Electronics Stores

Customer Reviews:
Very, very good - but there are better choices
In the past six months, I’ve been fortunate enough to purchase two flat-screen TVs for different parts of my home, and one is the Sony XBR5 LCD TV. I find the picture and sound quality very good, especially on HD sources such as 1080p Blu-Ray. The HDMI and other connections work flawlessly. The controls are well done with easy-to-navigate menus, and all the technology Sony describes adds up to a really good product. Side by side against Samsung or other LCD competitors, I think Sony clearly has the best product.

I would leave it at that, however, the truth is that as good as the Sony is, it doesn’t hold a candle to the other TV I recently bought - a 50″ Pioneer 1080p plasma. While plasma may seem to be yesterday’s technology, I had a tight space that the Pioneer 5010HD fit perfectly, and so I went with it. Now, after several months of watching the plasma versus the Sony, I can honestly say that the LCD technology in the Sony has a long way to go before it catches the Pioneer’s picture quality. Indeed, after watching the plasma for any length of time, going back to the LCD is a bit of a let-down…by comparison, the Sony is harsh and grainy, with much poorer black levels and much less of a “film like” experience.

Yes, I give the Sony high marks for what it is - but I’d encourage anyone reading this review to take a long hard look at a similar sized high-end plasma unit before committing to the Sony.

Better Than Expected
I have been waiting for 2 years to join the flat panel, high def TV crowd. The thing that always stopped me was price, quality of standard def on a fixed pixel TV, and the number of high def stations to actually watch. Prices have come down and the number of high def stations has gone up so picture quality was left.

After researching it as much as I could, I got this TV. The floating glass perimeter with piano black surround looks sharp; I think much better than the XBR4.

On to picture quality: high def is fantastic as you would expect but standard def looks as good or better as a regular tube TV. It says in the owners manual that the picture is as good as the input. I have a satellite digial signal and get the results I describe. If you have cable or over the air then you may get different results.

Another thing I will mention is the remote has easy to use buttons on it to adjust the picture settings as well as the size. This means you can change the settings to the default picture settings for cinema, for example, which tweaks alot of calibrations on color, motion, etc. You also can easily toggle thru the picture sizes to stretch or unstretch the picture. I find the longer I have the TV the less I use these because I have found the ones I like best but it is nice to know they can be easily adjusted if desired.

Finally, I also got a Toshiba upscaling DVD player/recorder for about $130. It says it upscales DVD’s to 1080p and they do look fantastic. I may have to hook up a regular DVD player to see if there really is a difference but overall this TV has worked out great for my situation.

Good deal, fantastic picture quality, beautiful set.
This was a terrific buy. The price has dropped considerably at local stores, but the best deal was from Van’s with free shipping. We was able to track delivery all the way, and it came in a day early. It arrived in perfect shape and the driver even helped me bring it into my living room. I had to offer him a tip at least three times before he’d accept it.

We almost didn’t spend this much money on a flat screen based on what I looked at in the Best Buy showroom. This one is worth it. We have a brightly lit family room during the day, and it doesn’t get washed out at all. When we first tuned in to an HD channel our jaws dropped. HD channels are amazing and there’s enough of them now that we spend most of our time watching only HD programming. We have an older DVD player, but movie rentals and home movies look great. With the 16:9 aspect ratio it feels like we’re really watching a movie compared to just watching a movie on TV. There are a few artifacts and some of the older TV shows are blurry, but about 95% of what we watch is excellent. FIOS should fix these minor problems.

Setup was easy, about 30 minutes. To setup the TV you’ll want to connect your cable directly to the TV first, then connect it to your DVD player and the HD box you get from the cable company.

We’ve been able to watch an HD movie from my new laptop that came with an HDMI output. We’ve also been able to work on the laptop hooked up to the LCD TV using a wireless mouse and keyboard from the couch. At 1920 x 1080 pixels, I had to increase the font size in the browser but I was off surfing in no time.

The style of the TV is beautiful. We placed it in a Stanley Furniture Lincoln Park Plasma TV Bookcase and the combination is stunning. We bought the bracket to mount it, but when we set the TV in the bookcase on it’s own pedestal it was just fine. We love every aspect of it.

Not perfect, but there is no better LCD in the market
I owned the KDL-46XBR3 for a year, then I had an unexpected opportunity to replace it with the KDL-46XBR5.

If I thought that the XBR3 picture was amazing, the XBR5 is even better, much better. Movies get unprecedented realism, almost 3D. It is a visual experience I never had with any TV I ever watched.

Of course, a few analog channels look bad when stretched to 46″, but that is true for anyone upgrading from a 27″ low-def tube to an HD big fixed-pixel screen.

The XBR3’s menu was easier to use than the fancy XMB in the XBR5, and both sets have big but basic remotes which are not good for anything other than controlling the TV itself. No buttons for even cable box’s info, guide, page up/down etc.

And yes, its design is a stunner on the wall, when turned off.

Don’t forget to read the reviews for KDL-46XBR4, it is the same TV.

HD Heaven
Our old 27″ Panasonic finally gave up the ghost just before Xmas. After reading as many internet reviews as possible, I decided to take the plunge and purchase the pricey Sony KDL46XBR5. You know you have made the right decision when the installer is jealous of your set. Great picture, great sound, great televison. This is the standard by which all LCD’s are judged. I just wish there was more HD programming available. Saving up for my Blu-Ray player now.Sony KDL46XBR5 46″ BRAVIA XBR(R) series LCD Flat Panel HDTV