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Sony KDS-A2000 review: Sony KDS-A2000

Sony KDS-A2000

David Katzmaier Editorial Director -- Personal Tech
David reviews TVs and leads the Personal Tech team at CNET, covering mobile, software, computing, streaming and home entertainment. We provide helpful, expert reviews, advice and videos on what gadget or service to buy and how to get the most out of it.
Expertise A 20-year CNET veteran, David has been reviewing TVs since the days of CRT, rear-projection and plasma. Prior to CNET he worked at Sound & Vision magazine and eTown.com. He is known to two people on Twitter as the Cormac McCarthy of consumer electronics. Credentials
  • Although still awaiting his Oscar for Best Picture Reviewer, David does hold certifications from the Imaging Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Standards and Technology on display calibration and evaluation.
David Katzmaier
15 min read
Intro
Sony has enjoyed a lofty place on our top HDTV products lists for a long time, first with the KD-34XBR960 CRT television, then with the KDL-V40XBR1 LCD, and most recently with the KDS-R60XBR1 rear-projection, our highest-rated HDTV for 2005. So it stands to reason that we'd expect big things from the less-expensive successor to the 60XBR1, Sony's KDS-60A2000 ($3,699). On paper, this HDTV offers just about everything its predecessor delivered: an SXRD light engine, full 1,920x1,080 (a.k.a. 1080p) native resolution, and scads of inputs and picture controls. It also brings a couple of improvements, including the ability to accept 1080p sources via HDMI and a more compact cabinet. In person, its image quality is just as impressive, delivering all the sharpness of the highest-resolution HDTV formats, excellent black level performance, and good color. Of course, it also costs a few hundred more than some of its competition, but if you're looking for the state of the high-def art, it's worth it.

Editors' note: When we first received our KDS-60A2000 review sample we noticed that it could not resolve any of the finest details in a 1080i test pattern. When we showed Sony's engineers the failed pattern, they promised to look into it. After issuing a vague preliminary statement that was originally printed here, the company followed up by admitting that some models in the field may indeed be incapable of resolving all of 1080i. Click here for details.

8.0

Sony KDS-A2000

The Good

Can produce deep blacks with excellent shadow detail; can resolve every line of 1080 resolution sources; compact design with bottom-mounted speakers; incredible amounts of picture control; ample connectivity with dual 1080p-compatible HDMI inputs, three component-video inputs and a PC input.

The Bad

Somewhat expensive; inaccurate primary colors; no picture-in-picture; disappointing VGA connection.

The Bottom Line

Although more costly than its DLP competition, the excellent picture quality of Sony's KDS-60A2000 will be worth the difference to most viewers.

Sony also provided instructions that allowed us to modify the service menu to address the issue ourselves (we encourage owners who want to get the fix for their TVs to contact Sony directly). After the fix, our KDS-60A2000 passed the test pattern normally. Overall, we don't consider this issue a deal-breaker either way, since we found it impossible to discern prefix images from postfix with normal program material. See the Performance page of this review for more.

Series info: This review is of the 60-inch version, but our comments apply to every screen size in the series, namely, the 55-inch KDS-55A2000 and the 50-inch KDS-50A2000. Meanwhile the company also sells a step-up XBR2 series with different features, albeit very similar performance. See the KDS-R60XBR2 review for details. The Sony KDS-60A2000 has tighter dimensions than earlier Sony SXRD rear-projection televisions, thanks to Sony's wise decision to move the speakers from the sides to the bottom. Its big 60-inch screen is surrounded by a thin, black frame that's set forward from the mostly silver cabinet. A subtle strip of translucent blue-green runs the width of the cabinet's front, sitting above the perforated silver speaker panels and a flip-down door that hides a few principal controls as well as a set of inputs. Overall, we found the look attractive enough, striking a nice middle ground between the understated Panasonic PT-61DLX and the ultraslick Samsung HLS-6187W.

Measuring 55.75 by 39 by 20 inches (WHD) and weighing in at 94 pounds, the Sony KDS-60A2000 is right around the same size as the 61-inch Samsung, although about 3 inches deeper. To get this "tabletop" 60-inch HDTV up to eye level, you'll have to put it on a stand such as Sony's matching SU-RS11X.

Sony also retooled its remote for 2006, and while we would have appreciated glow-in-the-dark keys or other illumination, the longish wand generally stands out as a model of ergonomics. The remote can operate three other devices, and naturally, the company behind Blu-ray took care to equip its clicker with device controls for BD/DVD gear. The big central cursor control falls naturally under the thumb, and just enough shortcut keys are available to quickly cycle through picture, sound, and wide (a.k.a. aspect ratio) settings. A convenient tools key calls up a couple oft-used submenus, including picture and sound modes, wide-screen controls, and closed-captions.

The tools menu is even more welcome, because the main menu key summons a seemingly unnecessary interstitial screen that seems too focused on tuner controls: three of its five options pertain to cable and antenna channels, which cable and satellite box owners will rarely, if ever, utilize. Otherwise, Sony's menu design is characteristically clean and thoughtful throughout, offering text explanations of various functions and generally logical progression from basic to advanced functions. We also like the input menu, complete with options to label (with custom names as long as 10 characters) used connections and skip unused ones.

The Sony KDS-60A2000 uses exactly the same LCoS-derived, SXRD-branded chips as its predecessor, the KDS-R60XBR1. There are a total of three chips, one each for red, green, and blue, each with 1,920x1,080 discrete pixels. This arrangement differs from that of DLP-based 1080p displays, which generally use a single chip and a color wheel to produce red, green, and blue. The Sony's 1,920x1,080 pixels exactly match the resolution of 1080i and 1080p HDTV sources, and should deliver their every detail (see Performance for more). Other sources, including 720p HDTV, DVD, and standard-def television, are scaled to fit the pixels.

Conveniences on the KDS-60A2000 include a freeze option that devotes half of the screen to a still image, but notably missing is picture-in-picture and its variant, side-by-side viewing. If you want to watch two sources simultaneously on this set, you're out of luck. Sony did throw in the requisite ATSC tuner but neglected CableCard on this model; you'll have to step up to the KDS-XBR2 series for that. In case you're comparing, the XBR2 also offers a different version of DRC processing for standard-def sources (we won't know whether it's an improvement until we test it), an extra HDMI input--but one fewer for component-video, picture-in/and-picture, and a more powerful bulb--120 watts vs. 180, which we don't expect to make a big difference in terms of performance since the A2000's bulb is plenty bright already.

The KDS-60A2000 offers myriad picture controls--no less than its XBR2 cousin, according to Sony. Settings for the standard brightness, contrast, and so forth can be saved individually to each of the three adjustable presets, labeled Standard, Vivid, and Custom. In addition, each of these presets is independent for each input, so your contrast setting in Custom for Input 7, for example, can be different from the contrast level in Custom for Input 6 (Sony likes to call contrast picture, by the way). This provides a huge amount of flexibility in adjusting the picture for different sources, lighting conditions, and user preferences.

We appreciate the four color-temperature presets--the default for Custom, Warm 2, comes closest to the standard--but we're annoyed that only the two least-accurate are available in Vivid and Standard modes. Other picture adjustments include iris, which affects the light output and contrast, with five fixed modes and two that adjust according to picture content; five noise reduction settings; three DRC settings; and a DRC palette control. The last two control Sony's video processing--which bears the always-rib-tickling name of Digital Reality Creation--and are available only with standard-def, 480i sources. We'll cover the effects of these settings in Performance.

There's also an additional menu section labeled Advanced Settings that appears only when you're in the custom-picture preset. In general, your best bet is to leave all of these set to Off. The options include a four-step Black Corrector, which is best left to Off to preserve shadow detail; a five-step gamma control, which is best turned off for the most linear rise from black to white (although Low is better if you have some ambient light since it brings up shadow detail a bit); a three-step Clear White control that belongs in Off, since the other settings just make whites look bluer; and a four-step Live Color setting that seemed to make reds more intense, although Off provided the best color balance. A four-step Detail Enhancer should be left to Off with already-sharp sources such as HDTV and even DVD, since it introduces unnatural edge enhancement, and there's another four-step control entitled Edge Enhancer that had no effect that we could discern. Finally, the Advanced Settings menu offers a white-balance setup screen that includes 20 steps each for Red, Green, and Blue gain and bias, in case the out-of-the-box color temperature doesn't come close enough for your liking.

We tracked down a few more picture-affecting options in other menus. The Screen menu offers a solid selection of four aspect-ratio controls for both standard-def and high-def sources. The zooms modes allow you to adjust the horizontal and vertical position--as well as the vertical size--of the onscreen image. We appreciated the unique option to specify how the set deals with 4:3 programs, as well as the option to automatically detect wide-screen shows and properly size the picture. A Display Area control adjusts overscan; the default normal setting exposes the most picture area to your eyes.

And yes, there's more. The setup section of the menu seems the fashionable place to stash a Game mode. Sony's engineers claim that it skips most of the set's video processing to eliminate the possibility of delay between the controller and what happens onscreen, but during testing we experienced none, whether the mode was switched on or off. The setup menu is also where you'll find CineMotion, Sony's name for 2:3 pulldown detection, which performed spottily at best in our tests. A power-saver mode is available to limit light output. We left it turned on although it reduced light output by only 25 percent, which is a pretty small reduction compared to such modes on other sets. And while the manual claims that engaging it improves black level as well, we couldn't see any improvement. You also can choose between standard def (ITU601) and high-def (ITU709) colorspace for each resolution--a nice option, but usually you'll want to leave these at default settings.

Around back, you'll find a solid complement of inputs, including two HDMI with 1080p input capability (they'll accept more-common 1080p/60fps sources but not 1080p/24); two component-video, one A/V with composite- and S-Video, one A/V with composite-video only; one VGA-style PC input (1,366x768 maximum resolution, a disappointment for a 1080p HDTV); and one each antenna and cable RF inputs. There are also an analog audio output and a digital optical audio output for use with the Sony's ATSC tuner. In an unusual move, the company's designers included a third component-video input on the front panel instead of an S-Video, joining it with standard composite video and analog audio inputs.

(Update 11/14/06) Like all microdisplays, the Sony KDS-60A2000 uses a lamp that must be replaced periodically. That lamp, the XL-5200, retails for $250 and has a "recommended bulb exchange period" of 8,000 hours. The Sony KDS-60A2000 delivered excellent picture quality, with deep black levels, plenty of detail in shadows, exemplary grayscale tracking, and excellent overall detail. Its color reproduction isn't as accurate as we'd like, and it has some issues with standard-def processing, but overall, it's still one of the best 1080p HDTVs we've tested.

After noting that the Custom picture preset provides the best home-theater image quality, we tweaked some settings to adjust the Sony KDS-60A2000 for critical viewing in our darkened lab. This involved reducing its peak brightness to a suitable level (about 37 footlamberts) and setting the advanced user controls as described in Features. We also set the Iris control to Minimum, electing not to go with either of the Auto settings because their increased light output had a tendency to raise black levels somewhat in scenes with both light and dark content--although some viewers may appreciate the extra punch of Auto. And while the default Warm2 color-temperature preset hewed relatively close to the standard, it still appeared a bit blue, so we used the user menu white-balance settings to achieve a remarkably accurate grayscale. Although professional calibrators may still want to go into the service menu to get the grayscale even closer, we were more than satisfied by the results we achieved with the user menu controls. Click here for our complete settings.

The disc we chose to use for this evaluation was the dark, stylized, and razor-sharp The Chronicles of Riddick HD-DVD played through the Toshiba HD-A1. The Sony immediately impressed us with its depth of black; as the Necromongers' ships wheel toward the planet, for example, the blackness of space behind the star field matched the black of the letterbox bars, and both appeared positively inky next to that of the Panasonic PT-61DLX76, which we had on hand to compare. We were not able to directly compare the Sony's blacks to those of the Samsung HL-S5687W, but black-level and contrast-ratio measurements confirmed that the two were very similar in this regard. The Sony also did an excellent job of maintaining shadow detail in scenes with lots of bright material as well as mostly dark scenes, and colors remained consistent in shadows and bright light, a testament to the Sony's excellent grayscale tracking.

So far so good, but as we mentioned at the outset, the KDS-60A2000 review sample that we received failed one of our resolution tests. We always test 1080p HDTVs for their ability to resolve every line of a multiburst resolution pattern, which, when rendered in 1080i on a 1080p HDTV, should be perfect, with alternating white and black lines in the highest-frequency area. Last year's Sony KDS-R60XBR1 passed this test, as did the Panasonic, and while Samsung HL-S5687W did not quite pass, it could deliver almost all of the pattern. The KDS-60A2000 failed to resolve any detail in the highest-frequency areas via any of its high-def inputs, including HDMI, component-video, and ATSC. Sony told us that the set we received was a preproduction model, however, and gave us a service-menu-level fix that caused the KDS-60A2000 to pass the test perfectly via HDMI and component-video, although it still failed via ATSC.

Back in the real world, away from test patterns, things assumed some perspective. We were able to compare Riddick both before and after the fix, switching rapidly back and forth between the two, and the difference was negligible. In the star field mentioned above, we saw the same tiny pinpoints of light both before and after the fix. When the city on the planet's surface wheeled into view, its lights and structures appeared the same, with plenty of detail visible in areas such as the circular capital-looking building. We also looked at a few other HD-DVDs, such as Swordfish and The Bourne Supremacy, and the fix was again impossible to discern. When we compared the Sony directly to the Panasonic, details looked equally sharp and lifelike, from the chainmail links in the neck of the main Necromonger to the cityscape before it blacks out, to the thin strands of curly hair on the edge of Kyra's (Alexa Davalos) profile.

Moving on, the Sony KDS-60A2000 did a solid job with color, delivering neutral skin tones throughout Riddick as well as in more colorful material we watched. However, primary colors on the SXRD were inaccurate, falling outside the norm for the HD spec (see the Geek box), so they might appear a bit garish to some eyes. We turned down the color control somewhat to help compensate but were still able to maintain good saturation.

The Sony had no problem accepting 1080p/60 sources delivered by the Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player, although 1080p/24 material from our Sencore VP-403 signal generator was not accepted. We also looked at resolution patterns via component-video; they were solid, although, as with any 1080p HDTV, we recommend setting your sources to 1080 output when possible. The KDS-60A2000 exhibited excellent white- and gray-field uniformity for a three-chip display, varying very little in color across the screen, although its middle was brighter in relation to the corners of the screen when compared to the single-chip Panasonic DLP. Focus was superb, and very little fringing was visible on white lines, pixel structure was invisible from further than arm's length from the screen, and the Sony suffered from less false contouring or banding than any set we've recently reviewed.

In terms of standard-def performance, the Sony KDS-60A2000 offered more than its share of surprises. A lot has been made of the fact that the step-up KDS-XBR2 line includes a different version of the company's DRC processing, and while we can't speak to whether it's better overall than the DRC used by the KDS-60A2000, we can say that the latter could use some improvements. First off, it failed to correctly detect and implement 2:3 pull-down detection according to tests from the HQV disc as well as Star Trek: Insurrection, introducing concentric lines of moiré and unnatural moving lines on the upturned boats, respectively. [08-14-06 Update: After this review posted Sony mentioned that we might experience improved performance by turning off DRC and turning on CineMotion, a setting found in the setup (not the picture) menu. In these settings the Sony still failed to pass the HQV test although moiré was reduced slightly, and on Insurrection it still exhibited sporadic moving lines via composite and S-video, while component-video was fine. Overall A2000 still delivered disappointing 2:3 performance compared to almost all late-model HDTVs.]

Second, it didn't do a very good job of removing jagged edges from moving video, such as the stripes in a waving American flag. The results of these tests were the same, regardless of which DRC preset was used or how we adjusted the custom "reality vs. clarity" DRC matrix--don't ask.

On the other hand, the Sony's detail with standard-def sources was excellent, and its ability to reduce video noise was among the best we've tested. We looked at standard-def resolution patterns, and the Sony aced them in DRC Off mode, while High Density looked a little softer and Progressive (the other two DRC modes) looked unstable. Turning from test patterns to real video, the shot of the bridge from HQV was commendably sharp in all three modes via component-video, although via S-Video it softened up considerably in Off. The shots of noisy sky from HQV, which wreak havoc on many HDTVs, looked much smoother in the KDS-60A2000's highest noise-reduction setting with no apparent loss of detail, and even the Auto mode--available in composite and S-Video only--did a good job of engaging the correct level of noise reduction.

Xbox 360 performance: We also tried playing a couple of video games on the Sony with our Xbox 360--Dead or Alive 4 and Prey--and the picture looked excellent. We didn't notice any delay from controller to screen whether or not the set's Game mode was engaged. With composite-video, turning Game mode on did have the effect of softening the picture considerably, obscuring details in the ridges of one of the guns in Prey, for example, but that's to be expected, since engaging Game Mode skips video processing. With component-video 1080i, we noticed no difference in picture quality regardless of Game mode setting.

We also tried connecting the 360 via the VGA adapter, and the console did not fill the Sony's screen, regardless of which adjustments we made on the console of the TV itself. Component-video looked much sharper and also filled the screen.(Thanks to David Rudden for 360 testing).

PC performance: We hooked the Sony up to a PC via VGA, and as expected, the set maxed out at 1,366x768 resolution. The desktop did not nearly fill the screen, and furthermore, according to DisplayMate, the Sony couldn't resolve every line of resolution; text indeed looked pretty soft, even after we engaged the set's automatic calibration for PC.

When driven by an HDMI input connected to a DVI adapter, however, the Sony's PC picture quality improved significantly. First off, the set had no trouble accepting a full 1080p source, and it did resolve every line, although the image was overscanned significantly; the edges of the screen, including the entire Windows toolbar for example, were invisible. We couldn't adjust it properly in the Sony's menu system, but our GeForce 7900GTX video card's HDTV Overscan Compensation came in really handy. When we selected the Underscan option, it fit the screen perfectly; displaying at 1,824x1,016 pixels. Of course that's not full 1,920x1,080, and we'd prefer not to have to make these kinds of tweaks--a "dot by dot" aspect ratio would be a big help--but it's safe to say that computer display via HDMI really outclassed the Sony's VGA input.

KDS-60A2000 picture-quality comparisons

Vs. existing KDS-R60XBR1: We were not able to test the XBR1 and the A2000 side-by-side, but we really do not expect the latter's ability to accept 1080p signals to provide a major picture quality improvement. Most other aspects of performance will be identical, including black levels and color reproduction, although white- and gray-field uniformity seem to be improved on the A2000. Overall we recommend the XBR1 over the A2000, as long as it's available, because of its better standard-def performance.

Vs. Samsung HL-S5687W: Again, we did not have this Samsung DLP on hand to directly compare, but in previous testing, it delivered similar black levels, better primary color accuracy, and superior standard-def performance. On the other hand, its characteristic DLP rainbows may be visible to some viewers, and its tendency to accentuate reds is something the A2000 doesn't share. The Sony scored higher in performance, but the Samsung's 61-inch equivalent is probably a better value to viewers who aren't bothered by rainbows.

TEST RESULT SCORE
Before color temp (20/80) 6,821/6,776K Good
After color temp 6,529/6,547K Good
Before grayscale variation +/- 303K Good
After grayscale variation +/- 59K Good
Color of red (x/y) 0.680/0.320 Poor
Color of green 0.287/0.698 Poor
Color of blue 0.144/0.046 Average
Overscan 2.5 percent Good
Black-level retention All patterns stable Good
2:3 pull-down, 24fps No Poor
Defeatable edge enhancement Yes Good

8.0

Sony KDS-A2000

Score Breakdown

Design 8Features 8Performance 8