I'm trying to watch Monday Night Football (720p) via component connection on my new A10 but it doesn't look HD, it looks like all the other SD channels.

1080i sources look great but when I switch to a channel that's 720p it switches the display to 4:3 and looks crappy.

Is the problem my cable box or do I need to change a setting on the TV?

The cable box is a Pioneer, it doesn't have a model number visible but says
"Voyager HDTV" on the front.

I just pulled the trigger on the 50a10. thanks for all the help and input from everyone that has posted. i'll post my thoughts after delivery on thursday.

one advance question...I think someone mentioned this but here it goes:

is there a way to hook up a 5.1 surround/dvd and easily toggle between the surround sound and internal speakers? i.e. does the tv automatically default to the surround sound ouput or is it a selection?

Frys (Campbell, Ca.) has a good deal on the 50a10 through tomorrow 10/4 (better deal than Costco).

I had mine (SA8300HDDVR) set up to receive all formats. 1080i 702p 480i, etc.

When I change a channel and the format changes I get a black screen and then some quick white diagonal lines and then the picture pops up. Change to another channel with a different format and it happens again. Everytime a format is changed.

Not really a big deal.

That being said, I did experiment this weekend turning off the 1080i input acceptance.

When I cruise through the HD section of my channel lineup I get no black screen diagonal line pause thing, just goes channel to channel with everything at 720p.

Also with all the inputs accepted I would get an odd pause when I selected MyDVR or the guide function. That seems to be gone too.

I notice no loss in quality so I am going to stick with these settings.

Yeah see that is the other option. Have everything sent out at 1080i from the box. It's not really all 1080i of course, but there would be no pause/flicker deal when the formats changed.

But the DRC will not kick in for SD channels if you do that, right?

OK, now I'm really confused!

I'd like to eliminate that delay with my SA8300HD when I switch channels, but don't want to sacrifice PQ too much.

What are the pros & cons of setting the box to only 1080i --OR-- turning off the 1080i input???

Frys (Campbell, Ca.) has a good deal on the 50a10 through tomorrow 10/4 (better deal than Costco).

Does Frys include the stand like Costco?

Has anybody used the matching Sony stand? How do you like it? I'm debating if i should get that one or something else with more compartments.

Dark Rain,
Do you game on your 42a10 with the x box? If so, could you possibly post some settings that you use for gaming?

How do you determine settings for gaming? What games can you use as reference for black levels?

I don't at the moment. I'm more of a PC gamer these days, but the XBOX 360 and ps3 look very tempting.

Does Frys include the stand like Costco?

Has anybody used the matching Sony stand? How do you like it? I'm debating if i should get that one or something else with more compartments.

You dont have to buy the stand at FRys (but could pay list for the stand and still come out ahead).

OK, now I'm really confused!

I'd like to eliminate that delay with my SA8300HD when I switch channels, but don't want to sacrifice PQ too much.

What are the pros & cons of setting the box to only 1080i --OR-- turning off the 1080i input???

Something I'd like to know as well. Also, read my questions below:



My cable box from Adelphia, SA 8300 HDDVR.

Before I had the cable box, I was just plugging the cable directly into the TV and the TV would auto detect HD content & display it in FULL mode. When I changed to standard cable channels, it knew to use WIDE ZOOM (which I set it to).

But now that I have the cable box, everything is being pumped out as 1080i, so HD content is fine, but standard cable goes into FULL mode as well with bars no the side and I have the manually change it to WIDE ZOOM. If I switch back to HD Content, it stays on WIDE ZOOM.

Is there a way around this? I heard some people state their cable box has an 4:3 override mode, but no idea if this cable box does.

I set the display to 1080i since most HD content is broadcast in that and it saves me a little time on the conversion as I let the TV do the downscaling for 720p. Does that make sense?

Also, since the box is pumping out 1080i, standard cable does not take advantage of the DRC modes. Is there any way around this if my cable box doesn't have the 4:3 override mode?

Finally, I went into the advanced settings menu and turned on ALL of the resolution modes: 480i, 480i widescreen, 480p, 720p, 1080i. Is there any negative to having them all turned on?

at 10' back, what size should i go for? 42 or 50? my wife wants to 42 but me being a man thinks 50 is much more reasonable. :cool:

KevinXbox360,

This may or may not help you, but for Motorola 6412 cable box owners it may be of some help. To get to the screen configuration settings, you need to turn off the box and hit the MENU button on the remote or on the box. It must be done immediately after turning off the power. Here's what you should be running for optimum PQ with the A10:

TV Type - 16:9
YPbPr Output - 1080i (can also output at 720p, 480p, 480i)
4:3 Override - 480i (other options are 480p, Stretch, Off)

The A10's 4:3 stretch mode looks more natural and less "squatty" compared to the 6412's. Also, let the A10 scale HD down to 720p rather than the 6412.

And Kevin, you may be out of luck if your SA8300 doesn't have the 4:3 override option. Hopefully someone else can help you. Good luck in finding a solution. Maybe the "4:3 Override" option is available but it's called something else.

at 10' back, what size should i go for? 42 or 50? my wife wants to 42 but me being a man thinks 50 is much more reasonable. :cool:

Definitely go for the 50" A10 at that distance.

Alan,

Costco does not list the set online as Sam's does. Can you reply or PM me the Costco item#?? I'd like to call my store to see if they are stocking these. Thanks!

edit: Saw Wombatman was the original poster. Sent him a PM regarding my question. Thanks...

I don't know the item #, but it is on display at the store near me. They don't always carrry the same TV's online, as at the stores. I would think your local store could track it down with the model # of the TV.

You dont have to buy the stand at FRys (but could pay list for the stand and still come out ahead).

You would come out far ahead buying at Costco, because they will let you return the TV even after 2 years if you are not satisfied. Try that one at Fry's and they will laugh you out of the store. Costco would be the best place to buy an A-10 by far. I wish they had them 3 weeks ago when I bought at Sam's Club. Even Sam's return policy is better than most other stores though.

I'd like to eliminate that delay with my SA8300HD when I switch channels, but don't want to sacrifice PQ too much.

What are the pros & cons of setting the box to only 1080i --OR-- turning off the 1080i input???

Keep the 8300 set to Fixed (it's in the second Settings menu) and then choose either 720p or 1080i on the first Settings menu. This will up/down-convert all signals to whatever format you choose, then it pumps it out to the TV.

If you have the 8300 on pass-through it simply passes the signal through to your TV and you get the black-screen delay/flicker when moving between SD and HD.

As for quality, I prefer a Fixed setting at 720p as it looks much smoother, and although 1080i is a higher resolution I tend to see the picture flicker. As always, choose whatever looks best to you. :)

Does Frys include the stand like Costco?

Has anybody used the matching Sony stand? How do you like it? I'm debating if i should get that one or something else with more compartments.
I use the matching stand it it works quite well for what I need. However, it angles in sharply, so if your equipment is deep then it will have to go in the middle of the shelf (or on a seperate stand).

You would come out far ahead buying at Costco, because they will let you return the TV even after 2 years if you are not satisfied. Try that one at Fry's and they will laugh you out of the store. Costco would be the best place to buy an A-10 by far. I wish they had them 3 weeks ago when I bought at Sam's Club. Even Sam's return policy is better than most other stores though.

What proof do places like BB need for price matching?
I'm going to finally pull the trigger this week after much too much dilberation between the A10 & SXRD.
In the end the A10 is priced very well for the PQ & features.

What proof do places like BB need for price matching?
I'm going to finally pull the trigger this week after much too much dilberation between the A10 & SXRD.
In the end the A10 is priced very well for the PQ & features.

Usually if they think the price is right they wouldn't need proof. But when i went to CC and asked them about a price match from fry's, they called fry's to actually get a price on it.

btw...i hate CC customer service, the sales person was very reluctant to help me due to my 'age'. I'm only 18. But when i went to BB, they were far more helpful on helping me make my choice.

In-store price on the 50A10 is $300 cheaper than online pricing right now. Plus it comes with a free Insignia surround sound system.

I use the matching stand it it works quite well for what I need. However, it angles in sharply, so if your equipment is deep then it will have to go in the middle of the shelf (or on a seperate stand).


I have it as well, and I like it, however, the bottom shelf to a little short and wouldn't fit my onkyo 5.1 receiver, so I had to remove the "center speaker shelf" to fit it on the middle shelf... had to gerry-rig something to mount my center speaker on top of the TV.

Usually if they think the price is right they wouldn't need proof. But when i went to CC and asked them about a price match from fry's, they called fry's to actually get a price on it.

btw...i hate CC customer service, the sales person was very reluctant to help me due to my 'age'. I'm only 18. But when i went to BB, they were far more helpful on helping me make my choice.

In-store price on the 50A10 is $300 cheaper than online pricing right now. Plus it comes with a free Insignia surround sound system.

Thanks for the info.
I just checked Sears web page and they price match plus 10% :)
Anyone know how Sears Extended Warrenty is?
I'm thinking I can use this to barter with BB.

[QUOTE=FFFred]You don't sound stupid; just unitiated/new to the world of HDTV abbreviations . . .



OK. i guess therein lies my problem. does the increase in size to 50 from 42 provide enough SSE and/or SDE at 8-9 ft to outweigh the benefit of having a bigger TV. i think someone posted before that the increase in size DOESN'T provide much negible sse/sde/poor picture effect at 50 vs 42

Go, New One, into the Forest. And seek the answer inside of yourself, free from the influence of others who would seek to mislead and otherwise pretend to give you good advice on this question - this unanswerable question . . . . . for without your inner self . . . . uh . . . ummm

OK, I guess what I mean is, nobody can answer this question, except you. As has been overwhelmingly established via the various opinions/impressions of distance/SDE/SSE posted throughout this thread, there is absolutely 100% for sure - take this to the bank - no objective evaluation of the SSE/SDE effect at any distance. You may see no effect at all at 7 feet; others are bothered by both SDE and SSE at 10 feet or more.

In fact, if you don't go to a store that has both sizes of the A10, if you don't go there with the distance measurements you know you'll be viewing the set at, and armed with a tape measure to replicate that distance at the store, and if you then don't measure out that distance for both sets and spend a reasonable amount of time viewing both of them from this distance - if you do not do all of this, unquestionably you will be gambling on whether or not whatever set you purchase will have the SDE/SSE for you.

One pretty worthless - for you and anyone else other than me - bit of info, but still freely provided: I'm fine at 9 feet with my 50A10. 8 feet would push it for me, and 7 feet would in the long run be annoying to me.

To play it safe would be to get the 42A10, as most seem to tolerate this at 7 feet.

Too bad, though, if you must do this, for you will lose the Sacred Big Picture of the 50A10, that mesmerizes us and causes all chores to fall by the wayside whilst we view the Wonder that is the 50A10 . . . .

I gotta go.

at 10' back, what size should i go for? 42 or 50? my wife wants to 42 but me being a man thinks 50 is much more reasonable. :cool:

You gotta be fine for the 42 inch at 10 feet; it appears nobody has had SSE/SDE problems with this set at that distance, from my reading of this forum.

Opinions vary for the 50 at 10 feet; most seem to be fine with that distance; some are most definitely not fine at that distance.

See my lengthy, verbose, and extremely pretentious post immediately (or one or two) above for a more in-depth analysis/response to your question.

Ah well....after coming home and finding the wife on 'cable' and stating "the HD TiVo won't work...and I can't change the channels!" I was hoping there was some way to circumvent.

Guess she's just gonna hafta figure it out.... :rolleyes: :D

You are doing yourself and your wife a disservice by not getting a Harmony remote. :)

They rock. Also, it appears that there is a remote code for direct input changing as the Harmony has no issues going to channels.

You are doing yourself and your wife a disservice by not getting a Harmony remote. :)

They rock. Also, it appears that there is a remote code for direct input changing as the Harmony has no issues going to channels.

And even if you don't get a downloadable/programmable remote like the Harmony, et.al., you can create a 'macro' on more advanced learning remotes (like my HomeTheaterMaster MX-500 -- http://www.universalremote.com/products/index.php?item=mx500). The trick is that if you press the channel up or down button, you jump straight to the antenna/cable input, no matter what input you were on previously. If you set unused inputs to 'hide', getting to a specific input is a matter of getting to antenna/cable, then pressing the TV/Video button the correct number of times to stop on the desired input. Here's a practical example.

I have my receiver's S-Video output on Video 1, my DVD player's Component out on Video 4, my DVD-recorder's Component out on Video 5, and my PC's VGA out on Video 7. All other inputs are hidden/blank, so this is the order of the inputs when repeatedly pressing the TV/Video button.

I have a macro that sends Channel Up, then TV/Video one time -- this sets the input to the Receiver (Video 1). I have another macro that sends Channel Up, then TV/Video twice -- this sets the input to the DVD player (Video 4, the second 'active' input). Not quite as elegant as a direct-input button, but it does work reasonably well.

(Note: if you try this on your set, you might need to experiment with short pauses between the steps in the macro, or alternating between TV commands and A/V receiver commands, to give the TV time to react.)

Well after standing in front of the 50A10 at BB for an hour, finally decided to order it. It'll be coming in sometime next week =]

well i am "pulling the trigger" on the E50A10 myself. BB has it in their new flyer for 2199.00 and i am purchasing the "techcraft EDG50B with matching EDH32B AV Stand" these are great stands and better lookin than the SURG11M... sony's stand. This is my first time readin these posts, but after all the homework i have done, the E50A10 is the budget ready TV for me! Thanx everybody that posted, makin it easier on the rest of us. Can't wait to get the TV in... try BB for the weekly mailer and see it for 2199.00!

So i am about to purchase or "pull the trigger" as you call it on the E50A10. And i was WANTING the Sony DVD changer DVP-NC80V/B. But after reading on here, would a DVD player that upconverts to 720p like the Sony DVP-NC80V/B, be better? I would just run the DVD into my Denon AVR... but with the DVP-NC80V/B, i would use the HDMI straight into the TV. Just not sure if the UPCONVERTING DVD player is THAT much better than just a regular progressive scan DVD player... especially on the new E50A10? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated....

well i am "pulling the trigger" on the E50A10 myself. BB has it in their new flyer for 2199.00 and i am purchasing the "techcraft EDG50B with matching EDH32B AV Stand" these are great stands and better lookin than the SURG11M... sony's stand. This is my first time readin these posts, but after all the homework i have done, the E50A10 is the budget ready TV for me! Thanx everybody that posted, makin it easier on the rest of us. Can't wait to get the TV in... try BB for the weekly mailer and see it for 2199.00!


The weekly BB ad for northern Florida has the E50A10 for MSRP. Where did you see it for $300 less than MSRP?

Thenks.....wjr

You gotta be fine for the 42 inch at 10 feet; it appears nobody has had SSE/SDE problems with this set at that distance, from my reading of this forum.

Opinions vary for the 50 at 10 feet; most seem to be fine with that distance; some are most definitely not fine at that distance.

See my lengthy, verbose, and extremely pretentious post immediately (or one or two) above for a more in-depth analysis/response to your question.


I LOVE my set at 9ft away. I couldn't imagine a 42" from that distance. I mean, it is a great set and it would have a nice crisp picture but what about the BIG Screen for more of that WOW effect? You won't get that with a 42" at 10 ft, you will simply have a nice crisp set to view. Just my three cents!

The weekly BB ad for northern Florida has the E50A10 for MSRP. Where did you see it for $300 less than MSRP?

Thenks.....wjrGo to their website and load up the Weekly Ad. Their site lists MSRP, but the ad says less. Of course, this may be why they ask for your zip code before showing the ad. 75062 (Irving, TX) shows the lower price.

Do anybody know what the E50A10 can convert to? read my above posts and see what i mean by the DVD player. But, can the E50A10 upconvert the signal of a progressive scan DVD player using component video cables hooked into a Denon DVR 1705, upto 720p? Just wondering as i need to know b4 i buy the E50A10...
thanx!

I'm just about ready to purchase the E50A10, but I wonder if anyone has seen the latest Consumer Reports analysis, in which the Panasonic 52LCX65 is rated better than the Sony 50WE655 (the Sony E50A10 was not available when they did their testing).

Do any of you know how the E50A10 compares with the Sony 50WE655 (some posts seem to indicate there is a noticable improvement)?

Have any of you had the opportunity to compare the Panny 52LCX65 to the E50A10? What do you think?

Thanks.....wjr

wjr, after the research i have done the 50we655 chasis looks very um... SILVER! the E50A10 is black all around and looks a lot better... the only difference is no PIP on the E50A10... other than that, and a component input on the side and the great look of the E50A10...they are similar...
goto CNET and see for yourself:
Sony_KDF-E50A10/4505-6485_7-31453800
Sony_KDF-50WE655/4505-6485_7-30787621

hope this helpz...

Anyone out there have their A10 hooked up to a Denon 1910? I got one for a song a year ago & have had it hooked up to my old 32" Wega. Now that I am resigned to the 42" A10, I've suddenley remebered all the macroblocking issues with the 1910 and specific displays. I found a poster below who hooked the unit up to a 60" Sony LCD through DVI (does not state the model) a few months ago without any issues , so I was wondering if this absolves Sony from the macroblocking list. Any help is much appreciated.

Home Cinema states in their review that the 1910 performance is "drop-dead gorgeous. Details are given an almost eerie realism, while the overall sharpness and contrast are awe-inspiring".

My findings confirm that this reviewer is again exactly correct. This DVI source matched to the Sony 60" LCD provides the best picture quality I've seen from a Dvd player. It easily beats all of the previous champs such as the Momitsu 880 (which obscures the detail with a fine grain noise texture). Dvd PQ now approaches HD in terms of "sock and punch

was wondering if the 50A10 lets you tweak and store picture settings for each input, including color temperature. Like the Toshiba52HM95 DLP. Thanks

Does anyone know the exact height for the Sony 42A10 stand? Sony Style has the height listed as 28" and Crutchfield has it listed as 20 3/8". Thanks

I LOVE my set at 9ft away. I couldn't imagine a 42" from that distance. I mean, it is a great set and it would have a nice crisp picture but what about the BIG Screen for more of that WOW effect? You won't get that with a 42" at 10 ft, you will simply have a nice crisp set to view. Just my three cents!

Excellent point. I couldn't agree more - the big picture experience with my 50 from 9 ft away is absolutely fantastic. Just wouldn't be the same with a 42, for me, even if the picture's more crisp.

I do have some friends, though, who for whatever reason believe that crisp picture is king, even if it's a tiny picture . . . . why? you got me . . . . I think they're crazy.

Which leads us right back to . . . . . distance/quality/size/SDE/SSE is still completely in the eyes of the beholder.

wjr, after the research i have done the 50we655 chasis looks very um... SILVER! the E50A10 is black all around and looks a lot better... the only difference is no PIP on the E50A10... other than that, and a component input on the side and the great look of the E50A10...they are similar...
goto CNET and see for yourself:
Sony_KDF-E50A10/4505-6485_7-31453800
Sony_KDF-50WE655/4505-6485_7-30787621

hope this helpz...

Also, the A-10 has the dynamic iris feature which greatly improves black level, and shadow detail in dark scenes. I just bought the A-10, and I also had the Sony GWIII (virtually the same as the WE655 series). I can say that the A-10 is quite an improvement. I imagine it would have rated better than the WE655 series did. I do feel vindicated that Consumer Reports rated the Panny plasmas as superior to all the RPTV's tested, after myself, and several forum members argued the point a while back. I found that to be the case also, but alas the 50 inch Panny won't fit in my cabinet...the A-10 does. The A-10 is a very nice TV though, and I don't regret buying it all so far.

I'm just about ready to purchase the E50A10, but I wonder if anyone has seen the latest Consumer Reports analysis, in which the Panasonic 52LCX65 is rated better than the Sony 50WE655 (the Sony E50A10 was not available when they did their testing).

Do any of you know how the E50A10 compares with the Sony 50WE655 (some posts seem to indicate there is a noticable improvement)?

Have any of you had the opportunity to compare the Panny 52LCX65 to the E50A10? What do you think?

Thanks.....wjr

To be honest when I saw that one, I could not believe it. When I was waiting for the A10 to come out I demoed the WE655 with the panny and thought the 'old' sony was clearly better. My wife, who in many ways is more critical of PQ than me, agreed.

In fact, I had the chance to get the panny for about 500 less than the Sony and I still did not bite.

The Sony DVP-NC80V/B is a 5-DVD changer and does not upconvert and does not have an HDMI output. I have one of them. Perhaps you are referring to the NC70 or NC90 or 975, all of which are single-DVD upconvert players with HDMI outputs. Fwiw, I also have a Panny S97 upconvert DVD player that I've connected to my 50A10 via HDMI and it looks great (better pic than the NC80 IMHO).

The 50A10 is a 720p "native resolution" TV and so converts everything it receives to 720p for display. It all comes down to whether the TV or the external component (DVD player, STB, etc) has the better deinterlacer/scaler.


How do you have your DVR/STB hooked up to your A10? Component? Does the PQ suffer? Since the A10 upconverts so well, why the need for the s97? Thanks.

I have a DirecTV HDTivo receiver connected via component and it produces an excellent picture. I tried it also via HDMI with no noticeable difference (except loss of audio via TV speakers).

As for the S97, I already had one for almost a year and as its an upconvert DVD player it made sense to use HDMI (provides audio via TV speakers if needed). I also connected it via component but preferred the results via HDMI. I also feel that the S97 over HDMI produces a better picture than the NC80 over component.

Some people think that component is better than HDMI and vice-versa and some won't see any difference. Some people see improvements with an upconvert DVD player and some don't. It can be very subtle. All you can do is try different connection types and different resolutions for your equipment to see which you like best. If you don't see any benefit to an upconvert DVD player then don't buy one.


Thank you very much for clearing up these complicated issues in such a manner that makes sense to anyone.

costco has the 50a10 with stand for 2399

btw...i hate CC customer service, the sales person was very reluctant to help me due to my 'age'. I'm only 18. But when i went to BB, they were far more helpful on helping me make my choice.

ditto about CC customer service, i'm 25 but look pretty young for my age, the salesman there treated me like i was still in highschool, talking down to me like i had never made payments on anything in my life, and was pretty rude when he said if i lapsed on a payment the total would be charged to my other creditcard (I was using the CC card for the sale), almost sounded like a threat when he said it, and when he needed my license cause i was using a credit card he looked kind of surprised when he saw my age, i hope he felt pretty stupid.

i've since returned that TV and plan on just getting BB to price match them next time, cause he's always working at this location and I don't wanna deal with him again.

BTW, some people here must have Cybernetic eye inplants, I sit 7.5 feet away from the 42A10, I don't see any SSE at all, and SDE goes away after about 4-5 feet for me, i also wear glasses so my vision is near 20/20 with them on, even at 5 feet i can barely see SDE and I can only really notice it if the screen is all one color. i honestly don't get the complaints some have, it's definetly over exagerated to an extreme and LCD often gets a bad rep because of it.

Even in the store the 50 looked fantastic at about 8-10 feet for me, but it was way too big for my room, the furthest i can sit is 7.5-8 feet.

SA8300 have Passport or SARA software?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flave
Does your 8300 have Passport or SARA software? Mine has SARA and I think it's the cause of this problem. (I tried rebooting too but that didn't fix it for me.)

Good question- How do I tell????

It took awhile, but I just rebooted and all I could see it say was "boot."

Did I do something wrong?

I should be getting my 50a10 on Thursday. Sears did a Frys sale price match plus another 10% of the difference off (another $50..some simple math will tell you the price).

does anyone know if this set suffers from li sync issues using an external a/v receiver for digital sound?

Anyone have any opinions on which set (42a10 or 50a10) would be best from 7-8 feet away. I was close to getting a tosh46 dlp but found that the a10 looked much better in two different stores i visited yesterday.

JIMF25 I have had both sets.... first the 50A10 for 4 weeks and now the 42A10 for 1 week at home. My viewing distance is 9 feet. On 1080i quality signals the 50A10 set will blow you away. No kidding. On lesser quality signals the 50 tends to show up any video source problems in more detail while the 42 covers up more because it is a smaller picture. Overall the 42 will give you a better image on SD material but the 50 is way cooler for impact. I tend to be very picky about SDE and i could see it on the 50 at 9 feet under certain circomstances. Again, with 1080i signals the picture is so good you tend to not notice any issues on either size set. Also if you sit slightly off center then SSE and SDE effects are just about non-existent. If you watch dead center then people who are sensitve to this issue may notice some SSE and SDE even at 9 feet. Even with the 42A10 I can see some SSE dead on but it is very minor. Overall you will get a sharper picture with SD material with the 42A10 while with the 50A10 you will have maximum impact. I'm probably going to go back to the 50A10 via CC.

I have a scientific atlanta explorer 3100hd box, from what i understand this box is set at 1080i and there is no way to change it. My last tv (toshiba 42h81) was a 1080i set, the 50a10 I now have is 720p. I think the hd picture looks great, would I see a big difference with a box set to 720p?

does anyone know if this set suffers from li sync issues using an external a/v receiver for digital sound?

None whatsoever!

Not on Games, Not on Satellite, Not on OTA, Not on DVD.... All plugged into different source inputs on the TV with Digital routed directly to my Sony DA4ES.

Lip Synch? Whatsat?> Milli Vanilli? :p

It seems that reports about color smudges/blotches which were abundant a few weeks ago, have seen a sharp drop on this thread.

So, what's the word owners? Is this still a chronic problem or something that has been resolved either through service to the TV or better quality control with the latest batches?

Thanks.

does anyone know if this set suffers from li sync issues using an external a/v receiver for digital sound?

I get that on NBC and fox from time to time...I see it on the cable feed and over the air broadcast...I believe it is the broadcasters problem not the tv's

It seems that reports about color smudges/blotches which were abundant a few weeks ago, have seen a sharp drop on this thread.

So, what's the word owners? Is this still a chronic problem or something that has been resolved either through service to the TV or better quality control with the latest batches?

Thanks.


Had mine for 3 weeks and no problems at all so far. No blotches, and no dead pixels. It is a great TV for the $$. The black levels could still be better, but at least it is improved over the GWIII, and IV models. I plan to keep it 2-5 years, and then trade up again to whatever is the best PQ for the $$ at that time.

does anyone know if this set suffers from li sync issues using an external a/v receiver for digital sound?

I have my cable box audio going direct to my receiver. There is usually no lip sync issue at all. Once in a while there is, and I attribute it to the source, since it will be only on one channel.

does anyone know if this set suffers from li sync issues using an external a/v receiver for digital sound?

I saw lip synch problems on the 50A10 at a Best Buy. I think it was a problem with the DVD player they were using. The salesman said it was a cheap LG player upconverting through HDMI.

EDIT: The audio and video weren't split though. Audio was through the TV speakers. I haven't been able to watch an A10 with it set up with a receiver.

I recently got a 42A10 and a Samsung HD850 DVD player. I tested it both via component/480P and HDMI at 720P. The picture on HDMI is definitely darker and lacks shadow detail. The component / progressive picture seems every bit as sharp as the HDMI picture, although it is definitely brighter and shadow detail is more defined. Why is this? Could it be because of HDCP? I am leaning towards returning the upconverting DVD player and getting a plain old progressive scan model. Perhaps even a DVD recorder. Any insight into why the HDMI picture is so dark?

Any insight into why the HDMI picture is so dark?

Check to see if the "Black Corrector" setting is OFF on the HDMI input. Leave it off for better shadow detail. Standard and Vivid picture modes have this on by default and it cannot be changed. Make sure you use a Custom picture mode for each input.

You are doing yourself and your wife a disservice by not getting a Harmony remote. :)

They rock. Also, it appears that there is a remote code for direct input changing as the Harmony has no issues going to channels.


I've heard that the 6131 URC One For All is a good remote for the HR10-250, as is the Sony Vl900. I'm gonna get out to either BB or CC and take a look at the Harmony, thanks.

does comcast use the same dvr for all HD? I here people here saying that they have the 6412, but I don't see no model number on mine? Do they offer different dvr with different inputs? Mine has a dvi and component and I was using a dvi-hdmi cable for awhile, but I then bought blue jeans component cables and prefered component output over dvi-hdmi. Are there any hdmi dvrs available?

I read on here, I believe it was dark rain that posted, that they used an hd setup pattern from INHD and just wanted to know when do they air the pattern?

does comcast use the same dvr for all HD? I here people here saying that they have the 6412, but I don't see no model number on mine? Do they offer different dvr with different inputs? Mine has a dvi and component and I was using a dvi-hdmi cable for awhile, but I then bought blue jeans component cables and prefered component output over dvi-hdmi. Are there any hdmi dvrs available?

Call your cable company for the Phase 3 version of the 6412 if you want HDMI output.

I read on here, I believe it was dark rain that posted, that they used an hd setup pattern from INHD and just wanted to know when do they air the pattern?

INHD runs their HD tune up on Saturday at 6AM CDT.

This is kind of OT but...

I have one window in the room where I will be setting up the 50a10. The window should be behind (not directly) the tv, correct? If it were the other way then the light would reflect off the screen and hurt the picture???

This is kind of OT but...

I have one window in the room where I will be setting up the 50a10. The window should be behind (not directly) the tv, correct? If it were the other way then the light would reflect off the screen and hurt the picture???

It would make it look more washed out with direct light hitting the screen. But blinds and/or curtians can be closed to darken the room enough. And what little light that reflects off of the screen will not hurt the PQ much.

In your case, you shouldn't have any problems except for wall/room reflections hitting the screen during the day. But the A10's screen is very good at blocking them out.

It would make it look more washed out with direct light hitting the screen. But blinds and/or curtians can be closed to darken the room enough. And what little light that reflects off of the screen will not hurt the PQ much.

In your case, you shouldn't have any problems except for wall/room reflections hitting the screen during the day. But the A10's screen is very good at blocking them out.

Thanks, i appreciate all your help. i'm going to give your settings a try when i get the set ( i also have DVE) as it seems you really know what you're talking about.

Hi everyone,

I've been following this thread off and on because I plan to get a 50" A10 this fall sometime. Well, my friend got the 42" set during the big BB sale and we finally made it over to their house last nite to check it out.

He has the Scientific Altanta HD 8300 box via component out into the TV. Whenever we went to a HD station (CBS football, INHD, Disc HD, etc) there were black bars on the top and bottom. He had to use the zoom mode (instead of FULL) to get the whole screen filled. But the weird thing was, when going to the SD channels, those filled the screen just fine on ZOOM. I wasn't too familiar with the TV yet, nor the box, so I really didn't know what to check.

I did press the "#" button on the remote and saw that it was putting out 1080i. I also went into wega gate and saw that a 4:3 setting was set to off. Other than that, I really didn't know what to check.

Any ideas what settings he's missing that's giving him black bars on the top and bottom of his HD channels?

Thanks
Aaron

I've found there to be almost no standard on OTA programming in terms of what fills the screen and what doesn't in its native format. There are a few programs in HD OTA programming that fill the screen perfectly in 1080i format like, "Law and Order" and "Desparate Housewives". Other 1080i material may be formated in 4:3 or in a format that ALMOST fills the screen horizontally. Commercials are all different sizes and their quality varies across the board. Our local PBS channel also broadcasts a lot of 480i content which has bars above and below the screen.

On DVDs you will also find the same kind of thing. The aspect ratios for "Widescreen" commonly vary from the typical 16:9. Especially pay attention to something called "Anamorphic Widescreen". This translates into the picture being squeezed horizonally and not vertically so in normal playback mode the content looks squashed (faces etc. are tall and narrow). By selecting the right Non-proportional Expansion Mode the picture is then horizontally expanded to full screen yielding a prefect picture that is exactly proportional. I suspect that DVDs that say "Enhanced for Widescreen TVs" are also Anamorpically composed. Why do they do this on DVDs? To pack more digital/bit information in the signal so that you get a better widescreen image when expanded.

The Moral of this Story: Get used to using the Wide Mode button and select the setting to yield the best results for each source.

I've found there to be almost no standard on OTA programming in terms of what fills the screen and what doesn't in its native format. There are a few programs in HD OTA programming that fill the screen perfectly in 1080i format like, "Law and Order" and "Desparate Housewives". Other 1080i material may be formated in 4:3 or in a format that ALMOST fills the screen horizontally. Commercials are all different sizes and their quality varies across the board. Our local PBS channel also broadcasts a lot of 480i content which has bars above and below the screen.

On DVDs you will also find the same kind of thing. The aspect ratios for "Widescreen" commonly vary from the typical 16:9. Especially pay attention to something called "Anamorphic Widescreen". This translates into the picture being squeezed horizonally and not vertically so in normal playback mode the content looks squashed (faces etc. are tall and narrow). By selecting the right Non-proportional Expansion Mode the picture is then horizontally expanded to full screen yielding a prefect picture that is exactly proportional. I suspect that DVDs that say "Enhanced for Widescreen TVs" are also Anamorpically composed. Why do they do this on DVDs? To pack more digital/bit information in the signal so that you get a better widescreen image when expanded.

The Moral of this Story: Get used to using the Wide Mode button and select the setting to yield the best results for each source.

I'm not sure why you're having problems with HD content but almost all content shown in 720p or 1080i fill up my whole screen. Some DVDs will, some won't but thats expected because of what you said about anamorphic.

I'm using the 8300 too. If you go to settings, there should be a aspect ratio menu. It should be set so that it shows you have a 16:9 screen and then the output modes are whatever you want the receiver to output. My tv is always on Full, never wide zoom or zoom. HD content is almost always full screen and 4:3 content has bars on the side. I have never seen a HD NFL game with bars.

It seems that reports about color smudges/blotches which were abundant a few weeks ago, have seen a sharp drop on this thread.

So, what's the word owners? Is this still a chronic problem or something that has been resolved either through service to the TV or better quality control with the latest batches?

Thanks.

No problems after 2 weeks (Knock on wood ). Did the service adjustment for the red push and now I think this TV is right on, PQ is great. Thanks everyone for all the picture setting tips.

42A10
Manf. date 9/05
Mexico

Have any of you had the opportunity to compare the Panny 52LCX65 to the E50A10? What do you think?

Thanks.....wjr

I looked at the 44LCX65, and there was no comparison, at least to me. I wanted to like it because of the price, and the A10 wasn't out yet. After I saw the A10, I quickly forgot about the Panansonic. In fact, I would have purchased a Sammy DLP before the Panny.

if I can get this for $1455 (before tax).. should I jump on it? Or are there other options to consider for this price?

if I can get this for $1455 (before tax).. should I jump on it? Or are there other options to consider for this price?


That's an amazing deal. If you like the TV, then buy it. But if you're not crazy about it, no price is low enough.

It seems that reports about color smudges/blotches which were abundant a few weeks ago, have seen a sharp drop on this thread.

So, what's the word owners? Is this still a chronic problem or something that has been resolved either through service to the TV or better quality control with the latest batches?

Thanks.


Personally I saw it on ONE black and white movie (ed wood). Since I have watched 2 other black and white movies and saw nothing (Schindlers list, Sin City). Perhaps the set needed to break in or that movie just had certain conditions that caused them.

if I can get this for $**** (before tax).. should I jump on it? Or are there other options to consider for this price?

Yes, you should jump on it. That's $15 *below* cost on the set....

You don't sound stupid; just unitiated/new to the world of HDTV abbreviations . . .

SDE = Screen Door Effect, emphasis on "screen"; not "door", where if you look close enough, or have particularly acute vision, the TV screen appears to have screen material similar to that used for screen doors/windows superimposed upon it. The effect occurs with LCD TVs because there is a surprising amount of "blank"/black space between each of the square pixels. Taken together, and at a close enough distance, all of that dark space around the square pixels looks like a screen. Sit far enough away from the TV, and the space becomes less/non- noticeable. Most LCD RPTV (rear projection) sets seem to have this effect to some extent. DLPs have it less, and LCOS (SXRD) have it even less, as their pixels are much more densly packed, with much less space between the pixels.

SSE = Silk Screen Effect. Described variously as looking through a thin piece of translucent silk stretched across your screen (also called "veiled effect"), or "sparkle" effect in bright monochromatic portions of a scene. A function of the screen material mfrs use for their rear projection sets, all types of RPTVS (DLP, LCD and LCOS (SXRD)) tend to exhibit this. If yours is a flat panel LCD, my guess is you likely won't see this effect at all because you aren't projecting an image on this SSE-susceptible material .

Your set being a "small" size of 30 inches diagonal, my guess is you don't see these effects because your TV is small enough so it's just not an issue - the pixels are, relatively speaking, packed pretty close together because the screen itself isn't huge. If you did sit reallllllly close to your display, like a foot or so, I bet you could discern a SDE (even CRT direct view tube TVs will exhibit this effect if you get super close to them - you'll literally start to discern the actual screen they put inside the tube, so it's literally a screen in that case; not an "effect."). But it's not anything you'd notice at a normal/comfortable viewing distance with a set of that size. The problem for larger sets is that it can be noticeable from a number of feet away, depending upon viewer sensitivity/visual acuity/etc.

FFFred:

Thanks for your post! I have read all 130 pages of this thread and many others (as a lurker) and that has to be one of the best explanations of those terms I have read.

I recently purchased the 42A10 and tonight I was watching hockey in HD. It seemed as though I was viewing the bright, white ice behind slightly dirty glass. The "dirt" was all too apparent against the ice. Is this due to the screen's coating?

Also, the A-10 has the dynamic iris feature which greatly improves black level, and shadow detail in dark scenes. I just bought the A-10, and I also had the Sony GWIII (virtually the same as the WE655 series). I can say that the A-10 is quite an improvement. I imagine it would have rated better than the WE655 series did. I do feel vindicated that Consumer Reports rated the Panny plasmas as superior to all the RPTV's tested, after myself, and several forum members argued the point a while back. I found that to be the case also, but alas the 50 inch Panny won't fit in my cabinet...the A-10 does. The A-10 is a very nice TV though, and I don't regret buying it all so far.

Alan, if you had a chance to evaluate them, how did the Panny plasma compare with the A10 with a standard definition cable feed?

Thanks......wjr

The 8300HD doesn't allow you to watch a HDTV program normally and then switch to a SD channel and have it switch to scretch. You have to choose one or another. I have PASSPORT software on mine through Time Warner and have tried every configuration possible, but can't get it to work.

Jeff

if I can get this for $1455 (before tax).. should I jump on it? Or are there other options to consider for this price?

You'd be committed for not snapping that up. I can't find anything less than $50 off MSRP at this point!

SonicDark,
Do you have your SA8300 HD cable box connected to your TV with an HDMI cable. I am having a problem with using an HDMI cable to the TV and an optical cable from my cable box to my A/V receiver. The cable box has an audio setting for "HDMI" or "Dolby Digital." Depending on the setting, I get DD sound from the A/V receiver or TV sound and A/V receiver sound w/o DD. Any suggestions to solve this problem? WolfpackRon.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dopper
I recently purchased the 42A10 and tonight I was watching hockey in HD. It seemed as though I was viewing the bright, white ice behind slightly dirty glass. The "dirt" was all too apparent against the ice. Is this due to the screen's coating?
This subject seems to come up in various threads on an almost daily basis. Yes, that is SSE - otherwise known as screen sparkles or speckles - that is an unfortunate bi-product of the type of screen used in RP HDTVs (not just RP-LCD TVs like the A10 but also DLPs and JVC D-ILAs, etc) to reduce glare and provide a wider viewing angle. It is most apparent in areas of bright white, especially when the bright white area moves relative to the camera.

Good thing hockey's not a real sport so I won't have to worry about white ice on my a10.

Alan, if you had a chance to evaluate them, how did the Panny plasma compare with the A10 with a standard definition cable feed?

Thanks......wjr

The Panny plasma is better on all types of programming in my opinion. I would have spent the extra money for it had it fit in my entertainment center. But I am more pleased with the A-10 than I expected to be. On a really high quality HD program it is quite amazing for the $$.

The Panny plasma is better on all types of programming in my opinion. I would have spent the extra money for it had it fit in my entertainment center. But I am more pleased with the A-10 than I expected to be. On a really high quality HD program it is quite amazing for the $$.


My sentiments exactly.

I used DVE yesterday to try and get some settings right. That has to be the most confusing thing ever. It doesn't talk about projection TVs as much as i had hoped and some things don't apply outside of a CRT. the only things i really changed were turning the contrast down, and turning the sharpness down. I don't even know if these matter as much on HD programming anyway. As far as the colors and "red push" i really didn't see any need to turn off the red push or change the colors that much. seems like a perfect TV right out of the box.

One thing you can do with DVE is set the color with the RED filter rather than the blue filter. Adjust it until the red squares are pretty even with the outside red area. Do this if you don't want to go into the SM and fix the red push.

I will say that I think a color setting of 38 is the sweet spot for most sources on the A10 without the red push fix.

I would like to thank you folks for the great information that is included in this thread. It has made my decision much easier on which one to buy.

I have one question though. I'm currently in a situation where Sattelite is not feasible (too many trees in my yard) and my cable provider, for the lack of a better term, sucks. I'm not expecting a great picture, but I was curious as to how the PQ is under an SD signal. I'm still pretty set on buying the 50A10, but any information would be appreciated.

Thanks!!

My apologies if this has been asked/answered already. I've been going through 130 pages of this thread and I can't find what I am looking for. I got my 50A10 last night and started playing with it. I have a couple of questions/concerns. Thanks for any help you can extend.

1. Connected my XBOX and played NBA 2K6. I get a small strip of black bar on each side. It's not a letter box as it's not wide enough to be one. It's about 1-2inch on each side. Is that normal? How can I get rid of that?

2. As I was playing thorugh the game, the lines are getting jagged as the camera pan along. Is there a resolution for this? Where do I make my adjustments?

3. What is the optimal setting of my cable box to get the best PQ? Currently, my cable box is set to give out 1080i and 480p. Should I include 720p as well? Is the TV always converting the signal and displaying it as 720p?

4. I was watching E-ring yesterday in High Def. There is a scene when people started to run. I noticed some pixelization on some of the images? Is that my TV or the signal? Any resolution?

Other than that, I love the TV. I'm lovin this purchase. Easily convinced my wife that I did the right thing when I let her see CSI NY last night in HD. Awesome!

Prospective Canadian buyers of the A10 series sets: There appears to be confirmation of a rumour posted earlier at this site about forthcoming models of the 42 and 50 inch sets that will not have the built-in ATSC tuner or CableCARD. SonyStyle has just issued their Fall-Winter 2005 catalogue, which on page 12 shows both the KDF-E42A10 and the KDF-E50A10 as well as two new models that will be available in November: the KF-E42A10 and the KF-E50A10. No prices are given yet for the latter two models, but they undoubtedly will be cheaper. These new sets will also lack a couple of other features from the KDF line: no PC input and no TOS link audio out. Given that some posters here have complained about problems with the CableCARD and others have mentioned the various advantages of using a STB rather than the built-in ATSC tuner, the "lower" models could be worth waiting for, if the selling price turns out to be sufficiently less. The lower models likely will not be available in the US, in view of regulations that now require these larger sets to have built-inATSC tuner. So one query: Is the lack of a TOS link audio out on the forthcoming sets anything that will be missed?

I would like to thank you folks for the great information that is included in this thread. It has made my decision much easier on which one to buy.

I have one question though. I'm currently in a situation where Sattelite is not feasible (too many trees in my yard) and my cable provider, for the lack of a better term, sucks. I'm not expecting a great picture, but I was curious as to how the PQ is under an SD signal. I'm still pretty set on buying the 50A10, but any information would be appreciated.

Thanks!!

SD isn't great but I find it thoroughly acceptable. If 90% of your viewing is going to be SD and, I guess 10% DVD, then I would argue that you may be better off just getting a traditional CRT and waiting until HD content becomes available.

If on the other hand, the majority of the TV's use is going to be for DVD, then you won't be disappointed.

That said, I'm not sure where you live, but you may want to check www.antennaweb.org to see if you have any digital channels within reach. If so, get a traditional antenna and get HD content over the air (OTA). It's cheap (i.e. free) and I've found I spend a lot more time on my OTA digital channels these days than I do on my cable (SD-analog) channels. You may also check out the OTA forum here at avsforums that is for your area - if there is such a forum for your area and see what people are using for antennas, etc.


Hope this helps,


Mitch

Since the Toslink audio out was only really useful in getting the 5.1 out of the ATSC streams it tuned, there's really no reason to have it in there anyways if they take out the ATSC tuner.

Mitch,

Thank you and it helps a lot. To be honest, I don't watch the TV much. Mostly movies (DVD), and video games. (I should have specified these things in my first post.) The Xbox360 is my most compelling reason to buy a large TV such as this. My wife would beat me though if the SD reception was not at least acceptable. :)

I've checked out the website you linked to and it does appear there are some OTA sources within range of a good antenna.

Thanks again for the input! You all rule.

Billy

Prospective Canadian buyers of the A10 series sets: There appears to be confirmation of a rumour posted earlier at this site about forthcoming models of the 42 and 50 inch sets that will not have the built-in ATSC tuner or CableCARD. SonyStyle has just issued their Fall-Winter 2005 catalogue, which on page 12 shows both the KDF-E42A10 and the KDF-E50A10 as well as two new models that will be available in November: the KF-E42A10 and the KF-E50A10. No prices are given yet for the latter two models, but they undoubtedly will be cheaper. These new sets will also lack a couple of other features from the KDF line: no PC input and no TOS link audio out. Given that some posters here have complained about problems with the CableCARD and others have mentioned the various advantages of using a STB rather than the built-in ATSC tuner, the "lower" models could be worth waiting for, if the selling price turns out to be sufficiently less. The lower models likely will not be available in the US, in view of regulations that now require these larger sets to have built-inATSC tuner. So one query: Is the lack of a TOS link audio out on the forthcoming sets anything that will be missed?

Whoo Hooo! I am the "rumor" starter and this confirmation is sweet music to my ears. I really didn't want to spend extra $$$ for an onboard HD tuner that I'll never use. The Motorola DCT6412 is available from my cable provide for roughly $500 (after rebate) so it's a no brainer for me to wait till November. Question #2 answered. Now if some would just resond to my post on the A10's compatility (macroblocking?) with the Denon 1910/1920 dvd players, I'd be worry free.

SonicDark,
Do you have your SA8300 HD cable box connected to your TV with an HDMI cable. I am having a problem with using an HDMI cable to the TV and an optical cable from my cable box to my A/V receiver. The cable box has an audio setting for "HDMI" or "Dolby Digital." Depending on the setting, I get DD sound from the A/V receiver or TV sound and A/V receiver sound w/o DD. Any suggestions to solve this problem? WolfpackRon.

I have exactly the same set up. I have my box set to to "Dolby Digital" "HDMI" Appears to output only 2 channel stereo to the optical.

Sony UK doesn't have this A10 model, but an A12 (KDFE50A12U). Does anyone know if these two are essentially the same (the UK model has local Freeview digital tv tuner instead of the ATSC one)? If they are, the 50" model, considering that everything here costs more than anywhere else, isn't too bad at MRSP of £1399 and offers push it even lower than that.

Whoo Hooo! I am the "rumor" starter and this confirmation is sweet music to my ears. I really didn't want to spend extra $$$ for an onboard HD tuner that I'll never use. The Motorola DCT6412 is available from my cable provide for roughly $500 (after rebate) so it's a no brainer for me to wait till November. Question #2 answered. Now if some would just resond to my post on the A10's compatility (macroblocking?) with the Denon 1910/1920 dvd players, I'd be worry free.

Can't you rent the cable box from your cable company? I can warn you that while I LOVE the functions of the Motorola DVR, the thing has plenty of 'bugs' in it that would make me unhappy if I owned it. It does lots of 'weird' things, and requires pulling the plug now and then to make it work right. If you can, I suggest you rent it, rather than buy it.

If I were to buy a set from Canada there shouldn't be any issues correct. I know I've heard of Canadians coming to the US for good sales on the latest models before. Any reason I would have issues going the other way across the border?

K2koq,
When you have your SA8300HD set to "Dolby Digital," does your TV have sound? At this setting with my Sony KDF-E55A20 TV, I only get DD from my A/V receiver. When I use the HDMI setting, I get sound from the TV and non-DD sound from the A/V receiver. WolfpackRon.

If I were to buy a set from Canada there shouldn't be any issues correct. I know I've heard of Canadians coming to the US for good sales on the latest models before. Any reason I would have issues going the other way across the border?

There might be a couple of complications. First, Canadian warranty might not be good in the US, so that you'd have to tote your set back across the border for service. (The converse I know to be true.) Second, a Canadian retailer would typically charge you both the 7% federal sales tax (GST) and a provincial sales tax (typically about 7% to 8% depending on the province, excepting Alberta with no sales tax). If you fill out the right form at the border, you should be able to secure a refund of the GST, but you won't get the provincial tax back. Another factor that could upset your intentions is that Canadian retailers won't offer prices anything near what you can get online in the US, so you'd probably find it cheaper to buy the KDF series online in the US even if you don't want the built-in high-def tuner. But you'd be welcome to visit our fair and decent country.

Can't you rent the cable box from your cable company? I can warn you that while I LOVE the functions of the Motorola DVR, the thing has plenty of 'bugs' in it that would make me unhappy if I owned it. It does lots of 'weird' things, and requires pulling the plug now and then to make it work right. If you can, I suggest you rent it, rather than buy it.

I'll have to look into the rental option. My experience with Shaw's rental pricing was that you basically paid for the box after 10 months of rentals, so why not buy? That was for just a regular digital box though, there may be more of an incentive to rent the HD, given it's higher price tag. Although, I was assured by the girl on the phone from Shaw that they would exchange the unit for free for the 4 year warranty term with whatever new HD box Shaw may offer in the future. All in all, I can't wait, whatever option I go with.

I'll have to look into the rental option. My experience with Shaw's rental pricing was that you basically paid for the box after 10 months of rentals, so why not buy? That was for just a regular digital box though, there may be more of an incentive to rent the HD, given it's higher price tag. Although, I was assured by the girl on the phone from Shaw that they would exchange the unit for free for the 4 year warranty term with whatever new HD box Shaw may offer in the future. All in all, I can't wait, whatever option I go with.

If they warrant it for 4 years that is not so bad. I pay an extra $5.00 a month to rent the DVR box, versus renting the regular HD cable box. (total cost for digital cable, HD service, and DVR service is $25.00 a month extra over standard cable).

K2koq,
When you have your SA8300HD set to "Dolby Digital," does your TV have sound? At this setting with my Sony KDF-E55A20 TV, I only get DD from my A/V receiver. When I use the HDMI setting, I get sound from the TV and non-DD sound from the A/V receiver. WolfpackRon.

Right I do not get sound from the TV ...to get sound on tv...

I have the Cable box's component and regular audio output going into a different input on the tv. so I can listen to the TV speakers if I so desire ..which I don't..

I much prefer The "HDMI/Dolby Digital" With "Optical" into AV amp option.

So you toggle between "HDMI" and "Dolby Digital" settings on the cable remote to put sound on the TV vs the A/V receiver. I was trying to get both to work at the same time. Sometimes my wife may need the TV sound since she struggles with the A/V receiver. WolfpackRon.

There might be a couple of complications. First, Canadian warranty might not be good in the US, so that you'd have to tote your set back across the border for service. (The converse I know to be true.) Second, a Canadian retailer would typically charge you both the 7% federal sales tax (GST) and a provincial sales tax (typically about 7% to 8% depending on the province, excepting Alberta with no sales tax). If you fill out the right form at the border, you should be able to secure a refund of the GST, but you won't get the provincial tax back. Another factor that could upset your intentions is that Canadian retailers won't offer prices anything near what you can get online in the US, so you'd probably find it cheaper to buy the KDF series online in the US even if you don't want the built-in high-def tuner. But you'd be welcome to visit our fair and decent country.

Yeah I just ran the numbers....right now $2600 canadian is $2200 US. If discounted to $2100 with no tuner that's like $1775 US, maybe get it on sale for $1700 US with no tuner, while I'm sure I can get the with tuner one on sale in the US for $1799 at somepoint (10% off MSRP sales all the time it seems). Plus I have to buy probably two $40 tanks of gas to get to canada and back. So eh...I think I'll just stay home and be lazy and look for 10% off somewhere and free shipping :)

So you toggle between "HDMI" and "Dolby Digital" settings on the cable remote to put sound on the TV vs the A/V receiver. I was trying to get both to work at the same time. Sometimes my wife may need the TV sound since she struggles with the A/V receiver. WolfpackRon.


Sounds like you need a new remote! I let my gf pick a Harmony and it's color and now she won't even let me have it. She even uses the 'Help' button to solve misconfigured equipment and insists she can do it herself. Life is good :)

So you toggle between "HDMI" and "Dolby Digital" settings on the cable remote to put sound on the TV vs the A/V receiver. I was trying to get both to work at the same time. Sometimes my wife may need the TV sound since she struggles with the A/V receiver. WolfpackRon.


Just set it up so that say input 5 is a simple Cable box to tv set up and another input is your fancer AV configuration. Then tell her to select input 5 for her viewing pleasure.

Sounds like you need a new remote! I let my gf pick a Harmony and it's color and now she won't even let me have it. She even uses the 'Help' button to solve misconfigured equipment and insists she can do it herself. Life is good

:)


Which Harmony Remote is the simplest that will do the job?

It would be just as easy to teach her to change the audio setting on the cable remote from "HDMI" to "Dolby Digital." WolfpackRon.

all the harmony's use state memory (is something on/off, input 1/2/3 etc...) so cheapest is the 659 I think....the lower end models have been dropping in price as the new color screens ones started showing up


and let us know how it goes with teaching her to change the audio setting wolfpack, women (at least the ones I know) have this odd innate ability to tune out all technical explanations that involve multiple buttons on a remote or pushing any buttons on a reciever :D


EDIT: actually looks like the 520 is a new model with MSRP of $99, then there is pretty much a model or two every $50.

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/productlistharmony/US/EN,CRID=2080

My girlfriend went with the 688 in silver.

And my apologies for causing a divergence in the thread...

I've seen a couple posts on pc hookups...are people continuing to have good experiences using HTPCs with this TV? I'm thinking skip the VGA input and use the DVI/HDMI in with 720p resolution/timing. Any thoughts....?

since there is only one HDMI, would it be better to hook up the 6412 to it via dvi/hdmi chord or go with the upconverting DVD and use the hdmi for that and use the cable with component? i watch tv as much as i do dvds so it is about 50/50 on tv/dvds? ALL audio will dump into my denon 1705 and not even use the tv speakers... any insight is greatly appreciated.

I asked this before but I'll try again. My HD cable box (scientific atlanta 3100hd) is a 1080i box that can not be changed. The Hd programs look great and I have no problem, but the new comcast box is 420, 1080 and 720p. Would there be a difference in picture with the new box since the sony is a 720 set?

since there is only one HDMI, would it be better to hook up the 6412 to it via dvi/hdmi chord or go with the upconverting DVD and use the hdmi for that and use the cable with component? i watch tv as much as i do dvds so it is about 50/50 on tv/dvds? ALL audio will dump into my denon 1705 and not even use the tv speakers... any insight is greatly appreciated.

The answer to this lies in the quality of the upscaler in the tv vs. the quality of the upscaler in your dvd player. Try connecting your dvd player with HDMI and setting your dvd player to output 720p and then connect via component and try outputting 480i and 480p from the dvd player. Decide which one you like best...and the rest falls into place.

thanx naylia... i just don't want to buy a hdmi/dvi (for the 6412 cable box) if i don't have to. i am thinkin just run the sony ns90v (dvd) using hdmi and cable using the component... since i don't want to buy cables i don't need. but thanx for the reply, you ROCK!

1. Connected my XBOX and played NBA 2K6. I get a small strip of black bar on each side. It's not a letter box as it's not wide enough to be one. It's about 1-2inch on each side. Is that normal? How can I get rid of that?

2. As I was playing thorugh the game, the lines are getting jagged as the camera pan along. Is there a resolution for this? Where do I make my adjustments?
Did you setup your xbox to use widescreen mode? Are you using component cables? What mode is your TV in? NBA 2k6 supports 16:9 and 480p, so you should have it in Full mode. Press the display button on the TV's remote to verify it's being output at 480p.

3. What is the optimal setting of my cable box to get the best PQ? Currently, my cable box is set to give out 1080i and 480p. Should I include 720p as well? Is the TV always converting the signal and displaying it as 720p?This is really subjective, but I like 720p. Most of the times when I flip between 1080i and 720p I can't tell the difference. If you want to get technical you can read this page (http://alvyray.com/DigitalTV/DTV_Bandwidths.htm) for fun.

4. I was watching E-ring yesterday in High Def. There is a scene when people started to run. I noticed some pixelization on some of the images? Is that my TV or the signal? Any resolution?You're either seeing compression artifacts or signal loss -- either of which can't be fixed by you. :)

I had the 50a10 delivered today and i'm really impressed. i'm happy that some of the guys 'pushed' me towards the 50. hd is awesome. i'm still playing around and figuring things out, but one question i do have is:

How do I get the DRC to take affect for the SD material? I have a D*TV RCA HD receiver. I guess the TV is recognizing the 480i sd channels as 720p (as that's what the box is set to)...but it;s not 720p so I'm losing the "help" of the DRC. Anyone have any thoughts how I can get this drc thing going on the sd????

I had the 50a10 delivered today and i'm really impressed. i'm happy that some of the guys 'pushed' me towards the 50. hd is awesome. i'm still playing around and figuring things out, but one question i do have is:

How do I get the DRC to take affect for the SD material? I have a D*TV RCA HD receiver. I guess the TV is recognizing the 480i sd channels as 720p (as that's what the box is set to)...but it;s not 720p so I'm losing the "help" of the DRC. Anyone have any thoughts how I can get this drc thing going on the sd????

If you feed anything other than 480i to the tv the DRC will not be available. set your Receiver to "Pass through" if you can...or whatever the setting is to let 480i get through the Receiver to the TV.

does the 50 inch have the advanced iris as well? does anyone know the differences between the two in PQ etc? i'm thinking of going 50.....

"does the 50 inch have the advanced iris as well?"
yes

After taking my new Toshiba 34HF85 back for PQ and a bent picture, I went straight to CC and bought the new Sony 42A10, and so far so good, excellent PQ and the Wega Gate menu is a breeze to learn, I havent adjusted anything but the sound and I rarely use it, sound quality is also very good. I didnt buy the service plan yet, but 250 for extened warranty is starting to look good after looking at lamp prices around 200 per lamp at Sony.com. My big ? is about how many hours is the average lamp gonna last, Ive heard 1500 hours tops- does that sound about right to you guys. Thanks to all, great site..

more like 8000 hours

does the 50 inch have the advanced iris as well? does anyone know the differences between the two in PQ etc? i'm thinking of going 50.....

If you are talking about the 50" A10 then yes.

Is anyone aware of a center channel speaker shelf that can be attached to the top and/or back of the E50A10? I can't find a tv stand (that isn't too tall) that will holld all of my components and my large center channel speaker.

Thanks....wjr

Is anyone aware of a center channel speaker shelf that can be attached to the top and/or back of the E50A10? I can't find a tv stand (that isn't too tall) that will holld all of my components and my large center channel speaker.

Thanks....wjr

I bought this one from Best Buy:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7035736&type=product&productCategoryId=cat08093&id=1099395889869

It works perfect with my 42A10 and is quality made. I highly recommend it.

One thing you can do with DVE is set the color with the RED filter rather than the blue filter. Adjust it until the red squares are pretty even with the outside red area. Do this if you don't want to go into the SM and fix the red push.

I will say that I think a color setting of 38 is the sweet spot for most sources on the A10 without the red push fix.

you don't find color set at 38 to be too dull? I tried it and to me it just looked to dull. Do you know how to fix the red push in the sm? I tried looking in there, but it was too confusing and I couldn't find the setting to fix the red push?

I would like to thank you folks for the great information that is included in this thread. It has made my decision much easier on which one to buy.

I have one question though. I'm currently in a situation where Sattelite is not feasible (too many trees in my yard) and my cable provider, for the lack of a better term, sucks. I'm not expecting a great picture, but I was curious as to how the PQ is under an SD signal. I'm still pretty set on buying the 50A10, but any information would be appreciated.

Thanks!!

I get a great SD picture on my A-10 both from DirectTv and from OTA. I installed an outside OTA antenna specifically to get the local HD channels and originally only programmed the digital HD channels in the tuner of the A-10, but one day I decided to show a friend at the difference between OTA standard analog and OTA HD and while analog is not nearly as good as digital HD it was impressive how good it looked compared with my DirectTv digital programming. (I am approximately 30 miles from the television OTA broadcast towers). You really cannot tell much of a difference between OTA and Digital DirectTv.

I could not be more pleased with this television, the only drawback as compared with plasma in my opinion is the side viewing angle deficiency. Other than that, this TV converts SD better than anything I have ever seen in over two years of searching.

Good Luck!


Scott

Sony DA4ES
B&K Reference 4430
Sony CX985 400 disc DVD
Sony CX450 400 disc CD x 2
Definitive Technology BP30 Mains Bi-Amped
Definitive Technology ProTower400 Center
Definitive Technology BPX Surrounds
SVS 25-31 PC+
Cerwin Vega LW10 Surround sub
Sony Grand Wega 42 A-10
Panamax 5100
Sony VCR
XBOX
Hughes DirectTv Tivo

I had the 50a10 delivered today and i'm really impressed. i'm happy that some of the guys 'pushed' me towards the 50. hd is awesome. i'm still playing around and figuring things out, but one question i do have is:

How do I get the DRC to take affect for the SD material? I have a D*TV RCA HD receiver. I guess the TV is recognizing the 480i sd channels as 720p (as that's what the box is set to)...but it;s not 720p so I'm losing the "help" of the DRC. Anyone have any thoughts how I can get this drc thing going on the sd????

If you have the noise filter set to max the DRC function is blank, Set noise filter to a lower level and you will "see" the DRC.

After taking my new Toshiba 34HF85 back for PQ and a bent picture, I went straight to CC and bought the new Sony 42A10, and so far so good, excellent PQ and the Wega Gate menu is a breeze to learn, I havent adjusted anything but the sound and I rarely use it, sound quality is also very good. I didnt buy the service plan yet, but 250 for extened warranty is starting to look good after looking at lamp prices around 200 per lamp at Sony.com. My big ? is about how many hours is the average lamp gonna last, Ive heard 1500 hours tops- does that sound about right to you guys. Thanks to all, great site..

The Sony extended warranty does NOT include a bulb after the standard first year of coverage. The Sony warranty is still a teriffic deal!

Is anyone aware of a center channel speaker shelf that can be attached to the top and/or back of the E50A10? I can't find a tv stand (that isn't too tall) that will holld all of my components and my large center channel speaker.

Thanks....wjr

the official sony stand has a center channel speaker shelf right under the TV.

mine isnt huge so mine fit ontop of my 42a10 and to keep it from sliding off I used a little construction putty (doesnt ruin any surface, peels off in a few seconds) underneath where the speaker is touching the tv. looks great, speaker isnt going anywhere, i don't suggest this for people with large center channels, mine isn't that big, only weighs 6 pounds.

I can't find a tv stand (that isn't too tall) that will holld all of my components and my large center channel speaker.
I've got this one (https://www.sanus.com/cgi-bin/web_store.cgi?page=products/furniture/natural/NF213c.html) for my 42", and it's a good height for me... although it might be a little high for the 50". Plenty of room for my big center plus all the gear below.

After taking my new Toshiba 34HF85 back for PQ and a bent picture, I went straight to CC and bought the new Sony 42A10, and so far so good, excellent PQ and the Wega Gate menu is a breeze to learn, I havent adjusted anything but the sound and I rarely use it, sound quality is also very good. I didnt buy the service plan yet, but 250 for extened warranty is starting to look good after looking at lamp prices around 200 per lamp at Sony.com. My big ? is about how many hours is the average lamp gonna last, Ive heard 1500 hours tops- does that sound about right to you guys. Thanks to all, great site..

Be careful of CC EW. They only replace the original bulb once. Better to get a EW that covers bulbs for 4-5 yrs.

Only one bulb replacement?? That sucks. I got the 2 year with mine. I something is going to go wrong then i think it would happen in those 2 years. Even if the bulb goes out after those 2 years, oh well, 200 for a new bulb isn't too bad. I mean, its still a 50 inch tv (i have the 50a10).

you don't find color set at 38 to be too dull? I tried it and to me it just looked to dull. Do you know how to fix the red push in the sm? I tried looking in there, but it was too confusing and I couldn't find the setting to fix the red push?

Colors on TVs should be more subdued (flat) rather than bloomy or cartoony looking. Adding more contrast can make colors look brighter if you feel they need a little more punch. It depends on your equipment, but I think a color setting of 38 looks very good with mine for HD and DVDs.

I haven't tried the red push fix. This would help get rid of the slightly orangy looking yellows and "heavy" looking reds on the A10. But the color decoder in the A10 isn't that great to begin with. Fixing the red push will most likely result in stronger looking blues and/or greens. I think I'd rather get an ISF calibration to get the color decoding closer to being more accurate. They have the equipment to do it right.

I know there are many members here who have a great deal more experience with setting up televisions etc...

I wrote this crosspost in response to a question posted on Agoraquest (The Sony board) about the settings on the A-10 Grand Wega. I thought maybe it might be helpful to some newer members and owners of the A-10 on this board so here goes... Please keep in mind that this is only my opinion and I am not a professional television calibrator or technician. I am not trying to step on any toes or contradict what works for others, this is just what my experience has taught me.

To all out there looking for a hard and fast set of settings for the Grand Wega A-10 series 3LCD projection TV's, I have to tell you after owning the set for several weeks that your settings will vary by input, source, resolution, and compression. In other words, if you are picky about your picture you must learn the Wega Gate UI and use it regularly to adjust your settings for each and every situation.

I am in the process of writing down a log of settings for different types of programming in a notebook so that I can more quickly get back to where I was the last time I watched say Monday Night Football in HD or Nip Tuck on Direct Tv Digital SD... This log helps me to remember a base line of settings for HD, SD, DVD, OTA, etc.... From there I can make minor adjustments to each after I have set the baseline to tweak out the best black levels, color, contrast etc on each program.

If all sources were the same it would be easy but even in High Def the compression rates are so different from channel to channel and show to show that some tweaking is necessary for every show. Of course each input has a different set of settings and that is useful for different baseline settings.

By far the easiest source for me to set up has been HD OTA programming followed by progressive DVD... But then each and every DVD is different, so you can not rely on just one preset for that input on the TV.

And on OTA HD programming I find that for football the min Black Corrector setting combined with a low or medium automatic iris is ideal,

This combination does not work for other OTA HD shows like Law & Order however.

I must also say that those who complain about screen door effect and silk screen effect in these televisions simply have not adjusted them properly. I can set up my 42A-10 to show SSE and SDE and I can adjust it so that neither is present with the same source. "Or I guess I should say that for me it neither is visible, others may have different eyesight than I."

SDE is more prevalent with SD programming from my DirectTV TiVo but I can make adjustments with the filters to minimize it to where it is not noticeable. I sit about 8 feet from the 42A-10 and only see SDE on rare occasions when I have not adjusted the set correctly for the programming or source. I choose to make it go away.... "Hint - Turn down the picture level" - "Use the noise filter"

Just take the time to learn your settings and what they do and what looks good to you... reading what another guy thinks looks good in his bright living room or dim basement really will have no bearing on what looks good to you in your home and situation. The only real way to learn the settings is to experiment with them yourself.

Also, do not put all of your faith in the profits that say to not use the advanced settings. Black corrector, Gamma or Pure White etc... are useful in certain situations , in other situations they are detrimental, you have to learn what works... Try them for yourself and see what works for you. Each setting works a little differently for each source and they all work different in combination with one another. It sounds complicated but I find it to be fun and a challenge to get all I can out of a picture/source.

These things really do not run on auto pilot. You must be prepared to educate yourself and incur the wrath of the significant other while you are learning all of the settings (because he/she will get tired of the constant switching back and forth in Wega Gate) but you will soon get the hang of it and then you will have a Plasma like picture without the Plasma price or problems...

Once you have your little book set up to help you get a head start on the settings so that when you pop in a new DVD or sit down to the Sopranos on TiVo you will only have to make just a few minor tweaks will get a great picture and enjoy the show!

Scott

Sony KDF-42-A10 Grand Wega
Sony DA4ES
B&K Reference 4430
Sony CX985 400 disc DVD
Sony CX450 400 disc CD x 2
Definitive Technology BP30 Mains Bi-Amped
Definitive Technology ProTower400 Center
Definitive Technology BPX Surrounds
SVS 25-31 PC+
Cerwin Vega LW10 Surround sub
Panamax 5100
Sony VCR
XBOX
Hughes DirectTv Tivo

Does anyone else use an HDMI cable with a Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD DVR on this TV? Any issues/problems/things I need to make sure of?

I already have the cable box & Xbox hooked up in the 2 component slots on the back, & I don't have room to fit the component cables for my DVD on the side of the TV. So I have no choice but to upgrade to HDMI (didn't want to spend $$$ prior to this).

Any reccomensdations for places online to get one for a reasonable price? I see that RAM Electronics advertises here, and they have one for $28, sounds almost too good to be true.

Assuming the above 8000 hours/bulb, and 4 hours of viewing time every day....

It will take 5.49 years to burnout a bulb.

For those with kids/are unemployed that see more use...using 8 hours every day....

2.75 years to burn out a bulb

So...if bulbs are $200 bucks and a 2 year extended warranty is $250, and bulb concerns are your primary reason for the EW then I'd say they are screwing you even at 8 hours every single day of the week viewing.

This of course does not include the value to you that the peace of mind of an extended warranty can provide. Just don't forget that many credit cards will add at least a year on to any standard warranty included with the tv.

I've got this one (https://www.sanus.com/cgi-bin/web_store.cgi?page=products/furniture/natural/NF213c.html) for my 42", and it's a good height for me... although it might be a little high for the 50". Plenty of room for my big center plus all the gear below.

For my 42 A10 I have the Z-Line # SKYLAR44S at CC. The stand is 44" W x 20" H x 25" D. It looks great as it has 3/8" smoked tempered glass on top (holds 240 lbs),2 smoked tempered lower shelves. On assembly, be sure to put the coated surfaces down as the top will be glass and will not scratch.

Look at the CC web site as they have web only specials with free delivery and local CC store pickup. The in store price was $279.99 but the web price was $42.00 cheaper ($237.99). I went to the store the same day and picked it up and the package fit in my car (it weighs 110- lbs). The store had already had my web price in their system and thats what I paid. The center of the screen with this stand is 37" to the floor which is a perfect viewing height for a person sitting on a chair/sofa.

The TV stand recommendations are nice, but for a center speaker you really need it on the top of the TV for better surround sound imaging and clarity.

This of course does not include the value to you that the peace of mind of an extended warranty can provide. Just don't forget that many credit cards will add at least a year on to any standard warranty included with the tv.

I bit the bullet and did the unthinkable, purchased the 4 year $400 Best Buy Warranty. I never buy a warranty on anything and have never been burned before by not having it.

But this does give me peace of mind knowing that unless I take a pickaxe to the TV, it will all be covered, no matter how many bulbs I go through.

:D

Assuming the above 8000 hours/bulb, and 4 hours of viewing time every day....

It will take 5.49 years to burnout a bulb.

For those with kids/are unemployed that see more use...using 8 hours every day....

2.75 years to burn out a bulb

So...if bulbs are $200 bucks and a 2 year extended warranty is $250, and bulb concerns are your primary reason for the EW then I'd say they are screwing you even at 8 hours every single day of the week viewing.

This of course does not include the value to you that the peace of mind of an extended warranty can provide. Just don't forget that many credit cards will add at least a year on to any standard warranty included with the tv.

You have to keep in mind that this is a bulb and bulbs can burn out. The so called stated life of a projection bulb was quoted as 8000 hours. A bulb can burn out any where from one hour and upwards. With a set on daily, who can predict when or how long the bulb will last. With the large investment in a HDTV, for my piece of mind I prefer a EW that will cover expensive HDTV repairs and UNLIMITED bulb replacement. Just my humble opinion.

Kevinxbox360,
I installed an HDMI cable with my Sony KDF-E55A20 TV and a SA8300HD cable box. I have an optical cable connected to my A/V receiver for sound. The SA8300HD remote has two settings for audio, "HDMI" and "Dolby Digital." With HDMI selected, I have sound on the TV and non-DD sound on the A/V receiver. With Dolby Digital selected, I have DD sound on the A/V receiver, but no sound thru the TV. I get either one or the other, but not both. I am still looking for a fix. WolfpackRon.

I basically wanted piece of mind. Yes if it doesn't burn out in 2 years then u wasted 250 dollars. But what if a) it burns out b) another problem arises. And if the bulb goes out after the 2 years then i got a good 2 years out of that bulb and will pay 200 for another 2+ years of HDTV awsomeness. I don't see myslef buying a new HDTV for a while sinc ei have the all the size i will ever need and we are at the beginning of the HD standard. I don't think there will be too many changes to the HD spec and even with 1080p coming out, how much better can it be?

Do you know how to fix the red push in the sm? I tried looking in there, but it was too confusing and I couldn't find the setting to fix the red push?
Try the first post in the grand wega V tweeks thread.

Does anyone else use an HDMI cable with a Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD DVR on this TV? Any issues/problems/things I need to make sure of?

I already have the cable box & Xbox hooked up in the 2 component slots on the back, & I don't have room to fit the component cables for my DVD on the side of the TV. So I have no choice but to upgrade to HDMI (didn't want to spend $$$ prior to this).

Any reccomensdations for places online to get one for a reasonable price? I see that RAM Electronics advertises here, and they have one for $28, sounds almost too good to be true.

Bought an HDMI from monoprice.com for about $7 plus a couple $ for S/H.

If it isn't working up to standard, you coulda fooled me!

Philherz,
Do you have an A/V receiver hooked up with an optical cable with your HDMI setup? If so, do you get both TV sound and A/V receiver sound at the same time? WolfpackRon.

Hey guys, I'm having a problem while trying to connect my PC to my 42A10 through the VGA input. I'm using an ATI 9500 VGA card which I previously running the exact resolution on my Infocus 4805. When I try to run 1280x720 which should be the same number of pixels on this A10 set, it leaves a 1 to 1.5 inch border around the image. This is on Full 1 mode on the TV when I change it to zoom, then the picture overfills the screen and i'm missing about 1 to 1.5 inch around the edges. The attached pictures show what i'm talking about. I've tried the auto adjustment on the TV as well as different drivers for the VGA card. Do I need to use powerstrip to get the exact resolution to match the set. Is 1280x720 not the correct resolution. Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hi,
First post on the forums. I got a Sony KDF-E42A10 about 2 weeks ago and after much tweaking of the settings I love the picture, however I have one problem/complaint. I see pixelation on the HD channels not all but mostly Discovery/HD, I've read alot of stuff and am not sure if it's been answered or posted if so I'm sorry there's a lot to read here.. I see little boxes on the screen when things fade out and was wondering if this is a LCD thing that's normal and I have to live with or it's a bad signal from the STB. I a have TWC/Passport SA8300HD with Component inputs,the STB is set to output 720p & 1080i only, the local SD channels look good I haven't noticed the pixelation problem there. I'm going to my brother this weekend he has a Panny "52 LCD/projection HDTV and I'll see if his does it on the same channels or not.
What could cause this problem, low signal, cheap cables, I may get an HDMI cable and try that but I've read that there's no sound here in TWC/charlotte if you use this cable :confused: .... Sorry for the long post but I want to know if it's the STB/Cable or the TV that's not up to par.
Thanks , Mark

The TV stand recommendations are nice, but for a center speaker you really need it on the top of the TV for better surround sound imaging and clarity.

I think you find that for the optimum surround imaging and clarity the speaker should be placed at the same level as your ear while seated in the viewing position. Failing that, it should be as close to the level of the tweeters on your main speakers. Whether this position is above or below the television is not really relevant. If the top of the television is 15-20 inches above your head and the bottom of the TV is only 10 inches below your head while seated then below the TV is the better placement.

My center channel speaker is below the 42A-10 because it is the only position it will fit in, but I can say that no one notices where the speaker is in my setup. Center channel material and Dialog are centered in the screen after my many hours of setup. No one can tell that the speaker is actually 19 inches below the screen. I would love to move it up to the next shelf below the screen but dimensions do not allow for that placement. I would not even consider placing it above my screen however because it would be both way too high (even above my BP30 towers) and it would look ridiculous. Granted, my Pro-Tower 400 center channel is larger than most with two integrated powered subwoofers a mid range driver and a tweeter. At 36 inches wide and 9 inches high it is a bear to place.

Ultimately we all have to make our setups work best with what we have at hand, there are no hard and fast rules we all have to follow, just guidelines and recommendations... I recommend you place your center channel where it will best work for you.

Scott

Sony KDF-42-A10 Grand Wega
Sony DA4ES
B&K Reference 4430
Sony CX985 400 disc DVD
Sony CX450 400 disc CD x 2
Definitive Technology BP30 Mains Bi-Amped
Definitive Technology ProTower400 Center
Definitive Technology BPX Surrounds
SVS 25-31 PC+
Cerwin Vega LW10 Surround sub
Panamax 5100
Sony VCR
XBOX
Hughes DirectTv Tivo

for jcc39, the 1in border around is normal. the tv doesnt do 1:1 mapping after reading other posts in this review.

for Bucket_HDTV, I have seen alot of pixelation on the Discovery HD channel also. But other HD channels look amazing, so I dont think it is the tv.

For both of you, sit back, relax and enjoy. I have had the tv for 2 months and am loving every second of it.

Does anyone else use an HDMI cable with a Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD DVR on this TV? Any issues/problems/things I need to make sure of?

I already have the cable box & Xbox hooked up in the 2 component slots on the back, & I don't have room to fit the component cables for my DVD on the side of the TV. So I have no choice but to upgrade to HDMI (didn't want to spend $$$ prior to this).

Any reccomensdations for places online to get one for a reasonable price? I see that RAM Electronics advertises here, and they have one for $28, sounds almost too good to be true.

I have the same setup and the HDMI works sporadically. Brighthouse tech support claims that they don't have tech support for HDMI as it's a new technology. I've returned the box once, and they have sent numerous "diagnostics" to the box.

I have the same setup and the HDMI works sporadically. Brighthouse tech support claims that they don't have tech support for HDMI as it's a new technology. I've returned the box once, and they have sent numerous "diagnostics" to the box.

I have Adelphia and when I asked the tech about HDMI he said it was better than component if you had TV's side by side & explained more.

So I can only assume that if their boxes didn't support or had trouble with HDMI he would have said something to me. :D :D :D

I'm using the ZVOX 315 powered speaker and notice that the sound cuts out every once and a while. Note I had the speaker set on "Standby" (which cuts the sound off if there is no audio for, I believe, around 2 minutes). I have changed it to "ON". I'll see if the sound cuts out now. Has anyone else had a similar problem with the 50 inch Sony's sound cutting out.........with a powered speaker OR WITHOUT, just using the TV speakers. Please let me know. Hopefully turning the 315 switch to ON from standby will cure the problem.

Philherz,
Do you have an A/V receiver hooked up with an optical cable with your HDMI setup? If so, do you get both TV sound and A/V receiver sound at the same time? WolfpackRon.

Sorry, I just use the HDMI between my SA8300 and A10 and use the TV's sound.....

I basically wanted piece of mind. Yes if it doesn't burn out in 2 years then u wasted 250 dollars. But what if a) it burns out b) another problem arises. And if the bulb goes out after the 2 years then i got a good 2 years out of that bulb and will pay 200 for another 2+ years of HDTV awsomeness. I don't see myslef buying a new HDTV for a while sinc ei have the all the size i will ever need and we are at the beginning of the HD standard. I don't think there will be too many changes to the HD spec and even with 1080p coming out, how much better can it be?


I wasn't trying to say that an EW is a waste, just wanted people to think about the quantative side of what they are buying, and I was quick to note the peace of mind that can be enjoyed by a quality long term warranty. I was just hoping to provoke some people to think carefully about their viewing habits and environment before handing extra cash over to a pushy sales guy at BB or CC.

There are times when i do think a EW is a waste. Most of the time i figure the 1 yr warrenty is enough. I wasn't trying to discredit your post, i just wanted to post my thoughts on why i got the EW. I usually the one telling my friends that its a waste but i do believe there are some times when it is nice to have. And if anyone is wondering if a TV had ever been replaced due to 3 EW issues. It happened to my friend, i saw it with my own eyes.

Like my gf's dell laptop, she has the next-business day service and it has paid for itself time and time again. She's had every component of her laptop replaced except for the touchpad and the screen. The hard disk has been replaced twice. When they offered her a 2yr extension for $200 it took her about 30 seconds to log on and buy it.

On a more relevant note, do folks in this thread know how reliable the prior RPLCD Sony's have been?

I'm using the ZVOX 315 powered speaker and notice that the sound cuts out every once and a while. Note I had the speaker set on "Standby" (which cuts the sound off if there is no audio for, I believe, around 2 minutes). I have changed it to "ON". I'll see if the sound cuts out now. Has anyone else had a similar problem with the 50 inch Sony's sound cutting out.........with a powered speaker OR WITHOUT, just using the TV speakers. Please let me know. Hopefully turning the 315 switch to ON from standby will cure the problem.

Had the same problem. I sent an email to the company and this is what they said.
Turn down the volume control on the zvox 2-3 clicks, then turn up the Sony HDTV volume control untill you reach the volume you want. The audio signal from the set was set too low for the zvox.
They also said to turn the on switch to the on position and not use the standby control.
This solved the problem. Love the sound from the unit. I have my presence control and bass controls set at the 1 o'clock positions. This seems about right.

Hey guys, I'm having a problem while trying to connect my PC to my 42A10 through the VGA input. I'm using an ATI 9500 VGA card which I previously running the exact resolution on my Infocus 4805. When I try to run 1280x720 which should be the same number of pixels on this A10 set, it leaves a 1 to 1.5 inch border around the image. This is on Full 1 mode on the TV when I change it to zoom, then the picture overfills the screen and i'm missing about 1 to 1.5 inch around the edges. The attached pictures show what i'm talking about. I've tried the auto adjustment on the TV as well as different drivers for the VGA card. Do I need to use powerstrip to get the exact resolution to match the set. Is 1280x720 not the correct resolution. Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated. Thanks

This is normal.

I've had my 50A10 for several weeks now, was previously using a 32" CRT HDTV and Powerstrip for a 640x480 custom resolution. There's a post earlier in this thread about using a custom resolution to fit the A10 screen, but I tried it and couldn't get it to work. I think it may only work with a DVI-HDMI connection. I'm using the VGA connection with an X800XT. I've also tried the screen size adjustments in both the regular ATI control panel and CCC, but confirmed what others have said... it doesn't work over VGA.

Personally, one of the reasons I wanted a new TV was so I could have a better and easier interface with my PC... in other words, standard Windows resolution and no more Powerstrip. I've followed the threads/posts regarding PC connection and 1:1 pixel mapping, and will continue to do so, but am not interested in making a filled screen and/or 1:1 pixel mapping the research project that learning Powerstrip and custom resolutions was with my previous TV. I've found that playing UT2004 at 1280x720 on a monitor that's "only" 48 inches is infinitely more fun than playing Powerstrip and reading through custom resolution threads until my eyes glaze over. I plan to just ignore the 1" border and enjoy gaming on my new TV.

Hi,
First post on the forums. I got a Sony KDF-E42A10 about 2 weeks ago and after much tweaking of the settings I love the picture, however I have one problem/complaint. I see pixelation on the HD channels not all but mostly Discovery/HD, I've read alot of stuff and am not sure if it's been answered or posted if so I'm sorry there's a lot to read here.. I see little boxes on the screen when things fade out and was wondering if this is a LCD thing that's normal and I have to live with or it's a bad signal from the STB. I a have TWC/Passport SA8300HD with Component inputs,the STB is set to output 720p & 1080i only, the local SD channels look good I haven't noticed the pixelation problem there. I'm going to my brother this weekend he has a Panny "52 LCD/projection HDTV and I'll see if his does it on the same channels or not.
What could cause this problem, low signal, cheap cables, I may get an HDMI cable and try that but I've read that there's no sound here in TWC/charlotte if you use this cable :confused: .... Sorry for the long post but I want to know if it's the STB/Cable or the TV that's not up to par.
Thanks , Mark

from what I have read it is perfectly normal as it has to do with the signal from the dvr I believe. I have seen this on all tvs at every av store that I have ever been to.

Hi,
I see pixelation on the HD channels not all but mostly Discovery/HD, I've read alot of stuff and am not sure if it's been answered or posted if so I'm sorry there's a lot to read here..
Thanks , Mark

I have found that Pixelation on one of the digital HD channels is usually because of low signal. Installing a Bi-directional amp fixed my problems with 2 of my HD channels. Make sure the amp is Bidirectional so that the box can communicate with the cable system.

for jcc39, the 1in border around is normal. the tv doesnt do 1:1 mapping after reading other posts in this review.

for Bucket_HDTV, I have seen alot of pixelation on the Discovery HD channel also. But other HD channels look amazing, so I dont think it is the tv.

For both of you, sit back, relax and enjoy. I have had the tv for 2 months and am loving every second of it.

:) I hear ya' -- I noticed last night even if I pause the DVR there's pixels so it's definitely the source/cable feed. I also got a 4yr. warranty from the store I got it from covers EVERYTHING bulbs, lighting, surges, what ever and I negotiated the price down to that of a 3yr. saved about $75. :D I paid for a Sony stand but got a Z-Line which is a better stand IMO, it looks like it was made for a "50 TV so it has extra room for equipment, and they had already put it together.. lol plus FREE delivery too.
Mark ---

I wasn't trying to say that an EW is a waste, just wanted people to think about the quantative side of what they are buying, and I was quick to note the peace of mind that can be enjoyed by a quality long term warranty. I was just hoping to provoke some people to think carefully about their viewing habits and environment before handing extra cash over to a pushy sales guy at BB or CC.

As pointed out before, projection bulbs are basically only bulbs that will fail at some undetermined future time. If some sources say the bulb will last up to 8000 hours, why is it that if you buy a projection bulb from any place, that the bulb is only under warranty for 90 days. That is one reason not to stock up on a bulb, another why its a valid reason to purchase a EW that covers UNLIMITED bulbs at stores like Sears and BB (not CC : only covers the original bulb).

I have found that Pixelation on one of the digital HD channels is usually because of low signal. Installing a Bi-directional amp fixed my problems with 2 of my HD channels. Make sure the amp is Bidirectional so that the box can communicate with the cable system.

Thanks for the info -- I'm going to radio shack and get this one Bi-Directional Cable-TV Amplifier $30.99 Catalog #: 15-2505 and give it a try :p
Mark

I'm about ready to buy the e50-a-10. I might get it at a site called "DT Discounts"Does anyone know if this is an authorized site?I don't want to get scewed over on a scam.

I took delivery of my 50" A10 yesterday. I have spent a while getting it set up. I don't have any kind of HD receiver or OTA antenna yet. It is getting the picture from a Series 2 HD Tivo through an S Video (the Tivo does not have component). The picture is gorgeous from about 18ft away. Almost HD gorgeous. The problem is that my living room is not large enough to get that far away from it. I would have to set a chair in my kitchen to be able to do it. I fooled around with the picture some per this thread and that made it better but I am still seeing a lot of screen door effect from that close. Does anyone else have any ideas on ways to change the set up that might correct this? Or should I return it and get the 42" A10?

jcc..i'm not sure what you have for outputs on th 9550 but you should be able to do a component dongle of some sort that can be gotten from ATI and run that to your tv or get a vga/dvi adapter and then use a dvi to hdmi cable. You can obviously skip the vga to dvi adapter if you have dvi out directly.

Then just get the latest ATI drivers, let it know it's connected to an HDTV and set the output to 1280x720 or 720p, I'm not sure what the menu says exactly and you should be able to fill the screen without using powerstrip. Unfortunately the VGA input on the back wasn't implemented as well as we would like. It actually takes 1280x768 as the resolution for it (See manual) but the tv does the underscan itself so that you can always see everything....maybe someone will find a service menu way to adjust the under/over scan on that input but I haven't heard anything to indicate that that underscan is fixable yet.

If you go with a component dongle and want to play dvds at the 1280x720 resolution you'll need to snag AnyDVD, DVD43, or some such product that will allow analog output of higher than 480p.

Would the 42" be to big for a 6 feet viewing distance?

This thread is huge, so I'm sure this has been answered somewhere, but I can't find it, so I'll ask it anyway :).

How's the viewing angle on this TV? My parents have a year old Panasonic CRT RPTV and the viewing angle is rather tempermental about you having to be directly in the middle. What's probably the farthest angle this could be viewable, it will be in a living room with a wrap-around couch that travels the full length of the wall and up one side, a total of about 12 feet long I guess. I'm just trying to figure out if it would be viewable for everyone if there were alot of people watching around it.

Well, I finally ordered the E50A10 and will hopefully have it delivered on Wednesday (assuming my TV stand arrives on Tuesday). I just got my TWC HD DVR box (SA8300) and must admit I am totally lost as to how to set my system up.

My DVD player is an old non-progressive Toshiba (I'm probably going to wait 1-2 years for HD DVD), The player does have component video out, along with digital coax and digital optical out. My JVC receiver is even older, but has one dig coax input and 2 dig optical inputs. I'm planning to connect the DVD to the TV using component video cables and to my receiver using the digital optical cable. I will also connect my cable box to the TV using component video and to the receiver using the digital coax cable. Does this sound right? This means I won't have any sound from the TV.....right?

If I connect my SA 8300 via composite cables to a VCR's input and then connect the VCR output to the TV via composite cables, will I be able to record stored material from my DVR's memory onto VCR tapes (I will only do this rarely) and will I be able to play the resulting VCR tape on the TV?

To those of you familiar with the SA 8300 cable box, what are the best settings on the box and on the TV for high definition and standard definition viewing?

Sorry for all of these questions, but I am a total newbie and would appreciate any help you can provide.

Thanks in advance.....wjr

teiresias -

Funny you should ask. I just got home form a local retailer and was checking the same thing. The Sony was much more uniform than any of the other sets in the store (Samsung DLP, JVC G series, Mitsubishi). I've been looking for a while now and was convinced I'd like either the Samsung xx77 series or JVC G series beter than LCD because of everything I've read on AVS and elsewhere. I'm not so sure now. I'm not generally a big fan of Sony, but to my EYES, it looked so much better than the others, at least as far as picture uniformity from a variety of angles and it's processing of less than perfect sources. I couldn't really tell too much about black levels since none of the sets were calibrated, but I'm starting to think I'd rather sacrifice perfect blacks for much less artifacting and a wider viewing angle.

For anyone that is interested I have heard a rumor on another forum that the A10's can do 1:1 pixel mapping with both the HDMI and VGA inputs. With HDMI that is what is normally done while with the VGA input it is done by setting the picture mode to Zoom. Granted it has optical overscan but supposedly it is getting 1:1 pixel mapping and would be the best mode for something like the Xbox 360.

Well, I finally ordered the E50A10 and will hopefully have it delivered on Wednesday (assuming my TV stand arrives on Tuesday). I just got my TWC HD DVR box (SA8300) and must admit I am totally lost as to how to set my system up.

My DVD player is an old non-progressive Toshiba (I'm probably going to wait 1-2 years for HD DVD), The player does have component video out, along with digital coax and digital optical out. My JVC receiver is even older, but has one dig coax input and 2 dig optical inputs. I'm planning to connect the DVD to the TV using component video cables and to my receiver using the digital optical cable. I will also connect my cable box to the TV using component video and to the receiver using the digital coax cable. Does this sound right? This means I won't have any sound from the TV.....right?

If I connect my SA 8300 via composite cables to a VCR's input and then connect the VCR output to the TV via composite cables, will I be able to record stored material from my DVR's memory onto VCR tapes (I will only do this rarely) and will I be able to play the resulting VCR tape on the TV?

To those of you familiar with the SA 8300 cable box, what are the best settings on the box and on the TV for high definition and standard definition viewing?

Sorry for all of these questions, but I am a total newbie and would appreciate any help you can provide.

Thanks in advance.....wjr


Another question I forgot to ask. Is it better to feed the video from my cable box to the E50A10 via the component inputs (as per my post above) or via HDMI?

I took delivery of my 50" A10 yesterday. I have spent a while getting it set up. I don't have any kind of HD receiver or OTA antenna yet. It is getting the picture from a Series 2 HD Tivo through an S Video (the Tivo does not have component). The picture is gorgeous from about 18ft away. Almost HD gorgeous. The problem is that my living room is not large enough to get that far away from it. I would have to set a chair in my kitchen to be able to do it. I fooled around with the picture some per this thread and that made it better but I am still seeing a lot of screen door effect from that close. Does anyone else have any ideas on ways to change the set up that might correct this? Or should I return it and get the 42" A10?

How far away from it are you in your living room?

A "Series 2 HD TiVo?" You mean 'SD TiVo' I'm assuming. I've got the HR10-250 (HD) hooked via HDMI , as well my trusty old Sony SAT-60 SD TiVo hooked via s-video like you....I'm about 9 ft away (I've got the 42") and the pic is great. The best thing you can do to get the pic looking good and get rid of the SDE is to adjust the DRC Pallette....it should help improve the PQ greatly.

Pulled the trigger on the 50a10 this afternoon for a great price at BB. Should be delivered tomorrow morning

Yea, ditto. I just bought the 42" A-10 tonight. My son and I watched in horror as the CC guy "assisting" us in putting the A-10 in our van "bounced" our A-10 in its box over the curb...the cart he had the boxed unit in slammed over the curb (drop of about...six inches). So, do you think it will be found "OK' when we "plug it in?" I worry about those 3LCD chips not being aligned anymore !!! :eek:

I got the 50A10 a week ago. Love it. I bought it mainly for XBOX, XBOX360 and DVD's. Games play great on it and I play a lot of fast moving games. No lag or any problems at all. DVD's look great, but I have one problem that I can figure out. I have a Samsung DVD-V2000 combo unit. I connect to the TV with the RBG cables. It looks great, but when playing DVD's the screen will go blank or black for a second. It happens throughout the movie and is very annoying. I have tried many different settings, but it still does this. It doesn't matter the movie is at a fast moving seen or a slow one. I know it has something to do with the Samsung because I used my PS2 to play back a DVD and it works fine with now blanking. Any help would be great. I will keep looking. Again though, the TV is an excellent buy. My father in-law bought one tonight after playing games with me the other day......

Viewing angle for the A10 series is MUCH improved over the old RPCRT televisions.

However, don't trust the viewing angle performance that you find in the electronics store.

Why?

Because the effective viewing angle is much better when the TV is set to "VIVID" mode (factory default).

If you want to adjust your set to reduce brightness and oversaturated colors, you will find that the effective viewing angle is reduced.

In fact, merely pressing the PICTURE button on the Sony remote twice (to toggle the setting from VIVID over to STANDARD mode) should give you a much better idea of the viewing angles that you will experience in your house.

So in conclusion, visit a store like BB CC or Sears and either turn down the brightness or merely switch to STANDARD mode and then judge for yourself.

My favorite "Custom" picture settings are close to STANDARD mode level of brightness, and the viewing angle is acceptable for me (which is a good thing because I already bought the set :) )

Also, vertical viewing angle dropoff is much more drastic than horizontal dropoff.

So make sure that your Sony is sitting on a TV stand that will bring the set up to a level where the middle of the set is at "eye level" while sitting on your couch or chair.

You will still notice a viewing-angle-induced drop in brightness when you get up off of your couch and stand up, but it is not a big deal to me.

If you don't want to replace your Samsung, you can always try the S-Video cable and see if it improves things.

There will be a slight drop in quality by using S-Video, but if it stops the "blackouts" then it is probably worth using it.

If you don't want to replace your Samsung, you can always try the S-Video cable and see if it improves things.

There will be a slight drop in quality by using S-Video, but if it stops the "blackouts" then it is probably worth using it.

I'll give that a try. I will be getting the XBOX360 next month, so I can just use the progressive scan DVD player that is in it to play. So no need to buy another DVD player. It is just a weird thing....Thanx

Would the 42" be to big for a 6 feet viewing distance?

Not too big, but SDE can be seen from even 7 feet. I find 8 feet to be the sweet spot on mine.

To those of you familiar with the SA 8300 cable box, what are the best settings on the box and on the TV for high definition and standard definition viewing?

Thanks in advance.....wjr

I think that box is simular to mine..

After trying all combinations I am happiest with "HDMI AUTO" and audio to "dolby digital" I use an optical connection from Cable Box to AV receiver and a HDMI cable from box to tv.

The down side to this set up is the tv takes a moment to sync up as you change channels but I think the picture looks better on 480i channels. The HD picture clearly looks better using HDMI.

Yea, ditto. I just bought the 42" A-10 tonight. My son and I watched in horror as the CC guy "assisting" us in putting the A-10 in our van "bounced" our A-10 in its box over the curb...the cart he had the boxed unit in slammed over the curb (drop of about...six inches). So, do you think it will be found "OK' when we "plug it in?" I worry about those 3LCD chips not being aligned anymore !!! :eek:

You don't want to know how they make hot dogs, what is going on in the restaurant kitchen or how many times your set was bounced getting from Mexico to your house.

The packaging is designed to withstand abuse by the bozos operating the fork lifts and hand trucks.

If it doesn't look good when you plug it in just send it back.

[QUOTE=Dark Rain]Not too big, but SDE can be seen from even 7 feet. I find 8 feet to be the sweet spot on mine.[/QUOT

either I am blind and need glasses or a lot of people here are really prone to SDE because even at 9ft, with the 50", I can't see it, only up close.

Question:
I know this may stupid to some or not, but bare with me. Now, I don't really know what 1:1 pixel mapping really means, but other than when I connect my pc the image does not fill the screen and that is what I hear everyone here say that it does not do 1:1 mapping. So my question is if pc does not fill the whole screen when connected through the vga output, does that mean that if I connect the xbox 360 through vga it will not fill up the screen or am I just getting everything mixed up? I just ask so that I don't buy the vga out for the 360, thanks.

[QUOTE=Dark Rain]Not too big, but SDE can be seen from even 7 feet. I find 8 feet to be the sweet spot on mine.[/QUOT

either I am blind and need glasses or a lot of people here are really prone to SDE because even at 9ft, with the 50", I can't see it, only up close.

9-10 feet is probably the sweet spot on the 50". I'm not quite 8 feet from the 42". It's more like 7.9 feet unless I'm sitting back in my overstuffed recliner. :)

All I can suggest is keep moving back until you don't see any SDE. Your own eyes will tell you where the sweet spot is. But, 6 feet would be really pushing it on the 42A10.

does SSE decrease as you move back or is it always visible?

How far away from it are you in your living room?

A "Series 2 HD TiVo?" You mean 'SD TiVo' I'm assuming. I've got the HR10-250 (HD) hooked via HDMI , as well my trusty old Sony SAT-60 SD TiVo hooked via s-video like you....I'm about 9 ft away (I've got the 42") and the pic is great. The best thing you can do to get the pic looking good and get rid of the SDE is to adjust the DRC Pallette....it should help improve the PQ greatly.

I am 11' away from it and have the 50". I finally found the tweeks thread in here. I had searched for it earlier but couldn't find it. Then someone posted in it and brought it to the first page. The SDE is MUCH better after tweeking it. How do people deal with it that don't know how to tweak it? The SDE was bad enough that I was seriously considering sending it back for the 42". There is still some now and some stations are worse than others but it is at a liveable level now. It looks good on Full. If I expand the screen, the SDE gets worse.

does SSE decrease as you move back or is it always visible?
It's unavoidable for the most part. About the only thing that lessens the effect is decreasing the contrast. SSE seemed worse when I first got the TV. Now it only pops up occasionally and usually on very bright white areas of the screen. It's a bit annoying, but the PQ the A10 delivers is definitely worth the trade off.

You don't want to know how they make hot dogs, what is going on in the restaurant kitchen or how many times your set was bounced getting from Mexico to your house.

The packaging is designed to withstand abuse by the bozos operating the fork lifts and hand trucks.

If it doesn't look good when you plug it in just send it back.

Good point. Yea, like another friend said to me about this, if the waiter spits in your food in front of you, you only know about THAT particular time that your food got spit in ! :eek: God knows how many times it got dropped in the warehouse, loading onto the truck...that's why God and CC made extended warranties. :(

Look at www.worldclassplasma.com. Price is below 13 benjamins. 50A10 is below 17 benjamins. WHOO !

[QUOTE=Dark Rain]Not too big, but SDE can be seen from even 7 feet. I find 8 feet to be the sweet spot on mine.[/QUOT

either I am blind and need glasses or a lot of people here are really prone to SDE because even at 9ft, with the 50", I can't see it, only up close.


The thing to do is let your eyes focus INTO the picture as if your looking beyond the screen,,,If you focus on the surface of the screen you may see some "Texture" now and then...in other words don't look for it and you won't see it.

what do you guys have your cable box outputting? i have comcast HD and selected 720p, is it better to do 1080i? or 720p?

thanks for any help

Look at www.worldclassplasma.com. Price is below 13 benjamins. 50A10 is below 17 benjamins. WHOO !

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?referrerid=&t=568469

don't

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?referrerid=&t=568469

don't
I agree. Watch out for www.worldclassplasma.com. I couldn't find a review of them at ResellerRatings.com and the reviews at shopping.com should trigger a warning. There were two types of reviews for them at shopping.com, either warning that they were a scam or a glowing review. All the glowing reviews were extremely suspicious with similarities that suggested to me that they are almost certainly phony.

I think that box is simular to mine..

After trying all combinations I am happiest with "HDMI AUTO" and audio to "dolby digital" I use an optical connection from Cable Box to AV receiver and a HDMI cable from box to tv.

The down side to this set up is the tv takes a moment to sync up as you change channels but I think the picture looks better on 480i channels. The HD picture clearly looks better using HDMI.

Wait a minute...I do not know that much about cable as I have been a satellite guy from Day 1 w/ HDTV. Setting up my Dad's A-10 unit, I need to go with COMCAST cable. Soooo, I had planned to NOT use a cable box at all, but use that "cablecard" and NOT have a box. So, how exactly does that work?

I know this may stupid to some or not, but bare with me. Now, I don't really know what 1:1 pixel mapping really means, but other than when I connect my pc the image does not fill the screen and that is what I hear everyone here say that it does not do 1:1 mapping. So my question is if pc does not fill the whole screen when connected through the vga output, does that mean that if I connect the xbox 360 through vga it will not fill up the screen or am I just getting everything mixed up? I just ask so that I don't buy the vga out for the 360, thanks.With the VGA input in Zoom mode you get 1:1 pixel mapping with the A10's but you also get a bit of overscan, which is when the sides of the picture are cut off. For the Xbox 360, which is made to work with a bit of overscan, using the Zoom mode with the VGA input will give the best picture possible. The Normal mode with the VGA input actually shrinks the picture which prevents overscan but also makes the picture a bit less sharp.

Do you guys think it would be worth the 1500 more bucks to go with the new LCOS Sony 1080p tv when it comes out, or should I go ahead and buy the 50a10?

Dark Rain,
I believe you have the sony 775 dvd player as well as I do and just wanted your take on using the player as 480p vs 480i? I have both the sound and vision and dve setup disc and when viewing detail patterns, 480i seems to have more detail at the cost of it looking a bit more grainy, but I believe that can be solved using the drc palette. Have you tried configuring both?

Question for whoever knows the answer:
When watching lion king I noticed what is believed to be called "mosquito noise" and I am wondering if that is a fault of the player or lcd? I know it can be solved or at least reduced, but don't know if it is a signal problem or display problem?

Thanks for the reply, I guess i'll go for the 50a10 as it seems to be a really nice TV.

Do you guys think it would be worth the 1500 more bucks to go with the new LCOS Sony 1080p tv when it comes out, or should I go ahead and buy the 50a10?

I was at Ultimate Electronics on Saturday where I was fortunate enough to able to see a 50a10 side-by-side with the LCOS Sony. The screen size was the same, but it (LCOS) had side speakers which resulted in an overall wider footprint. I would say that there was a noticeable difference in the whitest whites and the darkest blacks between the two sets, with the LCOS being the better of the two. I noticed that the colors were also a little more vibrant with the LCOS. The sales associate who was helping me said that the difference was in the LCOS circuitry.

Seeing the two sets side by side like that definitely made me see a difference, but the difference in price was over $1300 (if I recall correctly). That said, the 50a10 was still an amazing and gorgeous monitor of its own merit. In the end, I likened it to picking out a diamond ring. When you have a chance to do an A-B comparison side-by-side, you are definitely going to notice slight differences in color and clarity, but when the ring is on the finger, people are just going to notice the size of the rock and say wow, what a rock! I had to remember that I won't have both sets in my living room where I'm going to be comparing them all day long. In the end, I decided that the price diff was not worth it. I could notice a difference, but it was not *that* significant.

I ended up getting a sweet deal on the 50A10 at Costco (stand was included) on Saturday and it just completely knocked me on my butt when I got home and set it up. The picture quality is just STUNNING. It didn't look as stunning when I was comparing it at UE that day. I don't even have digital cable, and I get like 5 HD channels. I've been watching PBS-HD over the last couple of days and it just takes my breath away. The vividness of the picture and clarity of the scenes are just nothing I've ever seen before. They had some concert last night on PBS-HD and I felt like I was there. There was some segment on famous north american lodges this morning, and I could see the fine detailed wrinkles on people faces who were being interviewed. It was amazing. Later I watched the Patriots game on CBS-HD. My jaw was on the floor the entire time. Man, what a night a day difference between SD and HD - WOW!

My son hooked up his Nintendo GameCube for a short time last night and I thought it would be pretty crappy, but man, I think I was most suprised at how great the game looked. The colors were vibrant and saturated the picture was crisp and detailed. Man, I'm really glad I picked up the 50A10. LCOS who?

Ben

Dark Rain,
I believe you have the sony 775 dvd player as well as I do and just wanted your take on using the player as 480p vs 480i? I have both the sound and vision and dve setup disc and when viewing detail patterns, 480i seems to have more detail at the cost of it looking a bit more grainy, but I believe that can be solved using the drc palette. Have you tried configuring both?

Question for whoever knows the answer:
When watching lion king I noticed what is believed to be called "mosquito noise" and I am wondering if that is a fault of the player or lcd? I know it can be solved or at least reduced, but don't know if it is a signal problem or display problem?

I find that using 480p on the Sony 775 shows hardly any digital artifacts (combing, jaggies, etc.). While the A10 has a pretty good deinterlacer, the 775's is much better, IMO. If you do run it at 480i, configure the DRC palette with more Clarity to clean up any excess graininess.

The "mosquito noise" is a compression artifact that happens during the transfer of the film to DVD. Some DVD players have filters that try to reduce it.

what do you guys have your cable box outputting? i have comcast HD and selected 720p, is it better to do 1080i? or 720p?

thanks for any help

I seem to get a sharper, and better detailed picture with my Comcast box set on 1080i.

I was at Ultimate Electronics on Saturday where I was fortunate enough to able to see a 50a10 side-by-side with the LCOS Sony. ... The sales associate who was helping me said that the difference was in the LCOS circuitry.
Amazing how stupid the people who sell these are! I saw the UE add for the SXRD (Sony's LCOS) in the paper this weekend and it listed it as a 3LCD HDTV! Stupid! The SXRD is a fundamentally different light engine than the 3LCD (A10). With the A10 and other 3LCD systems, light passes thru three LCDs in parallel (one each for red blue and green) and with each pixal filtering the amount of light that shouldn't reach the screen. The SXRD (LCOS) is a reflective display (more like a DLP's DMD) with one reflective microdevice for each color (red, green, and blue) thus getting the advantages of DLP without the drawback of a color wheel (rainbows). Additionally, the SXRD is true 1080p - each microdevice has 1920x1080 'mirrors' - 2x what the DPL microdevice has and 6x ('cause there are three of them) what the current crop of 1080p DLP HDTV's have.

That said, while I really want the SXRD, I don't have the width available for it and have trouble justifying spending the extra $1,500 over the A10 - which as observed above, when not side by side with an SXRD, is a plenty awesome TV.

I have found that Pixelation on one of the digital HD channels is usually because of low signal. Installing a Bi-directional amp fixed my problems with 2 of my HD channels. Make sure the amp is Bidirectional so that the box can communicate with the cable system.


Thanks for the info -- I'm going to radio shack and get this one Bi-Directional Cable-TV Amplifier $30.99 Catalog #: 15-2505 and give it a try :p
Mark


Well the guy at Radio Shack said this would not fix the problem but make it worse, he said the HD signal has to be something-something db's for the best picture and it was a problem with a filter/choke on the poll where the cable is connected, I was like Ok and thanks --- was/is he bonkers :confused:

Well the guy at Radio Shack said this would not fix the problem but make it worse, he said the HD signal has to be something-something db's for the best picture and it was a problem with a filter/choke on the poll where the cable is connected, I was like Ok and thanks --- was/is he bonkers :confused:

Usually if you see the picture break up on only a few digital channels it is too weak.

If you have a splitter in line I do not think the signal is to strong.

odds are he was Bonkers.

Amazing how stupid the people who sell these are! I saw the UE add for the SXRD (Sony's LCOS) in the paper this weekend and it listed it as a 3LCD HDTV! Stupid! The SXRD is a fundamentally different light engine than the 3LCD (A10). With the A10 and other 3LCD systems, light passes thru three LCDs in parallel (one each for red blue and green) and with each pixal filtering the amount of light that shouldn't reach the screen. The SXRD (LCOS) is a reflective display (more like a DLP's DMD) with one reflective microdevice for each color (red, green, and blue) thus getting the advantages of DLP without the drawback of a color wheel (rainbows). Additionally, the SXRD is true 1080p - each microdevice has 1920x1080 'mirrors' - 2x what the DPL microdevice has and 6x ('cause there are three of them) what the current crop of 1080p DLP HDTV's have.

That said, while I really want the SXRD, I don't have the width available for it and have trouble justifying spending the extra $1,500 over the A10 - which as observed above, when not side by side with an SXRD, is a plenty awesome TV.

I tend to agree that the 50 inch SXRD is probably not worth the extra cost over the A-10. Unless you want to sit less than 8 feet from the TV, the difference is not that great. You will also get better blacks on the SXRD. For now I am sticking with the A-10. Watch a really high-quality show like 'Seabiscuit' on HBO's HD channel, and it would hard to imagine a much better PQ from any TV. It is just amazing how well this TV can render a quality image. Seabiscuit looks far better on my A-10 than it looked at the movie theater itself.

is anyone running dvd in 480i component? what are your DRC settings at?

i am using the stock setting, I think it's 25, 1.

is cinemotion on even if i turn this off or too progressive? should i keep it off or on for DVDs?

thanks

I have a Sony NPV80 progressive DVD player, with Progressive Auto or Progressive Video, or plain interlaced output thru component cables.

My question is, if I use the Progressive Auto output on the DVD player, should I turn off the CineMotion on my E50A10??

The manual for DVD player describes the Progressive Auto setting as automatically adjusts output for video based or film based DVDs.

John

The "mosquito noise" is a compression artifact that happens during the transfer of the film to DVD. Some DVD players have filters that try to reduce it.

any that you know of or are they high end players? Would an upconverting dvd player eliminate it since I would be running it at 720p?

I have a Sony NPV80 progressive DVD player, with Progressive Auto or Progressive Video, or plain interlaced output thru component cables.

My question is, if I use the Progressive Auto output on the DVD player, should I turn off the CineMotion on my E50A10??

The manual for DVD player describes the Progressive Auto setting as automatically adjusts output for video based or film based DVDs.

John

i thought cinemotion only worked with 480i or 1080i signals, so if you were running 480 or 720p it would be off, i could be wrong tho.

Newbie here. Tried to read through the entire thread for answers to my questions, but its such a huge thread that I couldn't read it all. On to the questions:

- Can this TV be mounted to a wall? I fell in love with a TV in a bar on the wall and they said it was this model. Could that be true?

- If this TV has the HDTV tuner built-in do I just need to add a regular satellite box to it to receive full DirecTV HD?

Thanks!

Just thought I'd share my stand that I have for my 42A10. It is Bush furniture HT97241 got it at BB $219 retail. The 42A10 fits in so nice there is about 1 inch clearence around the whole set, it almost looks built in. Also lots of space for other stuff and the back has a large opening to let all the heat out and to make it easy to get to things. If you like the "wood" look check it out.

Just thought I'd share my stand that I have for my 42A10. It is Bush furniture HT97241 got it at BB $219 retail. The 42A10 fits in so nice there is about 1 inch clearence around the whole set, it almost looks built in. Also lots of space for other stuff and the back has a large opening to let all the heat out and to make it easy to get to things. If you like the "wood" look check it out.


Looks prety nice. Is there enough roon in the back for ventilation?

That stand is really nice and holds all your components & then some! But I have to ask you where your front center channel is located? Also how wide it and do they offer one for the 50A10 as well?

The back of the stand has an opening of 27" X 27", plenty of room for heat to escape. Center speaker (when I get ) will hang under TV and above moto6214 so i need to get one that is no more than 5 or 6 inches high any suggestions? I dont think They make one to fit the 50A10.

Just thought I'd share my stand that I have for my 42A10. It is Bush furniture HT97241 got it at BB $219 retail. The 42A10 fits in so nice there is about 1 inch clearence around the whole set, it almost looks built in. Also lots of space for other stuff and the back has a large opening to let all the heat out and to make it easy to get to things. If you like the "wood" look check it out.


I would love this stand if it had some kind of swivel because I would have it in a kitty corner.

That stand is really nice and holds all your components & then some! But I have to ask you where your front center channel is located? Also how wide it and do they offer one for the 50A10 as well?

I have the same unit (which is why I got the 42A10 -- it fit into my entertainment center), and I have my center channel (as well as L & R speakers, all bookshelf-size) on the top of the unit. The speakers are tilted forward to aim directly at my viewing/listening position. (The top of the unit is a solid piece, running the entire width and depth of the unit.)

To the best of my knowledge, there isn't a similar one that would fit the 50 inch A10. (This unit wasn't specifically designed for the 42" version...it just happens to fit, due to the lack of side-hanging speakers.) I cut out almost all of the back panel material behind the TV, and I don't notice any heat buildup back there.

I would love this stand if it had some kind of swivel because I would have it in a kitty corner.

A nice feature of this unit is the completely flat base -- no legs or stubs or anything. This means that if you put the unit on a carpeted floor, it can slide along without too much effort. So you can 'spin' the entire unit on a point, or push/pull it to any point you choose. (This is one of the reasons I got it in the first place -- ease of access to the back for wiring changes.) I don't have hardwood floors, so I don't know how well it might work on them (or if it would damage them).

Hello, Im sure this has been brought up a million times but hopefully once more wont hurt.

I currently purchased the 42A10, tweaked the system using the advice on the tweak forum, and I love the picture.

However I keep reading things on how DLP has better black levels/contrast...etc. I just want to know how these two technologies stand up against each other. I mainly use the TV for DVD and video games.

Black levels aside hows the PQ on a DLP vs. the 3LCD, how about 'sync' issues with games? How about the SDE (screen door effect), is this the same on both?

Any feedback would be great, I have always been a fan of Sony and the quality they deliver, is what Im hearing fact or just some Sony bashing fiction.

If the A10 is the Grand Wega V what will the A20's be? I currently have a Grand Wega I and am looking to get a second one.

Can this TV be mounted to a wall? I fell in love with a TV in a bar on the wall and they said it was this model. Could that be true?


Nope

Hello, Im sure this has been brought up a million times but hopefully once more wont hurt.

I currently purchased the 42A10, tweaked the system using the advice on the tweak forum, and I love the picture.

However I keep reading things on how DLP has better black levels/contrast...etc. I just want to know how these two technologies stand up against each other. I mainly use the TV for DVD and video games.

Black levels aside hows the PQ on a DLP vs. the 3LCD, how about 'sync' issues with games? How about the SDE (screen door effect), is this the same on both?

Any feedback would be great, I have always been a fan of Sony and the quality they deliver, is what Im hearing fact or just some Sony bashing fiction.


Depends on the model of DLP. The new sony is ABOUT 6000:1 if you compare it to the front projector with the same optics. The old Samsung HLP models was 1500:1.

So far nobody has mentioned any lip sync issues with the Sony's. The sony even has a game mode. Just about everyone has problems with the Samsungs sync.

The screen door effect is much much much less distracting over DLP rainbows (for me)

Another tv stand recommendation for the 50A10. Costco in store has one call Slam Brands Strata (although I couldn't find a reference to it anywhere on the net). Its 58W, 19D, 20H, glass shelves and silver metal. Nice and wide so you can pretty much fit 3 components side by side on each shelf with room to spare. Depth is perfect for the A10. Top shelf I have ps2, receiver, and component switcher. Bottom shelf I have xbox, center channel (won't fit on top shelf), and Gamecube. $180 in store and it comes with 2 matching speaker stands.

A nice feature of this unit is the completely flat base -- no legs or stubs or anything. This means that if you put the unit on a carpeted floor, it can slide along without too much effort. So you can 'spin' the entire unit on a point, or push/pull it to any point you choose. (This is one of the reasons I got it in the first place -- ease of access to the back for wiring changes.) I don't have hardwood floors, so I don't know how well it might work on them (or if it would damage them).


I wonder if wheels can be added to the base. The more I look at this stand, the more I like it. I would be afraid to be constantly sliding it on a rug. Would a large swivel placed under the base work?

Even though it has a flat base I put about 8 of those miracle slider stick-on pads on the bottom, It slides very easily on carpet ( they are supposed to work on hardwood floors also) and getting back behind it is a breeze, not like my old stand with my old 165 lb. 32 inch crt. on it . Sometimes I just slide it around because I can. :D

DVD and video games.

if you play videogames do not buy a DLP, i can't speak for the 1080p models, but the 720p models have lag and rainbows in games.

i would say the A10 has better black levels over DLP due to the advanced iris.

I've enjoyed my 42A10 for a few weeks now but noticed something bothersome tonight while flipping through content. It seems that my set has a color inconsistency on the lower left side of the screen. When flipping through 4:3 cable channels, my SA 8300HD renders some with grey filler on each side. I noticed the left bar is shaded more pink than the right bar, with a higher concentration of pink on the bottom of the bar... this is barely visable during regular viewing but is noticeable in some situations.

My question is simply: is this faint inconsistency something that I should be concerned about? or is it an eventuality given the technology. My 30 day policy expires soon, so a quick response would be appreciated.

My question is simply: is this faint inconsistency something that I should be concerned about? or is it an eventuality given the technology. My 30 day policy expires soon, so a quick response would be appreciated.

It's color non-uniformity and is common on LCD RPTVs. Mine has this problem as well but only shows up on b&w content. But even then it is really faint and doesn't really bother me. If it gets worse then I'd return it or call Sony for service on it.

any that you know of or are they high end players? Would an upconverting dvd player eliminate it since I would be running it at 720p?

It's possible there would be a reduction in noise. The A10 does have a Noise Reduction filter and you could try using it on noisy/grainy looking DVDs. The picture will look softer the higher you set it. Try a Medium setting and see how it looks.

if you play videogames do not buy a DLP, i can't speak for the 1080p models, but the 720p models have lag and rainbows in games.

i would say the A10 has better black levels over DLP due to the advanced iris.

That's a bit of a gross overstatement don't you think?

If I want to listen through my A/V while in tuner/cable mode what do I need to do.
I have my HDMI connection for the Sat and that is fine, be we also have basic cable, which now picks up all my local HD signals. There is no cable box, just cable from street to TV.

The only audio out that I find is next to the HDMI in input 6. There has to be a some way to do this, yes? I hope.

Thanks

If you just want the HD channels to come through then you can connect the optical out to your reciever. Thats the only audio out i use since the other ooutput is from my tivo. Hope this helps some.

I set my audio settings to steady sound on , speaker off, variable volume control on. Then hooked the audio out to the Zvox amp/speaker system. Noticed that the steady sound feature does not seem to function. Have to constantly adjust the TV volume control when commercials come on and sometimes during the program.
My question is if using the audio out to an external source cancells out the steady sound feature? Does the steady sound feature work at all under different circumstances?
Also how does the BBE and Volume Offset settings supposed to work and how are the settings determined when using WEGA GATE and Audio Settings?
This audio problem drives me nuts at times. Any comments would be greatly received.

actually i have the same problem, i don't think you can fix the sound issues with programs to commercials and back. the tv does the audio offset, but only on different inputs. i was just talkin to someone about this today and not sure what to do, i have the same problem. Monday night football HD has great sound, but when i flipped to American Chopper, the sound was cranked! i don't think we can avoid this, since different channels and programs have different audio feedz.....
damn it! :(

I set my audio settings to steady sound on , speaker off, variable volume control on. Then hooked the audio out to the Zvox amp/speaker system. Noticed that the steady sound feature does not seem to function. Have to constantly adjust the TV volume control when commercials come on and sometimes during the program.
My question is if using the audio out to an external source cancells out the steady sound feature? Does the steady sound feature work at all under different circumstances?
Also how does the BBE and Volume Offset settings supposed to work and how are the settings determined when using WEGA GATE and Audio Settings?
This audio problem drives me nuts at times. Any comments would be greatly received.



I just found out that my problems of audio cutoffs were greatly diminished by take the switch on the rear of the Zvox from "Standby" to: simply "on". It still cuts out occasionaly but onlyfor a few seconds. BTW, I have my KDF E50A10 AUDIO OUTPUT set to speaker "OFF" and the other setting (forget exactly what its called) set to "VARIABLE". What that does is set the regular TV speakers to "off" AND allows me to control my ZVOX 315 powered speaker with the REMOTE. The ZVOX, IMHO, substantially increases the quality of the sound over the built in speakers. I hope this helps someone, somewhere.

If your xbox console is set to "widescreen" and your tv is set to "full" you should be getting a non-distorted 16:9 image from Halo2.

I'm not getting a non-distorted image, fact is if I set it to wide zoom the image looks better.

Xbox settings: Widescreen, 480p, 720p, 1080i enabled. MS HD connection with component cables connected to Sony 42-A10.

Sony 42-A10 settings: Full picture, connected to input 4 with component cables.

Xbox games: Halo 2, Madden 06, NBA Live 06, NBA 2K6, NHL 2K6.

With the exception of NBA live 2006, "ALL" games look distorted in full mode. They look much better in Wide Zoom mode. Also when I hit display on the remote, they info shows 480p @ 4:3 with the exception of NBA Live 2006 720p@ 16:9. I don't know what else to do, but this is not acceptable. I have a 57" hitachi S715 and all the games look and display @ 16:9 and the screen fills on the 2K6 games, where it does not on the Sony TV. Seems like all the 720p games display in 16:9 and all the 480p games that are 16:9 are displaying in 4:3. Have I missed something?

I set my audio settings to steady sound on , speaker off, variable volume control on. Then hooked the audio out to the Zvox amp/speaker system. Noticed that the steady sound feature does not seem to function. Have to constantly adjust the TV volume control when commercials come on and sometimes during the program.
My question is if using the audio out to an external source cancells out the steady sound feature? Does the steady sound feature work at all under different circumstances?
Also how does the BBE and Volume Offset settings supposed to work and how are the settings determined when using WEGA GATE and Audio Settings?
This audio problem drives me nuts at times. Any comments would be greatly received.

I did a search on the subject and came up with the following comment on AVSFORUM:

"I had hoped that the SteadySound feature might miraculously control the nasty-loud commercial breaks. Mine , however , had almost no efffect! Then I discovered that, when Steady Sound is enabled, #13, AGCL controls its effect, with AGCL = 15 minimum (no effect) ranging to 0 (very substantial compression, obnoxious). My set had 9 as a default - no wonder it had little effect. I reduced it to 4 for now, and am pleased with the results. I generally don't like compression, as the broadcasters lay it on quite heavily anyway. I would try settings of 2-4 and then use it with discretion."

It looks as a solution would be to go into the Service Menu and change the settings. I understand that going into the service menu is risky, but I am to the point of trying anything.
My question is how to get into the Sony 42A10 service menu , do the changes to #13 AGCL (whatever this means). Then save the settings and exit safely. Comments and suggestions would be welcomed.

I'm not getting a non-distorted image, fact is if I set it to wide zoom the image looks better.

Xbox settings: Widescreen, 480p, 720p, 1080i enabled. MS HD connection with component cables connected to Sony 42-A10.

Sony 42-A10 settings: Full picture, connected to input 4 with component cables.

Xbox games: Halo 2, Madden 06, NBA Live 06, NBA 2K6, NHL 2K6.

With the exception of NBA live 2006, "ALL" games look distorted in full mode. They look much better in Wide Zoom mode. Also when I hit display on the remote, they info shows 480p @ 4:3 with the exception of NBA Live 2006 720p@ 16:9. I don't know what else to do, but this is not acceptable. I have a 57" hitachi S715 and all the games look and display @ 16:9 and the screen fills on the 2K6 games, where it does not on the Sony TV. Seems like all the 720p games display in 16:9 and all the 480p games that are 16:9 are displaying in 4:3. Have I missed something?
To my knowledge only games that support 720p will display in 16:9, games that are in 480p are displayed in 4:3 ratio. You are correct that using wide zoom on 4:3 content is much better then full, since wide zoom enlarges the pic with minimum distortion. Full zoom on 4:3 content just stretches the image horizontally. If anyone has any knowledge on 480p Xbox games being in 16:9, please enlighten us both.

Does SteadySound have any to do with the A/V receiver, and if so how do you have it connected?
If you just want the HD channels to come through then you can connect the optical out to your reciever. Thats the only audio out i use since the other ooutput is from my tivo. Hope this helps some.

I am assuming that only the digital sound produced by HD will work with the optical cable?

i've got a 6800gt vga-vga connection

try these steps exactly:
go to display profiles in ps
then click advanced timing options
then custom resolutions
first choose 16:9
then choose the preset resolution 1200x666 (hdtv720p) on the left

now click add new resolution
accept away!

that should do it. works everytime and sure as hell looks 1:1

i had to adjust the position of the screen a bit, but now everything looks great. there is about a 1/4" black border around the screen.

Does SteadySound have any to do with the A/V receiver, and if so how do you have it connected?


I am assuming that only the digital sound produced by HD will work with the optical cable?

I have optical from cable box to AV receiver and get all channels fine. Volume levels are all over the place depending on source even with the audio out set to "narrow" in the box. The audio out settings in the box seem to have no effect at all with optical out...what I need to get is an AV receiver with some kind of automatic volume control,,,I guess

If anyone has any knowledge on 480p Xbox games being in 16:9, please enlighten us both.

There are many, MANY games that are 480p and widescreen. Just take a look at the Xbox list from HDTV Arcade:

http://www.hdtvarcade.com/xboxlist.htm

I have an update on my PC input problem. I have posted in the past that I can't use the PC input on my 42A10 as anything that is supposed to be red in color ends up being black. I tried several cables and 3 different computers. I finally had to end up using the hdmi input from my DVI out on my Video Card. It looks fantastic by the way. But I want that input for my HD directTv. I have the Best Buy warranty and have been talking to a local tech that was given my service call. I had him call Sony. They have decided it is a module that needs to be replaced. When he gets the part it should be a quick fix. Hopefully that will do the trick. Am I the only one who has had this issue using the PC input?
I love this TV by the way. I am lucky enough to get my local HD channels using a set of rabbit ears. I get good reception about 80% of the time. I have a Channel Master 4248 ordered that should be here any day so I should get great OTA reception all the time. I also have DirecTV HD and am totally impressed by the picture. My only complaint is the Lack of HD programming. Hopefully that will change soon.

I read in this thread that when watching hockey games, you get SSE on this type of HDTV. Is this true, and if so then how good is the PQ compared to SDTV? I thought HDTV was supposed to really improve watching the game of Hockey(and all sports) on TV. I am a Philadelphia Flyers fan and wanted to take advantage of the the Comcast Sportsnet HD channel to watch their games.

Also, I found a cheap price on the 42 at bestpricecameras.com, but the photo on the web page looks like the 2004 model. I haven't called them yet to confirm that the picture is wrong and that this is for the 2005 model, but has anyone ordered this set from them? The price seems too good.

Thanks.

I read in this thread that when watching hockey games, you get SSE on this type of HDTV. Is this true, and if so then how good is the PQ compared to SDTV? I thought HDTV was supposed to really improve watching the game of Hockey(and all sports) on TV. I am a Philadelphia Flyers fan and wanted to take advantage of the the Comcast Sportsnet HD channel to watch their games.

Also, I found a cheap price on the 42 at bestpricecameras.com, but the photo on the web page looks like the 2004 model. I haven't called them yet to confirm that the picture is wrong and that this is for the 2005 model, but has anyone ordered this set from them? The price seems too good.

Thanks.

I just looked at that bestpricecameras.com. I wouldn't trust it. I clicked on the 50" model and read the specs. It showed a picture of the A10 but the description mentioned the 655 and its features (PIP, memory stick slot, etc).

I read in this thread that when watching hockey games, you get SSE on this type of HDTV. Is this true, and if so then how good is the PQ compared to SDTV? I thought HDTV was supposed to really improve watching the game of Hockey(and all sports) on TV. I am a Philadelphia Flyers fan and wanted to take advantage of the the Comcast Sportsnet HD channel to watch their games.



Not sure about Comcast, but I watched a little of the Sabres vs. Penguins game on Adelphia last night.

The SD picture on MSG was just OK, but the HD picture on OLN via INHD was SUPER!!

Go Sabres!!!!!!

i've got a 6800gt vga-vga connection

try these steps exactly:
go to display profiles in ps
then click advanced timing options
then custom resolutions
first choose 16:9
then choose the preset resolution 1200x666 (hdtv720p) on the left

now click add new resolution
accept away!

that should do it. works everytime and sure as hell looks 1:1

i had to adjust the position of the screen a bit, but now everything looks great. there is about a 1/4" black border around the screen.

Has anyone been able to get this to work using an ATI card with the VGA input?

I've got the resolutions set up and working properly, confirmed by testing on my LCD monitor... 1280x720 fills monitor, 1200x666 and 1216x864 are underscanned. But when I switch to the A10, it doesn't work. 1280x720 is slightly overscanned in Zoom mode as expected, but the custom resolutions are MASSIVELY overscanned instead of coming in smaller. Doesn't make any sense. The standard Windows resolutions in Full mode are fine, I can get them to show up without panning and scanning, although 1280x720 looks best of course. It's only when I try a custom resolution that the image balloons up.

X800XT, Cat 5.9 w/ CP, and latest PS, both recently wiped clean and reinstalled.

Does SteadySound have any to do with the A/V receiver, and if so how do you have it connected?


I am assuming that only the digital sound produced by HD will work with the optical cable?


Nope, all sound from the OTA tuner will be processed via the optical out. ;) It is the only output audio I have hooked up to my receiver from the A-10 and I get sound from all OTA channels.

Scott

Sony KDF-42-A10 Grand Wega
Sony DA4ES
B&K Reference 4430
Sony CX985 400 disc DVD
Sony CX450 400 disc CD x 2
Definitive Technology BP30 Mains Bi-Amped
Definitive Technology ProTower400 Center
Definitive Technology BPX Surrounds
SVS 25-31 PC+
Cerwin Vega LW10 Surround sub
Panamax 5100
Sony VCR
XBOX
Hughes DirectTv Tivo

There are many, MANY games that are 480p and widescreen. Just take a look at the Xbox list from HDTV Arcade:

http://www.hdtvarcade.com/xboxlist.htm


Yes you are correct and the games I listed in my post ARE 16:9 games that unfortunatly my 42-A10 is displaying @ 4:3...that is my problem. My Hitachi displays them in 16:9, this Sony does not. If you have an xbox take a 16:9 game like Madden 2006, hit display on the remote, is it 16:9 or 4:3? Does the game look better on full or wide zoom? For me the display says 4:3 and the games looks much better in wide zoom mode. Madden IS a 16:9 480p game, but my TV does NOT display it at 16:9.

I have a playstation and i popped in Radiata Stories because it is 16x9 480p. My TV was on full (50A10) and I chose the 16x9 progressive option. The game was 16x9 but the TV info had it at 4x3. I think the games might be in 16x9 but the TV is seeing the signal details as 4x3.

Yes you are correct and the games I listed in my post ARE 16:9 games that unfortunatly my 42-A10 is displaying @ 4:3...that is my problem. My Hitachi displays them in 16:9, this Sony does not. If you have an xbox take a 16:9 game like Madden 2006, hit display on the remote, is it 16:9 or 4:3? Does the game look better on full or wide zoom? For me the display says 4:3 and the games looks much better in wide zoom mode. Madden IS a 16:9 480p game, but my TV does NOT display it at 16:9.


Hey rman,

Just to make you feel like you are not crazy, my 50A10 does the same thing as your 42. The only game that displays at 16:9 (that I have played/owned) was Xmen Legends, but thats a 720p game. Everything else, I have to put into wide zoom mode.

And you are correct on Madden 06, too. it does not display @ 16:9

Maybe sony put a little chip in the tv just to mess with the xbox :rolleyes:

Just kidding :D

I just leave it in wide zoom and it works fine, but it is rather annoying.

I dont think anyone is going crazy, I just think there is a misunderstanding. Games in 480p are not in 16:9, they are in 4:3 ratio. If you took a 720p game on a widescreen TV and compared that to playing a 720p game on a 4:3 CRT TV, you would see that there is more picture being displayed on the widescreen TV. If you did the same with a 480p game you are going to see the same amount of the picture, however you can stretch the image with "wide zoom" to fill the screen.

Here is a Resolution Glossary
480i (SDTV): 640x480, interlaced, 4:3
480p (EDTV): 640x480, progressive, 4:3
720p (HDTV): 1280x720, progressive, 16:9
1080i (HDTV): 1920x1080, interlaced, 16:9

If anyone can prove me wrong, showing a 480p game in true 16:9 (meaning I would see more of the game on the screen, then if I played it on a 4:3 TV) please do so. This is in regards to Xbox games.

Where do you set the output on XBOX? Is it possible to set 720p and 1080i for your output. I thought you can only set it for standard or wide screen mode. I am having a somewhat similar problem. When I play my NBA 2K6, the display shows that it's at 480p 16:9. My TV setting is at full. The display is somewhat wide. I do have an inch wide black bar on each side. Is that normal? Is that what you guys are seeing?

:cool:


Hey rman,

Just to make you feel like you are not crazy, my 50A10 does the same thing as your 42. The only game that displays at 16:9 (that I have played/owned) was Xmen Legends, but thats a 720p game. Everything else, I have to put into wide zoom mode.

And you are correct on Madden 06, too. it does not display @ 16:9

Maybe sony put a little chip in the tv just to mess with the xbox :rolleyes:

Just kidding :D

I just leave it in wide zoom and it works fine, but it is rather annoying.

Not sure why Halo 2 wouldn't be working in 16:9. It clearly stretches to 16:9 on my 4:3 TV. I just tried it out the other day to see if it worked on my set and it worked fine - all stretchy and stuff. :rolleyes: