The Official Kd-34xbr960 Thread - Page 247

Well, I replaced my 960 with a Samsung 51 inch plasma d8000. It arrived yesterday, so I'm still trying to figure everything out, since this is my first flat panel. Watched Fringe last night from my dvr and the picture was excellent except for one thing. I'm noticing sometimes blacks are not really black like they were on the crt. I didn't get it for the 3d but I got a 3d package for free which supposedly cost $400. 2 sets of glasses and the Shrek movies, which I can't play since I don't have a BD player. I have Directv DVR HR20 and the 3d channels that started up, but when I put the tv into 3d mode and switch to one of the 3d channels, I get a message from the receiver that the dvr isn't compatible with my 3d equipment. According to Directv's website, my HR20 should do 3d. Have HDMI cables changed since 7 years ago? That's the only thing I could think of that could be wrong. I also never got a BD player to work on my 960. I have a WD Live Hub and that works great with the new tv. If anyone would want my 960 for free, and is close to me in southern PA all you have to do is pick it up.

Yes, they have. Several versions, and it might be that your old HDMI cable is not capable of delivering the 1080p/60 digital stream required for 3D.

Read about the different types of HDMI cable in this introductory article

thanks, I'm going to try a new HDMI cable when I get a chance.

Am sure the problem has to do with older HDMI cables.

Congratulations on your new set and enjoy. Let us know what you think of the 3D effect.

KD34XBR960- Cablecard- Verizon FIOS

Has anybody gotten a Motorola M Stream cablecard to work with Verizon FIOS.

I switched from RCN but now the Verizon Fios cablecard is not working.

When inserted the cablecard screen pops up with"Copy Protection Error"

I understand this has to do with Verizon implementing -Simulcrypt-

Does anyone know of a workaround so that I don't have to get a set top box (STB) ?

I know nothing... but is this an M-Card? This is for multiple tuners.

I suspect the XBR960 expected an S-Card (single tuner).

Just speculating...

As mentioned in the other posted thread my Verizon Fios is working in my 960 with a Motorola M card - there are different versions; but verizon notified users they no longer support these older tvs several months ago; and that my card would stop working (it didn't stop working on the announced day - but obviously no support at this time)

When I first got a CableCARD for the 960, it took two or three before the Cox service guy got one that worked. I would try another before giving up.

Same here - three trips. But what I meant to say was that at least for Verizon in our area they have formally given up on the older cable card displays and formally announced they would not support. I doubt you could get multiple (or any) trips out of a Verizon tech today. And only they can do the card pairing - they will not allow a customer to pair the card and require a technician visit

This is another testimonial as to how great the 960 is.

Yesterday at the office a Director from another office plucked two tickets for the Mets home opener in my hand. These weren't ordinary seats - they were the high roller kind that cost $189 each and had a private lounge with complimentary food and drink. Because it was getting cold, my wife and I along with some others watched the last three innings in the heated comfort of the lounge to watch the rest of the game. There were also flat screen monitors on the walls and I was amazed at just how poor the quality of the picture was compared to Met games I see at home. This wasn't on just one or two but every monitor they had on. This morning the game was replayed so I saw the same broadcast and again, no comparison.

Will admit the color was a bit over saturated but the picture was so soft and without the detail to what I'm used to.

Again, a testimonial to the 960 - but the Mets lost the game anyway. (:.

Yeah, it blows anybodys mind that gets to see it. My brother said "damn, it looks so crispy"... I suppose thats good lol. They always say, "it looks like a flat screen" (well duh, it is) to which my reply is "dude it's better"

well that's my expertly crafted testimonial haha

I especially like how it deals with 720p source signal, presented as "native" from either my DVR or my HTPC.

Simply stunning (e.g. for all the programs on FOX networks, like "AI", and also on all of the ABC/ESPN networks).

I deliver 720p as 720p to my XBR960 instead of allowing upconversion to 1080i. To me the difference is quite visible, as upconverted 720p->1080i to me looks a bit blurred, or at least not as absolutely knife-sharp as native 720p does. Definitely different, and definitely "native 720p" is absolutely the winner.

Not to re-open that other discussion, but I have my "sharpness" set at MIN... and will not budge on that one. It looks like I'm right there in the AI television studio, with the XBR650 presenting color and brightness and contrast as if I were looking through an open window. Closeups of the judges are stimply stunning, in their realism and perfect human-skin color accuracy, as well as the rest of the perfectly rendered color gamut in their hair, makeup and clothing.

XBR960. Always was, and always will be: THE REFERENCE.

(watch it in a pitch black room, for maximum effect... like 3D)

You are right about having the sharpness set to the soft side. Too often people set their sharpness and edge enhancements too high and mistake grainy artifacts for increased detail. Not only does this cause an unnatural looking picture but it actually masks the detail brought out by a more correct softer setting.

Each set is unique so settings are expected to differ somewhat. My sharpness on HD is set at 19 with low edge enhancement. It's also that way for my up-converting DVD player/recorder but with the edge enhancement at medium (I think in these two cases the medium setting helps since the original source is not true 1080i). I used test patterns for the adjustments.

After re-calibrating the 960 I noticed that the same incremental increase in the user sharpness were more subtle than before so my 19 might be softer than it is for others.

I have a HDMI switch box so an up-converting DVD recorder could be connected to video Seven along with our DVR. For the DVR, I use the PRO mode, however, the same user settings, while quite close, do need more precise adjustments for up-converted DVD. So for commercial DVD I used the MOVIE mode and for my DVD-R recordings made off HD stations via a s-video cable (down-converted, of course, to 480i for recording purposes) I use the STANDARD mode. It beats having to instead change each of the settings.

The Mets finally looked as good as the 960 tonight and it was almost like being at the park -- it being a night game, watching it in a darkened room only added to that feeling.

To clarify - I suppose your point is that the conversion to 1080i that the XBR960 does from 720p source is superior to a conversion from your particular STB and/or HTPC.

IMO that would be clearly a function of the particular box and not a generic preference, since in the end the 960 only displays in 1080i, no matter the source resolution. True?

True.



True.

My position is that it is always better to feed "native" resolutions (720p or 1080i digital, or even 480i analog) to the HDTV and leave it to the HDTV itself to process or optimize or upconvert or DRC or whatever to that source signal, rather than to have a standard DVR/STB or HTPC/videocard do it before delivery.

Assuming there is some native display resolution for a given HDTV, and that the engineers who designed the HDTV itself probably best know how to handle any given source input resolution on that HDTV, I vote to let the HDTV do whatever it wants to do to give me the best visual result.

I always send "native" resolution from my source devices.

To be fair there are some crappy upconverters in some of these tv's out here. For example my old ws rp crt did 720>1080i and it was pretty horrific, 1st gen upconverter though. Letting my ps3 do it was much better.

Was feeding the "native" resolutions to the 960 for quite some time but later found that up-converted signals indeed provided better picture quality. This included sporting events on FOX that were only 720p. Definitely helps on DVD. Up-conversion even enables standard definition broadcasts to appear a bit smoother.

Many flat screen owners have written on various forums that up-converted DVDs don't come close to looking as great as their bluray equivalents, however, that is not the case with the 960 when up-conversion is applied.

Good News and Bad News:

First the bad news, it looks like my beloved 960 has burned thru its tuner. Good news: everything else seems to work A-OK.

These past few month there've been repeated "cold tuner" issues. It takes a good 5-10 minutes to warmup before I can actually bring in a station. (especially bad this January with Chicago's Blizzard of '11!) Last week it just stopped altogether--no station would come in.

However, all the other video inputs work and it otherwise functions normally. I'm using my eyeTV tuner connected via my Mac Mini and a Zenith DTV tuner into Video 1--actually each one brings in a stronger signal than the 960 did.

Debating whether or not to have someone look at it.

Any ideas?

Can you recommend anyone in the Chicago area?

Crossing my fingers nothing else goes wrong.

I have a TiVo connected via HDMI to my 960. Works very well. The TiVo HD is cheap ($50-$75) on Ebay but you have a programming charge that is monthly or you can pay for lifetime for a couple hundred dollars. FYI.

my buddy has a couple panasonic plasmas and every time he comes over and looks at my xbr960 he says-wow this thing really has a great picture-better in fact than his plasmas.i have a denon 3808ci avr that has an oppo 83,toshiba a35,ps3.and directtv hd stb and i have never had an hdmi handshake issue with it.tv is native 1080i and all hd material looks great.i dont want to replace this thing cause i believe its a classic tv.plus its one heavy son of a gun and i dont want to get a hernia moving it.

As one who went through two hernia operations I can completely understand your concern. And as one who owns the 960, I can agree about not ever wanting to replace it. It's a monster, both in weight and performance.

Unfortunately, not many know how great HD and up-converted DVD pictures look on CRT, especially the 960, since their only CRT experience had always been watching standard definition. When HD finally took off the industry equated the more expensive flat screen with HD which subtly implied that CRT was not up to the chore, though not stating it as fact.

Guys,

Got a deal on the table for the XBR 800 HD CRT set for around $125 bucks. Unfortunately ive come across this thread from a few owners that the picture is locked when viewing hd material, meaning its not a full picture - two black bars above and beneath the picture. You're unable to 'zoom' in on the HD material to rid the picture of the black bars.

My question is: Are there any HD CRT sets by Sony or Toshiba or Panasonic that do not have this problem?

XBR 800 does. Not sure about the HS510 or the 960/970. Not sure about the 34HF83 by Toshiba.

Any owners out there?

The 36KD955xs and similar later model SONY 4:3 HD sets all squeeze the scan lines into a 16:9 window whenever an HD signal is sensed. To release the window you press the zoom button which the displays a 4:3 portion of the 16:9 signal full screen and still in high definition. Although typically there is some overscan with this approach you do lose the letter box you are describing.

I am surprised the set you refer to doesn't have a zoom mode but I don't own one to check.

For the love of everything HD, please tell me that you're not planning to crop ~2.35:1 aspect ratios to 1.78:1.

Watching 480i DVDs in 4:3 is stunning on the 960..

I remember seeing this TV before I bought the TV this thread is about. It was a 40" CRT monster with 4:3 aspect ratio, so yes HD has black bars above and below an HD picture, but SD material fills the screen. It was the exact opposite of what I wanted. To watch HD you would want a close seat, but for SD material you would need to watch far from the screen or the poor resolution of SD material would be glaringly obvious. I just glanced at the online manual. There is no "Screen Mode" button on the remote, so I don't think you can zoom the picture like you can on the 960.

Absolutely and the reason why many 960 owners haven't converted to bluray. Also, my DVD-R recordings look quite good when dubbed off HD stations (about an 8 compared to the 10 for the original source when using flexible speed and a s-video input).

And as stunning as the 960 upscales 480p via component, the picture is improved even more when used with a good up-converting player connected VIA HDMI. From what many flat screen owners tell me, this isn't the case with LCD, Plasma or DLP. So that also shows what good old CRT technology is still capable of doing. Even though once experiences HD they hate to watch standard definition, at least on the 960 it isn't at all an eyesore.

New to the forum. Have a KD-34XBR960 that I am being forced to part with (moving across the country and can't move it).

Anyone interested? Comes with the matching stand (with two shelves). I'm located in Atlanta, GA. Won't ship it (doesn't make sense too), you would need to pick up.

LOVE my TV, but it's time to move on. Sure going to miss this picture. Shoot me a PM if you are interested and we can discuss logistics.

Thanks!

CCordes01-

this is the best CRT ever. The only rival was a Pioneer Elite 60 inch Plasma.

Best HD CRT...the 4:3 XBR100 (1997) was a very good CRT equalling the 960 in my opinion.