Sony KDS-R60XBR1 WEGA™ HDTV
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#102 Master Pages 30-61 10/10/05 8:25 AM Page 38 EQUIPMENT Review Sony KDS-R60XBR1 WEGA™ HDTV 60-Inch 16:9 SXRD™ Rear-Projection Display Bill Cruce SPECIFICATIONS Introduction General Panel Size: 0.61 inch Panel Resolution: 1920 x 1080 I have waited long for the chance to get a true 1920 x 1080 Device Contrast Ratio: 5000:1 pixel TV to review. This rear projector is the first Sony has had Pixel Pitch: 7.0 micrometers Inter-pixel Spacing: 0.35 micrometers available in their new, “reasonably priced” line of TVs using the Response Time: 2.5 milliseconds latest Silicon X-tal (Crystal) Reflective Display (SXRD™) 0.61- inch panels. Last year Sony released two displays using its first Video Native Resolution: 1920 x 1080 generation 0.78-inch SXRD panels, the $30,000 Qualia 004 Aspect Ratio: 16:9 (1.78:1) front projector (reviewed by Greg Rogers in Issue 86, June Viewing Angle: 60 degrees Tuner: ATSC/8VSB 2004 of Widescreen Review) and the $13,000 Qualia 006 70- WEGA Engine™ system: WEGA Engine HD video inch rear projector (reviewed by Mike Marks in Issue 96, May DRC® MultiFunction Circuitry: DRC-MF v2 2005). The 60-inch (16:9) KDS-R60XBR1 and its 50-inch sib- CineMotion® Reverse 3:2 Pulldown Technology Cinema Black Pro: Iris Control and Advanced Iris ling, the KDS-R50XBR1, are in production now at Sony’s Comb Filter: 3D Digital Pittsburgh factory and carry a manufacturers’ suggested retail Audio price of $4,999 and $3,999, respectively. The KDS-R60XBR1 Digital Amplifier: S-Master® Digital Amplifier picture is stunning and its features are outstanding. Dolby® Digital technology SRS® TruSurround® audio MTS Stereo Decoder: Auto SAP What Is SXRD? Steady Sound® Automatic Volume Control SXRD is Sony’s brand of LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon), a Inputs And Outputs Video: component (2); HDMI™ (1); composite (3); S-video (3); PC (1) new micro-display technology related to LCD but working differ- Audio: analog stereo (5 in, 1 out); i.Link (3); digital optical (1 out) ently. Another popular implementation of LCoS is the JVC D- Other: RF (2); CableCARD™ (1); Memory Stick® (1); Control-S (1 in, 1 out) ® ILA technology, used in JVC, Dukane, and Faroudja projectors. Dimensions (WHD In Inches): 66 x 39 3/4 x 20 1/4 The liquid crystal material in LCoS has a structure like other Weight (In Pounds) 112 LCDs, but it is sealed directly to the surface of a silicon chip. Price: $4,999 The electronic drivers controlling the crystals’ alignment are Manufactured In The USA By: etched into the silicon, which allows several million pixels to fit Sony Electronics, Inc. in an area smaller than one square inch. The chip is coated 1 Sony Drive Park Ridge, New Jersey 07656 with an aluminized layer, which means that LCoS is highly Tel: 201 930 1000 reflective (rather than “transmissive” like normal LCD), allowing www.sony.com more light to pass. The benefit compared to LCD is that the same amount of light applied to an LCoS panel will create a brighter image. Like an LCD, light passage through the liquid crystal is controlled by the state of polarization of the crystal. But since the light passes through the liquid crystal layer twice (once on the way in and once on the way out after being reflected from the mirror surface), LCoS displays of the same thickness can have twice the contrast ratio of a standard LCD, “Ihave never seen ‘Dark City’ look or they may use a thinner liquid crystal layer and achieve faster response times. Sony has managed to achieve both a fast response time (2.5 ms rise time) and a high contrast ratio (5000:1) for its new SXRD panels. Their first generation panels so good!” 38 Widescreen Review • Issue 102 • November 2005 Page 1/5 #102 Master Pages 30-61 10/10/05 8:25 AM Page 40 EQUIPMENT Review had contrast ratios of 3000:1. LCoS panels of floating above the surface on which it device codes found in the manual; it comes have a high fill factor, meaning there is little rests. The TV is one integral unit; there is no pre-programmed for Sony devices. space between the pixels. By placing the separate control box as some HDTVs have. Adjacent to the function lights is the only wiring area and switching elements under A companion stand, the SUGW12 is an ele- recessed button on the remote, for record the reflection layer, there is no black matrix gant combination of brushed aluminum and or reset. Finally, above this latter row are area––so the image is without the “screen glass that matches the TV perfectly. buttons for muting and sat/cable power and door” effect of many micro-displays. It is main power. very film-like. Sony’s second generation Remote And Controls Although the remote control is not back- SXRD panels are 7.0 microns center-to-cen- lighted or glow-in-the-dark, the buttons are ter with a 0.35 inter-pixel spacing. The only controls on the set are located distinctively arranged, and key buttons have Importantly for display makers, it is easy for on the right side, hidden under the loud- raised dots to help orient your fingers by LCD manufacturers to adapt their plants to speaker: channel, volume, TV/video feel. I found it relatively easy to use in the make LCoS, as opposed to DLP (digital (inputs), and menu. On the lower right front dark. Although it does not have to be point- light processing), which is radically differ- of the frame there is a power switch along- ed directly at the TV, the infrared signal is ent. It is also a cost-effective technology side LEDs for power, timer, and lamp (when not powerful enough to bounce off the ceil- compared to TFT and plasma. Sony’s new burned out). As with most modern TVs, the ing or walls. SXRD technology can produce 0.61 inch remote control has the majority of the control panels with the same 2 million pixels as the functions. The programmable remote is a Menus And Functions first generation panels, which were 0.78 long, slim (9 x 2 x 3/4 inches) brushed alu- inches. This means more of the chips can minum infrared control. It is dominated by a The menu key brings up a main menu be produced from a single silicon wafer, central disc that controls menu movements with seven submenu selections for Video, driving down costs. (up, down, left, right) and a central “enter” Audio, Screen, Channel, Parental Lock, Sony uses three of the SXRD panels in a button. When controlling a DVD or VCR Setup, and Applications. There isn’t room to traditional red, green, blue arrangement; these buttons function as pause, stop, fast discuss all of the functions here, so I will light is split via precision prisms, passed reverse, fast forward, and play, respectively. just highlight the main ones I used. If a through the individual panels, then reunited Below the control disc, arrayed in a reader is interested in details about the through a single lens. Thus all of the color curve matching the disc are small buttons menus, they can be found in the download- alignment is made in the rigid optical for split-screen, antenna/cable, i.Link®, and able manual (http://www.sonystyle.com). assembly, and there are no separate projec- Memory Stick (Sony’s proprietary portable The Video submenu has selections for tor lenses to be aligned as there are in CRT storage memory). In a matching array Picture Mode, Iris, Picture (contrast), rear projectors. Because the three colors around the top of the control disc are but- Brightness, Color, Hue, Sharpness, Color are generated simultaneously, the eye tons for widescreen, picture, favorites and Temperature, Noise Reduction, Direct receives one consistent image. There is no freeze. “Split-screen” puts two small images Mode, and Advanced Video. Picture Mode, rainbow effect seen by many people when on the screen to the right and left of each which can also be selected from a button viewing DLP-projected images that use a other; with the motion controls you can on the remote, allows you to store all the single panel and a color wheel. Furthermore, switch to make one dominant (and the other settings in the Video submenu. You the panels have a true 1920 x 1080 image source for TV audio). Unfortunately, only can store different settings for each of three in each frame. Current DLP displays that one of the images can be an HDTV image. modes (Pro, Standard, and Vivid). Advanced claim 1920 x 1080 resolution achieve this “Freeze” again puts two small images side Video offers many additional choices for the by a technique known as “wobulation,” by side, only this time one is the frozen Pro Mode: DRC Mode, DRC Palette, where a panel with half the number of pixels image and the other continues running. Advanced Iris, Color Corrector, DTE, Clear is offset at twice the frame rate to generate Below the bottom row of buttons are White, Detail Enhancer, Black Corrector, separate halves of the 1920 x 1080 picture. found a long volume up-down toggle button and Gamma Corrector (only DRC Mode and It is suspected, but not proven, that such and a matching channel up-down toggle DRC Palette are available in the other two dithering may add to eyestrain. button. In between the two is a pair of small video modes). I turned all of these off buttons for Menu and Exit.