There was a time when it was easy to keep track of Sony’s LCD TV ranges, because there were only two of them. Arriving late to the LCD party after abandoning attempts to produce its own flat panel technology, Sony famously partnered with the LCD experts at Samsung in order to get back up to speed. The resulting BRAVIA range has been a huge success, and there’s now almost too many series and model variations to count.
The V-Series has actually been around since the beginning of BRAVIA in 2005, and has traditionally taken its place in the comfortable mid-range spot (the first V-Series BRAVIAs were featured prominently in the company’s original memorable adverts). Although specifications have changed in order to move with the times, the same would appear to hold true today: the Sony KDL40V4000 features the now ubiquitous 1920x1080p LCD panel, but doesn’t feature a 100hz system or some of Sony’s fancier video processing or convenience features. Does this no-nonsense 40″ HDTV display do what it sets out to do well? Read on.
Update 25 February 2010: The latest incarnation of the V4000 range is the EX403 series in Sony’s 2010 ESSENTIAL range of Bravia LCD televisions, for example the 32″ Sony KDL32EX403.
Design
Like all but their most affordable displays, the KDL40V4000’s design is unmistakably Sony. Resembling a slightly less prestigious W4000 series, the company’s “Draw the LINE” design concept is in effect, visible as an indentation between the area below the screen and the dotted speaker grille. The indentation here is covered in gloss black plastic rather than the glass-like perspex of the W-Series model, but the result is still appealing, despite the inclusion of a glossy finish (which can be distracting and reflective in certain rooms).
The back of the chassis features recessed handgrips, which eased the process of unboxing the LCD HDTV, fitting it onto its stand, and finally placing it into position.
Connections
A single back panel houses two HDMI inputs (there’s a third on the side), a set of Component video and stereo audio inputs, two SCART terminals (which can each accept RGB, Composite, and on the second input, also S-Video), an aerial input, and a VGA/PC input. In addition to the third HDMI input, the recessed side panel also features a Composite video input and accompanying stereo audio jacks. In common with several other recent European HDTVs, there is no traditional S-Video jack, but we can’t imagine anyone really missing it. If you have S-Video equipment that you absolutely must use, you can do so by feeding it through the S-Video compatible SCART terminal with an adapter.
At the time of writing, this array of connections should leave almost nobody out in the cold.
Operation
On-screen User Menu
Unlike older Sony displays which have featured the blue and yellow “WEGA GATE” style menu, the Sony KDL40V4000 instead features elegant menus which resemble a slightly cut-down version of the premium “Xross Media Bar” design, which incidentally leaves out the Xross Media Bar in favour of a standard list. Whilst accessing menus, the entire screen is covered in transparent blue. Upon making a picture adjustment, the transparent blue gives way to reveal the TV picture below, allowing the user to see the effects of the change.
The top-level adjustment is the [Picture Mode], which can be set to either [Vivid], [Standard], or [Cinema]. The former two present a bright, blue-tinted, sharpened image, whilst the latter is more subdued and as such, was the basis for our evaluation and further tweaking.
From here, control is given over all the standard adjustments, including the important control over the Backlight. There’s also a traditional [Noise Reduction] control, which combines both temporal and spatial NR methods to clean up pictures, and an [MPEG Noise Reduction] mode which was surprisingly useful for Digital TV broadcasts.
The [Advanced Settings] menu is much less crowded than on other BRAVIA TVs, but this is no loss because most of these features were best left off, anyway. All that remains here are the [Advanced Contrast Enhancer] and the [Live Colour] controls, both of which we disabled.
There are picture-altering settings scattered around the other menus, too. The [Features] menu includes a [Power Saving] function which decreases the backlight brightness further, and a [Film Mode] option which can be set to either detect and compensate for film cadences (“Auto”) or force video deinterlacing mode (“Off”). Meanwhile, [Set-up] > [Screen Settings] houses control over the amount of Overscan applied to the picture (the setting is called [Display Area]). When the Sony KDL40V4000 LCD HDTV is fed a 1080i or 1080p source, this control lets you enable the 1:1 mapping mode (Sony call this [Full Pixel]).
Even although the “Warm2” greyscale preset isn’t too offensively jaundiced, it’s disappointing that Sony do not provide a user accessible greyscale adjustment (or a colour management system) to allow easy refinement of these features.
EPG (Electronic Programme Guide)
Sony’s EPG design does not appear to have undergone any radical changes since the previous models, but this isn’t a problem, because it’s easy on the eyes, suitably responsive, and easy to use. The information banner is nice and small, and appears momentarily at the top of the screen after changing channels.
Remote Control
 |
We’re delighted to see that after losing their way slightly a few years ago, Sony have began reintroducing thin, sleek remote control designs to the BRAVIA range: the black and silver remote looks and feels gorgeous. It has a grooved back and a recessed grip for easy handling, the buttons are laid out logically, and certain locations on the remote feature a tactile dot, making it a breeze to quickly learn and use. The remote control design also makes extensive use of icons, which adds extra appeal over designs which clutter remotes up with cryptic abbreviations.
Calibration
Greyscale
 |
| [Colour Temp] “Warm 2” CCT |
|
|
| [Colour Temp] “Warm 2” RGB Tracking |
As is often the case, the “Warm2” colour temperature preset gave the most accurate greyscale reproduction. Red remained too high consistently, with blue too high particularly in the lower tones. The end result is surprisingly non-offensive to a pair of eyes which is used to calibrated displays, but all the same, we have to ask why there’s no user-accessible option to refine this further.
If you have the nerves for it (and/or a “procured” copy of the engineer’s manual), then the Service Menu reportedly allows for Greyscale calibration, but this isn’t for the faint of heart.
Colour
|
|
| CIE chart with reference to HD Rec. 709 |
Colour accuracy was decent on the KDL40V4000. There were no dramatic shifts in hue, but Green, as usual, was the worst-affected colour. None of these slight inaccuracies proved to be distracting. Again, there’s no Colour Management System to further fine-tune the colour reproduction.
Benchmark Test Results
| Dead pixels | None |
| Screen uniformity | Excellent |
| Overscanning on HDMI | 0% with [Display Area] set to “Full Pixel“ |
| Blacker than black | Passed |
| Black level | Excellent |
| Black level retention | Stable if [Adv Contrast Enhancer] off |
| Primary chromaticity | Good with [Colour Space] “Standard“ |
| Scaling | Good |
| Video mode deinterlacing | Average; limited jaggies reduction |
| Film mode deinterlacing | Poor; Failed 3:2/ 2:2 cadences in 480i/ 576i |
| Viewing angle | Good for an LCD TV (90°) |
| Motion resolution | 250-300 |
| Digital noise reduction | Acceptable at baseline |
| Sharpness | Undefeatable edge enhancement on 1080i/1080p |
| 1080p/24 capability (PS3) | Accepts 1080p/24 video signal; no telecine judder |
| Input lag | 0-10ms, very little |
Power Consumption
| Default | 235 watts [“Shop”], 196 watts [“Home”] * |
| Calibrated | 88 watts |
| Standby | 1 watt |
* the KDL40V4000 asks the user to choose the “Shop” or “Home” setting upon first power-up. These apply the either the [Vivid] or [Standard] picture mode respectively.
Black Level
The blacks produced by the Sony KDL40V4000 are gorgeous. Of course, they’re not about to beat the lastest Pioneer KURO plasmas, but they are nevertheless an example of just how far LCD technology has come. Post-calibration black level measured 0.05cd/m2, an impressively low figure which was achieved by lowering the backlight setting to 2 and enabling “Reduced Power” mode under the [Features] menu. At the other end of the brightness scale (100 IRE – that’s full white), brightness was still 118.96cd/m2, so peak luminance was not sacrificed in order to bring this impressive result. This was the closest we could come to our desired 103cd/m2 with the Backlight control alone, but we met our target by lowering the contrast slightly.
Detail & Resolution
Over HDMI, and with the [Full Pixel] mode turned on, the Sony KDL40V4000 successfully resolved each nuance of the horizontal and vertical 1920×1080 line patterns.
Motion Resolution
Chapter 31 of our handy FPD Benchmark Blu-ray Disc revealed that the Sony KDL40V4000’s motion resolution was around 250-300 lines, in other words, completely within our expectations for an LCD TV without a 100hz system. Very subtle green trails were visible in some areas, but these were not visible during real-world content and were far less distracting than the green phosphor trails exhibited on certain Plasma displays.
Video Processing
The Sony KDL40V4000’s standard-def video processing is average. At first, we were about to say that this television featured the worst standard definition scaling (upconversion) we’d ever seen, but fortunately, this turned out to be a bug. An explanation: when the TV is fed with 480i, 480p, 576i, or 576p video, and Sharpness is set to “Minimum”, the TV actually applies the maximum amount of sharpening, resulting in a very poor quality picture with a huge amount of ringing.
Stepping [Sharpness] up to 1 completely removes this ugly look, leaving us with a slightly soft, but beautifully clean picture. Compensating for the softness with just a little bit of the [Sharpness] setting resulted in pleasing SD scaling – what a relief! Just in case it wasn’t clear, we’ll repeat: if you use any sort of standard-definition video device with this TV connected via HDMI, be sure the Sharpness setting is set to 1 instead of “Min”! This bug does not extend to the built-in Freeview tuner, nor the other video inputs, which probably explains why it’s snuck through.
With this behind us, we moved on to the Silicon Optix HQV Diagonal Filtering test, being piped in from a DVD player outputting 576i over HDMI. This tests how effectively the television’s video processor can reduce the appearance of jaggies, which result from Interlaced material. Here, the Sony KDL40V4000 failed the test, producing jagged edges at almost all angles, suggesting that no Directional Interpolation is being used at all. How much or not this will matter in the real world, though, is debatable, as the majority of sources don’t feature enough detail to really highlight this shortcoming.
The Film Cadence tests fared just as poorly, with the PAL (2:2) cadence failing, and the NTSC (3:2) cadence and Detail Test being a hit and miss affair. As a result of this rather uninspiring performance, the old adage of bringing your own video processing, in the form of a high quality upconverting DVD player (or video processor), is more true than ever. That won’t save TV broadcasts viewed on the Sony KDL40V4000’s built-in Digital TV tuner, though, but to be fair, these broadcasts have so many other inherent problems anyway, so a lack of cadence detection or diagonal interpolation may mean little for some viewers.
Picture Quality
High Definition (Blu-ray)
For testing the 1080p performance of the Sony KDL40V4000 LCD television, I picked out Resident Evil: Extinction, a video transfer which looks beautiful from start to finish (yes, even during the scenes of zombie splattering). The superb contrast being offered by the LCD panel rendered a dark scene near the end in a particularly stunning fashion. On other displays, particularly those that share the same S-PVA panel type (which can suffer from response time issues when not carefully implemented), the shadows around Milla Jovovich drag and blend into her face noticeably as she walks around, but the effect was absolutely minimal here.
Camera pans were also smooth and judder-free, as the 24p input signal was handled and displayed correctly. Lastly, the film’s natural grain texture was reproduced beautifully without any behind-your-back processing. All of this meant that the film looked like a film, rather than a very well shot amateur video, as is the case on some displays.
The small amount of non-defeatable edge enhancement introduced by the video processor did not visibly harm the picture for video content, but all the same, we’d really rather it wasn’t here, because there is no need for it on a 1080p HD signal. It is noticeable when using a PC with the display, however.
Standard Definition (Freeview Digital TV)
The current Beijing Olympic Games on BBC One provided fantastic test material for the Sony KDL40V4000’s digital TV performance. Even at this channel’s fixed bit rate of 6mbps, we weren’t sure whether or not we were supposed to be watching atheletes or compression blocks, but of course, this is the fault of the source, and not the television. Engaging the [MPEG Noise Reduction] feature was effective in reducing the obvious compression grid structure without killing detail, and sitting back further of course helped make things much more tolerable.
Console Gaming
With my Xbox 360 away for costly repairs (again), I instead used downloaded Playstation 3 game demos to test HD gaming performance (I use the system as a Blu-ray player and don’t actually own any games for it). I could detect no input lag at all, and input lag tests confirmed that there was between 0ms and 10ms present. This is an excellent result, and as such, the Sony KDL40V4000 should present no gaming problems at all.
Conclusion
Pros
- SPVA panel and Backlight control allow for deep black level
- Exquisite high-definition detail from “Full Pixel” 1:1 pixel mapping
- Handles 1080p/24 video signal correctly without telecine judder
- Scaling of standard-def input is clean, without ringing
- Solid connectivity
- Settings can be saved independently per input
- Speedy and responsive EPG and channel navigation
- Table-top stand swivels and easy to set up
- Colour accuracy is relatively good
- TV menus and fast, and remote is easy to use
- Panel uniformity (in our test sample) was excellent, with almost no clouding/unevenness
Cons
- No white balance control in user menu for greyscale calibration
- Motion resolution not as good as on HDTVs equipped with MCFI/100Hz technology
- Fails to apply 3:2/2:2 pulldown compensation to 480i/576i film-based content even with [Film Mode] set to “Auto”
- Doesn’t smooth jaggies from Interlaced content effectively
- Small amount of non-defeatable edge enhancement visible on 1080i/1080p input, which is unnecessary
Summary
The Sony KDL40V4000 is an aesthetically pleasing, affordable HDTV which puts out a very pleasing image, due largely in part to its fantastic calibrated black level. Colours are relatively accurate, and although it wasn’t possible to fully calibrate the display, the “Warm2” greyscale preset will still please many. Gaming, too, was fantastic fun, thanks to the almost non-existent input lag.
A very slight forced sharpening of 1920×1080 feeds, underwhelming standard-def video processing, and a lack of user-accessible Greyscale control were a touch disappointing, but at the end of the day, the Sony KDL40V4000 ticks the most important boxes for High-Def users. It doesn’t redefine what we’ll all expect from a mid-range display, but on the whole it’s a solid, good-looking, affordable choice.
Thanks David for a really fast review of the Sony KDL-40V4000!
Although I have 1 question to ask you.
“Fails to apply 3:2/2:2 pulldown to 480i/576i film-based content even with [Film Mode] set to “Auto” ”
The 40W4000 series reviewed by Vincent 2 months ago had the same problem, but it did detect 1080i contect pulldown. My question to you is, does the 40V4000 also detect 1080i correctly with the Film Mode on, becuase I can’t see this writin in your review.
Thanks in advance!
angle of vision?
Is the black black increasing the angle of vision?The back illumination goes out out?
is the 40v4000 better than 40v3000 ?
@ David Mackenzie
As always, a great review…;-)
I have a question for you… The new Sony Bravia W4500 got, instead of the W4000, 100Hz. functionality.
Do you think the W4500 picture quality is on par with the X3500, or maybe even better?
I want a new HD TV with 100Hz, 24p and high contrast, but the price must be affordable. The X series are awsome, but to expensive for me.
I appreciate it if you can answer my question.
Greetings from Holland!
Interesting review. Just bought a 40V4000 and impressed with HD but SD not so great (as expected). The older reviews had a settings section. Any chance of the same for this set?
Any hints to what contrast, brightness and other menu settings that are optimal in a dark room would be appreciated.
I have just bought a Sony KDL40V4000. Picture is great but when watching a video and pausing it or during quiet moments I can hear audio from the freeview channel that is selected. I am just using the tv speakers.
Anyone know whether this is likely to be a fault or just my set up..i.e. wrong audio settings. I suspect it is faulty.
Nice review David!
Is it possible for you, to see a review of the Sharp LC32XL8E (landed here this month august) sample soon?
You would do me (and other who plan to buy this telly) a great favour! :)
My best regards,
Tom
@Mike:
Regrettably, I’ve not had a chance to check 1080i, but will do so in the future. Are you curious to know because you have a 1080i/60 source, like an HD DVD player, or a 1080i/50 source like Sky Movies HD?
@GANGSTERKILLER:
It’s hard to say if the W4500 will look similar to the X3500 (especially at this stage!) With 1080p signals, we believe that a TV should really just reproduce the picture accurately. Many of the X-Series enhancements are in subjectively altering video (mainly standard def), which may or may not be a good thing. It’s too early to say.
@S Duvall:
I didn’t detect this in my review, but have heard this before on certain TVs (mainly older CRTs, incidentally). I’d suggest contacting Sony.
@Tom:
We’ll see!
Great review, thanks!
I’m planning on buying a HDTV For a PS3 im buying soon as i don’t already have one! This seems to tick all the right boxes and seems to be a good price (im on a tight budget but this seems like it might just be affordable) as i’m looking for a Sony that would run Blu-ray and PS3 games well. Seeming This would be the T.V of the house it would be preferable if the built-in Freeview had OK picture seeming i won’t have Sky HD or Freesat HD. Even in Standard definition, is the Freeview picture bearable? Also, Is this a good T.V for gaming?
Thanks again, Will
Those of you who have used the V4000 with a PC, how offensive is the forced sharpening? I assume it’s something you won’t notice in games or movies but perhaps on the desktop?
@S Duvall:
Regarding your problem, Sony actually suggested to me that the cause could be a poor quality SCART cable causing crosstalk. I hear of SCART causing such problems often, so avoid using it whenever possible.
@Kasakka:
Not sure if you want another person’s take, but I’d agree with what you posted. The sharpening will only be visible on the finest details, like your PC desktop. For actual videos and games, you’re unlikely to see it.
I am considering the KDL40V4000 and the KDL40W4000.
It will be the principal tv in the house and be linked to a PS3 for gaming & blu-ray discs and also Sky HD etc. There is no cinema sound system.
The latter is £200 more expensive – my question is whether the extra cost will bring any significant, noticable benefits to the average viewer like me?
Thanks.
@Kieran Brooks:
From what I’ve seen of the W4000 (a few of my friends have ’em), it’s a very nice TV. However, it seems that the V4000 doesn’t have that significant drawbacks to warrant the price difference. If you don’t have a proper sound system yet, you would probably have a better experience getting the V4000 and spending the savings on a better sound system. The built-in speakers on the W4000 (probably the same on the V4000) aren’t that great.
I’ve just bought a Sony 40V4000 and hooked it up to my PS3 via HDMI.
I soon noticed however that the screen was flickering when going through the Playstation menus and changing from light to dark. However, this wasn’t happening in-game or while watching Blu-rays or DVDs.
After messing with the settings I solved the problem by changing the ‘full RGB range’ to ‘off’. Does this mean that this TV isn’t capable of displaying the full RGB range? and what does that mean????
Stuart: what you’re seeing is the Adv. Contrast Enhancer feature. Set the Picture Mode to Cinema for better results.
@stuart. Yes this TV is not capeable of displaying full RGB range. Full RGB mode is mostly used with PC monitors.
thanks for the advice
stu
Do anybody have problem to connect wii useing compotent cable? Virtual Console games flickers and looks very bad. Tv is 46v4000, My 32s2000 works perfect with wii and component cable
@kasakka
Thanks for the advice. Noted ref a sound system however I am pushing it with the tv & ps3 so trying to get approval for even more kit from the ‘finance committee’ (!) might be stretching my luck! The deal is either the W4000 & ps3 40Gb for £1100 or the V4000 & a sony blu player for £700. I might hold out until early Sept for the anticipated ps3 bundle which would be an 80Gb version which also includes 2 x dual shock controllers plus GT5 for £300…………..but this would leave me with effectively a second blu ray player to find a home for………
I have seen them both and the 10-bit panel on the W4000 does seem to give the colour more depth and vibrancy but will I really notice the difference outside the shop when I won’t see the two sets side by side?
Having typed this out I am now leaning towards the V4000 I think!
Thoughts?
How good is the picture quality for watching standard Sky Digital channels ie.not HD but through the HD box?
And can the sky remote be programmed to control the TV?
Thanks.
Sorry I forgot to add in the last comment, this TV is not 100hz what advantage does a 100hz TV have and what is comprimised.
Also what frequency is this TV?
Thanks again.
And I would just like to say this is a fantastic review.
What do think: Should I buy the 40v4000 OR the 40v3000?
I can not understand, but in Germany they have the same
price for each TV! But of course the V4000 is the newer one!
Is the W4000 better than the V3000???
Hmm, are you sure it doesn’t have full RGB range? My cheapy Matsui 32″ that’s about to be replaced supports that, surprisingly.
can the sky remote be programmed to control the tv
thanks
I have recently purchased this TV and it would appear that the sharpness bug is no longer present (at least on my set).
Ignore above, I just didn’t read the review properly since I was testing it with hd signals only, the sharpness bug is still present with sd for the moment. However the “non-defeatable edge enhancement visible on 1080i/1080p” which was another issue I was concerned with is nothing to worry about (doesn’t bother me on my mythtv pc even on fine desktop details).
Can the inability to apply 3:2/2:2 pulldown, cause juddering,when watching SD material or how does it show exactly?
Hi!
Thanks for the great review!! Could you please post your calibrated settings in this review or email them?? Haven’t found any calibrated settings from the internet:/ Thanks!
Great review, I have the following questions.
“Film mode deinterlacing Poor; Failed 3:2/ 2:2 cadences in 480i/ 576i”
Will these problems be eliminated by using the progressive scan DVD player connected via Component that I already own. I assume the upscaling in the PS3 over HDMI would also be a suitable solution? Lastly are upscaling freeview PVRs likely to be affected by this?
Great review – it made up my mind!
The wife wanted a 32″ TV so I started out at 46″ and me met at 40″. Nice.
I would also like to see the calibrations you used please.
Best
Iain
Sam: If you have a device which does its own Upscaling, it will also do its own Deinterlacing, bypassing the TV’s. So, the fact that the TV doesn’t get the cadence detection right is irrelevant in these cases. (However, that doesn’t mean that the other device is getting it correct, either!)
Eetu and others: when a TV is calibrated, it’s fine-tuned to the requirements of the specific LCD panel, and the other devices being used with it. So, it’s not a case of simply keying in the right numbers from a web site. Although any numbers we’d supply (such as the ones in the screen shots in the view) would be an improvement, please don’t think that this is a calibration. A calibration is specific to your display only.
My KDL-40V4000 is just 1 week old and have a line of dead pixels. Back to store tomorrow to replace. Lets hope replacement is better. Is this a common fault?
Hi,
Great review, i’m planning to get a 40v4000soon, and i’d like to know (and i m not alone) the detailed settings you applied during the test.
To sum up what i saw in your test:
picture setting:
cinema mode
backlight 2
contrast: ??
brightness: ??
colour:??
colour temp: warm 2
sharpness: ??
noise reduction:??
advance settings:
contrast enhancer:off
colour space:off
features:
quick start:off
power savings: reduced
light sensor: ?
film mode: auto
Hi, can you confirm if the sony kdl40w4000 and kdl40w400 are the same lcd and if not what are the differences?
yeah, it would be really helpful to give the screen settings both for SD & PS3 (blu-ray). Thanks for this nice article =)
Theres some confusion on avforums whether you can disable the auto dimming.
Does this get disabled when you turn off Contrast Enhance?
Cheers
Yes – certainly, I noticed no fluctuation in backlight intensity once the Adv. Contrast Enhancer feature was turned off.
However, I do think the TV turned off the backlight when no signal was being input, but that’s not really dimming.
Shaun: The KDL-40W400 isn’t a UK model, so I’m afraid we can’t comment because we haven’t seen one!
Julien H: if memory serves, the settings you see in the screen grab up there were the calibrated settings we used. They may be one or two notches out. In any case, those settings, while not calibrated for your own particular setup, will be a big step over the out of the box settings.
Thanks a lot! =)
Cheers for clearing that up for us.
Peace :)
A relativly silly review – out of scope – mande for 1% of the market.
95% of the HDTV viewers watch sat or cable TV, thus in 1080i. Very few have a blu-ray machine.
So why this review using 1080p ??? – not a single word of how this TV performs with 1080i in, the test havnt even tried 1080i in ….. 1080i in is not a simple task, and not al HDTV handles this well-
I agree with Jan Andresen. Actually most of the sources we watch are in 750.
Source and native resolution:
Playstation= 750
TV= 750/1080i
DVD= 750
So, why we all need a 1080p TV? Only for viewing a Blue-ray?!
That´s ridiculous isn´t it?
…we are driven by marketing
Has anyone else noticed excessive overscanning on the 40V4000. When I compare my sky signal on another LCD it displays slightly more of the picture which is obvious when looking at screen logos etc changing screen settting on the tv or sky box only helps when sky box set to 4:3L but then there are large black lines top and bottom.
Jan and Alex:
Not too bad a point; but much of what we write (Greyscale measurements etc) apply for all resolutions. A review which mentions these is out of the scope of average Joe/Jane anyway, who would be relatively pleased with the majority of TVs put out by the big name manufacturers. We use 1080p Blu-ray Disc to put a TV through its paces because it is the best quality source available. Most people are still actually using Standard Def video on their screens, not HD TV broadcasts; which is why we comment on the TV’s Diagonal Interpolation, Scaling, and Cadence Detection for SD.
Colin:
The amount of overscanning varies with TVs, yeah. You have some control over it in the 40V4000’s menus.
I hope HDTVTEST someday will make the reviews using 1080i , as most HD material is distributed in 1080i.
Most TV sets today are focused on performing at one particular format, and the rest of the formats have a low priority to save cost,
Unfortunalty, manufacturers tends to focus at blu-ray, and the testers tends to base the HDTV test 95% on how the set performs with blu-ray. Whether its the testers or the manufactureres who are running the game here, we propably will never know as the consumer.
With 19 HD channels, and more coming up, 99% of the HDTV viewers will have plenty of material, and will not invest in a blu-ray, or the blu-ray films.
So where does it leave us – well, if you are in the market for a HDTV, today, you have very few reliable sources ( tests ), which can tell you how the set is performing watching 1080i material. You cant rely on a test shown high score on reproducing blu-ray material, when you get the set home, it can very well trun to perform much worse than a much less expensive set focused on performing well with 1080i.
Again, handling a 1080i signal is not a simple task, since it has to be converted to 1080p.
David wrote:
We use 1080p Blu-ray Disc to put a TV through its paces because it is the best quality source available
Answer:
What matters is how the set performs in your home, not how it could be performing in a test set-up with some fancy input.
We as consumers cant realy use the knowledge, that it performs well with blu-ray, if we watch cable or sat HDTV.
…. especially for LCD TV. LCD TV´s performs fine with a perfect source – but feed it with something which is not perfect is where the lemons are found.
Therefore, it makes no sence to test a LCD TV with a perfect source, you will get the perfect result.
Just as we have been fooled during the past years, by demo HD videos in the shops, ( blu-ray ), playing some perfect videos with people moving very slow and almost still cameras, presenting the “perfect” TV – but what happens when the buyer get home with the set ….
@ Jan i don’t see where your coming from saying most things are in 1080i.
Both xbox 360 and PS3 output 1080p, all upscaling DVD players nowadays are 720p or 1080p and if i remember sky HD stuff is 720p. So errr what exactly where is all this 1080i content???
Dont know of any sat channel sending in 1080p. There may be some sending in 720p, but thats more an exception than a rule. I dont know any sat receiver outputting in 1080p 24f, blu-ray format. In fact dont know any sat receiver outputting in any 1080p format, there is propably one outhere.
You say that many DVD players can output in 720p and 1080p, upscalled. But thats still not blu-ray.
Xbox, and PS3, well this must be for my kids and gameplaying. A good idea to cover the gaming, which most reviews do in a seperate section.
… regarding upscalling to 720p / 1080p, in 9 of 10 cases its better to let the TV do the scalling, as the scaller in the TV is better than in the DVD player you baught for 99 £. So, better to base a review on the TV, and not an external DVD players ability to upscale.
On your recommendation I bought one of these and I’m very pleased with it.
I have my Sky box plugged into Scart 1. Does anyone know how to setup the Sky remote to switch to Scart 1 when you press the blue Sky button? The trouble is you need to press the external input button twice.
I mainly use my HDTV for xbox 360 and ps3 gaming and for a while i was using a hannspree XV37 lcd and i was getting loads of smearing in dark areas of games. so i ordered a samsung series 4 37inch last week and was horrified to find it did the same thing!. so ive called up and asked john lewis to exchange it for a KDL40V4000 after reading this review.
I did however read a review on this site of the V3000 in wich you stated in call of duty 4 did blur
I was wondering if you tested the v4000 for the same blur and how it fared. im going mad with this black smearing i realy hope i didnt just buy a 3rd lcd in a row that does it. (sorry for double post pressed enter by mistake.)
Hey. Nice review. I am planning to buy new 40-42 inch tv.
How is 40v4000 when watching sport like football cricket etc ? Is there any laging ?
I want to buy one of these panasonic px80, pz8 , sony w4000 or sony v4000 ( if same as w4000 just without dvd-t ) . I will use 80% for film/tv/sport and some pc and xbox360.
should i buy sony v4000 or panasoic px80 and use rest of money to popcorn media center :)
Hello,
This may seem like a stupid question- But does Sony KDL40V4000LCD have PAL and NSTC as my kids have a wii from the USA. So b4 I buy, I need to know if it can show USA games.
Thanks
Hello
A very interesting read. Thank you.
I am just off to buy one of these from Curry’s for £599!
My one concern is the lack of 100Hz, but I think for what I want this TV for (general viewing and gaming) it will do all that I want and more.
I had a KDL40V3000 which i must say I thought was good till my 3 year old daughter accidentally knocked with her little princess umbrella much to my dismay. My insurance which is Norwich union was fantastic in offering a replacement with a KDL40V4000. I would like to fix my KDL40V3000 as the lcd screen was just cracked and the colours were running down the centre of the tele and the lcd crack is visible where the colour run is. Could you recommend a offordable fix and the name of company or person who can do it?
Many Thanks
I am confused…which is the better tv, the KDLV4000 or the KDL40W2000, i can get both, for about the same money, so which is the best???
Than you.
Martin
Just purchased this lcd T.Vand virgin v box arrived today and connected via hdmi.
The problem i have is the T.V seems to constantly update the hdmi1 setting with a 1080i box underneath.
This is driving me too distaction as after lots of playing around with auto off etc it still seems too want too update this information peroidically.
Am i being a nub or has the set got a problem?
I have bought this TV after searching arounf for some time & reading all the reviews I could find.
The only problem I have is with the ‘black smearing’ that has been referred to (by Alan on 25th October).
It only occurs in shadow areas, but is fairly obvious. It appears as though part of the image remains still while the other part moves – sort of splitting the image.
Is this ‘normal’? Can I change settings to reduce/eliminate it?
Thanks for any comments.
David
hello
Can anyone tell me the difference between the kdl40v4000 and the kdl40l4000.
As the v4000 has gone up in price over the the last few days I am tempted by the cheaper L4000. Does anyone know if the L series is any good.
Many thanks
Paul
Many thanks David for a comprehensive review which as been most helpful to me in that I am about to take delivery of this model. Believe it or not, my first flat panel tv! I’m also getting a Sony blu ray ( bdps350 ) as part of the deal… any advice re connectivity between the two i.e. decent price scart cable up to the job!
David merelie, you can reduce the smearing by raising the brightness. At brightness 50 and below its the worst smearing ive ever seen and im surprised this reviewer didnt notice it. Makes the TV useless for gaming. At brightness 55 the smearing starts to reduce and at brightness 60 it prety much disapears. however your sacrificing the good black levels and are left with a washed out picture. This TV at first glance does deserve the good reviews but after you spend some time with it and discover this glaring fault it ruins the whole thing. i dont know how a tv with a fault this bad could be sold let alone be recieving such good reviews. ive seen this smearing on allot of LCD’s and i would have expected the reviewer to be aware of it and look out for it.
whoops –
Anyways, My 40v4000 does not recognize my ps3 in the device list update of the hdmi menu. In still plays when the correct hdmi channel is selected, just there is no sync. happening. Does anyone else experience this problem?
Thanks
Ed
Excellent info, well done.
My dillema – have sourced a 40w4000 for £700 with a 1 yr guarantee, or a 40v4000 with 5yr guarantee and free blueray DVD. I do think I will make use of the USB photo function on the w4000 (this appears to be the only model that has this option) as I am a keen photographer, and I am buying the Humax Foxsat system shortly so hope to be watching HD. Is an extra 4yr guarantee plus blueray (I have a very nice high end sony DVD already) better than 100hz and a usb? (ie do we have any reliabilty data?)
I have had the kdl40v4000 for a few days now and I am still not sure of the settings I should input for the best picture also for watching sky sports live football.How do I see if I am watching in 1080p or whatever that is.I have to select analog to watch sky is this right?I am as you ma have guessed a complete technophobe.
P.S. I forgot to mention that i have yet to upgrade my sky box to HD will i have to change anything when i do
Good review, and very helpful.
One thing I had noticed is a certain “business” of pixellation on Blu Rays.
The settings outlined in the review are helpful but it still reared its ugly head in one or two places, ie. shaded areas in Horton Hears A Who on Blu Ray
and, more annoyingly, in the opening black and white scene of the Casino Royale Blu Ray, it was still noticeable.
This is after I put full pixel setting on on too, just wondering where I might be going wrong here.
Sorry, to clarify, that is to say say that there are tiny pixels which seem to be quite busy in the background, or creating a kind of a buzz on the screen.
Recently purchased 32″Sony KDL-32V4000 Cant get it tuned into digital v box virgin media ,ps3 ok but cant get digital channels.any help appreciated.
Right, I’m fairly convinced that all I’m seeing is the grain of the film sharpened up considerably.
Are the settings from the screengrab above optimal for watching from a 1080p HD source?
How does this model compare to the Sony KDL 40W4500? I mean, i get it on paper but has anybody here actually had forst hand experience of them both? I’m still a bit dubious about the lack of 100Hz though.
Hi. Bought this TV recently and have found with some blu-ray that there is some obvious blurring with motion and poor dark scenes. I am using a PS3 with a Qed hdmi. New blurays or more or less faultless (Iron Man, Transformers etc) and many older ones are fine (Close encounters, Unforgiven).
But “I am Legend” for example was poor to the poor of tuining my enjoyment (the dark scene when Smith is looking for his dog)
Is it just the case of grin and bear it or if I upgrade the tv and/or ps3 (to a dedictaed blu-ray) will it resolve this?
Hope someone is still here to answer this!
thanks
I am thinking about getting the 40v4000 but my main concern is that I will be watching lots of football especially. Therefore I am worried about ‘ghosting’ or lag. Does this TV suffer with this problem at all?
Folks have just had the 32V4000 but I havent watch live footy on it yet so cant comment. I thought by looking at 1080p instead I would have a better chance of avoiding problems like this when watching football????
Would welcome anyones comments please…
Thanks.
I have recentely purchased a sony KDL40V4000, Also a sony blue ray player.. Can any one advise on some kind of home theatre/Surround sound that i can add to this. All the home theatre systems i look at seem to come with a dvd player!!!! I dont want this JUST the surround sound, as I have a Blue ray?
i tested this product for 2 hours found it to be of poor quality. picture rating 2
sound rating 3 colour rating 10
the picture was very blurred even with the advanced contrast on and live colour on
as sony slides further into decline this is a typical example of it’s products today.
even with the bravia engine 2 it still proformed badly. game mode too dark and cinema mode very poor.buyers will be dissapointed in this product
sony’s dominance slide in the market is becoming a reality it’s only a matter of time before there gone all together /
for my money samsung is the best
I just bought this and the tabletop stand tilts slightly forward. Is this right or is it a faulty stand
Hi guys,
i’m a bit of a newbie to this LCD thingy – just bought this TV through QuidCo from M&S with a 5 year warranty for £560 which strikes me as a bit of a bargin.
Is there anywhere where I can find out what some of the technical jargon used here actually means please?
in particular what are these film Cadences that the PS3 does well (PS3 will be my main source of HD content) and that the TV does so poorly?
And what is undefetable Edge Enhancement – that sounds as if it will be either very very good or terrible – but i have no idea which.
Hi everyone, great review!
i have owned the Sony KDL-V3000 model for about 6 months now, is this a vast improvement over this model? cant believe how cheap this new updated version is now!! typical! soon as you buy something, the next model comes out after you buy the old one, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Hi, great review, just wondering did u manage to get the playstation 3 to work in 1080p with this tv cause atm im using a hdmi cable and for some reason when i try to get it to work with 1080p the picture has really noticeable grey dots which is spread out also its not very sharp and abit fuzzy, 1080i works fine though, this tv is pretty new aswell about 1 week old
any help?
Hi, Andy do you have 1080p ticked in th ps3 display settings. Thanks for the great review David, i bought my sony 40×3000 as soon as the x3500 was reviewed on HDTV test
howdy steven, yeh its ticketed on 1080p but since 1080p looks pretty bad i unticketed it so then i only get 1080i, could just be my tv settings i hope not the cable, would setting the sharpness actually work?
actually to be in more detail, the grey dots are small but they are moving around really crazy, so yeh any help would be cool, btw if i set the to this setting
http://www.avforums.com/forums/lcd-televisions/829104-sony-kdl40-v4000-hd-ps3-settings.html
from a distance i can barely see it but because its moving so crazy u can notice it and it gets abit anoying and when u move up close you can definitely see it, when the picutre is in vivid mode its pretty much noticeable
help plz :D
Nice test – helped me much in my buying decision :)
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b140/fudge321/IMG_0555.jpg
this is the problem with 1080p on my ps3, it looks like i got stars all over my tv
Hi Andy , yes try the sharpening to see if it makes a difference i take it the gray dots that look like stars arnt square pixels ? its just a bit hard to tell from your pic even in close up .
you said that its pretty much noticeable on vivid mode , if you can see it at all on other picture modes i would change the hdmi lead.
for the best responce if you havent allready done so post you pic and info on the avforums , after all the guys on here are looking to buy and not users of the 40v4000 allready
Thanks for the review. Some excellent points there.
I am currently between Sony 40W4000 and Sony 46V4000. Which one do you think is better? W4000 has mpeg4 and 10bit panel but are those things really that important?
I have a PS3 which I would use a lot and normal sd, dvd and blu-ray. Should I buy the w4000 or the 6″ bigger V4000?? Thanks in advance.
Oh and the 46V4000 costs only like 199 euros more here.
Two things I have noticed about this TV and the settings people offer –
Watching through V+ and playing an ON Demand HD program is stunning detail when using the picture mode ‘standard’ (+ most of the out of box settings) but as soon as I switch to Cinmea, Warm 2 and other settings recommended here, Alot of the picture detail seemed to blur away and the picture was no where near as visually crisp or vibrant, Has anybody eles noticed this ?
Also sound isnt really mentioned in the review, but I am finding the speakers to be horribly tinny and thin sounding. I have tried playing with all settings for sound but cant seem to get an imporvement. Does anybody have any ideas? or post there settings
Overall i dont regret buying the tv as its mostly fantastic
Lg6000 scarlet or this? Is urgent for exchange, thanks
Hi,
I have just purchased a sony bravia kdl 32 v34000 from Amazon (great buy at £349). I just wanted to check how I connect the settings to
1. Sky
2. VCRF
3. DVD
Also I have another sky TV (analogue one) in another room which is now not working. The second TV is not SKY multiroon, it just connects into the main sky aerial. Does anyone have any advice on this?
Also I thought I had purchased freeview and an HD ready TV but when I switch to digital ENG there are only the ususal channels of BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc. Also when I click on a SKY HD channel I have to phone up a number. Does anyone have any advice on this?
Thanks very much
Ali
Hi,
I just bought this TV a few days ago and so far I’m very dissapointed with it.
The picture is fine when you are using a source connected through HDMI, Xbox, DVD etc.
However, the picture when viewing Standard definition freeview is woeful! It is pretty much unwatchable. All dark colours mege into each other and when something moves youe see “tracers” across the screen.
Is anyone else having this problem? It is possibly the settings the signal from my antenna. However, I also have a Phillips HD TV connetcted to same antenna and the freeview picture is prefect.
Any help please?
Hi David,
Many thanks for the fantastic review. I must say you’ve confused me the more :-). I’m now torn between the Samsung LE40A655 and the Sony KDL40V4000. The samsung is about £100 more than the samsung. I will be using the Tv for normal tvs and standard movies and a WII game. Is the £100 more worth going for samsung? Help please!!!
I’ve bought this TV recently, after alot of dithering. My last (very expensive) Loewe was a big disappointment after getting used to unadulterated RGB on a Sony CRT. However after being bought a Bluray player for xmas, and my old TV didn’t have full HD, I am pleased to report that this TV is a good step (backwards?) towards CRT of quality on SD and more on HD.
You and a few others have mentioned the forced sharpness. I’m not sure if this applies to the SD DTV picture, but I do notice significant problems on the BBC local weather, where the local town names are shown the text is almost unreadable due to a very delayed and prononced ring/shadow. I am quite sensitive to this after 15 years of VHS engineering, but I thought it worth mentioning. I may experiment with some backlight reduction as mentioned in the review, as the whites of these letters seem saturated.
Probably obvious, but I do notice alot of problems on poorly encoded material, CH4+1, Virgin 1 (S.T. Voyager), but then my old 32″ wasn’t big enough to see these. Also, unusually, I can see what looks like line doubling display on some non-mainstream channels (possibly CH4+1 or ITV4 something like that).
Also a little dissapointed on the Scart RGB in, with what looks like Pal seperation ringing artifacts (perhaps this is related to the ringing problems above). Typical of TVs that convert back to CVBS before display/digitising.
On the whole though the TV works well with good SDTV content and excellent with HDTV.
The wall bracket fixing are a little unusual in that its a 30x30cm square and needs a plasma hook on plate type. I was able to get a universal tilt bracket on amazon for £20 (Elektroworld), which seems fine although needs good DIY experience as there are virtually no instructions and lots of different screw options supplied. Its very similar to the £100 types you see in B&Q etc.
I saw this TV in the store and it looked brilliant. Seems to be a good buy.
I have had my KDL40V4000 fore some months now.I am a retired TV studio cameraman and used to seeing best quality pictures on expensive technical monitors. This Sony is all that anyone could wish for. Although it is not 100Hz (the sales person told me that it was) there is no smear or motion lag. The black level is superb probably due to Sony’s processing expertise combined with the Samsung panel. The studio engineers I worked with tended to evaluate equipment according to its spec on paper rather than actuallity, so don’t pay too much attention to what the paper says. Sony is a market leader, so no problems there. Ask the shop to show you off air programmes and not the picture fed from a Blu-Ray player hidden behind. Like any flatscreen, the KDL sound is flat without a surround sound kit. My KDL and Bose Cinemate surround unit are a match made in Heaven.
If you Intend to buy an HDTV for HD gaming then the KDL 40V4000 simply is not suited for it, When using this TV for gaming it presents you with two options.
A, you can set your brightness to 60 and have a terrible washed out image with moderate motion smear. or
B, You can set you brightness to anything below 60, have wonderfull black levels a crips image with nice colours. with the absolute worst smearing/trailing money can buy
This TV may pull the wool over the eyes of those who use it to watch a bit of freeview and the odd movie. But if you want to play your PS3, Xbox 360 or Wii on it you will not only be dissapointed. but soon realise this tv has absoultely no buisness being sold. The smearing on this set is so bad. Not just on the usual blacks, but on almost every color, hidious trailing. (im not refering to just motion blur that all LCDs suffer from).
Raising the brightness to above about 55-60 and switching off all the noise reduction and other gubbins does help a little, but at the cost of your lovely black levels, greyscale and picture clarity, and even then smearing is still painfuly noticeable.
Sony have some nerve touting this TV as having an 8ms refresh rate and great contrat ratio. wheh blacks and almost all dark shades refresh almost a whole second behind the rest of the screen.
Fabtastic site and review. I am just about to receive this TV but could you possibly advise when the settings may be published? I am willing to donate via paypal for the information. Alternatively, are the pics shown of the menus the final settings you used?
Many thanks for your help, extremely helpful site
I meant fantastic, fabtastic sounds like something Timmy Mallett would say!!
I have bough this KDLV400 Tv and am disapointed with it. At times the pictures are blocky and when the scenes zoom out or in block and grains appear as in a webcam. As I am deaf – i use subtitles, they are very smeary, a bit like an ink fountain pen writing on blotting paper and the letters are not defined. I bought this on the description of the product details
Sony’s updated Bravia 2 picture enhancement engine, in conjunction with an Advanced Contrast Enhancer, ensures you’ll always experience incredibly clear and defined images…………. I think not
Hi and thanks for the great review.
I will be buying a lcd tv within the next 3 days. My budget 1s £799.99 (vouchers for currys) and i am interested in the Samsung LE40A656A LCD and the
Sony KDL40V4000.
I have a 5.1 surround system to compensate for the samsungs sound system.
Picture quality of major importance for me. I am a huge movie watcher and enjoy watching them on my samsung blu ray player.
What lcd tv would you recommend for me.
Thanks
Ross
Had this for a couple of months and I think it’s great (even better considering I got it for £499 w/5yr guarantee). I’m no Sony fanboy btw.
The issues some of you are having are simply down to poor sources and setup imho.
@Andrew Coombs: I assume you’re watching SD (sky/freeview), and they do look crap, but that’s a source (compression/bitrate) issue and you’ll notice some channels look better than others.
There are TV’s that do a better job with SD, I’ll admit.
Try turning OFF Live colour & Contrast Enhancer.
Mpeg nr : Medium
Nr: Low
Either way, you’re still polishing turds.
@Alan Buchanan: My X360 looked bloody fantastic with none of the issues you mentioned..
Here are my settings using HDMI sources (usually Blu-ray):
Cinema
Backlight : 2-4 (depending on ambient light and sometimes the film itself)
Contrast: 76
Brightness: 50
Colour: 36
Warm1
Sharpness: Min
NR: Off
Mpeg NR: Off
Adv Contrast: Off
Live Colour: Off
Works a treat :)
For SD stuff, try upping the Brightness, colour and sharpness slightly. Then have a fiddle with mpeg/nr settings.
Oops! Forgot.
If you’re using X360 via Hdmi, set your console display options to standard or intermediate (I found intermediate best) and your TV to full pixel.
Hi
I recently got one of these TV’s and I have a Sony-DZ230 home cinema system. I have connected via HDMI cable and I can get a signal and a picture but I cannot get the TV to recognise it when I go to the HDMI set up menu on the TV.
Can anyone help me with this?
I also have an Xbox360 connected via HDMI as well but again the TV does not recognise it.
Many thanks in advance.
What a lot of great (and conflicting) info. I almost bought a 40V4000 today as the picture looked much better than similarly priced tv’s but thought I should do some research first before impulse buying
Is there really so much trouble to change settings depending on what you’re watching? I have a wii, xbox (not 360 yet), dvd etc so don’t really want to have to change settings to do each.
What tests can I get the sales guy to show me to see the limitations?
Thanks for any advice
Rick
@Rick
No trouble to change settings. More often than not, all you have to do is tweak backlight, brightness and maybe colour.
After a couple of weeks getting used to the set you’ll only be doing minor tweaking (usually a notch or two on the backlight only). But mainly you’ll be leaving it alone once you’ve got it about right.
Settings are saved per input btw, so you could have seperate Standard, Vivid and Cinema settings for each input if you so choose.
Either way, it’s easy to navigate the menu’s if you do manage to bugger it up.
@Michael
I’m not sure if you mean that you can’t get a picture from your X360 or if the TV simply doesn’t automatically label it as ‘Xbox 360’…?
If you can see a picture, then don’t worry. Set the TV to full pixel and go nuts. :)
Sony 40V4000, 40S4000, 40L4000 ja 40U4000 are same tv:s. Only difference is skins and connections :) I hope u understand cause my english sucks :P
That word “ja” is and. sorry about that :P
I have Sony 40w4000 I have a picture issue since new! It is a intermittant problem. On certain BBC HD broadcasts I get flicking on all dark colours but not in bright scenes “All the small things” on HD was nearly unwatchable. I have also noticed that it happens on Blu Ray disc Planet earth, when zooming down the mountain side! the shaded side of the mountain flickers badly. This disc is a BBC production. Sky Hd is perfect! and I have not noticed any problems on other Blu Ray Dvds. has any one experienced this problem or know of a solution?
That is a really nice lcd tv. My friend has this tv buy in an online shop. First the tv was defect but they quickly send a news one. Now we are playing playstation 3 through this tv and the resolution and quality is awesome. I really think to buy one in an online shop. Maybe through a cashback service to get it cheaper.
A quick question – I have a soundbar with an optical in that would fit perfectly under this TV. Can I connect all my AV sources to the telly and then output the sound to the soundbar? Thus, I’ll have the TV doing the switching. Also, is this possible on any other TV in the £500-800 and 40″/42″/46″ range?
Thanks
P
My problem is with PC Input ,i try to connect my PC to it by PC Input and i cant have Full HD Resolution 1920 – 1080 ,my card is Ati hd3870 and that should work but no my resolution is only 1680 – 1050 which is not bad but not Full HD , please some help with it or some setting ,Daniel.
How do I connect my Sony RDRHX780 DVD Recorder to my Sony KDL40V4000 TV to record my HD channels? I know they will be recorded in Standard mode.
Hi – i know this is an old thread but i found it very interesting.
My situation is this; i bought the 40v4000 yesterday from Tesco. It was a bit of an impulse buy as it was the last one left and i got the actual tv on the display. It was £500 minus 20% for ex display (it looks brand new!).. so i paid £400 which is obviously a good price. The thing is… when i have got it home and attached my virgin box via scart, the standard definition picture is terrible! Annoyingly i got given the wrong remote so i couldn’t tinker with it… i have just swapped remotes and planon messing with the settings after.
My question, if anyone can help out, is would the 40w4000 be better in SD? If so i may be tempted to pay the extra for that set and then also enjoy the other beneftis – i also really like the midnight finish on the W range! My setup is Virgin bog standard box and a PS3…. any suggestions right now would be great because I am in limbo. I don’t want to resent not having spent a few quid more at the cost of a bad SD picture.
Cheers.
Oh – also – i read that there was a lot of smearing (i’m not sure if that’s the correct jargon!?).. motion blur.. when playing games such as call of dut yfour. Does anyone know if this is true for all 40v4000’s or whether that was a fault? And if it is all would this be present on the 40w4000??
Again… any info will be hugley appreciated!
Had real trouble with the Sony KDL-40V4000 40inch LCD TV. I was really not happy with picture quality through a blu-ray player via HDMI (smearing, blurring etc) until………..I turned off the Noise Reduction and the MPEG Noise Reduction. Now the picture is amazing, I would highly recommend this TV.
Hi, Experts there in simple terms if i get these models at the said prices which one should i be opting for ,
Sony Bravia 40” KDL-40W4000 HD Ready LCD TV 599.00
Sony Bravia V-Series 40” V4000 HD Ready LCD TV 649.00
Thanks in advance.
We love it..and the fact its classed as mid range makes me smile. We’d be more of a bottom of the bottom of the range kinda gang.
bought this tv and can only say that its absolutely fantastic and the picture is crystal with loads of scope to adjustthe settings to suit everyones eye and it also streams films in mpeg2 via twonkymedia server software from your pc with minimal effort after recodeing from whatever format they start in. Fantastic
Had my v4000 since January, not as good as I thought but not that bad either, a few blurring/ghosting things as mentioned before by others but after playing around with the settings got it more or less were I want it. What I wanted to ask is am I being silly or does the v4000 have a usb connection and if so where? I have looked in manual and cant find it but have also looked on websites and they state it does. If it hasn’t is there anyway that I can connect a USB flash drive to it to show photos on the TV (not from a PC) Please help
ive just looked at this website today been seen people ideas about there comments about the sony lcd kdl40v4000 which i have one as well on the webpage it shows about the advanced settings adv.contrast and live colour set on off mine is set on low and my noise reduction is set on medium and mpeg set on low i have read comment someone saying they where not happy with the picture quality when they connect with a blu ray player the noise reduction and mpeg is turned off said made picture better i honestly think doesnt make a difference as i said mine set to medium and low is recomened to be off for adv contrast and noise reduction and mpeg because i think doesnt affect the picture quality even when watching a blu ray movie
Am having problem with my Tv power board and Digital board now and am trying to get the spare part for the replacement but i could not find one, is there any help you can render or any direction and it’s new i got it last year please but the bad news about it is that i have moved to Africa nad you know it’s not easy to return it back to where i bought it.
How would i get the screen fixed on my 40″ Sony Bravia LCD 1080p. It was cracked when a controller slip out of my kids hand… it was bought in may of last year..
@ Craig
Had same happen with a ‘RockBand’ drumstick. Not covered by Sony obviously. Mine was repaired through my home contents insurance, who used Comet engineers.
Same here. The screen seems to be very delicate easy to crack. Also got mine repaired via contents insurance. Comet came and changed the whole front panel.
i have KDL46V4000 with broken LCD.i am wondering if anybody got this tv but faulty with good screen on it.i will pay good price and will collect. I can be contacted on 07946867128
Thanks.
I brought my Sony KDL-40v in August 2008 having read glowing magazine reviews. I previously owned a Sony Trinitron 25″ TV (which is much missed – I’m still in mourning), so I expected great things from Sony. I found the replacement TV absolutely awful which caused a great deal of eye strain. Unlike the ‘LG’ TV’s owned by members of my family which are great close up for games or for normal TV use. Consequently I have only used it for 3 days on two separate occasions. On each occasion I hoped the eye strain was caused by an incorrect setting – it wasn’t!! Not wanting to impose this on someone else by selling it, it now sits on the floor unused! Needless to say I won’t be buying another Sony TV…….. where’s the trash bin………