Customer Reviews

Sony KD-36XS955 36-Inch FD Trinitron WEGA Hi-Scan TV with Integrated HDTV Tuner

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have had my Sony KD-36XS955 36" FD Trinitron WEGA for only 5 days now, but I am both impressed and satisfied on several levels.

Pros
1. I purchased directly from Amazon and received promptly in 5 business days. Completely painless.
2. I carefully selected a CRT 36" on 4:3 format as a comfortable compromise until 16:9 HDTV is the standard; as well as the best value per inch of screen size for the highest quality image. Now that I've watched both HD and non-HD programming, this 36" 4:3 has eliminated any nagging doubt regarding viewing satisfaction. Letterbox HD viewing is just plain mesmerizing at 8' to 10' viewing distance (diagonally: 36" 4:3 in letter box is only 1" shorter than a 34" wide screen TV).
3. Sony is the last of the higher end quality manufacturers to keep >30-32" 4:3 CRTs still in production.
4. Sony reputation of quality is still there in both appearance & function. Nice interface for setup and configuration.
5. Excellent picture from HD Satellite, and local Off-Air stations. Excellent sound quality from Television alone. Wide viewing angle from flat screen.

Cons
1. Weight. Just like the other forums and feedbacks, this IS heavy at 238lbs! Imagine lifting three 80lb bags of cement on a 24"x42" platform, but loaded heavily off balance toward the front - with the handholds one on each side located just a bit too far to the rear.
2. The universal remote is OK.
3. Warranty of only 3 months on labor, 1 yr on parts, is on the skinny side, but that's probably how Sony keeps the cost down on this model over the XRB series.

Advice: Use only a high quality surge protector (& review your older house's grounding system against local code to ensure voltage spikes don't provide a premature life of electrical components)

The picture on the set is amazing. Turn down the contrast a little, and turn down the brightness until you just barely start to lose the detail in the dark parts of the images. Then turn it back up just so those parts you just lost come back in.

Oh my goodness. The contrast and black levels on the Sony SFP tube just toss the plasma/LCD world into the dumpster. And hey, if you are like me 80% of what you watch is STILL 4:3 content, then a 4:3 set makes a lot of sense. If they were saying in the year 2000 we would all be watching 16:9 in 2006, well, how long do you think it will take to *really* have more than 50% of your material showing up in 16:9 ?? And if you don't like watching 4:3 "stretched" in a widescreen display (like me - everything distorted and FAT looking) you get the same size picture on this 36" as you would get on a 42" TV with side bars.

You can not get a better picture than this TV. When people who have LCDs come over and see a HD picture on this set their jaws drop. And always the commentd on how good SD (Standard Definition) looks -- the weak point where a lot of LCD/plasmas fall flat on their face due to their fixed pixel geometry.

And unless you move a lot or live in a tiny house, don't buy the "but CRT's are big and bulky! they are so hard to move!" arguement. For most living room areas there is exactly one spot where the TV works. You put it there. It stays there. If the TV you are replacing has been in the same spot for three+ years, then you could care less about how big and bulky the next one will be. Put it where it goes, you aren't moving it again.

Wow. Just, wow.

If you are more concerned with picture quality, and you watch a fair percentage of 4:3, this can not be beat for the price. In five years when their really (maybe) is a lot of HD content and 16:9 starts to dominate, and LCD/Plasma/lcos/etc have (maybe) caught up to the picture quality on this CRT and prices have dropped -- you can buy one with the money you saved and invested when you bought this Sony.

p.s. - After you buy the set you can call Sony directly and purchase an extended warranty to get a full three year parts and labor for a quite reasonable price.

Everywhere you look now flat, widescreens are the televisions being hyped as the ones to get. The fact of the matter is that eventually, those kinds of monitors will be the standard bearer of video technology. However flats are not without their flaws. Chief among them is the problem of "burn-in"; if you leave your set on a station that has its logo resting in the corner of the screen (most do now), and you happen to slip away to answer the phone or just forget and leave the set on, chances are that your set will sustain PERMANENT damage, that's just how it is. Plasmas produce superb images, but over time their brightness WILL decrease. For me, the higher the contrast the BETTER - most of the time. Unfortunately, that's just the opposite of what you're supposed to do to extend your plasma's lifespan. And there's no question that the widescreen image is great to take in. That said, I am here to sing the praises of the dying CRT / 4:3 aspect television set. A lot of programs I own are in 4:3, and they look BETTER on said type of screen. I rebuke the notion that "stretching" that same image across a widescreen is okay - IT IS NOT. If I wanted to view a 4:3 image, in it's ORIGINAL, UNALTERED aspect ratio on a 16:9, I would have to have black or (worse yet) gray bars on the sides, which WOULD negatively impact your plasma via burn-in or unbalanced contrast and brightness on the sides of the frame. I happen to find the horizontal black bars produced on a 4:3 more acceptable when viewing widescreen productions than on a 16:9. The CRT is far CHEAPER than plasma. A GOOD 50" plasma is going to set you back AT LEAST $6,000 (the good news is that prices continue to fall). This set is a fraction of that. The CRT's main disadvantages are screen size and weight. They are heavy, but they look and sound great when positioned properly in your desired viewing area. With CRT, there are no burn-in problems. One night I fell asleep with the limited edition dvd of "Memento" playing. Now unfortunately when the film ends, it goes back to a frozen, stationary menu image of black objects on a white background - if I did that on a plasma, I'd be fu___d! The best thing about CRT's is the level of black it produces. They always have produced a deeper, richer level of black than any plasma I've seen. This one is perfectly capable of displaying high-definition images, though you'll have to put up with the black, horizontal bars - but you're used to that, right? I'd give this set 5 stars but it just doesn't quite reach perfection with its video performance. I own a 32" Sony Trinitron XBR that is 10 YEARS OLD, and it produces sharper, clearer images than this set. I have no idea what Sony did to change the image reproduction, but it is noticeably and somewhat disappointingly different. The best way I can describe it? It's akin to having 35mm film prints developed: while my old 32" screen has a "glossy" look, this television here has a "lustre" look. It's still a great image, but something is missing; image detail is not as sharp, shiny or clean. This set IS capable of receiving HDTV images and they look very nice here. Also, dvds look pretty good; one of this set's best features is its ability to automatically switch between anamorphic and non-anamorphic playback from whichever dvd you're viewing.

I'm actually considering the XBR960N, not the 955, but both are similar in tube quality and features; the 960N being the widescreen sibling with a few more features and a better warranty. Both sets are the last of a dying breed of CRT TV to be sure and I think that the misinformation expressed here needs to be addressed.

"Burn-in" is certainly a real problem on CRT's and especially on Plasmas, but burn-in takes months, if not years, of static (!) intense images being displayed before it will become noticeable. As long as one turns down the contrast and brightness settings to reasonable levels once the TV is put into the home, there is rarely a problem with burn-in.

The lion's share of station logo "bugs" in the corner of the screen are NOT intense enough to cause burn-in unless the TV is used for years on that one channel. I knew a large-screen Sony owner who once had a penchant for leaving the channel display on. It took about 7 years to notice the channel was becoming burned into the corner of the screen.

I am also a proponent of not stretching normal 4:3 images to fit a wide screen and vice-versa. On the other hand, watching ONLY 16:9 widescreen video on a 4:3 TV will eventually burn a line into the tube. However, as I've mentioned, it's going to take years to even notice. And gaming on a CRT or Plasma is not inherently going to cause a problem. Most games do have static readouts or scores and playing one game for a few years at factory settings may actually show a faint ghost image on the tube. But again, don't leave the TV at factory settings. Or better yet, have it ISF calibrated for proper output. Watching 2 movies or playing a few games a week on a CRT isn't going to ruin the tube until the TV will be old enough to replace anyway, and likely for other reasons.

The factory settings and SVM (or Scan Velocity Modulation) are primarily designed to produce a picture that competes with other TV's on poorly-lit showroom floors. Once you get it home, CHANGE those settings to match your room lighting. In most cases, setting brightness/contrast to 50% to 75% lower than factory settings will still look excellent and increase the life of the picture significantly (and use less energy).

Do the research and be skeptical (even of me).

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 picure. 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 and also are lower priced and more reliable. This Sony HD TV has an excellent picture with standard broadcasts and a superb picture with HD broadcasts.

Yes, this model, despite being a high-definition TV, has the traditional 4:3 aspect ratio rather than a widescreen 16:9 ratio. But my cable system currently broadcasts 175 channels in the traditional 4:3 aspect ratio and only 12 widescreen channels. How many widescreen channels do you currently receive? Widescreen 16:9 TVs have smaller pictures with gray bars on the side when displaying traditional 4:3 channels, unless they distort the picture shape -- artificially widening everything including faces. Would you want to watch the many 4:3 broadcasts this way? I wouldn't. But you don't have to with this 4:3 TV. On the other hand, because the screen on this TV is so large, when widescreen pictures are played on this set, although there will be letter-boxing bars above and below the widescreen picture, the picture will be the same size as on a 34" 16:9 TV within a fraction of an inch. Thus, compared to a 34" 16:9 set, this TV will give you bigger undistorted pictures from conventional 4:3 channels and virtually the same size pictures when watching 16:9 channels or widescreen DVDs.

Widescreen high-definition broadcasts and widescreen high-definition TVs eventually will be the norm, at which time the prices of such sets will be significantly lower than they are now. But, with the current situation where most channels still display traditional 4:3 pictures and only a few are in widescreen and high definition, a large screen 4:3 HD TV, such as this 36" Sony, is a good economical choice for many people at this time.

Simply, I purchased this unit along with a top of the line Sony DVD player utilizing HDMI connections. The best picture I have ever seen. Sony continues to produce the very best in video equipment. I compared this items specification with several competitors and the Sony outperformed them all. Big, yes. Heavy, you wouldn't believe it. Picture quality.....worth the hernia?.....YES.

I use the Dish Network ViP 622 HDTV receiver.

Picture Quality:
Cannot imagine better

Size:
Wish it was bigger. I had to fit the TV into my Armoir cabinet, so size was my contraint. If Sony would have put the speakers on the top/bottom instead of the sides, and made 38" size, I could have fit it.

Weight:
235 pounds is a bear, but I used 5 people for the lift into the cabinet, and none of the 5 was strong at all. It was a breeze.

Just be smart about how you move and lift it and you will be fine.

How I use the TV:

--The Zoom, Horizontal Expand, Vertical Expand, and Full modes are great. I usually flip to Full for HDTV, and Vertical Expand when watching SDTV. Sometimes, Zoom is great for certain HDTV if you want to the some wildlife up close.

--Vivid preset. I keep the Vivid preset on at all times. The other modes do not seem to have the light output that I need.

--I watch mostly 4:3, so a 4:3 is best for me. When I watch widescreen, though, it is like owning a 34" Sony widescreen. I think you better off with the 36" 4:3 until more channels go HDTV.

The picture is awesome, you will not regret this purchase.

Wish List: Make me a 38", move the speakers to the top, and lower the weight a little.

UPDATE after 2 years: The TV still works flawlessly. Here are some additional notes, though:

1. CON - Only one HDMI input. This was not an issue at first, but now I have an HD Dish Network Receiver and a Blue Ray Player. I bought a "Terk HDMI-31 Smart HDMI Switch (3 X 1)" to resolve the issue.

2. PRO - Works great with the Dish Network HD DVR Receiver and the LG BD300 Blue Ray Player with Netflix.

3. PRO - The ability to switch between the different screen types, such as "full, zoom, horizontal, and vertical" is easy and works very well. I use this remote button frequently.

I knew this was a good television but I did not know it was a great one. I was looking at a plasma, lcd or dlp when one weekend I was at this guy's house playing poker and noticed the clarity of his television, it was a Sony Wega. I decided to get the Wega with the High Definition and all I can say is what a picture and what a television.

Big and bulky, but worth it. The picture is crisp and the colors pop off the screen. If you are in the market for a solid HD TV that's affordable, look no further. This one is the jam!

I bought this tv for our main television and the picture is crystal clear and easy to view. Games play well on it and we chose it because it was the largest CRT TV, which currently projection tv's still have burning problems when children play games on them too long. We love it!