Let me start off by saying I am no videofile (or is it videophile ) but I do watch a lot of TV especially on weekends with a wife and three boys. I was blown away by HD last year when visiting my brother in the states as we watched baseball, football and the rest. He had a Sharp Aquos ( about 40 inch or more). He actually bought another 2 since then for his bedroom and guest room. My objective was to find out what a Sky platinum signal would look like on a HD TV (testing an LCD and a rear projection unit). I then could consider what HD ( if any) would look best in our family room for every day use and make considerations with my findings for a second HD TV for my (future) Entertainment room in the basement. After about 10 weeks of searching and researching I found the best picture (IMHO) for an LCD was the new Full HD 1080p Sony X series and for rear projection thought the Sony Full HD 1080p SXRD had the best picture and color of any. I must add that my budget was in the area of about 200 K (maximum) for one TV at this time so I looked at all units both 1080p and 768. The idea of getting a "future proof" TV was appealing to me as this type of purchase is not an every day occurance. OK.....enough preface...lets get it on!
Had the 60 inch SXRD on the floor and the 40 inch V series on the the table. Had a great view of both sitting on my couch approximately 10 feet away. I was with my wife and the two installers (who had installed many a TV) and my electrician. I fed the sky platinum signal in to both units using (monster cable ) Multi-component, composite and S-video. I switched cables accordingly on both units to be objective. The 40 inch LCD had a very clear picture with absolutely no snow or interference. Some channels looked better than others. The SXRD had a similar picture but was a shade or two darker. That is exactly what I hoped for!. However the picture Quality was really strange. Color contrast looked pretty good on close ups but became Hazy when switching scenes or as the camera moved side to side. Skin/flesh tones looked one dimensional with Very Little facial detail visible. The news casters on CNN looked like manicans. Very Very weird. Too me it was a bit disturbing. Watched a basketball game and it looked good when the camera was taking a close up shot but when panning across the crowd or just viewing the game(half court view) as so you could see the whole squad interplay the picture got a little fuzzy and most of the detail was lost. In fact you could not even read the names on there jerseys. I Then watched Italian football on Star sports. It was worse than the basketball game. Close up shots looked good but when the camera panned across the field to, get "the big picture" a brutal ghosting or shadowing effect came in to play on every players bright jersey. The ghosting was worse on the SXRD than on the LCD but was evident onj both none the less. Installer tried tweaking for about an hour but could do very little. I found it hard to enjoy the game. Now having said all that this review is just my OPINION of a first watch on a HD using a SD signal ( and I REPEAT this is not a review of the actual TVs but of the sky platinum picture). Perhaps I need to get used to the colors and lack of detail or it may have been just the shell shock of seeing my 29 inch wega sitting idle in the corner(LOL).
Pulled out the platinum box and viewed regular sky cable. Snowy picture appeared but after fine tuning did not look terrible. Some channels looked real good. Shutting off the room lighting helped a lot. Saw full detail. Color was back to normal. Seemed to be a major relief for me. Told my wife to put away the Valium.
Plugged in the 29 inch Wega and watchwed it next to the others. On a scale of 1-10..(when viewing sky cable/platinum...the 29 inch being a 10 for clarity .. I rated the LCD a 8 and the SXRD a 7.5.
FOLKS I WOULD BE HARD PRESSED TO AGREE TO WATCH CABLE TV ON A REGULAR BASIS USING HD DISPLAYS . PICTURES WERE NOT AWFUL OR HORRIBLE...JUST NOT WHAT I AM USED TOO.
OK FOLKS....THIS IS WHERE IT STARTS TO GET INTERESTING.
INSTALLER PLUGS IN THE NEWEST TOSHIBA 1080P PLAYER. BOURNE IDENTITY. LOOKED REAL GOOD ON THE LCD. BUT ON THE 60 INCH SXRD PICTURE WAS BRILLIANT. I WAS BLOWN . AUDIO WAS PRETTY GOOD BUT NOT GREAT. DEFINITELY GONNA NEED THE HT .
TOLD THE INSTALLER TO PUT THE LCD BACK IN ITS BOX AND LETS REALLY SEE WHAT THE 60 INCH COULD DO (WITH MY LIMITED TECHNOLOGY AND SD GEAR). I ALSO TOLD HIM TO PUT THE TOSHIBA IN ITS BOX AND WATCH ON A STANDARD DVD PLAYER. MUST SAY I WAS BLOWN AWAY. MY DVDS LOOKED INCREDIBLE. MY VCDS LOOKED BETTER THAN EVER. THATS RIGHT FOLKS I REPEAT MY VCDS!!! THE COLOR ON THIS TV WAS INCREDIBLE. THE BLACKS WERE REALLY BLACK. SKIN TONE WAS PERFECT. ABSOLUTELY NO GHOSTING OR SHADOWS ON MATRIX, CONSTANTINE, LORD OF THE RINGS AND THE REST. ALSO ANOTHER THING.....NO PROBLEMATIC PIXELIZATION SIGHTINGS....AT ALL!. I REALLY WAS SO IMPRESSED WITH THIS SET AND IT WAS ALL USING STANDARD DEF MATERIAL. MY WIFE AND THREE KIDS DID NOT WANT TO END THE NIGHT. I WILL RECOMMEND TO ALL TO TRY THIS ONE AND COMPARE IT TO ANY OTHER REAR PROJECTION ON THE MARKET. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED .
NEEDLESS TO SAY.........THE TEST ENDED AND I NOW AM THE PROUD OWNER OF "THE ULTIMATE TV"!
HOWEVER....THE SXRD IS NOW IN THE ENTERTAINMENT CENTER IN THE BASEMENT. I JUST CAN NOT USE THIS AS AN EVERY DAY TV WITH SKY PLATINUM! BUT THAT IS ME....PERHAPS YOU COULD DEAL WITH THE PICTURE BETTER THAN I. ALSO GOT A GREAT DEAL FOR CASH. AM LOVING LIFE! AND WOULD BE HAPPY TO SHARE THE WHERE AND HOW MUCH WITH YOU. DROP ME AN EMAIL..IT IS ON MY PROFILE.
HAVE A GREAT DAY!
http://www.sony.com.ph/wega/detail.asp?product_id=1463&cat_id=3&subcat_id=76&subcat2_id=0
