Sony Bravia KDL-V40XBR1

Model: Sony Bravia KDL-V40XBR1

The latest of Sony’s high-end LCD TVs is the Sony Bravia KDL-V40XBR1, a clear winner in the LCD picture quality department. Looks-wise, the Sony Bravia KDL-V40XBR1 is one of the most distinctive-looking TVs we’ve ever reviewed: the usual black border dressed up with silver trim along the front, the indicator lights strategically and inconspicuously placed below the right side of the screen so as not to distract your TV viewing experience. The remote isn’t backlit, and a Wega Gate button replaces the universal Menu, but otherwise the system menu is just like any other manufacturer’s. One major exception is how to control CineMotion (Sony’s term for 2:3 pull-down), which is now found in the Setup menu instead of the Picture menu.

Sony Bravia KDL-V40XBR1

Talking about picture quality, the Sony Bravia KDL-V40XBR1 has a native resolution of 1366 x 768, giving it enough pixels to render all of the detail of a 720p HDTV. There’s one NTSC tuner for standard-definition TV, and the ATSC tuner delivers HDTV. With the QAM tuner as well as the Digital Cable Ready compatibility, you can enjoy digital and HD cable without using an external cable box. The overall picture quality of the Sony Bravia KDL-V40XBR1 is quite promising – setting the backlight control to zero and adjusting the Picture (Contrast) and Brightness controls properly rewards you with a surprisingly convincing deep black color at a level you wouldn’t expect of an LCD TV panel, most noticeable when viewing dark scenes.

Of all the convenience features of the Sony Bravia KDL-V40XBR1, picture-in-picture is at the top of the list, with independent input memories following at a close second. For the aspect ratio, options included are Normal, Full, Zoom, and Wide Zoom, all working with both standard and high-definition sources. Like other TVs, there is a convenient Freeze feature that allows you to snap screen shots when needed.

Points are subtracted for the Sony Bravia KDL-V40XBR1’s connectivity feature, as it only has one HDMI input instead of the 2 ports most HDTVs at its price range have. Among its other compatibility features, the USB port is of note, allowing you to connect a Sony camera to view videos or photos onscreen.

Straight from the box, the Cinema picture presets gives the Sony Bravia KDL-V40XBR1 an obvious red cast, with other presets giving off a blue cast. Twiddling the calibrations a bit can greatly improve the color temperature, leading the picture quality closer to the 6500K standard. Color decoding is definitely Sony’s biggest weakness. Even with calibration, we couldn’t get rid of a nasty red push that caused, say, Caucasian skin tones to appear too red onscreen. The accurate red and blue primaries are a consolation, to say the least. Despite the drawbacks, detail in HD sources appeared fantastic, with the TV acing the 720p multiburst resolution pattern set by our Sencore VP403 signal generator.

Overall, the Sony Bravia KDL-V40XBR1 is still lacking in home theater quality compared to the best plasmas, but it puts on a pretty face that delivers quite an impressive picture for an LCD TV.

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