Picture quality is the best on any decent input.

The audio is not outstanding steady sound not withstanding. (As others have noted consider things like cleaning before you locate this monster)

I have had many TVs over many years and this is by far the best. Pictures are clear, crisp on both cable and VHS. Unbelievable on a progressive scan player. Since I am not a technocrat I had someone "optimize" my settings. When I compare it to my Toshiba 50 inch rear projection TV that I have for my home theater, I am astonished at the difference. The Toshiba is very good - the XBR450 is great. The new Sony stand is also a great match for the set.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba Panasonic RCA

Picture quality is the best on any decent input.

The audio is not outstanding steady sound not withstanding. (As others have noted consider things like cleaning before you locate this monster)

I have had many TVs over many years and this is by far the best. Pictures are clear, crisp on both cable and VHS. Unbelievable on a progressive scan player. Since I am not a technocrat I had someone "optimize" my settings. When I compare it to my Toshiba 50 inch rear projection TV that I have for my home theater, I am astonished at the difference. The Toshiba is very good - the XBR450 is great. The new Sony stand is also a great match for the set.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba Panasonic RCA

Amazing picture and really good sound (IMHO), assuming you have a good input source.

Unforgiving of bad/mediocre input signals, including lossy-compression digital cable.

This is actually for the XBR800 (which replaces the XBR450), but I can't find that on this site. Overall, this is a great TV, and I got a great deal for it. However, the picture quality for regular analog or digital cable TV is terrible, as other reviewers have said. This TV is merciless with bad input signals. The analog cable isn't too bad; just a little grainy even with sharpness turned all the way down. But the line doubler takes the digital cable channels and turns them into pixellated low-quality JPEG video...you know what I mean. I'm experimenting to try to reduce this, but I can't "soften" the picture the way I could on the Toshiba 36HFX71 I tried.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 36HFX71.

LOOKS OF SYSTEM

no "on mute" closed captioning imperfect image when in letter box

Hey EVERYONE, take a closer look at your XBR's. Right under the blackened letter box is a different shade of pixel showing your image, very annoying if you actually enjoy a good picture A TERRIBLE SET FOR THE MONEY

Awesome picture, great remote.

Heavy, wish I could rename the labels for video inputs on the composite inputs (my ps2 uses composite, and i cant name that one GAME)

LOVE THIS TV. The multiple inputs rock, the remote is simple to use, but to be honest I hardly use it (reprogrammed cable remote instead) Menus are simple to figure out. DVD''s are simply AWESOME. Broadcast TV and digital cable TV, well a lot of people say its sub par, I personally think its OK. Looks oversaturated if you leave the tv in "Vivid" mode - switching to standard or PRO makes it a lot better looking! I found using the RCA output from my cable box looked WORSE than the coax in terms of video resolution.

Similar Products Used:

nothing ive had before compares.

Best picture around. At any price. Clean styling.

Weight. But once it''s in place, who cares? Price could have been cheaper, but what can you do?

We''ve been logging in quite a few hours over the last 2 months and are quite happy with our new toy. Regular cable looks fine. I won''t have to upgrade to satellite until Hi Def makes more sense. DVDs are magnificent with our NS700P DVD player. The TV speakers are adequite especially since I don''t have room for a sound system. I looked long and hard for a TV stand as the Sony stand seemed cheap and flimsy. The Elite TV stand at Good Guys I highly recommend. It handles 36"-40" sets. Comes in Grey or Cherry with 2 glass shelves. I can slide TV sideways on the stand to make connections. ($350) and built heavy duty.

Similar Products Used:

Several Sony TVs over the last 30 years.

Superlative Picture Vast color palatte Superior doubling

None

I replaced my Toshiba 56" HDTV Theater Wide rear projection for this set and I haven''t looked back since. The Toshiba was fully ISF calibrated and was an outstanding performer. However, I missed the brillance and clarity of a direct view set. It didn''t bother me one bit that the image would be smaller. I would prefer to have a crystal clear brilliantly sharp smaller image than an overly bloated so-so image that becomes tiring after a short time. After carefully examining nearly every major player out there I continuously returned to this set. In short, this set has the unique ability to render the largest palatte of subtle shades of color hues that I have ever seen! Most sets render varioations of red, blue and green and do a credible job of overall color presentation. However, this glorious set rendered shades of color that I had never seen before on any display device at any price. There ware luscious shades of gold, browns, lavender, pink, maroon, lime, cobalt blue, etc. Additionally, the clarity and sheer brillance of this set stood out at every vendors wall of sets that I visited, and I visited many in the San Francisco area. I also previously had Toshibas'' 34" HDTV 16X9 set and I can honestly state that the picture stretching in any mode never quite sat well with me, nor did Toshibas geometry issues even in anamporhic mode after ISF calibration too! This Sony now occupies my viewing area at home and it is simply the finest display device I have owned, and I have owned quite a few of the best. I was a bit worried at all the other reviews that stated that normal crappy cable would be magnified on this set. Much to my suprise and great pleasure, my normally crappy cable image looked incredibly good! It really is a matter of picture tuning adjustment folks. Just turn down the sharpness and the contrast and things will be fine. DVD images, especially anamporhic images, were superlative! The look was truly jaw dropping making one want to literally put your hand though the fine grade flat glass that is used on this set. I had always seen such incredible images at CES and in certain high end video/audo shops, but never able to reproduce that look in my home. I can now!

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 56" HDTV Theater Wide Projection Toshiba 34" HDTV Prior Sony XBR2 32 inch Other top Sony & Mitsubishi sets

1. Absolutely Supurb Picture Quality. 2. Solid Built-Quality and Longevity of Colors. 3. Gorgeous Looks. Especially with the match stand. Anyone claiming otherwise about the picture quality did not compare this TV (after tuned for the particular video feed) side by side with the competition. Compare, and you will see the obvious.

Very heavy. Very very heavy.

If top-quality DVD display is your main objective, then XBR 450 should definitely be on the top of your list to check out. By far this Sony model series is the most acclaimed consumer DVD movie monitor out there -- as evident on so many review sites, news or discussion groups. It does not have a built-in HD decoder, but it''s fully ready to receive HD signals via an external HDTV receiver or any decoder card. It has a 4:3 ratio screen. The enhanced mode (a most fantastic feature one must take advantage of while viewing DVDs) displays in 16:9 ratio with double the regular resolution H and V -- just check out Toy Story II DVD on this TV, every frame is like a fresh painting and every detail (even the different shades of shadow or the movie end credits) is crystal clear. DVD picture compression by default is not quite HDTV quality, and it cannot be displayed any better even on a more expensive HDTV than on the XBR450, which actually support reverse 3:2 pulldown. Regular DirecTV programming looks wonderful as well, but this TV is definitely unforgiving of poor video sources. This is not a cheap set, but once you invest in it, you will seldom set foot in a theater again.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic, Toshiba, Mitsubishi

Picture quality and resolution "Unstealable" due to its weight Excellent build quality Much better than any projection TV out there.

Weight Default factory settings Speakers are not the best but if you have a TV like this, then you have to have an A/V receiver with its own speakers.

Like a few people that reviewed this TV, I wanted to wait a few months before I wrote one myself. I wanted to see if I was going to run into the same problems that others ran into. Well, here I am writing this review after watching this superb piece of machinery for about 3 months. Even while the TV is off, it is beautiful. I even caught myself staring at the TV (while it was turned off) every once in a while as I was attempting to read a magazine. Of course, it looks even better when it''s turned on. When I first turned on the TV, the default settings were downright atrocious. I was thinking that I made a horrible (and costly) mistake buying this piece of junk for over $2,000. After playing with all the settings for about an hour or so, I really noticed why so many people loved this set. I''m surprised that SONY would set the defaults in a manner that makes the buyer question the purchase of this product. I had analog cable when I bought this TV and the picture was nothing to get overtly thrilled about. Don''t get me wrong because the picture was still considerably better than my SONY 20" Trinitron. The blacks are really black and the colors are bright and life-like. After upgrading to Digital Cable, that''s when the picture quality really shined. If you are still using analog cable with this TV, upgrade to something digital. Whether it''s satellite or digital cable, it''s still much better than analog cable. The picture is crisp, clear, detailed, and it really makes the picture come "alive" in its own manner. My 7 HBO channels are definitely worth paying for being able to watch it on this TV. The greatest picture quality is attained from a progressive scan DVD player. After hooking up my SONY DVP-NS700P, that''s when I knew I was in heaven. I couldn''t tear myself away from this TV. Gladiator never looked so life-like. I was really drawn into it. You have to use high quality cables for the connections; I am using high-end Monster cables. These cables are well worth the investment. The one thing that is bad (depends on which way you look at it) about this TV is it''s weight and size. Just like everyone else, once you bring this TV into your home, find a place for it and do not attempt to move it again. I needed three other people to move this monster into position. It sure would be difficult to steal this TV.

Similar Products Used:

Current set-up: Denon AVR-3802 (receiver) Polk Audio RT1000i (main speakers) Polk Audio CS400i (center speaker) Polk Audio f/x 500i (surround speakers) Polk Audio PSW650 (sub-woofer) Monster Cab

Picture very sharp, with excellent blacks and whites.

Get the extended warranty service if not you''re gonna get hurt. ($$$$$ and weight).

This TV set will perform based on the quality of your signal. If your signal is poor the image will be terrible, however if your signal is good the image will be the best or one of the best out there in the market for TVs in the thousand dollars range. With DVD progressive scan or non progressive the image is excellent. The sound is not bad but is not the best. This is not a problem because If I want to hear the big sound I crank my Denon 5800 A/V with my B&W nautilus and it won''t be a problem at all. I compared side by side this unit with the new 34" toshiba the 34 panasonic Thau and several plasmas and none compared to its detail and performance. You can''t go wrong with this unit. It''s worth the money big time. Just make sure you put it in a strong base and have a strong friend to help you out on the lifting, because it''s about 240 pounds.

Similar Products Used:

Thau 34" and many others