So how did it look?
Color rendering. The first thing my wife (who's not easily impressed by the toys I bring home from the office) said after plopping down on the couch was, "The colors don't look phony." I think that's because the brain isn't having to accept a color that it knows isn't accurate as a substitute for the real color — you know, the mental leap that associates a weird green with a memory of the true green it's supposed to represent. Flesh tones are similarly on the money. And the blacks are much deeper than any I've seen on an LCD. Usually they appear as various shades of grey. Eye color cuts through, making people look so much more like, well, people. Other than those who have met him, who knew that Cream's Jack Bruce has penetrating dark green eyes that match the jade bracelet he sported onstage at Royal Albert Hall?
Brightness. I've always loved the evenness and into-the-corners lighting of flat-panel TVs, but the Bravia packs more luminosity than other LCDs I've seen and gives good plasma screens a run for their money.
Screen-door effect. On the LCD TVs I've brought home in the past, I could usually see the pixels ? especially at close to medium range, call it 4-8 feet. With this television, medium-range viewing is generally fine; close-range can still look slightly "pixelled," but that's only when at an arm's length away.
Dimensionality. Extraordinary depth of field and 3-D accuracy are among the hallmarks of this TV. When peering out over Clapton's shoulder at the Cream audience, the camera revealed clearly etched facial features and clothing detail on fans dozens of rows back. When fed the high-definition signal from NBC's coverage of Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, I could see window detail in office buildings a couple of blocks down 34th Street. (And while we're on the miracle of HDTV, did you know that New York parade confetti is multicolored?)
Naturalness of picture. Every LCD monitor I've spent time with has had a high-contrast, hyper-realistic picture that I can only describe as "computery." Works beautifully for an animated film, but doesn't work quite as well for photographic imaging. The Bravia has no such limitations. As much of a salesperson's clich? as it might be to say, viewing a high-def source on this monitor is akin to looking out the window. And when viewing standard-definition sources, the picture again rivals that of a fine tube or plasma television.
Angled viewing. I was also surprised at how well I was able to view the screen from the side ? even at an extreme angle. I made a point of comparing it against other TVs on display at a TV expo here at Crutchfield and it fared well. Not only did it compare favorably against top LCD competition, but its side-to-side viewing stood up to a high-end plasma display as well. (That's noteworthy because plasma TVs generally perform better off-axis than LCDs and most display technologies other than traditional tubes.)
