Looks great even when it's turned off! (Sony KDL-40D3500)

Member Name: fubaringly

Product:	Sony KDL-40D3500
Date:	28/06/08 (441 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Picture, sound, high def quality

Disadvantages: Makes standard definition hard to watch in comparison

I've been resisting a new TV for years now but my hand was forced when the old one gave up the ghost. After a bit if research I plumped for a Sony KDL 40D3500.
The first thing to say it that I think this TV looks great, that was probably why I ended up with it in my house. It 's a classy number, understated and very well built.

Picture
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The 40D3500 is full high def. 1920 x 1080 resolution, which makes Sky digital look great and sky and BBC HD look amazing. I don't have a PS3 but a mate brought his round to see the picture quality. This TV makes the most of the top end 1080p output by the PS3 and it shows the PS3 output as it is meant to be seen.

I've also checked out some blu-ray DVDs and those looked fantastic as well. It may be partly due to some fancy stuff the TV can do; '24p True Cinema' allows a film to be seen in the original 24 frames per second format (the fps they are filmed at) and 'Theatre Mode' that automatically adjusts the colour, contrast and brightness to the idea settings for a particular film.

Switching back from Blu-ray or BBC HD to standard definition is a disappointment, this is not because the SD display is poor but just because the HD is so good.

Sound
~~~~~
The sound equaled the picture in my opinion. Both with surround turned on and in standard mode. The TV offers "S Force Front Surround" Sony's version of virtual surround sound, this works great for me as I don't have speakers dotted around the front room.

Operating
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The D3500 is as easy to set up and use as any LCD TV, it took about 15 minutes to plug in all the HD and scart sockets and the auto tuning with the built in freeview tuner took about 2 minutes.
The TV has two scart and two HDMI sockets.

This LCD TV is available online for as little as £600 in some places and I think it is amazing the picture and build quality you can get for that amount of money!

If your looking to spend around that much on a TV, check out the D3500 from Sony before you make your decision!

Summary: Love it!

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