.

I've similar problem with my HDMI cable that I bought from monoprice.com. It is bit heavy and can fall off easily. Also I dont see much difference in video quality when I use HDMI v/s Component.

My 955:
I absolutely love it. Sound and picture are great, much better than my brother's Phillips 30 inch with similar features.
I have a bit of a vertical shift to the left with my picture screen out of the box that I'm planning on working on when I get brave enough to tackle the SM stuff.
But the best part about my experience so far is that I get 4 HD channels and several digital channels without adding the digital package from my cable company or OTA hookup. All I did was take the same cable out of my old tv and pulled it into my 955 and wham, great HD pix. I can only speculate that since the tv does have a tuner and I also have cable internet service that somehow I got lucky and get HD as well by accident. I would love to hear if anyone else has had similar luck as me in regards to HD reception.
Cheers.
---Jmfd

Ever since I got my money back from Arnold and Uncle Sam I was hankering for a new TV for temporary living room use (ultimately for the bedroom). I started looking at the Philips 30" HD tube since it was available at their Outlet for a low price. But reading AVS on the unit had me hesitant to make the purchase.

So this past Friday the family went to a Best Buy since I knew they had the Philips I was interested in. It was on the low shelf so you had to sit on the floor to face the screen. They had an HD loop going. The Philips cut off a significant portion of the bottom of the screen. Neither I nor the associate could figure out how to fix it. So I was resigned not to make a purchase until the wife started looking at other sets and found the 30X.

She loved the picture and it was on clearance. I messed with the controller a bit and it seemed easy enough to work with. The upper right corner got a little dark occasionally. Came home and poked around on this thread, pleased with the general satisfaction expressed for this set.

First thing on Saturday I went back and poked at the set. It had some scratches on the case and the front panel door was busted. I asked the sales guy if he could show me some love for the damaged goods and lo and behold he knocked another $50 off, after the $500 that it was already discounted. Set will be delivered this Saturday.

I just got my component video cables from monoprice (ordered them yesterday, they showed up today!!) so when BB shows up I'll be ready to rock.

Thanks for all the helpful discussion you folks have had.

Paul

But the best part about my experience so far is that I get 4 HD channels and several digital channels without adding the digital package from my cable company or OTA hookup. All I did was take the same cable out of my old tv and pulled it into my 955 and wham, great HD pix. I can only speculate that since the tv does have a tuner and I also have cable internet service that somehow I got lucky and get HD as well by accident. I would love to hear if anyone else has had similar luck as me in regards to HD reception.
Cheers.
---Jmfd

The TV has a built in QAM tuner which allows you to get free digital (HD) channels from your cable company when you plug the coaxial cable into the back of the tv. This will only work with unencrypted channels (almost always local HD stations). So it's not good luck, but rather a good tv. Cable companies are required by law to provide the HD feeds of FOX, ABC, NBC, etc. for free with even the most basic cable subscriptions. So you most likely aren't getting ESPN, TNT, Discovery, etc. in HD because those are usually encrypted by all cable companies. In any case, I was surprised too when I found out this set has a QAM tuner; just makes it that much better :D

I've similar problem with my HDMI cable that I bought from monoprice.com. It is bit heavy and can fall off easily. Also I dont see much difference in video quality when I use HDMI v/s Component.
I don't see much difference either. I actually prefer the picture quality with component cables.

Cable companies are required by law to provide the HD feeds of FOX, ABC, NBC, etc. for free with even the most basic cable subscriptions. So you most likely aren't getting ESPN, TNT, Discovery, etc. in HD because those are usually encrypted by all cable companies.
Not quite true - they need to provide the local feed - but not necessarily the HD version. FIOS provides clear analog and the digital version of the analog but encrypts the HD versions (and everything else). This may change after 2009 when everyone will pull the plug on the analog channels. Don't be surprised to lose/gain some channels as the cable cos change their clear channel lineups.

One thing the QAM tuner is good for in regular cable co neighborhoods - you usually can see your neighbors' VOD channel in the clear. If you ever see a channel in which the video goes into FF or rewind - that's a VOD channel your neighbor is watching. :cool:

Thanks guys for the replies.
I actually did get HD (discovery and TNT) for a few weeks and then all the sudden they vanished. I have not attempted to rescan the channels due to fear of loss of all the other HD channels I still get might vanish too. And that would be tragic.
I also did see one or two VOD movies (probably from a neighbor) during the first few weeks of viewing my new xs955. I always wondered why and how I was seeing that stuff.
Is there anything I can try to do (other than re-scanning) to gain those 2 HD channels back??
HD and CRT's r cool.
:>)

Since I've had this TV, I've found the whites to be overpowering. Someone will wear a white button-down shirt, and it'll practically glow. This is particularly a problem in this season of advertisements that seem obsessed with white backgrounds. To try to combat it, I first set my white level (contrast) to about 7 or 9, and compensated by increasing the brightness level (Pro settings/neutral colors). This probably isn't ideal for picture composition, but the whites are so strong something had to be done. I thought I found the solution. I switched from neutral to warm, and that toned the whites down to an acceptable level. I then was able to raise contrast to about 20, get the brightness more in line, etc. Thing is, I'm not sure this is the way to go. I was watching an old black-and-white game show, and it looked almost sepia with the warm settings. Also, I threw in my Attack of the Clones DVD (which actually looked fine with neutral colors and an Avia calibration), and the gleaming white walls of Jango's apartment were reddened up quite a bit, and even the sky and sand of Tatooine looked duller with warm. So, to make a long story short, is there a better way to combat glowing whites? Perhaps something in the service menu that's off?

Another aspect to this is, maybe warm is fine and I'm just used to the other way. It says it's the NTSC-standard, if that means anything. What is considered the best setting between warm and neutral, if there is a best setting that a pro calibrator might suggest?

More of the cable companies are now scrambling all but the local channels requiring you to get digital cable. I think the delay was because of equipment costs and has gradually taken place as their budgets would allow. They don't want to give us too much for free. Digital cable with HD DVR is not a high cost to pay for the convenience of viewing HD shows anytime and shuttling thru commercials. What a great thing to have an inHD Imax on DVR for entertaining guests who have never seen quality HD. Lots of Wows...

...Digital cable with HD DVR is not a high cost to pay for the convenience of viewing HD shows anytime and shuttling thru commercials. What a great thing to have an inHD Imax on DVR for entertaining guests who have never seen quality HD. Lots of Wows...
Very well put. ;)

OK, just had my set delivered.

Satellite and DVD are working nicely with no major tweaking. Picture is generally nice and sharp with minor wear and tear from a display unit.

Couple of bones though:

1. remote does not match the one in the User Manual, it does not have a row of buttons that are shown in the manual, including the ANT button which is supposed to switch between cable and UHF/VHF inputs

2. I am getting NADA with the UHF/VHF input. Tried two kinds of indoor antennas which work for a TV in another first floor room in the house, but I seem to get a "no signal detected" message flashed on the screen.

Thanks for any help.

Paul

Think I found the answers my own questions: The installers gave me the wrong remote!!

It was a universal unit according to Sony tech. I need the RM-Y199 that has the magical ANT button. BB is now on the hunt.

If that remote allows you to not have to toggle through the inputs ( video 1 2 3 ect) in order, keep it.

If that remote allows you to not have to toggle through the inputs ( video 1 2 3 ect) in order, keep it.

If you want to skip certain inputs, all you have to do is go into the menu--setup tab--label video inputs & assign "skip" to any input you're not using.
Easy as pie :D

Since I've had this TV, I've found the whites to be overpowering. Someone will wear a white button-down shirt, and it'll practically glow. This is particularly a problem in this season of advertisements that seem obsessed with white backgrounds. To try to combat it, I first set my white level (contrast) to about 7 or 9, and compensated by increasing the brightness level (Pro settings/neutral colors). This probably isn't ideal for picture composition, but the whites are so strong something had to be done. I thought I found the solution. I switched from neutral to warm, and that toned the whites down to an acceptable level. I then was able to raise contrast to about 20, get the brightness more in line, etc. Thing is, I'm not sure this is the way to go. I was watching an old black-and-white game show, and it looked almost sepia with the warm settings. Also, I threw in my Attack of the Clones DVD (which actually looked fine with neutral colors and an Avia calibration), and the gleaming white walls of Jango's apartment were reddened up quite a bit, and even the sky and sand of Tatooine looked duller with warm. So, to make a long story short, is there a better way to combat glowing whites? Perhaps something in the service menu that's off?

Another aspect to this is, maybe warm is fine and I'm just used to the other way. It says it's the NTSC-standard, if that means anything. What is considered the best setting between warm and neutral, if there is a best setting that a pro calibrator might suggest?

You have to get into the service menu to get the color temp. right. See the Sony Service codes thread. The factory neutral and warm settings are both off.

Bobski:
Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Actually after playing my ps2 (Dragon quest VIII) I can see a little better whats going on here.. its basically 2 verticle lines that appear to be about half an inch thick.. they aren't so much as lines, as they are 'area's' of the glass that are slightly brighter than the rest.. and you really can only notice it when your move the viewable screen around, think like in a first person shooter game, how you can look around.. there is one on each side of the screen (left and right) and they are about 4 to 5 inches from the edge of the glass.. and appear to run from top to bottom.. I'm not thinking this is a defect in the glass anymore, i'm thinking this might just be how the tv's are made and i'm one of the FEW people to ever notice it? I would try to use my digital camera to take a picture of it but i seriously doubt it could capture it..

My TV has this problem also. But, it is mostly visible on the right side about 5 inchs from the right. I don't really see it on the left. It is like a while shadow line. I first noticed it when swimming underwater in oblivion, I was like, "why do I have a white vertical line going down the screen." If I look up at the sky in Oblivion for 360, and move the camera around, it is very easy to see. At first, I thought it was a defect for just my TV b4 looking at your posts and other user posts. But, now, I think all the 30 inch Sony's have that problem. Now, that I have found the white half inch vertical line going down the right side of the screen, it's all I see. It is very annoying. It is because of this, I don't think this TV was worth buying, even though I got it new for $699.

would someone mind posting their menu video settings for DVD, Cable, SD, and HDTV for me?
i just picked up a 34XS955 and it looks great after some tweaking but SD looks like ass.

here is my current setup:

DVD -> TV (component video)
STB -> Tivo (coax... when i get my HD-DVR from comcast this will change of coarse) -> TV (s-video)

is there a better way to hook my Tivo and STB up better than what I have?

menu settings would be greatly appreciated.
thanks

This week I've developed an interesting audio problem with my 30XS955. As we all know, it's a generally nice loud set. With my HDMI input from my cable box to the tv, I could typically fill the room with the volume set to 7, and at about 14 for analog inputs from my Xbox, DVD player, and Xbox 360. On Sunday evening, while watching tv, there was a sudden brownout for about 45 minutes. Everything, at the time, seemed fine. It wasn't til Tuesday or so that I happened to notice that I now have a significant overall sound reduction, from any source. Now, to get the same level of sound from my HDMI source, I have to crank the tv to 14-15. For DVDs and gaming, I'm now in the high 20s. Resetting the tv to factory defaults didn't help, so I've called in my extended warranty and an authorized Sony tech is coming out to my place tomorrow. Has anyone encountered the likes of this before or have an idea what happened? Someone never having heard this set before this happened (like a few of my friends over the weekend) would have no idea anything was wrong by listening to it since the set is still sounds fine while turned up. But as I'm not going to be getting a good HDMI a/v receiver and surround system for a while yet, it'd be nice to get my volume back the way it was. The set's only 5 months old (though a Nov 05 manufactur date), so I'm hoping it's a minor fix as opposed to the sound system being damaged and needing replacement. So now I'm just waiting anxiously to see if I'll get...

1) "This is an easy fix, don't worry"

or

2) "The whole set's gonna have to be replaced" (and hope I don't get a refurb!)

or

3) "The system sounds fine to me" and the guy just tries to crank up the volume in the service menu or something to try to appease me

In any event, I suppose the money I'm saving on my service visit will have to go to a UPS to make sure this doesn't happen again. If anyone has any theories or ideas, I'd sure appreciate em. Especially recommendations for better system protection to go along with my own research. There's got to be bsome combination power surge/dropoff protectors that don't cost a fortune. Thanks.

I'd guess for choice #3.

Get a surge protector.

I'd guess for choice #3.

Get a surge protector.


I already use one. Surge protectors only help against surges/spikes, not dips and outages. Need a battery backup UPS for such.

And if the tech tries to convince me that the tv's just fine, he'll get an earful from me.

i just picked up a 34XS955 and it looks great after some tweaking but SD looks like ass.


Your are absolutely correct about SD looking horrible out of the box.

I used the settings for my STB connection, suggested by crochunter in this thread -
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=582269 ... and it really helped a lot.

I always intended to go back and revisit my settings but never have. I have a 30XS955.

Your are absolutely correct about SD looking horrible out of the box.

I used the settings for my STB connection, suggested by crochunter in this thread -
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=582269 ... and it really helped a lot.

I always intended to go back and revisit my settings but never have. I have a 30XS955.
Croc's settings are great for digital signals. SD is another matter.

Digital Signals - S-Video does not carry digital signals. You need at least component cables to acquire digital signals.

SD - for analog material the best PQ can be had by splitting the coax, before the STB, and send one of the splits directly to the tv and use the tvs tuner to tune-in analog material. Use at least a 1 GHz splitter. After doing this try these settings for analog channels:
Picture Mode - Standard
Picture - (Contrast) 38 tics or about 55%.
Brightness - 45-50 tics
Color - 32 tics (50%)
Hue - 32 tics
Sharpness - 32 tics
Color Temp - Neutral
ClearEdge - Mid
DRC - Interlaced

The splitter idea still holds true when you get your Comcast HD STB. The analog tuner in those boxes absolutely destroys analog signals - just say no.

Good Luck

Croc's settings are great for digital signals. SD is another matter.


Well, I have been using Croc's settings from the composite connection off of my cable box (SA-8300) in SD. It improved my picture wonderfully, but perhaps not optimially. Thanks for the heads up; I guess I will REALLY need to revisit this.

Question for my sucky Comcast STB ... noticed you have "ClearEdge - Mid" instead of "Off" - for the composite connection, wouldn't it be better to disable edge enhancement completely?

Well, I have been using Croc's settings from the composite connection off of my cable box (SA-8300) in SD. It improved my picture wonderfully, but perhaps not optimially. Thanks for the heads up; I guess I will REALLY need to revisit this.

Question for my sucky Comcast STB ... noticed you have "ClearEdge - Mid" instead of "Off" - for the composite connection, wouldn't it be better to disable edge enhancement completely?
Standard Definition material, whether it be analog or digital, can tend to be very soft due to compression. ClearEdge is a wonderful tool when the conditions are right. Of course, this is up to personal taste. If you venture into the SM, you'll find that settings for Scan Velocity Modulation in 480i settings are much higher than for HD. Just like salt, use a little to taste.

I have never actually seen this sony with the super fine pitch.. but has anyone tried it on a pc ..?? Are small text washed out or do they look decent. I have tried 2 Crt hdtvs with my pc and U all know how blurry small text looks..

Can anyone list all models they know have Super fine pitch.. Does it have a super fine pitch label or something?

thnks .

would someone mind posting their menu video settings for DVD, Cable, SD, and HDTV for me?



With respect to menu settings, you will probably get 100 different opinions on this, with most recommending Pro, Color Temp=Neutral and color axis=Monitor. While this is a great setting for HD, having tried this and many other settings, I've found that for overall TV viewing(SD,DVD & HD), I prefer Movie, with the following settings for my XBR960:

Mode=Movie
Picture=47
Brighness=43
Color= 24(Lowered for a more natural color balance)
Hue=0
Sharpness=20
Color Temp=Warm(More TV like to my eyes)
Clear Edge= Off
Advance/Color Axis= Default(Most prefer Monitor to reduce the red push. I find I get the same effect(without the greenish look), by turning the color down to 24)

I also upconvert to 1080i with my cable box(8300DVR) and live the picture size on normal mode. While I've tried other recommendations (Such as splitting the cable direct to the TV), I've found the 8300 has just as good of a tuner in it, and gives me a bigger and better picture for SD, by upconverting.

Again, every TV and pair of eyes and room lighting are different. You are the best judge. My dad has the 30xs955 with almost similar settings, except he prefers Standard with color temp=neutral. I think it looks, too blue, but he thinks it looks more crisp.

This week I've developed an interesting audio problem with my 30XS955. As we all know, it's a generally nice loud set. With my HDMI input from my cable box to the tv, I could typically fill the room with the volume set to 7, and at about 14 for analog inputs from my Xbox, DVD player, and Xbox 360. On Sunday evening, while watching tv, there was a sudden brownout for about 45 minutes. Everything, at the time, seemed fine. It wasn't til Tuesday or so that I happened to notice that I now have a significant overall sound reduction, from any source. Now, to get the same level of sound from my HDMI source, I have to crank the tv to 14-15. For DVDs and gaming, I'm now in the high 20s. Resetting the tv to factory defaults didn't help, so I've called in my extended warranty and an authorized Sony tech is coming out to my place tomorrow. Has anyone encountered the likes of this before or have an idea what happened?

Well, got confirmation that the tech's actually going to show up this afternoon, so hopefully this mystery'll be solved soon. He didn't seem the least bit surprised when I described what was going on, though. Guess I'll find out if that's a good or bad thing later. :)

I have never actually seen this sony with the super fine pitch.. but has anyone tried it on a pc ..?? Are small text washed out or do they look decent. I have tried 2 Crt hdtvs with my pc and U all know how blurry small text looks..

Can anyone list all models they know have Super fine pitch.. Does it have a super fine pitch label or something?

thnks .
From what I've seen, none of the crt sets look good as a PC monitor. Text is awful.

Sony models with SFP tube: KD-30XS955, KD-34XS955, KD-34XBR960, KD-36XS955. I know there are a few older models but I don't know the numbers.

Well, the tech arrived on Tuesday, as scheduled, and went over my set. Happily, he confirmed that I'm not going deaf and that the volume seemed a bit low to him too. A diagnostic he ran on the mainboard showed no problems at all, thankfully, which means the whole set didn't have to be disassembled. Turning up the speakers to max volume on a couple of inputs didn't result in any hiss, pops, or any other kind of distortion either. Also good news. That being the case, he said that the speakers were very easy to replace if I so desired, but that he'd rather not open up a semi-new set like this if he didn't have to since it can introduce new problems etc. Especially considering the picture quality is fine. Since I still have over 4.5 years of warranty service left on it, I might hold off on that until there's a serious problem since this one doesn't look as if it'll deteriorate further. I haven't touched my service menu at all, but I figure there must be some master volume setting in it that can be increased a bit to compensate for the loss I've suffered in range.

I've seen a post through this thread discussing the xs955's resolution to be 1440 x 1080i. I have recently purchased a Toshiba Hd dvd player and was wondering, since the movies have all been in 2:35 ratio, what the actual resolution of the movie playing on the TV would be? Obviously, the width would be 1440, but what about the height at 2:35 and 1:85. Does anyone know what the height resolution would be? Thanks!!! :)

I've seen a post through this thread discussing the xs955's resolution to be 1440 x 1080i. I have recently purchased a Toshiba Hd dvd player and was wondering, since the movies have all been in 2:35 ratio, what the actual resolution of the movie playing on the TV would be? Obviously, the width would be 1440, but what about the height at 2:35 and 1:85. Does anyone know what the height resolution would be? Thanks!!! :)
I believe this set, like most other HD sets, uses vertical compression in which none of the horizontal lines are lost, just pulled closer together. This would leave the vertical resolution unchanged.

Hi everyone:

I've been a happy owner of the 30XS955 for just about a year now, and have unfortunately now encountered a small problem. I've read/heard of similar problems, but nothing quite like this, so I hope you all can help.

A faint white-ish band, about two inches wide, is now running from top to bottom on the left-hand side of the screen, about an inch or two in. It's not noticeable at all during most programming, but is *very* evident when looking at a black screen or a low-light scene. The problem is consistent across all inputs, and is not resulting from any magnetic elements in the near environment. I haven't noticed this problem until recently, but it could very well have been around for quite some time... but now that i HAVE noticed it, I really can't ignore it!

A potentially related problem, which I have been noticing for at least a month, comes at power-on: along with the usual power-up click and hum, I'm now seeing a momentary white-ish blob emenate across the center of the screen. I'm *nearly* positive this wasn't occuring until about a month ago.

So, I'll pose these observations to the experts, and ask:

1) Is the white-ish band a situation anyone else is/has experienced?
2) Is it something I should worry about getting worse, and, if so, should I get it looked at by a tech?
3) Is the power-on situation a common occurance, one that I just have never noticed until now?
4) Should I be worried?! :)

Thanks in advance for your help!

Anybody? Any advice on this?

Thanks --

Very interesting... at some angles, the "band" I'm seeing is almost greenish. I'm hoping someone with some engineering knowledge can shed some light...

I think you never noticed it... it usually shows up during pans with midtone colors... I have one on the right side and some blotches throughout... I don't notice it unless I am looking for it... It probably happened during the manufacturing of the tube... could be why Sony changed suppliers a few times.... mine hasn't gotten any worse if that helps you... the pinkish tint sounds like a magnetic field problem... maybe a speaker nearby? I had that problem with my old speakers with my previous set... maybe a repair shop someplace would rent you a degausing coil... the set should clear itself though if you solve the field proximity problem..

I think you never noticed it... it usually shows up during pans with midtone colors... I have one on the right side and some blotches throughout... I don't notice it unless I am looking for it... It probably happened during the manufacturing of the tube... could be why Sony changed suppliers a few times.... mine hasn't gotten any worse if that helps you...

Thanks for the info. After some further experimenting, what's actually going on is that the mysterious "white band" is simply an area of the screen that does not respond to changing the brightness control settings. On a black screen, its brightness is about how the blasphemous "Vivid" setting displays black... so, watching it in "Movie" or "Pro" as I usualy do is the only time the problem is noticeable. Sliding the brightness setting up and down has NO effect at all on the brightness of the band. So it's almost like that portion of the screen is "stuck" for some reason!

My wife commented on the separate (but related) issue of the white blob at power up and power down, and says it was definitely never there before. Sony has a troubleshooting ticket on that particular issue, though, and says it's no problem.

Does anyone think anything in the service settings might solve my first problem, though?

Thanks --

What would be a great price for a new, in a sealed box 30XS955 be? Thanks.

Hello -

I joined today since this forum came up on several searches I have done for my KD30XS955.

I purchased this unit from Crutchfield 12/05. I have set it up with the AVIA disk. Everything seems perfect except for a horizontal adjustment.

While viewing the TV, it seems that some of the picture is lost on the right side of the screen (about 1/2"). I use the TV in Full mode - and have noticed this is not an issue in Normal mode. I must admit that I do not know much about the TV - other than what is in the manual. I have searched the forums here and tried to find some answers. I was going to download Ken's service code, but I was getting error messages and it would not download.
The TV is still under warranty (extended warranty) - so I don't know if I should attempt to fix this issue myself or put a call into crutchfield. I am somewhat technical (I build space hardware, do all of my own automotive work, etc) so I'm fairly confident that I could fix this with a little help.

Thanks,
Perry

What would be a great price for a new, in a sealed box 30XS955 be? Thanks.
Anything under $700 - good luck trying to find one.

Hello -

I joined today since this forum came up on several searches I have done for my KD30XS955.

I purchased this unit from Crutchfield 12/05. I have set it up with the AVIA disk. Everything seems perfect except for a horizontal adjustment.

While viewing the TV, it seems that some of the picture is lost on the right side of the screen (about 1/2"). I use the TV in Full mode - and have noticed this is not an issue in Normal mode. I must admit that I do not know much about the TV - other than what is in the manual. I have searched the forums here and tried to find some answers. I was going to download Ken's service code, but I was getting error messages and it would not download.
The TV is still under warranty (extended warranty) - so I don't know if I should attempt to fix this issue myself or put a call into crutchfield. I am somewhat technical (I build space hardware, do all of my own automotive work, etc) so I'm fairly confident that I could fix this with a little help.

Thanks,
Perry


This is what warranty is for - and you can probably skip crutchfield and go straight to Sony.

I figured Crutchfield would be able to fix it thru their end (maybe even tell me how to do it over the phone). The warranty was purchased thru them.

There is an audio store nearby, I wonder if they would get contracted out to fix this if need be?

Thanks,
Perry

I called crutchfield and they helped me run through some tests (which should have been obvious to try). Turns out it might be my HD cablebox that is causing the problem. The cablebox is on #5 input (component cables). I put my DVD player on the same input and I did not have the problem. I moved the box over to #6 (component cables) and had the same problem.

My cable company (cablevision of NJ) told me that if I used the cable card, I would not be able to receive HD. I think this is bad info since the TV has a tuner in it.

I called crutchfield and they helped me run through some tests (which should have been obvious to try). Turns out it might be my HD cablebox that is causing the problem. The cablebox is on #5 input (component cables). I put my DVD player on the same input and I did not have the problem. I moved the box over to #6 (component cables) and had the same problem.

My cable company (cablevision of NJ) told me that if I used the cable card, I would not be able to receive HD. I think this is bad info since the TV has a tuner in it.
That's really bazarre info from your cable co.

This should only be true if the cable co didn't offer HD at all.

The picture can easily be centered in the Service Menu, and if it's overscan, that can be fixed as well.

About cable HD:

Your set has a QAM tuner in it. This means you can pick up the local hd channels broadcast unencrypted by your cable co. Here's an example. I live in the SF Bay Area. Comcast offers the local network digital channels for ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS. But they don't encrypt these like they do premium channels like HBO. So, all I have to do is plug in the standard coax cable out of the wall into the cable input on the tv and I can pick up these digital channels free. You have to tell your tv to do a scan for these digital channels.

Cheers!

That's really bazarre info from your cable co.

This should only be true if the cable co didn't offer HD at all.

The picture can easily be centered in the Service Menu, and if it's overscan, that can be fixed as well.

About cable HD:

Your set has a QAM tuner in it. This means you can pick up the local hd channels broadcast unencrypted by your cable co. Here's an example. I live in the SF Bay Area. Comcast offers the local network digital channels for ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS. But they don't encrypt these like they do premium channels like HBO. So, all I have to do is plug in the standard coax cable out of the wall into the cable input on the tv and I can pick up these digital channels free. You have to tell your tv to do a scan for these digital channels.

Cheers!

Thanks for the info. My cable company is full of F-ups. I get a different answer from every person I talk to there.
It took them 2 weeks to get my cable switched over to digital from the anolog service. The had me entered in the wrong zone on the computer system. Everything worked when the guy left - after an hour - nothing worked! Since the cable boxes are sent out 'hot', they work like that until they 'ping' your box.

They probably told me this info so that they could make more money off me renting the box and remote.

If you don't need VOD, PPV or EPG, the CC feature of this set will get you everything else the STB does (including HD channels) - at a lower cost (sometimes free) - that's the whoile point of that feature.

Hi everyone, I have had my kd30sx955 since mid september of '05. I love it, wouldn't change a thing about it... up until about a month ago.
Let me tell you what I have connected to it first off. I live in Los Angeles and have Comcast digital and HD cable with the duel tuner HD Motorolla DVR. That's in input number 7. In 4, I have a cable linked to my I-pod, 5 is my Playstation 2 which also I use as my Dvd player and in 6 is my Nintendo Game Cube. It was, up until yesterday attached to a regular $20 dollar power strip I'm sure I purchased at my college bookstore a few years back. I think this was the demise of my poor TV. But, perhaps not and I would love for your help.
So, about a month ago (mid May, '06) while watching the new Parent Trap on HBO with my roomie (a lazy Sunday afternoon) the screen suddenly went to a tint of green with what seemed like horizontal streak marks going from the right to left of the images on screen. Almost as if watching the events unfold infront of you us zooming by. We were perplexed, tried changing the channel and nothing changed. The odd green tint and "zoom-lines" still there. I then had the bright idea to see if it was just the cable going screwy- and switched to the antenna. To no avail sadly it too was tinted green with those horrid "zoom-lines". We turned the TV off and on, and it was ok. For five minutes. It was back. We then decided to stop watching Lindsay Lohan x 2 and read went to read books for the time being.
The TV was fine for a while, then again while watching something else a few days later it returned. Turned the TV off, and ok. It wasn't consistant, being so, I wasn't too worried.
But last week it was happening again and again, so I decided to call Best Buy whome I bought it from along with the 4 year warrenty. They sent a guy over and to my bad luck, it wasn't occurring while he was there. So, he said it was fine after doing his tests with his little lap-top and went on his way. The very next day it happened again. THIS TIME THOUGH IT WAS WORSE!!!
The TV went green with the "zoom-lines" but now turned a sinister read. The green was just the gloaming. The lines were fiercer and the screen got more red. Soon, I could see faint red lines that didn't streak from the picture, but rather looked like they lay under the picture, glowing beneath arched from the left side of the screen like long thin "U"s to the other side of the screen. There must have been fourty or so from top to bottom. When the scene changed, the screen would flash a brilliant red and return to the red tinted picture with the thin glowing lines arching across. And then... FLASH!!!! The screen again went BRIGHT RED and turned itself right off. The led light that is the self timer light would flash on and off.
I turned the TV back on, and the picture was fine. 15 minutes later, again- it went right to the red with the "zoom-lines" and the red glowing archeing lines across the screen- and FLASH!!! RED light and off again. I immeadiately called Best Buy back and the same man arrived this morning. I told him now what was happening. Yesterday I bought a Monster Home Theatre power surge protector (at Best Buy for $79.00- they suggested the $149.00 one if I ever get a surround sound system- which I may someday, but not soon enough). I thought perhaps that would fix it. So far it has been much less frequent, but it did happen again.
So, is my TV totally messed up? The Best Buy guy said that if nothing happens while he's there, there's not much he can do. I think he had some sympathy in his heart and said he'd e-mail Sony and call me tomorrow.
Has anyone else had this occure with their KD20SX955 or the like? Should I be worried that it's not happening when the Best Buy guy comes? Will the new power surge protector help? Is my TV doomed? I would sooooo appriciate any help. I've never posted on a forum before, so I don't know if I'm even asking the right kind of questions or if I gave all the right kind of info... My lingo may be a little less techy than what's common on here, but I'm not all that technical, though I am trying to learn. Any help is appriciated. Thanks for reading and posting!!

NPM's post: It's really my post: moogle2. I am using my friend's computer and thought I had already registered in this site. I didn't and after posting noticed it was under his name- so please respond to me. Here's the same post... Thanks.

Hi everyone, I have had my kd30sx955 since mid september of '05. I love it, wouldn't change a thing about it... up until about a month ago.
Let me tell you what I have connected to it first off. I live in Los Angeles and have Comcast digital and HD cable with the duel tuner HD Motorolla DVR. That's in input number 7. In 4, I have a cable linked to my I-pod, 5 is my Playstation 2 which also I use as my Dvd player and in 6 is my Nintendo Game Cube. It was, up until yesterday attached to a regular $20 dollar power strip I'm sure I purchased at my college bookstore a few years back. I think this was the demise of my poor TV. But, perhaps not and I would love for your help.
So, about a month ago (mid May, '06) while watching the new Parent Trap on HBO with my roomie (a lazy Sunday afternoon) the screen suddenly went to a tint of green with what seemed like horizontal streak marks going from the right to left of the images on screen. Almost as if watching the events unfold infront of you us zooming by. We were perplexed, tried changing the channel and nothing changed. The odd green tint and "zoom-lines" still there. I then had the bright idea to see if it was just the cable going screwy- and switched to the antenna. To no avail sadly it too was tinted green with those horrid "zoom-lines". We turned the TV off and on, and it was ok. For five minutes. It was back. We then decided to stop watching Lindsay Lohan x 2 and read went to read books for the time being.
The TV was fine for a while, then again while watching something else a few days later it returned. Turned the TV off, and ok. It wasn't consistant, being so, I wasn't too worried.
But last week it was happening again and again, so I decided to call Best Buy whome I bought it from along with the 4 year warrenty. They sent a guy over and to my bad luck, it wasn't occurring while he was there. So, he said it was fine after doing his tests with his little lap-top and went on his way. The very next day it happened again. THIS TIME THOUGH IT WAS WORSE!!!
The TV went green with the "zoom-lines" but now turned a sinister read. The green was just the gloaming. The lines were fiercer and the screen got more red. Soon, I could see faint red lines that didn't streak from the picture, but rather looked like they lay under the picture, glowing beneath arched from the left side of the screen like long thin "U"s to the other side of the screen. There must have been fourty or so from top to bottom. When the scene changed, the screen would flash a brilliant red and return to the red tinted picture with the thin glowing lines arching across. And then... FLASH!!!! The screen again went BRIGHT RED and turned itself right off. The led light that is the self timer light would flash on and off.
I turned the TV back on, and the picture was fine. 15 minutes later, again- it went right to the red with the "zoom-lines" and the red glowing archeing lines across the screen- and FLASH!!! RED light and off again. I immeadiately called Best Buy back and the same man arrived this morning. I told him now what was happening. Yesterday I bought a Monster Home Theatre power surge protector (at Best Buy for $79.00- they suggested the $149.00 one if I ever get a surround sound system- which I may someday, but not soon enough). I thought perhaps that would fix it. So far it has been much less frequent, but it did happen again.
So, is my TV totally messed up? The Best Buy guy said that if nothing happens while he's there, there's not much he can do. I think he had some sympathy in his heart and said he'd e-mail Sony and call me tomorrow.
Has anyone else had this occure with their KD20SX955 or the like? Should I be worried that it's not happening when the Best Buy guy comes? Will the new power surge protector help? Is my TV doomed? I would sooooo appriciate any help. I've never posted on a forum before, so I don't know if I'm even asking the right kind of questions or if I gave all the right kind of info... My lingo may be a little less techy than what's common on here, but I'm not all that technical, though I am trying to learn. Any help is appriciated. Thanks for reading and posting!!

You should be very worried. You have a heat related issue. If it were my set, once it started acting up, I would leave it on until the guy arrived. Not too hard to figure that out.

You should be very worried. You have a heat related issue. If it were my set, once it started acting up, I would leave it on until the guy arrived. Not too hard to figure that out.


Yikes.... I had it on all morning. About two hours before he got there and it wasn't acting up. Any thing I can do to try and induce this and call him out again? Is there some sort of cooling system/fan or something that I should be putting on this. I don't see why it would be heating up any more than usual. It is not encased at all, sitting on top of an ikea tv entertainment table thing. I'm seeing radiohead tonight, so I will check back later this evening.

Thanks again.

You could offer to rent a room to the BB guy.

You missunderstood what I said. I will try again.

WHEN THE TV FAILS DO NOT TURN IT OFF. CALL THE REPAIRMAN. THAT WAY, HE WILL SEE WHAT YOU SEE.

biker19, Thanks & BrandsMart USA in South FL & Atlanta, GA has them for $598.88

They also have the 32" & the 36" models too.

This may be a dumb question but I din't see any "Digital Audio" Outputs on them & I was just wondering how do you hook it up to a Surround Sound Receiver for Digital audio? Thanks.

biker19, Thanks & BrandsMart USA in South FL & Atlanta, GA has them for $598.88

They also have the 32" & the 36" models too.

This may be a dumb question but I din't see any "Digital Audio" Outputs on them & I was just wondering how do you hook it up to a Surround Sound Receiver for Digital audio? Thanks.
You don't use the TV for that - use the digital out from the STB to the reciever.

STB? If you ar using an antenna or directly connecting the cable to the TV and using the intenal digital tuner, how do you connect to the DD decoder? I believe that is his question.

MrHifi is Correct :) I'm talking about receiving Off-Air Local HDTV Channels using my own antenna & the HDTV Digital Tuner inside the set.

This may be a dumb question but I din't see any "Digital Audio" Outputs on them & I was just wondering how do you hook it up to a Surround Sound Receiver for Digital audio? Thanks.
Are we still talking about the KD-30XS955? Mine has an optical digital output jack, which can output both PCM and Dolby Digital bitstreams. See page 15 of the owner's manual.

cameronthorne, Thanks & I finally got the Owners Manual to download & there was the Optical Digital Audio Output Jack.

The problem I had was that the picture I had of the Jacks din't show one because it's off to the side by the Cable Card Slot & all the one I had just zoomed in on the "Regular" Jacks & din't show the whole back. Thanks Again.

Awesome. Enjoy the TV. I am super happy with mine. The picture quality is fantastic.

I have a technical question. I own a 34xs955 and i cant seem to HIDE the video,channel, and time tabs!? Does anyone here know how to hide these tabs??

Can anyone help me?
Has anyone else had the circuit board come loose on their TV?
I have had this problem three times now, and I'm getting quite upset with my TV! To make a long story shorter, I had a perfectly good TV that was 20 years old. The Ultimate Electronics stores were closing in the Dallas area last year, so I told the wife let's go see about a new TV. Convinced her to buy the Sony KD-30XS955 brand new in the box.

Got home and hooked it up and all was well. One month later, the TV won't turn on. The light that blinks when the TV warms up, but that's all it will do. Called Sony and they sent someone out to pick it up. They called two days later and said that a circuit board had come loose and they re-seated it and it's all fixed. They returned the TV to me and it worked great. For about three months. Then the exact same problem happened. Called Sony and they said it was now out of warranty for a service call.

Called the guy that repaired it and he said bring it in and he'd look at it. He re-seated it again and didn't charge me for the repair. Now, eight months later, the exact same problem happened!! I don't have an extended warranty. The TV is 1 year and 1 month old. WHAT GIVES?! Has anyone else had this happen to them?

What kind of recourse do you think I would have with Sony to try and get this resolved once and for all? The TV is rather heavy to keep unplugging and taking in every 3 - 8 months!

--Rob

Hello AVS forum, I've spent tens of hours skimming through all types of forums to solidify my selection of the 30xs955 as my HDTV for the future, and I want to thank AVS and all of you for that. Many of my questions have been answered as I read but I am curious about a few things.

1) I've had my TV for a few weeks now and I have noticed that while displaying in HD (full screen) the image is slightly 2-3" to the right as ABC and CBS logos are cut off at times. Is there a way to adjust this?



2) I had bought a Logitech z5500 sound system for a next-gen console (xbox 360 or ps3) and I have it set up with the TV but can anyone give me advice how I can can have this surround sound system hooked up to a satellite receiver , DVD player, a 360 instantaneously. (The Logitech system has only an optical output, coaxial and a 6 ch. direct output)


Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks

1) I've had my TV for a few weeks now and I have noticed that while displaying in HD (full screen) the image is slightly 2-3" to the right as ABC and CBS logos are cut off at times. Is there a way to adjust this?

Yes, this is easily fixed in the service menu. Go to group 2170D-2 and adjust HPOS (Horizontal position). See the Sony service codes thread for how to get in, make adjustments, and write them into the memory:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5497408&&#post5497408

Okay, so I've got my Xbox 360 connected to my TV via component cables. It will only play DVD's at 420p, and the TV recognizes that it is 16x9 (displays in "Full"). As we all know, often movies are in the other widescreen (boxes on top and bottem in "Full" 16x9 display - I forget the ratio). So, I'd prefer to "Zoom" in and crop the extreme left and right (as I do when I watch DVD's through the PC at an upscaled 1080i mode). However, since the TV picks up the input as SD (420p), the "Zoom" option is not available. Is there any way to change this and make "Zoom" view available for SD signals? Why is this even an issue?

Thanks!