The Official Kd-34xbr960 Thread - Page 9

Where do you guys come up with this crap? What does Joe Kane know about this set? Just because it converts 720p to 1080i, doesn't mean it has less than 720 lines of horizonal resolution. It has over 1080 lines of horizontal resolution.

The TV has over 1400 vertical sets of RGB stripes in the aperature grill. This would be the resolution in the X direction. Most 1080i footage only has an effective resolution of about 1400 or so (instead of 1920) because the signals are filtered to reduce the interlacing artifacts.

The TV has in excess of 1080i lines horizontally.

I guess it depends how big your center speaker is.

Im just curious if anyone knows a store - in chicago even - that has the 960 in stock so I can take a look at it. Anyone who has owned both the 910 and the 960 feel there is a big difference in the picture?

Thanks
Jeff

TH3_RB
Nothing personal, just making a statement. There are numerous posts by a certain person knocking the 960, claiming he has seen the bad picture. Same person claims he saw it at Magnolia Hi-fi.
Again, all I am stating is wait until it is out, then compare.
Just like the post above, "Anyone who has owned both the 910 and the 960 feel there is a big difference in the picture?"
It isn't out yet.......

Stereodude, my comments were misinterpreted by several people it seems. Joe Kane has mentioned in past issues of Widescreen Review that if a set (not solely the 960) cannot natively display 720p, then it probably isn't properly displaying 1080i either. I did NOT say that the 960 was limited to 720 lines of horizontal resolution.

Past iterations of the XBR 16:9 line have converted 720p to 1080i, and I'm guessing that the 960 will follow this tradition.

Now, hail to the King, baby!

Agree 100%...that's what I've been saying for a while now

Hi folks,

Thanks for everyone's input on the 960 picture quality issues I brought up.
It sounds like it will be great for what I want.

Another question though:

As everyone knows Sony is offering some good deals on home theater in a box in conjunction with the 960. I understand that the DVD player in all of the systems is their DVP NC665P. Has anyone had experience with this player and will it get the best from the 960, or are there one or two players that will outperform it that someone might recommend?

I was not planning to buy a multi-disc, multi-media player like the Sony, and I'm skeptical of boxes that try to do too many things. Its only the promo deal they're offering with the 960 that makes me consider this player. As with the television, picture quality is my bottom line.

(Let me apologize in advance if this is too off-topic for this forum. I've posed this question in the DVD forum here, but so far no responses. And a search doesn't seem to yield much in the way of threads regarding this particular player. I suppose that might tell me something about it...)

-Bill.

And he responded to you that it was indeed, a 910. So, no one has seen a 960 yet, that we know of. Should be soon now.

Gordon

I bought the 6600DP home theater. The 5 disc dvd progressive player is NOT in the same unit as the reciever. 2 separate units. The dvd player actually rated good. It costs less to buy the HTIB then if you bought the dvd by itself, plus you get the HTIB with it as a bonus! what a great deal! Buy the HT-6600dp. Its a great unit!

Mine gets delivered next wed sch for 2 to 4pm timeslot

Those of you that will be getting 34xbr960's soon, maybe you could tell us what flavor of SDTV you will be viewing on your 960 and what you willl be comparing it to? What kind of TV do you view SDTV on now? Is it a 4:3 TV or 16:9 TV? By flavor, I mean cable, digital cable, OTA, TiVo, etc. I am especially interested to hear how TiVo looks on the 960 and at which TiVo quality it was recorded.

I think most of us believe the 960 will be great for HDTV, if 34" widescreen is adequate for our needs. But alot of us are worried about SDTV viewing, since there is still alot of that around.

Thanks,
Gordon

In his review of the XBR910 in The Perfect Vision, Gary Merson discusses the location of the aperture grill("there are 1401 slots") - "just behind the phosphor-coated face."

This puts it inside the picture tube and as I previously said Sony told me the part number for the picture tube on the XBR960 is the same as the XBR910.

Where did you buy the set at?

Just repeating what I've heard. I could really careless whether it was 1600 or 1400 lines, I know its still much higher than any other consumer CRT, LCD, or Plasma on the market.

The company handling the shipping on my 960 for SonyStyle says to expect delivery by Wed. or Thurs next week around the same time as Gundyrat1. I'm guessing he's a SonyStyle preorder too, or a very luck retail customer.

If I had to wager on this I would be the the 960 has the exact same tube as the 910. Sony is not known for making big changes to it's tvs year to year. Especially true for the XBR line which normally only changes every 2 years. So, I just don't think they'd actually do all the work to make a new tube for the 960.

My money says the 960 is the 910 tube with some slight tweaks to the circuitry.

I concur. I had heard that there were some improvements made to the tube, but it appears I had been misinformed. Its most likely that Sony's press release was referring to circuitry upgrades with upconverters, signal processors, etc.

I just find it funny that the people here are already dismissing the SD capability of the 960 before anyone has seen one in the flesh, let alone a well-calibrated one.

I think the problem with SD is not unique. I have heard it is "HDTV's dirty little secret" is that the sets are terrible with SD images. I know I have viewed DirecTV images with the finest cables at Magnolia HIFI, and the SD picture on CNN, etc. looked TERRIBLE on a $7,000 Pioneer 910HD; while the HDTV looked brillant on a baseball game I saw on a Samsung DLP at CC; when I had the salesman switch to DirecTV, the picture looked TERRIBLE.

Perhaps as one thread states, there is something to the 16:9 format; that is; the 4:3 sets (40XBR00) have better SD images? Something about how the XBR800 can upconvert to 960i rather than 1080i.

Certainly excellent analog televions have superior images on SD signals.
Anyone with an an excellnet analog set ever see a HDTV SD image that looked as good? Maybe not out there at this time.

The problem is with the SD, not the TV. SD has all sorts of problems, and HD sets aren't made to cover them up, so you get to see the problems in all their glory.

You cannot compare the SD image on a tube TV to one on a large Plasma or Rear Projection set. An SD signal will always look poor on even a good big screen set because an NTSC signal was never intented to be viewed on such a large screen. SD on my friend's HD tube TV looks great via DirecTV, but the same exact signal on his 46" DLP looks unacceptable. This is to be expected because big screen technology is optimized for DVD and HD, not SD, and the larger screen size exposes flaws in the signal that aren't apparent on a smaller tube TV.


You can't make this broad statement because it's not always true. I've seen SD and DVD on a Sony 32FV310 analog set (undoubtedly the best analog set out there) and i saw scan lines even when i stood 10 feet away, but on my own 32" HD Panny and friends's HD tube TVs the SD picture is superior to that of the analog set - no scan lines and an overall smoother picture compared to analog and its because of the HDTV's deintelacer doubling the scan lines. SD looks fantastic on my HD set.

Again, I agree with Randy on SD signals to a HDTV set. My HDTV monitor(Zenith C27V36) looks very good to excellent with analog(cable into RF input from wall) after PROPER CALIBRATION with either DVE or AVIA.(user menu). Much better than my 3 year old Panasonic CT27D10 analog set.

No service menu adjustments for me yet. Too scared to screw up tv.

And your Panasonic 4:3. Perhaps something to do with the picture quality ala the 40XBR800?

Hoping XBR 960 has great SD picture, but skeptical to this point. Only viewed the XBR 910 with over-the-air analog signal at Magnolia HIFI and the picture was poor. I would have to see the set connected to DirecTV to ultimately judge its SD picture quality.

Speaking of SD reception on the XBR910, which connection would provide the best picture quality: DVI, HDMI, Component, or S-video?

Since it came up again, I'd like to mention it, again, that SD DirecTV looks _awesome_ on my 34xbr800 and could only look better on the 34xbr960.

Well, HDMI and DVI are digital, HDMi is superior than DVI that it has 5 Gbits of bandwidth and can carry audio data versus DVI which can only carry up to 1.65 Gbits of bandwidth and it doesn't carry any audio data. But both are digital....

Component is analog and it seem to be capable of carrying up to 3 ghz bandwidht...

So, HDMI, DVI, and component are the way to get High defintion....which is better depends on the DAC of the source/and or the display...to me, i like HDMI for its bandwidth, smaller size, and convenience of carrying audio too...

S-Video is analog and its only support 480i. Not high defition and the color bandwidth isn't as high as component....

fyi

The Magnolia Hifi in Santa Clara will receive their 960's on July 10th.

Of the 15 on order, 12 are pre-sold.

According to the salesperson, whose name I didn't get, they are selling the 960's for msrp and including the stand at no additonal charge.

delivery is 50

Hey. New to these forums. I've been looking to get my first HDTV, and the XBR960 looks like a great place to start. Only problem is that today I went in and talked to a local shop who carries sony, and they told me that the XBR960 isn't going to be as "good" quality as last year's xbr910. Now it's possible they just wanted to sell off their old models. But they made a good point about the xbr960 having the built in tuner while actually retailing for less than the xbr910 did. Did they cut some corners with the xbr960, or is it just possible that they're able to pack more features in for less than they could last year?

..the salesman was just trying to make a sell on the 910. I have no fear that the pq on the 960 will be of similar quality, if not slightly improved from the 910. I would guess that the lower pricing for the 960 is due to a few factors such as lower production costs for the various components, as well as the need to respond to competitors' pricepoints. It's your decision which set to purchase, but with the 960 so close to popping up in stores, it seems a little silly to buy a 910 until you can see and compare a 960 with your own set of peepers.

JamisonBWolsh
I bought it direct form Sony Style
My stand is slightly smaller than the base but I've look
at the previous Version and it will sit just fine I may scroung up a sheet of plexiglass to extend My stand top
Its made by tech craft I bought it spificly for any fututre TV upgrades and mainly for my Center channel speak which Just fit s the 8"tall opening just below the stand top and then below that is LD storage
as for whats going to be hooked up
For SD its DirecTV via a Sony SAT-A2 and then through My Ht receiver a Pioneer Elite VSX-49TX (Im looking foward to the componant out upconversion)
a Pioneer Elite CLD-79 LD player and Pioneer Elite DV-C36 5 disc DVD player
and also the PS2
I'm interested in seeing how Vice city looks in 16:9
the Tube might just be the same but the electronics have added features missing form the 910
we all know that eventualy prices always drop as each new model rolls out
so for a Salesman from any store tellanyone that a newer model isnt as good as last years model just beacuse last years model had a Higher MSRP is plain nonsense
there is always A price to be paid for first run componants

To those who feel the 960 will be an improvement over the 910, keep in mind that Sony has a long track record of introducing statement products such as their first dvd player, the s7000, which blow away the competition in build quality and value for the money. Once the product is established, and the glowing reviews are written, Sony discontinues the product and substitutes versions which seem to offer more, but are clearly a step down in build quality.

By all appearances, the 960 is essentially the same TV as the 910 - same case, same tube (with minor upgrade) - so overall R&D costs were very little. The addition of an internal HD tuner and a few interface plugs probably added a few bucks to production costs. This was probably off set by an increased production run.

In what country are the 910 and 960 manufactured?