Although CNET did not review the 40-inch Sony KDL-40XBR4, we did review the 46-inch Sony KDL-46XBR4. Judging from their spec sheets, the two Sony flat-panel LCD HDTVs are identical but for screen size, so we expect the picture quality of the 46-inch model to provide a good indication of how the 40-incher will perform. For more information, check out the full review of the Sony KDL-46XBR4. For additional details on Sony's other lines of LCD HDTVs, check out our Down the Line coverage.
Intro:
The Sony Bravia KDL-40XBR4 is a 40-inch, liquid crystal display television.Compared to other liquid crystal display TVs on the market, it is relatively expensive at around $2,025.This flat-TV is an LCD display, which is generally the best kind of flat-panel screen for viewing in brightly-lit rooms.
Noteworthy Features:
With built-in HDTV compatibility, this unit can display images that are significantly sharper and more realistic than regular television, as long as the source is high definition.(It can easily render standard-resolution digital TV broadcasts and also depict the full resolution of widescreen DVD video.)The 3:2 pulldown feature of this unit reduces artifacts that can occur when motion pictures are transferred to a digital format such as DVD.
Weaker Features:
Has only a rear connector location.
Suitability:
Made for those who want to enjoy an ultra-sharp picture from an ultra-thin TV.In general, a wide aspect display such as this one is ideal for DVD movies recorded in the popular 16:9 format, as well as high definition programming.
Value:
Overall, this TV's features are as expected for this price.However, you would typically pay about 20% less to get a liquid crystal display TV with roughly the same viewable size.
Suggestions:
(1) For assistance in shopping for a new HDTV, read CNET editors' Ultimate HDTV Buying Guide.(2) If donating or repurposing your old TV is not a viable option, CNET encourages households to recycle their electronics.Please explore the following website to find a recycling center in your area Electronics Take Back Coalition.
Receiving HDTV broadcast:
The three common methods to receive HDTV broadcasts are via satellite-TV set-top box, cable system set-top box, and over-the-air reception from a digital HDTV broadcast station.
True HDTV:
True HDTV programming is now available in three resolutions: 720p, 1080i, or 1080p.
Tuner options:
An HDTV-ready satellite or cable box will act as an outboard HDTV tuner for your digital TV set that lacks a built-in HD tuner.
8 out of 10 - Excellent Great, but still not perfect...
I have spent months trying to find a great set, and purchased this one about a week ago. I had ...
I have spent months trying to find a great set, and purchased this one about a week ago. I had first gone in to Circuit City for one of the top models from Consumer Reports (Sharp or Sony), but saw a 46" Samsung right next to them that clearly had better contrast, detail, speed, etc. I took that one home, and returned it the next day. It couldn't handle blacks, shadows, speed, and was too big for the room, so in standard def, every pixel seemed to be visible.
I then spent four hours at Circuit City--I am not a professional user, so all I can rely on is my eyes. I looked at the Sony 3000 line, and was impressed. The sales guy also had an XBR4 about to be unpacked, and offered to set it up next to the Sharp, Sony XBR2 and Samsung, among others. We also tested a normal HDMI Panasonic DVD player, the Panasonic Blu-Ray player, and the Sony Blu-Ray player. The test disc was disc one of the Planet Earth series, using the "Pole to Pole" episode. Notably, we used the "bird scene" where there are thousands of birds flying on the screen at once to test speed/refresh; and the scene where the earth is viewed from space, with the lower left portion in darkness, the upper right portion in daylight, and as the earth revolves, the blackness in the lower left fades away to daylight.
On all previous models, the bird scene was too much. The sets quickly lost track of the birds and became a mass of black and white blocks. The XBR did a much better job, but still lost track a bit in the middle of the scene--by the end, though, you could once again make out individual birds.
On the black-fading-to-daylight scene, the Samsung in particular had so much problem that you couldn't even tell what was going on in the scene (not sure what the right word is to describe this, but instead of a gradual gradient from black to grey, there are big bands or puddles of one color, followed by another, and still another--almost like the set only has a few shades of grey, and can only assign portions of the screen one color at a time). Here again, the XBR4 did a much better job, but I could still see bands of greys as the black got lighter and lighter--they were, however, much smaller and less noticeable than on all the other sets.
Regarding the different players, this was a real eye-opener. We tested all of them on the XBR4. On the Sony BR, anytime a scene had fast vertical action, there were VERY noticeable horizontal lines across small parts of the scene (hands, feet, etc.) At first, I thought this was from the set, but we tried the Panasonic BR next, and the picture was perfect on that one, so it was clearly the Sony player that was at fault. Since the format of the Planet Earth disc is 480p, I expected that the normal Panasonic DVD player via HDMI would produce an identical picture as the BR players. Boy was I wrong. All I can say is that switching from the BR to the standard player was like switching from high-def to low-def TV. I'm not sure what the BR players do to a normal DVD, but the difference was remarkable, and I spent the extra $$ on the BR player. BR movies obviously look amazing, though even they are not without problems.
Since I got the XBR4 home, I have intentionally watched a variety of sources, with comments following.
Standard def: This is decent overall, but pixels/blocks are noticeable in most programs. Low light scenes (X-files, for example) tend to have a green halo around everything white, and adjusting color can't work this out.
High def TV: Incredible for the most part. Very fast motion (a scene of ripples on a river, a panning satellite view of a city, etc.) turns to a bunch of black and white blocks/squares, but it has to be pretty fast before this happens. I've seen this about three times in a week now.
DVDs: Very nice, and better than in a standard DVD player if played on a Blu-Ray player.
BR discs: Stunning at their best, great in most scenes. Dimly lit scenes (inside the Black Pearl, etc.) tend to be yellowish.
For me, the lack of HD content on DirecTV and Comcast is a bit of a problem--I want lots of HD to justify the price of this set. DirecTV still promises 150+ HD channels by the end of the year...
The bottom line on this set is that it is amazing for HD content, and DVDs/BR discs. For standard definition, I'd still prefer an old tube TV or tube HDTV. So if the flood of HD content comes soon, I'll be a happy camper. If you mainly watch standard def or don't have access to a bunch of HD sources, this set is a decent option if you don't sit too close, so the pixels can blend a bit.
Without any doubt, it has the best overall performance of the LCDs I've looked at so far, hands down.
I paid $2600 for the set at Circuit City, and $499 for the Panasonic BR player. I upgraded my DirecTV receiver to the HD-DVR model, currently $200 on the DirecTV website, for $200 at Circuit City as well.
Hope this helps you out.
Updated Well, I wanted to really get a side-by-side comparison to a tube-based HDTV, and Circuit City had one last Sony KD-34XBR970 on the floor for $529. This is the 34" widescreen (16:9) HDTV from Sony; many have told me it was the best tube TV ever made. It also has HDMI and component inputs, among others. Worth noting is that this set is 720p/1080i, so a notch lower on the resolution scale than the XBR4. Lastly, it's 190 pounds and 24 inches deep, almost enough to eliminate it if it was so darn cheap...
I wanted to convince myself once and for all whether the XBR4 was really worth $2100 more than this old Sony Wega. I connected both to the Panasonic Blu-Ray, the DirecTV (Tivo) DVR, and the DirecTV HD DVR. I was able to view both sets simultaneously, which really helped.
The quick bottom line is that the XBR4 handles even standard def better than I thought it did. When looking at one set with a very critical eye in isolation, it is easy to notice every little flaw. For example, I was watching Blue's Clues with my daughter, which has a lot of blockiness on the XBR4. Well, guess what, the Wega XBR970 showed similar imperfections--the LCD shows it more as pixels/blocks, and the Wega shows it more as fuzziness, but both were flawed (or at least, both showed the limitations of the source). The XBR4 was worlds beyond in terms of brightness/contrast, clarity, etc. The XBR4 was the overall winner here, though not by a mile.
Moving on to a normal DVD, I used the Planet Earth disc again. The bird scene (read my previous review if you haven't already) was handled equally well by both--a little confusion in the middle, but overall very good. The black-to-daylight scene was the biggest surprise, where I witnessed some of the waves of grey, i.e. not a smooth gradient, on the Wega and not this time on the XBR4??? I guess this points to the source of the picture (and not the LCD technology) as being the limitation, since both sets seem to handle it the same. For whatever reason, the XBR4 looked much better this time than in the store, which I can only attribute to the brighter light at home. In any case, the sharpness and brightness/contrast was much better on the XBR4, though the XBR970 presented a very nice picture as well. The winner here was also the XBR4. It was a much crisper picture in most every way.
Lastly I looked at the Pirates of the Caribbean Blu-Ray disc. I mentioned previously that low light scenes (i.e. when Elizabeth is dining with Barbosa) appeared overly yellow. Side-by-side, the colors were nearly identical on both sets, so I have to say that I was wrong in the first review--I think now that the yellow tinge is the way the movie was recorded, and that the XBR4 is reproducing it faithfully. The XBR4 destroyed the XBR970 in this test, mainly for crispness, but also brightness/contrast as before. When Jack is sailing into Port Royal the first time, he sees pirates hanging with a sign that says, "Pirates ye be warned." The movie shows this from a distance, and then zooms in on the sign. I was able to read the sign on the XBR4 from the distance shot, where the XBR970 I could hardly tell there words there. Bottom line, the XBR4 wins this category by a country mile.
Lastly, I looked at some high def sources, and no surprises there--the XBR4 also solidly beat the XBR970 in this category, for the same reasons as the Blu-Ray test.
I guess this isn't a totally fair test, since the XBR4 has better native resolution than the XBR970. But it did provide a side-by-side comparison that was very useful--the XBR970 was the best tube-based HDTV that I could find, and the price was incredible. In the end, however, I feel that the XBR4 is indeed worth the extra $2100--hard as that is for me to believe! Not only did it put my worries about tube-based TVs to rest, but it's also the best LCD I've seen, and I've seen most of them. I'll have Circuit City pick up the old XBR970 (or maybe it will become a game system screen...hmmm...) and will hopefully be done with all this finally. All the best, and enjoy your set!
I've had this tv for about 3 weeks now. I love it. As I said the color, sound ...
Hi,
I've had this tv for about 3 weeks now. I love it. As I said the color, sound sharpness and black levels are great. I've looked in the stores and this is the best set I've come up with. Old dvd's work great also. However I have some bad news but a I invented a work around
Upon reading up on the blogs It says that there is a de interlacing problem in vivid mode. It's really not that terrible but I notice it. You can see it in a basket basket ball game or a movie in 1080I mode comming from a cable box.
To confirm this I went to my Blue Ray DVD player and programed the player to think the tv was only 480p so the tv would have to up convert (instead of the player) That worked out pretty good.
I then programed the player to think the tv was 1080I again so I can use the TV's convertor instead of the blue ray players converter. This is when I saw the problem. It was distored. (from interlace to progressive) After spending 2200 I was a little upset. I called sony and I also spoke to a tech on line of course they denied the issue.
Per the blogs I saw the test only failed in vivid mode So I put the mode onto custom and adjusted the controlls to look like vivid and There is no distortion anymore and I'm happy.
I hope sony admits this problem and comes out with a fix.
Again I've seen scores from other set's other tv's have problems with black levels, non accurate colors and other things so I guess it's the nature of the beast.
The fact I found a work around made me feel a lot better and now I can enjoy tv (with expected limitations) as much as my 1080p blue ray
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Great picture & style!
This is Sony's top of the Bravia line as an XBR set. It is an upgrade to the previous ...
This is Sony's top of the Bravia line as an XBR set. It is an upgrade to the previous 2/3 series.
The main advantages is the advanced color palette and Motionflow, Sony's name for its 120Hz refresh rate to give movies and animation better tracking movement. It's got loads of inputs (3 HDMI, 2 component, 3 composite).
The styling of this set is even better than the XBR2, its predecessor. That set sported a grey bezel, while this one is striking black.
Main disadvantage is that for all the included bells-and-whistles as Sony's top of the line, there is no PIP (Picture-in-Picture) two-tuner system that lets you watch two programs at once (think sports!).
Other drawback is its price. For nearly $2800, the competition offers a set for $400 or more less than the KDL-40XBR4.
All in all, a great TV, especially an improvement over the last series if you can not let the price be an obstacle.
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by dvdirv (see profile) -
August 27, 2007
9 out of 10 - Spectacular I can finally relax now......ah sony
Just hook my up 40xbr to standard comcast basic cable haven't upgrade to highdef package but what ive seen ...
Just hook my up 40xbr to standard comcast basic cable haven't upgrade to highdef package but what ive seen on standard cable looks really clean except for a few channels I'm sure the high def will be amazing...I played hbo's rome on old dvd player it looked great ...as I said before all the highdef upgrades will be awesom I'm sure...I found the tv easy to setup.. remote control was easy to use having an older sony crt the remote was simualar ...one thing that I did notice and the service manual talks about you can hear a small fan running in the tv for cooling purposes only noticeable when the volume is low on the tv....also for those people wondering what size to get this was an issue for me ..I sit 6 1/2 to 7 feet away...I thought the tv looked huge when i first set it up...now I 'm getting use to it the 46" would have been to big.... I was also was looking at the samsung lnt 71 series tv.the picture looked great but they placed there speakers in back of the tv ...the quality and sytle bar none is sony..I'm glad I purchased the 40xbr4....there are deals out there haggle with your sales man
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by jdros123 (see profile) -
September 3, 2007
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular The perfect choice
We chose the XBR4 after reviewing it against other 40 inch LCD televisions and after The Perfect Vision magazine named ...
We chose the XBR4 after reviewing it against other 40 inch LCD televisions and after The Perfect Vision magazine named it the Best LCD television on the market for 2007.
It's expensive, but we purchased our set for just over $2K and the difference of a few hundred dollars for something we hope to enjoy for several years simply did not factor into the equation and it should not for you.
The 1080P colors are simply amazing. We're not easily impressed with new technology (ok, I still love my iPhone), but this set continues to impress us with its incredibly razor sharp images. Sound is ok but that's not really a negative considering the set is only 3 inches deep. We are waiting for the stand to be delivered so we can select a home theater system to add to it.
I'd like to add that we purchased our set at Anderson's TV in Dublin CA and if you are in the SF area considering this set give them a call. Sales staff was knowledgeable and we just didn't want to purchase this from a 'big box retailer...'
After about a week we still find ourselves surfing through the HD channels just to see the difference between standard and 1080P.
10 out of 10 - Perfect wow. seriously, wow
I've read all the complaints on here, as far as the whirring noise, you gotta be really anal to ...
I've read all the complaints on here, as far as the whirring noise, you gotta be really anal to let this bother you. Can you hear it? yes. everytime the volume goes quiet inbetween shows or during scenes, you can here it; however, if you are moving from a low end TV, ot in my case a 19 inch 12 year old bedroom tv to this, you should look to the positives and realize that after you get used to the noise, you will stop realizing its there. I used a tilting bracket for wall install, when you do, do NOT mount the brackets flush against the TV, this will make the tv 4-5 inches lower on the mount. You may have to raise the mounting brackets you attach to the tv itself 4-5 inches above the top of the set to get it to sit correcetly. Other than that, as soon as you turn the set on, you will be impressed. trust me. My girlfriend liked the whirring noise, she was like, "the tv has fans??? Why doesn't the other one have any?" "Because our old one sucks, honey." As far as the bxr4 and 5 are concerned. Do NOT, repeat NOT buy the xbr5 over the 4. There are no advantages. Furthermore, after you connect everything and put this thing on a wall, you will not want to re-wire anything, trust me on that. The 5 has another hdmi input i think, are youreally going to have all these things hooked up at the same time from a point of necessity? I saved 300 buying the 4 and you should too.
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by bigrancho77 (see profile) -
May 24, 2008
9 out of 10 - Spectacular This TV Rocks
Love this TV Sony pulled out all the stops, the motion enhancer is an awesome feature depending on its use. ...
Love this TV Sony pulled out all the stops, the motion enhancer is an awesome feature depending on its use. Good news is this feature is fairly easy to turn off. Remote is a little large for my taste.
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by jonblanton85 (see profile) -
May 6, 2008
9 out of 10 - Spectacular just beautiful (set and picture) -- rivals plasma but no reflections
I bought my first Sony in 1972 and have been happy with others over the years. Yes, they're a ...
I bought my first Sony in 1972 and have been happy with others over the years. Yes, they're a little pricey, but the value is there! I was replacing my 40XBR1 and this model was about 4" wider -- T G it fit in my home entertainment unit !!
I am having it professionally calibrated and can hardly wait to see what that will do to an already incredible picture ...
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by Dr.Jack (see profile) -
May 3, 2008
10 out of 10 - Perfect Comeon, for the money, your gnot going to get much better.
It's an awesome set, depending upon your signal that you get from your cable provider. Granted, if you don'...
It's an awesome set, depending upon your signal that you get from your cable provider. Granted, if you don't have the settings correct, you may not get the full potential of the TV. Turn on the Montion Enhancement to High, and the Cinemotion to Auto, and your set.
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by FryeG (see profile) -
April 24, 2008
8 out of 10 - Excellent Great but not perfect
I bought this TV to replace Sony plasma in my bedroom that was still performing well but was only 720p. ...
I bought this TV to replace Sony plasma in my bedroom that was still performing well but was only 720p. This TV is a fine replacement. It has good variety of inputs including 3 HDMI connections and a PC RGB input. 1080p sources from my Samsung HD-DVD combo player are nearly flawless and compare well to my Pioneer Elite plasma in the living room. Standard DVD from the same player looks almost as good as "real" high-def. Standard DVD from my Sony changers connected thru HDMI was good, but not perfect. I noticed some pixilation around menu items and at times the picture seemed harsh (maybe with further adjustments I get it just right). 1080i sources from Comcast cable box was a bit washed out until made custom adjustments to brightness and color. The RGB input from my PC was crisp and clean (I can finally read the screen!--I was using an S-video connection with the plasma!). The remote and the menus are easy to use and I especially like not having to cycle thru inputs like most TV's. Those are all the good points. My only complaint (other than 1080i needing adjustment) is the sound. The output of the speakers is very weak and even when connected to my stereo amplifier it required more volume adjustment than my plasma. I will soon be upgrading my receiver to accept HDMI input so that will not be a problem for me but I want to warn folks that the sound output of the TV is less than optimal. But overall, this TV is a fine addition as the "main" TV for folks with small living rooms or in the bedroom for folks like me with a larger living room.
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by dlmiley (see profile) -
April 12, 2008
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