Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony BRAVIA KDL-V40A12U 40" Widescreen HD Ready LCD TV with FREEVIEW

I got my Sony Bravia 40" LCD TV about a month ago and I have to say that I am very impressed with the quality of the picture. It is completely stunning. The picture contrast, brightness, noise reduction and sharpness are all configurable and by far the best I've seen on any LCD or plasma TV. The response rate is excellent and I would recommend this product.
I have currently only used it with my Sky+ box (via scart lead) and DVD player (via component input) so I've not got around to trying out the inbuild FreeView decoder. Best quality is achieved with component input and a DVD player. It is awesome - just like being at the cinema. This television has no shortage of inputs with three scart inputs, component input, video composite and HDMI. The only input that I would have liked to have seen is either a DVI or VGA - but you can get DVI to HDMI cables, so that is not great disadvantage.
It is a little pricey, but you do get the impression that you are paying for a quality product and not just a state of the art premium.

If you buy a flat panel TV at the moment you've got two competing technologies: plasma and LCD. In my experience LCD TVs seem to give a better picture with an average signal (e.g. from a Sky digibox via RGB SCART) while plasmas seem to be better with a higher quality signal (e.g. high quality DVD video via HDMI). Plasma have had in the past problems with burn-in, but this probably no longer an issue if they are treated correctly. Plasmas should also give a wider viewing angle, suiting wider rooms, although LCDs are catching up a bit.
The Sony KDL-V40 is a 40" TV from from the latest Sony KDL LCD TV generation. It is nicely designed, complete with a rotating TV stand. The picture quality is very good, even from a Sky digibox, and it feels like home cinema. It has none of the motion smearing of earlier LCDs, and is great for football. It has been touted as the best LCD TV yet in the press. It doesn't seem to be too sensitive to signal quality either. I have also run a Playstation2 via component (YCbCr) and both games and DVD are excellent. Its sound quality is only average, with too little bass: however I use external speakers, so that doesn't matter to me. What is cool is that if you shut off the internal speakers you can control the volume to my hi-fi by the volume control.

Inputs are comprehensive, except it has no VGA PC input. It has a comprehensive list of options; the pre-set "vivid" picture adjustment should be changed to give a well balanced picture. The noise reduction is very good for clearing up over-compressed signals. The only thing that annoyed me is that when you watch a film with a greater aspect ratio than 16:9 the "zoom" option doesn't zoom in on the picture but stretches the picture to fill the screen.

Overall, I'm very glad with my purchase, and would recommend it to anyone subject to the points made above. I feel like I'm in TV nirvana!

Its a wonderful tv.
If you see it in the shops don't make the mistake of comparing it against the better quality Plasma screens. This is an in-store deception. I've seen HDTV broadcasts on the Sony and they are truely stunning.
At home, the picture quality actally varies from channel to channel depending on how much of the frequency is being used for each channel.
So for example BBC News 24 with all the background choices is less better quality than sky news without the alternate screens. same decrease in quality when sky sports has "match choice".
DVD's are very impressive and detailed.
Freeview is excellent quality and even gives you detailed programme guides, 'favourites' and reminders just like Sky.
My ten year old daughter has already mastered the programming and settings, they are that easy.
The TV also seamlessly integrates with any other sony device you plug into it.

If you buy a flat panel TV at the moment you've got two competing technologies: plasma and LCD. In my experience LCD TVs seem to give a better picture with an average signal (e.g. from a Sky digibox via RGB SCART) while plasmas seem to be better with a higher quality signal (e.g. high quality DVD video via HDMI). Plasma have had in the past problems with burn-in, but this probably no longer an issue if they are treated correctly. Plasmas should also give a wider viewing angle, suiting wider rooms, although LCDs are catching up a bit.

The Sony KDL-V40 is a 40" TV from from the latest Sony KDL LCD TV generation. It is nicely designed, complete with a rotating TV stand. The picture quality is very good, even from a Sky digibox, and it feels like home cinema. It has none of the motion smearing of earlier LCDs, and is great for football. It has been touted as the best LCD TV yet in the press. It doesn't seem to be too sensitive to signal quality either. I have also run a Playstation2 via component (YCbCr) and both games and DVD are excellent. Its sound quality is only average, with too little bass: however I use external speakers, so that doesn't matter to me. What is cool is that if you shut off the internal speakers you can control the volume to my hi-fi by the volume control.

Inputs are comprehensive, except it has no VGA PC input. It has a comprehensive list of options; the pre-set "vivid" picture adjustment should be changed to give a well balanced picture. The noise reduction is very good for clearing up over-compressed signals. The only thing that annoyed me is that when you watch a film with a greater aspect ratio than 16:9 the "zoom" option doesn't zoom in on the picture but stretches the picture to fill the screen.

Overall, I'm very glad with my purchase, and would recommend it to anyone subject to the points made above. I feel like I'm in TV nirvana!

I was very reluctant to have such a LARGE TV in our livivng room previously we had a 32inch TV.

But it fits in fab.

Installation was easy, plug it in and go. Had a few probs with our ariel but once sorted freeview now works.

The picture quality is fantastic. I have seen some large screens and u can see pixels and alot of colour quality is lost. This is immense.

They really have thought of everthing ( iam not goin to list allfeatures just the ones we use)
It has 4 av in put 2 via scart i via (wot I call) phono plus,s videao and u can also plug ur pc/laptop in (dont think I will ever use it lol)
The phono type leads are on the side and I just got a samsung d600 fone so of course had to plug it in, excellent, and of course my hubbys plug and play games are really easy to plugin at the side(on old telly we had to climb around back to do)
To change settings is really easy the on sceen menu is simple and easy to understand and follow without the need to read instructions, it really is self explanatory.
U can be sat anywhere in the room and picture is bang on no lcd shadows (dont know if that correct terminology).

I must admit only downside(if it is a downside) there are loads of features that we dont use, may do in future but for now this really is an excellent television.

But the coolest thing about this television is it swivels ( I know I am easily pleased)