Sony Bravia KDL40EX503U 40-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p 100Hz LCD TV with Freeview HD
Posted by Notcot on Jun 2, 2010 in Home Cinema & Video |
5 CommentsReply |
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I bought this TV a few days ago and so far have been very pleased with it. The stand was easy to assemble and the TV itself very easy to set up – just follow the on-screen commands, and it is ready within 5 minutes or so. The Freeview HD signal, which is available in my area, tuned in perfectly – and the picture is noticeably better than the standard freeview signal. Shame there aren’t a few more freeview HD channels yet but, of course, that isn’t Sony’s problem.
Overall the picture quality is excellent, with vibrant colours (a bit too much with the standard settings?), good contrast and dark blacks, and the sound very clear for built-in speakers. Controls and menus all fairly intuitive – so no need to look at the manual (which is built-in to the set and accessed via menus).
Connectivity is good: including 4 x HDMIs, 2 SCART, + Ethernet and 1 USB. The one niggle is the lack of an included wi-fi antenna to access Internet content. This requires purchase of a separate Sony Wi Fi dongle (which I haven’t done yet) if you don’t want to run an ethernet cable from your router. This sort of corner-cutting irritates me – if Sony can, for example, include full wi-fi accessibility in a PSP, why do they have to make this an optional extra in a television costing much more?
Rating: 4 / 5
I got this TV to replace a 6 year old Samsung 32″ for the main TV. I was going for another Samsung, but the new ones appear to only have 1 scart. This is great if you only have 1 item that needs scart, but I have my Sky+ and a DVD/HD recorder, so reluctantly, had to discard the idea of Samsung.
After much deliberation between plasma and lcd, I finally stayed with lcd, as the power consumption was better and the clarity seems to be similar. As I also did not want to keep upgrading, I thought it best to get a TV that was full HD, 100 Hz for smooth scrolling of fast moving images and freeview hd. After much searching and reading reviews, finally settled on this model.
After the initial easy setup for searching the channels with the digital and analog tuners, you can start watching straight away. I must confess that the clarity of the pictures far exceeded my expectations. It could be a natural progression of the technology since my last purchase, but what a difference in detail. Sky seems to be clearer, the normal channels seem more defined and the 3 freeview hd channels are amazing. It depends upon what is being transmitted on the freeview hd, but the nature programs are amazing to see, the detail and clarity is superb. I have played normal DVD’s through the scart connection, and again, cannot fault the picture. I was apprehensive as a larger screen means more chance of pixilation, but have not seen it as I though I would. I have connected me xbox via component and the gameplay is just as smooth as to be expected. Ramped the settings on the console to 1080p instead of 720p, and with motion flow on, the gameplay is smooth. To be honest, cannot see that great a difference between 720p and 1080p on gameplay, but it could be the games as not all are 1080p encoded.
This TV is internet ready, so you can connect direct to a router through the ethernet port, which is what I have done. You can then access youtube, 5 on demand, lovefilm (which you need a subscription) and other channels. You can also connect wirelessly, but you will have to purchase a Sony USB wifi dongle at extra cost. Its a shame that this function was not built in. Why advertise it as a selling point only to be informed you have to buy the extra piece to make it work? Searching youtube can take time, as you enter the search parameters using the remote, which can take time.
There are several scene modes, like movie, sport, standard, game, which change the settings of the contrast, brightness, colour etc, but generally keep it on standard.
I have not tried surround, as I have no surround system. The sound on the TV is loud enough for me, and find that normal viewing the volume is on 20-25, just about a quarter way up. There is a great option than normalises sound, so all the channels are output at the same sound level. No more loud adverts, as the volume stays the same throughout.
The menu is easy, and is designed around the Playstaion 3 menu system, so users of the PS3 will feel at home.
All in all, a great purchase that seems to be more future proof than others, producing vivid crisp displays and smooth scrolling. Very happy with the purchase and highly recommend it,.
Rating: 5 / 5
Hello, I’ve had this TV for a month now and its very impressive. I’ve hooked mine up to my Sony Sony HTFS3.CEK 2.1ch 400W Home Cinema System, PS3 and stand alone blue ray player. Its stunning, watching blue rays it handles the blacks so well. I watched slumdog millionaire and with the HCS it was breathtaking to watch. On the PS3 I have not been disappointed at all. I’ve been playing Battlefield 2 and again the picture is stunning. I used netgear homeplugs to connect the TV directly to the Internet but at the moment there’s not much really to shout about here. Hopefully a firmware upgrade will allow for BBC iplayer to be directly on the menu. There are lots of options for picture scene etc and the menu’s are very easy to use.
All in all I’d give this 10/10
Cheers
Rating: 5 / 5
Changed from an old Sony CRT to this, and the change is immence. Not simply the size, but the colours are very natural and black levels are jawdropping. Tested in high and low-light levels and there seems nothing this TV cannot do. Checked for backlight issues (a previous Sony flaw in many models) and dead pixels, and there is nothing wrong. HD images are beutiful, SD competancy is very good in my opinion (F1 for example with standard Motionflow), Theatre mode a nice idea.
Sound is nothing like having a seperate Amplifier/speakers, but its pretty good compared to the horrible treble/case rattling noise at louder volumes on some new TVs such as the Samsung C5100. On another audio note, a welcome feature is the ability to turn off the TV speakers (not just mute/Vol 0) if you have an Audio system.
Very happy Sony has made this TV; even though I missed the 10% offer, it comes highly recommended from me even at full price.
Rating: 5 / 5
OK bought this 40 inch lcd tv a few days ago from argos (same price as amazon) and i couldnt be happier.easy to set up as you are walked through this process and as ever that sony badge fills me with a warm fuzzy feeling inside.This is my third lcd from sony and i have never had any problems but i imagine if i did with this one the free 3 year guarantee that sony are giving away with it will sort any niggles out very fast indeed.the picture is glorious and as this is hd freeview it is future proof for the moment as freeview eventually will switch over to 1080 soon but in the meantime the standard 576i will do very well….im impressed thus far anyway.Now on to what this telly is all about…atleast for me anyway.It shows 1080p so my blurays (also sony player) look perfect through a hdmi cable (4 ports on this telly).With its 100hz technology a film like 2012 with its fast paced action and destruction really looks jaw dropping and evn upscaled dvds tick over at a joyous rate and look almost bluray…not quite but close.my xbox elite loves this sony and through hdmi again at 1080p battlefield bad company 2 and cod rock.look i could get all techy about this thing but i think ive summed it up well enough. A telly that adjusts the picture depending on the light in the room…sheesh even the remote feels hardcore and sony cool.Yes i am a bit of a fan of sony but i do my research first…took me ages to decide on this model.
Sony is what you want…be honest with yourself…you deserve a sony.
Rating: 4 / 5