Sony KDL-40HX723 40in LED 3D TV

The KDL-40HX723 is a feature-heavy 40in Freeview HD TV from the posh end of Sony’s 2011 catalogue. While it sells for a tad more than a looky-likey from the brand’s bread and butter EX range, the premium is worth paying if you want to see what Sony’s picture boffins are really capable of. Sony KDL-40HX723 3D LED backlit LCD TV …

[MJI]

Steve May

Are you THE Steve May, or another Steve May?

[MJI]

Rule 1 of Sony TVs

Never buy the cheapest, they are cheapest for a reason, if you can't afford a better one, buy a different brand.

This only applies to LCD TVs as the cheaper Wega tube TVs were less problematic than the more expensive ones.

[AdamWill]

that's rule #1 of sony in general

indeed; that's rule #1 of anything sony, really. their low-end crap is as bad as anyone else's low-end stuff but costs $100 extra. their high-end stuff is usually expensive, but usually has some pretty good features and build quality to justify the expense.

[jai]

remote

remote reminds me of the remotes that B&O were using back in the 90s, only not quite so nice.

[Andy Tunnah]

judged purely on picture ?

this perhaps shows why it would be good to have groups of ratings rather than a single score

sure this set has a knockout picture, one of the best - but so it bloody well should for over a grand for a 40" set!

and while it may be a show stealer for the eyes it's a pickpocket when it comes to features - no drive for DVR, single tuner, no MKV support, and no wireless dongle ?

and not to forget the lack of glasses. i could understand this in 3-5 years time when maaaybe someone is upgrading their 3DTV so already has the binlids ready, but not now whilst the tech is still in it's infancy and pretty much every 3DTV purchase is a first born

[Anonymous Coward]

So...

The far side of a grand and they don't throw in any 3D glasses. That's sure to boost sales.

Can't we just agree that 3D was a headache-inducing flash in the pan, scrap it from TVs and make them cheaper?

[Anonymous Coward]

nope sorry, no headaches or nausea from extensive 3DTV use.

Properly done 3D in games is fantastic (motorstorm apocalypse, de blob2 are great, Crysis 2 is average), even Trioviz has good and bad implementations (gears 3 good, batman AC almost as average, batman AA is terrible).

If you base your 3D movie experience off that awful Monsters Vs Aliens cut then whinge away.... it's got so much crosstalk I'm surprised people don't burn the publishers.

But the process is being improved all the time. Lion King 3D looks like it was made for 3D first not converted..... hopefully this becomes the standard not the exception.

[Anonymous Coward]

You've got to hand it to the dudes behind the outfit mentioned, called 'Daily Motion'. Almost as bad as the wine tasting club Spit or Swallow.

Anyhoo, you can't beat Sony for better-than-average quality. Okay, so a few Japanese Bravias smoulder a bit (an engineer passed mine yesterday; said he's not found any iffy UK ones yet) but overall they're as solid as an Audi, but yes you need to say up.

[No relation to Mike Richards!]

[TeeCee]

LCD TV.

Viewing angles? That's usually the Achilles' heel of the tech and it ought to be stated in any review how far off "dead ahead" you can go before it gets really crap.

Hopefully the HX series is rather better in this regard than the EX, which are bloody awful.

[Jay 2]

Formats

Sometimes I wish that the various bits of Sony would talk to each other. Whilst my PS3 is quite happy with most things I can throw/stream at it, the BDP-S780 seems to throw a strop about the same (video) files. It sounds like this TV has the same sort of issues...

Like AC above my several year old Bravia was passed for non-smokiness this week (it was the backlight transformers apparently) and the engineer bod said he was checking loads but hadn't found any dodgy ones at the time he visited.

[Iain 4]

Oddly, I preferred the NX

HX is supposed to be their top of the range for image quality, but doing a side-by-side comparison I went for the equivalent NX model, because the glass they use to get the monolith look seems to give better black levels, as well as making the presentation of 2.35:1 material (where the black bars blend seamlessly into the frame) far better. Although for some Godforsaken reason you can only have the monolith look on 46" or larger models this year, rather than last year's 40". Go figure.