The Official Kd-34xbr960 Thread - Page 150

I have a XBR960 and I have overscanning issues. Could someone assist me in correcting them? I need to bring the top and bottom as well as the left and right in a few notches and it'll be perfect. Thanks in advance.

And this knowledge will benefit us in what way?

Until some one can get the actual number of sets sold these blind surveys do nothing but cause baseless speculation.

Every owner whose set has failed has a valid complaint against Sony. The question then becomes a) did Sony take care of the problem with minimal hassel and downtime or b) did they string the owner along with band-aid solutions rather than fix the problem?

If a) then accept the fact that no manufactured product is perfect and some will fail but the company stood behind it and rectified the situation.

If b) then Sony sucks and prove it to them by spending your hard earned dollars elsewhere.

I have had mine for almost two years with absolutely no problems. I did touch up the convergence in the corners after owning it a couple of months.

I thought the way when I bought it as you now. I thought well, SONY was a great brand, I didn't give much thoughts baout what many others have experienced. Good luck man. I hope yours lasts, but u know the record isn't good. I am very pissed off right now. Now I think about it, if this thing is really that reliable and great, why did they discontinued it in a rush?

There are as many people who have this power-on pronblem but do not know about this or other internet boards as people who don't have problem but know about this board. In short, it evens out. There are too many people having problems.

BTW, mine was made on August 8, 2005, barely a month before I bought it from CC.

Hi Ladd,

Thank you for the nice words.

- Joe

Hi Mark,

My cataracts started to act up the same time I got my 960 (a year ago). The first one was removed in December and the other is scheduled to be removed next month. If this is the first time for you, don't worry at all about the procedure - it's quick, simple, painless and free of any discomfort. You will be amazed with the clarity of vision once it's gone.

Be warned, however, that after the procedure you will experience frustration...., with my better vision I found the settings for my 960 were way off, especially for picture. brightness and DCR pallete.

- Joe

Had my 960 for a year and after two weeks I had to unplug the set to get the picture on. Sony Customer Service advised me to plug the set directly into the wall socket and avoid use of a surge protector (the 960 needs a tremendous amount of power to properly degause when turned on and this is limited by surge protectors). Since that time this problem re-occured only once, and there was no affect on picture quality whatsoever. I'm completely happy with the 960 and would recommend it to anyone who can still get it new in box.

Thanks for the detailed response. I'm using a surge protector (PURE AV PF60), and haven't had that happen yet.

Another question for everyone:

When turning on the set, how many times does the red light blink before you get a picture? Mine does it 10, but sometimes also 11 times, which seems weird. Shouldn't it be 10 blinks each time?

I bookmarked these posts, but never got around to messing with the settings.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post7057568

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&&#post6723557

Good luck.

Anyone know a good place to get the Sony stand for this TV? Or is that stand even any good? Looks like it only has 1 AV rack spot, which I need about 4. Looking to spend aroun $200 on a stand, what do you all have your sitting on? Thanks.

Hi, Joe. Thanks for the good wishes and encouragement! I think I will enjoy the set a lot more with clearer vision!

Thanks again,

Mark

Ok all, just plugged in my new 960 for the first time and I got an issue. I plugged in my cable connection this morning and let it do the auto program for analog and digital channels. Came home and it had found quite a few channels. But I dont see any HD channels and the regular SD channels looks VERY bad. The colors are "wavy" and super blocky. So I tried going thru my cable box instead and the picture is fine that way. . . what gives? Is the tuner screwed on this thing or maybe my signal strength isnt what is needed for this box? Thanks all I cant return this thing w/o a ton of hassle so I hope I can get it working. . . guess there is always the warranty option.

Yet another statistically valid survey.

Well the TV (tuner?) seems to have fixed itself I watched TV all last night and the weird color problem was gone. Maybe I just had a loose cable connection or something. I must say, SDTV looks pretty damn good on this set. Even the Wide Zoom mode kept the picture looking very nice. It added a slight bit of overscan, but I can live with that on just everyday TV.

Is there something special I need to do to get QAM working? I did a channel scan yesterday, should I try do to it again? I'm not even really sure how you find the QAM channels, should they just show up when I am flipping through the channels? Thanks all.

Scroll back 2 or 3 pages and someone posted a link from Circuit City(I think?) for a stand(non-Sony) he was using for the 960. IMO, the Sony stand(which I have) matches the unit very nicely, but is too low off the ground.

I have the Sony stand, it looks great with the TV but it is expensive.

It comes with the one glass shelve but if you put it in its lowest spot you can stack a few components, for around fifty buck more you can purchase an additional shelf (if you don't want to stack). For the money they charge for this stand the additional shelf should be included.

After I purchased it from Crutchfield I came across this post.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...43#post8074743

I agree with the stand being to low. Because the TV is very heavy and I have it placed in a corner and accessing the back is a pain in the butt. I went to the Po and purchased five casters((3) locking for the front, and (2) non-locking for the back). I can pull it away from the corner and make any connections I want then roll it back in. Along with improving the mobility of the TV it also elevated it up a few inches more and now the height is fine.

An interesting story about my 34XBR960N with a repair/cost question at the end...

In March of this year I purchased a 34XBR960N from an online retailer. At the same time I purchased a television stand at a local retailer that was rated to hold 220 lbs. The TV comes in at 196 lbs so I figured it was safe enough. I was wrong. About a month later I came home to find the broken television stand and the TV laying face down on the floor. I picked it up and found the four corners smashed in slightly. Not aesthetically pleasing but not that big of deal to me. The TV still powers on and works fine except for one thing... some colors along the left hand side of the screen now display incorrectly.

I contacted the local retailer and showed them pictures of the damaged TV. To my surprise, they soon after quickly refunded me the full cost of the stand that broke AND the total amount that I paid for the TV and the accompanying extended warranty. I'm very pleased with the way that they handled it.

I next contacted the online retailer to see if there was anything in addition that could be done about the damage through the warranty. I was told that all issues had to go through Sony for the first year that I owned the TV. The extended warranty did not kick in until after Sony's warranty expired. I contacted Sony and they gave me the number of a local Sony repair shop. As I expected, falls from faulty television stands are not covered.

The local repair shop said that within CRT tubes there is a very thin film of a tin foil like substance that is spot welded to the tube. During falls, spot welds can fail and the tin foil can become detached. This is what they told me causes the discoloration. I was told that there is nothing that can be done short of replacing the tube. Is that really true? I was also told that the damaged corners of the television could affect the ability of the TV shell to support the heavy tube so the plastic face plate might need to be replaced as well. The estimated repair costs I was given are:

o New tube = $991.78
o New face plate = $197.92
o Tax = $77.33
o Recycling fee = $50
o Labor = $299
o Shipping fee for parts = $130
o TOTAL = $1746.03

This pretty much comes close to the cost of a brand new XBR960N!!! Unfortunately, these televisions are no longer being sold. Does the repair estimate seem far too high or is this reasonable? They also said that I would have to deliver the TV to their shop. They would not come to my home.

Any words of wisdom or advice?

I've attached three photos of the damage.

I may just elect to deal with the discoloration until I can pick up a SED TV in a few years.

Here's the link again:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Z-Lin...oductDetail.do

I've had it a year now and I'm extremely satisfied with it. If you are setting it up on carpet, do youself a favor and go to Kmart and look for the set of 8" Super Sliders for $10. They really work well if you need to move the unit to make connections or clean behind it. The instructions for the sliders do say they work on hardwood floors as well, I just don't have any personal experience with it.Good luck.

Here is my 2 cents about build quality on my XBR960N.

Its fine. Had it for 6 months and no major problems at all. Not a one.

There ARE some tweaks that are needed to satisfy my finicky taste (black crush, RGB convergence, ect.) so I hope to learn the hidden Service Menu.

-Christopher

I found two "open box" 960s at my local CC. One of them has a scratched CRT, so that one's out. These are the only two 960s anywhere within 100 miles apparently, as BB has zero of any kind.
The other has some dings on the cabinet, but the CRT is fine. The big problem with this one is the convergence is quite noticeably out....horizontally only. That's the only obvious flaw....even the purity looks fine.
I've never had one of these sets, so I haven' had a chance to find out what is in the menus.
Is this kind of convergence fairly easy to do from the service menus? I work in broadcast television, so I'm familiar with the principles of convergence...I even have some test signal generators I could use externally if there is nothing internal to the set for this purpose.
This is a special weekend here in VA, as it's tax free weekend on some items, but CC is giving the discount on everything in the store.
These two open box 960s are marked $769.....a pretty decent price from what I've seen. I'm just concerned about ever getting it into satisfactory convergence....if I can't do it myself.
Anyone have any experience doing this? Should I get this thing?? Gotta decide pretty quick....
thanks

A few years is a long time to watch a TV with that kind of picture.

Since you got a full refund and have nothing to loose so to speak I'd pull the cover off and try and adjust/duct tape/do whatever to get the tin back in place.

Thats a nice price for the stand. Its a copy of the Bell'O design (AVSC-2103) which I have that cost nearly 3x as much, but it holds up the xbr960 nicely.

Yes, horizontal convergence is relatively easy to fix via service menu adjustments. Vertical convergence can only be fixed with magnets.

Another question:

Does your set have an electronic high frequency "hum". In a perfectly quite room, I can hear mine from 10-12 feet away. Can you hear it on your set? Thanks.

Not here.

No such noise here either.

What if you put your head up the back or side of the set? Do you hear anything?

I can hear a *very* faint buzzing sound if i put my ear up to one of the side vents, but i had to shut everything else off in my room to hear it and I cant hear it sitting in front of the TV, Even up close.

The head of Service for the State of Florida for Tweeter admitted to me 18 months ago that this set was known for having problems.

This was after they replaced 2 910s and after they replaced the first 960. We went through the warehouse through 4 new in box units until we found a 960 that the convergence could be made right through the service menu. Final adjustment was done in home. I have no idea what happened to the other sets - I don't want to know.

Fact is, they wanted to credit me what I paid towards another set - so he had no reason to not be upfront about it. Quite frankly, he did not want to keep sending 960s out to my house that could not be setup properly (and I assue you I was in no way speaking something being off 1 pixel).