KDFE50A12 - poor picture at demo - something wrong

the_oldhams

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I have just had a demo of the KDFE50A12 at a local sony centre but to be honest was not impressed at all and was wondering whether this was down to the tv set or the DVD player. Basically I watched a few DVD's including things like a bug's life which should produce a near perfect picture - they do on my AE700 projector. What happened was around text there was a lot of wavy lines/ tizzing and what should of been cream coloured text appeared bright white. Also generally there seemed to be a lot of jagged lines. Again compared to my AE700 picture with the same DVD's the picture was crap. It was connected to some sony DVD recorder by scart. To me the picture looked like it was composite rather than RGB scart as there seemed to be so much noise on the image. I could not get into the DVD recorder menus to see whether it was outputting RGB.

The other thing I tried was connecting a notebook to VGA port and when I set resolution to 1280 * 720 I simply got signal out of range - seems strange as this is native resolution of LCD panels ?

Could somebody confirm how a DVD picture through RGB scart looks - is it very solid with no noise . I was just surprised how bad it looked compared to my AE700 which is the same technology i.e. 1280 * 720 LCD panels.

Thanks

Mark
 
There are loads of different settings on the TV, different picture modes, iris settings, noise reduction settings etc as well as the normal contrast, brightness, colour, sharpness etc.

The Sony does require carefull setting up. I don't get any dot crawl or tizzing on moving text with mine, Sky News text is smooth and solid through RGB Scart. Turn Sky from RGB to PAL and you do get some picture noise but no one in their right mind should be viewing a composite picture through a 50" screen.

Cheers
Lee
 
Lee

I played around with all seeting but made no difference to fuzzy picture - perhaps a problem with DVD recorder/scart cable was only outputting composite/PAL rather than RGB. Have you managed to feed it high-def sources from a PC as I was interested to see how this would look

Perhaps I will go back - maybe take my own DVD player to make sure.

Thanks

Mark
 
Just new to the forum, and just bought my KDFE50 yesterday.

Got it from Powerhouse in Scunthorpe, reluctantly paid full price, but it was the only one available locally with a stand.

After 4 good years with a Toshiba 40" CRT Projection, I had been looking for 2-3 months now for the right upgrade. Strongly favoured DLP but was a bit scared by reading too many forums - they all seem to have their problems!

Motion blur on LCD flat panels was a big no-no for me, and I was always sceptical about plasma, so when I saw the new Sony, it seemed the ideal choice.

So far my first impressions are (not in any order) :-

1. Superb set and amazing value for money.

2. The fan noise does take some getting used to, but it did on the GX3 DVD player.

3. Sky through RGB Scart is ok, but sitting just 8ft away, you spend most of the time griping over their overcompressed or whatever it is signal, and all the usual blocky motion generated artifacts or whatever they are when watching football etc.

4. Most amazingly it tuned into 19 digital channels, I've never been able to get digital before, not even with a booster, and my terestrial signal is normally unwatchable. The digital images are superb, far superior to sky.

5. Fantastic through the PC input (using it now), although still confused myself about not being able to get 1280 by 760, and only 1024 etc. (although you can stetch the picture to fit)

6. DVD play from the PC is very good, but too vertically compressed, and I can't find out how to alter this yet.

7. I've downloaded a couple of HDTV demos on the PC, and they play superb, I've not seen anything to rival the crytal clear high res images with seemingly no noise at all.

8. Audio is perhaps the biggest let down so far, my Tosh has built in Dolby Digital, so now I'm going to have to buy another box.

9. Virtual Dolby is not that impressive, and the dialogue is far too quiet compared with the music and sound effects. This problem is especially bad from the DVD source. there seems to be no way to alter this.

10. I've hooked up the GX3 through the component conections and it is very good visually, although I'm aching to try and upscaling DVD player (any recommendations?).

11. The remote is a bit cheap and nasty compared with the one for the GX3, although it is reasonable intuitive and the menu system works well.

12. The picture does benefit from 'detuning' some of the factory set enhancements (vivid and iris etc.)

Think that's it for the mome, now I've registered I'll try and join in the fun with more comments/replies in future.

Cheers,

Martyn
 
Thanks again for your feedback - I think I may go down to Comet as they are selling them online. I think the Sony shop will not like me visiting again !

I will take some good DVD's and my notebook again. Nice to hear somebody else had the problem with 1280 *720 resolution - seems strange it does not like it. I will let people know about the outcome of my tests

Thanks

Mark
 
HumberMart said:
although I'm aching to try and upscaling DVD player (any recommendations?).

Cheers,

Martyn

Depends how much you want to spend but the top three on these Forums tend to be......

Toshiba 350 for £80
Samsung 950 for £100
Denon 1920 for £200

I went for the Denon as it's a universal player and has a good reputation for sound quality.

Cheers
Lee
 
Thanks Lee,

Seeing as I really need to buy a dolby digital amp as well, do you know of any integrated home cinema kits that include an upscaling dvd?

I did ask about the dvd in the showroom and the guy recommended a new Sony (not sure which model) at £200. He had the Tosh, but claimed it only has HDMI output, and not a genuin 'upscaler'.

Also, any prgress with 1280 from the PC input?

Cheers,

Martyn
 
Hi HumberMart

Good Post. Quick question regarding your 8ft Viewing. Thats the exact distance ill be viewing from, How have you found it?

Also regarding the blocking on Sky, Does it change channel to channel?
Thanks

Mark
 
Mark

I would say 8ft is just about the 'watershed' between acceptable and unacceptable viewing IMHO.

'Lolling' back in the sofa to about 9ft makes a noticable difference.

The problems I see are only related to Sky.

I've done no research on the sky service technically, so I apologies for my ignorance or lack of using the 'proper' language, but I'm convinced sky somehow vary the digital compression according to the channel.

I've always tried to watch football to demo a set, 'cos it seems to show all the flaws quickly. For this reason I've dismissed all LCD panels viewed to date for motion blur. The Sony KDFE50 I'm glad to say shows no such symptoms IMHO.

However at 8ft on sky sports, the movement of players causing that 'blocking' effect is very noticable. Maybe it's just that most other sky sources don't foil the digital processing/compression as much as football, but for whatever reason the movie chennels seem better (watched Troy last night and it was fab!).

The problem is that the inbuilt 'freeview' decoder gives so much better quality, that it shows sky up.

Just been out looking for an upscaling DVD. Nearly bought the Samsung but decided to wait a bit. I need to sort out the sound first. Think I might drag the old Kenwood pro-logic out of the loft for a while until they launch an integrated upscaling dvd/dolby digital amp!

Nearly bought a HDMI lead for the PC (selling them off at Maplin for £25) but then I realised that with only one HDMI input, I wouldn't be able to dedicate it to the PC for very long.

Cheers,

Martyn
 
Sky's bit rate is not fixed, they move bandwith between channels on the fly so sometimes it can be very ropey.

I've also been told that Sky have recently reduced bandwith to Standard Definition channels to make way for the new High Definition channels. Some people who are sceptical could say that Sky have lowered the quality to force people down the HD route.

Cheers
Lee
 
Them sneaky gets!!! Really wouldnt suprise me if sky droped the bitrate to force people onto Sky Hd.

Looks like i could be moving the front room around now HumberMart. Try and edge them seats bact pack 9ft.

BRING ON THURSDAY :)
 
Hello there

I also purchased this set recently and like the poster stated before. The fan noise does take some getting used to. Quite loud at low volume levels. But, not sure if im just not used to it coming from a CRT set and over time will probably not notice it as much.

With regards to sky etc. I did notice myself. The picture quality seems to be lacking something. Also noticed a tinging around text etc that normally would point to the output not being set to RGB, etc. But its set to output RGB in sky +
Box menu. So not too sure on that one. (Using a Monster Video 2 Scart as well, so definetly not that)

PC Input

Im not 100% sure on this, but im sure that the VGA connection on the side only supports resolutions up to 1024X768. How this has come around when the native res of the TV is 1280 x 720 is beyond me. I did find this very strange and a bit dissapointing.

But overall, the price i paid and the deal we recieved got me a whole lot of telly for the money. So well Chuffed!!

Regards

Mick

PS.. 1st post on the forums so go easy on me!!
 
Wished I'd coughed up for the DVI to HDMI lead at Maplin now, just to check if 1280 x 720 is available through that input.

With such a lot of HDTV demo stuff available to download, the PC would be a great source to impress your friends and demo the TV's real capabilities.

But only showing 1024 by 720 does seem a strange shortcoming.

Surely someone has tried out a HDMI feed from a PC??

Maybe a firmware update will come in time to sort the issue??
 
HumberMart said:
Surely someone has tried out a HDMI feed from a PC??
I have.

Using a DVI to HDMI adapter I tested 720p and 1080i. Accepted them fine and looked amazing.
 

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