60XBR1 'Issues'...  

Hello all,

Well, I finally got the 60XBR-1 out of it's crate this weekend, and put it on its Bello AVS-2762 stand. It looks fantastic on this stand which, I might add, is well worth the $500 price tag. It's so much higher quality than the typical 'manufacturer' stand, weighs in at about 130 pounds. Hooked up to what I previously presumed was an analog cable connection, and was delighted to find that the TV immediately got digital channels, including all the local HD feeds as well as the digital music stations, which I thought was odd, since we are not paying for digital cable. We have Comcast slated to come out on Wednesday to install an HD+DVR box, but for the extra $20/month, I may just stick with the 'free' digital until the basement is finished. Although it's a bit hard to navigate without Comcast's 'interface', at least I get the HD stuff, which was my main concern. I can't believe how good 9News looks in HD on the 60" SXRD...

Anyway, after getting everything together, we had some people over to watch the Bronco game yesterday (sorry Oaktown...). WOW! Every last person who was here was absolutely floored by the picture quality of the SXRD, and several of these people have big-screens and HD in their own homes. Two of them are now planning on getting an SXRD. Several people mentioned how '3D' the picture was, everyone commented on how sharp it was, as well as how accurate the colors were. Let's just say there were several pissed off wives leaving our house yesterday! LOL

Anyway, my point in making this post is to (finally) convey my experiences with this new unit. After reading all the hype and apparent 'problems', I was very interested in seeing if my set had any issues. It has none. None. Out of the box the image was quite good; I reset to Pro and made some minor tweaks, and I have no hue issues (green, blue, or red), and anyone who says the PQ from this set is 'soft' simply has not seen a quality feed on it. This set is anything but soft, and has the incredibly unique quality of preserving smooth tonal gradations where appropriate. After two days with this set, I clearly see where the 'film-like' comments on various threads came from, and reminded me of the reason that I immediately knew that Sony's LCOS technology was where I wanted to be the first moment I saw the Qualia 006 in Ultimate Electronics a few months ago. I was floored by how unique the Q006's image was, and I am similarly stunned by the SXRD. Not to open a can of worms, but I honestly cannot now see where the SXRD sets don't live up to the high bar set by the Q006.

COMMENTS:

The Twin-View works with my current 'analog' Comcast connection; coax straight into the TV, able to get two separate tuned stations. I have read that people with digital/HD boxes can't do this? I hope I'm wrong, it seems like it should still be possible.

The speakers are OK, but I lasted all of about 2 hours before deciding to move our towers over for the bass. Don't really care too much about the 'ears', however superfluous they may end up being for most of us.

It's currently hooked up to an older Sony 5-disc DVD changer (480i), and I still need to tweak here. For some reason the PQ over AV6 (component) is only so-so. Blacks are dark grey, so I think I need to tweak some things. I checked this versus an HD feed via Twin View, and clearly the blacks are not. I'll play with this some more. As far as DVD- watching goes, I'm still on the fence about whether an upconverting player is necessary. Last night 'Revenge of the Sith' looked quite good (despite the blacks), no significant noise or macro-blocking or jaggies. However, messing around the other night with the first LOTR, I did notice some MB and jaggies. Not sure if it's the actual DVD quality or not, but I also need to play with this some more. The other thing that was odd is that voices were hard to hear on Star Wars, but I know this has nothing to do with the TV, and need to mess with the sound system some more.

As we all know by now, black levels and contrast ratio on this thing are incredible; I don't know what else to say about the issue.

I'm above 5000' MSL, so I have set it to 'High Altitude', and although I can occasionally hear the cooling fan, it is by no means obtrusive in any way. This set definitely needs a few minutes to get stoked up to working temperature, and once it's there, I've seen no inconsistencies.

SD feeds aren't as bad as I might have thought, certainly watchable, although I'm already spoiled by the 2 or 3 HD stations I'm getting. Certainly better than most of the plasmas I've seen, including one I saw this morning at JeffCo airport (a Pioneer Elite). SD feeds on plasmas always look sort of 'plasticky' to me, skin tones posterized, resulting in a lack of detail. I'm glad the SXRD doesn't have this issue.

And lastly, as far as fast action/movement goes, this set is incredible, and displays none of the drawbacks (that I could see) inherent in rear-projection LCDs of the past.



QUESTIONS:

1) Do you SXRD owners out there find that you need two picture settings, one for day and one for night? We currently have the set in a very bright room with non-blackout shades (until the basement is finished), and I think the image ends up being way too bright once it's dark outside.

2) I really don't want to spend much on a new DVD player, but is an upconverting player necessary with this set? I do want the best possible image for movies, at least that <$400 will get me. Any suggestions? The Panasonic S97 seems to come highly recommended around here.

3) I'm certain this is a stupid question, but I need to ask anyway: When watching a widescreen DVD, why do I have to select 'Full' in order to get what I'd expect to be a normal, un-manipulated screen image? I would think that 'Normal' would give me the black bars top and bottom with a widescreen DVD, but it gives me black bars on all four sides (i.e. a smaller image of the correct perspective). Anyway, makes no sense to me.

Any help on the above would be much appreciated, and have a great day.

J\\V

Hey Steve! I have no box at all, we've been on Comcast analog cable, no box, etc. I just let the TV's tuner search for stations, and it's found both analog ('C##' labels) and digital channels. For example, the music channels are 86.xx, and local networks are from 89.x to 91.x. Since I have no cable box, my channels aren't named '265' (or whatever). That's the problem with having no box (and saving $15/month), I have no interface to tell what is on where, other than the analog cable's TVGuide channel on 99, which works for viewing the C2-C99 channels in analog.

Take care,

J

Good catch, my DVD player was indeed set for 4:3 (for our old TV), but after setting it to 16:9, it's doing the same thing. The only thing I can figure is it is outputting an image size corresponding to 480 pixels high at 16:9, thus the bars on all sides. Still confused.

In the temporary setup in the family room, viewing distances rang from 6 feet in front of the TV (kids on the floor), 9 to 12 feet seated in the couch and chair, and about 22+ feet from the back of the kitchen, where the image is still astounding.

Although sharp images can look good, I also prefer a less-sharpened image. My statements in the original post were probably lacking, and I really should have discussed the detail apparent (not sharpness), while retaining the smooth tonal transitions. I haven't changed any of the sharpness or detail/texture enhancing settings yet, and with a proper feed, Idon't know why I'd ever need to.

Not sure about the AVS 'dark content standards' (like Sin City), but haven't yet watched much other than the new Star Wars. The Denver game was a great feed, and MNF at the moment is OK with some cameras, average with others. This is clearly due to the cameras in use, and not the feed.

Thanks for that DVD info. Did you ever try it with a non-upconverting unit? I'd be curious to know if there was much difference.

I hear you about the Colorado sunshine! Until our basement is finished, the SXRD is stuck in our bright upstairs family room.

And, BTW, in order to get the DVD player's blacks looking black, I had to tone down the brightness to about 22. Is this normal, or some odd quirk with my DVD unit? It's an old Sony changer from 2002, the DVP-NC655P. I did also get the output set to 480P, though didn't notice too much difference.

If the TV/sound is off, it is a very low, smooth hum, not bothersome at all. With the TV on, I basically can't hear it, although I probably could if I stuck my head behind the set.

Thanks for all the replies, it helps a lot!

-J

That's a wonderful question that I have no idea the answer to. It just worked.

:confused:

I did play around with all the DVD's picture modes, and they made a slight difference, but nowhere near the amount of brightness adjustment that was required. I have used the power saving function at night, and it does help. Thanks for the input!