Sony KDS-50A3000 Review:

Sony KDS-50A3000 HDTV delivers Full HD 1080p with smooth and detailed pictures in addition to the Bravia EX Video Processor Engine, which sharpens images, enhances contrast and pleasingly saturated colors. Choose between Auto and Manual modes to improve expressions in darker scenes with Advanced Iris Function. A wide range of input interfaces provide maximum versatility including HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) to suppose uncompressed, all-digital High Definition video together with multi-channel digital audio to provide superb image and sound reproduction. Sony KDS-50A3000’s D-Sub 15 input also allows connection to your PC, allowing you to use it as a High-Resolution computer monitor. Sony’s Motionflow High Frame Rate technology doubles the amount of frames from 60fps to 120fps using real-time calculation of every single frame of video to create entire new frames of information. Sony KDS-50A3000 have a newly approved international color standard called xvYCC, which greatly expanded the color space 1.8 times as many natural colors. x.v.Color includes xvYCC capability and enables select Sony Handycam(R) camcorders to offer more accurate color reproduction and natural colors.

Sony KDS-50A3000 User Said:

I caught Sony KDS-50A3000 during a 2 or 3 day sale and got it from Amazon for $1,299. It’s already back up to $1,700+ everywhere I look. So right off, I’m already pleased with the price, but now that I’ve used the TV for a bit, I’m giggity.

Sony KDS-50A3000’s picture is fantastic. The 1080p makes it unbelievable when viewing HD signals. Why anyone would even consider buying a 720p HDTV these days is ludicrous, IMHO. Sony KDS-50A3000 took a lot of tweaking of the picture, iris, and all the other settings to finally get it where I wanted it. And the cool thing is that you can regulate a million different settings for EACH input. So I have different picture settings for my Dish, my over the air HDTV antenna, and my upscaling DVD player.

The 120Hz engine in this thing is remarkable. The smoothness of sports or fast action is VERY noticeable when compared to 60Hz LCD or Plasma TVs. As soon as you enable the anti-blur stuff, it’s mind blowing the quality, sharpness, and delivery. I have a $89 Sony upscaling DVD player hooked up to my Bravia and it is INSANE how good and amazing it looks! It looks like I’m watching it on Blu-Ray! I don’t now exactly what it definitive reason it all looks so good, but I have to imagine that the combination of the 120Hz stuff, HDMI, and the 1080 upscaling DVD player all make it just mind boggling!

I bought a $40 HDTV over the air antenna and put it in my attic. I’m watching my local channels in HD with no problem at all and it looks fantastic!! Forget ANYTHING you knew about using an antenna and expecting static, fuzziness, etc. My antenna picture actually looks better than cable box HDTV!!

Now my .1% downers. My 2 problems are mundane and probably would not effect most people. One, if you use an AV receive or home theater and even though TV has a million input jacks on the back, you really can’t drive audio through the TV without losing your digital audio.

So if you hook up a DVD player to your TV with HDMI, even though a Dolby signal is sent to the TV, the Sony KDS-50A3000 changes all audio signals to 2 channel PCM. Even is you use the Digital out on the TV and send it to your Home Theater, you still get 2 channel PCM signal. In order to watch a DVD but still get full Dolby/DTS surround, you have to use a HDMI to your TV, but still have a digital audio cable from your DVD straight to your AV/Home Theater receiver. I find this completely annoying for now I have to change the video input on my TV when switching components. Then I have to switch audio components on my receiver to match. Was hoping to just drive all the video and audio through Sony KDS-50A3000. But if you don’t care about sound quality and dont mind the downmixed 2 channel audio, then this is a non-factor.

The other thing that is annoying me is that the remote that comes with the Sony KDS-50A3000 will do EVERYTHING, including control my DirecTV DVR. Sweet!! Except….you can only program it for ONE model AV/Home Theater…and it has to be a specific Sony model. So while I can control my DVD, TV, and DirecTV functions, I CANNOT control the volume of anything since all the sounds go through my Home Theater. So now I’m going to have to go purchase a 3rd party programmable remote. So this is really just a personal gripe and in no way detracts from the overall quality and wow factor of Sony KDS-50A3000.

Overall, I really am just amazed with Sony KDS-50A3000. But Sony has announced that it is getting out of the rear projection business. It’s a real shame for even Crutchfield says that this SXRD line might just be THE BEST HDTV on the market. At this point, I couldn’t agree more.
—– By M. Pulaski

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