Flat screen, unique look, HD-TV capable

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I have owned this set for 4 days.
I have already contacted the seller to ask for a refund.
The shortcomings of this set are this:
I too, have also noticed the speaker grill covers beginning to peel at the edges from the very first day.
Tried pushing them back on, but alas, they just keep coming away from the set after a few hours. (1/8" at the top, and bottom of grill) (set was manufactured in July)
The picture to me id very disappointing using my satellite reciever which is a Sony B-3 with Monster M-1000V S-Video Cable.
Quite a bit of distortion seen which is noted when objects seem to move on the screen. This has a look like blurring, and slight pixelation. It seems like the TV is always fighting to keep in focus.
Softening the image sharpness, turning off the Velocity Modulation helps, but now the picture, as far as resolution/detail looks worse tham a cheap $300 Samsung. Not what a 2K TV should look like IMO.
Had my cousin view the TV this afternoon, and his comments were that it was looking like he was watching a dubbed movie.
Like the lips didn't match the audio.
I have to agree. (Like the picture was freezing)
Perhaps, if you only watch DVD's, then this set may totally impress you, for any other use, it's my opinion that Sony has definitely done something wrong.
I will not have any heartaches seeing this TV go back.
My next consideration will be the Panasonic Tau 36". Perhaps they have done a better job than Sony. Mark

Similar Products Used:

Samsung el-cheapo 27"

Looks, Inputs o' plenty, picture quality with good sources.

Picture quality with less than perfect source material, problems with 16:9 on progressive dvd. Fit and finish. Manual not in-depth.

Well, my panasonic 32FX56 SDTV went south after only three weeks (it was a store demo) and the store elected to refund my account rather than fix the set. Since I had been frothing at the mouth for this set anyway, even before it was released, I took it as an omen and picked it up at the customer appreciation sale. As stated many times, the set is heavy. However, it is so good looking that my wife was very happy with the selection. After letting the set warm up for 3-4 hours, I calibrated it using Avia and was off to see how good it was.
Well, first off, the picture tilt had to be set to +4 to get it right, not bad, but not perfect. Also, as with most sets, the component input has to be calibrated differently from the analog inputs. Sony is one of the few manufacturers to offer a solution, though. By using the Pro picture mode, I calibrated for the Component input hooked to my Toshiba 5109 progressive DVD player and connected via composite to calibrated the analog inputs using the Movie mode. As for the other modes, i played with them alot as well (though just for personal taste-not using Avia) and anticipate using Vivid for sports and Standard for non-movie shows.
Using the progressive input, I very quickly found the problem others have reported in that the auto 16:9 mode doesn't work, which forces you to choose on or off and each time you change to another video input and come back, it has set itself to off. However, this is not too much of a problem if you watch a movie fully through. And, despite others' comments, I can tell the difference with the pro scanning. Even using the interlaced coponent input (which causes the 16:9 mode to work correctly by the way, I could see some amount of artifacts, though very mild. With the pro scan, they are not there period, and the picture literally leaps off at you. I used my faithful reference discs (Austin Powers, Fifth Element and The World is not Enough) and was floored by the colors, etc. This beat the pants off the panasonic set, which I was very happy with--Read my review of it as well.
however, on analog sources, the 480p doubler in the Pana is superior to Sony's DRC. With anything other than pristine signals (digital cable HBO, etc.)the picture is soft with mucho artifacts. The panasonic set was much much better in this regard. The Sony appears to look a bit better set on Progressive than Interlaced, although this goes against the manual, an either way, it is definitely not great.
In the fit and finish category, the set had two small nicks on the cabinet by the time I got it set up and believe me, I was careful. Why Sony paints these sets rather than moulding them from silver or grey plastic is beyond me. And, as reported earlier, the speaker grille material is already beginning to curl at the edges and will require someone to come and glue them on better (can you say service call?).
All in all, the set is oustanding on DVD and HD by the way and is only passable on anything else (I did forget to mention it actually looks better with my Toshiba M785 vcr than analog cable. Based solely on the fit and finish and the DRC, I am not sure I will keep it. For the average person, I for one think RCA had the best idea with the MM36. It has no doubling on analog inputs, but accepts progressive sources via 2 inputs (even though they are vga). I am starting to think that a set like that with an HD box for HD signals, and a proscan dvd hooked up (or a dvdo doubler) but that leaves alone the analog signals is the best bet for now. Sony, are you listening? Let us turn DRC off on any input we like. Then this set would be a 5.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic Superflat, Sony V-Series

Great aestetics on the case. Virtually no scan lines, DVD's look great!

Pixelation abounds; analog cable struggles.

OK, like a fool I sold my old XBR to a friend to get this new one. It looked phenomenal in the store, and the set looks great. However, regular cable looks terrible. Its a touch blurry, and the colors look like a poorly compressed MPEG. Even on DVD I notice this slightly (AKA the new T2 DVD; the blue sky is rather blotchy) Granted there are no scan lines, but, now the image doesnt have "the look" of the older XBR. I do understand that this is the result of digital processing of the DRC, but it still is frustrating. Speaking of image, another little trait is that when you watch a documentry show with a mix of stills and movement, the stills heavily pixelate. I really do not think I have it tuned quite right (anyone help? acetone1@aol.com; I would greatly appreciate it.)

Other problems: the audio doesnt cut it, especially for a 2K TV (realize that you could buy 4 cheap 32" for this price). Also, whats the deal with the power switch on the front. Why isnt it just a standby button! Maybe with some tuning Ill enjoy this more, or when it gets a good 1080i HDTV signal to it, but to those wondering if this is for them, I recommend waiting to see if Sony fixes its flaws (just my luck!) or get a leftover xbr250

Similar Products Used:

32XBR250 as well as other Sony trinitrons

Phenomenal picture quality, line doubler, component inputs, adjustable scan velocity modulation. Good tuner performance.

Price. Weight. Slight audio hiss.

I waited for the 400 series to come out before purchasing a new XBR because of the litany of problems people have reported with the 200 and 250 series. Happily, after using the Avia disc, I can report that my picture is excellent -- no significant geometry problems, no misconvergence, no black bands, etc.

The bulit in line doubler (Digital Reality Creation) works very well. It significantly reduces the appearance of scan lines.

I am very impressed with the quality of the built-in tuner. I do not have cable but instead use an indoor antenna to receive broadcast transmissions. Many TV sets I have evaluated have poor tuner performance for over-the-air broadcast transmissions. This is probably because it is assumed that the sets will be fed via cable or DSS. I am happy to report that Sony has not taken this for granted - the tuner is sensitive and has a good bandwidth and signal to noise ratio even when fed via a passive rabbit ears antenna.

DVD image quality through the component inputs is stunning. Like looking through a plate glass window.

One small nitpick is that the audio noise floor at the TV's audio outputs is a little higher than I would have liked. However, I am VERY sensitive to audio noise/hiss and I doubt most people will even notice.

Similar Products Used:

Circa-1992 32" XBR

The best TV in it's class and it even has a superior image than the other sets costing over a grand more that I've seen even with Analog Cable. I tried it with a Digital Cable Box and the Premium channels came in almost as strikingly as with the DVDs. That is very good!

Curling grille is unacceptable, Sony must fix it. Let's Rally together and let Sony know , I did and will again.

This is a update on the ungluing speaker grille issue.

Well at Sound Advice the had a Tech come over and said he would reorder the grilles and replace them and that Sony was probably aware of the problem and would improve the replacement grilles. But to me they probably will be the same ones,with better adhesive if I'm lucky.
The other Tech that Sony contracts said that he talked to the Southeast Sales Rep. and told him about the curling grilles and to go check out the reviews on Audio and Consumer Reviews Web Page. He called me today and said the the Sony Rep. didn't really want to confirm the problem as of yet, but I guess if enough buyers complain they'll get on it.
Hey Tim I like this TV so much that I'm exchanging it for the larger 36XBR400 it's $500.00 more but I figure I'll have the set for 15 years. The 32XBR400 looked big when I first got it, but looks smaller now, my living room can handle a 36" and it's such an Impressive Televisin Set.
They use the same design speaker grilles, but I'm going to give them a hard time about them, that they'll have to fix it to my satisfation. You get a 60 day satisfaction guarantee going through Sound Advice. I went to another Sound Advice to compare the XBR400 to the Panasonic Tau 34" CT34WX50, a very handsome Widescreen HDTV which cost about $3,600, that's over a grand more than the 36XBR400 and the Sony definitely has the better Picture. That's two places I've been too to compare them.

Well good luck boys and girls and any questions just email me , I'll be glad to help.

Hugo

Quality of picture, features, 16:9 autosensing, number of inputs, HD capability.

None yet

Just exchanged a Sony 36FS16 Wega for this unit. I had the 36FS16 for three weeks before returning it. The scan lines were unacceptable for my wife and I. Of course we had jumped from a Sony 25inch XBR to the 36" and we tried to adjust to the fact it was a larger screen but couldn't get acustomed to the annoying scan lines. The difference in picture quality and resolution between the new 32XBR400 and the 36FS16 is incredible!

I've read in some of the previous reviews problems with the geometry tilt. I spoke to the manager of the local Hi end video and audio shop, from which I purchased the XBR, concerning this problem. He stated he had done research and it was his impression that the tilt problem stemmed from the direction the XBR was sitting in relation to the magnetic poles. He had found that having the TV facing west or east as opposed to facing north or south resulted in no deflection of the tilt. I don't know that this is the true reason for the problem but he felt that was why there was a tilt adjustment on the set. By coincidence, my set is facing west and I have run this set through a full setup using the AVIA setup DVD and the geometry of this unit is perfectly level. I did not need to make any adjustments for tilt.

Back to the differences between the 32FS16 and the XBR400:

The lack of scan lines is the biggest thing that jumps out at you. The line doubler definitly make a world of difference. My wife noticed the lack of noticeable scan lines immediately. She usually isn't as critcal as I am but her impression was that this TV blew the Sony 36FS16 away! It's aways good news when you spend more $$ and your wife agrees that the step up in $$ is worth it. Though I've only had the set for a day, I haven't come across any glaring problems. It is critical to fine tune this set to take advantage of the capabilities of this fine TV. I'll give it 5 for value and O/A rating. If any problems crop up, I'll follow up!

C'YA

Similar Products Used:

kv-36fs16, kv-25xbr(vintage 1988)Sony S570P DVD.

DVD picture quality, DBS picture Quality

Poor converence, Purity problems on extreme right side left side of screen

TV has been replaced three times for various problems. High voltage arc, color problems. Red convergence is off especially in corners of screen. There is a shadow on right and left side. Sound is good with no peeling speaker grills. On some off air signals that are greater than 0 dBmv, picture appears noisy. Do not have cable, use Dish Network and an offair antenna. I have an old 25XBR sony,15 years old, which has as good a picture as the XBR 400. Sony has not made a quality XBR since then.
I like the Standard picture position with Picture and Brightness down sightly, Sharpness slighly higher, VM set to Medium and Progressive scan.
Had Sony factory tech out who adjusted the Dynamic convergence settings in the service menu and convergence is much better. Tech also adjusted some of the linearity adjustments. I do not undertsand why that cannot be properly adjusted at the factory.
Remote is adequate and easy to use.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 32XBR250

Great blacks, many calibration options, outsanding clarity
no artifacts with quick movements.

No 15 pin or other options for digital inputs; remote is OK, but we still haven't found a remote we like so nothing new here

Our group has been viewing ANALOG (no converter) cable for a month...
Tennis, Football, Dance, Concerts, Olympics, Sitcoms, Interviews, classics, and scenic movies, all have been beautiful.
Sources can be differentiated with careful viewing. So analog cable doesn't match HD, DVD, DV, LD, SVHS.

Duh.

We have extensive collections of both DVD and LD as do our friends with the above mentioned displays. We all have analog cable and/or some assortment of other broadcast TV. DVDs Bug's Life, Fifth Element, Sleepy Hollow are outstanding viewed with Pioneer DVL-91. DV source is crystal from vx2000 especially 16:9 wow. LDs on CLD-99 and DVL-91 are impressive and sometimes breathtaking. This display covers many artifacts but will show a few of the flaws in your sources.
Analog Cable on the XBR400 definitely bests everything else we have seen. We have seen MANY different analog and digital displays with analog sources. Even within the $3000 range you will NOT get a better picture at this size and 4:3 ratio. Out of box and with calibration, personal preferences and room considerations the display is great. If you do not know how to calibrate your display then you might have some disappointments.
XBR400 is wonderful and without jumping to projection or more expensive converters we believe that the majority of people will fall in love with this display. Again calibration makes a BIG difference with any display.
With the digital sources the XBR400 is just flat out great, period.

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CRT: almost every xbr 2 200 250; toshiba and panasonic 32 and 36; and a hitachi 32. all higher end models.

Picture Quality, very cool looking!

Manual (lacks detail)

I purchased this unit 2 days ago. It's fantastic! I started looking for a new TV about 2 months ago. I had my eyes on a new Mitsubishi HDTV Projection Screen but it wouldn't fit into our new entertainment center. Then I saw the XBR 400's and also looked at the Panasonic Tau. The Tau is nice, has unbeatable vivid colors but lacks detail in low light pictures (my opinion) and is so, so expensive. I was sold on the XBR, crystal clear picture, great whites, great blacks, great colors, what more do you want? Then I came across this site and starting reading the reviews. I too became worried about less-than-optimal input signals and how this box would react. I'm currently using AT&T Broadband (they just purchased MediaOne) CATV...No digital signals yet. My house is wired for 3 wall jacks with our family room (TV room) being the last link on the cable-chain. Quality has been so-so. A few months ago, I purchased one of those $20 cable amplifiers you get at RadioShack and that helped but still didn't give me the great picture I get on our little 9-inch in the kitchen (which just happens to be the first link on the cable-chain). Now I'm thinking about plopping down 2-grand for a TV that appears to be very sensitive to analog inputs. I went back to Audio King and talked with the rep about my concerns. He told me of a product they sell that I should consider...a GOOD cable amplifier, one that filters out noise and only amplifies signal, the Channel Vision CVT-15PIA. The unit looks top-notch, hermetically sealed, separate power supply, and get this, they used a piece of RG/6 from the power supply to the unit. These folks are serious about not introducing any power supply noise into the critical amp circuits. $140 Seems kind of high but now that I have the TV, I can tell you it's worth it. My analog picture is fantastic, granted it's not the quality of the progressive scan, component input DVD's but it's not far off! And it absolutely kicks butt on any analog TV I've seen. The first thing you notice is no scan lines, none, nada. They simply are not there. In my opinion, scan lines are a far greater sin than the occasional pixelation you see, and I haven't seen very much (maybe the RF amp is helping with this too?).

So far, my speaker grills are fine, they look good and tight. The sales rep said he had not heard of this (of course he's going to say that) but assured me that it's covered under the 5-year extended warranty I purchased.

There have been a lot of comments about the weight. Yes, it's heavy, and yes, it took 2 people to get it in place. But I'm not that concerned knowing the physics involved obtaining good focus out to all four corners of a flat-front picture tube (glass up to 4 inches thick). Yet still, I hope I won't have to move it anytime soon!

Concerns...Two come to mind. The owner's manual is simple, easy to read, and to the point...Maybe too simple. I would have expected a lot more details from the owner's manual of a 'top-of-the-line' product. The manual that came with my $350 Pioneer DVD player is much more detailed about user adjustments, what they mean, what they should be doing. The other concern regards the back panel where all the input jacks are and there are plenty of input jacks. Plugging in all my cables, I got the impression that the panel the jacks were mounted on wasn't very tuff, wasn't very rigid, had too much play in it. I was afraid to push on the RCA connectors! I took it easy (like you probably should do anyway) and everything was fine. I just didn't feel very good about the overall feel of the jack panel considering the cost of the unit.

I'll probably get a copy of Video Essentials, give that a try, out of curiosity more than anything. The picture quality is great as is, didn't really have to tweak it much, the factory setting (center) is a little dark for my taste but there's more than enough adjustment as far as brightness and contrast goes. Wouldn't it have been cool if Sony would have included some type of picture tweaking tool like 'VE' with the TV?

I'm very satisfied with my investment. I'm enjoying some of the best analog viewing possible and I'll be ready for whatever digital delivers in the future.

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27 inch Emerson

# of AV hook ups.

Build quality. Set turns off by itself. Loose speaker grill. You should have this set calibrated by a professional.

I have had the kv-32xbr400 for about a month now.
I was pretty upset right from the start. After the sales person told me what a great tv set the xbr400 was I could not waite to get it home. Having 2 friends help me get this thing through the door and up stairs the first thing
I noticed after taking it out of the box was a loose speaker grill. Getting passed that. I hooked everything up and was ready to go.
The picture looked better with the video S cable than the component video. After about 2 1/2 hours of watching tv it turned itself off. I called the sales person and he said that was normal that I had it set on the timer. This was not true. This has happened about 10 more times over the next week. This was the last straw. I have traded this set in for another brand. Plase do your home work before you spend this kind of cash. Also this set is HD-ready so you will have to spend another $1000.00 for the decoder.
Maybe I just recived a bad tv. But I will never forget to do all my home work again before I spend $2000.00

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Sony Jvc