All right, we spent a fair amount of time with the S400 to give out our initial impression/s
Let me say I was not really expecting much from what many will say would be a lower end FULL HD Sony LCD. For me: Sony in recent years meant over-priced, good on paper-wanting in performance, overrated units.
Here we go...
Blu-ray/DVD
First to be tested was the DVD performance of the S400 via a Pioneer DV-410V player - Playing a "Star Wars" movie. I read somewhere that Sony was plagued with very bad uneven lighting and clouding effects. We did see some pockets of uneven lighting during the DVD intro but it was kept to a minimum and is something you'd come to expect from an LCD, so this isn't an issue anymore. For those who want to check black levels we tested the unit with the "Bladerunner" Blu-ray movie using a PS3 and it's surpisingly very good (Still not up to par with a PY800) but it's pretty darn close. With the ever dark "Underworld" Blu-ray there were still grey areas but then again, it's what you'd expect from an LCD. Colors are very nice though and the picture definition is better than a Samsung A550. The S400 has the usual "bright" effect but it was not as scorching as the A550, even at "VIVID" mode. Motion flow was also well done with minimal blurring when tested with the movie "Casino Royal". When it comes to movie picture definition it's above the Sammy A550 and just a little bit below the A650, but for it's price you can't complain and the S400 is obviously more than just "good enough".
PS3
Sony to Sony for gaming = Very very nice! I love the "STANDARD" picture setting and again the colors were very good and not as pale as we expected it to be. There is no dedicated "game mode" but input response time was tested with heavy rounds of Soul Calibur 4 game play and the S400 is spot on! Playing "MGS4" on full 1080p gave very fine details (The reason why you go FULL HD for gaming) and the graphics were crisp, clear and clean. There were very minimal motion blurs with FPS games like "Resistance" but with a fine picture definition like this? I won't take it against Sony (The blurs we've seen are extremely minimal and we were just being too anal about it).
Cable T.V
Would someone from Sights and Sounds come over and channel this thing? This is probably the only real and valid complain we have with this model. It's pretty darn hard to channel
Sound
Not really the best but it trumps above an A550!
Initial pro's and con's
Pro's
+
Full HD panel with one of the best colors we've seen on an LCD+ Great input response time
+ Good viewing angles
Con's
- Minimal blurring (I'd like to stress that this is fault finding and most of you guys won't even notice it)
- Darn pretty darn hard to channel, it's either that or I'm just not too bright
Well, for the price of 57k this is a winner! Sony still has a lot of steam in it's engine and this BRAVIA deserves more than just a simple second look. (I'm kinda looking at the higher models now SAAARRRRRSSSSS!)