Video Asylum

Posted by JoeLip (A) on September 21, 2007 at 21:43:12

In Reply to: RE: perhaps posted by Jack G on September 21, 2007 at 14:33:38

Hi,

I was one of the unfortunate saps who owned a 50-in XBR1 SXRD set. The picture with a good signal was really amazing. Lasted 4-5 months. Then yellow streaks showed up. New optical block one week later. I was very impressed until a few days went by and the picture began freezing on every input, despite signal quality. Back come the repair guys and yep -- it needs another optical block. Fast forward two months and I hear the optical blocks are "backordered indefinitely." At this point my Dealer got involved and SONY finally offered me a refurbished XBR1 or a brand new 55-in A2000. I took the A2000. It is not as good as the XBR1 -- not nearly. No magic in this picture -- none. It works fairly good, though. It freezes on occasion, but I understand this is something we just have to live with. I gotta tell you, though -- I have a really bad taste in my mouth for SONY. They used to OWN both the CRT based set and magnetic recording markets. What the hell has happened to SONY??

I think I might have read something on the AVS Forum (I HATE its format, BTW -- it is worthless) about SONY having Samsung manufacture these sets for them in Korea. I doubt it (my A2000 is badged as assembled in the USA), but then again, who really knows. Samsung (and LG) are the only brands that I find less desirable then SONY.

I knew SONY was in trouble years back when I bought a 27-in XBR CRT set which had a horizontal hold problem that SONY just could not fix. Unfortunately for me, the picture quality of the 50-in XBR1 SXRD set was so much better than anything else; I just had to have it. BIG mistake.

Sorry to have rambled on. Good luck with yours. Maybe they'll get it right this time.

Cheers, Joe