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Sony Bravia KDL-55XBR8 Review
Sony Bravia KDL-55XBR8 - Sony’s Top LED-Lit LCD HDTV
The Sony Bravia KDL-55XBR8 is certainly not one of the cheaper HDTVs you can buy, but it definitely is one of the best you can find. Equipped with the latest technologies, including an LED backlight, and one of the best picture quality available today, it is no wonder that the this hi-tech model is Sony’s flagship in HDTVs.
Design
The KDL-55XBR8 sports a sleek black glossy frame. At it’s sides are the speakers which appear to be suspended in mid-air due to the clear plastic frame supporting the speakers. Interestingly enough, Sony sells different colored grilles for the speakers in case you wish to change them. The Sony logo on the frame also has a blue backlight that can be turned off for those who find it annoying while watching movies.
Like the other remote controls that come with the XBR6 series, the remote for the KDL-55XBR8 is still packed with buttons for other devices, which means the controls for the TV itself are crowded at the top part of the remote and are sometimes hard to get to. A plus point for the remote, though, is that it has a blue backlight which can be very helpful when operating the remote in the dark. The menu system is the Cross Media Bar (XMB), which is also found on the Playstation 3. Though many users will find that there are too many settings for their liking, there is an added bonus that helps you display pictures or play music straight from a USB flash drive.
Screen/picture clarity
Equipped with the TRILUMINOS® RGB Dynamic LED Backlight, the Sony Bravia KDL-55XBR8 represents Sony’s most sophisticated LCD TV. With traditional LCD TVs and monitors, the screen is illuminated by a light source at the back of the screen. For the LCD TV to create the color black, the LCD needs to block out as much light as possible which results in blacks which are not deep in color. But in the case of the KDL-55XBR8, individual clusters of Red, Green and Blue LEDs work together to give you darker blacks and more vivid colors.
Aside form the LED Backlight, it has a 120Hz refresh rate and Sony’s Motion Enhancer, which greatly reduces blurring in motion sequences. The KDL-55XBR8 is also equipped with the latest Sony Bravia Engine 2 PRO which is a step up from the Sony Bravia Engine 2 in terms of picture clarity and picture quality.
Features
The KDL-55XBR8 comes with a wide array of connections ranging from your standard composite AV inputs and outputs to 4 HDMI inputs. Because of this, there should be no problem at all connecting any other sort of equipment. It even comes with a USB port from which you can connect a flash drive and show off your latest photos, as well as a LAN or Ethernet port for connecting to your home network so you can display all the photos collected on your computer on your widescreen TV.
Indeed, the Sony Bravia KDL-55XBR8 is certainly packed with features anyone would love to have. Though the price is definitely not within everyone’s reach, it is without a doubt that this HDTV comes as close as it can get to becoming the top LCD HDTV available.
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This television is fantastic - only problem is ….it’s too good! It reveals all of the garbage signals that the hd providers are outputting! The various compression techniques, the huge breakups and distortions, out of focus imagery - All is revealed in larger than life quality on this monitor! But, that’s why I got it. This TV is directly connected to an HD editorial suite for client viewing and when monitoring a fully uncompressed HD 4:2:2 image via HDMI from the edit suite it’s amazing.
Bluray is great too -
Too bad HD content on cable and dish is so substandard.
(And also that no one seems to be aware of this) So much for the new horizon of digital!
Saw it at the local Sony style store here in Austin this afternoon.
They were showing the Transformer blue-ray and it was AMAZING looking.
WOW-the best to be sure. Wish I had an extra 7 grand laying around.
And I just got an XBR4 last year.
I got a chance to see this TV at the Sony store. It was isolated by itself, maybe because it is last years model, or maybe because if they placed it directly next to other screens, it’s faults become clear, or rather… blurry.
When watching fairly static images, the color depth and richness seems to be sharp (pictures of flowers and whales, looked good as long as they were static images). I heard of motion blur problems and asked to see something with quicker moving images. After thinking I was seeing blur, but not sure if it was the TV, or the source media, we found something with scrolling text and the blur became evident. The Sony sales rep played with the menus and various settings/modes for what seemed to be forever, but the results never changed. The blur was always present with quicker moving images.
Unfortunately, it seems Sony has thrown in the towel after experimenting on this first generation LED LCD TV, and gone back to CCFL for backlighting. I got to see the LG 55LH90 in action, and it looked sharper then the KDL-55XBR8, and saw no motion blur. NOTE: I did not see the two side by side.
Compare the price of the LG 55LH90 to the KDL-55XBR8, (even if the price was $2,500), the KDL-55XBR8 would still cost more, and offer poorer picture quality.
Pros
The best picture quality available in LCD TV
Good sound
Non glare screen, great in bright rooms.
Full range of picture adjustments to fine tune.
Sony quality.
Cons
Weight of TV.
Why would anyone pay over $6K for this, when you can get it for less than $5K directly from Sony?
We now have one (1) 55inch xbr8 and two (2) 46inch xbr8s in the house. The 55 is in the living-room with all the audio equipment. One of the 46 sets is in the den and the other in the master bedroom. We have studied hundreds of other sets over the years. The Sony xbr8 technology makes the others look like they are from “Toys Are Us”. The picture is almost 3 dimentional when viewing a good blu-ray disc on a high end player. Upscaled standard definition DVDs are remarkable on this set. Good quality Film Noir is very good with the xbr8. The blu-ray of Casablanca is nothing short of amazing on the xbr8. The den set is often on most of the day (until we switch to the living room for evening viewing) and the set runs quite cool. Even viewing standard definition cable is vastly inmproved from other sets on the xbr8. Yes, it is expensive, but worth every bit of it. If watching movies is what you do–this is worth the investment. I do not thing I will be looking for another set until they “perfect” 3D for the consumer. I suspect this will be several years in the future. Now xbr8 technology in a perfected 3D format will be something to look forward to.
I’ve been waiting for the price to drop on this TV for several months. It finally came down to a point where I figure the next change will be the model being discontinued.
At $4,500, it ain’t cheap, considering that you can get 120MHz 1080p large screens for not much more than $1,000 these days. Samsung is coming out with a 65″ LCD soon for about six grand, and it will probably be eye popping.
So is it worth it to buy this model. Definitely yes!
I can’t tell you about things like judder, refresh rates, or all that technical stuff. I just know what common sense tells me. One thing is, with the recent acceptance of BluRay, 1080p will likely be around as a standard for high def for quite a while. Broadcast standards may improve to 1080p from 1080i, but I doubt it will be soon. So if you’re looking for higher res sets, it will likely be a long wait.
OK. so why spend the extra $3,000 since even the cheaper TVs are now 1080p?
The answer, contrast, black levels, exquisite picture quality. Look at any LCD TV and notice that black in the picture is nothing close to the black of the bezel on the TV. With the Sony XBR8, it is black. I guess you could get a black like that on a plasma set, but LCD is much more efficient, and for the amount of time my TV is on, that amounts to a lot of electricity (and generated heat).
In the end, I think this is as nice a picture as you could get in a TV this size, and considering that a lot of people spent $7,000 or more not long ago, at $4,500 it is a relative bargain.
I’m delighted with this purchase.
I’ve had this TV for about a year now. It isn’t without some minor faults, but the picture quality is unparalleled. No TV is perfect, but until someone comes out with a 55″ OLED or 1:1 LED backlight, this one will remain on top.
The 55-inch Sony XBR8 has a fantastic picture quality right out of the box. It looks great on the wall although not as slim as the new LED TVs. But remember that the XBR8 has a back-lit system which makes the TV somewhat thicker. But I will chose the back-lit picture quality over a slimmer look any day.
We then got the Harmony 900 remote to control the TV, the DVD player, the Yamaha soundbar, and the cable box. I would highly recommend the Harmony 900 remote to go with the Sony XBR.