Sony BRAVIA KDL-40S2010 40" LCD TV

We chose a LCD over Plasma due to the altitude we live at (6,500')and longevity of LCD vs Plasma. The design build of Sony products is 60,000 hours; that is 4 hours a day of TV for 41 years straight!!! We moved up from a 32" to the 40" and what a difference. My whole family finds it easy to operate. This is a BIG plus. My 5 & 8 year old have no trouble operating the TV on their own. I compared the picture quality of several LCD's and for the price range this Sony had the best color and the blackest blacks. The brightness of this TV is great. We installed the TV in our great room that is all windows and 4 sky lights, never has viewing the Sony been a problem even on the sunniest mountain day. . With a 170 degree viewing angle you can see clear, bright picture from any angle in the room. Not all LCD's have this quality. The controls are simple and rational. They make sense. I programmed the TV to operate from my Dish remote in about 5 minutes. The standard Dish signal input is low quality digital so up close to the TV is pixilated. however 4' away is great. We set up the TV at a distance of 12' away to the couches. We wont upgrade to hi def just yet. Movies are another story. Pop a DVD in the player and switch inputs (easy) and the s video input from the DVD is incredible. Picture quality is A+++. While the TV has great sound quality with the built in speakers; we prefer surround sound. 40" of TV and 300 watts of quality 6 channel Yamaha surround sound is better than the theater. The one thing I dis-like are the factory controls on the top of the TV. While easy to use we chose to have our flat screen built in up high on the wall so it is a reach to get to the factory controls. I love the monitor input We plug in the lap top and use Windows Media Player as a juke box with the screen visuals on the 40" Sony..very cool. Also monitor input allows us to use the TV as the computer monitor. Thought your 24" computer monitor was big? We have a 40"! The kids love the big screen for video games also. Over all we are very pleased with our decision to get a Sony. No regrets. We purchased it at Best Buy with 2 years no interest financing. We had the money but with that deal why not let them carry the note? We also purchased the 5 year extended warranty for 240.00 some might say it is a waste but that is what insurance is all about. Because we live a certain distance from Best Buy the warranty plan is 5 years, in home, normal wear and tear, electrical spikes are covered that is the best we could find, anywhere, bar none. The normal wear & tear and electrical spike coverage is unusual as that is why most warranties deny coverage. We paid 1699.00 for the Sony. What are you waiting for go buy it!