Sony BRAVIA KDL32EX710 32-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED HDTV, Black

Review by R. Beck for Sony BRAVIA KDL32EX710 32-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED HDTV, Black
Rating:
Just received my KDL710 last night. Was restricted to something under31″ in width to fit in bedroom armoire. Would have liked a Samsung for the great picture but this is replacing one which had 2 failures and the company refused to honor the warranty (will NEVER buy a Samsung product again). So far the Pros: Ease of setup, perfect fit in my space, very nice picture (although I haven’t had time to adjust to my liking so I’m sure it will be better); love the auto off sensor; no feelings on the LED feature yet. Cons: Menu is very difficult and complicated to navigate; no sleep timer on the remote and you have to go through at least 3 steps to get to it; adjustment directions very sparse and confusing. I suppose most of these will work out as I get familiar with the set. Sony quality has never been an issue with me which is why I paid top dollar for this 32″ set.

Updated Review – 10/15/10:

Now that I’ve had a chance to adjust controls I’m very satisfied with my choice. Picture is crisp and sharp and I’ve gotten used to the remote and sleep timer (use it every night). When you’re in a store and looking at TVs side by side some look brighter than others or crisper but when there’s nothing to compare it to this is a wonderful picture. It is only 120mgz so it is not the best for gaming (who cares) but for everything else it’s A1 (a Sony of course). I don’t believe the Google version is an LED backlit which explains the price differential. I paid the same price online from Dell (it was delivered in 2 days). Enjoy your set.

bobdbeck

Review by Louie’s Mom for Sony BRAVIA KDL32EX710 32-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED HDTV, Black
Rating:
The tv arrived yesterday. I had to look at an included brochure to figure out how to put together the stand but it was pretty simple. Then I connected the white cable from my ATT Uverse DVR to the television. Then I called ATT Uverse and learned I’d have to pay $10/month more to get high definition television. I told them to go ahead and upgrade me.

Then I asked if they would send me an HDMI cable. They said no – you have to buy that yourself. I got online and did some research and found the Amazon AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters)[Supports 3D + Audio Return Channel]An engineer had written a review that you do NOT need an expensive HDMI cable. I ordered the Amazon one and it comes on Saturday.

A brochure in the paperwork that came with the tv says you have to connect your tv to the internet to get Netflix streaming and other things on your tv. If you go to the menus on the tv screen it also tells you to “connect your tv to the internet.” But neither the paper instructions nor the onscreen instructions tells you how to conect the tv to the internet. I looked online and found that with a special Sony USB dangle (that cost a hundred bucks) I could connect the tv to my modem wirelessly. I really didn’t want to spend that much money after having purchased the new tv. I called Sony tech support and asked what type of cable I should buy.

Sony told me to go to Radio Shack and buy an ethernet cable. The back of the ATT Uverse modem has 3 or 4 unused ethernet ports. The back of the tv has one “LAN” port. Sony said the ethernet cable can be used to connect the ethernet port on the modem to the LAN on the television. I did that and then on the tv clicked on the Netflix icon to get a code. I went to Netflix on my computer and input the code, which linked my netflix account to my tv via the internet.

I rented a movie through the tv internet connection from Amazon Video on Demand, and also watched a Netflix movie that was in my queue. You have to add movies to your queue using your computer, but once you have done that they show up on your tv and you can pick from all the ones in your queue for which Netflix has streaming rights. (For movies for which Netflix does not have streaming rights you will have to wait for a DVD to arrive in the mail. The issue of DVD rental versus streaming is one that is in flux right now – within a few years I think we will be able to stream everything instead of waiting on DVDs to arrive, but until all those rights get worked out we’ll still have to use physical DVDs to watch some things on our televisions.)

Update: Today (Saturday) the HDMI cable that I ordered from Amazon arrived. I connected one end to the HDMI jack on the back of the ATT Uverse settop box/DVR and the other end I plugged into one of the HDMI ports on the back of the tv. VOILA. Oops, NO picture! TV was showing it is getting NO signal! I called ATT Uverse Tech Support. They had to reset my settop box/DVR before it would send a signal through the HDMI cable. The technician who was on the phone with me was able to do it himself (isn’t the computer age GRAND?). After that the picture appeared. Then I saw that the picture didn’t take up the entire screen. The tech walked me through the process of resetting the set top box to the 1080 setting and then the picture took up the entire screen.

The truth is that it IS a bit of a hassle setting up an HDTV to get HD signals from your cable/satellite/ATT Uverse/FIOS to your television, and getting your tv connected to the internet so that you can use services like Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand on it. It IS possible to do it yourself, but if you want it all done quickly and with minimal hassle then you might want to pay someone who deals with this type of thing all day to handle it for you. If you have time and either patience or determination (aka stubbornness) you can do it yourself.

I have one more thing to do – connect my new tv to my old stereo system so the sound comes through my stereo speakers. I’ll take a shot at that next week.

Sony technical support and Uverse technical support did a good job at quickly figuring out what help I needed and explaining things to me.

As for the tv itself – beautiful picture, excellent sound through the tv speakers, easily understood onscreen menus, includes electronic components for multiple services – movies by Amazon video on demand, Netflix and QRiocity, videos via Youtube (I haven’t tried that yet)Pandora for music, etc.

Definitely call Sony at 866-918-2485 for help as this tv did NOT come with good instructions.

Review by K Winston for Sony BRAVIA KDL32EX710 32-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LED HDTV, Black
Rating:
Just what I was looking for: 32″ screen with the sharpest, brightest available.