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74 of 77 people found the following review helpful.
High style and high performance
By Chambolle
I will admit up front that I am a complete HDTV newbie. I hung on to a 20 year old, 22 inch CRT color "monitor television" for far too long, in part because I do not watch much television programming (a bit of baseball, PBS, occaisional Law & Order reruns, that sort of thing) and in part because the whole HDTV techno nerd thing was too intimidating. After much online research and a few surreptitious visits to Big Box electronics stores, I finally settled on the 40XBR9 and bought it from an Amazon seller -- and could not be more pleased with my selection. The picture quality is simply riveting. The menus are reasonably user friendly and I have not found it all that difficult to calibrate for optimum results in a softly lighted room. With minor tweaking, the factory defaults work well for most cable television programming. I used the CNET suggested calibration for movies on the 52XBR9, and it works very well on this 40 inch unit.This is a beautiful television. The bezel is as slim as they come and is an unadorned, moderately glossy black. While it is not a small television, it is not too overbearing for a medium sized bedroom or office. Considering its slender bezel, and the fact that there are no visible speakers, the sound is more than adequate for watching most TV programming. I purchased a ZVOX 525 sound base and an OPPO blu ray player to go with it. I have yet to watch a blu ray disc, but upscaled DVDs like Ratatouille and Wall-E are incredibly crisp, vivid and detailed, with wonderfully natural color, deep, pure blacks and brilliant whites and grey tones. With sound from the ZVOX, this is a wonderful way to enjoy movies in a moderate sized room without an enormous investment of time and money and without a lot of wiring and equipment monopolizing the space.The one down side is that the XBR9 is not very forgiving of poor quality source material. My local cable provider still offers a limited selection of true HD content. SD television does not fare well on this set, although with some tweaks you can get acceptable picture quality -- ratchet down the sharpness so the poor resolution is not obvious, use a 4:3 aspect ratio rather than 'stretch' the image to fill the screen, so the perspective is not distorted, turn down the brightness and restrict the color range to avoid the exaggerated and artificial hues that seem to be part and parcel of SD TV, and you get a reasonable picture on par with a decent CRT. But once you've seen good quality 16:9 HDTV content, you will be somewhat disappointed with SD sources.This competes head to head with the high end LCD and "LED" TVs from Samsung. I think it beats them for at least two reasons. First, the Samsung models have a very glossy, "wet look" screen, which is really a distraction. Under some conditions, it gives the picture more "pop," but except in a darkened room, the glare problem is insurmountable. Second, the comparable Samsung televisions have wider and more obtrusive bezels with a brilliant piano black finish, which is made even more garish by Samsung's somewhat ludicrous red "Touch of Color" gimmickry. The Samsung design is like over the top prom wear. The 40XBR9 is the electronics version of the perfect, simple and refined little black dress.Prices seem to fluctuate wildly -- the prices quoted on the date of this review are about 15% higher than they were when I made my purchase ten days ago. You may want to keep an eye on the market and catch the next wave of "sales." But you won't buy this TV because it is an inexpensive "bargain" -- you may buy it because dollar for dollar, it will give you the most pleasure during the years it will be in service.TWO MONTHS LATER: Having now had the opportunity to use my Sony 40XBR9 to watch post-season baseball in HD, as well as a number of blu-ray discs, I remain as pleased with my purchase as ever. This has transformed the way we watch movies and cable programming at home. I added a Harmony One remote to the system to avoid the remote control shuffle required to operate the blu-ray player, Zvox, cable box and Sony in tandem. It all works nicely and with a minimum of effort.
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
After months of research, happy at last!
By tasty donuts
PROS: terrific picture, surprisingly good sound, sleek design, effective anti-glare coating, nifty PS3 integrationCONS: compromised off-angle color, no swivel stand, so-so internet functionality, no Wi-FiBACKGROUND: For months, I had been researching 40-46" flat panels to upgrade a 32" Panasonic LCD in the living room (now in the bedroom). Prior to that, I had a 34" Sony WEGA XBR beast (200 lbs) from my bachelorhood days that had to go due to space constraints in our apartment. The Panasonic was purchased in mid-'08 ($580) as a stop-gap until the higher-end LCD's came down in price. But then, our friends got us a PlayStation 3 and Blu-Ray discs for our birthdays, which meant that my wife could enjoy her favorite romantic comedies in full 1080p HD glory, and I could pick up video games again (specifically Call of Duty: MW2)... all of which meant moving up our new-TV timeline!I decided to look at Sony models first, as I had helped a family member pick out a Sony 40W4100 earlier and it turned out to be an excellent TV. I compared them against the Samsung 6-series and 7-series LCD's as well as the Panasonic 42G10 plasma. Though plasma is still superior to LCD in many respects, the lack of flicker-free 24p support on the 42" Panasonics was a deal breaker. LED backlight technology was tempting, but the cost is still prohibitive and the edge-lit models have their issues. I also admit to having some brand bias - I have not had good first or second-hand experiences with Samsung products. Don't get me wrong, in many ways their TVs are comparable or even superior to Sony's, but I still see too many reports of random bugs and reliability issues for my tastes. Besides, I've always felt Samsung pictures to look "boosted" and a little fake in the showroom, and my attempts to calibrate them (admittedly by eye) were never that fruitful.I found the Sony Z and XBR9 series to provide the balance of performance, features, and aesthetics I was looking for. (I considered the W5100, but wanted the newest Bravia Engine 3 which purportedly has improved processing.) The biggest obstacle was price - with so many 40" options under $1k, it was difficult to justify the premium. But I waited and found a terrific package deal on the 40XBR9 just before X-mas, netting me an unbelievable price on the set - cheaper than the Z or even W models!PICTURE QUALITY: As expected from a top-of-the-line Sony, the picture quality is excellent, with rich but realistic color, smooth motion and reasonably dark blacks. If you turn off the fake dynamic contrast as you should, the blacks aren't quite to plasma or LED-backlit standards, but it's still very good (at least 10x better than our Panasonic); only when watching off-angle or in a completely darkened room do I notice the blacks being on the bright side, and when properly adjusted there's little or no "black crush," where anything dark in a scene automatically becomes black. (Samsungs are often adjusted to have black crush to look more contrasty in the showroom - don't fall for it, it's a trick!)There have been complaints of clouding and sparkle artifacts with Sony LCDs, but I see absolutely no sparkling in my set, and if there's clouding (as all LCDs have to some degree) I really don't notice it. Cable programming like HBO HD looks great, PS3 games and Blu-Rays fantastic, and standard-def material isn't too bad either - very watchable, as long as you're not expecting miracles. The picture quality upgrade over the Sony W4100 isn't enormous, but it is noticeable, with deeper, more accurate colors, smoother motion and fewer artifacts. Though the 240Hz MotionFlow still looks a little fake for my tastes, the Bravia Engine 3 is visibly improved over the older Bravia 2 engine. Even if you're not going to spring for an XBR, definitely try to get a model with Bravia Engine 3.FAVORITE FEATURES: Hallelujah, the screen has an anti-glare matte finish instead of the dreaded gloss on so many Samsungs, so glare is really well-controlled - we have no problem viewing with lots of daylight flooding in from a side window. The TV boots up quickly, with picture coming up normally within several seconds, and very little delay acquiring signals or switching resolutions. The PlayStation 3 integration is pretty neat - turn the PS3 on, and the TV automatically turns on; if it's already on, it switches to the right input. Once on, you can navigate the PS3 menu and control video playback through the TV's remote control. When you turn the PS3 off, the TV returns to your previous input. Fully customizable input labels are a nice touch that every TV should include. The side-mounted input jacks seemed odd to me at first, but they actually work really well - they are sufficiently concelead but allow a shallower wall mount as well as easier access. The internet widgets are mostly curiosities, but YouTube worked great, and Netflix/Amazon streaming are useful if imperfect (more on this later).SOUND QUALITY: Most importantly to us (as we don't have a home theater), the sound from the built-in speakers is really excellent. It's reasonably full, with a natural midrange timbre and intelligible dialog. There are 4 speakers - a pair of down-firing woofers and side/back-firing tweeters - which fill out the sound nicely, as long as the TV is placed near a boundary like a back wall (it probably won't work as well in the middle of a room). It's not quite as nice as the sound on my gargantuan old WEGA tube TV, and it won't replace a home theater, but unlike so many Samsungs I've heard it's eminently usable for everyday TV or casual movie viewing.DESIGN: The TV looks great - extremely sleek and streamlined, with a super thin bezel that my wife really likes. It doesn't have the imposing high-tech look of some previous XBR sets with the floating glass design, instead opting for a minimalist design with hidden speakers. We have it sitting on a 16" deep Elfa wall unit and it's very attractive without calling too much attention to itself. For the first few weeks, I was somewhat alarmed at how quickly the glossy black bezel attracted dust (I was wiping it down every other day), but thankfully this has mostly gone away - probably just some manufacturing residue holding a static charge or something. (FYI, the edge trim on ours is a darker charcoal-gray color, rather than the lighter silver I've seen on some earlier showroom models.)CONS: my biggest pet peeve is the limited viewing angles of the LCD panel. If you drift even a few degrees off dead center, colors will fade rapidly, particularly reds. More than 45 degrees off axis and the picture is quite washed-out - the backlight bleed off-axis isn't as bad as our 32" Panasonic, but the Panasonic's IPS panel does a better job maintaining color fidelity. If you have lots of family and friends that like to watch movies together, or do a lot of viewing off to the sides, plasma is still the way to go. The internet functionality, while potentially useful, feels a little immature. Navigating through the interface is limited and sluggish, and some of the internet widgets are so slow as to be barely usable. I only tested Netflix streaming briefly and it did stutter at times, though a recent software update supposedly mitigates this. I still intend to use it, but for best quality, I'll rent the Blu-Ray. I also get the nagging feeling that the menus are a tad more sluggish than on the non-internet-capable W4100 - probably just extra overhead from the more bloated system software.A couple more nits: Wi-Fi really should have been included, and it would have been nice if Sony included a SD card slot for photo/movie viewing, though the limited video codec support makes the latter rather moot. And I really wish the stand swivelled, particularly given the limited viewing angles.In the end though, these gripes are fairly minor, and in a few weeks of ownership haven't detracted from our overall enjoyment of the set.Incidentally, 40" is the perfect size for our living room (12' x 16' or so) - the 9' viewing distance is comfortable and easy on the eyes (my wife says she is squinting a lot less). For a more cinematic experience, or for a lot of game playing, a 46" is a better fit for this distance, but we specifically didn't want the room to become a theater.CONCLUSION: All in all, I'm extremely happy with the 40XBR9! If I were to be really strict, I would probably have to dock a star here and there for the aforementioned cons, but given all the other 4 and 5-star reviews for TVs that I feel are inferior, I'm taking the liberty of grade-curving it up. Highly recommended!UPDATE (1/31/10): I should probably mention that as cited in the CNET review, the XBR9 does suffer from some slight backlight uniformity issues. On a completely dark picture, patches of the screen will be slightly lighter than others. On my particular set it's only really noticeable in the top left corner against a black screen. Also, when using a HDMI splitter and my DVR in 720p output mode, the Sony was a bit finicky locking onto the signal and displayed an "unsupported signal" error (my Panasonic had no issues). However given that HDMI splitting can be rather marginal in and of itself, I don't consider it a major problem. (Switching the DVR to 1080i, which is a better setting for a 1080p TV anyway, was an easy workaround.)PICTURE SETTINGS: Here is my calibration by eye, using test patterns on the PS3 and a blue filter. For Blu-Ray movies, I use the theater mode.Picture mode: CustomBacklight: 4 (theater: 3)Picture: 85Brightness: 50Color: 55 (theater: 58)Hue: G2Sharpness: MinColor Temp: Neutral (theater: Warm 2)Cinemotion: OffFor TV viewing, my settings are (somewhat arbitrarily) slightly differentPicture mode: StandardBacklight: 5Color: 49Cinemotion: Auto 1All other features (noise reduction, black corrector, etc.) are always OFF. For the most accurate picture, don't use that stuff!Motionflow is set to OFF except for some video material such as sports which can benefit from it. For film-based material I still find the motion interpolation rather unnatural in distracting.Currently I am using some power saving features to be a little more green; however for the most accurate picture they should be set to OFF.
21 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
Warning : Failed after 1 year, If you have to have a Sony XBR then buy Extended Warranty or BUY another brand
By T. Lam
Here's my story, hope someone can learn from my tragic mistake. Furthermore, I just realized the LCD panel is actually made by Samsung NOT Sony. If you buy a Sony TV; why is the LCD Panel (the most important and expensive part of the TV) is made in Korea by Samsung. The picture might be good but how long will it last.....for me it only lasted 1 year and 4 months. Also If you do a simple search on Amazon you will find that Amazon does not sell Sony XBR LCD TV directly anymore since I guess they have so many complaints from their customers on the Sony LCD TV. Go ahead look and see you can find Amazon selling Sony XBR LCD TV directly...Amazon actually refer you to another brand like LG or other brands when you are looking any Sony XBR LCD TVs.....and my Full Story below:5/9/2010- I brought the Sony XBR series TV on Amazon about 1 year and 4 months ago and now the TV have failed. The picture quality was amazing until just yesterday the picture started to degrade and now it has green clouds and rainbows all over the pictures. I just call the Sony authorize tech service from they said it will cost me $75 for the in house service since it's out of warranty. They also said that if it's the LCD panels has failed then it would cost as much as the TV itself. This is my first LCD from Sony but I have 3 other Sony TVs- 1 30" Sony CRT, 1 47" XBR rear projection and 1 65" XBR rear projection TV. All the previous Sony TVs had no problem at all and I am still using the 65" rear projection TV. What happen to Sony's quality and reliability product? I guess it went to the same place as other first rated Japanese products like Toyota. They are just too busy on cutting cost and lower their reliabilities so they can rack in the billion dollars profit. So if you like the picture quality of Sony TVs; be advice to buy their extended warranty. I wish I did because if the LCD panel failed then my LCD TV is just a big 52" black picture frame hanging on the wall. If you really, really have to get a Sony XBR LCD TV then I would recommend to get 5 years extended warranty plan for $299-it will save you a lot of frustration. And after 5 years, you will probably do a upgrade anyway.5/11/2010 update: Today the tech came and verified that the LCD panel has gone bad after 1 year and 4 months of service. In the tech's own words-the panel is a factory defect since it should not failed after just a little over a year of service and that I should call Sony and see they will reimburse the cost of the panel. I am so disappointed on the product since I did not just buy any Sony TV but the top of the line XBR series TV. I called Sony and told them the whole story but they just told me to fax all the documents -receipt and repair cost to Sony and they will evaluate it. I will wait and see what happen - but at this point I am really disappointed and frustrated with the whole thing! :-(Update: 5/13/2010-Just received a call from Sony "Customer Relations" today. It's official-Sony don't stand behind their products. They will not pay for the cost of their defective LCD panel since it's out of warranty (1 year) after 1 year and 4 month of service. They just lost a loyal customer. No more Sony products in my house. Sony customer relations representative even has the nerve to offer me $900 reimbursement on a $$3517.75 repair cost. That's right-I will have to pay $2617.76 to fix my $2018.88 LCD TV. So if you buy a Sony TV and you have a defective LCD panel after 1 year of use then you can just throw that TV in the trash because Sony will tell you go F yourself and trash the TV. Good luck on buying a Sony LCD TV because you going to need it-and looks like from my research, I am not the only customer that have a defect LCD panel after 1 year. In fact, the LCD panel is not even made by Sony but Samsung made in Korea. Samsung LCD Panels have notoriously for premature failure of their LCD panels. So no more Sony LCD for me or should I say Samsung LCD TV ....
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One major flaw mars an otherwise excellent TV
Toshiba Regza 40'' 120Hz 1080p - A Contender
