Price Paid:  $1300.00 from Sony Outlet

Summary:
None

Strengths:
Great sound, picture quality at reasonable price.
U need to buy this 2 belive it.

Weaknesses:
Very heavy

Similar Products Used:
None

Price Paid:  $2500.00 from Bleekers Sterio and TV

Summary:
Well it's taking me two years to review this product. Man am I ever disapointed. The TV was great for about the first 8 months, then the brightness and banding problem creeped up. I have had 4 different technitians at 4 seperate times come in to service it. So far the problem persists. This is a direct quote from Sony Labs here in Canada dated the 3rd of December 2001

"As I mentioned to you, this "uneven brightness" symptom is not 100% fixable, But replacing the shielded coil, part # 1-419-754-11 and reducing the sub-brightness setting by 3 adjustments stops is the best compromise to avoid degrading the picture performance. This is considred acceptable by our Factory Standards"

How the hell can they say that it is acceptable. I have been fighting with sony for the last year for a TV that I paid/w stand $4100CA, had to take 4 days off($200/day) of work and is not to my standards.

So far I have spent about 5k Canadian for a TV that I am not happy with at all.

With over 15k of home theater setup, good thing this is my only sony component. or I would have 15k of junk instead of mear 4.5k.

Strengths:
Piture quality minus the uneven brightness and banding

Weaknesses:
different brightness across the screen

Similar Products Used:
none

Price Paid:  $1600.00 from Cardinal Electronics

Summary:
Using a Sony DVP-550S DVD player connected to the component video inputs. The picture is stunning when properly calibated. (Used Avia DVD for calibration.) Colors appear very lifelike with no bleed. The picture is so detailed that textures of fabrics are evident.

The picture mode must be set to movie in order to disable velocity modulation scanning. The velocity modulation scanning is extremely aggressive and will cause excessive outline distortions, especially on text.

There is a small amount (10-15%) of red push, while green is about 10% below the blue output. There appears to be no way to adjust the color decoder on this model.

Using both component, and S-Video inputs from the DVD player, there is a slight variance in color saturation, and hue. Unfortunately there is no way to make individual settings for each input.

The only real problem with the set is the horizontal variance of brightness. The left side of the screen has a noticibaly darker verical band (aproximately 1 to 2 IRE darker than the center of the screen), and the right side has a very slightly lighter band. Although this is only noticable when the screen is dark, I believe that it occurs even when the screen is displaying a bright picture, but that it is just not as visible. At the same location as the left dark vertical band, the picture is also distorted (width reduced). This is noticable when panning, as it makes it appear as if there is a dip in the screen near the left side.

Overall a great set, but the brightness problem needs to be fixed.

Strengths:
Superb picture and color quality.

Weaknesses:
Brightness banding. Inability to make individual settings for different inputs.

Summary:
After owning this set for a couple of months, and watching many DVDs, I can honestly say this is a great set -- No regrets! The remote is easy to use. The on-screen menus are intuitive, and settings are preserved even after a power outage. The picture is so sharp that some sub-standard cable channels look noticeably poor compared to others.

Strengths:
Great picture, vivid colors, low glare, great sound

Weaknesses:
Price

Summary:
For those who have already bought a 250XBR:

My unit was made in July '99. I've read about the reviews before buying it and hoped that my set wouldn't have the (1) color uniformity and (2) banding problems, but it did. There's enough reviews here to describe what I'm talking about. The geometry and scan lines are another story. For me (in regards to all the problems reviewed), I can deal with it don't really notice it, unless I look hard for it.

I waited until Sony came out with a fix until I wrote this review. I had a Sony serviceman look at my set last November and he forwarded my problems to Sony. It took about 6 months from the day I first complained about the problem to when Sony came out with the "fix". Good news and bad news; the "fix" was some kind of "shielded coil". The serviceman replaced the old coil with the new one. This "fix" got rid of the vertical "pink" band found on the right side of the screen. I was really happy. It was my biggest complaint.

However, it did not resolve the color uniformity problem; looking at the screen from the left to the right, the "black" on the left is darker than the right. The serviceman took note of it again and we'll just have to wait until Sony comes up with a "fix" for this issue. As always, Sony will only look into it seriously if enough people, like us, complain about it. They did a good job of resolving the vertical band. I'm thinking a few more months for this (color uniformity) fix. On the other hand, there might already be a fix for it during the design of the XBR400. Some person in the review of the 36XBR mentioned about changing the "Y-DC TO ZERO FROM ONE" in the service menu. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me.

Briefly, overall the picture is sharper and brighter than any other brand out there, in any input mode. The "flat" screen makes the screen look bigger. I'm very satisfied.

The geometry and scan lines is something you all can adjust to your desire (though not to perfection), so that's not an issue to worry about.

If anyone is wondering what video component I have hooked-up to my Wega:
1. CinemaQuest YIQ1 Component cable. I wonder if Canare is better. Does anyone know? I assume Canare.
2. Sony S7700 DVD

Strengths:
Sharp picture, bright colors, "flat" screen.

Weaknesses:
Color uniformity problem and vertical "pinkish" band.

Similar Products Used:
I haven't used anything considered as "similar".