Sony BRAVIA KLV-V40A10E

...of colour or styling but Sony came along with several variants in the Bravia range.

Firstly, there are three different series in the Bravia range, and quite rightly they improve in specification and price-point as you move further up the range.

There is the S series: HD Ready and Integrated Freeview (Silver only)

The V: Series: Black HD Ready and with integrated freeview. Also features faster screen response ...
...of it's lifetime.
Thankfully, Sony have carried out their research thoroughly, and to our delight (especially from a selling point of view) there is nothing to supercede Digital or HD television within the next 6-8 years.

Facts:

High Definition is a new broadcast standard that Sky will be introducing in April 2006. The benefits to us will be that the quality of imagery will be 5 times better than the standard ... more

I want it all..I want it all...I want it now!!!

Yeah I wish!

Everyday for the last two godawful months I have had to stare enviously at this thing sitting all mounted and shiny and sleek, on the wall at work! That's right I have indeed the misfortune of working in a store that sells everything from tv to gizmo, being constantly enticed, teased, tortured by the sheer beauty of this thing. The huge 40" screen is more than ample for my front room, and being LCD it's so sharp and bright that you see every mark, blemish and fault of a presenter's morning make-up!!

I must admit, upon it's arrival I was quite stunned at the size of the box, but unwrapping the V40 In all it's sleek and shiny glory instantly instilled the "i've got to have it" desire.

SO What's different about this compared to other LCD televisions you ask?

Well firstly colour! You'd have been hard pushed before the Bravia V Series came along, to find any particular variation in choice of colour or styling but Sony came along with several variants in the Bravia range.

Firstly, there are three different series in the Bravia range, and quite rightly they improve in specification and price-point as you move further up the range.

There is the S series: HD Ready and Integrated Freeview (Silver only)

The V: Series: Black HD Ready and with integrated freeview. Also features faster screen response times as well as a wider colour pallet and contrast ratio in comparison to the S Series.

The W Series: The daddy of the Bravia Range in a whopping 40" screen, featuring all of the V's specification, along with a 100w built in subwoofer, integrated surround system and digital amplification. In short, it has everything!!!

The V40 is a sleek panel television, both slimmer and neater in design than many of it's existing counterparts. Furthermore hte technology is currently future proof. I have had host of people who are wanting to upgrade to either LCD or plasma, and their main concern always seems to be that their television will become "out of date" within the first two years of it's lifetime.
Thankfully, Sony have carried out their research thoroughly, and to our delight (especially from a selling point of view) there is nothing to supercede Digital or HD television within the next 6-8 years.

Facts:

High Definition is a new broadcast standard that Sky will be introducing in April 2006. The benefits to us will be that the quality of imagery will be 5 times better than the standard definition of current television. In other words, DVD quality viewing. High Definition Television will be the highest quality of digital television available. It increases the amount of scan lines to provide clearer and more detailed images than those available on regular digital or analogue televisions. Your television set must be High Definition Ready in order to benefit from this.
There is expected to be a rather high premium for HDTV when it's introduction via Sky becomes available, with the probable requirement of a new Sky Box to add to this.
And although this is making people question whether to go for the High Definition TV set, the good news is that within the next 3-5 years, the majority of programmes broadcast via the BBC and ITV, will also be filmed in the HD quality.

Digital Television, or Freeview as it is widely known, is another area that has evoked confusion among potential customers. You may have seen recent media/ BBC statements regarding the digital switchover, which is imminent!
If you haven't been able to glean full information regarding the switchover to digital, I would recommend visiting the BBC's website.
Freeview was introduced a couple of years ago as a kind of free alternative to Sky, incorporating 38 free channels, and 15 radio stations, dependant on the strength of your signal.
The Government who have been working in conjunction with the BBC have announced that completion of the Digital Switchover by 2012. This meaning, you will no longer be able to recieve terrestrial channels via your normal aerial after this time.
Again, it is worth checking the BBC website, as certain areas are to benefit from a complete switchover, earlier than this, Cumbria and the Border Regions being the first to change by 2008.

The other area in which consumers have been misled regarding Freeview is that you may need to upgrade to a digital aerial (wideband) in order to pull in more channels. This is due to the fact that traditional analogue cannot pick up all channels on all bandwidths.

THE V40:

As the specification suggests, the V40 has a fully integrated digital tuner so you will not need a set top box. It is High-Definition Ready and features the HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) connection, which will allow you to connect to the new Sky Box that is shortly to be released. HDMI allows the transfer of data of much higher detail than a traditional Scart lead can deliver, and is the best connection for the quality results of High Definition to be viewed.

Connectivity:

The V40 has no end to the number of socket inputs featured, to allow multiple connectivity of multi-media items.
Featuring a PC Input connection, the V40 allows connectivity either to a laptop, or for primary use as a computer monitor depending on your preference. The screen automatically up-scales the data received to fit the size of the screen, however there is the option to maximise or minimise according to convenience of personal viewing.

The three Scart in-puts located on the rear of the set enable connectivity to a host of additional video units, such as DVD player/ Recorder/ Video Recorder and so-forth. Still the most simple way of connecting other items to your television!

USB: Incorporating previous technology (i.e the ability to view still pictures on your television), Sony have introduced the very handy USB connection, allowing connectivity to your didgital camera., thus enabling play-back of a photo slideshow, up-scaled in size to fit the whole television screen for optimum results and no depreciation in the quality of the picture. Previously, with Sony TV's the only way you could do this was if the set featured a Memory Stick slot, whereby you could plug in the memory stick taken from the camera and view pictures that way. This feature only seemed to be apparent on higher end models of LCD and Plasma, so it show's the advancement in technology, that Sony have made widely accessible to it's customers. The other beneficial reason for including the USB connection, is that it also means Portable Audio Devices such as MP3 players can be connected to the set, allowing the user to playback music via the television speakers. Handy huh?

The V40 also features the standard AVI / DVI/ Scart/ S and Composite Video sockets, however the average customer finds little use for these unless connecting a games console or other multi-media item and wanting to achieve optimum results.
HDMI connectivity also features, and as mentioned previously, delivers the best performance if connecting to a High Definition device such as the new Sky Box which will enable the receipt of High Definition channels.

Sound: The V series Bravia's feature a new development in sound technology known as Virtual Dolby Surround Sound, improved performance from tiny digital amplifiers, emitting more power and greater clarity than heard before, ensuring the sound quality is truer to it's life-like origin. As we have become so accustomed to with DVD surround systems, the Bravia features varying sound options, which can be changed manually dependant on what you are watching, from music to movie!

Visual:

Sony had to really excel somewhere and as an institution, built upon their reputation for the Trinitron technology built into the CRT television, have always been renowned for picture quality, clarity and stability.
This is none more so evident than in their latest range of Bravia Televisions.

14 Bit Processor:

Currently the highest processor integrated into any LCD television on the market, the 14 bit processor enables the V40 to respond faster and more effectively to any signal thrown at it, boasting an 8 millisecond response time. This effectively means that conversion from analogue to digital signal is virtually instantaneous, and reproduced on-screen without picture-noise or break up, a problem often associated with lower processors. Factually, the 14 bit processor is currently the highest on the market, with Panasonic's coming in at a second-rate 12 bit processor.
You may be wondering what this processor could actually mean in terms of visible results, and this is no further evident than when watching images on screen. The processor boasts a wider colour-palette than any of it's counterparts, ensuring the sharpest, brightest, most vivid pictures, and optimal delivery to your screen. Every bead of sweat, blemish or hair-out-of-place will be easily noticed on any unfortunate soul happening to be presenting the weather forecast!
Visual Effects:

The whopping 40" Bravia also boasts a 7th Generation LCD Panel, with a 1300: 1 contrast ratio, effectively meaning a wider range of hue and colour saturation. This means that the picture viewable on-screen, will have more contrast between light and dark shades (1300 hues to 1 colour). As a result, the picture will be recreated from the signal in more realistic colour and detail to anything seen before. The contrast between light and dark is very noticeable, blacks are richer, whites more vivid.

Something I have always found to be a significant problem with my old CRT (tube) television, is the fact that the screen would mirror light reflections, and was hardly visible with bright sunlight streaming through the window. This meant if I wanted to watch something, it involved closing the curtains to get the right lighting atmosphere to view the screen, highly annoying and off-putting to say the least.
However, Sony have combated this pain in the backside with their new screens. Made from organic material, this effectively means there is no shiny surface to the screen, thus removing the reflection problem.
An additional bonus is the inbuilt Light Sensor, which modifies the brightness according to the surrounding light conditions. If you were watching a movie in complete darkness, the screen would optimise the brightness to display more light for better viewing capability. Couple this with the 170 degree viewing angle (horizontal and vertical), and you can watch your flat screen from anywhere in the room, without losing parts of the visible picture!

Conclusion:

You'd be hard pushed to find a more worthy flat panel, delivering optimal quality in terms of sound and picture. The Bravia range is also one of the few new examples of LCD's which incorporate both a digital tuner and the High Definition Ready capabiltity.
Many flat panels currently on the market, only feature HD Resolution. This meaning the set will not achieve the same results in terms of picture quality once High Definition becomes available. The Bravias are equipped with a screen resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, higher than the HD resolution of 1080/720p.

And beyond all this is the fact that the V40 has been designed to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Slim, light (22.9kg) and with a sleek finish, the speakers built into the bottom of the set with a black covering, the overall look is minimal and stylish, replacing the tired silver design with something far more stylish.
Mounted on a swivel base, the set can be tilted and angled according to preference, but is also wall mountable. The Sony Bravia range have all been designed to be VESA compatible, a benchmark in wall-mounting capability, encompassing minimalist design with strength and durability, so if you choose to wall-mount your precious panel, there are no qualms relating to finding a decent bracket that won't come off the wall!

And what more could you ask for? A design advancement with all the integrated features for the future of television, every possible connection covered and the most amazing picture on a whopping screen, that actually doesn't engulf the living room with it's size. It's neat, compact and stylish, and in recent comparison next to a Samsung 32" LCD, the quality and difference was easy to see!

Available in 26", 32" and 40" you'd be hard pushed to overlook this beauty!

Currently reduced in price at £2399.99 from SonyStyle, was the best price I could find currently available, however I am aware there are currently some deals on the high street. Worth a shop around but a good price for the overall performance and design!

 

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