Sony KDS-R60XBR1 60" Rear Projection HDTV
Contents
1. Aspect Ratio 16 9 Pixel Array 1920x1080 2 073 600 pixels x 3 colors Video Inputs 2 RF 3 composite 3 S video 2 compo nent 2 HDMI HDCP 1 PC D sub 15 pin 3 i Link 1394 Dimensions 66 x 39 3 4 x 20 1 4 Weight 112 Ibs Warranty One year parts labor MANUFACTURER INFORMATION SONY CORPORATION 800 222 SONY www sonystyle com2. Setup Right out of the box this set s video controls in their default positions were remarkably well set in fact the best I ve ever seen for factory presets Of course VIVID mode is way over done unless you re watching in bright sunlight STANDARD mode using all the factory defaults except the WARM color temp setting was really quite nice for SD broadcast TV For DVDs however this mode was a bit over enhanced so I reduced the SHARPNESS control to compensate Set the manu al iris control in the lowest two posi tions for best blacks in darker pro gram material higher for a brighter picture such as sporting events I did most of my viewing in PRO mode which opens up another full page of options Here you can tweak the automatic iris for more or less contrast Higher settings give stunning blacks and dark scene detail in a dark home theater environment If you re using the WARM color temperature turn the COLOR CORRECTOR off to reduce reds and flesh tones to the correct level The DTE DicitaL TEXTURE ENHANCER and DETAIL ENHANCER func tions both artificially sharpen the pic ture If you were viewing a finger DTE would make the fingerprint more dis tinct while Detail Enhancer would enhance the outline of the finger Avoid excessive settings of either but especially DTE DRC DIGITAL REALITY CREATION PALETTE also has the ability to make an over enhanced mess so keep the dot rea sonably close to the lo
3. any A Memory Stick viewer lets you view stills and movies taken with your Sony digital camera A sleep button is included on the remote but there s no button and no menu item to monitor digital signal strength when aligning the antenna Technical Evaluation The KDS R60XBR1 was difficult but not impossible to fault from a measure ment standpoint In particular resolution was absolutely stunning and this set was the first I ve tested that could flawlessly reproduce the one pixel on one pixel off section of a 1080i or 720p multiburst pattern via HDMI and even through its ATSC tuner using the RF output of the signal generator This was not the case with 480p HDMI The component inputs had less HD resolution but they proved better for 480 line sources The scaler worked well on tough DVDs but average at best on the Silicon Optix HQV Benchmark torture disc Color temperature the color of the black and white picture to which color information is added to make the final color picture in Warm mode was intended by the factory to be 6500K but it measured very slightly bluish 7100K on brightest whites and increasingly bluish 7800K in the midrange and in the dark grays The ATSC tuner had even more blue error in darker grays A barely noticeable reddish tendency below 30 IRE was the only thing that prevented an ideal grayscale after calibration Iris operation had no noticeable effect on grayscale The color primaries all m
4. VIDEO REVIEW sony KDS R60XBR1 60 Rear Projection HDTV Randy Tomlinson nventing new names for existing technologies is nothing new Consider SXRD which stands for Silicon X tal crystal Reflective Display Sony s implementation of LCoS liquid crystal on silicon It first appeared year before last in their 30 000 Qualia 004 front projector then last year in the 13 000 70 Qualia 006 rear projection set TPV 61 Recently Sony introduced a smaller more advanced version of the SXRD chip featuring closer inter pixel spacing and improved black levels Its first application is this mid priced 4999 RPTV and its smaller 50 cousin the first non Qualia sets to use SXRD The tiny 0 61 diagonal chip contains 2 million pixels which pro vide 1920x1080 HD resolution over twice as many pixels as competing 720p sets including Sony s own LCD RPTVs Like all LCD and LCoS dis plays one chip is used per primary color three total rather than using an artifact prone color wheel like single chip DLP sets Combine this resolu tion with the promise of dark blacks and you have two of the most neces sary ingredients for a stunning picture now at a price many more people can afford Pll tell you right up front if you re shopping for an HDTV you need to read this review You can expect all the high end video features on any Sony XBR set but this one adds an innovation first used in the company
5. easured outside even HDTV standards Some critics will make this into a big deal since all displayed colors are made from various mixtures of these three primary colors but I found overall color accuracy most ly quite good Reds on this SXRD x 0 673 y 0 321 should look less orange and more true red than standard greens x 0 289 y 0 687 should look less yellow and more true green and blues x 0 144 y 0 056 should look less pur ple and more blue These would all seem to be desirable deviations from stan dards but in real world viewing found red to sometimes look a touch pink ish and certain shades of green lime to be overly prominent Maximum light output was an impressive 90fL Warm color temp either with a small window pattern or with the entire screen lit It was impossible to clip whites with the contrast control The level of black was 0 015fL with the iris open which is less than a tenth the black level of many other microdisplays I ve tested The resulting peak contrast ratio was an incredible 6000 1 With both iris controls on full minimum aperture blacks were far too dark for an accurate measurement though light output was reduced as well Still it s black level that makes darker movies look good not excessive light output and peak contrast Best ANSI contrast using a checkerboard pattern was 201 1 good for an RPTV and only slightly affected by the iris settings 80 The Perfect Vision DECEMBER 2005 Video
6. microdisplay that s as good for a dark home theater as it is for Monday Night Football with the lights up full It s finally here Sony s latest SXRD rear projection TV is a real winner with few faults and fewer peers I know there s great appeal for flat panel aesthetics but if you ve got a little more floor space the KDS R60XBR1 will give you a better overall picture and longer life and with no screen burn potential than any plasma now available and for less money Rear projection sets pro duced up to this point move to the rear SXRD has set a new standard They re coming to take this set away from me now but I Il be okay in time Besides the newest 1080p DLP rear projection sets are coming here next Some of these may offer stiff competition but you ll not likely see anything short of a top flight front projector that will actually beat this set this year ha Randy Tomlinson is an independent ISF certified calibrator in the Atlanta area and can be contacted via his Web site at www advancedtechservice com Superb resolution and stunning blacks Excellent factory default picture settings Good factory grayscale calibration in Warm mode No direct access to inputs on remote Limited 480i 480p bandwidth via HDMI inputs Scaler didn t ace the torture tests SPECIFICATIONS Sony KDS R60XBR1 60 Rear Projection SXRD TV Price 4999 Technology SXRD rear projection Screen Size 60
7. s excellent VPL HS51 front projector Issue 61 but not seen before in RPTVs The ADVANCED IRIs feature monitors the signal s brightness level and automat ically closes the iris in dark scenes and opens it up in bright scenes to improve the overall contrast Also available is a manually adjustable iris that lets you reduce the light output as needed to favor dark blacks over maximum brightness a feature that was in the Qualia 006 Both of these functions have several settings but the ADVANCED IRIS adjustment is only available in PRO mode The iris defi nitely contributes to this set s dark blacks though they re actually quite dark even with the iris fully open A built in ATSC terrestrial HDTV tuner allows digital recep tion from an antenna If you have DECEMBER 2005 www theperfectvision com 79 VIDEO REVIEW digital cable a CableCARD slot lets you receive it without the cable com pany s set top box Two zoom modes are available when watching HD sources so you ll always be able to fill the screen Unfortunately you must scroll through a list when selecting video inputs though unused ones can be removed from the list which does speed up the process Two HDMI inputs are provided as is a PC VGA input Unlike plasma it s safe to use this set as a PC monitor 1280x1024 maximum resolution Although this is a 1080p display the HD display inputs will not accept a 1080p source not that there are
8. shows in HD like Law and Order looked great on this set Only the best CRT sets have this sort of dark scene detail and color saturation I saw virtually no false contouring I suspect the Panasonic and latest Pioneer plas mas would come closer to the Sony s stunning black level and dark scene per formance but Pd be surprised if any current display short of a front projec tor could match this HD picture over all This is one serious RPTV Too bad you can t hang it on the wall DVDs which exhibit much less res olution than true HD programming can look really beautiful on the very best CRT based RPTVs though only one or two truly high end ones remain avail able The Sony can hold its own against any of these even in a dark home the ater environment as few CRT sets have good enough DC restoration to allow them to beat the Sony s remarkable blacks My best DVD results were achieved with the Pioneer DV S9AVi player from its HDMI output at 1080i with component video 480i p not far behind The difficult Vanilla Sky and Master and Commander discs were shown beautifully Interestingly 480i p from the HDMI output was not as good test patterns indicated that this resolution is slightly rolled off at the Sony s HDMI input Standard definition sources like analog cable looked as good as I ve seen them on such a large screen but don t expect miracles Conclusion We ve waited a long time for a self con tained
9. tones were more believable and hard to fault on the Sony Resolution too was an easy Sony win the writing on Conan O Brian s cup was distinctly clearer as were other fine details in any picture yet without resorting to enhancement tricks Artifacts on the buildings behind Jay Leno were about half as annoying on the Sony probably because no scaling only deinterlacing is required for 1080i sources Switching to a 720p broadcast more ideal for the plasma didn t defeat the Sony s resolu tion advantage The Sony also had less video noise and a smoother more film like picture at close 10 12 viewing distances Up close the plasma exhibited a bit of the screen door effect The Sony did nt thanks to more pixels with less space between them but the screen sometimes brought attention to itself by imparting a certain sheen to large objects particularly bright white ones Still the Hitachi plasma had an edge in that you are there illusion Scenes containing a lot of white could go far brighter on the Sony but more typical scenes were brighter on the Hitachi This difference in gamma was the trick that made the plasma look 82 The Perfect Vision DECEMBER 2005 more three dimensional on the impres sively shot late night shows The Sony however has a GAMMA CORRECTION control and raising this a notch brightened up the midrange enough to give it that same illusion of reality the Hitachi sometimes had Dark
10. wer left corner of the onscreen two dimensional control area Don t forget to engage CINEMOTION 3 2 pulldown if you re using an interlaced DVD player A reduced power setting is available in the setup menu that slightly reduces light output while extending bulb life and even further reducing black level very useful Modes can be associated with specif ic inputs then customized for that par ticular input For example you could use PRO mode with two different inputs and have different settings for each Viewing Comparisons I have yet to review an RPTV that s real competition for this one so I didn t even VIDEO REVIEW waste my time dragging any out for a side by side comparison Instead I went straight to my reference 55 Hitachi plasma I knew the Sony would win the dark scenes by a country mile but I was really curious about the bright ones The calibrated Hitachi has a way of looking sharp as a tack and remarkably lifelike on the best HD material at least on brighter scenes With both HD tuners receiving 1080i off the air signals and both sets adjusted to perfection the Sony using the factory grayscale calibra tion the contest was on Right away several color differ ences stood out though grayscale dif ferences were subtle On the Sony reds were less orange making tomatoes look much more real Blues were a tiny bit bluer as well Both sets were guilty of exaggerating certain shades of green Flesh
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search