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Last night Crave was invited to a swanky TV launch — we think there was some mistake, because they had mostly invited cool people and minor celebrities. Still, there were new TVs in the house, namely the Sony Bravia E4000 range.
The E4000 is Sony’s new arty TV with a bezel that makes it look like it should be hanging in an art gallery. Which is why the launch was in Ronnie Wood’s art gallery. And we have to say, we were very impressed indeed. But there’s more to this TV than just its good looks — in fact, there’s some very clever processing going on too.
To complement the way this TV is styled, it’s been optimised for showing digital photos. Sony had it showing artwork, and we were very impressed by the stability and accurate colour reproduction of the TV. When you buy an E4000, it comes with some sample images built in. Lucky sorts who get one of the first 500 in the UK will also get a limited-edition memory stick that contains some original artwork.
In terms of regular TV stuff, the E4000 range is predominantly 1080p, although there is a 26-inch model that’s 720p. 24p is also supported, for slick-looking movies with minimal motion judder. You’ll also be getting three HDMI sockets and all the other analogue inputs you’ve come to know and love.
You can even listen to the radio while watching an arty slide show. The TV also does normal TV things — moving pictures and whatnot — although you could forget that if you were at the event, because they were just showing art. This was a shame, because we were missing Big Brother and could have done with seeing what those freaks were up to while we sipped champagne.
Now take a stroll through our gallery of pictures featuring the 40-inch Sony Bravia 40E4000, which costs around £1,200 and is available now. -Ian Morris
Here we see the Sony logo presented in stark contrast with the harshness of a speaker grille. Seriously, it’s like electronic art.
There’s also an all-white model, which would look good on a black wall, we’d wager.
Even though this is an art TV, there’s still room for an LED, just so you know it’s on.
The specialised still-image processing mode in these TVs is truly impressive — colours looked really vibrant, but without being unnatural. Overall, we’d say that this is one awesome photo frame, especially if you’re rolling in cash.
All this art gave us the push we needed to embark on a new career as an abstract photographer. So here we proudly present our first public photograph. We’re calling it “The duality of shadows and the context which they are given by stark contrast of a piece of plastic conduit. After three glasses of champagne.” Bids for this original digital artwork should be addressed to Crave, via our Lavington Street gallery.
