Customer Reviews

Sony Bravia XBR-Series KDL-46XBR4 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

5 star:		(88)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

We purchased an XBR4 and brought it home last night from a brick-and-mortar store. I didn't think they would be available for another month. I've been trying to decide what to purchase for almost 4 months (a common story from what I've read on the internet). Every time I stood in Frys Electronics, or Best Buy, or Circuit City the Sony XBR series would catch my eye. In my opinion they simply are better than all the rest.

I looked briefly at Plasma but our living room has lots of windows so we couldn't tolerate the shiny screens. The latest and greatest Samsung LCDs also have shiny screens so alas they were excluded.

We compared the Sharp Aquos 52d82 with the Sony XBR3 and once again the sharpness and clarity of the Sony outstripped the Sharp. This is all subjective mind you. You might very well be quite satisfied with another brand. For me I would never be happy had I purchased something else, knowing these XBR series were out there.

Last night the Sony 46" XBR4 was sitting between two Plasma TVs in the store. The Sony was sharper and had deeper blacks than the two Plasmas.

I was itching to purchase a Sony but I knew the XBR4 & 5 were coming soon with the 120Hz refresh, 10 bit color, 3 HDMI 1.3 inputs, PC input, 15000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 2000:1 true contrast, and the BLACK bezel. Yes the XBR4 came with the black bezel which I prefer over the silver of the XBR2.

Setup was as easy as the traditional CRT TV the XBR4 replaced in our living room. Plug it in, stick the Playstation 3 HDMI cable into the back, turn it on, select the game input and away we went.

We have a library of over 300 480i DVDs. I was concerned they wouldn't look good. I've read many user reviews about poor quality 480i presentations on the previous XBRs. While they can't hold a candle to the Blu-Ray Planet Earth series the standard DVDs look quite respectable on the XBR4.

The Sony remote is quite long compared to our other remotes. It has single buttons to change the Picture from Wide Zoom, to Normal, Full, and Zoom. You can quickly also select Vivid, Standard, Cinema, or Custom Picture Modes. The remote is a "universal" type that will control a Set Top Box, DVD, Blu Ray disk player, or of course the TV. The remote picked up my Sony DVD player without me having to do anything to set it up. However we have a Logitech Harmony 890 (Amazon has a great price) so won't be using the Sony remote.

There are 10 input selections, TV, Video 1 (which we named DVD), Video 2, Video 3, Component 1, Component 2, HDMI 1 (which we named Game for the Playstation 3), HDMI 2, HDMI 3, and PC. I did hook up my PC which has 1080p capability and surfed the internet for a while. I don't think these big screens make good PC monitors though as you have to sit close enough to read text and at that point they are too large.

There were no dead pixels, and I haven't seen any "clouding" that was the bane of the XBR2&3.

Yes it is pricey but in my opinion it is the best.

September 27, 2007 update
Now that I've had this LCD for over a month I'm very pleased with it. One additional comment is the built in speakers are quite good. I also recently purchased a 34" Sharp with built in speakers and immediately noticed the difference in the poorer sound quality in this Sharp. The Sony sounds so good I haven't spent the time to hook the sound output jacks up to my surround sound system.

Changing channels could be quicker, but my guess is the TV is trying to figure out what kind of signal it has (480i, 720i, 1080i) and make adjustments.

I've had issues with dropping sync with some digital TV channels but I have no way of knowing if it is the TV itself or the quality of my cable. It will lose sync for about 5 seconds then re-sync.

HDguru's review of this TV pointed to a problem with the handing of interlaced video and recommended switching from Vivid to Custom (or cinema settings), it does make a difference once you settings on Custom are right. Picture is incredible. With Motion flow turned on and sharpness turned up, contract and back-light turned to max it looks like you are looking through a window. If anyone wants my settings let me know. I am just thrilled with quality. I have a PC-VCR attached to the VGA connector. I have a DVD player connected using HDMI and using the scaler from the TV take it to 1080p. With sharpness turned up motion flow turned on, detail and edge enhancer turned on the DVD's look amazing I can't wait for a Blu-Ray player, can you say PS3?

Weaknesses
1. the out of the box settings seem ok but you get so much more after you tweak it. Which leads me to my only complaint which really isn't one there are so many settings and the manual doesn't do a good enough job explaining what they do (even for a techy).
2. The cost is pretty high but if it's worth it.

Suggestions buy your cables through Amazon it's worth it. The shipping may cost more then the cables but that still 1/3 the price of buying them elsewhere.

I was having trouble deciding between an older XBR model (such as the XBR2 or XBR3 ) or waiting for this new model to come out. I decided to wait, and I am very glad I did. The new Xross interface is amazing, as is the picture quality. No "clouds" in the corners like some of the XBR2 and XBR3 models. One thing I must mention that is a real plus is the "Game Mode" option for various inputs. For people familiar with games like Guitar Hero, A/V lag can be a big deal. The game mode on this model works like a charm and removes almost all lag (I didn't even have to "calibrate lag" in the game options). The only negative I have noticed so far is the automatic backlight adjusting. It can be easily put to manual, but on the default automatic setting it seems to overcompensate when credits start to roll, or if something is white on a black background.

Update: November 31, 2007
I have had this TV since the day it was released, and I don't regret purchasing it at all. As some of the other reviewers have mentioned, you really need to take the time and adjust the "Custom" options to your liking, because "Vivid" is a bit over the top. After 3 months though, the TV is still going strong with no dead pixels or clouding or any problems at all. I couldn't be happier.

I spent 6 months online and in stores researching LCD TV's. I read reviews on every imaginable website. I even looked at the TV manual on Sony's website, just to see what features it had before I bought it! If you're going to spend this amount of money you want the best. This TV is the best. I ordered it from Amazon because the price was good and I saved around $300 in sales tax. I figured I could easily spend that money on an upconvert DVD player, which you MUST have to view regular DVD's on this TV (with any kind of quality), and HDMI cables. I also bought the Sony upconvert DVD player from Amazon. I have a few tips however to get the best bang for your buck...

First tip: Follow the shipping. Amazon emails you a tracking # which you can then plug into Eagle Freight's web site to track your package. Once it gets to your state, call them and arrange for delivery. Don't wait for them to call you! When it reaches your state another delivery company may be subcontracted to deliver. That's where your proactiveness comes in. By being proactive (and very anxious to receive my new TV), the TV was delivered 3 days early! The guys came in unpacked it and let me plug it in to make sure it worked. I had them leave the box, just in case.

Second tip: Google "XBR4 calibration". You'll find a web-site called AVS. There is a forum on which a bunch of techno geeks discuss how they adjusted this TV. You can then print off settings and see what's best for you. The manual for this TV is not comprehensive enough and doesn't explain well what all the settings do. This website discusses it at length and then some.

Third tip: Direct TV offers the best HD package. They have over 100 channels. Standard TV looks OK, but HD is like looking out a window. So clear...

Where ever you buy this TV, you won't be disappointed. Sony is a leader in electronics, and you get what you pay for.

I want to add my review to all the laudatory reviews so far, admitting that I have been a Sony fan for many years and generally tend to prefer their television products to other manufacturers. The one exception, a 35" RCA tube set purchased in 1995 and a fine tv, was replaced by the XBR4.

This was my first foray into HD. I first went to the brick and mortar stores to compare them in person (I recommend doing this even if you end up buying on line.) I was mainly interested in comparing the Sony with the Sharp Aquos, which a friend had told me was comparable in picture quality but lower in price. It could be my bias, but there was no comparison, the Sony looked much better to me. The blacks were deeper and overall, I thought the color representations on the Sony were richer and truer than on the Sharp Aquos (and comparable Samsung models). Standing in front of the two sets, my eyes were naturally drawn to the Sony picture. I did not compare plasma sets because my gut feeling is that the market is going to LCDs now (much like VHS eventually won over betamax, ironically, Sony's standard).

With that decision made, I ordered on line about a month ago after continued reading of technical reviews. The main issue was whether to buy an XBR3 at a lower price versus the newer XBR4. The deciding factor was the reports of clouding or "mura" in the corners of some XBR3 models and that the XBR4 had reportedly fixed this problem. Spending this much money on a set, I wanted the optimum picture quality and especially good quality for watching Bears and ND football games! So the decision was to spend the extra few hundred and get the XBR4, although my understanding is that these problems with the XBR3 may have been worked out by now.

The set arrived in splendid condition. I am a fan of the hi tech look and aesthetically, this is a beauty with the floating glass surrounding the black matte bevel adding a nice touch. To my surprise, the set fit in the same space occupied by the RCA tube set and was much lighter to lift and position. I even like the small Sony logo that gently lights up at the bottom of the set (you can turn this off in the settings menu if you want.) The jacks in the back are well labeled and easy to connect to the various input devices you might have. You will be most concerned with the HDMI inputs but legacy devices such as VHS and older DVD players also connect easily.

But note that purchasing the set is just the beginning of your expenses to convert to HD: You will need to shell out at least $75 more for an HDMI cable to connect the tv to your cable box. If, like me, you are also a Directv customer, you will pay another $300 for their HR21 HD receiver (no other choices available), $100 or so for the installer to put in a multi-switch and recable your dish (unless you can do this yourself), and a monthly upcharge for the HD signal. Altogether, add another $500 to the cost of the set to fully convert to HD if you have not been receiving HD prior to this.

Once done, the change is amazing and worth it. Hooked to an old receiver prior to installing the HD receiver, the picture was only average and even a little grainier when I applied the "stretch" feature as opposed to cropping the image. I even noticed what looked like clouding around the picture edges. However, these problems disappear once you have an HD receiver installed. Even the stations in regular broadcast are clearer and the HD channels are so vivid, they almost look hyper-real; you actually feel like you are at the game. It is even a pleasure sitting and watching shows you have seen before on regular sets in HD to see all the details you missed; I rewatched the entire past season of Top Chef just to marvel at how pretty Padma Lakshmi really is in HD!

I agree with others that you should change from the default Vivid mode, which is garish and too bright, to Cinema or Standard right away and then explore the many other tweaks you can make (Sony lets you separately adjust the settings for each input so you can have one set of settings for your cable box, another for your DVD player, etc.). However, once I switched to Cinema mode, I left the other settings at default and have been quite happy with these.

The set does hiccup a bit (or perhaps this is the Directv receiver) when switching from HD stations to regular broadcast stations and vice versa, but this is nothing too alarming and will be less of an issue when more stations come on line in HD; right now, many of my favorite stations are in HD on Directv with more planned for next year. I am also trying to figure out how the settings on the XBR4 interact with the settings on the DVR (for example, picture size); this will take some time and has not been a hindrance thus far.

In sum, for other long time Sony fans thinking about going HD, this is the set you want, very highly recommended and a nice Christmas present for you and the whole family. (I believe the XBR5 is exactly the same as the XBR4 save for allowing you to change the color of the bezel from black to something else.) For those not yet Sony fans, this set will convert you.

I bought my Sony 46XBR4 on Labor Day, so I have been using it just about a month now. I can't even tell you all the worrying about which model of Sony HDTV to get that I went through prior to that, especially since some other recent Sony models were several hundred dollars less than the 46XBR4. Finally, finally!, I bit the bullet and went for this one, knowing three grand was an incredibly ridiculous amount of money to pay for a TV and sweating bullets every day until it got delivered. I think the most I ever paid was about $700 before years ago (also a Sony and I still have it), but that might even have included a stand. (A few days later, I was talking to a coworker about each other's activities over the holiday, and I said I bought a 46-in HDTV and mentioned the price. Let me tell you, this was the first time I had said the price aloud to anyone, and it suddenly hit me just how much money that is, and what the HECK was I thinking??!!!

Well, now, I think it was the best TV decision I ever made. Wait...I'm sorry, I can't call this just a "TV"; it should have a more magnificent name. There are times when I am watching some HD programming (such as Dancing with the Stars -- okay, go ahead and laugh, but I love Jane Seymour on it) or a Blu-ray movie, and I am stunned at the incredible depth, color, sharpness, anything you could name. I find the Motion Enhancer feature set to "High" makes things very three-dimensional like.

I also have an Optoma HD72 projector, and up until I got this HDTV I would be watching it almost every night. There is still nothing to compare with the size of a 120" image on a huge screen to really give you the theater feel. However, since getting the HDTV, I have barely had one night when I have used the projector. Certainly the HDTV image is much smaller than the projector's but, oh, that image! I have always been impressed by Sony products (I would guess 95% of my home entertainment items are Sony) but I never realized how much better the image was on a Sony until I started looking before - and after - selecting this HDTV. I have a game now where I go into a Costco or Best Buy and see a line of HDTVs, and I try to guess from the screen alone which is the Sony. And it is very easy because the Sony HDTVs shine above the other.

A few days after I got this TV delivered, and enjoyed playing with it, I went into the Burbank Fry's Electronics store. It turned out that right near the entrance, they had the 46XBR4 set up next to a 46V3000 or a 46W3000, I think it was. Now, let me just say that before I decided on the 46XBR4, I was almost going to go with either the V or the W. However, now seeing the XBR4 and the other model right there next to each other...there was no comparison. The 46XBR4 made the V or the W, whichever it was, a pale imitation. They were playing the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie from a Blu-ray player on both screens and I was listening to other people saying how much better that XBR4 was in every detail. I could definitely see it. Believe me, I was certainly a happier man when I saw the two HDTVs together because it told me I made the right choice. That extra money was worth it!

I love it! I absolutely love it! This is the most incredible picture I have ever seen! Go for it!

This is my second time around with this TV. The first one had stuck pixels (pixels that constantly stay a single color and will not change) and this second one has the infamous clouding that Sony is famous for. Basically, in dark scenes in a dark room you get these white blotches on the screen. Mine is rather sizeable. If you do a google search on "XBR4 and clouding" you'll see that many people have this issue... some even returned the set and get another cloudy screen. If you look in Sony's manual it says stuck pixels and "uneven brightness" is normal. Now if you pay a premium for a premium brand as Sony purports themselves to be one should not get manufactured defects that is claimed to be normal by the manufacturer. Buyer beware: if you get a defective product and the retailer doesn't take it back, Sony may not repair or replace it for you and claim it to be normal.

I really did a lot of research before I made this purchase. But nothing beats actually seeing the sets in a side-by-side comparison. There was good, better, and best. The Sony is the latter. To me the 46xbr4 was so much bigger at home than in the store, seeing the 50-60+ inch sets make it seem a little small, it's not. From the outer edge of the bezel horizontally it measures almost 50 inches. It's quite hefty too, weighing in at 84lbs. or 71lbs. without the base. Just something to consider; you will need two people to hang this on the wall. Also if you go that route shoot for a tilting wall mount so you can get the perfect angle from your viewing position.

Connections in the back are well placed and labeled, I personally would have liked all three of the HDMI connections to be on the back, (there is one on the side). I ran all of these cables through the wall, why plug something into the side? Maybe a camcorder...

The good part is that the picture is beautiful. A nice matte finish that reflects zero light. I have a HD-DVR from Directv pluged into the HDMI. The images from the 50 or so HD channels I get is stunning, the detail and reality is second to none. No other LCD on the market will match this set. I'm rewatching my DVD's on a 1080p upscaling 400v Pioneer player. Why go to the movies? Video games are cool, but I feel a little guilty playing Xbox live, I can see and kill people from far greater distances now than on the old set.

I've been watching this set for three weeks now and here are some of my observations.

1) This TV will display what it is given, if there is distortion in the signal the TV will display it. I had a green line down the middle of the screen and panicked I thought the TV was a dud, it was in the SD signal. I put it in Picture-in-Picture and there was the line resized. I also recorded the effect with the DVR.

2) Thanksgivings day - Cowboy's game is on and I see two bright white pixels on a close up of the Cowboy's coach, again panic... different camera the pixels come back, close up of coach, dead pixels.. It was the broadcast camera.

3) The only issue with my set has been within the first two minutes of it being on I get the flashlight effect in the bottom left corner, mine goes away once the set has been on for at least two minutes - I'll live with it.

The 46xbr4 has a ton of settings, I think I've got it set just right. Here are my settings:

Picture Menu
Picture Mode: Standard
Backlight: Max
Picture: 79
Brightness: 55
Color: 55
Hue: 0
Color temp: Neutral
Sharpness: 60
Noise reduction: Medium
MPEG noise reduction: Low
DRC mode: Mode 1
DRC Palette: 40/60

Advanced Settings
Black corrector: Low
Advanced C.E: Low
Gamma: Low
Clear white: High
Color space: Wide
Live color: Medium
Detail enhancer: Low
Edge enhancer: Low

White Balance Menu
R-Gain: -4
G-Gain: 0
B-Gain: 0
R-Bias: -3
G-Bias: 0
B-Bias: 0

Screen Menu
Wide Mode: Full
Auto Wide: On
4:3 Default: Full
Display Area: Normal

Video Options Menu
Motion Enhancer: Off
CineMotion: Auto 1
Game/Text mode: Off
Video/Photo Optimizer: Video
Video Color Space: Auto
Photo Color Space: sYCC
Color Matrix: Auto
RGB Dynamic Range: Auto

General Menu
Power saving: On
Light sensor: Off (Day), On (Night)

I purchased this TV on Feb 29 2008 and could not have been more disappointed. In 45 days the TV has stopped working. I opted for not taking the store warranty thinking that we pay a premium for Sony quality.

Boy was I wrong, not only did the TV stop working its now more than a week since I called Technical support for in home service and their service, for lack of a better word is nothing short of miserable.

After a week of waiting, I took a day off from work to get the TV fixed, the technician doesn't show up!! He reschedules to another day and even then I can only hope that he shows up today.

If I want to complain, I will have to request another authorized repair shop which means more waiting!!

Completely dissatisfied with both the TV, that stopped working in 45 days, and the service, which is bordering on the lines of non existent.

Update:
Finally after a few more verbal disagreements with the completely incompetent repair guy, he showed up more than an hour and a half late.

As whiny as I sound, he called to reschedule a second time (after a week a waiting) and then again when he finally got there said that if he cannot find parking he will move on. Not sure if they are training their people to ensure that once you request service from Sony, you will never buy from them again.

Thankfully, the TV is now working and hope it will continue to do so.

Once again, if you do find yourself with a 'Lemon' you can be almost assured, at least from my experience, that the customer service if terrible!!

Update 2:
YES....the TV is not working again. And, as you will have it, once again the brilliance of Sony's customer service means at least another week of waiting. If you request quicker service, they cant help because they have to order parts, if you request a refund or an exchange, you have to call during normal working hours. Isn't it fantastic that they actually want you to call from work (yes some of us actually work to be able to afford these things) so that everyone around you is aware of the brilliant Sony product and shadowy customer service (We have spent collectively more than 5 hours with them so we rightfully have an opinion).

This has to be taken into consideration before making your purchase. Customer service is equally important and from my experience, I can reassure you of that fact.

Totally disgruntled at this point. Will definitely update once again with the outcome.

Update 3:
A few more days have passed and I have just been told that the part that the TV needs (the whole panel apparently) is out of stock. I cannot tell you how overjoyed I am that I might have use of my 1 month old TV for another 3 weeks. Owned the TV for 6 weeks and if it does get fixed in three weeks, it will not have been working for about 4 out of the 10 weeks that I have owned the TV.

I encourage everyone to go take this into consideration before any purchase from SONY is made.

We have had this television for 10 days and couldn't be happier with it. Although more expensive than other options, I believe that the superior picture quality justifies the price. Based on our experience, it also is a very good alternative to plasma or projection in a larger format, the set showed none of the "typical" downsides of LCD panel TVs.

HD picture on cable is superb, especially on football. No residual image on fast motion and no mura detectable on our set. Blacks are very good. I think the color is the best on any monitor I have seen. As others have said, I think it is well worth experimenting with different settings as I think most will prefer alternatives to the presets. On our set, we use "custom" and "warm 2" and have turned up backlight and picture for most input.

The blacks are very good. We have the set in a porch with many windows , and it performs better in there than our prior DLP HD projection TV. In a dark room at night, with the black bezel, it almost looks like an incredibly vivid picture floating in the air.

Standard TV looks surprisingly good given screen size, and standard DVDs look very good. Menus work well and are relatively easy to find and navigate compared to most products. If it proves reliable, I think Sony got it all right on this one. Only complaint is an overly long and slightly clunky remote.

Bought from Amazon and the White Glove service worked weill - I was contacted whent the TV reached town (3 days), it was deliverd the following day, and while the truck was an hour past the delivery "window", service was polite and efficient when they got here , they unpacked it and put it on the stand, and waited while I hooked the TV up, made sure it worked and no obvious problems.