You are completely wrong David....the xbr does not effect progressively inputed sources. I don't know where your getting your info. As for the 6200...it's ok but the 9000es destroys it completely. And the xbr400 is a awesome tv period. Sony makes great video, if you want to sell toshiba stuff than go work for them....

Response to David's further misstatements below.

David, the XBR400 automatically disables the DRC when fed a progressive scan signal (such as 480p). Unlike you, I actually own the television you reviewed, and I can say with factual certitude that the TV does indeed bypass the DRC when given a progressive scan signal. Your statement below seems to be largely based on conjecture (ie. I couldn't find any literature that stated the DRC is disabled, therefore it must not be), and alleged conversations you had with dealers.

The better question is whether a progressive scan signal from a DVD player is better than an interlaced signal that is doubled by the DRC. My opinion is that if you have a DVD player that reassembled the 3:2 pulldown (which the DRC does not), the quality IS better.

You can't turn of DRC for 480p.

As a follow up to my statements below...
Yes, Sony does make a progressive scan player, the 9000ES. At $1500 (ouch!), it's Sony's most expensive. I went to the Sony Store last night, and you know what? It's still noisy, like all their other DVD players. For those who are curious, I returned BOTH my Sony players, the 650D and 670D, because of the noisy drive motor that spins the disc (see my review on the 650D page). You can hear the frickin' thing from across the room! The guy at the Sony store told me this was normal, and to buy a glass enclosed cabinet, or to just turn up the stereo volume to drown it out (...?!).
Anyway, this does not change anything about what I said below: the XBR is NOT a proscan TV. Sony's still catering to their customers who bought 480i DVD players. Look for a newer TV to be available from Sony soon, as they make the switchover to progressive support.
By the way, I decided to hold off purchasing the Toshiba CN36x86 TV, and wait for the new flat-screen (coming out in January). I think its called the HFX70 (I was looking at the specs last night). This TV will, in my opinion, blow the XBR400 completely out of the water, and it'll be cheaper too!

As I rant on about the lack of native 480p support on the XBR400, here's an exerpt from Toshiba's site (http://www.toshiba.ca/ceg/html/html/televisionn.html). They're talking about IDSC, sort of Toshiba's version of DRC. Pay attention to the last line:

"The system automatically upconverts standard 480i signals to progressive scan 480p, using a combination of vertical line doubling and frame doubling. We have also added horizontal pixel doubling for the highest quality progressive scan images ever. The result is a smooth, amazingly sharp, flicker free image,without picture degrading motion artifacts. Native progressive scans (480p)
and HDTV (1080i) signals are automatically passed though UNCHANGED,ensuring the best possible results from all signal levels."

Ask your Sony dealer if that's the case with DRC. He'll give you a blank look, then go on with a bunch of crap about how DRC makes everything better, even 480p signals. Tell him to go to hell, and run, my friends, run!!

I was wrong.
It seems the DRS does actually bypass DRC. Oops! For an excellent review of the XBR, check out

http://www.etown.com/categories/product_profile.jhtml?bodyinclude=product_review&productID=8087&categoryID=6&manufacturerID=114&fromIDA=§ion=reviews&categoryID=6&startPosition=76&keyword=&fromSearch=&fromBrowseSearch=true&sortType=0&maxItemsPerPage=25#mainbody

Introduces digital processing artifacts?

I went to the store to check out the 36XBR450. The test DVD looks fabulous! Just like HDTV. However, I was very disappointed by the display of of cable TV. The problem was most noticable while watching cartoons (Tin Tin). The images were composed of simple line drawings with solid color fills. In the colored areas adjacent to the black lines you could see smudges of black. This looked exactly like artifacts created by low-resolution MPEG2 compression (like videos downloaded over the internet or low-resolution recordings on a PVR). The store staff claimed that the TV was merely revealing the limitations of the source video. However, on the low-cost TVs (using the same video feed) next to the XBR the images were clear and crisp. I am almost certain that these artifacts are introduced by all the digital signal processing going on inside the XBR. Because you cannot turn of these functions, there is no simple way to prove this. However, when I switched to the 2-screen or PIP mode, these artifacts disappeared. Not because the resolution is lowere--there were no artifacts at all--but, I assume, because these smaller images do not receive the same processing.

To be honest, most of my viewing is of ATT digital cable TV (through TiVo). I want to buy this TV, but I am afraid that every day I watch it I will be disappointed (except when I am playing a DVD). Any comments?

Similar Products Used:

Sony Trinitron

Can look very good on majority of sources

Like last reviewer..ARTIFACTS!!

I had the same experience as the last reviewer. This tv
can look very good even on analog cable ( rg6 cabling and
distribution amps when needed ) and on DVD, but I also
saw artifacts on this model and it's big brother the
53HS10. These were VERY minor. Things like double-images
of scores on the ESPN ticker, but these high-end TV's
are usually twice what a basic model would run.
This is a very nice sey. Sony may be 85-90% close
to perfect, but not just yet..

Picture, Picture, Picture.

None

I recently upgraded from the 32XBR400 to the 36XBR450, and had the same feelings about the poor imaging when connected to analog cable. I had no other reference point, so I simply assumed that this was what I should expect.

I bought a new house this month, and just moved in. The house unbelievably only had one cable drop, so I ended up having three installers here cabling the house with new drops in every bedroom, and adding a signal amplifier to the line. The difference in the picture is AMAZING compaired to the same tv in my old house. I now get a strong/clean enough signal that the analog channels look as good if not better than the digital channels did, and digital channels are approaching on HDTV/DVD quality.

The bottom line is that this series of tv's are VERY unforgiving, and that's a GREAT thing. Garbage In, Garbage Out. I would suggest that you contact your cable company, and insist on having a senior tech come out and measure your signal. I found out that with Cox, their regular tech's are not allowed to really do much on high-end systems for liabilty reasons. My HT system is at about $30k, and the senior techs seem to have a lot more latitude as to what they can do for you. All in all, you have a GREAT tv, so let them know that if they can't improve thier signal, satelite is a very real alternative.

Similar Products Used:

XBR400

Much better than 20 inch GE

cost, DRC???

Need some help, printed the entire 80 pages of oppinons. I know that anything will be better than 20 inch TV that I am currently using (long story) but I am worried about two things, one my source...Digital Cable. Will I see an improved picture over 20in(Don't laugh) or will it just magnify poor quality that I wasn't already seeing. Used to have DSS but now not possible. This leads to my second big confusion and that is about DRC. I have read that it can't be disabled and yet at the same time I am reading about people using progressive scan DVD or external line doublers like DVDO. I am under the impression that both of those are better than DRC and would improve clarity but I am also under the impresion that they can't overide DRC. Anyone with answers I would appreciate.

Thanks in advance
Ken

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50in Mitsubishi Big Screen (It brings me to tears thinking about it)

Picture; Have to see it at home to believe it.

Weight, stand

This is for the Sony XBR450:

I've been reading reviews and have been looking to buy for about 6 months. Bought this TV about a month ago and I love it! The picture is unbelievable. Cable and VCR look great, better than anything I've seen to date. It is hard to watch TV anywhere else after seeing this picture. Clear & sharp with a 3D look to it. Should be getting a delivery for the DVD player today (Sony DVP-NS400D). The way cable looks on this set I'm sure the DVD is going to be great. The TV does have a lot of weight to it but after you set it up, really how often do you have to move it?

One negitive is the matching stand. Although it looks good there is not much space to put anything. (cablebox, reciever, DVD, VCR ...)

Would I buy this TV again ....YES

Similar Products Used:

RCA 38" WS, Toshiba pioneer sony projection HDTVs

Picture quality, features, conectivity

Factory settings are joke, pixle cropping/line cropping, Orangigh red, dim unless the picture setting is cranked up way high

It is a well designed tube based TV set. But I tell you, do not expect to get the set and turn on and say wow. If you have high expectations and have trained eyes, out of box settings will disappoint you. The brightness of the sample I got was so low that I had to crank it up 15 clicks to get proper shadow detail. The shadow looked red & blue and there are some geometry error that cannot be ignored. When I displayed a white pattern from the VE, I saw a soft circular pattern burned in to the apperture grill. It is most visible on the right side. The gray scale is way out and like I said before the sub-brightness was way too low. Despite all the problems, it is well designed set but assembled and calibrated horrondously bad. XBR owners deserve better. I wonder who Sony think is targetting this product to??!! Once the set is calibrated (via service menue), it will drop your jaw. Picture is beatifull with lots ofdetail and color. So if you are considering to buy this set, you should consider to shell out a couple of hunded dollare to get this set where it is meant to be. This is the state of art TV set by design but it is not set up properly by Sony of America. Just be aware of that.

Similar Products Used:

Previous XBR owner (2 sets)