Sony BRAVIA XBR Series KDL-40XBR9 40-Inch 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV, Black

Review by tasty donuts for Sony BRAVIA XBR Series KDL-40XBR9 40-Inch 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV, Black
Rating:
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.

Review by REQ for Sony BRAVIA XBR Series KDL-40XBR9 40-Inch 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV, Black
Rating:
I am very happy with this TV, KDL-40XBR9. Great picture, great sound, and great features. The price is a bit high but inline with comparable LCD HDTVs.

The TV needed no adjustment out of the box. The picture is clear and bright. The SD picture seemed a bit blotchy at first but I’ve noticed that the source signal is the culprit and some channels look better than others with my DTV+Tivo receiver. I don’t have HD yet.

The built in speakers are very good but if you want the home theater experience then go with an x.1 sound system.

One thing that led me to get this model is the size. The front bezel is a low profile design which makes this TV close in size to many 37″ units. Most 40″ TVs in this price range will not fit in my cabinet and I was limited to a 37″ until I found this one.

Now to my favorite part, the internet connectivity. Online content is where Sony’s BRAVIA Internet enabled devices shine. Internet video, music, news, weather, and more at my fingertips with one network connection to the TV. I believe this will improve over time with more content and features. The network connection is wired ethernet and broadband service is needed for streaming audio/video. The picture quality from Netflix and Sony streaming services is very good, better than DVD in most cases. I haven’t tried Amazon VOD yet.

If you don’t want to run network cable to the TV you can use a wireless bridge. Sony has built in support (setup menu) for Linksys WET610N but others should work and a number of Wi-Fi routers support Wireless Bridge/Client Mode. The Zyxel P-330W router is one and it works very well.

I gave this TV four stars because the setup menu could be better and more intuitive. The remote layout is a bit cluttered. Another “issue” is that it loses the date/time settings if it loses power.

Review by S. Watson for Sony BRAVIA XBR Series KDL-40XBR9 40-Inch 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV, Black
Rating:
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!