57U
09-07-2002, 11:57 AM
The following post appears to have been "lost in the transition". I posted it around August 1 and I'm reposting it today.
First the disclaimer - I own an Hitachi as you can see from my signature, and I'm not trying to slag Sony. I have simply been seeing a number of "issues" come up repeatedly in various forums and I just wanted to list them here. Perhaps there are more issues with Sonys because there are a lot of them out there. Please feel free to add your own issues to this list so that the potential buyers of Sony product can be educated consumers. Also these issues may not affect all Sonys, especially the newer product.
1. I have read repeatedly that Sony does not do a good job of upconverting 480i signals (standard definition TV, or non PS DVD players)
2. When an S-video cable is connected from an STB to a Sony, there are picture quality issues. (stairstepping, large pixels, black lines, etc)
3. When viewing component video input from an STB, the standard definition channels are "letterboxed" and "sidebarred" on the set. (small picture, centre of the screen) This third point has been edited. This problem was with a 4:3 set and I don't consider 4:3 sets to be "real" HDTV as they simply do what they can with HDTV signals. This criticism is therefore unfair, but should be noted by those considering 4:3 sets.
4. S-video input cannot be "scaled or stretched" on some sets.
5. There is no 720P input. (not a big issue, but why is it not available since one of the major broadcasters uses it (ABC))?
I will come back and edit this post as I learn more.
2002.09.06 - I have just learned that some Sony Wega TVs have a feature that is important to some. They allow any two inputs to be used in the PIP/POP feature. You'll need to check if the particular model under consideration does this, if it's of interest, however, a number of other sets do not do this. The other brands always have the internal tuner as one of the "PIP inputs".
First the disclaimer - I own an Hitachi as you can see from my signature, and I'm not trying to slag Sony. I have simply been seeing a number of "issues" come up repeatedly in various forums and I just wanted to list them here. Perhaps there are more issues with Sonys because there are a lot of them out there. Please feel free to add your own issues to this list so that the potential buyers of Sony product can be educated consumers. Also these issues may not affect all Sonys, especially the newer product.
1. I have read repeatedly that Sony does not do a good job of upconverting 480i signals (standard definition TV, or non PS DVD players)
2. When an S-video cable is connected from an STB to a Sony, there are picture quality issues. (stairstepping, large pixels, black lines, etc)
3. When viewing component video input from an STB, the standard definition channels are "letterboxed" and "sidebarred" on the set. (small picture, centre of the screen) This third point has been edited. This problem was with a 4:3 set and I don't consider 4:3 sets to be "real" HDTV as they simply do what they can with HDTV signals. This criticism is therefore unfair, but should be noted by those considering 4:3 sets.
4. S-video input cannot be "scaled or stretched" on some sets.
5. There is no 720P input. (not a big issue, but why is it not available since one of the major broadcasters uses it (ABC))?
I will come back and edit this post as I learn more.
2002.09.06 - I have just learned that some Sony Wega TVs have a feature that is important to some. They allow any two inputs to be used in the PIP/POP feature. You'll need to check if the particular model under consideration does this, if it's of interest, however, a number of other sets do not do this. The other brands always have the internal tuner as one of the "PIP inputs".