Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magnificent!, 12 May 2009
This review is from: Sony Bravia KDL46W5500U 46-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD TV with Freeview,100Hz Motionflow (Electronics)
This is my first HD television, having had a non-HD 42" plasma from LG for four years previously. I spent a lot of time researching models before choosing, and then had to wait for a month or so before this new model came available. And what a difference from my old TV!
I can't really comment in great detail on the image quality - for me, it's fabulous but I'll leave the microscopic reviews to the professional reviewers. As a user, this TV is great. Although the screen is larger than my old TV, the unit is lighter (24kg). It's pretty easy to fix the supplied stand (place the TV on top and then fix in place with 4 screws), and the TV rotates 20 degrees to either side on the stand.
So far, I have connected my old DVD player (my Sony Blu Ray player is on order), my portable PC (which has a Blu Ray drive), media PC, Wii and the Xbox 360 that I couldn't resist buying now that I have an HD television (and don't regret at all!). The television gives a great picture on most of them, although I'm having trouble with my media PC - but that's due to Windows and the graphics drivers rather than the TV (which shows a very nice picture at 1280x768).
The on-screen menus are very practical, and you can switch between inputs rather easily. I have set up DLNA servers on my home network, but apparently the TV is very picky about video formats, so I'm moving back to the idea of using my media PC or the Xbox to present videos. The TV happily plays music from the DLNA connection, though (using the Windows Media Connect function in Windows Media Player).
The sound is actually pretty good - again, certainly better than my old TV. Naturally, it is lacking in bass and it's only stereo; reproduction is pretty clear, though, and whereas I had completely abandoned the TV speakers on my old telly for my surround system, the speakers on this one are perfectly usable (good thing too, as I've run out of channels on my rather ageing amp!).
What else? Picture quality is really great; HD sources look superb and I am very impressed by the quality of the standard definition TV images coming from my satellite tuner - much better than I had expected. No artefacts noticed so far, and I certainly haven't seen the clouding issue, although I haven't really done specific tests for that (sitting in a dark room in front of a black TV screen....that doesn't sound like much fun anyway tbh!). The TV does take several seconds to warm up when you switch it on, but there is a little green light that comes on (unobtrusive when you are watching) to tell you that it is actually thinking about it.
Bizarrely, there is an angled edge on the inside of the screen surround that sometimes reflects parts of the image on the screen. It's not really a problem, but it's noticeable sometimes (particularly when there is a black border on the screen).
The remote is clear and easy to use, and feels good to hold.
Overall, a superb piece of equipment, and I'm very happy with the investment that I have made.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An awesome television and stunning picture, 15 May 2009
This review is from: Sony Bravia KDL46W5500U 46-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD TV with Freeview,100Hz Motionflow (Electronics)
Finally decided to upgrade my old Trintron CRT and spent the past 3 months or so looking at the various LCDs available out there. I initially settled on a Sony KDL46W4500 after seeing one in a store and was just about to part with my hard earned cash when I started reading reviews and read about the so-called dreaded 'backlight bleed'. Given the high cost of the Sony, this completely put me off, so it was back to the drawing board for me.
I spent more time looking around but never quite found a set I fancied as much as the 46W4500, that was until the Sony KDL46W5500 came out. I couldn't find any reviews but Amazon had it at a very competitive price so I decided to take a chance on it.
All I can say is I'm glad I took the risk. The picture on this set is nothing short of stunning. I don't have HD installed yet but the SD picture is very, very good. I'm using it with a Sony blu ray player and although I haven't watched any blu rays yet, the DVD upscaling is jawdroppingly good - the sports mode makes the pictures scarily real. I've been going through my entire DVD collection just trying out the pictures and it's totally different to watching them on my old CRT screen. Can't wait to see blu ray, although it's difficult to imagine how much better the pictures can get.
Of course I was a bit worried about this backlight bleed issue, and I've sat there in a pitch black room, watching dark DVDs, and all sorts of different pictures and programmes. The blacks on the TV are the blackest I've ever seen on a screen and I simply cannot find any evidence of backlight bleed. I think that 99.9% of people will be delighted with the picture.
The TV is packed with features, the menus are quite easy to use. There are the usual HDMI and SCART inputs, plus you can plug in a USB Key with photos, videos, and music on which the TV will happily work with. You can also connect the TV to your router although not quite figured out how to set the networking bits yet. My laptop plugs in quite happily via a standard monitor cable and I can view my PC screen on the TV.
The TV is easy to lift (a lot lighter than my old CRT) and feels solid and well built. The screen swivels on the stand just enough to adjust for comfortable viewing.
Overall, very, very pleased with this TV. Can't wait to see blu ray on it.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Super Picture, 9 Aug 2009
This review is from: Sony Bravia KDL46W5500U 46-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD TV with Freeview,100Hz Motionflow (Electronics)
Have just bought this television on Friday 7th August and up till now I am very happy with both sound and picture quality. The t.v it is replacing is the 40W2000 which is an excellent television too . I was in the same frame of mind as other reviewers in that I perhaps dithered a little in going for the bigger screen size in first the W4000 and then the W4500 only to be disppointed that when I finally made my mind up both models were discontinued. I settled for the 5500 based on reviews alone both in magazines and customer comments and so far no regrets . As with the W2000 , I went for the 5500 with little or no show-room demonstration.
I relied on Sonys reputation and just went for it . I have yet to have a proper play with all the controls and settings and what everything does,so I set the brilliance,colour and contrast to the same levels as I had on the W2000 and the picture was stunning,especially on close-up during the Sky game on Friday night. Over the past few weeks I have picked the brains of some high profile retailers regarding the difference between 100 and 200hz and the bottom line is there is no noticeable difference to the human eye . At one time I almost went for the 46Z4500 as this has the 200hz feature, the 5500 has the Bravia 3 engine to compensate . Set up was simple and straight forward.I managed to get a good deal at Comet in comparison with a local independant retailer. I never expected such a big firm as Comet to tolerate any form of haggling,
so Ijust put on my Dominic Littlewood head and talked of price matching . Very pleased . If this television is on your short-list and within your budget the go for it .
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|