byte-me Posted November 5, 2006 Posted November 5, 2006 Good one-byte-me,you are 100% correct. Was going to ask you,did Retravision have a range on display-they certainly gave you a keen price. My local Retravsion is so hopeless that all they stock are toasters and the like. Watched some garbage film last night with Eddie Murphy on Foxtel-but the PQ was so good,I had to see it to the bitter end! Our retravision has about 150 or so TV's on display ranging from 34cm CRT's to 60" plasma's which is pretty good as you get to see a wide range of not only sizes but technologies although I must say that they didn't have the 42" 3lcd but they did have the 50". I saw the 42" elsewhere but retravision gave me the best price.
Miki1503560734 Posted November 5, 2006 Posted November 5, 2006 Can anyone comment on the viewing angle? Whats it like for people looking at it from say a 45 degree angle?And how does sd digital tv and dvd look? I currently use a 86cm toshiba hd crt and everything from sd to hd looks crystal clear, but if i 'upgraded' to the sony lcd would i take a noticeable step back in picture quality? The viewing angles are not critical unless you are viewing at a crazy angle-Sony just quote a wide viewing angle . If viewed from above you may have a problem,but I am watching from about 35 degrees below and the only difference is that the sky sometimes seems a bit bluer. SD is excellent-check out my review on page 3,both on Foxtel and on FTA-but you should see for yourself to make up your mind. The only stores who carried the range when i bought mine were Sony Central,but this has changed-byte-me got his from Retravision at a good price Personally I much prefer the current pic compared to our old Wega CRT. As far as I know there only two people on this forum who actually own one at present,with byte-me's due soon-and Treb seemed very happy also Our retravision has about 150 or so TV's on display ranging from 34cm CRT's to 60" plasma's which is pretty good as you get to see a wide range of not only sizes but technologies although I must say that they didn't have the 42" 3lcd but they did have the 50".I saw the 42" elsewhere but retravision gave me the best price. Sounds like the Retravision from heaven-not long now for you!
byte-me Posted November 5, 2006 Posted November 5, 2006 The price of Sony's lamps relative to the price of the unit in each country is far higher in Australia than it is in the US and that is a comparison nett of exchange rate and market size. See here.If Sony's lamps last as long as plasma as you claim in your comparison, then why is it not possible to purchase an extended warranty for the lamp ? Furthermore, why do extended warrantiis for the unit specifically exclude the lamp ? Why are you defending Sony's lamp pricing in Australia ? How is the post you linked me to showing me a comparative costing based on anything but RRP? Can you please link me to the stats you used about overseas import costings, purchase quantities for different countries and the price they achieve based on quantity purchased? Where in my post did I state as fact that the lamps last longer than plasma's? I mearly put forward a different way of thinking about things on a worst case scenario but never stated it as fact. The lamps are stated as lasting 6000 - 8000 hrs so until my lamps die at 100 hrs this is all I can use as a comparison but as you will see I used 3 years as an average which is about half the quoted lifespan based on average usage. They do not offer extended warranties on lamps as they are considered a consumable item which you are not for some reason able to come to terms with. I am not defending the lamp price in Australia mearly stating that it is not a hidden cost so you have the option to not buy this TV if the price for you seems over the top.
Miki1503560734 Posted November 5, 2006 Posted November 5, 2006 How is the post you linked me to showing me a comparative costing based on anything but RRP?Can you please link me to the stats you used about overseas import costings, purchase quantities for different countries and the price they achieve based on quantity purchased? Where in my post did I state as fact that the lamps last longer than plasma's? I mearly put forward a different way of thinking about things on a worst case scenario but never stated it as fact. The lamps are stated as lasting 6000 - 8000 hrs so until my lamps die at 100 hrs this is all I can use as a comparison but as you will see I used 3 years as an average which is about half the quoted lifespan based on average usage. They do not offer extended warranties on lamps as they are considered a consumable item which you are not for some reason able to come to terms with. I am not defending the lamp price in Australia mearly stating that it is not a hidden cost so you have the option to not buy this TV if the price for you seems over the top. May I suggest its not even worth responding to him as he gets obsessed with off topic trivia Dont get sucked in like I did! ps;the lamps cost about $1 per week -end of boring lamp story!
byte-me Posted November 5, 2006 Posted November 5, 2006 Can anyone comment on the viewing angle? Whats it like for people looking at it from say a 45 degree angle?And how does sd digital tv and dvd look? I currently use a 86cm toshiba hd crt and everything from sd to hd looks crystal clear, but if i 'upgraded' to the sony lcd would i take a noticeable step back in picture quality? Once mine arrives and I get it setup I will post some thoughts. In the store I viewed the 42" at was not the best environment however viewing this TV at eye level as I have said cost wise offered the best picture quality. Staying at eye level and moving to about 45 degrees didn't seem to change the PQ too much but at about 90 degrees the PQ was still OK but it did get somewhat darker but this may or may not be attributed to by the environment as it was very light so I will see once it gets here. I must say however that one would have to ask the question as to why anyone would want to watch a TV from this angle. I cannot comment on the SD but watching a DVD was excellent. To be honest I would suggest that you try and go somewhere where you can view something like your TV next to a 3lcd to make an informed choice as you may see things differently than I but in my opinion it is miles ahead of the LG Widescreen CRT that we have at the moment.
Miki1503560734 Posted November 6, 2006 Posted November 6, 2006 Just decided to be nonlazy and actually switched the set on to remind myself about the viewing angle situation. Horizontally,you can almost view parallel with the screen sides,if thats your thing,but vertically the picture does suffer when viewed from directly above. There is more latitude from below-as I said I am viewing approx 35-40 degress off centre without real problems- you could go further.
Pestka Posted November 6, 2006 Posted November 6, 2006 To be honest I would suggest that you try and go somewhere where you can view something like your TV next to a 3lcd to make an informed choice as you may see things differently than I but in my opinion it is miles ahead of the LG Widescreen CRT that we have at the moment. Is that the LG32FS4D?
byte-me Posted November 6, 2006 Posted November 6, 2006 Is that the LG32FS4D? No I beleive it is a RT-32FZ60 Series.
drsmith Posted November 6, 2006 Posted November 6, 2006 I am not defending the lamp price in Australia mearly stating that it is not a hidden cost so you have the option to not buy this TV if the price for you seems over the top. May I suggest its not even worth responding to him as he gets obsessed with off topic trivia Dont get sucked in like I did! ps;the lamps cost about $1 per week -end of boring lamp story! If you consider Sony's price for 3LCD replacement lamps in Australia to be reasonable, I'm not stopping you from paying that price. It's easy to part a fool from their money.
hairy coo Posted November 6, 2006 Posted November 6, 2006 Hello all, Wondering if you could help; I have an old (well 7 years) Pana CRT which is still working well,but the pictute sure looks small compared to whats on offer now. Saw one of these the other day and it looked really good. Byte-me ,I see you had CRT,how do you think the pictures compare between the Sony and the old CRTs Cheers Hairy
byte-me Posted November 7, 2006 Posted November 7, 2006 Hello all,Wondering if you could help; I have an old (well 7 years) Pana CRT which is still working well,but the pictute sure looks small compared to whats on offer now. Saw one of these the other day and it looked really good. Byte-me ,I see you had CRT,how do you think the pictures compare between the Sony and the old CRTs Cheers Hairy Hi Hairy I still have not picked mine up however I was lucky enough to view the Sony and the upgraded model of my LG at the same place which was great as it gave us a better perspective as to just how much of an improvment there was to be had. The environment at the store was very light so probably not the best viewing area but it was like comparing black & white to color and this was comparing it to the upgraded model of ours. The difference watching a DVD on the 2 of them (with the same player) was extreme and that was hooked up with component so I have no idea if or how much difference HDMI will make. Bearing in mind that only minor fine tuning would have been done in store but even like it was it was excellent so I am sure with some proper tuning and adjustments it would only get better. Much better imaging and color seemed more natural and not forced, excellent blacks, all in all it was enough to sell us on it over many others in that price range. We had a certain budget and this fell well under which was a bonus as even some of the makes slightly above, say up to about $2500 in different formats did not seem to have as good a picture so we could not justify spending the extra money to get little if any improvment. Had the difference between our old LG and the Sony been marginal at best we may not have bought anything at all until next year but once you see what you are missing out on it is alot easier to let the moths out of your wallet.
hairy coo Posted November 7, 2006 Posted November 7, 2006 byte-me Sounds great,but I noticed someone said there only a few actual owners on the forum. At this price,you would think they would be gobbled up. Why do you think this is? Is something wrong with them? cheers Hairy
byte-me Posted November 7, 2006 Posted November 7, 2006 byte-meSounds great,but I noticed someone said there only a few actual owners on the forum. At this price,you would think they would be gobbled up. Why do you think this is? Is something wrong with them? cheers Hairy There may be quite a few reasons why but I would be speculating. A few guesses would be that people may have a larger budget so they are looking at TV's in the $3500 - $5000 price range and I must say that I did see a Panasonic that caught my eye but it was $5000 so way over my budget. Personal preference as some swear by plasma, others LCD, others projection it is at the end of the day personal choice after all and you buy the best thing for you in your price range. Some people just flat out hate Sony. My mate hates them with a passion and even if the TV was $100 he would not buy it, but me I don't care either way, make, model whatever is best at the time in my opinion is the one I will buy. Just a few guesses. Certainly do not go and buy one cause I have given it a thumbs up, as this is just my personal opinion. Have a look at one and see for yourself and you may or may not like it. You may love the plasma or LCD sitting right beside it but for the dollars it is certainly in my opinion worth a viewing. Just buy the one that rocks your boat!
hairy coo Posted November 7, 2006 Posted November 7, 2006 Wierd-so theres no good reason at all -sounds like some sort of price snobbishness. Some people think unless you spend a fortune-the product must be RS I saw one and I reckon they looked tremendous-especially compared all the other similar price crap as sold at Woolies and KMart etc. Must go and have anothet squizzie cheers and thanks hairy
Miki1503560734 Posted November 7, 2006 Posted November 7, 2006 hairy Agree with everything byte- me said My impressions of the 42 incher on page 3 may answer a few questions also. best of luck.
Miki1503560734 Posted November 7, 2006 Posted November 7, 2006 The 3LCD range only have one HDMI input. This splitter cable to provide for two inputs could prove useful down the line. http://www.pacificcable.com/Picture_Page.asp?DataName=DVIY-9 *edit-actually only for splitting a signal from one source to two displays*- a box would be the way to go.
BlueJ Posted November 8, 2006 Author Posted November 8, 2006 Got lots of junk mail today...must be getting close to Dec 25th then. Front page of the Target catalog is the 42" for $200 less than the Sony RRP. Interest free deals are available through GE, so taking the cost of that into account I would think a cash price some $350 less than Sony RRP could be negotiable? I think the fact they are on sale at Target pretty well illustrates the 'target' market for this product...people shopping on price...after something affordable and cheerful. Maybe that's why the members of this forum aren't falling over themselves to buy one...wrong demographic in general?
byte-me Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 As I said I am not sure why the TV is what I consider to a be a great price considering I viewed it against other TV's well above it's price point and in my opinion it came out on top. One possible reason is they may be trying to recoup some of their lost 500 odd million loss from the battery fiasco, as in general Sony prices have always been that little bit above the rest but of late they have been priced competitively and in the case of the 3lcd below. Just speculation of course. Had I known that Target was selling them I could have been the first person ever on a audio/visual enthusiast forum to say I bought my TV from Target
Owen Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 The Sony 3LCD is a good unit. Know one needs to be apologetic about purchasing one.
BlueJ Posted November 8, 2006 Author Posted November 8, 2006 One possible reason is they may be trying to recoup some of their lost 500 odd million loss from the battery fiasco, as in general Sony prices have always been that little bit above the rest but of late they have been priced competitively and in the case of the 3lcd below.Just speculation of course. Hmmm....how about some more speculation then? Maybe the presence of the SXRD sets at the top end has allowed Sony to push the 3LCD sets downmarket. Their RPs now span a price range of $2,000 to $7,000 or so. For sure they are chasing volume with the 3LCD sets. I agree that the 3LCD value is outstanding if the build quality expected in a Sony is indeed present. I can't imagine a (hypothetical) Sony 42" LCOS being less than $3,500, which would mean there would be a large margin to pay for theoretically better black levels, contrast and response time. I'd better get the missus down to Target for a look at the set. Then maybe I can change my username to bullseye-buyer lol. The Sony 3LCD is a good unit.Know one needs to be apologetic about purchasing one. Cheers Owen I agree, quality and value speak for themselves. My impression of many of the forum members is that they demand and can afford the best - apart from me, obviously. So they don't buy value sets simply because they don't need to. The rest of us can be pleased that quality can now be purchased for a fraction of its historical price.
byte-me Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 I agree, quality and value speak for themselves.My impression of many of the forum members is that they demand and can afford the best - apart from me, obviously. So they don't buy value sets simply because they don't need to. The rest of us can be pleased that quality can now be purchased for a fraction of its historical price. Each of us has different requirements and different budgets but for me the TV was always the thing that was just a bit too expensive to compliment my humble HT setup. We do not have a big room nor a dedicated room for the setup and we are just about to start some renovations as well so quality on a buget was our main aim and the Sony was the thing we had been waiting for , a decent 42" with good PQ under $2000. All up our setup would be worth about $5000 which includes the TV (bargain hunters that we are) and we have allocated another $600 or so for some decent cabling and interconnects just to finish the package off. It is by no means a cheap crappy setup but it would pale in comparison to most of the setups from other guys on here but for us it is just the ticket as the other things we wish to do take preference.
Owen Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 No need to spend $600 on cables mate, $30-$40 is plenty Any more and you are pissing money up the wall. You can make very good quality cables with some cheap connectors from JCar and some decent quad shield RG6 cable for stuff all.
Miki1503560734 Posted November 8, 2006 Posted November 8, 2006 BlueJ, You're back after starting the thread! My thinking about the 3LCD pricing is that Sony have finally woken up to the fact that they are missing out completely on the huge budget market and they have deliberately value- costed the current range to sell,but not many people seem to be taking advantage of it. The previous 42" for example sold for $1000 more than the current one. Having them on sale at Target obviously means their new strategy is to attract the budget customers. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the quality,either the PQ or build. For example,apart from our Hitachi having a metal chassis,our Sony at half the price otherwise is better in almost every way. After extensive viewing,I also felt it was generally at least the equal of almost everything I saw in the stores,mostly better. The brightness of this range is a revelation and the PQ on good feed,like the Channel 10 High Definition demo,is amazingly lifelike. I think one of the reasons they arent taking off locally is that most people feel there must be something wrong with them at this price level. They just sound too cheap.As Hairy pointed out,there is a reverse price snobbishness at work. You are correct,the current selling price for example,for the 42", after haggling,should be around $1600 to $1650,no more .Sony Central have them at $1799 before haggling.If you cant get the price-go toThe Electric Discounter-they are very keen.However these prices would be without finance. An absolute screaming bargain.. byte-me as Owen said about the cables-also dont forget the scart to component cable with the box set to YUV,if you have Foxtel, to get an SD picture This mob are even cheaper than Jaycar-have been recommended by other forum members. http://stores.ebay.com/Selby-Acoustics
byte-me Posted November 9, 2006 Posted November 9, 2006 No need to spend $600 on cables mate, $30-$40 is plentyAny more and you are pissing money up the wall. You can make very good quality cables with some cheap connectors from JCar and some decent quad shield RG6 cable for stuff all. as Owen said about the cables-also dont forget the scart to component cable with the box set to YUV,if you have Foxtel, to get an SD pictureThis mob are even cheaper than Jaycar-have been recommended by other forum members. http://stores.ebay.com/Selby-Acoustics Cheers Guys I know I can get cheaper cabling but I would prefer to buy something half decent just incase I do upgrade at some point then i don't have to buy the cables again. I don't have pay TV so that won't be an issue. I have bought stuff off Selby Acoustics before and they are not too bad but this time I was thinking of buying from Greg at Home Theatre Custom Cables He has had many recommendations from various channels including here and his prices are quite reasonable. Also I am hoping not to spend the whole $600 but that is just our budget.
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