Sony Bravia M-Series KDL-26M4000 26-Inch 720p LCD HDTV

At first, I was shopping for a cheap 32" HDTV for my bedroom. After getting burned by two straight bad 32" HDTVs from other brands, not wanting to spend more money for the more expensive 32" sets, and seeing that a 32" screen is a little too big for my small bedroom, I decided to look one size smaller and get a good 26" television at the same price range.

I singled out this Sony model out of the other 26" televisions because it was the only 26" television that actually had a vertical viewing angle. The pictures on the rest of the 26" televisions turn white when viewed from above and turn purple and green when viewed from below. This Sony model does not have this problem.

The picture is great for an LCD. There are settings to improve the levels of black and white. Picture from the component connections look good. Analog channels have a bit of static in some colors. I don't have any HDMI device to try out the HDMI ports.

The television's audio is good when it's loud, but not good when it is set low. My television had a low-volume hiss in the built-in speakers and is noticeable in low volume levels. There are stereo RCA and digital coaxial audio outputs for external speakers.

This television forces the user to run a 30+ minute auto program to detect all of the channels. There is no way to manually add or remove channels from the television without running the auto programmer first. Thankfully, the auto programmer found all of the analog and clear unscrambled cable channels and didn't add any scrambled channels.

The biggest turnoff of this television is its selling price. Depending on the sales price, you can get a low-to-mid range 32" HDTV for the same price.

If you just care about screen size, then those 32" HDTVs might be for you. If you want quality for about the same price and don't mind a smaller size, check out this Sony while shopping around. It's not the best TV out there, but it's in the top five of 26" HDTVs out there.

edit: if you do get this model or any other Sony LCD television, immediately shut off "Noise Reduction" in the Advanced Options of the Picture menu. Noise Reduction introduces ghosting into the picture and most video modes have it on by default.

Picture and viewing angle are very good. Sound is clear but not much bass. The shiny black finish can be a little distracting. I like the remote layout and the on-screen menus. All in all, I like it.

Everything about this set is wonderful but ONE: There is a known SONY flaw with this particular model (26-M4000) and the HDMI cable connection when connecting to an HD Cable Box. I experienced a very thin white line that I called a "pearl necklace" of digital interference at the top of the screen on ALL non-HD broadcast channels and many of the network HD channels. You can fake it out by using ZOOM but then you lose some of the picture. I guess you could live with it, but it annoyed the heck out of me. The workaround is to use component cables (provided for free by my cable company). I attached the component cables and "voila" -- no more "pearl necklace" interference. The sound and picture are sterling but the quality is a tick less fine than with an HDMI hookup. But I paid $579, returned the Monster HDMI cable and saved myself that $80 expense, so I really have nothing to complain about.

Did quite a bit of research between Samsung and Sony on their lines of smaller LCDs - had a 22" Samsung 650 but the viewing angles were not very good (very light from viewed from above, and very dark when viewed from below). This Sony has excellent picture from any viewing angle and the price is very comparable with other 26" on the market.

we first purchased another brand, terrible sound quality. went with this tv for the speaker quality. it's great!