Coming from an original Sony Bravia KDL-55 LCD 1080 TV (55 inches) – decided to get this model after researching for a few weeks. Short version, Sony TVs always deliver and Im very happy with my purchase. I was trying to keep my costs down as much as possible.
I researched for a while on what size TV to get – there are three factors to consider. 1) Price: I compared the Bravia 7 to the Bravia 9. The B9 65 inch was exactly double the price of the B7. The B7 65 inches came to about 1500 dollars. The 75 inch was close to another thousand on top of that. The B7s have most of the screen technology of the B9s. I will outline the cons later.
2) Distance from the sofa – I live in a studio apt in nyc, my sofa is exactly 9 feet away from the TV stand (both on opposite walls breadthwise). For 9 feet, the ideal size appears to be 70 inches from what I read – so it was either the 65 inch or 75 inch B7. Given the price difference, I went with the 65 but the 75 may work as well for you – see my comments in the next point. If you have more than 9 feet of seating – go larger if you can afford it.
3) Content which you watch. Ive attached a few pictures of the content. I watch TV channels via antenna – sports games, and classic channels like MeTV, Grit, Catchy etc. Sonys upscaling is a marvel in itself – I mean everything looks bigger and better on a 4K mini-led TV, technology has come a long way since the lcd TVs and this upscaling technology alone is a reason to get this TV if you are coming from a 1080 P TV. I also have Amazon prime so attached some pictures from there – my 2 cents: If you watch more newer content – 1080P, 4K etc – the 75 inch may be better for you as you will benefit from the increased real estate for letterbox content (or the Sony Bravia 8 Oled if your budget allows as it is aimed at movie watchers.) For my mixed usage of old and new content the 65 B7 was fine.
Another content related plus for Sony – It has ATSC 3.0 for OTA programming. Basically, I cut cable a few months back – my old Sony had ATSC 1.0. My antenna is from Amazon – it’s the 1600 mile amplified antenna with 36 foot co-ax for 58 bucks. I had to experiment by placing it in different spots in the windows and then running a channel scan. With ATSC 1.0 I got anywhere from 50 to 77 channels till I found the sweet spot. With this TV – picked up 99 channels – it appears to be the same ones mainly but the good news is I haven’t seen the channel in and out connection fadeouts so far, so if you use antennas the content on this TV looks fabulous. Download the Antenna Point transmitter locator to get the best placement for your antenna and use the command two sided tape strips to hold it up as they are easier to move around.
Cons
1) Viewing angle – I had the same issue with my old TV so not sure what an improvement is – Ive read the B9 doesn’t have this issue as much. The best view is from sitting in front of it upto a 30 degree angle I think as that’s how much from each end of my sofa. I have a computer desk about 60 degrees away and I can see the difference when I turn around to look at the screen. Its not terrible but something to be mindful of.
2) Reflections – Ive attached a picture to illustrate. In the screenshot of Conclave with Ray Fiennes – you see my lamp in the left hand corner. The screen of the B7 is not Anti- reflective – the B9 is. One option is simply to turn off the lamp – the TV is so bright I can see the sofa lighting up when I walk back to it but what I ended up doing was moving the lamp altogether so I didn’t see the reflection when I was sitting in my sofa. Again, the trade-off for the lower price.
The rest of my points are related to the set-up of the TV
a) The TV set up is definitely a two person job. Its about 62 lbs. The TV looks much bigger when you look at the box – that’s because of all the Styrofoam cladding the TV to help protect it in transit. Youtube has a helpful video on unpacking and setting up a bravia 7 TV which I recommend. My TV stand was reused from my old one – the stand is 42 inches long and 20 inches high so you can get a sense from the pictures. The legs of the TV can be placed in multiple configurations and its dead simple to set up – I actually watched the video repeatedly thinking I made a mistake. To lengthen the legs to raise the TV – just unscrew the 2 screws, push up the extension and rescrew them. The slots on the TV – just push them and it locks and you can pull them out easily as well, it’s a testament to how this well this TV is made (its made in Mexico in case you were wondering, that was another reason to get it now before the tariffs kicked in. The B9 is made in Japan I think as the flagship TV.
b) I initially set up the TV with the raised legs to have the soundbar below it – I have a Bose 300 soundbar. However the TV seemed too high with the raised legs, so I lowered it and moved the soundbar to the second shelf (and my clock to the third – it’s a Dreamsky large digital clock from Amazon, Im not a paid endorser but have no problems recommending items that work perfectly and my clock is one of them) This placement is perfect because when sitting on the sofa – your eyes should be around the half-way point of the screen. With the raised legs it seemed a bit uncomfortable.
c) The TV is thicker because of the backlighting compared to my old LCD Bravia. The inputs are on the left side. I plugged the soundbar into the HDMI port 3 as it’s the Earc one and my Amazon firestick into port 4 – I think these are the two 2.1 ports? If you have a game console you could use port 4 and just move the firestick to ports 1 or 2. I don’t game on my TV. In addition I screwed in the antenna and used one of the USB ports to power it.
d) I appreciate that the TV gives you a choice of setting it as a smart TV (Google services) or just a basic TV. I just set it up as a basic TV as my Amazon firestick is already personalized to my tastes. Amazon services is also on the TV, I just continued to use my firestick as I haven’t figured out if I can use Alexa with my Sony TV. You will have to connect to your wifi – tip its easier if you click on show your password as the shift key doesn’t work with the number keys on the screen. You have to click on a separate button to enable the number key options. I was trying to figure out why my password was not being accepted.
e) Its up to you but I would turn off all personalization. The reason was when I was watching OTA channels like NBC etc. – an annoying bubble would come up asking whether I wanted to restart the program. In channels and inputs – turn off interactive applications in channel preferences. In System I turned off Samba interactive TV as well.
f) In System – About – there is a System Software update option. I would recommend that you update as soon as you set up.
g) This may be a one -off: oddly my TV restarted a couple of times after I turned it off. I read in forums that this was due to external devices maybe? I have a firestick remote. In external inputs – I turned off the Bravia sync settings. And in System – Remote Accessories I turned off the RS232 control
h) The Sony remote is made from recycled materials which I appreciate. It doesn’t appear to be backlit. One tip – to see all the menu options – click on the spanner icon on the right and click on Settings. The menu button on the remote is actually quick settings to quickly make changes to whatever you are watching.
i) Sound – the sound from the TV seems to be adequate but Im continuing to use my Bose 300 soundbar. No issue setting up the soundbar on the TV, but sometimes I do see a lag of a couple of seconds before the sound kicks over to the soundbar.
j) Finally, the most important point – the Display settings. I picked Cinema settings and had to lower the brightness to 28 – the TV is that bright. I appreciate that the settings were already preset for the different modes, you just have to tweak (looking at you Bose – where the settings were set to 0 and I had to tweak all the way).
k) Also under Display settings – there is an ambience setting to turn off, otherwise your TV will keep adjusting depending on the light in the room. If you prefer that great, I found it annoying and turned it off and just adjusted the brightness manually to a fixed setting.
l) I kept the TV packaging for 4 days after I set it up as I figured if anything would go wrong with the TV it would probably show up then – although it was a bit of an eyesore given the amount of packaging.
I guess the last point is this – I had my old Sony Bravia LCD TV for 13 plus years and the TV was still working fine when I gave it away. Hope to keep this one for as long and yes I am a Sony loyalist. Next year Sony is releasing an RGB version of their mini leds if you can wait that long. Otherwise if you have the money B9 is the flagship models for mini-led. However if you’re budget conscious and can live with some compromises, the B7 provides nearly all the benefits of the B9 viewing experience for much less.
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