40 inches of pure pleasure! (Sony KDL-40W4000)

Member Name: Craggybuk

Product:	Sony KDL-40W4000
Date:	23/07/09 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superby picture quality . Crystal clear HD, plenty of inputs

Disadvantages: Pricey if you don't shop around

--Background --

The 40W4100 had won many awards so we decided to take the plunge and buy it as our first LCD tv. After many trips to local electrical stores and hours of research on the net, it became aparrent that this tv was a step above the rest and although the price was also a great deal higher, we decided to go for it. However, I smelt a bargain. This tv was being advertised anywhere between £850 and £1000 at most places. During my research I came across a place in Coventry, not far from us who were selling the tv for an attractive £683. I was a bit sceptical about why this relatively small company could be so cheap compared to everywhere else. Off I went to the Sony Centre, armed with my printout in the hope they would price match for me. Alas, the Sony Centre told me this other company were selling, in effect factory seconds and they would not match the price. Next on my list of companies was (the late) Empire Direct. I had more luck here and they agreed to match the price for me. I struck the deal there and then and was told my tv would take about 3 weeks to arrive. Of course, I was like a child waiting for Christmas as the days passed. By the 2 week stage, I couldn't wait any longer and was constantly on the phone to Empire to see if it had come in yet. With hindsight, this is probably one of the best things I have ever done, as just 3 days after I finally picked my TV up, Empire, sadly went into administration leaving thousands of customers without their goods and significantly out of pocket.
-- TV Setup --

I gleefully unpacked my new baby, covering the floor in small polystyrene balls in the process but I didnt care, I had the bargain of the century and I wanted to use it as quickly as possible. The only 'diy' that was required was to fix the stand to the TV which was a 5 minute job once I had finally got my head around what the diagram was actually telling me to do. Why they cant just explain it in words is beyond me!!
The initial setup of the tv is simple enough. Just choose your region and sit back and let it find all anologue and digital channels in your area. I would recommend taking a bit of time to tweak the picture and sound settings to get them exactly how you want them, for example, change the colour, brightness, colour temperature, etc as this will make a difference to your viewing pleasure depending on the light in your room and the position of the tv. The presets are adequate but can be improved on with a little tinkering.

--Useage--
Those of you who use Sonys PSP or PS3 consoles will be familiar with the tv's menu system as it has been adapted from these consoles. Being an Xbox fan, I cant really comment but with the in build Bravia Sync, you are supposed to be able to control all new Sony equipment (the tv, PSP and the Sony Blu Ray player with the one remote). The menu system is very intuitive and can be navigated with ease without much reading from the manual. A neat feature of this tv is the light sensor. If turned on, the brightness of the picture will dim in low light and get brigher in bright light. This is an attempt to reduce eye strain and first impressions are that it works quite well although it is a little bit strange to get used to initially. The tv also comes with a USB interface which allows you to view pictures from your pc or digital camera without the need for additonal wires. This is a nice to have feature rather than an actual selling point in my opinion, I would have liked the pictures to have take full advantage of the 1920 x 1080 resolution but, thinking about it logicaly, it will only show photos to the resolution in which they were taken, leaving blackspace to either side of the photo. Another gimmick that I like is the fact that you can watch 2 inputs at the same time. One of these inputs has to be either the analogue or built in Freeview digital tv but the other can be any of the external sources you have connected (scart, HDMI , etc). Only one of these screens will transmit the sound but its a nice feature if you want to watch something on tv and play video games for example at the same time.

There are plenty of input sources on this tv, as well as the standard tv antenna, you have the choice of 2 scart sockets (on the back of the tv), 3 HDMI (2 on the back, 1 on the side), component sockets (for older video cameras, etc) and a VGA PC socket if you want to show off and run your PC on a 40 inch screen.
The quality of this tv is immense, my inlaws have to 40V4000 and the 10 bit colour on the W series is a lot truer than the V. In simple terms, the natural colour of peoples faces on the W series is more authentic than the V. If you are lucky enough to have a HD box (Sky or V+, Blu Ray or one of the latest games consoles) then this tv really comes into its own. Initially I played the Xbox via the component cable which gave me nice crisp colours but as soon as I linked it up via a HDMI cable it just blows away anything I've seen before. The colours are so vivid, its one of those moments you just sit there smiling like a small kid.

Certain LCD tvs have had problems in the past with sound quality (Samsung for example putting their speakers on the underside of the TV). The sound on the Sony though is beautiful, even via a scart cable and obviously even better when listening via the HD cable.

-- Conclusion --

All in all, this tv does not come cheap but the quality speaks for itself. There are tv's on the market that are a lot cheaper but the quality of the picture is not as sharp. These other tv's will be adequate for most people but if you can get the 40w4000 at the right price then I would have no problem in recommending it to you. a lot of companies are also offering this tv with 5 year guarantees too. Although this sounds good, it is worth checking what is included in the extra years as it may not be as appealing as it seems. Saying that, if the extra 5 years are free, you aren't going to be losing out.
Thank you for taking the time to read me review. Please feel free to read and rate my other reviews.

Summary: Superb TV - definite buy

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