AyurBuy.com

Sony Bravia XBR KDL-52XBR4 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV Review from Douglas Barber OB doc. Very, very good TV, I don’t usually write alot of reviews, but I did a lot of research for this tv purchase. We were upgrading our family room tv from a 35in 720p toshiba tv. We were looking at the 52 inch mark, plasma vs lcd. In a quick review make sure you consider what room you will be placing your new tv into. You are about to spend big bucks make sure you are honest about where these tvs are going or you will be unhappy!

First Plasma vs LCD (This comes from my reading again at higher end plasma vs lcd at the $3000-4000 range 52in-61in)

Plasma

Good

-Clearly plasma edges lcd in contrast. If you are looking for the truest blacks plasma wins hands down

-Long life 80000+ viewing hours

-Some people complain of motion artifact in lcds. The “triple football” effect. Plasma does not seem to have this problem.

-Clearly cheaper than lcd at the 46in+ mark, Significantly cheaper if looking at the 60+ inch

Bad

-Heavy (don’t think you are going to mount this baby on the wall yourself

-Screen reflection (Must be in a room with low light to no light to really enjoy) Great for dedicated movie room …family room with windows not so much.

-Burn in for gamers—I think they are working on this but don’t take a chance

LCDs

Good

Maybe not the best for true black, but truly excellent. You won’t know unless you are a cnet reviewer.

Light- you can move this with your significant other

No chance of burn in

New 120hz refresh has made ghosting football effect no longer an issue

Now have big computer screen if you want to hook up a pc

No reflection from screen. Works well in rooms with light

Bad

If you are looking at 60+inch tv’s the price is crazy for lcd— go get a plasma or direct view

Not the truest of blacks if you must have the truest of true

Ok so that being said the sony xbr seemed like it fit the bill for me. I needed ~52inch, has to go in family room, must work with xbox/playstation. I also watch lots of football so I had to take that into consideration.

Armed with this I went out looking at tv’s. LCD overall fit what I was looking for and as I said unless you are making a dedicated movie room go with lcd. As a note sony believes in lcd tech so much they stopped making plasma screens! Don’t know if this is all that but sony usually knows their business.

So going out looking at 52 inch lcds you will run into a few choices—

Sony, Samsung, Toshiba, and Sharp.

Quickly I will note that toshiba and sharp are on the lower end. Less contrast, less hdmi inputs etc…however are usually less money! So be sure to look, but overall the samsung and sony tvs are far superior for a few hundred extra. So if you are reading this you are clearly looking at the xbr sonys. It really came down for me to Sony xbr4 vs the Samsung 71 series. These are really close or even almost the same tvs. The sony xbr4 has 3hdmi, 1:13000 contrast, and 120hz. The samsung 71 also 3hdmi, 120hz, but 1-25000 contrast. The contrast generally considered the amount of true black from the screen. Overall I would say that gave the edge to the samsung and if you read reviews you will see people raving about the samsung vs the sony xbr. However! and this is a big however! Samsung coats their lcd’s with a coating that does have a moderate amount of reflection. I have no idea why as this killed it for me. And I am serious that you need to think about the lights in your room. If you have any windows or lights if front of the tv that is what you will be seeing in a plasma or samsung. It will drive you nuts! There is no NO reflection from the xbr4. So ultimately I purchased the xbr4 from amazon. The picture is amazing from my hd tivo to bluray, hd dvd, and standard is well standard. Although numbers say the samsung is better in the real world you will not notice the difference. So I am happy to say this is a five star tv.

Also of note:

Sony offers the xbr5 version of this tv. $400 for a piano gloss black rim. Not worth it to me for plastic.

Samsung also offers an 81 series, with 1:500000, and increased backlights. They are about 1G more than the 71 series and xbrs and if you are looking at high end plasmas, I would take a look at these too. However, same reflective coat.

Decide this isn’t for you and want to go plasma… Well I looked at that too. Stick to Panasonic and Pioneer and you can’t go wrong. Pioneer kuros hands down the best plasma to date!!!!

Good luck

PS—–I didn’t have any problems with amazon white glove. TV was purfect. I was called and two guys unpacked with no problem, even helped move the other tv.

Click here to see full story, check price or purchase Sony Bravia XBR KDL-52XBR4 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV.

Related posts with Sony Bravia XBR KDL-52XBR4 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV Review

• Sony Bravia XBR KDL-32XBR4 32" LCD HDTV | Wild Kat sunblazer’s Review
• Sony Bravia XBR KDL-46XBR6 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV | Jonathan VanOsten jvo’s Review
• Sony Bravia XBR-Series KDL-V32XBR2 32-Inch LCD HDTV | John W Nickelson’s Review
• Toshiba 23HLV87 23-Inch LCD HDTV with DVD Player | basicblur’s Review
• Samsung LNS3241D 32-Inch LCD HDTV | matteo’s Review
• Toshiba REGZA 52RV535U 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV | Mike M Difrakhsh Persianswede’s Review
• Sony Bravia XBR-Series KDL-32XBR6 32-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV | John E Pombrio John Pombrio’s Review
• Sony BRAVIA S-Series KDL-52S5100 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV, Black | Julio Barrenechea’s Review
• Sony Bravia XBR-Series KDL-46XBR2 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV | Travis Dockweiler tdockweiler’s Review
• Toshiba 19AV600U 19-Inch 720p Portable LCD HDTV, Black | Dale J PianoMan’s Review
• Sony BRAVIA V-Series KDL-46V5100 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV | Heero’s Review
• Sony Bravia M-Series KDL-26M3000 26-Inch 720p LCD HDTV | Calvin Won’s Review
• Sony BRAVIA XBR KDL-70XBR3
• Sony BRAVIA XBR KDL-70XBR3 | Doctor P Huzzah’s Review
• Sony BRAVIA W-Series KDL-46W4100 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV | Marc’s Review