Breakthrough LCD picture quality at a breakthrough price
"It's beautiful," gasped six-year-old Stella, catching a glimpse of the yellow brick road on the remastered DVD of The Wizard of Oz — a movie she's seen dozens of times. I had just set up Sony's magnificent 32" Bravia XBR television.
As Crutchfield's Car A/V Managing Editor, it's been ages since I've written about home A/V gear. So, I was mightily intrigued when Crutchfield Advisor's home editor Julie Govan approached me about writing a review of the Bravia set. She knows that I've been considering buying a new TV for some time now; and perhaps more importantly, I think she was looking for a non-expert's perspective on a hot model. My background is home and car audio and professional music; I'm an ear-focused guy. While I love visual art and movies, the subtleties of the video experience have never held as much fascination for me.
Until now.
Overview
I don't get around to watching the household TV much and when I do, it's mostly to use it as a monitor for viewing DVDs.
Although said TV is a 15-year-old 20" Sony Trinitron, I have found past occasion to borrow flat-panel sets from my generous employer. I've also attended plenty of in-house TV trainings and watched many sets at various trade shows. So, while I'm not a total neophyte when it comes to modern television technology, I haven't spent much time with sets of the Bravia's caliber.
Another reason it made sense for me to review the Bravia: while I have generally found conventional tube and flat-panel plasma TVs to offer a significantly more natural picture than LCDs, I'm personally more interested in owning an LCD. My room's small size means that a 32" screen is about as big as we can comfortably go. Plus, I've long been a fan of LCD's quiet, "illuminated paper" look. I love the thin case, the lack of hum and tube crackling, and the evenness of lighting. I also appreciate that they're lightweight, glassless, and consume much less energy than their CRT counterparts. Finally, because I'm the king of falling asleep in front of the TV, it's nice to know I won't be inadvertently etching station logos into the phosphor coating on the back of a glass screen. The ultimate screensaver is not needing one.
