Sony KDS-55A200 55" SXRD 1080p and PS3- an initial review

[wbassett]

I recently bought a Sony KDS-55A200 55" SXRD 1080p and the Play Station 3 for a Bluray player.

I had to do some setup for my system so as much as it pained me, I had both of these sitting in my second living room for the past three days without being able to play with them. I finally got my custom TV stand made and hooked everything up.

First, I don't have cable or satellite. We got tired of the bad programming and constantly increasing prices and dropped everything back in 2005. (You'd be amazed at how many DVDs you can buy each month with that extra money back in your wallet!) So I don't have any TV reviews as to how the set performs with cable or satellite feeds.

I intentionally left everything at the settings they were right from the store. The HDTV was actually the store demo model ($475 off ) and it really showed it was a demo model. Not from wear and tear, but from the classic store's over vamping everything to pump up the picture. Everything was set to vivid and max. At first it was a definite WOW, but literally after five minutes I had eye fatigue.

The PS3- True it is a game console. For people buying it as an inexpensive Bluray player like I did, it's not exactly the same as hooking up a DVD player or HD DVD player and inserting a disc and watching a flick. There is an initial setup you have to go through. I didn't unpack the controller or USB cable since I just wanted to watch movies. You will need these for the initial setup. I also did not read the manual. I did that intentionally too. I wanted to see how hard it would be from taking it out of the box to watching a movie. Like I said I found out very quickly I needed the controller and USB cable.

After about 15 minutes of setup and playing around I found out how to get a movie to play. All in all it's not awful, but it's a little more effort than just plugging in and connecting a dedicated DVD player.

I found the initial settings on the set to be way over saturated. Whites were blinding, yet blacks were extremely black and very good on the KDS-55A200. I know after I get it calibrated it will look phenomenal.

Upconversion- We know that the PS3 will NOT upconvert so any upconversion is up to your HDTV set's capability. I spoke to Sony as well as another HDTV expert and they both said that the SXRD set does a commendable job at upconversion, but a scaler or upconverting DVD player like a Toshiba (the independent source referenced that) or the Sony Bluray player (Sony reference their own unit) would be better than what the set could do. All I can say is I really want to see a side by side upconversion comparison. The SXRD sets really do a good job, but without a comparison to a dedicated player I can't say 100% that it is better.

Right now, I am impressed and of course wow'd since I spent $3grand on these toys, but I have to say that my projector still puts out an image much closer to what I remember at the theater. That isn't a bad thing though. Personally I think people misuse projectors and think of them as a HUGE TV and they really aren't. They have come a long way over the past few years, but TV or HDTV viewing is very different than movie viewing. Yes movies like LOTR, Kong, or any of your favorite big screen movies look more vibrant and almost 3D, but they are also much more color saturated and brighter than film. I love HDTV, but I also am a movie buff and love films and flicks... To me these are two completely different types of viewing preferences. I think I still will keep my 106" screen for now but I also will thoroughly enjoy this 1080p set too. I only spin flicks on the big screen for certain movies or 'special' occasions and in a way that keeps it something big and 'special'. I probably will be watching more movies and DVD TV series down stairs now rather than on my 720p LCD set I have in the bedroom

I will add more (and some screen shots and setup shots) over the next few days as I tweak the system out. Initial impressions on both the Sony SXRD 55" and the PS3... very nice.