- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 4 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4.0 stars
"Nearly Perfect TV - Stunning Picture, Great Sound"
Pros: Absolutely incredible picture quality. Very good sound for a flat panel tv. Decent SD picture quality. Deep black levels
Cons: Flashlighting. Stand does not swivel. Remote is not ergonomic (too long). Steadysound does not really do much, if anything. Some cumbersome menu issues.
Summary: This is my first HD tv. The picture quality on this set is outstanding from high def sources. very deep blacks, accurate color reproduction, very sharp, no blur, ghosting, jagged edges, or artifacting to speak of. SD sources are decent, but are difficult to watch after seeing high def. That said, baseball games in SD are completely watcheable and acturally pretty good. Certainly no worse than my old 27" Sony Wega. The sound for this tv is pretty good too.
My biggest gripe with the xbr7 item is the flashlighting from the corners. Granted, it is pretty minor and only visible on black screens, but it bothers me that it is not considered a manufacturing defect (tv's are built to show a decoded signal. The white clouds from the corners are not part of the signal, ergo, the tv is not functioning for the purpose it was intended and should be considered defective under Federal law). Most people may not really notice it, but I do. Regardless, I can live with it, because it is minor, and who watches black screens? I've seen some pictures from folks who have it way worse than my set. In fact, this is my second set, as I replaced my first (thanks Crutchfield!) in an effort to get a unit without the flashlights. The second unit still has minor flashlights (though the overall picture quality seems better for some reason). Of note, the flashlighting seems to come and go. Sometimes it's there, sometimes not. I've heard of it going away after time. Some people may opt for, say, a Samsung b750 because of the flashlighting issue, but that's a trade off too. Though the b750 may not flashlight, the Sony has better processing and higher quality materials (not to knock the Sammy, which is a fantastic tv). Everything's a trade-off. Bottom line on the flashlighting is that I got this TV at a great price and I'm willing to overlook this minor flaw. I do not feel that the tv is worth more than what I paid though due to the defect.
Other points:
Do steady sound features ever work? This one doesn't seem to do much. I actually blame the cable company. I think they jack up the sound immensly for commercials.
The stand doesn't swivel. Come on Sony. How are we supposed to access the back of the tv?
The remote is not ergonomic. It fits ok in the hand, but it is too long. You basically need two hands to operate it. The volume/channel controls are too far from the other often used buttons (should be wider and not as long). No problem for me, as I use my cable box remote, but maybe Sony's engineers should go and talk to the people at Honda.
The menu layout is very good, with a couple of annoyances:
Input labeling is generic. I can't distinguish between my ps3 and an xbox. Both are simply "game." Also, I use my ps3 for gaming and for blurays. I have not found an easy way to switch the settings when I switch between the two. For example, when I game I have the game mode on. In order to deactivate this for blurays I have to to to menu (covers entire screen), find picture settings, go to game mode, wait a second for the tv to bring up a list of all inputs, scroll down like 8 times, then hit enter, then scroll down to "off" then hit enter, then hit "return" like 3 or four times. To turn it back on, repeat. Annoying, but liveable. I know some of the Samsungs allow you to store multiple profiles for each input. This would be welcome.
Also on the menus, Sony has given the XBR7 a quick settings button that brings up a small menu on the right side of the tv for picture, sound, etc. adjustments that are made often. This is nice, except that selecting any of the options opens up a full screen menu that obscures the entire picture. I don't need 40 inches of menu to adjust picture and sound while blocking the source content.
I feel that HD TV's require much more constant fiddling with various settings due to the plethora of source options and intended functions. This means that tv manufacturers need to start really thinking hard about user interfaces. Things are certainly getting better, but there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Now, you may have noticed that I have given a disproportinate amount of attention to the negatives. I guess that's human nature. I would recommend comparing this set to a the Samsungs and deciding for yourself. Both companies make fantastic TV's. For me, I really like the Samsung b750, but don't know that the B750 is worth $400 more than this Sony (though the Sammy is probably a better overall TV). This Sony is frankly good enough, nay, great enough. There is no denying the outstanding picture quality of this set. No piece of electronics is perfect (though I often wonder why we can't seem to make them that way), but this Sony is pretty darn great. If you can find a good deal, take it. You will likely be very happy.
Sony Bravia KDL-40XBR7:
