I got the KDS-R60XBR1, and I'm thinking I should have gotten an extended warranty.
There's a lingering problem where it will occasionally start blacking out. If it's going to do it, it does it within the first minute of being on, and it continues to do it every 5-10 seconds until I turn it off for maybe 15 minutes. After I turn it back on, it's usually fine.
The other problems I've had are discolorations. A very prominent yellow discoloration started appearing on the right side of the screen, right about where the right edge of 4:3 material would be. I don't know if that has anything to do with it. They were able to fix that by replacing the light engine, but now there's a new pink discoloration on the left side since getting it back. I can see why they wouldn't have noticed it. You can't usually see it unless it's a bright white image. Needless to say, I'm worried about these discolorations cropping up again.
My warranty is good until January 30th, so I'm trying to get everything working at 100%, but after that, what? So... I'm trying to get Sony to replace my set. The blacking out worries me, since that's the first problem I called about, and it still hasn't been fixed. The problem is that I can't get it to exhibit that behavior when they're evaluating it. The local repair service needs to come out and look at it again before Sony can decide whether replacement is an option, and that happens next Friday. Wish me luck. I'm going to be trying hard to get it replaced with the new model, along with the option to purchase an extended warranty. That's probably going to be too much of a request, but hopefully there can be a compromise.
That being said, I sure do love the picture.
C.V.
