Sony BRAVIA S3000 Series Owner's Thread [No Price Talk]

[jmhumr]

Sony BRAVIA S3000 Series

This thread is to discuss the Sony BRAVIA S3000 LCD televisions, released in May 2007. What are everyone's initial impressions? Has anyone optimized their settings yet?

I'll update the sections below as more information becomes available:

Specs
KDL-32S3000
KDL-40S3000

Reviews
???

Optimized Settings
???

[surrealist]

I really like mine (40S3000). Although I don't have any other LCD screens to compare it against, I think the PQ is pretty darn good. I run the old XBox and DVD through the component inputs and TV from the wall cable. The digital tuner picks up a lot of stations and the HD ones look phenomenal. The SD stations look noticeably different, although still very watchable; I am pleasantly surprised with the quality of the SD on this set.

I ran through some of the settings suggested in the V2500 thread, and, for the most part, they seem to be right. However, I'm not so sure I'm looking at it objectively as *everything* seems to look great in HD (I recently found myself watching an infomercial for something. . .).

The menu system is pretty easy to navigate and it only fills up half of the screen when adjusting the PQ settings. That's fine for me since I'm still learning how to discern the subtle differences in settings although I can imagine that some might want to see move screen.

[poiv3]

Any clouding on these?

[surrealist]

Not that I could see with the normal settings. I haven't seen a set with clouding to compare so I don't know if I'm just not seeing any. I imagine from reading other posts that I'd be able to see it clear as day if it exists.

[jmhumr]

Here's my review...

Overall:
Simply a great set, no regrets. To date no design or quality-control flaws have surfaced. Keeping my fingers crossed, this might be one of the few sets that no one can complain about...perhaps a sign of maturity for this class of TVs.

Black Level:
Thumbs up. This was a big concern of mine since the LCDs you see in the store are usually washed out since no one bothers to optimize the settings. However, the S3000's black levels are good right out of the box - and even better with some tweaking. I'm continually impressed with how black the sidebars are when watching SD.

Clouding:
None.

SD PQ:
No complaints here. Tough to form an opinion since I haven't watched SD on any other LCDs, but it looks good to me! I attempted to take some pictures of the SD quality and attached them below.

HD PQ:
Great! The S3000 won me over and made me forget about spending big on 1080p/120hz when I saw it in the store and felt it outperformed all the other Sony's on the wall. The 10-bit makes a noticeable difference in color depth. I can't wait to see how this TV looks once people start posting some optimized settings.

Other tidbits:
- My PS3 is connected via HDMI without any issues.
- I haven't tested the PC connectivity yet.
- PIP/P&P works well, the only downside being that one the two inputs you're watching must be connected via coax. In other words, don't expect to be able to use PIP/P&P with two different HDMI sources, or with an HDMI and a PC source.
- The only thing I wish this TV had was a swivel stand - oh well!


SD Pictures from a variety of channels, for what it's worth. Don't pay too close attention to color since these were just happy snaps as I'm not sure of the "correct" way to photograph your TV. Nevertheless, they're a decent representation of the clarity of SD:

[Mr. Mojo]

At least it's not that crummy piano gloss style.

[wrmoore]

I'm seriously considering one of these and will be watching carefully for comments!

Randy

[poiv3]

Originally Posted by wrmoore

I'm seriously considering one of these and will be watching carefully for comments!

Randy

me too, maybe tomorrow. Anybody has anything to say about buying from Ebay stores?

[orestesdd]

Does this sony model come equipped with HDMI 1.3 or 1.3a? What is the response time on this model?

[surrealist]

Originally Posted by orestesdd

Does this sony model come equipped with HDMI 1.3 or 1.3a? What is the response time on this model?

According to a sales person at Sony Style, none of their sets currently support HDMI 1.3. Perhaps the higher end sets due this fall will.

[rockjet]

hi...i picked up a 32s3000 last night .

i will hook it up tonight.

special thanx to jmhumr for the heads up about this new sony lineup!

i will report back with initial impressions soon!

[poiv3]

Originally Posted by rockjet

hi...i picked up a 32s3000 last night .

i will hook it up tonight.

special thanx to jmhumr for the heads up about this new sony lineup!

i will report back with initial impressions soon!

Looking forward to reading about your S3000. Congrats.

[SharpOne]

JMHUMR,

Regarding your statement of the following:

"SD PQ: No complaints here. Tough to form an opinion since I haven't watched SD on any other LCDs, but it looks good to me!"

I can't tell but it looks like the first, or all of the pictures show the TV using the sidebars. Is there a stretch mode to go to 16:9. I assume there is. If so, how does the screen look in stretch mode?

Does it do what I call the "Fathead" conversion, or does it stretch from the sides so most everyone shown in the middle of the screen does not look "Fatheaded."

[thalaster]

Damn... I am tempted to get the 32 inch model when they come into stores here in Jacksonville, FL.

[poiv3]

Ordered my 40S3000 on Ebay. Will see what it's like.

[jmhumr]

Originally Posted by SharpOne

JMHUMR,

Regarding your statement of the following:

"SD PQ: No complaints here. Tough to form an opinion since I haven't watched SD on any other LCDs, but it looks good to me!"

I can't tell but it looks like the first, or all of the pictures show the TV using the sidebars. Is there a stretch mode to go to 16:9. I assume there is. If so, how does the screen look in stretch mode?

Does it do what I call the "Fathead" conversion, or does it stretch from the sides so most everyone shown in the middle of the screen does not look "Fatheaded."

Yeah, all of those pic swere taken with sidebars. The S3000 lets you choose all of the options you describe:

"Wide Zoom" (stretch to 16:9)
"Zoom" (zoom to 16:9)
"Full" (sidebars)

Below are some more crappy shots I took. The first two are Wide Zoom (stretch), the last is Zoom...

[thalaster]

Wide zoom stretch doesn't look bad at all.

[thalaster]

By the way, how's the Tv in fast moving scenes/action games? 8ms on a GOOD tv is just as good as on others from my experience, so I'm curious.

[surrealist]

Originally Posted by thalaster

Wide zoom stretch doesn't look bad at all.

But, remember, it also depends upon the perspective of the original source. For example, I watched a DVD last night that in normal mode only filled a small portion of the screen. Since it was nearly 16:9, zooming it to the width of the screen filled up almost the entire screen and still maintained its proportions.

Stretching or zooming 4:3 sources to fill the entire screen yields the 'fathead', as someone posted earlier.

[surrealist]

Originally Posted by thalaster

By the way, how's the Tv in fast moving scenes/action games? 8ms on a GOOD tv is just as good as on others from my experience, so I'm curious.

My experience has been pretty good, for the most part. A lot really depends on the source, though. Most things displayed as progressive scan do seem to me to have very little motion blur, although I can sometimes see some on interlaced scans, particularly the 480i TV broadcasts. Of course, that might be attributable to the fact that it's 480i.

[cnbuck]

Does anyone know for certain if the 32S3000 has the 10-bit panel? Most believe this to be the case, but Sony's own press release indicates that only the 40" and 46" S-series has 10-bit. I hear quite a few people batting around this feature, believing the colors to be deeper. This is encouraging, so I hope the 32" and 26" S-models aren't deprived of the new panels.

http://news.sel.sony.com/en/press_ro...ase/28328.html

Scroll down to the S-series. It talks about the 10-bit panels there. My only solace lies in the fact said press release is rife with misprints.

[avuser001]

Picked up a 40S3000 at Bestbuy yesterday for a wedding gift. Used a 12% off BB coupon I received via email on Friday morning. Can't beat the price! To compliment the set, I also picked up Sony's DAV-HDX500 Home Theater System too.

Now, I got 3 weeks to calibrate and tweak this tv before handling it over to the newlyweds. I'm happy to say, no clouds and not a single dead pixel! The set has a manufactured date of April 2007.

Any calibration suggestions?

[avuser001]

There's a removable label on the front panel of the 40S3000 that describes some of the set's features when includes the specification 8000:1, which I assume represents the set's contrast ratio...hmm, interesting.

[Bill Stewart]

Bought and returned one of these. I put up a Video Essentials gray screen...horrible green banding. I also recently had issues with one of their 40V2500's...purple banding , but not as noticeable.
I'd really hoped Sony had their act together, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

[avuser001]

Originally Posted by Bill Stewart

Bought and returned one of these. I put up a Video Essentials gray screen...horrible green banding. I also recently had issues with one of their 40V2500's...purple banding , but not as noticeable.
I'd really hoped Sony had their act together, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I ran my Avia disc on this tv and saw no color banding at all. I also used the The THX Optimizer Advance feature from my 'The Incredibles' dvd and was surprised that this set, combined with the Sony DAV-HDX500 was able to display 'superblack bars' in the test pattern.

[surrealist]

Originally Posted by avuser001

I ran my Avia disc on this tv and saw no color banding at all. I also used the The THX Optimizer Advance feature from my 'The Incredibles' dvd and was surprised that this set, combined with the Sony DAV-HDX500 was able to display 'superblack bars' in the test pattern.

What settings are you using?

For DVD via component, I've been using:
Mode: Standard
Backlight: 6
Picture: 90
Bright: 49
Color: 50
Hue: 0
Temp: Warm1
Sharp: 10
NR: off
MPEG NR: off

Black Cor: off
Adv CE: off
Gamma: low
Clear W: off
Live Color: -

Power: low
Light S: off

These seem to me to work fairly well is a dark-ish room (i.e. night time). I tend to bump up the backlight during the day.

[jmhumr]

Originally Posted by Bill Stewart

Bought and returned one of these. I put up a Video Essentials gray screen...horrible green banding. I also recently had issues with one of their 40V2500's...purple banding , but not as noticeable.
I'd really hoped Sony had their act together, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I've been reading Sony threads on here for over a year while shopping for a TV and you're the only one I can recall complaining about banding on a Sony (if there are others, they certainly haven't been frequent enough to stand out). Almost all of the QC complaints with Sony sets concern clouding.

Could something else be wrong with your setup? That's awfully bad luck to get a seemingly rare issue twice on two seperate models and model years. People better think twice before letting you borrow their car.

[do not freeze]

Today I saw a 40 inch S3000 at the sony store. The feed was really bad, so was the PQ. Then, I went to another store and I saw the Samsung LN-T4665F right next to a Sony KDL-46S3000. Both TVs were feeding with Open Season on Bluray. All I can say is WOW. Both sets were amazing.

The Samsung is obviously a tremendous set. Since it's a 1080p set, it resolved more fine detail. But overall, I liked the Sony more. The colors on the S3000 were really nice, it was even better than the previous season XBR sets! The TV wasn't calibrated but it still looked better than almost anything in the store. I wonder how they'll get rid of the last season's XBR since this set is better and cheaper. Good black, good colors, 2 HDMI, and a superb PQ... I'm waiting a few months to see if the TV has banding and clouding problems. If everything's fine, this is the set I would recommand to anyone.

[avuser001]

Originally Posted by surrealist

What settings are you using?

For DVD via component, I've been using:
Mode: Standard
Backlight: 6
Picture: 90
Bright: 49
Color: 50
Hue: 0
Temp: Warm1
Sharp: 10
NR: off
MPEG NR: off

Black Cor: off
Adv CE: off
Gamma: low
Clear W: off
Live Color: -

Power: low
Light S: off

These seem to me to work fairly well is a dark-ish room (i.e. night time). I tend to bump up the backlight during the day.

I'll post my hdmi settings tonight after I get home from work.

[jmhumr]

Originally Posted by do not freeze

I wonder how they'll get rid of the last season's XBR since this set is better and cheaper.

The salesman who sold me the S3000 said the same exact thing, in a rather disgusted tone, haha.