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An AMAZING television |
January 17, 2008 |
| Reviewer:
Thomas
from Denver
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I bought the KDL-52XBR4, but these comments should be applicable as well to the other sizes, and to the XBR5 models, which differ only cosmetically. The blacks on this set are extremely black, and the contrast ratio is excellent by any standard. The only time that the blacks did not look fully black was at night when I had the room lighting turned off. As with televisions in general, this assumes that you do not have the brightness set too high (or the contrast set too low). The issue of black level is tied to that of the set's maximum contrast ratio, which, if not adequate, will restrict the actual contrast of the picture. The enigma here is that in stores, sets with inferior contrast ratio often appear to have enhanced contrast. This is an illusion. If the contrast ratio is poor and the brightness is turned up to where it is possible to see the shadow detail, i.e., the gradations in dark gray are visible, then unless the contrast is turned way down, the bright areas will appear washed out. Suffice to say that the contrast ratio of this set is nothing less than excellent.#####
The other concern with LCD picture quality has been with motion smear, which is due to the individual LCD cells being too slow to return to the state where they are opaque. No such problem can be detected here, and together with the increase in the screen refresh rate to 120 Hz, motion is essentially perfect, with no smear, and no jerkiness, whatsoever.#####
In any given year, the best LCD sets are comparable, in terms of contrast ratio and depth of black, to the best plasma sets that had come out a few years earlier. But the gap has been narrowing each year to where the best LCD sets, in terms of contrast ratio and black level, are now as good as all but the very latest and very best plasma sets. Reportedly, the latest plasma sets from Panasonic and Pioneer still have a measurable advantage. Maybe so, but if both sets are optimally adjusted, anyone would be hard pressed to see any difference. Many people report that plasma sets do not look as sharp, and while that would seem not to make sense at first blush, it is plausible, if the excitation of a plasma cell excites the adjacent cells, which is more likely to occur with plasma sets where the "screen door" effect has been eliminated. In any case, it is certainly true that whereas LCD is immune to screen burn-in, plasma has no similar immunity. Plasma sets also use considerably more power, which is something that you can observe simply by noting the amount of heat that they radiate.#####
Now for a couple of suggestions, starting with cables. If HDMI has any theoretical advantage in picture quality over component video, that difference is not significant in practice. The movie houses don't like component video outputs because it is impossible to enforce copy protection at high-resolution analog outputs. HDMI incorporates the HDCP copy protection scheme, and for several years, there has been the thr
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Everything I Expected and More! |
January 2, 2008 |
| Reviewer:
Robert
from Napa, CA
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My wife and I decided to upgrade from our 6-year-old Sony XBR 40" CRT (36" HD picture), even though the old set was doing fine. Wanted the big screen. We ordered the 60A3000 rear projection Sony from Crutchfield. When it was delivered, everything worked great and the picture was better than I had thought it might be. The only problem was that my wife couldn't see the picture clearly when she was seated on the fireplace hearth. Not surprising, since it's about dead even with the right edge of the TV (about 170 degree angle). She also wanted to know why it wasn't XBR. We called Crutchfield, asked to return the set and replace it with the 52XBR4--only $2K more! Crutchfield agreed, coordinated the pickup of the 60" with the delivery of the 52" (a $99 shipping fee applied since nothing was wrong with the 60"--understandable). The picture is great. We run a DirecTv HD-DVR through our Sony ES5200 receiver--also from Crutchfield--in tandem with a Sony DVD/SACD player and an XBox 360 with HD-DVD attachment. Everything is outstanding. Recommend this TV highly. I notice that the 60A3000 is no longer in Crutchfield's inventory. Perhaps Sony's decision to discontinue rear projection TVs has some bearing on that.
Love Sony, love Crutchfield. One tip: Call and ask the Crutchfield rep for their best price; sometimes you can save some money.
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This TV is AWESOME |
November 27, 2007 |
| Reviewer:
ronald
from Panama City Beach, FL
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This TV is amazing. The color, the 3D effect from the clarity; I can't even describe. There is no motion blur, even regular TV looks good. Digital TV looks nearly HD level and Blueray is AWESOME. I have had no issues with the TV and not a dead pixel in it. I did a lot of research and I could find better. Just as a note, I walked into a store here and saw one TV out shine all others from over 200 ft. away. This was it. Crutchfield was excellent in sales and shipping was fast.
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Fabulous TV! |
October 9, 2007 |
| Reviewer:
Deborah
from Fuquay-Varina, NC
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I researched TVs for over 6 months on the internet and by visiting 'big box stores'. We had a hard time deciding between this TV and a 60" Pioneer plasma, but the picture on this TV was so fantastic, and it does not have the reflection/glare of the plasma screen, and of course cost WAY less... so the decision was finally made. We have only had this TV for a couple of weeks but I absolutely LOVE it and I know we made the right choice. I did follow suggestions that I found in technical reviews of the TV on various web sites and I think that did help improve the picture, particularly the color. The reviews also helped me figure out how to navigate the extensive setup menus. I have only been watching DVDs so far, using HDMI connections between the DVD player, receiver, and TV, but I am completely thrilled with the picture and the features of this TV. I am not able to receive a lot of the HD channels that I want without a set-top box from Time Warner Cable, which I will get soon. I can't comment much on the sound from the TV, since I am using a nice home theater system with the TV and not the TV speakers. I was afraid the TV might be too big for our room, but it is just perfect (I'm glad we did not get the bigger one!). We sit anywhere from about 9' to 12' from the screen and it's no problem at all. What a difference from our 10 year old 32" set! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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