Andy & WHF team - 40V4000

[admin_exported]

Having taken on board Andy's & others comments wrt size and viewing distance (and cardboard cut outs!) I think a 40" televsion may be the ideal size for me. (At 11ft now concerned the Panny TH37PX80 may be too small, but my cardboard cutout of the 42" is too big for the room). The review of the Sony KDL-40V4000 says that it lacks some of the "look at me" specifications of it's more expensive 40W4000 counterpart. Is this in terms of extra features that I may never use (I'll just be watching tele and not doing anything fancy), or does it lack the clarity, deep blacks, and dynamism that the W4000 would deliver, and not do as well handling fast motion? I'd orginally been thinking Panny plasma, and would hate to get a Sony 40V4000 and find it looking gray by comparison, but the 40W4000 is a bit out of my price bracket...

Thanks,

Pete

 

[Andy Clough]

The 'V' lacks the PS3-style Xross MediaBar, is an 8-bit rather than 10-bit panel and so offers fewer steps of colour gradation, and it doesn't support x.v. Colour or Live Colour Creation. And there's no USB input or Picture Frame mode.

If none of these things matter to you, then I really wouldn't worry. Pictures on the 40V4000 look sharp, natural and have bags of detail. It certainly doesn't look 'grey', and motion is handled as well as any screen we've seen.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Andy,

thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I know the team looked long and hard at the Sony 40W4000 next to the Panny TH37PX80b and were rather taken by them both, and both Clare (and yourself from earlier comments) said that the extra 3" really helped.

I'm not bothered by most of the things you mention above, though would be interested to know what the 8-bit rather than the 10-bit panel offering less steps of colour gradation means in practice. Would the 40V4000 basically be as good an option picture quality wise TH37PX80 in your opinion?

many thanks,

Pete

 

[Joe Cox]

Hi Pete,

As you said, the head-to-head between the 37in Pana and 40W4000 Sony was very close indeed - each set has its own set of particular strengths, but we - to cut a long post short - plumped for the 40in Sony. The V4000 undoubtedly holds its own against the W4000, so if it's the V that you're looking at then we're confident you won't be disappointed.