The Official Kd-34xbr960 Thread - Page 8

It is supposed to be 25% brighter. If you look at the Super Fine Pitch logo you will see that the i in fine and the i in pitch are two I's close together.

Page 2 from this link
http://www.geocities.com/kd34xbr960...xbr960page.html has the rear panel layout for this TV.

Bad Link!

Sorry, I don't know what happened to that link. I saw it in another post. I read it and actually printed out a hard copy of the rear panel layout for reference. Now I can't even find the post where I got that link from.

ONLY SONY, Congrats you made my ignor list. Stick your CAPs....

The "rear panel" can be seen in the manual

Thanks to everyone for their comments on my questions yesterday.
It seems like the consensus is that the xbr960 is really an investment in the future, rather than a TV that you sit down and watch today, (assuming you don't intend to acsess HDTV signals, as I don't). A question that comes to mind, of course, is why pay for this technology today when it will be that much cheaper in a year or three, (my 9" radio/tv is still going strong).

Anyway, I'm still confused on a couple of points:

First, I don't know what the SDTV that Segaboy mentions is, or the regular SD channels that Tigerriot brings up.

Second, and most importantly:

I'm still unclear about the kind of picture quality one can expect with a DVD source on this TV. I'm not talking about the aspect ratio choice here- just simple issues of resolution, contrast, shadow detail, aliasing artifacts, etc. Is this set a step up from other currently available, (and presumably less expensive) products, or is it merely a lateral move due to basic limitations of DVD media at present.

While I understand that the coming years will see improvements in broadcast, cable, and satellite technology that will make this set shine, really the only reason that I'm considering the upgrade is to be able to watch high quality DVDs of great movies where the image really matters.

Thanks again to everyone for your thoughts.

-Bill.

I am no longer convinced that there is any difference between the XBR910 picture tube and the XBR960 picture tube or that Sony ever said there was.

I reread the post which originally lead me to believe there was. I now interpret the information to be another generation of MICROFOCUS tubes not another generation of Super Fine Pitch tubes.

"Super Fine Pitch MICROFOCUS CRT
incorporates smaller phosphor particles and a thinner phosphor layer over Sony's previous MICROFOCUS picture tubes, to achieve a 28% reduction in beam spot size. The result is a sharper focus, higher contrast and a brighter image."

Does anyone have a link which refers directly to a "2nd generation Super Fine Pitch MICROFOCUS CRT?"

From the Sony Press Release on the 960:


http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/4439


I still think my KV-27FV16 has one of the best SD pictures of I've seen (much better than my father's 65" XBR), but I'm tired of not being able to take full advantage of my PS2 games that are Progressive Scan and a the majority of my XBox games that are in 480p, 720p, and a couple in 1080i. I can get OTA and cable HD channels so there will be an improvement there too. Once I properly calibrate my video cards output settings to match standard HD signal specs, the 960 will be a 34" monitor for my computer. Another plus is the HDMI connection which both Microsoft and Sony have already said would be an available output on their next gen systems. Right now, I got a 960 with stand for less than a 910 costs with a free stand. For me, it was a no brainer.

I think *MY* 32xbr100 (XBR squared) has the best analog picture ever displayed

bob

*sputter*! Is this a step up for DVD!? OMG if you're talking about going from a normal TV to this TV then yes, by god yes. When I first got my 34xbr800 2+ years ago I didn't get it for HDTV, I got it for DVDs, it looks _so much better_. Bigger, clearer, sharper, better colors, way better resolution. After I got the TV I rewatched all my movies because they looked sooo much better. I only recently got a HDTV receiver in the last couple months and yes, HDTV looks awesome but still, about 50-60% of what I watch is DVD, and 30-40% DirecTV SD material. Forget about HDTV for the moment, $2000 is way worth it, its an investment for the now and for the later, having had the xbr800 for 2+ years I can't imagine going back to a 3:4 SD Tv unless I absolutely couldn't afford a $2000 TV.

Rizzle -

Thanks for the link as it encouraged me to call Sony again and this time I got a definitive answer. The part numbers on the XBR910 CRT and XBR960 CRT are identical - 8-735-218-05.

Very interesting

I think I may have led you slightly off course. The 960 is very much a TV that you sit down and watch today. It will be fantastic with DVD and one of the better if not best choices for SD (standard definition) on a wide screen. My point was simply that you won't be able to take full advantage of all it's technology with every source/broadcast at the present...but it's still about as good as it gets. Your material will certainly grow into the technology. You can always wait...but if that's your position then you might find yourself waiting forever. My advice would be to get this set now...it seems to fit your needs best...and start enjoying all your DVDs rather than wait. Prices have come down over the past few years. It's all a matter of your reference point...if you had started looking a year or two ago, then today you'd be saying "wow...these things are way cheaper and better quality then 2 years ago, it's time to dive in"

At this point in time, why would anyone even consider the older 910, at almost 2k, when the 960 will only cost $50.00 more at CC. There is nothing more to discuss. Buy the 910 and watch yesterdays fine TV. Pay $50 more and watch a much better tube, today and for a few more years.
My prices come from a visit to CC, today.

I saw a 34XBR 910 a JVC 34" and the Other Sony34HS side by side at a store running the same clip from finding Nemo.
The Finer pitch XBR 34" was clearly the hands down winner for clarity, color depth, smoothness,
it had no visible masking grid.
The same could not be said for the JVC or the other Sony
however the HS did look better than the JVC but overall the XBR was my pick as the clear winner and it was marked down to 1799.
2199 and 1799 really isn't much of a gap for a Better product considering the 910 MSRP for 2499 originally
Knowing that all 05 models 32"and larger are required to have a Digital tuner built in I felt the need to get the 960 over the 910 plus all the other new implementations in the 960
Ultimately the 960 is more XBR for less cash out lay

According to May's "Home Theatre Technology" Direct view HDTV sets look good, but they are inherently inferior to larger plasma sets because CRT sers are just too small; that is, the sets are not large enough to propelry display enough pixels to give the viewer the best HDTV image resolution. Anyone see this article or care to comment?

Gee igreg, let's compare apples to oranges! Yes plasma looks better and with known problems, like cost, heat, and a life expectancy of less than 6 years. For some this is a good choice.
Why do you insist dissing the 960. Have you ever seen the 910 and then tried to imagine the improved 960. Well I have, as with the majority of this thread/forum.
We've looked at plasma, DLP, LCD and they have known problems. If you are the type who can afford to experiment, go ahead but stop dissing the 960. At least wait until it is on the floor of some showroom or in one of our homes, then we will collectively discuss the yea's and nea's of this tube type TV.

Well just more proof to file the the "Don't believe everything you read in a magazine" category. To the best of my knowledge the 960 can show more resolution of a HDTV signal than any plasma that you can currently buy. Until 1920x1080 plasmas show up they just won't be able to match the res of the 34XBR960.

I don't believe he was "dissing" anything...simply asking opinions on an article from a major publication on the subject. If you want to take issue with the article, then fine, let's discuss, but please be careful not to turn this into a personal argument.

I read in a Perfect Vision review of the 34XBR910 that the top of the chasis is not level, so it's almost impossible to rest a center channel on it. The XBR960 looks very similar in design to the XBR910. Does anyone want to speculate if the 960's top shelf is more level?

Drvais, one will probably need a speaker stand for the 960. It's probably no different than the 910, is my guess. I already bought one assuming I'd need it.

I just checked the CC web page for the 910 model. Although they still list it at the full MSRP, when I check availability they tell me that the only ones in stock are in areas in Central PA, with none being available in all of suburban Philadelphia. Also, no direct delivery is available.

I wonder if CC has gotten rid of almost all their inventory of the 910's in anticipation of getting the 960's? Other areas of the country may be different, of course.

Thats not true you can put a center speaker on the 910 and i am sure the 960 too.

What is the res of the 960/910 anyway? One article I read a while back put it somewhat over 1920, one article I read recently put it at 1401 and that it depends on if you say 1 triad equals 2 pixels (like in most instances) or 3 (because some people feel this is the case with CRT monitors)? BTW, I went to CC with a friend and we also easily got 10% off the already lower then MSRP price of the 960 plus 10% off the HT6600 which brought it down to $450 and using the rebate to get $400 back that HT will only cost him $50 Oh, and igreg, among the many other reasons why I wouldn't suggest buying a plasma over a CRT, remember that not everybody can sit 11' back from the display, 43"+ screens don't look so hot at around 6-8 feet, esp with SD material.

Sam

Technically a CRT doesn't have a resolution, but the aperature grill splits the light into 1400something vertical lines. That was for the 910. I've heard that the tube for the 960 is the same, but its calibrated to use a new grill that has 1600something lines. Hence, the "2nd-gen SuperFinePitch CRT". Either way, it's a much higher resolution than the LCD's and Plasmas on the market. And (again technically) the 960 is the closest to a "true" HD monitor Sony Consumer Electronics currently sells in terms of resolution.

Someone in another thread claims they saw a 960 in the store yesterday...and I can't find the damn thread now! My response was that it was probably a 910 since the 960 just started shipping a couple days ago.

Found it: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...47#post3998347

Regarding the set's resolution, according to Joe Kane, if the set isn't displaying native 720p (which I don't think it will), then sadly it's not really anywhere close to 1080i either.

BTW, I have a horizontally laying center speaker, so I wonder if this would make a positive difference for placing on top of the set, versus a vertical standing speaker?

OK So we are getting close to the answer to a question I've had for a long time. What is the resolution of this TV?

Seems like it has at least 1401 columns or of light, could be up to 1600 if Rizzle has good info about the aperature grill, I believe this is commonly referred to as the horizontal resolution.

Now drvais is passing on info that it has 720 or less rows, or scan lines being painted, commonly referred to vertical resolution.

How can Sony claim that this TV displays 1080i native if it doesn't paint at least 1080 scan lines?

When will this TV reach 1920 columns which is also the benchmark?

Who has definitive info? Where is the Sony source here?

Bob