Hello all! I've been a longtime reader & always try to check the forums for info. but now I just need to ask for some advice directly. My husband got a couple bonuses recently & I sold some stuffs on eBay for unexpectedly high amounts and have therefore been given permission to buy a new TV. It's Christmas in October & then back to being frugal & saving & paying bills like good doobee's... but that won't be so bad with a super pretty screen to soothe us in the evenings right? Right.

The two models I have in mind are both 50" screens by Sony & they're both 1080p but there's a big enough difference in price & features to make my head hurt trying to decide.
1. Bravia KDF-50E3000 3LCD
2. Bravia SXRD KDS-50A3000

If I err on the side of cost & go for the E-series set what do you think the odds of regret are? Are all the addtl. features on the SXRD set really worth all the extra dollars? It should be noted I'm super picky about picture quality & proper tweaking so I don't want to buy cheap & feel cheap but if the differences between the two are actually marginal, then I'll of course save the $$ and get the E-series tele.

I've done searches in the forums to try & find more specifics about these but I was only getting hits on KDL series sets, I apologize if I missed a thread and have made board clutter with thise one... I would really appreciate any advice/opinions with this "tie breaker".

Thank you very much!

PS: What we do with our TV: NO sports, no actual TV (we have super getto cable channels 1-20). We use the TV for 40% DVDs / 50% gaming / 10% PBS. The Xbox 360 is the house favorite & I'm addicted to Media Center & Transcode360. We still play the PS2, Gamecube, & even the Dreamcast!

Also, I've been setting up a CPU with the Litestep shell and some games & I want to make it the TV CPU because it seems like it will be really nifty on a screen that huge, if I can get it all working nicely that is ;p

PPS: Sorry for the longwinded post!

The additional cost isn't really related to the extra features. You're comparing apples to oranges. The two sets you've listed use completely different technologies (the first is an LCD rear-projector; the SXRD uses LCoS).

For what it's worth, I have last year's 50-inch SXRD and love it. I much prefer the picture quality to that of an LCD rear projector. For one thing, it has deeper blacks and better shadow detail. For gaming, LCD can be iffy. I'm not sure about this particular model of Sony LCD, however.

Wow, and I thought my wife was good with technology

I think the general consensus is that SXRD provides a better picture than a standard LCD rear projection set. It's my understanding that SXRD sets are pretty good for video gaming as well.

If those were my choices I'd go SXRD without even thinking twice.

I've got two SXRD sets and couldn't be happier. I'm dying to pick up the new 60" Bravia-branded SXRD that runs 24fps... but I just can't justify $2400 on a TV upgrade.

would it help knowing that they dropped the price? its $1840.00 at amazon right now (pricematch if you want to onecall) and most other places have it at $1899. the 50" dropped down to $1499.

Thanks for the for the replies all! I had kinda had my mind made up already but I really appreciate the help, I really just needed some extra voices to help me realize this: "order the freakin' TV already!"

So I went and ordered the KDS-50A3000 and it got her SUPER fast. Like TODAY fast and the order only went in on Wednesday. Yay! It's super pretty and holy crap, Gears of War is just amazing. Oblivion is gorgeous, and Beautiful Katamari is more like crack than ever

I did order it from Amazon too, that was the best price I found and the free shipping was like icing on top. It's like the best day ever, big, lovely TV and the female in me is psyched about the great deal!

Now I just have to stop eating my head messing with all the settings and I have to be good and wait to buy a new DVD player (I want to get the Oppo-DV981, about 1/4 of our DVD's are not R1 and many are PAL format, arg) but the Xbox HD drive will not wait, especially with that rebate/freebie deal at BB.

Also, for anyone thinking about the KDF-50E3000, the one I almost bought was from Vanns (via Amazon) because they had it for a mere $1149. I think they've now bumped it to $1179 but that's still a fabulous price.

The Oppo is an excellent region-free player and does a good job of converting PAL to NTSC. It's a good match for the Sony SXRDs (it's the setup I have).

Ugh... still don't have the expendable cash for that, but that is a tremendous deal. If either of my TVs ever bust, the PRP will be going directly toward that model immediately...

Rather than start a new thread, I also have a question regarding two Sonys. My dad did the preliminary research and settled on these two as his finalists. I'm curious why one is $600 more and whether it's worth the extra cash. Both are in stock and the prices list as per Amazon.

Sony Bravia KDL-46V3000 46"1080p LCD HDTV $2150 VS
Sony Bravia XBR KDL-46XBR4 46" 1080p LCD HDTV $2785

Any help would be appreciated.