Sony 'XRB's as good as they say?

Hi,

Just looking for some input ...

I've been looking into an HDTV, and read a lot about the Sony XRB series.

I went to a local dealer, and checked out an XRB tube unit, the KD-34XRB960 to be specific. None of the other types, i.e., plasma, DLP or LCD had a picture even close to the XRB tube unit (XRB means 'extended bit rate', from what I've read).

This set has been out for some time, so I was wondering if anyone in the group has any practical data on these sets, as far as quality, reliability, etc?

Thanks for any thoughts ....

Bill

Reply to
Darmok
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First, it's XBR, not XRB. I think the original XBR stood for 'eXtended Bass Response', as the first model simply had an internal subwoofer or better speakers/amp added to a normal TV.

Check out

formatting link
for Sony info.

Be EXTREMELY careful when shopping in stores. Out-of-the-box, most all TV's have a picture that is too bright (white and light grays all white), too blue, too contrasty (blacks and dark grays all black). Further, both the source material can be suspect, and other people could have messed around with the settings. Many higher-end Sony's have a 'pro' picture setting which is fairly close to NTSC ideal. Setting the picture to WARM or Standard also helps.

I have the previous model XBR910. Widely known service menu tweaks can let you adjust the TV exactly the way you want.

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Reply to
Andrew Rossmann

Well, most reviews I've read were good on this model (XBR, not XRB as I originally stated). It comes with a 2 year warranty on parts/labor/tube. I've had 3 Sony's and they are all still working, and they are 25 years old, 15 years old, and 14 years old (19", 27" and 13" respectively). Hoping that these new ones will give as good service as the older ones.

Bill

Reply to
Darmok

XBRs came out about 1985, right after the Profeel series. I've been told that it actually stands for Xtra Brightnes and Resolution. Video of this type did not have a bitrate at the time.

I am an owner of the first XBR projection TV. These things sat in stores right next to a direct view and if you got to eye level they looked every bit as good. Mine will again because I finally found a fresh blue CRT for it.

Remember this much, XBRs are nice sets, but there will come a time when certain parts, including those specific to XBRs will become unavailable, then XBR means Xtra Bunch of Rubbish. It would by no means be the first time.

Be careful what you spend, and never buy an RCA. FWIW, in my particular area the 32" tubes seem to be dropping like flies, you might want to decide between a 27 and a 36.

For maximum longevity, turn the picture control all the way down when you turn it off, it seems the AKB pushes too hard causing cathode stripping. These sets have multiple picture memories, you can actually name one "turnoff". You could also switch to an unused video input, then wait two minutes after turning the set on to "crank it".

JURB

Reply to
ZZactly

I used to work in warranty service that was contracted for a number of different manufacture sets. I was servicing mainly the Sony sets.

Sony makes a very high end line of broadcast production TV monitors, cameras, and video taping machines. Their quality level in these lines is outstanding.

In their TV lines, they took some of the phelosophy for their design. Naturaly, you would not be able to have an affordable home TV set, if they used the same exact desing as in their professional equipment. But, their phelosophy of design is there.

Their TV sets are very dependable, and do have good performance. Like anything else, I would suggest to take an extended warranty with the set. Make sure that the CRT is covered in the warranty. The CRT being a tube, can be undependable as far as its life span is conserned.

If all goes well, the MTBF of their CRT is about 30,000 hours. This is very much an industry standard. This means that if used with maximum contrast, its emission would be 50% down after 30,000 hours. If you decrease the contrast to about 50% to 70% of its maximum range, the lifespan of the CRT may be increased by about 30%.

As for myself, I have a preference for Sony TV sets, especialy in their CRT, and LCD screens. In the plasma screens, I have a preference for the Panasonic.

I am not in any way selling TV products, or have anything to gain by being biased. What I am indicating is from my own observation.

Reply to
Jerry G.

Those are some good tips. Thanks for the input.

Reply to
Darmok

Thanks for your input. I've not noticed any brightness change in my

25 year old KV-1943 (19") set. Yeah, its over-scanning enough that I miss most of those moving news banners that go across the bottom of the screen, but that seems to be the only degradation. I didn't know about the 30000 hrs. MTBF ... at 8 hours a day use, that equates to about 10 years service.
Reply to
Darmok

If you replace a few capacitors the overscan should be taken care of, those old sets were very good in their day.

Reply to
James Sweet

They used a lot of electrolytic caps in that set. Its been a very long time since I was in the back of it. About 10-12 years ago, I replaced a cap in the "power ON start up relay" circuit. I didn't even have an exact match .. just fished something close out of one of my junk drawers, and its been working fine ever since. After 25 years, I imagine that most of the electrolytics will be bad. I think manufacturers only guarantee them for 3 to 5 years service (at least that's what I've found for computer grade 'motherboard' caps).

Thanks again .. after I fix up my KV-27EXR15, I'll give the KV-1943 another look. They've both been great sets.

Reply to
Darmok

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