Sony HDTV Bravia 40″ LCD (KDL-V40XBR1) Mini-Review
I’ve had the Sony Bravia 40″ LCD for a few months now, and wanted to share my impressions of it, specifically while using the Xbox 360. While the newer XBR2 and XBR3 are just starting to ship, now might be the perfect time to get a good deal on the original XBR1. According to nextag you can see the price dropping throughout the last few months, and is now in the sub $2k range:
I won’t go through all the specs, but here are the highlights:
- TFT active matrix
- Image aspect ratio: 16:9
- Width: 39.8″
- Depth: 14.6″
- Height: 28.5″
- Weight: 52.2 lbs
- Resolution: 1366 x 768
- Viewing angle: 170 degrees
- Total output power: 26 Watt
- Speaker system details: 2 x Right/left channel speaker - Built-in - 13 Watt
- Widescreen modes: Full, Zoom, Normal, Wide Zoom
- Input/Output connections: 1 x Audio line-in (RCA phono) - Front, 5 x Audio line-in (RCA phono) - Rear, 1 x Audio output (RCA phono x 2) - Rear, 2 x Component video input (RCA phono x 3) - Rear, 1 x Component video input (RCA phono x 3) - Front, 1 x Composite video input (RCA phono) - Front, 2 x Composite video input (RCA phono) - Rear, 2 x RF input (F connector) - Rear, 1 x S-Video input (4 pin mini-DIN) - Rear, 1 x Headphones (Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm) - Front, 1 x USB - Front, 1 x HDMI - Rear
The good:
- 720p resolution means pixel perfect matching with todays Xbox 360 games. There is a 1080p upgrade coming soon to the Xbox360, but we believe that it will be focused more on HD-DVD usage than on games.
- The TV’s UI is easy, and keeps all the proper presets for my games. I had to bump up the brightness a bit compared to normal TV watching as some games appeared a bit dark with the default settings.
- No ghosting at all. This was a concern with any LCD, and this one is spec’d at 8ms and so far so good. With my gamefly rental subscription, I’ve played over 20 games so far, and nearly every demo on Live — and have yet to come across a problem.
- Games look realistic and sharp. For those coming from PC games this is a welcome feature. The Plasma setups I’ve seen with Xbox360 seem softer and less sharp.
- Non Xbox360, but still cool: 1366 x 768 resolution means that my photos — when viewed via USB port or via Xbox 360 Windows Media Connect — look great and in proportion. Makes for great slideshows on the big screen.
The bad:
- only one HDMI port. The newer XBR series fixed this with 3 ports, but something to consider
The ugly:
- only wish it was 50″ :)
Summary: A great TV for movies, watching A-Rod choke in pressure situations ( sorry couldn’t resist ! ), and most importantly Xbox 360 games.
I give this TV a rating of 9/10. It would have been a 10 with more than 1 HDMI port.
Add comment September 30th, 2006