[mchinh]

Should I get the Pana 50px500U or wait two months for the upcoming Sony SXRD-50?

 

[No_Towel_Lint]

Sony's new SXRD line (I believe it was the 50" I saw) is quite nice, but I wasn't so impressed that I would throw away the advantages of plasma to get it. That's just my personal opinion. I'm still considering the Panasonic HD plasmas in light of having seen the SXRD. I can't give you a fair comparison between the two since I wasn't able to compare them even in the same room, let alone side by side.


Now, Sony's new S-LCD....holy cow, that was truly a gorgeous picture...at least, with the content they were showing on it (which was the same as being shown on the SXRD). Too bad it's only available up to 40" (and surprisingly MSRP will be only $3499 I'm told for that 40" XBR model). When we get that set in the store I will be taking a closer look at it and if it performs that well with other content I will likely consider that for my bedroom.

 

[No_Towel_Lint]

I was at a Sony presentation at the beginning of this month where they were showing off their new TVs. They had them all lined up on the platform running the same demo content. At that time, they could not give us an exact time when the SXRD would be in stores but the rest of the stuff was said to be in stores this month (obviously the A10 and A20 are, and the S-LCD is showing up here and there).


I'll be honest though...the Sony rep was horrible. I think I listened to about 10% of what he actually said because it was all marketing talk ("only TRUE HD on the market blah blah blah") and plasma bashing (He actually said that plasma will be dead very soon). He definately didn't know enough to be qualified to be presenting. (He actually told us that the HDMI connection on the back of the A20 was an OUTPUT to run to your receiver and that that's the only way to get 5.1 from your HD cable....I'm seriously not making that up. We were all stunned by his lack of knowledge) At any rate, I walked away from the presentation being most impressed by the 40" XBR LCD.

 

[No_Towel_Lint]

You know, now that I think about it, the presenter (who was a certifiable llama) talked a lot about SXRD but never actually made reference to one on the stage. I had never really thought about that till now. There were about 6 different sets up there (three 50"+ TVs and three 40" and under TVs)...all supposedly representing a different line of product. Viewing all of this from 30 feet away I wasn't able to see models (though one was clearly the A20). Hmmm...maybe there wasn't an SXRD up there. I just assumed it was the 50" set with the best picture but maybe I was wrong. Clearly, it didn't make much of an impression on me if it was up there because I was more interested in the 40" XBR LCD.


Sorry for the confusion if I'm wrong....you sit through a 45-minute presentation from that guy and see if you can walk out having any clear understanding of what's going on at Sony. This was a 2-day event I was at with many vendors presenting and all anyone could talk about was how Sony's was by far the worst. Overall, I enjoyed the event a lot but Sony sure was a let down.

 

[No_Towel_Lint]

No, that wasn't there. I would've remembered that because I'm used to the 55XS955 in our showroom and would've recognized the similarity (that unique cabinet design has been the topic of many pointless discussions at work). One of the sets was very reminesent of the old WE610 line (blackish-gray around the screen but the rest of the TV a more silver color....same as WF655 line but different older color style, which I actually thought looked nicer).


I apologize for the misrepresentation. I guess all those non-stop vendor presentations left my mind a jumbled mess of new stuff to organize in my head.

 

[Trunorth]

It's a fair question. The new SXRD XBR has better specs than the Qualia 006 which has perhaps the best resolution of any display panel in the marketplace. PQ on the Qualia vs Plasma comes down to a personal taste, really emissive vs projected image. Some will argue that plasma has a more realistic picture perhaps with a degree of depth that a projected image doesnt. But they are extremely close in PQ. With the new SXRD you are looking at US $4K/$5K for 50"/60", that 60" for the PQ you will get makes it extremely competitive against the smaller plasma screens. And yes there are aesthetics at play but I believe if you focus on the facts that is just the PQ alone the SXRD XBR 1080p Sony will be the standard for high def. viewing in the under $5K range. All that said I am still a plasma fan, I prefer the emissive displays.