Customer Reviews

Sony Bravia KDL-40S2000 40-Inch Flat Panel LCD HDTV

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Ok, I admit it took me several visits to Costco, Best Buy and Circuit City before I decided to part ways with $2-3K for a flat screen HDTV. After viewing a myriad of brands I have never heard of before, I decided that the Sony Bravia and the Sharp Aquos were in the top of the LCDs. Not surprisingly, so were their prices.

Both the Sony Bravia and the Sharp Aquos displayed bright whites and dark blacks better than most other LCDs. They also had sharper pictures and more natural colors compared to their cheaper competitors. The only other brand I was impressed with was Panasonic. But it was a plasma and I wanted an LCD.

After reading some reviews here, I was convinced that buying a large flat screen was better done by going to Costco rather than online. You can see what you are buying before you actually buy it. And, Costco has a liberal return policy. Since prices of LCD flat screen TVs are predicted to continue dropping, you might want to get some of your money back. Within one week of my buying an LCD TV from Costco, the same model dropped by $300 and I got it back from Costco without fighting for it!

I bought this Sony Bravia - S series 40 inch ($1,999) AND the Sharp Aquos 45 inch ($2,499) LCD from Costco. In my opinion, the 40 inch Sony Bravia produces a high contrast and extremely sharp picture. It is very, very good. However, the Sharp Aquos provides a noticeable overall better viewing experience. In a way, the picture looks softer, more natural and lifelike. I think, in the end, what you will find better will be a matter of personal preference. In my opinion, if you like amazing sharpness, get the Sony. If you prefer overall balance, get the Sharp. You will be happy with either, so don't lose sleep about it.

Here are a few more tips:

1.) Don't buy based reading the specs or reviews alone. Go to a store and actually watch the TV. Insist that at a component (Y, Pr, Pb) or HDMI cable from an HD source be connected to the TV before you make a comparison.
2.) Make sure you get an HD cable box from your cable TV provider or else your investment may not be worth much. Ordinary, non-HD channels may actually look worse on HD sets.
3.) You don't have to blow a hundred bucks or more for HD cables. Go to Walmart, and buy your HDMI or DVI to HDMI cable (Philips brand) for about $23. I found that using the DVI-HDMI cable to hook up the cable box to the TV gave better results compared to using component cables.
4.) Fine tune or calibrate your HDTV. You can use the THX Optimizer that is included with Toy Story or The Incredibles with your DVD player.
5.) Finally, once you have experienced High Definition you probably will be unhappy with Standard TV. That means, you'll be replacing your other old TVs. That's how I ended up with both this Sony Bravia and the Sharp Aquos. Unfortunately, I'm not done yet. The rest of will be smaller 37 or 32 inch Sharp Aquos.
6.) The Sony Bravia S series has only one HDMI input. You may want to eventually have 2, one for the cable box and the other for an High Def DVD. This may not be a show stopper given that you will probably buy a home theater system that can take several HDMI inputs. However, the Bravia has a set of component inputs on the side. So, if you mount it on the wall, you can still easily connect video equipment without figuring out how to get to the back.
7.) If you watch more broadcast tv than dvds, don't worry about 720p, 1080i (this TV's capability) versus 1080p. At the moment, I am not aware of any broadcast channel doing 1080p. Also, it's too early to determine if Blue-ray will win over HD DVD so committing to a high def DVD system may not be very smart. Save your money until there is a definite winner.

Enjoy.

I did a lot of research before I purchased this TV. It was the right combination of performance and design so when the price dropped on Amazon I did not hesititate to order it.

Once it arrived, I basked in it's warm comforting glow as I threw broadcast content, dvd's and games it's way. It handled everything with grace and elegance as the beauty of it's screen seemed unfallible.

But alas, this lasted only for ONE DAY. . . .

Less than 24 hours of taking delivery of the TV, it broke. You turn on the TV, the screen shows up for 2 seconds and then it powers down on it's own. The standby light flickers on and off, with the TV unable to be revived. Apparently there is something wrong with the power management board which I discovered after doing some research on AV forums and other owners. Sony seems to be aware of the problem as well since it's documented in their manual but doesn't feel the need to do anything about it.

The joy I had felt just one day before, quickly left my body and turned to scorn. I called Amazon first to see what my options were. Wouldn't you know it, I had none on a TV over 27"; no returns, no exchanges. So I talked with Sony. . . .

They offered to fix it, but wouldnt' send me a new replacement unless it was deemed unrepairable. If a replacement was sent, it wasn't even guaranteed to be new. A refurb is more than possible. Wonderful. So with no other recourse, I sent it to be repaired.

The repair place that was assigned has not been confidence inspiring even though they are an authorized service provider. When they came to my house, they told me the repair would take one week. Now they say two. Next week it'll be a month, who knows.

Anyways, I share my story as a public service to my fellow shoppers. This is what you should learn from my misfortune:

1. You can't return this TV or any other TV 27" and up from Amazon.
2. Buy from a brick and mortar store so you can return it if you want.
3. This TV has a known issue with the board on some units, get an extended warranty and save yourself some grief.

Like many others, I did all of the research and parked myself in the TV showrooms of Best Buy, Circuit City, Sound Advice, etc. and I can tell you without a doubt, that this 40" Sony Bravia had the best picture and sound quality of them all. Even beat out the 37" Sharp Acquos!

First of all, I am convinced that LCD is the way to go over plasma. My friend just bought a Samsung 42" plasma, and although the salesman told him that they corrected the burn-in problems with the newer generations, he can clearly see the ghost images of the 4:3 pillar bars when watching a 16:9 broadcast. He also told me that his TV gave off quite a large amount of heat. Those 2 aspects alone were enough to persuade me to go LCD. LCDs use less energy, burn-in is impossible, they are immune to glare (especially helpful if your room has a lot of southern exposure), and are much less delicate when handling. If you even lean a plasma TV too far to one side, your TV may be cooked!

Are there any flaws to LCD? Well I did notice a slightly less vibrant color palette than a plasma, and they say that the blacks are not as true as a plasma, but NOT if you get the Sony Bravia. The 1300:1 contrast ratio brings out the clearest details with the black levels like any plasma I've seen. The color reproductions are also flawless. Some LCDs have limited viewing angles, but this Sony has almost no angle distortion for 180 degrees off center.

I have it hooked up to a DirecTV HD receiver via HDMI and the resolution, color, contrast, and sound are excellent. I have heard that the screen goes blank when switching between HD and standard def channels if you use HDMI. That, my friends, is a known flaw with most cable set top boxes, NOT this TV! It switches perfectly fine with DirecTV receivers. I have a Sony "upconverting" DVD player and it's hooked up via companent cable, and movies have never looked better!

That brings me to my ONLY flaw of this TV. ONLY 1 HDMI INPUT!!!! WHY??!! I cannot fully utilize the upconverter of my DVD player without the HDMI connection, but it is a very miniscule negative. Component cable is still HD and produces very palapable images. I have my digital audio hooked up through an ONKYO stereo receiver. I highly recommend either digital optical or digital coaxial cable for sound, if possible. These receivers have come way down in price so I think it's worth the extra couple of hundred bucks for premium 5.1 Dolby and/or DTS surround sound. It will truly complete your home theater.

Anyway, I hope I'm coming across loud and clear when I say that this is simply the one HDTV to get. I would not go larger than 40" on an LCD. The 46" had some definite pixalization and I agree with another reviewer that the extra large screen technology for LCDs is not quite there yet.

Bottom line, I've only purchased Sony TVs for the past 20 years, and they have yet to give me a reason to do otherwise.

I spent at least 2 weeks looking for information on LCD TV's, and reviews, and found very little reliable information. I assume you have also done the same.

Let me first say, there are going to be people who have bad experiences and they will surely rate this product lower becasue of it.

I have had this TV for a week and I LOVE IT. I already have a Toshiba CRT HDTV, so I have a point of reference. The CRT can display all HDTV formats natively. So first, even though this LCD (and almost all others) cannot display all HDTV formats natively (it only has 768 lines of resolution, therefore can't do 780 or 1080) - YOU WILL NOT KNOW IT. This TV blows away my Toshiba. I have been watching basball games and I can barely take my eyes off the TV. In a single word, the picture on this TV is OUTSTANDING.

For analog TV, the picture is fine as long as you realize that you are watching only 480 lines of resolution on a fairly large screen. It is just the way it goes. My litmus test is my wife - if she complains, it is a bad picture. But no complaints.

Regarding LCD lag. You have read that this tv has an 8ms response time. That means it takes 8ms for it to paint a new picture. If the response time is too slow, things look blurred or lagged when they move fast. I have been watching a lot of fast action (sports, action shows etc) and there is no lag or streaking or ghosting of any kind. This is the fastest LCD TV out there as of my writing. So trust me, this is not an issue.

If you are like me you have a very discerning eye. Picture quality is very important and you notice things others don't, although you may not have the professional eye of a calibrator. With this TV, YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.

I love this TV and I can guarantee you will too.

I purchased this TV from Amazon about a month ago. The price was good. It was delivered a couple of weeks after the order was placed. We don't have cable or satelite subscription, but we have good over-the-air reception via rabbit-ear antenna. I've been researching on LCD sets for a year and was tempted to purchase a cheap one from Costco. My friend who manages an LCD panel repair service advised me to buy a name brand because the quality and life-span of the fluorescent light tube are better. I was debating between the Sharp 37" and the Sony 40", and decided on the Sony because it has a PC input (The Sharp doesn't) and also a larger screen. As soon as the TV was delivered, I put it in my bedroom and hooked up the antenna. I was amazed by the clarity of the picture on some channels. Some of the analog channels were grainy. After I played with it for a couple of hours, I switched the reception to digital and was greatly surprised that there were 40+ channels with perfect clarity. Most of the major stations and PBS stations transmit HDTV signals and each station has 2-3 sub-channels airing different programs. All of these are received over the air with a $20+ antenna from Radio Shack. The only weakness is that the speakers are not very powerful. They are fine with me since I don't like high sound volumes anyway. Audiophiles may wish to connect a receiver with 5.1 speakers to get surround sound effect. I purchased a DVD player with an up-converter and connected it via the HDMI input. I can't really tell any difference in the picture quality between the HDMI vs. my old player via component input. Overall, I'm quite satisfied with the Sony. The problem now is that my kids are in my bedroom all day watching TV, so I'm thinking about replacing my old CRT TV in the family room with another Sony 40"LCD.

Great picture. Only one complaint: when switching from standard definition to high definition channels, the screen goes blank, although the sound continues to work. The TV must be turned off and on again and the high definition picture appears.

Sony sent a repairman and the fix was to use a different input, not HDMI. Not much point in a HDMI input if it can't be used.

No doubt it is by far the best image technology. Shiny bright and clear images gives this tv a few steps ahead of it's competitors (and I have seen all of them closely before making my decision).

There is no need to talk about the good things of it, so let's talk about the ones that are not so perfect:

1. Only one HDMI input may be annoying for the video game owners. But you can always put the video game on component.

2. Most of the inputs are on the back of the tv (except for a side S-Video/RCA input) making it virtually impossible to plug in cables once you have it mounted on the wall. Maybe you can solve this with a wall mount that keeps the tv a little further away from the wall. Mine isn't one of those.

3. It is a little bit more expensive than the competitors. At least you know you're paying a bit more because you're getting the best you can get.

We bought this set directly from the J&R store in downtown Manhattan for $1,799 plus sales tax. We wanted to be able to return it to the store in case we had problems. If you buy from Amazon, it might be difficult to return/exchange. Amazon might even make you pay the hundred dollars or so to ship back to them so we felt it's much safer to buy directly from the store. J&R happens to have the lowest price for this television currently at $1,799. Bestbuy and CircuitCity are charging much more so try to stay away from them. Costco has it for $1,999 as of 9/1/06 and dropping steadily. (Update, as of 10/10/06 Costco has this for $1,899 under a slightly different model number but same TV).

This television has an excellent HDTV picture while watching High Definition news stations, espn, HBO and the other HD stations currently being broadcast at this time by Cablevision (or Comcast, Time Warner). Hopefully in a few years all stations will convert to High Definition programming.

Some have complained about the picture quality of 'regular programming' stations. It is true the regular, non HD stations are not as good but they are still watchable. Again, if more channels convert to HDTV, then this will not be a problem so the TV is still good.

One recommendation for the best quality picture when using this LCD is to go with the HDMI/DVI digital Video cable from your cable provider's box to the HDMI input on the TV. This television also has 'Component' (Green, Blue, Red cable) Video connections as an alternative but first try to utilize the HDMI connection from your cable box to TV. You can use a 'Component' cable from your DVD player to this TV which is what we're doing.

I give this TV only 4 stars because it has, like so many other Tv's, only one HDMI connection. I would have liked to use another HDMI connection on a high definition DVD player currently about to be released but I cannot because this TV does not have more than one HDMI connection. I would have even used a third HDMI connection for the new Sony playstation 3 coming out. The TV does have TWO component Video connections which I will use for my DVD player and gaming system but again the HDMI connections are digital connections and would have been better, especially for the High Definition Blu-Ray DVD players which ONLY use HDMI.

Note the highest resolution this TV handles is a 720P/1080I resolution. This is mainstream and true of all HDTV's currently being sold in stores, BUT, the new resolution of 1080P (progressive) just came out and will soon be mainstream among all LCD HDTV's. Is the 1080P resolution worth paying the extra money for?? NO, because currently no High Definition stations are being broadcasted in 1080P, only 720P (ABC, Fox) or 1080I (espn, TNT, etc.). And the only way to experience 1080P resolution on a DVD player is to go out and buy a Blu-Ray DVD player which currently costs $1,000.

In conclusion, these sets are dropping in price fast and the manufacturers currently consider these sets 'wasted space' in their warehouse. With the 1080P LCD's taking over, they want these 'old' lcd's out of their site. They will keep dropping the price until they are gone. Keep in mind that SONY is the leader in televisions. Every other manufacturer has no clue about how to build a quality set. Go to the store and compare all brands, the SONY Tv's ALWAYS have the better picture. This is no accident folks, the Japanese are actually good for something else besides their cars and sushi. Enjoy!

This TV was exactly as good as I expected it to be.
--Black levels and black details and acceptable with the lights on. With the lights off blacks appear to be more of a dark grey. I highly recommend some ambient lighting to trick your mind into thinking that blacks are actually black.

--Colors seem accurate and vivid as expected from an LCD.

--The Picture quality dimishes from an angle, but is still acceptable. From an angle the colors aren't quite as clear and vivid and the contrast ratio appears to drop off.

--Sitting 7ft away from this 40" TV is too close even for HDTV sources. At about 10ft the picture is beatiful.

--The response time is perfect for sports. Although I have noticed some lag when a completely new picture is displayed. I noticed lag with my CRT on HD sources, but not as much.

--Standard Definition viewing was much better than expected(Noise-Auto, Mpeg Noise-Low). Although not even close to high def. Standard is still watchable. Watching cartoons(Family Guy, Simpsons) I switch the mpeg noise reduction to high and the regular noise reduction to auto. This yields a smooth clear picture with very few picture flaws.

--I wish you could hook up a computer through the HDMI input. Using the VGA input yields and nice clear picture, but you can see picture defects caused by the analog connection.

I used to own a Sceptre 42" LCD. The Sony S2000 yields a much higher quality picture for Standard definition viewing, DVD viewing, and HD viewing. The Sceptre however was a much better computer monitor than the Sony. My 30" Phillips CRT yielded an overal better picture for HDTV sources.

Great picture. One BIG complaint. I am using HDMI from the cable box. When switching from standard definition to high definition channels, the screen goes blank, although the sound continues to work. The TV must be turned off and on again for the high definition picture to appear again. This is unsatisfactory considering that SONY is a premium brand at a premium price.