Customer Reviews

Sony WEGA KD-34XBR970 34-Inch FD Trinitron Digital HDTV

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let me start by saying this... all those newfangled tv technologies you see in your local electronics store... LCD, DLP, Plasma... are nice, sure. They can be super slim, super light, hang on a wall, or they can have very large screens, sure. In many ways they may seem superior to the good ol' tube television we have all grown up with.

But there is one way that they still have not caught up and in many cases, don't even come CLOSE.... PICTURE QUALITY!

ANYONE who would be considered a "TV Buff" agrees that, nice as these new types of TV's are, a good quality regular 'old' CRT (tube) television still provides the best overall picture quality, with the best and most realistic colors and blacks, best contrast, and best refresh rates. Especially the high def tubes. And most agree that Sony makes THE BEST QUALITY PICTURE TUBES, PERIOD!

And yet, Tube TV's in general (and high def, widescreen tubes in particular) are a dieing breed. Big manufacturers are shifting from Tube to the new technologies, and slowly, the best high end tube TV's are being replaced by smaller, less expensive versions that are shorter and shorter on features.

Sony is following this trend in a BIG way. They have already discontinued the Super Fine Pitch line of tubes, which was far and away considered THE BEST PICTURE that could be had from ANY kind of television, and was literally used as the reference point by which all other TV's, Tube, LCD or otherwise, were judged. Also, the Wega line and XBR line in general continue to lose features thru each generation now.

So... what we have here, is probably one of the last great tube HDTV's that you will ever be able to buy, and the best CRT TV that is currently readily available.

I bought this TV after taking home three other TV's from Circuit City. An LCD flat panel, LCD projection, and regular SD 4:3 Wega (DLP picture sucked and plasma looked good but didn't come in the size and price range I was shopping, 34" or less and $1500 or less). I had had a 27" SD Wega (CRT) for about 5 years and LOVED that TV. Unfortunately I had it shipped when I moved cross country and it was destroyed in the process. I initially wanted only to replace it, but decided I would try to step up to something better. I tried the LCD TV's and was not happy at all with the picture quality, compared to my old Wega. Then I bought a new SD Wega and found that, while the picture was still great, the TV had lost so many features compared to the model I had had before, no PIP, no audio outputs for surround sound, much weaker internal speakers, a few less inputs, on and on. So I decided to take one more shot at HD.

Luckily, a Circuit City salesman pointed me to this XBR970. While not as good as the XBR960 it has replaced (which had the aforementioned Super Fine Pitch picture tube), this is still an amazing TV with an amazing picture. The picture quality stomps all over what I had seen with the Sony and Samsung LCD TV's I had tried, only plasma comes even close. The colors are rich and more realistic, blacks are true deep black, and there's none of the annoying motion lag during fast moving scenes that the LCD's were prone to (Video Games ESPECIALLY suffered from this when played on those LCD's! Moving scenes would go out of focus VERY badly!). It trounced the LCD's in almost every respect, including price, being several hundred dollars cheaper than the two LCD's I had tried, which were smaller at 32" vs. this 34".

This TV has tons of inputs and outputs, more than any TV I've ever owned, covering the full range. Others wish for a second HDMI input and I agree that's all this TV really needs as far as inputs go. It also has a very comprehensive menu with all kinds of usefull features and settings to play with.

So... more screen area, better picture, lower price,tons of features, what's not to like?

Well.. of course, one big downside (and I mean BIG quite literally!!) is that the TV is huge and HEAVY, nearly 200 lbs. No big deal, my old Wega was a beast as well, it's not like I move it around, and I live on the first floor. Just know you will need 2-3 people to move it whenever you need to do so.

The ONLY other downside to this TV is that issue which plagues ALL tube televisions, and the bigger they get the worse they have it.... geometry issues. For most people, not a big deal, many never even notice it (if you haven't noticed it on whatever tube TV's you've had up til now, you won't on this one), but some people will, and for those, it can be annoying. Luckily, on my set it was an easy fix. Almost all TV's these days have hidden 'service menus' that allow you to tweak all kinds of parameters of the TV. If you aren't afraid to tinker a little, you can easily go in and correct 80-100% of whatever geometry issues any given tube set will have. Some issues may not be completely fixable, but they are so minor 99% of the time that you'll never notice them unless you are looking at a test pattern anyways. This and the size issue are the only reason this TV doesn't get the full 5 stars from me.

Which reminds me, if you are buying such a nice HD set as this, do you and your TV a favor and pick up one of the widely available TV calibration DVD's, Digital Video Essentials or Avia, either can help you easily, greatly improve the TV's picture thru simple menu adjustments, and if you are willing to go into the 'hidden' service menu, you can make adjustments based on these DVD's test patterns that can truly make your TV picture 'perfect' as per the NTSC standard.

Bottom line: LCD's etc. are nice, but tube TV's still provide the best picture. And of tube TV's, this is currently THE top of the line TV you can buy, and a raging bargain to boot. The picture is simply beautiful, and looks great for movies, gaming, and even looks good with regular old low def TV (which looks HORRIBLE on LCD!!). And there's a good chance, if things keep going the way they are going, it won't be available for long. Get yours while you can.

I was looking for my first quality HDTV with a budget of under $1300. Like many, I first looked at all of the many cool-factor lightweight LCD's. While they do look cool and are very lightweight compared to CRTs; I went with the Sony KD34-XBR970 because of the better picture quality available from a CRT as opposed to what an LCD can produce right now. CRTs can produce true dark blacks and I think that is a very important part of the movie experience.

Although this tv weighs in close to 200lbs, you can have somebody like Crutcfield or SonyStyle, deliver it in your home completely free of charge! So please don't be intimidated by the size. They can do the work for you!

The only things I could of asked for from this tube is maybe Super Fine Pitch which was included in the previous incarnation (XBR960), Picture In Picture, and maybe an extra HDMI connection, but those features would have greatly increased the price of the TV for many.

So in conclusion, I highly recommend the Sony KD-34XBR970 Tube television to anyone out there looking for an incredible widescreen 34" picture that surpasses anything LCD can offer in picture quality in this price range. Get a CRT while you still can, because they are being phased out for the lower quality LCD. Don't be fooled by all of the marketing and hype for LCD!!

I've been looking at the previous two high end CRT sets that Sony made (the KD-34XBR960 and the KD-34XS955) for many months but had a hard time justifying the price ($1899 & $1699 respectively).

Our local Sears still has a 960 set up so we were able to compare the pic quality to the new 970 which, quite frankly, I expected to pale in comparison.

Boy, was I wrong!

The image quality of the new 970 is so close to that of the previous top-of-the-line CRT that it's almost impossible to see any difference. By contrast, the KD-34XBR970 is a whopping $500-$700 less than either of the previous models!

Now there are a few small differences in terms of features but frankly those extra features, such as PIP and cablecard, were of little interest to me and would certainly not be worth paying HALF AGAIN the price of the new set and as for the fact that the KD-34XBR970 has a lesser sound system...well, I plan on hooking the set up through my sound system when watching DVDs so it's a non issue ALTHOUGH the built-in speakers and sound is still pretty darn good.

So for a huge difference in price with nearly identical picture quality and all of the same key features that I was interested in this set is my first choice.

To S.C., you say the SD image is not as promised. Well, you are wrong. Your satellite provider is providing over-compressed SD video. It is racked with compression artifacts. So much so that watching SD programming on a SD tube tv (my old 27" sony) was just frustrating. Several times I wrote them to complain -- hey, Monday Night Football was too blurry to tollerate -- sometime the players feet or the ball would disappear, during fast motions.

But that aside, now that I have my Sony HDTV, I have severed my satellite link. I told them that their SD programming looks horrible on it. I use a home-made 7 element beam antenna to pull all my programing off the air. In Charlotte, I get 8 stations -- really a surprise because my antenna is sitting on the entertainment system, indoors. So, with that antenna, I get a chance to watch SD programming. And, let me tell you; SD is absolutly clear. The new CW network does the best job. Now, I do notice that some SD programming suffers from overly agressive compression. Most notably, on the PBS programming for Sesame Street. Some parts are clear SD and some are obviously over compressed. That is, the muppets fur gets pixelated. Cartoon animation should look perfect, however, many times, those programs have been compressed to the point where you see compression artifacts; I don't think the broadcast station has the original uncompressed SD video. If you want to see what cartoon video should look like, take a look at QuBo on NBC Saturday mornings, it is visually perfect.

Why am I talking about compressed signals or video? Well, all the HDTV (atsc) is compressed. It uses the MPEG-2 standard. There is no way to transmit that much data over the air or via satellite/cable without using compression -- given the 19Mhz bandwidth restriction by the FCC. For satellite, the local channels are compressed more agressively, to squeeze them into the bandwidth they have. Even many of the non local channel programming: HBO, etc., show signs of agressive compression. Dark scenes show the problems with contouring, pixelation and mosquito-ing.

When you look at a true HD picture on this TV, you should see, when the camera pans left and right, that every pixel moves without additional blurring. Then, you know that the camera is recording in HD and that you are receiving the picture in HD. Football is probably the best example. Another good example is either the "Late Show" with Letterman or the "Tonight Show" with Leno. Take a close look at the pin-stripes on their suits, during their monlogue. As the camera pans, the pin-stripes stay sharp. My neighbors have an LCD on Timewarner cable, and those pin-stripes just blur away so it is annoying to watch. Satellite SD show those pin-stripes disappearing too. For shame.

So remember, you must compare apples to apples. Make sure that the picture source is what you expect. Is the camera recording in HD? Is the transmission in HD? Is the show 24, 30 or 60 fps? Is this a rebroadcast of a satellite feed? Am I the victim of agressive compression that leaves many annoying visible compression artifacts? Many times I see an HD picture and I say, oh that looks great, but then I see another program where it is ovbious that the camera was recording in HD and WOW! So what I thought was HD was really an SD camera source reformatted into an HD signal. But when you get an HD camera and HD signal, that's the best.

Side by side comparision of this TV with all the LCD and Plasma's, looking at picture quality and seeing the off-the-air demo in the store, convinced me to get this tv. It has the best picture quality.

It should be noted that LCD/Plasma screens should provide perfect pictures; they have fantastic fidelity. But, because video is blurry and the video signal is compressed, you see compression artifacts and other video problems more readily on those screens. On a direct-view CRT, however, the pixels are closer together (apparently) and because the screen is physically much smaller, only a 34" tube, we have to be much closer to the screen to see the same compression artifacts (or problems) than for the LCD.

Don't get me started on why 24fps is a poor choice for tv shows or movies. When I say "sharp" or "absolutely clear", above, just note that I mean "as clear as" or "as sharp as" the original uncompressed video.

As a former high-end television salesperson, I must say if you are interested in picture quality (blacker blacks, whiter whites, a sharp picture, bright picture from all angles) This is your television. Let me start by pointing out a couple obvious negatives.
(1) This t.v. is a monster, two adults at a minimum to carry, this cat is H...E..A..V...Y.
(2) This T.V. is NOT light.
There are good reasons why Circuit City / Best Buy / Local T.V. Dealers, do not place this television next to more expensive DLP, LCD and Plasma televisions--with a real H.D. signals being pumped in the back. It is one thing for a television to show a pre-recorded channel over and over, it is quite another to take an "o.k." source and make it look great. That is what this t.v. did with my DVD's--my Star Wars III looked like it was in HD, but it wasn't. The same DVD on my old television looked adequate, my wife's comment upon first seeing C-3PO's crisp gold ..."that's blinding!"
I would recommend this television to anyone not looking to hang the t.v. or save a lot of space (depth wise), but wants the best picture available.

The 34XBR may be the largest HDTV screen available using the old technology, but for buyers considering this size screen there are options of 32 and 36 inch LCD.
Advantages of 34XBR:
Price is lower than LCD, viewing from side (anything other than straight on) is better than LCD, reliability and service should be better with 34XBR, picture quality is better because colors are more vibrant and resolution is sharper.
Disadvantage 34XBR
It takes up about five -- yes five -- times the space as LCD.

Contrary to popular opinion, you don't have to buy an expensive plasma or LCD (liquid crystal display) TV to get a great high-definition picture. In fact, many experts (including Consumer Reports) assert that high-definition TVs using traditional cathode-ray tube technology -- as this high-definition Sony does -- currently offer a sharper picture than plasma and LCD TVs, plus they are much less expensive and more reliable. This widescreen HD Sony TV has a very good picture with standard broadcasts and an outstanding picture with HD broadcasts and DVDs. If you'd like to get a widescreen high-definition TV now but you don't want to spend thousands of dollars on an expensive plasma or LCD set, please consider this 34" Sony. The picture is superb and the price is quite reasonable.

Do you want to see what HDTV is REALLY like? Forget all the noise about LCD and Plasma sets, because in order to sell those things, the vendors have to hide this baby in the back. Someone mentioned this in another review, so I went to Best Buy, and the sales person confirmed it before I had even seen this Sony in action. They dont put tube HDTVs on display in stores because the picture is so superior, nobody would buy the more expensive flat screens. I had seen lots of HD material before on friends flat panels, but when I got this sucker home and hooked it up, my jaw dropped. It is brighter, clearer, sharper and more vivid than you can get from any current flat-screen technology. You flat panel owners are getting ripped off, because you are paying more for a lot less if picture quality is your main consideration.

Buy it!

Best reason to buy this Sony WEGA KD-34XBR970 34" FD Trinitron Digital HDTV is because in the United States the Federal Communications Commission will be ending Analog (Current Conventional TV Services in 2009.) 2009 will be here in a heart beat and this TV will be HDTV ready. All TV's in the United States that are not HDTV ready by 2009 will go dark IF THEY ARE LIMITED TO ONLY GETTING OVER THE AIR BROADCAST SIGNALS! If your old TV is linked to Cable or Satalite things will go on as usual. So buying an anlog TV now is like wasting your money buying an 8 track tape player as your primary means of entertainment. Yes there will be Digital to Analog converters that will be kind of cheap. If you are in the market for a TV today or in the near future please do not waste your money buying yesterdays technology that is scheduled to be rendered dead as a door nail by FCC mandate in mid to late 2009. Spend the few extra dollars on a good digital TV and rest easy in 2009.

I scrambled like hell to get this last of the great Sony tube TV's before they went the way of The BetaMax Tape Player and Laserdisc. This set does not have any of the bells and whistles like picture in picture display, multiple HDMI ports or anything like that but it has all the essentials for great TV viewing and gaming alike. There is one HDMI port. The screen is huge, the colors are crisp, the blacks are dark, the whites are bright. Skin tones look realistic here and the HDTV looks darn good when fully engaged.

I watched some of my many DVD's on this TV and it was as if I was seeing them all for the first time. Little things I never noticed before on the DVD I picked up on this TV. No the speakers that come with this TV are not the very best but for the price they are good. Compared to the shrill metalic sounding speakers that were the rule in even high end TV's when I grew up the speakers in this TV are high fedelity incarnate.

I brought this sony for 1,139 at Circuit City and the shipping was only $76.00. This included the guys unpacking it, delivering it to my home, bringing it into my TV room, placing it on the stand and powering it up to be sure it worked. The TV worked fine right out of the box. Hook up was so easy the pigeons could do it. I had this Sony connected to my Direct TV and DVD players \ recorders and other systems within 15 minutes of the install dudes leaving. Its just connecting a few RCA cables and a few co-axial cables and you are done. No need for tools or anything.

The TV is easy as pie to program, and or configure. Sony has really simplied the menu making it far more user friendly than the earlier versions and I have 2 more Sony's in my house other than the new one. the Sony KD-34XBR970 34" Wega XBRŽ high-definition TV is easily the best tube TV out there currently. You can not do better than this TV on overall picture and functional quality. Tube TV is a dying breed. The high per unit cost of production, The low profit margins and the hefty weight that increases delivery costs have all conspired to kill off tube TV. Plasma LCD and other incarnations of flat TV is light weight and in time will likely be dirt cheap to produce.

Currently flat panel TV's have a number of negatives like picture quality shortcomings, not being able to produce a realistic black image. flashing, bowing and other issues like burn in, short useful life span \ durability but in time they will be resolved. I brought the Sony KD-34XBR970 34" Wega XBRŽ high-definition TV because, I am banking that the industry will have worked out all the kinks in the current flat panel LCD or plasma TV's in the oh next 10 years time before my new Sony KD-34XBR970 34" Wega XBRŽ high-definition TV wears out. This Sony is an excellent technology hedge play. I can always buy a plasma or LCD later if I want one but buying a really good Sony KD-34XBR970 34" Wega XBRŽ high-definition Tube TV is an opportunity that will not likely last much longer so act now before the Tube TV goes the way of BeeHive Hair Do's and Buggy Whips.

As always with Best Wishes fellow consumers from the Wolf Dude!

I bought this tv on sale at best buy for 900$, which was 200 over what I had stated as my maximum price. I had my doubts at first about spending so much money on a tv but once i plugged it in and saw the picture quality and all the features it had, all my previous doubts were gone.

The only reason I couldn't give this tv five stars was because it is extremely heavy and large. That wasn't a concern for me going into buying it, but after trying twice to carry it up a flight of stairs and not being able to make it I was forced to return it. The TV weighs in at about 190Lbs. I still ended up getting to enjoy this tv for a long time though because i managed to get my dad to buy one.

If size or weight isn't a factor for you, I didnt think it was for me until I got this TV, then buy this TV. Every other thing about this TV is flawless.