Bang & Olufsen Beovision 6 Review

Overall Rating

Stunning design, excellent build quality, Probably the best LCD picture, great sound, various mounting options.

Quirky operating system, A tad expensive !

I came to the B&O in a roundabout way. The space I had available was limited and I wanted a black TV, the current trend of sparkly silver being perfectly hideous in my opinion. As it turned out, the B&O was the perfect size being having an unusual 22" panel. In my local B&O showroom, the 6 displayed none of the weaknesses apparent in other LCDs, ie limited viewing angle, poor contrast and motion smearing. So I upped my credit limit and got one. I am delighted with this TV, its hooked up to RGB inputs from DVD and Sky as well as conventional RF analogue feed. Picture in all cases is exceptional with no perceptable background noise and very good low level detail. This is particularly noticeable in comparison to my JVC LCD TV which loses a good amount of detail in dark scenes. This one characteristic is a major issue and you should check it out carefully when considering an LCD TV. Picture quality is outstanding, B&O have applied their contrast screen principle to the 6 and whilst peak brightness is not as high as some competitors, the payback is in low level detail as I have said. Sound comes from two rather ordinary full range drivers underneath the screen but the quality of the sound is excellent, smooth with a nice bass response and means the TV could also be used as a perfectly acceptable music source in smaller rooms. So with an exemplary performance in the picture and sound departments, the 6 frustrates slightly in its user interface. In an attempt to simplify things, B&O sometimes throws the baby out with the bathwater and sends you running to the user manual for guidance. Control over the aspect ratio is an example, you get 3 options and that's it. There is no 4:3 setting so these pictures will always be slightly cropped and accessing the 3 choices requires several prods of the beautiful remote. Having said that, most of the time, the auto function works fine. Picture controls are also fairly limited which is fine as the picture is so damn good anyway but can leave the compulsive button twiddlers among us a little frustrated. On the input side, RGB scart is present but no component input. There is DVI though and as soon as a DVD player hits the market in the UK with a DVI option, I'll get one and revel in the all digital transfer process (maybe). RGB Scart pictures are superb and whether the DVI option will improve this substantially remains an unanswerable question at the moment. To sum up, I am absolutely delighted with the 6, it is stunning to look at and delightful to watch and own. Friendly and knowledgable service from my local B&O dealer in Chichester completes the ownership experience.