Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony KDL-32N4000 - 32" BRAVIA LCD TV - widescreen - 720p - HDTV - chrome, gloss piano black

I'm the first reviewer? Wow. Do I get a prize for that? I guess not...

This is an excellent choice for a first HDTV, or for installation in a bedroom or small apartment living room. The picture (with a little tweaking) is GREAT and the set comes with a Dolby 5.1 sound system.

This may sound strange, but my highest praise is for the remote control. The mark of a great remote is "How fast can I find the buttons I want in the dark?" On that score, this is the best remote I've ever seen (felt). The "most used" buttons are distinct from each other in shape and placement, and everything has a very solid feel.

I would say the manual is well written but I've hardly used it. Setup took only 30 minutes, including the process for finding all the available channels. The menus are easy to learn quickly. One of the first things you'll do is take the darn thing out of the store display mode (unless you don't need your retinas anymore). Find the Cinema Mode in the Picture menu and start from there. It will seem too dim at first, but let yourself get used to it for a day or two before you make any more changes. You'll also want to play with the sound settings. You'll probably find one you like for regular TV and another for movies.

One area where the smaller (32") set has an advantage is the display of low-resolution content. One of my absolute requirements is that my older DVDs MUST look good. They look great on this TV! You can certainly tell it's not HD, but there's no "fuzziness to the point of distraction". I also didn't detect any motion blur.

I'm very satisified (so far) with this purchase. If I find anything to gripe about, I'll post it as a reply to this review.

I bought this HDTV direct from Sony (www.sonystyle.com) after I got a lemon Samsung delivered by Amazon.

The KDL-32N4000 is a great HDTV. I did a lot of online and in-store comparison shopping prior to picking it, and I always found Sonys standout in the lineups.

Very impressed overall with design, form, and function compared to Samsung and Sharp. It has great color, great sound, and no detectable motion blur. Sony takes all aspects of design and function very seriously, and it shows. It has a very easy to learn and clean user interface, which is nice. The essential manual buttons are on top (but hidden from direct view), making it a nice child proof feature.

Save your money and get a Sony 720p 60Hz (upto 37" screens) instead of the 1080p 120Hz. Get a 1080p if you really must have it for watching native 1080p feeds. There will not be any 1080p TV broadcasts for many years.

I've been living ecstatically with the 32N4000 for 3 months now and my only regret is that I didn't shell out a couple more hundred bucks for the 37" version. Still, I think about buying a 32" high definition LCD with 5.1 stereo surround for $800 bucks retail and I have to smile and thank my lucky stars I picked the right set.

OK, let's get real. If you already have a surround sound system then this is not the set for you. You can simply buy the 32M4000 with its conventional stereo speakers and be just as happy. But if you are like I was and surround soundless then this is without a doubt the way to go. If you've never experienced watching a movie in 5.1 surround in your home then you don't know what you're missing and this is the easiest and most integrated way of finding out.

The key to the 32N4000 sound performance is not in the 5 channel speakers (three on the set and two satellites) but the .1 subwoofer which allows the satellites to sing without having to croak into the lower registers. At 55 watts per channel in total, this system won't score any Richter scale points but for someone like myself, living in a Manhattan studio apartment, it is akin to sonic nirvana. Before this set I used to get complaints from my neighbors all the time when I tried to crank up the speakers on my conventional TV. Now I can play movies as loud as I like and no one seems to mind. I think it has to do with how the sound is dispersed and the fact that tiny TV speakers aren't trying to recreate the lowest frequencies.

The picture quality is so supreme that you'll probably end up doing as I did and switching cable boxes for the HDTV version. I also recently added a blu-ray player to the package - superfun!

The 32N4000 is so awesome that if the state of New York legally recognized unions between people and electronics, I'd marry it!

Ordered this TV around Christmas and it arrived on Dec 30th. Packed well and rec'd in excellent condition. There is a yellow sheet in the box that explains how to hook up the two power cords. Note: The TV sits on the subwoofer and it serves as a stand. The sheet describes with pictures how to plug in the subwoofer, but not the TV. There is a big red X over the power cord hookup for the TV. The layman would then think the TV gets its power from the connection to the subwoofer/stand. Not so. My first call was to Sony to ask why no picture. Sony had no idea. Plugging in the TV solved the problem! -duh?-then why is the yellow sheet in the box taped to the TV? The second call had to do with the subwoofer and surround (SS) not working. It does not appear to say it in the book, but the surround will only work when the TV audio setting is in Matrix. When playing a movie, change the setting to Movie. Still, the surround sound and subwoofer are of moderate value. I would recommend leaving off the subwoofer for the higher price (N model) and get the M model and use your own surround sound with amp. Lastly, there is the remote control. This is the worst design I've ever seen. Skinny and the channel/volume controls are at the bottom. So you can't operate it with one hand unless you hold the remote at the very bottom. The mute button is a recessed switch at the very bottom. Why recessed? All the TV setup controls are up at the top where one usually operates the TV. The remote should be wider and flat like an All-in-One remote. So, in conclusion, I am well satisfied with the picture and the sound is not any better than some Samsungs I've recently seen that do not have the subwoofer and SS. You would think the SS comes alive during an adventure movie, but it does not unless you turn the volume way up.

I found this TV on Amazon during a search for my first LCD Hi Def TV. The low price of 599 and the 5.1 Dolby surround sound were selling points for this unit for my bedroom. It arrived on time, set up was a breeze, and the picture and sound are phenomenal. This model seems hard to find and I am very glad I got it. The only downside was having to pay the NYS sales tax due to the location of the vendor. Still, I couldn't be happier with this TV.