Great HD pic when it worked

TV was built to self destruct in 4 years

I recently had the CRT's in my Sony 57" HD, rear projection TV fail. It was just outside warranty and the repair estimate was $1500 (TV originally $2800 in 2002). The repairman said it was quite common for these TV's to have this kind of failure and that they don't even repair them unless there under warranty because the picture quality is never as good and the customers complain. Additionally he said the CRT's have phosphurous in them which almost guarantees they'll fail within five years, that's if you can find them since Sony stopped making them!
Sony actually extended the warranty on these to four years because of a "flicker" issue. The recommended service was to replace the CRT's, which of course would keep the TV running past the warranty date (which I believe happened to me when I had it serviced under warranty).
I think I got a "Lemon", but Sony's no help. I've found consumers on other websites who had this problem, but not here. Has anyone else here had this problem?

Customer Service

Poor

Picture (HD)

Bulkiness, weight, price.

Excellent TV...picture is vivid, especially with DVDs. Recommend you get a home theater sound system if you want movie theater-like sound. Never got the infamous flicker some talk about. Knock on wood.

Clean, crisp imagry Beautiful colors Lots of inputs

Large-ish Front speakers adequate but get an audiosystem!

I upgraded from a 24" to a 57" projection. Well of course I'm going to be wow'd. But to not dissuade my experience, my friend and neighbor has a Toshiba 40H80 and as pictures go, his is very nice. So coming from that experience to this, it took a few days for the TV to wear off the 'OMG its so huge!', to 'Yea, I love this, I can't stop loving you.'. heheh. Its a great set. Autoconvergence is only as good as its original conversion. Mine is off, I've used Avia's disc to get as close to normal as I can, and I have tweeter to come out and converge it for me. If that doesn't satisfy me then I'll go the distance and research out the grid overlay and do it my self..because.. My tv is great, but it could be better, and I know its all due to just poor settings/intransit bumps/somesuch. For those who don't use a AV center the tv has enough inputs to satisfy (but I don't use but a few so pip is optionial). It also does upconversion, which is its nice attempt to make your signal better, which it does admirably. This TV never has many reviews (if you search down out there) but I'd have to say its a solid performer. I got mine open box with a 5 year full warrenty for 50% off and an additional 10% coupon. If you can foot it and you have the space, man I think you'll love it. Note, if you do diligent reserach you can see a few posts here and there about people griping. When the debuted it had a chance of having an impregnated cathod which causes flicker. Sony will fix it for free. Mine has been a demo unit so its passed its 5mos of use and no cathode issue..so I can't vouch for that issue.)

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Toshiba 40H80

picture very clear on analog, digital and HD

No way to work your reciever on the tv remote

I love my sony it is off the chain in my book Job well done. Keep up the good work

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There is nothing close to the sony

Excellent picture. Two component and 3 s-video inputs.

Sony never alerted me to the flicker issue.

After owning my set for 6 months, the infamous flicker appeared. I recently called Sony and had 3 CRT's replaced in less than a week. I recieved excellent service, unlike some of the reviews I read. So far it works as good as new. Next time I will research the products better.

Image quality is good

Flickering issue that Sony still have to find a fix for.

I bought this TV in July of 2002 and never stopped regretting it until finally Sony gave me a refund before I sued them. First of all when I got it I found that the quality was good especially with a DVD. After a couple of months the image started flickering. I had it repaired 3 times under warranty and the problem always comes back. I also got Sony to give me an exchange. Same thing even with newer models. I also found out that Sony was aware of the problems for some time but chose to still sell the TV's. Out of 4 different TV's all of them had the problem and the Internet is flooding with forums of people who have the same problem. Stay away of this TV at all cost!

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Hitachi 57UWX20B

great picture

total lack of customer service I paid more thinking I was getting a better product and product support but that hasnt happened

Sony 53" xbr This is or was the best tv that Sony makes. Mine has now been broken for a more than 3 weeks and I am told it will be more than a month before parts are available for repairs. Service department at Sony explained that "this is a consumer good 3 weeks for repair is reasonable" I am not sure how they feel about a month

Good Looks! That's about it...

Horrible with NTSC sources, OK with DVDs. It's incredibly overpriced. Ghosty and grainy picture. Too many adjustments for functions you do not need and to little adjustments for functions you do need (i.e., DRC)Also, very narrow top!

All I can say is do NOT waste your time with this... I had this set for less than 1 week, and I was lucky enough to get it replaced with a Toshiba set! Picture is incredibly foggy, ghosty, and as everyone before me said, just Grainy. I have DirecTv and some channels are not too bad, but most of them are horrible. It does a pretty good job with DVDs; mainly because it skips SONY's DRC circuits. Please do NOT bother with this set.... :(

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Denon 4802 Sony 36" Wega Wharfedale

price to performance ratio. your wife will like it. it can be controlled by my sony 2100 remote. wife likes that too.

The only thing that erks me is that I can set it up for a dvd and then go to cable tv (cox digital)and some channels look crappy. I wish it had multiple picture settings and memory. also no fire wire input

I had been watching HDTV TVs all year and waiting for the prices to come down. When they got to 3k and well below I was ready to buy. I picked this set over the Mistsubishi because I perfered the below black and white representation. The mitsubishi was a 5 lens. This modle sony is a 4 lens. It also costs 1000 less at this time (sept02) If you are an avid videophile who can not afford the XBR series, this set and some factory tweeking will get you very close to 6500K (Stereophile guide to hometheater). The internal line doubler works on both horizonal and vertical axis. It has 3:2 pull down. The pictures are sharp and life like. It has a good viewing area on all axis. It will take 3:4 and exp to 16:9 for regular tv/cable. I find that the picture from DVD is exelent.The picture from cable through a composite monster 2 is good. My local CATV (cox) digital box has no component or fire wire outputs only f-pin and composite. I am using an old sony 7000 series with the M1000 s video and the picture is still exellent and pixle free up to 2.5-3 feet away. The luminess is also very good. This TV can be viewed in a living room in the day time with out blacking out the windows. There are like 7 inputs. It will display mutiple HDTV formats. My personal advise is to go down to the store and spend like an hour or 2 and get a real feel for this tv. I had a budget of 3200. This TV in my personal opinion beat them all out.

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RCA cinema series 32 tube.

Picture is strong with great sources Nice cabinet but top too narrow for CC spk Set on wheels for easy movement.

a bit noisy & soft with average to poor signals

I have always been disappointed in the internal line doublers in HDTV ready sets but this Sony with a good source such DVD feeding it via component cables is simply outstanding! The 16X9 aspect ratio is perfect for most films and really draws the viewer in. Cable, vcr etc.. as expected leaves a bit to be desired with artifacting and softness. I purchased the set mainly for DVD & HDTV content and am thrilled each viewing session. It is imperative though to have this set adjusted buy a qualified tuner to get the most from it's potential.

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Sony XBR-400 DV