Sony Bravia KDL37W5810U 37-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD TV with Freesat
Posted by Notcot on Apr 19, 2010 in Home Cinema & Video |
5 CommentsReply |
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Very pleased with this item. Everything I wanted to know about it was obtained in detail from the description. It was offered on Amazon at a competitive price, which included a three year (Sony) warranty and free Sony Blue ray DVD player.It was delivered within the time specified and was well packed. Both the TV and the DVD are easy to operate, but it is necessary to spend a little time to become familiar with the TV menu. Picture quality is excellent, and the sound is also very good. However, I had surround sound with my previous TV (a Toshiba CRT with flat screen which has given excellent service until it finally gave up the ghost!), and without a cinema sound system (which I might yet purchase), the sound is not quite as good as I am used to. That said, this should not put off potential buyers, because the sound is, as I say, very good. I have a Virgin Media V+ box and have tried using phono connections from the box to my hifi system, but this results in the video and audio not being quite synchrised. It might be possible to take this directly from the TV itself, but as I am using HD connections, I don’t know yet whether this is possible. It would certainly be possible, I think, if I was using scart connection. Anyway, I’d recommend this item as offering an excellent quality TV.
Rating: 5 / 5
Replaced my 5 year old Samsung (Freeview) 32″ LCD with this one. My Samsung displayed a very good picture but, seeing as it’s 5 years old, it only had 1 HDMI connection. Checked out other Samsung TV’s as well as the Panasonic Viera range and this Sony came out on top. Plus it came with a BDP-S560 Blu-ray player, HDMI cable and a 5 year warranty! Musn’t grumble with that! I have a Humax twin PVR as well as a Panasonic Freeview HDD. Connected up, it gives me the option of watching a Freesat channel, recording 2 other Freesat channels and recording a Freeview channel. If I had a Sky + box as well (god forbid!! Murdoch ain’t getting my money!) I could have more options to record! So as for Buyer Beware! Utter nonsense!! There is currently a firmware download for this model which will enable a faster power up (although it doesn’t)and addresses a possible channel selection issue. All you need is to go to the Sony web-site and get the firmware update file and copy it onto a USB stick. Updating is relatively simple, just follow the instructions. In the past I thought the Sony Bravia picture wasn’t very impressive. With the Bravia 3 engine it’s now very impressive!
Rating: 5 / 5
If you’ve done your research you’ll know these Freesat Bravia’s have just been released. I was going to purchase the similiar Panasonic Viera but with this new model on the market now I thought I’d compare.
I’d say the Sony is better – the picture is fantastic and HD is stunning. The colours are vibrant and the blacks look deep too. The arial man who put up our dish agreed – so much so he was going out to get one himself – and he installs loads of TVs every week. Don’t think you can get a better endorsement!
The set up and control menus are a delight and easy to use too – All in all a fantastic package – I’d look no further if you need to make a choice before Christmas.
Haven’t tried recording so I can’t confirm previous reviewers issues but I’m very happy so far.
Rating: 5 / 5
Looked at various TV’s before selecting this one, hesitant as this was more expensive but was helped by reading reviews – it has turned out to be well worth the money. The picture quality is brilliant and this is just off our normal aerial it will only get better, if that is possible, when we have the dish installed for HD. The freeview is also very good and we get less picture break up than we did with the old TV, so much better that it rarely happens. It also looks very clean and smart. Have already recommended this to friends.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is an excellant TV. It not only has a FreeSat tuner but also FreeView as well although not stated in the specs. The EPG is lightening fast and a joy to use. HOWEVER……when I connected my Sony RDR-HXD970 DVD recorder with Hard Drive to it I was unable to ‘see’ the TV through the recorder. After trying every combination of connecting scart leads HDMI ect I telephoned Sony’s excellant aftercare service and the guy led me through everything I had already done to try to get it to work. He then got the ‘top tech guys’ to help and after numerous times being put on hold they eventually found that I could record from the TV but it had to be the programme being watched. Therefore if I wanted to record a programme from FreeSat at say 1am in the morning whilst I slept then the TV picture has to be on, you can turn the sound down, but not mute it, which takes us back to the old VHS recording days. On my old setup I could record from my FreeSat box or FreeView box without the TV being on. Because the recording is done from the TV’s screen and not the individual tuners in the TV then this to my mind is ‘back engineering’. To be able to record one channel and watch another as with a Sky+ box is not possible. Now I either have to reconnect my old ‘slow’ Humax box or record with the TV picture on. I’ll keep the TV because it is an otherwise fantastic machine but come on Sony……at least let us record in with the screen picture off. And if you have two tuners in the TV then why on earth can’t you wire it to record from one whilst watching the other. For this reason I give it only 4 stars instead of five.
Rating: 4 / 5