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Reviewed by UK Guest, 12th Jan 2007. |
| Review Summary: Staggering |
Overall Score: 5/5
 
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Review: We treated ourselves to one of these 46" Sony Bravia KDL46X2000U HD TVs after Christmas, to replace an ageing 32" CRT.
Connecting it up was pleasantly simple. Two new HDMI devices (Sky HD and a DVD player), worked perfectlythough we haven't yet worked out how to connect our (previous generation Sony) HD Recorder to it properly via SCART. There's a helpline number provided with the set which we'll get round to calling sooner or later.
As with most flatscreens, you have to adjust the default settings to get the best picture. We used a THX setup feature (available on most THX-coded DVDs) to adjust the picture settings. The colour capability is astonishing. THX uses 4 slightly different white patches to help you set the contrast - the Bravia could separate them across the whoile rangeo contrast levels.
The first thing that strikes you when watching is just how large it is. We have enough room that we can sit over 3m from the TV, but it still shocks you at first when a close-up is delivered at greater than life size. Make sure you have space to do it justice...
Once you've acclimatised to that, you sit and stare at the detail it's able to resolve. Even from ordinary TV broadcasts, it lets you see individual hairs on people's heads, and gives a real sense of depth to the picture. Sky HD broadcasts are even more stunning; you can almost feel the texture of whatever you're watching.
It's also a very good TV receiver. Our television reception is dire (I had to chain two aerial boosters to watch terrestrial with the old telly) but the Sony's freeview digital pictures are noticeably better than regular Sky (though SKY HD tops them both, as you might expect). Even the analogue signal is watchable.
There's a workable menu system and a classy remote, and the sound is good enough that we only feel the need to use our home cinema setup for movies and live sports.
Oh, and it's got full 1080p capability, so it will keep up with the eventual winner of the BluRay / HD-DVD showdown. You won't need to upgrade for a long time.
What does it lack? They could have built in an HD recorder. Given that it has a timer function (so you can set it to pipe the right picture to an external recorder), it would have been fairly cheap to include and a nice touch.
And it can't solve Sky's dodgy signal and rather cheeky revelation that you need two aerial feeds to make Sky+ (and by extension Sky HD) work properly. But that's not the Sony's problem.
But overall, it thoroughly deserves 5 stars. I expected a lot and have not been disappointed. |
Ratings
| Value For Money: |
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5 |
| Review Score: |
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5 |
| Recommended? | |
Yes |
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DVD, TV & Video