The manual for my Sony Bravia only mentions using a dry cloth for cleaning.
No “Display” button on the remote – at least, it does not say “Display” – but we seem to have gotten it to go away. We’re not sure how. The button for the other displays – clock, TV channel etc – did not seem to affect it. But it did go away finally and now will appear and stay on only until we actually start playing a DVD.
I found the cleaning recommendation. It says to use a soft cloth, but for more persistent dust to use a soft cloth moistened with a diluted mild deteregent solution. Says not to use certain types of cleaners that I guess may include Windex. Although Windex does not appear to hurt my little LCD computer screen, I want to be more careful with this baby.
As for composite cables, these may be the cables my brother-in-law also recommended. However, if they are, he says they won’t make a difference with the DVD player we have now, that again we need an upgraded player. I think we’re going to look into that when we return from upcountry next month.
The only thing about the Bravia I find distracting is it takes 10 seconds to turn on. The Trinitron jumped on immediately, and I find myself doing a double-take with the Bravia to se if I actually pushed the button. But this is very minor; we’re enjoying this thing immensely. The wife even gave me a hug in appreciation for being right about insisting on a 40" over a 32". 
(Maybe I should have pushed harder for the 46" :D.)
Do you have the KDL-40Z4100/B?
Does the remote look like this?
If not, do you have the model number of your set?
No, you want COMPONENT cables. They are Red/Green/Blue sometimes with an additional red & white for sound. COMPOSITE cables are yellow for video with red & white for sound. If your DVD player has component outputs (and it most likely does unless it is extremely cheap) then your B-I-L is wrong - component cables WILL improve the picture significantly.
Also, your DVD player WILL have a setting for widescreen TVs. Keep looking till you find it, or if you can’t, report back with the make and model and I will tell you how to find it. This is THE most important item to get right when you upgrade to a widescreen TV.
Ours is the KLV-40Z450A. The link you provided shows the TV but not the remote. Our TV does look like that, though. Would there be a different number for the same set in different markets? Again, though, the “Video 1” tag did finally go away.
Ah, yes, sorry, I meant component cables. We got the DVD player five years ago, but it was not cheap, as we went for what was considered one of the best at the time. It’s the Pioneer DV-667A. Paid 8000 baht for it; today that’s about US$225, but I can’t remember what the exchange rate was then. It’s varied a lot in recent years, but it was probably somewhere arounf that, $200 to 250 or so.
I did find a Widescreen setting in the DVD player, but it jumped it to full screen. We didn’t like that, so I returned it to Letterbox. Is there another setting you mean?
We’ll check into the component cables.
The wife’s brother had some cables that he gave her for us to use. He says they are LIKE component cables, but it sounds like they’re not actually component cables. Now, their colors are red, white and yellow, BUT he said we plug the white ones into the blue holes and the yellow ones into the green. He said these act the same. Does anyone know about this before I try it?
Nope not the same at all, the yellow/red/white are composite cables. The yellow is video and the red and white are audio. You need the blue/green/red component cables.
It will work but if they are cheap quality composite cables (R/W/Y) they will not be as thick as even the cheapest quality component cables (G/B/R).
AFAIK, that should work just fine. An RCA cable is an RCA cable, and as long as each port on the player is connected to the same color port on the TV, it should work. The only problem I could maybe see is if real component cables are shielded better than standard composite, but for a short run that shouldn’t matter.
Thanks, all. I have not installed my brother-in-law’s cables yet, wanting to get feedback here first. He feels it won’t matter that much. Apparently he does have one set of component cables he uses, but he can’t see the difference between them and the kind he gave us. But I think I will look for some actual component cables this weekend. I’m a big believer in doing things right.
What type of DVD were you watching? Your setting on the TV needs to be coordinated with the DVD player and disc you’re watching.
If you’re watching an anamorphic widescreen movie, be sure your DVD player is set to widescreen and set your TV to “Full”.
For a non-anamorphic widescreen movie (not common), or a fullscreen (4:3) movie, you can leave the DVD player in widescreen mode, but set your TV to “Normal” for a fullscreen movie and “Zoom” for a widescreen movie. I don’t recommend using the “Auto-Wide” function. If I have the setting names wrong (I couldn’t access your exact model’s manual online), reply with the correct options and I can help further.
The screen on the set has four options: Full (which is actually Letterbox and what we leave it on usually), Zoom, Wide Zoom and Normal. Will look around on the DVD player.
I recommend monoprice.com for any kind of cables. Much cheaper than the store. I even have a few extra $4 HDMI cables from them laying around in case I need them in the future.
Better than buying a component that doesn’t include them and having to rush to Wal-Mart to get it for $25.
Not sure if they would mail to Thailand or whether it would be worth it if they did. I know a few places here in Bangkok I can check out, though.
Okay, after eight weeks I FINALLY got off my butt and went out and got some component cables – red, gree, blue. We figured why spend all this money on a TV and then chintz on the cables, so we got the highest quality we could find. They cost 4900 baht (US$142). On top of that, we upgraded the audio cables, getting a new set for 1390 baht ($40). (We have a card that gets us a 5% discount at this particular shop, though.)
So we switched those out yesterday (Sunday), but I’m not convinced the picture looks better than it did before. Sometimes it does, sometimes I think it’s my imagination. But we plan to upgrade the DVD player later this year, so the cables will probably go well with that. Not a Blu-ray player, but one that can take better advantage of a TV like this. And there is a noticeable improvement in the audio quality.
Enjoying the set immensely. 40" is not too big, and we’ve even decided we don’t really have to change out the wall picture behind it. So thanks for talking me into a 40".
You spent $182 on cables? How much would it have cost for a new DVD player that can do upconversion and an HDMI cable? (In the US, you could get the cable for about $5-10 and the DVD player for $50 or so.)
Yeah, you ripped yourself off. I’ve used an extra red/white/yellow AV cable instead of true component cables in a pinch, and the quality wasn’t appreciably worse. I’ve also bought $2 HDMI cables off of Amazon that worked great with an upscaling DVD player ($60 at the time).
Ah well. We still come out ahead considering the discount we got on the set.
And in my defense, they came with a lifetime guarantee. Don’t hate me! 