Sony Bravia KDL32EX503U 32-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p 100Hz LCD Internet TV with Freeview HD

Sony Bravia KDL32EX503U 32-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p 100Hz LCD TV with Freeview HD

My Sony Bravia arrived just in time for my weekly dose of Doctor Who and within moments I had it out of the box, installed and configured. Everything was nicely packed with a clear protective film over the screen and the black glossy base. It was then just a very simple job to attach the unit to the base (this does require a phillips screwdriver) and move it to the stand.

The TV comes with 2 scart connections - perfect for my older DVD recorder and Sky box, 4 HDMI connections (Media drive, second DVD player + 2 spare) and a composite connection for my gaming console. There is also a ethernet connection (more later) and a USB socket). For me it was simply a matter of unplgging the various leads from the old TV, moving my new Bravia in place and reconnecting. Everything is quite cleverly arranged so that the scart, ethernet and 2 HDMI sockets are on the back, and the USB, 2 HDMI and composite on the left hand side for easy access.

Switching on, the automatic setup ran error free, first scanning and collecting channels ready for use. We then switched on each of our external devices (DVD, media drive etc) to ascertain which input channel they connected to. There is actually some clever engineering underneath this - the system works out which ones are connected and the others are all "greyed out". So at first we see AV1, AV2, HDMI1, HDMI2 etc. In the setup it is possible to easily relabel these so my AV1 quickly got relabeled DVD, etc and we could then see what channel connected to what device very quickly.

Now we could set the channel and watch some sample programmes it is clear that Sony have
worked very hard to ensure that picture quality is perfect. The lines are clear cut and colours are crystal clear and everything is sharp and clean. Sound also is very good and clear.

The USB input is a nice touch and this means that it is possible to watch programmes stored on a hard drive or even USB key. This plugs into the side and then the drive becomes available in the "HOME" area and is then basically a filesystem from which one can navigate to the programme one wishes to watch.
This USB connection also allows one to attached a wireless modem such as one might use with a notebook PC to connect to ones home internet. I did try this however sadly I couldnt get TV to recognise my modem - (I am a tech person so know what I am doing here!). I suspect that my linksys modem key was not compatible so if you do want to connect to the internet in this way you might want to check your key will work.

I could however use the wired ethernet connection to connect to my home router with no problems. This meant that my television could now connect to the internet. Once connected whole new options open up and options such as Fifa, You-tube etc all appear on the Home. Navigating to YouTube was very easy and you have a search box to find what you want, then clicking this downloads it and plays it on your TV. Of course if you do not have a fast connection then playback can be a bit jerky; however this is not the fault of the TV.

One thing I would have liked to have seen here was the BBC iPlayer, or even just a way to generaly browse the internet so I could find the iplayer myself. Playing around I couldnt easily find out how to do this or even if it were possible however to make this possible it would simply be a matter of software. On a similar vein it would be nice to be able to attach a keyboard to the TV so that any typing can be performed quickly without the pain of using the cursors to build up the text.

Despite these very minor niggles, this really is a beautiful television which is indeed a thing of glossy black beauty and shiny and nice. Picture and sound quality are amazing and set up is simplicitiy itself making this an absolute joy.

This TV is great!... had been looking for a good Tv for a few months i looked at alot and i narrowed my choice down to this, the samsung 32b6000 and the sony 32w5810. i then noticed the samsung had an auto dimming setting that could not be turned off. This was quite annoying and did not look good. i then decided to buy the 32w5810 as it was on offer for £500. when i got it home and played some games there was huge input lag and many artifacts with the 100hz motionflow turned on! this was one of the setting i really wanted to look good, so i returned the 32w5810 and exchanged for this! it was £200 more expensive but in my opinion worth it! the internet features are good tho not alot of choice at the moment! picture quality is outstanding, coulors are perfect!
sound is better than most LCD tvs i have seen. looks are cool aliminium strip at bottom is a nice touch. very easy to use menu, and no input lag on games! only negative things i have to say about this set is that motionflow could be a little smoother, menu load times a little quicker and Freview HD isnt available in alot of places yet. Tho the freeview website said i wouldnt be able to receive it and i can looks amazing! would highly recommend this TV to anyone!

I like the minimalistic look of this television. There are some connectors hidden away down the side along with some buttons, with the rest on the back - and this TV has its fair share on connectors. Aside from a couple of LEDs, the front is pretty much just the screen surrounded by a narrow border. A neat stand fits onto the bottom and is unobtrusive.

Switching on and configuring for the first time was easy, and also gave first experience of the smooth and responsive HMI. This is pretty important in my opinion, given the amount of options this TV offers.

After a few minutes the TV located all the freeview digital and normal analogue channels (It has both tuners) and was ready to go - if you want to rearrange channels, you can.

First impressions were impressive, with strong colours, a sharp, bright image and no blurring during fast movement. The tuner also supports Freeview HD. The HD picture was impressive, with crisp detail that added real depth to the image.

Connectivity

Connectivity these days is a big plus, and the Bravia comes with more option than you'll ever need: there are 4 HMDI sockets, plus 2 Scart, Composite, Component for video. There's an optical audio out. Two HDMI sockets are located on the side along with Composite connectors and a USB port.

The USB port can be used for a wireless network dongle (Not supplied, which is a shame) or a memory stick. You can browse the memory stick and play films from it - I tried it out with some standard XVID files and pleased with the playback quality. You can also view photographs and play music. The audio quality was impressive through the TV's speakers.
The other connector is an Ethernet port, which allows you to connect your TV to a home network and use it to access "Internet TV" - this is a set of services such as YouTube and Lovefilm.

If you have a media server on the your network, you can also play music, videos and photographs. You can browse your device's directory structure from the main menu and locate files. Again, I found the HMI to be responsive and easy to use.
The only downside here is that the video support is limited to AVCHD format and MP2. You can also use the TV as a giant photoframe. Photographic rendering was very impressive indeed, and the playback of fairly low quality video files taken with a still camera was good as well. My media hub is filled with gigabytes of photographs, and I spent hours browsing through them.

Browsing large directories of photographs and videos turned out to be easy thanks to the responsive user interface. A main menu allows you to cycle through all the different connectivity options and select the one you want from a list - you can travese these lists very quickly without any lag. This proved useful when searching through long lists of filenames.

I have an external media player and tried that out using one of the HDMI ports. The video file was HD and the reproduction on the Bravia was outstanding. You can also connect your PC to the TV using HDMI or a VGA connector.

Conclusion

I'd recommend this just for its picture quality and the usable interface. The connectivity available is just the icing on the cake - I was especially impressed with the Network connectivity & ability to play video files from USB. I only wish that it would play more video formats through the network service.

Highly recommended.