The Official Kd-34xbr960 Thread - Page 118

Yea I would never run it that way anyhow in fact I should've known better being I've been through the DVE disc , I thought maybe something was wrong with the display model because the bloom was REALLY bad.

I went back to best buy tonight thinking they had the matching SU-34XBR3 tv stand in stock and on sale @ $150 (it was according to the online inventory check) but they didnt have it after all The sales rep said their inventory is messed up online (go figure).

Anyhow while I was there I decided to adjust the XBR960 they had on display this time(it was still in Torch mode) ,First I put the TV in Pro mode, turned the Picture down from full blast to 50 and changed Color temp from Cool to Neutral, Wow what a differance it made and the bloom was completely gone (of course), The picture on this TV is definately in a class of its own. My brother was with me and was also very impressed. I checked the geometry in the Memory stick menu and it wasnt TO bad , no severe bends or bows, but overall it did have a lot of 'wavy' lines...but who knows how may times that tv has been moved around in the store. Cant wait for mine to arrive next week!

For those that own this set did anyone look at Plasma, LCD or the Sony SXRD sets? I currently have a 60" SXRD that I am not really happy with for SD programs, 50/50 for DVD and other issues as well; anyhow I was thinking of this set or possibly a plasma. I am not to concerned going from 60 to 34 screen size as I was watching a 26" LCD while waiting on the repair of my 64" Pioneer HD710 and was pretty happy. Unfortunately the HD710 will not be coming back and I need something. The Sony 60 SXRD seemed like the correct choice based on all reviews but I am thinking that this CRT set will give me the best of all worlds great HD and equally good SD and DVD PQ. Any input...

Thanks

Mathersar

While you can't wait for your 960 to arrive next week, this is nothing compared to the agony you'll go through the day it is to be delivered LOL. If you're like me, you'll be consistantly looking out the window for the delivery truck! But not to worry, it will arrive and you will love it!

Many on this forum have recommended settings, including myself. They also recommended the HD set-up program broadcast on INHD at 7:00 AM each Saturday morning. I finally recorded it on my HD DVR and was able to make some more adjustments to my 960 (even after six months) and these are what I use for HD (connected via HDMI):

MODE: PRO
PICTURE: 27
BRIGHTNESS: 24
COLOR: 33
HUE: R5 (toward red)
SHARPNESS: 23
CLEAR EDGE: Medium
COLOR AXIS: Monitor
MODE MEMORY: On

I was happy with my picture quality before using this and my settings in Pro beforehand were: 32, 22, 38, R5, 36 so there were slight changes in picutre, brightness, color and big one for sharpness.

Different settings might be necessary for DVD. I've used the THX optomizer found on many titles for setting through component cables. These are used for my DVD recorder: Pro, 35, 32, 40, R2, 31, Medium, Cinamotion (DRC), Monitor, Mode Memory on and R87/C85 on the BRC Pallete. I also have a stand-alone player and the settings are slightly different.

VHS - PRO, 31, 27, 35, R2, 25, Neutral, Medium, Cinamotion, Monitor, Memory On, R87/C85 for BRC.

You can use these as reference points but as everyone will attest, the bottom line is what YOU find best.

Again, congratulations on your new set and hope you don't strain your neck to much waiting for that delivery truck! Sorry you were unable to find the matching stand - we have it and it looks beautiful. Just remember the set is 200 pounds so be sure it is placed on something durable enough to withstand the weight.

Joe

Looks like gray is the way!

What are you talking about?




and from a page ago:





Please stop trolling this thread with your useless and senseless threadcrap. You don't know what you're talking about.

My grey market 960 blew up into a million pieces when I hit the on button. I still have glass shards in my arms and legs. Thank goodness my homeowners insurance paid for my neighbors fence when the back of the TV went through the wall and took out a 6 foot section of stockade.

When I got out the hospital I went to my local B&M and got one. I'll never buy grey again.

I hope he's true to his word and follows his "gray is the way" mantra.

Hopefully, he'll have an experience like yours. That's the only way some people learn.

I just have to ask, are you an adult? or are you a child playing online.
cause no one would say such foolish comments if they had any common sense

we all paid what we thought was a good price at the time, and I doubt many of us paid MSRP without having to look toward the grey market, where there is a chance of being ripped off

then TVs just get cheaper the longer they have been around

even in the grey market you could not find a XBR960 a year ago for 1200 dollars much less 1500 dollars
the MRSP was originally 2199

then encouraging people from unscrupulous resellers online, makes me wonder if you are not one of these resellers
cause no one in their right mind would encourage such behavior with all the bad reviews for these grey market resellers

I did. I waffled between the 960, the 42" A10 and a few plasmas. I have not personally seen a better set (when it comes to PQ) than the 960 (esp. after getting it calibrated). We have a 50" plasma at work so i see that quite a bit. Regarding PQ, it doesn't come close.

I feel SD on the 960 is quite good, significantly better than the other technologies (e.g., plasma). However, it is only as good as the source fed. Note that there are just some channels on some systems that look awful. Most of my SD viewing has been on the HD or digital channels and I've been generally pleased.

I can only describe DVD viewing as beyond fantastic, and this with a measley regular sony player feeding over component cable, no less. My understanding is that several other owners have gone with good upconverting players and feel the quality improvement is significant.

My only concern would be size vs. viewing distance based on what you have posted. Quite a bit on that topic if you search this thread, but I have found 7' to be the ideal distance for me. There are a few downsides (highlighted throughout the thread), but the bottom line is that if PQ is your top decision driver... this is the set for you.

Good luck!

I think we have have intellegent discussion around sources for this set without resorting to pop shots. I for one, appreciated hearing about people's experience with different vendors, when i was weighing my options. Lots of good info in this thread on that. Honest accounts from a large group of people getting this set from different sources can be a real help to future purchasers.

No need to try "dis" a vendor. The bottom line is that you don't stay in business as long as Crutchfield has, accidenatlly.

I would have thought that the 960, as the high-end Sony CRT, would do a good job of upconverting...I know that on my Sony 32 incher, its up conversion of DVD material from a progressive scan DVD results in a PQ that is very slighty less than HD quality (and often indistinguishable, since HD programming varies)...

It does!


The XBR960 does a really nice job upconverting.

njt was talking about those of us who bought fairly nice to higher end upconverting players and we saw even MORE PQ improvement.

Hey guys,

Please be careful with criticisms because we already lost this thread once because postings were turning into personal attacks.

I also posted the incorrect settings for my 960 after using the INHD setting guide. I posted one of several experimental adjustments forgetting I continued on the other side of the paper LOL!

So for anyone interested, my actual setting for HD using HDMI is:

PRO, Picture-34, Brightness-22, Color-31, Hue-R5, Sharpness-30, Temperature-Neutal, Color Axix-Monitor (please don't think I was satisified with a picture set to just 27 LOL).

Regarding CRT vs. Plasma vs. LCD, I think LCD technology still needs to improve on lack level and Plasma, whose picture quality is closer to CRT, needs to resolve the burn-in and fading problem. Both formats however lack depth perception which gives a feel of a 3-D effect which the 960 certainly does.

Did you know you can EDIT your original post?

Just in case you didn't know that, you can correct anything you've posted on this forum by pushing the "EDIT" button at the bottom of your post, so that anyone who sees it subsequent to your correction will not see the unintended incorrect data but will now see your corrected data. Obviously anyone who's already seen and read the original has already seen the original, but EDIT certainly is a way to fix things that you know you don't want to leave that way.

I think you have about 3-5 minutes following your original post to EDIT without any visible indication that you've edited (to handle corrections discovered after reading the just-posted comments instead of proof-reading and correcting before pushing SUBMIT, caused by ordinary typos, simple oversights and omissions, spelling errors, etc.). After that, any EDIT will automatically show an "edited by... on..." annotation at the bottom of the post.

And of course you're free to add your own author's annotation, such as "EDIT: ..." to describe what you did, when, or why.

Hello,I recently purchased the 34xbr960 and I am really enjoying it. Out of the box I did not notice any geometry problems. If there are any they must be very slight. My question is if the TV does not have any of these bowing problems out of the box is it something that could show up later or is this something usually only seen initially? Great TV.

Thanks for the tip - I'm sure the opportunity for its use will come quickly LOL.
- Joe

Sorry, I know I made a seperate thread for this but no one seems to even read it, much less reply. So afterwards I saw this was the "official" thread of the tv so I descided to post my story here to see if I could get help. Thanks guys

Ok, I have alittle short story to go along with this b/c I'm not sure what to do. Any help and or suggestions would really be greatly appreciated.

About 3 months ago I went to Tweeter and purchased a Sony XS955 (I believe thats the correct model #) for $1200, it was used, however I was told b/c that price it was a steal. Anyway I got it home and it had a few problems. One the darkness of the set was horrible, I mean ANYTHING that had shadows whether it be watching a DVD, playing video games or watching digital cable was just terrible. Completely black, you couldnt see anything. It could be fixed somewhat by adjusting the brightness, but you had to set the brightness extremely high thus making everything else way to bright and kind of "washed out" looking or getting pixalated like.

Another problem this set had (and sorry I dont kow very many techinical terms) was about 3 or 4 "dead lines" I like to call them. These were very thin completely black horizontal lines that went across the tv from one side to the other. It was like those lines of the tv had not been turned on, no matter what was being displayed on the tv, those would always be black. They were VERY thin as in you would really have to look for them in order to notice it. But since I knew they were there I always did.

Finally, every now and then (and only during certain times) I would notice a very weird red looking vertical line that would go down the middle of the tv. I really have no idea how to explain this but I think it might actually be the "cables" fault as opposed to the tv. It would show up only during different random scenes on TV.

Anyway, moving on, Tweeter was very nice about this and let me have this deal. They said bring that tv back and give us 400 more dollars, bringing my total to arround 1600 and we will give you a brand new Sony 34 XBR the "cadillac" of Sony Tv's the man said. Well anyway I said "ok"

Heres where the problem starts again. They call me up and say "well sir Sony is cutting back on these tv's so we dont have a new XBR ANYWHERE throughout our entire company to send you, so we would have to give you another used one, but its still good and you will still have your 5 year warrenty.

Well I said "ok" like a moron maybe?!?!

The tv gets to my house, I plug it in, fire it up and now it has ALL of the same problems. I mean its terrible it made me sick I feel like I've tossed 1600 bucks to someone just to screw me over.

But my question to you guys is, is this my fault? Is it possible (my house is alittle older) that maybe the tv's arent getting enough power to display properly? I was told by someone there that the Monster Cable Surge protector that cost like 150 bucks would give my tv the correct ammount of power it needed. Is this true? Could it be something in my house thats messing these things up, or is all thay a bunch of bull? No other tv in my house has any problems (none of them are HDTV though)

What should I do? I was thinking about trying to get my money back and going to Best Buy to buy a brand new 32 inch LCD HDTV, the Samsung LNR28

Well the people at Tweeter got you good. No way I would've paid $1200 for a used xs955 3 months ago, or even $1600 for a new XBR now. I find it hard to believe they couldn't order you a new XBR from Sony, even if they don't want to stock them in store anymore. I would try and get a full refund of your $1600 from Tweeter and return the used XBR. If you can't get your money back at least a Sony tech should fix the XBR since you have a 5 year warranty. Is Tweeter an authorized Sony dealer, or are they consider a "grey market" dealer?

I dont really know what a "grey market" dealer means. I can only assume they are an authorized Sony Dealer.

But you dont think its possible its my fault at all? just crappy tv's? and if I can get my money back what would you suggest for arroune 1500 to 1600 bucks?

you still are not done, are you?

got any potentially helpful information for others or you are still just going to keep spouting out your crap?

cause personally I sick of your BS

the tone of your post have been nasty ever seen you first posted in here
and even when given helpful information with proof to backup the claims made, you come off snide and inconsiderate

I do not know if you have been lurking for a while before posting in here, but maybe thats what you should go back to doing

If I follow this description correctly, I think you are talking not about something which is the "absence" of a scan line from the electron gun of the tube. Rather, these are truly and actually very very thin wires which run horizontally across the back of the glass. The wires actually press the "aperture grill" (which you can't see) up against the back of the glass and hold it there.

These very fine wires are visible on EVERY Sony Trinitron tube made... going back what, 13 years or so? Whether it's a PC CRT of 15" up to 22", or a TV CRT right up to the XS955 and XBR families of Trinitron's... these very fine wires are present, and visible. They are unique to the technology used to build Trinitron tubes, and are sort of a "fingerprint" that you have indeed purchased a CRT device that uses a Sony Trinitron... the cadillac of consumer tubes.

But they're not visible if you don't sit 10" away! In other words, yes, they are clearly present and if you have a white or light background so that the black wires contrast against them, and move right up about a foot from the screen and look for them, there's no question you can obviously see them.

However with normal moving content on the screen, and certainly with dark content in the areas where the wires are located, and obviously sitting back at normal viewing distance, I would have to say that the wires are 100% invisible.

You are not alone in observing these lines. My guess is many millions of Trinitron tube owners (including myself), in various incarnations, have observed and questioned these... initially (but falsely) believing something's wrong with the set. They are all right in that the lines ARE visible under just the right viewing circumstances, and wrong in that there might be something wrong with the set. I assure you, all is well... even if you can't imagine that could be true.

My advice to you is just to move back from your 10" viewing distance. The 34XBR960 should be more appropriately watched from a distance of perhaps 5'-7' for maximum viewing pleasure. In my opinion, at that distance there are no situations in which those wires can possibly be seen... white background or not. Certainly not with anything other than a white freeze-frame on the screen can you possibly see these tiny lines at normal viewing distance. With normal motion, it's just impossible.

As far as "tuning up" your XBR960 for maximum viewing pleasure, well I agree that you might have been better off doing some online shopping if Tweeter couldn't deliver a "brand new in a box" Sony. I, personally, would not care to take someone else's return...for whatever reason, and even if there's nothing wrong at all with the set (except that maybe the previous buyer didn't know how to or didn't want to adjust anything using either the user-menu or service-menu, and felt the out-of-the-box state of the XBR960 was unacceptable).

However the set is under Sony warranty, so you should call Sony to get a free factory tech out to your house to see if it's just a matter of adjustment to address your other complaints, or whether there's truly something wrong with the set that justifies replacing it. Or, you could just return the set to Tweeter (assuming they will accept it back without requiring you to go through all of this) and shop elsewhere... online or in a real store.

Seems like the current going online price for a brand new-in-a-box 34XBR960, not including sales tax if any, is either around $1200 + $300 for insured white-glove delivery, of around $1450-$1500 for "free shipping", if you shop around. At least that's what appears to be the case, at DigitalCraze.com online and at ABT in Chicago (an actual giant appliance/TV/electronics store with great prices).

There are links to what "grey market" means a page or two back in this thread. I don't believe it is your fault, but that is just my opinion . Unfortunately a few people on this board who think they run it, can't handle other people's opinions. Like I posted earlier, I would try and return the set and get a full refund. You should be able to get a brand new 34xbr960 for under $1500 now. If you read the last 25 pages of this thread you will find out some people had to call Sony for a service call to fix minor problems and many also got their set calibrated. You can do this also if you decide to keep the set you currently have, but you will have to pay extra to have your set calibrated.

I agree on the RETURN and REFUND, unless they can provide you with a NEW NEVER USED, NOT RETURNED 960. Tweeter is pretty reputable, and they should take care of you. Push the issue with Manager if needed...remember, you are the customer and they need you.

I enjoyed mine right out of the box also.

The imperfections that might show up later are usually due to reading about something and then looking for it.

Enjoy

Precisely: If it ain't broke, don't go looking for reasons to fix it.

Some people would not stop until they found an off-putting blemish on the small toe of Scarlett Johansen.

Thanks PeteH579!!

Thanks for the info! I'll be sure to try the settings from your updated post. I decided to go with a Z-Line tv stand being it has more room for my consoles, Its actually very nice and didn't take long to assemble, according to the manual the top shelf is rated at 310 lbs. ,Circuit city's website incorrectly states 260lbs. (which would of been fine as well).

Does anyone here use or can recommend a Component video switcher? I've got 5 devices that could benefit from component inputs (Gamecube/PS2/Xbox/Xbox360/DVD Player) but of course the XBR960 only has 2 component inputs , Thanks.

You'll get several common recommendations on this one, but I went with a Zektor HDS4 several years ago. They have newer models now (HDS4.1 and HDS4.2), if you need their additional features. The Zektor is nice in that it supports either optical or coax digital audio input on any of its four inputs (of course you must choose only one or the other for each input), but it transcodes either digital audio input to feed BOTH optical AND coax digital audio output simultaneously (to feed any receiver).

I have my 480p DVD player feeding INPUT5. I have my other 720p/1080i input sources (two D-VHS VCR's, one 6412 DVR) going through the Zektor into INPUT6. That allows me to tweak INPUT5 for DVD source, and INPUT6 for true HD source. The component video output from the Zektor goes to INPUT6 on the Sony and the digital audio output of the Zektor goes to my receiver.

I use the fourth input on my Zektor as a spare or multi-purpose input, either for HD output from my PC (from ATI Radeon 9800 Pro via DVI-to-component adapter) when I need to, or as a spare digital audio input (e.g. the optical digital audio output from the XBR960's ATSC tuner can connect here, or the coax digital audio output from the Audigy/2 sounce card in my PC can also connect here).

These Zektor boxes are not cheap, but they are extremely high quality and as I've described have great flexibility (they can even be used to pass through analog L/R stereo audio from each input as well... not just digital audio). Many AVS forum members have them.

Questions

1) The HD Cable Box I'm getting only has DVI, is better for me to buy an HDMI/DVI adapter with a HDMI cable, or just a HDMI/DVI cable. Will there be any quality loss using either of those 2 methods?

2) I thought I read somewhere that using vivid mode is bad for your TV? Is there a reason why(I'm a new owner).

1) Don't know.
2). Vivid is too overblown and bright for my likes, plus it burns out the tube faster.