SONY KDF70XBR950 70-Inch LCD Projection TV

Product Review

Pushing the limits of big-screen technology for the home, Sony's incredible 70-inch KDF-70XBR950 projection LCD television will practically put you on the playing field for your favorite sports events. The set also houses integrated NTSC and ATSC (HDTV) tuners. Nevertheless, the perfectly flat LCD TV uses an amazingly lightweight and slim-bodied chassis and stands a mere 19 inches deep, giving you maximum image with minimal space investment.

The set's liquid-crystal display frees you from having to make convergence adjustments or having to worry about image burn-in. Instead you get incredible detail (more than 3 million pixels), high contrast, and even, corner-to-corner brightness from the set's user-replaceable 100-watt UHP (ultra high pressure) lamp.

The screen features a wide, 16:9 aspect ratio to match the dimension of most movies and HDTV broadcasts, and the KDF-70XBR950 offers compatibility with standard-definition 480i, enhanced-definition 480p, and high-definition 720p and 1080i signals. Sony's Digital Reality Creation (DRC) circuitry ensures high picture resolution, while proprietary Direct Digital Circuitry increases a video signal's signal-to-noise ratio before it reaches the DRC circuit, ensuring rich, natural-looking images from any source.

Sony's CineMotion 3:2 pulldown detection and reversal is a handy feature for watching progressive-scan movie programs in their native 24-frame format. Digital video mastering introduces a common distortion when adjusting 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video; 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects this distortion, removing the redundant information to display a film-frame-accurate picture.

The set's WEGA Engine system maximizes picture performance from any video source by minimizing the number of digital-to-analog conversion processes. This full digital processing engine includes Sony's MID-X (Multi Image Driver), which maintains the integrity of a converted signal by minimizing image loss in the scaling process; and a proprietary optical engine, which employs a trio of Sony's wide-XGA, high-resolution LCD panels, 1 for each of the RGB signals (resulting in 3.28 million dots of resolution).

The optical engine also features a special 11-element lens system responsible for the lightweight, ultra-slim cabinet. The lens system bends the light path, creating an ultra-short focal point while maintaining high brightness. This proprietary system delivers vivid images from the center of the screen all the way to the edges.

TwinView PIP (picture-in-picture) lets you view any 2 sources simultaneously, even at different image resolutions, while the built-in Memory Stick media slot offers ready display of both JPEG images and MPEG-1 video. A DVI-HDTV input affords a direct digital hookup with a compatible DTV receiver or digital cable box. Top-of-the-line high-definition-capable component-video inputs minimize digital and line-scan artifacts from compatible video sources (480i, 480p, 1080i), while standard composite- and S-video inputs accommodate all DVD players. You can label the set's video inputs and channels for easy selection.

Channel Fix automatically sets TV to a specific channel (such as 3) for cable box control, letting you switch channels on the cable box via the TV's universal remote control without altering your TV setting. The Control S feature (input/output) lets you use the set with other Sony components, controlling all with a single remote control, and only ever pointing the remote at the TV--not each piece of gear.

What's in the Box
TV, remote control, remote batteries, a user's manual, and warranty information.

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