Sony Bravia SXRD KDS-50A3000 50-Inch 1080p Rear Projection HDTV
See it at Amazon.com for $1,799.99Average Customer Rating
(5.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First (5 out of 5)Really excellent
I recently got this TV because my LCD was too small for my living room. It's excellent, excellent picture, very deep black level and solid color reproduction. It has a lot of user adjustable image settings including iris adjustment (the iris controls the amount of light coming from the bulb and is a more powerful adjustment than Brightness for many purposes). Try these adjustments to get a substantial improvement over the default picture quality when using HD cable:
Go into Picture settings and set:
Picture mode Standard
Iris mode Auto 1
Color temperature Neutral
Noise reduction and MPEG noise reduction off
Then go into Advanced and set:
Black corrector Low
Live color Low
Detail enhancer Off (this is important - it causes noise)
Edge enhancer Off
This type of TV can be professionally calibrated but for most people this is not necessary.
Note that in the product numbering, the 50 refers to the size, A is the series and 3000 is the generation (this is the 2007 model). A 50A2000 is older, a 55A3000 is larger. The A series is high end (an SXRD projector - this is Sony's brand name for LCoS, which is subtly different from DLP - Wikipedia it if you're curious) If you compare it to the E series (an LCD projector) you will see a substantial difference in picture quality. SXRD produces a much better black than LCD and does not suffer from motion blur.
(5 out of 5)Worth it!!! Superior picture, functionality, styling!
I originally went from a Vizio 42" plasma to a Sony Bravia 40". Huge difference. I eventually took the 40" back and got a refund (it cost me $1790 w/ tax) because it was too small. After seeing the other reviews and determining this TV would fit on my shelf, I got it for $1499 from Amazon (shipping / tax included). Saved $$$ and the picture is UNREAL! Much sharper / crisp compared to the 40" Bravia LCD. Only gripe is it takes about 20 seconds longer for it to turn on as opposed to a regular LCD. Plenty of HDMI, VGA, S-video, and component connections to accomodate just about anything.
I don't think you'll find another television at this size, this price, and with such a superior picture. I highly recommend the Sony Bravia SXRD for anyone interested in getting the new rear projection LCD HDTV.
(5 out of 5)99.9% pleased!! Wow!!
I caught this during a 2 or 3 day sale and got it from Amazon for $1,299. It's already back up to $1,700+ everywhere I look. So right off, I'm already pleased with the price, but now that I've used the TV for a bit, I'm giggity.
The picture is fantastic. The 1080p makes it unbelievable when viewing HD signals. Why anyone would even consider buying a 720p HDTV these days is ludicrous, IMHO. It took a lot of tweaking of the picture, iris, and all the other settings to finally get it where I wanted it. And the cool thing is that you can regulate a million different settings for EACH input. So I have different picture settings for my Dish, my over the air HDTV antenna, and my upscaling DVD player.
The 120Hz engine in this thing is remarkable. The smoothness of sports or fast action is VERY noticeable when compared to 60Hz LCD or Plasma TVs. As soon as you enable the anti-blur stuff, it's mind blowing the quality, sharpness, and delivery. I have a $89 Sony upscaling DVD player hooked up to my Bravia and it is INSANE how good and amazing it looks! It looks like I'm watching it on Blu-Ray! I don't now exactly what it definitive reason it all looks so good, but I have to imagine that the combination of the 120Hz stuff, HDMI, and the 1080 upscaling DVD player all make it just mind boggling!
I bought a $40 HDTV over the air antenna and put it in my attic. I'm watching my local channels in HD with no problem at all and it looks fantastic!! Forget ANYTHING you knew about using an antenna and expecting static, fuzziness, etc. My antenna picture actually looks better than cable box HDTV!!
Now my .1% downers. My 2 problems are mundane and probably would not effect most people. One, if you use an AV receive or home theater and even though TV has a million input jacks on the back, you really can't drive audio through the TV without losing your digital audio.
So if you hook up a DVD player to your TV with HDMI, even though a Dolby signal is sent to the TV, the TV changes all audio signals to 2 channel PCM. Even is you use the Digital out on the TV and send it to your Home Theater, you still get 2 channel PCM signal. In order to watch a DVD but still get full Dolby/DTS surround, you have to use a HDMI to your TV, but still have a digital audio cable from your DVD straight to your AV/Home Theater receiver. I find this completely annoying for now I have to change the video input on my TV when switching components. Then I have to switch audio components on my receiver to match. Was hoping to just drive all the video and audio through my TV. But if you don't care about sound quality and dont mind the downmixed 2 channel audio, then this is a non-factor.
The other thing that is annoying me is that the remote that comes with the TV will do EVERYTHING, including control my DirecTV DVR. Sweet!! Except....you can only program it for ONE model AV/Home Theater...and it has to be a specific Sony model. So while I can control my DVD, TV, and DirecTV functions, I CANNOT control the volume of anything since all the sounds go through my Home Theater. So now I'm going to have to go purchase a 3rd party programmable remote. So this is really just a personal gripe and in no way detracts from the overall quality and wow factor of this TV.
Overall, I really am just amazed with it. But Sony has announced that it is getting out of the rear projection business. It's a real shame for even Crutchfield says that this SXRD line might just be THE BEST HDTV on the market. At this point, I couldn't agree more.
(5 out of 5)Phenomenal TV - I don't know why Sony is canceling production.
This TV blows our socks off!!!
I have been on the fence for years wanting a big HDTV but felt that the technology wasn't up to snuff for me. I purchased a DLP of a well known brand a couple of years ago and ended up taking it back the next day because the picture was so much worse than my standard 32" CRT - even on DVDs. So I've been looking ever since and boy did I find it - this TV is everything we wanted and more for a price I can't believe.
If you want to hang your TV on the wall, this isn't for you, but if you are putting it on a stand - THIS TV IS THE TV YOU WANT. Most of the components on my entertainment stand are deeper than this TV so I see no reason for some ultra slim panel.
The picture is simply breathtaking with HD content from my satellite provider and standard DVDs on my regular old DVD player (HDMI) look like they are HD. One of my biggest concerns was Standard Definition TV as a lot of the shows we watch are still in SD. No, the shows don't look as good as HD content but in my opinion they look more than acceptable. We are definitely NOT distracted with poor image quality when watching SD content.
So now about Sony canceling the LcoS line:
All I can say is that I am thrilled that I bought this before it was discontinued. The reason given by Sony is that the consumer market is moving in the direction of LCDs but then goes on to mention that they are trying to fill the current back orders of the high end line of SXRD TVs so I don't understand how they can't make enough to keep up with consumer demand of a product that they say no one is interested in. Personally I think it has to do more with margins than anything else. If you tried to buy a Plasma or LCD with 120Hz refresh, 1080P, 3 HDMI 1.3 inputs, expanded color range and the quality of this picture you would have to pay at least double.
$1400.00 is still a lot of money for a TV in my opinion but I am THRILLED with the purchase and would make it 10 times over again.
(5 out of 5)Sony/Amazon delivers
the kds50A3000 is all i expected. the shipping and delivery was prompt and the service was excellent. unpacked and put in place. as advertised, standard tv is acceptable with the bravia engine and better than most hd sets i've seen. the hd picture is clear with full-bodied color that sony delivers. motion is smooth. the set seems to run pretty cool within a slightly restricted cabinet space. menus are clear and outputs/inputs are conveniently placed with just a small movement of the set.
all in all, there are a lot of nice sets but i'm totally satisfied with my selection.