Resolution, adjustablilty, looks good even turned off.

As it makes a great signal better, it also makes a weak signal worse.

Unfortunately, when I hooked the set up, the first face to come on it was Star Jones. Seriously, when I put on the "Shrek" DVD, running through the component cables, the picture was astounding!

Quality of picture. Sounds really good too.

weight (can''t be helped) If you have a sub-par signal this Set will let you know.

This product available for my needs. Plasma and RPTV didn''t give me the picture quality I was looking for. HDTV looks amazing. DVD''s outstanding. I really couldn''t ask for a better picture.

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Looked at alot of different types of displays and nothing impressed me as much as this one.

Fantastic with a very good DVD player, like a Sony DVP 7000 . But for ordinary cable tv, you will by have a bad suprise !

Anamorphic DVDs look amazing. So good I'd rather watch movies on this relatively small TV as opposed to much larger projection screens I've had experience with. The monitor is also excellent for gaming.

The overall size could be called a weakness as the unit is next to impossible to move by oneself on carpet. On hardwood floors the job is easier.

The display of regular network TV (over DirecTV) is a bit pixelated but this can be minimized by properly adjusting the video settings.

A weak remote.

When trying to decide between the varieties of excellent televisions available today, the KV-40XBR700 may seem a bit of an odd choice given that it is a 4:3 screen, in a world that is moving toward 16:9. In truth, if the same size television had been available (at a reasonable price point) in a true 16:9 format I might have purchased it instead. As it is I now have the Wega 40XBR700 and couldn't be happier.

I get all my television programming (including local) from DirecTV. The visual quality of local channels ranges from fair to very good. On a set this size, especially one that upconverts scan lines, the images can get slightly pixilated. This can be offset by the proper adjustment of the display modes (Vivid, Standard, Movie, and Pro). I have found the best results in the “Pro” mode. This could likely be improved even further by using an outboard line-doubler and bypassing the internal one but such systems are still very expensive. When watching premium movie channels such as HBO or Showtime the image quality is excellent. As the TV is a 4:3 the image is large and beautiful without the annoying gray bars a 16:9 set would display (or bizzaro image stretching). I tend to watch TV in a fully lit room and the brightness that a real tube provides makes this possible when a large projection set would wash out.

I also use this system as the display for Xbox gaming. Hooking the Xbox up through component video to the TV provides for an outstanding image. I had the opportunity to use the Xbox on a 60-inch Marantz rear-projection TV and the experience on the Sony, despite its smaller size is much better. The Xbox can output all the up to 1080i, so the image will improve as game developers utilize this power because the 40XBR700 will support all such resolutions.

Where this TV really shines is when displaying DVD content. When your DVD player is connected through the component input the TV will behave like a 16:9 display, meaning that anamorphic DVDs (most are these days) will be displayed with all of the TVs available scan lines, scrunched into the appropriate aspect ratio. This is technology Sony calls Digital Reality Creation (DRC) and it works very well. It is, in fact, the best image I have seen outside of a theatre. No doubt that a top-of-the-line Vidikron system will out-do it, but that requires spending a lot more money. The compromise is of course image size, but I have found it very satisfactory in my 25x18 room. With the lights turned down the TV disappears and all you are left with is a beautiful, bright, film-like image. My movie watching has ramped way up since purchasing this TV.

The TV itself is very large. It looked enormous at the reseller, it looked even larger in my home. You get used to it though especially since the TV is a physically beautify object. I purchased it with the matching stand and the build quality of both is excellent. The weight of the thing makes dealer delivery and setup a requirement. Moving the set on a hardwood floor is easy, on carpet it will require at least a couple of big guys to move safely. One additional note that you cannot find in the product literature is that the stand has built-in cable management. The one disappointing thing about the TV is the remote it ships with. Rather than risk intimidating the buying public with more buttons on the face of the remote Sony chose to hide buttons beneath a flip-up panel. This make the remote look pretty but seriously detracts from its usability. Instead I replaced the remote with the very cool Home Theatre Master SL-9000 remote from Universal Remote Control, Inc.

This is a fantastic display and a very good value. To get as good an image elsewhere would require investment in a high-end DLP projector or the latest generation plasma display, both of which are very expensive options. The 4:3 aspect ratio is still very useful to broadcast/cable/satellite TV watchers and the widescreen DRC mode is nothing short of amazing. The image size may be of concern to those pining for a 60-inch projection set but I have found that image quality is more important to my enjoyment of a movie than image size. Even when displaying 2.85:1 material the image is plenty large for most home theatres and the beauty of the image will make you forget about that 60-inch screen anyway.

Associated Equipment:
Sony DVP7700 DVD player
Sony A55 DirecTV satellite receiver
Microsoft Xbox gaming system
Home Theatre Master SL-9000 remote