XBR-52HX909
4.6
5
16
16
Still the best
Awesome. I have been following all the advancements in TV Tech. and nothing compares to this Sony Bravia XBR-52HX909. I have had this for two years and every time I watch a movie I am impressed at the detail, blacks and richness of color. 3D is great too!
February 23, 2013
Hands Down the Bentley of Televisions
I waited until I've had this set for a while to write an accurate review. To this day, I am yet to see another brand acheive the black levels and picture quality that the XBR does. I walked into best buy and could not find a worthy opponent. (besides another XBR) LG's are too bright and washed out. Samsung is crisp but the lighting is uneven. They focus on being thin more than picture. All in all still the nicest TV I've seen. Heavy though. Scary having 80lbs floating over my kids. 90lbs with the stand. When it goes out it will be a beautiful boat anchor.
June 13, 2012
The best TV that I have ever seen!
Aesthetically speaking, this has got to be the most chic TV that I have ever seen. The only word for it is elegant. You might have to dress up your living room around the TV?It?s that pretty. Even when the set is off, you are staggered by the beauty. You?d being doing something else in the room and catch a glimpse of the side of the TV or the way it looks on the stand and it just takes your breath away.
To watch a TV movie or TV drama show on it is pure joy. Even the TV commercials and regular broadcast news look splendiferous. Everyone?s complexion looks just right and beautiful. Blu ray looks its very best on this set and I think that the 3D experience is JUST RIGHT. There is a tone that is struck regarding light and dark that is breathtaking. It is so-o easy on the eye that I find myself more and more watching TV with my glasses off and I?ve worn glasses for most of my life. Mind you, it?s not that the picture is overly bright; it?s just that they do colors well on this set. The only way that I can describe this is to say that the display and colors are soothing, peaceful, and varied.
The colors pop nicely but not before I had to do some minor tweaking. I normally don?t like continually changing settings to have to seek out the various viewing modes. I just want to watch TV. That being said, the problem that I initially saw was on the channels that broadcast sports. They looked dull to me. I could always just select the ?sports? setting but then I knew that I would be making the TV too bright, thus shortening the life span of the TV. I had no intention of doing this to such an expensive set. So what I did was selected the cinema setting. I raised the Hue one notch to ?R1? (controls the red colors) and I raised the ?sharpness? and ?color? (saturation level) settings to ?55? respectively. This was only five points over the default setting. The color temperature is set to ?neutral?. These minor tweaks made all of the difference in the world. The red colors popped and, I?m telling you, the color blue is a thing to behold on this TV. In the ?advanced? setting, I left everything as is except for the ?live color?. I set that to medium. These few tweaks did the trick. The picture is gorgeous no matter what content I am watching. Oh, by the way, I did this under the ?common? memory setting so that the settings remain the same across the board, no matter the content. Simple.
I had to do an internet update when I first received the TV. This is apparently common now with most new TVs and receivers that have the internet on them. I used an Ethernet cable and attached it to the LANs port on the back of the TV with the other end going into the back of my router. I was immediately connected to the net and was up and running in no time. I don?t stream anything so I can?t speak to this. Once you watch a Blu Ray movie?nothing else will do. I just disconnected the Ethernet cable when I was done.
The remote control for the TV is a well thought out design. I was impressed with this because I normally stay away from Sony products because they usually have the most nonsensical menu layouts and the most non-user friendly remote controls. However, they got it right this time. It makes sense. It's functional. Every function button you could possibly need is at the touch of your hand except for the sleep timer button. If you want to find the sleep timer, you have to push the ?home? button on the remote control, then scroll left to the settings menu, then to preferences and then to clock/timers. It is in that menu that you will find the sleep timer. The good news is that the menu navigates so well that you get there rather quickly. It?s just a stupid thing to do. I truly believe that Sony must want you to leave your TV on all night. If that is not so, then they should put the sleep button on the remote control where it is on every other manufacturer?s TV and receiver remote. What?s really funny about it is that I called Sony technical support to ask them where it was and he couldn?t locate it either. I actually stumbled across it. It is just so counter-intuitive.
The TV menu is virtually the same interface as the Play Station 3 Menu. In my opinion, that is the smartest menu that I have ever used. They also have what is called an ?I manual? button on the remote control. Brilliant. Press this to learn the ins and outs of the TV set. I promise you that you will learn your set quickly because of this feature.
It is wonderful on this TV. If you are one of the many people concerned about eye strain or nausea then?worry no more. There were no headaches or nausea from anyone that viewed it on this TV when they came to my house. Remember how I mentioned earlier that The TV is soothing to the eye. Well, when you are watching a movie in 3D, there is no overwhelming strain on your eyes. It?s just a great experience. I have some 3D movies and my favorite is the movie ?Piranah 3D?. This is a fun, over-the- top movie. It has gore in it and I hate gore but it is done so well that you don?t see gore. You just see some serious man-eating fish tearing up some people. It is a true back-in-the-day horror flick. It makes you grab the person next to you in a fun way. My point is it?s the perfect movie experience in 3D. Of course the kids animation movies all look great and ?Alice and wonderland was excellent in 3D.
The glasses are good looking, fit well and work well. Naturally, they need to communicate with the transmitter that sits on top of the TV so, if you walk out of the room while you still have the glasses on you will break the connection. That makes sense so just sit the glasses on the table so the transmitter can still communicate with the glasses when you walk out so that the signal will not be broken.
You just sit the 3D Transmitter on the top or bottom of your TV and you are in business. You plug the other end into a port in the back of the TV. It worked immediately. Once you turn your Blu Ray player on, the transmitter and Blu Ray player sync to each other.
I am using the Play Station 3 as my 3D player as well as my Blu Ray player. It works extremely well since the Play Station 3 is one of the, if not, the best Blu Ray player out there. While the PS3 plays HD Master Audio (lossless) on regular Blu Ray Discs wonderfully, it does not do it on the 3D movie discs. It drops the sound down to DTS. I still get many options of sound i.e. discrete etc. (but not HD Master Audio). I had to do a lot of research to confirm that it doesn?t do it for 3D movies. I hope that they can do an update for that. If not, I?ll have to look into purchasing a 3D player that does that because I?m used to that sound now. It?s not killing me but?I?m not happy about it either.
This TV Plays Very Well with Others. I am using the Onkyo TX-NR708 receiver and the TV works extremely well with it. I am using it for 7.1 channel surround sound.
I Can Watch TV with Receiver off Or On. On the TV I have the ARC Channel turned to ?off? and on the receiver the ARC Channel set to ?off? as well. The ?Bravia Sync? on the TV is also set to ?off?. With these three things set to ?off?, I can watch TV when I want without having the receiver on and I can use the regular TV volume for sound.
I have my receiver HDMI control set to ?on? and I have the TV HDMI control set to ?off?. That way, my receiver controls the HDMI and all of my other equipment passes through it including the PS3 and my other HDMI devices. This TV will allow you to do this but be sure to turn your TV volume down when you feel like watching TV with the receiver on. Another reason why this is important to me is because I don?t upscale anything. I love my black and white station in its original aspect ratio and the stations that are in the 16:9 aspect ratios come through in their original format.
I then have the one HDMI cord going from the receiver?s HDMI ?out? and then into the TVs HDMI ?in? and I don?t have to worry about the fact that is says ARC HDMI on the TV input port because I disabled it.
April 17, 2011
Very Good TV
Excellent tv. Well built. Alot of settings to help you set your perfect picture. Gorgeous black levels. Motionflow is really smooth but can be switched off. 3D is awesome to show off with visitors. Glasses are comfortable. Menu system a little sluggish. Wide variety of online video & Netflix etc. Price is expensive but it shows when the tv is up and running.
April 16, 2011
