Need your opinions on a Sony KDS-50A2000 (1 Viewer)

[Bruce Carillon]

Saw one today at Best Buy and thought it looked really good. The size is perfect for the location I have and the price seems right at about $2,200. I'd like to hear from those who are vieweing both HD and SD Comcast cable. I'm concerned that SD is going to be considerably worse than my current 36" Sony KV-36XBR250.

Even if you don't have Comcast, please comment... Thanks!

 

[Harpozep]

I. I have owned a 36" Sony KV-36XBR250 and loved it, well sort of....! Great set with some geometry problems and mine had a component input color smear problem that Sony finally acknowledged after I hit them over the head for fourteen months. They replaced it with the XBR 400 set and I was doin' fine! Anyway, the 250's component problems were not limited to my set as I tried several at local stores and they all had it. Sony finally said they had no fix for it AFTER it went to the shop. Sigh.
You mention of the set brought up old wounds, but I really liked the picture, which was better than that supplied by our Panasonic 43" Plasma which followed.
Ok, so now I'm in the Sony camp once more with Sony KDS-R60XBR2.
It is a rear projector TV and needs a bit more table room than the plasma but not as much as the XBR 250/400s.
I was looking into these RPTV sets last year and waited until they matured a bit before committing.
I looked into the set you want and passed because of the upconverting software. Sony went backwards on the upconverting software in the A2000 sets, and I wanted the latest version of their software for this task, not an older one. They price these sets differently for a reason I guess, size also being a factor.
I have a short report here on our set:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...d.php?t=244077

Basically I'm finding the SD upconverted by the set to look better than I had hoped for considering the viewing distance ( Six feet ). At the local HT shop I watched SD being upconverted in the SXRD series 1 set from last year and was not real impressed. Granted the set upconverted better than the cable box at the HT shop, but is was still frightening. That is not to say we do not have some really crappy looking SD upconverted channels with the newer Sony, but at least we are battling the horrors of standard Comcast cable with the best Sony software available. That is why we got the 60" XBR set rather than the 50" A2000 set. We are generally happy with the results of Comcast SD upconverted to 1080P through the Sony.
HD looks fine as well if the signal is going strong. Sometimes I find certain Comcast HD signals freezing up while the sound moves on, the video choaksup . This is Comcast's feed and not Sony's fault.

The next step is some kind of optical 1080P disc. Hmm, I hear there are a couple to choose from................

So , If I were in your shoes ( I was up 'till a couple of weeks ago ), I'd try to view SD through the A2000 set AND the new XBR set and see if the newer software in the XBR set really makes a difference to your eyes. I did this with the XBR from last year and this year's XBR and find the newer set to do a better job on the upconversion. Granted this was not side by side, but you should keep the upconversion software discrepancy in mind when you purchase. Both sets will look great with HD.

As to HD on the XBR250, , I have no experience, but it all gets down converted to 480i by your cable box for such a junction. I'm sure it will look fine enough, but you are on the right track going after a newer set.
SD on my XBR 250 was dodgy at best. The set shone with DVD. The XBR 400 was better wi9th SD Comcast cable for some reason. The larger 50" you are looking at will show off all the warts of SD. Just the way it is unfortunately.
I measured the 3:4 standard TV diagonal when viewing un stretched SD on our Sony KDS-R60XBR2 and the diagonal measured 49" ! That's a large image for SD viewing. We went up from 36" to 49". I also think stretching the SD image is not going to gain you anything but pixilated headaches. Watch Standard TV in its original ration when possible as it will not hurt your set and your eyes will thank you.
Good luck in your quest. These new Sony's are wonderful, but all are not created equal.

 

[Bruce Carillon]

Thanks for the quick reply! I've only got room for a 50" display so it looks like the 60" is out. That's a shame since you mention the upconverting software is better on the 60" XBR. By the way, do you have to upconvert? Is there a setting to turn it off?

Thanks