Sony BRAVIA: Redefining Television

I recently went shopping for a new television and wanted to make sure I bought a good one that would last awhile, yet look good mounted on the wall in my living room. I wish the BRAVIA line, one of Sony’s latest creations, was available at the time.

Sony recently introduced a new sub-brand for its line of high definition LCD televisions called BRAVIA (Best Resolution Audio Video Integrated Architecture). What makes it different from a “normal” LCD television is that it has three key advances: a larger color gamut, higher refresh rates and the ability for your television to automatically adjust to ambient light conditions. That’s definitely what I need. There are many times when the sun is shining into the living room or the light is just too bright, and I would love to have that function.

The brightness of the BRAVIA line is possible because of Sony’s Wide Color Cold Compact Florescent Light (WCG-CCFL). It displays a color gamut almost 40% larger than a conventional CCFL display. This larger gamut allows BRAVIA televisions to reproduce the colors of real life more faithfully using spectrum phosphors to achieve the deeper reds, vivid greens and cleaner blues, closer to what your eye would normally see.

Sony makes two different types of BRAVIA, the S-Series and the XBR Group. Both use the seventh generation Sony LCD panel, which is produced from the world’s biggest mother glass to efficiently create large high quality panels. Each also has a one mega pixel Patterned Vertically Aligned (PVA) high definition display (1366 x 768, two segments per sub-pixel) and offers a 178-degree viewing angle, fast response times and an excellent contrast ratio. There’s also a freeze function that allows you to freeze one screen while the other continues showing your program.

With its design for maximum versatility, the BRAVIA line features a comprehensive range of input interfaces, including High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). HDMI is the first industry supported, uncompressed all digital audio/video interface. An unfortunate drawback is that there are no DVI ports.

The BRAVIA line is definitely a winner, but quite pricey at prices ranging from about $2,000 to $3,500 at Shirokiya, Pure Digital Hawaii, www.sony.com or any other authorized Sony dealer.