Sony Bravia XBR KDL-46XBR8 Picture quality and color quality is fantastic. This is our first LCD flat screen TV. We had a 28 inch CRT for 20+ years… We are still blown away with the colors. We initially planned on a 40-42 inch, now that we have the 46 we are not disappointed, ..50?55?..hmmm No more room actually on our new TV console.
Sound quality leaves a bit to be desired. The speakers are just to small to have any quality sound. We have a stereo system that we may have to incorporate with the TV watching.
The one feature I was initially disappointed with was the lack of USB port recognition with a flash drive. Sony claims not all USB devices will work and recommends the SONY Micro Vault Flash drive to be compatible. Well after doing some web searching I did find some helpful info on the Sony eSupport page. After learning the USB device must be FAT32 formatted I now can upload photographs (.jpg files) from even the least expensive flash drive. I just re-formatted a SanDisk 250MB flashdrive and then a “micro center” 2GB flash drive I got for free!. After re-formatting to FAT32 the SONY recognizes the drive and I can now view my collection of digital photos. I must add that when viewing good quality .jpg’s (2-3meg size) the SONY displays the pics as sharp as a tack!!..the shots look the best I’ve ever seen. The colors are so real looking you feel as though you could touch the object as in real life. Now I can pursue getting my 1000+ 35mm slides from Germany and England while in the service (40 years ago!) converted to .jpg files. What better way to show all the slides as compared to to old slide projector/screen method…so archaic!
I did learn as well at the eSupport Site there is a software update available for the set. I’ll be contacting Sony soon to verify if our set needs the update as we just purchased the TV 2 weeks ago.
Tip: Get the Support Belt Kit, Part #X21866021, to secure it to your console. You don’t want this massive set to inadvertently topple over. Would recommend this set…the Sony’s all outperformed other LCD’s we looked at as far as color quality. At least that was my wife’s opinion..she has a better eye for color I have to admit. Enjoy, Jack
Reviewed by : Terrie L. Giannosa “Jack & Terrie”, Nov 17, 2009
