Looks Awsome On and Off, Bright clean picture

Weighs a metric tonne

I spent some time evaluting both this and the Toshiba TAU. I went for the sony because I thought it had a bit more to offer. I have thrown a number of signals at it (VCR, Digital TV and DVD) and it makes them all look amazing. Even the VCR playing a 30 year war flic looked good.

Didn't care too much about the weight, the store delivered it for free. Maybe I'll repost if I ever have to move.

Similar Products Used:

None

Cabinet is aesthetically pleasing, lots of inputs (see weaknesses), flat screen, great picture with DVD

rear panel is flimsy (be careful with tight cables), another component input would be nice, remote is not great, still not sure why Sony never calls this HDTV ready

I had the 32XBR450 for about a week. I don't have many accesories for the thing yet as this is my first foray into a home theater. I don't have an HD tuner, or satellite tuner, surround processor or 5 to 7 speakers.

The picture on the TV is great with a DVD, but cable is not impressive. I think that is largely due to the cable company, though.

After a week, I am neither thrilled nor disappointed.

I will update in the future when I've had more time to spend with it and after I can use it in its proper environment.

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compared with many others, but my final two consisted of the 32XBR450 and a Proscan 38000 (38" 16:9 HDTV with built in tuner) that I decided was too big for my apartment

Beautiful Picture...especially when watching DVD w/ component inputs

The right side of my screen is Brighter than the rest. PLEASE HELP!!!

Hey Everyone,

This is a review for the 32XZBR450:

Don't get me wrong, 95% of the time, I love this television. The other 5% ,however really irritates me.

When I am watching either a DVD in anamorphic (letterbox) mode or standard TV with a dark background, I notice that the right side of the screen is significantly BRIGHTER. It's almost as if it is glowing on the right side. When I'm watching standard full-screen television with a relatively bright screen, I can't notice it at all. It's only when the screen is dark or when there are black bars above and below the DVD picture that the right side of the screen appears to glow.

Has anyone else had this problem? PLEASE email me if you have any suggestion and/or have a fix. I've called Sony several times but they have no idea what I'm talking about.

Thanks,

Kurt
kurtisblo@yahoo.com

The TV set turned off looks cool. Sony's tech support.

The horrible picure, it's heavy as hell, and Not AT ALL WORTH THE PRICE

Wanted the best so I purchased the Sony XBR450 (replaces the XBR 400). With shipping paid 2k for Sony's top-of-the-line Wega product. I am so dissapointed. Actually, disgusted. My 5 year old Toshiba has just as good a picture. I have the TV connected to HD Direct TV. Yea, the preview loop filmed in HD looks exceptional, but right now hardly anything is filmed in HD. Do not waste your money on this TV. And by the way, by all of your electronics locally. I purchased this TV thru Yahoo Shopping and when delivered, did not even come with a receipt. What's funny, the company is called Reliable Audio/Video. I talked with Sony regarding warranty work and they must have a receipt to send someone out. I finally got someone at Reliable on the phone and he said he would get a receipt right out. Yea, as soon as the 14-day return policy is up.

Excellent image when used with progressive scan DVD players.

Power surge on startup scares my dog. DRC looks aliased with regular interlaced video.

(paid $2000 with the Sony stand included.)

I would highly recommend this television to anyone who enjoys watching DVDs. When used with a Progressive Scan DVD player this combo produces stunning images that blow away even digital broadcast equipment (which can’t do 480p and such). I have the Sony DVP-S9000ES DVD player hooked up to this television, which gives me the following killer-combo:

- The DVD player extracts the 3:2 pull down and recreates the original 24 frame film sequence. This eliminates interlace tearing.
- This is fed at double the normal frame rate (60 Frames) Progressive Scan to the television (480p) to eliminate flicker.
- Component video (YUV) hookup eliminates chroma crawl, dot crawl and a host of other video ailments. This is very important to getting a good image.
- The Television line quadruples the image (2X Horizontal and 2X Vertical.
- 16:9 anamorphic squeeze improves resolution even further with letterboxed DVDs.

When watching over-the-air broadcasts it is important to have a good antenna with good reception. If birds won’t even land on your antenna because it’s falling apart, then you need to get a new antenna with your new TV. If the word antenna is foreign to you, then you should consider one. Nothing beats the image quality of a strong over-the-air analog signal. Would you like to guess how your cable company receives the local signals that it then retransmits onto your cable system? That’s right… a rooftop antenna located at the headend. And not necessarily a good one either.

I also have analog and digital cable. Digital cable in my area if fairly acceptable with compression rates approaching DVD quality. Both analog and digital cable look good on this set with one flaw. It seems that the DRC (Digital Reality Creation) has trouble with details like Text in an interlaced world (non-film originated material). Sharp edges become aliased and soft. My one complaint is that I can’t turn off DRC. Also, my DV camera playback looks strange when played back on this set. I suspect that the 16:9 anamorphic squeeze and line doubling combine to create line interpolation artifacts. Regardless, the image I see is not the image that was recorded… and in my opinion is worse. Most people who don’t stare at broadcast monitors all day don’t see what I do and all of this will be irrelevant to them.

One more complaint… My wife always leaves the TV on because the blacks are so black that it looks off when it is actually on. On top of that, I can’t hear this TV (I can normally hear the high-frequencies) because the refresh rate is twice that of a normal TV.

Now that I’ve said the negatives, let me re-emphasize the positives.

Watching a progressive scan component DVD is absolutely beautiful. Text is rock solid with no visible artifacts as seen in interlaced TV. The images look as if there was a film projector behind the set. Blacks remain black, even with bright white areas onscreen at the same time. In fact, I have never seen such beautiful blacks with details still intact on a consumer TV.

Be sure to calibrate using a reference DVD (Like Avia) to get the most from your TV. The factory settings, especially Vivid, are awful. Also, don’t be scared when you power up the set as you will hear a loud de-gausing noise accompanied by a dimming of the room lights.

Similar Products Used:

Sony digital broadcast monitors.

Even better picture with cable using a Radioshack signal booster!

Just thought I would drop a note to all that complain about a bad picture on certain cable channels. I went to Radio Shack and purchased a CABLE SIGNAL BOOSTER thats adjustable from 10db to 26db....and what a difference! Local stations and all channels look very close to the digital channels that I recieve. I highly recommend this product If your total cable runs are in excess of 100 feet. The one I bought is catalog #15-1112-$27.99.(make sure you hook it up in-line..main cable feed in to booster then out to the in on cable box...the instructions may say differently). Enjoy your new TV!

Incredible Picture with good source. Plenty of inputs. Great Styling.

Heavy. Shows weakness in your sources. Some digital artifacts.

My wife and I had discussed getting a new set for about a year. We had decided on a standard 36" set (toshiba) but when she saw the picture on the xbr she was sold. She is an artist and could appreciate the difference in the picture. How about that! A product with a SAF (spouse approval factor) which is off of the scale.

The picture is incredible with a dvd source. It looks like you are viewing the real thing through a window. The picture will show any weakness in the picture. If the source is bad the tv will show it. Just like good audio equipment.

Many people complain about the xbr's with DTV, Yes it does show some artifacts but it still is far superior to a normal tv. Text such as that in commercials tends to show up worse than the picture itself.

By setting up the 4 picture settings a little different I can cycle through them to find the best settings for the particular station I am watching. This helps make the weaker stations look good and the Good ones look Great.

It took a little getting used to but the remote is actually quite nice. I have everything running through the set so my wife can switch sources easily. The door to get to the DVD controls can be a bit of a pain but it does make for a simple and useful remote.

Picture in picture really had nothing to do with my purchase but I really am starting to like it. The zoom and favorite station features are quite useful.

Weaknesses: I would have liked to be able to label more than 20 stations and also label the picture settings to something instead of movie,pro,standard and vivid. I am just getting my home theatre set up so I don't have a center speaker yet. I would have liked to use the tv speakers as a center (there really not that bad) but if you turn on the audio outputs it kills the speaker.

I got it for 1700 open box at Lee Hartman, after Circuit City said that 1950+40.00 shipping was the best they could do! I will NEVER enter that place again.

Overall a great set that I think is worth the money if you really want to see a picture that will take your breath away.

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Toshiba,Hitachi.

Flat Screen

Horrible built in line doubler, hideous industrial design

Any one who compares this TV to the new Loewe Calida 2323 (1080i model) will be amazed that Sony has the nerve to even advertise this product. The built in line doubling is among the worst that I have seen. It introduces digital artifacts at a very disturbing, and distracting rate. The only way to get very good picture quality off of this TV is to use it with a DVD player with progressive scan output, thereby bypassing most of this TV's built in video processing. Even then, the Loewe Calida 2323 ($2,400) provides a far superior picture even when the German TV is hooked up to DVD player with the S-Video connection.

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Loewe Calida 2323

Amazing picture, very flat screen, low glare

Features (16:9 enhanced mode, line doubling, scan velocity modulation) are tedious to use (Sony should provide dedicated remote buttons for them)

I love this set. The picture is so "film-like" that I can barely tell the difference between interlaced and progressive modes on my Toshiba SD-6200 DVD (with line doubling turned off on the TV).

The 16:9 enhanced mode of the 32XBR400 may explain why I don't see a marked difference with progressive sources. I do notice a somewhat greater difference when viewing a 4:3 version of a disc.

One thing I'd do to enhance the set is remove the speakers (as a model option). My set is in a tight space, and speakers kept me from getting the 36" version of this set.

One other thing - I'm on my third box - the first shot bizarre lines across the screen at random intervals, the second was damaged in the box (smashed in). The third is fine.

Choose a good dealer - mine replaced my set(s) quickly, with no questions asked. I've no doubt I could have shaved the cost down by purchasing over the Web, but I doubt any Web dealer would just bring over another set without a) delays or b) referring me back to Sony.

Why do I mention this? I did a lot of research in Web forums prior to my purchase. It seems to me that out-of-box problems with the larger sets are becoming more common.

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Sony KV-27FV16

Fantastic picture with Progessive Scan DVD source! 2 component inputs

Cable/Satellite sources pale by comparison.Focus on the left side of screen was slightly off out of the box(Since Repaired by dealer)

This is my first "High-end" video purchase so I really have nothing to compare this to. But I am somewhat disapointed in my analog reception compared to my previous TV, but I may be being too picky as I realize what this set will be capable of once HDTV becomes more mainstream (And affordable!)in the next few years. I am waiting for the price of HDTV Sat boxes to come down a bit,and then I will take that plunge. (My dealer informs me that this will happen this summer).So,I would highly recommend that you ask the dealer to show you what a ANALOG signal looks like on this set before you buy. I have a 30 day evaulation period and I am leaning towards keeping it provided I can tweak the set to my liking for the analog signals. The speaker grills are fine!I watched Gladitor on my Pioneer DV-37 P Scan DVD Player and the picture is simply AWESOME!

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Mitsubishi 27" bought in the late 80's