The Official Sony 2007 KDS-(XX)A2020 [NO PRICE TALK] SXRD Owner's Thread - Page 3

Thx Jim

I'm deciding between the KDS-R60XBR2 or KDS-60A2020 (out on 3/15) or the Samsung HL-S6187W. Has anyone compared these three? Pros/cons going with one vs another? Is the pic on the XBR going to be better then the 2020? Maybe the real question is any of these set a bad choice vs the other. I would think, sitting in your own room, any of them would look great.

Nothing's as good as Sony's overall PQ. Now between the XBR2 and the 2020, the 2020 is pretty much the same as the 2000 models but the XBR2 has a brighter lamp, CableCard slot, DRC 2.5 (not sure if too many people use this level), extra lamp and of course those big-ass elephant ear speakers which by the way is the reason that a lot of folks just won't buy it and accept the A2000 series which is no way a cheaper set in terms of PQ. I really don't think the XBR2 is worth the extra money except for the extra bulb but the bulb-life on the XBR2 is supposedly only rated at 4000 hours compared to 8000 for the A2000/A2020 series so when you factor it in the extra bulb is a wash but after the free bulb they get expensive. With the extra wattage bulb comes more heat and more power consumption. I've demoed both on at same time both side by side and I really can't tell the difference when they are adjusted to the same brightness levels. Sure the XBR2 can be a little brighter but these things can't be watched at full brightness except for the middle of the day. They are plenty bright.

If you don't mind the elephant ears then by all means go for the XBR2 but I wouldn't lose one minute of sleep buying the A2020 over the XBR.

JP

I normally go with the Sony's (I have a older 36 inch XBR that will be replaced by the new set, but I read the review by Home Theater Mag (Feb 2007) that rated the Samsung higher (it does have a great picture, saw it at BB the other day) . I'm not crazy about the XBR speakers either, thats why I'm looking at the 2020.

I would look at the features, contrast/brightness, hdmi type, capability to pass through 1080P/24hz, VGA/PC 1080P/24 hz vs 60hz compatibility.

If same go for XBR2

Looked at the 55 2000a on saturday at CC and was very impressed. but ordered a 2020 on monday from a small dealer who is a friend of a friend. i certainly didnt get internet prices but 21 Bens, plus 210 for a five year in-home warranty including the first bulb seemed fair, or was i stupid? my feeling was to have someone close by who i knew through the friend so that i wouldn't feel like i was in dry well if problems occured. not sure when it'll be delivered. oh, also, i got the sony 18 month same as cash deal because the dealer is authorized. i have an o'bello stand, glass, that the dealer says will be sufficient though the tv will extend out an inch or two on both sides. that seem reasonable? anyway, this forum has been of great help. it was between the mitsu 57 and this one and i thought the sony had better technology. i know this is off the subject, but is there a relatively inexpesive home theater 5.1. system that has wire;ess speakers for the back of the room. the dude at CC said panasonic has a wireless adaptor for its systems?????? TIA

Don't hesitate with 1 call. They are awesome. I purchased my 55A2000 from them and they couldn't have been more helpfull. I went back on their site after ordering the TV and it had dropped $250.....needless to say I was not happy. Even though their site says they guarantee priciing for 7 days(I was outside of this), I decided to call them. The guy was very curteous and placed me on hold for a minute (literally) came back on the phone and offered to split the difference. I was blown away and said sure! i probably could have pressed harder and got more, but I was so impressed that they didn't just tell to take a flying leap, I let it go at that. They use ABF freight to ship their TVs and they delivered the TV without a blemish on the box! I would recommend one call to anyone.

So my 55a2020 arrived last night (March 07 build date...pretty cool to have a TV that wasn't even assembled more than 12 days ago). I took my time hooking up my DVR and new DVD player (Sony) with HDMI. I turned the TV on not caring about the picture just yet.....giving it sometime to warm up. I immediately went into the menu and made all of the adjustments I could without a calibration disc (custom setting, noise filter, etc....). I have a friend in the A/V business so he did the best he could calibrating everything. I think we came pretty close...until his friend comes over with his $4000 calibration kit.

No green blob or tint. Enough said on that.

Then I decided it was time to tune into an HD channel. WOW! Highly impressed! I watched the live feed of the 'Rock and Roll Hall of Fame' last night. The video feed was nice. Great for demonstrating the TV's abilities. Great colors...great flesh tones. The audio feed was crap though. But I still have some calibrating to do with the colors. I don't have a 1080p up-conversion (Oppo) or Blu-Ray/HD DVD to compare to, but the Sony DVD player I got with HDMI for 1080i up-conversion looks great. Saving Private Ryan....The Matrix...Finding Nemo....they all looked incredible. Very deep, accurate blacks. Overall, it just looked....."real"

I did already have one instance with the 'snow screen' with the 8300HD DVR / HDMI problem. Of course I simply cycled through inputs and it went away (actually, I use discrete inputs so it technically wasn't a cycle. I just switched away from that input then switched back). What I did was hook up the DVR with component and HDMI. Then, I programmed a button on my Pronto remote with my girlfriends name on it so when it happens all she has to do is hit that button and it will change over from HDMI to the component cable input for DVR.


I will report back once the lamp has some more hours on it and once I get this thing professionally calibrated.

Sorry, I don't have any input with your particular problem, but I wanted to ask you aside from the issue you described, are you pleased with the Oppo? I have the 981 and a 55A2000, and I have to say I am disappointed with the picture from the Oppo. I realize it wasn't going to be HD, but I was expecting a better picture having heard all the rave reviews. I think I am going to return it and use the money for a PS3. I have heard there is something in the works for up-conversion through the PS3 anyway?

Do you have the Oppo 981 setup correctly?

Connected via suppllied HDMI w/ output set to 1080p. Audio set to output "raw" via toslink. Did I miss something? I haven't spent a ton of time with it. Should have some more time this evening. Input would be appreciated

Have you tried hooking 981 to your TV with composite video cable to compare it to the upscaled video which would give you the output from a standard DVD player. I wouldn't expect Blue-Ray performance from it but it's better than watching DVD's at standard def.

JP

Unless you're really hung up on black... if it works keep it....

I think that makes it about $.04 now....

No, but I have a PS2 connected via S-Video which is what I was watching prior to the Oppo 981. Granted, the picture is better on the Oppo, but I don't think $230 better.

Glad to hear your's looks great. Can't wait to get mine either. In fact I'll be picking mine up after work. I ordered mine on Sunday and was waiting for CC to contact me about delivering it because it wasn't in stock locally. I looked at the web site today and now they have them in stock locally so I cancelled the other one and will pick the second one up tonight. I'm tired of waiting

Hopefully all will go well with mine. Work can't end soon enough today.

Later,

Jim

Depending on what DVD title this is doing it on... it's not your Oppo player's fault. It's the DVDs. I believe "Anamorphic WIdescreen" DVDs have the widescreen predone (rendered / whatever) onto a 4:3 format. So the "Auto" mode is working 100% correct the DVD has the 4:3 image with the black bars built in.

I have one DVD that is that way, Disney's "Three Musketeers".

Take a look into the DVD software forum or another online site that specializes in the different DVD image formats and you will likely find a more complete answer. Just wanted to possibly push you in the correct direction.

Ok so at first I thought xbr2 ( to expensive ) , then I thought jvc-61fn97 ( saw it at best buy and thanks to this site I all of a sudden saw SSE , never noticed it before ) . Then I found out that the A2000 got a makeover and since I thought the picture on it was pretty much on par with the xbr2 ( saw them side by side at pc rich in ny , xbr2 has deeper blacks, thats about it though ) , I figured I have finally found the tv for me . Im still hagglin with a local retailer , got them down right to about 29 with SU-RS11X stand , NY tax , and white glove shipping but Im hoping I can break him down further so I can purchase the tapeworks texas mack warranty and keep the total under 3 for everything . Now my questions pertain to what ima need for the setup , Ive decided to buy a tripplite ups for backup since I live in a old house whose wiring isnt up to snuff . I have purchased a panny HTIB (SC-HT940) , not my ideal set-up but moneys tight so it will have to do for now ,at least it upconverts to 1080i , how long of a hdmi cable you think ill need ? what other cable will I need for this as far as audio is concernd , or will hdmi handle them both just fine . Also my cable company is cablevision I dont know if there HD DVR cable boxes have hdmi or not , if it does should I hook it up that way ?? or should I hook it up some other way ? reason I ask is Im planning on purchasing a new pc as soon as the ati cable card tuners are made avaliable and from what Ive read the vga plug on this bad boy is pretty much useless , so im trying to keep a hdmi port open for that or ps3 whichever comes first . Any help any of you guys can give me would be greatly apreciated , thanks in advance , Carlos A , Bronx , NY

Can someone else confirm this? I've owned an XBR1, and the A2020 has about the same, if not even deeper blacks. Were the brightness/iris settings on the XBR2 and A2020 about the same with the same content? Just doesn't make all that much sense to me, especially considering the A2020 has a slightly dimmer bulb.

when i went to pc they had the a2000 and xbr2 side by side . they were playing the sony disk that they play at all pc richards ( dont know if its a blu-ray disk or not but they play them on all the big screen sonys at most stores ive been to , makes other tvs look like doo-doo ) , the scene I saw on both tv's was of an overhead of view of a highway or something like that , it was clear even to my wife that the black areas of the scene like the roads and other parts like the water looked some what deeper , kinda like if youve ever been to the caribean and you look out into the ocean you can see the deeper parts are darker , same thing , kinda , i think , lol . you know what i mean , hopefully , more natural thats what i was shootin for , as far as settings of the iris and stuff , dont know , but same content , yes

I think you might have nailed it with "overhyped". Like you I too value the opinions of others in this forum and certain reviewers, a.k.a videophiles. I new better than to expect HD images, but SD digital cable is looking better. I am very pleased with Oppo's service though. I contacted them for a R.M.A. and they promptly responded. They even pay return shipping! I think that's great. If I had a more extensive DVD collection it might make more sense to keep it, but I don't, and I would like to have the PS3 w/ Blu-Ray more.

ok i bought two hdmi cables , am i good with that?? i bought the tripp lite with sine wave output , can i run an extension cord from the tv to the tripp lite ups ?? is that safe ?? i wanna have the ups plug into its own outlet , witch is on the other side of room and plug the tv and HTIB into it using extension cord or cords , what do you think ?? , only reason I say this is the outlet on the side were the tv is going to be is real suspect , i have a 27inch tv and my comp on it right now and its good for one meltdown a day , i know i have to change the outlet ( its old and only two prong ) but in the mean time is it ok to do it this way ?? thanks for anyhelp you can give me , carlos a , bronx , ny

I have heard that it is not recommended. I would change the outlet before doing the other. It will take less than 5 minutes to do (not difficult)

I have a situation where I am moving to a 2 bedroom house soon because I am going to be a dad in October. I cant wait, but we looked around at places and we found a nice place but the issue is there is a place where the tv goes into the wall and my current dlp is too wide and its a 52inch 720p toshiba 52hm95. I am looking around for a new dlp now and that will fit into the built in tv stand inside the wall. Now here is the issue. the tv width has to be under 47 inches so I found 2 dlp models that will do it. the Samsung 50 dlp 1080p HL-S5087 or the new 50inch Sony 1080p tv KDS50A2020. SO this baby has been a blessing before it is already born! my wife agrees she like sthis place and I am in charge of buying a new TV and selling my current model. I cant wait to go to 1080p so I can watch my blu ray movies on my ps3 in 1080p and play my xbox360 in 1080p and wii and my Toshiba HDDVD player.
I am tossed up in the air which way I should go, Sony or Samsung. I love the Display 56 inch model samsung at Best Buy and I think the colors look amazing and bright over every other tv and the Sony model my father bought the 2000 model I also like the PQ but issues I have with his TV is the start up time to on the tv to get fully warm takes forever. and the blacks seem kinda blue to me on his tv. but besides that hd movies looks great on his set. Which one should I go with? whats your opinion? I also posted this on the Samsung Boards

Just wondering why some of you guys went with the 2020 over 2000. They are internally the same tvs but 2020 cost 300-500 more then A2000 depending where you buy it. Was the color really a enough factor to pay that much more?

well because of the black is one feature but I get the tv at cost. I was also hoping they fixed the start up time on this model

No one can tell you what you like. Go with what your gut tells you. I am assuming you don't see rainbows? Either way you are talking about what are probably 2 of the most popular sets. I love my A2000 and have no regrets. I think with a little tweaking the SXRD can deliver one of the best pictures you could ask for. I see rainbows with DLP so I couldn't even think about it. Happy hunting

can i plug my a2020 and HTIB into my ups (tripplite) and then plug my ups to a extension cord going to outlet and have no ill efects ??? i should be receiving my set tommorow (unless mother nature keeps screwin with us in ny) and i need to know if this is safe . TIA , carlos a , bronx ny