Sony Bravia KDL52W5500U

Sony Bravia KDL52W5500U 52-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD TV with Freeview, 100Hz Motionflow and 3 Year Warranty

Product Description
Quite simply innovation at its best: This TV is a keeper.The W5500 delivers the next generation in picture excellence with unrivalled depth, richness and clarity. What's more, you can connect to your favourite digital devices for total entertainment.

Reviews

I have been waiting for Sony's new model for weeks and am not disappointed.
Even turned off it looks great with its piano black finish but when turned on the picture is truly stunning. The images are clean and crisp and the colour is extremely vibrant. The 100000:1 contrast ratio makes most of the other sets I considered look shabby in comparison. It seems to handle fast moving images with ease without much of the noticeable juddering that I have seen on most TVs. I have seen no sign of the uneven back lighting problems that have been discussed with the smaller version of this model.
I intend to use my surround sound system for most applications but the quality of the TV's own sound is much better than you might expect and as is perfectly adequate for general viewing purposes.
I bought this TV with the Sony BDP-S550 and, as I have said, the results are extremely impressive. However I am also very impressed with the picture from the digital receiver. I had expected it be stretched and grainy but this is just not the case. I fully intended to make sky hd my next purchase but am now seriously reconsidering if I need this.
Setup is extremely easy and is completed with a few button presses. It did take about 20 minutes to download all the tv guide but I don't know if that is normal or not. This model has the stand pre attached so it is just a question of lifting off the box and placing the TV on the cabinet.
My one and only gripe would be that even though I spent nearly £1900 on a tv and blue ray player I still had to purchase a separate HDMI cable as none was provided. Very tight Sony!
In summary, an awesome bit of kit and definitely the best purchase I have made in years. I also have placed an order for this Sony set and have received it. I also like the other reviewer placed an order for the Sony BDP-S550 Blu-Ray drive, as it was version 2.0. I have had a few LCD's in the past, but nothing above 40" and I was a little weary of picture degredation on a bigger screen. How wrong could I be it is gobsmacking. Also like the review above I can not see anything on my set that warants people going on about the levels of black. No problems here at all. I really love the fact that it's DLNA and I can use my media server and other gadgets with this LCD. Applicast is also great as I have my RSS feeds come through, and it looks like these will be updated and new stuff come via updates as it is connected to the internet.
9.5/10 overall. Sound could just be slightly better although the one I have is connected to a 7.1 reciever.

PHILIPS 32PFL7404H/12

PHILIPS 32PFL7404H/12 LCD Television 32 inch (82 cm) 16/9, "Full HD" TNT HD, 100Hz, HDMI x4, USB 2.0

Product Description
This stylish and high-performance Philips 32PFL7404H/12 LCD television offers high-definition viewing that willblow you away! In fact, Full HD resolution ensures excellent picture quality, while HD NaturalMotion technology makes for smooth images and the Pixel Precise HD engine keepsall movement fluid and seamless. What's more, this fantastic picture quality is accompanied with stereo sound fromtwo invisible speakers, to bring a whole new dimension to your audiovisualexperience. With technology like this, you'll be sure to get the best out ofthe 32-PFL-7404H/12's HD digital TV tuner! The 32 PFL 7404 H/12 offers a wide range of connection possibilities,including four HDMi ports with EasyLink technology for hooking up all kinds ofHD sources and controlling all of their functions with one single remote control. The Philips 32PFL-7404H/12 LCD TV also features a USB 2.0 portfor sharing videos, photos and music stored on all kinds of external devices.

Product Details

-This stylish and high-performance Philips 32PFL7404H/12 LCD television offers high-definition viewing that willblow you away! In fact, Full HD resolution ensures excellent picture quality, while HD NaturalMotion technology makes for smooth images and the Pixel Precise HD engine keepsall movement fluid and seamless. What's more, this fantastic picture quality is accompanied with stereo sound fromtwo invisible speakers, to bring a whole new dimension to your audiovisualexperience.

-With technology like this, you'll be sure to get the best out ofthe 32-PFL-7404H/12's HD digital TV tuner! The 32 PFL 7404 H/12 offers a wide range of connection possibilities,including four HDMi ports with EasyLink technology for hooking up all kinds ofHD sources and controlling all of their functions with one single remote control. The Philips 32PFL-7404H/12 LCD TV also features a USB 2.0 portfor sharing videos, photos and music stored on all kinds of external devices.

Sharp LED TV With Integrated Blu-ray

This unit doesn't have any 200Hz options as such but calls their motion control "film" modes. These modes can be set to one of three settings from High to Low or can be turned off altogether. At the highest setting the motion was smooth but it removed too much motion blur making the images look a little fake. However, at the lowest setting the motion was excellent. There was still a little judder but it wasn't distracting. What setting you choose to use is subject to personal preference but it is good to see the option available to make that choice.

The LC-40LB700X achieves a six star energy rating thanks to its various ECO features. One of the most obvious is the backlight control which dims the backlights when the maximum setting is not needed. In addition to lower power consumption this also increases the life of the backlights too. However, the dimming is noticeable and somewhat distracting so we tended to have it permanently disabled during testing. There are also ECO features designed for the Blu-ray player which turn the drive off completely when not in use and other ECO features like automatic shutdown when the TV has been inactive for a certain period of time.

The image quality of the panel is top notch. We tested with the integrated Blu-ray as well as an external Blu-ray device and the difference was negligible. We used a wide variety of films to test how well the television handled colour, contrast and motion and also used the Spears and Munsil professional test disc. The results were impressive although we did have to turn off some of the eco-features, turn down the sharpness level and increase the backlight brightness to achieve the best image quality. The unit handled colour exceptionally as shown in the film "Speed Racer". There were no overblown hues although we did turn the colour down just a little from the default setting. The contrast was a mixed bag at first until we turned off some of the Eco-features (which we will go into a little later) but once optimal settings were achieved there was no detail loss in the darker scenes of "The Dark Knight".

This unit doesn't have any 200Hz options as such but calls their motion control "film" modes. These modes can be set to one of three settings from High to Low or can be turned off altogether. At the highest setting the motion was smooth but it removed too much motion blur making the images look a little fake. However, at the lowest setting the motion was excellent. There was still a little judder but it wasn't distracting. What setting you choose to use is subject to personal preference but it is good to see the option available to make that choice.

When it comes to image quality, this TV certainly competes brilliantly with other LED TVs available. However, its appeal comes mainly from the integrated Blu-ray player which is able to play back Blu-ray films and upscale DVDs quite well. The only complaint we have about this unit is the load times which need a lot of improvement. Whether this can be done with a simple firmware update or if we have to wait for the next model to get faster load times remains to be seen.

Sony Bravia LCD TVs Vs. Samsung LED HD TVs Which is Best?

Facing declining market share for their Bravia LCD TV’s and massive losses Sony has desperately hit out at LED backlight TV technology claiming it is a myth that LED is better than LCD. They also claim that Samsung is trying to position LED technology up against OLED TV technology.
Sony claim that Samsung is misleading the market when they claim that LED TV technology delivers a superior picture over LCD TV technology. Their comments made during a Sony roadshow for their new LCD Bravia TV range is now being challenged from several quarters, and not just by Samsung.

Sony Australia who only have one 11" OLED TV on sale in Australia at the staggering price of $6,999 and who last week took a swipe at Samsung over the marketing of their LED TV technology is now advertising their 116cm (46 inch) Sony Bravia TV as being LED backlight.


The experts say that Sony is wrong with almost every professional reviewer of LED TV's praising the quality of the display when compared to traditional LCD TV technology. They also calim that it is impossible to compare LED with OLED as no manufacturer has released commercial OLED TV's over 20".

Several reviewers have said that backlight LED TV technology is superior to traditional LCD technology that is found in the latest Bravia TV offerings.

Leading UK TV reviewer John Archer said in a recent story in Home Cinema Choice "LED backlight TV's are a big deal for a number of picture quality reasons, all centring around the fact that LED TVs use an array of individually controllable backlight segments, 128 of them instead of the single, always-on fluorescent lamp used in normal LCD TVs".

He added "This approach can massively improve that traditional LCD weakness of poor black levels, since it allows you to completely switch off the LED segments in dark areas of the picture, achieving near perfect blackness, at the same time that you can leave the LED segments in bright areas of the picture running at full brightness".

Trusted Reviews in the UK wrote" what makes LED technology so intriguing is the way it illuminates pictures. The LED approach thus allows you to turn off the lights completely in some areas of the picture, to deliver a near-perfect reproduction of black, while leaving LEDs in other areas at maximum illumination. In fact, you could in theory have one blacked out section of the picture right next to one fully bright section of the picture, giving rise to a huge possible brightness range within a single image frame"

They also said of the Samsung LED TV "Thanks to a frankly eye-popping contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1 the joint highest such figure we've ever seen, alongside (you guessed it) the aforementioned Samsung LED TV".

Pat Pilcher writing for the New Zealand Herald said "LCD TVs have long struggled to deliver the deep blacks and bright whites of their plasma siblings, but Samsung's new Series 9s have finally put paid to plasma's dominance. Eye-pleasing picture capabilities aside, the 46-inch Samsung LA46A950 (LED TV) is a head turner...... Light bleed or image distortion and discolouration when from viewed from an angle didn't exist".

"More importantly, the LA46A950 cranked out astonishing contrast levels thanks to the use of intelligent LED backlighting".

The Korean Times wrote of LED TV technology LEDs, as an alternative technology, consume less power and last longer than traditional light sources and are increasingly used in consumer products from mobile phones to flat-screen TVs. Consumers can expect enhanced picture quality in their devices that consume less power".

The problem that Sony is facing is that in big markets like the US where Samsung have launched their LED TV offering sales of Bravia LCD TV's are going backward (See SmartHouse story).
Sony is also facing big losses because globally the company has never made a profit from their Bravia LCD TV offering. And because they are losing money to the tune of billions of dollars, Sony has been forced to move third party manufacturers in China and Taiwan to make their Bravia LCD TV's. No longer are they "Made in Japan".

3DTV: The Next Big Thing?

Now that we’ve got HDTV, what’s next? Look no further than your local movie theater; 3D is coming to a living room near you.Hollywood has noticed the runaway success of 3D movies at the box office; the 3D versions often account for as much as two-thirds of the ticket sales, even though the 2D versions appear on far more screens. About 15 major feature films will be released in 3D in 2009, with twice that number scheduled for 2010.That means for the first time, we'll have Hollywood entertainment content ready to be piped into home theaters. A Consumer Electronics Association survey noted that 50 percent of consumers are willing to pay extra to get 3D functionality on their TVs. So it should come as no surprise that HDTV manufacturers are scrambling to support 3DTV.As it turns out, plasma and 120Hz LCD technology are both adaptable to 3DTV using active glasses, which are different from the passive glasses used in most 3D movie theaters. Active glasses use LCD material to block the light to one eye, then the other, at very fast rates. By synchronizing them to the content on the HDTV, full-resolution 1080p images can be presented sequentially to the left and right eyes, and still have a total frame rate of 60Hz. (In general, speeds of 60Hz or better are required to prevent annoying flicker in the images.) Panasonic has announced a version of this scheme for plasma TVs.Other technologies can be used to show 3D images with either passive glasses or no glasses at all, but these are currently too expensive to manufacture or have significant viewing limitations, and thus are less likely to be successful, at least for the next few years.

new Samsung Series 9

Samsung's A950 series of LCD HDTVs has been designed to be the next step in image fidelity for liquid crystal display technology. These home theatre HD TVs use Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) that can selectively illuminate sections of the screen at a time, which means that they have a wider color gamut and better colour reproduction. They also boast superb black levels, do away with back light bleeding, and offer unbelievable dynamic contrast ratios.The transition from Cold Cathode Florescent Lamp back lights (CCFL) to LED back lights also means that the Samsung 9-series televisions should have noticeably longer life span than previous LCD HDTVs. One of the problems with CCFL bulbs is that they steadily lose brightness from the day they're turned on, and within a few years of steady use can drop down to half of their original luminance.Samsung's LN55A950 selective LED back lighting reduces the overall amount of time individual LEDs are illuminated, and the LED matrix itself is much more resistant to dimming and burning out, which translates into a longer-lasting and more durable HDTV. The Samsung series 9 LCD HDTVs also take advantage of selective LED dimming which make them more power efficient than an equivalent CCFL HDTV.The Samsung LN55A950D1F is a 55" 1080p LCD screen that supports both 60 and 120 Hertz refresh rates. Samsung rates the dynamic contrast ratio of its new localized LED back light at an astonishing 2,000,000 to 1, with an overall brightness rating of 500 cd/m2. The excellent viewing angles of Samsung's previous LCD HDTVs have been preserved, so the LN55A950 can be viewed from 178º either vertically or horizontally without colour distortion or dimming, and has an overall 4ms grey-to-grey response time.