Cnet has reviewed the 55-inch, plasma-killin tri-color LED-backlit Bravia XBR8 we saw a couple months ago. Spoiler: Sonys setup didnt lie—its the best LCD TV ever, falling just short of the best HDTV ever, nearly matching Pioneers PDP-111FD (Cnets best flat-panel period) in blacks, color accuracy and bright-room picture quality.Heres what great: The black levels are near-Kuro deep. In dimly-lit scenes, blacks had "an inky depth in dark areas that lent superb punch and realism to the image, and easily outclassed the rest of the non-Pioneer sets." The only taint is that when bright areas are next to dark ones, it lightens up the bars a bit, so Pioneer wins here. The color accuracy "is nothing short of superb" and after calibration theyre as "excellently balanced and still as saturated as on the Pioneer." Its de-juddering mode is also the best theyve ever seen."
Its few weak points: Image quality fades when you look at it from an off angle, the previously mentioned blooming with high contrast images, and the dejuddering can produce some artifacts, especially with a standard-def picture. Oh, and its $7000, the most expensive TV theyve ever tested.