Well, here is an honest review on a 50" SXRD.

I wanted a larger TV for a family room, not a theatre. 50" struck the right balance for me, large enough but not so much to overpower the room, and make it look like a theatre or Sony store.

I am a Sony fan. I would have considered other product, but all things being equal I would buy a Sony. I didn't shop the other LCOS products.

I bought a Sony XBR800 34" 16x9 CRT several years ago, so that was my comparison. Picture quality was more important than size then and now, and nothing larger that I looked at then was good enough in comparison. I told myself that I would buy a larger screen when the quality was there. The SXRD was the first one that met that threshold for me personally, and I had been checking out new TVs for several years. The SXRD just looked fantastic side by side with other alternatives. The XBR800 is now in the basement for the kids.

I set up the SXRD on October 21st, almost two months ago. I continue to be delighted with it today. Only a couple of issues (noted below). On the other hand, I am not delighted with the quality of our cable signal. I already had digital cable (we need to use a Motorola box here for digital service, it is supplied by the cable company). After having used two small dishes in other countries, I didn't want to do that again, cable was just easier. I upgraded to the HD box. We have 7 HD channels out of hundreds of channels. Not enough. Watching them is great, going back to regular channels is a drag. More are coming, but not quickly enough, IMO. This is really the biggest issue for me with a large HDTV, the fact that most channels are crap, and defects in the signal are much more visible.

I am not using an AV receiver, surround speakers, etc. That decision was part of wanting to keep it simple. The standard speakers are fine for me. I am not sure how good the other audio output options are on this model, I just haven't needed them.

So, what else?

1) The custom Sony stand is required, IMO. It is a ridiculous price. Glad I got it, it fits the TV well and is the right height, with a recess for the base on the TV to make it more streamlined. No aftermarket stand I found looked as good. It just costs too much.
2) I find the menus easier to use than past Sony TV menus (which I was very familiar with). My comment would be, however, that there are a lot of adjustments there. I think it would be very easy to mess it up (there is a factory reset button).
3) I don't like the warmup wait. It is something like 20 seconds, sometimes less. We are conditioned to CRTs with circuits that keep a TV ready to fire up instantly. I had to train family members to look for the green light, take a breath, and wait a few seconds, instead of hitting the power button again.
4) I don't like the switching delay when using the DVI/HDMI input, and scrolling through input sources. Using standard Y/Pb/Pr cables the switch is instant. Using the DVI/HDMI input, there is a slight delay. Not important, but is it really necessary?

So, a couple of very minor points. I would buy another again in an instant.

I bought mine at our local Sony store. Given that it is new technology, I wanted an extension to the standard warranty. Future Shop/Best Buy was twice the price of the Sony Store for two additional years of warranty. Neither plan included bulb replacement. I think the difference is that the Sony store really had a warranty for defects/breakdown. The Future Shop 'satisfaction plan' allowed returns for other reasons, such as just not liking it. That feature costs money, and wasn't what I needed. My Sony store beat the Future Shop sale price, which surprised me, and I got the DVI/HDMI cable very cheap as part of the deal.

Speaking of cables, they are expensive. I am using Monster cables, but when I add up the cables for the digital box, DVD recorder, VHS, it means $$. I am not using a power conditioner, just a Monster surge protector. We have very good clean power here, I would not be as cavalier everywhere (The only electronics that lasted in our house in Chile were on individual transformers).

Hope that helps. Any specific questions, fire away. For anything as technical as power factor correction (see above posts), you need another reviewer, but speaking as a typical (early adopter) user, there it is.

Jeff

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2007 X3 3.0si, 6 MT, Premium, White

Retired:
2008 535i, 6 MT, M Sport, Premium, Space Grey
2003 X5 3.0 Steptronic, Premium, Titanium Silver
2002 325xi 5 MT, Steel Grey
2004 Z4 3.0 Premium, Sport, SMG, Maldives Blue

After what happened in Loudon county last week http://www.timescommunity.com/site/t...d=506035&rfi=6 I would definitly surge protect, in fact a whole house surge protector would probably be best, as well as locals on home electronics for internal wiring issues.

One of the guys I was working with last week lives in that area and his new Plasma, computer, stereo, microwave, refridgerator and anything else plugged in and on was pretty much fried. He said the refridgerator caught on fire but with an extra 10,000 volts coming down the line I can see why

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Currently 2010 X6 35i, Premium, Technology, Sport.
2004 Lotus Esprit - Final Edition
Former '04 X5 4.4i, Highland Green, Nav, DSP, PDC, Heated FR & R Seats, Comfort Seats, Rear Load Floor, Premium & Sport Package, IceLink Plus, Bel RX65, Tow Hitch, Sirius Satellite Radio.
Former '03 X5 3.0, Nav, Premium, Rear climate. (Stolen)
Former '01 X5 3.0, Nav, Premium, Rear Climate (Lemoned)

Nice writeup on your experiences with the SXRD, we're getting the same model. I am no expert, but I have been told by people who install high-end A/V for a living that a power conditioner with coaxial connectors would be the ticket to clean up any poor cable reception problems you might have.

Ifly- the story about what happened in Loudoun county was barely reported outside county lines. So many people in the DC area have nice electronics in their homes, and I'll bet a small percentage of them are properly surge-protected.

JV

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JV

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know...it's what we know for sure that just ain't so

I had the local power company install whole-house surge protectors on my house last year. Supposed to help with this sort of thing, right? Plus, I have UPS's on my main computer.

If my TV's get fried, I would have an excuse to get the SXRD!

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The other thing to remember is that the cable boxes that the cable co. provides have terrible scalers and processing in them. It is best to let the TV process the picture as much as possible (the only exception to that would be the purchase of a high end DVD player which might have better processing in it, but with HD DVD/Blu-Ray on the horizon who is going to spend $2k on a DVD player?). Therefore if you are using a cable box be sure to set it to 'pass-through' so that the box just sends the signal and your TV handles the processing.

Is that a setting on the cable menu, or wiring on the back of the box?

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JV: I think a power conditioner may help if the power was dirty enough to be an issue (and it may still help here, I haven't tried it on this setup...). The issue we have is that the cable distribution system is not as good as it should be. The noise is from the source, and throughout the distribution system to the house. An example would be the cheap splitters they use at the house connection point. Canada is also not as far along on HD broadcasts as the US (the 7 HD stations we get are generally US stations). The cable company is holding off until things settle down a bit, and we are suffering in the meantime.

Chris F: I have a relatively high-end DVD player/recorder. When the signal is routed from the cable box to the TV, it is a significantly better picture than when I watch the same signal after it goes through the DVD and to the TV. I assume that the difference is the quality of the signal processing in the TV vs the DVD. So, I think I have it set right, not using the processing in the cable box, but I am sure there are settings that I haven't found yet. I will check again. It bugs me that the TV has a cable card slot (future proof?) yet the cable company talks about it being 5 years until they adopt that technology here. Who knows. Sounds like they have a lot of old Motorola boxes in stock to get rid of, to me. Don't even get me started on which HD DVD I should look at. Why can't we all just aqree on one format? Thanks for the pointer on the pass-through.

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2007 X3 3.0si, 6 MT, Premium, White

Retired:
2008 535i, 6 MT, M Sport, Premium, Space Grey
2003 X5 3.0 Steptronic, Premium, Titanium Silver
2002 325xi 5 MT, Steel Grey
2004 Z4 3.0 Premium, Sport, SMG, Maldives Blue

Question to the expert: I have a Motorola DCT6200, which seems to have some reasonable specs. There doesn't appear to be an option for a pass-through, the way it is configured I need to have the box set to 1080i to get the HD signal out of the DVI connection. The only bypass appears to be by means of coax connections on the back of the cable box, described as allowing bypass if the cable box is out, and then only for standard channels.

http://broadband.motorola.com/consum...00/default.asp

Am I missing something? Any suggestions welcome.

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2007 X3 3.0si, 6 MT, Premium, White

Retired:
2008 535i, 6 MT, M Sport, Premium, Space Grey
2003 X5 3.0 Steptronic, Premium, Titanium Silver
2002 325xi 5 MT, Steel Grey
2004 Z4 3.0 Premium, Sport, SMG, Maldives Blue

Did that right after we closed on the house, then put Monster and Panamax devices on the AV gear and APC UPS's on the PCs.