Sony Bravia XBR-Series KDL-46XBR4 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

I bit the bullet on cost and am I ever glad. The picture is outstanding and the features are well engineered. I matched the TV with Sony's Home Theater Stand and it is a great combination. The high def. is as good as I have ever seen, especially with BluRay.

We tried 3 units and they all have the same problem. The fan noise is louder than the TV sound when at comfortable volume. Also the emission of heat is to high for the recommended size of the unit for the room.
This unit is going back to the store as well!
Sorry Sony, get a quiet fan!!!

After some very serious research, I took the dive and ordered this HD LCD. I was contemplating buying the lower end W3000 unit, but after seeing the XBR4 that a friend bought, had to have one of my own.

1080i HD cable broadcasts - outstanding. 480p from DVD - again, outstanding. 480i or 480p cable broadcasts - disappointing. I think it is just the size of the screen showing all of the flaws of the lower definition signal. My old 32" Bravia LCD looked much better for non HD content, but again, was probably just that it was smaller.

From all of the research I was able to do, I was not able to find a better HD LCD. Believe me, I looked at almost every model from every manufacturer!

Not enough has been made in either Sony's promotion or the public discussion of the upscaling capability of the current generation of 120hz, 1080p/24fps, motion enhancement LCD TVs. The improvement over the standard 1080p version is far more than the jump from 720p to 1080p. Combined with a high-definition player (preferably a Toshiba A30 or A35 HD DVD player that upscales to the 1080p/24fps output; apparently, Blu-ray players only upscale to the 1080p/30 output) and an HDMI cable and applying the various levels of motion enhancement, you will experience video nirvana when playing back your existing DVD's and videotapes.

The Sony "Motion Enhancer" control, which greatly improves color depth and image separation for lower-quality media sources, can be set at "High" or "Standard" levels or turned off. It has little effect on high-def sources or even some recent good quality standard DVD's, and can be left off for these discs.

Applying the "Standard" level to most older DVD's yields a stunning level of upscaling, far superior to that output by a standard DVD player with "HDMI Upscaling", and truly "near high-fef quality". Comparing the upscaled to the high-def, you will be hard-pressed to notice the difference.

The upscaling brings out the full quality of recent digital remasters. Old Technicolor films ("Gone With the Wind", "Singing in the Rain", etc) look as if they were made last year, not the more-than-half-century ago. You will clearly see the tears (sincere and otherwise) welling up in Vivien Leigh's now bright blue eyes.

The real deal maker is the upscaling achieved by applying the "High" level to the remasters of the 1930's black-and-white films ("Astaire and Rogers", "Thin Man", etc.). If you have followed these from theaters to the Late Late Show to videotape and early DVD, one viewing of "Swing Time" will be worth the price of the set. The Art Deco dance floors and Fred's Brylcreemed hair shine like the real things. The "High" level also does wonders for videotapes, as well as standard definition TV viewing.

With the dramatic price reductions in both the XBR4 and the high-def players, particularly the HD DVD variety (they may be obsolete for high-def, but that is not why you want one), now may be the time to investigate and invest. When the Academy considers Oscars for technical achievement next year, this set should definitely be a candidate.

I purchased this TV on Feb 29 2008 and could not have been more disappointed. In 45 days the TV has stopped working. I opted for not taking the store warranty thinking that we pay a premium for Sony quality.

Boy was I wrong, not only did the TV stop working its now more than a week since I called Technical support for in home service and their service, for lack of a better word is nothing short of miserable.

After a week of waiting, I took a day off from work to get the TV fixed, the technician doesn't show up!! He reschedules to another day and even then I can only hope that he shows up today.

If I want to complain, I will have to request another authorized repair shop which means more waiting!!

Completely dissatisfied with both the TV, that stopped working in 45 days, and the service, which is bordering on the lines of non existent.

Update:
Finally after a few more verbal disagreements with the completely incompetent repair guy, he showed up more than an hour and a half late.

As whiny as I sound, he called to reschedule a second time (after a week a waiting) and then again when he finally got there said that if he cannot find parking he will move on. Not sure if they are training their people to ensure that once you request service from Sony, you will never buy from them again.

Thankfully, the TV is now working and hope it will continue to do so.

Once again, if you do find yourself with a 'Lemon' you can be almost assured, at least from my experience, that the customer service if terrible!!

Update 2:
YES....the TV is not working again. And, as you will have it, once again the brilliance of Sony's customer service means at least another week of waiting. If you request quicker service, they cant help because they have to order parts, if you request a refund or an exchange, you have to call during normal working hours. Isn't it fantastic that they actually want you to call from work (yes some of us actually work to be able to afford these things) so that everyone around you is aware of the brilliant Sony product and shadowy customer service (We have spent collectively more than 5 hours with them so we rightfully have an opinion).

This has to be taken into consideration before making your purchase. Customer service is equally important and from my experience, I can reassure you of that fact.

Totally disgruntled at this point. Will definitely update once again with the outcome.

Update 3:
A few more days have passed and I have just been told that the part that the TV needs (the whole panel apparently) is out of stock. I cannot tell you how overjoyed I am that I might have use of my 1 month old TV for another 3 weeks. Owned the TV for 6 weeks and if it does get fixed in three weeks, it will not have been working for about 4 out of the 10 weeks that I have owned the TV.

I encourage everyone to go take this into consideration before any purchase from SONY is made.