Customer Reviews

Sony BRAVIA XBR Series KDL-46XBR9 46-Inch 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV, Black

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Just received this last week. Of course, Amazon beat any other pricing by a wide margin - by at least $500 for the cheapest store bought price (on sale) and I even checked some stores on a walk in and they were charging $1,000 above the Amazon price or more. Delivery was free and could not wait to get this set out of the box. I researched a great many LCD's before picking this one. I wanted the very latest technology to ward off obsolesence, at the best price I could find, and am not disappointed one bit by this set. Easy set up, and just with the building's digital antenna, the picture is absolutely outstanding. There are many presets, but with a bit of tweaking, as it appears with most LCDs, you get a terrific picture. You can customize each preset if you wish. Setting adjustments are intuitive and the screen navigation is very easy. Sound is pretty decent as well, although I already have it hooked into my AV. I have already watched sports, television and DVDs and all have been as crisp, vibrant, without drag or latency, as I have ever seen on an LCD this size. The contrast ratio is just unreal and my eyes are still getting used to it. Plenty of input/output options including plenty of HDMI and even ethernet and PC connections. Having Fios HD installed this week and can't wait to see how it looks. So far, am very satisfied and would definitely recommend at the price. Thanks Amazon!

I bought this TV because of Sony's legendary reputation in beautiful pictures and previous experience with the XBR line. As expected, the picture is absolutely great. If you want amazing HDTV, then this set is for you. The TV has a very simple and understated front, which I like a lot. The Amazon delivery was great! Two men brought it into the house, put it where we wanted it, connected it, turned it on and checked the remote for operation. The deliveryman was familiar with the TV and went above and beyond by doing the initial setup, which admittedly was simple, but not something he was required to do. There are only two drawbacks so far. The stand is flimsy feeling and wobbles like a weeble if you bump the set. My XBR4 had a rock solid stand. I just attached a cable to the wall for piece of mind (didn't want it falling on the grand kids). The second thing is a lack of PIP or P&P, both of which were on my KDL40XBR4. Bottom line--love it so far.

I got this TV two weeks ago. As an admitted unapologetic Sony "fanboy" I had high expectations. The display is beautiful especially when viewing blu-ray's or HD sources. However in an extremely dark scene it is evident that LCD's still have a ways to go when it comes to contrasting blacks. I have played around with settings and even adjusted the custom setting to those recommended in CNet's review of the TV but it still leaves much to be desired.

Pros:

Excellent response time and display when viewing HD sources.

A lot of options for customizing to fit your personal taste.

A ton of extras (mostly accessed if/when you hook your TV up to your home internet network). The widgets and video on demand are fun features but likely not something that will be for the average user.

Cons: Black contrasts still aren't near the level displayed in Plasmas and the LED technology also looks to be a major improvement in this area.

Display of SD (standard definition/non HD) content leaves much to be desired. Going from an old Sony 36" CRT HDTV (HS510) standard definition played extremely well on that model and HD sources looked great also. On this model (like with most LCD's) the SD sources look worse than they normally do on non HD tubes.

One area that I have yet to decide if it is a pro or a con is the input jacks. The back only has one HDMI input where as the side has 3. I really think Sony should have put two on the back and two on the side but at least the ones on the side are recessed enough to where the wires aren't visible unless you are standing near the side of the tv.

I have already gotten compliments on the glass bezel that surrounds the screen and this tv definitely passes the "eye test" as far as attractiveness. The SONY logo at the bottom can be dimmed or turned off if you find it distracting (I thought this was a nice touch).

I am happy with the purchase but all-in-all if I had to do it over I might wait for a 240Hz LED model by Sony or opt for a Plasma from a competitor.

Tried the LG 47 inch LH40 and then the Samsung 46 inch LED B6000. Had both for about two weeks before returning them. The Sony not only has more features but has a much better and consistent picture than the previous two. The LG has a major lip synch problem and the Samsung had a great picture as long as you were in front of it. Anything slightly to the side and the picture was unwatchable. The sound on this Tv is great as well. Definately a wonderful TV and I strongly recommend it.

Sony BRAVIA XBR Series KDL-46XBR9 46-Inch 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV, BlackI did extensive research to determine the best quality TV for my bedroom and settled on Sony's 46XBR9. The picture is excellent and the built-in internet capability is exceptional. We rent from Amazon movies all the time, which has saved money on our cable bill since we were able to reduce our plan. The other TVs I compared were Samsung's LED, which is nice and light, but I worry about the reliability now, expecially since the technology is new. I have seen both pictures and the XBR9 compares well with the LED. Sony's XBR8 has the ultimate picture, but it is pricy and lacks the internet capability. I also have a 52XBR6, which has a very vivid picture and I love it. I haven't seen much difference with the faster speed of the XBR9, but it's nice to have it for high-speed action. The price with Amazon was exceptional, and you want to watch prices from day to day because they vary several hundred dollars sometimes. Amazon usually doesn't adjust the price you paid if a new price goes down in 30 days, but they were nice enough to do it in my case. I also bought surge protectors from Amazon, but bought my heavy duty wall mount from another site. Amazon is excellent and my new Sony was delivered with "white glove" efficiency and care. Great TV and purchase experience.

I've had the TV for almost a month and couldn't be happier. The matte finish on the screen is what attracted me to the TV in the first place. The room where the TV sits is very bright and this really cuts down and almost eliminates glare on the screen. I looked at Samsung LED TVs and the screen was shiny and there was a lot of glare, I could actually see clear reflections of objects in the room on the screen. The ambient light sensor on the TV is a great feature. It adjusts the brightness to compensate for the ambient room lighting. In the evening the picture is not a bright as during the day. The picture quality is excellent. Guests have said it feels like you are actually part of what you are watching.

Sony has done it again with the Bravia XBR. I would highly recommend this product. In addition the price on Amazon was unbelievable!

Seven months after purchase I started having problems where the TV would make a clicking sound while it was OFF! I just ignored it as this did not seem to affect the operation of the TV. About 2 months after that started the clicking started, the audio would started turning off after about 2 hours, followed 5-20 seconds later by the video turning off. While the audio and video were off the power and HD lights stayed off. Then everything would turn off after about 5 seconds longer. This was followed by
everything coming back on and working for another 2 hours. This occurred 3 to 4 times a night.

I called Sony and they sent a repairman who replaced the power board and the main board. About a week later the problem started again. I called Sony again and this time they had me call to schedule an appointment with Xpert Electronics in South Florida. They took the TV and had it for 3 weeks and said there were no problems. Two hours after they brought it back the problem started again.

I contacted Sony and told them it was happening again and the customer service people, who are in Manila, just kept reading their platitudes. In the interim I purchased a 32" Sony so that I would have a TV while this TV was in the shop. So now I have basically paid $500. for a warranty repair!

SONY'S CUSTOMER IS THE WORST. I WILL NEVER PURCHASE A SONY PRODUCT OF ANY KIND AGAIN!
If you have no problems, you will love this TV. If you have problems, you will see what I am talking about. I have already spent days trying to get this resolved and I am not done yet!

Here's my story, hope someone can learn from my tragic mistake. Furthermore, I just realized the LCD panel is actually made by Samsung NOT Sony. If you buy a Sony TV; why is the LCD Panel (the most important and expensive part of the TV) is made in Korea by Samsung. The picture might be good but how long will it last.....for me it only lasted 1 year and 4 months. Also If you do a simple search on Amazon you will find that Amazon does not sell Sony XBR LCD TV directly anymore since I guess they have so many complaints from their customers on the Sony LCD TV. Go ahead look and see you can find Amazon selling Sony XBR LCD TV directly...Amazon actually refer you to another brand like LG or other brands when you are looking any Sony XBR LCD TVs.....and my Full Story below:

5/9/2010- I brought the Sony XBR series TV on Amazon about 1 year and 4 months ago and now the TV have failed. The picture quality was amazing until just yesterday the picture started to degrade and now it has green clouds and rainbows all over the pictures. I just call the Sony authorize tech service from they said it will cost me $75 for the in house service since it's out of warranty. They also said that if it's the LCD panels has failed then it would cost as much as the TV itself. This is my first LCD from Sony but I have 3 other Sony TVs- 1 30" Sony CRT, 1 47" XBR rear projection and 1 65" XBR rear projection TV. All the previous Sony TVs had no problem at all and I am still using the 65" rear projection TV. What happen to Sony's quality and reliability product? I guess it went to the same place as other first rated Japanese products like Toyota. They are just too busy on cutting cost and lower their reliabilities so they can rack in the billion dollars profit. So if you like the picture quality of Sony TVs; be advice to buy their extended warranty. I wish I did because if the LCD panel failed then my LCD TV is just a big 52" black picture frame hanging on the wall. If you really, really have to get a Sony XBR LCD TV then I would recommend to get 5 years extended warranty plan for $299-it will save you a lot of frustration. And after 5 years, you will probably do a upgrade anyway.

5/11/2010 update: Today the tech came and verified that the LCD panel has gone bad after 1 year and 4 months of service. In the tech's own words-the panel is a factory defect since it should not failed after just a little over a year of service and that I should call Sony and see they will reimburse the cost of the panel. I am so disappointed on the product since I did not just buy any Sony TV but the top of the line XBR series TV. I called Sony and told them the whole story but they just told me to fax all the documents -receipt and repair cost to Sony and they will evaluate it. I will wait and see what happen - but at this point I am really disappointed and frustrated with the whole thing! :-(


Update: 5/13/2010-Just received a call from Sony "Customer Relations" today. It's official-Sony don't stand behind their products. They will not pay for the cost of their defective LCD panel since it's out of warranty (1 year) after 1 year and 4 month of service. They just lost a loyal customer. No more Sony products in my house. Sony customer relations representative even has the nerve to offer me $900 reimbursement on a $$3517.75 repair cost. That's right-I will have to pay $2617.76 to fix my $2018.88 LCD TV. So if you buy a Sony TV and you have a defective LCD panel after 1 year of use then you can just throw that TV in the trash because Sony will tell you go F yourself and trash the TV. Good luck on buying a Sony LCD TV because you going to need it-and looks like from my research, I am not the only customer that have a defect LCD panel after 1 year. In fact, the LCD panel is not even made by Sony but Samsung made in Korea. Samsung LCD Panels have notoriously for premature failure of their LCD panels. So no more Sony LCD for me or should I say Samsung LCD TV ....

Ordered from Amazon, best price by far at the time of ordering. Free delivery, box arrived in pristine condition, it looked like it had just been pulled off the packaging line, no dents, tears or even scratches in the cardboard. So far so good... The delivery guys unpacked it, put the stand on and plugged it in. I was trying not to salivate.

It was a breeze to set up. Coax cable to HDD recorder, HDMI to TV. 2nd HDMI from Sony Blu-ray to TV. Done! I turned on the tv, autoscan picked up the analog and digital stations (took about 30 minutes) and I was watching the news in high def. Wow, the picture was stunning, right out of the box. Oops, forgot, also coax from HDD recorder to TV.

I have watched 4 movies, the blu-ray is stunning. At first I noticed a mild "flashlight" effect in the lower left corner in dark scenes while watching Bladerunner in a dark room. I watched it again 4 days later (again in a dark room) and it was gone, so maybe it was my imagination. The blacks are good, not as good as LED or plasma, but really good. If the room lights are on, the blacks are black. For $1,000 less than a comparable 240hz led backlit model it is a no-brainer in my opinion. The PQ is just amazing. Some of the explosions on the Bond flick I was watching appeared as if pieces were flying out of the screen. I was expecting some 3D effect, but this was ridiculous! I was so entranced that at times I forgot to follow the plot. Planet earth blu-ray also spectacular. The 3D effect is again breathtaking. It feels like you are on the plane/helicopter with the film crew!

About the sound. I was expecting it to be really bad, due to a few reviews I read. I am an audiophile with my music, but keep my sound system separate from the TV (different rooms). I was hoping to not need to buy a receiver/speakers but was skeptical that the sound would cut it for me. But it is not bad. I tweaked the settings to my liking and the dialogue is crystal clear. There is a little "surround" effect using the front surround setting. I was really impressed. Let's face it, most people will be using external speakers. Now, my room is small with 7' ceilings, which I am sure helps the sound work for me. I can see how this would not be powerful enough in a great room type setting, or a more open area in general.

At this time I only have one complaint. There is only 1 hdmi input in the rear panel, the other 3 are on the side. With my cables, there is no way to completely hide the one plugged into the side. Maybe there are cables with an "L" type connection that would keep the cable around the back. Eventually I will find a way to tie it back behind the TV with a zip tie. For now I am way too busy watching movies on this beautiful piece of HT equipment. My next order of business will be to connect to my high speed network with a wireless bridge to access Amazon and Netflix for streaming HD!

For the price.... FIVE STARS!!!

I was back and forth between this TV and the SamSung LN46B750. The price on this dropped to $1649 a few weeks ago, while the Samsung TV went up. The Contrast ratio for this one was 100000:1 compare to Samsung 150000:1, but really I can't tell with my eyes. I don't trust Samsung yet, but I trusted Sony XBR reputation. However, the price, and buy online with free delivery was nice to term saving money. I updated the firmware without any problem. Nice TV. I can't see any negative. I was very hesitant to buy Online since I don't know how it would turn out in case I need to return, but the AMaZON delivery was great. They unbox, set TV up, turn it on before I signed the acceptance. The delivery company they used was PILOT, which has a couple of guys in their 40's or 50's. Very nice guys, very gentlemen. Now I see the price went back up, I am glad I bought it. The sounds for this Sony TV is much better than the Samsung when I check it out at Bestbuys.

I am a big Sony fan. All my entertainment equipment is Sony, and I've always been extremely happy with their products. Naturally, when it came time to replace our old TV (which lasted us 10 years and still works to this day), we looked to Sony. We purchased a Sony Bravia KDL-46XBR4 46" in March of '08. It was a great TV... incredible set while it lasted. 13 months into ownership, we began seeing distortion horizontally across the top of the screen. First, it would only last a few minutes then gradually increased to an hour, until finally we couldn't watch anything on it anymore.

We called Sony, complaining that it was only a couple of months out of warranty. A $2,700 TV should last for longer then a year! Finally, they agreed to a 'one-time' repair... they gave us a claim number and told us to bring it to an authorized repair shop. We shelled out $100 for the diagnosis, but when Sony found out that the panel was bad and would cost $1,500 to replace, they refused to honor their promise. I had a claim number and the name of the person I spoke with, but it didn't matter. Apparently, Sony representatives don't 'represent' anything... if Sony doesn't think it's in their best interest, they'll break their promises at will. I was absolutely furious and after talking with several supervisors, I was finally connected with someone who offered us a KDL-46XBR9 as a replacement... but we had to pay over $300 to get it. Normally not a bad deal, but considering Sony initially promised that they would cover everything to get it fixed, I didn't like the idea of spending ANYTHING more on this. I finally agreed, since I had no other choice. When I went to pick the broken TV up from the repair shop, I was told by the shop owner that they had four other Sony LCDs in the shop, and all four had bad panels.

Two weeks later, in September of 2009, we had the new TV. Picture on the BR9 was noticeably smoother and sharper then the BR4. It had the same size screen as our BR4, but the overall size is smaller and it's much lighter. One thing I really liked was the Internet connection... the BR9 has widgets for a variety of online video sites, including Youtube, which brings a whole new dimension to televisions. Despite the misery of dealing with Sony, I was happy with the TV. The TV was great... until April 2010 when I starting having trouble with it only seven months into ownership. At random times, when turning the TV on after it's been off overnight, the audio would cut out, and then it would finally shut itself off. After turning it back on, everything was fine. The light on the front would flash out an error code that pointed to various problems, all seeming to center around a power supply problem. We didn't have time to deal with it at the time, but the problem went away by itself after a week, but I was still quite frustrated by the fact that we were already dealing with trouble from a SECOND Sony LCD TV.

Now, 10 months into ownership, we're getting horizontal lines flash across the TV. A brief search on the internet found that this was a common problem with Sony LCDs and that it meant that the panel was going bad. AGAIN?!?!

I will be calling Sony ASAP and I'm hoping that since we are still within warranty that things will go smoother this time, however this does not take anything away from the fact that this is our SECOND Sony LCD to die in the last year. Very disappointing for a product that costs so much, and very inconvenient. I still would buy Sony equipment, but I would NEVER buy a Sony LCD again.... never.

If you have any interest in buying a new TV and expect to use it more then a year, I cannot stress this enough: Do Not Buy a Sony. There are complaints about Sony LCD panel problems all over the Internet, and considering replacing the panels is nearly the cost of the TV itself, you might end up throwing money away. Such a shame for a TV that is actually quite impressive... when it works.