Why is Sony priced much higher than its competition?

The Street price on the Sony is only about $200 more than the others,
typically in these sets. With the Sony you can get rather consistent
performance that is closer than the others to HD standards for color temp
and color processing that is closer than the others before significant
calibration. The Samsung has the most capacity for being calibrated
tightly to standard and the potential to be the best set of the bunch, but
they are very inconsistent OOB and you need experience and the right
equipment to calibrate them properly. The Toshiba is a decent set, but I
would have either of the others first, in terms of performance. From a
service perspective, Sony still has the best support of the three, easily.
The Samsung DLP sets have given DLP a bad rep with their tendency to have
lots of strange problems and color wheel failures. Toshiba has had a
reputation for several years now for running very lean on spare parts.
Try to buy a Hyper module for one of the H series sets that are just a few
years old.

Overall, Sony is a bit more expensive, but they do have nice products that
are in some cases very competetive and compared to most vendors, better
service support.

Leonard


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Since this thread has continued longer than I had envisioned, I might as
well address another concern. The concern relates to viewing SD on my
Sony-to be- purchased. How is the picture quality on SD (with Comcast) on
the Sony set? Is it that poor that I should consider the XBR1 version? By
ther way, since February of 1981 I've been watching through a Sony KP-5020,
a 50 inch front projection tv from Sony. I have never needed any repairs on
it and it is one of the best investments I ever made. I am only changing now
because the 480 resolution is really blown away by all the later technology.
I'll hate to part with my KP-5020 and will just give it away.
"Richard" wrote in message
...

"Khee Mao" wrote in message
...

"Art Landy" wrote in message
. ..
I have narrowed my buying choices down to
1-Sony KDS 60A2000
2-Samsung HL-S6187W
3-Toshiba 62HM196
The Sony is $600-$700 more than each of the others, which are DLP sets.
Is that price warranted by Sony's technology?
Consumer Reports gives the highest kudos to rhe Toshiba set, yet has not
yet evaluated the other two.
Other than the price differential, would anyone have advice on which
would represent the wisest purchase?

sony preys on the fact that girls and effeminates are brand whores.


I can't knock their xbrs though.


The Sony has been well received and Sony has done a good job correcting
early sets with a software error and the Green Blob. They have extended
the warranty on the light engine to two years because of the Green Blob
(lack of color purity on a light background). The set is software
up-datable through a USB connector. The only thing it lacks is a cable
card slot and an iLink input. The replacement version has been shown
already at the tech shows and it is narrower, but I don't know of any
major technical changes. The XBR version comes with a spare replacement
bulb and speakers on the side.

Someone is working on a self-calibration software/hardware interface that
will calibrate the set through its USB port based on input from a piece of
hardware that reads off the screen. Now that will be interesting if it
ever sees the light of day.

Richard.

Their customer service is ok. Their warranty replacement(on smaller
....
service(around here anyway) - they suck. It is not really their
fault, but they rely on local, lazy, not there most of the time repair
shops. So I would make sure that local repairs shops in your are get

So does Sony...at least in my area. In fact, all brands seem to use the
same awful repair outfit around here except for the specialty shop that
provides good service for its own customers.

Since this thread has continued longer than I had envisioned, I might
as well address another concern. The concern relates to viewing SD on
my Sony-to be- purchased. How is the picture quality on SD (with
Comcast) on the Sony set? Is it that poor that I should consider the

I have never seen an HDTV that displayed SD with good quality. To me,
digital cable looks terrible on both large screen SDTVs and HDTVs. The
analog signal is passable on large screen SDTVs, but looks nasty on HDTVs.
I'm speaking from experience with Comcast cable, too.

It's to the point where if a channel is not HD, I think extra hard about
why I've even tuned to it.

My two cents and worth every penny ;-)

I looked long & hard at both the latest Samsung and Sony rear projection
sets (50" - 60" range). In the store the Samsungs (DLP) actually looked a
bit better but the mechanical color wheel bothered me little bit
(mechanical... moving parts, ya know). In the end I bought the Sony
KDS60A2000. Got the best price from "Brands Mart", then went to the local
HiFi Buys (was locally owned, now part of the Tweeter group) and they
matched price. Their customer care and return policies are quite good.

I've had this set now for a few months (I got one of the first sets to ship
to the HiFi Buy warehouse). The picture quality is superb and the wider
viewing angle is quite adequate. (I think it is 65 degrees either side of
the center axis of the screen). I continue to be amazed at how good HD can
be even though we've had 1000 line resolution in the TV studios for years.

Be prepared to see a wide variation in HD quality from program to program.
Networks and local affiliates are in the process of converting to HD and are
learning as they go. The best HD quality is transmitted over the air (OTA)
since it is the least compressed, if at all. The other delivery systems,
satellite & cable, use some amount of compression because there bandwidth is
limited.

In terms of content the best quality currently are national sporting events
because larger audiences mean more justification to spend more money on the
best cameras & lenses.

Also, you may be quite surprised what stations you can receive with just a
short piece of wire as an antenna (ain't digital wonderful?).


"Art Landy" wrote in message
. ..
I have narrowed my buying choices down to
1-Sony KDS 60A2000
2-Samsung HL-S6187W
3-Toshiba 62HM196
The Sony is $600-$700 more than each of the others, which are DLP sets.
Is that price warranted by Sony's technology?
Consumer Reports gives the highest kudos to rhe Toshiba set, yet has not
yet evaluated the other two.
Other than the price differential, would anyone have advice on which would
represent the wisest purchase?

"tq96" wrote in message
...
I have never seen an HDTV that displayed SD with good quality.

My 42A10 does a superb job of SD.