The KDL-26U3000, which is part of the BRAVIA line, looks after your HD and connectivity needs while bringing you up into the mid-sized range of digital LCD televisions. Here Sony presents a stylish, HD Ready that focuses on high picture quality and home theatre interoperability.

Displaying a 26-inch image at a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels in three variable aspect ratios — 4:3, 14:9, and 16:9 — this model may not be the biggest LCD display in Sony’s product line, but it is feature packed. The viewable area is somewhat slim, coming in at a slender 160-degrees. But behind the screen, you’ll benefit from a Digital Comb Filter, Auto Noise Reduction, Picture in Picture, Theatre Mode, Picture Mode, and of course the BRAVIA image engine.

The KDL-26U3000 comes equipped with a built in pair of 10-watt speakers will deliver a stately 20-watts of sound. BBE ViVA, Dolby Pro-Logic, and BDE Sound are hard at work inside this model as well. Finally, a headphone jack offers up the option of privacy.

A life expectancy is not given for this model specifically, however the website of a competing manufacturer denotes that modern standards put the lifespan of most models in both the plasma and LCD categories at around 60,000 hours. That comes to just about 360 weeks of continuous use, but that kind of wear is unlikely. If you watch television for four hours per day, seven days a week, a modern digital television set like the KDL-26U3000 should last for roughly 40 years according to my calculations! There will most definitely be new broadcast and display technologies available for mass consumption before these things stop working, barring some kind of defect and assuming that Panasonic’s estimates are correct.

The connectivity options for this model are pretty standard. You’ll enjoy an S-video in port, a standard AV input connection, an RF in, two SCART ports, two HDMI ports, a component video connection, and a 15-pin PC AV connection. If this wasn’t already enough to make you want the KDL-26U3000, let us not forget that it comes with a PCMCIA card slot for expandability in the future.

If you’re looking for a 26-inch digital LCD television with decent sound and good home theater connectivity, you might want to take a look at the Sony KDL-26U3000.