I have a question -
It seems that after long continuous use (5 or 6 hours), the set starts to emit a noticeable hum that can be heard over low volumes. I can definitely hear the noise if I press mute. When I first turn on the set however, this hum is not audible. It sounds like a low hum that some electronic equipment exhibit. Has anyone experienced something similar? Is this normal? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

First I would like to ask why is there no listing of the 36XBR450 or 32XBR450 on Audioreview.com ? People have to have their reviews of those TVs listed under last years XBR400 (like I am doing).

I have been trying to decided between the Panasonic 36HX41 and Sony 36XBR450 for a few weeks now. I have seen both TVs on display severial times. From what I have seen, the XBR450 has some strong points over the HX41. First, there was little to no geometric issues. I saw the HX41 playing Cast Away on DVD. The bottom left of the picture was lower than the bottom right, making it look tilted. There was no way to adjust this in the menu. Second, the picture looked too dark. I turned up the brightnes which did help, but it make any white areas booming which is very eye-hurting over periods of time. Third, the picture looked too pixalated. It was hooked up to the sony n700p progressive dvd player. The image did look best having the TV do the progressive line doubling instead of the DVD player. When watching a cable/sat tv, the image was much worse. Images looked blotchy and square and looked much worse than a standard Panasonic analog TV set next to it.

I then looked at the XBR450 playing the same sceen from Cast Away. The picture had a much better color balance to it. It did however look a wee bit muted, but turning up the 'picture' setting a few notches made an improvement. DVD picture looked to have more detail than the HX41 and not as pixalated looking. Again the image was best having the TV do the progressive line doubling than having it done in the Sony DVP-N700P DVD player. I guess that DVD player isn't that good as far as progressive goes. When watching cable/sat chanels the picture was noticably better than the HX41. It had a more natural and smoth look; not so blotchy. As far as the Sony DCR (digital reality circuitry), I think having it display at 480P looks better than at 980i. Image detail looks the same, but the 480P has a more stable 'flicker-free' image.

Lastly are the remotes. The HX41 remote is slighty better than last years HX40. However the remote for the XBR450 is beautiful. Charcol-Gray/Silver which matches the TV color. There is a joystick device on the bottom which makes it very easy to navagate menus. The top flips open to reveal controls for other devices (dvd, cable/sat box, vcr). The XBR450 is a slighty darker silver than the XBR400. Also the on-screen menu on the XBR450 is more user friendly and has more color/picture/sound adjustments than the HX41. One thing is that I can't believe that the XBR450 has a 'tilt' adjustment where the HX41 does not. Even my 5 year old 32" Sharp TV has that.

Overall I still think the Panasonic is a good TV despite its short comings. I had seen the HX40 earlier this year and had hoped that the HX41 was going to be a better set. Sorry to say that it's only slightly better. Yes the HX41 picture is better than the HX40, but not as good as the XBR450. Even though the HX41 has the geomety issue and darker picture, it may not bother some people, and at $250 less than the XBR450 it's a good buy.

I ended up buying the 36xbr450 to be delivered next week. I think that I may purchase the Pioneer Elete DV-37 DVD player as well. I have heard wonderful things about it, and it probably provides a better picture compaired to the sony n700p dvd player. I shall have to see. I will have a review of the TV after it is delivered and I've had some time to test it out.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic CT-36HX41

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Poor picture for the money.

I purchased this tv based on reviews. I regret it now. The colors are unrealistic and not natural. The definition is not good and some white to black distortion is visible. I also have a sony 27" stereo trinitron that I purchase in 1990 for $675 and it has a far better picture than this one. Overall rating is TERRIBLE, save your money for something better.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 27" stereo trinitron (1990 model).

Superb picture quality and clarity, particularly with Hi-Def and DVD

Geometry

This is a fabulous set but the better the source, the better the picture: Hi-Def is unbelievable! These service mode tweaks will definitely improve an already impressive picture: (uhhh, service mode changes may void the warranty, so beware)

Warm up 30 minutes before adjusting.
With set off, press DISPLAY, 5, VOL+, POWER.
Use 1 & 4 to navigate menu, 3 & 6 to adjust.
Hit 'mute' then 'enter' to save changes.

1) Disable red push by setting AXIS to 1 for all inputs and signal types (480i, 480p, 1080i).
2) Disable dynamic color by setting UDCL to 0 for all picture modes.
3) Fix black level retention. Set UBLK and DCTR to 0 for all modes.
4) Set color temp to warm by setting UTMP to 0 for all modes.
5) To tone down Vivid and Standard mode, set UGAM to 0 for these modes.

After making changes, re-calibrate Picture, Bright, Color, Tint, Sharp with Avia or VE in Movie mode with SVM OFF.

To improve dark scenes, set DCT and ABLM to 0.
To reduce uneven brightness with gray backgrounds, set SBRT down 3 notches from standard, if above 6 or 7. If already 1 to 5, leave as is. This is a 'Sony fix' and you may already have it. If it doesn't eliminate it, you may have to replace a coil under warranty. Tell them you are aware of the problem from reading it on the Sony site.

Set OVERSCAN to around 5% on all sides with OVERSCAN pattern via:
VPOS, HPOS, HSIZ, VBOW, VANG, PAMP, TRAP, UCPN, LCPN, VSIZ, and VLIN.
These all interact so go through them several times.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba CN36X81, Sony 32XBR250

Impressive picture with DVD's.

Regular cable needs adjustment to look "good".

I've only had this TV for a few days now. At first I was VERY disappointed with the picture quality when watching programs on regular cable broadcasts. After reading some of the reviews on the site, I made some adjustments and now find the picture to be "acceptible". It seems switching the mode to "movie" helps a lot. The picture will be a little dark, but increasing the brightness takes care of that. Increasing the sharpness helps a little too. When watching DVD's the "standard" setting works just fine.
Other than that, I am very pleased with the performance of this product.

Excellent features and performance for the price. Incredible image when used with strong source signal.

Poor quality source material is amplified.

The reason that I purchased the XBR400 was that I wanted a TV that was 1080i capable, between 32" and 34", and would compliment my home theater system. The first unit I was interested in was the Panasonic TAU CT-34WX50. The deciding factor was the price. The Panasonic line doubling is a little better than Sony's DRC system, however at a price that was 77% higher than the Sony the difference was not that dramatic.

The Sony provides great picture clarity, good color and depth from solid source material but with less than perfect source material the image can pixelate in shadow areas of the image. I have seen no other problems with image quality or orientation. I have not yet been able to view any material in 1080i format (80% of DVD's are recorded in 480i format, hopefully this will change) but I am hoping to purchase a HDTV decoder in the next 12 months.

Fit and Finish - I have noticed that the speaker grilles show a little seperation at the edges which I found surprising considering speaker grille technology has been around for a while. Otherwise, fit and finish looks good.

Overall the XBR400 is a unit I would recommend for buyers who want 1080i capability but understand that source material will be the largest obstacle in your viewing enjoyment. In addition, this set offers the highest value in it's segment (try not to compare an $1,800 Sony to sets in the $3,000 and over range, that is a different segment).

Looks great. Exceptional DVD picture. Great speakers w/ SRS

Too much detail (sounds crazy I know). Not a very scrisp image. Small text seems a bit blurry (sports scores, subtitles, etc). Not too good blacks. No depth.

All in all the sony is great. If you prefer great blacks and depth, I recommend waiting for an HDTV (eg RCA 38"). This is without a freat TV, but there are better pictures out there. The WEGA seems to try too hard on detail, and some text and images seem pixalated or blurry. Picture settings not to accurate. I have not seem a progressive DVD played on it yet, so I don't know if it helps or not. If anyone knows of a way to get a great picture from this TV, please email me


cmetcalf@san.rr.com

Similar Products Used:

Zenith 27"

This TV rocks!! Don't know why everyone compains.

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First off let me startby saying that I am not the biggest Sony fan. I opted for the Wega because I love games and a projection tv was out of the question for that reason alone.
The quality in the picture is amazing, anyone that comes over and watches Gladiator sits with their jaw on the ground. As far as people complain about the tv shutting off or picture flaws or all that other nonsense, I have yet to see any of these problems. Try checking the sleep timer on the set. I have fallen asleep in front of the tv many times and it is always on when I wake up the next morning. Yes the set is heavy but what do you expect from a tube like this, It would implode if it weren't so thick. Small price to pay for the quality. I have yet to see a tv outperform this set watching DVD's, and unlike a projection set you could sit anywhere and still see the picture, PERFECT! The only thing I would shy away from is the stand, complete crap. I opted for an entertainment center but it took a week to find one that had a hole big enough and was strong enough to hold this beast. One of the few sony products that I own and definately the best.

Similar Products Used:

Nothing besides my 21" flat screen trinitron computer monitor

Incredible Picture, DRC eliminates Scan lines, WEGA Screen

Crappy sources make for an ok picture. It's not the TV, it's the crappy cable. SVHS and DVD look outstanding.

I've had this TV for a couple of weeks now and love watching it. The picture is incredible. Sharp, detailed. The DRC feature makes a huge difference. Just look at an XBR250 aside an XBR400. No comparison, Scan lines disappear.

I don't have a surrond system hooked up yet, but the builtin "TruSound" sounds great vs simulated and stereo modes. The side by side with Zoom, and favorite channel features are really cool too.

Throughly recommend this TV. I love Sony's.

Anyone know how to adjust the pincushion? The top right corner of my screen has a slight curve I'd like to adjust.

Similar Products Used:

None

Phenomenal picture quality; HDTV ready; 16:9 squeeze mode for anamorphic sources; excellent (clean) sound.

Peeling grilles (slightly). WEIGHT ... good grief.

With my dumb luck in finding this at the SONY outlet (I was ready to pay $500 more) and finding that the set I got is absolutely perfect (but for the the minor grille peeling), I feel like I hit the lottery. I see NONE of the geometric distortion that other people have commented on. The ticker on CNBC is ruler-straight.

I'm not that enamored of SONY's preset choices (Vivid, Movie, etc.) but these can easily be reconfigured, and the control then provides a quick way of compensating for different picture types without driving everyone in the room nuts while you make adjustments.

I'm interested in other users' experience with the RCA HDTV set top box ... I know it doesn't hook up directly, but has anyone tried it with an RGB converter?

The progressive scan feature is great ... but the set is ACCURATE ... which means that when you feed it crap, you get crap back. On good (minimally compressed DSS signals) you get outstanding results. When DSS is being heavily compressed, you see that, too (something I'd never noticed before on my 27" Sony set).

I'm assuming that Sony will recognize the speaker grill problem is a production defect and will honor its warranty. Anyone get Sony to fix it yet? It's barely noticeable on my set, but I see how it might get worse in time. Too minor, however, to down-rate the set.

Similar Products Used:

Replaces 8 year old 27" SONY high end set.