Unless you have alot of bright light in the room, forget LCD. Plasma is simply better technology for viewing angles, black level, colour accuracy, motion, etc. Get a Panny 800 or 850 series set and forget the Sony, the Panny will give you a much better picture and they have better customer service. Also if you want to spend big bucks get a Pioneer Elite Kuro.
Couldnt agree more, the only reason to get an LCD is if you either want a light in your living room or like not being able to see what is going on in dark scenes of movies.
I have been thinking for a while about setting up a review site for stuff like this. Cnet saying it has good black levels is a joke. They are either stupid or being paid by Sony.
I am not sure about your complaint with CNet and black levels. CNet explains quite clearly that the black level test is "a subjective test, measured by eye against a reference display". For this test the television can receive one of three values: GOOD, AVERAGE, POOR. This Sony is clearly better than the average LCD on the market and thus got a rating of good.
Since there are only three possible values for a score CNet often puts extra information in the review body to clarify the rating. Reading the review on the Panasonic Viera, CNets top rated HDTV right now, you will see that the black level here is nearly as good as it gets. It is compared directly to the Pioneer Kuro which according to CNet is still the best possible blacks.
If you look at the best TVs page: http://reviews.cnet.com/best-hdtvs-overall/ You will see that it is quite clear how the TVs stack up to each other in not only black levels but also overall performance. In fact in the short descriptions you will see the Viera referred to as having "great black-level performance" while the Kuro has "deepest shade of black".
CNet actually agrees with you 100% that the plasmas are better televisions. In fact they think the rear projection 55A3000 is a better television.
One last thing. CNet recognizes and admits to the black-level test being subjective. They are currently in the process of setting up a quantitative black-level test that will be put in place hopefully this year.
I actually would like to see your review site. Please let us all know when you have that up and running with a dozen or so reviews. If your site is better than others I will promote it without bias. However, as of right now I think CNet is one of the best review sites on the web.
“An engineer explained to us that hundreds of ear impressions were gathered in the name of research, and while each one obviously boasted its own unique shape and size, one single characteristic remained uniform across the board: the entrance into the ear canal is not a perfect circle, it's an oval.”
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Unless you have alot of bright light in the room, forget LCD. Plasma is simply better technology for viewing angles, black level, colour accuracy, motion, etc. Get a Panny 800 or 850 series set and forget the Sony, the Panny will give you a much better picture and they have better customer service. Also if you want to spend big bucks get a Pioneer Elite Kuro.
Couldnt agree more, the only reason to get an LCD is if you either want a light in your living room or like not being able to see what is going on in dark scenes of movies.
I have been thinking for a while about setting up a review site for stuff like this. Cnet saying it has good black levels is a joke. They are either stupid or being paid by Sony.
Godskitchen,
I am not sure about your complaint with CNet and black levels. CNet explains quite clearly that the black level test is "a subjective test, measured by eye against a reference display". For this test the television can receive one of three values: GOOD, AVERAGE, POOR. This Sony is clearly better than the average LCD on the market and thus got a rating of good.
Since there are only three possible values for a score CNet often puts extra information in the review body to clarify the rating. Reading the review on the Panasonic Viera, CNets top rated HDTV right now, you will see that the black level here is nearly as good as it gets. It is compared directly to the Pioneer Kuro which according to CNet is still the best possible blacks.
If you look at the best TVs page: http://reviews.cnet.com/best-hdtvs-overall/
You will see that it is quite clear how the TVs stack up to each other in not only black levels but also overall performance. In fact in the short descriptions you will see the Viera referred to as having "great black-level performance" while the Kuro has "deepest shade of black".
CNet actually agrees with you 100% that the plasmas are better televisions. In fact they think the rear projection 55A3000 is a better television.
One last thing. CNet recognizes and admits to the black-level test being subjective. They are currently in the process of setting up a quantitative black-level test that will be put in place hopefully this year.
I actually would like to see your review site. Please let us all know when you have that up and running with a dozen or so reviews. If your site is better than others I will promote it without bias. However, as of right now I think CNet is one of the best review sites on the web.