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Sony Bravia 3lcd Rear Projectors - Any Good?


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At $499 it's 30% of the cost of the television. :blink:

Bearing in mind Sony's price for the lamp in the USA is $199, the Australian price is a shocker even after taking into account the exchange rate and GST.

I suspect it will deter a few from buying the TV.

$250 is far more reasonable, but what recourse would there be if the eBay replacement from Japan was a dud ?

\

From memory,this was all covered in the SXRD thread and why all this drama??Just unecessary repetition.

Worst case scenario is that it will cost $1.60 a week or so for the lamp based on the full price-cant you afford that?

I think Owen mentioned there would be a power saving in any case,so the actual cost is less.

Why worry so much until the event happens-if the Ebay unit breaks down it will be replaced under the sellers guarantee,as he is a reputable Powerseller.

If not-big deal!

Unless you are actually thinking about buying one,why worry in any case?

Forget the lamp issue -there is none-concentrate on the TV.

The salesman at Retravision told me that he could get me the replacment bulbs if needed for $329 but said he would be surprised if I needed them before 4 years or so in which case they would more than likely be cheaper anyway.

Good one-within a few years,the lamps will have come down in price-certainly by the time it takes to buy a new one!

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Forget the lamp issue -there is none-concentrate on the TV.

The price of the lamp relative to the price for the units is far higher in Australia than it is in the US.

For example the RRP for the 50" 3LCD in the US is $1799 and Sony's price for a replacement lamp is $US199 or 11% of the price of the unit.

In Australia the 50" 3LCD unit has an RRP of $2499. Sony's price for the replacement lamp is $499 or 20% of the price of the unit.

This differential relative to the price of the unit is completely unjustified.

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The price of the lamp relative to the price for the units is far higher in Australia than it is in the US.

For example; for a RRP of $US1799 in the for the 50" 3LCD, a replacement lamp ar $US199 or 11% of the price of the unit.

In Australia the 50" 3LCD unit has an RRP of $2499. Sony's price for the replacement lamp is $499 or 20% of the price of the unit.

This differential relative to the price of the unit is completely unjustified.

What has this to do with the TV under discussion-can you please stay ON TOPIC.

Otherwise can you start up your own thread.

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About $1650-everyone was happy and you havent lost their goodwill for future service! :blink:

$1650 for the 42" is pretty good!

Maybe by Xmas the 50" will be around 2K!

Sony Central in Melbourne had last year's 50" showing a HD loop of Whistler in Canada and it looked pretty nice. One thing I noticed was that there seemed to be darker patches in some sections of the screen.

I would actually prefer the 50" - would the larger screen size be more susceptible to any possible differences in brightness than the 42"?

N

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Good one-within a few years,the lamps will have come down in price-certainly by the time it takes to buy a new one!

I wouldn't be so sure about that either. There will be a captive market for bulbs from those who have purchased the units. For a printer I purchased several years ago the cost of replacing the black and colour toner was 40% of the price of the printer. The price of the toner has remained largely unchanged in the years since.

What has this to do with the TV under discussion-can you please stay ON TOPIC.

Otherwise can you start up your own thread.

The price of these units and of their replacement components is part of the topic. If it is something you do not wish to discuss, then you do not have to participate in that part of the discussion.

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$1650 for the 42" is pretty good!

Maybe by Xmas the 50" will be around 2K!

Sony Central in Melbourne had last year's 50" showing a HD loop of Whistler in Canada and it looked pretty nice. One thing I noticed was that there seemed to be darker patches in some sections of the screen.

I would actually prefer the 50" - would the larger screen size be more susceptible to any possible differences in brightness than the 42"?

N

Should think you could buy one now for around that-the listed price at Sony Central for the 50" inSydney is $2299-00 before you start haggling! :blink: Just tell em you will buy it for $2K!

Cant say for sure about the brightness issue-I also noticed the 50" seemed a bit off compared to the 42"-but of course you can play around with the iris and brightness,contrast settings-

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At $499 it's 30% of the cost of the television. :blink:

In the overall scheme of things, $1650 is not a lot of money for a 42" TV set, if it offers exceptionally good colour*, beyond that offered by standard LCD or Plasma panels.

We live in a disposable world with advancing technology. Just try selling a 4 year old personal computer and see what % of the purchase price (adjusted to current dollars) you can get. And new medium-sized CRT TV's are currently dirt cheap compared with just a few years ago.

The Bravia 3LCD RPTV's may not sell well on the 2nd hand market. They have a reasonably high resolution (1280x720), but not 1920x1080 which in a few years' time can be expected to be the norm.

If trying to selling the unit in say 4 years' time, a prospective buyer might be reluctant to take the risk of having to replace the lamp shortly after purchase. However, with any luck, there will be some cheap "OEM" versions of the lamp in the future! Perhaps that is the comforting hope.

P.S. I don't think Dr Smith has gone off topic. Pricing is an important aspect of a product, including the price of replacement parts.

*Though I must say the Bravia 3LCD I saw recently didn't seem to have as good colour as a 70" JVC LYCOS unit, also 1280x720 pixels. (Am not sure why the JVC looked so good. It seemed to be set for a brighter "colour temperature". Outdoor sunlit scenes looked very natural.)

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"Though I must say the Bravia 3LCD I saw recently didn't seem to have as good colour as a 70" JVC LYCOS unit, also 1280x720 pixels. (Am not sure why the JVC looked so good. It seemed to be set for a brighter "colour temperature". Outdoor sunlit scenes looked very natural.)"

(1)Look at the price difference

(2)Adjust the Sony colour temp

VOILA!

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In the overall scheme of things, $1650 is not a lot of money for a 42" TV set, if it offers exceptionally good colour*, beyond that offered by standard LCD or Plasma panels. We live in a disposable world with advancing technology. Just try selling a 4 year old personal computer and see what % of the purchase price (adjusted to current dollars) you can get. And new medium-sized CRT TV's are currently dirt cheap compared with just a few years ago.

The Bravia 3LCD RPTV's may not sell well on the 2nd hand market. They have a reasonably high resolution (1280x720), but not 1920x1080 which in a few years' time can be expected to be the norm.

If trying to selling the unit in say 4 years' time, a prospective buyer might be reluctant to take the risk of having to replace the lamp shortly after purchase. However, with any luck, there will be some cheap "OEM" versions of the lamp in the future! Perhaps that is the comforting hope.

We had a budget of about $2500 but were more than happy to purchase this and save some money for other things because in our view it has a better overall picture than anything in that price range.

I must admit that this TV will not be everyones cup of tea and most certainly for people who upgrade on a regular basis as I agree that resale on any projection device will degrade more quickly with known life expectancy of lamps.

However in my situation we hoard our gear like it was gold and when we are ready to upgrade we make sure that we wring it out and get every last drop we can from it.

Our LG CRT widescreen will now be migrated to the bedroom and the Sony will take pride of place in the living room.

We viewed quite a few TV's over the last 2 months or so and bang for buck this one offered the best option to us for price and quality of picture.

I am certainly not saying that it beat all the plasma and LCD's viewed against it but we would have had to add roughly $1000 to the price to get something which in our view had an equivalent picture so for us the Sony won.

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Well said, byte-me. I think quite a few of us are hoarders, and resale value is not really an issue.

"Though I must say the Bravia 3LCD I saw recently didn't seem to have as good colour as a 70" JVC LYCOS unit, also 1280x720 pixels. (Am not sure why the JVC looked so good. It seemed to be set for a brighter "colour temperature". Outdoor sunlit scenes looked very natural.)"

(1)Look at the price difference

(2)Adjust the Sony colour temp

VOILA!

Well I certainly agree the colour from the Bravia 3LCD units should look good, because of the technology. It splits the lamp light into three colours before the light reaches the LCD subpanels, using quality filters (a dichroic mirror process), so colour should be top-notch. (Quite different to LCD panels which need to incoporate a layer of colour into each sub-pixel in the manufacturing process.)

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In the overall scheme of things, $1650 is not a lot of money for a 42" TV set, if it offers exceptionally good colour*, beyond that offered by standard LCD or Plasma panels.

We live in a disposable world with advancing technology. Just try selling a 4 year old personal computer and see what % of the purchase price (adjusted to current dollars) you can get. And new medium-sized CRT TV's are currently dirt cheap compared with just a few years ago.

The Bravia 3LCD RPTV's may not sell well on the 2nd hand market. They have a reasonably high resolution (1280x720), but not 1920x1080 which in a few years' time can be expected to be the norm.

If trying to selling the unit in say 4 years' time, a prospective buyer might be reluctant to take the risk of having to replace the lamp shortly after purchase. However, with any luck, there will be some cheap "OEM" versions of the lamp in the future! Perhaps that is the comforting hope.

*Though I must say the Bravia 3LCD I saw recently didn't seem to have as good colour as a 70" JVC LYCOS unit, also 1280x720 pixels. (Am not sure why the JVC looked so good. It seemed to be set for a brighter "colour temperature". Outdoor sunlit scenes looked very natural.)

The 3LCD's are keenly priced in comparison to other similar LCD and plasma sized options, but we are being ripped off with the price of the lamps in Australia. An increased awareness of this will hopefully encourage Sony to price it's lamps at a more reasonable level. For pricing parity with the US (as a proportion of RRP), Sony's RRP for the 3LCD lamps should be around $280 each.

The present price of the lamps will no doubt have an adverse effect on the prices that could be obtained when selling the units 2nd hand. The same will apply for the SXRD units if the lamps for those units are similarly priced out of proportion in relation to the price of the units.

If I purchase a 3LCD, it will only be as an interim measure for a couple of years until 1080i/p is more firmly established and better priced. If the lamps were to remain expensive then hopefully I would not need a replacement. I would however lose out to some extent when trying to sell the unit as noted above.

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As an owner I can only say the lamp sidetrack is a complete non-issue,but anyone who feels they cant afford the dollar or less per week to cover lamp depreciation,obviously should not buy, as they must be incredibly financially disadvantaged and therefore cannot afford such an outlay.

I would strongly encourage such a person to spend this amount on life essentials,ie food.

As regards worrying about second hand resale value 6 years down the track, all old TVs have about as much resale value as old computers or socks-ie zero- unless you are lucky or are prepared to spend a lot of time and effort trying to find a buyer for very little gain,which probably few are.

Lamp or no lamp,the value will be close to zero , when the lamp finally snuffs it.

My strategy is to enjoy the unit for as long as possible and until there are worthwhile programs which warrant full HD-which certainly isnt the case at the moment.

In a few years time,when the technology warrants it,I will buy a more advanced set and give the current one away.

Notice I have managed to put the immense worry about the lamp to the back of my mind and I am also not planning the strategy for resale at the moment :blink:

That would be the absolute least of most peoples worries :D

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Notice I have managed to put the immense worry about the lamp to the back of my mind and I am also not planning the strategy for resale at the moment :blink:

That would be the absolute least of most peoples worries :D

For someone who claims to have put the lamp to the back of their mind you appear to be having difficulty letting go of this aspect of the discussion.

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For someone who claims to have put the lamp to the back of their mind you appear to be having difficulty letting go of this aspect of the discussion.

Regrettably,you keep on bringing in non issues and trivia and I feel it is only good manners to respond,even though I would dearly love to return to some mainstream issue

One point of interest,why are you so interested in the 3LCd and the SXRD-are you actually going to buy one?

This I would doubt,as most of your comments are so negative.

If I may enquire,what are your purchase plans and what do you own at the moment?

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Regrettably,you keep on bringing in non issues and trivia and I feel it is only good manners to respond,even though I would dearly love to return to some mainstream issue

One point of interest,why are you so interested in the 3LCd and the SXRD-are you actually going to buy one?

This I would doubt,as most of your comments are so negative.

If I may enquire,what are your purchase plans and what do you own at the moment?

Do you work for Sony, or are you just a troll ?

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I'm not too sure how this became a debate about lamp prices as anyone who buys a projector knows they use them and that they have a certain shelf life.

If you have a problem with lamp costs then simply do not buy a projection device and then the problem is solved.

I made the choice knowing the price of lamps before purchase and weighed up the pros and cons.

Each of the new technologies have their faults and for each person they have to make a choice as to which for them is the lesser of evils.

Plasma burn in - LCD dead/bright pixels, image persistance - projection lamps etc etc.

For me the better picture quality and reasonable price was the reason I chose the 3lcd.

The cost of replacing lamps maybe 4 or more years down the track really didn't enter the equation as I will cross that bridge when I come to it, but I did find out a price before purchase so that I was informed about the cost when the time comes.

Others may choose another path but this is the path I chose and I am happy with my choice.

If the lamps were $600+ I may have swayed in another direction but at $329 thats not even a dollar a day, I spend more than that on smokes and iced coffees :blink:

Lets not see this thread degenerate into a Sony bashing thread as we all come here to share our experiences with our hardware so that others may make an informed choice of what to buy based on personal experiences rather than the often biased review sites we all know and love.

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Lets not see this thread degenerate into a Sony bashing thread as we all come here to share our experiences with our hardware so that others may make an informed choice of what to buy based on personal experiences rather than the often biased review sites we all know and love.

I'm not bashing Sony, rather I have pointed out that the price of their lamps relative to the prices of the underlying rear pro's is far higher in Australia than it is in the US.

Some may not care about this and that's fine, but I would suggest that for the majority of potential buyers, the cost of replacement lamps is a consideration.

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If local suppliers of lamps want to charge exorbitant mark ups that’s their choice, we don’t have to play along.

Personally, I would go around them and purchase OS, stuff em.

It’s about time that free trade agreement worked in our favour. :blink:

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I'm not bashing Sony, rather I have pointed out that the price of their lamps relative to the prices of the underlying rear pro's is far higher in Australia than it is in the US.

Some may not care about this and that's fine, but I would suggest that for the majority of potential buyers, the cost of replacement lamps is a consideration.

So if the 3lcd was $3000 to purchase that would make it a better buy as the price of the lamps would be more relative to the cost of the TV itself?

You cannot compare the cost of overseas products with the costs here as different import duties and taxes are involved and purchase quantities so it really isn't relative at all.

The US may buy 1,000,000 lamps at a time so the purchase price would be less as they have a larger population whereas Australia may purchase 100,000 lamps at a time which makes the purchase price more expensive.

If a plasma dies, its dead replace the whole unit as the panels are not repairable at an average price of $1700 - $2500.

If a lamp dies, I replace the lamp and I am up and running again.

Lamps at $330 I can replace 6 lamps at lets say an average of 3 year lifespan which gives me about 9 years of TV at a worst case scenario. Total cost for 9 years veiwing is $3800 roughly.

If the plasma dies every 3 years then total cost for 9 years veiwing is $7500 worst case.

Which is more relative?

Also you keep mentioning 2nd hand value and I would again say that if you are looking at buying a TV with the intention of selling it relatively quickly you would not even consider a projection device for this reason so that point is really not even a consideration.

I'm not saying that replacment lamps are not a consideration as they certainly are but you seem to be making a larger than life issue over the cost of a known consumable item.

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Good one-byte-me,you are 100% correct. :blink:

Was going to ask you,did Retravision have a range on display-they certainly gave you a keen price.

My local Retravsion is so hopeless that all they stock are toasters and the like.

Watched some garbage film last night with Eddie Murphy on Foxtel-but the PQ was so good,I had to see it to the bitter end!

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Can anyone comment on the viewing angle? Whats it like for people looking at it from say a 45 degree angle?

And how does sd digital tv and dvd look?

I currently use a 86cm toshiba hd crt and everything from sd to hd looks crystal clear, but if i 'upgraded' to the sony lcd would i take a noticeable step back in picture quality?

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So if the 3lcd was $3000 to purchase that would make it a better buy as the price of the lamps would be more relative to the cost of the TV itself?

You cannot compare the cost of overseas products with the costs here as different import duties and taxes are involved and purchase quantities so it really isn't relative at all.

The US may buy 1,000,000 lamps at a time so the purchase price would be less as they have a larger population whereas Australia may purchase 100,000 lamps at a time which makes the purchase price more expensive.

If a plasma dies, its dead replace the whole unit as the panels are not repairable at an average price of $1700 - $2500.

If a lamp dies, I replace the lamp and I am up and running again.

Lamps at $330 I can replace 6 lamps at lets say an average of 3 year lifespan which gives me about 9 years of TV at a worst case scenario. Total cost for 9 years veiwing is $3800 roughly.

If the plasma dies every 3 years then total cost for 9 years veiwing is $7500 worst case.

Which is more relative?

Also you keep mentioning 2nd hand value and I would again say that if you are looking at buying a TV with the intention of selling it relatively quickly you would not even consider a projection device for this reason so that point is really not even a consideration.

I'm not saying that replacment lamps are not a consideration as they certainly are but you seem to be making a larger than life issue over the cost of a known consumable item.

The price of Sony's lamps relative to the price of the unit in each country is far higher in Australia than it is in the US and that is a comparison nett of exchange rate and market size. See here.

If Sony's lamps last as long as plasma as you claim in your comparison, then why is it not possible to purchase an extended warranty for the lamp ?

Furthermore, why do extended warrantiis for the unit specifically exclude the lamp ?

Why are you defending Sony's lamp pricing in Australia ?

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