Sony KDL40W4000 (Sony KDL-40W4000)

Member Name: rdsoftware

Product:	Sony KDL-40W4000
Date:	15/01/09 (268 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: excellent picture and sound, ease of use, now getting very cheap

Disadvantages: Viewing angle,

I spent a couple of years following the development and reading reviews of flat screen TV's before finally deciding to buy the Sony KDL40W4000 in August 2008. The reviews on the various TV and hifi review sites on the internet all rated this model as 5 stars, and were full of superlatives when describing the quality of the picture and the sound. I tend to agree with them, the picture is sharp, detailed and has excellent colour balance and when watching high definition sources can be simply breathtaking in its depth and realism. I rate the sound as excellent for a flat screen TV, obviously it can't compare with a full surround sound system, but for a tv, I can't fault it.

The freeview picture is perfectly acceptable as long as you are a couple of metres away from the screen, any closer and some of the channels can look a bit poor, but that is just down to the quality of the freeview signal and not the TV's fault. One excellent feature of this TV is that for every source (BluRay, Sky, Digital TV) you can set up 3 different picture settings, Vivid, Standard and Cinema. Having been used to a CRT Tv where you set the picture up and then forget about it, this took a little getting used to, but it is actually very useful. Generally I am always in either Standard or Cinema mode. Standard mode if watching during the day or when I'm playing PS3 games when I need the picture to be brighter, and cinema mode when watching on an evening with subdued lighting. it is a touch of a single button on the remote to swap between these modes.

Now, I am overall very pleased with my new TV, but there is one irritating problem with it (which has knocked it from 5 stars to 4). From reading the various forums it appears that this is down to the LCD technology in general rather than a fault with this TV. The problem is the limited viewing angle, particularly when watching in subdued lighting. When sitting directly in from of the TV, the picture is perfect, however if you move a few feet off centre, the colours on one one side of the screen start to wash out/fade a little, making the picture uneven. This effect can be seen just by moving from one end of the sofa to the other, and although it doesn't effect me too much as I tend to sit centrally, if the tv was in a room where it was to be viewed in subdued lighting by several people spread over more than a 30-50 degree angle from the front of the TV I imagine it would be quite an annoyance. It is much less noticeable when watching tv during daylight or in a well lit room but still noticeable at more than a 90 degree angle. I would advise people who view from wide angles to look into Plasma Tv's instead, as they do not suffer from this issue at all.

If you are determined to get an LCD TV rather than a Plasma (as I was) this is definitely a set to put on your short list, and as newer models have been released since this one, it is now (Jan 2009) available for less than £700 from some websites whicih makes it a bargain! (I paid £899 for it in Aug 2008)

Summary: Highly recommended for people who want an LCD TV

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