Sony KDS-60A2020

Well let us go ahead and take a look at the astonishingly awesome statistics of the Sony KDS-60A2020. We believe you'll love it. Seriously you'll absolutely be mad for it. Like always, I attempt to uncover and also present the finest finds attainable anywhere on the world wide web right below the statistics.

Today's Review By: Vickie Smith

The Sony KDS-60A2020 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 black cabinet. A silver strip 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-60A2020 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. While we would have appreciated glow-in-the-dark keys or other illumination, the longish remote generally stands out as a model of ergonomics. It 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 (aka 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.

As we mentioned at the top, the KDS-60A2020 lacks some of the most cutting-edge features that likely will be found in upcoming HDTVs, such as the company's own 2007 XBR models, which we expect to be announced in June. We don't have full details on those new HDTV sets yet, but we expect some of their features to include Sony's xvYCC wide-gamut color, a higher refresh rate, more HDMI inputs (probably version 1.3) and a better-performing PC input, possibly DVI. We don't expect any groundbreaking picture quality improvements however. The Sony KDS-60A2020 uses exactly the same LCoS-derived, SXRD-branded chips as its predecessor, the KDS-60A2000.

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.

Deals for this product