Sony Bravia KDL37EX503U 37-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p 100Hz Internet LCD TV with Freeview HD

I bought this TV 4 months ago after doing lots of research and reading loads of reviews. It replaced a 20 year old Sony 21 inch CRT (Sony TVs tend to be reliable!). Initially I was concerned about the picture quality on such a relatively large screen as my aerial is in the loft and not on the roof. However, I needn't have worried - the picture quality is excellent. What particularly surprised me is just how good the SD picture is. While there is a visible difference between this and the HD picture, it is much less than you might think.

The TV is easy to set up and tunes itself in very quickly. Fitting the TV onto the stand is also easy. However, while the TV will sit on the stand reasonably securely, you cannot screw it to the stand using the screws supplied because these are too small to reach the deeply recessed screw holes in the TV. You will need to buy longer screws. I haven't bothered - the TV will be OK unless you need to move it around frequently which I don't.

As mentioned, the picture quality is excellent out of the box. There are picture setup options but I have not used these. Sound quality is not brilliant but it is OK and considerably better than I expected from a flat screen TV. Obviously you will get better sound if you hook the TV up to an external sound source. There are red and white audio sockets on the back of the TV to facilitate this. I have the audio connected to my Hi Fi system through a Hi Fi amplifier which certainly improves the sound quality. Even with an external audio source connected you still adjust the volume through the TV itself which is convenient.

One of the things I like about this TV is its EPG. As a veteran of Freeview boxes I have seen quite a few EPGs and visually they all differ. This EPG is one of the most attractively designed ones I have come across: programme listings are laid out horizontally with white text against a pale grey background. Individual programme information is displayed above the programme listings with white text against a black background. It is very clear and very legible. Programme listings and information (if available) load instantly - there seems to be no time lag as there often is with Freeview boxes.

The TV comes with internet connectivity. However, you should be aware that this does not include BBC iPlayer which is odd as the Sony BDPS370 (budget) bluray player also comes with internet connectivity which does include BBC iPlayer. I imagine Sony will add iPlayer in time as a firmware update.

To connect the TV to the internet you have three options:
1) a wired connection from the Ethernet port of your broadband router to the Ethernet port on the back of the TV
2) a wireless connection using a wireless dongle (this costs about £40)
3) a wired connection using a pair of network adaptor plugs (also costing about £40). I opted for the adaptor plugs and found these very easy to set up (literally 5 minutes) and it avoids having an Ethernet cable trailing across the floor. There are several available (Amazon stock one called Solwise).

If you have a standalone video/DVD recorder of any kind and already own a Freeview box it is worth connecting your Freeview box to the TV (it will work through the AV1 source) and using it in conjunction with the built in Freeview tuner. This will give you the equivalent of twin tuners, enabling you to record one Freeview channel while watching another, something I personally find very useful.

One final point - the appearance of this TV is actually quite attractive. I was a bit dubious reading about the aluminium strip along the bottom as it sounded rather tacky. In fact it isn't and it imparts a certain air of elegance to the TV and makes it more interesting than a plain black surround.

All in all I am very pleased with this TV. It is everything I hoped it would be and a great pleasure to use. I just hope it proves as reliable and long-lasting as my previous Sony TV.

UPDATE:

I have now owned this TV for 18 months and there have been no reliability issues with it of any kind. It has performed faultlessly and I remain very pleased with it.

I got this to replace a ten year old Sony plasma unit, along with the Sony BDVE670W home cinema system which replaced an old Sony DVD player. I tend to do a lot of research before buying stuff like this, and I think this TV is great value.

It's from Sony's Essential range, which is the affordable range. I looked into the other ranges - the NX "network" range and the HX "cinematic" range. The extra cost of the HX range didn't seem justified to me for what I wanted (I'm not THAT crazy about HD films), and the NX range didn't seem to offer much more either.

It didn't take long to set up, and it looks quite stylish. Since I have a Sky box, I just plugged that in, and let the TV figure it all out. I didn't bother with the electronic manual on the TV itself. Then I connected the HDMI connection from the home cinema box, and that was it.

It's not as good looking as the more expensive ranges, but I think performance and value for money beats appearance anyway. It sits nicely on my John Lewis Jude TV Unit which I bought to go with the whole setup.

I can't comment on how it works with BBC iPlayer, because I've got my Sony BDVE670W to do that instead, but see my comments on the wireless network adaptor in that review, which probably apply equally well to using it with this TV.

The reason I gave it 4 stars is because the sound from the TV isn't great. I sometimes have the home cinema system on at the same time and play sound through that, which comes without any effort along the normal HDMI connection.

All things considered, it's a good purchase, and Amazon as always was reliable and on time.

After months of research, consideration and pondering, I finally made the decision to buy the Sony KDX37EX503. And after a couple of weeks of ownership, I'm VERY relieved to say it's five stars.

The first question for me was whether to buy an LCD at all. For a long time now I've been pretty convinced that the industry's replacement of the CRT with LCD was primarily a marketing drive for the benefit of the manufacturers. We've owned a 28" Panasonic CRT for the last eight years, and it can't be faulted. I purchased it just as CRTs were being withdrawn, and for me there was no comparison. CRT gave me a fresh, bright picture, with no distortion and, most importantly, no blurring. By comparison, the LCDs looked really poor. I understand there's still quite a hard-core following for CRT out there, and based on my comparisons until very recently, I was in that camp.

So, what persuaded me the change my mind? Two things really. The first was Blu-ray. Watching a Blu-ray movie on a good LCD/Plasma is very impressive. Certainly a huge leap from DVD. The second was Freeview HD. We're lucky enough to live in one of the first regions to provide HD on terrestrial. Whilst I was still unconvinced by the quality of SD on an LCD, HD did seem worth having, particularly as BBC and ITV have started showing movies in HD. So I decided to take the plunge.

The next question was what to buy. I had already decided that I wanted a built-in Freeview HD tuner. That limited my choice somewhat. I preferred LCD over Plasma due to running costs and longevity. I reckon 3D is just a fad (as it has been in cinema over the years) and there are very few LED's with a built-in HD tuner. So I visited the local electrical stores to check them out, which proved to be a complete waste of time. Why do the stores have dozens of TVs on show that aren't correctly tuned? How can you make a decision based on picture quality when they have £1,000 sets so badly tuned that it's like watching through a snowstorm? Hopeless. So apart from deciding that 37" was the correct screen size for me, the shops were no help at all.

So I fell back on an approach that's served me well over the years; when in doubt, buy Sony or Panasonic. That pretty much left me with on-line reviews , and after lots of study and consideration, I chose this Sony.

Now the important bit; what do I think of the TV? As you expect these days, setup is very simple. Ten minutes to get it out of the box and on the stand, five minutes for it to tune itself in. Picture quality on HD is excellent, every bit as good as I hoped. Colours are vivid (better than CRT) and well defined. The sense of depth you get is very impressive and the contrast with the blacks is very good. SD is surprisingly good most of the time, although with some programmes there is noticeable pixelation, particularly with detailed, multi-colour images. I suspect that may be a feature of the broadcast image. Sound quality is also very good, although perhaps not as well defined as I've noticed with a friend's Panasonic.

What else? It looks very elegant. The EPG is very good. You have the usual wealth of setup options to play with, which I will get around to one day.

I also took the step of purchasing the UWA-BR100 wireless dongle to connect to my WiFi. Setup of this took me about an hour (thanks Sony for providing almost no documentation). Once done though, it works very well, particularly considering my broadband speed is only about 2mb. My only complaint is that I expected it to work with BBC iPlayer. It turns out this isn't yet available with Bravia TVs, but works with the Sony BDPS370 Bluray that I also bought, so not a major problem.

So overall, an excellent TV. If you're like me, and thinking whether it's time to make that upgrade, then I'd highly recommend it.