One unusual adjustment is Advanced Iris, which dynamically controls the TV's light output on the fly when program material changes. Its four settings, Off, Low, Medium, and High, progressively increase brightness and affect overall contrast ratio. We left it in the Off setting, as the set provided ample light output to begin with; however, in brightly lit environments, you may want to engage it.
The Color Corrector feature adversely affected color decoding, adding red push. It's best left off. The DTE function, which supposedly enhances detail, didn't visibly increase the sharpness of the picture. The Detail Enhancer definitely introduced some horizontal and vertical edge enhancement, so leave it off too. The Black Corrector feature simply changes the black level, so leave it off or else turn it on before setting the brightness or black level properly. The Clear White feature appeared to improve white-field uniformity a bit, but it also tinted the picture blue. Again, leave it off for the best performance. Gamma Corrector provides several choices that affect the grayscale tracking and the low-level brightness. Once again, the Off setting produced the smoothest transition from black to white, with the best grayscale tracking. Finally, for professionals, the White Balance menu has grayscale controls for calibration, which work extremely well (see Performance for details).
The Sony KDS-R60XBR1's generous jack pack offers the following: two HDMI inputs; two component-video inputs; two A/V inputs with both S-Video and composite; two RF inputs, one for antenna and the other for off-air HD signals; a set of audio outputs; a CableCard slot; and Control S ports for controlling other Sony A/V gear. Although we appreciated the addition of a 15-pin VGA-style RGB input for PC hookup (maximum resolution 1,280x1,024 at 60Hz), we were disappointed to find no RS-232 port for control purposes. On the front of the set, to the lower left of the screen, is another A/V input with S-Video, an iLink (Sony's name for FireWire) port, and a Memory Stick slot. Like most other 1080p HDTVs available today, the Sony KDS-R60XBR1 cannot accept 1080p sources via any of its inputs (more info)
In terms of overall picture quality, the Sony KDS-R60XBR1 sets a new benchmark for fixed-pixel rear-projection HDTVs. It's easily the best LCoS-based display we've reviewed so far and the best we've seen among the current crop of 1080p HDTVs. While blacks are not quite as rich and inky as on the best DLP sets we've reviewed, this Sony can produce deep enough blacks to provide a solid overall contrast ratio and make exceptionally dark material such as Alien, Seven, or the Star Wars flicks look very convincing. The extremely difficult opening scene of the Alien: Director's Cut DVD, with the Nostromo traveling through space, was more than watchable, with only a hint of low-level noise and no real false-contouring artifacts.
The Sony KDS-R60XBR1's color decoding is quite accurate. As long as we left the Color Corrector turned off, we detected no red push. The green decoding was excellent as well. This, combined with a nearly flawless grayscale, enabled the set to produce extremely realistic flesh tones and natural-looking colors. (Author's note: My field experience calibrating the new Sony SXRD sets makes me skeptical about the nearly perfect grayscale our review sample had before calibration. I am typically finding the Warm color temperature setting in the 9,000K range, which leads me to suspect that Sony may have tweaked the sample sent to CNET.) However, the actual colors of red, green, and blue are not accurate according to the ATSC standard. Red is on the orange side, green is a little yellow, and blue is somewhat purplish.
The video processing uses Sony's DRC system with 2:3 pull-down, but it's still noisy and prone to artifacts. We ran 480p via the component-video outputs of an older Denon 2900 DVD player and got a cleaner picture than with the interlaced output. Bright scenes from the great Vertical Limit DVD looked excellent overall, with impressive color saturation and detail.
HDTV on the Sony KDS-R60XBR1 looked awe-inspiring. In particular, HDNet via the HDMI input from our DirecTV HD satellite feed was remarkable. Thanks to the 1,920x1,080 resolution, visible details were breathtaking. A 1080i multiburst pattern from our HDTV signal generator was reproduced cleanly at the HDMI input, indicating that the set is giving you all the resolution from 1080i HDTV sources--not something all 1080p HDTVs can claim.
| Test | Result | Score |
| Before color temp (20/80) | 6,300/6,525K | Good |
| After color temp (20/80) | 6,450/6,500K | Good |
| Before grayscale variation 20 to 100 IRE | +/- 67K | Good |
| After grayscale variation 20 to 100 IRE | +/- 47K | Good |
| Color of red (x/y) | 0.674/0.325 | Poor |
| Color of green | 0.284/0.698 | Poor |
| Color of blue | 0.145/0.045 | Average |
| Overscan | 2.5 percent | Good |
| DC restoration | All patterns stable | Good |
| 2:3 pull-down, 24fps | Yes | Good |
| Edge enhancement | Yes | Good |
- See more CNET content tagged:
- HDTV,
- Sony Corp.,
- 1080i,
- 1080p,
- HDMI
User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 140 reviews
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
-
Showing 3 of 140 user reviewsSee all 140 user reviews
-
60 out of 61 people found this review helpful
-
41 out of 43 people found this review helpful
-
40 out of 41 people found this review helpful
"Stunning statement piece. Don't base anything on in store audition."
- See all 140 user reviews Write review
