Sound+Vision Calls the Sony XBR-55HX929 the "best-looking picture I’ve seen from an LCD TV" - SonyRumors.net SRN

The popular tech-heavy magazine Sound + Vision recently gave the flagship Sony XBR-55HX929 a whirl, and boy did they love it. For those not familiar with the publication, Sound + Vision is a monthly magazine and website which focuses on the latest and greatest gear in home theater. Now, unlike traditional reviews which look at the basics of televisions like the overall color and inputs/outputs, Sound + Vision digs in deeper and takes into account the most minute of details which ultimately lead to vast differences between different television sets.

The Sony XBR-55HX929’s Warm2 color temperature preset delivered the most accurate grayscale performance.

So just what kind of details were they considering? The magazine put the flagship 55-inch Sony XBR to the test and measured its color temperature and primary color point accuracy vs. SMPTE HD standard and walked away impressed. How impressed?

Sony’s flagship XBR-HX929 Series set put out the best-looking picture I’ve seen from an LCD TV in a long time.

That’s really all the more impressive when you consider how many different television sets land at the doors of Sound + Vision. Sure, the Sony XBR is pricier then other 3D televisions in the market, but with “killer cosmetics, integrated Wi-Fi, generous streaming options, and a 3D image that comes across as solid without being overly dim” it’s definitely worth the price of admission. Especially if you demand the best out of your Blu-ray movies and HD games, 2D or 3D. The refinements, however, didn’t seem to end with just the quality of the picture or the design of the television. Sony also took into consideration our mobile habits as well and created an app for iOS and Android phones, which enable you to control the TV and enter text on screen.

Sony also offers a free Media Remote iOS/Android control app. I found it to be full-featured (it let me use my iPhone’s keyboard to enter text onscreen), easy to use, and in many ways preferable to the hardware remote control.

Sony has also addressed two concerns that consumers have had with 3D: the flickering of the image on screen and the dim color levels. Luckily, the XBR-HX929 series, which comes in a 46-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch, seems to address these issues head on without resorting to gimmicky solutions like blasting up the contrast ratio, which kills the quality of the material.

I also found the Sony’s 3D image to be brighter than that of several other 3D sets I’ve tested recently; I didn’t even have to max out the contrast setting to get things to look punchy. The bright, stable picture made a shot of a massive jellyfi sh in the Imax documentary Deep Sea 3D look particularly striking; the image depth made the tendrils appear to fl oat out from the surface of the screen. And in another shot of a school of Mola Mola swimming underneath a raft of kelp, there was a strong sense of layering between the foreground and background fish.

With a slim panel measuring at just 1.5-inches deep, an entire front which consists of a single Gorilla Glass sheet with no frame, and plenty of features like 240-hz, Wi-Fi and built in apps like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, YouTube, Skype, and more, it’s no wonder what Sound + Vision came way with nothing but good things to say about the latest XBR from Sony.

Full disclosure, I’ll be in the market for an XBR-HX929 in the next few months. It’s only a matter of if I can afford the 65-inch version or if I will have to settle for the 55-inch instead. Owning a Sony 60-inch SXRD makes this decision all the more difficult.