Now the BAD – its delivering by CEVA who has no idea where my TV is? The last tracking scan was Newark NJ on Sunday – 22 miles away from my house… well today is Thursday – Hello? Anyone out there? I thought they would call me by now and when I call them – they thought it was picked up already? Picked up? Huh?

Great Price, Great TV but Amazon needs to find a better Delivery service CEVA is horrible. If I had read the message boards about CEVA formelery EAGLE freight I would have never purchased this TV at Amazon. I hope I finally get my TV.
Rating: 5 / 5

Pitcure’s great, blah, blah, blah… but did I mention the connectors? This TV doubles as an admirable PC monitor at full 1080P (assuming your video card supports it). Was able to play FPS games at full resolution. Wow again.

Cons: Well, there are some. The first one is the minimalist remote control. Everything is menu driven, it seems, and it wasn’t intuitive for me. I’d like more of it to be in shorter menus you can access from the remote. How about a universal remote? I have a Sony DVPCX995V 400-Disc DVD Mega Changer/Player that does HDMI 1080i upconverting (outstaning btw), a Sony home theater sound system as well. I have to have THREE different remotes for three Sony products. Arg. Then I have a satelite controller too.

The other beef I have is the highly limited PIP. It’s got that many inputs, but you can only use one at a time. The only PIP functionality is when you’re in PC mode with the HD15 input. Of course, if you’re using the HDMI for PC input it’s gone. This function is highly limited being a small box you can’t change positions of. It’s also poorly described in the instructions.
Rating: 5 / 5

Well I am super satisified with this TV for the following reasons.

1. Easy to set up. I don’t have cable and it just scanned for all the HD and analog stations and that was pretty much about it.

2. Great sound. I don’t have a stereo system to hook up to and so it was important that the TV’s speakers could, well, speak for themselves. They are very good.

3. Picture is super and seems to adjust itself to suit whatever type of input (HD, Analog, DVD, Video) is coming in. People Don’t look short and squat. Everything looks great, and full size and I don’t have to do any adjusting when I change a channel.

Note: I will say that using a standard video tape produces an okay picture, but I assume this is the same for every TV. When I play DVD using my computer and connect to TV with HDMI cable, picture is excellent. So just using the antenna cable is not good enough with my current DVD player. I will likely update it or just play it through my computer.

Also, as other reviews say, set up (base mount) was easy. Slide it on base and tighten four screws.

Anyway, I’m sure I’m missing 75% of the features of this baby, but for the “simple cave man HD TV Guy” I am completely satisfied.

Also, TV doesn’t make any buzzing or humming noises (hey, that stuff bugs me so I thought I’d add it).

Good luck with your purchase.

David

Rating: 5 / 5

Cons: can’t think of any

Sony doesn’t disappoint with this 1080p set. I was amazed at how great the image was right out of the box, but it was even better after a little tweaking. Standard definition is about as good as any other LCD. The speakers on the TV are very nice compared to other sets that I’ve heard and I love that it controls the sound output level so i can control my surround and the volume on the set with the remote. It works great with my PS3 as long as its in the “game mode” and Blu-Rays look amazing. I highly recommend this set.
Rating: 5 / 5

Setting up is straightfoward — you set up the stand where you want it, lift the TV onto it, and tighten 4 screws. It can also be wall mounted. On the back are the large range of inputs: three HDMI, two component, one S-Video, two standard video (RCA jacks) and one VGA port. You can guarantee that whatever you have, you’ll be able to connect it to this TV.

The best quality of output and convenience comes from HDMI connections (order some low cost HDMI cables from Amazon; my local stores wanted $50-$179!) A Blu-ray DVD player connected to the TV via HDMI delivers outstanding picture quality at 1080p, with amazing detail. It’s so good, in fact, that I found myself noticing film grain more often — you can practically count the grains!

This TV supports 24 frames-per-second (“24p” in the jargon), which matches the screen refresh rate to that used in movies. The visible difference shows up in shots where the camera pans (moves parallel to the scene). With regular TV playback, panning makes the scene blurry and you can’t see much detail because extra “interpolated” frames are inserted to match the TV frame rate. Panning shots in “Casino Royale” blu-ray DVD were clear at 24p, revealing some visual jokes I missed before (e.g. the Richard Branson cameo at airport security). For movies like The Bourne Ultimatum with lots of camera movement, 24p makes the whole movie clearer.

Screen contrast of the TV is also very good. Blacks appear black, color is not overdone (though there is a “vivid” setting if you want to boost saturation). Lower resolution sources at 480i look pretty good — they are upscaled nicely by the TV. Connecting a Wii with the standard video cables worked fine and produced a good picture.

For HDTV sources, this TV does excellent noise reduction and yet still delivers crisp detail and good color. This is where other LCD TVs fall down, and Sony really has done a great job with the Bravia engine.

Sound from the internal speakers is very good indeed, with dialogue particularly clear. Home theater speakers are better, but then that’s true for any TV.

I am very happy with my purchase — the TV has a stellar set of features at a great price versus more expensive versions with more bells and whistles… which I don’t need. It is not the cheapest LCD TV in the 40″ size, but the picture quality and number of source inputs sets it apart.

Rating: 5 / 5

EDIT and UPDATE! Sept 14, 2008 – I am happy to report that Sony has come through and addressed the white dot sparkle problem with an easy to use software/firmware update via a USB flash drive they sent. I now have ZERO white dot sparkles, and a perfect picture. Excellent! And at today’s prices a couple of hundred dollars less than in May when I bought mine, it is an even better deal!
Rating: 4 / 5

For under $1500, this is the set I would unhesitatingly select ahead of a comparable Samsung (you can get the price down to around $1000 if you go with the S series, but you’ll sacrifice Sony’s acclaimed Bravia 2 processor as well as Sony’s auto-link feature permitting operation of all components with a single switch). If I were willing to spend close to $2000 or more, I would look at a 46″-52″ Sony with 120 Hz (just to be current) and 10-bit color processing for a hi-def picture that simply leaves nothing to be desired. I would also do everything possible to purchase from Amazon. (I had to make two exchanges before ending up with the “right” model, and Amazon as usual made both hassle-free transactions.) Also, be sure to check out Amazon Warehouse for a “refurb” or “scratch and dent” model. I’ve never been disappointed in any of these items at reduced prices, or even noticed any difference from mint.

A couple of things learned through experience: 1. A flat-panel set does not “play” as large as the old tube models. If you formerly required a 27″ convection tube screen, you’ll need 32″-40″ to enjoy a similar viewing experience with an LCD flat screen. 2. When watching HDTV telecasts (still only a small percentage of channels), it’s quite likely you’ll notice little to no difference from standard definition if the screen is less than 40″. So if you’re planning on purchase of a 36″ or smaller screen, skip the extras. 720p is more than adequate, and most of the other frills can be regarded as needless extra expense. Also, SD (standard definition) will look better on any small screen than on the most expensive manufacturer’s large screen models, so make price–not brand name–the primary criterion when selecting a screen under 40″.
Rating: 5 / 5

It comes in a shiny strong box that’s shipped in another snug fitting shipping box, so there’s no chance of shipping damage.

Seriously, I don’t know how Warehouseseller can sell this high quality product for this price.

As the instructions say, make sure you use a stud finder to find the vertical wall studs. You want the lags to hit the center of the stud. Another trick I’ve learned in locating the center of a stud (if you don’t have a stud finder) is to knock on the wall. As you move down the wall you’ll hear the sound go from a hollow knock to a harder one. This is where a stud is located.

(Locating the upper two lag bolt hole points) Put a pencil mark at the harder knock point. Now take a drill motor, a 1/16″ bit and start drilling holes left and right of your mark until you find both edges of the stud. Adjust your mark to be centered on the first stud. Vertical studs are placed 16″ on center, so measure over 16″ and locate the 2nd stud in the same manner using the drill motor. Make sure to drill a pilot hole into the stud, so the lag doesn’t split the stud. The hole will be the size of the lag shank (thickness of the lag without the threads).

Now that you have the upper lags holes drilled the lower ones should fall into place, but if you feel inclined you can “drill search” the lower ones also.

The built in level is fairly accurate, but I used a 4′ level to make sure.
Rating: 5 / 5