Customer Reviews

Sony BRAVIA KDL40EX40B 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with Built-In Blu-ray Disc Player

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I couldn't be happier. Everything has worked as advertised and the quality of the unit is above average for all the junk I see these days. I wanted it for my master bedroom to mount on the wall and have as few wires and devices hanging off of it as possible. The Bluray/Dvd player works well and connecting to a network was a snap. I even streamed a video from one of my computers to it, but the streaming quality leaves a little bit to be desired. I believe that is mostly due to the infancy of the technology. The internet functions work great for what I want Youtube and netflix operate just fine.

We are very pleased with our Sony Bravia 40" HDTV. It arrived quickly, and has exceeded our expectations. The picture and sound quality are very good, which has been our experience with Sony products. However, Sony's new Internet-ready features make this unit one of our best electronic buys. We watch Netflix and even use it in conjunction with our HP EX495 1.5TB Mediasmart Home Server ( Black). The only downside to the latter is that videos will not stream wirelessly. This Bravia uses Sony's wireless USB adapter (Sony UWA-BR100 - Network adapter - USB - 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11n -- sold separately), which works well though I wish that it could handle dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) wireless N transmission like our Tivo wireless N adapter and and all of our Apple devices. However, although we can view pictures and stream all kinds of music files, we can't do so with our video files. I know that Sony requires pretty specific formatting in order to play video files (MP4 encoded using h.264 codec and AAC audio), and I can actually use my relatively new Western Digital My Book AV DVR Expander 1 TB USB 2.0/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive WDBABT0010HBK-NESN (also ordered via Amazon) to play the same video files copied from my HP home server; they play well. There's nothing that I can do, though, to make this TV or my Sony Blu-ray home theater system (BDV-E570) recognize those streaming video files on my home server. I researched and confirmed that it's likely not an issue with HP or its Twonky Media DLNA software because the other files stream flawlessly. Hopefully Sony will improve this feature, although I've read posts that indicate that streaming video even via wireless N doesn't work well unless you have superb buffering technology, evidently like that used by Netflix and others. Regardless, we're still well-pleased with this Sony TV and would definitely recommend it. Sony has released a couple of updates even since we purchased our new Bravia several months ago, which have expanded the Internet-based options to include most streaming music websites and plenty of video websites as well. The only other improvement that I'd like to see is the ability to use the USB port more freely, as others have commented, because I think that it only supports Sony's wireless USB adapter at this point in terms of wireless options. As mentioned, it works well with the compatible My Book AV external drive and might even allow a USB hub (not sure about this, but I plan to test it).

***Update***

Almost 60 days after buying this TV, we experience regular problems with it. In particular, we cannot access internet content (netflix, youtube), even though our internet connection is fine and we can access these services with our panasonic device in a different room. When we call Sony tech support, they make us do a factory reset of the device. This works, but takes 15 minutes. I don't want to do 15 minutes of work every time I want to watch TV. I am doing everything I can to return this.

***Original review***

I ordered this TV mainly for its internet video capability (Netflix etc) since we were tired of paying TimeWarner (Durham, NC) excessive fees. We canceled basic cable and only kept the RoadRunner service (we upgraded to the next tier of speed to help with Netflix streaming - so far (2 weeks) no problems, but it's not clear whether the upgrade was absolutely necessary. The TV arrived just fine and on time and we hooked it up according to the instructions. The first thing we noticed was that the internet capability did not work. After playing around with the firmware updating settings and setting the update to "update now" - nothing happened - it just seemed to hang, we finally tried contacting Sony. First we tried the "live chat", after about 20 minutes, someone came online. I guess this person (Cliff) was either helping other customers at the same time, was really slow, or was chatting or doing something else because the rate at which this was going, it was far from "live" (think several minutes between responses). At first, he told me that my tv did not support internet connections which was false. After I pointed this out to him, he said, "oh you're right, your tv does support internet connections"...and left it at that. I pointed out that it did not seem to be updating even after we left the tv in standby mode for more than 36 hours (24 hours is mentioned in the manual). The internet configuration on the TV's diagnostics showed that all connections were good (I even verified the connection with my computer). After explaining and reexplaining the problem, I decided to call SONY tech support. The person who took my call seemed more informed and told me to check my firm ware version number. It was apparently out of date but below version 4.06 (or something) he told me that the firmware could not automatically update itself over the network (I thought it was strange for an internet enabled tv), but went with this advice. He told me that they would immediately ship out a USB thumb drive with the latest update and that it would arrive within 7-10 business days! I inquired if they would be able to ship it overnight or at least 2 day, but he just told me that this was standard. Well, this was completley ridiculous since there was a 30 day warranty (not business days!) and by the time the update got to me, we would have little to no time to evaluate the tv. I inquired if I could download the update myself and install it and he told me where to find the update. I downloaded it, and put it on 4 different USB drives (3 of which are on a SONY compatibility list) formatted to the correct specs, and the TV would NOT recognize any of them. I thought, ok, maybe it's sensitive to the full capacity of the drives, so I went and got a SONY brand USB drive that was also on the compatibility list (googled it) - still didn't recognize it. Finally called SONY again and they told me that apparently, each tv has it's own compatibility list - WTF!?. Finally got fed up and demanded that they ship the update overnight. Well, it was Saturday and to do that, they have to escalate the request to a higher level and those guys only worked regular banking hours - they took down my information and promised to call on Monday. Well, as you guessed, Monday came and went, and no call. We called on Tuesday and put in the formal request and the update arrived the next day. We went to put in the USB drive to do the update and *nothing happened*. When we checked the TV firmware version, it had apparently updated itself over the network during all this time we spent with customer service.
After that, the TV works fine. The only complaint I have is that since we don't have basic cable, when we turn on the TV, it apparently looks for the antenna signal. Finding nothing, you get 1-2 minutes of snow and white noise while it turns on its other functions (network stuff). Calling SONY again, they told us that we should get basic cable to avoid this problem.

The TV is great - once you can get the software updated to the new version. Until then it goes off and on over and over, among other interesting features.
Customer service at Sony is staffed by people who do not understand or speak English very well.
BUT, after you get the new software on it, it's a nice set.

I would have given this 5 stars, but not everything worked out of the box, even after the updates.
Bought this as a Christmas present and had about 2 hours to set it up and then repackage it and hide it away until Christmas. This was easily accomplished even though I had some problems I will explain below. I bought this particular tv because it seems to have had good reviews.
This was a very quick set-up. It took me about 10 minutes to get it up and running for use with my cable box, which includes unpackaging and assembling the stand (add another 30 minutes if you autoscan for atena channels). I then activated Youtube and Netflix. Youtube worked fine, but Netflix errored when the video was buffering. Netflix connected and showed my Que, but errored and could not connect to content when I went to play it. Also, the DNLA compatability is very thin, nothing I have in my video library seems to be compatable with this tv. I have all kinds of video types and none of them seem to work, including MP3. It may be possible that the same issue affecting Netflix is affecting the DNLA also. I will not be able solve this until after Christmas. I will try to update my issues and resolutions after then.

In summary...
1. Quick and easy set-up
2. Simple setup wizard
3. Easy Menu navigation
4. Comfortable and sensible remote control.
5. Great HD picture quality
6. Blocky SD picture upscaling
7. Disc player seems a little loud at times
8. Plenty of I/O connections

System was DOA and the vendor would not take it back - had to have SONY repair - took weeks to get the repair done.
Picture is great when its working

First off, though I did not buy this particular tv from Amazon (I purchased it direct from Sony (SonyStyle.com website) due to a considerably lower price, and special financing terms available when paying with the Sony credit card (GE Money USA)), I thought I'd leave a review here to warn others about what I consider to be a SERIOUS omission on the tv's remote control.

Though I've only had the tv for a (relatively) short period of time, I've used it enough to know that this is a great set for anyone looking for an excellent "middle of the road" hdtv, that delivers good features combined with a nice picture and decent sound (along with the added benefit of the built-in blu-ray player).

I leave the specifics to those that have already commented on them here, but feel I MUST point out the one GLARING omission on this tv's (somewhat) basic remote control, that needs to be emphasised for anyone considering a potential purchase.

Though others may laugh, I was HORRIBLY dismayed to discover that Sony, in their infinite wisdom, elected to completely omit the "Last Channel" (sometimes called a "Jump") button on the remote control. This is the button you normally hit to take you back to the previous channel you were watching, prior to switching to the current channel.

For me, this is a BIG deal.........aside from the channel (and volume) up/down buttons, and the individual 'number' buttons for entering a specific channel, the "Last Channel" button is EASILY the one I use the most, and am COMPLETELY flabbergasted that Sony decided to leave this VERY basic function off of their remote.

Would I consider it a "deal breaker"? Well, since I now own, and am already using the set, I have to say NO.........but would that have been the case had I known about this beforehand? I honestly think it may have been, considering how basic a feature I feel this is.

So, take this information for whatever it's worth to you..........for me, I feel it is enough to knock the entire rating down a full star, for a company with as strong a reputation as Sony's, neglecting to include as basic a feature as this on their otherwise fine product.....

This is a very nice TV. Haven't used any of the internet capabilities yet, but the built-in Blu-Ray DVD works very well. My two biggest gripes are:

1 - Remote control is not back-lit, so very hard to use in dark bedroom where TV is located, and
2 - No one button "previous channel" function which would be a great help in that dark bedroom ...

Otherwise, it's hard to beat Bravia for picture quality.

i bought 6 of these for a client and they are terrific. i can't believe they stopped making them... i would buy 6 more for stock if i could find them

Bought it, tried the blu-ray player and was blown away, music is good also, simple just put in disc of original or copied discs and it plays it all...

Not very heavy either, can easily be used with any wall mount of comparable size...


Love it!