Sony KD-34XBR960

Like most 2004 HDTVs above a certain screen size, the KD-34XBR960 comes equipped with both a built-in HDTV tuner and a CableCard slot, which allows for digital and HDTV cable reception without a cable TV set-top box. (As with other so-equipped TVS, this digital-cable-ready feature isn't as valuable as it should be, since the card does not allow essential conveniences such as an EPG or video-on-demand.) On the audio side, there are True Surround and Simulated Surround modes to enhance the stereo audio, as well as a built-in subwoofer.

Connectivity options are extensive. The set's back panel offers one HDMI port, two component-video inputs, two iLink (a.k.a. IEEE 1394/FireWire) ports, two S-Video inputs, and two composite-video inputs. All A/V inputs have their own stereo audio inputs. I also counted one RF input for antenna hookup, another for cable TV connections, and an optical digital audio output for use with an outboard surround-sound processor or A/V receiver. The front panel has the standard A/V input with S-Video plus one iLink port and a Memory Stick slot, which is convenient for viewing JPEG pictures if you happen to own a Sony camera.

Out-of-the-box performance on the KD-34XBR960 was certainly better than average overall. The grayscale was reasonably close to the industry standard in the Warm color temperature setting but still benefited from our ISF-style calibration.

At the factory preset of Default, the color decoder pushes red severely, so you should change it to the Monitor setting, which is almost perfectly accurate for all sources. Sony deserves kudos for making this a user menu item rather than a service menu-only item (although, for perfectionists, a slight service-menu tweak to the green portion of the decoder was necessary for the best results). After calibration, the 960's picture was superb, with extremely accurate color decoding and grayscale tracking, great color saturation, and natural-looking skin tones.

After tweaking the picture for both standard- and high-definition sources, we sat back and watched some of our favorite material. Chapter 25 of the Seabiscuit DVD looked exceptional with great detail in the horse's face and excellent color saturation. We also looked at some scenes from the The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers DVD, which were rendered beautifully.

As the high-def Olympics were being shown on the Dish Network DVR 921, you can imagine we watched more high-def than DVD. HDTV material really brought out the strength of this TV--the Games looked extremely sharp with even the tiniest lines visible. Detail was truly awesome for a direct-view HDTV, and the richness of the color combined with the natural-looking skin tones for an extremely impressive display. In short, we'd recommend this TV to anyone who cares first about picture quality.