Sony used to be king of the direct-view TV biz, churning out high-performance tube sets for which discerning viewers happily paid extra. Tubes have since given way to flat-panels, but the company has once again managed to scale to the top of the TV heap, persuading image-conscious consumers to fork out a premium for LCD sets branded with the company's venerable XBR tag. At $3,500, the 1080p-rez Sony Bravia KDL-40XBR2 40-inch LCD HDTV costs nearly twice as much as some LCD and plasma TVs in the same size range. But can it crush them on performance?
With its screen surrounded by a silver bezel and glass and aluminum edging, this Sony has the design part of the equation down. It looks like a swanky electronic picture frame — which it basically is. Many other flat TVs have speakers beneath the screen, but Sony put theirs on the sides. This widens the set several inches, but allows for good-sized speakers, and I could turn the sound up very high before it started to get shrill.
A smattering of controls can be found on the Sony's right-hand side. On the left, there's a convenience HDMI input. If that seems like overkill for a side panel, consider that the company's newest high-def camcorder features an HDMI output, as will a version of the forthcoming PS3 game console. Two additional HDMI inputs are located on the back, along with dual component-video jacks and a VGA port for a computer. And there's also an RF jack to take advantage of the TV's digital tuner.
The clean layout of Sony's sizeable remote control makes it easy to locate specific controls in a dark room. A good thing, too, since its keypad isn't backlit. Most important buttons orbit around a central navigation rocker. Repeatedly pressing the TV/Video button switches among sources. With a total of nine inputs, that could be time-consuming, but you can blank out unused inputs in the setup menu. You switch among display modes with the Wide button; the choices are Normal (4:3), Full (16:9), Zoom, and Wide Zoom, all of which can be selected for either standard- or high-definition programs.
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The Short Form
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| Price $3,500 / sonystyle.com / 877-865-7669 |
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Snapshot
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| Expensive, but LCD picture quality doesn't get much better than what you'll see on this swanky Sony. |
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Plus
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•Crisp high-def picture •Vivid, natural color •Impressive blacks and shadow detail for LCD |
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Minus
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| •Expensive compared to the competition |
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Key Features
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•1,920 x 1,080 resolution screen •Accepts native 1080p signals via HDMI •Built-in HDTV tuner •Adjustable backlight •Optional colored bezel •Inputs: 3 HDMI, VGA, 2 component-video, 3 composite-video, and 1 S-video; 2 RF antenna; 5 analog stereo audio; analog minijack stereo audio •Outputs: Optical digital audio; analog stereo audio (fixed/variable); headphone •43.8 x 28.3 x 12.8 in; 77 lb |
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Test Bench
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The Sony Bravia KDL-40XBR2's Warm2 color-temp preset measured closest to the 6,500° kelvin grayscale standard. After adjustments in the White Balance submenu, grayscale tracking measured around ±200°K from 40 to 100 IRE — a good level of performance. The TV displayed only minor color-decoder error on its HDMI and component-video inputs, measuring —5% red. Overscan — the amount of picture “hidden” behind the edges of the screen — measured 0% for both the HDMI and component-video inputs with the Full Pixel modes active and varied from 3% to 7% for the set’s other screen options. Both 1080i/p and 720p-format test patterns were fully resolved for all high-def inputs, though the component-video connection exhibited a fair amount of noise on the last bar of a multiburst pattern. A slight amount of edge enhancement was visible on all inputs, even with the sharpness control zeroed out and the Detail and Edge Enhancer settings off. |
Like other Sony TVs I've recently tested, the KDL-40XBR2 comes loaded with useful picture adjustments: White Balance control with high and low red, green, and blue settings; a variable backlight to deepen black levels; a four-step Advanced Contrast Enhancer that automatically optimizes backlight and contrast settings according to the image content; a selectable Color Matrix to optimize colors for standard or high-def programs; and variable Overscan with a pixel-for-pixel option. Best of all, adjustments you make to these and any of the Sony's numerous other picture settings are stored independently for each input.
After selecting the Warm2 color-temperature preset, I made a few additional grayscale tweaks in the White Balance menu. I also chose the low Gamma and Advanced C.E. settings; normal Color Space (a setting that lets you expand the range of colors displayed on the TV); and low Noise Reduction. With a screen this small, there's no way to appreciate the full resolution of 1080-format high-def programs unless you sit 5 feet or closer to the TV (the eye can't process that level of detail from any farther away). Finding 5 feet kind of claustrophobic, I decided to forego the Sony's ultra-high-rez benefits and evaluate it from my normal 8-foot viewing span.
PICTURE QUALITY The HD DVD of Friday Night Lights looked very crisp on the Sony, with an overhead shot of the Odessa, Texas, football stadium clearly revealing the texture of the scrubby landscape surrounding the field. Fine grid lines in both the parking lot and the field looked solid, and I was impressed at how distinct the mesh texture on the polo shirt of fanatical football dad Charles Billingsley (played by country singer Tim McGraw) looked in a medium shot of him shouting from the bleachers.
Although the colors in Friday Night Lights are intentionally muted and pale, the actors' skin tones came across as completely natural. Taking another look into those bleachers, McGraw's tanned face looked clearly different from his girlfriend's pale complexion, while the mugs of the old-timers in the background showed a range of florid hues. Brightly colored images also came off well. Moving on to a scene from the Happy Gilmore HD DVD in which Adam Sandler shows off his golfing skills, the red, blue, and purple flowers in the background looked appealingly rich.
I've never been really satisfied with the picture contrast of LCD TVs: Blacks often look more like dark gray, and whites tend to lack detail in bright scenes. But the Sony's overall contrast was a definite step up from that of most other LCDs I've tested. When I watched the sunlit game scenes in the early part of Friday Night Lights, highlights in the MOJO team's white uniforms showed a range of subtle shades, while the opposing team's black helmets and jerseys looked solid and deep. And during a high-def episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the Sony's surprisingly good shadow detail clearly showed the folds and creases in Ice-T's coat as he sifted through a kidnapper's apartment for evidence.
Standard-def channels like CNN also looked good on the Sony, with the set's noise reduction and Digital Reality Creation features pitching in to clean up the lower-rez images and make them presentable. And I saw no unusual picture softness when watching either regular TV programs or standard DVDs. The set's picture contrast dropped when I moved my head outside of a 30° arc from the screen's center, but that limitation is typical of flat-panel LCD TVs.
BOTTOM LINE With the Bravia KDL-40XBR2, Sony has succeeded in raising the bar for flat-panel LCD performance. Its black depth and shadow detail fall short of what I've seen from the best plasma sets, but its overall picture quality exceeds that of many other bigscreen LCDs on the market. If you're a casual viewer who mostly plans to watch TV during daylight hours (an application in which LCD TVs typically excel), you'll find better deals. But if you're intent on buying an LCD TV with the best picture quality the technology currently delivers, this swanky Sony comes highly recommended.
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