Sony KP-51WS510 and general RPTV questions from a newb (1 Viewer)

[Brian.S]

Hello,

I have wanted to get a nice RPTV HDTV for quite some time and my wife finaly gave in and I am hoping to get one in approx 2 wks. I looked at alot of Tv's and I really liked the Sony's(I have always been partial to Sony products after my last Sony TV lasted almost 20 yrs) but I also considered the Mitsubishi WS-55413. Does anyone know how these models stack up to one annother? Especialy in terms of picture quality, features and reliability? The Tv will be paired with my RCA RT2600 system until I get the $ to upgrade it. My wife does not like letterboxing in movies, I have gotten her to put up w/ it on our 27" 4:3 but she keeps asking me if the new 16:9 will have it still because she "hates it" I noticed at 2 stores we saw w/ the same Tv's showing the SAME move(Finding Nemo) one had no letterboxing and one had small amount of letterboxing. I have read some on animorphic WS and I am still a bit confused as to weather my movies "enhanced for 16:9 Tv's" will still be LBX'd, isn't that part of the reason to have a 16:9 in the 1st place anyway? I also noticed that on the showroom I sometimes had a hard time seeing the Sony's picture due to glare, I chalked this up to bright lighting on the showroom and strange angle I was viewing it from(Best Buy had it on the 2nd shelf) will I have to have lots of drapes in the room to prevent the sunlight from coming in?

Also we watch quite a bit of DirecTV I'd say 45/35/20 DirecTV/DVD/XBox, will I have to worry about burn in once I correct the saturation etc from watching this much 4:3 material? Is there any way to lessen my chances of this?

Thanks alot for any help, I am really excited about entering the world of HTD and any advice is greatly appriciated.

-Brian

 

[Bryan*D]

I just recently purchased the Sony 51" you are looking at and I'm very pleased with it. I have windows right behind the couch with minimal glare. I do have plantation blinds over them.
A 16x9 set has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, so there is some very slight Letterboxing with most Action and Sci-Fi movies; Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Gladiator, etc, as these movies are shot in 2.35:1, a wider scope. I can tell you that at night watching movies, the picture is so big that you don't even notice it. My wife had the same question, but after watching many movies at 2.35:1, she doesn't even notice it. Movies that are 1.85:1 or 1.78:1 will fill the entire screen.

You won't have to worry about burn-in as long as you vary your programming. Sony's Full mode works very well. stretches the image to fill the screen, but after a few weeks you hardly notice.

HDTV is truly amazing. I can't wait until they start adding more channels.

Hope this has been of some help.

 

[Adam_mmm]

bryan what kind of sony did you get and how are the sd feeds?

has anyone seen the Sony KP57WV600 I saw this at onecall today for 2000.00 after tax and free shipping. I am curious if this is sony's new line or is it older than the Sony KP57WS510 which is the one I have been looking at

 

[Bryan*D]

Guess I left that out. I've got the Sony 51" KP-51WS510. The SD Feed looks fine. I use the Full Mode all the time, so SD is stretched, but after a month I can't even notice. IMO, the size more than makes up for any flaws.

 

[Jeff Penney]

Hi,

You might want to check out the JVC AV 56WP74. I have been doing some research since I too plan on buying my first big screen in the next couple of weeks. From what I can gather the JVC offers pretty good bang for the buck and is a little cheaper than the Sony. This is not me being brand loyal or anything but I figured if you are like me you like to look at all the options.

 

[Jason Charlton]

Adam - the KP-57WV600 is an older model - Sony is no longer producing any 500/600/700 models. From what I have learned of the 510's they really have just about everything the top of the line 700's had with the exception of a high-contrast/Anti-reflective screen and the built-in memory stick reader (a mostly pointless feature, anyway). 2k isn't a bad price for the 600, but the 510 seems like a great set, too.

Bryan - Have you tried watching material in Wide Zoom mode instead of Full? The only reason I suggest it is that there is MUCH less distortion in WZ, and the non-linear stretching (more on the edges, less in the middle) is much easier to get used to. I only use Full mode for anamorphic DVDs, WZ for practically everything else. Sure, it crops a bit off the top and bottom, but it RARELY chops off anything important - even watching football games, the score boxes are still visible. Just a suggestion!

-Jason

 

[Bryan*D]

Jason, Wide Zoom does indeed look better than Zoom. I'm pleased that even watching College Football, like you said, the score boxes stay on-screen. I think what I'll do is set Full as the default, so that Anamorphic DVD's and HD will be Full, and just change my viewing of SD Feeds to Wide Zoom.

Thanks for the tip.