- Average user rating: 1.5 stars out of 7 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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4 out of 6 people found this review helpful
0.5 stars
"Not Even A Nice Try"
Pros: Looks good and has 200 disk changer
Cons: does not decode DTS and resolution issues
Summary: Sometimes you gotta wonder who decides " Hey this is it lets ship"
Who actually tests these things ?
I've purchased one of these utits not really knowing how new of a product this is, I like to purchase when all bugs and issues are resolved. So i became a test pig.
connecting this system to my home theatre was not much different than hooking up my old Sony Vaio computer to my Sharp projector via vga port.
First off forget about tech support they know nothing at this point not to mension 5 different techs with 5 different answers.
It seems your playback resolution of dvd and desktop resolution are 2 different things. In my case component video out gave me my best desktop resolution 16:9 aspect ratio and 110 inches of 720p nice image, except when you go to play a movie the resolution is too high (playback not happening)dvd playback is 480p
Ok fine lets switch to HDMI, this output put me in a 4:3 aspect ratio whic there was no getting out and only 2 options for a so so desktop resolution so there we go, is Sony ready to enter the 2005 home theatre market i dont think so not with this 1980 piece of equiptment... oh buy the way did anyone at Sony ever hear of DTS or THX decoding
- 2 replies to this review
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I just want to highlight one critical item in anthony422's opinion ? don't expect the HDMI output to work except on 4:3 ratio monitors! Forget widescreen displays!
If you just want this for a music server, or only ever plan to connect it to a 4:3 ratio monitor via HDMI or DVI, then you're OK. But while it has component output, it won't play movies over component except at 480i (more Sony DRM paranoia). According to Sony, this restriction is a feature, not a bug! You might as well use a $20 DVD player connected to a ten year old TV and save yourself >$2,000.
After multiple calls to Sony support (and one house call) they could not get the video board/driver to output 1280:720 (or any other 16:9 aspect ratio resolution) to my widescreen Philips plasma monitor via HDMI. It only allowed resolutions with a 4:3 aspect ratio, which resulted in very distorted TV and movie playback. Yet the Vaio would output 720p (1280:720) via component to the same monitor! It just wouldn't play movies at that resolution on component-out.
And the Sony graphics card requires custom Sony driver software. So you lose out on the regular updates that nVidia makes to their ?unified driver architecture.?
If you plan to use a widescreen monitor with your Media Center PC (or think you might upgrade to widescreen some day), don't buy the Sony XL1 or XL2. -
This component is designed for large, micro-projection screens. How does it perform in that role?
Sony VAIO XL1 Digital Living System:
