Tips & Tweaks for Sony SXRD (KDS-R50XBR1/R60XBR1)

[Paul S.]

Ohh so you had a green blob problem Paul S? I'm assuming it stayed after the screen has warmed up? I have a green blob in the center of my screen, but only for the first minute or two while it's warming up, after that it's totally gone.

I don't suppose the tech is able to fix the blue hue problems? I've found using the Advanced Iris takes care of a good amount of the blue hue issues.

The blob und der hue. It drives me nuts! Were still waiting on a new light engine so they can come install it. I pray thatll work!

Gosh, I have got to look at our forum for tweeks when I get my SXRD.

(No, Paul S., I didn't get one yet....sorry to read you had a situation...wish you luck...tell Heather I am "allowed" to get one, now.) :blush:

I am waiting for money owed me to buy mine.
Looks like Mark Strube has got the details I will need if a situation develops.

Heather said 'yaaaaay! congratulations!" Make sure the build date is post Febuary. Those have been a lil better in regards to getting a 'bad' set.

Who are we shaking down for the $$?

[gparris]

Per Paul S. :
"Heather said 'yaaaaay! congratulations!" Make sure the build date is post Febuary. Those have been a lil better in regards to getting a 'bad' set.

Who are we shaking down for the $$?"

One of me mates, Resident Pirate, sir...you cannot trust some of 'em and then they think they can play "pirate" with you...ugh! :mad:

Adding to that, I just came back from Circuit City-Southridge and the 50" SXRD is on sale for $3149.99 through the 18th.
Shiver me timbers!

Thanks for the ask, matey!

[Paul S.]

Per Paul S. :
"Heather said 'yaaaaay! congratulations!" Make sure the build date is post Febuary. Those have been a lil better in regards to getting a 'bad' set.

Who are we shaking down for the $$?"

One of me mates, Resident Pirate, sir...you cannot trust some of 'em and then they think they can play "pirate" with you...ugh! :mad:

Adding to that, I just came back from Circuit City-Southridge and the 50" SXRD is on sale for $3149.99 through the 18th.
Shiver me timbers!

Thanks for the ask, matey!

Arrrgh! :p

[gparris]

Thanks for the cheerleading, Paul S. and Heather!
Now I'm told that I can get the 60" SXRD when the price drops again...UGH!

(and of course, the build is after the timeframe you gave it and I get my money back...arg!)

Have you got your light engine fixed yet? :wave:

[Paul S.]

Have you got your light engine fixed yet? :wave:

Funny story- when they were getting to the light engine, the slightly retarded helper ripped a ribbon cable. That was a week ago today and my set is here in peices waiting for a new ribbon cable and a light engine install. No 360 for a week now, and no call from the shop saying the part is in/appointment schedule. I channeled my anger by ripping out a wall in the basement on St Pattys.


I'm rebuilding the wall this coming weekend.

[gparris]

Paul S. : Sorry for your pain. That wall of yours - glad you feel better now.

Does the other HDTV set - the Sony CRT RPTV - at least have an HD box attached to it - the one Heather watches so you can at least have a "backup"?

You see, I do have HDTV backups, just because of your situation - maybe its just me, but it hurts a little less if one goes out and you have bad repairmen  

Note: It is my understanding that you bought your Sony SXRD 60" set from Best Buy-was this their "recommended & authorized" repair department doing this so-called "repairing"?  :bang:
If so, remind me to put Best Buy off my "buy list" when I do purchase the set like you have...what happened is unforgiveable, no excuses - to your set, not your wall....just awful! :mad:

[Mark Strube]

I've made a kind of interesting discovery. Note this is with Advanced Iris on High... I'm pretty sure that doesn't affect the outcome of this test, but just so you know.

I discovered this by running the THX test from my DVD player thru component switching the player between 480i and 480p mode... and thru the 8300HD connected thru HDMI using various dark scenes from movies from HBO-HD and HDNet Movies. My box is set to always output 1080i, so I can't confirm this for 720p. (I was able to determine the correct setting because one notch up would introduce solid areas of compression artifacts in the "blackness" of the picture, and one or more notches down didn't improve the black level, and only made detail in the picture go away.)

When my tv is receiving a 480p or 1080i signal, the correct brightness setting is 27... while when it's receiving a 480i signal, the correct brightness setting is 29. While it doesn't sound like a big deal, even one notch off can totally kill dark scenes, where you'll see all kinds of noise that wouldn't be there otherwise.

Also, INHD and INHD2 seems to have different black levels from all the other HD channels. When I'm testing using dark scenes from their In Theaters program, it's as if my brightness is almost 10 notches too high... turning it all the way down to 20 fixes it, but then ALL the other channels look far too dark. When I was tweaking using INHD's tune-up program, the correct brightness setting is 16... which is obviously wrong.

[gparris]

When I did my setup on my SXRD, I used Pro mode only, but kept most of the settings much the same except for the sharpness and white balance.
This is for the cable box primarily, not the DVD player.

Using the avsforums' forum members' suggested settings for the Denon DVD upconversion players are right on track, too.

Component cabling is working fine for now with the 8300HD DVR, though the HDMI worked good until the recent programming change with TWC. :rolleyes:

[krk0718]

So just thought I would share this...Bought this set back in November, and last month it developed a green corner (lower right) and when it was on a fairly light screen (grey), the sides or what would be a 4:3 was a lighter shade of green.  Almost looked like burn-in which I thought was impossible with LCD technology.  Well after calling CC because I did not have their extended warranty, I had to go direct to Sony.  After looking at forums it seemed this more than common issue, but in most cases it goes away after 20 minutes, not mine.  After going to an IL certified sony repair place, it was determined that it needed an optical block replacement.  Which is what the forums said.  

The service at Sony is unbelievable...You would think that a purchase of something this expensive that you would get better service.  They have had me set for 3 weeks!  Finally I talked with a regional manager for Circuit City, he agreed to replace the set with a new one.  We will see as he has not given me a date yet.

Well for what is worth, I thought I should post this.  I do believe this has one of the best pictures out there but am very concerned with the durability of this TV.  Is this going to happen 2 years from now?  Because it is very hard to watch when you are as critcal about the picture as I am.  Anyone else have this problem?

[gparris]

Thanks for the information. The A2000 models are coming in, so the XBR1 is in very short supply.
The CC in Racine I go to, the manager said they only had one of each to sell and that was it.

As for the lack of an extended warranty combined with a change in model year is is a problem, I didn't realize the Sony's warranty sucked that bad. :mad:

The closest replacement SXRD set has fewer features than the older model (XBR1) and it had some issues...see cnet article link in our forum.

The XBR2s are coming later this year, your best choice for replacement and will probably be out before your one year warranty runs out in November.
No one has checked this model out, though the A2000s have not had any green blob issues to date from reports that I have read (a good sign).

Good luck and I await to see if my optical block goes out by the end of the year, if that is "Sony Quality" for SXRD panels, but I DO have the CC extended warranty at the very least.

Honestly, I cannot believe Sony does not keep those optical blocks or "light engines" (as they call them) for immediate replacement since there have been problems this past year...bad on their part, really bad.

Additionally, I hope the replacement set, if it  comes to that, comes with a new matching stand like I purchased with my SXRD XBR1. :blush:

[Paul S.]

After 2 fixes, I was given a new one that was 'acceptable'.

[krk0718]

I just wanted to follow up, after my disaster with Sony and their support.  Circuit City replaced my 60SXRD XBR1 with a new one!  Thank you CC.  I certainly would think twice about Sony products in the future after this, not because of quality (that happens) but more because they basically didn't do anything.  I was promised so many calls back and only one time did I get a call.  After I requested the TV not be repiared and replaced with new instead, they didn't call back.  Well I sure hope that this TV does not develop any problems.  Knock on wood.  

[Vindi]

Has anyone noticed a difference in the upconvert on the 8300 cable box and the job this TV does with SD channels?

I think the picture is better on SD cahnnel setting the cable box to 1080i output only and letting the TV upconvert that.

Anyone else try?

Also seems the HDMI on the 8300 will work with my denon reciever now.  It wouldn't about a year ago when I first tried it