The Sony 57HW40 (1 Viewer)

[Doug R]

I'm seriously considering this TV based on the affordable prices being touted in this forum.

Does anyone with this TV have a HDTV converter for Direct TV-HD satellite and other HDTV broadcasts? If so, which converter do you have/recommend? Links would be appreciated as well.

I noticed most people whom purchased the TV (the receipts) also got the extra warranty. Is this recommended in general?

Would you recommend a ISF calibration as well? That's not part of the extended warranty I assume, correct?

To get most out of the DVD beauty of this TV, what player would you recommend?

Anyone have an image of what WIDE ZOOM looks like on a 4:3 broadcast?

I really want to pull the trigger on this TV but I'm so nervous about getting everything "right". =)

Any help would be appreciated. I'm fairly knowledge about most home theater stuff but the world of HDTV and 16:9 TVs is still a bit foreign to me.

Thanks very much for any help,

Doug

 

[Bob Schumann]

Doug,
I too am looking seriously at this set and wanted to pass along a site I've been using extensivly to do my research. You may want to check into the Home Theater Spot. In particular the link there for Sony. There's a lot posted regarding the 57HW40. I'm sure if you post your questions there you'll get tons of responses.
Good luck.
Bob

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I've had one of these for 3 months now and love it.
I have a Toshiba DST-3000 HD receiver hooked up to it, and get HD-Net and HBO-HD off DirecTV, but only have one local ota station broadcasting in HD, an ABC affilliate. HD picture can be mind boggling, especially on HDNet. The Tosh receiver is made by Hughes, and is also sold under the Hughes and Mitsubishi brands. I've had little or no trouble with the box, and get my local HD station off a 30 year old roof antenna.
If you already have an interlaced dvd player, you won't have to invest in a progressive scan player right away, the Sony DRC set to cinemotion mode does a very good job with dvd. I have a JVC progressive scan player that can be switched from interlaced to progressive scan on the fly, and see very little difference between the native progressive and interlaced processed by the tv's DRC.
The set looked quite good out of the box, with just an AVIA calibration. I've since turned off SVM and corrected the minor red push in the service menu, both easy to do, and am very happy with the result. The Sony Tweaks section over at Home Theater Spot has complete instructions on how to do these changes.
ISF calibration is not really a practical thing for me as I live 200 miles from the nearest tech. I am quite satisfied with my set with just the couple of things I've done to tweak it.
If there were a good ISF tech locally, I might consider having it done, but don't feel any pressing need for it.
I had an Hitachi widescreen set for a couple of weeks and was not happy with it, especially it's line doubling and stretch modes. I exchanged it for the Sony and am one happy camper.