 Remarkable TV for the money |
| Review Date: June 8, 2008 |
| Reviewer: digerati, San Francisco, CA United States |
This is a remarkable TV for the money, with a great picure and resolution up to 1080p (P for progressive scan -- 1080 lines of resolution with no interlace), and also support for 24 frames-per-second movie playback with Blu-ray high definition DVDs.
Setting up is straightfoward -- you set up the stand where you want it, lift the TV onto it, and tighten 4 screws. It can also be wall mounted. On the back are the large range of inputs: three HDMI, two component, one S-Video, two standard video (RCA jacks) and one VGA port. You can guarantee that whatever you have, you'll be able to connect it to this TV.
The best quality of output and convenience comes from HDMI connections (order some low cost HDMI cables from Amazon; my local stores wanted $50-$179!) A Blu-ray DVD player connected to the TV via HDMI delivers outstanding picture quality at 1080p, with amazing detail. It's so good, in fact, that I found myself noticing film grain more often -- you can practically count the grains!
This TV supports 24 frames-per-second ("24p" in the jargon), which matches the screen refresh rate to that used in movies. The visible difference shows up in shots where the camera pans (moves parallel to the scene). With regular TV playback, panning makes the scene blurry and you can't see much detail because extra "interpolated" frames are inserted to match the TV frame rate. Panning shots in "Casino Royale" blu-ray DVD were clear at 24p, revealing some visual jokes I missed before (e.g. the Richard Branson cameo at airport security). For movies like The Bourne Ultimatum with lots of camera movement, 24p makes the whole movie clearer.
Screen contrast of the TV is also very good. Blacks appear black, color is not overdone (though there is a "vivid" setting if you want to boost saturation). Lower resolution sources at 480i look pretty good -- they are upscaled nicely by the TV. Connecting a Wii with the standard video cables worked fine and produced a good picture.
For HDTV sources, this TV does excellent noise reduction and yet still delivers crisp detail and good color. This is where other LCD TVs fall down, and Sony really has done a great job with the Bravia engine.
Sound from the internal speakers is very good indeed, with dialogue particularly clear. Home theater speakers are better, but then that's true for any TV.
I am very happy with my purchase -- the TV has a stellar set of features at a great price versus more expensive versions with more bells and whistles... which I don't need. It is not the cheapest LCD TV in the 40" size, but the picture quality and number of source inputs sets it apart.
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Cableless man meets HD world
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| Review Date: July 29, 2008 |
| Reviewer: David A. Elkes, Washington DC |
I consider my self pretty low tech and wanted to leave my review for people who may be in the same boat as I am. I wanted a larger TV and I wanted simplicity, quality and not to wonder if it was all a waste.
Well I am super satisified with this TV for the following reasons.
1. Easy to set up. I don't have cable and it just scanned for all the HD and analog stations and that was pretty much about it.
2. Great sound. I don't have a stereo system to hook up to and so it was important that the TV's speakers could, well, speak for themselves. They are very good.
3. Picture is super and seems to adjust itself to suit whatever type of input (HD, Analog, DVD, Video) is coming in. People Don't look short and squat. Everything looks great, and full size and I don't have to do any adjusting when I change a channel.
Note: I will say that using a standard video tape produces an okay picture, but I assume this is the same for every TV. When I play DVD using my computer and connect to TV with HDMI cable, picture is excellent. So just using the antenna cable is not good enough with my current DVD player. I will likely update it or just play it through my computer.
Also, as other reviews say, set up (base mount) was easy. Slide it on base and tighten four screws.
Anyway, I'm sure I'm missing 75% of the features of this baby, but for the "simple cave man HD TV Guy" I am completely satisfied.
Also, TV doesn't make any buzzing or humming noises (hey, that stuff bugs me so I thought I'd add it).
Good luck with your purchase.
David
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Sony quality can't be beat
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| Review Date: June 5, 2008 |
| Reviewer: A. Richtmyer, Adamstown, MD USA |
| I had a 32" Sony LCD set that was very similar to this one. I would have initially gotten a 40" but my wife wanted to put it in a TV cabinet and the 40" was too big. After some shopping we couldn't find a cabinet that would fit in the desired location that would even hold the 32". At that point we found a buyer for the old set and bought this one. I mention that because there is one slight shortcoming with the new set, relative to the old one. With the old set I was able to hook my HD DVD player to the HDMI 1 input and then hook the optical audio output of the TV to my Sony surround sound system. The TV then passed the audio to the surround sound system, no matter whether the source was the internal TV tuner or the DVD player, connected to HDMI 1. With the new set, if I switch to HDMI 1, I get no sound from the a/v system. After conferring with a couple Sony tech representatives (whom I thought weren't very knowledgeable) we came to the conclusion that I would have to connect the DVD player through the surround sound a/v system and then into the TV. The a/v system has three HDMI connections as well, so this should be doable. However, it will take one more HDMI cable (I have a couple on order so I haven't verified this will work yet) and may be a little more cumbersome when it comes to switching between the TV tuner and the DVD player. But - presuming I get past this glitch, the picture is awesome! |
Why'd I wait?
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| Review Date: June 29, 2008 |
| Reviewer: L. Shuler, North Carolina, United States |
Bought this at WalMart for two reasons, picture quality and inputs. Picture quality was outstanding considering it side-by-side with everything else they had at the store. That wasn't enough for me. I wanted connectivity options. This "TV" has 3 HDMI inputs (not 2 as the description says). One of the HDMI inputs is on the side of the TV so you can plug in anything you want, any time. It also has 2 VGA ports - one on the side. If that's not enough, there are two HD component inputs and optical and RCA audio outputs. But wait, there's an S-Video input too. Did I mention it also has an HD15 video monitor (from your PC) input? How about a 3.5mm audio input? WOWIE! Oops, it's got a coax input as well so you can use it as a regular old TV.
Pitcure's great, blah, blah, blah... but did I mention the connectors? This TV doubles as an admirable PC monitor at full 1080P (assuming your video card supports it). Was able to play FPS games at full resolution. Wow again.
Cons: Well, there are some. The first one is the minimalist remote control. Everything is menu driven, it seems, and it wasn't intuitive for me. I'd like more of it to be in shorter menus you can access from the remote. How about a universal remote? I have a Sony DVPCX995V 400-Disc DVD Mega Changer/Player that does HDMI 1080i upconverting (outstaning btw), a Sony home theater sound system as well. I have to have THREE different remotes for three Sony products. Arg. Then I have a satelite controller too.
The other beef I have is the highly limited PIP. It's got that many inputs, but you can only use one at a time. The only PIP functionality is when you're in PC mode with the HD15 input. Of course, if you're using the HDMI for PC input it's gone. This function is highly limited being a small box you can't change positions of. It's also poorly described in the instructions. |
Well Worth The Money - But is it worth the wait for Delivery?
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| Review Date: July 17, 2008 |
| Reviewer: C. Harmsen, Piscataway, NJ United States |
I am familiar with this TV as I just set one up at a friend's house. Great picture, great quailty overall, and a very nice look.
Multiple inputs making it easy to connect all your gear - a real "Run whatya brung" TV as it has 3 HDMI inputs Multiple PC and Component Inputs and it even supports the old S-Video and RCA connections.
The menus are very basic and it lacks some of the advanced tuning that I am used to on my Sony 60 inch, but the picture quality is excellent and most users will find the menu of options more than sufficient. As someone else said everything is menu driven from the remote, with very few one touch functions.
I purchased this on the Amamzon 36 month Interest Free Deal. Cant beat 33 bucks a month.
Now the BAD - its delivering by CEVA who has no idea where my TV is? The last tracking scan was Newark NJ on Sunday - 22 miles away from my house... well today is Thursday - Hello? Anyone out there? I thought they would call me by now and when I call them - they thought it was picked up already? Picked up? Huh?
Great Price, Great TV but Amazon needs to find a better Delivery service CEVA is horrible. If I had read the message boards about CEVA formelery EAGLE freight I would have never purchased this TV at Amazon. I hope I finally get my TV. |
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