Sony Bravia V-Series KDL-40V3000 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been buying Sony TVs for more than 30 years, and they rarely disappoint. The 40" Bravia is no exception. Last year I bought the 70" SXRD model for my living room, and the 40" is for the bedroom. Many televisions are high quality and prices are dropping, so why get the Sony?
Picture quality is excellent, especially in high def.
Sound quality is very good without a home theater setup. Not always the case with flat panel TVs with small bezels.
Remote is well laid out and easy to use (although it does lack backlighting, but I have no trouble finding the buttons I want in the dark). It's easy to change between the 4 programmable picture settings or screen aspect ratios. Sleep timer button is right up on top when your ready for bed and is in 15 minute increments.
It has 2 HDMI inputs for easy connection of compatible devices and several other inputs. You can customize the display to choose between only the inputs you are using and label them appropriately (so it's easy to switch between my TiVo, DVD player, TV and cable box, and hide the other inputs)
There's a zillion other settings that I haven't figured out all of yet, but most are relatively intuitive (except PnP, which has me baffled so far).
I got the flat panel LCD because it uses less power and generates less heat than a plasma, and won't burn-in (although plasmas have improved). The screen doesn't reflect as much, and has a wide viewing angle.
For viewing from about 6 feet, the 40" size is perfect.
Lots of other things I could say about this TV, but it's all good. You can't go wrong with this model. Also highly rated in Consumer Reports, the consumer's bible...
Amazon shopping tip: Amazon offers price protection for 30 days from date of purchase. After you buy this, put it in your cart again and check your cart regularly for a month. The price goes up and down almost daily. When you go to your cart you will be notified of price changes. If it goes down, grab the phone and call for a credit. I paid $1630 a couple of weeks ago and the price has gone as low as $1450, so I've gotten $180 in refunds. Delivery and unpacking are free, and combine with excellent customer service, making buying from Amazon a no-brainer.
I'm delighted with Sony and Amazon for this purchase.
update 3/2009: Forget my last comment. Amazon no longer, sadly, offers 30 day price protection on purchases. Advice now is to go to camel camel camel dot com (leave out the spaces). A great site for tracking Amazon price history.

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BRAVIA V-Series televisions are where Full HD 1080 starts. Two sizes, 46" and 40" diagonally, define what Full HD 1080 (1920 x 1080) televisions are all about. Performance functions like Live Color Creation (featuring the WCG-CCFL backlight) and the 10-bit panel display assure picture quality and performance. The BRAVIA Engine EX full digital video processing system includes DRC-MF v1.0 technology, which upconverts 480i video signals to a 1080p equivalent. DMeX ready allows connection to the new DMeX (Digital Module Expander) called the BRAVIA Internet Video Link module. And BRAVIA V-Series TVs are big on ease of operation. BRAVIA Theatre Sync offers one-button command for time consuming control functions and signal path routing. And we didn't forget about connectivity. How about two 1080/24p and 1080/60p input capable HDMI connections, two HD Component YPbPr inputs, and a PC input, just to name a few. Add a sparkling new black picture frame design, quiet operation, and you have BRAVIA V-Series HD LCD TVs.

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Sony BRAVIA Z Series KDL-40Z5100 40-Inch 1080p 240Hz LCD HDTV Review

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(More customer reviews)I received this TV a week ago and I am in love. This TV has the Bravia Engine 3, not 2 like the spec sheet on this page says, so for the money, you are getting a top notch product. SD signals look like crap, because they are crap, its not your TV's fault, its your cable provider, but HD looks amazing. I have not been having any problems with the black levels, as described in other Sony reviews, and the colors are rich and vibrant. Plenty of inputs on this set. I currently have my macbook (watching HULU and other video streams, picture looks great) via DVI to HDMI, a PS3 (which is giving me the true 1080p experience for Blue Ray Discs, which is what I base my color and black observations on) and a HD cable box also taking up another HDMI port. I still have not even used 1/4 of the inputs provided. The cinema mode when watching movies adds a warmth to the picture that gives you a movie theatre experience without the "true white" LCD overexposure.
If you are looking for a GREAT tv at a semi-affordable price forget about Samsung and Panasonic, Sony is where its at for all around value, oh and you don't get that glossy screen which drives me nuts! Sound could be a little fuller, but by no means is it bad. Besides, if you are going to spend the money on a nice set, you might as well get a nice stereo system as well.
PROS- GREAT PICTURE, GOOD VALUE, GREAT COLORS, GOOD MODE SELECTIONS (PICTURE), LOTS OF ADJUSTABLE ITEMS, PLENTY OF INPUTS
CONS- AUDIO SOMEWHAT LOW, 240HZ ADVANTAGES REALLY HAVE YET TO BE SEENS AS THIS ONLY AFFECTS INPUTS THAT THE TV CAN CHANGE OR UPRES (IE CABLE).
ALL IN ALL I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS TV TO ANYONE SHOPPING FOR A NEW FLATSCREEN.


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Enjoy the latest in HDTV performance with the Sony BRAVIA Z-Series, featuring Motionflow 240Hz technology for maximum motion detail and clarity, plus broadband internet connectivity with built-in BRAVIA Internet Video capabilities, that let you view select on-demand movies and TV shows and listen to music and more, and even lets you personalize your entertainment experience by selecting and positioning widgets containing the latest news, weather, sports and more directly on your TV screen.

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Sony 3DBNDL/ALICE 3D Deluxe Starter Kit, Black Review

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(More customer reviews)This kit contains everything you need to make use of the 3D features of a Sony 3D-capable television.
Installation is dead simple: Turn off the TV. Plug the emitter cable into the special jack on the back of the television, attach the emitter itself someplace for maximum room coverage, and you're almost good to go. The manual suggested attaching the emitter in front of the set, attached to the TV base, for those not having the TV mounted on the wall, but we found we got better coverage with it on top of the set.
It's also recommended to use the HDMI cable included in the kit to connect your 3D-capable blu-ray player or PS3 to the television, because it's guaranteed to support 3D data transfer speeds.
One thing I did need to do, since we'd been using our firmware-upgraded Playstation 3 -before- adding the 3D accessories, was to go into the PS3 video settings and set it to recognize the new configuration. Once I did this, 3D options became available on several of the games already on the PS3, and the "Alice" 3D blu-ray was recognized as playable (1st attempt, the PS3 said we didn't have accessible 3D equipment, which was my clue to go check).
Turn on the glasses with the little button under the front right temple hinge, and enjoy.
The 3D experience was pretty awesome, the illusion of depth is undeniable and convincing, and it increases the immersive feel of movies, although it does take some getting used to. Also, for some reason, one of the sets of included shutter glasses fits me well, while the other doesn't. No clue as to why the difference.
Note: This kit only includes two pair of adult-sized glasses. If you have more family members and/or young kids or older youths, you may want to buy more pairs. Get Sonys or the Xpand universal shutter glasses, or they won't work (each manufacturer uses a slightly different standard, not unlike the way a remote control for one TV brand won't work for other brands).
Pros:
- The Sony glasses seemed sturdier and better made than other models (Sony, Samsung, and Panasonic were those I tested and compared at a local Costco), and were among the most comfortable
- Undeniably solid 3D effects with minimal ghosting, mostly caused by me shifting my head around too much because I was eating dinner while watching the movie
- 3D video games are quite amazing (Super Stardust HD was free along with several other downloadable 3D PS3 games as bonus gifts with our Sony Bravia TV -- and it's incredible)
- The simulated 3D was kind of neat, although I can't see using this feature much
Cons:
- The shutter glasses work by blocking your vision in alternating eyes with LCD lenses. Unavoidably, this causes your TV to look dimmer and darker. A way around this is to adjust the TV picture to Vivid, image and backlighting both to Max, Cinemotion OFF (reduces shutter-flicker, especially with the simulated 3D mode), color temperature to Cool. Setting Motion-Flow to Standard also seemed to improve the picture crispness and clarity, although we never use the feature outside of 3D because it looks too weird.
- Obviously if you have only one functioning eye (and thus no actual depth perception), this product is not for you.
- The glasses are a little heavy and can be tiring during a long film, and while they're designed to fit over normal prescription eyeglasses, some folks' eye-wear might be too large.
- There just aren't very many 3D films available yet, although with this year's major manufacturer push to make the home equipment available, this should go up and the prices come down. That said, the prices for the 3D versions of 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' and 'Open Season' (both are animated films) are reasonable. We'll probably see lots of Pixar films released in 3D blu-ray before long, because the re-encoding isn't that difficult for the studios to do. Be careful when shopping for 3D movies, because quite a few of them are the old-style blue-and-red nausea-inducing kind, and not these new shutter-glasses films. Amazon helpfully lists all the genuine new 3D blu-rays on a special page...which, if you go look, is sadly short in length.
Important note: If you are buying this Sony 3D kit in the hope of picking up a copy of "Avatar" in 3D soon, forget it unless you have a lot of disposable income. Panasonic locked in exclusive rights (reportedly for a full year), and right now the only way to get Avatar 3D is to buy their 3D accessory kit or look for other people selling their copy on eBay (and as of Dec 2010, several hundred bucks a copy, which is even more ridiculous). If you do acquire a copy of the disc, it will play on the Sony equipment however, as will any other 3D blu-ray disc.
Another note: If you got this kit along with a new Sony Bravia 3D-ready TV, go through all the papers and inserts that came with it, along with any other new Sony equipment you may have purchased recently. With the new TV, I found the 3D Playstation 3 free games offer, and a bonus from Sony to receive two 3D blu-ray discs (Bolt (yay!) and Michael Jackson (meh)) just for registering the television on their website.
Would I recommend this product to others? Yes.
Why four stars instead of five? Two factors: The current extreme paucity of 3D blu-ray movies available, and the difficulty I've had in getting a really good, comfortable fit with the glasses, although I'm doubtful any of the other models are better.

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Enjoy an incredible, high-quality 3D entertainment experience when you combine this 3D deluxe starter kit with a compatible BRAVIA 3D HDTV. The starter kit includes two pairs of 3D active glasses, a 3D sync transmitter, Disney's Alice in Wonderland 3D Blu-ray Disc, and an HDMI cable.
3D Active Glasses.

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Sony STR-DH810 7.1-channel A/V Receiver with 7 HD Inputs Review

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(More customer reviews)I just received my new Sony STR-DH810 7.1 on Friday afternoon. I already had the previous version, the STR-DH800 set up in the living room. The DH810 I got for the den. It took less than an hour to pull the plugs out of my old Sony (non-HDMI) receiver and set-up the DH810. I would recommend that anyone getting this get a set of banana plugs for the speaker inputs. You "can" get the wires in the "screw-in" connectors, but banana plugs are just so much easier to deal with. I am using all 3 component inputs, 3 of 4 HDMI, Composite and CD, including DVD Coax, and all Optical audio inputs. Everything is very accessible and clearly labeled.
Once I had everything set up, I ran through the Audio/Video set-up manually. The DH810 comes with a mic that allows you to automatically configure your sound system (the receiver does all the work, but I prefer to do the "tweaking" manually. But that's just me. However, that said, after manually setting up my system, I reset the receiver and allowed the included mic to automatically detect and set up my sound system (just to see how it handled the task) and it did a bangin' job! Very easy automated and intuitive set-up.
The initial set-up is a breeze. Hold down the On/Off button on the receiver for 5 seconds until the receiver says CLEAR (which you can do anytime you want to undo any major blunders or just start fresh). Press the speaker button on the receiver until your speaker set-up appears, select your desired input button on the remote, crank up the volume and you have sound! From there, the remote's menu allows you to configure all the tweaks like EQ, Speaker distance, balance, bass, treble, you TVs resolution, etc. I would prefer some kind of TV-On-Screen Menu, but that is not really a big deal to me.
The sound is phenomenal and the DVD upscaling is very cool. I have Avatar on DVD (not blu ray) and the picture upscaled crisp and clear. The sound coming out of the speakers is clean and crisp. My audio CD's, movies, Cable TV, all sound great with the DH810.
I had been putting off buying this until someone gave it a rating, and I finally found a couple on the web that convinced me to give it an "early-adopter" try. Suffice to say, I am NOT DISAPPOINTED! The Price of $285 with no shipping was just a BIG plus too.
I will probably add to my rating later on, but for now, I HEARTILY recommend the STR-DH810 to anyone that has been hankering to upgrade their sound system with an upscaling 1080p A/V Receiver.

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Take your HD surround sound experience to new heights with the STR-DH810 A/V receiver. Offering an abundance of connectivity options (4 HDMI, 3 component), you will have room for all your components including a Blu-ray player, PS3 system, DVD player and more. And with DVD upscaling via HDMI you can watch DVDs in near HD quality. This 7.1-channel receiver has LPCM, Dolby trueHD and dts-HD decoding technologies for audio that is true to the original master recording. The STR-DH810 features wireless 2nd zone audio capabilities, which allows you transmit wireless audio in up to 10 additional rooms via optional S-AIR accessories. Additional features include Audio Return Channel which eliminates the need for extra cables connected to your TV, and standby pass-through that lets you access all of your HDMI connected devices without having to power on the receiver.

Get 38% OFF

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