I wouldn't slap a dog in the ass with another Sony product. What crap. I've gone through 2 Sony TV's in the last 5 years. This boat anchor, KV-36XBR400, has the ghost channel problem someone else mentioned. It's 5 years old! We have TV's when I was a kid, in the 60s, that lasted longer than taht and they use tubes!

Take my advice and don't buy a Sony. I'm going Samsung all the way!!!

Quality picture

Too much technology, not for the novice.

Beautiful picture, better than any Plasma or LCD pic I've seen, too bad they've stopped making this. I've been shopping for a new TV and thought I'd write a review for this one.
I had read a lot about this TV before purchasing it back in 2001 and was concerned that output by my local Cox cable would not do the TV justice, finally in after years, HD came around on cable and the picture is phenomenal.

This TV is fantastic and well worth the money.
Buy this TV; it's got everything you need and then some. This is for the true Audio Phile lovers.

Customer Service

Haven't had to use it so far after 7 years and counting!

Similar Products Used:

Older and newer XBR TVs

great set when it works...

picture-in-picture problems

my 5 year old 36" Wega XBR has recently started exhibiting the same characteristics with the picture-in- picture feature as Dave in Seattle... Stay away from Sony...search online and you will easily find hundreds of posts from angry consumers with broken units at several different forum pages...

Great picture.

Unreliable. Poor repair options. HEAVY.

After slightly less than 4 years my Sony KV-36XBR400 has developed an intermittent problem. I will be watching one channel (i.e. 45) and the set will suddenly start showing the video for a different channel (i.e. 4). The audio is correct for the channel I'm tuned to (45) but the video is for the wrong channel (4). If you change channels or switch to one of the VIDEO inputs the audio changes accordingly but the video continues to be for the wrong channel (4). Eventually the video image begins to get "jumpy", intermittently freezing, and sometimes permanently freezing on an image/frame or perhaps just going blank. Because the problem happens on the video inputs (i.e VIDEO 1, VIDEO 2, etc.) as well as the tuner, I don't believe it's a problem with the tuner. I have contacted a Sony Authorized Repair service about this. They have about a 10-day backlog so there is quite a long time before they can come to inspect the set. Here's the painful part... I have had two repair appointments scheduled and as the repair day approaches the set stops exhibiting the problem. If the repairman can't observe the problem, he can't repair the set. So I have to cancel the appointment and wait for the TV to act up again.... at which point I have another 10-day lag before the repairman can come look at it. Because the set weighs 240 pounds it's not easy to take it into a repair shop so in-home repair is most desirable. But, I need the TV to be in its broken state when the in-home repairman comes out. Sigh. Currently the TV is unusable about 20% of the time, totally unpredictable, and, in a sense, unrepairable. I asked the Sony Authorized Repair service if they had a guess as to the problem based on the symptoms. They are 90% certain it is some circuit board, but it will cost me over $750 ($275 for in-home service call/labor and $440 for the circuit board plus sales tax) for that repair and they can't guarantee that will fix my problem. I loved this set while it worked reliably but I am hugely disappointed that it is failing after less than 4 years and the repair is so difficult, so expensive, and so uncertain. At this point, while I'd like to repair this set, I am frustrated to the point of buying new and buying ANYTHING BUT A SONY.

Great Picture while it lasted

Poor component quality control Too heavy to lift by one person

I've owned the Sony KV-36XBR400 for 2 yrs & 9 months. One day we turned on the TV and there was sound but no picture. For a TV that costs $2K+ with the XBR name you'd think it should last more than 2 yrs. The service guy we called said he just came from another customer with a similar problem (sound & no picture). Sony's building these unreliable ticking time-bombs ready to go off. I've NEVER seen any TV go bad in such a short period of time. Sony TVs always have great picture and they can add bells and whistles to their latest product, but if it costs $2K and breaks in 2 years habitually. Would you ever want to buy another Sony TV again?

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi, RCA

Had a beautiful picture while it worked

Unreliable,overpriced junk!!!!

Experiencing power up problems as experienced by others. Sony techs had this tv for 7 weeks and couldn't find problem. It didn't work when it left my house but the bumpy ride had caused it to work again. 5 weeks after I got it back it quit again. Have repeatedly gone to Sony for help. I am not pleased with this tv at all. Sony has been no help whatsoever. I am at the point of just replacing it with a non sony product. If anyone has any recommendations I would appreciate the advice. NO MORE Sony for me!!!!!

16:9 Enhanced Mode

Why enhance?

There have been enough reviews and everyone gets his/her own view across. I just hope my experience helps someone out there. I recently got a DTV/HDTV receiver, Panasonic TU-DST52. With a simple indoor UHF antenna I got all but one (UPN) local channels in the area. Frankly, broadcast HDTV did bring out the best of the TV which I owned for more than a year, until... I output all programs in 1080i format, the receiver upconverts SDTV nicely, and the tube after all is capable of 1080i. With a 4:3 screen you would think I get the whole picture. Wrong! The tube smells the 1080i input and decides that it has got to be in 16:9 aspect ratio (I would like to ask someone out there, is there any reason to tie 1080i with 16:9? Is it a must? I don't think so.) So, it puts my perfectly 4:3 picture in letterboxed format stretching everything sideway while adding a top and bottom black bars. I called Sony support to see if I could disable that "16:9 Enhanced" thingy, and the very capable tech pointed his finger (didn't know which one) directly to the Panasonic receiver as soon as he heard the word. Lame! He choked when I asked if I bought a Sony receiver it would leave my 4:3 image alone! You can tell that I am quite upset first with the stupid "Enhanced" then with the typical tech (sorry if I offend some of you.) To sum it up, if your output is 1080i in 4:3 aspect ratio, your 36 inch TV is a mere 29 in black matte. Your TV can never display 1080i source in full height! Most people probably do not consider digital/HDTV broadcast but think about this, why pay for a worse signal (cable, satellite) when you can get a much superior one for free (if you live in the right place). Good luck! To be fair, I have not had the time to check if other TVs could do what I think they should do.

Similar Products Used:

36xbr450

picture quality, user friendly and functional remote control

Expensive, heavy, and possibly defective power supply

The set does not go on now, no picture and only sound. The power button doesn't seem to operate correctly, had it for 2 years now, great picture (when you can see it) and great sound. Fortunately, for the first time in my experience, I actually purchased the extended warranty from Circuit City and will need to use it. I have always had unquestionable confidence in Sony products and have purchased anything I can get hands on but now, I just don't know. We'll see what the service guys say first.

Similar Products Used:

sony radios, sony DVD home theater

Moving it provides a good workout

Reliability,Reliability,Reliability

This is a follow-up to my previous reviews from when the tv was new. Every time we have a power failure the xbr400 will not power up for 3 or 4 days afterward. I can't find a single Sony service tech that will make the trip to check out the problem and I know that if I haul it off to a repair facility it will work fine. I didn't buy an extended warranty with the set and am really kicking myself for that! I have never been a fan of Sony products and only bought this tv because of the steller reviews it was getting in the video press at the time. The picture was amazing but why should I be staring at a $2500 paperweight after less than 2 years? This is the first tv I have owned that has not made it for 5 years. Sorry for the negative tone but right now I am ready to drag it outside and take a shotgun to it. No more Sony products for me. I would be appreciative if anyone has any suggestions. The power supply clicks as normal, the red light flashes 3 or 4 times goes off and after 5 seconds comes on and stays on. I have checked the supply voltage, it is 120-121 which should be ok.

Im back to let everyone know what happened to my XBR-400. It was sent to a repair shop that GE (Holds the service contract that Circuit City sells) could not fix the TV. They got training from Sony on the XBR, but I believe because they don't get much work on XBR's, they could not fine tune it and the picture alway seemed bent. I worked with the repair shop and GE from Apirl until July and could not get my TV back into the condition it was in when I purchased this TV set. The repair men told me it was not worth the troulbe and GE just blow me off. I finally went back to Circuit City and let them know what the problem was and what I went thru in the past for months. They called GE, tryed to work with them and GE sent another repair group over to my house to work with it, but the other repair shop had mess things up so bad, the other guy didn't know where to start. He adjusted it some, but the picture was still slightly bent, I went back to Circuit City again, let them know and they delivered me a new XBR-450. They stated that I did all that I should have done to get my problem fix and should not have to do anything more. I did purchase a service contract with this TV also, I just wished that it did not have to be with GE service group as they are useless sitting in their office, talking on the phone and stating what is written for them to say which is mostly, "Im Sorry Sir". I do thank Circuit City for working with me and I will buy product that I want and need from them for a long time.