Official Sony XBR2 (60" & 70") Owner's Thread - Page 239

What type of Sony Rep told you that? Sony discontinued making plasma TV's a couple of years ago. I could understand their discontinuing SXRD after all of the problems and with competing LCD large screen technologies nearly here, but that announcement is suspect since they don't make consumer plasma TV's.

^^^
that rumor was floating around here last year right after the release of the xbr2. i believe there was a thread started by someone. of course the usual haters and flamers took it over. no one could produce any evidence. it was all he said she said stuff. then Sony showed the next gen rear pro at ces which squished that rumor. however since then not much has been said about the next gen. it would not surprise me if Sony did stop producing rear pro though.
Sony supposedly starting up the plasma production line again is a new twist to the rumor.

DJ...that looks very similar to my previous problem...check out my earlier post #7046

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1#post12169761

I was getting severe red pixelation through the HDMI 1080p input. Called the sony tech and they came out and replaced the HDMI board. Issue is fixed!

Sony has cancelled the KDS-Z70XBR5. See the post here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1#post12531411

Christmas came early last night as Jeff Meier came to calibrate my Sony 70XBR2. Jeff is a great guy and was fun to talk with about audio and video gear. Since day one, my Sony has had a greenish tint. Not bad but it was there. I tried calibrating it myself using Avia or Video Essentials but just could not get it out. Skin tone suffered the most and grass looked way too bright. After calibrating my set, the color, and especially skin tone, looks much more natural. During the calibration process, he showed me why the greenish tint was present in the picture. My green diamond was way off from the standard but Jeff quickly brought it back to where it should be with a few tweaks inside the service menu. The picture looks much more natural now.

He also calibrated my Yamaha 2500 receiver and Polk and Paradigm speakers. I had never been happy with the sound after using the YPAO microphone process within the receiver, especially around the bass response. As I suspected, I had big problems in my audio setup. My sub was suffering from a polarity problem that was not compatible with the rest of my speakers. No wonder my bass response suffered. This was solved by reversing it inside the receiver. The bad news is that the reversal does not work with the analog out process and there is no switch on the sub externally to fix it. To fix the analogs performance, I would need to break open the sub and do some rewiring. I am not happy about that since I was using the analogs with my blu-ray to get the PCM audio codex. Jeff set the levels on all the speakers and tweaked the sound quality using the bass and treble settings. He also reduced the size of my front towers to small to let the subwoofer do the heavy lifting. Jeff also detected a couple of deficiencies in my Paradigm rear surrounds. First there was an intermittent crackle in my left rear surround. We also discovered that surrounds were not up to par with my fronts, center and subwoofer and would not take the punishment of the drum scene from Flying Dagger. Jeff was happy to recommend speakers that he thought would fit my budget and correct the problem.

I would highly recommend Jeff both for his skill in calibration and knowledge of the gear. When I get a new receiver in a year or so, I am hoping that Jeff will come back and recalibrate my audio.

Thanks for the reply. My XBR2 is doing it on a component input as well.

that scene is pretty sweet. its very telling if something isn't quite right. he cranked my speakers louder than i had ever had them before when he was demoing that scene. it was loud, clear and awesome. i bought the disc just so i could do it again.

Thanks for posting your calibration report. I've included it in the owner's list that is linked at the bottom of my post.

I'm no longer following the RPTV threads so it's a big help when members send me a "heads up" PM about calibration reports.

Enjoy.

The tech replaced part number a-1216-213-a. Not sure if the HDMI and component are on the same board???

Thank goodness I bought the 70xbr2 and didn't wait for release of the xbr5. Hang on to your sets, boys - nothing else out there has the definition and impact of the xbr2 RPTV's. They are as good as gold!

You'll be in for a big treat after you get a new receiver and Jeff comes back to do your audio calibration. In fact so much so that if you can you should save your pennies and go for the new receiver ASAP before a year.

He did wonders for the video on my A2000 to but he put off doing the audio due to my aging receiver and somewhat malfunctioning old subwoofer. He made recommendations for a new receiver and subwoofer. Once I got them he came back and did the audio calibration which brought our home theater surround system to a whole new level which neither my wife or I thought possible.

I posted my report on htwaits calibration reports under the A2000.

...but much more (recent) activity in this forum...but question still applies

just got a letter from Circuit City to extend the warranty on my XBR70 (1st gen)

warranty is up in April '08...$468 for 2 more years

still on original bulb...only small issue was warped front lamp access door (which i replaced myself because i didnt think i was still under warranty!!!)

still looks/works like new

worth the warranty extension?

I really think AVS should start a museum of obsolete TV technologies--anyone want to donate their SXRD set when they have to buy their next set?

Great idea!

The attached image is a multi-second exposure so you can see the effect I am discussing on the totally dark screen. It's hard to see normally but I did notice it the first time while watching a movie.

I wonder what this is and will it get worse?



The iris is set to low. Adjusting the iris changes the screen brightness uniformly. The rectangle brightness changes with the rest of the screen. I don't see any color in the shape and I can't see it on any color field besides black or gray (10 IRE).

What within the TV would be this shape? The mirror and the frame of the panels come to mind. What else? I assume this isn't related to the panels themselves as a single panel issue would cause a color blob and it wouldn't be a perfect rectangle.

I also see a bright "race track" shape around the rectangle.

RobbinMerritt , You can also see this on CRT sets to... but bigger on Big Screen. I think this is part of the buterfly effect ...

Add another person to the Fan Failure List. Had just upgraded my XBOX 360 to the Elite and slid my entertainment center away from the wall with the TV on top of it (God bless hardwood floors) to swap some cords. When I slid it back and powered the TV on I got the four blinking red lights. Fun times. My TV is less than 1 year old (barely) so I'll be covered under the warranty but how long will it take to get service? Will anyone carry these fans locally that I can just buy them myself and swap them out? I would really like to be able to use my TV for Christmas...

Each time I had the Sony tech replace a fan it took just a few days. I believe the 70" TV qualifies for overnight parts shipment. So it took maybe two days for the tech to arrive and check the problem, a day for the fan to be ordered and then a day or two to get the tech back out. If you can go into the service menu and check the fan status you may be able to convince the tech to order the fan immediately and skip the initial checkout.

There are three fans, so good luck having them replace the right one. My tech replaced two fans, and apparently it was the third that was bad. Unfortunately the service menu doesn't indicate which fan failed.

Also, try gently tapping the back of the TV. This temporarily fixed my fan every time. In fact, just moving the TV was enough to make the problem go away the first time the tech came out. I believe this worked for a few other folks on this thread.

I'm not sure what you mean. Can you provide more detail? By the way, the room is completely dark, so it's not a reflection from an external light sourse.

Are any of you guys using a 60 or 70 xbr2 with an HTPC? Are you using the VGA connection or the HDMI connection? What refresh rate are using over HDMI?

This TV has some nasty overscan. I am having to set 1844x1020 @ 60hz to eliminate overscan however the picture looks terrible. Movies look ok i guess(haven't tweaked image settings yet) but text and the windows desktop looks fuzzy as hell.

Any suggestions?

So far as getting rid of overscan you are S.O.L. Check your convergence as a possible cause of the fuzzyness.

sorry i guess i didn't understand you. So you can't get rid of overscan on this tv? Setting a custom resolution seemed to work. but its a little fuzzy. im not sure what you mean check your convergence. Instructions?

Setting a custom resolution will work but instead of 1920x1080 resolution you now have 1844x1020. The remaining pixels are "blank" and hidden behind the bezel. Since you have to alter your picture, sort of scrunch it down to fit it on the screen it is no longer quite as sharp. Most flat panels are 1920x1080 pixels so you don't have overscan or have to convert your computer image to fit it on the screen, but unfortunately almost all rear projection sets do have some overscan. By the way, the overscan is there on all inputs so you are also losing part of your tv and movie picture too.

As for convergence, look closely at some print on your screen. If you see color bleeding along the sides or top of the print your convergence must be adjusted. This procedure involves going into the service menu so you may want a service guy to do it. My set, and from reading this forum quite a few sets are delivered with convergence off a bit. Convergence, by the way, is the alignment of the red, blue, and green chips with each other.

Both of these subjects have been discussed to death on this forum, so for further info search overscan or convergence.

It's official. Sony is out of the RPTV business. See the link below.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/200...D8TPP6282.html

By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer

TOKYO - Sony is dropping its money-losing rear-projection TV business worldwide to focus on two flat panel technologies — liquid crystal display and organic light-emitting diode, the company said Thursday.

Sales of rear-projection TVs had been declining recently as LCD TVs gain in popularity and get bigger, Sony Corp. spokesman Shinji Obana said.

In October, Sony lowered its global sales forecast for rear-projection TVs — which uses a projector to create images on large screens — to 400,000 from 700,000, which is down from 1.1 million the previous fiscal year.

By contrast, Sony expects to sell 10 million LCD TVs this fiscal year through March, up from 6.3 million the previous year.

Sony sells 85 percent of its rear-projection TVs in the U.S., and about 10 percent in Europe, according to Obana. Production at the three plants that make the rear-projection TVs in Japan, Mexico and Malaysia, will be halted, Obana said.

The decision to abandon rear-projection TVs underlines Sony's strategy of focusing on LCDs and OLEDs at a time when competition is heating up in flat TVs.

In the fiscal half-year through September, Sony lost 60 billion yen ($526.3 million) in its TV operations, partly because of losses tied to rear-projection TVs. Diving prices of LCD TVs also contributed to the red ink, Obana said.

The world's electronics makers are all working on LCD technology for TVs, as well as another technology called plasma display panels, or PDP.

Earlier this month, Sony began selling a small 11 inch TV that uses a relatively new but expensive flat-panel technology called OLED. Sony's XEL-1 measures just 3 millimeters, or 0.12 inches, thick and delivers clear, vivid images.

Earlier this week, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, Hitachi and Canon forged a tie-up in their liquid crystal display businesses — another sign of how Japanese electronics makers are being forced to work together to compete globally.

Sony has an alliance with South Korea's Samsung Electronics in LCDs.

Sharp Corp., another major Japanese LCD maker, formed a partnership with Toshiba Corp. last week. Under the deal, Toshiba will buy LCD panels from Sharp for its TVs.

And just like that, our SXRD sets have become antiques.

I just checked, and mine is still working great!

was at the sony style store in san francisco right before christmas and the had the 60 and 70 xbr2s on display for sale. so you can still pick up one of these puppies before they're gone forever.

Mine too! I love my antique. And as Mixdoctor says, large and relatively inexpensive sets may be hard to come by for a while.