Sony Bravia Kdl S40A12U Lcd Tv 100CM

Superb pictures with equally great sound - a supreme combination!

Widely accepted as a design classic with its floating glass panel and one of the best Freeview TVs around, we were very happy with our 32” Sony KDL-L32MRX1 (MRX1), however had always wanted its 42” sibling, unaffordable at £5000! In the past 18 months prices have dropped remarkably, and having visited many dealers, debating for almost a month mainly on what we felt was poorer DVB (Freeview) picture quality compared to the MRX1, we finally took the plunge and purchased the 40” Sony BRAVIA KDL-W40A12U (W40). 10 days on and this is how we feel…

Some Freeview pictures are truly awful (don’t panic!), however, you start appreciating that this is related to each channel’s compression and the programme material transmitted. For example, watching Heartbeat (ITV1) and Judge John Deed (BBC1) live, we were very happy, and ER on C4 extremely happy! On the other hand watching Eastenders on BBC1 was not so pleasing and the Quiz Channel was simply yugh! With a 30% increase in screen size we expected to notice digital artefacts more, however this has not been the case. With minimal adjustment of “standard” picture settings we soon realised that the pure and natural colours we liked so much on the MRX1 were reproducible on the W40. Live DVB broadcasts can actually be very good and our fears that they were not as good as on the MRX1 were soon dispelled.

Watching recordings from a PVR (Panasonic TU-CTH100) provided interesting results – basically almost always better than the same programme live! My wife, who's past vocation involved digital imaging, explained to me that, especially in sonography, whilst they relied on real time imaging they always referred back to post processed images, as the latter were better, and in principle would have thought the same situation applied with DVB signal processing. Reasonable enough, as on viewing live DVB broadcasts from the Panasonic, there was little difference in quality compared to the Sony in-built tuner, however, on viewing the same recorded programmes the overall image was considerably sharper with better colour saturation, and suffered from less blur or motion smear (Desperate Housewives on C4 was amazing, almost as good as a DVD!).

Viewing Lost (from a US Region 1 DVD) via component inputs to a PAL Progressive player, and considering it is 480p (not the higher resolution 576p with Region 2), we were simply blown away – pure yet vivid colours, incredible sharpness giving an almost 3D feel! Black backgrounds seem to be better on most plasma panels, however, the W40 makes a very good effort and is a noticeable improvement on the MRX1’s dark grey. Conspicuous by its absence is the almost total lack of motion smear when viewing a DVD and almost certainly helps attain the stunning clarity, and probably also helps the clarity on the better (less compressed) Freeview channels – a huge improvement over the MRX1.

Since High Definition (HD) broadcasts are not readily available I will not discuss it much, suffice to say that at the dealer it was being demonstrated at, with official Sony HD recordings (video from Las Vegas, Vancouver, etc) output from the RDR-HXD910 Hard Drive Recorder with an HDMI connection, the pictures were jaw-dropping - you would almost buy the W40 just on that basis! Roll on HD TV!

A little nugget (not mentioned in the operating manual), is that picture adjustment (for colour, contrast, brightness, gamma, backlight and sharpness) for each source input (e.g. tuner, SCART for PVR and component for DVD) can be made and memorised individually, as what’s good for one is not necessarily good for the other – very useful indeed and is applicable for sound too!

The W40 is not only about superb picture quality; it’s about sound too! The S-Master amplifier (normally used in Sony’s mid to high-end audio equipment) produces exceptionally clear and loud (up to 100 watts) results with wonderful deepness generated from its unique woofer. Dolby Virtual may not be 5.1, however, with it’s 4 adjustable presets day to day listening has never sounded better and probably better than anything else on the market – my brother-in-law’s “square” Sony V32 sounds thin and tinny in comparison!

Aesthetically, the W40 is not as elegant as the MRX1, however it grows on you and in our opinion is better looking than the current “square” models offered by most manufacturers including Sony! In terms of physical dimensions the W40 is actually only slightly wider than the L32MRX1, however, considerably deeper. The latter is mainly due to the "media box" components of the MRX1 and the woofer being integrated in to the main TV chassis. Not present is the MRX1’s Sony Memory Stick reader, which is no great loss, however, the omission of the PC input is somewhat disappointing. The W40 is perhaps not as robustly built as the MRX1 that was built like a Rolls-Royce (right down to the remote control), however its build is more Audi-like but with superior performance.

A great TV that is good looking too should be shown off! That’s what we did, however, don’t do it! If you purchase a non-Sony mount (e.g. Alphason AG94/2 or similar cantilever stand) or wall bracket the woofer that’s intrinsic to the supplied table top stand will be forfeited when the latter is removed (pretty pointless when you’ve spent more money for better sound!), hence why Sony's optional stand or wall mount bracket are so expensive as each of them has a replacement woofer built in! Basically, other manufacturer VESA stands and wall mounts are not compatible with the W40 and Sony UK should warn of this. Fortunately, we have found on an eminently suitable Vogels table stand to display this other wise wonderful television!

FANTASTIC !!!!!!!! SELL YOUR WIFE/MOTHER

Related Links: Sony LCD TVs