- 16:9 Full HD 1080p Resolution Panel (1920×1080)
- TRILUMINOS RGB Dynamic LED Backlight Display
- BRAVIA Engine 2 PRO fully digital video processor
- Motionflow 120Hz PRO technology
- DMex capable
The Sony BRAVIA XBR8-Series HDTVs represent the next step forward for Sony HDTV technology. Underpinning this advance is the TRILUMINOS RGB Dynamic LED backlight, which utilizes clusters of red, green, and blue LEDs to produce accurate colors and an amazingly realistic image, and employs local dimming to dynamically adjust the brightness of LED clusters, allowing the XBR8 to display deep blacks alongside bright whites for enhanced image depth and exceptional shadow … More >>
Tags: 1080p, 120Hz, 55Inch, Bravia, HDTV, KDL55XBR8, Sony, Triluminos
I actually own one. It is hard to imagine how a picture on a TV based on the current ATSC encoding could look any better. The blacks are “black-black”. The colors are intense. The picture is bright. The only limitation I can see has more to do with the source material than with the TV itself.
I have DirectTV HD and Sony blu-ray, I also have rabbit ears for local TV. I will for the purposes of this review, ignore Analog TV and VCR, both of which are beyond obsolete.
With standard 480 source, the mosquito filtering is poor or non-existant. I am not sure if this is because of the TV, because of the upscaling of the DirectTV HD-DVR or because of the original network processing. However with true HD source (either 720P or 1080i), the results are stunning. The 3-D processing (two dimensions of the picture and one dimension of time) to interpolate intermediate frames is just stunning. With any other TV, I have learned how to see the macro blocking when the compression is running at the limit, but this TV does an incredible job of not only smoothing out the inter-frame judder, but it remarkably sharpens the picture for those interpolated frames as well. When I pause a picture with the DVR, you can see macro blocks, but as soon as you press “play”, you can actually see the motion processor cutting in.
The results with a good blu-ray disk are, well, get your popcorn and 64 oz cup of soda because it is better than a movie theater since it is brighter.
I have two complaints, both of them “nits”. The first is that it takes way too much effort to set the sleep timer. Obviously Sony did not anticipate that a lot of users would use this TV to fall asleep on the couch with. Its not a big deal, but other TVs have a one button sleep button – the height of lazy, I’ll admit. The other thing is that the “universal” remote doesn’t know how to control the DirectTV HD-DVR. Like all other universal remotes, you still need a remote caddy in your La-Z-Boy to keep all of your other ones…
Of course the obvious down side is the $7,000 price, but YGWYPF.
Rating: 5 / 5
This television is fantastic – only problem is ….it’s too good! It reveals all of the garbage signals that the hd providers are outputting! The various compression techniques, the huge breakups and distortions, out of focus imagery – All is revealed in larger than life quality on this monitor! But, that’s why I got it. This TV is directly connected to an HD editorial suite for client viewing and when monitoring a fully uncompressed HD 4:2:2 image via HDMI from the edit suite it’s amazing.
Bluray is great too –
Too bad HD content on cable and dish is so substandard.
(And also that no one seems to be aware of this) So much for the new horizon of digital!
Rating: 5 / 5
We now have one (1) 55inch xbr8 and two (2) 46inch xbr8s in the house. The 55 is in the living-room with all the audio equipment. One of the 46 sets is in the den and the other in the master bedroom. We have studied hundreds of other sets over the years. The Sony xbr8 technology makes the others look like they are from “Toys Are Us”. The picture is almost 3 dimentional when viewing a good blu-ray disc on a high end player. Upscaled standard definition DVDs are remarkable on this set. Good quality Film Noir is very good with the xbr8. The blu-ray of Casablanca is nothing short of amazing on the xbr8. The den set is often on most of the day (until we switch to the living room for evening viewing) and the set runs quite cool. Even viewing standard definition cable is vastly inmproved from other sets on the xbr8. Yes, it is expensive, but worth every bit of it. If watching movies is what you do–this is worth the investment. I do not thing I will be looking for another set until they “perfect” 3D for the consumer. I suspect this will be several years in the future. Now xbr8 technology in a perfected 3D format will be something to look forward to.
Rating: 5 / 5
I bought this TV more than a week ago. Here are my reviews:
Pros:
Picture quality: BD-excellent, regular DVD-very good, regular TV programming-average.
Sound quality: very good.
Remote Control: looks good and easy to operate.
Setup: relatively easy.
Cons:
It takes at least half an hour to perform Auto Channel Search, just like the manual says.
The manual also indicates that it takes more than 24 hours to complete the onscreen TV guide setup. So far it has been more than a week, but the status info still shows “In Progress”, or no TV guide yet!
Price: still way too high, even though it has dropped from $6,999 to $5,999.
Wait until further price drop if you can!
Rating: 4 / 5
I’ve been waiting for the price to drop on this TV for several months. It finally came down to a point where I figure the next change will be the model being discontinued.
At $4,500, it ain’t cheap, considering that you can get 120MHz 1080p large screens for not much more than $1,000 these days. Samsung is coming out with a 65″ LCD soon for about six grand, and it will probably be eye popping.
So is it worth it to buy this model. Definitely yes!
I can’t tell you about things like judder, refresh rates, or all that technical stuff. I just know what common sense tells me. One thing is, with the recent acceptance of BluRay, 1080p will likely be around as a standard for high def for quite a while. Broadcast standards may improve to 1080p from 1080i, but I doubt it will be soon. So if you’re looking for higher res sets, it will likely be a long wait.
OK. so why spend the extra $3,000 since even the cheaper TVs are now 1080p?
The answer, contrast, black levels, exquisite picture quality. Look at any LCD TV and notice that black in the picture is nothing close to the black of the bezel on the TV. With the Sony XBR8, it is black. I guess you could get a black like that on a plasma set, but LCD is much more efficient, and for the amount of time my TV is on, that amounts to a lot of electricity (and generated heat).
In the end, I think this is as nice a picture as you could get in a TV this size, and considering that a lot of people spent $7,000 or more not long ago, at $4,500 it is a relative bargain.
I’m delighted with this purchase.
Rating: 5 / 5