Sony KDS-R50XBR1 Issues

[sdavis44]

Love this TV, but it's brand new and there are a few things I haven't figured out yet, as well as a couple things I'm not even sure I can do. I just want to see if you folks have any input:

1) I understand the various "modes" for handling 4:3 images, but I'm having a hard time getting all of them to work in a consistent manner. For instance, I can't seem to get "Normal" to work on any station. The manual says "When the TV receives a 720p or 1080i signal, the Normal Wide Mode is not available". How do I check what signal each station is receiving? One display that shows for a few seconds after turning the TV on seems to say 1080i no matter what station I'm on. Could it be a function of my cabling? Or of a setting on my cable box? Something else? "Normal Mode" is always grayed out and unavailable.

2) Speaking of the cable box, I have a few options for the "input" settings..."DVI/HDMI Auto", "Fixed", and a couple others I forget right now. I have no idea what the settings do. I use the HDMI cable to connect the cable box and the TV, so I've been using the DVI/HDMI, but I'm not sure if that's correct or even matters? Anybody?

3) I have a PC with Media Center connected to the TV. Looks great and works like a charm EXCEPT...I cannot get the TV sound to work (through the PC Media Center). The manual calls for a mini audio plug from my nVidia 7800 GTX video card to the red and white sound jacks on the cable box. I'm using an old cable that appears to be correct, but nothing so far. Is it possible that, even though the cable fits, it's not the right type? Would it be worth it to buy a new one that I KNOW is the type called for? Any other thoughts?

4) When using the PC with the TV, the display is beautiful, but the entire screen is not used. I get a 3"-4" border all the way around. I've tried all the resolutions settings and TV tweaks that I can find with no change. Any thought on this?

Thanks for your time.

[Paul S.]

Love this TV, but it's brand new and there are a few things I haven't figured out yet, as well as a couple things I'm not even sure I can do. I just want to see if you folks have any input:

1) I understand the various "modes" for handling 4:3 images, but I'm having a hard time getting all of them to work in a consistent manner. For instance, I can't seem to get "Normal" to work on any station. The manual says "When the TV receives a 720p or 1080i signal, the Normal Wide Mode is not available". How do I check what signal each station is receiving? One display that shows for a few seconds after turning the TV on seems to say 1080i no matter what station I'm on. Could it be a function of my cabling? Or of a setting on my cable box? Something else? "Normal Mode" is always grayed out and unavailable.

2) Speaking of the cable box, I have a few options for the "input" settings..."DVI/HDMI Auto", "Fixed", and a couple others I forget right now. I have no idea what the settings do. I use the HDMI cable to connect the cable box and the TV, so I've been using the DVI/HDMI, but I'm not sure if that's correct or even matters? Anybody?

3) I have a PC with Media Center connected to the TV. Looks great and works like a charm EXCEPT...I cannot get the TV sound to work (through the PC Media Center). The manual calls for a mini audio plug from my nVidia 7800 GTX video card to the red and white sound jacks on the cable box. I'm using an old cable that appears to be correct, but nothing so far. Is it possible that, even though the cable fits, it's not the right type? Would it be worth it to buy a new one that I KNOW is the type called for? Any other thoughts?

4) When using the PC with the TV, the display is beautiful, but the entire screen is not used. I get a 3"-4" border all the way around. I've tried all the resolutions settings and TV tweaks that I can find with no change. Any thought on this?

Thanks for your time.

1. What kind of cable box? Model # helps

2. Sounds right. If you look on the back of the set there will be #'s above each port (video 1, 2, etc). When you switch to that input on the set and you have a pic, then you're good to go.

3. Try messing with the overscan option in the user menu.

4. Canbt answer that yet.

[GBK]

4. Max resolution is 1280x1024  ( http://www.sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/en/documents/specifications/KDS-R50XBR1_manual.pdf - page 100 ) in your nice 1920x1080 display.. too bad.. There is no way around it.  it just won't take higher res than that.

[sdavis44]

"Max resolution is 1280x1024...in your nice 1920x1080 display.. too bad."

I figured that might be the case. Not too bad though. I loaded up the latest drivers for my 7800 GTX and with a little tweaking, the border around the perimeter is only a couple inches...very tolerable. The display is GREAT!!

Having said that though, I'm not sure it's quite that simple. I'm actually using 1024x780 just to get a larger font display. The limits of the image are the same as when I use 1280x1024. So it doesn't look like there's simply a grid of 1920x1080 and I'm simply using a certain portion of them. If so, the 1024x780 image would be smaller. I'm not counting on it, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's some way (either now or someday) to "fool" the pixels into filling the 1920x1080 TV screen with a 1280x1024 (or smaller) PC image.

Thanks for all your input.

[Mark Strube]

If you get a video card that's newer with a DVI output, you should have no problems making it output at 1920x1080 @ 60Hz thru a DVI -> HDMI cable. Just be sure to do some research first and make sure the card is capable of outputting in that resolution.

1) I understand the various "modes" for handling 4:3 images, but I'm having a hard time getting all of them to work in a consistent manner. For instance, I can't seem to get "Normal" to work on any station. The manual says "When the TV receives a 720p or 1080i signal, the Normal Wide Mode is not available". How do I check what signal each station is receiving? One display that shows for a few seconds after turning the TV on seems to say 1080i no matter what station I'm on. Could it be a function of my cabling? Or of a setting on my cable box? Something else? "Normal Mode" is always grayed out and unavailable.

Simply hit the Display button on your remote when you're watching a program, and in that display box it'll tell you what kind of signal it's receiving. If your cable box is set to always output 1080i, it's upscaling every other format (480i, 480p, 720p) to 1080i, so your TV will never say otherwise. However, if you have the option in your cable box settings, I'd recommend setting it to output 480p, 720p, and 1080i.

3) I have a PC with Media Center connected to the TV. Looks great and works like a charm EXCEPT...I cannot get the TV sound to work (through the PC Media Center). The manual calls for a mini audio plug from my nVidia 7800 GTX video card to the red and white sound jacks on the cable box. I'm using an old cable that appears to be correct, but nothing so far. Is it possible that, even though the cable fits, it's not the right type? Would it be worth it to buy a new one that I KNOW is the type called for? Any other thoughts?

Why are you connecting it thru the cable box? Connect the audio directly to the television or your audio receiver. If that doesn't work, just connect it to the sound card instead of the video card, I don't see why that wouldn't work... but I don't use Media Center.