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40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent value, June 19, 2008
This review is from: Sony Bravia S-Series KDL-46S4100 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV (Electronics)
This was my first LCD TV purchase; I bought it after being quite impressed with the picture on the floor model at Best Buy, and nearly blown away by the clarity of the sound coming out of the speakers. (The latter was an important factor for me, because I don't want to invest in a home theater sound system just yet.) After three weeks, it hasn't disappointed at all. HD cable programming looks great, my Xbox 360 (via HDMI cable) looks and plays fantastically, and I'm somehow even getting a decent picture out of my old crappy DVD player. Standard definition cable programming is hit and miss; some channels look a lot better than others, for reasons I'm unsure of, although even the worse ones are certainly not bad enough to stop me from watching and enjoying them too. The sound is indeed amazing; I can turn down the volume to near-minimal levels and still hear everything that's happening on-screen (speech, music, and ambient noises).
I'll note that there are three HDMI inputs, not two as the "Product Details" section above seems to indicate.
Finally, I'll note that the two negative reviews below (as of the time of this posting) deal entirely with Amazon's delivery service; they say nothing substantive about the TV itself, which is a shame, because in my opinion this set is very high quality and (at its price) therefore a very good value.
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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hands down, best TV for the price, June 24, 2008
This review is from: Sony Bravia S-Series KDL-46S4100 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV (Electronics)
Bought this TV after about 3 months of research. Watched all the TVs in Best Buy, Circuit City, Frys, etc., for hours. Could not get past the picture quality of this TV as compared to other models on the wall. And sound quality was by far the best among the TVs I looked at - important if you don't plan to use a home theater system. Stand and look at this TV in the store and compare it to the other TVs and you'll see what I mean. Picture quality seemed more natural and less grainy than other brands on the wall.
Before buying I breifly considered some 120 HZ models, including the Samsung 650 and the new Sony, all at around $500 more than this model. As for 120 Hz, I just couldn't tell a difference on broadcast HD/TV, and while the difference on movies was obvious, the effect seemed unnatural. Made films look more like live TV - interesting to watch, but just not a true movie experience in my opinion. I'm not knocking 120 Hz, just didn't feel like it was for me.
Connected this TV to a Sony progressive scan DVD using component connections and got incredible picture quality. I guess BlueRay via HDMI would be better, but honestly I can't imagine how. Still on analog cable at the moment with only a handful of digital HD channels available - all of which look fantastic. Converting to Verizon FIOS next week and looking forward to even better picture quality.
As for setup, I went from the box to watching TV in under 10 minutes. No alteration of the default picture settings was required in my opinion. I do recommend using the "standard" picture mode. "Vivid" is cool at first, but hard on the eyes after a while. And you will probably want to boost the bass a little on the audio. Standard definition channels, as viewed on any HD TV, will vary in quality. I found most standard def channels to look pretty good, and I think Sony does the best job overall of cleaning up the picture.
Remote is simple and easy to use, and I've found the on-screen menus to be reasonably intuitive. For me it had plenty of inputs: 3 HDMI, 2 component, 2 composite, and a PC. Also has a single audio out which can be used to connect to an A/V receiver or (I presume) a home theater system if you have one.
The only two cons I have found for this TV are: 1) after you power it on, it takes about 7-10 seconds before the picture comes on -- but my old Sony did this too so it wasn't a big deal to me. And 2) you can't scroll through channels quickly, you have to move one at a time. Not sure if this is unique to Sony or if all TVs do this. But if you're using a cable or satallite box, then this won't matter to you anyway.
Bottom line -- great picture quality, decent sound, affordable price, easy to setup and use, no complicated fine tuning required, and a brand name that won't embarrass you when your friends come over. Go see one in the store and then trust your eyes, you won't be disappointed.
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46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Looks and sounds great, June 14, 2008
This review is from: Sony Bravia S-Series KDL-46S4100 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV (Electronics)
This is my second hdtv the first was the 27" Olevia. Since that purchase almost 10 months ago I have scrolled literally through hundreds of reviews commercial and consumer. Brands that I looked into repeatedly where: Philips, Olevia, Samsung, Vizio, Westinghouse, and LG.
I've rented an LG and it had probably the most amazing surround sound. My roommate owned a smaller sized Phillips which had fantastic image quality.
The reviews of Vizio and Westinghouse reminded me of what was being said about the Olevia. While the price of Olevia's 747i described as their flagship has dropped to a really nice price it still remains the heaviest.
Really like what Samsung has to offer and read just about every review for the 46a 550 mutiple times and the glowing theme was incredible image with unimpressive audio.
Recently walked into Target and did a walk through of there floor models where I saw this Sony model. Up until now, I was uninterested in Sony because felt it had more bells and whistles than I really needed and it was too pricey. But when I saw this floor model it was a clear stand out. While there I messed around with the settings and realized the remote was by far the easiest I had used. After muting the surrounding tvs I then tested out the floor models audio and just slightly halfway at more than 20ft away this model did well at pulling me in and just about everyone else that was there watching.
Thought maybe my initial impression might have been a little cloudy because of the limited sets on display so decided to stop by circuit city to view this model alongside some other top dollar sets. When I realized this set looked as good as similiarly priced sets and even those that were higher priced it hit me that this was the big screen HDtv that came with what I wanted: Clear image, crisp audio, and a remote that is so easy to use and program to the cable remote that I will have to hide it from my two year old.
Since setting up this lightweight screen is a breeze I was able to begin watching in minutes. If you are like me and have to put away your game console so the kids don't get in it the tv has a side HDMI port for easy access. After running Ninja gaiden sigma and Call of duty 4 at 1080p found myself mostly just soaking in cut scenes instead of actually playing through.
I'm purposely leaving out a review of this tv in standard definition because the image is good and bad depending on the channel. From what I've read a lot of this has to do with signal strength and processing. In short, HD looks good, audio sounds great, and with the easy set up and remote you'll probably be viewing hd faster than it took to actually buy the tv itself.
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