DVD movie experience is surreal. Beautiful and rich. Aesthetics are updated nicely. HDTV capable is great!

Displaying standard cable television(SDTV).

For 2 years I waited to get the WEGA, reading about the various problems and what not. And then the XBR250 arrives, goes on sale and I snag it. Then just 3 months laters, the XBR400 comes out...the difference couldn't be that dramatic...right? Wrong!

Boy what a difference indeed. Beautiful detail, vivid color, no visible scan lines is the firth thing you notice. DVD's are amazing, especiall utilizing the "enhanced" 16x9 feature. Text is crisp. And it's nice to know that this set is fairly future proof as it is an HDTV capable unit. The new side by side picture in picture feature is awesome. Easy to use, and much more effective. Test it out at the store, it's a lot of fun and much more practical than standard PIP.

The remote is different than previous WEGA models, less buttons but more functional. Very nice.

The only drawback thus far is the quality of cable television. Not good at all really. While the scan lines are gone, this more advanced WEGA wreaks havoc on these unrefined cable images. So if you dont have satellite TV or DTV, you won't be too happy about that.

But this is first and foremost a Home Theater unit. And there is none better...at least not for under $4000. If you have the means this is the TV to get. You don't have the means, hang out a firends house that does. If you have more than enough means...by one for the bedroom too.

Similar Products Used:

Sony WEGA KV-36XBR250

elegant styling, truly breathtaking picture

expensive, heavy, needs high quality input to show its full potential

I was amazed by the picture quality of the 36xbr250 but soon discovered the very aptly described "fun house mirror effect." Even though the picture was clear, brilliant and sometimes jaw dropping, the distortion was so pronounced that I had to return the set to Sony.

I subsequently purchased the 36xbr400 and now after 2 months I am very happy with it. I was advised that the best picture quality would be with satellite and with Directv it is quite good for a lot of the movie channels but is very poor indeed for the network channels in particular. Blurry due to inadequate bandwith I guess. I had cancelled my cable last month but reconnected a couple days ago and I am astonished by the phenomenal picture quality for most channels. Dvd as everyone agrees is terrific, but for most viewing I find that my cable is truly excellent. It was frustrating getting the tv adjusted to show it off to its optimum but with the help of a Sony technician I discovered that the picture was best on Standard setting with the factory default settings with only the colour turned down several notches !!!! What a suprise.

A truly amazing tv. Oh yes, there is some distortion in the top right corner but nothing is perfect!!

Similar Products Used:

xbr 250

elegant styling, truly breathtaking picture

expensive, heavy, needs high quality input to show its full potential

I was amazed by the picture quality of the 36xbr250 but soon discovered the very aptly described "fun house mirror effect." Even though the picture was clear, brilliant and sometimes jaw dropping, the distortion was so pronounced that I had to return the set to Sony.

I subsequently purchased the 36xbr400 and now after 2 months I am very happy with it. I was advised that the best picture quality would be with satellite and with Directv it is quite good for a lot of the movie channels but is very poor indeed for the network channels in particular. Blurry due to inadequate bandwith I guess. I had cancelled my cable last month but reconnected a couple days ago and I am astonished by the phenomenal picture quality for most channels. Dvd as everyone agrees is terrific, but for most viewing I find that my cable is truly excellent. It was frustrating getting the tv adjusted to show it off to its optimum but with the help of a Sony technician I discovered that the picture was best on Standard setting with the factory default settings with only the colour turned down several notches !!!! What a suprise.

A truly amazing tv. Oh yes, there is some distortion in the top right corner but nothing is perfect!!

Similar Products Used:

xbr 250

elegant styling, truly breathtaking picture

expensive, heavy, needs high quality input to show its full potential

I was amazed by the picture quality of the 36xbr250 but soon discovered the very aptly described "fun house mirror effect." Even though the picture was clear, brilliant and sometimes jaw dropping, the distortion was so pronounced that I had to return the set to Sony.

I subsequently purchased the 36xbr400 and now after 2 months I am very happy with it. I was advised that the best picture quality would be with satellite and with Directv it is quite good for a lot of the movie channels but is very poor indeed for the network channels in particular. Blurry due to inadequate bandwith I guess. I had cancelled my cable last month but reconnected a couple days ago and I am astonished by the phenomenal picture quality for most channels. Dvd as everyone agrees is terrific, but for most viewing I find that my cable is truly excellent. It was frustrating getting the tv adjusted to show it off to its optimum but with the help of a Sony technician I discovered that the picture was best on Standard setting with the factory default settings with only the colour turned down several notches !!!! What a suprise.

A truly amazing tv. Oh yes, there is some distortion in the top right corner but nothing is perfect!!

Similar Products Used:

xbr 250

Gorgeous Picture, Sound. Terrific stand, physical appearance.

Need to hit the gym before lifting the set.

THIS REVIEW IS OF THE KV-36XBR450

This set doubles as the kids' Playstation2 monitor and the center of our home theatre system. We were using a 45" Mitsubishi rear-projector which was showing its age and getting ruined by the Playstation2.

My wife is in cahoots with our decorator and thus the great appearance of the stand designed for the WEGA and of the TV itself was a help.

The picture is, of course, fantastic. We have Digital Cable in our home which gives a reasonable picture with just a little digital "blocking". The set shines with DVD and with the Playstation. There is a little aliasing noted with the DVD and the different CineEmotion settings didn't seem to make much of a difference. I'm using a lousy DVD player (Samsung freebie from Cambridge Soundworks) which may be contributing.

I found that the dealers were not very flexible on price and it took some work just to get them down to $2325.

I'm impressed with the flexibility of the set in terms of adjusting the picture. The manual, however, is pretty weak and doesn't really explain at a technical level things like lines of resolution, etc.

Similar Products Used:

Mitsubishi 45" Projection

Awesome picture quality, DRC, twin view, HDTV capability, and progressive scan modes.

Weight, sensitivity to signal strength, price, and cabinet.

Outstanding picture quality! Excellent picture with Progressive Scan DVD Player (Pioneer DVD 434). However, when I turn this TV on there is a loud noise. The cabinet could be smaller. I feel that this TV is also over priced and definitely weighs too much.

Similar Products Used:

36" Zenith Inteq and 36" Toshiba

Color balance, black levels.
DRC side-by-side viewing.
Rich set of inputs.

Geometry is not data-grade.
No direct-input buttons on remote, must scroll throuh all 8 that I have connected. No 16:9 enhance button on remote, I have to dig through the menus when watch DVDs (progressive scan player). Wide dimensions requires a custom built cabinet.

Strengths and weaknesses say most of it.

The TV is the very best for NTSC. I expect to keep it until I'm watching >80% of my content in HD.

My TV was not calibrated very well at the factory, having to correct color in the user menu, and enhance geometry in the service menu. The geometry isn't perfect yet, my only problem is a slight upward bowing at the bottom of the picture. Slight means about 3/8" higher in the center than at the sides, but only in the bottom four inches of the display.

I'll pick up a full service manual to decode more of the service menu features.

The tuner works fabulously, compared to my panablack or that in my top-of-the-line JVC VCR. Bad signals are bad but the Sony tuner gets more out of my antenna than the old TV or VCR can. I use Satellite (Dish model 4000) for most viewing and its quality is great.

I'm using a Toshiba 6200 progressive scan DVD player and the differences between interlaced and progressive are very noticable. Most noticable is the color saturation, then resolution, followed by image stability. Outstanding.

I'm still waiting on Sony to deliver their HD directv decoder, I may switch over then, although I'd much rather buy an HDTV decoder with built-in Tivo. Nobody makes them...

PS2 over component cables looks very nice. I use one picture mode for the game system, which throws the TV into progressive scan mode with some oversaturation on the colors that works really well with the material. Screen geometry of the PS2 video decoders leaves much to be desired, I really hope they allow adjustments in a future ROM.

Sony's coming out with a 40" model this summer. What's the practical difference between 250 and 350 lbs? No big deal. Prospective buyers may want to check that model out. I can't reccomend the Toshiba 6200 enough.. If the price is a problem there's a huge rash of progressive players hitting the market, cheap, this summer. I'll give etown.com a free plug here, they do have some pretty good coverage of the 2001 models from CES.

I got a great deal on the 36xbr400, and would have been happy to pay more. I was considering more expensive projection systems so this tube seems like a bargain.

Cheers,


-- Will

Picture, remote, style

Price...I expected the weight

I took the plunge. It's a wonderful machine....beautiful picture. I've been watching the XBR250 reviews for quite a while and had decided to wait for the XBR400 to see if some of the issues had been worked out of the newer machine.

I managed to intercept the first and only XBR400 slated for the show floor in The Home Theater in Houston. We decided on the new XBR400 stand to go with it...I'm pretty happy with it. Solid and looks quite nice...but it is also pretty heavy. The only dislike with the stand is the material...pressed wood.

The cable picture was slightly grainy at first...but the signal was actually pretty good considering what I had read from others with weak signals. I've set DRC to interlaced, VM (edge enhancement) to OFF, and softened the look using the predefined "movie" setting. Vivid is a bit shocking on colors but nothing a few adjustments can't fix.

I'll be going after a pair of the Canare cables this coming week to hookup the DVD.

I'd recommend the extended warranty ($199 for 5 years in house maintenace). Like most, I got caught up in the confusion over Sony's price change from $2,199 back to $2,699. I wound up paying $2,399. A bit pricy...probably my only sore spot about this XBR. But in the end, I'd buy it over again...it's awesome.

Similar Products Used:

Ancient Magnavox 27"

Awesome picture, twin view

HEAVY! Sensitive to signal strength.

When I first connected my cable up to this TV I couldn't get channels 2 through 6. And, channels 7 and up were fuzzy. Turns out that the splitter I was using must have been dropping some signal and this TV was too sensitive. (Funny, my 13 year old RCA worked just fine!)

Anyway, once that was fixed, the picture was magnificant. I have the priveledge of having two cable companies (TCI and Verizon Americast) and those guys really compete to deliver a good picture. The Americast that I subscribe to has a good, strong picture. It's not as good as anamorphic DVD, mind you, but it's very good.

This TV shows no scan lines to speak of. It's a great picture. On an anamorphic DVD it's so clear that the picture looks like a photograph!

I love the twin view dual picture. This is a much smarter idea than the old PIP other sets use. I don't have to cover up part of the picture to see the second view. It's also cool to be able to resize the twinview with the joystick.

There are 6 inputs into this box which is more than adequate for the average user.

Great line doubler, flat picture tube

Weight, built in speakers

Besides the built in speakers and the weight, this TV may be one of the best out there. The flat Wega picture tube dramatically reduces glare and distortion. The real strength of this TV for people w/o HD signals is the built in line doubler (DRC-MF). DVD's using the component input (480i) and the DRC-MF set to interlaced produces one of the best pictures I've seen on a HD set.

The DVD picture is incredibly sharp and detailed without adding noise (I have the TV calibrated with Video Essentials DVD). My DVD player's (Pioneer Elite DV-37) built in line doubler gets blown away by the TV's. If you're thinking about purchasing a progressive scan DVD player for this TV, save some money and purchase the best non-progessive model you can get and spend the extra money on upgrading the audio.

I feel this is the best non 16:9 HD direct tube TV around.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic Tau 36", Panasonic 51" RP HD