Sony Bravia KDL-40W3000 Review

The Sony Bravia KDL-40W3000 is a great piece of equipment and a beautiful HDTV. However, it would be an even better flat screen to purchase if they would lower its street price of $1999. Its not a perfect HDTV but unlike some of the other models, it has very few flaws to distract from what it has to offer a consumer.

For the average viewer of this television, they will be hard pressed to notice that the image quality is not perfect. The onscreen pictures look fine and offer a good view and you would have to pay close attention to notice a dull quality that is sometimes visible.

In this Sony LCD TV, they have saved room by joining the picture in picture and freeze frame buttons in one easy to access section. When you hit the freeze button you will immediately notice that the TV will freeze as the small PIP square presents itself. While you are looking at the picture in picture, the larger screen that you were previouly viewing will freeze so that you will not miss any of the action while you attempt to take a quick glance at another channel.

The only downside to the picture in picture and freeze frame mode is that Sony neglected to add multiple tuners leaving you with no option for viewing two channels at once. However, they did include a jack to connect your headphones. This will make it easier for you to watch TV without disturbing other people in your household.

Most of us will not place our flat screens in high and hard to reach areas and the convenient location of the menu and control buttons means that you will no longer have to bend down to play with the controls. Unlike most models of flat screen, Sony has placed the controls on the top instead of the bottom and sides. Consumers who may have back problems can easily use the controls if they cannot find the remote right away.

A fatal flaw in this Sony Bravia TV involves the remote control. The design of the remote is more visually pleasing than it is useful. You will not find a menu control and you will instead have to go through other options on the remote to reach that setting. You will find that a number of actions have to be performed before you can reach the desired control that you were searching for. It can also be confusing trying to scroll through the options as it is not always clear which way you should go if you hope to proceed.

While the remote offers a lot of key issues when you first begin, it will become easier to use once you become accustomed to its design. After the initial setup and installation, you will not have a lot of use for the menu options, so its lack of a good position on the remote won't be a problem for very long.

The use of the remote may offer some problems that will resolve themselves at a later time, but the actual remote itself may cause further problems for consumers. The remote control is extremely long due to its many buttons and this can lead to difficulty when you are trying to work the controls.

Overall, if you are not turned off by the problems with the remote, you will love the Sony Bravia and get a lot of use out of this great HDTV.