How do the brightness and iris settings interact with each other? As the iris levels have been described here, it seems like they would have the same effect.

The brightness is an adjustment to set the minimum output level to the panel. The iris is a physical iris in the light path that attenuates the light from the panel. This can alter the maximum and minimum light level the panel can output. The brightness cannot alter light transmitted when the panel is shutoff or all on electrically while the iris can.

"1. Probably not, but going into the service menu isn't a big deal. At least you can adjust the color decoder via the service menu with the Sony LCDs. It's fairly trivial to do this with Avia. This community is very lucky to have UMR - our Sony Grand Wegas are all orders of magnitude better than the ones whose owners have never been able to reference his information."

Does the A10 allow for service access without putting in a secret code like turning the TV off, pressing 5, sprinkling salt on the remote, pressing 14, reciting the Gettysburg address, then pressing channel +?


It's not so bad. My GW II implements all of UMR's settings except for the gel filter. In UMR's original and now-famous thread "UMR Does GW II", there are PDF files complete with charts, pictures, and detailed config instructions. They outline all the steps to enter the SM, and it's not so bad. Something like 4 or 5 button presses. He outlines and explains each and every important setting and how to use it to make a better image. Calibrating the color decoder is simple - it's actually even possible to turn off 2 of the 3 primary-colored panels to set the level of each color one at a time, which is more accurate than using the Avia filter.

Color pushes with CRTs were generally very hard if not impossible to correct. With this kind of technology, it's a non-issue. Grayscale tracking and gamma can affect the extent that some adjustments can be made, but in general it's not a difficult task.

The SM can also be called upon to correct overscan completely. Since the majority of the problem is simply optical in nature, you can gain back a lot of the image. You're actually compressing the image into a tighter space which makes the TV appear better when you tailor the setting to the screen. With that said, different resolutions and sources (even DVDs) can have different pixel cropping, which might cause some underscan/overscan even after adjustment. That's just a fact of life with any display. Again though, it's easily configurable with the Sony TVs.

Just to clarify then, with the A10 display the HDMI is irrelevant, and an add on simply for convenience? Using component cables will be sufficient, or actually preferred, since this would eliminate a conversion process?

Thanx.

JD

That is a possibility, but until tested the effect of input processing is unknown. Sometimes analog inputs (VGA, Component) are superior and sometimes digital (HDMI/DVI) are. Until each is tested with a known quality source and each inputs user/service mode settings are fully explored it will not be known which is the best for what.

You should take a look at the Qualia 006 review I posted in this section. It details the complex performance of each input type with each resolution. Achieving optimal display performance can be a complex mix of input types for each resolution.

Sorry, I thought that would be fairly obvious.........from 1 to 5 the picture got progressivlely "darker" (background). It never got so dark as to be unwatchable. It seems 2 or 3 is a "good" postition. But to paraphrase Shakespeare: (as it is with "beauty") the quality of the picture is in the eye of the beholder!
/rant
Good Grief! For you and Tecumseh and whoever else thinks the iris is just settings from 1 to 5, you are missing half the functionality ! Look at the top of page 65 in the manual. Clearly, if you have the picture mode set to custom (where it should be) instead of vivid or standard, there is an Advanced Iris setting of high/medium/low/off. Also, if you're in custom picture mode, you have settings for gamma, "live color", black corrector, and "clear white". If you think there's too much red and green push, maybe try turning off "live color".

So please please please quit repeating over and over again how "the iris only has static settings from 1 to 5". According to the manual, you are only half right.

/end rant ;)

/rant
Good Grief! For you and Tecumseh and whoever else thinks the iris is just settings from 1 to 5, you are missing half the functionality ! Look at the top of page 65 in the manual. Clearly, if you have the picture mode set to custom (where it should be) instead of vivid or standard, there is an Advanced Iris setting of high/medium/low/off. Also, if you're in custom picture mode, you have settings for gamma, "live color", black corrector, and "clear white". If you think there's too much red and green push, maybe try turning off "live color".

So please please please quit repeating over and over again how "the iris only has static settings from 1 to 5". According to the manual, you are only half right.

/end rant ;)

Good point, I should mention that I do not, as of yet, have the 50 inch A10.
I had the Sears TV in "Standard" Mode. Thanks for pointing out that the"Custom mode gets you to the "live color", black corrector" and "clear white". I'll be heading back to the store to play with the custom mode to see if I can find a better setup. I hasten to add I wrote down all the setting for "Audio" and "Video" and will have to get a new set of "custom" settings for myself. I was wondering where all those so called settings of live color, black corrector and clear white were. Thanks to this board I now know. Truely an educational experience for one and all.

Good point, I should mention that I do not, as of yet, have the 50 inch A10.
I had the Sears TV in "Standard" Mode. Thanks for pointing out that the"Custom mode gets you to the "live color", black corrector" and "clear white". I'll be heading back to the store to play with the custom mode to see if I can find a better setup. I hasten to add I wrote down all the setting for "Audio" and "Video" and will have to get a new set of "custom" settings for myself. I was wondering where all those so called settings of live color, black corrector and clear white were. Thanks to this board I now know. Truely an educational experience for one and all.
Here's a link to the 42A10/50A10 manual on the SonyStyle site. http://www.sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/en/documents/specifications/kdfe42a10_manual.pdf
There are even pictures of the menu system. Now you'll really be armed with info when you go back to the store. :D

Visited Wilshire Home Entertainment in Santa Clartia California yesterday. They had the Sony E50A10 on display with a few in stock and 2 going out the door to customers.

The E50A10 was next to a Mitsubishi DLP (didn’t get the model info on the Mits.) Standing between the two sets the E50A10 looked much better than the Mitsubishi. The salesman cautioned me that the Mitsubishi had been on display for months and undoubtedly the bulb was showing its age.

My primary interest was how the E50A10 would look while displaying a SD broadcast. Low and behold the salesman changed the set to local standard Comcast feed and went to the CBS channel. The E50A10 was set to stretch mode and the SD image filled the screen, but it was very soft and fuzzy. When the salesman turned off the stretch mode the diagonal image was perhaps 38 inches and the image quality improved quite a bit. This left you with two wide black bars on each side of the image.

ON THE SIDE: The salesman changed to a channel like 85.6 and displayed that channel. I asked if they were using the STB or a Cable Card and he said neither. He told me that the standard Comcast feed provides many of these XX.X channels. You just can’t tune them in on older TV’s. Does that sound right?

ON THE SIDE: The salesman changed to a channel like 85.6 and displayed that channel. I asked if they were using the STB or a Cable Card and he said neither. He told me that the standard Comcast feed provides many of these XX.X channels. You just can’t tune them in on older TV’s. Does that sound right?

Yes, if the A10 has a QAM tuner, it should be able to pull in Comcast HD channels without an STB or cablecard.

Clarification: Non-encrypted HD channels only, of course.

Could someone explain what these channels xxx.x such as 116.1 mean. Is there an easy way to translate them to the channels used by TimeWarnerAustin?
I have had the 50A10 for 2 days and it is great except for the sound.
I am still trying to decide which setting are best. I ordered the Avia DVD at Amazon to help tune it. But it has a better picture than my old 40" Plasma(which died). Maybe with tuning it will be even better. For sound I am ordering the Harman Kardon HKTS14 speakers.

TimeWarner refuses to give me a CableCard unless they install it.

with all these posts, I am surprised that no one has posted their settings yet. Even though they may vary to an individual's likeness, it would still be good to have a general consensus on where we should set our contrast, brightness, color, sharpness, etc.. too. Once I get my tv on saturday, I will post my settings to help other newbe A10 owners out.

So please can people lend a hand and post their settings. thanks.

Could someone explain what these channels xxx.x such as 116.1 mean. Is there an easy way to translate them to the channels used by TimeWarnerAustin?
I have had the 50A10 for 2 days and it is great except for the sound.
I am still trying to decide which setting are best. I ordered the Avia DVD at Amazon to help tune it. But it has a better picture than my old 40" Plasma(which died). Maybe with tuning it will be even better. For sound I am ordering the Harman Kardon HKTS14 speakers.

TimeWarner refuses to give me a CableCard unless they install it.
You'll have to let the TV scan the channels and then figure out for yourself which channel is which. For example, 112-3 (CBS) on my TV is 112.7 on my friend's, and it's something like 704 through the TWC STB.

Could someone explain what these channels xxx.x such as 116.1 mean. Is there an easy way to translate them to the channels used by TimeWarnerAustin?
I have had the 50A10 for 2 days and it is great except for the sound.
I am still trying to decide which setting are best. I ordered the Avia DVD at Amazon to help tune it. But it has a better picture than my old 40" Plasma(which died). Maybe with tuning it will be even better. For sound I am ordering the Harman Kardon HKTS14 speakers.

TimeWarner refuses to give me a CableCard unless they install it.


What's so bad about the sound? Difficult to hear? Muddy?

I found the sound muddy especially for some speach. Turning on sound through external speakers solved the problem so I am just getting an inexpensive set of speakers with a great review. I found that none of the sound settings such as surround sound made the sound acceptable to me.

That is a possibility, but until tested the effect of input processing is unknown. Sometimes analog inputs (VGA, Component) are superior and sometimes digital (HDMI/DVI) are. Until each is tested with a known quality source and each inputs user/service mode settings are fully explored it will not be known which is the best for what.

You should take a look at the Qualia 006 review I posted in this section. It details the complex performance of each input type with each resolution. Achieving optimal display performance can be a complex mix of input types for each resolution.

umr, I was curious, what is Sony using for video processing in their sets -- is it all proprietary Sony processing, or are they using Faroudja or Si?

I found the sound muddy especially for some speach. Turning on sound through external speakers solved the problem so I am just getting an inexpensive set of speakers with a great review. I found that none of the sound settings such as surround sound made the sound acceptable to me.

IMHO, Sony should have left them on the side, not funneled the sound through a port.

Well, I just returned from Abt Electronics near Chicago.


Suprisingly they still had not set up the 50" A10 when I arrived at 11:30am today. After a bit of haggling they admitted they didn't want to bring out the A10 until they had sold out of the WE655. I think this is a little unprofessional when you have customers asking about the A10 and you want to act like you don't have it just yet. Well, I finally told them I am only gonna buy this sucker if I can see the thing first. So, they finally agreed to bring it out 20 minutes later and I was in buisness. :)


So, they roll this thing out on a cart and my first reaction was "oh, that looks nice". :D Even the sales guys seemed quite impressed with this tv the first time they laid eyes on it. Most of them were suprised they had even recieved them yet. :rolleyes:


So, after all this trouble it turned out quite wonderful. I got to view this tv in a very dim room right next to Panasonic's new LCD Projection set and Sony's 42" WE655. I only had a couple HD channels to choose from though but I gave it a good 45 minute examination going through all the options and variations this set allows for. Right off the bat it was immediately noticable that the new A10 had a much better black level than the Panny and the Sony WE655. It's not even a close call folks. I was truly impressed by this fact and did not expect to see such a clear difference. I was expecting an improvement but not something that was dramatically clear. It was dramatically clear the A10 had the best black level of the LCD Projection sets.


Besides the black level I was immediately impressed with the clean image of the A10. It just appeared as though Sony had gotten rid of all the little noise and small flickering on the white lines and such. I guess the best way to describe it would be to say the A10 had a very "solid" picture. The previous Sony LCD Projection sets while looking very nice did have a certain level of noise when presented with certain colors and complicated scenery. This new A10 just seems to almost eliminate that. This improvement really takes a swing at the DLP sets as well. Upon close examination of most DLP sets I notice quite a bit of noise and this is even evident when viewing the best Samsung has to offer, the "captain kirk" unit. So, with the combination of greatly improved black levels and the fantasticly solid image, the A10 has truly bested the competitions best digital projection tvs.


I would even go as far as to say that the A10 LCD Projection is the best LCD Projection set Sony has yet released. Even bettering their XBR model which was prominantly displayed in the viewing room.


All of this led me to purchase the 42" A10 on the spot and set up a delivery date of next Thursday, the 11th. Abt is predicting they'll recieve the 42-A10's on Saturday and i'll be out of town until Wednesday night.



Before you all run away to pre-order your own A10, I want to also give you the few negatives I came away with as well. No, this is not the be all, end all tv. The A10 still clearly exhibits some screen door effect which is expected. I don't believe LCD Projections are ever gonna completely escape this issue. Of course it was only noticable at close distances of 6-7 feet. Beyond that it was far less noticable. There was also an odd experience while watching CBS HD. There was some lame soap opera on and it was in 4:3 with the standard grey bars that CBS always shows for 4:3 material. Well, in that particular instance it became quite clear when and how the dynamic iris of the A10 worked. As the scenes would flip from one to another, or even one actor in a room to another, you could visibly see the iris decreasing and increasing the light on the fly. This was noticable because of the grey bars on the side of the set and you could see the grey bars suddenly darken and lighten as the light intesity was regulated by the auto iris. This was sort of cool in a way because it was clear proof of that iris in all it's glory. However, it also did get annoying and I didn't like seeing it change the intensity in such a noticable way. Of course this really only seemed noticable with these grey bars on the screen which is not a big deal to me or most people. But I felt it was worth noting and it sort of made me wonder how the set might handle a very flickery scene such as a rave or something in a movie where the light is going from bright to dark very fast. I wonder if the tv would look odd or if that little iris could perfectly keep up with the action. Unfortunately I couldn't truly see every example I wanted so I don't know. Regardless i'm not that concerned at all. During almost any viewing circumstance I can see only benefits from the dynamic iris of the A10. I am very interested in playing some videogames on this set. I'll be interested to see how that iris handles the fast movement of a racing game. :rolleyes:



So, thats about it. I can't wait to take delivery on this fantastic new set. I really can't say enough to those of you who have waited a while for the right projection set to come along. This very well may bit it. For the money and the features you're getting I don't think i've seen a deal like the A10 in years. It's just the best example i've seen so far of the best of the current technology at a very fair price. When you consider the 3 component inputs, HDMI, PC input, and cable card, I truly feel this is a very safe and future proof set for those who are jumping into the HDTV arena. You're not gonna have to worry that this set will be easily surpassed next year. If you buy this set I think most people will be set for a good long while. Until Sony gets that SXRD technology down pat.



That reminds me: I quickly got a look at the 70" SXRD as Abt actually has one on display. I honestly have to say I came away saying "nothing special". It was a very solid, nice picture, but it wasn't anything stunning. If thats Sony's starting point for that technology though, I can't help but think it's gonna be stunning a few years down the road.


Thanks for reading all this. Hope it helps some of you with your decisions. :)

Visited Wilshire Home Entertainment in Santa Clartia California yesterday. They had the Sony E50A10 on display with a few in stock and 2 going out the door to customers.

The E50A10 was next to a Mitsubishi DLP (didn’t get the model info on the Mits.) Standing between the two sets the E50A10 looked much better than the Mitsubishi. The salesman cautioned me that the Mitsubishi had been on display for months and undoubtedly the bulb was showing its age.

My primary interest was how the E50A10 would look while displaying a SD broadcast. Low and behold the salesman changed the set to local standard Comcast feed and went to the CBS channel. The E50A10 was set to stretch mode and the SD image filled the screen, but it was very soft and fuzzy. When the salesman turned off the stretch mode the diagonal image was perhaps 38 inches and the image quality improved quite a bit. This left you with two wide black bars on each side of the image.

ON THE SIDE: The salesman changed to a channel like 85.6 and displayed that channel. I asked if they were using the STB or a Cable Card and he said neither. He told me that the standard Comcast feed provides many of these XX.X channels. You just can’t tune them in on older TV’s. Does that sound right?

It is promising that the 50 inch A10 bested a Mitsubishi DLP, since they use the better grade HD2+ chip and are regarded as one of the best DLP's out there.

umr, I was curious, what is Sony using for video processing in their sets -- is it all proprietary Sony processing, or are they using Faroudja or Si?

Most of what you will find in Sony sets is Sony processing, but some current models use ATI scalers.

...snip...


Thanks for the review. Which ABT did you go to? I may call them later in the week and see if they'll have the 42" in on Saturday. I may have to take a drive up and get one. :D

Tiger,

Great info. Were they selling those at MSRP or below?

Also, can't wait to hear how it handles gaming.

First, there is only one Abt store in the country. It's located in Glenview Illinois. It's truly a sight to behold and you have to see it to believe it. It's literally the cadillac of electronics stores. Marble floors and all. :D


Abt is selling the A10's well below retail. :D They're negotiable, always.


I got mine at more than %10 off retail. :cool:

First, there is only one Abt store in the country. It's located in Glenview Illinois. It's truly a sight to behold and you have to see it to believe it. It's literally the cadillac of electronics stores. Marble floors and all. :D


Abt is selling the A10's well below retail. :D They're negotiable, always.


I got mine at more than %10 off retail. :cool:

Ah... My bad.

:D

Tiger:

Wow, now you really made my decision tough. After reading your old posts I was all set to the older model (I really like having PIP) but now I think I'm going to go with the A10.

Does anyone know if these are anywhere in the DFW area? Also, for current owners, can you comment on what Tiger said about the Iris? Will it get to be distracting while playing video games or watching TV?

Tigerriot, thanks for the info! Sounds promising and I hope the sets will arrive soon.

I'm really stuck between the SXRDs (potential XBRs?) and the A10s....if I can get 90% of the SXRDs picture for this money, it's not worth even considering the SXRD models IMHO.

Are you gonna calibrate this baby?

First, there is only one Abt store in the country. It's located in Glenview Illinois. It's truly a sight to behold and you have to see it to believe it. It's literally the cadillac of electronics stores. Marble floors and all. :D


Abt is selling the A10's well below retail. :D They're negotiable, always.


I got mine at more than %10 off retail. :cool:

Still doesn't show on their website. Thanks for the info. Almost planned to go with the older model, but I'll wait until I can check the A10 out in person based on what you wrote....if any arrives in my area before Christmas. What made you go with the 42"?

Well, I just returned from Abt Electronics near Chicago.


Suprisingly they still had not set up the 50" A10 when I arrived at 11:30am today. After a bit of haggling they admitted they didn't want to bring out the A10 until they had sold out of the WE655. I think this is a little unprofessional when you have customers asking about the A10 and you want to act like you don't have it just yet. Well, I finally told them I am only gonna buy this sucker if I can see the thing first. So, they finally agreed to bring it out 20 minutes later and I was in buisness. :)


So, they roll this thing out on a cart and my first reaction was "oh, that looks nice". :D Even the sales guys seemed quite impressed with this tv the first time they laid eyes on it. Most of them were suprised they had even recieved them yet. :rolleyes:


So, after all this trouble it turned out quite wonderful. I got to view this tv in a very dim room right next to Panasonic's new LCD Projection set and Sony's 42" WE655. I only had a couple HD channels to choose from though but I gave it a good 45 minute examination going through all the options and variations this set allows for. Right off the bat it was immediately noticable that the new A10 had a much better black level than the Panny and the Sony WE655. It's not even a close call folks. I was truly impressed by this fact and did not expect to see such a clear difference. I was expecting an improvement but not something that was dramatically clear. It was dramatically clear the A10 had the best black level of the LCD Projection sets.


Besides the black level I was immediately impressed with the clean image of the A10. It just appeared as though Sony had gotten rid of all the little noise and small flickering on the white lines and such. I guess the best way to describe it would be to say the A10 had a very "solid" picture. The previous Sony LCD Projection sets while looking very nice did have a certain level of noise when presented with certain colors and complicated scenery. This new A10 just seems to almost eliminate that. This improvement really takes a swing at the DLP sets as well. Upon close examination of most DLP sets I notice quite a bit of noise and this is even evident when viewing the best Samsung has to offer, the "captain kirk" unit. So, with the combination of greatly improved black levels and the fantasticly solid image, the A10 has truly bested the competitions best digital projection tvs.


I would even go as far as to say that the A10 LCD Projection is the best LCD Projection set Sony has yet released. Even bettering their XBR model which was prominantly displayed in the viewing room.


All of this led me to purchase the 42" A10 on the spot and set up a delivery date of next Thursday, the 11th. Abt is predicting they'll recieve the 42-A10's on Saturday and i'll be out of town until Wednesday night.



Before you all run away to pre-order your own A10, I want to also give you the few negatives I came away with as well. No, this is not the be all, end all tv. The A10 still clearly exhibits some screen door effect which is expected. I don't believe LCD Projections are ever gonna completely escape this issue. Of course it was only noticable at close distances of 6-7 feet. Beyond that it was far less noticable. There was also an odd experience while watching CBS HD. There was some lame soap opera on and it was in 4:3 with the standard grey bars that CBS always shows for 4:3 material. Well, in that particular instance it became quite clear when and how the dynamic iris of the A10 worked. As the scenes would flip from one to another, or even one actor in a room to another, you could visibly see the iris decreasing and increasing the light on the fly. This was noticable because of the grey bars on the side of the set and you could see the grey bars suddenly darken and lighten as the light intesity was regulated by the auto iris. This was sort of cool in a way because it was clear proof of that iris in all it's glory. However, it also did get annoying and I didn't like seeing it change the intensity in such a noticable way. Of course this really only seemed noticable with these grey bars on the screen which is not a big deal to me or most people. But I felt it was worth noting and it sort of made me wonder how the set might handle a very flickery scene such as a rave or something in a movie where the light is going from bright to dark very fast. I wonder if the tv would look odd or if that little iris could perfectly keep up with the action. Unfortunately I couldn't truly see every example I wanted so I don't know. Regardless i'm not that concerned at all. During almost any viewing circumstance I can see only benefits from the dynamic iris of the A10. I am very interested in playing some videogames on this set. I'll be interested to see how that iris handles the fast movement of a racing game. :rolleyes:



So, thats about it. I can't wait to take delivery on this fantastic new set. I really can't say enough to those of you who have waited a while for the right projection set to come along. This very well may bit it. For the money and the features you're getting I don't think i've seen a deal like the A10 in years. It's just the best example i've seen so far of the best of the current technology at a very fair price. When you consider the 3 component inputs, HDMI, PC input, and cable card, I truly feel this is a very safe and future proof set for those who are jumping into the HDTV arena. You're not gonna have to worry that this set will be easily surpassed next year. If you buy this set I think most people will be set for a good long while. Until Sony gets that SXRD technology down pat.



That reminds me: I quickly got a look at the 70" SXRD as Abt actually has one on display. I honestly have to say I came away saying "nothing special". It was a very solid, nice picture, but it wasn't anything stunning. If thats Sony's starting point for that technology though, I can't help but think it's gonna be stunning a few years down the road.


Thanks for reading all this. Hope it helps some of you with your decisions. :)
Thank you very much for the review. Was good to hear from someone who was negative to start with, and see that it won you over in many respects.

Is anyone else able to test his theory about fast moving scenes and the auto Iris?

I played with the Iris at Sears the other day. .

Does Iris' husband know about the two of you? :p

I chose the 42" model because i'm only gonna be sitting about 7 feet away. It's mainly going to be a gaming tv for me and it's replacing a 34" Sony XBR CRT that i'm currently selling on Ebay. That Xbox360 is gonna look mighty fine hooked up to the A10 this fall. :D



I forgot to ask something earlier about the A10. Does anyone know if it's possible to completely turn of the auto iris? I thought this might be a good thing to know and I truly hope it's possible just in case it turns out that the iris can be problematic for certain content. I guess I already know the answer to this quetion and it's very likely that it will be possible to turn off the auto iris but it will require you to get into the service menu to do it.

Anyone know if Sony offers an extended warranty when you register the A10 online? Sears price for the extended warranty seems a little on the high side. Thanks in advance.

I'm fairly certain you can purchase an extended warranty direct from Sony at much better prices. Check it out on Sonystyle At least that was the claim by someone who bought a Sony TV online. It was in their review on one of the shopping websites.

Tiger:

Wow, now you really made my decision tough. After reading your old posts I was all set to the older model (I really like having PIP) but now I think I'm going to go with the A10.

Does anyone know if these are anywhere in the DFW area? Also, for current owners, can you comment on what Tiger said about the Iris? Will it get to be distracting while playing video games or watching TV?

In the Custom setting you can shut the auto part of the iris off. Then you can adjust the overall setting of the iris to 0 or 1 for lights off or 2 or 3 for bright light.

I just set our 42" demo up today and can verify the improved black levels. It reminds me of my WE655 with the ND filter in (which blocks 60% of the light). I will let the set break in and then do some viewing over the next few days.

I am not a tech, so I won't attempt to calibrate it (it also isn't my set to mess up!!), but use custom setting for each input and put it on warm II for color temp and you will have a good start. 10 Brownie points for whoever figures out how to turn down the red in the service menu!!! Lew

Is it normal for these specialty stores to get stock before the CC/BB stores?

umr, I was curious, what is Sony using for video processing in their sets -- is it all proprietary Sony processing, or are they using Faroudja or Si?

I don't think anybody will be processing Faroudja anymore......didn't he just die?

"In the Custom setting you can shut the auto part of the iris off. Then you can adjust the overall setting of the iris to 0 or 1 for lights off or 2 or 3 for bright light."



Well, that is awesome news! That pretty much seals the deal for this tv then. That was my only concern and now it's been alleviated.


I also want to say that overall I was very impressed with how the auto iris fuction performed. I am just the worrying type and I just have some worry that it may not perform perfectly for all material and particularly videogames with fast motion. In the end I have a feeling it's going to work fine for everything though. It's just nice to know you always have the ability to turn that off is you so desire.

"Is it normal for these specialty stores to get stock before the CC/BB stores? "


Yes, particulary Abt because they are the largest Sony dealer in the country.

Very important question to A10 owners:

I asked this question a while back before any of the stores even had the A10 in stock. It was more of a "hmmm" type of question. Now that people have these at home we need to know whether these TV's become a DLP with the RBE with the Iris feature. Since the Iris feature adjusts to what's on the screen at a given moment (i think you see where i'm going with this) if you have a movie or program with quick cut scenes with variable amounts of lightness/darkness will the iris adjustment become a distraction? If you are sitting there watching a movie and become distracted in the grades of light changing before your very eyes will this become the RBE of RP LCD's? I would hope people will comment on this and whether it is noticable. The color wheel and Iris sort of become one and the same in a way....it's very dependent on how your eyes interpret the "speed" of the color wheel on a DLP and Iris lens of the Sony.

... become distracted in the grades of light changing before your very eyes...

In other words, did Sony just design in the flicker problem that plagues the Panasonic HD7UY plasmas?

Now that people have these at home we need to know whether these TV's become a DLP with the RBE with the Iris feature. It's not a shutter flickering away.

I have the a10 reserved at my local best buy and I have also purchased the 4 year warranty for the set. It is a relatively large sum and might cause me not to purchase the tv. The reason I got it is because the salesmen at bb said w/ projections that you will most likely need to replace the bulb. My question to you all is if you think the bb warranty is worth the extra money. Thanks in advance.

Sears has the 50" A10 in stock and I brought my Xbox in to check it out as I'm looking to get the 42" for nearly strictly gaming. Regarding the new "Game Mode". I see it in the 42" A10 manual i downloaded online and found it in the menu while I was playing with the Xbox but it was greyed out and couldn't be turned on.

Does anyone know what governs the Game Mode? I was plugged into the component inputs on the side of the TV. Is Game Mode restricted to a particular input?

Looking in the manual it's even greyed out on their screenshot. This is really a feature, right? heh

thanks!

Tigerriot,

As mentioned, I plan on stopping at Abt to see the A10. Did you get an extended warranty or check into it? I'd like to know if any plan, Sony, Abt or other, covers dead or stick pixels.

Mike

...My question to you all is if you think the bb warranty is worth the extra money...

The bulb will last about 2 years or so on average use. If the BB warranty includes bulb replacement, then factor in about $200 in the price already, then see if the remainder is worth it.

How much did the warrany cost?

Tigerriot,

I do not believe you commented on the sound during your ABT test.

the bb warranty costs $400 for 4 years and covers bulbs

I have the a10 reserved at my local best buy and I have also purchased the 4 year warranty for the set. It is a relatively large sum and might cause me not to purchase the tv. The reason I got it is because the salesmen at bb said w/ projections that you will most likely need to replace the bulb. My question to you all is if you think the bb warranty is worth the extra money. Thanks in advance.

Check out the repairmaster warranty from TV Authority. It covers 4 years AFTER the 1 year Sony warranty and it's cheaper. I'm trying to find out about the bulb coverage.

I am starting to get a little confused about the iris. My understanding is that the iris adjusts the opening of itself constantly, based on the picture content, and on the degree of adjustment indicated by a number 1-5. Is this right?

In custom mode then, there is a High, Medium, Low, Off adjustment for the iris. Does this mean the iris stays at one of 4 constant positions? Do I have this backwards?

Thanks.

I have the a10 reserved at my local best buy and I have also purchased the 4 year warranty for the set. It is a relatively large sum and might cause me not to purchase the tv. The reason I got it is because the salesmen at bb said w/ projections that you will most likely need to replace the bulb. My question to you all is if you think the bb warranty is worth the extra money. Thanks in advance.


IMHO..........in a word: NO!!!! TV show 20/20 did a piece about 2 years ago on "big box stores and warranties". It is a fact that....as cited on 20/20 using Best Buy as an example: they, BB makes OVER 50% of their profits from the sale of warranties. Folks, ever gone to BB and NOT had them hustle a warranty on you........even if it was an inexpensive electronic gadget? In all seriousness though: the sale of warranties is VERY VERY good............but NOT for you..........guess who their good for. Its kinda like Vegas; ask your self honestly, do you think the "deck" (pun intended) is stacked in YOUR favor........OR.........the "Houses". If you know the answer to that you can safely deduce the answer to your question of whether the "bb warranty is worth the extra money".

One more warranty comment. I have seen the RepairMaster RMT42500 5 year (4 additional years) warranty for about $160 online, and the RepairMaster RMLMP3 3 year (total) lamp replacement for about $75. That is about $235.

As far as the warranties, it can be a waste of money or not. I had a laptop that had all kinds of problems. Almost 18 months after I bought it and 3 repairs later Best Buy gave me store credit to get a new one. It was like Christmas in July getting a brand new laptop for free.

I have used the warranties for my old computer & printer. Overall, I figure out how much it will cost to replace something and if the plan is worth it. Yes, they do make a ton on them (a friend bought a TV/warranty for me and the warranty that was normally about $300 was only $30 for him) but in some cases they're worth it.

Dutch:

What city/Best Buy did you order from? Was it on the floor or you had them order through their system? Did they show them in stock?

One more warranty comment. I have seen the RepairMaster RMT42500 5 year (4 additional years) warranty for about $160 online, and the RepairMaster RMLMP3 3 year (total) lamp replacement for about $75. That is about $235.

HUH?

I think the gist of his post is that you can get longer coverage than BB for much, much cheaper.

From what I've read, you can buy Repair master from anywhere, so if you froogle those plan numbers, you should be able to find a good deal.

Can someone please chime in with any input:

- Is the A10 a lower model than the A20 (other than the size)?
- Has anyone had a chance to see an A10 & A20 side-by-side? If so, your opinions?
- Has anyone seen the A10s at any stores in the DFW area?

Thanks.

I think the gist of his post is that you can get longer coverage than BB for much, much cheaper.

From what I've read, you can buy Repair master from anywhere, so if you froogle those plan numbers, you should be able to find a good deal.

I was referring to the $75 lamp replacement. Not clear on this.

I ordered the A10 from my "local" Sears tonight for only $2113.75 :) (after inquiring about the Family & Friends 10% discount). It listed for $2374.99 in their computer then minus $237.49 [10%] and $23.75 [for price matching?]. Not sure if the girl at the counter knew what she was doing, but it worked out in my favor. I opted for the 3yr warranty (steep at $418!! :eek: , but I was ahead). I also used my American Express for the purchase which extends the warranty an extra year for free. So 4 years for $418 is alright, I suppose. Grand total comes to $2685.77 (thank you home equity) and TV will be in Fri (today is Tues) in plenty of time for football (pre)season.

My concern is: I figured I can pick up the set myself after work Fri to save $60 delivery fee (and save the set from savage handlers), but I'm wondering now if I really can fit it in my '97 Dodge Ram conversion van (a little late, I know :o ). So if anyone can please tell me the dimensions of the actual box, I will be extremely thankful.

BTW, this forum has been extremely helpful. Thanks for all the informative posts. I'll be sure to add my experiences when I get this muther up and running.

snipped this wonderfull post to save bandwidth

I am a complete nube, but may I suggest the first few chapters of the original Blade movie to test the iris & how fast it can change? As an added bonus, when the red blood comes out of the sprinkler system, would this also not be a test of 'red push'?


I gotta figure out some kind of way to afford the 42" 'er!

Regarding light bulbs: if I decide to get this, it will be my first projection TV, so don't laugh... but when the bulb dies, does it go out all at once like a regular light bulb, or does it gradually get dimmer?

Regarding warranties: I have a general rule of thumb... I always decline. I'm a gadget person and buy a lot of electronics, and have turned down literally thousands of dollars worth of extended warranty. My experience is that if something has a manufacturer's defect, it will most likely surface relatively soon and be covered under standard warranty. There will be the rare exception, but even if it's something relatively expensive, it will still cost me less in the long run to replace those rare items out-of-pocket than to buy an extended warranty on all my electronics. Clearly the retailers have found the same to be true, or they would have stopped offering extended warranties by now.

BUT, having said that, I've decided that an extended warranty can be beneficial in certain circumstances, based on my personal experiences over the years. I've had terrible luck with laptops, and it seems each one I buy has a shorter lifespan than the one before. I think I'd come out ahead if I started getting the warranty on those. The other area where I give it consideration is when I buy something big, that would be very painful to take in for service, and the extended warranty provides on-site service. I got it on my riding mower, and it's already proven worth it after an on-site repair.

So, the question here is whether it's worth it on the A10. I'm on the fence. I would typically think of a projection TV as being too big to want to carry in for service, but these look like they could be fairly easily manhandled into an SUV or minivan, and the standard warranty includes on-site service for a year anyway. Not having owned a projection TV before, I don't have any idea of the reliability. The bulb replacement seems like a disposable item to me, and Crutchfield's warranty specifically excludes this. Sony's extended warranty doesn't seem to say one way or the other. I don't know about BB/CC. I'd be grateful to hear the experiences of some of you who have been using projection tv's for awhile, and whether you've found them to become trouble-prone after the initial year, and how helpful extended warranties have been.

Can anyone with this TV provide information on Game Mode? The option was greyed out when I tested the 50" A10 in the store.

On my tv the game mode is always blocked out if using the component inputs and have the xbox set to play 720p and 1080i. If you use video 1-3 then you can turn game mode on but it is using s-video or rca cable.

My concern is: I figured I can pick up the set myself after work Fri to save $60 delivery fee (and save the set from savage handlers), but I'm wondering now if I really can fit it in my '97 Dodge Ram conversion van (a little late, I know :o ). So if anyone can please tell me the dimensions of the actual box, I will be extremely thankful.



Courtesy of drobidea's post two pages back:

The box size of the Sony e50A10 is 50"x37"x20.5 inches.

Does anyone know if these are anywhere in the DFW area? ?

jmw1137, I haven't seen one on the Tarrant County side of the Metroplex as of this past weekend. Sears, BB, CC, Home Theatre Store, Tweeters... no go!
Maybe this weekend? :confused:

A note on the RepairMaster warranties: I believe you can get a RepairMaster warranty something like 60 or 90 days before the manufactures warranty runs out so... if your on the fence about an extended warranty this could be an answer down the road.

Also, awhile back I looked for an authorized servicer for JVC that would accept the RepairMaster warranty and found not one authorized JVC service center in my area that would. That may be something to check into closely before purchasing. Thank goodness I was just checking and not needing service after purchasing a warranty!

Although I do think the RepairMaster bulb warranty seems to be a good deal (at the right price)... that's a DIY replacement

Or at least have the speakers placed under the screen behind a grille like on the Samsung and Mitsubishi DLPs, JVC D-ILAs, etc. An extra couple inches of height wouldn't bother me too much.

Well, those extra inches are the reason I'm seriously considering the 42" A10. At just a hair under 29" tall, it will fit into my furniture -- the only projection set that would do so. I like the entertainment center that I've got, so it's either the 42A10, a 32" 4x3 CRT, or a 34" 16x9 CRT. Nothing else, short of a jury-rigged front projection setup, will work for me.

BUT, having said that, I've decided that an extended warranty can be beneficial in certain circumstances, based on my personal experiences over the years. ... So, the question here is whether it's worth it on the A10. I'm on the fence. I would typically think of a projection TV as being too big to want to carry in for service, but these look like they could be fairly easily manhandled into an SUV or minivan, and the standard warranty includes on-site service for a year anyway.

I'm on the fence, too. My parents bought a massively heavy 32" CRT TV, and they somehow managed to get it home on their own. They've already said they'll never try to move it again, so an extended in-home warranty makes a lot of sense for them. While this is bigger and bulkier, it's also a whole lot lighter than a CRT TV. I've got a small car (Hyundai Elantra) with a hatchback, so I might be able to move it by myself if I had to take it in for service...I don't know, maybe it's worth the extra $$$ not to have to worry about it.

Does anyone know if these are anywhere in the DFW area?

I'd really like to hear from some other Metroplex folks, too -- dying to see one for myself. (I do know that the Plano Fry's doesn't even have the A10's on their inventory yet, and none of the area BB's even know what I'm talking about. Wouldn't be the first time.)

I'm fairly certain you can purchase an extended warranty direct from Sony at much better prices. Check it out on Sonystyle At least that was the claim by someone who bought a Sony TV online. It was in their review on one of the shopping websites.

Although Sony sells the extended warranty for the A10s they are not the direct warranty provider as previously eluded in the thread. The service provider is Service Net.

Service Net does NOT cover bulb replacement. I've had Service Net about 5 years ago for a laptop purchase from PC Mall. The service was excellent with about a 10 day turnaround for mailing in the laptop for service. I believe I had 3 service calls which included replacing the hard drive twice.

I'm also currently looking into extended warranty for my LCD purchase. It seems that as of late that most extended service providers are not including the bulb replacement, but are charging for an additional bulb replacement warranty ontop of the standard extended warranty. I'm sure this is due to the frequency of bulb failures which wasn't anticipated with the early productions.

So far the breakdown is this:

Service Net does not include bulb replacement.

Philips warranty has a "free bulb replacement warranty" as a free add on to their extended warranty. But this covers ONE bulb replacement.

Mack's In Home Extended Warranty does not cover the bulb. You have to get a separate bulb replacement warranty.

Hope this helps.

Hi,

Ive been considering the 50A10, although the TV has to turn a very sharp 270 degree, corner in order to get into my apartment, and there's a pretty good chance it may not make it (even out of the box).

So the question is, is there any harm in momentarily tilting the TV onto its side (so the long side is vertical) as I bring it in to the apartment. Do I have to worry about convergence issues etc?

Thanks,
'brieze

I ordered the A10 from my "local" Sears tonight for only $2113.75 :) (after inquiring about the Family & Friends 10% discount). It listed for $2374.99 in their computer then minus $237.49 [10%] and $23.75 [for price matching?]. Not sure if the girl at the counter knew what she was doing, but it worked out in my favor. I opted for the 3yr warranty (steep at $418!! :eek: , but I was ahead). I also used my American Express for the purchase which extends the warranty an extra year for free. So 4 years for $418 is alright, I suppose. Grand total comes to $2685.77 (thank you home equity) and TV will be in Fri (today is Tues) in plenty of time for football (pre)season.


First off, never post prices other than MSRP on this forum...against forum rules. Second, your Amex card will not extend your warranty since you purchased an extended warranty. Anytime an extended warranty is purchased the Amex, Visa, MC, etc. warranties are void...read the fine print. And $418 is pretty expensive for three years considering you could have got a Repairmaster for about half of that for a real four year warranty.

...I believe you can get a RepairMaster warranty something like 60 or 90 days before the manufactures warranty runs out...

Yes, for the TV warranty. The bulb warranty has to be purchased within something like 10 days of the TV purchase.

Unless I am missing something, the 3 year bulb warranty for $75 is a no brainer. I suspect that we need more data on how long bulbs are really lasting before knowing if this is a good deal.

Maybe GWIII and GWIV owners might know?

Should we start a new thread discussing only extended warranty info??? I am interested and will be purchasing one for my E50A10 as I'm sure many others will be but would like to see comments from others regarding past experiences.

And $418 is pretty expensive for three years considering you could have got a Repairmaster for about half of that for a real four year warranty.

He really paid $418 for one year of warranty......
First Year -- manufacturer's warranty
Second Year - AMEX card would have been used
Third year -- you wouldn't have had a warranty -- so only paying for this year.

NOTE: AMEX Warranty doubles manufacturer's warranty for items outside of other warranty. The bulb is covered in the manufacturer's warranty for the first year so you still have AMEX coverage for the bulb only during the second year if your additional warranty does not cover bulbs -- AMEX warranty is not void, it just doesn't cover something that you get covered by another warranty -- clear?

He really paid $418 for one year of warranty......
First Year -- manufacturer's warranty
Second Year - AMEX card would have been used
Third year -- you wouldn't have had a warranty -- so only paying for this year.

NOTE: AMEX Warranty doubles manufacturer's warranty for items outside of other warranty. The bulb is covered in the manufacturer's warranty for the first year so you still have AMEX coverage for the bulb only during the second year if your additional warranty does not cover bulbs -- AMEX warranty is not void, it just doesn't cover something that you get covered by another warranty -- clear?

Ah...interesting, yes, the Amex warranty is different...it extends the manufacturers warranty an additional year after the manufacturers or any purchased extended warranty expires as long as it's not more than five years for both the manufacturers and extended warranty. That's not a bad deal as it basically gives you another years worth of manufacturers warranty for free, regardless of any other warrantys purchases as long as it doesn't exceed five years from purchase.

Yeah, I think all this warranty talk is dragging this tv thread down fellas. Maybe someone could start a "LCD Projection extended warranty discussion" thread. Besides, I think they're pretty much a waste of money as well. You already get a full year from Sony and if you buy the tv on a credit card almost all of them extend that by another year if not two.




Also, for those that are asking about the "game mode", I just remembered how it's gonna work. If you're playing a game in 480p, 720p, or 1080i, the game mode will not be necessary and therefore it will be darkened out. It's only necessary when playing 480i games because in that situation the tv attempts to do some extra upconversion processing and thus you'll experience a delay from button presses and the action on the screen while playing games. This new "game mode" eliminates that delay by turning off that processing.

[QUOTE=Tigerriot]Yeah, I think all this warranty talk is dragging this tv thread down fellas. Maybe someone could start a "LCD Projection extended warranty discussion" thread. Besides, I think they're pretty much a waste of money as well. You already get a full year from Sony and if you buy the tv on a credit card almost all of them extend that by another year if not two.




I will start one.

The SM can also be called upon to correct overscan completely. Since the majority of the problem is simply optical in nature, you can gain back a lot of the image. You're actually compressing the image into a tighter space which makes the TV appear better when you tailor the setting to the screen. With that said, different resolutions and sources (even DVDs) can have different pixel cropping, which might cause some underscan/overscan even after adjustment. That's just a fact of life with any display. Again though, it's easily configurable with the Sony TVs.I very much hope that overscan can be corrected with the new A10's. I have long been wanting a TV that wouldn't cut off 5% or more of each side of the picture. Was it really possible though to eliminate overscan on the old WE655's? Also do you think that Sony would sell the service guide for the A10's to customers? When I bought my last TV from Panasonic you could actually order the service guide with only a warning to be careful while changing the settings. It certainly made it easier than having to guess at what the different settings did.


IMHO, Sony should have left them on the side, not funneled the sound through a port.I guess perspective really does make a difference in how people see something. For those with AV systems the lack of a speaker wings on the TV is a benefit. On the other hand those who intend to only use the speakers in the TV will probably consider it a negative. Unfortunately their is no real mid point to this since you either have speaker wings or you don't.


Thanks for reading all this. Hope it helps some of you with your decisions. :)Was a very interesting read and that bit about grey bars being a way to see the iris work will be a handy way to see how fast the iris is.


Does anyone know if these are anywhere in the DFW area? Also, for current owners, can you comment on what Tiger said about the Iris? Will it get to be distracting while playing video games or watching TV?The dynamic iris can be changed several ways with the TV. Besides the 1 through 5 scale their is also the custom picture mode which allows you to set the iris to off, low, medium, or high. I would believe though that even for game content the high setting for the iris would work best except for those games that have a lot of strobing. I think the settings probably determines how long it takes before the iris will adjust to the picture. Basically how many x seconds the picture must be at a certain brightness level before the TV adjusts. As such for games with a lot of strobing a medium or low setting might work better than the high setting.


I'm really stuck between the SXRDs (potential XBRs?) and the A10s....if I can get 90% of the SXRDs picture for this money, it's not worth even considering the SXRD models IMHO.I think it depends a lot on whether the SXRDs have a 1080p HDMI input. If they don't have it than their is no question really that it would be better to just get an 50A10. If they do though than it depends on whether the benefits are substantial enough for the cost.


Sears has the 50" A10 in stock and I brought my Xbox in to check it out as I'm looking to get the 42" for nearly strictly gaming. Regarding the new "Game Mode". I see it in the 42" A10 manual i downloaded online and found it in the menu while I was playing with the Xbox but it was greyed out and couldn't be turned on.Game Mode is only for S-Video and composite inputs since as has been previously said you only need Game Mode for 480i games. It is the deinterlacer that usually adds lag to the upconversion when it tries to convert 480i to 480p. If the signal is sent into the display at 480p the A10 can quickly convert it to 720p.


So the question is, is there any harm in momentarily tilting the TV onto its side (so the long side is vertical) as I bring it in to the apartment. Do I have to worry about convergence issues etc?I would think that it would be fine to do. The LCD panels are actually connected together so besides giving the TV one heck of a bash I don't think their is any danger in tilting the TV for a few seconds. After all if tilting a TV could throw off convergence than no TV ever delivered to a store would ever be quite right.

"I think the settings probably determines how long it takes before the iris will adjust to the picture. Basically how many x seconds the picture must be at a certain brightness level before the TV adjusts."




I don't think thats the case. As I played with it yesterday it seemd to me that the 1-5 scale was really just about determining the starting point and range the iris would allow for. So, with the setting at 5 the range of motion of the iris is at it's greatest point. The tv is also at it's brightest. As you go down from the 5 setting the tv gets darker and the range at which the iris reacts is limited.

I will wait to actually see the 50" A10 before purchasing, but I've done some research and found a pretty reasonable deal (or at least appears reasonable) at an online vendor called DealzNet. With shipping -- $2139. I would extend my warranty via my AMEX card. I've never heard of these guys. I'm new to this forum so forgive me if this is posted in the wrong place or if we're not supposed to mention specific vendors, but I'm curious if you folks think it's wise or foolish to purchase an item like this from a lesser known online vendor. Thanks, Jeff.

I forgot to ask something earlier about the A10. Does anyone know if it's possible to completely turn of the auto iris? I guess I already know the answer to this quetion and it's very likely that it will be possible to turn off the auto iris but it will require you to get into the service menu to do it.

Isn't multi-personality disorder a lot of fun?
You can have your very own forum in your head with posts, replies, wise-ass replies and ....oh well, you(s) get the drift!
;) :p

Regarding warranties: I have a general rule of thumb... I always decline. I'm a gadget person and buy a lot of electronics, and have turned down literally thousands of dollars worth of extended warranty. My experience is that if something has a manufacturer's defect, it will most likely surface relatively soon and be covered under standard warranty. There will be the rare exception, but even if it's something relatively expensive, it will still cost me less in the long run to replace those rare items out-of-pocket than to buy an extended warranty on all my electronics. Clearly the retailers have found the same to be true, or they would have stopped offering extended warranties by now.

BUT, having said that, I've decided that an extended warranty can be beneficial in certain circumstances, based on my personal experiences over the years. I've had terrible luck with laptops, and it seems each one I buy has a shorter lifespan than the one before. I think I'd come out ahead if I started getting the warranty on those. The other area where I give it consideration is when I buy something big, that would be very painful to take in for service, and the extended warranty provides on-site service. I got it on my riding mower, and it's already proven worth it after an on-site repair.

So, the question here is whether it's worth it on the A10. I'm on the fence. I would typically think of a projection TV as being too big to want to carry in for service, but these look like they could be fairly easily manhandled into an SUV or minivan, and the standard warranty includes on-site service for a year anyway. Not having owned a projection TV before, I don't have any idea of the reliability. The bulb replacement seems like a disposable item to me, and Crutchfield's warranty specifically excludes this. Sony's extended warranty doesn't seem to say one way or the other. I don't know about BB/CC. I'd be grateful to hear the experiences of some of you who have been using projection tv's for awhile, and whether you've found them to become trouble-prone after the initial year, and how helpful extended warranties have been.

I generally decline on the extended warranties as well, considering that many times they're 20-30% of the price of the item. Who needs to spend an extra $15 on a warranty for a cheapo DVD-RW drive your getting for $40 after rebates, or an extra $20 on a warranty for $60 CD Player.

However, I have come out ahead because of these warranties. I once bought a portable CD player at CC and got the extended warranty w/free lense cleaning. I took it in about a year later to get my free lense cleaning and see if they would replace the headphones that crapped out. Instead, they just gave me a store credit for what I had paid orginally, and I got a CD player that was twice as good.

Another time I bought a cheap warranty on some el cheapo computer speakers at CompUSA that were something like $30 on sale. Well, they crapped out about a month before the warranty ended, so I took them in and they didn't carry the speakers anymore. Moreover, the speakers had some insanse and obviously bs wattage spec on the bottom, so in order to replace the speakers with something "comparable", I ended up getting a $150 set.

It seems for speakers the extended warranties are a good deal. My bother got a 4-year one for some JBL surround system. Over the 4 years he got them replaced once with a better set, and before the warranty was up they died and he got a store credit for something like $500. All that for a set of speakers he had used for the last four years and already replaced with a nicer setup.

I thing I'm going to get the $400 4-year warranty from Best Buy. It includes the bulb replacement, and you're going to have to replace at least one bulb in that 4 years. So basically, it boils down to $200 for a $2000 item, which isn't bad.

IMHO..........in a word: NO!!!! TV show 20/20 did a piece about 2 years ago on "big box stores and warranties". It is a fact that....as cited on 20/20 using Best Buy as an example: they, BB makes OVER 50% of their profits from the sale of warranties. Folks, ever gone to BB and NOT had them hustle a warranty on you........even if it was an inexpensive electronic gadget? In all seriousness though: the sale of warranties is VERY VERY good............but NOT for you..........guess who their good for. Its kinda like Vegas; ask your self honestly, do you think the "deck" (pun intended) is stacked in YOUR favor........OR.........the "Houses". If you know the answer to that you can safely deduce the answer to your question of whether the "bb warranty is worth the extra money".


I totally disagree. Yes Warranty programs are simply there to make money and I never buy them for anything ... but, with a new IRIS driven product I think it would be foolish not to spend the extra money. JMHO....later
Take Care
Tec :)

He really paid $418 for one year of warranty......
First Year -- manufacturer's warranty
Second Year - AMEX card would have been used
Third year -- you wouldn't have had a warranty -- so only paying for this year.

NOTE: AMEX Warranty doubles manufacturer's warranty for items outside of other warranty. The bulb is covered in the manufacturer's warranty for the first year so you still have AMEX coverage for the bulb only during the second year if your additional warranty does not cover bulbs -- AMEX warranty is not void, it just doesn't cover something that you get covered by another warranty -- clear?

Clear!
But, man, leave the poor guy alone already! :p

Game Mode is only for S-Video and composite inputs since as has been previously said you only need Game Mode for 480i games.

It doesn't work for 480i over component? That's stupid. There's a ton of interlaced PS2 and Gamecube games that still look their best over component cables.

I'm willing to bet that the game mode works no matter what kind of connection it is. It's just a matter of what resolution the tv is receiving. If the tv gets a 480i signal the game mode is available. It's that simple.

For those who are debating getting an extended warranty

This is probably more intended for the newbie as the old timers here have probably seen these threads pop up from time to time.

Light engines do go out and they're expensive to replace. (think $800-$1,200) Its not fiction. Even though some of this technology has been out for a while, its not like a TV that you bought 10 years ago that has never needed a service call.

Now some of you are buying sets who part of the fun of buying is getting it for the absolute minimum possible. That's fine. But it is false economy to not add in an extended warranty for $300 or $400 and a couple of years later have to foot the bill on an expensive repair.

Transporting A10

Someone said that the TV could be put on its side to get into one's apartment. Could the
TV be laid down on its' side in the back of my Trailblazer, for the 20 minutes it would take to
get it home.

Thanks for the help.

Transporting A10

Someone said that the TV could be put on its side to get into one's apartment. Could the
TV be laid down on its' side in the back of my Trailblazer, for the 20 minutes it would take to
get it home.

Thanks for the help.

Not sure if it's BS but the guy told me at Best Buy laying the TV down voids the warranty.

Sony offers IN HOME SERVICE on TV's over 32" in their standard 1 year warranty, and you can extend the warranty a day before the initial warranty period is over. With Sony you can take you can extend your warranty on year by year basis.

Tiger:

Have you seen the A10 & the A20 yet (whether side-by-side or independently)? How do you think they compare?

Not sure if it's BS but the guy told me at Best Buy laying the TV down voids the warranty.

They would never know....

Sony offers IN HOME SERVICE on TV's over 32" in their standard 1 year warranty, and you can extend the warranty a day before the initial warranty period is over. With Sony you can take you can extend your warranty on year by year basis.

Does this include bulb replacement? If not, does Sony offer a warranty extension which does include bulb replacement?

For the love of Pete,

Could we please keep the warranty discussion in this thread:

Warranty Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=565930)

Pretty please.
:)

Does anybody have any idea when the new A10 series will ship?

Sony is offering the product at $2500 shipping included, do you feel the price at a Sears or Best Buy would be cheaper?

They would never know....

I thought of that when I wanted to bring mine home with me but don't they usually help you to your car with it? Plus, from what they told me anything 50" or bigger is very hard to fit into any SUV (they said they could't get a 55" into an Expedition which I couldn't believe). So, when they see you have an SUV they might warn you of the voiding of the warranty (if it's true).

I thought of that when I wanted to bring mine home with me but don't they usually help you to your car with it? Plus, from what they told me anything 50" or bigger is very hard to fit into any SUV (they said they could't get a 55" into an Expedition which I couldn't believe). So, when they see you have an SUV they might warn you of the voiding of the warranty (if it's true).

Geeze, just rent or borrow a pickup truck.

can we please use this thread and get back to questions and info regarding the A10 only

For those who are debating getting an extended warranty

This is probably more intended for the newbie as the old timers here have probably seen these threads pop up from time to time.

Light engines do go out and they're expensive to replace. (think $800-$1,200) Its not fiction. Even though some of this technology has been out for a while, its not like a TV that you bought 10 years ago that has never needed a service call.

Now some of you are buying sets who part of the fun of buying is getting it for the absolute minimum possible. That's fine. But it is false economy to not add in an extended warranty for $300 or $400 and a couple of years later have to foot the bill on an expensive repair.

Just wait a few months till they have the A10's at Costco. You can return the TV at any time for any reason..even if it is 3 years old and dies. They will fully refund your purchase price, and by then even better TV's will be a lot cheaper than they are today.

I don't think thats the case. As I played with it yesterday it seemd to me that the 1-5 scale was really just about determining the starting point and range the iris would allow for. So, with the setting at 5 the range of motion of the iris is at it's greatest point. The tv is also at it's brightest. As you go down from the 5 setting the tv gets darker and the range at which the iris reacts is limited.I was referring to the off, low, medium, and high setting for the dynamic iris when the TV is in the custom picture mode. It is merely a guess though and actual testing would be the only way to see what it does.


I'm willing to bet that the game mode works no matter what kind of connection it is. It's just a matter of what resolution the tv is receiving. If the tv gets a 480i signal the game mode is available. It's that simple.That would make more sense than restricting it to a certain type of input. If you could test it that would greatly help with some of the forum members who consider it an important feature.

Just wait a few months till they have the A10's at Costco. You can return the TV at any time for any reason..even if it is 3 years old and dies. They will fully refund your purchase price, and by then even better TV's will be a lot cheaper than they are today.


I really don't think Costco will have these any time soon. At least the one by me, they seem to carry "older" models... e.g., 2003/2004 Samsung DLPs.

Before you all run away to pre-order your own A10, I want to also give you the few negatives I came away with as well. No, this is not the be all, end all tv. The A10 still clearly exhibits some screen door effect which is expected. I don't believe LCD Projections are ever gonna completely escape this issue. Of course it was only noticable at close distances of 6-7 feet. Beyond that it was far less noticable. There was also an odd experience while watching CBS HD. There was some lame soap opera on and it was in 4:3 with the standard grey bars that CBS always shows for 4:3 material. Well, in that particular instance it became quite clear when and how the dynamic iris of the A10 worked. As the scenes would flip from one to another, or even one actor in a room to another, you could visibly see the iris decreasing and increasing the light on the fly. This was noticable because of the grey bars on the side of the set and you could see the grey bars suddenly darken and lighten as the light intesity was regulated by the auto iris. This was sort of cool in a way because it was clear proof of that iris in all it's glory. However, it also did get annoying and I didn't like seeing it change the intensity in such a noticable way. Of course this really only seemed noticable with these grey bars on the screen which is not a big deal to me or most people. But I felt it was worth noting and it sort of made me wonder how the set might handle a very flickery scene such as a rave or something in a movie where the light is going from bright to dark very fast. I wonder if the tv would look odd or if that little iris could perfectly keep up with the action. Unfortunately I couldn't truly see every example I wanted so I don't know. Regardless i'm not that concerned at all. During almost any viewing circumstance I can see only benefits from the dynamic iris of the A10. I am very interested in playing some videogames on this set. I'll be interested to see how that iris handles the fast movement of a racing game. :rolleyes:

I wonder if the apparent changes in the gray bars is due entirely to the iris, or if it's an effect due to the content. The reason I bring that up is that I currently have an HD DirectTivo unit hooked up to a non-HD 4:3 set while I wait for SXRD or something better to come along in HD. When I watch an HD show, the box puts out a 16:9 image with very dark gray (but not quite black) bars on top and bottom. The apparent darkness of these bars can range from clearly dark grey to looking entirely black, depending on the content. For example, some HD movies are shown in 2.35:1 aspect ratio, so the 16:9 image itself has thin black bars above and below within the 16:9 frame. These bars are completely black, with the dark grey bars above and below them, and on dark content the contrast between the black and dark grey is quite obvious. But on a bright scene, the black and dark grey bars blend together and you can't even tell the difference.

Did you play around any with the iris settings? Did you use the static or automatic settings?

For those in the DFW metroplex. I am in the Plano area. I have checked Tweeter's, Sears, Best Buy, Circuit City, The Great Indoors and Sony Style in the Galleria over the last 10 days. The Great Indoors mailed out a flyer with a picture and price of the E42A10. This was Wednesday/Thrusday of last week. By the way the price listed as $300 above MSRP. Anyway, none of these stores in Plano/Frisco had the A10 on display. None had the item listed in the store system. For Tweeters, Sears and Sony Style I watched over their shoulder as they searched. Don't know what gives in DFW. Maybe Texas is at the bottom of the funnel.

Has anyone that's gotten one of these checked if they support IR discrete input codes? That'd be a deal-breaker for me.

I ordered the A10 from my "local" Sears tonight for only $2113.75 :) (after inquiring about the Family & Friends 10% discount). It listed for $2374.99 in their computer then minus $237.49 [10%] and $23.75 [for price matching?]. Not sure if the girl at the counter knew what she was doing, but it worked out in my favor. I opted for the 3yr warranty (steep at $418!! :eek: , but I was ahead). I also used my American Express for the purchase which extends the warranty an extra year for free. So 4 years for $418 is alright, I suppose. Grand total comes to $2685.77 (thank you home equity) and TV will be in Fri (today is Tues) in plenty of time for football (pre)season.

I'm pretty sure the CC warranty extension only applies if you DON'T get an extended warranty. Even if it does apply, it only extends the manufacturer's warranty, not the extended warranty, so the 2nd year would be running concurrently with the 2nd year of your 3-year EW. In other words, you don't have 4 years of coverage, only 3.

"Has anyone that's gotten one of these checked if they support IR discrete input codes? That'd be a deal-breaker for me."


For some people the smallest things are the most important. ;) How about picture quality, inputs, value pricing? Don't those things sort of take precedence over IR input codes?

Sears in Austin did not show A10 until I gave them the Sears number of 54635. Then they let me order it. I received it Monday.

Don't know what gives in DFW. Maybe Texas is at the bottom of the funnel.
No...CT is at the BOTTOM of the funnel. My sears store checked sears.com to find the model (and couldn't) and local BB thought I was referring to the 70" XBR! Then he told me they were rennovating the store so no new stock until end of Sept. and advised me to drive to Nyack, NJ for the XBR I think. This BB was still selling the WE655 model at close to the A10 msrp price.

No...CT is at the BOTTOM of the funnel. My sears store checked sears.com to find the model (and couldn't) and local BB thought I was referring to the 70" XBR! Then he told me they were rennovating the store so no new stock until end of Sept. and advised me to drive to Nyack, NJ for the XBR I think. This BB was still selling the WE655 model at close to the A10 msrp price.

Take a ride to PC Richard. They just got a couple hundred of the 42s and 50s in at the warehouse. My Dad and I bought a couple of 50a10s last night - sight unseen as they are not in the store yet. We take delivery tom'w for my Dad's and mine on Saturday.

Sears in Austin did not show A10 until I gave them the Sears number of 54635. Then they let me order it. I received it Monday.

What exactly is this number? Most numbers on the sears website are 13 digit numbers. Is this only for a store computer?

Sears in Austin did not show A10 until I gave them the Sears number of 54635. Then they let me order it. I received it Monday.
From a fellow Austinite...which Sears was that and did they mention when they might put them on display ?

"Has anyone that's gotten one of these checked if they support IR discrete input codes? That'd be a deal-breaker for me."


For some people the smallest things are the most important. ;) How about picture quality, inputs, value pricing? Don't those things sort of take precedence over IR input codes?

Well, of course they take precedence, but there are other TV's out there with better image quality, better pricing, etc. Maybe not all in one, but still, it's not like there isn't competition for this set out there.

I'd hate to have to cycle through every damn input going back and forth between live TV and my HTPC, especially if some take a second or 2 like my old Hitachi CRT projection TV.

[QUOTE=Tigerriot]"Has anyone that's gotten one of these checked if they support IR discrete input codes? That'd be a deal-breaker for me."


Pardon my ignorance but what exactly is this???

Thank you

Discrete codes allow you to go directly to certain features, such as pressing a single button on the remote to get to the Component Input instead of having to cycle through all available or active inputs.

Has anyone that's gotten one of these checked if they support IR discrete input codes? That'd be a deal-breaker for me.Most likely not since traditionally Sony has not supported discrete input codes. In fact besides Toshiba I don't know any well known manufacturer that consistently supports that feature. Still Sony does allow you to skip inputs so you don't have to go through the inputs that you aren't using.

Wouldn't WEGA Gate accomplish the task of IR? I have the A20 and when you hit the WEGA Gate you have several options and one of them is inputs. You can then choose from all various inputs...no need to cycle through all of them to get to the one you want.

But you still have to push the WEGA Gate button...then scroll to the input you want (guessing from your description as I haven't seen it yet). With a discrete code for the IR, you push one button and are instantly switched to the input that you want. This allows me to program a button on my remote to go straight to the DVD, or Sat, etc. It also permits me to go from one to another without having to know which one I'm coming from (if that makes sense). Right now, if I'm watching DVD I know it takes three button presses to switch to my sat signal. But if I'm watching OTA TV, it only takes one. So I have to program two different buttons to get to the sat because of this. If there were a discrete code to switch to my sat signal, I could simply program one button to go to my sat independant of what I'm currently watching (OTA signal or DVD, etc.).

For the love of Pete,

Could we please keep the warranty discussion in this thread:

Warranty Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=565930)

Pretty please.
:)


DITTO!

Most likely not since traditionally Sony has not supported discrete input codes. In fact besides Toshiba I don't know any well known manufacturer that consistently supports that feature. Still Sony does allow you to skip inputs so you don't have to go through the inputs that you aren't using.


Perhaps you last sentence above is the answer of having to repeatedly punch through to each input in order to get "through the inputs that you aren't using". If you'll be so kind please post the exact procedure to do that, I'm sure we'd all appreciate that! Thanks.

"But you still have to push the WEGA Gate button...then scroll to the input you want"



Life is tough, isn't it? :rolleyes:

But you still have to push the WEGA Gate button...then scroll to the input you want (guessing from your description as I haven't seen it yet). With a discrete code for the IR, you push one button and are instantly switched to the input that you want. This allows me to program a button on my remote to go straight to the DVD, or Sat, etc. It also permits me to go from one to another without having to know which one I'm coming from (if that makes sense). Right now, if I'm watching DVD I know it takes three button presses to switch to my sat signal. But if I'm watching OTA TV, it only takes one. So I have to program two different buttons to get to the sat because of this. If there were a discrete code to switch to my sat signal, I could simply program one button to go to my sat independant of what I'm currently watching (OTA signal or DVD, etc.).

Can we just press one one button to get to our desired input quickly or can we "program" it in? Life is hard enough as it is (:- !!!

"But you still have to push the WEGA Gate button...then scroll to the input you want"



Life is tough, isn't it? :rolleyes:

I was explaining why discrete codes make it easier for those of us that are capable of programming a remote to do so. I wasn't on a fishing trip to get some smart ass response. I don't understand why'd you'd leave such a smart ass response.

Can we just press one one button to get to our desired input quickly or can we "program" it in? Life is hard enough as it is (:- !!!

If your remote is capable of doing it, you could program a macro. But you'd still have to know where you're coming from in order to program the correct steps to get to where you want to be.

If your remote is capable of doing it, you could program a macro. But you'd still have to know where you're coming from in order to program the correct steps to get to where you want to be.


I would not use an extra remote......ONLY the Sony remote that comes with the KDF-E50A10. Is it easily possible to jump from one input to the other with one or two punches of the button?

I can't answer that, I don't have one. I was going on what jmw1137 was describing. Per his description, you push WEGA Gate, then choose the input you desire.

HELP-
Anyone figure out how to change the image from 720p to 1080i? Or to tell which mode it is in? thanks.

The TV should automatically display the proper signal it receives. You don't change the TV to match the input, you tell the input what to send to the TV.

No discrete codes on a10 remote.

Perhaps you last sentence above is the answer of having to repeatedly punch through to each input in order to get "through the inputs that you aren't using". If you'll be so kind please post the exact procedure to do that, I'm sure we'd all appreciate that! Thanks.Page 79 of the user manual where you can label the video inputs. Besides the various names you can select their is also one called Skip which will cause the TV to skip that input. It has been on all Sony TVs for the last few years and a few other manufacturers use similar systems as well.

"I was explaining why discrete codes make it easier for those of us that are capable of programming a remote to do so. I wasn't on a fishing trip to get some smart ass response. I don't understand why'd you'd leave such a smart ass response. "



I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. It's just fun to poke fun at all of us sometimes about how finicky we can get about this stuff. ;)


No harm meant. :D

Ok...that's cool. Just struck me as a smart ass thing to say to someone trying to explain a situation.

Now, back under my rock I go.

Yes, for the TV warranty. The bulb warranty has to be purchased within something like 10 days of the TV purchase.

Unless I am missing something, the 3 year bulb warranty for $75 is a no brainer. I suspect that we need more data on how long bulbs are really lasting before knowing if this is a good deal.

Maybe GWIII and GWIV owners might know?

I have a GWII and the bulb is still going and believe me it gets heavy use.

I just ordered a 42A10 from the Sears in Attleboro MA. They have 50" on the floor... just put on display Monday afternoon. They used the 50" Sears number to figure out how to find the 42 in the system (it's one number lower than the 50. I think #54625, but don't count on that.) Sears price in the system was $1899. The TV's are in the warehouse, they just haven't been distributed to stores.

Delivery is on Monday. Waiting for MA tax-free shopping was a non-starter since I don't have a car big enough to bring it home to RI in.

Look at my membership join-date. That's how long I've been waiting for this. In that time I've moved 500 miles, held three different jobs, and have my first child on the way. Boy I hope the Sears guy didn't order the wrong thing!!!

Pictures to come, of course.

Sony TVs has discrete IR codes for each input. The remote that comes with it does not. Easy solution is to get a Harmony remote which has the discrete codes in their database and pack away all your other remotes. Or other similar remotes that has the discrete IR codes in their database.

Sony TVs has discrete IR codes for each input. The remote that comes with it does not. Easy solution is to get a Harmony remote which has the discrete codes in their database and pack away all your other remotes. Or other similar remotes that has the discrete IR codes in their database.


I have a sony 34xs955, which I use with a Harmony 676 remote control. yes, Harmony has the discrete codes for the inputs on my 34xs955. the codes appear to work for all sony tvs but i will confirm that they work on the A10 when mine arrives Friday.

While it's not hard to hit a couple more buttons I understand where people are coming from....I've had TV with PIP for 3-4 years. I love it and use it all the time. How hard is it to hit the 'jump' or 'last' button to go back & forth? It's not hard but I've gotten used to PIP...same way people are used to the discrete codes.

Here are the exact steps I take to switch:

- Hit WEGA Gate
- Hit the down button to go to inputs (I think it's 3-4 down)
- Select the input I want

IMO, it's very fast and nice to not have to cycle through all the inputs to get to the one you want. I've never owned Sony (or even a RPTV for that matter) so this feature is new to me but I guess it's new to the A10s & A20s? I really like it and think it's very quick & easy to change things with it.

Regarding discrete codes....maybe someone can see if this is still possible with the A10 Series. Things may have changed over the years, but my 35" XBR tube has the following workaround for discrete input selection:

Regardless of what input you are watching, hitting the "channel up" button switches it to "TV." To simulate a discrete code, you simply program your macros to start with "Channel Up" and then send the "TV/Video" code how ever many times it takes to cycle to the desired input. Sounds kind of roundabout, but it works flawlessly without any noticeable delay.

Thanks to everyone for all the information in this thread. I'm just now getting back into a search that started with interest in the Sammy DLPs a few years ago. I just haven't been in a very big hurry. Currently, the A10 Series 42" and 50" are my leading contenders.

The Great Indoors mailed out a flyer with a picture and price of the E42A10. This was Wednesday/Thrusday of last week. By the way the price listed as $300 above MSRP.

Huh, I stopped by the Great Indoors store in Novi, MI and they had both the E42A10 and E50A10 in their system priced at MSRP. They also said that they automatically take 10% off the MSRP. He said that they should receive them in about a week, and they'll put it on display as soon as they get it.

[QUOTE]Huh, I stopped by the Great Indoors store in Novi, MI and they had both the E42A10 and E50A10 in their system priced at MSRP. They also said that they automatically take 10% off the MSRP. He said that they should receive them in about a week, and they'll put it on display as soon as they get it.


At least in the Dallas area, my experience with the Great Indoors is that they are very "proud" of their merchandise.

By the way how do you get the "quote" box ?

I'm confused with how a universal remote such as the Harmony will solve the problem mentioned in previous posts. Since all settings and inputs on the A10 are accessed only after you access WEGA gate, won't it be the same on the Harmony unless you program a series of commands into a macros button on the Harmony? I'm not sure I understand the full capabliites of the Harmony remotes.

Has anybody seen these sets in Los Angeles? Don't want to order one sight unseen if at all possible.

...I'm not sure I understand the full capabliites of the Harmony remotes...

Harmony remotes are discussed in other forums. Basically, they are task oriented instead of machine oriented. i.e. You push a button to watch a DVD. The remote knows what to turn on, change, etc, to make this happen.

Regarding discrete codes....maybe someone can see if this is still possible with the A10 Series. Things may have changed over the years, but my 35" XBR tube has the following workaround for discrete input selection:

Regardless of what input you are watching, hitting the "channel up" button switches it to "TV." To simulate a discrete code, you simply program your macros to start with "Channel Up" and then send the "TV/Video" code how ever many times it takes to cycle to the desired input. Sounds kind of roundabout, but it works flawlessly without any noticeable delay.



I tried a similar method with my Panasonic TV without discrete inputs and found it to be unreliable. Even though I extended the pause between steps in a macro, it still ended up on the wrong input with some regularity. Consequently we quit using the macros and cycle through the inputs manually.

Has anybody seen these sets in Los Angeles? Don't want to order one sight unseen if at all possible.

Yep, I finally found a store that had one on display. The Ken Crane's on Ventura Blvd in Encino, about 1/2 mile west of 405. It was a 50 inch, I thought it looked great.

There is also a 50" A10 at the Sears in Burbank and an A20 across the street at Circuit City.

Thanks for the info on the Sears internal number (54635 for the 50'' & 54625 for the 42") -- it did shed some light on the whereabouts of these TV's in the deep South (New Orleans).

I previously have called Sears several times and they told me they did not have this TV and would probably not be getting it soon.

I called today and asked about the '54635' and they immediately were ready to order it for 2-3 day delivery. Unfortunately, the price was not at the $2,250 mark that others were seeing (it was at $2375 before the Friends and Family 10% discount).

Hopefully, they will be willing to deal a little on the price!

Has anyone had a sighting near the Stamford, CT area? I'm getting frustrated not being able to check one out. I don't want to buy it sight unseen.

For those who are debating getting an extended warranty

This is probably more intended for the newbie as the old timers here have probably seen these threads pop up from time to time.

Light engines do go out and they're expensive to replace. (think $800-$1,200) Its not fiction. Even though some of this technology has been out for a while, its not like a TV that you bought 10 years ago that has never needed a service call.

Now some of you are buying sets who part of the fun of buying is getting it for the absolute minimum possible. That's fine. But it is false economy to not add in an extended warranty for $300 or $400 and a couple of years later have to foot the bill on an expensive repair.

Not to get into a debate on repair costs and warranties, etc., but this post: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5932518&highlight=light+engine+355#post5932518

indicated the price for a light engine replacement including labor was $355.


Mitch

.
I called today and asked about the '54635' and they immediately were ready to order it for 2-3 day delivery.!

Did you call a local Sears store or a national number to give this order number?

Looking at the IR database that is available for the Home Theater Master MX-700, it appears that Sony supports discrete codes for last year's models (KDF-**WE655) that allow direct access to the inputs, discrete power on and power off (thank goodness) and other features. So, unless Sony went insane, I have to believe the A10s support discretes and they are probably the same ones as the previous models where common.

If anyone cares, I did shoot an email to the Home Theater Master people asking if they have plans to explicitly support the A10s in their IR database - for things like the WEGA GATE etc.


Mitch

I'm in the Groton area, I've had no sign of it either. Though My local Bernie's said they would have it Monday. Can't wait to get a look!

Thanks for the info on the Sears internal number (54635 for the 50'' & 54625 for the 42") -- it did shed some light on the whereabouts of these TV's in the deep South (New Orleans).

I previously have called Sears several times and they told me they did not have this TV and would probably not be getting it soon.

I called today and asked about the '54635' and they immediately were ready to order it for 2-3 day delivery. Unfortunately, the price was not at the $2,250 mark that others were seeing (it was at $2375 before the Friends and Family 10% discount).

Hopefully, they will be willing to deal a little on the price!
Dogwater,
If you are looking for the new A10's in New Orleans, I picked my 50" up last Saturday from New Orleans Audio and Video on Citrus in Harahan. I think they had 3 left after mine.

Thanks for the info on the Sears internal number (54635 for the 50'' & 54625 for the 42") -- it did shed some light on the whereabouts of these TV's in the deep South (New Orleans).

I previously have called Sears several times and they told me they did not have this TV and would probably not be getting it soon.

I called today and asked about the '54635' and they immediately were ready to order it for 2-3 day delivery. Unfortunately, the price was not at the $2,250 mark that others were seeing


(it was at $2375 before the Friends and Family 10% discount).

Hopefully, they will be willing to deal a little on the price!


Here's the scoop: The Sears 10% F&F discount will start at the posted price on that day, even if its at a discount........of say $2375 that you refer to.
In other words, the 10% will be taken off of the $2375 price.........SO......it's 2375 minus 10% which = $2,137.50. Not a bad price. I think its more likely than not that the actual PRICE on the 8/14 Sale Date will be the original $2,499.99. Just wait and see.

Has anyone read the recent CNET review on the A10?? thoughts? I cant post the link but check it out.

Has anyone read the recent CNET review on the A10?? thoughts? I cant post the link but check it out.

If you search this forum, you will see comments on this review and reviewer.

But....will the Sears website list the new models? I'd rather order online.

Just got my 50A10 today. So far I am happy with it. I had a 32 Sony CRT HDTV that had great picture just to small. This screen IMO has a great LCD picture, noticed while watching the news in hi def that the ladies hair seemed like there was to much sharpness on it and around her eyes. It just looked kind of off. I haven't tweaked anything yet. Just hooked up my HTPC using both DVI>HDMI and PC monitor input. NOticed DVI has less underscan then the PC input. I hope soon I will be able to go into service menu and stretch out the image to the edges. I like the menu layout and the remote. My harmony 880 is already running it great. My concern earlier was if I would be able to view text and do normal PC functions not just watch movies or game on it. Well I am very pleased with it for web browsing and email. Clearly readable from 15ft at both 720 & 768 rez.

50/42 A10 owners , have you noticed a somewhat warped bottom edge below the speakers? My lowest horizontal line right above the TV rests and below the speakers is not straight but somewhat wavy and looks like crud. I am going to have the B/M store pick it up and deliver a new one. Anyone else notice that plastic bezel on the bottom below the speakers not completely straight???


As far as the remotes go and direct inputs, I have used the Channel Up method then count the inputs for my macros in the past and it works fine, just takes forever (2-4secs) to switch back between inputs since it always has to start at channel and work its way up through the inputs each time even if you are jumping between input 5 and 7. I did find though last week when I brought home the Harmony 880 that it can directly jump to the correct input when you select what activity or macro you are trying for. I haven't spent much time with it yet but I am hoping I can make input buttons on the screen to directly switch to inputs if I desire , not just in a macro layout. No matter how I turn off my system, when I hit watch TV activity it always comes up correct on the right Audio input and the right Video input. Loving this Harmony 880.

Has anyone read the recent CNET review on the A10?? thoughts? I cant post the link but check it out.

Don't know quite what to think about it other than the old "each technology has its own issues" answer and you just have to figure out which issues are more important to you. I may not care for variations in uniformity across the screen (that mostly doesn't show up in normal viewing) but the DLP look of fast motion bothers me even more. So its a matter of picking your poison.

The CNET site does provide a ranking of the editor's favorite sets. I can see where picking the top 3 or 4 to go look at could eliminate a lot of footwork.

[QUOTE=eno45]Just got my 50A10 today. So far I am happy with it. I had a 32 Sony CRT HDTV that had great picture just to small. This screen IMO has a great LCD picture, noticed while watching the news in hi def that the ladies hair seemed like there was to much sharpness on it and around her eyes. It just looked kind of off. I haven't tweaked anything yet. Just hooked up my HTPC using both DVI>HDMI and PC monitor input. NOticed DVI has less underscan then the PC input. I hope soon I will be able to go into service menu and stretch out the image to the edges. I like the menu layout and the remote. My harmony 880 is already running it great. My concern earlier was if I would be able to view text and do normal PC functions not just watch movies or game on it. Well I am very pleased with it for web browsing and email. Clearly readable from 15ft at both 720 & 768 rez.

50/42 A10 owners , have you noticed a somewhat warped bottom edge below the speakers? My lowest horizontal line right above the TV rests and below the speakers is not straight but somewhat wavy and looks like crud. I am going to have the B/M store pick it up and deliver a new one. Anyone else notice that plastic bezel on the bottom below the speakers not completely straight???


How are the black levels on dark scenes compared to you old 32 Inch Sony?? Darker scenes were the weak spot on the GWIII and GWIV. I am really hoping there is great improvement in this area.

Thanks for the stats on the actual box. I'll bring my dad's trailer just in case it won't fit my van.

WRT giving out "actual price$" in this forum (taboo), I'm sorry; I was excited and I wanted to give back to this forum. Also, WRT purchasing the Sears Extended Warranty (EW), and yes, i know they've made a thread for warranties since my orig post and those that buy it might be fools, I just have to say that it's a personal decision.

Although a (vocal)lot of people have never needed the help on an EW, I have, and I'm glad I had the extra coverage because I benefited. Not for all. But me? Yes.

Thanks for the insightful posts and the varied opinions.

CJArciola, III -- I called my local Sears store.

How are the black levels on dark scenes compared to you old 32 Inch Sony?? Darker scenes were the weak spot on the GWIII and GWIV. I am really hoping there is great improvement in this area.


I am no experienced tester of TV's so all I can compare it to is my old CRTPROJO and the last 32CRT SOny I just took out of here. As far as black levels I had all the lights off and watching Underworld it still seemed somewhat grey even after lowering the brightness down as low as it could go without going to low. I lowered the iris to its lowest setting which took away some of the grey. It looks alright now in dark scenes but I did lower the iris. I really wish I could get the picture of the Sony CRT in a 50" 16:9 under say 300lbs. :) Just kidding, it looks alright but it does have a LCD look to it where the CRT was sharper. But again that was about 28" 16:9 compared to 50" so of course I can see more flaws with a larger set. I am pretty happy with it but will have it swapped out for another because of the warped bottom line below the speakers, its not straight at all.

Dogwater,
If you are looking for the new A10's in New Orleans, I picked my 50" up last Saturday from New Orleans Audio and Video on Citrus in Harahan. I think they had 3 left after mine.
Thanks for the info -- I have been wanting to call or go see New Orleans Audio & Video but they always seem to be closed. I will make it a point to go see them ASAP.

I will PM you about some details of your purchase.

I just ordered a 42A10 from the Sears in Attleboro MA. They have 50" on the floor... just put on display Monday afternoon. They used the 50" Sears number to figure out how to find the 42 in the system (it's one number lower than the 50. I think #54625, but don't count on that.) Sears price in the system was $1899. The TV's are in the warehouse, they just haven't been distributed to stores.

Delivery is on Monday. Waiting for MA tax-free shopping was a non-starter since I don't have a car big enough to bring it home to RI in.

Look at my membership join-date. That's how long I've been waiting for this. In that time I've moved 500 miles, held three different jobs, and have my first child on the way. Boy I hope the Sears guy didn't order the wrong thing!!!

Pictures to come, of course.

Wow, that's great news! I'm gonna have to swing by there and check it out! They have one at Tweeter in Seekonk, MA but its not on display yet! :mad: Thats a pretty good price too. What is your viewing distance? I am debating between the 42 & 50" My viewing distance is 7-8ft, but I dont wanna get the 42 and after a while regret not getting the 50 :confused: I am upgrading from a 27" CRT so either one is gonna look huge at first.

[QUOTE=Dick]From a fellow Austinite...which Sears was that and did they mention when they might put them on display ?[/QUOTE
Sears at Barton Creek.

Yep, I finally found a store that had one on display. The Ken Crane's on Ventura Blvd in Encino, about 1/2 mile west of 405. It was a 50 inch, I thought it looked great.

There is also a 50" A10 at the Sears in Burbank and an A20 across the street at Circuit City.

Great, thanks!!! I'll be off to one (or both!) of those stores tomorrow after work. :)

Thanks for all the info peeps! I jumped in this afternoon and purchased the 50 online.

Hopefully I'll get in time to post back some details before it becomes old news. You guys are great ;)

After visiting 3 places last week and none of them having the TV, and most people having no idea the TV existed, I finally got smart and called a handful of local places about availability of the E50A10. I had the darndest time explaining what I wanted at CC when I visited. I told the guy it was an LCD RPTV and he went looking at the LCD panels.

Anyway, here's a brief summary of what's going on:
Myer Emco in Gaithersburg - TVs are on the way to the store and should have a floor model by this weekend. Price is MSRP.

CC in Gaithersburg - As of this past weekend, was not in the warehouse. But... read the next line.

CC in Rockville - In the warehouse and available for order. Probably won't be on the floor until old models are gone or almost gone. Price is MSRP.

BB in Germantown - In the warehouse, won't be in the store until last years models are gone. Price was about $150 less than MSRP.

Sears in Gaithersburg - As of this past weekend, not in any database.

Tweeter in Rockville - In the warehouse. Price is MSRP. Sounds like they won't have them in store for many weeks.

I also called The Great Indoors, BB in Gaithersburg, and BB in Rockville, but no one picked up. I would advise against going to the Gaithersburg CC due to the lack of knowledge of some of their employees. While I was having the first employee I met in the TV dept go on a goose chase to find the thing ("Is it LCD TV?" "NO! For the fifth time, its LCD RPTV!!"), I was approached by another employee since I was just standing around, explained what I wanted, and he had an answer for me by looking at the computer before the first guy came back. And the way the guy talked at the CC in Rockville, they (Rockville) get's a hold of new product faster since they are a pretty big store.

Here in Canada they are only selling the old 50 inch models and would really appreciate comparisons between the two models by owners of the new ones.
I know the old ones can be got for an outlandish low price right now and from some of the reviews I have noted here, I am not so sure the new ones will be a huge improvement. (sound is not great, blacks still seem gray etc....)
Shite....I am sooooooooo confused! :eek: :cool: :rolleyes:

Anyone know of ANY stores in the Chicagoland area that has the 42" A10 in stock? I feel like going out and buying a TV today. :D

I am no experienced tester of TV's so all I can compare it to is my old CRTPROJO and the last 32CRT SOny I just took out of here. As far as black levels I had all the lights off and watching Underworld it still seemed somewhat grey even after lowering the brightness down as low as it could go without going to low. I lowered the iris to its lowest setting which took away some of the grey. It looks alright now in dark scenes but I did lower the iris. I really wish I could get the picture of the Sony CRT in a 50" 16:9 under say 300lbs. :) Just kidding, it looks alright but it does have a LCD look to it where the CRT was sharper. But again that was about 28" 16:9 compared to 50" so of course I can see more flaws with a larger set. I am pretty happy with it but will have it swapped out for another because of the warped bottom line below the speakers, its not straight at all.

Sounds like they may be improved then...but not as much as I hoped for. The only 50 inch tv's I have seen that come close to Sony CRT 32-36 inchers for overall PQ are the better plasmas. The Panasonic plasma that is selling for around $4600 has an awesome picture, but it's twice the price of the Sony A10, and won't quite fit in my entertainment cabinet..UGH. I think I need a new cabinet..lol.

Here in Canada they are only selling the old 50 inch model

Where? I haven't found it anywhere.

I know the old ones can be got for an outlandish low price right now and from some of the reviews I have noted here, I am not so sure the new ones will be a huge improvement. (sound is not great, blacks still seem gray etc....)
Shite....I am sooooooooo confused! :eek: :cool: :rolleyes:Well it really depends on what you consider in terms of pro's and con's for the new and old models. To me the three big improvements in the A10's are the dynamic iris, the VGA input, and the 720x1280 resolution. None of the features in the old models I care about so to me their is no real advantage for the old models besides price. Different people though will have different pro's and con's and in the end you have to make your own choice on what display will be best for you.

Where? I haven't found it anywhere.

Here in T.O. Future Shop has them for an unreal price. Just pm'd you.

Well it really depends on what you consider in terms of pro's and con's for the new and old models. To me the three big improvements in the A10's are the dynamic iris, the VGA input, and the 720x1280 resolution. None of the features in the old models I care about so to me their is no real advantage for the old models besides price. Different people though will have different pro's and con's and in the end you have to make your own choice on what display will be best for you.


And the toughest thing is thatyou might not be able to see the difference in a show room and its not very likely you can take both sets home for a few days to make the comparison.

An interesting thing to note; the 42" 655 is no longer available at CC online. The 50" is still there however.

And the toughest thing is thatyou might not be able to see the difference in a show room and its not very likely you can take both sets home for a few days to make the comparison.

But you can take one home, watch it for a week, then take it back and get the other, watch it for a week, then decide.

Assuming stock is available of course.

"50/42 A10 owners , have you noticed a somewhat warped bottom edge below the speakers? My lowest horizontal line right above the TV rests and below the speakers is not straight but somewhat wavy and looks like crud. I am going to have the B/M store pick it up and deliver a new one. Anyone else notice that plastic bezel on the bottom below the speakers not completely straight???"

Has anyone else noticed this problem who owns this TV already. I am getting my tv on saturday and getting nervous about this. What is the reason behind this? Is this a cosmetic problem? Is it something wrong with the picture?

Anyone have any idea on box size height... 42" and 50"? Curious if it'll fit in my Murano.

Anyone have any idea on box size height... 42" and 50"? Curious if it'll fit in my Murano.

Someone posted the 50" box size in this thread...search it.

Anyone have any idea on box size height... 42" and 50"? Curious if it'll fit in my Murano.

I highly doubt it...unless you lay it down and then maybe it will fit. Go back a few pages and you'll see the box specs.

Can we just press one one button to get to our desired input quickly or can we "program" it in? Life is hard enough as it is (:- !!!

This whole discussion reminds me of a David Letterman skit recently that parodied the AgileTV voice-activated remote control. It was a faux ad that described the ridiculous number of steps you had to go through to use the voice feature. "First, press the Talk button... now, slowly speak the name of the channel you wish to go to into the microphone... then, press the Talk button again... now, verify your channel selection by entering the channel number on the remote keypad... press Talk again... say "Verify" clearly into the microphone... press Talk one last time, and voila, you have changed channels easily and conveniently with the AgileTV voice-activated remote control." Or something like that... it was pretty funny.

hey guys a quick question for all of you A10 owners. Is there any noticable lag when playing video games with these sets?

I am looking for an HDTV for next gen consoles and this seems like a good set in my price range. I just worry about LCD response time.

can someone post a picture of the horozontal line problem with the tv as discussed before.

But you can take one home, watch it for a week, then take it back and get the other, watch it for a week, then decide.

Assuming stock is available of course.

Or buy them both at the same time, and then just take back the one you like the least. Not exactly ethical, perhaps... but it's not exactly ethical for all these stores to be pushing the old models at their old prices while the new models are sitting around in the warehouse so the uninformed masses don't know about them til it's too late, and the informed minority can't make a comparison because they won't display them for us.

I highly doubt it...unless you lay it down and then maybe it will fit. Go back a few pages and you'll see the box specs.


And I can't imagine it's healthy for a RPTV to lay on its side.

I'll have to go out and measure. The 42" might fit.

Here in Canada they are only selling the old 50 inch models and would really appreciate comparisons between the two models by owners of the new ones.
I know the old ones can be got for an outlandish low price right now and from some of the reviews I have noted here, I am not so sure the new ones will be a huge improvement. (sound is not great, blacks still seem gray etc....)
Shite....I am sooooooooo confused! :eek: :cool: :rolleyes:
The A10s are not coming to Canada until mid sept at the earliest. Like the gw4 it will be a canada specific model with no cablecard slot. The e50a10 will have a cdn msrp of $3699. It will be much cheaper to buy it from the US because sony decided to bump up the prices for canada on the a10 and a20s.

The A10s are not coming to Canada until mid sept at the earliest. Like the gw4 it will be a canada specific model with no cablecard slot. The e50a10 will have a cdn msrp of $3699. It will be much cheaper to buy it from the US because sony decided to bump up the prices for canada on the a10 and a20s.


I would like to know where you got your information, if you don't mind.
Are the Canadian Sony Reps talking about the TVs yet? Are those the answers they give out when you call them?

I can get 15% off at Sears (can't name source, sorry ;) )

If I read a previous post correctly, Sears' has the 42" A10 for MSRP -$100

If I can get the Friends & family discount (and my math is correct), I may be able to get it for about MSRP -$500!

Now I'd just like to see it in person first...

The first person in Houston who wants one of these calibrated by me will get a price break. Send me a PM.

umr, Are you aware of any stores in the greater Houston area that have the 50" in stock? I called Tweeter and they won't have them until the 12th (at MSRP).

And yes lander215 I did a search.

And yes lander215 I did a search.

Yea! I'm getting through to the masses! ;) :p

Here in Canada they are only selling the old 50 inch models and would really appreciate comparisons between the two models by owners of the new ones.
I know the old ones can be got for an outlandish low price right now and from some of the reviews I have noted here, I am not so sure the new ones will be a huge improvement. (sound is not great, blacks still seem gray etc....)
Shite....I am sooooooooo confused! :eek: :cool: :rolleyes:

FWIW, I did see a 50" A10 and a 50" 655 in the same showroom the other day. I did not spend much time comparing, but the A10 was brighter, sharper and had more vibrant colors. It clearly had a better picture than the 655. I have to say that this 655 just didn't look right. The picture looked tired, kind of dull, not like a typical Sony.

I'd guess the 655 has been on 10 hours a day, every day, for months now.

I just received my 50A10 from Circuit City @ lunch today. They took away my Samsung HLR4667W. I have not had time to do any setup or very much viewing. I did a quick check to see if some of my Samsung concerns were better on the Sony. I can say that on a quick view I will be happy with the exchange.

The 50A10 comes set to vivid mode, Yuk. I changed it to standard for now. The color seems really vibrant on HD material and SD digital channels also looked good. I didn't even have a chance to look at analog yet.

My price for the Sony will be the same as I paid for the Samsung; this was worked out prior to the trade. The CC system does have the 50A10 listed @ press release MSRP.

I'll report back later with some more detailed info about picture quality, etc. Damn the remote is long, I have a Harmony 880 pre-set for this configuration, which I downloaded after hooking up the TV. It seems to work OK at this point. The programming will get a serious workout as I left it with my mom and wife untested. I do expect some phone call this afternoon.

More to come...

Andy

Damn,

just got back from SEARS in austin (i-35 and airport) and was about to buy the A10 and load it onto my truck when we asked about the return/exchange policy. Apparently this is a new policy: there is now a 15% restocking fee on returns AND exchanges... so sad story short: still no TV... damn.

I think there's a slight chance we would want to go bigger after trying out the 50 inch for a week or so ... and no way am I paying $300 to trade up....

anyway: if anyone in austin doesn't care about that and has a truck, they have one you can take home today. (it was to be their floor model but they never unpacked it so they'll sell it ... never been opened of course)...

The normal policy at places like best buy and circuit city is 30 day no hassle returns and exchanges ... right?

I figured i'd just share a sweet little story with everyone.


I just bought a 42" A10 from Abt Electronics near Chicago but it hasn't been delivered yet. Recently my brother in law had been looking at getting the 50" WE655 but that all changed when he saw the A10. :D He agreed that it was the set he wanted so I called back my guy and told him I had deal I wanted to work out. :cool:


I told him my bother in law was ready to buy that sucker at Sears but I saved him and was interested in seeing what kind of a deal we could work out for both sets. He had already given me an amazing price on the 42-A10 but he offered to lower the price another $12. No big deal right? Well, then he included a 3 year in hom warranty as well. :D Then, he went on to offer an awesome price on the 50" A10 and the same 3 year in home warranty deal. Abt is the best! I feel so sorry for the rest of you who don't live near this amazing retail store. It's one of a kind.


Of course I figure I should let some of you know that Abt does a ton of buisness off their website as well and you can call any order any tv and have it shipped. If you live within an hour or two of the store the delivery is FREE. It's almost like it's too good to be true from these guys. ;)

So, i'll just tell you this to give you an idea of the deal we just got. The 50" A10 cost my brother in law an Xbox game more than the retail of the 42 A10. :D


I just wanted to give some of you a heads up and remind you that you shouldn't be paying retail for any tv. Always negotiate as these places always have a way of discounting for a deal.

I figured i'd just share a sweet little story with everyone.


I just bought a 42" A10 from Abt Electronics near Chicago but it hasn't been delivered yet. Recently my brother in law had been looking at getting the 50" WE655 but that all changed when he saw the A10. :D He agreed that it was the set he wanted so I called back my guy and told him I had deal I wanted to work out. :cool:


I told him my bother in law was ready to buy that sucker at Sears but I saved him and was interested in seeing what kind of a deal we could work out for both sets. He had already given me an amazing price on the 42-A10 but he offered to lower the price another $12. No big deal right? Well, then he included a 3 year in hom warranty as well. :D Then, he went on to offer an awesome price on the 50" A10 and the same 3 year in home warranty deal. Abt is the best! I feel so sorry for the rest of you who don't live near this amazing retail store. It's one of a kind.


Of course I figure I should let some of you know that Abt does a ton of buisness off their website as well and you can call any order any tv and have it shipped. If you live within an hour or two of the store the delivery is FREE. It's almost like it's too good to be true from these guys. ;)

So, i'll just tell you this to give you an idea of the deal we just got. The 50" A10 cost my brother in law an Xbox game more than the retail of the 42 A10. :D


I just wanted to give some of you a heads up and remind you that you shouldn't be paying retail for any tv. Always negotiate as these places always have a way of discounting for a deal.


I negotiated to $2132 for my A10. $2300 total including tax and delivery. I can opt for the 5 year extended from the same store for $239 for 5 years. I have up to 6 months to buy the extended warranty so I left it out for now.

The TV IS better than the last models for blacks...noticeably! I don't see any of that bluish tint to the shadows that I did on the previous models. Blacks seem very true and I'd dare say that I would compare the blacks to any DLP I have seen preliminarily. DVD's look amazing. LOTR really shines and the dark battle scenes look very lifelike with very good shadow detail.

I set it to Custom, Vivid color: off, Whites: off, Black correction: low, Gamma: low, Dynamic Iris: high. Looks much better than the OOTB settings. I may try the Avia to fine tune the colors which definitely have a bit too much "red push". I notice minimal SDE from 10 ft away in a dark room, but it is there. The bright whites do have minimal SSE but not at all bothersome. Average Joe wouldn't notice it. Fast motion is excellent without any smearing or lag at all.

Definitely a keeper. Glad I waited! Nice job Sony.

i'm planning on getting the 50" version of the A10, and since this is my first time buying a tv in quite some time...and the first time ever for a HDTV, i have to ask you all, what do i need to buy, besides the tv itself? i am getting HDTV service through my digital cable company pretty soon (they provide a box w/ tivo ability for free or i can get a card for about $2 a month....which is better by the way, if i don't mind the box taking up space...i mean, is the picture any better w/ the card versus the box?). also, i know i need to get some decent cables to hook up all my stuff, but what else? i've read people stating to get some sort of power supply or surge protector. is this the only other thing i need or am i forgetting something??? btw, with the specs of the E50A10, what type of power supply/surge protector do i need? sorry for the noob questions, but i'd like to get this right on the first time. of course, i'd like the best bang for buck types of products, b/c i'm already dropping a pretty penny on the tv. thanks in advance.

I would like to know where you got your information, if you don't mind.
Are the Canadian Sony Reps talking about the TVs yet? Are those the answers they give out when you call them?
The sony rep for retailers. The information is available for all retailers, hard to say if it has been passed onto floor employees yet.

please start posting settings to help others out. Would be nice.

please start posting settings to help others out. Would be nice.

I set it to:

In the advanced menu(only reached when picture set to custom):

Black correction: low
Dynamic Iris: high
Gamma: low
Clear White: Off
Vivid Color: Off

Looks much better than the OOTB settings.

thanks for a start. what about sharpness? color? brightness? contrast?

do those not get adjusted.

"please start posting settings to help others out. Would be nice."



Why are someone elses settings so important? It's just one person's opinion about how they like the picture to look.

"please start posting settings to help others out. Would be nice."



Why are someone elses settings so important? It's just one person's opinion about how they like the picture to look.


Opinions matter isn't that why we're here?

Damn,

just got back from SEARS in austin (i-35 and airport) and was about to buy the A10 and load it onto my truck when we asked about the return/exchange policy. Apparently this is a new policy: there is now a 15% restocking fee on returns AND exchanges... so sad story short: still no TV... damn.



Is this policy only at your local Sears store or nationally? I ask because checking the website, the policy still remains the same, 30-day exchange/return...no restocking fee. Of course, the website may not be updated.

Thanks for all the info on the A10s.
I have been waiting for months.
None of the stores here in Charleston, SC have the TVs in stock yet.

One of the members here mentioned ABT electronics.
I looked at their website and the 42A10 was not on there but the 50A10 is.
I called and spoke to Meaghan and she said the 42s just arrived in the wharehouse.
Just ordered the 42A10 and the best part is I don't have to pay 6.5% State and Local sales tax.
So I am getting a discount off MSRP, shipping is included in the price and I don't have to pay about $130 in taxes.
Should arrive in 7-10 business days, but she said it might arrive sooner.

Thanks again!!

I negotiated to $2132 for my A10. $2300 total including tax and delivery. I can opt for the 5 year extended from the same store for $239 for 5 years. I have up to 6 months to buy the extended warranty so I left it out for now.

The TV IS better than the last models for blacks...noticeably! I don't see any of that bluish tint to the shadows that I did on the previous models. Blacks seem very true and I'd dare say that I would compare the blacks to any DLP I have seen preliminarily. DVD's look amazing. LOTR really shines and the dark battle scenes look very lifelike with very good shadow detail.

I set it to Custom, Vivid color: off, Whites: off, Black correction: low, Gamma: low, Dynamic Iris: high. Looks much better than the OOTB settings. I may try the Avia to fine tune the colors which definitely have a bit too much "red push". I notice minimal SDE from 10 ft away in a dark room, but it is there. The bright whites do have minimal SSE but not at all bothersome. Average Joe wouldn't notice it. Fast motion is excellent without any smearing or lag at all.

Definitely a keeper. Glad I waited! Nice job Sony.

Great to hear that the dark scenes are done so well! If this thing can match DLP on blacks, I am going to sell off my 42 inch GWIII, and move up to a 50 inch since the new design fits my entertainment center perfectly.

Just ordered the 42" A10 from Circuit City. They're in the warehouse and the unit should be delivered soon; hopefully within a week.

It was pretty easy to negotiate off of MSRP. I got a good deal. I'm pretty excited.

I figured i'd just share a sweet little story with everyone.


I just bought a 42" A10 from Abt Electronics near Chicago but it hasn't been delivered yet. Recently my brother in law had been looking at getting the 50" WE655 but that all changed when he saw the A10. :D He agreed that it was the set he wanted so I called back my guy and told him I had deal I wanted to work out. :cool:


I told him my bother in law was ready to buy that sucker at Sears but I saved him and was interested in seeing what kind of a deal we could work out for both sets. He had already given me an amazing price on the 42-A10 but he offered to lower the price another $12. No big deal right? Well, then he included a 3 year in hom warranty as well. :D Then, he went on to offer an awesome price on the 50" A10 and the same 3 year in home warranty deal. Abt is the best! I feel so sorry for the rest of you who don't live near this amazing retail store. It's one of a kind.

Of course I figure I should let some of you know that Abt does a ton of buisness off their website as well and you can call any order any tv and have it shipped. If you live within an hour or two of the store the delivery is FREE. It's almost like it's too good to be true from these guys. ;)

So, i'll just tell you this to give you an idea of the deal we just got. The 50" A10 cost my brother in law an Xbox game more than the retail of the 42 A10. :D


I just wanted to give some of you a heads up and remind you that you shouldn't be paying retail for any tv. Always negotiate as these places always have a way of discounting for a deal.

I am heading to Chicago this weekend. Does Abt have the new 50 inch on display? If so I want to head there and check it out. The store sounds really cool too!

Damn,

just got back from SEARS in austin (i-35 and airport) and was about to buy the A10 and load it onto my truck when we asked about the return/exchange policy. Apparently this is a new policy: there is now a 15% restocking fee on returns AND exchanges... so sad story short: still no TV... damn.

I think there's a slight chance we would want to go bigger after trying out the 50 inch for a week or so ... and no way am I paying $300 to trade up....

anyway: if anyone in austin doesn't care about that and has a truck, they have one you can take home today. (it was to be their floor model but they never unpacked it so they'll sell it ... never been opened of course)...

The normal policy at places like best buy and circuit city is 30 day no hassle returns and exchanges ... right?


It was a matter of time before the larger stores started charging for returns and exchanges as people were abusing the policy.

First off, I think that Sears info was just some moron employee shooting off this mouth. I do not believe the company has adopted that policy. My wife works for the company.



"I am heading to Chicago this weekend. Does Abt have the new 50 inch on display? If so I want to head there and check it out. The store sounds really cool too! "


They didn't have the 50" on display on Tuesday when I went in there but they did bring it out for me since I told them thats the only way i'd buy it. ;)



I actually just called and checked and my 42" came in so i'm heading up there tonight to pick it up. I should have a hands on report tomorrow and maybe even some pics if everyone is good and eats their vegetables tonight. :p

Tigerriot,

Saw your thread on ABT and did my 42" order.
She told me they arrived in stock today.
Let us know how you like it.

Just ordered the 42" A10 from Circuit City. They're in the warehouse and the unit should be delivered soon; hopefully within a week.

It was pretty easy to negotiate off of MSRP. I got a good deal. I'm pretty excited.

Scrib - just sent you a PM

Thanks...

I promise to eat my veggies...I won't even hid them under the mashed potatoes

FWIW, I did see a 50" A10 and a 50" 655 in the same showroom the other day. I did not spend much time comparing, but the A10 was brighter, sharper and had more vibrant colors. It clearly had a better picture than the 655. I have to say that this 655 just didn't look right. The picture looked tired, kind of dull, not like a typical Sony.

I saw the e50a10 and the 50WE655 right next to each other at Alamo Electronics in Cincinnati. I didn't have time to mess with the remotes, but the e50a10 displayed more of the image on the screen than the 655 did. It seemed like the 655 had a cm or so cut off from all sides of the screen. Both TVs had the same aspect setting as well.

I'm going back to investigate further once they get the e42a10 model in next week, but that makes me feel better about waiting for the new models instead of jumping on the older ones.

BTW, both 50'' sets looked great, and I couldn't really tell a difference between black levels, but like I said, I didn't have time to mess with the remotes, so maybe the IRIS setting was off.

That 15% restocking fee is inaccurate. There is no restocking fee. The return policy on electronics is 30 days with no restocking fee, but the manager can allow returns after the 30 days with no restocking fee as well but that is up to the individual stores.

Got my A10 tonight!

Good:
PQ is great--HD and DVD of course, but even SD is better than I expected. Default "Vivid" setting is horrendous, but setting the Dynamic Iris to High and the Vivid Color to Off helps a lot!

Bad:
I've got a cluster of dead pixels (I think), in the upper left hand corner. What's weird is that about 10 are dark grey and another 5 are black. The whole cluster is in the shape of a circle.

Any advice on who to call first?

I JUST returned from sears they had the 50A10 on display Im here in St louis South county mall Store. Ive been waiting to look at this tv for 2 months because im ready to buy my first big screen and hdtv. Ill be real honest I have been closley monitoring the samsung hlr5067 and 5087 . First impressions They had the a10 next to the 5067 and the sammy looked better to me. THE sony was good but the sammy just looked better and I was standing to the side of the sammy. The sony had a good picture especially on my local digitals ( They had a silver sensor attena-excellent) But it sill didnt reproduce the deep blacks as well as the sammy. I did play with the settings which by the way are very easy with the remote. I could not get the the sony to look as good as the sammy no matter what I tried. Another thing that bugged me was the IRIS THING. Picture kept adjusting itself and was kinda annoying. IRIS setting on 4. I still want to spend more time with this thing for a better evaluation. But like I said first impressions are the sammy won this round. The price was cheaper on the sony 2375 and the salesman said if I wanted the 10 percent off for family and freinds I could have it. I will go tomorrow early and spend time with it again and try a few different things. Also Im pretty new to the forum and just want to thank all the posters you really have educated me on The HD world.

I'm still waiting for my 50A10. In the meantime I read the manual front to back. I like the idea of separate settings for each input, but what really intrigued me is the audio sync tunning. I've never owned a set that would let me sync audio with external devices. Has anyone played with this feature yet? Sometimes we have a lag on Fox through the Moxi cable box and this would probably help things.

umr, Are you aware of any stores in the greater Houston area that have the 50" in stock? I called Tweeter and they won't have them until the 12th (at MSRP).

And yes lander215 I did a search.

Sorry, I have not seen one of these or heard any better news.

"please start posting settings to help others out. Would be nice."



Why are someone elses settings so important? It's just one person's opinion about how they like the picture to look.

Because we are all members of the human race.

Well... to any austinites who are interested in an A10 (50 or 42 inch available) I can hardily recommend jeff from "digital entertainment solutions".

They delivered the tv ... hooked it up ... set up all the channels and inputs.... just fantastic. All for a great price. You won't get the 30 day free as a bird deal (which I know I know I was crying about just earlier today) but I must say it felt really nice to purchase the tv from a PERSON who knew what he was talking about!

anyway... I'm going to go look into adjusting the dvd settings so we can watch a dvd tonight. I can almost see it: a brighter tomorrow not spent refreshing the AVS forums!

well.. just wanted to drop a quick note about a fantastic experience in the austin area... not to mention that he has the 42s in stock....


anyway... happy viewing everyone....! I can't believe how great the tv looks. (both picture and build)... adios amigos! :D

I JUST returned from sears they had the 50A10 on display Im here in St louis South county mall Store. Ive been waiting to look at this tv for 2 months because im ready to buy my first big screen and hdtv. Ill be real honest I have been closley monitoring the samsung hlr5067 and 5087 . First impressions They had the a10 next to the 5067 and the sammy looked better to me. THE sony was good but the sammy just looked better and I was standing to the side of the sammy. The sony had a good picture especially on my local digitals ( They had a silver sensor attena-excellent) But it sill didnt reproduce the deep blacks as well as the sammy. I did play with the settings which by the way are very easy with the remote. I could not get the the sony to look as good as the sammy no matter what I tried. Another thing that bugged me was the IRIS THING. Picture kept adjusting itself and was kinda annoying. IRIS setting on 4. I still want to spend more time with this thing for a better evaluation. But like I said first impressions are the sammy won this round. The price was cheaper on the sony 2375 and the salesman said if I wanted the 10 percent off for family and freinds I could have it. I will go tomorrow early and spend time with it again and try a few different things. Also Im pretty new to the forum and just want to thank all the posters you really have educated me on The
HD world.

Hard to imagine that the new supposedly improved Sony looked worse than a Samsung. The old Sony could blow any HD-3 Samsung model away, except for black levels. Samusungs with the HD3-chip lack detail, and have all kinds of strange things going on in the picture. The HD2+ models gave Sony a run for the money, and in fact were probably better overall, unless rainbows drive you nuts. Some people get headaches watching DLP's also. If you decide on the Samsung, make sure you have 30 days return privlege.

Can you do me a favor??? :D

The width measurement on SonyStyle says it's 39 3/8". Can you verify it's that? I have about 39 1/2" to work with so there's not much room for error. :)

Well... to any austinites who are interested in an A10 (50 or 42 inch available) I can hardily recommend jeff from "digital entertainment solutions".

They delivered the tv ... hooked it up ... set up all the channels and inputs.... just fantastic. All for a great price. You won't get the 30 day free as a bird deal (which I know I know I was crying about just earlier today) but I must say it felt really nice to purchase the tv from a PERSON who knew what he was talking about!

anyway... I'm going to go look into adjusting the dvd settings so we can watch a dvd tonight. I can almost see it: a brighter tomorrow not spent refreshing the AVS forums!

well.. just wanted to drop a quick note about a fantastic experience in the austin area... not to mention that he has the 42s in stock....


anyway... happy viewing everyone....! I can't believe how great the tv looks. (both picture and build)... adios amigos! :D

Can you do me a favor??? :D

The width measurement on SonyStyle says it's 39 3/8". Can you verify it's that? I have about 39 1/2" to work with so there's not much room for error. :)


ooops... I should note that I got the 50"! ... sorry about that .. (I take it you need a measurement for the 42? because the 50 is definitely wider than 39 1/2!) ....

now really... I'm off to watch a show! hahahha... I don't want to be one of those fellows that is here even after having finally pulled the trigger! .... :p

My bad... I thought you bought the 42".

Actually... Take one of the 50". I'm curious if it matches Sony's width on their website.

My bad... I thought you bought the 42".

Actually... Take one of the 50". I'm curious if it matches Sony's width on their website.


okay!... I'm not a carpenter and have no idea what sonystyle says, but by my tape measure and unsteady hand I would say 46 1/4" ....

the cabinet design is marvelous, by the way... very understated. I don't think it will "wear out" (the look I mean) like I think the xs model design might in a few years.

"Oh dear, that looks like it's from 2005..."


well I think that's it for me. The tv is marvelous so far. Can't wait to watch a good blockbuster type movie dvd (something loud and dumb) and see how it performs. (Watched a curb your enthusiasm episode but that isn't exactly great quality to begin with)... we did end up watching conan o'brian for a while which we would NEVER do except that it looked so great... and pbs had some documentary on about quilts that was absolutely stunning....

anyway.. adios amigos... I now go from "reading about tvs" to "watching tvs" ..... hurray! for a while there I thought this day would never arrive...... :D

I dropped by my local Sears today and saw the 50A10. As expected the set was definately running in torch mode. Iris on 5, Picture on 90, Vivid, etc. The set looked way too bright. I only tweaked a little with the settings. I set the Iris on 2 and picture to standard and with only those two changes the picture looked markedly better. Great in fact! There was a Sammy 46" HLR next to it and the Sony looked better hands down! As mentioned earlier, Sears is selling these below MSRP(-$125). I asked about the family and friends day and salesmen told me that is NOT open to anyone/public. That employees would be given a limited amount(7) passess/coupons that they can give out to customers. He offered me one, said, "come back tomorrow, thats when we get the coupons, I can give you one" It sound like a good deal, less than MSRP plus 10% off and NO sales tax in MA on 8/14. To good to pass up! Can anyone confirm this family and friends policy? Or was the sales critter talking out his ass again??

Also is 7-9ft too close for the 50"? I wanna go as big as I can but dont want to be forced with getting a bigger TV when I move to a bigger place!

okay!... I'm not a carpenter and have no idea what sonystyle says, but by my tape measure and unsteady hand I would say 46 1/4" ....

the cabinet design is marvelous, by the way... very understated. I don't think it will "wear out" (the look I mean) like I think the xs model design might in a few years.

"Oh dear, that looks like it's from 2005..."


well I think that's it for me. The tv is marvelous so far. Can't wait to watch a good blockbuster type movie dvd (something loud and dumb) and see how it performs. (Watched a curb your enthusiasm episode but that isn't exactly great quality to begin with)... we did end up watching conan o'brian for a while which we would NEVER do except that it looked so great... and pbs had some documentary on about quilts that was absolutely stunning....

anyway.. adios amigos... I now go from "reading about tvs" to "watching tvs" ..... hurray! for a while there I thought this day would never arrive...... :D


Sonystyle says, 46 5/8!

And where do you think your going? You can't just leave all of us who are still "reading about TV's" hanging! We need your input so we can torture ourselves even more with this seemingly agoninzing decision! :eek: :eek:

Does anyone have the measurements of the height from the very bottom of the TV to the edge of the screen where the picture starts? Thank you and sorry for taking away your time from your TV :)

Does anyone have the measurements of the height from the very bottom of the TV to the edge of the screen where the picture starts? Thank you and sorry for taking away your time from your TV :)

Yeah, i need to know also. My center channel speaker is 6 inches high.

Just got done setting up and configuring the basics of my new 50A10 and Harmony 880 and getting Battlefield2,Doom3,Doom3ROE,Half Life2,Colin McRae 2005.

All I can say is this is a dream come true for gaming and home theater. I haven't even calibrated the TV yet , just toned down the color, put the iris on low, lowered the picture/brightness levels for better blacks. Rally racing on this puppy is darn right amazing, Doom3 and Half Life2 are finally going to get played through to the end. I have a feeling this HTPC setup will now allow me to complete single player games instead of getting bored and going back to online games on the PC.

Digital Cable box running DVI/HDMI, IMO it has better picture then the quality component cables I also have hooked up. Light underscan if I use this cable for the HTPC.

HTPC is running cheap PC monitor cable for Media PC needs like gaming,DVD's , browsing. There is more underscan on the monitor input 7 , Full1 and Full2 don't fit the picture properly , Zoom mode will bring in overscan but most games and movies its almost right on. I am running 1280x720 and on my HTPC desktop if I hit zoom mode it chop my taskbar in half but still can access any taskbar icons and close out windows. So I just run normal FUll2 setting for HTPC browsing and Zoom mode for games and movies. The MediaCenter screen size setup picture shows it's not too overscanned, you know the picture of the people standing there with a smaller picture inside it to show you where the edges should be at on the screen. Zoom doesn't seem to hurt the quality for the input 7 like it does in normal analog TV playback. So until I can figure out how to stretch the image in the service menu without jacking the picture up I will just use this process. Overall I am very happy with the set besides the warped lower edge that I mentioned in the earlier post yesterday. Hope this might help some of you looking to use it as a monitor, this was what I was wondering before I got it.

Does anyone have the measurements of the height from the very bottom of the TV to the edge of the screen where the picture starts? Thank you and sorry for taking away your time from your TV :)

It's 6.5" on my 50A10

Just got done setting up and configuring the basics of my new 50A10 and Harmony 880 and getting Battlefield2,Doom3,Doom3ROE,Half Life2,Colin McRae 2005.



Were you able to get BF2 to work? When I tried it on my Sammy DLP it wouldn't start up. :(

Because we are all members of the human race.

I am not so sure about that! :D

Iris question!!
Some comments here have noted that the picture brightness(?) goes high and low and is noticeable due to the iris. If it is noticeable that would probably piss you off very shortly. What is this all about?
Thanks
Tec :)

Here are some comparison of how various inputs look. I am connecting the TW Explorer 8300 to the 50A10.
Best by far is HDMI cable with a cheap HDMI cable bought over the internet.
Next was Component input using a Monster cable.
Component using a cheapy cable looked just as good as with the Monster cable.
Next was composite cables.
Bottom of the list was direct cable going through a Sony DVD/VCR player.
Note I did not compare these with direct cable because I am waiting for my CableCard to arrive and because I still have not had time to determine the mapping of TW channels to the TV channels. I suspect this might even change with the CableCard.

Also without playing with the Sound options, the sound plugs on the TV produce levels that do not change with the TV volume control. The sound comes out even while the TV speakers are being used.

I believe if you are 7 to 9 feet away the 50in will be fine. I am the same distance and am getting the 50in. I read a lot of reviews and said it is okay. HD quality wont be affected by the distance, but probably SD will. But you are in the same boat as me. I didn’t want to get the 42in and have it be to small. I would rather get the 50in and not wonder. Also, go to a store where they have a return/exchange policy just in case you think that the tv is to big. I am going to do that if it happens, but I plan not having to.

I am getting my tv tomorrow so I will post my evaluation, settings, and if viewing distance is good. Very excited.

ALSO OTHERS PLEASE START TO POST SETTINGS. PLEASE DONT THINK THAT THIS IS USELESS, JUST SUPPOSE TO HELP OTHERS OUT

Should we start a new post exclusively for settings???

I know we have many A10 posts now but one for settings only might be appropriate I believe.

Someone already did:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=566619

I picked up my 42" A10 last night from Abt. Of course I had to take it out of the box to fit in my back seat but it was just fine. Got it down to the basement without much trouble and got to play with it for a few hours before going to bed.


First off, on a purely cosmetic note the A10 is literally one of the most attractive tvs i've ever seen. It's just so simple and clean. The 42" model that I have is just so thin that it has this great compact look to it. I love the speaker design and the whole thing just comes together in near perfection for my tastes. It doesn't get much better than this no matter how much money you spend.


I stole the cable card out of the 51" CRT RPTV in the basement just so I could check out the HD. I have Comcast coming out with another one this weekend. HD looked great with a very sharp picture including text. I immediately set the tv to "custom" and then proceeded to turn things way down from there. I have the iris as the custom default of 2. I then turned the "picture" setting down to 60. I also turned color down to 45 to try and minimize the red push as best I could. I'm really hoping there is an easy fix for the red push in the service menu. It's a little harsh but with the color turned down a bit it's bearable and i've still got plenty of color on screen.



It was a little disspointing to see that the favorites feature doesn't allow you to preview the channels while you're watching another. I'm also not a huge fan of the "wega gate" featue that has been added. While it does have it's nice aspects it's a little annoying to not have a button to go straight to the adjustment menu while tweaking. Each time I want to make an adjustment i've got to press the wega gate button, scroll down one and then press a button, just to get to the adjustment menu. With all my other Sony tvs that was a one button process.



While watching some HD programming last night I couldn't help but feel that the screen door effect was a little more pronounced on the A10 than on my 42" WE610 otherwise known as the GW III. I'm not sure if this is due to the slightly lower resolution of the A10 but it just seemed more noticable. However, I also think this could be a result of the brand new bulb in the A10 as I honestly feel that the screen door effect has become far less noticable on my GW III the longer i've owned it. At this point I literally never notice it on the GW III but last night it was often apparant on the A10. It could also have to do with tweaking and the fact that i've now got the GW III exactly where I think it should be and the A10 is still a work in progress. I'll tell you something, this little A10 offers a heck of a lot of tweakability with the inclusion of the iris as well as many variables that are available in the "custom" picture mode. It's gonna take me a little while to get things just right. As far as viewing angles go this tv has made some big improvements over the previous Grand Wega sets. This tv has viewing angles nearly the same as an LCD flat panel. I literally stood at an extreme angle and the picture was perfect from even a few away. Quite impressive. I new high water mark for LCD Projection sets in that area.


In regard to the variable Iris. I can actually see this annoying some people. It can become quite obvious that it's working while watching certain programming. For instance, I had Will and Grace on for a minute in HD and while the camera panned from one actor to the other there was a difference in the lighting and how bright the background was. Each time the shot switched from one actor to the other it was noticable that the iris was lightening and then darkening, lightening then darkening, lightening then darkening. You get the picture. ;) While this is more noticable with the iris set at 5, it was noticable regardless of the setting. The iris clearly has it's benefits but I think it's going to garner a few detractors over time. Some picky people who watch a lot of sitcom material may get annoyed with this noticable iris adjusting. It's dissapoint to me that Sony couldn't get this iris to be quicker and therefore less noticable when adjusting. As is right now it's as if the iris takes a half second to fully adjust and therefore you can sometimes see the picture brightening and darkening as it occurs. Of course you can always turn it competely off and with the iris set at the lower settings it's far less noticable and natural looking. I also have to comment that the iris seemed to pose no problems while playing videogames. In fact, the videogames were the highlight of my testing last night. The Xbox games in particular looked stunning.



One thing that really jumped out at me though was the far better performance that I saw out of my Xbox games. It was like night and day when compared to the GW III. In the past week i've made sure to play quite a few Xbox games on my GW III in preperation for getting the A10 as my main gaming tv. Well, last night when I fired up the Xbox for the first time with Burnout 3, it was immediately clear to me that the A10 just handled videogames so much better. It just offers a more clear and crisp picture as well as the improved black levels. Whatever it was it made a big difference as playing games on the A10 was simply a far more enjoyable experience than it was on the GW III.



I did have one big dissapointment upon first starting up my 42" A10. I had one big, black pixel near the very top of the screen. My GW III has a few stuck pixels that are red or green and they are litterally invisible from 5 feet away. But this dead black pixel on my A10 is clearly visible from 5 feet. However, when sitting at a normal viewing distance of 7-8 feet it was quite hard to find but it was possible to see it if you were looking for it. So, i'm sort of stuck with that question of "do I exchange this set because it annoys me that this one pixel is clearly dead and risk getting a new set that has worse problems? Or, do I just deal with this one dead pixel and forget about it?" Tough call because I hate accepting a defect like that when I just spent a chunk of money on this tv. Other than that dead pixel though the set has no other noticable defects. Of course the Sony manual tells me this is not a defect. :rolleyes:


I'm trying to cover all the bases here so this is getting a little long. ;) I don't like the remote all that much. The freaking channel and volume buttons should be up higher and the DVD player controls should be at the buttom seeing as they won't be used that often by my owners. The whole remote is just way too long and cumbersome. It's ok but previous Sony remotes that I own a far better designed and laid out. Sound on the tv is just fine. Those who have complaints are expecting a little too much from tv speakers. They are no substitute for a home theater setup. They do just fine and with some of the enhancements turned on they sound good enough for me.


Two small things to end this. It's annoying that when I press the button to cycle through the picture settings the picture completely blacks out while it changes over to the next setting. This seems ridiculous considering that my other 3 Sony HDTV's don't do this. It also makes it harder to detect the changes that each setting offer as the screen completely disappears before popping back again. Weird. Also, channels seem to take longer to change than my other Sony sets. I have a 51" CRT RPTV with the cable card and it changes channels nice and quick and i've never noticed a problem. The A10 seems a little sluggish in comparison when using the exact same cable card. It just seems to hold up a second even when switching from 720p to 1080i material.



I think thats it for now. I did take a bunch of pictures but I don't know how to post them or display them. Could someone help?

If you have an external image host, you can simply host them there and provide the link.

Quick question... Can you take an exact measurement of the width of the TV for me? Sony says it's 39 3/8", and I have 39 1/2" to play with. Curious how exact their numbers are.

Appreciate your help!!!

First off, i'm at work so I can't measure the tv for another 8 hours. Second, I don't have an external image host and I have no idea how to set one up. I don't have a clue about stuff like that.

E-mail them to me and I can host them for you. PM me for my e-mail address.

If you have an external image host, you can simply host them there and provide the link.

Quick question... Can you take an exact measurement of the width of the TV for me? Sony says it's 39 3/8", and I have 39 1/2" to play with. Curious how exact their numbers are.

Appreciate your help!!!

I guess that you need a real exact number, but it appears that Sony measured
to the 1/8 of an inch. Do manufacturers usually just make their numbers just
close?

tigerriot - I hate to jump on the bandwagon for you to provide exact dimensions of the 42" A10, but could you take one more request?

I would like to know the width of the TV at the back.

While I have no problem with the TV being 39-40" at the front, my entertainment center becomes more narrow the deeper the TV because it is built into the corner of my living room. If you can check that out, I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

pictures please. I will try to post my pictures when I get the tv tomorrow. I had the 42we655, but am getting the e50a10 tomorrow. Excited to see the difference between the two.

I'm also not a huge fan of the "wega gate" featue that has been added. While it does have it's nice aspects it's a little annoying to not have a button to go straight to the adjustment menu while tweaking. Each time I want to make an adjustment i've got to press the wega gate button, scroll down one and then press a button, just to get to the adjustment menu. With all my other Sony tvs that was a one button process.


Life is tough, isn't it? :rolleyes:

lol, sorry, couldn't resist.

Life is tough, isn't it? :rolleyes:

lol, sorry, couldn't resist.



I saw that coming from a mile away. ;)



And for those requesting measurements from me. Once again, i'm at work for another 8 hours. I also don't have a computer at home so that means that I likely won't be posting on these boards again for a few days after I leave work today. Sorry.

I guess that you need a real exact number, but it appears that Sony measured
to the 1/8 of an inch. Do manufacturers usually just make their numbers just
close?

Sony also lists the width as 999mm which is 39 and 21/64 inches.

It was a little disspointing to see that the favorites feature doesn't allow you to preview the channels while you're watching another. I'm also not a huge fan of the "wega gate" featue that has been added. While it does have it's nice aspects it's a little annoying to not have a button to go straight to the adjustment menu while tweaking. Each time I want to make an adjustment i've got to press the wega gate button, scroll down one and then press a button, just to get to the adjustment menu. With all my other Sony tvs that was a one button process.



I am looking at the E50A10 myself. What is your viewing distance with you 42A10? I know the SDE is, in general, is worse with LCD, but I am hoping at 10-12 feet it will not be noticeable. Won't know until I finally get to see it in the DFW area. Thanks!

I guess that you need a real exact number, but it appears that Sony measured
to the 1/8 of an inch. Do manufacturers usually just make their numbers just
close?

I hope so!!! I took a risk and ordered the TV without taking the measurement.

Sony also lists the width as 999mm which is 39 and 21/64 inches.

Ah yes... The good ol' metric system. That masurement is smaller than the 39 3/8", which is good for me.

First off, i'm at work so I can't measure the tv for another 8 hours. Second, I don't have an external image host and I have no idea how to set one up. I don't have a clue about stuff like that.

Tigerriot, thanks for the impressions. I hope to be getting a e42a10 sometime within the next few weeks. :)

As far as the image hosting, go to imageshack. Free image hosting, and it's pretty reliable too. Great for posting pics and/or hosting signatures, etc.

Just got done setting up and configuring the basics of my new 50A10 and Harmony 880 and getting Battlefield2,Doom3,Doom3ROE,Half Life2,Colin McRae 2005....

All I can say is this is a dream come true for gaming and home theater. I haven't even calibrated the TV yet , just toned down the color, put the iris on low, lowered the picture/brightness levels for better blacks. Rally racing on this puppy is darn right amazing, Doom3 and Half Life2 are finally going to get played through to the end. I have a feeling this HTPC setup will now allow me to complete single player games instead of getting bored and going back to online games on the PC.

Digital Cable box running DVI/HDMI, IMO it has better picture then the quality component cables I also have hooked up. Light underscan if I use this cable for the HTPC.

HTPC is running cheap PC monitor cable for Media PC needs like gaming,DVD's , browsing. There is more underscan on the monitor input 7 , Full1 and Full2 don't fit the picture properly , Zoom mode will bring in overscan but most games and movies its almost right on. I am running 1280x720 and on my HTPC desktop if I hit zoom mode it chop my taskbar in half but still can access any taskbar icons and close out windows. So I just run normal FUll2 setting for HTPC browsing and Zoom mode for games and movies. The MediaCenter screen size setup picture shows it's not too overscanned, you know the picture of the people standing there with a smaller picture inside it to show you where the edges should be at on the screen. Zoom doesn't seem to hurt the quality for the input 7 like it does in normal analog TV playback. So until I can figure out how to stretch the image in the service menu without jacking the picture up I will just use this process. Overall I am very happy with the set besides the warped lower edge that I mentioned in the earlier post yesterday. Hope this might help some of you looking to use it as a monitor, this was what I was wondering before I got it.

I've been playing with my 50A10 for a number of days now and will agree PC games look great. There is no motion blur. But the display size on the TV is starting to annoy me. My PC is running XP pro and has a BFG 6800 with DVI and VGA out. I have connected to the TV via VGA and HDMI (using a DVI to HDMI adapter.) Here’s my rant:

VGA: as eno45 mentions if you want the whole desktop to display you must use either FULL1 or FULL2 setting; however, you will get a black boarder (as mentioned in the manual). The TV display drops to about 47” from 50”. I thought I purchased a 50” TV?? :mad:

I don’t like the ZOOM setting because you then lose some of the desktop. When playing Guild War some of the tool bars almost disappear. The NORMAL setting is not available for Input 7.

HDMI: This is the most annoying setting for the PC, because the TV is overscanning. I had such hopes for a beautiful, pure digital, 1:1 pixel ratio display. But NO, the display look just like the VGA ZOOM setting. :mad: I’ve played with all the different settings on the TV to no avail. I have also gone through different graphic settings on the PC, which this nVidia card has a lot. The card had a setting to overcompensate for the TV’s overscanning. When using this setting the screen resolution drops to approximately 1100 X 660 (I forgot the actual numbers) and the desktop fits perfectly on the TV screen. This looks OK. Not to be picky, but didn't I buy a 1280 X 720 screen. :mad:

I’ve been on the phone with Sony to figure out if/how overscanning for HDMI can be turned off. The have been no help so far. They won’t even confirm (or deny) if the TV overscans. My call has been “escalated” and they’re supposed to call me back. This was 2 days ago. :confused:

I here talk of a service manual that could possibly lead me to settings to resolve this issue. Where would I get a copy? Sony, again, is no help. :confused:

If I can’t get the HDMI to work properly, I will send the TV back to Sony. :mad:

In the meantime I’m still play via VGA in FULL1. Apart form the loss of screen size, the games really do look good. Also since the screen resolution is limited to 1280X720, you need at least 4X AA filtering. :p

Thanks for the info d_a_r. Is it possible for you to take a picture of the black border to see what you are talking about? Sounds like the black border is about 1.5" all the way around?

I am somewhat worried about the fact that no one has yet managed to get 1:1 pixel mapping with either HDMI or VGA. I guess the last possibility of getting 1:1 pixel mapping with the A10's will be the service menu.


I here talk of a service manual that could possibly lead me to settings to resolve this issue. Where would I get a copy? Sony, again, is no help. :confused: I earlier posted that I was able to buy a service guide from Panasonic for my TV. I would hope that Sony would also sell service guides to consumers since it made using the service menu a heck of a lot easier.

Were you able to get BF2 to work? When I tried it on my Sammy DLP it wouldn't start up. :(



At the time I posted it wasn't working either. I thought it was. Well I got alot done last night and today will be to enjoy the system for now. Yes BF2 is now working. What I had to do was uninstall the game and reinstall. The first attempt didn't work and I told the game not to erase any settings and the game would not come up after the first BF2 screen. I am sure it was a resolution issue. Next reinstall I allowed the game to erase all options(3 boxes checked). Since then It would fire into the game but only at 1024x768. Next I added ....

Edit the shortcut to BF2,

"C:\Program Files\EA Games\Battlefield 2\BF2.exe\" +menu 1 +fullscreen 1 +szx 1280 +szy 720


.... after that it worked like a charm. I copied my user2 file over from my main system through my network, then took the current working video cfg file and placed it into my user2 file then put it correctly into place in my my documents,bf2 folder so all my settings and user account is already there. I jumped online and played for 15mins. Its cool but sure I will use this system for single player games only and use my other badarse system for online play since I am to competitive when I game online. BF2 being my only online game now. Good Luck, flying around in a chopper is no joke on this screen. I would recommend wireless input devices. I am running Logitech everything and it all has blown me away

-DiNovo Media Bundle (keyboard,mouse,mediapad)
-Harmony 880
-Wingman Cordless 2.4ghz (rumble)
-Cordless Freedom Joystick (love this joystick)

I am going to order another joystick from these guys, I bought both gaming controllers from them, new quality,cheap, fast service. Here's a link

http://store.yahoo.com/justdeals/gaming.html
The joystick and controller on this page is what I am using and 40$ for both.

Can't you just use Nview to tweak and adjust the underscanned DB15 image? Overscan on HDMI or any other interface should be expected with factory settings. My GW II overscans a ton on DVI from my BFG card. I've used their scan compensation, and it does look pretty good. I don't want to mess with the service menu overscan since mine is set for my DVD and STB, and I don't keep my PC hooked up to my TV. (I was just playing around) Once the service menu stuff is posted, you should be able to adjust the picture to compensate for the overscanned HDMI.


Again, this isn't a "correct" or "incorrect" thing. This is simply the way the TVs come - always has been.


The service menu manuals are generally about $20, but they're nearly useless because there is so much noise - either stuff we can't understand, or stuff that deals with things we'll never use or need. If we're lucky, UMR will post a thread outlining all the relevant service menu items and how they should be set for maximum performance.