MisterJensen's review of the KDS60A2000

[misterjensen]

Well, Abt Electronics dropped off my KDS60A2000 today; in short, IT ROCKS!!!  As promised, here is my review (I'll post pictures once my digital camera turns up from the remodeling project cleanup).

First of all, I would like to state that seeing this set in your home on your own feed (mine is TWC via a HD 8300 DVR) does not compare to seeing this bad boy in the store... it's SO much better.  Unfortunately, you won't realize this unless you pony up the bucks.  The only thing that sucks for me is that I had a new cable jack installed for this set in our remodeled room and it is having issues.  I'm missing certain channels; they are not being tuned by the cable box.  I don't have time to explain all of the different configurations I did to test the problem.  It's not the set or the cable box; it's the jack.  TWC will be out on Tuesday to fix it.  Luckily, I had been recording HD and SD content all week so I was prepared to rock with the set showed up.

My observations:
-  This is not directed at any individuals in particular, but whoever thinks that the colors are not great on this set are CRAZY.  The family stopped by today and EVERYBODY commented on how beautiful the colors on this set are
-  I've had the set off and on a few different times today.  Once or twice I did notice a green haze near the left center of the screen on startup but it was COMPLETELY gone by the time the lamp was at full brightness.  This does not worry me now; if it gets worse, I'll call Abt or Sony.
-  The black levels are among the best I have seen!  I'm sure I could improve my blacks even more, but I love a bright picture so the black levels are ever so slightly lighter
-  Depending on how you set this TV up, it can be VERY bright.  In short, brightness is not an issue with this set.
-  The remote does feel more flimsy that the XBR1's, but I think it is a lot easier to find buttons by feel
-  I'm sitting at about 12-13 feet away from the screen and the 60" is perfect
-  As stated before, SD is not terrible, and it's not great... it's fine.  Remember SD televisions can't do HD, and HD televisions are not the best at SD.  I bought this set for HD performance folks!
-  With a good feed, the image on this set almost looks 3-D
-  The speakers in "surround" mode sound great; they can be very immersive if you crank them up (and they are not "Dumbo" ears )
-  My set sits on top of a 25" credenza (JSP Industries "Bolero") and there is no brightness dropoff at all
-  No fan noise unless the TV is off and it is still cooling down
-  No dead or lit pixels; no smudges on the screen

Some obsessive / compulsive tiny issues I noticed:
-  As I posted earlier today, I noticed that when the screen is off, the center of the screen is lighter than the left and right sides; I was told that this is normal
-  The black plastic rim around the screen has a spot where the plastic isn't uniform; it's color is slightly off.  It's not really noticeable though.
-  The geometry of the center bottom of the screen might have a slight dip; again, it's not noticeable unless you REALLY look for it
-  When Abt delivered my set, I noticed that the box was on it's side.  I don't see any issues with the box or the set, so I'm not going to worry about it.

I agree with CNET's "excellent" rating; this one was worth the wait!

[gparris]

Thank you for the most interesting and informative commentary and review I have read in awhile, including those from avsforums.  :cool:

At the distance you are sitting, 12-13 feet, I would buy the 70" XRB2, as my 70" Hitachi 720p is more immersive at that distance and a 1080p display would be even more so, IMO.  

I am glad to see that this new SXRD works for you and you are very happy with it.

The stand you used is 25 inches high, then the picture starts about 8.25 inches from the bottom of the set to screen, making it 33.25 inches to where you start seeing picture...this seems a little high, maybe a half foot higher than most of my installations, but again, I am glad it works for you.

Let us see your pictures as time allows and give us an update on your cable connection situation, which in my experience, is easily fixed.

[Bebop]

Some obsessive / compulsive tiny issues I noticed:
-  As I posted earlier today, I noticed that when the screen is off, the center of the screen is lighter than the left and right sides; I was told that this is normal

The effect of the Fresnel lens.

[flash]

Are you using a backup UPS in case of power outages to keep the cooling fan for the lamp running. I have one friend that didn't use one and his lamp burned out in less than a year. :bang: