The Official Sony 2006 KDS-(XX)A2000 [NO PRICE TALK] SXRD Owner's Thread - Page 353

Got a call from the second service company, no fuss, no muss, said they'd order parts and nail down a specific time once the parts got here.

Picture is terrible, I knew I was in trouble when the wife complained. She was able to ignore the haze on the old OB.

The first guy seemed real concerned about Sony being able to see the haze -- he kept saying, "Oh, they're never going to see that." What happens if Sony tests my returned block and decides I'm just too picky?

Despite droves of comments on 1080p/24 etc, I can't seem to get any consistent answer to this very simple (it seems) question. I am on the fence on a 1080i v a 1080p player. Is there ANY concensus of opinion, verging on a reliable recommendation, on this issue? Not much point in going 1080p output if it is not an improvement PQ-wise for my KDS-A2000. It's a $100 question . . .

Thx,

Noel

I am wondering the same thing. This would mean the difference for me between an A3 or A30...

It may depend as much on the player as anything. I just finished reading a Home Theater magazine review (from August) of a Toshiba A20 player that questioned the 1080p output of this (and other) players.

Hey, been reading a lot of posts in here. But I got this TV back in July for about ~$1000 when Sears was having a clearance on them. Now my Xbox 360 doesn't have an HDMI port, and I recently picked up a HD-DVD Player for it. I got the settings on 1080i, sit about ~12 to 15 feet away from the TV, and was wondering if I should keep it on 1080i...or go back to down 720p since you guys know what you are talking about? Any suggestions would be cool, thanks. I've heard people talking about the TV deinterlacing the 1080i picture...so they said 1080i is the best picture on component for this TV? So what do you guys think..I play games here and there...but I mainly use it as my HD-DVD Player

It's a 1080 television, so you want a 1080 input. For movies on HD-DVD, they are native 1080, so you don't want to scale them down (1080p would be ideal, but 1080i will do). For games, let the 360 output whatever resolution is native to the game.

So..basically leave the 1080i on for movies...and 720p for games?

Whelp.. first OB replacement was a dud. Much better uniformity (I had the large green/magenta oval) so far, but this one has a nasty dark spot. Tech ordered a new one ASAP, and we'll try again next week.

The tech was nicely informed and very helpful, and surprisingly quick in getting the OB replaced. Hopefully it'll go better next week.

Update: Well the new OB is more messed up than previously thought. Besides the black spot, the right upper & lower corners are out of focus/blurry and the blacks seem way too "bright". I can't even tune them down with the regular set options. I hope things work out better next week...

Games can be 1080 or 720, so allow the 360 to output both and it should use whatever the game prefers.

Unlike the PS3, the 360 forces output to whatever resolution you have set in the dash. The resolution it internally renders at is a different story. Usually it's 720, so that's what I usually leave the resolution set as.

Sorry to hear that. My second replacement is Tuesday, and I'm using a different repair company this time. I'll let you know what happens.

The one I have right now is awful. I should have just left it alone.

I could of sworn someone with a 360 told me you could set it to output the game's native res. Could the Elite version be different?

Nope... no type of passthrough or anything. You select 1 resolution and it outputs at that one only 720p/1080i/p. It's all the same on all the models, via component or HDMI. The 360 scaler does a great job no matter the resolution, but 720 is really the most common so I leave it at that. The PS3 on the other hand autoselects the "best" from a list you specify, so 1080p games output as such, but it's also mostly 720p also.


I just used Sony's "Platinum" service techs... Quallex or something? They seemed good and immediately picked out the first and second problems (was sorta worried they wouldn't see them). Also, did your techs do any messing around with the sevice menu afterwards?

So after a year and half of use, my TV is starting to get the green haze thing. There's a light wide-donut shaped green haze in the middle of the TV. For the first year or so it was only there for about 20-30 minutes as the set warmed up. Nowadays, however, it's always there, even after a 2 hour warmup.

Watching Battlestar Galatica Season 1 HD-DVD on it, which has a lot of black space scenes, it became REALLY annoying. The green stars look really stupid.

Anyone else have this issue crop up after a 1+ year of use? I have the 4 year service plan from Best Buy so I'm gonna see what they will do for this issue soon.

That's who's coming for me on Tuesday. I used a local, smaller outfit the first time around, figuring they'd be easier to deal with.

No, he didn't mess with the service menu at all. He really wasn't seeing the haze for the first ten minutes, then when he finally did he was still on the fence about putting in a new block, then decided to do it. Quote was "Ah, eff it, I'll put a new one in." Didn't even look at the screen once the new one was in, had his stuff packed and was halfway out the door.

My first entry- I tried to use the search feature but did not see a similar question. I have had this set for 11 months with no issues. Last night after watching a dvd, I had no audio when going back to network t.v. I just spent an hour on the phone with the Sony service center and checked all cables to and from the cable box, dvd and tv. Unplugged the tv, reset sound to factory settings, etc.

Picture is fine, dvd sound will still come through my Denon receiver but no sound from the tv or tv audio through my receiver. The Sony tech said he was not aware of this issue...since still under warranty to sony, my first call is to their auth rep for a service call- just wondered if there has been any other issues like this? or troubleshooting advice?

^
If you have not already done so, I would also unplug the other devices.
This does not sound like an issue with your tv. More likely an issue with the cable box or av receiver.

Thanks...after bypassing the cable box and going direct to the tv, sound is fine coming from the set-the cable box is the culprit. Not sure why the Sony tech didn't suggest this among all the other things he had me try.

The lamp in my 55A2000 has dimmed and I am wondering about user's experiences as to when Best Buy usually agrees to a lamp replacement under the extended service agreement. (I like opinions before asking them.)

MikeSp

Well, had another technician come by to check out my crappy picture since having my optical block replaced. i showed him the purple and green discolorations and he asked for the remote. After fiddling with my picture settings for about 15 minutes (and screwing them up in the process) he said "that's not normal. I'll call Sony and see what they say." Sigh.

I'm thinking this second repair will be unsuccessful as well. I'm praying they go through the three repairs without success so I can just get another television. Not sure yet if I want another Sony.

I have my second OB replacement (so 3rd OB counting the original) arranged for tomorrow. Of course I'm not expecting much, but it would be a nice surprise if looks OK afterwards.

Seriously, has anyone had an OB replaced on these sets that was happy with the picture afterwards?

I was wondering if there is a way to determine to how many hours have been used on the TV. I am trying to gauge how many hours I have left on my bulb. I paid an arm and a leg for my extended warrany through Circuit City, and want to make sure I get some benefit out of it. I called Sony and they could not help.

Go into the PANEL section of the Service Menu
(Power-off, Display, 5, Vol+, Power-On then Jump till PANEL displays)

Item 21 TIMER / 0 LMP_TMP
(index thru menus by pressing 2)

Well unfortunately it has RETURNED! I currently have a 60A2000 which was a replacement for a 50XBR1 back in October/November 2006. This TV has been FABULOUS for a year, I did notice a couple of months back purplish blacks BUT was wondering if this just didn't get black and was posibly normal. I had a flickering issue whichthe repairman put a new bulb in and all is well. Well I made a move down to NC from VA, I now have Time Warner Cable instead of DirecTV now, we have Local HD channels now also. Since my move 2 weeks ago I noticed on commercials on HD the greenish tint on the outside borders, purplish/magenta in the center of the screen, it is very very slight right now.

I have been crazily pausing and rewinding to capture these white and grey screens to ensure it is not just my mind playing tricks in me BUT they are there Sony replaced my XBR1 right away with this 60A2000 THOUGH I paid $500 more which I feel I shouldn't have. The XBR2 should've been the actual replacement in my opinion. Well I am about to call my local Repair facility and Sony to start this process again. I am concerned though, in Va Beach my Service Center/Repair Facility is a Platinum level according to Sony and Brian the Tech was always very helpful and friendly! The local repair facility to me is only a Gold and all surrounding Raleigh Repair Centers are also Gold or not rated.

Wish me luck. I would love to replace with what i should've received the 60XBR2, I would take a 60A3000 , CNET rated it very well gave it a 9 for Performance. I really don't want an OB replacement as I have seen basically every member here who has had one changed seems to be worse or eventually go bad again. I have loved this TV for a year, it has been great, was even able to get rid of the 5 oclock shadow fiddling with settings but not again the GREEN BLOB/PURPLE HAZE , Purplish Blacks are here. I guess a couple of months back I should've called when I noticed the blacks but again I thought maybe this TV just couldn't get Blacker Than Black blacks

I'd be happy just to get a tech that acknowledges the problem is a problem. Two techs so far, both have not seen it, and then upon seeing it tell me it's normal and I'm wrong to not want green blobs on my $2000 television, and then grudgingly agree to change the OB for me.

So far on optical block #3, green is still there, not as bad as the second block, more in line with the first. On last night's viewing I only saw it on a blank input. Shut the TV off around 11:30, that was after 5-6 hours of use, and at that point I had almost but not quite uniform black on a blank input.

Going to give it a week and see what happens. Right now I consider it still broken but not broken enough that I want to take another day off and have another faceoff with another colorblind technician.

One thing's for sure -- last Sony product that crosses my threshold.

Thanks for the information, but this is my first time messing with this. So can you be more specific on how to get into the Service Menu, and Go into the PANEL section of the Service Menu. Do you press the following buttons in sequence or simultaneously. Thanks a lot.
(Power-off, Display, 5, Vol+, Power-On then Jump till PANEL displays)

Item 21 TIMER / 0 LMP_TMP
(index thru menus by pressing 2)

Hi!
I´ve been thinking of buying the 55A2000 set (Sony didn´t release the newer ones in Europe), but I´m not sure anymore after reading the latest post in this thread. Seems like the bulb doesn´t last very long, and many people have problems after the replacement. Problems seems to pop up after a year or so....
Does anyone still recommend buying this TV ($3000 in Europe....)?

Although I am NOT a Sony fan, I have been a very happy owner of a 55A2000 for a little more than a year -- NO problems and a spectacular HD picture either from OTA or from SD DVDs or from high def DVDs (both flavors). The bulb needs replaced since it has recently dimmed after 4400 hours. The only issue that I see with its purchase is the $3000 over there -- YIKES!!! (The 60A300's cost about $2199 here and the A2000's have not been available for months).

I suspect that like most items purchased, most are going to be good or excellent and some are going to have their problems and had I known about the green haze issue, I probably would not have purchased it, but it has been a solid performer for my family and could lead me to purchase an XBR5 70" SXRD when they come out (rather, IF they come out).

MikeSp

Good luck,

Sounds like you are confusing the Buld with the Optical Block (OB - aka Light Engine). As best I can remember there haven't been any bulb problems reported. There have been relatively few (but not rampant) problems reported with the OB in the A2000 and even fewer with the A2020 and XBR2.

Have you seen this?

http://esupport.sony.com/sxrdsettlement