Official Sony XBR2 (60" & 70") Owner's Thread - Page 9

where is umr and co. when we need him?

Just got my R70XBR2 two hours ago, moved the old TV and getting ready to setup the new TV. Need to tweak my iScan HD to output 720p signal (my old TV only support 1080i) to scale all my existing inputs.

Picture quality is a huge upgrade from my previous 53" Sony XBR; once I switched off Vivid. Will be spending a bit of time w/ Avia over the next few days.

where can i get this avia? best buy, circuit city, internet?

Speaking of umr, and I know it's early, but has anyone made any calibration attempts/appointments???

i bought a stand from ikea, for it had wheels and i wanted as low as possbile.

the dimensions of this stand are
41" x 19 1/4" exact

my TV rests perfectly on it depth wise (slightly off by a cm or so), but about 1/2" of the sides are off the base....so ideally its just 1" smaller in width, still it sits well...

a stand of 42" x 20" will fit this set perfectly, however its no biggie if you are 1" less for both dimensions.

Can any XBR2 owners comment if the unit supports jpeg viewing via an SD media card slot?

Wow, so many folks are getting the 70's. Still waiting for mine from Tweeter.

Don't you mean to output 1080p?

Last week I noticed Borders bookstore has Digital Video Essentials for $25. It comes with the proper red and green filter as recommended by umr. He does not care for the red and green by Avia although the blue is fine. Many fine threads in this forum on using DVE.

HDMI 1.3 is just a specification on paper for what this interface can support, ie twice the bandwidth of current HDMI, which would allow 48-bit color, larger color space, etc. This does not mean there exists content or display technology that actually takes advantage of it yet. We can't get decent HD bandwidth over cable or satellite as it is, much less 48-bit color.

Hi Tony,

I don't have the XBR2 but I can tell you about my experience with my Media Center PC hooked up to an XBR1 via HDMI. I am able to fill my entire screen by using the utilities that come with my video card to scale the picture to full screen. I am using a custom resolution that the XBR1 supported. I am waiting for my 60XBR2 to come in due to green blob/purple blacks on my XBR1. It should be shipping this week and I will report back on my success with MCE->XBR2 including using 1920x1080 resolution and filling screen.

Thanks,
John

I'm new to the DVE, my question is.... does it work for hdtv, dvd, and standard viewing? I looked on their website and didnt give much of a description in what it did. I just got a sony kdsr60xbr2 and i'm having trouble getting the best picture with the settings. Will the dve do that for me?


I'm assuming the DVE is a dvd? If that is true, then wouldnt it also be true that in order to get optimal HD viewing on your t.v. You would need to carry bluray or HDDVD? As we all know, the setting for your progressive dvd player are different then watching HD TV on your cable. Any ideas?

It only calibrates for the device and input connected (i.e. the dvd player). You can use the same settings for other inputs and sources but not ideally calibrated. For HDTV HDNET broadcasts a test pattern which could be used to calibrate that source as well. Otherwise you could get it ISFed for each input and source.

I'm assuming the DVE is a dvd? If that is true, then wouldnt it also be true that in order to get optimal HD viewing on your t.v. You would need to carry bluray or HDDVD? As we all know, the setting for your progressive dvd player are different then watching HD TV on your cable. Any ideas?

I just finished seting up my new 60" XBR2 that I got from sony style. It is a huge improvement over my old 36" XBR800. The blacks look great and I can't see any hint of green. I did a quick setup with my THX Optimizer as I am waiting for the Avia disk, and convergence looked very good. I also switched from vivid to standard. This TV has many more setting than my last and will take a little fine tuning to hit the sweet spot. I am very pleased with it so far.

I got my DVE copy from Borders a couple of weeks ago. I needed help finding it in the DVD section, but I think most stores carry it.

So im still waiting for Best Buy in New York to start selling this thing.....Its getting annoying waiting for it. 60in XBR2 that is.

UMR was treated with major disrespect when he provided info in the A2000 thread.

Yup, that was really ugly. A classic example of SH!TT!NG in the sandbox--ruined it for the rest of us....

Maybe we should start a petition so UMR can see how many of us support him.

New thread?

I have nothing to say and I will not post my objective opinion. I am still available to work on these displays, but don't expect me to do any comparisons. I have not worked on one of these yet and would offer my first client in Houston a discount. I do offer objective purchase advice to my clients. It will not appear anymore on the open forum.

For example, I looked at a very hyped product yesterday (not this product) and it was truly horrible. This is a relatively expensive product that many people hope will be best in class. Unfortunately, it is far below average in preformance and far above average in price. I could post my measurements and observations in a thread about it, but it will not happen. I have learned my lesson and will only post positive reviews or nothing. You can figure out what I think if I say nothing about a product I have worked on.

Thanks...please keep us posted on that.

Regarding placement of the center speaker:

Rather than put it below the TV (where the sound would be partially blocked by furniture) or try to mount it on the top of the TV (it's kind of heavy), I was thinking of using the dumbo ear speakers as the center channel. My AV tuner allows a center channel output via RCA jacks, which I assume I can just plug into the XBR2.

Does that make sense? Are the dumbo ears good enough? I've currently got a fairly large Klipsch center speaker, but I'm willing to suffer a little sound quality to make this work.

Thanks for your help!

Yes, I am considering putting a speaker stand in front of the tv stand. Something like this possibly: http://www.racksandstands.com/Wood-T...8O-WT0207.html.
I am a little confused by your measurments. It is probably not you because I tend to be a little dense about these things so here goes. If the base shelf is 3 9/16 from the floor and is also 2 1/16 thick isn't the 2 1/16 thickness part of the
3 9/16 distance form the floor?
My big concern is reflections from the floor if the speaker is to close or from the shelf the speaker is sitting on if the speaker is flush with the front of the shelf. Sorry, I have no data on a minimum height from the floor to avoid reflections but I am looking.

I saw both XBR2's last night at Brandsmart. Unfortunatley, they were hooked up via component cables and the picture quality was poor. Lots of artifacts and noise. They were running an hdtv tivo feed off a football game this past weekend. Salesman tried to tell me it was because we were standing so close, but I walked back 10 feet and told him it still looked like crap. I switched the set of vivid mode and that didnt help. The only thing that concerned me was the plasma tvs down the hall were running the same game and had a great picture. Plus, the salesman said sony had been there earlier in the day to hook it all up - how could they leave it with components and a bad picture?

I would still like to see this set under better operating conditions.

One thing I can say is that the screen is not as good as the Mits 831 that I currently have. Far too much glare from the xbr2. My 831 is in a very bright room with floor/ceiling windows all the way around and I get very little glare, if any at all. Something about the sony screen is just too reflective, or hazy, or something like that I cant describe properly

Just my 2 cents, just have to find another store to test this set.

Can you post a list of TVs you've worked on in the last month or so? I'm assuming you're talking about the Mits 831, and that's another set I'm considering, so your input would be appreciated. Are you available to offer your opinion in private message, if we do not disclose it on the boards?

Thats is 100 percent true. You notice allot of the people that disrespected him are the same people that cause trouble under 20 different
user names now etc. So, we have to respect how he feels.

I just took delivery of the 70 XBR - for those familiar with my posts, you will know this was a swap for the JVC 70 97FH (which was a swap for a thrice-unsuccessfully-repaired 70 FH 96)

I've had only a few minutes to play, but had to post some initial thoughts:

Without even adjusting a thing out of the box, this picture is appreciably better than the 97FH - dare I say I am wowed?

Quick summary

+ bright without subtle blowout of highlights, which the JVC would sometimes exhibit
+ uniformity seems excellent. I have a HD recording of a couple of NY Rangers hockey games on my SA 8300 DVD, and the ice surface remains remarkably linear, where the JVC would show subtle areas oy yellow or orange.
+ Much better black level - when there is black, it is black. There is no faint glow of light like the JVC would exhibit on solid black backgrounds (like the gaps between a show ad a commerical)
+ MUCH BETTER (lack of)SSE than the JVC. The 97FH was better than the 96FH in this respect, but the XBR2 blows the JVC away. A hockey game is a great test for SSE effect, and I noticed really no SSE at all from my viewing distance of about 13 feet. Wit the JVC, I did.
+ Better quality screen than the JVC. Both are the non-reflective screen, but the JVC's always seems to have surface uniformity issues that contributed to the feeling of looking through a dirty window -not the sparkle of SSE, but a dinger look. Subtle, but there. On the Sony, very clean.
- As with the JVC, there is some pincushioning of 4:3 material
- I prefer the black of the JVC to the silver of the Sony
- Sony is deeper, putting the rear of the unit up against my wall (but it's completely open above and all around, so I don't think I will have a heat issue... will I?)
+ On screen menus and features are far advanced vs. the JVC, but will report on that later.

All this was via an HDMI connection from my SA 8300HD DVR/

I have a Mac Book pro that will support the native rez of the display, as well as HD-DVD and Blu-Ray - I will report more when I can, but I'm going away for the weekend and am out this evening, so It may be next week before I can....

I will try and take a photo or two a little later and post...but right now, I am VERY pleased with making the move. Ok, I tingled - there, you got me to say it.