The Official Sony 2007 KDS-(XX)A2020 [NO PRICE TALK] SXRD Owner's Thread - Page 72

This is the reason why the Canadian dollar is higher that the US dollar.

Hello,

I'm a newbie here so if this question should be posted elsewhere, please let me know. Can or has anyone provided a breakdown of how one sxrd model (let's say the 2020 since we're on this thread) compares to the others like the 2000 or the 3000?

One thing I know for sure is that you cannot go to the big retail stores like Circuit City for this type of detailed analysis. As a matter of fact, I'm in Tampa FL and I've gone to several Sony SXRD retailers and not one of them know much about them at all. Let alone comparing one model to another.

Sony's site provides a model/feature comparison table, but what it doesn't do is tell you what's better or best. One model will have the Wega Engine, while another has Wega with Bravia features and so on. I just want to make heads or tails of it all in terms of sorting the different models by quality from better to best so to speak.

So where does the 2020 fit into the bigger picture compared to the other sxrd models? I tried to search this forum but I could not find a detailed analysis of the 2020 compared to the 2000 or 3000 and etc.

Thanks in advance!

I think it's pretty well agreed upon that the 2020 and the 2000 are pretty much identical and that the only thing that really changed was the color of the cabinet.

I believe the only thing that was upgraded in the 3000 was a move to 120hz (which should help address judder when show film content) and a slightly thinner cabinet.

I would think the official owner threads would spell out the differences on the initial posts...that seems traditional.

The chassis in the A3000 is a complete redesign (as opposed to "tweaks" from the A2000 to the A2020), so there is opportunity for lots of picture quality differences (which can go both ways). The thinner cabinet has (from postings here) led to a slightly greater propensity for geometric distortion on the A3000 and there have been reports of a narrower viewing angle on the A3000. But the A3000 can do 1080p on components now (thanks to that chassis redesign), there is HDMI 1.3 capability (along with the color space changes) plus the 24fps progressive capability and all the 120Hz related stuff.

I am not sure of the PQ differences - but one thing for sure, this set has the most advanced technology, and thus is the most "future-proof" of any set on the market right now.

ojohnm, I purchased the 60A2020 last month, and it has a beautiful picture. That being said, I'm having buyer's remorse from reading the 60A3000 owner's thread. The consensus seems to be that the 24fps capability makes a significant, noticeable difference compared to the 2020 on 1080p blu ray discs. I don't know if that's just the new owners' bias, but many claim that they've seen the sets side by side.

My TV is pretty much running as is out of the box with no major changes done to any settings. I'm a newb when it comes to this....so I have a couple of quick questions. First, I'm recieving my HD through cable. When setting my cable box up, I have the options to change the YPBPR Output. Which setting do I want?
1080I ... 720P ... 480P ... 480I ? I'm thinking 1080I but I'd like to know the reasoning. Also, which setting should I change on the TV itself? Thanks in advance for the "newb" questions guys.

Sounds like a Motorola box. The answer is 1080i. It would be preferable to have a "native" or "pass-through" setting, but your cable box apparently does not offer that - and you are at the mercy to what box your cable system uses.

Question on the optical out on this TV. If I have both HDMI used one from my Hd-A2 and the other from my HD sat receiver will the Optical out just be a pass thru? Right now when I have my Hd-A2 connected via optical out to my yamaha receiver I get the DTS downconvert.

Have not received my TV yet bit looking for the best way to connect.

thanks

The SXRD is the entry level model with the XBR's being the high end product. There have been several white papers about these different models and the conclusion is that with refererence to PQ the sets are identical with the XBR's having a bit more luminance.

What you are paying for with the XBR's are just bells and whistles. The KDS 2000 and 2020
sets are identical with the only difference being the color silver versus black for the 2020's.

The sets have won several industry awards this year and won product of the year HD Digest.

IMHO the best set to purchase that will deliver the best PQ per dollar today would be the 2020 series.

I must admit that I own the KDS-55A2020. The HD picture is so realistic that when I have demo materials running my neighbors cannot believe their eyes.

As far as SD this set has once of the best scalers and deinterlacing I have ever seen.

SD from DTV or cable is just fantastic.

Connect everything to the receiver via HDMI and then one connection out via HDMI to the set - forget the optical out.

Pick all of the outputs because the set scales very well. If there is an option to choose native mode as well select it. If you only have the option of selecting one resolution then if you select 1080i the signal broadcast if it is SD with hit the box at 480i the be converted to 1080i in the box then again at the set to 1080p. This is not good, if you are watching HD then the signal comes in at 720p ot 1080i and the either converted via the cable box from 720p to 1080i and then by the set to 1080p. Or if the signal is 1080i the the set deinterlaces to 1080p.

Same process if you set the cable box to 480i. Cant really win with a STB that does not output native signal, but if you watch mostly HD then pick 1080i
if mostly sd then 480i. The TV needs to do the scaling and deinterlacing. Not the STB.

By the way direct TV has the STB that do have the native output option.

Great Pictures!

BTW the set is native 1080p always

Where are the white papers you're referring to? I'd like to look at them.

I noticed on Sony's site that the XBR2 (KDS-R60XBR2 60" Class Grand WEGA XBR series SXRD Rear Projection Television (59.5" diagonal)) is the highest priced SXRD and has features like WEGA Engine HD and SXRD-2 that the 2020 doesn't have. Does anyone know what this really means? Or if it really even matters?

That might not be a good idea. When you do that, you loose the ability to have different user settings for each input. If you find that ALL settings are the same for you for each input - then using a single input on the TV and letting the receiver do the switching is fine. But that often is not the case.

This is true but the general consensus with this set is to have one input calibrated the HDMI 1 input.

If you look at the CNET settings for the set or sound and vision etc. They calibrate the set with one setting on the HDMI input 1.

CNET settings -


Picture menu:

Mode: Custom
Advanced iris: Min
Picture: 84
Brightness: 56
Color: 41
Hue: 0
Color temp: Warm2
Sharpness: 50
Noise reduction: Off

--Advanced Settings--

Black corrector: Off
Gamma: Off
Clear white: Off
Live color: Off
White balance: (see below)
Detail enhancer: Off
Edge enhancer: Off

--White balance--

R-gain: -2
G-gain: -1
B-gain: 0
R-bias: -3
G-bias: -2
B-bias: -1

Setup menu:

Color matrix: Standard
Power saving: On

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/hdt...sxrd-hdtv.html

more a2000 information

So, for them only HDMI input 1 is calibrated - to a signal generator! There are additional "tweaks" that often need to be made for the particular signal sources - and that is what is lost that way.

BTW: CNET is simply reporting on ONE set. As there are set to set (and source to source) variations, they can only be treated as a starting point.

I have had my 60" 2020 for a little over a week.

I have the following connected to my set:

HDMI 1 -> Expressvu 9242 Sat receiver (similar to Dish VIP 722)
HDMI 2 -> Oppo DV981-HD
Component -> DVD Jukebox through H&K AVR-320 Receiver
Cable (legacy in house network)

from the TV to my AV Receiver, I have an analog audio back and a optical audio back as well.

Here's my problem,
I can only get sound through my receiver if, I use Analog audio in
If I use Optical, I should be able to hear all the audio from the HDMI connection?
I have switched the optical "on" on the receiver.

Any ideas how to debug this?

Thanks,
Rob

The optical out from the TV is only for when you are using the TV's tuner. You need to send the optical outputs from your Sat and Oppo directly to the receiver.

While I believe that to now be the case. It seems to me that it is design flaw, which removes the benefits of HDMI. My sat receiver is 50ft away from my TV and AV receiver, so optical is just another cable to run : (

Thanks.
Rob

Of course this is pretty obvious - but for those of us who cannot pay the ridiculous fees involved with professional calibration - these starting points are much better than the settings the sets come with.

I am done

A design flaw is when something is specified in the design requirements (usually by marketing or program management) fails to work as required. This is NOT a design flaw by that definition. It is what management specified and I strongly suspect is the result of Dolby charging additional license fees if they implemented this feature. Just because the set does not meet your individual requirements does not make it a design flaw.

BTW: Are there any sets out there that do this?

.

"A design flaw is when something is specified in the design requirements (usually by marketing or program management) fails to work as required."

I respectfully disagree, a design flaw is not a departure from the design requirements. A classic example of a design flaw is the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse, it was designed to meet the requirements, but the requirements were lacking critical elements of the design.

Obviously it has been a concious decision of the television manufacturers, but it is most certainly a flaw in the design. We send a digital audio signal to the TV via "the one cable HDMI solution" , I think that one would have a reasonable expectation to have this digital audio signal come out of "digital out" on the set. What is the point of using an HDMI cable at all, if we need to pass around digital audio? Sure, the TVs have been built as the manufacturers specified, but it is still a design flaw.

I would have to review a copy of the Dolby licensing agreement, but suspect that one is allowed to pass an undecoded digital audio signal through a unit without any royalty fees, otherwise, there would be royalties on optical splitters, HDMI switchers, possibly HDMI cables,......

I have a SA 8300 HD PVR STB, that I have hooked up via HDMI to my KDS60a2020 tv.
I had to enable all inputs via the component, set the video to "pass-thru", remove the component cable and then hook up the HDMI.

From what I have read here, now all signals received by the STB will be sent to the tv as is. No upconverting in the STB.
The tv will then upscale/upconvert/de-interlace whatever signal it receives to 1080p, the tv's native resolution.
Please correct me if I am wrong.

There is a question coming.

When I press info to see what signal the TV is showing I get 480i, 720p and 1080i depending on the channel I am on.

Questions:
Am I watching the above signals or is the tv just indicating the specific signal it is receiving?
How do I know the tv is changing the signal to it's native 1080p? Do I have to tell the tv to do this or is it automatic?

Thanks in advance.

It appears to be operating correctly. When you press the info button, it is showing you the signal resolution being received. The A2020 then converts it to 1080p for display. This is automatic and cannot be changed. Any digital display will convert the incoming signal to it's "native" resolution.

Thanks for being respectful. But I've seen too many cases of folks blaming something on designers when it was clearly a choice of management to do something a certain way. And this is clearly one of those cases.

Well the User Manual and the Specifications for the set make it pretty clear that the HDMI audio input is for 2 channel PCM sound only.

As the TV has stereo speakers, it can receive sound from the HDMI cable. The problem is that the set tells the sending device to only send 2 channel (so they don't have to decode 5.1 - thereby needing a 5.1 decode license)

But, as I pointed out above, the TV needs to play (on it's speakers) the sound from the source. It can only do that if: 1) It tells the source to send only 2.0; or 2) It has a 5.1 decoder to separate out stereo for the speakers & that is what the license is for. Sorry, I should have made that clearer before.

Even when separated from the same surge, but plugged into the same wall outlet (top and bottom) the TV will reset itself to Video input 1 when ther eceiver is first turned on, then it will trun its self off when the receiver is turned off..there is nothing (power cord or audio wires) connecting the two

Anyone watch hockey games, or play hockey video games on this tv? Can you see the SSE more because of the bright white ice?