I am going to pick up my KDF60WF655 tomorrow but it is supposed to be raining. Can someone tell me what the dimensions of the box are so I can find an appropriate vehicle?

The box is: 66.5 X 44 X 24.5.

Enjoy ;)
Jeff

Originally posted by mklaessy
This is the stand that I'm using for my 55XS:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1060605669796&skuId=5902302&productCategoryId=cat03116&type=product

From my couch, the height is great and the (2) shelves are perfect. I've got my DVD, Center Channel, and HD STB on the top, and my 400 disk CD changer, VCR, X-Box and Receiver on the bottom. It's kind of packed, but overall looks really good and is very functional.

mklaessy--

Do you know if that's the stand that most BB's have their Mits 52" DLP's on? Also, is the leg height adjustable?

I am also picking mine up today. Mine is the kdf55xs. I know it is a little wider due to the speakers, but yours has a larger screen size. I called Best Buy and they have the box dimensions of mine as 28 x 69 x 42. I can just get that 42 height into my dodge grand caravan. I will have to take out all of the back seats. I may be able to put it in the side door and then turn it so the long part goes back to front. I was worried about lying it down because my back opening is only about 40, but once inside it goes to about 43 or 44 height. The guy said I can lay it down to slide it in and then turn it up for the ride. THe side door may mean I don't have to do that.

I am worried about it moving around a lot back there since it is only 28 on it's base. I am also considering borrowing my friends old pickup. I have to ask her how smooth the ride is, or isn't. Good Luck, and hey, it's still worth the $50 in my pocket and not waiting around for it.

If you are brave enough and need the extra room you can also slide the top of the box off and leave the base packed into the bottom half -- this needs to be done "out of sight" of the store staff or they will make you sign a waiver voiding the warranty ;) -- and of course would help to secure it a bit more carefully then. Also keep in mind the more work to get it home the harder (and less incentive) it is to return if necessary...

I special ordered my new 60XS955 from a local store. I was originally waiting for the JVC 61z585 (for over 2 months). They gave me an open box Samsung HLP5663 while I waited. With delivery finally scheduled for my JVC, I got cold feet realizing that I really wanted a built-in tuner on my TV.

Then I saw the Sony 60XS955. Best picture quality I have seen on a LCD-RP set. And with more features and inputs than the JVC, and a little bit cheaper too.

I wanted to switch to this set, but the store I was working with isn't carrying it. I didn't just want to leave them high and dry after loaning me a TV while I waited, so I am special ordering it. Will take longer, but I can deal with that.

What I am worried about is: How frequently do the sets come with problems like dead pixels? I really hope my first set is "perfect" because I would hate to have to wait again while they get a replacement...

I finally got my HDTV! Thanks to this forum for all the research and help needed to make my decision. I got the 55" XS. I went to Best Buy on Friday night to inquire about when I could have one delivered (knowing they weren't in stock... I checked their website earlier in the day). The salesman told me he thinks there's one in the back. I said "please don't tease me". He checked, and there was one back there. I said do you guys price match because I found one for $350 less than their sale price. All I had was a business card from the guy at the other store with the model # & price written on the back. He said he'd have to check with his supervisor. He came back and said they would match the price and asked if I wanted it delivered or am I taking it home now. I said I'll take it home now. I couldn't get my credit card out of my wallet fast enough. It turns out I couldn't take it home then and there because it wouldn't fit in my SUV. Oh well.. I'll come back with a pick up truck in the morning. Anyway, while I was paying he asked if I wanted the extended warrany. I asked how much and does it cover the bulb. He said $399 for 4 years and it does cover the bulb. I said ok. While he was ringing it all up the computer came up with a price for the EW of $250 for 4 years (which still covers the bulb). So I just saved another $150. I also signed up for their rewards card and will be getting $100 back, too.
Needless to say but I'm a happy camper right now. The TV looks awesome in my family room. When I first took it out of the box and put it on my stand I thought I bought a TV that was too big. I don't think this anymore.. the size is perfect for my room.

Now some questions....
1. How are you guys hooking up all your equipment (AVR, DVD, HD-STD with dvr, and XBOX)?
-- Here's what I did:
1. STB- I have a HDMI cable ($150 ouch) going from STB to TV and optical cable from STB to AVR.
2. DVD- I have component cables going from DVD to TV and optical cable from DVD to AVR.
3. XBOX- I have the HD pack-- component cables going from XBOX to TV and optical cable from XBOX to AVR.

Everything seems to work good but am wondering if there is a better way in hooking everythng up. I have to use 3 remotes every time I want to turn on and listen to my TV. Also, I have to push a button on the TV remote and AVR remote to switch inputs to watch a DVD or play XBOX. It just seems like too much work.

Thanks for the help and sorry for the long post...

Tim

Originally posted by PackFan
What I am worried about is: How frequently do the sets come with problems like dead pixels? I really hope my first set is "perfect" because I would hate to have to wait again while they get a replacement...

I'm on my second Sony LCD, first a GWIII, now the 55" WF, and both have been about as perfect as you can get in terms of stuff that would bug you or that you wouldn't want to live with (like bad geometry and bad pixels.)

For the record also, only becuz the first guy just slid it right into my truck that way, I took both of my sets home with the boxes laying on their BACKS. It was against my better judgment, but I didn't feel safe with the 60" GWIII sitting upright...no way to really secure it down to my satisfaction without it wanting to fall over. I figured when I got my 55" from CC, I would tote it home the same way. I drove it home about 25 miles with it laying on its back. I figured if something got messed up, I could take it right back. Plus, the CC guys who loaded it let it go away from the store that way, so they would've been partly to blame! :D

What does the BN Smoother do? All I keep reading is that it reduces digital block noise - but I have no idea what that means.

My only issue with my new Sony 60XS955 (delivered last Saturday) is that the picture seems somewhat "busy." Especially on SD cable, I can see little "snow" dancing in the background. Also, the picture seems ever so slightly soft or fuzzy, even when I have the sharpness turned up. On HD cable, the picture is terrific (none of that "busyness"). The only thing -- and this could be completely in my head -- is that the HD doesn't always have that lifelike "wow" factor that I'd expect. Sometimes the picture is still a little bit soft or fuzzy around the edges, and not absolute crystal clear. Any idea what I'm talking about or how to adjust this?

FYI, I have the TV set on Standard mode (everything as it came except the sharpness turned up a little bit).

Originally posted by TemeculaAl
Bought a KDF-60XS955 two weeks ago, hooked it up to cable and started auto program. TV found all my cable channels and the unencrypted digital channels. Turned off the TV and when I turned the TV on again, TV tuned in to the last channel I was watching, but all the other channels that was programmed in was lost. Ran auto program once again with the same result. Went to Best Buy and had the TV exchanged for a new one. Am on my second KDF-60XS955, ran autoprogram, channels were programmed in, turned it off, turned it back on and had the same result as the last TV!! This TV also forgot all the channels programmed in once I turned it off.
I verified that channel lock is set to OFF. Wondering if I am doing something wrong or if I was just unlucky enough to get two TVs with the exact same problem? Wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem?

Your TV needs a firmware upgrade that can only be done by a Sony field rep. My TV had the same problem. Sony came out and fixed it 3 weeks ago and now everything is working properly.

PM me for the contact info for the Engineer at Sony that I dealt with or call the Sony Help Line (useless) and wait for someone with half a brain to finally call you back.

Originally posted by domer67
mklaessy--

Do you know if that's the stand that most BB's have their Mits 52" DLP's on? Also, is the leg height adjustable?

It probably is the same one, but I'm not sure. I've seen many sets sitting on it, the panny 60" LCD, a GWIII, etc. It's pretty basic and three dark tempered-glass shelves angled in the back so it can fit better in a corner. It's pretty nice though.

No, the shelves are not adjustable, but there might be a little adjustment possible on the "feet". I think mainly for leveling and such. I found that the spacing was very acceptable, though.

Originally posted by PackFan
I special ordered my new 60XS955 from a local store. I was originally waiting for the JVC 61z585 (for over 2 months). They gave me an open box Samsung HLP5663 while I waited. With delivery finally scheduled for my JVC, I got cold feet realizing that I really wanted a built-in tuner on my TV.

Then I saw the Sony 60XS955. Best picture quality I have seen on a LCD-RP set. And with more features and inputs than the JVC, and a little bit cheaper too.

I wanted to switch to this set, but the store I was working with isn't carrying it. I didn't just want to leave them high and dry after loaning me a TV while I waited, so I am special ordering it. Will take longer, but I can deal with that.

What I am worried about is: How frequently do the sets come with problems like dead pixels? I really hope my first set is "perfect" because I would hate to have to wait again while they get a replacement...

PF,

I wouldn't sweat the dead pixel thing too much. I've tried out a number of LCD RP sets and not noticed a single dead pixel. I think you'll be VERY happy with your XS.

This may sound weird, but it's happened too many times now to be just a fluke. I'm happily sitting there watching my 55WF655 when all of a sudden the on-screen display comes up, as if the DISPLAY button was hit on the remote. Stays up for about 20 seconds and then goes away. But nobady (not even the dog) was anywhere near any remote.

Thought maybe a glitch in the signal from the cable box could cause this. But I have to remove the green component signal for several seconds before the tv gives up and then displays the input label, etc. Anyone else have this problem? It's happening to me about every other day.

Originally posted by timick1
I finally got my HDTV! Thanks to this forum for all the research and help needed to make my decision. I got the 55" XS. I went to Best Buy on Friday night to inquire about when I could have one delivered (knowing they weren't in stock... I checked their website earlier in the day). The salesman told me he thinks there's one in the back. I said "please don't tease me". He checked, and there was one back there. I said do you guys price match because I found one for $350 less than their sale price. All I had was a business card from the guy at the other store with the model # & price written on the back. He said he'd have to check with his supervisor. He came back and said they would match the price and asked if I wanted it delivered or am I taking it home now. I said I'll take it home now. I couldn't get my credit card out of my wallet fast enough. It turns out I couldn't take it home then and there because it wouldn't fit in my SUV. Oh well.. I'll come back with a pick up truck in the morning. Anyway, while I was paying he asked if I wanted the extended warranty. I asked how much and does it cover the bulb. He said $399 for 4 years and it does cover the bulb. I said ok. While he was ringing it all up the computer came up with a price for the EW of $250 for 4 years (which still covers the bulb). So I just saved another $150. I also signed up for their rewards card and will be getting $100 back, too.
Needless to say but I'm a happy camper right now. The TV looks awesome in my family room. When I first took it out of the box and put it on my stand I thought I bought a TV that was too big. I don't think this anymore.. the size is perfect for my room.

Now some questions....
1. How are you guys hooking up all your equipment (AVR, DVD, HD-STD with dvr, and XBOX)?
-- Here's what I did:
1. STB- I have a HDMI cable ($150 ouch) going from STB to TV and optical cable from STB to AVR.
2. DVD- I have component cables going from DVD to TV and optical cable from DVD to AVR.
3. XBOX- I have the HD pack-- component cables going from XBOX to TV and optical cable from XBOX to AVR.

Everything seems to work good but am wondering if there is a better way in hooking everythng up. I have to use 3 remotes every time I want to turn on and listen to my TV. Also, I have to push a button on the TV remote and AVR remote to switch inputs to watch a DVD or play XBOX. It just seems like too much work.

Thanks for the help and sorry for the long post...

Tim

Hey timick1, CONGRATS on an excellent TV!! I had pretty much the same experience at BB this weekend. Went in on Friday to buy the set and expected to have it delivered this Saturday, but they were able to deliver last Sunday instead! I also bought the warranty and mine rang up at $250. I'm glad to hear this happened to someone else, because I asked about it and they said they'd have to honor it, but I still thought they F'd up and I'd end up getting screwed someday. I got mine on sale, plus 12%off with coupon, 24 months 0% financing and the rewards zone stuff... not too shabby. The real treat was the set, though. Once I got it home and turned on I new it was worth the price!

Here's how I hooked mine up:
Now some questions....
-- Here's what I did:
1. STB- I stayed with component on this one. I might go to HDMI at some time, but didn't feel it was necessary right now. I also have an optical cable to my AVR.
2. DVD- I used a DVI-->HDMI for this ($40 delivered from RAM and very nice). I have the Momitsu V880dx hooked up at 1080i and an optical cable to my AVR.
3. AVR - I have this running through the second set of components into my TV.
3. XBOX- I also have the HD pack and have these running through my AVR.
Works out great.

I still have one HD capable connection open on my set (HDMI) and (2) components open on my receiver if ever necessary. I will either end up hooking my STB or an HTPC to the HDMI, depending on if it would be better to do HTPC as DVI-->HDMI or DVI-->Component... I still don't have my HTPC yet, though, so that's down the line.

I'm currently using the Sony RM-3100 remote to control all my gear, but if I had it to do over again I'd probably research it more and maybe go with a Harmony remote. I'd like to be able to program discrete codes and it's some time a pain to use the LCD touch pad.

Have fun with the new set. I love mine!

Originally posted by jaydreb
What does the BN Smoother do? All I keep reading is that it reduces digital block noise - but I have no idea what that means.

My only issue with my new Sony 60XS955 (delivered last Saturday) is that the picture seems somewhat "busy." Especially on SD cable, I can see little "snow" dancing in the background. Also, the picture seems ever so slightly soft or fuzzy, even when I have the sharpness turned up. On HD cable, the picture is terrific (none of that "busyness"). The only thing -- and this could be completely in my head -- is that the HD doesn't always have that lifelike "wow" factor that I'd expect. Sometimes the picture is still a little bit soft or fuzzy around the edges, and not absolute crystal clear. Any idea what I'm talking about or how to adjust this?

FYI, I have the TV set on Standard mode (everything as it came except the sharpness turned up a little bit).

I thought my SD was a little poor at first, also, but when I played around with the settings a little I was able to get it to look pretty great. I believe my main changes were to turn up the BN Smoother (don't know what it really does but looked better), used the standard mode, I might have also used the "mild" mode but I can't quite remember (traveling this week and away from my TV :(). Also, I don't think you'd want to turn up the sharpness on SD, I think this would just emphasize the bad signal.

As far a the HD, I thought mine looked great. Very lifelike and WOW. HD looks good in vivid, but standard looks pretty good to. I don't think I made too many adjustments.

Good luck with your set!

jaydreb

have you tried using your cablecard? I went from STB with component outs to cablecard and saw an improvement in both SD (more so) and a cleaner HD. But using CC you will lose those inter actives.

jeff abc:
My 42we655 occasionally does this too. Was watching a dvd last night, using zoom mode to minimize the letterbox bars (I know this is heresy, but hey, it's my tv) when by itself it switched back to normal and the onscreen display came up. I didn't wait to see if it would time out, hit the remote button to make it go away.

Thanks for the responses. I'm using a HD-DVR STB from Comcast right now. We need the DVR function that it provides (not to mention the In Demand stuff), so I don't think switching to Cable Card would work for us. I'm debating whether to get a professional calibration just so I can have peace of mind that the TV is at its optimal setting. But don't get me wrong, the TV is still pretty amazing the way it is now. I just have a nagging doubt that it can be better.

videobruce:
Go into the Channel menu, select "digital channels", and run the scan. This will add any additional digital channels (only) perhaps missed on a previous scan, without affecting those already in memory. As far as I can tell, there is no way to go directly to an unmemorized digital channel to say, adjust your antenna to look for the signal. I have had to adjust my antenna (sort of by guess) first, then run the add digital channel scan, hoping to snag the signal. Yes, it is screwey.
By the way, I'll pass along an interesting occurence. I get regularly a digital station on rf channel 34 which maps to its associated analog channel 3. A few nights ago, weather conditions were such that some distant stations were coming in, so I ran the scan with the antenna pointed differently just to see what I might pick up. As it happened, I got another station on rf channel 47 which should have mapped to ch 3 as well. It showed up as ch 47, with no station ID and did not affect the stored info from the first station.

Originally posted by jaydreb
Thanks for the responses. I'm using a HD-DVR STB from Comcast right now. We need the DVR function that it provides (not to mention the In Demand stuff), so I don't think switching to Cable Card would work for us. I'm debating whether to get a professional calibration just so I can have peace of mind that the TV is at its optimal setting. But don't get me wrong, the TV is still pretty amazing the way it is now. I just have a nagging doubt that it can be better.

Have you considered using the Avia or another calibration disk, Avia helped me in fine tuning some areas better than just eyeballing it. $45 disk may be cheap fix to that nagging doubt, if that doesn't work try the Pro.

Originally posted by mklaessy
Hey timick1, CONGRATS on an excellent TV!! I had pretty much the same experience at BB this weekend. Went in on Friday to buy the set and expected to have it delivered this Saturday, but they were able to deliver last Sunday instead! I also bought the warranty and mine rang up at $250. I'm glad to hear this happened to someone else, because I asked about it and they said they'd have to honor it, but I still thought they F'd up and I'd end up getting screwed someday. I got mine on sale, plus 12%off with coupon, 24 months 0% financing and the rewards zone stuff... not too shabby. The real treat was the set, though. Once I got it home and turned on I new it was worth the price!



Mine originally came up as $250, but she knew that was wrong and told me I could end up with a guy coming out and telling me something wasn't covered by the warranty I had. I didn't argue because it wasn't like it was an advertised warranty price, if I hadn't been standing there reading the screen I wouldn't have seen it.

I did get a sort of bonus though, I didn't get charged sales tax!Shhh. don't tell anybody! I wonder if they'll ever catch that and try to get it from me. I got the 12 % and the rewards and the financing. I don't know how good the price was, whatever they charge less the 12%, and a $100 gift card, plus another 100 to come from the rewards card.

Originally posted by jeff abc
This may sound weird, but it's happened too many times now to be just a fluke. I'm happily sitting there watching my 55WF655 when all of a sudden the on-screen display comes up, as if the DISPLAY button was hit on the remote. Stays up for about 20 seconds and then goes away. But nobady (not even the dog) was anywhere near any remote.


I have seen this too. Not too often, but on occassion. If I'm in a zoom mode other than the 4:3 default zoom setting, it will reset to the default setting and will show the OSD. I assumed it was some kind of signal interruption. I don't recall seeing it happen on DVD input yet, just my satellite input.

I think my bulb is going bad after 6 weeks of owning my 55WF655 Sony.The picture is very dim. I called Sony last night and we tried all of the home fixes but none of it worked. The repair man is coming out today, but the phone tech said it sounded like the bulb is going out......after ONLY 6 weeks.....UGH !!!

Originally posted by dre
I think my bulb is going bad after 6 weeks of owning my 55WF655 Sony.The picture is very dim. I called Sony last night and we tried all of the home fixes but none of it worked. The repair man is coming out today, but the phone tech said it sounded like the bulb is going out......after ONLY 6 weeks.....UGH !!!

If true, hopefully this is just a fluke. I would hate to think that we're all going to be changing our bulbs this early...

Originally posted by dre
I think my bulb is going bad after 6 weeks of owning my 55WF655 Sony.The picture is very dim. I called Sony last night and we tried all of the home fixes but none of it worked. The repair man is coming out today, but the phone tech said it sounded like the bulb is going out......after ONLY 6 weeks.....UGH !!!

Booo... Don't want to hear it. My XS is perfect and I'm gong to get the full 8-10000 hours out of the bulb/lamp.

I will not reinsert my head into the sand.

Originally posted by jeff abc
This may sound weird, but it's happened too many times now to be just a fluke. I'm happily sitting there watching my 55WF655 when all of a sudden the on-screen display comes up, as if the DISPLAY button was hit on the remote. Stays up for about 20 seconds and then goes away. But nobady (not even the dog) was anywhere near any remote.

Thought maybe a glitch in the signal from the cable box could cause this. But I have to remove the green component signal for several seconds before the tv gives up and then displays the input label, etc. Anyone else have this problem? It's happening to me about every other day.


This happens to me too. A nuisance! I hope there will be a fix for it.

I also noticed that the overscan setting seems to apply to ALL the inputs
:(

Question for the group:
I have the DirecTV HD TIVO using HDMI into the 60XS. I get no audio through the TV with Dolby Digital movies when I tell the TIVO to record DD when available (optical does pump DD into my audio receiver). All other audio plays fine through TV. If I turn the DD recording option off, audio is fine for everything.
I wish I could identify the culprit. Is it the TIVO box, HDMI cable, or the TV.
Is anyone else having this problem?

Thank you in advance for any assistance.

Overall, I really like my 60XS.

-Alex

Originally posted by xified
I get no audio through the TV with Dolby Digital movies when I tell the TIVO to record DD when available (optical does pump DD into my audio receiver). All other audio plays fine through TV. If I turn the DD recording option off, audio is fine for everything.
I wish I could identify the culprit. Is it the TIVO box, HDMI cable, or the TV.


I don't know this for sure, but it sounds to me like the HDMI is passing the digital sound info, but your TV doesn't have a Dolby Digital decoder. Can anyone confirm this?

You might want to check in on the Tivo Community board.

After a long time or reading, watching and many trips to CC I think I have finally decided that I want a 55WF655. Now the question is when is the best time to buy? Does anyone have a crystal ball??? CC has them "on sale" until 11/24 but I would think that with the Holidays coming up (especially black Friday) that they might come out with a better deal. I'm not very familiar with CC's sale timing.... Should I buy now or wait another week or so? Any opinions?

Also, I assume that most people here feel that the extended warranty is worthwhile purchasing?

CC (and most retailers) have a 30 day price guarantee - so if they lower thier price (or you find a lower price elsewhere) they will refund you the difference (and maybe even 10% more) - so buy it now!

Originally posted by mw_98
Should I buy now or wait another week or so? Any opinions?


In my case, I am buying now at a store with a 60-day price match policy. There are limitations - I doubt that they count "gift cards" or "reward points" offered by other stores. But if I can find a real price in the local stores that's lower than what I am paying I certainly intend to take that back to where I am buying. Sixty days gets me past Christmas and almost to the SuperBowl - a time when you might see a lot of special deals.

Originally posted by mw_98
After a long time or reading, watching and many trips to CC I think I have finally decided that I want a 55WF655. Now the question is when is the best time to buy? Does anyone have a crystal ball??? CC has them "on sale" until 11/24 but I would think that with the Holidays coming up (especially black Friday) that they might come out with a better deal. I'm not very familiar with CC's sale timing.... Should I buy now or wait another week or so? Any opinions?

Buy now, you'll be happier in the long run. Waiting sucks, especially if the model you want is available. Pick it up on sale, and watch the BB, CC, Sear, etc. ads for the next 30 days. If the price drops at all CC will match it no problem.

Originally posted by mw_98
Also, I assume that most people here feel that the extended warranty is worthwhile purchasing?

Personally, I do think that on a purchase this big the warranty is worth it. You want this thing to last a few years and would be pretty pissed if the lamp went out 1year and 1 day after you bought it. Unfortunately, I think CC's warranty is overpriced b at least a hundred dollars, but if they've got the best price on the TV what can ya do?

Originally posted by mw_98
Also, I assume that most people here feel that the extended warranty is worthwhile purchasing?

I think you should be very careful about these warranties. They are overpriced, and have terrible reputations for not paying out. The stores are selling you a 3rd-party insurance policy - and that 3rd party is in business to make money. Try googling the web for consumer experiences with a given retailers warranties, e.g. this (http://www.consumeraffairs.com/retail/circuit_city_warranty.html)

You may want to check with your credit card policy: Some offer an automatic doubling of a manufacturer's warranty. Some home-owner insurance companies do the same. You can also shop for a 3rd party warranty - usually up to 30 days after purchase (has to be new, not refurb or open box).

Final word: If you want peace-of-mind, do some research and don't place all your trust in a spotty check-out clerk's mindless pitch.

- Rob (with apologies to spotty check-out clerks who know what they're talking about - there must be one or two, right?)

Just got delivered 55XS. Bought it unseen from CC and quite happy with the look and built of the set.
OTB is just so, so. As expected, switching from a 43" to 55" definately able to see all the imperfections more clearly, even ampified.
Didn't do anything to settings yet. Will scan thru the whole thread looking for clues from all the friendly experts.
I'm still waiting for my digital tv hookup from Brighthouse.

Can someone tell me what do I need to receive OTA HD broadcast????

Thanks.

Originally posted by mklaessy
Personally, I do think that on a purchase this big the warranty is worth it. You want this thing to last a few years and would be pretty pissed if the lamp went out 1year and 1 day after you bought it. Unfortunately, I think CC's warranty is overpriced b at least a hundred dollars, but if they've got the best price on the TV what can ya do?

Replacement lamp currently: $199 (http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_DisplayProductInformation-Start?ProductSKU=XL2200&Dept=tv&CategoryName=tv_TVDepartmentAccessories_Lamps). Expected life: 8000-10000 hrs
Number of days this will last,
@ 8hrs/day, 56hrs/wk: 1000 days or 2¾ years or ¼ year before your 3-year EW expires
@ 4hrs/day, 28hrs/wk: 2000 days or 5½ years or ½ year after your 5 yr EW expires
Of course, these are all based on AVERAGE lamp life. But then, statistically, you're vastly more likely to be average than not - and that's what the warranty company is banking on.

Originally posted by Kaef
Can someone tell me what do I need to receive OTA HD broadcast????

Thanks.

An antenna and a station within range. Thats all, enjoy.

Originally posted by xified
Question for the group:
I have the DirecTV HD TIVO using HDMI into the 60XS. I get no audio through the TV with Dolby Digital movies when I tell the TIVO to record DD when available (optical does pump DD into my audio receiver). All other audio plays fine through TV. If I turn the DD recording option off, audio is fine for everything.
I wish I could identify the culprit. Is it the TIVO box, HDMI cable, or the TV.
Is anyone else having this problem?

Thank you in advance for any assistance.

Overall, I really like my 60XS.

-Alex

As DaverJ said, the Tivo has the DD stream, but the TV does not have a DD decoder.

Originally posted by TheMostToyzWins
An antenna and a station within range. Thats all, enjoy.


AND DON'T BUY TERK!!!!

You may also want to investigate your local cable co. to see if they rebroadcast OTA HD with their basic cable package. Time Warner Cable generally does. I went for basic cable ($13/month) to ensure I get my HD locals. In my area, if 5 drops of rain fall, all the OTA HD locals die.

A bit more on OTA

The digital broadcast channels will be mainly on the UHF band, ch. 14 - 51. There are a very few who will remain on hi-band VHF, ch. 7 - 13. And if you are in a really rural area, way out there, there might be one or two on the lo-band VHF because of the distances involved. At analog shutoff ('07?) the UHF ch. above 51 will go away. So, basically, a good UHF outdoor antenna is the best bet. Why pay for locals?

Dave W

Thanks guys. I'm sorry to be so ignorant about HD reception.
Do you mean a rabbit or something similar?
I have standard cable already. If Brighthouse, my local cable company rebroadcast OTA HD, does it mean that I don't need antenna?

Originally posted by jaydreb
What does the BN Smoother do? All I keep reading is that it reduces digital block noise - but I have no idea what that means...

When there is fast motion occasionally the signal will become bitstarved and a mosaic-looking artifact appears on the screen for a split second. I guess this softens the blow. But I am also guessing that if there were not some cost involved it would be fixed on all of the time. I have noticed block noise occasionally, but so far I haven't turned this on. It would be difficult to see if it really works, as BN seems to be very sporadic and transient. Once I get an HD Tivo and a recording that has some BN, then maybe I can do an experiment repeatable with this setting on and off. Or maybe someone who already has this capability (wink wink) will post.:)

The best tests of bitstarving are white-water rafting, closeups of fire, floor-level pans of a fast break in hoops, or my personal favorite, vats of coins or other small objects being poured into other vats.

Originally posted by Kaef
Thanks guys. I'm sorry to be so ignorant about HD reception.
Do you mean a rabbit or something similar?
I have standard cable already. If Brighthouse, my local cable company rebroadcast OTA HD, does it mean that I don't need antenna?

Kaef,

Well, it won't cost you anything but about 60 minutes to find out. Plug the cable feed into the cable input on your GWIV, then run channel setup. TV will spend 20-30 minutes hunting down channels. When its done, your work begins: you've got to find the HD locals, and they're not going to be on the regular channel numbers. My suggestion is to start from the highest channel your TV found and start channel surfing down to channel 1. The HD channels will show up as NNN.N, e.g. 116.2 or 82.1 etc. In fact, the 116s and 82s are where my TWC has the HD locals. Just surf on down, and write down the channel numbers of any HDs you find. The TV display will show 480p, 720p or 1080i in the channel popup info for the ED/HD channels. You might want to do this during primetime in case HD is not rebroadcast when no HD is showing.

The downside to this is that the channel numbers won't make sense. For instance, CBS is channel 2 in LA, but my TWC channel for HD CBS is 116.2. A TWC cable box would automatically change this, but the GWIV can't do that without a cablecard. I just use the channel labelling feature to name the channels, and then add to favorites for quick access.

Note: Cable companies must, by law, broadcast local content in the clear (even HD), which means you shouldn't need to subscribe to a $40 digital cable package just to get local HD, and you don't need a cablecard. With TWC, I get all the major locals in HD, plus PBS HD and Discovery HD for $13/month. Try pulling Discovery OTA. ;)

On the subject of OTA being free: the antenna is not free, and only a few can get by with a $30 indoor. My antenna cost me the equivilent of 12 months basic cable, and it is garbage.

Got my new 55XS yesterday and it looked great with the cable going directly into the Tv's "cable" jack. I only got channels 1-13. That may be because I didn't want to run the "autoprogram" due to time and due to I didn't want to set anything that I wouldn't be able to figure out how to undo later. I eventually hooked up my current cable box which I have for digital cable. It looked good both ways, but no "free" HDTV channels seem to be there. THe cable guy comes tomorrow with the HD box and I hope the proper cables to do it with.

My question is about something I think is called ghosting. I notice it much of the time on the little network logos in the corner of the screen. There seems to be like a shadow of the logo to the right of it. It is very small, sort of like the edge has been highlighted, or like it is bleeding over a little. I also notice it on some of the other words that come up. I don't see it on titles or things that are moving, or anything that isn't words. On some background colors it isn't even noticeable on the logo. All my pixels seem fine and otherwise the set is great. Just wondered why this ghosting is there, will it still happen on HD, and does it have anything to do with my cable hookup or the cable broadcast? I have no idea what anything comes in as as far as 480, 720 or 1080 and no idea how to tell.

My 3 year old Sony DVD-NS400D looks fine hooked up with S-video and monster audio cables. Maybe it could be better. I have no idea on the 480, 720 thing for that. I am not sure if it is progressive scan or not. I looked it up on google and found different reviews, some say it is progressive, some say not. All I know is it works!

Thanks for reading this far. Anybody with an answer to the ghost problem?

Who can tell me about ghosting?
Do you notice it with the TV's on-screen menus? Is the ghosting only one color? I wonder if it might be a panel alignment/convergence issue (although I doubt it)... I have a slight convergence issue with my current GWIV, but if you look close enough, most LCD TV's have it to one extent or another. I'm having a tech come out to look at my problem, but I suspect he'll tell me it's "within specs."

Originally posted by cinders
...I have no idea what anything comes in as as far as 480, 720 or 1080 and no idea how to tell.

My 3 year old Sony DVD-NS400D looks fine hooked up with S-video and monster audio cables. Maybe it could be better. I have no idea on the 480, 720 thing for that. I am not sure if it is progressive scan or not.

..Anybody with an answer to the ghost problem?

Ghosting typically refers to duplicate images offset from the main OTA image due to reflected signal being received slightly out of time with the main signal. But the mechanism here is very similar.

Virtually every SD analog cable tv signal suffers from what's known as "ringing" from signal reflecting back and forth down the cable caused by variations in the impedance, usually at connectors, taps, dents in the cable, etc., which over a few miles of cable can become cumulative, although each individual reflection is miniscule and virtually imperceptible when isolated. The offset in time is very slight, so it manifests as a "ghost" just slightly offset to the right of the main image, and actually enhances sharp vertical edges to some extent. If you look closely on any set with the sharpness cranked up, you will see this on virtually every cable tv image. But it is subtle and we are used to seeing it. You may see it OTA and on DVDs as well, but not as prominently as you will on cable.

On a new big-screen tv it will be much more noticeable, and ironically the price of having a display with high rez is that high-frequency artifacts such as this become more pronounced. Sony also adds "Digital Reality Creation" to SD signals which if tweaked a certain way can exaggerate this effect.

It takes a while to get a set such as this to display SD images where they meet your particular tastes, as there are a lot of tweaks available, a lot of artifacts to deal with, and everything is larger than you are used to and in your face. Time and a little effort will get you there.

The better news is that such SD artifacts (and DRC) are not present on HD signals. Also, 720p is progressive, 1080i is interlaced, and 480p and 480i are progressive and interlaced, respectively.

Originally posted by videobruce
TomCat; would you define "mosquito noise" since you did a fine job with the rest of your post.

At the sake of boring you all even further, I'll take a shot:

Mosquito noise is a luminance disturbance seen offset from sharp edges, particularly when the luminance difference is large, such as white lettering on a dark background. It gets its name from how it looks...like a cloud of mosquitos buzzing around objects, or heat lines radiating from hot pavement (wait a minute...those could be real heat lines! Or real mosquitos!!:)). It is differrent than quantization error noise but usually is also created from the quantization process, where exact coefficients generated in the DCT are truncated into inexact coefficients, which is the heart of the bit reduction algorithm used in MPEG encoding.

As with most digital artifacts, the more severely you attempt to reduce the bit rate, the more these artifacts become prominent. They can be seen primarily on clips recorded on standalone PVRs at the lowest quality settings, and to some extent on DirecTV. DISH does not have as much MN, but then they have a little more severe quantization error noise than DTV.

Originally posted by Cryogenix
Tomcat, (or anyone who knows) can you please explain/expound on what causes (and can correct) the mosquito noise you mentioned?...

UPDATE: I just did a search on Google and found some info. The visual examples given don't seem to reflect my issue. Maybe it's not mosquito noise afterall. Here's the example I found.

http://smarthome.com/images/7842side3big.jpg

http://smarthome.com/7842.html

My onscreen images are sharp around the edges, it's just tiny specks are sparkling or moving within the confines of the images. Even rooftops are active and "busy" when looking at them.

That image is a perfect example of MN, although when live you will see those lines moving around randomly, even around stationary objects. The product is interesting...since discontinued they don't list the price, but I'm guessing if one can't afford a $60K home theatre one prolly can't afford the filter. My guess would be they didn't sell many of them (but I still want one).

I think such artifacts are usually frozen into the encoding process, or created in acquisition, editing, or transportation, and they really don't manifest until the decoding process, which means that pretty much any decoder will present an equal amount of artifacts for a given source signal. On the other hand, if that box works as advertised, it's a great gadget. What that means is that those of us without that gadget have little control over the artifacts (unless we are recording our own DVDRs or using standalone Tivos and Replays).

rmcewan,

Thank you so much. I'll try it tonight.

Here is a followup on my DIM picture on my 55WF655..............

It was a bad bulb. The repair person called it a DUD BULB !! A new one is on order and should be here in 3-4 days.

Of course the service tech says "I've never seen this before" !!!
Just my luck.

He also said that if it happens again quickly, they might have to take it and see if there is a voltage proble burning out the bulbs quickly.

Originally posted by zcrc01
I have a Sony KDF42WE655 tv that receives digital channels via my outdoor antenna. The onscreen display states that it's 1080i and 16:9 ratio but it shows on the screen as a 4:3 ratio with grey on the left and right sides. I have to change the wide mode to get it to fill up the screen. Is this normal? The HDTV channel is KHTV 11.1 out of AR.

Just curious. I'm a noob to HD and I just purchased the same Sony Wega and was told by the sales person (I know) that I still need an HD receiver/tuner to receive OTA HD. I was under the impression that this set already had the HD tuner/receiver (are they the same thing) built in. Do I just need to hook up an antenna to the coax jacks on the TV to get digital/HD signals? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Mark

goblue97:
Are the images within the 4x3 area correctly proportioned? ie, not tall and skinny? If so, I suspect that the tv station is sending out an "up-converted" version of their regular 480i signal. My locals do this on all non-true-hd programming.

goblue,

You just need the antenna. The set has a built in HD OTA tuner. I have the seme and it works great in my area with a cheap ($20) antenna. I had to find the right orientation to stop signal loss, though.

Enjoy!

I have a question about something I noticed last night while watching Lost on ABC-HD and West Wing on NBC-HD on my new 60xs955.

When watching, I noticed that the screen would ever so slightly get dim and then quickly revert back to original. This was more noticeable in the darker scenes. My wife didn't notice anything and thinks I'm insane. But I swear that if I watched closely on someone's face, for example, it would seem to change brightness and clarity every few seconds, almost as if the picture was scanning. It was kind of driving me crazy after a little while b/c I kept focusing on it, even though it's so subtle that you couldn't notice it unless you looked closely. Any idea what's causing this and how to remedy?

Originally posted by RMP in KY
videobruce:
As far as I can tell, there is no way to go directly to an unmemorized digital channel to say, adjust your antenna to look for the signal.

If you enter the frequency assignement, plus the subchannel, the tuner will jump there, even if the channel is not memorized. You can find the actual channel assignment on antennaweb. Be sure to try a couple subchannels - I missed NBC for several days because it was on .2, not .1.

For example, CBS out of washington DC is channel 9.1 and has frequency assignment 34. Entering 34.1 will bring it in.

Originally posted by Geoman
goblue,

You just need the antenna. The set has a built in HD OTA tuner. I have the seme and it works great in my area with a cheap ($20) antenna. I had to find the right orientation to stop signal loss, though.

Enjoy!

thanks for the responses....
I've done some playing around with this and would like a little more advice here. Should I connect the antenna to the cable input or the uhf/vhf input? I tried it several ways but I think the time of day (noon local) is going to give me erratic results. When hooking the cable (basic analog provider) directly to cable in jack, I receive several digital music channels but no additional television channels. Connecting the same cable to the uhf/vhf input I get about 30 analog basic cable channels. When connecting antenna to uhf/vhf inout it reports 9 digital channels found but I only see a few with some repeats (i.e. 2.1 and 2.2). I must say that the quality is quite unbelievable. I never thought you could get quite a picture with rabbit ears.
Like I said, I'm new to all this and these are all probably simple (not necessarily stupid) questions.
Also, any advice an an antenna. I'm in metro Detroit with no tall buildings around me. I think the cheap non-powered RCA that I'm using is a little dated.

thanks again

I took the task of reading through all 65 pages of this thread as I am seriously considering the WF655. My wife finds the XS "ugly" and it is 1 inch to wide to fit into my entertainment center. I have been concerned about the apparent high number of sets that have dead pixels. I know that many stores (local, not Internet) will replace a set if it shows up with dead or stuck pixels OOTB, but my bigger concern is after the 30 days when Sony claims that you have to have 3 or 5 dead pixels to qualify for replacement under warranty. If you buy extended warranty from the store like BB, CC etc...will they always stay with that policy to replace if one goes out, or is that only during the 30 day? Also, do LCD's fall into the category of they either come good or bad, or do pixels tend to die later in life, like a year or two down the road...or is it all random?

I have asked this question of many sales people regarding dead pixels and they all claim that in the past 2 years, it is no longer an issue and none have claimed sets coming back for that reason. "It has all been fixed". This thread indicates otherwise. I know that I cannot live with even one dead pixel for something I spend 3K on. I would go nuts. I am obsessive. Should I remove the Sony's from my wish list and move on to DLP's?

WSorensen--

Greetings-

A friend and I both recently purchased the 50WF655 and are seeing a particular picture issue neither one of s are familiar with.

When watching anything which contains top and bottom black bars, the first few rows of the picture are brighter than the rest of the picture. My TV does this as well, but mainly when the bars are on the left and right.

I've attached a picture showing the problem. Sorry, it isn't the best picture.

Neither TV is calibrated as of yet. These are straight out of the box. Hopefully it's just a calibration issue since my friend is already thinking of taking his back.

Any ideas?

-Brian

Hello all….long time lurker, first time poster...

I'm fairly close to pulling the trigger on a kdf-60wf655 and I have a few questions that hopefully some of you with experience can answer:

1. (This is by far the most important question because it's a deal-breaker) Everyplace where I've checked the size of this TV says that the width is 62 inches. I've only seen the 55wf in person so I have no way of measuring this for accuracy. I have exactly 63 inches of space to put the TV, so anything larger than 62 will make it a no go. I was wondering if somebody with a 60wf could measure theirs to confirm that it is, in fact 62 inches wide and no more.

2. I'm considering buying from ABT electronics because they give a small discount to employees of the company I work for. Locally I could choose from Sears, BB and CC. Any information on the pros and cons of buying locally as opposed to over the internet would be appreciated, mainly regarding experience with returns. (Hopefully I won't have to return it, but you never know!)

3. I'm not interested in the Sony SU-GW12 stand because it sits too low, but I noticed that it comes with a rear-pillar strap for securing the TV. Does anybody know if there is a place where I could buy just the strap and retro-fit it to the stand that I'm buying (probably from pottery barn)? OR, do you think this strap is even necessary?


Thanks in advance,

Jimmy

1- 62 inches IS correct.

2- Don't Know. Haven't bought large items like this over the internet.. too scary for me.

3- The strap is NOT necessary. Just Sony overkill I think.

Originally posted by mig213
radius360,

Hooked up from the wall to the CABLE input of the TV.

Maybe you're right, Radius about not many people seeing this problem as they have a box. I think getting a cable box will solve my problem but I really just want basic cable not the standard or digital cable and the additonal $30 ++ that goes with it.

May get a cable box if that's the only way I can get HD but since its free right now thru cable I see no reason in getting it right now. In fact, I returned the OTA Antenna I gotfrom Radio Shack when I saw I had HD thru Comcast basic cable.

BTW, what channel is SHO-HD in? I think I only get HBO-HD @ 30.1, HBO signature @ 80.2 and another HBO channel?? @ 80.1.

so are you saying that you are receiving HD through the basic cable coax going into the CABLE input on your TV? No OTA antenna? Is this a fluke or should we all be getting this? I'm getting a really good pic with the antenna but then again, it comes and goes. Not to mention the fit my wife will throw when she shes that I eliminated an entertainment center but added and unsightly antenna to the room. But man, that picture is unbelievable.

Originally posted by Calacak
Greetings-

A friend and I both recently purchased the 50WF655 and are seeing a particular picture issue neither one of s are familiar with.

When watching anything which contains top and bottom black bars, the first few rows of the picture are brighter than the rest of the picture. My TV does this as well, but mainly when the bars are on the left and right.

I've attached a picture showing the problem. Sorry, it isn't the best picture.

Neither TV is calibrated as of yet. These are straight out of the box. Hopefully it's just a calibration issue since my friend is already thinking of taking his back.

Any ideas?

-Brian

It happens on my CRT tube as well sometimes, so I'd be inclined to say it's a source issue. And you say it happens on 2 different sets right?

Originally posted by Kid Red
It happens on my CRT tube as well sometimes, so I'd be inclined to say it's a source issue. And you say it happens on 2 different sets right?

Yup.

We've ran multiple DVDs through multiple DVD players, including PS2s with the same result. We tried using component and s-video as well. Both sets were purchased at different companies a few weeks apart.

Some DVDs look better than others, but it was really noticeable on LOTR, Day after Tomorrow and The Mummy.

-Brian

2. I'm considering buying from ABT electronics because they give a small discount to employees of the company I work for. Locally I could choose from Sears, BB and CC. Any information on the pros and cons of buying locally as opposed to over the internet would be appreciated, mainly regarding experience with returns. (Hopefully I won't have to return it, but you never know!)


Here's a thought on the returns issue. If you return to an online shop. you will pay 15% restocking + $150 shipping. That total is a lot less than what you can save by buying online. It's a gamble, but one you are likely to win.

Something like:

Buy online:
Return:...-500 (restock and return delivery)
Keep:....2,800

Buy local:
Return:.....-80 (return delivery)
Keep:....3,500

Especially if you are confident you will keep the TV, online is an attractive bargain.

And besides, the TV's warranty is in-home Sony wherever you buy it from.

Originally posted by goblue97
so are you saying that you are receiving HD through the basic cable coax going into the CABLE input on your TV? No OTA antenna? Is this a fluke or should we all be getting this? I'm getting a really good pic with the antenna but then again, it comes and goes. Not to mention the fit my wife will throw when she shes that I eliminated an entertainment center but added and unsightly antenna to the room. But man, that picture is unbelievable.

Goblue97,

I get the same thing, hookup the cable in the back and I am able to get HD Stations that are QAM in the clear. This means the locals that are HD and ESPN (I am on Comcast). Hookup up a cheap antenna to the back as well. Interesting to see the picture quality differences, since I can compare through the STB (pass through), just cable and OTA. I will say that when I get a good lock on the OTA signal it does seem cleaner. It must be the overhead associated with QAM.

Originally posted by ctsooner
Goblue97,

I get the same thing, hookup the cable in the back and I am able to get HD Stations that are QAM in the clear. This means the locals that are HD and ESPN (I am on Comcast). Hookup up a cheap antenna to the back as well. Interesting to see the picture quality differences, since I can compare through the STB (pass through), just cable and OTA. I will say that when I get a good lock on the OTA signal it does seem cleaner. It must be the overhead associated with QAM.

Not sure what QAM is. I do not get any HD channels through the "cable", only with the antenna. Are different providers able to do this differently? My current provider, WideOpenWest, is telling me that I have to have a STB to receive HD programming (regular digital as well). Is this correct? What is the point of a built in HD tuner and a Digital Cable Ready TV?

I just received my new 60xs955, and want to hook up the cable directly from the wall without a cable box. I just get the expanded basic cable thru Charter, Channels 2 thru 99. When I hook up to "UHF/VHF" connection, all I can get is the first 26 channels. When I hook up to "cable" connection, I do get all 99 channels, but to change channels I have to input the digits into the remote. The channel up/down toggle on the remote doesn't change channels. When I try to toggle up or down, if I am on for example channel 36 it flashes like it is changing channels but it doesn't change, and the display just stays at "C36", which I assume means cable channel 36. I can input the channel number into the remote and it will change, but not with the toggle switch. Any suggestions?

{QUOTE: I know that I cannot live with even one dead pixel for something I spend 3K on. I would go nuts. I am obsessive. Should I remove the Sony's from my wish list and move on to DLP's?}

Sorry, wsorensen, but all these type sets have the potential to have such problems. I saw an awful example a few months ago at CC on a 61" Samsung DLP - bright white dead spot in the upper middle left of the screen, quite glaring, couldn't live with it. I haven't seen a problem after 9 days on the XS60 set. The resolution on a good source is terrific. I don't know at what point the warranty would kick in with # of dead pixels. Was told DLP easier to fix than LCD, but others have said that's not an issue. Who knows? I just went with the best picture/feature/price ratio. Now realize this set does reveal the limitations of the picture source. But the best DVD picture will make you wonder how much better HD-DVDs can be when that technology is finally ready.

Originally posted by goblue97
Not sure what QAM is. I do not get any HD channels through the "cable", only with the antenna. Are different providers able to do this differently? My current provider, WideOpenWest, is telling me that I have to have a STB to receive HD programming (regular digital as well). Is this correct? What is the point of a built in HD tuner and a Digital Cable Ready TV?

QAM = quadrature amplitude modulation. It is a way of encoding digital data on an analog signal, and is the same technique a dial up modem employs only on a cable it's on steriods as far as bitrate.

You don't get any HD over your cable because it is either scrambled or not there. The point of a QAM tuner is that you can pick up anything your cable company is sending you. If you insert a CableCard you can get the encrypted channels and get the channel numbers remapped to what your cableco uses. I have a CableCard and get about 12 HD channels including ESPNHD, INHD, BravoHD, StarzHD, HBOHD with no steenking STB.

Ask WOW about a cablecard.

Originally posted by uncledougie
But the best DVD picture will make you wonder how much better HD-DVDs can be when that technology is finally ready. [/B]

You bring up a question I had. I have only tried 2 DVD's so far and for only a quick look . Saving Private Ryan looked good as did My Baby's Daddy (kids rented it). I am buying the Seinfeld 3 season gift set for my hubby for xmas. It says on the description that it is high definition. Then I read somewhere else that HD Dvd's aren't in existence yet. Can anyobdy explain this??

cinders

The cable guy came today. Before he came my digital channels were working fine (the channels above the basic cable channels). I had him split the cable so that one line goes from the splitter into the TV's cable jack and the other goes into the HD box and then to the TV. I don't have a VCR on this TV. We did this to get the twin view to work. It does work, but one side only goes up to 65 (the basic cable) and is controlled thru the TV remote, the other side is controlled by changing the channels thru the box. I did not receive any digital or HD channels without the box.
We are in NJ with Comcast and the box is Scientific Atlanta 3250.

The interesting problem is that now the signals are weak or something and the digital channels are choppy and blocky. The HD ones too. Right now I have on CBS evening news on the HD channel and it looks fine, but it might not be HD broadcast as it is playing in 4:3. THe digital channel I just flipped to is still bad.

When the guy was here he said my signal was weak, it was -20 and should be min. of -10. I had them repush the signal but it didn't help. Remember, this morning my digital came in fine. I did have this choppiness a while back, but after a month or so it resolved itself.

I also noticed that unless I am in HD channels the picture is better viewed with the cable going into the TV than through the box. They did use component cables to hook up the box. I'm not springing for the deluxe cables yet as this is already better than my old tv.

Any thoughts?
cinders

Originally posted by jaydreb
But I swear that if I watched closely on someone's face, for example, it would seem to change brightness and clarity every few seconds, almost as if the picture was scanning.... Any idea what's causing this and how to remedy?

I think you're seeing the signal strength drop for a moment. Think about how the digital over analog signal works. I'm sure you've seen a DVD get stuck and "pixelate" all or part of the screen. OTA HD does this as well when you lose or partially lose the signal. If the signal was only slightly interupted then the pixelization would be slight - hence a blurry appearence. The dimming is probably an artifact of the pixelization as well - less clarity, less pixels, less color definition. Amplifier might help.

Originally posted by Calacak
Yup.

We've ran multiple DVDs through multiple DVD players, including PS2s with the same result. We tried using component and s-video as well. Both sets were purchased at different companies a few weeks apart.

Some DVDs look better than others, but it was really noticeable on LOTR, Day after Tomorrow and The Mummy.

-Brian

Calacak,

Are you watching in VIVID picture mode? Do you see it in PRO? Could be an optical effect of going from black bar to a VIVID level image in the space of one pixel row.

Have you checked an anamorphic widescreen DVD for this effect?

It says on the description that it is high definition.
On Amazon it said remastered in hi-def. This means that the digital transfer and production was done in hi-def, but then down converted for DVD. It also means that when HD-DVD arrives, it won't have to be remastered. Many movies are now done this way. Some even master at 2X or even 4X hi-def resolution.

Originally posted by rmcewan
Are you watching in VIVID picture mode? Do you see it in PRO? Could be an optical effect of going from black bar to a VIVID level image in the space of one pixel row.

Have you checked an anamorphic wide screen DVD for this effect? [/B]

Yes, it's most noticeable on VIVID, but it can still be spotted on standard and pro.

My TV has the problems on the side bars and only slightly on the top and bottom bars. I was able to remove it completely from the top and bottom by increasing th scan to +1. I can almost make it go away on pro if I cut the sharpness about 50%, but then the picture doesn't look good.

I tried a few anamorphic DVD last night and could easily see it.

-Brian

Originally posted by xified

RE: OSD comes on by itself

This happens to me too. A nuisance! I hope there will be a fix for it.


-Alex

After further testing of which On-Screen Displays come on and for how long, I have determined that it is not a rogue DISPLAY command coming from a remote. It is actually the TV thinking it was just turned on. So the problem is probably due to a slight fluctuation of the power line. Ironically, I have the set plugged into a UPS (to keep the fan going if there's a power failure) but this is a switchover type so the set is normally still powered directly from the wall. But whatever glitch there may be in the line, it's not enough to make the UPS switch, or even show up in the picture. Thus I believe the set is way too sensitive. I'm still within my 30 days so this set is going back! Hope the next one doesn't have this (or any new) problem.

I have been following this forum for some time (alot of good information)and decided to purchase a 55WF655; I now have the TV and was wondering whether there is any way to get video/monitor "out" of the set (e.g to VCR etc); There are many inputs but I don't see any outputs; Wouldn't this be a problem if using the cable card in particular (since then no cable box)? I havn't seen this addressed anywhere (I used the search but couldn't find) although I may avoid this potential problem by hooking up to D* HD. Thanks for any info.

Originally posted by jeff abc
After further testing of which On-Screen Displays come on and for how long, I have determined that it is not a rogue DISPLAY command coming from a remote. It is actually the TV thinking it was just turned on. So the problem is probably due to a slight fluctuation of the power line. Ironically, I have the set plugged into a UPS (to keep the fan going if there's a power failure) but this is a switchover type so the set is normally still powered directly from the wall. But whatever glitch there may be in the line, it's not enough to make the UPS switch, or even show up in the picture. Thus I believe the set is way too sensitive. I'm still within my 30 days so this set is going back! Hope the next one doesn't have this (or any new) problem.

I get the video input OSD everytime I fast forward my VCR (on s-video input) while playing back a tape. That would make it seem more like it is extremely sensitive to input signal interruption, at least in my case. Have also seen it randomly on the HDMI input with satellite source, but have noticed a signal interruption when it happens which leads me to think that even an extremely brief signal interruption (maybe too quick to even be visible or noticed) can trigger it. The most frustrating thing to me is that if you are viewing in a 'wide' mode other than what the 4:3 default is set to, this glitch will kick you out of your current wide mode and back to default.

I am in the process of returning mine due to fan problems (60XS). I think I could live with the OSD glitch, but it will be interesting to see if the replacement also exhibits the same behavior.

I've been working with the local Cox Cable technician and e rep from Sony manufacturing. Looks like Cox is giving up on making the Scientific Atlanta Cable Card work with the XS955 for now. The tech says he had just attempted the same installation on another XS955 in this area with the same results: no recognition of digital or subscription channels.
Anyone else had succes with the combination of XS955 + Cox service + SA PKM600 card?
Thanks

Also having a problem with Bright House and SA card with a Sony WF655. Seems like they are all blaming each other. Anyone in for a class action?

I am having a problem with my 60XS955...

We just purchased the DirecTV with Tivo HD receiver (hooked up via HDMI) and for some reason, when we turn it on...about 50 percent of the time, the entire screen has a fuschia hue to it. It will go away if you change the input source to something else (DVD) and then go back to satellite. We had it hooked up to our old directv receiver and stand alone Tivo and we had no such problem. It seems to be unique to either the HDMI hookup or it is the receiver. Has anyone had a similar problem. Because of the fact that when you change the input source it is fixed, I am thinking it is more on the TV input then on the receiver. Do any of you experts out there have any suggestions? The TV is only 3 weeks old...

Originally posted by Big Behr
I've been working with the local Cox Cable technician and e rep from Sony manufacturing. Looks like Cox is giving up on making the Scientific Atlanta Cable Card work with the XS955 for now. The tech says he had just attempted the same installation on another XS955 in this area with the same results: no recognition of digital or subscription channels.
Anyone else had succes with the combination of XS955 + Cox service + SA PKM600 card?
Thanks


It works for me on Cablevision.

I am having trouble getting a signal out of my optical out. When I look at the back of the set it appears to me that there is no red light coming out of the socket.

I have my speakers off, audio set to fixed and an HD channel selected. However my reciever is only getting audio on the analog audio connection.

Does the Toslink socket come with a protective cap in it? I am wondering if I may pushed a cap into the socket attempting to insert the toslink connector.

yes the toslink as all opticals do--get a pair of tweezers lol good luck

Originally posted by studranger
yes the toslink as all opticals do--get a pair of tweezers lol good luck

Tweezers? You don't know me very well. Start with a Dremel and work your way up!

Fortunately all it took was a nudge with a micro screwdriver and it fell over and slid out easily. What a piss-poor excuse for a plug though. Just a flat piece of plastic sitting inside the socket. I bet Sony is going to have a lot of people doing this. On my reciever the plugs are these fluted things that scream 'pull me out'.

Last night my wife and I took our son to our local BB to pick up a GC game and while he was looking around I strolled through the TVs [again]. Behind me I heard "Wow...I love this tv". Turned around and she is standing watching the 60XS they had on display. Had never considered the Sony sets as I had thought I was sold on the Sammy. Well...the 60XS is too big for our custom built wall unit I said [TV is behind a custom face panel where the screen is the only thing showing...I have been looking at the 56 inch Sammy because it will fit]. Well..her response was "we should go bigger....and we can get the connecting pieces on the wall unit remade to make this one fit".

Well...I heard angels sing and felt like I had won the lottery!!! [LOL]

To say the least...I began reading this thread and showing her some of the pics posted and she is still talking about this TV and how great she thought it looked.

I want to thank everyone for the info and wanted to share my story as I see this TV in my future. She keeps saying the price was not bad for the TV, so if anyone could PM me the pricing they may have gotten at their local BB or Tweeters I sure would appreciate it!

Originally posted by Alan Lackey
Behind me I heard "Wow...I love this tv". Turned around and she is standing watching the 60XS they had on display. Had never considered the Sony sets as I had thought I was sold on the Sammy. Well...the 60XS is too big for our custom built wall unit I said [TV is behind a custom face panel where the screen is the only thing showing...I have been looking at the 56 inch Sammy because it will fit].
If you like the 60xs955, how about the 55xs955? Most stores aren't listing it on the floor, but it should be available, if not now in the next few weeks. It will be close in size (screen-wise) to the 56" Samsung you mentioned, and it would be easier to make the modifications necessary to make it fit.

Michael

Well...the pieces I would have to have remade for our wall unit would not be too difficult, and it requires a new custom built front cover no matter what I buy.

Plus...I figure I better run with this while it is still an option since my wife is so willing to do whatever is necessary for the bigger screen :D

Just so you know, Best Buy has all the sizes. My store only had the 42" on display, but I know they have it online so I asked the store and they the 55" and the 60" in a warehouse. They got me it in a couple days and have no intention to carry it on the floor. Just ask them even if you don't see it because I had also asked them about different size Toshibas. I have the 55" and it is great. We sit anywhere from 7-14 feet away. It even looks good from the kitchen-over 20 feet away!

Originally posted by Big Behr
Anyone else had succes with the combination of XS955 + Cox service + SA PKM600 card?
Thanks

I have the 50WE655, Cox cable, and the SA card - everything works fine. The problem must be peculiar to the XS. I was concerned when I read about firmware problems with the 42WE655, but so far, no apparent problems with my set.

Originally posted by jimmyv99
...I'm not interested in the Sony SU-GW12 stand because it sits too low...

I thought so also at first, but now I think its perfect. I originally had a 23"-high stand that placed the center of the screen (60XS) at 45 inches. The "12" brings it back down to earth, placing the center of the screen at my seated eye height. This is important on LCDRP, as the vertical angle is critical. Unless you are sitting with your Lazy-Boy up on blocks a tall stand will not be a good idea. Having a lower stand also keeps the set from dominating the room by towering over everything, which can really appease the wife factor.

When I tried to turn on my 42we655 today the green power light flashed green for a very long time (60 sec?) then came on steady green, but there was no picture or sound on any input. The screen was totally dark as if the power as off. Same thing happened when I tried to restart the TV several times. Then two hours later my son turned on the TV and it worked fine. I bought it just 27 days ago, so I have the right to swap at the store (BB). Any clues as to what happened? Should I swap for a new TV?

Are all the inputs on the 60X "free" or are any shared? Just curious as to whether you can use all of the provided inputs without concern that one will override the other?

I too have seen the random appearance of the OSD or a random switch back to normal from a wide mode on my 55WF. I have seen it on the Tivo hooked to S-Video, and my PS2 hooked up to component, so far have not seen it from the DVD hooked to HDMI.

It's only mildly annoying at this point, but I do wonder as to it's cause. I also have the TV hooked up to a UPS (APC SmartUPS 700) which in turn is plugged into a Brickwall surge surpressor. Maybe I'll take the UPS out of the loop for testing...

Hello All,

I'm a new owner of a 60XS and love the set so far. I read this forum before I purchased and received a lot of good information. I have a few concerns and would appreciate any feedback. I'm a Comcast subscriber with the HD package.

1. When watching an HD feed that is broadcasting in 5.1 the volume goes down substantially. The TV needs to be turned up very high and then a commercial comes on and blows me out of the room. The steady volume is turned on. Is this normal?

2. When watching an HD feed I can still use wide mode and wide zoom. Other people I know lose these options when an HD signal is received. This is on different makes of TV. What is the advantage of having these options active? If the TV is receiving a 16:9 signal should it not just display it in normal mode?

3. I sit about 12 feet form the TV and I have noticed the fan noise. It seems to be worse at times than others. What is considered normal?

Originally posted by sasquatch
Hello All,



1. When watching an HD feed that is broadcasting in 5.1 the volume goes down substantially. The TV needs to be turned up very high and then a commercial comes on and blows me out of the room. The steady volume is turned on. Is this normal?



I don't know if you are familiar with Dolby Digital, but it has a greater dynamic range than what most people are familiar with. This means the softs are softer and the louds are louder. To get the "average" sound to sound more like normal ("compressed") audio one has to turn it up. This results in the infrequent loud passages (explosions, drum hits, etc.) are much louder also, but they don't appear often. The down side is that, as you have found out, the commercials are mixed loud, so they are at the same volume as the explosions, drum hits, etc..

To solution? Hit the mute or Tivo through the commercials.:D

DaverJ,

Thanks for the reply. I'm accustomed to this with DVD's and such. I'm experiencing this when I'm using the TV speakers. I'm still waiting on my B&K processor to arrive so I'm unable to use my HT. I noticed this on my previous TV also a Sony but only when I was using my HT and not the TV audio. Granted the prior TV did not decode 5.1 and this may be the reason.

Originally posted by sasquatch
Hello All,

2. When watching an HD feed I can still use wide mode and wide zoom. Other people I know lose these options when an HD signal is received. This is on different makes of TV. What is the advantage of having these options active? If the TV is receiving a 16:9 signal should it not just display it in normal mode?

3. I sit about 12 feet form the TV and I have noticed the fan noise. It seems to be worse at times than others. What is considered normal?

Sometimes stations broadcast 4:3 or 4:3 letterboxed material on HD channels. Having zoom features allows you to expand this content to fill the screen.

You should not be able to hear the fan over broadcast content. I can hear mine only when there is no other sound coming from the TV, like immediately after turning it on, or off.

Hello, just a few ?s for xs owners. Has anyone tried xbox and if so how does the pq look? (with hd pack) How does the xs handle the darker games like some of halo 2 and ghost recon 2 ? Is it able to show shadow detail in these games? I am using a 36 sony hdtv right now but I feel the need to go bigger and I dont want to lose a bunch of pq if possible. Also have you had any kind of problems using xbox on the sony lcd sets? Thanks and LATER

Originally posted by 440forpower
Has anyone tried xbox and if so how does the pq look?

I would like to second the request for fellow gamers who own the Sony XS and report their experiences. The 55" is on the top of my list and the gaming performance is very important. Hi-resolution console gaming is not really spoken about at much length in the home theater circles or the console gaming circles, so it's hard to find good first-hand experiences.

Could a current 60X owner provide me some measurements of this beast?

I would like to get the specs of the screen itself [W and H] and the bezel width.
Additionally, the height from the bottom of the bezel to the bottom of the pedestal would be great as well.

Thanks in advance!

Measurements are available on the Sony web site and in a PDF format for custom building a cabinet. The measurment from the bottom of the bezel to the pedestal is 5 1/4" and from the pedestal to the screen is 7 3/4". Let me know if you want anything else I'm sitting in fornt of it now.

Thanks for the info...I looked on the Sony site thinking there might be something but obviously missed that file. Will slow down this time! :D

Thanks again...

After nearly 11 months of research and shopping my 60WF655 was delivered Friday. Great set - works just like I hoped it would.

As an experiment I plugged my Comcast analog cable into the cable input on the TV and let it do its thing. It found all sorts of digital channels, and I wound up with the HD versions of ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS, three of the STARZ channels, and dozens of music channels. There also appear to be three major digital channels (with lots of subchannels) devoted to on-demand requests from people who actually have an STB and I get to watch whatever happens to be flowing down the pipe. (On-demand is free, unlike PPV.)

The football games today were stunning. I am still using standard mode settings with no tweaks, so it can only get better.

NTSC and other 480i broadcasts vary from decent to very good. I'm afraid it's going to take quite a while to figure out how to use DRC and other noise reductions to improve these pictures, but my major gripe is that many of the stations look soft - almost out of focus. I also need to work on the brightness/contrast settings to get better detail in darker areas.

Geometry on the set is good. The 16x9 test pattern from the THX optimizer on DVDs was off-center horizontally, but three clicks to the right on the game setting seems to have fixed that. 4x3 content is mostly centered OK, but varies depending on the source.

No dead pixels that I can find, and no funky colors messing up the screen. There is a bit of purple/green fringing (1 pixel or less) but I don't think it is chomatic aberation since it isn't spherical - it's consistent across the whole screen. Can't be seen from more that a couple of feet away, and I sit 12 feet from the set, so no problem.

Thanks to all who contribute to this forum - it really helped me make a choice that I think I'm going to be very happy with.

Hello Everyone,

My new TV works great however, the last couple days my HD channels had been acting strange. While I'm watching the HD channels, all of a sudden, this very light popping sound will start. Just to make sure it's not my tv that's been screwing up, I turn the sound off and the sound is gone. So does that mean there's something wrong with my signal? I'm using component video cable from the cable company, should I switch cable? The sound is very annoying and it usually comes and goes whenever it please. Can anyone help me?
PS. i live in LA and my cable company was Altrio but is now Champion.

Originally posted by 440forpower
Hello, just a few ?s for xs owners. Has anyone tried xbox and if so how does the pq look? (with hd pack) How does the xs handle the darker games like some of halo 2 and ghost recon 2 ? Is it able to show shadow detail in these games? I am using a 36 sony hdtv right now but I feel the need to go bigger and I dont want to lose a bunch of pq if possible. Also have you had any kind of problems using xbox on the sony lcd sets? Thanks and LATER

440,

Here's my experience with the XBOX Hi-Def pack:

Sports games like PGRacing, FIFA 2005 and Madden 2005, which are 480p, look reallly, really good. I prefer the normal mode or vivid mode for those games. Soul Calibur at 720p and Dragon's Lair at 1080i look absolutely stunning! I can only wonder why the stores trying to sell these sets don't hook up a unit to display one of these games, I asume they would get a lot more business than with the crappy, multi-fed signal they use. I found none of the lag reported with the DLP junk Samusung calls TVs...

The real test came with Halo2, which as you know has lot of dark scenes. For this reason I wasn't happy with either vivid or normal, the blacks looked somewhat washed out. So what I did is I changed to Pro mode, which lets you make further adjustments in the advanced submenu. Then I copied the settings I use for my DVD player, calibrated with Avia. Now it looks awsome !!!

By the way, I also have hooked up my computer to the 60xs via the ATI component adapter to play Doom 3 at 1776x1000, I still have nightmares!!! :D

Originally posted by sombra_azul
The real test came with Halo2, which as you know has lot of dark scenes. For this reason I wasn't happy with either vivid or normal, the blacks looked somewhat washed out. So what I did is I changed to Pro mode, which lets you make further adjustments in the advanced submenu. Then I copied the settings I use for my DVD player, calibrated with Avia. Now it looks awsome !!!
Does the performance you get with Halo2 and the dark scenes equate to DVDs with dark scenes, like POTC, Spiderman, Star Wars I, etc.? I realize that LCD RPTVs don't produce black and shadow detail like a CRT, but our auditions have shown very mediocre dark scenes on the 60xs955. I would like to blame CC for poorly set up DVD players and/or TVs, although we did adjust the 60xs955's video settings to no avail.

At this point, we favor the Mits 52725 DLP, but I fear that the ambient light in our family room may negate that advantage with its reflective screen. The Sony 55xs955 is our second choice, and if it were able to handle dark scenes like the Mits DLP can, then we would probably go with the Sony LCD instead.

Michael

Blacks are fine with me as long as you run the lamp in reduced mode and crank up the black corrector under Pro mode.

Let me tell you a test between sony/mitsubishi..mitsu looks sharp, better colors, but with screen glare, and just look at back ground detail, it disappears!

Originally posted by zoro
Let me tell you a test between sony/mitsubishi..mitsu looks sharp, better colors, but with screen glare, and just look at back ground detail, it disappears!
Which TV has the background detail that disappears, the Mits DLP or the Sony LCD? If you are saying that the Mits DLP doesn't display background detail as well as the Sony LCD, then that would be good news since we thought that the background detail on the Mits DLP was quite good. If the Sony LCD is better, I'll watch for that in my next audition.

Michael

Mitsubishi DLP..Just take a look at both Side by Side esp on HD transmission where there are a lot more detail..

Sammy DLP, Kirk did better on back ground detail, I think courtesy to lack of glare screen!

Originally posted by zoro
Let me tell you a test between sony/mitsubishi..mitsu looks sharp, better colors, but with screen glare, and just look at back ground detail, it disappears!

Did you try to adjust the settings of the Sony? Or is this just a "store settings" comparison?

I know that the XS955 series does a decent job with dark scenes when adjusted...

Originally posted by zoro
Mitsubishi DLP..Just take a look at both Side by Side esp on HD transmission where there are a lot more detail..

Sammy DLP, Kirk did better on back ground detail, I think courtesy to lack of glare screen!
I'll have to look more closely at the Mits DLP. Maybe I am mistaking the fact that I can see some of the background in dark scenes to mean more detail.

We do like the picture on the Kirk DLP except for its geometry issues. With both Pincushion on the edges of the side bars for 4:3 playback and bowed/curved edges on the top/bottom bars for 2.35:1 playback, we don't think we could live with the Kirk DLP.

Michael

Originally posted by PackFan
Did you try to adjust the settings of the Sony? Or is this just a "store settings" comparison?

I know that the XS955 series does a decent job with dark scenes when adjusted...
I think he was saying that it was the Mits DLP that doesn't do well with the background detail compared to the Sony LCD (and also the Kirk DLP).

Michael

RE: OSD comes on intermittently

Originally posted by barnabas
I get the video input OSD everytime I fast forward my VCR (on s-video input) while playing back a tape. That would make it seem more like it is extremely sensitive to input signal interruption, at least in my case. Have also seen it randomly on the HDMI input with satellite source, but have noticed a signal interruption when it happens which leads me to think that even an extremely brief signal interruption (maybe too quick to even be visible or noticed) can trigger it. The most frustrating thing to me is that if you are viewing in a 'wide' mode other than what the 4:3 default is set to, this glitch will kick you out of your current wide mode and back to default.


Very interesting... I have my VCR going to a composite input and it does not cause the OSD to come on in FF/REW. HOWEVER, if I view in FULL or ZOOM modes, it does revert back to NORMAL (I hadn't noticed this because I always view 4:3 in normal). My original post was about the OSD coming on during cable viewing, when there didn't appear to be any video disturbance. And in this case, it wasn't just the input OSD coming on; the picture mode and power saving OSD at the bottom of the screen also came on for the full 30 seconds (just like when you first turn on the set). I suppose the info banner might have come on too if I hadn't disabled it (that would indeed be VERY annoying).

I have Sony coming out tomorrow so we'll see what the service guy says. Thanks to this forum, at least I know it's not just my set having this problem.

Hi, I am new to this forum and will appreciate any help on the problem I have with the a 60XS unit. The thing that is really bothering me is that when I change the caption in the moto DTC5100 top box to allow caption, the TV does not block the caption. It is on all the time, even if I set caption on the TV menu to off. If I block the caption at the box, then I have no caption at all.

The other problem is that the TV switches modes (FULL,WIDE FULL) sometimes while watching a DVD via the Sony DVD recorder. Is this normal?.

Thanks!

Just returned my Sony 42" HDTV plasma and now have in my living room a HUGE box containing a Sony 55WF655!! :)

Just set up the stand, did all the wiring, and will have a friend help me set it on the stand tomorrow night. Midnight...gotta sleep. Grrr....I'll be dreaming... :D

I have Comcast analog box, no HDMI yet (nobody has the new Sony DVD player in stock...saw floor model at GG, though...VERY nice) so I'll have to wait a couple weeks for that.

Will update as I go. I like the stand I got from BB... Some pics when I can...

TOTALLY AWESOME :) . NOTHING NEGATIVE HERE. BEST SET FOR THE MONEY @ 2,699. :) :)

Headaches?

I know DLP is a headache source, but has anyone ever heard of LCD RP causing headaches? I've had my 60xs for a month now and have been experiencing frequent headaches. I can't believe it's the set, but thought I'd ask out there.

Sometimes watching to close....If your set has Cinema ,turn it on. It lowers the light if you watch in subdue light. I found this works for me.

I've had my 55XS955 for a few days now and just love it. However, I have noted a few things:

1. I get the display info popping up randomly while watching a DVD (component input - Pioneer 525). Its happened 3 times since Friday.

2. I can hear the fan but only at very low volumes. It does get a little louder when the set has been on for more than an hour. I don't usually hear it at all when watching a DVD because I've got the volume up.

3. Picture quality is excellent even though I have no HD sources. I used Avia and did a quick adjustment of my DVD component input. My old Sony DirecTV looks great (I don't use zoom unless widescreen content)

4. OTA digital picture is quite good, except one channel which has ghosts on the image (their analog channel is the same way). I must have some type of bounced signal.

Now a question:

How can you calibrate the picture coming from the OTA tuner? I've copied over my pro settings from the DVD but everything appears washed out. Shadow detail is gone. Standard setting is fair, vivid is unwatchable on the tuner. Do you just have to do it by eye? That's going to be hard.

Here's a picture of my TV:

I am planning to buy 55WF655 set and would set it up on a platform at 4.5ft height. Will there be any problem in getting to view a good picture on this sony GWIV set while sitting on a chair of 2ft height at 12ft distance.
Please provide your suggestions.

James

Originally posted by avfun
I am planning to buy 55WF655 set and would set it up on a platform at 4.5ft height. Will there be any problem in getting to view a good picture on this sony GWIV set while sitting on a chair of 2ft height at 12ft distance.
Please provide your suggestions.

James

If it were me, I would simulate it with another Sony set at a CC, BB etc... by laying down on the floor, finding a set that is elevated for people walking by etc... The viewing angle on vertical is much more critical than horizontal on the RPTV LCD's/DLP's from what I have seen. The distance away from the set might overcome the rise, but check to be sure. It would be a shame to lose the quality of the picture. I assume that you cannot raise or lower the platform (built in?). If not, better get a fatter wallet and go for plasma.

WSorensen--

I saw brief mention of this in another thread but did not see if anyone ever got it working... I just got my KDF-55WF655 last week...

When I turn the TV speakers off, I can only get FIXED to drive my speakers. I'm using an Accurus amp/pre-amp set up on a pair of magnepan 1's. The Accurus does not have a remote, so with FIXED, I have to get up to adjust the volume. With my old set, I could use the TV remote for volume to adjust the speakers, which is what I assume VARIABLE is. But it just won't work.

Any way to fix this?


Thanks,
Sean

Originally posted by cmassa
I've had my 55XS955 for a few days now and just love it. However, I have noted a few things:

1. I get the display info popping up randomly while watching a DVD (component input - Pioneer 525). Its happened 3 times since Friday.



Same thing happens with my 55XS955. I got it last Sunday and the display info has popped up on mine 3 times also. But I was just watching satellite or cable, not DVD. I looked around and nobody was sitting on one of the remotes either.:) So has anybody else noticed this phenomenon, or is it a supernatural thing?

Definitely supernatural... ;)

No, actually, others have reported this issue. I'm thinking Sony will fix this via a firmware update.

Originally posted by avfun
I am planning to buy 55WF655 set and would set it up on a platform at 4.5ft height. Will there be any problem in getting to view a good picture on this sony GWIV set while sitting on a chair of 2ft height at 12ft distance.
Please provide your suggestions.

James

That's a decision I had to make last night. I had the 42" WE610 a few weeks ago, and it was positioned atop two plaster columns that were 27" high. Sitting down, the image darkened, and lying down it darkened a little more.

This time, with the 55", I decided that higher up is not better, and found that I wanted the center of my screen to be around 40-42" up from the floor, because that'll be the happy medium and sweet spot for sitting down or laying on the furniture while watching. The stand I got is perfectly heighted for the new furniture I'm getting.

Although looking up kind of reminded me of being in a theater, I found that most of my friends felt it was unnatural, and preferred to have the TV more at eye level, which is where I actually prefer it.

In any case, go with what works for you, and good luck!

cmassa, I'm so jealous of you right now. I want that TV so bad. Trying to convince the wife. :)

Originally posted by jjdenver
After nearly 11 months of research and shopping my 60WF655 was delivered Friday. Great set - works just like I hoped it would.

As an experiment I plugged my Comcast analog cable into the cable input on the TV and let it do its thing. It found all sorts of digital channels, and I wound up with the HD versions of ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS, three of the STARZ channels, and dozens of music channels. There also appear to be three major digital channels (with lots of subchannels) devoted to on-demand requests from people who actually have an STB and I get to watch whatever happens to be flowing down the pipe. (On-demand is free, unlike PPV.)

JJ (or anyone), I've never really explored the whole built-in tuner deal. Based on what you're saying, it sounds like I can bypass my Comcast cable box and plug analog directly into the TV and get all the stations I get now, which is nearly a full boat, minus 6-10 I lost when I refused to update to a digital box) and then some. Is this correct?

I plugged the cable directly into my last set that had an ASTC tuner, and it only got basic channels up to about 27. The rest were scrambled and/or unwatchable.

I'd love to get rid of that Comcast box, because it'd be three less wires to have to run somewhere, plus the thing gets super hot!

Thanks.

Originally posted by PackFan
Definitely supernatural... ;)

No, actually, others have reported this issue. I'm thinking Sony will fix this via a firmware update.


Have they released a firmware update for this yet? Do you have to get a service call to get firmware updates or can they be downloaded and put on a memory stick?

Chris

I'm wondering the same thing about a firmware upgrade for my 42WE655 --can it be downloaded onto a memory stick? I tried Sony's online support chat, but they had no idea what I was talking about. If I could get ahold of an upgrade I'd gladly lend it out to forum members...I'll keep searching.
BTW...how can I check my firmware version...and does anyone know the latest version?

I bought the 55wf655 about a week ago; picture is great but I have a question about the fan - it seems relatively loud and I was wondering if this is normal or should I consider an exchange since still within my 30 days at CC. It is seems very noticeable at even reasonable volume levels (or maybe I'm now concentrating on it). It sounds almost exactly like the refrigerator running in the adjacent kitchen. With volume low, it can be easily heard 20+ feet from the set. Also, is it normal for the fan to run at what sounds like full speed for about 5 seconds when the set is first turned on before it then slows down (I assume it is thermostaticaaly controlled) or is this sign of a problem? Any info would be appreciated.

The fan on my 60WF655 also starts at high speed when I turn the set on and then slows down to barely a whisper after a few seconds. I assume this is normal.

Originally posted by Cryogenix
JJ (or anyone), I've never really explored the whole built-in tuner deal. Based on what you're saying, it sounds like I can bypass my Comcast cable box and plug analog directly into the TV and get all the stations I get now, which is nearly a full boat, minus 6-10 I lost when I refused to update to a digital box) and then some. Is this correct?



It's my understanding that the QAM tuner will handle any unscrambled digital channels, and the ATSC tuner will handle any unscrambled HD channels.

There are lots of digital channels that I do NOT get. In fact, I don't get most of them. The local HD broadcasts are available because the cable company is required to carry them (I think). But I do not get Discovery-HD, ESPN-HD, any of the premium stations and their HD counterparts, or any of the other digital channels except for those I mentioned in my earlier post (and Comcast might "fix" that someday).

The only channel I don't get now that I would like is ESPN-HD, but to get that I would need to upgrade to digital cable and get the HD-pack, which would add $15 per month to my cable bill. My wife would like the interactive program guide that comes with that package, but the rest we can live without. That would add up to $900 over 5 years, which seems like a lot for the program guide and ESPN-HD.

Hi All,
Got 55XS for a few days now. Receiving digital tv, which helps SD viewing a little, and still waiting for Brighthouse to install cablecard. Fan noise is only noticeable during start up. Brightness is very good even during the day with the set sitting next to a wall of french doors and windows. Experienced silk screen effect first hand, and feeling it to be quite distractive at times. Can anyone tell me whether the SCE is present on every set, or some sets are blessedly without it??? Is it just like the rainbows in DLP that some sees it and some don't???
Thanks.

These pics were taken during the day with the bulb set at energy saving mode. I think the stand is not too bad, except the color is wrong. Will look for another one.

The 2nd one.

FAN NOISE??? The reason I had settled on buying a Sony rear-projected LCD in the next month or so was to avoid the possiblity of fan noise on a Panny DLP.

So now I'm going to have to worry over a noisy fan for this unit too? :(

Is to too much to ask for a set that has a great picture, long life and quiet operation?

The last two Sony's I had (42WE610 and KE42S2TU) I hated because of the fan noise. Initially, the 610 was quiet, but got noiser after about a week. The plasma was just always loud (low, steady, resonating hum) because of the fan.

I have NOT plugged in this set yet... Keeping my fingers crossed.

Both prior sets fired up at full speed, then calmed down. Perhaps Sony's way of making us think "wow, I'm glad it's not that loud all the time" to detract or distract from the actual lack of quietness--quietness that SHOULD be part of a product this expensive.

I think that, in my case, the noise is primarily a product of reflection off the back wall. If it's loud, I'm going to experiment with some kind of sound-absorbing material affixed to the wall, to dampen the reverb, and maybe a thin layer of breathable cloth or insulation directly over the grill... Not sure... Maybe earplugs... :)

I had noticed that my XS gradually got louder the longer it was on. To the point that it could easily be heard during program quiter parts at 16 feet. I checked with Sony and a local repair shop and both said that this is not 'normal'. At the suggestion of another person on this forum I got a sound level meter from Radio Shack to see if I could confirm the fan really got louder with time or if it was just my imagination. I set the meter directly behind the set by the fan grille. A few minutes after power on it read about 58db. At this point it was basically silent from my viewing distance. Gradually it increased until at about one hour it was up to 64db. I know 6db might not sound like much, but decibels are not a linear function. An increase from 58db to 64db equates to about double the noise level from what it is after power up. Not trying to scare anyone off, just relating my experience. Love this tv otherwise, but I am getting it exchanged tomorrow since I am still in my 30 day return period.

Thanks to everyone who has been up-front about the fan noise. My TV wish-list seems to be re-ordered every week... :rolleyes:

If the fan is variable speed and thermostatically controlled, it would make sense that it would speed up a bit as the inside of the TV gets warmer. Noise control as suggested by Cryogenix might help. Keeping the TV cooler would also help if that's possible (better ventilation, closing off any heat vents by the TV, etc.).

Barnabas - if you still have that sound meter and can figure out where the input vent is, it might be interesting to put a bowl of ice cubes in front of the input vent for a while to see if the fan slows down. That won't fix anything - it just sounds like an interesting experiment. :p

Good luck, and let us know how the replacement works out.

P.S. - I can hear my WF655 fan from 12 feet if I have the volume well below my normal listening level, but not otherwise. I figure that if I want to watch TV late at night when people are sleeping, I'll invest in some wireless headphones and that will let me be loud and cut out the fan noise at the same time.

____________________________________________________________ ___
The other problem is that the TV switches modes (FULL,WIDE FULL) sometimes while watching a DVD via the Sony DVD recorder. Is this normal?.
____________________________________________________________ ___

I have also experienced this....using a samsung dvd player the picture will shift out of 'wide zoom' (which is where I set it on the TV, using component dvd inputs) back to 'full' by itself. I plugged dvd player into both sets of component inputs (inputs 6 & 7 as I recall) and the same thing occurred. Anyone else experience this?

Just in case anyone cares, I was at CC tonight and they have the WF655 at a good price....no 3's if you get my drift. Not sure how long the price is good for. Also, Sony is offering 18 months Zero interest and no payments.

WSorensen--Phoenix, AZ

Had the 55wf655 delivered last week. I've decided to go with comcast in order to get the local hd stations. Once D* includes these, I will switch.

I tried to hook up an OTA antenna the other day. All I got was poor reception. Has anyone tried this with success? How can I measure the signal strength? Is there a trick to knowing which stations are broadcasting on HD?

I have the SA4200HD stb from cablevision. What HD output should I configure the stb to (1080i, 720p, etc) for use w/ the sony 60xs955? Is it possible to have the sony upconvert instead of the stb (ie. output 480i from stb but somehow set the sony to display 720p or 1080i)? Sorry if this is a newbie question ...

Thanks

I started reading this thread a couple of weeks ago before I decided to buy a Sony 50WE655. I got my set last Sat. and I think the HD picture is superb and the DirecTV SD picture is very good, a lot better than I thought it would be. However, I did start noticing some fan noise coming from the set and, from searching this thread, others have too. I would describe my noise as a low level, mid-frequency hum, especially noticible when the audio level was low or absent. Not being shy about taking things apart, I decided to do my own investigation. I removed the back panel on the set to see if the fan was the same aa a PC case fan, which it is with one exception. It is an 80mm, 12v, (don't remember the current rating), with the same small 3-pin motherboard connector that PCs use. The pigtail wiring, however is different but easily corrected. Anyway, while I had the panel off, which can be removed without disconnecting any cables (I like that!), I ran the set for about an hour and did not hear the hum. I reinstalled the panel and the hum came back. So I backed all the panel screws out about 1/4 in. and pulled the panel away from the main chassis - no more hum. I noticed that the hum disappeared when I loosened the screws in the area above the input jackfield, but I decided to leave all the screws backed out and now all I hear is a whisper from the fan. I hoe this helps others who have fan noise.
Here is a shot of my set on a Tech Craft DLP58X stand.

Well, I paid a visit to Magnolia last night and they had the Sony DVP-NS975V HDMI DVD player, so I got one and spent the evening redoing my wiring and configuration, etc. Everything looks awesome!

I finally fired up the 55WF655 and watched portions of a few DVDs, and HDMI worked perfectly and PQ was great. I haven't done any tweaks yet, except to reduce the maxed picture and contrast settings, but I'll browse this forum for tweaks and pop in DVE later tonight and have at it.

Fan was pretty quiet, but I did notice that after about an hour of activity, it became nearly as loud as my refrigerator (someone else here said that, too) but I'll deal with that later. As dvandeg mentioned, it may be a simple fix to lessen or eliminate the noise (loosen/remove a screw); maybe just pop in a quieter, better cooling fan...

Aesthetically, it friggin rocks! Best-looking setup I've had so far. I really want the speakers that come with the Pioneer HTZ-940DV, but they come as a whole theater package (which I don't want) and Pioneer doesn't seem to offer them as replacement parts yet, so I settled for some slim Sonys for now till I find something a little more hi-tech-looking and shapely, and hopefully within $1,000. Saw and heard 'em at BB last night, and fell in love with 'em! *drool*
Anyway, I'll try to get some pictures up tonight, once I've done some tweaking to everything.

Just wanted to say I picked up a 55WF655 last weekend for a GREAT DEAL from a local Ultimate Electronics. I used the same sales guy who sold me a Sammy DLP earlier this year. He gave me a nice hook up... ;)

Anyway, its a very nice set compared to the Sammy HLN I have. It's not as bright as the Sammy and is more pixelated, but no rainbows:D. I've only watched it for a few hours, so I won't make any other comments until then.

Originally posted by SiClone
Just wanted to say I picked up a 55WF655 last weekend ... Anyway, its a very nice set compared to the Sammy HLN I have. It's not as bright as the Sammy and is more pixelated, but no rainbows:D.
I figure that the WF series should be similar optically to the XS series, so I am a bit surprised at the pixelization. We've auditioned the 60xs955 with a DVD player connected via S-Video and component, and neither of those setups showed any pixelization.

The DVD player was sending a 480i signal, so all of the de-interlacing and upscaling occurred in the 60xs955. Although we found the colors a bit muted compared to the Mits 52725 DLP, the 60xs955 had less "grain" than the 52725, almost to the point of being non-existent at 9' and beyond.

Michael

BTW, one thing I just remembered (after reading some threads here), is that the audio really sounded flat and the center channel was way overpowering watching regular analog TV. Variable doesn't workto ym receiver, TV optical out is lost because I don't have digitial cable... Shrek 2 and Master and Commander (even though using optical) were NOT as audibly exciting and inmpactive as before with the other sets I tried. The sound is bizarre. It doesn't sound right, and I've triple-checked all my connections and settings.

It appears that a firmware fix is urgently needed, because something's wrong here.

My 60WF does same...fan starts fast, then goes so quiet that u have to be within a foot or two. I only really noticed it when I was behind the set wiring it up.

Originally posted by zigboy
I have the SA4200HD stb from cablevision. What HD output should I configure the stb to (1080i, 720p, etc) for use w/ the sony 60xs955? Is it possible to have the sony upconvert instead of the stb (ie. output 480i from stb but somehow set the sony to display 720p or 1080i)? Sorry if this is a newbie question ...

Continuing along this line...I have the 55WF and was wondering what theoretically should look the best, 720p or 1080i. Picked up a DVI>HDMI cable to try out with my HD cable box. I have it set to 'auto dvi' so it changes the display format based on whatever channel I choose.

When I was running component cables from the box, I had it set to output everything at 1080i cuz it looked better than 720p. With this HMDI cable I'm not sure if 1080i on everyhing still lookes better or not. Should it?

PS: HDMI port seems to work just fine...haven't seen any 'issues' (like ghosting) that others have seen on diff manufactuerers sets. I'm not blown away by the pq though vs component. Might take cable back and wait till I get a new DVD player with HDMI, then repurchase a straight HMDI>HDMI cable. I KNOW that hookup will blow me away compared to my current DVD player!

Originally posted by barnabas
I know 6db might not sound like much, but decibels are not a linear function.

Well, yes, but you have to remember that the human ear is not linear in its perception of sound level either, it is pretty close to logrithmic which is why people use db to denote sound level.

A 1 db difference in sound level is considered 'barely perceptible' at any absolute level; even though that 1 db difference at an absolute level of 40 db is 1/100th the power of a 1 db difference at an absolute level of 60 db.

I recently purchased a new DirecTV HR10-250 Hi-Def TIVO. The HDMI output did not work from the get-go. I just received a new replacement from DirecTV today - same problem.

I've been following the HDMI thread in the TIVO section, so I'm aware that the DTV HR10-250/TIVO has a known problem.

I also have a Samsung SIR-TS160 DirecTV receiver (DVI out) and a Toshiba DVD player (HDMI out). Both work OK into my 55XS using the HDMI input port of Video 7 and Video 8.

Does anyone have the DTV HR10-250/TIVO and a GWIV working using the HDMI interface?

Am I just twice unlucky - or is there an incompatibility between the DTV HR10-250/TIVO and the GWIV (55XS)?

Has anyone purchased an upconversion dvd player that has noticed a definite PQ increase to the WE655 series. I currently am running a Sony NS999ES through component and am very satisfied with the PQ, but if there is a definite increase to PQ through an upconversion player I would like to know, brand and model.

Originally posted by Gary Willett

Does anyone have the DTV HR10-250/TIVO and a GWIV working using the HDMI interface?

Am I just twice unlucky - or is there an incompatibility between the DTV HR10-250/TIVO and the GWIV (55XS)?

Gary,
I just got the 60 XS and the DTV HR10-250 Tivo Monday - video signal via HDMI works fine (and HD broadcasts look awesome!) - but there is a problem with the audio - in the Tivo setup menu you can chose whether to have it output Dolby Digital or not. If I enable DD and use my AV receiver, it works fine, but if I just want to listen using the XS speakers, I get no sound. If I turn off DD, then I can get audio via either the receiver or the XS. I don't have separate audio cables connecting the DVR and the XS but I will try that and see if it works.

JR

Sony,Samsung,Mit`s,Hitachi= 1 in Satisfaction.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/041118/185316_1.html

I have a 55XS. Anybody have any ideas how to best calibrate the picture on the OTA tuner? I've tried copying my Pro settings from my DVD input (done with Avia) but they don't look good for broadcast stuff. I have no channels in HD, a few digital. Most are analog stations. Is it just trial and error?

Chris

SO some people watch 150 hours of TV a week?!? There's only 168 hours in a week.

Hi,

I recently bought the 60XS955. The tv is great, however I notice sometimes the black bars on the top and bottom are unequal ... the top is smaller and the below black bar is larger in width.

Is this a problem?

I noticed this while I was watching the 007 Die Another Day dvd.

Please reply .. I am still under warranty so can return or change.

Thanks!

Need some serios help. Just picked up a KDF42WE6555 and being the A/V mental midget that I am my current Pic quality stinks. For the time being I have Time Warner digital cable until HD is installed next week. I currently have the cable running thru the box and into the UHF/VHF input. PQ is very fuzzy. Also, how does one take advanatge of the OTA built in HD tuner for OTA transmission. Should I be able to receive HD with no additional equip? If so, do I need to change the settings? I tried calling Sony for tech support but it was worthless. For spending that much on a TV, you would think they could provide some support. Thanks in advance

Re: DTV HR10-250/TIVO and GWIV (55XS)

heywood jablomy:

Thanks for the response - maybe the third unit will work for me - DirecTV will hopefully test it before shipping, or this will be a long process swapping out until I get one where the HDMI port works.

Regards, Gary

Originally posted by gracious
Hi,

I recently bought the 60XS955. The tv is great, however I notice sometimes the black bars on the top and bottom are unequal ... the top is smaller and the below black bar is larger in width.

Thanks!

I'm convinced that this is not the tv but the type of DVD player used.
I have been testing different DVD players to find one which I like and depending on the player the vertical placing of the bars is different.
Most are dead even but I just got an LG 418 and the bars are uneven with this player.
I beleive this can be adjusted in the service menu.

First I want to say THANKS for all the great information I've gleaned from all the people on this forum! :)

Yesterday, BestBuy/Magnolia delivered my new 60XS with the Sauder stand. I'll start with the bad news, during delivery the legs of the stand broke off. That may be a blessing in disguise as I think it both looks better and is more stable sitting right on the floor. I'm going to try to attach a picture, my first try so we'll see. The good parts all follow with one, Doh!, at the end. I started the auto tune process and let the guys go as it was taking forever. At the end of the process I was amazed to learn how many channels this TV found from my Adelphia cable. Besides the usual suspects it got a whole bunch of digital channels above 100 AND all the basic HDTV channels Adelphia sends! I'm scheduled for an HD box install, and am wondering now, hmmmm. BUT I am getting the PVR box so, is it worth $13/mo??? It's not until December so I have time to think.
Now for the picture...WOWWW better than almost anything I've seen in the stores. Including standard definition channels. I have no complaints SO FAR, I'll find something I'm sure :D
No noise I can hear, no screen doors, no trapazoid...
The first full HD show I saw was the American Idol Christmas special on Fox. Yikes! The colors were jumping off the screen. The "looking through a window" effect was glorious. I started watching Leno, but was falling asleep, so I'll catch that later. What I saw of it was fantastic. I used the antenna from my ATI HDTV Wonder to tune in OTA channels. I get even more than Adelphia provised that way, like the WB and more PBS. Also the local (LOS Angeles) ABC station broadcasts their Doppler Radar signal on one of the .x channels. Cool!
If my picture attaches you'll see my rack to the left. My old TV had all its connections on the left side, this one is on the right (as you look at it from the front. Soooooo gotta move every thing, and will probably still need some cables and wire, just less than rewiring everything. The net good is the TV will be more centered in the room. But this was a BIG D'oh!
Why isn't the Thanksgiving Day Parade in HD?? Grrrr ;)

I got it, fixed the picture, here it is....

:D

BTW 2 drawers are missing from the center of the Sauder stand. I'm going to put my center channel in the space.

I'm sneaking in here for some help. I've got a 50VS810 Hitachi I may be returning (for the 3rd time) looking back at my original thoughts of Sony.
GWIII and GWIV are what model #'s? WF and XS?

Originally posted by casscarr2002
I'm sneaking in here for some help. I've got a 50VS810 Hitachi I may be returning (for the 3rd time) looking back at my original thoughts of Sony.
GWIII and GWIV are what model #'s? WF and XS?

KDF55XS955
KDF60XS955
KDF55WF655
KDF60WF655

All fours sets have the same basic wega guts, the XS's have some additional fine tuning capibility from the user mode (vs Service mode). It really comes down to what style suits you best. Good luck..

WSorensen--

rupertoooo,

I have the 60XS and the Zenith DVB318 Upconvert DVD player. I wouldn't say the difference between the Zenith and a regular DVD player is significant, but in some areas it is noticable. To me the image has a sharper feel to it, slightly less jagged edges on lines, and overall more detail is noticable. Again, the difference is slight. But it is there.

Jason

Hi,

On the KDF-60XS955 can you add channels manually. I can't seem to figure it out. If the set doesn't find a channel in its automatic scan but you know its there how do you add it with doing another 30min scan?

Thanks
-Gary

Press the menu button. Go to channels. Scroll down to Show/Hide channels. Select program and you should be able to achieve what you want.

Originally posted by arkid
I'm convinced that this is not the tv but the type of DVD player used.
I have been testing different DVD players to find one which I like and depending on the player the vertical placing of the bars is different.
Most are dead even but I just got an LG 418 and the bars are uneven with this player.
I beleive this can be adjusted in the service menu.

I had the same problem and I ended up fixing it through the service menu. My set needed the horizontal position adjusted down so that both black bars now are equal. Different movies will have a slight difference in the thickness of the bars but my sets bars were consistantly 1/4inch larger on the bottom than the top. Check the "Official GWIV tweaking" thread on the fix. It's a simple sevice menu adjustment.

-R

Originally posted by rupertoooo
Has anyone purchased an upconversion dvd player that has noticed a definite PQ increase to the WE655 series. I currently am running a Sony NS999ES through component and am very satisfied with the PQ, but if there is a definite increase to PQ through an upconversion player I would like to know, brand and model.

Hi, i've assisted in a training where we compared a 60XS655 TV on component vs HDMI connection to a new Sony 975V HDMI upconvertiing DVD player. There was a clear and obvious difference between the two signals. There was better contrast, black levels, sharpness and overall better picture with the HDMI (digital) connection vs the component (analog). This was using custom made high quality component cables and the HDMI cable that came with the player. We were using a Men in Black II superbit DVD. I've heard good things about the Bravo D2, but haven't seen it with a DVI to HDMI adapter so can't say from personal experience.

Originally posted by wsorensen
KDF55XS955
KDF60XS955
KDF55WF655
KDF60WF655

All fours sets have the same basic wega guts, the XS's have some additional fine tuning capibility from the user mode (vs Service mode). It really comes down to what style suits you best. Good luck..

WSorensen--

XS series over the WF series has dual HDMI inputs, better built in speaker package, anti reflective coating, and image quality enhancer LSI which basically offers better contrast and color reproduction,

Originally posted by Warrick16
Need some serios help. Just picked up a KDF42WE6555 and being the A/V mental midget that I am my current Pic quality stinks. For the time being I have Time Warner digital cable until HD is installed next week. I currently have the cable running thru the box and into the UHF/VHF input. PQ is very fuzzy. Also, how does one take advanatge of the OTA built in HD tuner for OTA transmission. Should I be able to receive HD with no additional equip? If so, do I need to change the settings? I tried calling Sony for tech support but it was worthless. For spending that much on a TV, you would think they could provide some support. Thanks in advance

Digital Cable is a joke. I don't know how Time Warner is, but Charter is horrible. Your TV is just showing you an accurate representation of the signal. Try an OTA antenna - go to www.antennaweb.org to see how far you are from your local broadcast towers. Also, ditch the cable for Satellite Television. Picture quality is far superior to crap cable.

Hey,

Had my 60XS for over a week now, thought I’d post some notes. Sorry about the length and hope not too boring.

Why 60XS: I wanted a large screen but didn’t want to go with a projector in my bright room. It is an interesting problem to work out the largest diagonal image for dual side by side 4:3 PIPs on a 16:9 set. Plasma of that size was out of my budget. Bulk/form factor swayed me away from RP CRT. Also burn in considered. After reading the forums, I didn’t believe in reality it would be a problem, but I knew it would always be in the back of my mind. And I still find myself thinking about it. Every time I auditioned a DLP, I imagined a little hamster spinning a color wheel inside. Black levels on the 60XS seemed acceptable at audition and my experience at home bears this out using PRO with power saving. Very good glare control.

Setup: I’m at 13ft. Went out and got a stand with some scale – waist high (small children) and longer than the set. This set still looks alarmingly big, I guess that’s good, right? I can’t hear the fan (I’ve tried), no screen door, no stuck pixels, no noticeable darkening unless I stand up and sit down rapidly at 7ft. I never get the service agreement, but this time I did as insurance considering the number of times I’ve read about folks returning sets. Also I’m pretty sure my bulb will need replacing within the last month of my agreement.

Hookups: I have a Motorola set top box connected via DVI-HDMI and also components. I have the NS975V DVD connected via HDMI and also components. An old VHS for the kids. Interestingly, I’m running the DVD HDMI at 480i because DRC gives me more options. Can anyone translate “reality” and “clarity” into words I understand? It all seems like unsharp masking to me. Also of note, the OSD tells me that the digital cable tuner in the set is giving me a “higher hi def” signal than the output of the Motorola (doesn’t matter whether it is using component or DVI). I don’t watch my premium channels so much, so I’m thinking of using my DVI-HDMI cable for a computer hookup and running my cable box via components instead. When I toggle between component and DVI-HDMI, I don’t think I see a difference but then again I don’t own Avia either. The computer forums frighten me. I could spend weeks trying to get 1:1 pixel mapping for the 60XS 1368 x 768 matrix. I might have to try this. Since I use the built in tuner a lot, I’ve switched my optical cable from the set top box to the TV. Man, never thought I’d use that.

Bugs: One of the HDMI ports didn’t recognize the DVD player at first. A couple rounds of plugging/unplugging and set up menus and it seemed to finally catch. That was probably just me not having it setup right. There was one time when I was punted out of zoom into full. This occurred during a video loop (Nemo fish tank disk two) and happened only once. I almost never zoom, that’s why I went with the 60 anyway.

Summary: I’m very happy with the set, no post purchase dissonance.

Hello,
Just purchased the 60WF from CC. Still waiting for it to come in, but I've been reading this board daily to get more acquinted with my TV, so when it comes in I'll be ready. I do have one question. I have a Zenith SAT-520 STB HDTV/DirectTV receiver. Currently, I have it setup to output all signals as 1080...and it seems to be fine. Is this the optimal setting for this TV? Also, the box has DVI output, I'm using component out cuz current tv doesn't have DVI input. Would upgrading this be noticable?

Thanks for the great website, can't wait for the TV!

I mistakenly created a new thread for this....... Anyway, here goes!


I've had my 55WF655 for 2 weeks now. Overall, pretty happy with it. I've read numerous posts on this forum where the zoom modes get kicked backed to the "normal" mode and also where the channel banner info comes on out of the blue.

I have experienced both of theses problems now. Most often it is the zoom problem. (X-Box and DVD Component inputs) Only a few times did the channel banner info show up spontaneously. (not using zoom when this happens)

Fan noise is noticeable at lower listening levels, sounds much like the noise level coming from the VCR when recording or playing back a tape. I find this is a bit annoying. I have a RS sound level meter and will measure startup and long term running noise levels when I get a chance.

Question: Has anyone received a definite response (from Sony?) regarding the inability to hold the selected zoom settings or exactly what sound levels are "normal" for the fans? (I'm getting ready to take the back of the case off to see if that helps, but don't feel that should be necessary)

Having a CC installed this afternoon. Don't know that I really need it as the basic digital selection from Comcast is pretty weak and I don't subscribe to any premium services. Any cost of more than 5-10 bucks a month over the already high cost of basic/basic 2 services will have the CC going back.

Originally posted by heywood jablomy
Gary,
I just got the 60 XS and the DTV HR10-250 Tivo Monday - video signal via HDMI works fine (and HD broadcasts look awesome!) - but there is a problem with the audio - in the Tivo setup menu you can chose whether to have it output Dolby Digital or not. If I enable DD and use my AV receiver, it works fine, but if I just want to listen using the XS speakers, I get no sound. If I turn off DD, then I can get audio via either the receiver or the XS. I don't have separate audio cables connecting the DVR and the XS but I will try that and see if it works.

JR

Same for me (I posted the same quirk back on 11/17). Some folks replied to my post that the TV does not have a DD decoder. I contacted Sony and it does have one!

I wish I had access to another HDMI device to test.

Is anyone else having this problem?

I think, HDMI currently only transmit 2 channel sound, not DD 5.1

Originally posted by zoro
I think, HDMI currently only transmit 2 channel sound, not DD 5.1

After reading your post I went back and re-read through the DTV user manual and every reference to Dolby Digital specifies using the Optical output (toslink). There is no reference to Dolby Digital coming over the HDMI in the user manual, so I think you hit the nail on the head.

I then called DTV to confirm and the tech said that Dolby Digital should be coming over the HDMI (!?!) He also said they are working on a software fix to the HDMI output so I'd have to wait until it was resolved.

I think DTV was asleep at the wheel when they were designing/implementing the HDMI port for the HR10-250 :mad:

None of HDMI are multi channel compatable!!

If u have only HDMI connection, no audio connection between ur HD TIVO and SONY, u should get 2 channel sound and picture!! Sony might change this into PSEUDO surround!

why do you say HDMI is not multi channel compatable? it supports up to 8 uncompressed audio streams at 192kHz, up to 24-bits. any device that wants to output dd 5.1 over hdmi can. they can also output 8 channel pcm.

Originally posted by zoro
I think, HDMI currently only transmit 2 channel sound, not DD 5.1

Actually HDMI has no problem with DD or even better. The problem is that the TV does not accept DD (no decoder.) HDMI is a bi-directional smart interface, the TV tells the device that it only supports 2 channel sound. In response to this, the device will output the level of sound requested. Most devices have the ability to override and force a desired output.

Originally posted by TheMostToyzWins
Actually HDMI has no problem with DD or even better. The problem is that the TV does not accept DD (no decoder.) HDMI is a bi-directional smart interface, the TV tells the device that it only supports 2 channel sound. In response to this, the device will output the level of sound requested. Most devices have the ability to override and force a desired output.

MostToyz, I appreciate your input and I do want to know for sure if the TV has a DD decoder or not. Below is the transcript which was emailed to me after I chatted with a Sony tech online. They said it has one. Where are you getting your info that says it doesn't have a DD decoder? Please advise. Thanks. -Alex


Question #041126-000726
---------------------------------------------------------------
Summary: Chat Session
Product: TV/Video/DVD
Category: Technical/Product Support(Post Purchase)
Date Created: 11/26/2004 10:28 AM
Last Updated: 11/26/2004 10:28 AM
Status: Unresolved


Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Chat Transcript - 11/26/2004 10:28 AM
Hi, my name is Marcus. How may I help you?
Alex: Hi Marcus. I own the TV: KDF-60XS955 and have a question.
Alex: Does the KDF-60XS955 have a Dolby Digital decoder in it?
Marcus: I need to check this for you , I will be with you shortly.
Alex: OK. Thanks.
Marcus: yes, it has.
Alex: OK. Thank you very much for your help.
Alex: disconnected
Marcus: disconnected

Whether you are inputing 5.1 DD from TIVO or one of the new upscaling DVD's via HDMI the TV will not produce Dolby Digital. If you have an A/V receiver simply run the optical digit output to the receiver from the source and you will get Dolby via the receiver. You will only get two channel from the TV no matter. No big deal as listening through your receiver should be better sound anyway.

I have the 55WF655 and just hooked up my PC via s-video (HDMI taken by DVD), and I got severe headaches because the refresh rate is fixed at 60hz, and there's nothing I could do to make it higher. This is very disappointing because I'd hoped to toss my desk and 17" CRT and use the TV for computing...

Used the latest nVidia drivers and Powerstrip under XP/1a, using Leadtek G3 ti200.

Questions:

1) Why is the refresh rate so low? Is this typical?

2) Do refresh rates increase using HDMI?

3) If the WF sucks for computer use, will the XS be the way to go?

Thanks.

Originally posted by blb
why do you say HDMI is not multi channel compatable? it supports up to 8 uncompressed audio streams at 192kHz, up to 24-bits. any device that wants to output dd 5.1 over hdmi can. they can also output 8 channel pcm.

Not exactly. The latest HDMI 1.1 spec allows this, but most units seem to be to the 1.0 spec. The 1.1 spec was just ratified this summer.

Originally posted by Mtnmike
Whether you are inputing 5.1 DD from TIVO or one of the new upscaling DVD's via HDMI the TV will not produce Dolby Digital. If you have an A/V receiver simply run the optical digit output to the receiver from the source and you will get Dolby via the receiver. You will only get two channel from the TV no matter. No big deal as listening through your receiver should be better sound anyway.

Why wouldn't it? The TV has a DD decoder and I chatted with Sony again and asked:
"The HDMI spec lists support for up to 8 channels of digital audio. If the TV were to receive more than 2 channels over HDMI, would it simply not play any audio or would it play 2 of the channels?"

Sony replied:
"The TV should play 2 of the channels from any signal that is received on it."


I want to be able to leave the DD setting ON in the TIVO permanently and be able to have the option of listening to audio either through the TV (HDMI) or the receiver (optical).

Most if not all HD programming is DD 5.1, but I do not want to fire up the receiver every time I watch HDTV programming (the TV already has nice sound). But sometimes I will want to use my receiver when I've TIVO'd a good movie and want the immersion of 5.1, but not all the time. My goal is to have that option.

I'm not looking to get 5.1 out of the TV, just some audio (I apologize if that is how my question came across).

Sony said there is a DD decoder in the TV, so I should be hearing some audio from HD programming when DD is enabled, but I am not.

Make sense?

Does anyone have experience with a GWIV and either the Pioneer 59avi or the Onkyo sp1000. I'll be picking one of these LCDs up (either the wf or the xs probably) and was trying to find the best DVD player to match.
Thanks

If the TV has an OTA HD tuner, doesn't it need some kind of DD decoder, since all OTA HD is broadcast with DD sound? Unless it can't ouput audio through it's internal speakers when using the TVs OTA-HD tuner.

On the 60XS I see very faint thin vertical lines spaced about 1/2" apart on some programming. It's most noticeable where there is a bright, solid image on the screen. Like a shot of a clear blue sky. Also see it to a lesser extent in other images, like close ups of faces or other solid areas in background shots but more faint and barely noticeable. It occurs on all sources (HDMI, s-vid, cable, etc.). Is this what people refer to as vertical banding? I've seen some references to vertical banding in my searching, but not seen an explanation of what it is and what causes it. Or if any service menu settings can help to reduce it. It took me a long time to notice this, almost three weeks, but (like DLP rainbows) once I've seen it, I can't stop seeing it. Is this a defect or just another quirk of LCD technology?

Originally posted by Cryogenix
I have the 55WF655 and just hooked up my PC via s-video (HDMI taken by DVD), and I got severe headaches because the refresh rate is fixed at 60hz, and there's nothing I could do to make it higher. This is very disappointing because I'd hoped to toss my desk and 17" CRT and use the TV for computing...

I'd wager your headache has little to do with 60hz refresh. Tell you what; Hold up a piece of copy paper in front of a 100 watt bare light bulb and stare at it for an hour. Headache? Zactly. RPTV for PC monitor? Gaming maybe - desktop use - no way. You're staring at too much light.

____________________________________________________________
If the TV has an OTA HD tuner, doesn't it need some kind of DD decoder, since all OTA HD is broadcast with DD sound? Unless it can't ouput audio through it's internal speakers when using the TVs OTA-HD tuner.
____________________________________________________________

The OTA tuner will process 5.1 DD and you need to use your Optical Digital Out from your TV to your receiver and you'll get 5.1 DD from your receiver.

DD 5.1 OTA:

I have never received DD on the OTA signal. I do receive DD on my cable signal, using the cablecard on HBO-HD and TNT-HD, but not on any other chanels. I use the optical cable from the Sony to my Onkyo reciver.

Could it be that my local ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS affiliates are not passing along the DD sound stream?

On page 54 of the KDF55WF655 owner's manual in the insert for "optical digital out" it says, "The DIGITAL AUDIO (OPTICAL) OUT jack is available only when a digital TV channel is received."

I am happy to finally report success with Bright House and an SA cable card with a Sony KDF-55WF655 TV. The CC was a version 2.3.148S2 OS with a build date of Tue Oct 19 2004. Now here’s the kicker……...it took 40 minutes after the CC was inserted until the MAC address and host ID showed. The tech stated that a Sharp took 5 minutes and a couple of Mitsubishi’s that he had done were in the 10 minute range. Just glad to have it working!

Originally posted by blackngold19
Digital Cable is a joke. I don't know how Time Warner is, but Charter is horrible. Your TV is just showing you an accurate representation of the signal. Try an OTA antenna - go to www.antennaweb.org to see how far you are from your local broadcast towers. Also, ditch the cable for Satellite Television. Picture quality is far superior to crap cable.


Warrick16: I have basic cable from Time Warner in Los Angeles and get excellect quality HD for local channels over cable. I have the cable plugged into the CABLE input. After running channel setup, I found the HD locals by channel surfing through every available channel. THE HD CHANNELS ARE NOT THE SAME AS THE NORMAL LOCAL NUMBERS. example: CBS is Channel 2 in L.A., however, I get CBS HD on 82.3 which is excellent PQ. On channel 2, I get the analog NTSC CBS - i.e. fuzzy, bad PQ.

All OTA-HD is in DD. It could be DD 2.0, 2.1, 5.1 etc, but it is broadcast in DD.

I can confirm this works. The optical output is connected to my receiver. NFL and some college games on CBS have 5.1 - they send the crowd noise through the back speakers. Haven't tried the stereo output, but read through this thread - it is mentioned a ways back.

Has anyone in the San Jose - San Francisco bay area seen the Sony 55xs955 on display in a store, and if so, which store?

We're interested in the 55xs955, but we've only seen the 60xs955 in the stores. I am curious whether the smaller screen size with the same resolution produces a somewhat more detailed and brighter picture with less "grain".

Our decision is down to the 55xs955 and the Mits 52725 DLP. We have some concerns with the 52725 regarding screen glare, rainbows (which I have seen on the 52725), and "idle" fan noise, but based on color we find the 52725 has much more of a WOW factor than the 60xs955.

I have only done a by-the-eye calibration of the 60xs955 in Pro mode and haven't tried the service menu tweaks for this TV (and can't with the demo units). Of course, that's all I have done with the Mits DLP too. How close can the xs955 TVs come to the Mits DLP in terms of color saturation and vibrancy once all of the calibrations have been done?

Michael

Originally posted by ehlarson
Well, yes, but you have to remember that the human ear is not linear in its perception of sound level either, it is pretty close to logrithmic which is why people use db to denote sound level.

A 1 db difference in sound level is considered 'barely perceptible' at any absolute level; even though that 1 db difference at an absolute level of 40 db is 1/100th the power of a 1 db difference at an absolute level of 60 db.

Yes. But a +3 dB change is perceived as "twice" as loud.

Do you ever drive on rubberized asphalt? If coming from poured concrete the road noise level drops dramatically, almost disappearing. But actually, that is only a 3 to 5 dB reduction in sound level, according to the DOT web sites. 64 dB is pretty loud, and is equivalent to what normal pavement noise sounds like while riding at 60 MPH in a typical luxury car with the windows up. Compared to my living room, 64 dB is pretty loud.

A better test would be to place the sound level meter at the point one's ears are, and measure that vs. what it measures with the set turned off and the fan not moving. My guess would be that "off" will measure in the 25-30 range, and "on" will measure possibly 1 dB higher. Maybe 2. I can hear a 1/2 dB difference in level (I mix audio tracks as a hobby) but a 1 or 2 dB change in background level will not be perceptible underneath normal dialogue and music during a typical TV show or movie.

And, I have NEVER heard fan noise from my 60 XS, except for the one time out of curiosity that I ventured behind the set and placed my ear against the fan exhaust outlet. And that wasn't very loud at all, so I find all of these complaints curious.

Originally posted by barnabas
On the 60XS I see very faint thin vertical lines spaced about 1/2" apart on some programming. It's most noticeable where there is a bright, solid image on the screen. Like a shot of a clear blue sky. Also see it to a lesser extent in other images, like close ups of faces or other solid areas in background shots but more faint and barely noticeable. It occurs on all sources (HDMI, s-vid, cable, etc.). Is this what people refer to as vertical banding? I've seen some references to vertical banding in my searching, but not seen an explanation of what it is and what causes it. Or if any service menu settings can help to reduce it. It took me a long time to notice this, almost three weeks, but (like DLP rainbows) once I've seen it, I can't stop seeing it. Is this a defect or just another quirk of LCD technology?

This sounds like retrace lines, which should be invisible if the set is aligned properly. If the lines are slightly angled up to the right, it is definitely retrace. If so, you need a service call. My set nor any I've ever seen have this problem.

Originally posted by TomCat
Yes. But a +3 dB change is perceived as "twice" as loud.


No, that is not correct at all. A 3db increase is twice as loud in terms of actual energy. (log 2 = .3) x 10 = 3db . The human ear does not percieve this as a doubling in sound level because it responds in a logrithmic fashion.

The human ear percieves 3 db as a slight increase in sound level; under some circumstances people would not even notice such an increase unless it were pointed out to them. A doubling in percieved volume generally requires a 10 db increase, or a factor of 10 increase in actual volume.

http://www.epanorama.net/links/audiohearing.html

Originally posted by TomCat
This sounds like retrace lines, which should be invisible if the set is aligned properly. If the lines are slightly angled up to the right, it is definitely retrace. If so, you need a service call. My set nor any I've ever seen have this problem.

They are very straight. Not really lines so much as the image is kind of faintly segmented in solid areas of lighter colors. What do you mean by 'set is aligned properly'? What is vertical banding? I saw one post where someone mentioned this and it sounded similar to what I am seeing.

I have twice experienced the tv display popping up on screen during the middle of a dvd, has anyone else experienced this problem and if so is there a known fix.

To clarify, retrace lines are straight as well. But they are not perpendicular to the screen left or right edges, but slightly angled upward.

When a CRT beam "paints" a raster, (and the mechanism is the same for LCD, DLP, what have you) it draws each line of a field in succession, top to bottom. During the time between the end of one line and the beginning of the next line (as well as between each field) the beam is blanked (effectively turned off) so it doesn't excite phosphors on its way travelling back to start the next line or field. If the beam is not cut off completely or at the right times, this misalignment will allow retrace lines to appear, and between frames it will paint a couple dozen thin lines over the top of the image as the beam is being bent back to start the top line of the next frame.

Vertical banding? I haven't heard that term applied to video since 2-inch tape went the way of the horse and buggy about 1982. That is typically not an artifact that applies to helical tape playback, PVR, DVD, or HD, or any display device that I know of.

Guys,

I have a 2 week old 42" Sony GW IV. Came home around 3:00 a.m. This morning. When i turned it on i got a bunch of smlal squares for a few seconds and then hte screen went white (or off white). I could hear the channel from my digital box, but got no picture. On top of that, the fan was making a whole lot of noise (which it hadn't done before that). I shut the TV off for a few minutes and eventually it worked again when i turned it on and the fan noise is back to normal.

The only thing i can think of (other than a broken TV) is that it was a bit cold in my appartment.

Have any of you had this happen ? Any ideas ?

Thanks !

My 60WF655 arrived on Thanksgiving day, I am very thankful :)

I know I have read a post on GWIV picture setting here, but I can't find it regardless what keyword I used. Can someone send me the link or post it on this thread again? I have mine in between standard and pro and thought the picture was pretty decent. Took a while to get used to the picture though, wife thought the TV was broken when I first powered up because there was a NEC plasma there before. Plasma still rules in PQ, but they also rules in price.

Originally posted by Michael Mohrmann
We're interested in the 55xs955, but we've only seen the 60xs955 in the stores. I am curious whether the smaller screen size with the same resolution produces a somewhat more detailed and brighter picture with less "grain".
Finally got a chance to see the 55xs955 this evening. We auditioned the TV for about an hour. My wife and I thought that the 55xs955 was a bit brighter and had better detail than the 60xs955 that we have auditioned numerous times. But without having them side by side to compare, I wouldn't consider this an accurate comparison.

Originally posted by Michael Mohrmann
Our decision is down to the 55xs955 and the Mits 52725 DLP ... based on color we find the 52725 has much more of a WOW factor than the 60xs955.

How close can the xs955 TVs come to the Mits DLP in terms of color saturation and vibrancy once all of the calibrations have been done?
Well, I guess we are about to find out ourselves, as my wife and I decided to purchase the 55xs955 this evening. It wasn't our intent to make the purchase today, but the store took off enough $$$ and reduced the cost of the extended warranty to make the offer very attractive.

The good news is they had the 55xs955 in stock, so we drove home with it this evening. The bad news is our 5'x5' oak entertainment center and 35" tube TV needs to be picked up by our friend, which won't happen until Monday or Tuesday. Until then, the TV remains in the box unopened.

Now, I have my fingers crossed that the picture produced by the 55xs955 comes close to the Mits 52725 DLP color-wise after we calibrate it.

Michael

We are very close to purchasing a 55XS955. What is a good DVD recorder to go with it? I don't want a DVR bundle as we have that as part of our set top digital/HD cable box.

Thanks,
Dan

Give the new Sony NS975V upscaling DVD player with HDMI a try. From what I have read it will be more than worth your investment.

Originally posted by Mtnmike
Give the new Sony NS975V upscaling DVD player with HDMI a try. From what I have read it will be more than worth your investment.

I got this fella (the NS975V) a week or so ago and can attest to this. The new player replaced a 2-yr old Akai with 480p output. Over component - and therefore 480p, the improvement was reasonable - but when my HDMI cable turned up (eBay $40 for 12ft) the improvement at 1080i is quite amazing. And note: I mean the difference between the 975 at 480p and 1080i. Try hooking up component and HDMI and freeze-frame a complex scene - then switch between inputs).

Originally posted by rmcewan
I got this fella (the NS975V) a week or so ago and can attest to this. The new player replaced a 2-yr old Akai with 480p output. Over component - and therefore 480p, the improvement was reasonable - but when my HDMI cable turned up (eBay $40 for 12ft) the improvement at 1080i is quite amazing. And note: I mean the difference between the 975 at 480p and 1080i. Try hooking up component and HDMI and freeze-frame a complex scene - then switch between inputs).

Why 1080i? Doesn't it also do 720p over HDMI. Seems like extra scaling.

Originally posted by TomCat

Vertical banding? I haven't heard that term applied to video since 2-inch tape went the way of the horse and buggy about 1982. That is typically not an artifact that applies to helical tape playback, PVR, DVD, or HD, or any display device that I know of.

I've seen it mentioned a few times on this forum with reference to LCD projection. One person (in this thread) said it was present on th 55wf, but not as bad as he had seen on other makes. Maybe I will make a specific post on the topic and see what comes up.

Why 1080i? Doesn't it also do 720p over HDMI. Seems like extra scaling.
There are several options for HDMI output including 720p. Counterintuitively, I have mine set at 480i so that I have more options on the set end with DRC palette. I'm using a digital signal but doubling it on the set.

Does this make sense?

Originally posted by Michael Mohrmann
Finally got a chance to see the 55xs955 this evening. We auditioned the TV for about an hour. My wife and I thought that the 55xs955 was a bit brighter and had better detail than the 60xs955 that we have auditioned numerous times. But without having them side by side to compare, I wouldn't consider this an accurate comparison.


Well, I guess we are about to find out ourselves, as my wife and I decided to purchase the 55xs955 this evening. It wasn't our intent to make the purchase today, but the store took off enough $$$ and reduced the cost of the extended warranty to make the offer very attractive.

The good news is they had the 55xs955 in stock, so we drove home with it this evening. The bad news is our 5'x5' oak entertainment center and 35" tube TV needs to be picked up by our friend, which won't happen until Monday or Tuesday. Until then, the TV remains in the box unopened.

Now, I have my fingers crossed that the picture produced by the 55xs955 comes close to the Mits 52725 DLP color-wise after we calibrate it.

Michael

Congrats Mike!! Which store in Cupertino? You can pm me details?

Originally posted by imagr
There are several options for HDMI output including 720p. Counterintuitively, I have mine set at 480i so that I have more options on the set end with DRC palette. I'm using a digital signal but doubling it on the set.

Does this make sense?

Your TV can't double data it doesn't get. The Player has access to ALL data on the disc. Check this out - some background detail from shrëk2 freeze framed:

http://mcewan.biz/480p1080i.jpg

From the 60XS docs: DRC mode is not available when watching 480p, 720p, and 1080i sources

All I'm wondering about is wouldn't it be better to feed digital 480i to take advantage of the TV's DRC "doubler" which appears to be somewhat more flexible. Nice pics. How'd you do that? The test would be to capture the same image with 480i and DRC enabled, perhaps with various settings of "clarity" and "reality". What set are you using?

Edt: oops, I see you have 55WF. Does that have DRC?

Originally posted by imagr
All I'm wondering about is wouldn't it be better to feed digital 480i to take advantage of the TV's DRC "doubler" which appears to be somewhat more flexible.
It might be better. Since a DVD starts out at 480i anyway, I am not sure how sending an upscaled 720p or 1080i from the DVD player is better than having the TV do the upscaling itself, especially with a TV that has a "non-standard" resolution (is it 768 or 788 lines?).

I have seen low-end and mid-level DVD players send both a 480i and 480p signal to the 60xs955, and I found that the TV did a better job with the 480i signal than the 480p signal. I am sure this is DVD player dependent, but it is something to consider.

I am a bit surprise at the example of the 1080i HDMI signal showing much better background detail than the 480p component signal. This might speak more to the DVD player's weak component video circuits than the HDMI output.

Michael

Reference the Sony DLP-NS975V try this link:

NS975v Brain Dump (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=465186&perpage=20&pagenumber=1)

OR for in depth discussions about upscaling players:

Panny v Sony (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=463025&perpage=20&pagenumber=1)

CNET Editors Review of DLP-NS975V:

Cnet Sony NS975V Editors Review (http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_DVP_NS975V/4505-6473_7-30788102.html)

Originally posted by Michael Mohrmann
... having the TV do the upscaling itself, especially with a TV that has a "non-standard" resolution (is it 768 or 788 lines?).


Michael

60XS 1368 x 768 matrix

As a relative newcomer to all this, I admit I've been surprised by the "non-standard" matrix, the fact that I might not get to 1:1 pixel mapping even with PS, optical out functional only with DD dig cable source, and the fact that the upscaling in the DVD player was redundant on the TV. All in all, however, I'm still very happy with the set. Half these things I didn't know I'd care about a week ago.

Originally posted by imagr
60XS 1368 x 768 matrix
Hmmm, I've seen some refer to the Sony LCD RPTVs as 1388 x 788. I wonder where I got that information?

Michael

Originally posted by imagr
60XS 1368 x 768 matrix

As a relative newcomer to all this, I admit I've been surprised by the "non-standard" matrix, the fact that I might not get to 1:1 pixel mapping even with PS, optical out functional only with DD dig cable source, and the fact that the upscaling in the DVD player was redundant on the TV. All in all, however, I'm still very happy with the set. Half these things I didn't know I'd care about a week ago.

Well, when you think about it, where is the DD going to come from on an analog source? And the upscaling thing is universal to all digital TV's. They are all going to have to be able to deinterlace and upscale 480i/p signals to native resolution.

The 'non-standard' resolution is a trade off. It's better than the 720p sets offer, but it makes some sorts of PC inputs difficult. But it should not exactly be a surprise - it is published in the specifications for these sets, and is something Sony has been doing with success for years.

Originally posted by imagr
All I'm wondering about is wouldn't it be better to feed digital 480i to take advantage of the TV's DRC "doubler" which appears to be somewhat more flexible. Nice pics. How'd you do that? The test would be to capture the same image with 480i and DRC enabled, perhaps with various settings of "clarity" and "reality". What set are you using?

Edt: oops, I see you have 55WF. Does that have DRC?

Pictures by digital camera with flash off about 2ft from screen then cropped. Stick some newsprint to the frame of the TV to ensure you've got the correct focus in the resulting image. TV in out-of-the-box PRO mode.

Originally posted by Michael Mohrmann
Hmmm, I've seen some refer to the Sony LCD RPTVs as 1388 x 788. I wonder where I got that information?

Michael

From my docs: Note that this TV displays all format types of picture in a resolution of 1368 dots by 768 lines.

If you are right, might there be a 20 pixel border for overscan? This could be important if I download and start playing with Powerstrip. I'll double check the tweak thread. I'm tempted but I could really see taking out my PC with that app. I'm not much of a gamer but it would be an interesting challenge. I think it would be cool to do split screen with a football game on one half and espn.com on the other. There's always the laptop I guess.

Anything below a refresh rate of 75Hz gives me a headache, and without a
driver for this 55wf655, it always defaulted to 60. Finally jacked it up to 85Hz,
but I can't do a custom resolution of 1388x788, but a buddy of mine said he's
gonna get me a driver through his friend... Hope so...

Anyway, I tried a bunch of different combinations using my old Leadtek G3
ti200, and the best I could do with that card was through S-video. I went out
and bought some highend cards (including a PCI Express one, which had a
really cool S-video-to-Component wire) and tried S-video to DVI, DVI-HDMI,
DVI-COMP, etc... DVI-COMP gave me black and white images only.

The images are damned nice, but the text is slightly broken, to the point
where long-term reading isn't possible, but I heard ATI cards are better at
doing this, so I'll try one of those soon.

In the meantime, here's what I was able to get with S-video. The washboard
lines are from the 5-6 case fans in the PC...

http://home.comcast.net/~cryogenix/stuff/New.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~cryogenix/stuff/new2.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~cryogenix/stuff/new3.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~cryogenix/stuff/new4.jpg

Cryogenix,

Did you use velcro to secure your Center Channel Speaker?

That's my setup from a day ago. Now I'm using the Pioneer HTZ-940DV, and the center is below the TV. That prior Sony center sat on top perfectly, and I doubt an earthquake would have dislodged it from its place. However, I still would've used something to ensure if it fell it would do so behind the TV and not potentially hit the LCD.

Regarding the "banding" issues, which I posted seeing with every large-TV setup I've tried (LCD/PROJ/PLASMA...) using six different DVD players and various inputs...I've FiNALLY found the one setup which doesn't create color bands in Shrek 2 during two specific parts. Near the beginning, when Prince Charming rides past the sun and it turns into a moon, there were always harsh bands making up the moon's glow. DVI and HDMI showed it the worst (used the new Sony and Samsung with HDMI and DVI, respectively), component with most players made it better, but that scene really bothered me and I was determined to try everything to solve it. Using this new Pioneer system, the transition from sun to moon is flawless and smooth, and no bands exist. I think I've found a winning combo. Picture still looks as crisp and colorful and detailed as DVI/HDMI.

Originally posted by Cryogenix

Regarding the "banding" issues, which I posted seeing with every large-TV setup I've tried (LCD/PROJ/PLASMA...) using six different DVD players and various inputs...I've FiNALLY found the one setup which doesn't create color bands in Shrek 2 during two specific parts.

Do you notice much vertical banding in light, solid colored images? For instance in the image you posted above of the man drinking, on mine I would see a faint 1/2" width segmentation of the sky image. I get it on all sources. I've read around here and have gathered this is might be a normal characteristic of RP LCD, but haven't fully convinced myself yet.

Actually, the man in the photo is me. :)

No, I haven't run into any vertical banding at all. What's odd is, looking at that same still image on the TV, there are no horizontal lines at all; it's picture perfect. But, somehow taking a photo brings out lines.

The lines I was referring to I guess aren't really all that visible. They cycle diagonally, back and forth, due to all the PC fans. I'm VERY happy with this TV, but I do have one issue (actually, the sound issue makes two): when the TV is off, there's a crescent-shaped light spot in the screen, about 4 inches to the right of dead center, and the shape is about 8-9" long. Doesn't appear to affect or interfere with TV viewing, but does look odd with TV powered down. Might return it and get another one...

Originally posted by TLVictory
I'm using a Harmony remote that skips directly to the appropriate input. Checkout the remotes forum or www.remotecentral.com for more detail.

TLVictory,

I searched around the remotecentral site, and could not find the discreet codes for the GWIV anywhere. Could you please give me a link for those.
Thanks,
Sam

Originally posted by Cryogenix
when the TV is off, there's a crescent-shaped light spot in the screen, about 4 inches to the right of dead center, and the shape is about 8-9" long. Doesn't appear to affect or interfere with TV viewing, but does look odd with TV powered down. Might return it and get another one...

Its not a reflection of room lighting is it? Mine also has this when the overhead light in the room is on.

Chris

"Its not a reflection of room lighting is it? Mine also has this when the overhead light in the room is on. "

Same thing here

My local cable company failed to install cablecard into my 55XS. It seemed to have found the channels listing. But, as soon as I go any digital channel, it returned to the cablecard setup screen.
Is there anyone one of you guys using cablecard supplied by Brighthouse network?

Originally posted by UncleCemka
TLVictory,

I searched around the remotecentral site, and could not find the discreet codes for the GWIV anywhere. Could you please give me a link for those.
Thanks,
Sam

Discrete codes for inputs and on/off and many other functions are common for all recent Sony TVs.

Originally posted by cmassa
Its not a reflection of room lighting is it? Mine also has this when the overhead light in the room is on.

Chris

No. I turned off all the lighting, just to be sure. Also, if it were a reflection, its perspective would "move" as I move around it. It doesn't change shape or location...

Here's the strange part. It was sold as new, but when I got home and unpacked it with a friend, I then noticed the plastic plugs were missing (only two flimsy plastic straps were holding everything together. Damned good thing they held or the bottom would've fallen out... Then, once inside, I noticed the thin white protective sheet of foam was squished and wrinkled and bunched up, and not placed beneath the base. Holding the foam on was than tan packing tape (plastic, not paper) used to package boxes. Oh...and the box top was reversed...FRONT was actually the back.

Bottom line: I was charged a higher price than if I'd accepted a previously opened box. This was opened, therefore I should pay less. Still have time...

Originally posted by cmassa
Its not a reflection of room lighting is it? Mine also has this when the overhead light in the room is on.

Chris

I see the same whitish "patch" on my screen at certain angles only. And only when the TV is turned off. Sometimes, the patch appears in the ceter of the screen, and sometimes 4-5 inches away from the center. I am not sure if this is a room lighting thing in the room or something else.

While viewing TV, the picture is perfect.

I am attaching a photo of the TV (it got delivered Friday). Notice the white patch somewhere around the center of the screen. The picture was taken without any camera flash.

As far as PQ goes, I am amazed at it. I love the PQ on this TV. True, the blacks are not the darkest blacks, but that does not bother me. Saw The Terminal on it recently. Looked amazing. Also watched Where Eagles Dare, that was released in 1969, and that movie looked great as well.

Cheers,

Morten

Originally posted by rmcewan
Discrete codes for inputs and on/off and many other functions are common for all recent Sony TVs.

rmcewan,

could you point me to a link please?

Thanks,
Sam

Originally posted by UncleCemka
rmcewan,

could you point me to a link please?

Thanks,
Sam

Link 1: 38 Pronto Discrete Codes for Sony Televisions (http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/files/rcfiles.cgi?area=pronto&db=discrete&br=sony&dv=television&fc=)

Link 2: Pronto to Harmony (http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mboard/rc-harmony/thread.cgi?1513)
I don 't have a Harmony remote, so I can't get to "Support Center" - but this should get you going...

Originally posted by mortenharket
I see the same whitish "patch" on my screen at certain angles only. And only when the TV is turned off. Sometimes, the patch appears in the ceter of the screen, and sometimes 4-5 inches away from the center. I am not sure if this is a room lighting thing in the room or something else.

While viewing TV, the picture is perfect.

I am attaching a photo of the TV (it got delivered Friday). Notice the white patch somewhere around the center of the screen. The picture was taken without any camera flash.

As far as PQ goes, I am amazed at it. I love the PQ on this TV. True, the blacks are not the darkest blacks, but that does not bother me. Saw The Terminal on it recently. Looked amazing. Also watched Where Eagles Dare, that was released in 1969, and that movie looked great as well.

Cheers,

Morten

Reflection of light from the mirror inside. Quite normal on all rptvs. My Panasonic had it my Sony kdf55wf has it. (not as bad as the Panny, but there like your picture) It goes away once the set is on and it moves when you do because you are seeing the reflection of light off the mirrors when the set is off. I think Sony's manual might refer to it. Not to worry.

I had a 55WF655 delivered from CC a couple of weeks ago, at the time the stand was delivered, I had an exhaust fan running in a window the room because I had build a stand which I stained and it was giving off quite a stench. A few days later I went to visit relatives for thanksgiving, never having used the TV without the exhaust fan running.

I got back home yesterday and turned the TV on for the first time without the other fan running and realized the fan inside the TV was loud, very loud. While watching TV with the volume at a normal level for me, I can hear the fan. Off my living room I have an office, with a PC. While in the office, I hear the fan in the TV over the fan in my PC.

The fan does not seem to be variable, from the time I turn on the TV, until I turn it off, it seems to make the same amount of noise.

I have tried:
Moving the TV from two inches away from the wall to up to 2 feet away, this did nothing.
While the TV was about a foot way from the wall I put a large piece of foam against the wall, this also did nothing.
I opened the windows, to get the temperature of the room down to the lower 60’s, the fan did not change speeds.

I’m looking for suggestions/advice, do I call CC and ask for another TV or is this a problem with this TV that I don’t think I can live with?

Thanks,

-Bruce

There might be something wrong with the fan... If CC has another in stock, see if they will swap it out for you. If they don't have one in stock, you could try Sony customer service, and perhaps they could send a technician out.

Does anybody have a PS2 connected to the 55WF655? I just recentely purchased the new slimline PS2 and have it connected to the TV via s-video cables since the xbox and the gamecube are using the component inputs. My problem with the PS2 is underscan. I have about an inch of underscan on the left and right side. I can correct this by changing overscan to -1 but i dont want it applied to all the other input settings.

Can somebody verify this underscan problem on their TV?

Originally posted by rmcewan
Link 1: 38 Pronto Discrete Codes for Sony Televisions (http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/files/rcfiles.cgi?area=pronto&db=discrete&br=sony&dv=television&fc=)

Link 2: Pronto to Harmony (http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mboard/rc-harmony/thread.cgi?1513)
I don 't have a Harmony remote, so I can't get to "Support Center" - but this should get you going...

Thank you for taking the time digging those up.

Sam

Originally posted by mortenharket
I see the same whitish "patch" on my screen at certain angles only. And only when the TV is turned off. Sometimes, the patch appears in the ceter of the screen, and sometimes 4-5 inches away from the center. I am not sure if this is a room lighting thing in the room or something else.

While viewing TV, the picture is perfect.

I am attaching a photo of the TV (it got delivered Friday). Notice the white patch somewhere around the center of the screen. The picture was taken without any camera flash.

As far as PQ goes, I am amazed at it. I love the PQ on this TV. True, the blacks are not the darkest blacks, but that does not bother me. Saw The Terminal on it recently. Looked amazing. Also watched Where Eagles Dare, that was released in 1969, and that movie looked great as well.

Cheers,

Morten

During my hunt for a RPTV to get for Xmas this year, I noticed this also on some sets that were out in the lighted area of the store, not turned on. I inquired to the sales person helping me as I noticed it on a Sony, Toshiba and Samsung. He indicated that few see it, but it is always there. It is ambient light coming through the front of the screen and reflecting back off the mirror as explained by robshdtv. To prove it, we took a Sony back into the darkened display room and the reflection could not be found.

Originally posted by mortenharket
I am attaching a photo of the TV (it got delivered Friday). Notice the white patch somewhere around the center of the screen. The picture was taken without any camera flash.

Cheers,

Morten


Ummm...why are your remotes wearing condems? :D

That bright spot doesn't look like mine. Mine is thin and crescent-shaped, and is NOT a direct reflection of a light. However, the light COULD be hitting something within the LCD, and highlights it. Mine never moves. 4-5" right of center... Looks like someone set a one-gallon can of paint on the screen, and only 1/3 of the can left an impression.

PackFan said: There might be something wrong with the fan... If CC has another in stock, see if they will swap it out for you.


I called them up and they said they would deliver another one on Saturday. They didn't ask any questions and said my 30 days money back would restart from the day the deliver the replacement. Now I just hope this one is quieter. btw: on the back of the TV it says manufactured Sept 2004. I guess that would make it one of the earlier ones.

rmcewan,


Seeing the "Shrek 2" comparison between DVI and component I feel like buying the HDMI cable too. Could you pm me the make of your cable? Is it Monster ?

Thanks!

Originally posted by bruce24

I called them up and they said they would deliver another one on Saturday. [/B]

Nice... good to hear a B&M store giving good service.

I would love to hear a follow-up to this- I'm so worried I'm going to be dissapointed with a loud fan no matter what model I buy... :(

Bought my wf55 from circuit city. two weeks later they advertised it for $100 less. I called three times and was promised the $100 (per price protection) but it never appears on my credit card (each csr says it will take 3 days).

That was 2 weeks ago and now the set's gone up in price so they won't credit me.

Aside from never shopping at circuit city again, can i do anything?

Also, it's obvious their csr's are in india-- not even an attempt to hide the accent. While that's not a problem in itself, it makes me feel like I'm not talking to anyone who cares.

Originally posted by DaverJ
I would love to hear a follow-up to this- I'm so worried I'm going to be dissapointed with a loud fan no matter what model I buy... :(

I will provide an update Saturday.

Originally posted by Dilweegie
Bought my wf55 from circuit city. two weeks later they advertised it for $100 less. I called three times and was promised the $100 (per price protection) but it never appears on my credit card (each csr says it will take 3 days).

That was 2 weeks ago and now the set's gone up in price so they won't credit me.

Aside from never shopping at circuit city again, can i do anything?

Also, it's obvious their csr's are in india-- not even an attempt to hide the accent. While that's not a problem in itself, it makes me feel like I'm not talking to anyone who cares.

Every major/minor retailer will always make their best attempts to wiggle out of pricematching. All you can really do is take names and numbers of people who promise you things and follow up until completion. Recently a local retailer wiggled out on a pricematch of 150.00 because the deal at CC was no interest with payment vs no payments. This is stated somewhat clearly but not on their policy so I really had no leverage. They did however compromise and give me a $100.00 gift card to shut me up and make me go away. They always seem to know what will work to appease the customer just enough to keep them from badmouthing them.