The Official Sony 2007 KDS-(XX)A2020 [NO PRICE TALK] SXRD Owner's Thread - Page 52

WaldorfSalad forgot one other way to eliminate SSE ==> use a front projector. If your room allows for that, there is also the advantage that the screen can be exactly the size you have room for (or even retracting). But if that's not an option, a plasma or LCD flat-panel is your best option.

It's been my observation that the XBR-2 series has significantly less SSE than the A series sets. I suspect that since the XBR-2 had a 180 watt lamp vs 120 for the A series without any significant increase in brightness that the XBR-2 had a lower gain screen which mitigated the SSE effect.

Further, I've always seemed to notice a lot more SSE on the really super-bright rptvs vs those that weren't quite so eye-searing. The Mits 65" 731 series has less SSE than the Toshiba 65" HM167--The Toshiba is much brighter but has more SSE, and both use 150W lamps.

I have a Sony 60A2000 and have pretty much tamed the SSE by using the power saving feature and a Contrast setting of about 80, dimming the overall picture a bit but still great for my ambient lighting conditions. There is still some SSE but not enough to exceed my tolerance level for it.

Thanks for the input! TV arrived and the HDMI switcher seems to work fine...thanks for the help!

Perfect Vision Test Results

Not sure if this has been posted already.

Has some interesting results, black level, contrast, gray scale tracking, etc..

I just got my 55A2020 today, all is going well, but does any one have info on a center speaker shelf that would work with this tv?

If the speaker doesn't weigh too much, this works well:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/OmniM...oductDetail.do

The specifications say it will hold "up to 30 lbs" ==> but I'd not use it if your speaker weighs more than about half that (or at least not over 20 lbs) ... if it's heavier, I'd suggest using a stand that holds your center speaker below the TV so you're not adding that much weight to the cabinet (which can impact the optical path if there's any "bending" of the cabinet due to the weight).

Quick questions for you guys regarding black level. When watching anything with letterbox or just a black screen, how black is your screen compared to the black frame of the TV. Should the screen be as black as when the TV is off, or am I expecting too much.
It seems on mine that there is still a bit of brightness to the black part of the screen.

Check out the settings in the Perfect Vision link above.

That test showed excellent black and contrast levels, better than the latest Panny plasmas, which are really good themselves.

used the setting tommystraydog refered to and am very pleased,retired my sony kds36955s for this tv have not been pleased with the sd content,viewing cox,dish,direct and fta,and it was a great improvment.the hd on this is excelent!!

I've been loving my a2020 for a couple of months now and thought my sony NS75H was doing an excellent job of upconverting standard dvds- but man was I wrong! It's not horrible or anything, but I noticed the same movies on Stars HD looking much better.

What are you guys using on the set these days? Many of the suggestions I've seen in this and the a2000 thread are a bit dated, so I was wondering what people have been purchasing recently. I was thinking of getting a HD-A2 since it's so cheap then getting a blu ray player when they drop to reasonable prices.

Just for grins ... have you tried letting the A2020 do the upconverting? I'm VERY happy with the A2020's own upconversion ... standard DVDs look OUTSTANDING, even with my old non-progressive Panasonic DVD player. While I'm sure an HD version of the movie would look a bit better, I'm not about to replace my 1500 DVDs with HD versions ... and an HD-DVD (or BluRay) player won't make a standard DVD look any better. But if you're just now acquiring your collection, then I'd agree it's a good idea to get an HD-DVD player so you can buy all your movies in the HD format.

Yes, I tried letting the A2020 do the upconverting and it was roughly the same as letting the dvd player upconvert (I tried all of its settings 480, 720, 1080).

I didn't want to get the HD DVD player to upgrade all my movies to HD DVD. I'm thinking of upgrading my dvd player; but instead of paying roughly the same for a better upconverting DVD player (ie Oppo) I could just get a HD-A2 for the about the same price. I don't think I'll actual purchase any HD DVDs, just maybe rent some and then sell the player when blu ray gets cheaper.

I just mean that 1080p uses the most bandwidth, so if anything (like the switcher, cables, etc) were going to have any issues, that's what you would see it with.

If you really don't want HD-DVDs, then you would be better off investing in a new receiver that has better upconversion and also supports HDMI so that you can get the new lossless sound formats from Blu-Ray (or HD-DVD). Of course, these cost a lot more, but at least it would not be something that you will get rid of.

Also, remember, what you are getting on HD cable (like Starz) is 1080i. What's on a DVD is 480i, so no matter what you do, it will never look as good as high-def. The only way to get that quality is with a Blu-Ray player (or HD-DVD), which will actually be better since you get a true 1080p output (on most players).

As a side note, given that the "War" seems to be going Blu-Ray's way right now, I'd be wary of buying into HD-DVD.

After quite a few posts, I felt like I should at least put up a picture or two of the mis-coloration on my 50A2020. These are not to scare anyone, as I have said many times that I believe the Sony SXRD sets are excellent. Some seem to be perfect and some seem to have little issues. These pics were taken on a tripod with a small amount of ambient lighting from a covered window. The source is a laptop outputting 1080P/60. The pattern is a 50% grey background with 1-pixel wide black grid lines. Note that while the green is near the center of the screen, it is actually offset to the left by several inches. Also, the purple ring is very subtle around the green, but it is most noticeable towards the top of the image. These pictures are untouched, just scaled down in resolution. On my laptop, the green and purple were hard to see. On my Apple Cinema display, these photos accurately represent what the TV really looks like. YMMV.

just picked up a 50a2020 on a smokin deal last weekend. done a little looking around here and sure hope i dont end up finding the color variations. so far, so good, but this is my first HD set going from a 27" crt that was about 15 years old so i could be missing it.

is there a FAQ around here on basic HD setup and how I should hook what up. I have hd service through comcast running to the TV via HDMI and its showing 1080i.

Just curious what part of the menu system is the setup for the upverting on this Great set?? I am leting my PS3 upvert now and it does an Great job...

There are no settings - it will just automatically convert whatever comes in to the display resolution (1080p x 1920).

I changed the upconverting settings on the dvd player, and not the TV.


But aren't they essentially upconverting 480p on the HD cable movie channels? I was using Cars as a comparison, and I don't think thats available on a high definition disc format.


I have something similar but its only the very bottom and center portion of the screen. It's very hard to notice, and I've never really seen it while watching any programming. I figure I'll wait a few months when all the A2020 stock is gone, and have best buy come and take a look at it hoping they will give me an A3000 (but I don't know if thats even possible)

No, HD cable movie channels use HD transfers from film (or in the case of Cars, the digital source) for the majority of their movies. The few upconverts aren't labeled as HD in the guide.

Thanks, that works great! My speaker isn't that big, so this was perfect.

Yep , let me jump on that bandwagon too. I used those settings, & "swimming grass (screen door) went away while I was watching pre season football on ESPN2. Very, very pleased. This is on a 60A2020 being fed by a D* HR20.

So the blob problem continues?

I had an 8-10 AM Friday appointment which was cancelled @ 10:30 AM Friday morning because of car problems.
He arrived this morning (Tuesday) on time with a large box in one hand & some tools in the other. After viewing the set a few minutes he agreed that there was an issue with too much blue in darker scenes & went about replacing the module that was in the big box. This module had all of the LCOS chips, lens & supporting circuits on it. After 20 minutes he was finished & just like that...it didn't help a thing!
I had to ask him if there were internal color adjustments that could tweak the blue down a bit & he said Sony didn't include that in this design. I'm not one to argue, but, nearly every review of new sets these days include some sort of ISF calibration that does that very thing. I find it difficult that Sony would not. He said he was aware of calibration equipment but didn't get into that. He offered to order some additional parts & I told him no, that I'd exchange the set.
BB said they cannot get the A2020 models anymore & would find out when the A3000s were coming in. Other than that, I could cut a good deal on what they did have - LCD or Plasma. Ouch $$$$$.

Starting to feel for ya, Derg. If it weren't for bad luck, you'd have none at all.

Yes, TNT is notorious for using upconverts a lot, but most other stations are using real hi-def sources. If you are ever not sure, go to the hi-def programming forum and I'm sure someone will have figured out what the source was.

Just to confirm are the A2020's the same as the older model's A2000's aside from the cabinent being black on the 2020's?

Would you consider the KDS-55A2000 at $1,457 a good price (also an option for 5 year in home for $209)?

Or if I go smaller $1,239 for the KDS-50A2000. I'll be about 8-9'.

No, there are some (slight) circuitry differences between the two in the chassis - but no functionality or specification changes.

Probably the most significant difference between the A2000 & the A2020 is that there are likely improvements in the manufacturing process for the optical block assembly. One years worth of improvement is what you get in the 2020. Then again, there is another year's improvement in the A3000!

Interesting, thank you davehancock! Well I was planning on buying an extended warranted ($200 for 5 years) so I'm guessing it shouldn't matter too much then.

Does that mean the a2000,A2020 and A3000 optical blocks are interchangeable?
A new optical block was ordered today for my A2020. Any idea if the new one will have any updates from the original which has a March 07 build date? Also does anyone know how much the Optical Block costs? Mine is still under warranty I'm just curious.
I don't have the green blob problem. Mine looks like a shadow in the lower left corner.