SONY XBR Grand WEGA 50" LCD Rear Proj TV (1 Viewer)

[John Geelan]

I was at the Wiz today and saw one of the most beautiful sets I've ever seen...the Sony Grand Wega 50" XBR (KF-50XBR800).
They were playing ICE AGE on it and the picture was stunning.

Does anyone own this set?
They say the cost is $3999.

Is it available anywhere else?

You've got to see the picture on this TV.

 

[Trevor-H]

I own the 60" version of this set and after tweaking it I am extremely happy with it. The 50" will look better on SD material because of the smaller pixels but I had to have the 60" for the "theater experience" , or whatever that means

You can pick this up at local B&M who are into higher end video equipment and Circuit City also has them. I got mine at CC for about $3400 with free delivery after haggling with the sales rep. The only problem is, is that these sets are kinda hard to come by right now so depending on who you talk to, they may or may not move on the price.
You can also check out places such as onecall.com which is an authorized sony dealer.

There are several advantages and disadvantes to owning an LCD based RPTV versus a CRT based one. The best place to do research is probably avsforum.com. THey have many tweaks and info on them, pics from sets, and general pricing info, including info on the Samsung DLP sets which are comparable to the GWII if you want to see another type of technology. Feel free to PM me on this forum or under oiskaio at the avsforum.

 

[Joe Reed]

I own the 50" model and just got my rp-91 panny dvd player in the mail today, will be setting it up tonight, although from my experience with thse set so far which has only been playing wideo games here is how they look:
Ps2: Shut your mouth, in 4x3 was good enough for me to play for 3 hours striaght. Gta:VC, was so horrible in 4x3 and 16x9 I shut it off. This is with composite( hve not hooked up with component yet.
Xbox: Rocky, great looking but better on a 32" 4x3 set.
Nba 2k3 in 480i unplayable, in 480p okay but does not really clean up the jaggies. 720p very good.
Mortal Kombat in 480p mode was very good.
I will watch a movie tonight and see how I like the set.
I bough it at CC for $3600.00, my cable will be hooked up tomorrow and if it looks good I might keep the set.
The same day I bought the gwII, my mom bought the 40" wega xbr 4x3 set, which is amazing so far on dvd(enhanced 16x9 mode) and good on cable.
My question for you guys is this:
I can either keep this set or return it and get the 4x3 36" Sony Wega Xbr, with the stand and the JVc dvhs player/recorder ( will be geting the samsung ti-165 after xmas) and the panny dvd recorder with builtin hard drive for the same price. Would you guys do that.
I want the dvd recorder to copy all of the Saved by the bell epsiodes on dvd( for myself) until hopefully they actually come out on dvd.
I really do not like how video games play on this set, and was hoping for a great widescreen set to play them on but I dont know what to do know
My viewing habits are probably 50% games, 30% cable, and 20% dvd, for now until about March and then it will be 50% cable and 50% dvd, until September again when good game scome out.

 

[Justin H]

Joe Reed,

When I first got my RPTV I was astounded at how bad PS2 games looked. I could barely get through a Madden game. Then I got around to picking up a set of the Monster component cables and the difference was night and day. There is no question that component cables for the PS2 are an absolute necessity with a TV this size. Go out and get them! You will kick yourself for waiting so long.

 

[Trevor-H]

I 100% agree, there is no reason to judge this tv when you are still using composite cables. Heck, I don't even like composite on my 27" Trinitron, even s-video would be a step up. Second, until you've gone over to the avsforum.com and checked out the thread entitled UMR DOES GWII, I wouldn't rush to take it back anytime soon. Remember you have 30 days....but for myself after all tweaks were done, I love this set and won't be taking it back anytime soon.

 

[John Geelan]

Thanks Trevor for the advise.

The set looks gorgeous with a dvd playing.
I'll have to go back to the store and check it out further.

This set defintely goes on the list.