Setting it up
Typically, two people can easily accomplish hauling an LCD panel out of the car and into the house. My 13 year-old daughter and I chatted casually as we walked in with this hefty 32" television. (The 1988 memory of my Dad and I schlepping a 27" Sony tube TV out of the car and into the living room still makes my back hurt.)
Elise helped me carry the box into the family room and disappeared, leaving me to fend for myself. No sweat — it was an easy hoist out of the box to the main shelf of our entertainment center.
I was immediately struck by two observations: Sony builds the stand into the TV (made for super-easy setup), and the display sports a new black trim. The black trim was a slight disappointment at first, as I dig the silver look. But now that I've come to love this television so much, I see the black trim as a distinguishing characteristic of a distinguished piece of high-performance electronics.
The first thing I did was to grab a strand of standard RCA red/white/yellow hookup cable for audio/video and apply it to the three component video connections on my Pioneer DVD player.
Roomy, recessed rear panels for easy power and signal connections.
At this point, I should note Sony's friendly connection layout. Connection was easy; I could see what I was doing. The jacks are grouped logically and with plenty of maneuvering space for cables of varing thicknesses. The array is nicely recessed — essential for wall-mounting when running wires behind sheet rock, as the display will hang flush against the wall.
Handy, side-accessible input jacks and CableCARD™ slot.
I also like the set of hidden side-panel inputs and the ergonomically friendly grouping of basic controls on the right-hand side of the panel. The inputs provide easy access for temporary plug-ins like a camcorder or laptop, and the controls are great for making that quick adjustment when futzing around the entertainment center, without having to leap back to the couch to find the remote.
I made sure to set my Pioneer DVD player's screen output to widescreen, so that any widescreen movie would take advantage of the set's 16:9 display area. I also set its component video output to progressive scan, in order to avail myself of the TV's capability to display progressive scan's sharper, deeper picture quality.
I then turned my attention to the TV's built-in tuner. I needed to set up my analog cable channels and also the two over-the-air digital channels in our area. I borrowed a colleague's Terk HDTVi antenna and connected it just below the cable connection. (Sony has two RF/coaxial input jacks well separated from the other audio and video inputs on the back panel, for easy access.) Since the set had already been on display at Crutchfield's Charlottesville store, I saw no Initial Setup screen when I turned it on. So, I had to crack the well-written and well-organized owner's manual to find out that I access channel settings via the super-handy Wega Gate control ring in the center of the remote. Channel setup up was easy and relatively quick; it took about ten minutes, though Sony is considerate to alert you that it can take up to 50 minutes for the TV to learn your channel array.
Wega Gate ring allows intuitive, powerful control.
As for audio connections, although the DVD player stays connected to my stereo, the cable and antenna feeds broadcast audio to the TV only. I could have used the Bravia's audio outputs to send TV audio to my stereo; but because my current TV has no audio outputs, I decided to forego running new wire (a project that would have required some serious behind-the-entertainment-center rewiring contortions). This means I listened to the Bravia's stereo speakers — mounted in the thin strip below the display and powered by an internal 13 watt x 2 amp — a lot. I'm happy to report that the sound is good for a TV. It's fairly full, not tinny, and the speakers play cleanly at as loud a level as I'll ever want to crank them.
Optimizing picture and sound
I generally don't like to tweak settings on my A/V gear; I'm the classic "set it and forget it" user of electronics. But the Bravia set's picture is so revealing that I find myself drawn to use the extensive picture control capability it offers. Need to back off on the hyper-realistic look of a highly stylized film like Spiderman? Snag the remote and back down the "picture" (contrast) level. Want to optimize color balance to make that football game look perfect? Experiment with the hue adjustment. The Wega Gate menu lets you do it all onscreen while you're watching.
Additionally, I was curious to see if I was cheating myself out of better video signal transfer, since I had used a standard set of RCA A/V cables for my initial DVD hookup. So I swapped 'em for some dedicated component video cables that our training department was kind enough to lend me. I've got to admit that I saw a noticeable, if not dramatic, improvement in image cleanliness.
Upon the suggestion of Steve Kindig (Crutchfield Advisor's resident TV expert), I also conducted an A/B test of the Pioneer's progressive scan output with the Bravia's built-in digital video processing, simply by switching between the DVD player's progressive and interlaced settings. The difference was obvious, but inconclusive as to which looked better. Letting the Sony TV do the upconverting resulted in a slightly brighter picture whose colors were a little "washed out" compared to the more saturated colors provided by the Pioneer's direct progressive scan output. This little test also made me realize that the Bravia XBR makes DVD still frames (paused images) look like works of art suitable for hanging.
