Sony KDS-R60XBR1 - 60" GRAND WEGA rear projection TV - widescreen - 1080p (FullHD) - HDTV

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Product Details

Product Manual [3.90mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 355.4 pounds
• ASIN: B000BN7BDA
• Item model number: KDS-R60XBR1
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #78,717 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 26, 2006

Product Description

Product Description

Sony's 60" Grand WEGA SXRD Rear Projection HDTV is the perfect addition to your living room. The KDS-R60XBR1 is equipped with SXRD technology, which employs three Silicon X-tal Reflective Display panels, which aid in the response time of image changes and movement. Each one of these panels is associated to a primary color: red, blue or green. Other features of the KDS-R60XBR1 include Advanced Iris shutter that works automatically to open and close according to the incoming signal level to create brighter whites and better contrast in dark scenes, and the BN Smoother which reduces the block noise caused by digital video encoding and decoding process. Sony's KDS-R60XBR1 also includes Twin-View, technology which allows you to watch two programs side by side with the ability to zoom in on one picture and listen to the program in the selected window. The big screen has never looked better.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant design, Spectacular Picture, October 27, 2005

By	Dave - See all my reviews

I bought Sony's 60" SXRD after spending the last year researching big screen TVs. The picture quality is top notch- blacks on par with those of a CRT or plasma television and stunning visual clarity. The liquid crystal on Silicon (LCoS) technology combines the best qualities of DLP and LCD projection TV sets; the picture quality of Sony's SXRD LCoS impressed me more than JVC's D-ILA LCoS.

There is no screen door effect on this TV and it displays motion well. The user interface is very user friendly and I was able to access the vast majority of the television's functions without referencing the user's manual. There are more open inputs than I need (8 total, including a few accessible from the front) and the Picture in Picture can be used from both multiple inputs (e.g. DVD and Cable) or from the same input (e.g. both frames from the cable box)

Analog TV appears as good or better than other TVs this size and HD is incredible. With any TV this size, however, be aware that flaws in the picture quality of a broadcast signal will be more apparent. This hasn't been a problem with DVDs or HD channels.

The 60" SXRD also looks more elegant than other sets in this range, nice given that a set this size will dominate any room it's in. It's also light weight enough to be moved easily by two people.

I'm happy that I bought this model and strongly recommend it.

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning picture quality!, November 28, 2005

By	G.E. (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

I looked at half a dozen 1080p true HDTVs in October 2005 before settling on the KDS-R50XBR1 (the 50" little brother to this TV). I am thrilled with the picture quality, especially after fine-tuning the Brightness, Contrast, Picture, and RGB balance settings using the Avia calibration DVD. Especially on true HDTV 1920x1080 sources, this TV has an absolutely outstanding picture! In fact, it's more like watching a film or looking out a window than a mere television picture. The SXRD picture is liquid smooth and silky with no screen door effect or harsh "graininess" you see in competing technologies such as DLP, LCD, and even plasma.

One important note: If you are debating between the 50" and 60" models, you should know that both models use the same 120 watt bulb. With the 60" model having approximately 20% more screen surface area to light up, that translates to approximately a 20% dimmer picture than the 50 inch model. (If you ask me, it's not a "bright" idea to use the same bulb wattage for two projection TVs of different sizes, but I guess it keeps manufacturing costs down.)

Compare the two models side by side on the same HDTV content (I did) and you'll see a marked difference in the vividness of the whites and bright colors. The KDS-R50XBR1 50" really "pops" (like looking out the window on a sunny day); whereas the KDS-R60XBR1 60" looks merely average in the brightness department (the overall picture is still excellent, just a bit dimmer).

For me, I decided that a smaller screen with a brighter picture was more important than a big screen with a slightly dimmer picture - especially since this TV sits in a daylight room. Hopefully Sony will correct this oversight in a future SXRD model because the 60" picture is considerably more impressive purely from a size perspective.

The pros: Its magnificent picture quality! SXRD is probably the finest picture you can buy for under $12,000. It has advanced picture fine-tuning feature for prosumers. The 50" model has a dazzling bright display that outshines everything I've seen so far.

The cons: The side speakers are relatively weak with no bass response (as one would expect from their diminutive size). They are not detachable, and add a considerable amount of horizontal width to this TV's footprint. They ought to be made detachable or placed beneath the screen instead at the sides. Also, there are only 2 HDMI ports. It is quite conceivable that a person might have 3-4 HDMI devices (Bluray DVD, Playstation 3, Dish Network, Digital Cable, etc.) but most TVs on the market only have 1-2 HDMI ports so this is not unusual. Daytime viewing is generally very good as long as no direct light hits the TV screen; however, projection TVs still don't seem as bright as the old cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Price has decreased 25% in 2 months since introduction and before Christmas/New Years/Superbowl season., December 6, 2005

By	Elegant_gentleman "Engineer" (Federal Way, Washington (state) USA) - See all my reviews

I welcome the opportunity to share my perspective as an owner of a SONY SXRD KDS-R60XBR1. I notice that the Amazon.com price has decreased 25% since the item became widely available in October 2005. I obtained mine through a traditional brick and mortar retailer, but believe the associates of Amazon.com can perform just as well. The item performs an excellent job. Once I had the cable card installed by the cable company the performance was outstanding, the best I've ever seen. On standard digital (SD) transimissions such as a 4:3 NTSC 480i HBO thru the cable card, I was wondering why the "16:9 HD" picture was cropped. It was an optical illusion. The clean-up, etc. circuits were that perfect. There are a minimum of 22 adjusts possible on "Pro" view mode. There are many others that only a ISF certified calibration technician with professional equipment should use for greyscale. A few notes about the information on this Amazon.com webpage as of 06 December 2005 --- the mass/weight of the item is about 120 pounds, not 300 pounds. The brightness of the 60" unit is fine in my living room at mid-day with all the lights on and shades open. (My windows face west). Hands down I think it beats the JVC LCOS, any wobulator DLP, and in most situations "all" front projectors (which require ideal conditions). As of December 2005 I have not seen a Hitachi LCOS or LG LCOS, but do not expect them (a first generation product) to be on par with this second generation Sony. (Sony Quallia was first generation). I have heard second hand from folks that have visited the trade show in Las Vegas that the Toshiba/Canon SED will not be price competitive. (Their opinions vary with regrd to performance results of the pre-production SED). If you have not seen a Sony SXRD LCOS 1080P display being feed with a dedicated source, you owe it to yourself. NOTE: Some retailers have Mitsi wobulator DLPs feed one on one by hard drives with true 1080P source. That is a huge advantage compared to a splitter of over-the=-air HDTV signal. But it is not realistic for the average consumer. Before you buy any TV display based on your subject viewing, watch it for 15 minutes and find out the quality of the source feed and how many times it is split upstream of your desired representative product. Bottom line is it looks like JVC low-balled the prices on their LCOS and retailers are cutting (the substantial) margin on the Sony LCOS SXRD to match. Sony is adding a 1000 humans and who knows how many robots in their factory in Pittsburgh, PA, USA to crank these babbies out. If you are a babby boomer, you know the meaning of the Wall Street Journal article of April 2005 that revealed that Sony's business mocel is to re-establish their dominance of the (HD)TV market with the SXRD in the years 2006, 2007 much like the Sony Trinitron made their reputation in the late 1960's. Thank you Sony. I'll report back after my unit is ISF calibrated.