Sony Bravia KDL-52EX700 52-Inch 1080P 120Hz LED HDTV, Black

Review by Samuel Barton for Sony Bravia KDL-52EX700 52-Inch 1080P 120Hz LED HDTV, Black
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I have had this TV for about 2 weeks and am still stunned by its beautiful picture. The colors are rich and deep and in HD everything is so crisp. This TV is in my Family Room Set-up which includes Pioneer Elite SC-25 receiver, LG Blu-Ray, Boston Accoustics center and surround speakers.

Pros:

1. Picture (as mentioned above). Although it is close, the picture is better than my 46″ Samsung LED-LCD that I have in the bedroom. Colors are warmer and image is just as crisp if not more so even though the screen is bigger. Images from the Blu-Ray are truly stunning

2. Network connectivity. A wireless dongle was included with my set. However, I have hardwired to my LAN so I can’t comment on the wireless capabilities. Hooking up to the network was seemless and streaming from a computer on my network was effortless with no hiccups. I haven’t streamed HD video yet, so I can’t comment.

3. Cabinet. The screen is surrounded by a beautiful high gloss black cabinet. Probably will be a fingerprint and dust magnet. But the design is great.

4. Low energy consumption that all LED’s enjoy

Cons:

1. Base. I really didn’t care for the base. So much so that I mounted instead my media center so I wouldn’t have to use it.

2. Slow to reflect channel changes when the next channel had a different resolution. Was able to fix to setting cable box to 1080i output only. Channel delay down to less than half a second vs. 2-3 seconds when changing from a 720p channel to a 1080i channel.

3. SD picture nothing to write home about.

I am very pleased with this purchase and highly recommend this set.

Review by Aaron Chenoweth for Sony Bravia KDL-52EX700 52-Inch 1080P 120Hz LED HDTV, Black
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Just a quick review after I upgraded from my old LCD Projection 50″ 1080i TV to this new Sony LED model 3 weeks ago. Just for the fun of it; before I switched them out I left them side by side just to do some comparisons (I just put a new lamp in my old TV so it was at it brightest in years). When I switched to TV mode on both using my HDTV AT&T UVerse 1080i cable, the comparison was interesting. Overall the Sony LED TV had a sharper and brighter image but there were a few channels where I just didn’t see a difference. This I blame on the cable being 1080i and possible some channels using inferior HD Cameras??? Then I played a DVD on each TV and the Sony defiantly had the brighter sharper image. Lastly I threw in a Blue Ray, and this is where this new Sony LED TV blew away my old TV. My first words were “Wow that looks great”. I also just downloaded a 1080p movie and got the same “Wow” result while watching it.

I did tell myself that if I didn’t notice a large enough difference I would be returning this TV and waiting another year for newer models (Since I just bought a new lamp for my old TV). Well after 3 weeks my old TV is now sitting in the basement waiting for someone to watch it, and I think it’s going to be a long time. So, overall after 3 weeks I am extremely happy with this Sony TV.

Anything I didn’t like? Just 2 minor things: there are 4 HDMI cable connections but only 2 in back – the other 2 are on the side. It’s not a big deal but if you have your Cable box, Blue Ray Player and your Video Game Console all hooked up with HDMI cables; one of those cables is going to be sticking out of the side of your TV at all time – you can bend the cable back so it’s not sticking out that much. But, as a person who wants all his cables hidden – this is a little annoying. The second and very minor; the stand is little blah, not a big deal but I would think they could come up with something better on their 2010 models since the rest of this TV looks so great.

Update #1:I saw someone asked about how many Watts this TV used. So I brought home my Watt Meter from work and did some testing. This new LED TV used 75 Watts on average when on. I also hooked up my old LCD Projection TV and it used around 195 when on. Pretty big difference.

Update #2: After 2 months of watching things like the Stanley Cup, World Cup Soccer plus a few other movies at different places; I have to say this TV has the best picture of the lot. Especially when compared to older models from a few years ago. But, once again some channels just don’t look as good as others. The World Cup soccer games looked incredible, a friend even asked if this was a new 3D TV he thought the picture was so good. Then watching Shrek on TNT HD looked subpar when compared to the lowly DVD version I own (probably considerably worse then the Blue-ray version). Guess the point is make sure your HD Signal is good if you want the best HD picture on this TV, you can really see the difference between a bad HD channel and a good HD channel.

Review by premiummember for Sony Bravia KDL-52EX700 52-Inch 1080P 120Hz LED HDTV, Black
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Hi there! After long research I picked this TV and am absolutely happy about it. Viewing experience is amazing, and sound is great – you don’t even need home theater (unless you really want). Main reason i picked this TV is because the screen is matte. Shiny screen of Samsung LEDs was killing my eyes. I haven’t connected this TV to internet yet, but i am sure it’ll be nice and simple.

Review by j.unter for Sony BRAVIA V-Series KDL-52V5100 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV, Black
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WHO TO BUY FROM: Amazon did not have this item in stock, so I waited for Amazon to have it in stock before buying – turned out to be the right decision. I bought another LCD tv last year from “ButterflyPhoto”, a seller on Amazon’s website, and it was a horrible experience. So I vowed never to buy a big ticket item from any other seller than Amazon on its site. Those sellers have such great reviews b/c if you get screwed like I did and the sale never goes through, you can never rate them. So only happy customers get to rate those sellers, hence the above-avg reviews.

DELIVERY AND DEFECTIVE TV: I ordered the TV on a Thurs and it was delivered to my house on Tues. Pilot (carrier) called to schedule and appt, brought it into my house, took it out of the box and placed it on my tv stand, then made sure it worked before asking me to sign. But by Friday, a 1/2 cm black line appeared in the screen (yikes!). On Sat. I called Amazon and they were great in shipping out a replacement TV immediately at no extra cost to me (they even gave me the option to replace with another make/model). The new TV arrived the next Fri and Pilot packaged and removed the defective TV. The new TV works fine (so far, fingers crossed). After mentioning my ordeal to several friends, a few mentioned they had defective LCD TVs also – so I guess its not so uncommon.

Dealing with Amazon is great. If I bought from those other sellers, I would have been left to deal with Sony via the warranty – No Thanks! Its worth the extra hundred dollars or so to go with Amazon.

PICTURE QUALITY: The HD picture is amazing. I had a 2004 42′ Sony WEGA that produced 1080i, but the Bravia is a much, much better HD picture (however, it seems Comcast broadcasts in 1080i, not 1080p). When watching sports on my WEGA, the picture could not handle fast action so well. The Bravia corrects this pretty well (via the 120hz) and there is definitely a noticable difference/improvement versus my old WEGA. The 120hz is well worth the money.

BOTTOM LINE, at $1,823, I am happy with the TV even after the first one was defective. I found the Samsung to be too glossy a picture and didn’t like the touch of red, so the 52v5100 was the perfect TV for me at that price. Buy from Amazon, not those other tricksters.

Review by BW for Sony BRAVIA V-Series KDL-52V5100 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV, Black
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I just hooked it up yesterday, to replace my 50″ Samsung DLP that broke. I had a 32″ Vizio in its place for the past month, waiting for this model. Overall, I am very pleased with the set. As usual, the HD channels look spectacular and the interface is tremendously better than that of the Vizio’s. It is hooked up to a HD DVR cable box, but configuration was a breeze. The non-HD channels definitely take a huge hit, as they look pretty bad on this size screen. In reality I wish I could have just gotten a 50″ since the 2″ additional makes a big difference in the overall size, but I am still pleased with the TV and glad I waited for this model to get the improved contrast ratio and 120 refresh rate.

Review by Minilith for Sony BRAVIA V-Series KDL-52V5100 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV, Black
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I bought this with a PS3 (because it’s a blu-ray player) and haven’t looked back. It was super easy to set up with HDMI and optical audio cables and I am constantly blown away by the picture. The blacks are especially dark and I had heard that this might be a problem with LCD TV’s. The in TV speakers are fine, not tinny, although I elected to disable them and run the sound through my receiver for surround sound. I really can’t fault the TV in any way. Just try and get the best price you can!

Review by Elroy for Sony BRAVIA V-Series KDL-52V5100 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV, Black
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The TV is great, 52 inches is huge. Motionflow looked very strange at first but I’ve gotten used to it and prefer it for movies. The best way I can describe motionflow is like when you are driving and you focus on one particular thing like a road sign or a car for a moment. That object you focus on stays clear despite how fast it’s moving while everything around it gets blurry. Motionflow acheives the same effect. It focuses on the subject of the scene and keeps it sharp while everything else moves around it. Motionflow is a bit unlike your eye in one regard. Your eye keeps the thing you are focusing on in the center of your vision. Motionflow keeps the subject of the scene sharp as it moves across the screen. The difference (that the in focus thing is not in the center of the field of view) can be a bit jarring at first.

I’ve had the TV for about 3 weeks and have had no show stopping issues with it. The TV is hooked up to a receiver for audio. I have an HD TV signal coming in through component and bluray coming in via HDMI. I had to mute the volume on the TV itself to stop it from occasionally popping up the message “Audio switching to external source”. I tried using Bravia sync over HDMI but it did not seem to do much but confuse my receiver (it’s a sony receiver and it’s bravia compatible). While Bravia sync was on my receiver would sometimes not turn on or switch inputs. Perhaps I could’ve gotten the Bravia sync feature to do something useful if I’d read some manuals but it didn’t seem like it was worth the hassle. I still am not sure what Bravia sync is supposed to do.

I watched the Harry Potter movies and Fast and Furious in Bluray, they looked great. When I signed up for Fios I got three free months of HBO. HBO in HD looks fantastic. The tv is a huge step up from my 32 inch Westinghouse that has some dead pixels in a line down the right side of the screen.

No matter how big you are you’ll want the help of another person to help you move the TV. I’m 6’6″ and I couldn’t wrap my arms around it to pick it up. It’s not heavy it’s just bulky, unwieldy, and too expensive to drop. You can pick it up by the bottom of the screen and lean the screen on your body but I don’t recommend it because while doing so you won’t be able to see where you’re going.

Review by vplite for Sony BRAVIA V-Series KDL-52V5100 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV, Black
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The Sony Bravia KDL-52W5100 produces an outstanding high definition (HD) picture.

I did not note a particular problem with picture quality when viewing from an angle, even a little more than 45 degrees.

Calibration of the set is fairly straight forward, and the average viewer would probably be satisfied with the standard picture. If you’re a viewer with a highly refined eye, you can tweek the picture to your heart’s delight through the options menu accessed through the remote. There are numerous suggestions for custom setting for this TV on the Internet.

I was torn between ordering Sony BRAVIA V-Series KDL-52V5100 52-Inch and a similar and the higher rated Samsung LN52A650. I was leaning toward the Sony because the set was going in a room with several windows, so reflection was a consideration. The Sony screen has a satin non-reflective finish instead of the Samsung’s high gloss. Several on-line reviewers had noted that the reflective surface of the Samsung was a problem. When I was ready to pull the trigger on this purchase I found the best Samsung price was $600 higher than the Sony. That along with my other considerations made up my mind in favor of the Sony.

LCD TV’s have relatively small speakers, so the quality of sound is decent but limited. Many will chose to add a surround sound system or at least a couple of external speakers.

Purchase and Delivery

I found the best price online at Amazon.com. I ordered the set Monday and it was delivered to my home on Friday morning. The driver took the set out of the box and took all of the packing with him (earning a nice tip). The set came right out of the box mounted on a small fixed black stand. When I ordered the TV, I also ordered a useful flat panel TV stand with an integrated mount to the back of the set. This raises the TV a couple of feet off of the floor, provides left and righ swivel, and has 2 glass shelves for the cable box, blue Ray, etc. These stand are available locally or on line for […].

I strongly recommend this television and Amazon.com.