Help! Sony 34HS420 or 34XBR970 ?

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That phrase may have been mine. I own the 34HS420 and I'm still loving it.


My set was made in Pennsylvania, as were many others before manufacturing moved to Mexico. The SFP tube sets were also made in Pennsylvania.


The XBR970 is made in China?


The HS420 is the forerunner to the 970. I'm impressed with the improvements that have gone into the 970. I even like the color change, the darker cabinet is much more attractive than the silver cabinet on mine.


I have not had the opportunity of seeing the HS420 and the 970 side by side, and I hope the PQ on the 970 is as good as it is on the HS420. I understand it is very good.


Funny thing - it's not been all that long ago that us owners of the HS420s had to kind of justify our purchases against the owners of the vaunted SFP tube sets. Some owners of the SFP tube sets even questioned whether it was technically correct to call the HS420 an HD set, given its lower horizontal resolution. Now I see the praise being given the 970, which I believe is well deserved. One of the stand-out qualities of the tube on the HS420/970 is the higher levels of brightness, given the lower pixel dot pitch. The XBR960/XS955 sets appeared a bit darker because the space between "pixels" was so small, allowing less light to escape.


At any rate, I've been giving my thumbs-up to those asking about the 970. It's true that it is the best 34" crt being made today.

Thanks fellows!


I was looking seriously at the 30HS420 last January since the 34" was still a bit more expensive than I wanted to go. I decided to put it off in hopes of further price decreases given expected upcoming model changes. Never occurred to me legislated digital tuner requirements would turn everything upside down a couple months later. Now I'm reading Sony plans to be out of the direct view TV market after this year. Yikes -- so much for waiting!


I saw the 34XBR970 at BB yesterday and was blown away by the reasonable price -- I was presuming it had the XBR FPT. Then I started looking around on-line and it seems like there's just about nothing left out there. So, I've been trying to learn what I can.


I'm used to Sony FD-Trinitron tubes (my XBR800 has one) so the fine pitch CRT issue doesn't mean much to me. Don't know how the picture circuitry compares between the units, but I gather the 970 is more a descendent of the HS420 than the XBR series.


A couple of people have remarked on-line that the 970 has some HD distortion, the CRT has no aperture screen, and that the picture is especially dark (not sure they knew about VE ). Do any of those concerns mean anything to you?


Thanks -- Trevor

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None of those concerns speak to me. You have rightly deduced that the 970 is a decendent of the HS420. I've got the HS420 and it's just super. I've seen no real distortion that I couldn't fix easily in the service menu. It does indeed have an aperture grill. And the picture is actually brighter than those with Sony's SFP tube, as the pixel dot pitch is larger on the HS420/970. It does seem strange that Sony gave it the XBR moniker, but now that the SFP tube is discontinued (except in the 36XS955) I guess the 970 is now their flagship set.


Cheers!