Great Picture and Features, plus it's eco-friendly
|
| Review Date: July 31, 2009 |
| Reviewer: J. Shope, |
This is an excellent TV.
Picture Quality:
The picture quality of this set is superb. In the setup menu, I set the picture to "vivid" mode and the HD quality is simply life-like. The color and contrast are excellent. It also uses something that Sony calls MotionFlow which helps to smooth out the image when you are watching fast-action pictures.
Backlight Technology:
It is an LCD set, but uses a hot cathode fluorescent lamp for its backlighting. This technology allows it to be much more energy efficient and close to par with the energy usage of LED backlit LCD TVs. Most LCDs use cold cathode fluorescent lamps. The 40" model uses a maximum of 140 watts, the 46" uses a max of 160 watts, and the 52" uses a max of 180 watts.
Eco-Friendly:
It has a sensor called a presence sensor that does two things. First it senses the ambient (room) light and if the room gets darker, it will automatically dim the picture of the TV. This works well if you are watching TV in the bedroom at night and you want less light output. The second thing that the sensor does is senses the room for motion and body heat. If you leave the room for a preset amount of time (5 min, 30 min, ...) and the TV doesn't sense anyone around, it will turn off the picture. If you walk back in the room, it senses you and turns the screen back on. The sound stays on for another 30 minutes or so, then the whole set will go into stand-by mode if it does not sense you. Both of these features can be turned off via the setup menu and help to conserve energy.
Features (just a few of them):
The TV is loaded with features. It will automatically sense if you have something connected to an input (for example HDMI2). This is great when you want to hit the input button on the remote because it will not select items that aren't currently sending out a signal. This means you don't have to scroll through 10 items if you only have two components connected to the TV. In the setup menu, you can set each input for always on, always off, or auto. I used the always on setting for the PC input because the cable I used to connect the PC did not send a power signal so the TV did not sense it. By setting it to always on, the PC input will always be available when I scan through the inputs.
It also has a lot of inputs. There are 4 HDMI inputs. If you have a DVI port on your PC, then you can connect it through HDMI port 1 which also has an analog audio input. There is one dedicated composite (with S-video) and one dedicated component input, but there is another switchable composite/component input that you can use if you have two composites and one component, or vice versa. There is a PC input to connect via VGA connection. The audio outputs are one optical digital out and one analog out.
Dislikes:
1. All of the Inputs and Output are on the left side (when looking at the front of the TV) of the TV. This is unfortunate for me since my A/V cabinet is on the right side of the TV. It is a minor inconvenience, but something that I did not think about until I got the set home. I would say about half of the inputs are one the left side and the other half are on the back, next to the side inputs.
2. The presence sensor is right where I have my center audio speaker. I will have to raise up the TV to still have that speaker front and center.
Overall, this is not a cheap TV, but I think this is a case where you get what you pay for. It is a really great set.
|
Great Picture. TV is finally off in the morning!
|
| Review Date: September 17, 2009 |
| Reviewer: John Felisky, St. Louis, Mo USA |
Auto-off feature is really nice. I'm not as green as I should be, but this set has solved my teenager falling asleep with the TV on all night. Picture is great, menu/settings are very user friendly, and only ports with an item plugged in are in the "input" rotation on the remote. Highly recommend.
One weird thing about the White Glove delivery from Amazon. They showed up on time, and even phoned ahead...very nice, plus set the TV up and took the garbage. However during the setup the TV searches for channels automatically. When this seemed to be going slow, the delivery guy says "this can take awhile the first time it runs", and my wife let them leave. After performing a "search" for about 30 minutes I discovered that they had used input cables from a DVD player that was not hooked up to the satellite system. I simply plugged an HDMI cable from the dish to the TV...and whammo...200+ channels almost instantly.
Everything else was great. I would make a similar purchase again with Amazon without hesitation. |
Great value
|
| Review Date: December 6, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Colleen E. Peralta, REDDING, CA, US |
| Great TV. The only disappointment is the sound quality, when the sound is turned up halfway, there is a vibration to the sound. I would recommend adding speakers. The shipping was top notch! Well secured, and arrived quickly. |
I love it !
|
| Review Date: October 1, 2009 |
| Reviewer: JLS, North Arlington, NJ USA |
| This TV is awesome! the picture is great and the sound is prety good. |
MY WIFE HATES IT, BUT I LOVE IT: ITS JUST THE BEGINNING.
|
| Review Date: March 7, 2010 |
| Reviewer: KC, NYC, NY USA |
I just got my KDL40-VE5 Sony Bravia, I kicks %#@#$... The picture is so clear it almost looks 3-D. Sound is perfect in the bedroom, in Dynamic setting is as good as the surround sound system in stereo setting(Yes you have to turn it up half way, but anything after that the house shakes not the speakers[Sony must have fixed the problem]). 100, 000:1 contrast means your old " View Master Viewer" is now in 40".
My 2years old genius daughter Has been trying to obtain products and items from the T.V. I'm happy my wall mount got here so I could get my 120 hz off the level of my little princess. I have a cable hd connection, and ps3 250g. Everything on HDMI connections. This may be what makes the difference???
My Wife however, does not like my Bravia. Mainly because my old westinghouse 47" 1080P, 60 hz, which only had 8000:1 contract. Just looks like a dinosaur now. The westinghouse does have a feature they called 1080Pure which give it a very good picture. I never thought someone else lcd looked better. In fact a few friends bought the same tv after seeing mine. Sorry guys... HA, HA.
The Eco Bravia has brought the future to my house. Now I'm shooting for 240hz, 1440p, 1,000,000:1.... don't look back guys, the future is waiting. |
|