Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 31
 High style and high performance October 9, 2009
Chambolle (Bainbridge Island, WA USA)
64 out of 67 found this review helpful
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.
After months of research, happy at last! January 11, 2010
tasty donuts (Jersey City, NJ)
17 out of 19 found this review helpful
PROS: terrific picture, surprisingly good sound, sleek design, effective anti-glare coating, nifty PS3 integration
CONS: compromised off-angle color, no swivel stand, so-so internet functionality, no Wi-Fi
BACKGROUND: 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: Custom
Backlight: 4 (theater: 3)
Picture: 85
Brightness: 50
Color: 55 (theater: 58)
Hue: G2
Sharpness: Min
Color Temp: Neutral (theater: Warm 2)
Cinemotion: Off
For TV viewing, my settings are (somewhat arbitrarily) slightly different
Picture mode: Standard
Backlight: 5
Color: 49
Cinemotion: Auto 1
All 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.
Best value around November 10, 2009
S. Watson (Boston, MA)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
I went through many days of researching consumer reports and other websites before picking this TV. I understand where some people have their issues with interface and the sound but I have a small condo (900 sq ft) in San Diego. Hooking it up to my over the air antenna I get 30 stations (digital ones are so clear they blow cable away!). The sound is perfectly fine for my room at 20 (*the tv goes up to 75...so it will be more than loud enough for a regular room). The picture quality is stunning.
The only downside I would warn someone is that I also have a bluray player and if you watch a great movie with lots of CGI special effects you will now be able to tell without any effort that it's CGI (computer generated images). Watching GI Joe was great fun but the special effects jumped out at you so much it was obvious. If you watch something like WallE you won't have that problem.
I don't think I can waste money going to a movie theater now since my at home experience will be so much superior thanks to this amazing TV. If you use the Amazon on demand of Netflix (coming soon they say) you'll need a 10mps download speed. I turned off the glowing SONY logo, which looks great as long as you're not watching a movie, without a problem (three clicks) and use the TV Guide service (free) and love it! I was considering the 120hz one and and so glad I spent the extra on the 240hz - you will too!
Best TV period January 17, 2010
Mutual Information
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Having made an extensive review of HDTV's including LEDs, I would say that overall the XBR9 series is the best. I read a ton of online reviews and went to the stores to compare first hand. The LEDs from Samsung and Sony are pretty good with very wide dynamic range. But the dynamic range was too high and at times the picture became difficult to watch. The blacks dominated most of the picture. Sure you can adjust this down but why pay the additional cost of LEDs when you have to adjust the contrast back to non-LED type levels? The 100,000:1 contrast on this set seemed perfect to my eyes. And the 240 Hz was smoothest of the hundreds of sets I compared. A comparison that was easy to make since the store ran a continuous demo. I'm not sure that live ATSC and cable transmissions would benefit from 240Hz since, they are compressed video and any motion shift accompanies pixelation and lossy information. Interpolation works best when the sample points are precise and lossless. So if you don't plan to do Bluray, maybe 120Hz is plenty. The picture quality is fantastic. Primetime and daytime NBC and CBS 1080i broadcasts are amazing to watch. The color variation is so accurately reproduced that it seems you are watching a moving painting instead of a picture. Leno Show, especially during Xmas, was amazingly vivid in color and detailed that I really didn't care about the content but was simply viewing the show as a spectacle or a museum piece.
If you do buy any Bravia TVs, I would advise to buy a Bravia theatre and bluray system since the Bravia Sync is great (though you may need to switch the little speakers for larger ones). Just put the disk in and the rest of the system turns on and switches over automatically. Saves at least 5 buttom pushes and the search for 2 remotes. You will love the system.
Great TV - Worth the Money September 11, 2009
Justin R. Harger (Libertyville, Illinois United States)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
While this TV costs a bit more than your Vizio or some other Sam's Club special it is well worth it. I bought it about a month ago and have loved it ever since I first hooked it up.
I have it hooked up to a Sony Blue-Ray BDPS360 player as well as my Bose Lifestyle V30 Surround Sound and various other equipment. The extra HDMIs are really nice and the ethernet capability is easy to set-up and use. It saw my Buffalo LinkStation Media Server without any problems and streams music perfectly. I look forward to streaming movies later this fall from Netflix. I was really impressed with the audio output as whenever you stream anything into it, the quality is nearly identical to if I hook my ipod up directly to my surround system.
I also have a friend that has the 52" XBR9 and we both enthusiastically recommend any xbr9 Sony product.
The only problem I had was the first update that I needed to make on it, I had to use a USB flash drive instead of just using the network. After that though, I was able to make the next update over the LAN.
Please note while I have not tried it with this TV, my 32" XBR 9 is not able to see my ipod when directly hooked up to the USB. I think Sony has a cradle you have to buy. Maybe this will change with future firmware updates.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 31
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