HD1080i De-mystify HDTV 1080i ::: know why before you buy

Sunday, July 02, 2006

1080 and the SXRD

Sony again, this time on BRAVIA and its 50" SXRD.

Jeff Goldstein, Sony A/V product marketing VP, said, “It's time to ask ourselves, 'What kind of HD experience is our industry really offering?' As always, when it comes to high definition, Sony believes that we need to set the right expectations for consumers by developing technology that provides the very best HD performance possible.”

This... is true. But dont take my word for it. Go into any Best Buy store ( Magnolia ) and ask to see the new 50 " SXRD from Sony. or the 55 or the 60" . its all good.

Trust me 50 inches is a sweet size for most larger living rooms, and at 1920 x 1080 , sitting close to it is a real pleasure... at 5-6 feet away it covers your field of vision and visual immersion is assured. however it is so good at detail that you will not enjoy the macro blocks from over-compression and Standard tv signals and some dish network channels will express all the sins of a poor source quality in stunning detail.

This unit is so big bright and clean that you will not believe that 2800 bucks can get you all that.
now granted, it is rear projection and it has a few possible caveats, but in the grand scope of flat wide and big, this is a great buy. You may find that its at the back of the store, and away from the plasmas and "screen door" displays, mostly because it will blow away anything near it in a side by side viewing, and it makes competing units look like a poor choice for the equivalent dollar.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Jeff,

I have one of the current gen SXRDs and really like it.

Just wondering what caveats you think there are to buying one of these displays versus another technology?

11:08 AM  
Blogger Jeff said...

Hi Alex... there are 2 caveats.
1) Sweet Spot viewing angle exists, typical of any rear projection technology though, and SXRD is much better than most.
Seated dean on view is always best for these.
2) 250 bucks to replace the lamp which has some lifecycle that may include a degraded output over time, however, the Iris management system in BRAVIA SXRD should make the lamp lumens life curve appear as linear as possible to the viewer, so really its not a serious caveat. Theoretically if you replace the lamp as needed , all other aspects of this technology should last a lifetime.

Also - i saw the Samsung, it is indeed very very nice, but still BRAVIA has it for smooth imaging 50" and over -- bang for the buck, it is right now unbeatable.

Congrats on your SXRD !

11:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

On the sweet spot, I have noticed that it's much more pronounced in the vertical than it is in the horizontal.

Still, my TV looks pretty darn good on my Salamander triple 30. Could have gone with the triple 20, but I needed the extra rack space for all my stuff.

Also have been recommending that people looking for a smaller display (37 to 42") take a look at the Westinghouse units. They seem hard to beat.

Although Costco does sell the similarly featured and priced Spectre HDTVs...wonder if they are OEM'ed at same place.

3:07 PM  

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