Sony Bravia TV's

[mwdxer1]

I have a Toshiba 32" 720p TV set I am looking to replace in time. It does well in SD which I still watch a lot of either old shows or DVD's. So many of the newer sets do so poor in SD. But a friend suggested I look at the Sony Bravia series as he claims the 75" 900 series set he has does very well in 480i. Now I do not want anything that big, but I wonder if the smaller Sony's would do as well in SD. I have looked at a couple on Amazon in the 42-50" size for $650. Anyone have an experience in the new Bravia series? Finding a 1080i or 4K set that plays SD well is hard. My sony has a 42" Samsung 4K set and SD is horrible. The artifacts and break up is terrible, unwatchable. Thanks.

 

[navychop]

I have a 65” 900. Works very well with all signals.

Wish I’d bought the 75”.

 

[osu1991]

I've said it before. SD looks fine on my 4K Sony 75in 900E and on my 4K LG 75in S7 something (not sure what the model series is on it) and a 3yr old 50in LG. I watch quite a bit of SD on them along with HD and 4K. My sister has the 55in Sony 900E and SD looks good on it. Actually probably a little better on the smaller screen.

 

[cosmo_kramer]

I picked up a 55" 850G late last year and I'm very happy with it. I've always been a Sony guy when it comes to TVs.

TBH, I don't watch a lot of SD, but when I do catch an older show on an OTA subchannel it does look pretty good.

The Dish HD is very good and the 4K from the streaming apps is outstanding on this set.

 

[mwdxer1]

Thanks for all of the feedback. I checked and I see the 55" even has V/A ports so I could use a smaller one, if available in the bedroom. I am happy to get all of the feedback, as I know my old 32" 720p Toshiba will not last forever either. But I watch a lot of SD both streaming and OTA. Many old shows are not available in anything other than SD. Even my old video tapes running like 250p-300p look decent on the Toshiba. I guess paying $700 for a good Sony compared to $400 on a Samsung makes a difference. There is a lot of cheap junk on the market.

 

[harshness]

Fortunately for you, Toshiba has backed out of many of their consumer electronics businesses (and a few of their commercial ones too) so you are no longer tied to a brand. If you see their name on a TV, know that it isn't a product of the Toshiba that you remember.

TVs are one of those things that you can't really take anyone's word for when it comes to obscure content (especially when it comes to videotape). Next time you roll into the big city, take a USB drive with you to Video Only with some of your favorite content. Since you're reliving your youth with much of your TV, I highly recommend that you bring some black and white content to the audition. I've seen several TVs have a particularly difficult time getting it right. Even some of the better sets of a few years ago had serious problems with soap opera effect on B/W.

Don't short yourself on sound either as the old lo-fi audio combined with trashy sound quality on the TV can be very fatiguing and that will ruin the experience fast.

Finally, I doubt that this will be your last TV so don't spend months trying to pick one out. Modern TVs don't seem to last as long as the old ones did and it isn't just because their smart features grow stale in a few years. You'll probably be looking at a TV with a NextGen TV tuner in five years anyway.

 

[mwdxer1]

Thanks. It is not I like I am really needing a new TV at this time, so I can look around. The Toshiba still works well and I still have my old Toshiba 30" EDTV CRT as a back up if needed in a pinch. But with the virus situation, it will be sometime until I can go into Portland. I can always record to a DVD as I have a Toshiba 480' DVD recorder and then copy it to a thumb drive from the computer. As I really do not have anyway to record directly from the TV to a thumb drive as far as I know.
I love the old stuff I grew up with and even farther back. It is too bad not much of it has been converted to better quality.

 

[Jimbo]

The quality of the older stuff your viewing has a lot to do with how it was originally produced.
The quality you see on various TV's alot is due to the quality of the Processor in the TV your looking at.
Sony's higher end have the best Processors on the market, been that way for awhile now.
Sony's -800 and 900 are thier higher end (without going into the OLED side of things)

The lower end is generally in the -600 and -500 ... The -600 I have used and they do a decent job, but the 8 and 900 models is where you get your better processors.

 

[harshness]

I love the old stuff I grew up with and even farther back. It is too bad not much of it has been converted to better quality.

A lot of that older stuff was filmed on 16mm or less so it wasn't great to start with so capture to full HD is perhaps not worth the effort. Spending the time to do a pan and scan on something that so few can hope to appreciate (due to not being able to comprehend the historical context) is a fool's errand.

 

[Radioguy41]

It's a shame you aren't closer, I have an older Sony Bravia 46" I bought new that you could have for free and it's in perfect working order. I replaced it with a 55" just for the bigger screen.

 

[arlo]

I had a 900E for a few weeks and brought it back for a 930E.
Mostly for a firmware issues I found out was common to both. Sony eventually ironed it all out.
Love my 55". A little over 2 years now. Great picture.
It seems to handle all picture formats very well. If you get one and don't like it you can always return it.
I just put HLN at 528X480 into letterbox and full screen and a necktie was crystal clear.

 

[cosmo_kramer]

It's a shame you aren't closer, I have an older Sony Bravia 46" I bought new that you could have for free and it's in perfect working order. I replaced it with a 55" just for the bigger screen.

I was in the same boat. I had an old 46" Bravia for many years (early 1080p days) that was still working well, but I wanted to upgrade to a bigger screen, 4K, and apps. My daughter got the hand-me-down.....

 

[harshness]

If you get one and don't like it you can always return it.

That may be easy where you live, but for mwdxer1, the round trip to a store with lots of premium choices is perhaps 150 miles or more. There's a Costco about a dozen miles away but Costco doesn't carry the 900 -- they carry the X850G that sports an IPS display with a considerably wider viewing angle but not nearly the other performance specs.

 

[arlo]

That may be easy where you live, but for mwdxer1, the round trip to a store with lots of premium choices is perhaps 150 miles or more. There's a Costco about a dozen miles away but Costco doesn't carry the 900 -- they carry the X850G that sports an IPS display with a considerably wider viewing angle but not nearly the other performance specs.

lol. i could grow corn faster than it takes me to drive to the closest best buy here. and our closest costco here has more butter churns than toilet paper. so you read reviews and ask people like us and then drive or hope to hell ups doesn't smash the sum-bitch up.

 

[Cheddar_Head]

Upscaling SD and OTA content. This is where the more expensive brands justify their additional cost.

HiSense/TCL/Westinghouse and all the other lower-tier brands do not do well at upscaling of content.

The Sony 900F is probably your best bet for good upscaling and reasonable pricing. The 900F design is a couple of years old but they still manufacture them and the pricing is very good for a mid-tier TV made by one of the high-end brands. Best Buy has the 65" 900F for $1000.

 

[harshness]

i could grow corn faster than it takes me to drive to the closest best buy here.

The Smurf Palace isn't the first establishment that comes to my mind as a source of premium quality TVs. Best Buy almost always gives me a headache -- even when I order online for in-store pickup.

 

[arlo]

The Smurf Palace isn't the first establishment that comes to my mind as a source of premium quality TVs. Best Buy almost always gives me a headache -- even when I order online for in-store pickup.

"if they anger you, they have won. besides, i have a full mag and one in the hole"

 

[navychop]

My 900 has no viewing angle problems.

 

[solarvic]

I thought the new 900-h is suposed to be a next gen tv. .

 

[mwdxer1]

The quality of the older stuff your viewing has a lot to do with how it was originally produced.
The quality you see on various TV's alot is due to the quality of the Processor in the TV your looking at.
Sony's higher end have the best Processors on the market, been that way for awhile now.
Sony's -800 and 900 are thier higher end (without going into the OLED side of things)

The lower end is generally in the -600 and -500 ... The -600 I have used and they do a decent job, but the 8 and 900 models is where you get your better processors.

I see there is a Sony 800 that has a 43" screen for $600. That might work. The 32" 720p Toshiba I have does okay in SD, but not as good as my old Toshiba EDTV CRT, but reasonably close. I figured at the time not going to 1080i and still getting HD, 720 is closer to 480, so the processor would not have to be as good. I would of looked at a Sony at the time, but my old CRT went out (later got it repaired), so I bought the 32" Toshiba at Fred Meyer. We had little choice around here. I liked Toshiba and the pq on SD was better that a 1080i Vizio or Samsung.