This SONY Bravia should be a SONY BRAVO!
Pros:
Great picture, good sound and not too complicated!
Cons:
Some technology on this set has been upgraded, to newer sets since its release!
The Bottom Line:
This is a great 40" flat screen set that will give you a great picture. It will also give you hi-def channels hooked up to a cable line.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Flat panels, LCD, PLASMA SETs, MICRODISPLAYS, PROJECTION, DIRECT VIEW, it all begins to run together after a while!
The technology in television is moving so fast today, it is even difficult for someone like me, involved in the retail side of the business to keep track of it all! Just to tell you where we are, this review is on the 40 XBR 2 set. SONY just introduced their XBR 5 SERIES, Does that mean the 40 XBR 2 is outdated and relegated to the scrap heap? Absolutely not. This 40" LCD flat screen set is a beautiful example of styling and design from SONY. The set sits inside a clear plastic bezel which frames the screen. A green LED shows up on the clear bezel when power is on. It gives the set a nice, different appearance. It should blend in with any decor. If you want to customize the set even further, SONY sells different color front panels to replace the silver one that comes on the set. Red, blue, black, gray are some colors available for this purpose.Be aware these replacement colored bezels run about $200, so be sure you want to spend the money first. I don't know of any dealers that stock these replacement frames, so be aware they have to be special ordered from SONY and may take time.
Now, on to the most important factors about this set, the picture, sound and operation of the set itself. The LCD screen is certainly bright enough for any room, except for one that has direct sunlight shining no the face of the screen. No set will handle that. Be aware that as i explained earlier, this is now considered an "outdated" model, but may still be available in some stores. Make sure you get a substantial discount on it since it is no longer considered a current high-tech set.
Anyway, back to the picture, etc. The screen is bright, and has excellent black rendition. It can handle dark area very well and does not wash out a picture. There is one very important point to note here. As a SONY factory engineer told me in a meeting, this set and sets from 40" and up are not really made to show off standard television. These sets shine at displaying high definition video. When the analog television signal we are using was set in motion, no one could see 72" flat screen TV's hanging on the wall. When you show a standard TV signal on a set even this good, it will never look great. That is just the nature of the signal capability itself. Display a high definition picture, and the set comes to life with a beautiful life like pictures!
Moving on to the step-child of the industry, audio, the set has decent speakers that sound fine and don't seem to distort until you overdrive them with extremely loud levels. Most consumers wind up hooking a set up like this to a receiver with decent speakers anyway.
The remote and operation of the set is covered in length in other reviews, but it is fine. The menus can get a little complicated for the folks not too savvy with menus and sub-menus, but not so difficult where you can not figure it out.
There is something very important I have to point out about this set that no one has mentioned in their reviews. This 40XBR2 is located in my back bedroom. I have cable, (Cablevision), running through my house, but had no cable box in this bedroom, so I hooked the cable right into the back of the set. Just out of curiosity I hit the section on the menu that read SEARCH FOR DIGITAL CHANNELS. Sure enough, after scanning all my cable channels without the box, the set came back and listed about 8 digital channels, all in high-def. I received CBS TV, the local affiliate, Channel 2, but then I also received CBS hi-def, NBC Channel 4, NBC hi-def 1, and NBC hi-def 2.Totally different channels with different content on the set without a cable box, in beautiful hi-def. That is due to the fact that this set had a built in hi-def tuner, so it was able to pull out and display the hi-def cable channels. Just something interesting to note if you, like me have this set hooked up to a cable feed without a cable box!
The picture is really good, sound out of the speakers is good for what it is, and operation is not too complicated.
I recommend this set for anyone looking for a bright clear 40" picture, but don't forget to make sure you get a good discount on this set.
If you need any further information or have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line!
