>>> The Official Sony Grand Wega V (A10 series) Thread <<< - Page 60

I would get a UPS regardless of whether you purchase a warranty. You can find good ones for $65 or so and replacement batteries will run you about $30.

Incidently, I have a TripLite unit that I've had for probably 9 years and the battery is still fine. That may not be the norm - probably depends heavily on how you use it.

Yes. And I have found that it is normally far from the truth.

Can you PM me telling me the best deals and where to buy ups and what power I would need to operate the 50a10 long enough to cool the bulb.
Thanks

Well, after over a year and half of looking, I finally did it. Got the 42 A10 at CC. Got it for 3 Benjamins and a Jackson off. Tweeter said no coming off the price, so I walked out the door to CC.

Life is good. Very happy over all. SDE is not a problem at all (I sit at 11-13'). I see a little SSE on a few scenes with very bright content, but I am sure that after awhile my brain will tune it out.

The fan is just a little bit noisier than I would like, but I do have it in a cabinet. I installed a pair of cooling fans in the cabinet (one of which is hooked up so far) to help move air in. I may try putting some carpeting in the cabinet to deaden the sound a bit.

Last night, I watched the football game on CBS (1080i) OTA, and a nature show on local PBS (also 1080i) OTA. Jaw-dropping nice! Watched one DVD so far (the Incredibles), with a 480p player, and was very pleased with the picture. SD DirecTV looks ok to me. Watched one VHS tape and it was grainy, but I don't care about VHS any more.

I do have an issue that I do not understand, and need help from my forum friends here:

I have a Samsung TS-360 DirecTV receiver. I have it attached via component to Video 4. I told the TS-360 that I have a 16:9 TV. The problem is that I want to see 4:3 content in 4:3 (not wide), but it keeps getting stretched. I tell the TV to display Normal, and everything is fine. Then I switch to another DirecTV channel and the screen resizes back to wide. I try telling the TS-360 that I have a 4:3 TV, and again it looks fine until I switch the TS-360 to another channel and it goes wide again.

Help please!

BTW, if I hook the TS-360 up via S-video, I do not have this problem.

Finally, I have seen the 50"A10 in Sears. I own the KDF-50WE655. Sears did have a rather poor signal coming into their HD TV department (stupid, isn't that?..sort of defeats the purpose) but anyway, I have to agree that during a credit roll where the background is solid black and the titles white, it really was solid black. That was impressive. But the set looks so damn cheap. Seems so many people thought the KDF 50 was so bland but the A10 cosmetically just makes you want to upgrade to the 55"A20. I like the side speakers but I imagine if you are needing to install this into a tight spot, this is the way to go.

Sure,
Cut up our brothers....you damn Canuckelhead!

For the componenet input, is the default on the TV set to "normal"? I had this problem as well, and changing this setting fixed it.

I have a quick question as well. Which is the correct screen format to display 16:9 content on this set? I assume it is the "full" setting, but just want to be absolutely sure.

Kai

Can someone help me out with my setup. I found that when my cable coax was put directly into the TV the HDTV was stunning. However, through my Comcast HDTV box with component cables a couple of HDTV channels looked crushed and pixelated.

I fiddled around and found that the Motorola Cable box was set by the installer to push the component signal out at 480i. I switched that and it seemed to get better. Here is my questions(s).

- What is the optimal "YPbPr Output" setting for the Motorola box with this TV (480i, 480p, 780p, 1080i are the choices)?
- What is the optimal "4:3 Override" setting for the Motorola box with this TV (Off, 480i, 480p, stretch at the choices)?
- Should I get a HDMI/DVI cable to avoid this altogether?

Anyone with insight? Thanks.

All of the shelves I have seen including the sony have very little room for a center speaker of any size. I don't plan to mount mine on the wall and am wondering what people have done...

Doesn't the Sony A-10 stand have a small shelf suspended in the center?

After reading a few posts about how these TVs convert digital images into analog, then back to digital before they are displayed, I asked Sony this question;

I am aware that HDMI only takes digital signals. That's not my question. If the TV converts that digital singal to analog then back to digital, I would get a better picture by connecting the DVD player by Component. So, I ask again, does the TV convert any incoming digital signals to analog then back to digtal before it is displayed or not?

They responded with;

Thank you for contacting us with your inquiry.

The signals from the DVD player would go into the TV and be fed to the image-processing chip. At that point it would be converted to analog for the actual reproduction of the image.

The Sony KDF-E42A10 Television features a 3 HD-compatible component video (2 rear, 1 side) it accepts 1080i/720p/480p/480i signals. You can connect the Sony DVP-NS975V DVD player to component video for a better picture.

The Sony Style team is available to assist you with further inquiries

Looks like I'll be hooking up my DVD player with component cables.

Wide Zoom would be Best setting

I guess you could tell them I liked the mits 1080 better! Dont get me wrong, i love my Sony Qualia, but this set just didnt do it for me. No need to be rude cobb, and Pent House is one word.

- Wide Zoom is best used for stretching 4:3 content to fill the entire screen

- Zoom is best used for non-anamorphic (letterboxed) DVDs

- Full is best used for native 16:9 content and 1:85:1/2.35:1 anamorphic DVDs

- YPbPr Output looks sharper when set to 1080i

- I leave the 4:3 Override at 480i. Use Wide Zoom on the TV to stretch 4:3 content or use Full for native 4:3.

If your cable box has HDMI then I would suggest using it.

I ended up getting a stand with two shelves (besides the top shelf for the TV) and put the center (which is 8" tall and 22" wide) on the upper shelf and my components on the bottom shelf (the VCR sits on top of the DVD player and my receiver sits next to them). A stand that is wide enough for the 50A10 should be wide enough to put your components side-by-side assuming it's not angled for a corner fit.

For the record, I ended up getting a Tech Craft MT400. The TV hangs over on each side by 1.5," but it looks fine. But, note, the upper shelf is too tight for an 8" tall center to sit all the way flush with the front of the stand. A 7.75" tall or less center would fit. My center is tapered from back to front, so I'm able to slide it in there most of the way.

Hope this helps,


Mitch

I ordered my 42A10 tonight. It will be here Monday. I picked up the Harmony 880 right away with it.

I am upgrading from a 27" Zenith round tube circa 1996. I cant wait.

Dropped by the CC at Irving Mall today. They had the 42" A10 on display & hooked up to HD broadcast via component cables (some bikini contest, VERY nice picture IMHO ) . IIRC they quoted 2.5 Benjis off the 42" and 50" A10 as well.

Damn near walked out with the 50A10, but I should really wait about a month.

As I was leaving, I saw a couple of CC emps helping an older gentleman put his new 42A10 into the backseat of his extended cab pickup. The front edge of the box slipped as it was going in and slammed into the bottom of the door frame. I'd have made them get me another one right there to avoid the upcoming return, but they just put in the bed and took off.

FWIW, the salesguy I spoke with told me he could have waived the delivery charge AND had it to me today if I wanted. He also told me they give 10% off DVD players when bought with a TV, so I'll probably pick up a PS DVD player when I go back for the TV.

Got our new 50a10 yesterday also. We had to put it in storage until our house gets done...tell me that doesnt suck.

I'd like to read this article.

Could someone please provide a link?

Thanks.

edit:
Never mind. I found it here: http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/6050

The default is set to Normal for 4:3 images and Wide images on that input.

My theory is that there is a problem with the A10 software. When the DirecTV tuner changes to another channel, a reset or something happens on the signal. The A10 sees this, and forgets the Normal setting I have for that input, and decides to scale it wide.

If I switch to cable this week (which I am thinking of), then we will see whether this behavior continues.

just giving an update, I am lovin this tv even more than when I got it two weeks ago. I was watching alittle of the HD football on nbc last night, was amazing compared to the FOX HD presentation a few days ago (dislike fox hd for some reason, never looks good)
Is anyone else unimpressed with the foxhd broadcast in general.


These babies are selling like hot cakes, come and get them. In my opinion, you wont be disappointed.

Got the 50A10 set up yesterday and all I can say is that it's awesome. I primarily bought it for gaming and my friend and I played Halo 2 for about 5 hours yesterday and it was fantastic. I was able to watch some OTA HD programming as well and it looks terrific! I could not be happier with this purchase decision! Thanks to everyone on this thread who has posted their opinions and experiences. Also, if you're in SE Michigan and are looking for a great deal on the 50A10, PM me and I'll give you the name of an authorized dealer offering an excellent price.

Has anyone installed a CableCard into the 50A10? Adelphia brought mine out yesterday and it's been a nightmare. They can't seem to push my Digital channels and HBO and HD Plus to the card. At one point it seemed they got into some mode that disabled the sets ability to decode HD signals. My antenna lost all OTA HD signals and free cable HD signals and the set seemed to re-boot into service mode for about 5 minutes and then when it came back up these signals were gone for a half hour or so. We manually reset the cable card and got the signals back but I was thinking they had blown something. This morning I'm still without my digital and hd plus tiers. Any thoughts about possible incompatabilities or something that may be causing the problem?

I've seen a few others ask this already, but I haven't seen an answer, so I'll try again. I want to have Closed Captioning turn on when I "MUTE" the TV. I've only been able to get it either ALWAYS ON or ALWAYS OFF, regardless of MUTE status [using the TV remote or STB remote]. Any ideas?

Just bought the 50A10 at Best Buy in Grapevine, Texas. They are selling at 10% of MSRP and will price match. Informative salespeople too.

Ok,
This is probably a repetitive topic but I still don't get why people would buy the new 1080p sets when HD is broadcast in 720p. Is the source not what makes the picture look so good?
How will 1080p sets be any better than the A10's?
Just confused as friking usual.

Okay, I've had my 42A10 for a few days and I've found a few problems that might prompt me for an exchange or refund.

First off, my 42A10 has a July 2005 build date and was made in Mexico. I ran DVE and adjusted black level, color, etc. Everything seemed pretty good until I ran the 1:78:1 geometry crosshatch pattern and discovered a misconvergence issue. Now, you might be asking how can this be? My understanding was that this wasn't possible with an LCD RPTV. But, I've done some searching and it appears that this is a known proplem with 3LCD technology and can only be fixed by changing the optical block. The misconvergence isn't very noticeable from about 8 feet away, but I can see red fringes below and to the right of white text at that distance. If I get within a foot of the screen it's really noticeable and it's at its worse near the center. So, I am going to call Sony to see what can be done. This may be something that Sony calls "normal" but I'm not going to buy it.

So, if you just got your 42/50A10 do a check to see if you have this problem. White text should be pure white and with no color fringing.

Another problem I've noticed is that DVD playback doesn't look as good as it did on my Sony KV30HS420. The image looks more processed and looks like it's been oversharpened. My DVD player is a Sony 775 hooked up via component, and I've tried both PS on/off with no difference in PQ. Maybe it's just the bigger size of the screen that's revealing more artifacts from poor encoding? DVDs still look pretty good and vary in quality depending on the title.

Uniformity on my TV appears a bit off. When watching a B&W program, there's some bluish tint in the upper right of the screen. This does to appear to be an issue with LCD RPTVs and doesn't bother me that much.

The last thing that caught my eye was the top of the TV. There's some very slight bowing of the top and top front of the bezel that droops down toward the center and it's just barely noticeable when viewing the TV from the front. However, when viewing the TV from the side it's more pronounced. It's VERY slight, but it just seems weird since the screws near the back top of the TV are in place and there are no gaps that I can see. This is a small issue since it doesn't detract from viewing. I'm just curious to see if anyone else has noticed this on their TVs.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the PQ this TV delivers. The only thing that bugs me right now is the misconvergence and the less than stellar DVD playback.

less than stellar dvd performance would definetly be a deal breaker. can anyone else confirm? i've been eyeing this TV also due to its high priceerformance ratio.

Yuo know with all this talk of impending price reduction on that other company's Plasma's, it make one wonder if Sony will do the same. Can you imagine the A10/A20 wtih MSRP's 500 bucks lower as a starting point.!! I really, really, want that 42" A10 right now, but I'm gonna wait a few more weeks. If this does come to pass, I hope all you guys (that are still in you respective price-match timeframe) that just recently got your TV's still have your receipts.