The Official Kd-34xbr960 Thread - Page 259

I may have to try some black velvet too (not the liquor). The inside silver edge of my Panny drives me nuts with the CRT glow reflecting off of it. I tried 'painting' it with a large black Sharpie but it's still reflective.

Speaking of reflective, that mirror is very cool looking but are background lights an issue? I have a 27" next to the Panny 34" for Cajun picture&picture (coined by Louisiana neighbor) but I cover the 27" up with a black throw blanket when it's not in use. I see "cubbyhole" rubbed off. lol

Interesting swivel gadget. I did not know.

I never have room lights on when watching TV (or BluRay movies). Absolutely dark room... which is probably why my 960 image packs such punch. The shutters in that corner of the room are also closed if I'm watching during the day, so there's really no daylight problem either.

And even for those casual viewing situations during the day when I want the shutters open, the day light is coming in from behind my 960.

Also, the "room lights" are not floor or table lamps, but are on a track high up on a side wall. So there are no reflections from these lights anywhere from my viewing location (normally about 4-5' directly in front of the 960 screen when I'm doing serious watching), not in the mirrors nor in the 960 screen.

What swivel gadget? Are you talking about the wall mount itself?

That's a [not cheap] Chief TS525TU, and it theoretically has an amazing 1.5" width when fully collapsed, along with a 25.5" fully extended maximum reach when pulled out from the wall. An additional FHB5017 bracket adapter is needed for the 65VT50 because of the extra-wide "wingspan" of the mounting holes on the back of the set.

It also has a 16" travel (+/- 8" off of center in each direction, left or right) for the bracket that holds the TV itself and which itself slides on a horizontal track that is part of the wall mount. This allows you to mount the whole structure on the wall where the nearest 16"-separated studs are, and then slide the whole thing holding the TV itself left or right so that you can position it on the wall wherever you want within that 16" stud-width range.

Sorry, I should have wrote HDMI swivel gadget, the connector adapter previously mentioned. Good to know on the Chief wall mount though as my friend may need one, that Chief is pretty slick.

I figured you must have something up your sleeve as far as a dark room. I unfortunately have windows and a kitchen/dining room to the rear as well as a floor lamp for reading. My friend's LG LED flat panel is terrible for reflection, maybe the wife used glass cleaner on the screen and ruined the AR coating.

I doubt it! I walled into an HHgregg a year ago and was floored at the High Glare glass used in ALL the LCD set as well as the Laptops.. All you could see was a wall of TVs displaying the fluorescent lights and plate glass windows.. how freaking stupid.. but people don't even notice it...

I was afraid of that. Hopefully I'm missing something like an electronic AR control capability. That would drive me nuts (it does at my friend's place).

Just ordered 5 yards of this from the source you recommend. Turns out they are right here in LA (in the garment district), although they don't have a retail will-call/pickup operation. Strictly online orders.

I know, that's a lot more fabric than I need for this particular application but it looks like good stuff to have for maybe some other possible use and it was quite inexpensive. I called Mood Fabrics and they had some black crushed velvet for $25/yard so I didn't even want to drive over there to look at it. I'm sure the SyFabrics item will be perfectly acceptable given that its purpose is precisely to "disappear"!

(Via email) the cabinet maker thought it was a great idea, and would be no problem to install.

Regarding construction of this "wall"...

In its current state the whole "plywood face" can actually be slid forward inside of the 3/4" plywood frame around it, to move it forward the 3/4" it's currently recessed. That would allow it to be "flush" with the mirror itself which would then allow the wall mount itself (which then projects out from the "face" at least 1.5") to be moved over more to the left if centering (of the mounted TV) as it currently sits is not right and just sliding the bracket over on the track the available standard 8" isn't sufficient.

Also, in worst case he can even add another set of "16"-separated studs" to the framing behind the face (see the pictures) just to the left of the existing "studs", into which the four main mounting bolts are inserted through the face, so that the whole wall mounting can again be moved over significantly to the left if necessary using the new set of studs.

As I said, this was just "day #1". Now that the we've learned how the Chief mount works, and what flexibility there is with it, and where the whole thing ended up relative to where I really think it needs to be, making some adjustments shouldn't be too hard. The center-point of the mount as currently located is at the perfect vertical spot, but horizontally it's about 8 1/2" to the right of where it needs to be if I want the bracket to be centered on the track with the main bolts and to have the TV horizontally centered where it should go with the mounting bracket fully collapsed behind it.

I'm a real nut/perfectionist when it comes to this kind of stuff. Fortunately, so is the cabinet maker. And the horizontal flexibility provided by the Chief mount is also good to have for exactly this reason. Good team.

That would be nice.. but have never heard of anything like that..
You know .. I think the reflection thing is something in the way our obsessive perfectionist brains are wired.. I put a new site finished hardwood floor in my kitchen and I used a high gloss finish (which I like but... ). All I see is the imperfections in my finish rather than the wood... Wife is like "What are you talking about, the wood looks beautiful, I don't see any scratches" .. me.."NO NO in the reflection, see the fine sanding scratches! "

No, I'm trying to view the 'pure' image produced on the screen, not stuff reflected in the background of the room. But yes to smudges and scratches on the screen itself.

My point being, nuts like us notice stuff other don't.. and yes reflection on a screen sucks.. I don't want to look at the condition of the finish on the floor but I can't stop fixating on it!!
Yet another reason I prefer front projections.. but alas.. it comes with another set of obsessions!

Hey Desperber,

That set up looks like it's going to be a beaut. Congratulations.

And let us know of the side by side comparison - but recognize you're bound to be blown away by the size differential no matter what the quality of the picture itself might be. Does your new set have 3D?

Yes, the VT50 plasmas are supposed to be the new "reference" sets, so I'm very much looking forward to having one (and having it calibrated for optimal performance). It certainly looked stunning in the store.

I think I can eliminate the size factor in my side-by-side evaluation. I will be much more affected by any obvious differences (if any) in color, brightness, contrast, black, and sharpness.

Yes. And this should prove to be quite exciting, but I don't have any prior experience to compare to. Brand new world.

Will you be having the CRT calibrated at the same time as the VT50? No way to make any useful comparison if you don't.

Yes. Both are being done the same day.

HiDSperber,

Had my first experience with the latest 3D technology about two weeks ago and have to admit, I loved it.

The problem is that I don't want to sit back and watch Yogi Bear or so many of the action flicks that really have nothing else going for them but 3D. Those that are entertaining on their own I already have so it would also mean buying the same movie over.

Too bad there isn't more programming on cable but I think it is a very expensive financial undertaking for both the production and cable companies and suspect if there is more programming down the road, most of it is going to be for an extra charge.

Would be curious as to the 2D to 3D conversion, especially on sports. If your set has it, could you let me know if it is worth the extra money?

Hi all. I know similar things have been discussed earlier in the thread but I couldn't find a specific answer.

I'm thinking of buying a secondhand KVHR36, which I believe is basically the same as the US XBR960 except that it does not have any digital inputs. I'll be using the TV mainly for playing DVD, Blu-ray and live TV from my HTPC. My HTPC has an NVIDIA GTX660 card which has DVI-I, HDMI and Displayport outputs. So I'm wondering what is the best way to get video out of the HTPC into the component inputs of the TV. I know you can get HDMI to component converter boxes but I'm not sure about their quality and I'm not sure whether there's another way.

My second question is about Blu-ray playback. Obviously the KVHR36/XBR960 can't take 1080p signals, so I'll need to use 1080i or 720p. But can the TV do proper 24p playback? For example, on my plasma, I would usually set the resolution to 1920x1080 @ 23.976Hz, but I'm not sure whether, say, 1280x720 @ 23.976 would work on the XBR960.

Finally, can anyone directly compare the XBR960 with an XBR8? I can get secondhand versions of both but obviously the XBR8 will be much more expensive. All I care about is picture quality, particularly for Blu-ray playback. I know the XBR8 is technically higher resolution but will it really be much better than the XBR960 in terms of noticeable detail etc? For reference, I've had a Panasonic ST50 and VT30 recently and haven't been particularly happy with either (IR and uniformity issues being the main problems).

Thanks for any advice.

EDIT: Doing a bit more reading, it looks like the KVHR at least supports RGBHV, which means I should just be able to use a straight VGA -> RGBHV cable, I think. Also doing more reading, it looks like 24Hz is too low for a CRT to handle properly, so I assume I would need to try 48Hz or 72Hz if supported. I'm not sure if this is possible and/or would make a visible difference on a CRT compared with 60hz for Blu-ray playback.
Edited by Syllogistic - 1/24/13 at 1:09pm

The Eagle Has Landed.



I am truly stunned by the picture on the 65VT50, set to out-of-the-box CUSTOM (factory preset, with zero tweaking so far, not even choosing PRO).

It is being fed from my HDTV source (DMA2100) through the external HDMI input of the Oppo BDP-103 set to "AUTO". So the Oppo's wonderful video circuity (applicable to its HDMI-1 output, which is going to my Yamaha RX-V867 and then on out to both (1) 65VT50 and (2) Sony XBR960) is upconverting 720p/1080i to 1080p (as long as I have the Sony turned off).

So for HDTV, the Panny is seeing 1080p/60 4:4:4 24bit color from the Oppo... AND IT IS STUNNING!

I've also looked at "Toy Story 3" (2D) BluRay, which is being sent at 1080p/24. THIS IS EVEN MORE STUNNING! I've never seen such a film-like image on any TV. I think it's the 24fps which is doing that, of course couples with 1080p.

Maybe it's not fair to compare just yet (since I'm only about five hours into "operational"), but its large size and unbelievable picture make me truly feel like I'm in a movie theater.

THIS IS FANTASTIC!

So you're waiting a few hundred hours for calibration right? This is exactly how we felt when we got our 65VT50... wife went from disapproving to awe struck after a few minutes relaxing in front of the VT. 'Tis simply amazing.. coming from our Chad B calibrated XBR960...

Sweet! Looks about 4 or 5 times my Picture&Picture setup of the main TV (my 2nd TV isn't that much smaller than the 1st). If I recall correctly that Chief wall mount gives you some pretty good turning angles.

I'm so far behind the times I had to look up some of those support device models in your 2nd pgh. I feel like I'm on the wrong MB.

Hi DSperber,

Looks awesome so far - in retrospect, was the 960 too small for that room? And so glad you are happy with it - but true, wait a bit before making the final comparison to the 960 only because you are so overwhelmed by it right now and have to compensate for the obvious big screen effect in the home. And please - for us less technical people - give it to us in English! so we'll know what you're talking about!

From the side by side comparison, it seems the colors, brightness and sharpness match, but of course, it is hard to really decipher things from a photo. Anything hidden on one screen that you notice on the other?

Also, please let me know about the 2D to3D conversion for I love having toys but don't want to spend the time with the 3D glasses watching movies programmed to that age group.

Again, congrats, good luck and enjoy!

Had my first opportunity to really watch something today... Bill Maher's "Realtime" from HBO (1080i source) and the Ladies' Finals at the Australian Open from ESPN (720p source).

Remember, both source programs are being delivered from my DMA2100 (i.e. my DVR-equivalent for my HTPC) in their "native" resolution of 720p or 1080i, fed via HDMI to my Oppo BDP-103 set to "AUTO" which senses that the connected HDTV can receive 1080p. So the Oppo is upconverting the input source to an output of 1080p, and doing a truly STUNNING job of it.

The Oppo QDEO video "magic" also somehow punches up the whole picture coming out, so everything looks "cleaner" and "brighter/sharper" and "more colorful" even on the 960. This is simply a SUPER BluRay/universal player, and adding external HDMI inputs makes it unbeatable.

Gotta say, I've never seen a picture like this. It's of course BIG, and so the people and faces and images on the 65" screen really do look like they're real. But mostly, it's stunningly film-like. Black is remarkable, white is remarkable, contrast is remarkable, color is accurate and remarkable, and the wonderful "computer blue" color of the Australian Open hard-court surface looks amazing.

Of course it was. Always knew that.

But I've had no problem sitting 4 feet from the 960 for years, right there at the corner of my bed... either sitting on the carpet or rolling over an easy chair. It wasn't really meant to be a "home theater" screen. It was simply the best HDTV of its day, and I bought it to replace my prior 34" Sampo (the best HDTV of ITS day, 3 years ealier) which had just died. And I had the table for it, and it was approximately identical in size and weight to the Sampo, so it seemed like the right choice.

And besides, I also had the old 35" Mits built into that wall cubbyhole and never expected to change that because of the cubbyhole size, wall, and mirror issues., and the general "decorating" considerations. And even though I rarely used that old 35" SD TV anymore, it still seemed "cosmetically appropriate" for the construction which had been built around it a long time ago.

It was only last month after wandering over to the TV store to see the 84" UltraHD 4K Sony that I suddenly got the impulse to do all of this, and figured out what had to be done to "wall mount" a large panel in what really was now just a "hole in the wall" behind it.

Yeah, I just can't get flash-less pictures from my camera to show the same colors in the image that I see with my eyes. Still working on perfecting that technique.

But today I did exactly what you just asked about, using that Australian Open match as the experiment, because it looked so stunning on the VT50. And amazingly, THE COLORS MATCH! This probably says more about my tweak/setup on the 960 than anything else, given that I've never had it professionally ISF calibrated (as I will have done in three weeks, along with the same for the VT50).

Note that when turning on the 960 (which is fed from HDMI-2 of my Yamaha RX-V867 AVR, with HDMI-1 going to the VT50) the Oppo re-handshakes for HDMI and discovers (with AUTO still set) that it now must send out 1080i to both sets, since 1080i is the highest resolution supported by the 960. This results in a somewhat degraded picture, since that means interlacing must now be inserted along with the upconversion to 1080i whereas the 720p source was not interlaced. So the Sony displayed that 1080i fine of course, and the VT50 accepted 1080i and internally upconverted it to 1080p for display (since 1080p is its native display resolution).

I then changed the output of the Oppo to be 720p (to match the 720p source), since the 960 does a great job with 720p input and I was curious to see how the VT50 did with direct 720p input. Again, the VT50 internally upconverted the source 720p to 1080p for display.

So I had a number of combinations to visually compare (at least based on memory for each set's appearance, and also both sets side-by-side for the same Oppo output). I'd have to say that the Oppo BDP-103 does the best job of upconverting anything given to it to 1080p, rather than asking the VT50 to do that conversion to 1080p for display.

And given a 720p source, there's no question the 960 does a better job of upconverting/interlacing it for its own display than having the Oppo upconvert 720p to 1080i to feed the 960 (and VT50).

All in all, you don't really want both sets on at the same time to genuinely watch anything... other than for this kind of side-by-side comparison.

But what I really wanted to see in the side-by-side comparison was (a) how do colors match, and (b) how does brightness/contrast and "punch" match. And as I said earlier, THE COLORS MATCH. Remarkable to me, really.

However there's no question there is much more "punch" to everything presented on the VT50, as if BOTH brightness and contrast were increased together. Amazingly, skin tone looks MORE REAL on the VT50, even though the "color" is essentially identical on both sets. I suspect it also has a lot to do with screen size.

I have a feeling I'm not going to be watching the 960 ever again, and that's most likely a certainty after the calibration to both sets gets done in 3 weeks. We'll see. But I'm now "a convert". I'm a "true believer". This is the best HDTV picture I've ever seen.

(My nephew insists I go out to see "The Hobbitt" in the 48fps HFR 3D version, if I really want to see something which will shake me up in terms of old-fashioned movie/image/video/HDTV expectations about what all things visual are supposed to look like).

I will very likely explore this.

But yesterday, in honor of the occasion, I ordered (1) Avatar, (2) Brave, and (3) Up, all in 3D+BluRay versions, just so that I can have something to demonstrate to myself what true 1080p 3D looks like on this set.

It's all cost me a fortune so far, but the audio/video upgrades I've decided to invest in this past year definitely have EXCEEDED my expectations in terms of "price/performance" benefit, i.e. enjoyment increase per dollar spent. And this most recent equipment upgrade has provided an incremental improvement I couldn't have predicted:

(a) Oppo BDP-103 with 720p/1080i HDTV fed through its HDMI input, coming out as upconverted 1080p when viewing on the 65VT50 now but previously when sending 720p/1080i "native" to the 960, and

(b) Panny 65VT50, which is simply the best "film-like" picture I've ever seen, especially when feeding it true 1080p source from a BluRay movie.

I really bought the Oppo for audio reasons, to be able to decode DD5.1 HDTV audio to LPCM out over HDMI for feeding to my external audio system (Realiser, headphones, etc.). But I was unprepared for what a fantastic job it's done on "improving" video.

Hi DS,

Hey, you're getting a lot of us jealous - but it's quite interesting that the oppo is used for the up-converting and does a better job than the Panny's.

And anybody who appreciates Bill Maher is OK in my book!

You are going to enjoy the 3D but even I have to question whether or not I want to sit around wearing those special glasses because often I do multi-tasking and watch picture in picture.

Interesting! I've wondered if interlace artifacts are passed through regardless of conversion when the original source material is interlace? (ex: 1080i ATSC broadcast or 480i DVD). So is the display device the actual culprit? Making me wonder if a 960 with its 720p mode (native?) would be worthwhile since my similar genre Panny only supports 1080i for HD (480p for ED).

Hi DS,

When you give us the final results of your comparison, can you include what I call "depth"? By that, although both sets are two-dimensional, the 960 does make video appear as there is some sort of depth instead of everything being on top of each other. On the big flat screens that I have seen (mostly LCD, however) everything is on top of each other. On "Ellen" it appeared as if she and her guest were almost part of the wallpaper. It was hard to enjoy the show, quite honestly. Same with sports.

It wasn't a problem with films. Movies are projected onto a flat screen and I felt the large flat LCD screen recreated that affect quite well.

How is it with plasma?

Hello, I recently picked up a KV34 XBR 960. It functions, however, the display is dis colored on both right and left edges. it is primarily purple, but, it varies depending on the color of the image.
Two questions: Is this fixable via the service menu? How does one decipher the codes to make the adjustments? It was free so... But I do want to save it, if possible. I have a KV34 XBR 800 that I did the IC replacements on, thanks to advice from on here, it works Great! But I would like to upgrade to the 960 if i can make it right. Thanks in advance!

I am adding these photos of the display, they speak for themselves....[IMG
Edited by PACIFICMAN - 1/31/13 at 4:01pm

Looks like discoloration do to a magnetic field... Could have been stored with speaker next to it or maybe you have unshielded speaker near it? Can't see from the picture.

I believe that is correct. Is this fixable? I am not real savvy in this area....

It is not near magnets, the degaussing(?) Whomp sound occurs on start up. Can the speakers do this?

Move any unshielded external speakers away from it. It may go away as you use it and it degausses on power-up. There may also be a manual degauss/geomagnetic-correct in a menu. DON'T do it too often (or power-up/down fast) as the degauss circuit needs time to cool off, probably 30 minutes.