any feedback from owners of this product, or anyone considering it. How is it on features, etc. Have there been any great new improvements in the aspect ratio issues in the last year or so since I was looking at the widescreen TVs.
Sony RP, KP-51WS500
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I just purchased it & it will arrive today. I sold my Mitsubishi 55807 after 2 years of great service, due to the fact that it doesn't fit into our TV nook & we have a 15 month old baby who needs the space the TV takes up. The Sony will fit right in. I've done a TON of investigating & visiting of stores. Here's what I've seen so far. Aesthetically, this set is the best looking in it's size/price range. Very well styled & very attractive outer shell. Now on to the important stuff. After viewing the 51" Hitachi, 50" Toshiba, 52" RCA, 48" Mitsubishi, & 50"? Panasonic, & this TV, they all have distinct personalities, but I narrowed it down to just 2 TV's. When given GOOD HDTV signals, the Hitachi & Sony are superior in image detail, color, & overall clarity to any of the other's mentioned. When comparing the two directly, the Hitachi's picture seems a bit brighter (I've always found Sony's to have a slightly darker picture) while the Sony seems just a bit more detailed. Overall I think I might have liked the Hitachi's HD picture just a touch better, but I've read that with a little service menu tweaking, the Sony catches up very quickly. The Hitachi HD seemed to be a bit smoother, but I think it was because of Sony's detail level. For DVD's, the Sony seemed to be the best of the bunch. The picture it provided was simply great. I loved Sony's menu system & available features. The Sony's audio seemed better to me as well as was the remote.
Now on to the weaker things. When given a basic cable signal, both the Sony & the Hitachi were more grainy than any of the others. The Toshiba was by far the best picture with a lower quality signal & the Sony was the worst with the Hitachi close behind. I'm positive this correlates directly to the fact that these two sets provided greater details in their HD & DVD picture. Don't get me wrong, the picture for cable was perfectly acceptable on the Sony & Hitachi (better than my 55807), but still considerably worse than the Toshiba. This is where the Toshiba shines. On the negative side for the Tosh, I could see some streaking or tiny lines however in the picture at times which I didn't like.
The stretch modes were best on the Mitsubishi (and similar Pioneers which were the best, but way up in price so I don't mention them). Next in line for stretch was the Toshiba. The gap was pretty big from there. Sony's modes were ok while the Hitachi was the worst of the bunch. Sony's best mode was a zoom mode where you can position the picture. I thought it lost very little picutre & looked much better than what the Hitachi did. I still like the natural stetching of the Mits. & Pioneer where the middle stays normal & the sides stretch more. Some people hate that though.
In the end, it was down to the Hitachi & Sony. I thought the pictures were VERY comparable for HD although slightly in favor of the Hitachi while DVD performance leaned toward the Sony. The cable output on the Hitachi was worse than the Sony & so were the stretch modes. The Sony also would fit perfectly right into my TV nook while I would have to get a contractor to widen it by 1 inch for the Hitachi. The Sony looked nicer too. So, I picked the Sony. If the size wasn't a factor, it would have been a VERY tough choice, but I think I'd still go with they Sony. They both have their pro's & con's.
Hope that helps, I'll report more later.
-Todd
Now on to the weaker things. When given a basic cable signal, both the Sony & the Hitachi were more grainy than any of the others. The Toshiba was by far the best picture with a lower quality signal & the Sony was the worst with the Hitachi close behind. I'm positive this correlates directly to the fact that these two sets provided greater details in their HD & DVD picture. Don't get me wrong, the picture for cable was perfectly acceptable on the Sony & Hitachi (better than my 55807), but still considerably worse than the Toshiba. This is where the Toshiba shines. On the negative side for the Tosh, I could see some streaking or tiny lines however in the picture at times which I didn't like.
The stretch modes were best on the Mitsubishi (and similar Pioneers which were the best, but way up in price so I don't mention them). Next in line for stretch was the Toshiba. The gap was pretty big from there. Sony's modes were ok while the Hitachi was the worst of the bunch. Sony's best mode was a zoom mode where you can position the picture. I thought it lost very little picutre & looked much better than what the Hitachi did. I still like the natural stetching of the Mits. & Pioneer where the middle stays normal & the sides stretch more. Some people hate that though.
In the end, it was down to the Hitachi & Sony. I thought the pictures were VERY comparable for HD although slightly in favor of the Hitachi while DVD performance leaned toward the Sony. The cable output on the Hitachi was worse than the Sony & so were the stretch modes. The Sony also would fit perfectly right into my TV nook while I would have to get a contractor to widen it by 1 inch for the Hitachi. The Sony looked nicer too. So, I picked the Sony. If the size wasn't a factor, it would have been a VERY tough choice, but I think I'd still go with they Sony. They both have their pro's & con's.
Hope that helps, I'll report more later.
-Todd
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Dweezilz, excellent feedback.
I've had a KP-51WS500 for a little over 3 weeks. I am very happy with it. I agree with Dweezilz's observations about SD signals. They leave a lot to be desired. I have D*, some channels look good (not great) and some channels just plain suck.
I'm not receiving HD yet, I have an HD-200 STB on the way along with the Terk 3-LNB dish and an antenna for OTA. Once those things are in place I will be even more satisfied with the set.
I have the Avia disk on the way, I'll be able to do some tweaking when that arrives. There's a great group on Yahoo (sonyhs10) that has some great info on more tweaks that can be done. Once I get Avia I'll attempt some more things. But OOTB the picture is very good.
DVD viewing is awesome. I even use the TV for Xbox and PS2, I just got a Gamecube so I'll be trying that as well.
As far as 4:3 viewing, I don't watch any SD broadcasts in 4:3 mode. I always use wide zooom.
Hope this helps.
I've had a KP-51WS500 for a little over 3 weeks. I am very happy with it. I agree with Dweezilz's observations about SD signals. They leave a lot to be desired. I have D*, some channels look good (not great) and some channels just plain suck.
I'm not receiving HD yet, I have an HD-200 STB on the way along with the Terk 3-LNB dish and an antenna for OTA. Once those things are in place I will be even more satisfied with the set.
I have the Avia disk on the way, I'll be able to do some tweaking when that arrives. There's a great group on Yahoo (sonyhs10) that has some great info on more tweaks that can be done. Once I get Avia I'll attempt some more things. But OOTB the picture is very good.
DVD viewing is awesome. I even use the TV for Xbox and PS2, I just got a Gamecube so I'll be trying that as well.
As far as 4:3 viewing, I don't watch any SD broadcasts in 4:3 mode. I always use wide zooom.
Hope this helps.
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1,075 Posts
Hey guys, I wanted to let you know that I have performed the service tweaks as recommended in the Yahoo group sonyhs10. I did ONLY the service menu tweaks, not either of the focus tweaks that require mechanical adjustments. Since I did these tweaks, my SD (cable & dish) look AMAZING!!! I can't even believe how much better it looks. Almost ALL of the grain in the picture is gone & detail has been enhanced!! At this point, I have to say the SD looks as good or better than the Toshiba did in the store for SD. These tweaks also made DVD & HD look even better than they did out of the box. For HD, I did everything except for the disabling of high frequency sharpness. It really helped DVD's look so film-like & clear, but for HDTV it seemed to dull the picture too much for my likings. For SD I also left out one of the tweaks as well. The edge enhancement was recommended to be turned from 2 to 0, but someone said for cable it looks better if set to 1...they were correct. That setting is LTLV.
Anyway, I HIGHLY recommend joining that group & doing the tweaks in their tweak file. I just am in total amazement at how good my cable looks now!!! BTW, I use WideZoom for SD exclusively as well. It's actually quite good.
-Todd
3 weeks & no flicker so far!!
Anyway, I HIGHLY recommend joining that group & doing the tweaks in their tweak file. I just am in total amazement at how good my cable looks now!!! BTW, I use WideZoom for SD exclusively as well. It's actually quite good.
-Todd
3 weeks & no flicker so far!!
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