Official Sony KDS-XXA3000 OWNERS THREAD! - Page 56

Well seems like I have not seen anyone complaining about their A3000 Lately, thats always GOOD news

I went to BB the other day to see if they had the A3000 on display yet But they did not, As I was looking around I saw a Mits WD73833 on display and all I could say to myself about the Picture was WOW Im not sure if the WD57833 has the same WOW. I am looking to get the 55A3000 and I sure hope the picture is as nice as the Mits And gives me that WOW

We had a good three pages of settings and general info on the a3000 a few pages back, now it has turned into getting deals from BB and how to do it again. Sigh...

Why is it that it's always the new members that complain ... damn, I'm a new member myself ... and I'm complaining !?!? ... spooky !!! (just kidding)

-da Choge

Do you really lose 1:1 mapping? Or does it just shrink the desktop inside the 1920x1080 frame? You wouldn't lose PQ if it does that.

Nice OT post, walk. I would really think that if you have a powerful enough GPU and up-to-date software, the desktop is just resized and resolution is retained. I'm jumping into this discussion totally unpants'ed; but if you lose resolution, then my choice for the 60" A3000 has only been half-baked.

It's funny, I think the days of home-built overly-expensive HTPCs are near at hand, but I still make choices of TV monitors based on their ability to interface well with the PC (personal hobby, like I'm sure it is for most of us HTPCers). I think Samsung, hands-down, has had that edge on that front for quite some while. But the pros of these new A3000 Sony SXRDs just edge-out (IMO) some of the failings of the newest Samsung DLPs (definitely not a Samsung-hater, which I have been an ardent follower and admirer of for quite some time). Even if Sony still hasn't got the PC interface thing quite right (and at this point prolly never will), I believe you can make these Sony's work with the PC acceptably well with software. I'll know soon enough on my own, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

- da Choge

Mike,

I have seen both the Sony and the Mitsu's (the 55" and 60" A3000's at BB and the Mitsu 833 Diamond series at Tweeter - but unfortunately not side by side yet) and so far I think the A3000 is just a little better and more configurable from the user menu (which is very cool ). But I actually like the 833 series Mitu's a lot. I also think the physical set looks a bit better than the A3000's. But the picture quality of the A3000 is really outstanding. Both can have that Wow! factor with the right signal.

I ordered my 60A3000 from Tweeter instead of BB, but Tweeter does not have them in stock (mid to late Sept ), so I have not received mine yet. I know one of the guys over at Tweeter pretty well, so when my 60A3000 comes in, we are going to actually setup both sets side by side in their showroom and calibrate them (with the proper lighting), then compare. We are both anxious to see which is the better set. My bet is that they will both be close, but the Mitsu's still have the color wheel issue (even though they have improved this, some people still have issues...headaches, etc.). So my $$ will still be on the Sony even if PQ is similar. Now if the Mitsu is THAT much better, well then...I'll have a tough decision at that point, won't I? At this point the 833 series is my second choice as far a PQ goes.

Also there is the issue of size and price. I believe Mitsu specifically chose 57" and 65" model sizes to put up against the Sony's 55" and 60" because they knew Sony would be tough competition. This makes it difficult to choose. So if the 60A3000 and the Mitsu WD-65833 are about the same street price, and the PQ is pretty close....ooooh! Tough call. Five more diagonal inches is quite a bit. But does the Mitsu do 120hz 24p as well as the Sony? We'll see....

I'll keep ya posted...


Steve

Looking to get an upconverting DVD player, being led towards ordering an OPPO. Anyone know which model would be best suited for this tv? 980H or 981HD?

Also, any cable (brand) recommendations for this tv, as far as HDMI goes?

Thanks.

It's hard not to be wowed by a 73" screen with a small thin bezel - but taking it down in size may be different - I read professional reviews the other day and the weak points on the Mits were it's blacks and details which happens to be the strength of the SXRD. You were wowed by the size of the Mits as was I but on the SXRD it's shadow details and blacks will be wowing you and in fact in the sweet spot with some movies will amaze you.

Just make sure you get an HD or BD player and budget your HD - you'll become that dork lawyer in that silly movie Idiocracy glued to the panel and sittin on the HT crapper viewing future reality show "Ouch my balls" - damn perhaps I should not have admitted to watching that ridiculous movie. Someone was stoned when they created that thing. The SXRD can present shadow details that are rarely found on other panels.

Bad way to think of cables. Either they are capable or they are not. Either they have been certified (if you like a stamp of approval) or not. Remember that these are nothing more than (in most cases), copper wire carrying an electrical signal from point A to point B. Monster built an empire selling .25/ft wire for 3.00/ft. Now, of course, if you want to pay for good looking, that is your call, but don't confuse that with high performance.

Too many dang decisions. I need 70"+, so was set on the XBR5 and have been following this thread to get to know the SXRD's. But that dang XBR5 is so heavy, it might crush my stand, so was looking at the 73833 too.

If the 833 can't compete with the 3000, it surely won't compete with the XBR5. Crap, crap. Wonder if it matters that we probably won't watch BD or HD on it? We'll have the HT for that and this TV will solely be used for television (D*)

That's the problem, Nvidia's drivers 'scales' the resolution down, it is not doing a smaller resolution within the 1920x1080 resolution. I run Nokia Monitor Test after all resolution changes, and not 1 time have I gotten 1:1 after using the desktop resize function.

I bought mine from Monoprice.. 28 gauge i believe.. 10 foot was cheap there.. they have great quality.

HuskerTornado... I asked Oppo which player would be best for the Sony KDS-A3000 sets... the directed me to go with the 980HD player... said this player would deliver the best picture quality with the rptv technology... apparently, the 981 player (and older 971 player) has some technology that does not work well with rptv's (dlp, sxrd, LcOS)... hope this helps.

that would be the 980H (not 980HD) dvd player from Oppo... also, I don't think cables differ too much other than in price... sure, the cheap stuff is cheap, but I don't think you need to spend $100+ on a 3' cable... I went with one of the forum sponsors here (RAM Electronics - button on top of this page) and got their HDMI 1.3 cable (3') for a great price, they made a review by Secrets of Home Theater and Hi Fidelity online mag...

Me too! DVI-D Single Link to HDMI (HDMI 1.2a HDCP Certified) 28 gauge, gold plated 6ft.

FWIW... I found the email from Oppo on my question to them regarding which player would be best suited with the A3000 sets:

"LCoS in the SXRD systems is still prone to macroblock enhancement errors. It is not as pronounced as DLP, but it still exists. For this reason, we never recommend the use of the DV-981HD for RPTV, as there will likely be blocking errors.

Secondly, the previous generation SXRD displays did not respond well to the output of the DV-981HD due to bad handshaking errors with your display and proper colorspace. This causes some users to see "green push".

For your display we would recommend the use of the DV-980H. This player will produce the cleanest, sharpest picture on your RPTV display.

Best Regards,

Customer Service
OPPO Digital, Inc.
453 Ravendale Dr, Suite D
Mountain View, CA 94043
Service@oppodigital.com
Tel: 650-961-1118
Fax: 650-961-1119"

Oppo has great customer service, btw, and a great product for the price...

I would really like to know how you will get service for this set in Canada? I live in Toronto and want the A3000 as well.

Well, my 50" A3000 (BB price matched TechDepot) arrived yesterday and I have to say I'm very impressed.

I move up from a 42WE655 model. I think the thing that impresses me the most is the black level compared to what I had before; I was like, "Oh that's what the picture is supposed to look like". POTC on Blu-Ray looks awsome.

The only negative I've noticed of the A3000 is the vertical viewing angle. It not a wide as as it probably should be. I think that maybe was echo'd earlier in this thread. Also, is the power on to full brightness a little slower than other set? The only comparison I have is my older 42WE655 which seemed a tad faster.

Also, I noticed some published settings a few pages back. Looking forward to a thread on settings/tweaks, etc.

Any reason to go with the other DVI to HDMI cable that they offer, the one with the 'net jacket', whatever that is.

I don't know about Vista, I'm using XP. I ran that Nokia thing and it looked fine to me. I'm using my bedroom TV until my A3000 arrives, it's a 23" LCD. The desktop resolution says 1152x688 or so. It's still sending a full 720p signal though (1280x720) it would have to... the TV wouldn't accept a "1152x688" signal. It just fills in the rest with black.

You want product ID 2412 (6ft) or 2504 (10ft).

That's the exact problem there.....XP is much more friendly in the desktop resize/custom resolution than Vista.

If I remember to, I'll post some pics on the Nokia resolution test, how it should look at 1:1 and what happens when it isn't.

Are you guys getting extended warranties? If so, from where?

Does anybody know the mfg code for the Sony KDS-A3000? I am trying to code my cable remote for the tv and can not get it to work. Thanks

4 year best buy for me.

I exchanged several emails with Oppo tech support and they were insistent that the 980H is the best choice for the SXRD rear-projection set due to the possibility of macroblock enhancement issues from the Faroudja chip in the 981HD. So even though I wanted to spend $60 more I went with their recommendation.

I just received my Oppo 980H on Wednesday and I'm very happy with it after two whole movies watched at 1080p. I will say that the Planet Earth upconverted on this DVD player isn't near as good as the DirecTV 1080i broadcast, but I didn't expect it to be. But otherwise it does a MUCH better job of deinterlacing than my old Sony NS575P 480p progressive scan player, and noticably better job of deinterlacing and scaling than the 55A3000 set. That's based on my subjective viewing of the DVD "The Contract" and a scene that showed several issues on my old DVD player.

The 980H will come with a 6' HDMI cable and their web site offers reasonably priced longer cables. I bought a 10' HDMI cable from mycablemart.com. They're VERY reasonably priced - you don't need to spend a bloody fortune on an HDMI cable IMHO.

I bought mine from Sony.

Good grief, this is supposed to be an owners thread and it's all about where to buy, how to buy, how to get a deal. Only a slim few posts on tweaks and settings and issues.

Someone should start a new owners thread or rename this to "How to buy your KDS-XXa3000 and violate AVS policy"

Maybe I'll do that when mine arrives in 2 weeks.

The 8600GTS will do 1:1 in Vista with 158.45 drivers. The drivers are the last ones before they added resize desktop.

1 Install drivers
2 Create resolution with RivaTuner
3 Set resolution to 992 lines and accept
4 Set resolution to custom resolution

On some comments I've read the 8800 might work a little differently than the models with the Purevideo2, so it's possible that this 8600 procedure will not work with the 8800. I know this procedure will not work on XP, it comes out with the image in the lower right of a 1080p frame. In the Nvidia documentation there's supposed to be a move desktop option in XP, but I've never seen it the two times I tried out XP drivers.

A quick way to check if your computer is doing 1:1 is to use this http://tft.vanity.dk/monitorTest.exe and choose the 1:1 option. It should display with white pixels next to black pixels. If the video card driver is resizing a resolution then it usually gets blown up as diamonds of larger than one pixel sizes.


I really don't think this is true in regards to the 8 series Nvidia and an SXRD. If I could get a custom resolution with XP I wouldn't have bought the 2600XT. I still have not seen anyone post a way to correct for overscan on an 8 series Nvidia using XP with an SXRD. The resolution from another card is the only thing I've ever been able to think of, and the reply in this thread says it doesn't work. Last time I heard, resize desktop doesn't work on XP so their drivers are even more of a mess than Vista. I don't like how the 1:1 pattern gets changed so I use 1:1, but honestly text generally looks good so the resize desktop on Vista is probably acceptable if you don't want to use months old drivers, go 7 series, or buy ATI.

EDIT: I should qualify that all of this is in regards to HDMI. The previous model VGA input was horrid, and I'm still not sure why you would want to use an analog connection when a digital one is available.

I bought my 60A3000 from Sears on Sunday, was delivered Wed. Sears does price match, but that depends on what store, location and the luck of the draw as to who you get for a sales person. They also have a 24 mo no int plan if you use their cc, my 60 was in stock at the warehouse and was delivered with no problems. If the store you go to doesn't have one they can get one using the stock # posted earlier (around #1203). I'm very impressed with this set so far, no reason to wait for a XBR5 unless you need a 70".