Customer Reviews

Sony Bravia S-Series KDL-26S3000 26-Inch 720p LCD HDTV

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Never really concentrated to much on the sony products because of the prices of them. For the money, you can get a larger sized samsung like a 32", or for the same size TV you can save big bucks by going with a westinghouse or other bargain priced TV's sized at 26" which is ideal for a bedroom. After purchasing a 26" westinghouse and not being extremely happy I bought a 32" Vizio. Still not satisfied, I left the bargain TV basement and took the plunge and bought this TV. Wow, what a difference. At $300-$400 dollars more than the westy, I'm not sure if it's that much better if tied to a budget, but if you've got it (cash), get it (sony). As far as specs go, read the description, but rest assured this TV is really nice. Sound is better than expected for a 26", menus are nice, picture is B.A. On XBOX 360, the best and most graphically demanding game is by far Gears of War. This TV makes it look incredible. The darks are dark enough in the spooky parts unlike other TVs I've tried out which looked washed out and lame. This set really makes the whole thing look alot better. I have been switching between the 3 presets (vivid, cinema, standard) and haven't made any tweaks yet exept for turning on the dynamic lighting. I'm sure you could make the picture even better with some adjustments but it's unnecessary.

I am very happy with the sony lcd tv. I narrowed down the 26" lcd tv's to a couple and checked them out at local stores. I liked the picture of the sony over samsung which was my 2nd choice. plus the sony did not have large speakers on the sides or bottom making it too large for the small opening in my entertainment center. the price was comparable and sony quality has always been good for me.

This LCD is great, i was nervous because it is the first flat screen that the wife and I have ever bought. We set it up and it was a breeze, plugged our DVD player in and it also worked great. The picture quality with standard TV is very nice, but the HD picture quality is superb. I had to adjust the picture settings out of the box, but that is to be expected. Over all, I am very, very pleased with this product and Amazon's quick delivery.

I got this LCD a week ago and LOVE IT. PC Richards lowered their price to $699. So I took their ad to a competitor retailer and they matched it. PCR is still selling it for that price.

(Updated this part)

It is in my bedroom and connected to basic cable, no box. My cable signal was too weak up there and I could not get the free HD channels. I did not want another cable box due to the expense. So, I bought a Motorla signal booster and connected it into the main splitter inside the house and it solved my problem. I am now getting 7 free HD stations in the bedroom and a much better picture in the rest of the house. I also replaced the coax cable from the wall with some RG6 cable that is better for HD.

Dislikes:

1. The remote is designed funny. The channel up/down buttons are on the bottom of the remote and are not easy to access for channel surfing. They should have put it in the middle of the remote, IMO.
2. The analog picture is OK. A little grainy. Get a box if this is an issue for you. The signal booster helped enough to increase the picture quality to satisfy me.
3. The small shiny green (power) light on the bottom center of the TV is slightly annoying. It should have been off to the side of the tv, IMO.

Likes:

1. HD reception is great. I'm getting 480i, 720p and 1080i from basic cable which the TV converts to 720p and the picture is incredible. I really like watching this TV, esp at night with no lights. WOW!
2. I like the matte finish. I never liked that high glossy look due to the glare and dust that black gloss cabinetry brings.
3. When hooked up to a Sony upconvert dvd player via HDMI, the picture was impressive.
4. The tuner is very strong. It found 35 digital channels including some one HBO channel (which I subscribe to via cable box downstairs).
5. The "Wide Zoom" option is good for the non-HD channels as it doesn't make the faces too wide. I have set it to auto so I don't have to change it every time I watch a non-HD channel.
6. The sound is loud enough for me. No external speakers required. And the Sony S-Force "simulated surround" is awesome.
7. Quick channel changes via the remote. Maybe 1-2 seconds. Unlike some other LCDs out there that take 3 seconds.
8. The Xross Media Bar is the best menu system I have used on a TV.

This model was made in 2006 and sold in 2007, so it should be on sale now until the Spring 08 models arrive. Buy it if its around $700-725. I am very glad I bought this TV. It is the best 26 inch LCD out there and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for this size TV.

I replaced a Westinghouse LCD with this Sony. It is outstanding. It cost more but it is worth the expense. You won't be sorry.

One word.....WOW. No buyer remorse at all. Colors are vivid and bright. Great purchase.

I bought this Sony Bravia for a furnished apartment that I rent out. It is not hooked up to high def...just regular cable. The tenant has the option of buying a high def box. What's excellent about the TV is its ease of navigation. It has a convenient toggle on the remote that switches between wide and standard screen viewing. I think the non def picture is as good as you can find on a new HDTV, but it is indeed a little "blurry" when viewed too close. A Samsung I bought at the same time for a different use (mostly high def) has a slightly worse high def picture than the Sony, although it too is a good TV.

Before reviewing the product I do want to say that I couldn't have been more pleased with the speedy delivery from Amazon, J&R Music and Computer World and UPS. I input my order to Amazon at 11:37 PM on a Wednesday evening and the TV was on my doorstep at 1:30 PM on Friday afternoon, just under 38 hours. J&R's warehouse is about 130 miles from my house so no grass was growing between the toes of Amazon, J&R or UPS.

Unfortunately the speedy service was to no avail since it will be about 2 weeks before I'll be able to enjoy my new TV. It was defective out of the box. Best guess is a faulty tuner. It's now in the capable hands of a local Sony Factory Authorized repair shop. I know this repair shop is capable because in the past they've repaired another Sony TV and 2 Sony tape decks which were also defective out of the box.

Why can't Sony get over this tendency? We're not talking about cheap junk here. Sony makes good stuff, once it's been repaired. I went over to Best Buy and checked out all of the major brands side-by-side. In fact I went to three Best Buys and a Circuit City just in case some of them were better at tuning a TV than others. Sony definitely had the best picture in this size TV. Just be prepared to get in line at the repair shop behind other owners of brand new Sony equipment.

Am I the only one who thinks the pixel size on typical computer monitors is way too small? Fortunately, one can buy HDTVs and essentially choose their pixel size, which is what I did with this 26" Sony Bravia. With my PC, I can run it at 1360 x 768 pixels, and the Bravia is smart enough not to scale it ("1:1 pixel mapping" is what it's called). In fact, no matter what resolution I send to the Bravia via my computer (600x800, 768x1024), the Bravia shows it unscaled, and this results in a smaller, centered image with black borders. This applies to both the VGA (PC) input and also the HDMI (via a DVI adapter) input.

Also note that I had previously tried using a 26" LG HDTV, but the LG had fuzzy/blurry text on both the HDMI and VGA inputs. Not so with the Sony -- text is razor sharp. However, I do note that colored text (e.g., blue text on a white background) will sometimes have some artifacts around the edges -- this may be due to the S-PVA panel design... I don't know. I can live with it, though, especially since there is no problem with black text on a white background.

Comparing this to the other TVs in the stores, I noticed that the colors were "truer" on the Sony than other sets, presumably due to the wide color gamut backlight. I did notice however that the Panasonic set had a more pleasing degradation for off-axis viewing -- with the Sony, just a slight change in left/right changed the amount of black detail. The Panasonic image seemed more consistent with slight viewing angle changes (however, the Panasonic didn't appear to be designed for computer use at all).

As for the TV's speakers, well, they seem a bit "tinny" -- I'll stick with my computer speakers.

Also, one nice feature is that when using the VGA input, the Bravia will automatically go into standby mode if no signal is fed into it, and power back up when a signal is detected. Unfortunately, this feature does not work when the computer is hooked up via the HDMI input, so one would have to manually turn the TV on or off if you use this input (although I can't really discern any difference in picture quality between the HDMI and VGA inputs, which is good, because with the LG HDTV I tried, the VGA quality was far worse than HDMI).

I originally purchased a 26" Samsung LNT2653H. I was very satisfied with the picture quality and abundant features that I would later discover are more plentiful than the Sony. But the deal breaker was the absolutely inferior and inadequate audio production from the Samsung. At relatively moderate volume levels the sound would frequently distort and cut out. I also found the Samsung picture to break up on one of the major network's HD broadcasts. I was compelled to return the Samsung and fortunately found the Sony at an equivalent price. I received fast and free shipping from both Amazon and Abt for each set (Abt even shipped in a double box). The return to Amazon was also hassle-free. Thanks Amazon.

The Sony and Samsung have nearly identical input ports (Samsung has an additional RF input). Samsung offers a programmable remote, more picture adjustments, an audio equalizer, and much better menu navigation. Adding and deleting channels and setting up favorite channels was easily accomplished in one, on-screen channel list. Favorite channels are stepped through using the remote button. Sony makes you select each individual channel, choose options, then add or delete it from the favorite channel list, and then repeat this sequence for each channel (ugh). Instead of stepping through the favorite channels, the remote button pops up another list that you need to scroll through and select from. This is somewhat indicative of many Sony features.

The Sony has an equally satisfying HD picture and I found it to display SD sources with better quality than the Samsung. It also detected many OTA digital channels that the Samsung did not. Overall, I found Sony has a much stronger tuner combination than Samsung. And the sound is equally satisfying. In the 3rd Lord of the Rings feature, the shreek produced by the large flying creatures did not clip or distort, even at fairly high volumes (not even close on the Samsung). Sony also handles various video formats through the PC port better.

I'd love to be able to take the best of both sets and make one `super set' from them, but when it comes down to it, I have to choose the superior Sony function over superior Samsung features.