Good choice if you just want to television

The flat design and the small screen look neat and elegant. The depth of the unit is kept low. With its 8.7 kg it is also easy by a person in establishing manageable. The supplied foot appears at first glance before installation weak, but is mounted the TV stable and not tip over. Even small bump not make him fall over, he swings away easily.

TV is a six-lingual guide, which is only partially useful, since it is not extensive enough and does not quite fit to the TV, since for example the wrong remote control is displayed.

The TV has a triple tuner for DVB-T, DVB-C and DVB-S2. Has been tested with a DVB-C connection. The initial start-up via some general queries to the first program search. After the search is complete, the device is ready for operation.

Various settings that everyone wants to hire for his personal preferences are not necessarily intuitive to see the menus. Example is the sort of programs. For the analog transmitter has its own menu item: sort programs for digital not.

Here one must be selected from the plurality of transmitters, a favorites list. If you have done this, you can switch through his personal program list. Unfortunately, this is not preset again after turning the TV, so that connected with the program +/- button on the remote control again over all programs. Here some comfort would have been expected in any case yet.

When you set up your TV and many actions with the remote control in the menus, we managed to bring the TV to the fact that he needed 15-20 seconds to switch between two channels and then later no longer responded to the remote control buttons. Since then helped just pull the plug and switch on again. Then again everything worked normally and so far, this effect did not occur on again.

It should be emphasized that the picture in HD very well, when SD is good and even the analog programs do not work particularly vague. This is of course a purely subjective assessment, as each perceives it differently and also highly dependent on the quality of the digital program content being sent.

The sound is consistently good for a flat screen TV. There was previously no annoying hum on at low tones of the housing. In the menu the audio frequency ranges can be adjusted individually. Individual predefined scenarios like music, sports, etc. are available.

After switching on the device, it takes about 10 seconds until picture and sound are there. The program changes are acceptable with about 4 seconds.

The number of interfaces is manageable small, but adequate.

The disadvantage we find that no firmware / software update via USB or, if no network connection, via LAN is possible. From experience, this is nowadays usually still necessary at times relatively new products. However, there should be an automatic software download, which is to take place via the broadcast signal according to instruction.

That the TV set has a separate power supply, we do not find so much as this is then again lying around somewhere inconveniently next to the cables.

With the device, it is possible to record programs on a connected USB hard drive. The recordings can be viewed only as usual in this TV set. The operation of the recording or the programming is easily possible by recording button or by EPG. However, no time-shift function is available. If the device is on or off and is recording a program recording is pending, you can tell by the central power LED, which turns red.

Plus:
- Very good TV picture
- Good sound
- Recognizable even when power is off, that a recording is programmed
- Slim design

Minus:
- Menus not always intuitive
- No time-shift function
- No software upgrade possible
- Manual does not correspond exactly to the device and is insufficient in the execution
- (No Smart TV)
- (No LAN connection)

Conclusion:
Anyone looking for a TV that offers a great picture, good sound and has Network and Smart TV can do without features, is well served by the Sony KDL-40R455C. However, Sony is overrated priced compared to other manufacturers in our view currently.