Affordable Sony KDL-46XBR10 46 inch Full HD 1080p 240Hz LED Flat Panel HDTV – Review
- Edge Lit LED Lighting
- Bravia 1080 Wireless Technology
- MotionflowTM 240Hz technology
- DLNA® compatible with photos, music, and video
- Exceeds ENERGY STAR® 3.0 guidelines for energy efficiency
Sony breaks new ground with the Sony® BRAVIA® XBR10-Series Edge Lit LED-based HDTV. Redefining thin, this LCD HDTV features an over 1,000,000 to 1 dynamic contrast level so you can experience exceptional black detail and brilliant whites. And with MotionflowTM 240Hz technology you’ll experience unbelievable motion detail and clarity. Internet connectivity allows you to stream thousands of movies, videos, music and more from a wide variety of leading partners like Netflix, YouTube and Slacker.
Shockingly bad. OneCall is useless.,
At this moment I am writing this review from a computer that is hooked up to the XBR10 and i’m trying to focus on the words but they keep phasing in and out. If you don’t know, this is because the XBR10 “Package” is composed of two parts. The first is the TV which is a beautiful, super slim, piece of equipment with a glossy screen. As far as i know it is the thinnest TV on the market and in order to achieve such a slim design, the video inputs (HDMI, Component, Composite inputs) were taken off the TV and moved to the second piece of equipment called the Media Box. The general idea here is that you plug your video sources (DVD, BluRay, Games) into the back of the Media Box instead of the TV and the Media Box sends the information (your movie and game video) to the TV via a wireless link. The following review will discuss the pros and cons of this design:
1) The TV -
+Super thin TV.
+Screen is all one piece meaning that there are no edges anywhere like previous models.
+Touch Screen controls that light up.
+No visible speakers.
+Very pleasing design.
+Lots of yahoo wigits that show things like news reports and sport updates.
+Lots of video channels like youtube and paid channels like Amazon OnDemand.
+++Auto Dimming in dark scenes can be turned off.
-Glossy screen with plenty of reflection.
-Average picture quality on par with XBR6.
-Poor black levels.
-No wireless internet, requires wired connection (considering the original price tag this is absurd).
-No video inputs on TV (see #2 Media Box).
-Wigits and online video sources take forever to load.
-Fewer video tuning options than previous models.
-Fewer video inputs than previous models.
-Same remote as past models.
-Sony logo doesn’t light up.
2) The Media Box
+Neat concept.
-Adds an extra piece of heat generating equipment in your living room.
-No wireless connectivity.
-Prone to wireless interference.
—Doesn’t work unless it’s pointed at the TV from across the room. (This works exactly like a remote control in that you have to point it at the TV in order for it to function. So to imagine how dumb this design is, imagine sitting on your couch with the Media Box in your lap with it’s face pointed at the screen in order to send the video signals to the TV. That is exactly how the XBR10 operates.)
As mentioned, the TV itself–with the exception of the power cord–has no physical inputs. This means things like HDMI and Component inputs can’t be plugged directly into it. No, instead you plug them into the Media box which then communicates the signal to the TV via a wireless link. And while this may sound on the surface like a cool idea, and indeed makes possible benefits like the super thin screen the TV incorporates, it is extremely poorly implemented here.
You see, the Media Box must be pointed directly at the TV in order for the wireless link to reach it… Let me repeat that: the Media Box must be pointed directly at the TV in order for the wireless link to reach it…as if it were nothing more than a big remote control. To give you an idea of how stupid this design is, all you have to do is think about how a simple entertainment center is setup:
-Electronic equipment like DVD players or video game consoles sit next to or underneath the TV facing you.
-From the back of these devices come their video connectors (HDMI, Component) which you plug into the back of the TV in order for their video signals to be displayed on screen.
Now imagine the exact same setup except that you have to plug those same devices into a separate box instead of the TV. In a sane world this would be jake and would make perfect sense because in a sane world you would simply give that separate box a home right there next to the DVD player or the Game console–facing you like all the others–and everything would work fine in this orientation. But Sony’s world is not sane.
Now continue to imagine that setup, except introduce the caveat that the Media Box MUST BE FACING THE TV TO IN ORDER FOR THE VIDEO SIGNALS TO REACH IT (not underneath it, not beside it and not even right behind it) and you have the conundrum that is the XBR10. There is simply no physical way to make this work without either moving all of your electronics away from the entertainment center and putting them in the middle of the room so you can plug them into the back of the Media Box also in the middle of the room, or instead by running cables from the back of the devices in your entertainment center across your living room floor and around the back of the Media Box in order to plug them in.
I also mentioned that you need a wired internet connection in order to use most of the TV’s new web…
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|The most absolutely georgeous picture you can find!,
I’ve had the set for 3 months now. I had some early concerns on the whole Edge-Lighting thing but they turned out to be frivolous. The picture has been outstanding. Played Dark Knight and the set handled the contrasts and deep blacks superbly.
The thin design is a work of art. My set sits on a console (not mounted) and sets the room off nicely; no visible wires and elegant design.
The streaming functions are a nice feature; good integration with Amazon and Netflix. However, I’m pouzzled as to why there doesn’t appear to be a way to access free internet content via portals like Hulu, TV network sites and such, without a laptop. (Or I haven’t figured it out yet.)
One mild annoyance that has more to do with Sony than the XBR10: No wireless internet dongle available from Sony. The Samsung version only works with Samsung products. So if you don’t have a Ethernet port nearby, you’ll need a wireless bridge to use a wireless home network.
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