Sony BRAVIA VE5-Series KDL-52VE5

I bought this after a 32″ Samsung stopped working with certain HDMI sources. I still love Samsung, but after that one mysteriously stopped working I decided I’d try something new. And I’m glad I did. The 52″ size is really perfect for my room. It’s definitely a large set, but not so large that images feel overly stretched across its surface.

Initially I was very disappointed with the image quality. The issue is that when the light sensor is turned on, the backlight slider can be set to full power, but you’re only experiencing a fraction of this set’s incredible brightness. Although the brightness sensor seems like a great feature, I found that overall it was too aggressive in reducing brightness, so I have to recommend that it be turned off. Ironically, it works better in well-lit rooms than dark. Once you have full control over the backlighting, this set really shines. The contrast is excellent (my camera has a contrast ratio of 2000:1, and it couldn’t capture this TV’s image fully). So I can believe that it has the 5000:1 on-screen contrast that Sony claims.

Personally, I don’t like my image tampered with. The low setting of motionflow is okay, but the high setting is really comical and only good if you crave that look of sped up footage. The contrast enhancer I also don’t find necessary, since the image has great contrast natively. However, I do like that you can create multiple image settings for each input. For example, I can quickly toggle between a game setting and a movie setting when using my PS3.

Sound quality is fair. Nothing to write home about. I certainly don’t use TV speakers with an image this good, and don’t recommend anyone else does either.

The energy saving features and setup of this set are really excellent. My surge protector monitors current, and this tv usually uses only 0.4 amps (~50 watts). It’s mainly dependent on the backlight brightness, but even so, this is one very efficient product. I was worried that the unique backlight would tinge the color, but as far as I can tell, it’s spot-on. The motion sensing really does work. I leave it set to 30 minutes and it hasn’t shut off on me yet, which is good. Sony doesn’t mention this much on their website, but it’s also heat-sensing, which could explain it’s sensitivity. I sit 13 feet away, and it detects my motion with little difficulty.

The worst part about the TV is either the remote, or the fact that the inputs are on the side. If you end up swapping inputs a lot, I suppose it’s nice, but otherwise I feel it’s a poor design decision. Depending on the heft of your wires, and your seating angle, you could be looking at HDMI cables out the side of your otherwise beautiful tv set. The remote is very basic. Compared to the older V-series Bravias, this TV actually has the less fancy interface (the XMB went hand in hand with a nicer remote for the 4100 series). That said, I don’t feel affected by either. If the decision to drop a pointlessly shiny interface and fancier remote keeps the price down, I’m all for it. I use a Fios or universal remote almost exclusively, so I don’t miss it. And since I don’t use the TV to tune my programming, the XMB would be a waste. That said, this interface is fine, very logical and doesn’t hide settings too deep (except motion flow). No frills, but won’t disappoint either.

I wish Sony had included a little more detail in their manual, but I doubt most people even read those anymore, so I’m just nit picking. The stand is pretty good, although Sony recommends you anchor down the TV to the wall, which might be a good idea. Shame the stand doesn’t swivel, as I have two common sitting positions in my room. Oh well. The important thing is that the image quality on this TV is superb, there are no oversights that ruin the usability or connectivity of the TV, it’s very energy efficient, and it looks good even when off. I fully recommend this TV if you like the V-series, and are interested in saving some energy.

Reviewed by : Nicholas Saretzky,   Dec 2, 2009

Sony BRAVIA EX 400 Series

Here’s my simple review of this Sony TV.

General outline of features:
1080p resolution
Picture adjustments
Audio adjustments (synthetic surround sound, bass, treble)
USB device support
HDMI x4
ECO-friendly options (power save level I and II)
Ambient sensor

The picture quality is outstanding, there are numerous adjustments to make the picture look the way you want. Other adjustments include audio and settings for features. Full HD 1080p only makes it look even better. Sony advertises this TV with the “ambient” sensor that detects the lighting situation in your room so that it adjusts the backlight of the TV to compensate. I did some tests with the sensor on or off and it didn’t make that much of a difference but the ambient sensor does work, it will decrease the backlight of the TV if you’re in a dark room (or at night) and increase it if the room is lit up. Features also included with this TV is the ability to play music, photos and videos from a USB device which is great but I don’t see myself using it. The thing that stands out with this TV set is its design. It looks like a piece of art once you remove the packaging materials. There are an influx of ports and connections on the rear and side. Component, composite, HDMI, Audio, VGA, you name it, it will have most likely have it.

My only two minor gripes about this TV is that the tuning is responsiveness of the TV’s menu and tuning is fairly slow. It’s not slow to the point where it bothers you but I’d say from the moment you push the channel up button on the remote until the time it actually displays the picture is around 2-3 seconds. It’s not bad but its a minor gripe of mines. Another gripe I have about this TV is the price. It’s certainly on the costly side for this class of TV but I believe it makes up for it in the design aspect. So if you’re willing to spend a little more money to get a TV that actually looks great, this TV is a good choice.

Overall, this TV is great for the person who is willing to spend a little more money to get something that looks great without sacrificing picture quality.

Reviewed by : Vincent Nhieu,   Feb 25, 2010

Sony BRAVIA XBR Series KDL-46XBR9

Pros: If you can get this TV for less than $1,400 (like I did thru Amazon, including a sound bar with subwoofer and a Blue Ray player) you will be thrilled with this TV! If you base your buying decisions on expert reviews, get ready to spend like crazy!
Cons: Con number one from the experts, the “black level” debate – it’s overrated…tell me something, will you stop watching a movie just because a certain scene is not displaying a “true black” level? And con two from the experts, you went all out to buy this TV, where should the sound from a Blu-ray movie come from? If you really want to hear and feel that jet flying over head, expect to spend at least 50% of what you pay for this TV in a quality surround system.
Bottom-line, if you want true black levels from a movie, go watch the movie at the theater, no TV can match that…none! If you’re looking for those same black levels in a live program, buy the tickets to be there live. Otherwise, this TV will give you the next best thing to being there. If you’re looking for a bargain, you really need to be patient and look at online deals practically every day. That’s how I found the deal I got thru Amazon. I am not fanatical about any brand, but I did my homework…I went to a few brick and mortar stores and did side-by-side comparisons of different models, brands, prizes and sizes of HDTV’s. I really liked the natural colors that the Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and Pioneer TV’s reproduced, but, holy moly, the prices of the models that I really liked were, let me be honest, as if someone was cussing at me, I’m talking about fighting words, obscene ultimate-cage-fighting words. BUT, I wanted to stick to my plan – be patient, pick one or two TV models I would be really happy to own and wait…wait for the right (crazy-right!) prize. And the day came (and went really fast!) I saw this TV on sale and without hesitation whipped out the plastic and got it. I am extremely happy with this TV. But don’t listen to me, I am not an expert, just an average user who got the best price on a high end TV. Do more research, read more expert advise, but in the end it’s you (and your family) who are going to watch the movies and shows on this TV. The black levels are not perfect, the sound is not perfect. But like I mentioned earlier, for true blacks, go to the source (or a better reference you can afford to buy, like going to the movies.) And for the best sound? Do I need to repeat myself? Okay, no offense, but for everyday TV viewing, the sound on this TV (like any TV at any price range) is acceptable. But for watching a Blu-ray movie? Please! Let me say this, if you are going to complain that the sound on this TV is “bad” while you’re watching a Blu-ray movie and you consider yourself an expert in this field…get off the crack! For the best picture this TV can offer, get the best sound system you can afford…and (surprise!) the sound from the speakers on this TV are not the answer! This TV has other features that many people will enjoy…movie rentals thru Amazon, internet widgets, streaming music, syncing with other components like the surround sound and Blue Ray player…blah, blah, blah…this TV is awesome, shop wisely!

Reviewed by : Santos Lopez “Volkyman,   Dec 7, 2009

Sony BRAVIA S-Series KDL-46S5100

I’m not a big TV person, so I can’t compare this TV to others. I actually purchased this TV to play my PS3 on it, which is great!!!!! The games at 1080p look absolutely flawless. I can’t really make a lot of comments about the functions, but there are a lot of them. Everything looks great and for the price it’s great, and it’s a SONY!

Three months later, here is a review update:
This is still a good TV, especially when I purchased it 3 months ago. However, over the course of 3 months the HDMI connections started doing some weird things.

My set up is very simple: HDMI 1 is connected to my Digital Cable, HDMI 2 is connected to my SONY PS3 and HDMI 3 is connected to my SONY DVD upscale player. The problems I started having was the HDMI connections weren’t reading the signals sent by each component. At first I though it was the digital cable, because I stopped getting a signal. So, I had my cable company come out to my house three times and the last time they exchanged the digital DVR cable box with a new one. However, I noticed that when I turned on my DVD upscale using the “Bravia” features, I could no longer get a signal from my digital cable. So I unplugged the HDMI 1 (digital cable) and connected it to HDMI 3 (DVD upscale), then I received a cable signal. Same thing was happening to my PS3 (HDMI 2). It was like the PS3 and the DVD player kept knock’en out the cable signal.
So after hours of troubleshooting this ongoing problem, I realized, it wasn’t my digital cable boxes, PS3 or DVD player, it was the TV itself and since it was over 90 days, since the day I purchased it, I couldn’t return it to Wal-mart. So I called SONY and come to find out, SONY apparently knows about this problem. So SONY sent me a software update in the form of a USB drive. I received the USB drive, connected it to the back of the TV and the TV updated the software. The process took about 3 minutes and so far, everything is working fine.

I guess the biggest problem I have with this situation is that, if SONY knows this TV need a software update, why don’t they recall the TV or send the software update to each store that is selling the TV, so customers don’t have to go through this madness? So I wrote this review to warn customers who’s buying this TV and those who brought this TV of what to expect as you connect components to this TV using the HDMI ports over time. I would also recommend buying an extended warranty, just to be safe in the long run. I would also change my rating and give it 4 stars if I could, but I can’t.

Reviewed by : X “X-Man”,   Aug 26, 2009

Sony Bravia XBR KDL-46XBR8

Picture quality and color quality is fantastic. This is our first LCD flat screen TV. We had a 28 inch CRT for 20+ years… We are still blown away with the colors. We initially planned on a 40-42 inch, now that we have the 46 we are not disappointed, ..50?55?..hmmm No more room actually on our new TV console.

Sound quality leaves a bit to be desired. The speakers are just to small to have any quality sound. We have a stereo system that we may have to incorporate with the TV watching.

The one feature I was initially disappointed with was the lack of USB port recognition with a flash drive. Sony claims not all USB devices will work and recommends the SONY Micro Vault Flash drive to be compatible. Well after doing some web searching I did find some helpful info on the Sony eSupport page. After learning the USB device must be FAT32 formatted I now can upload photographs (.jpg files) from even the least expensive flash drive. I just re-formatted a SanDisk 250MB flashdrive and then a “micro center” 2GB flash drive I got for free!. After re-formatting to FAT32 the SONY recognizes the drive and I can now view my collection of digital photos. I must add that when viewing good quality .jpg’s (2-3meg size) the SONY displays the pics as sharp as a tack!!..the shots look the best I’ve ever seen. The colors are so real looking you feel as though you could touch the object as in real life. Now I can pursue getting my 1000+ 35mm slides from Germany and England while in the service (40 years ago!) converted to .jpg files. What better way to show all the slides as compared to to old slide projector/screen method…so archaic!

I did learn as well at the eSupport Site there is a software update available for the set. I’ll be contacting Sony soon to verify if our set needs the update as we just purchased the TV 2 weeks ago.

Tip: Get the Support Belt Kit, Part #X21866021, to secure it to your console. You don’t want this massive set to inadvertently topple over. Would recommend this set…the Sony’s all outperformed other LCD’s we looked at as far as color quality. At least that was my wife’s opinion..she has a better eye for color I have to admit. Enjoy, Jack

Reviewed by : Terrie L. Giannosa “Jack & Terrie”,   Nov 17, 2009

Sony BRAVIA XBR Series KDL-52XBR9

I bought a LN52A750 for 1260, enjoyed the TV for two weeks and loved it. Two weeks later I found KDL52XBR9 was on sale for 1600; couldn’t refuse the deal and got it PMed in local BB.

Put them side by side and watched Land of Lost Blu-ray for the night. I found myself liked Sony better for the shadow details in my dark home theater setup. Here is my 2 cents:

1. Samsung has better black which leads to more 3-D pop looking. This means it has to sacrifice some shadow details to gain it, at least for the A750 model.

2. The default for both of these TVs is meant to be brought up in a brighter room (like in the retail store, and yes Samsung would look stunning). The out of box default make Samsung un-watchable in my HT setup since it was to bright to begin with. Sony does the same but just a touch better. You’ll have to adjust the TV’ settings to fit your room’s viewing condition.
I used the settings people posted online for exact set for each TV as a starting point, and found myself like Sony much better for the eye constrain (Samsung is still too high of contrast and hard to get it adjust to show shadow detail w/o losing the 3-D pop). Don’t get this wrong, I loved my 2 weeks old Samsung but had to let it go for Sony (just my personal preference).

One thing I do notice is the Sony’s `Theater’ mode does exhibit very poor motion (mottle /blotchy) when it in dark scene, just simply too much enhancement. This match to what the negative commends I found online in regards to this TV. However, I don’t use the Theater mode. Instead I tweak and stay with the Custom mode and didn’t see the motion problem since.

Here are the settings I used for this Sony TV (credit to hometheatermag dot com:

Picture Adjust menu

Picture Mode Custom
Backlight 1
Picture 93
Brightness 51
Color 47
Hue 0
Color Temperature Warm 2
Sharpness Min
Noise Reduction Off
MPEG Noise Reduction Off
Motionflow Standard
CineMotion Auto 1
Advanced Settings
Black Corrector Off
Adv. Contrast Enhancer Off
Gamma 0
Auto Light Limiter Off
Clear White Off
Wide Color Standard
Live Color Off
White Balance

R-Gain -1
G-Gain -5
B-Gain -4
R-Bias -3
G-Bias -1
B-Bias -3

Hope this helps.

Reviewed by : Cheng S. Chan,   Nov 5, 2009

Sony Bravia S-Series KDL-32S5100

I AM UNABLE TO EDIT MY STAR RATING OR I WOULD DOWNGRADE IT TO TWO, MAYBE THREE STARS!!!

I bought this for my bedroom last week and am pretty happy with it. I have a 40″ XBR2 in the family room and this model’s picture is surprisingly comparable. I bought it through Amazon for MUCH less than BB or Sears. I do have a couple issues that prevent me from giving it five stars: first, it takes quite a long time for the picture to appear when you turn it on and switching inputs takes even longer than my XBR2. The other peave I have is setting the sleep timer; on most TV’s there’s a dedicated ‘Sleep’ button on the remote. On the S5100 you have to hit the ‘Tools’ button on the remote, select ‘Clock/Timers’, select your sleep time, then press the ‘Menu’ button to clear the on-screen menu. Wow! All-in-all, neither of those are that big of a deal, but the next issue is the one that’s provoking me to call Sony Customer Service. There is a significant amount of noise in the TV’s audio output — especially at low volume. It sounds like the signal is over-modulated, but at higher volume levels it’s not as noticable. I haven’t tried a set of external speakers to see if the noise is still there, but I have tried component, composite, and HDMI inputs all with the same results. Perhaps I’ll update this review with the results of my call to Sony.

UPDATE 5/1: I called Sony about the audio issue; they wanted to send out a technician. I opted to have J&R swap out the TV but the same exact problem exists on the replacement. I guess I’m going to take Sony up on their offer to send someone out. I can’t tolerate this problem considering it is our bedroom TV and is often used at low volume levels.

UPDATE 5/19: I just finished packing up the unit to return to J&R, who have been great BTW! The Sony tech acknowledged the problem and said that Sony tech support would probably tell him to replace the digital audio board, but unless the board has been redesigned he didn’t think it would resolve the problem. Sony Customer Service refused to help in any way; I asked for a refurbished XBR6 (last year’s only 32″ 1080p model) to replace this unit, and they said no. I asked for a discount on a new XBR9, and they said no. As the owner of several Sony products, including a 40″ XBR2 and a 36″ Wega, I am really quite surprised by Sony’s unwillingness to help resolve this issue. My brand loyalty has been shaken, and I will think twice before I buy another Sony product. BTW, I’m looking at the Panasonic and Samsung 1080 32″ models as a replacement.

Reviewed by : Vinnie A. “CyberVinnie”,   April 18, 2009

Sony BRAVIA XBR Series KDL-40XBR9

I will admit up front that I am a complete HDTV newbie. I hung on to a 20 year old, 22 inch CRT color “monitor television” for far too long, in part because I do not watch much television programming (a bit of baseball, PBS, occaisional Law & Order reruns, that sort of thing) and in part because the whole HDTV techno nerd thing was too intimidating. After much online research and a few surreptitious visits to Big Box electronics stores, I finally settled on the 40XBR9 and bought it from an Amazon seller — and could not be more pleased with my selection. The picture quality is simply riveting. The menus are reasonably user friendly and I have not found it all that difficult to calibrate for optimum results in a softly lighted room. With minor tweaking, the factory defaults work well for most cable television programming. I used the CNET suggested calibration for movies on the 52XBR9, and it works very well on this 40 inch unit.

This is a beautiful television. The bezel is as slim as they come and is an unadorned, moderately glossy black. While it is not a small television, it is not too overbearing for a medium sized bedroom or office. Considering its slender bezel, and the fact that there are no visible speakers, the sound is more than adequate for watching most TV programming. I purchased a ZVOX 525 sound base and an OPPO blu ray player to go with it. I have yet to watch a blu ray disc, but upscaled DVDs like Ratatouille and Wall-E are incredibly crisp, vivid and detailed, with wonderfully natural color, deep, pure blacks and brilliant whites and grey tones. With sound from the ZVOX, this is a wonderful way to enjoy movies in a moderate sized room without an enormous investment of time and money and without a lot of wiring and equipment monopolizing the space.

The one down side is that the XBR9 is not very forgiving of poor quality source material. My local cable provider still offers a limited selection of true HD content. SD television does not fare well on this set, although with some tweaks you can get acceptable picture quality — ratchet down the sharpness so the poor resolution is not obvious, use a 4:3 aspect ratio rather than ‘stretch’ the image to fill the screen, so the perspective is not distorted, turn down the brightness and restrict the color range to avoid the exaggerated and artificial hues that seem to be part and parcel of SD TV, and you get a reasonable picture on par with a decent CRT. But once you’ve seen good quality 16:9 HDTV content, you will be somewhat disappointed with SD sources.

This competes head to head with the high end LCD and “LED” TVs from Samsung. I think it beats them for at least two reasons. First, the Samsung models have a very glossy, “wet look” screen, which is really a distraction. Under some conditions, it gives the picture more “pop,” but except in a darkened room, the glare problem is insurmountable. Second, the comparable Samsung televisions have wider and more obtrusive bezels with a brilliant piano black finish, which is made even more garish by Samsung’s somewhat ludicrous red “Touch of Color” gimmickry. The Samsung design is like over the top prom wear. The 40XBR9 is the electronics version of the perfect, simple and refined little black dress.

Prices seem to fluctuate wildly — the prices quoted on the date of this review are about 15% higher than they were when I made my purchase ten days ago. You may want to keep an eye on the market and catch the next wave of “sales.” But you won’t buy this TV because it is an inexpensive “bargain” — you may buy it because dollar for dollar, it will give you the most pleasure during the years it will be in service.

TWO MONTHS LATER: Having now had the opportunity to use my Sony 40XBR9 to watch post-season baseball in HD, as well as a number of blu-ray discs, I remain as pleased with my purchase as ever. This has transformed the way we watch movies and cable programming at home. I added a Harmony One remote to the system to avoid the remote control shuffle required to operate the blu-ray player, Zvox, cable box and Sony in tandem. It all works nicely and with a minimum of effort.

Reviewed by : High style and high performance,  Oct 8, 2009