Good
Quite cheap (€689 including 20% vat)
Good quality panel
DVB-T decoder
2 HDMI inputs
Bad
Bad quality tuner
Constant high pitched noise
No cables included
I bought this relatively cheap Sony Bravia LCD TV from komplett.ie in Ireland in November 2007. Well actually I bought the older kdl-26p3000 model which you can view by hovering over the picture above, not the replacement kdl-26s3000 model. When I purchased the TV at the start of November the s3000 model was €60 extra from komplett, but as I write, there is now only a €9 premium. I've used s3000 in the title as that's what most people will be looking for and it's functionally the same, only differing in the outside plastic moulding. I was surprised actually that I couldn't find any reviews for this TV when I bought it and it was quite difficult to find all the specs below, so hopefully this will be of use to some. The table below compares the specs of the kdl-26p3000 to the other LCD TVs I've bought.

AttributeDell W2600Samsung LE27T51BSony KDL-26P3000
LCD panel type Samsung PVA Samsung PVA Sony/Samsung S-PVA
resolution 26" at 1280x768 27" at 1366x768 26" at 1366x768
response time 25ms 16ms 8ms
viewing angle ±85° ±85° ±80°
contrast ratio 500:1 1000:1 800:1
brightness 450cd/m2 500cd/m2 450cd/m2
video processing Pixelworks DNX FLI5961 + VCT49X3FBravia
audio processing TRS no BBE ViVA
pc connections DVI & VGA @ 1280x768 VGA only @ 1360x768 @ 60Hz HDMI @ 1360x768, VGA @ 1280x768
tuners 2 1 1
DVB-T decoder no no yes
weight 19.5kg 12kg 12kg
speakers 15W each 5W each 10W each

I am using this TV mainly with terrestrial TV broadcasts and unfortunately the tuner quality is quite bad compared to the other 2 LCD TVs in the table above. This is obviously not an issue if you're connected to satellite or cable or have a reasonable quality DVB-T signal. I however receive analogue terrestrial and marginal DVB-T signals as detailed here, so the tuner problems are highlighted. Now the picture is still better than the lemon of a Samsung I returned, but I couldn't recommend the Sony kdl-26s3000 if one receives analogue terrestrial TV or marginal DVB-T signals.

I haven't a HDMI source or cable to test with at present, but the other inputs like component, RGB scart and PC VGA produce a nice crisp picture, the best of my TVs so far. There was no colour distortion on the component input like was present on the Dell W2600 for example (and that I had previously blamed on my cheap cables). This is as one would expect from the better S-PVA panel type. The caveat with the S-PVA panel though is that one can see colour inversion in dark areas of the screen as one increases the viewing angle. Not a big issue though unless you're very close to the display.

The sound on this TV is good, though still not as good as the Dell W2600. It supports Dynamic, BBE ViVA, Virtual Dolby and Standard sound options which I've listed in my order of preference. I find the Dynamic option quite a bit better actually. Unfortunately there is also a high pitched noise from the TV at all times, which again is not a big issue unless you're close to the display. Also personally I'm very sensitive to high frequency sounds for some reason.

The following table summarises the various qualities compared to my other LCD TVs, while scoring them out of 10.

AttributeDell W2600Samsung LE27T51BSony KDL-26S3000
LCD panel quality 7 8 8
picture processing 6 2 8
terrestrial TV tuner 10 9 5
sound 10 3 7
menu/remote 9 6 7

This TV also has a RS-232C input for control by a Set Top Box in a hotel for example, and a PCMCIA card slot, neither of which I've tried out yet.

© Nov 26 2007