Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)
Got my new Sony KDF-60XS955 LCD RPTV delivered this afternoon. Manufacture
date on the label: October 2004. The Sears delivery guy took it out of the
carton, helped me sit it on the stand, waved bye-bye and took the carton
away with him. You know, right at that point there is an enormous
anticipation mixed with fear that really should be savored. But I
digress...
To jump to the most important point, the picture on this new model Sony is
fantastic.
A couple of months ago, we had an old model Sony KF60WE610 LCD RPTV for
three weeks. A floor model from Ultimate, significantly reduced. After
three weeks, it refused to start up (thanks to the gods!) so we took it back
for a refund and ordered this new one from Sears.
On the old TV, the HDTV picture was gorgeous but the SD picture was pretty
terrible. For this new model, it seems to me that they have definitely
improved the SD picture. I have not spent enough time, of course, to form a
solid opinion, but I think the SD picture is pretty near what we used to get
on our old 48" Sony CRT RPTV. In other words, the problem with the SD
picture is now mostly or all SD itself, not due to the TV set. And the HDTV
picture is just stunning.
Knock on wood, no bad pixels or other screen problems at this point.
But, if you are giving one of these to your grandmother -- or anyone but a
videophile -- be sure you go over there to set up the menus for her, because
the way it comes from the factory is sheer lunacy. Worst culprit is
something called "Live Color". Not much clue from the manual as to what
good that is supposed to do. Supposedly enhances blue and green. OK. All
I could see that it really does is seriously screw up your whites.
As soon as I got the TV up and running, I found, to my great displeasure,
that all the whites and near-whites in every SD picture were constantly
swimming around, giving the picture a kind of horrible "posterized" look.
Kind of a '60's psychedelic light show effect. I tried various remedies but
could not get rid of it. Finally, I went through the video setup menu, step
by step turning everything on and off.
In the "Advanced" menu I found this "Live Color" which apparently comes from
the factory set to "high" in "vivid" mode (the factory default,
unfortunately), "medium" in standard mode, etc. I turned it off and the
psychedelic effect went away. But you can't just turn it off once and for
all, you have to turn it off several times, once for each mode. At least I
know what to do if it ever rears its ugly head again. There is absolutely
nothing in the manual to prepare you for this. Why anyone would want this
setting turned on is beyond me. Maybe it's for potheads.
Anyway, there are two RF cable inputs on the back, "Cable" and "VHF/RHF".
The toggle on the remote to go back and forth between them is "Antenna" /
Cable and the screen label says "Antenna" for the "VHF" setting. So, I get
the impression that the "Antenna" input is really put there to use if you
have an outdoor antenna to pick up local HDTV channels. I guess. The
manual (again!) is not at all clear about this. The impression I got from
the manual was that you could hook up your cable to either or both (perhaps
one via your VCR or DVR for analog channels, the other for an input to the
cable card?). But problem: The set would not detect anything but the lower
VHF channels (I think) -- 27 of them through my cable -- when connected to
the "VHF/RHF" cable input. Maybe there is a solution for this. The manual
says to just run auto-setup but that's what I did and it did not find any
more channels. In order to bring in a full range of cable channels (like
channels 36 and 48 and 98, for example), the cable has to come in through
the "Cable" input.
A thought: You know how most TV's have a setting in the "Setup" menu for
"antenna" or "cable"? Well, this one does not. But it does have those two
cable inputs. So, I think that's what's really going on here. But the
manual is misleading, at best, if that is the case.
I have not gone through the manual in detail yet, so maybe I will think more
highly of it later, but I doubt it. It does not seem to me that the people
who wrote it were really familiar at all with this set. Their instructions
seem about 30 degrees off much of the time.
So, it took me a while but I finally got everything up and running the way
it should be. I am running cable out of the wall into a splitter, then out
of the splitter A. into the HD cable box and B. into my DVD/DVR (a
pass-through like a VCR), then out of the DVR and into the "Cable" input.
DVD input via component cables. So I can toggle through the "TV" input
(analog cable), video input labeled "DVD" for the DVD player, video input
labeled "Cable Box" for the HD box, also input via component cables.
Digital sound into my receiver from DVD and cable box. Out of the back of
the set into the receiver for analog cable TV. Works fine.
I was going to get a cable card to use instead of the box but I see that the
cable channels do not carry the information the Sony info box needs. I can
see why the cable company would not want that info in there, of course, so I
will keep the 2-way box. Which I think I will. I can't imagine that a
cable card could improve the HDTV picture enough to notice. The Time-Warner
guide and info, via the box, is worth something, too.
mack
austin
Got my new Sony KDF-60XS955 LCD RPTV delivered this afternoon. Manufacture
date on the label: October 2004. The Sears delivery guy took it out of the
carton, helped me sit it on the stand, waved bye-bye and took the carton
away with him. You know, right at that point there is an enormous
anticipation mixed with fear that really should be savored. But I
digress...
To jump to the most important point, the picture on this new model Sony is
fantastic.
A couple of months ago, we had an old model Sony KF60WE610 LCD RPTV for
three weeks. A floor model from Ultimate, significantly reduced. After
three weeks, it refused to start up (thanks to the gods!) so we took it back
for a refund and ordered this new one from Sears.
On the old TV, the HDTV picture was gorgeous but the SD picture was pretty
terrible. For this new model, it seems to me that they have definitely
improved the SD picture. I have not spent enough time, of course, to form a
solid opinion, but I think the SD picture is pretty near what we used to get
on our old 48" Sony CRT RPTV. In other words, the problem with the SD
picture is now mostly or all SD itself, not due to the TV set. And the HDTV
picture is just stunning.
Knock on wood, no bad pixels or other screen problems at this point.
But, if you are giving one of these to your grandmother -- or anyone but a
videophile -- be sure you go over there to set up the menus for her, because
the way it comes from the factory is sheer lunacy. Worst culprit is
something called "Live Color". Not much clue from the manual as to what
good that is supposed to do. Supposedly enhances blue and green. OK. All
I could see that it really does is seriously screw up your whites.
As soon as I got the TV up and running, I found, to my great displeasure,
that all the whites and near-whites in every SD picture were constantly
swimming around, giving the picture a kind of horrible "posterized" look.
Kind of a '60's psychedelic light show effect. I tried various remedies but
could not get rid of it. Finally, I went through the video setup menu, step
by step turning everything on and off.
In the "Advanced" menu I found this "Live Color" which apparently comes from
the factory set to "high" in "vivid" mode (the factory default,
unfortunately), "medium" in standard mode, etc. I turned it off and the
psychedelic effect went away. But you can't just turn it off once and for
all, you have to turn it off several times, once for each mode. At least I
know what to do if it ever rears its ugly head again. There is absolutely
nothing in the manual to prepare you for this. Why anyone would want this
setting turned on is beyond me. Maybe it's for potheads.
Anyway, there are two RF cable inputs on the back, "Cable" and "VHF/RHF".
The toggle on the remote to go back and forth between them is "Antenna" /
Cable and the screen label says "Antenna" for the "VHF" setting. So, I get
the impression that the "Antenna" input is really put there to use if you
have an outdoor antenna to pick up local HDTV channels. I guess. The
manual (again!) is not at all clear about this. The impression I got from
the manual was that you could hook up your cable to either or both (perhaps
one via your VCR or DVR for analog channels, the other for an input to the
cable card?). But problem: The set would not detect anything but the lower
VHF channels (I think) -- 27 of them through my cable -- when connected to
the "VHF/RHF" cable input. Maybe there is a solution for this. The manual
says to just run auto-setup but that's what I did and it did not find any
more channels. In order to bring in a full range of cable channels (like
channels 36 and 48 and 98, for example), the cable has to come in through
the "Cable" input.
A thought: You know how most TV's have a setting in the "Setup" menu for
"antenna" or "cable"? Well, this one does not. But it does have those two
cable inputs. So, I think that's what's really going on here. But the
manual is misleading, at best, if that is the case.
I have not gone through the manual in detail yet, so maybe I will think more
highly of it later, but I doubt it. It does not seem to me that the people
who wrote it were really familiar at all with this set. Their instructions
seem about 30 degrees off much of the time.
So, it took me a while but I finally got everything up and running the way
it should be. I am running cable out of the wall into a splitter, then out
of the splitter A. into the HD cable box and B. into my DVD/DVR (a
pass-through like a VCR), then out of the DVR and into the "Cable" input.
DVD input via component cables. So I can toggle through the "TV" input
(analog cable), video input labeled "DVD" for the DVD player, video input
labeled "Cable Box" for the HD box, also input via component cables.
Digital sound into my receiver from DVD and cable box. Out of the back of
the set into the receiver for analog cable TV. Works fine.
I was going to get a cable card to use instead of the box but I see that the
cable channels do not carry the information the Sony info box needs. I can
see why the cable company would not want that info in there, of course, so I
will keep the 2-way box. Which I think I will. I can't imagine that a
cable card could improve the HDTV picture enough to notice. The Time-Warner
guide and info, via the box, is worth something, too.
mack
austin
Facebook
Twitter