Sony BRAVIA W-Series KDL-40W5100 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV Reviews

Review by Gup for Sony BRAVIA W-Series KDL-40W5100 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Rating:
I have been waiting for quite some time to buy a new tv. Originally I planned on getting the 40″ Z series last year. But when the new models came out this year, the 40″ W series offered everything I was looking for a little bit cheaper price. It has a good looking profile and was a snap to set-up. I used the Cheetah tilting mount that I also purchased from amazon. Don’t let anyone fool you. The Cheetah mount is just as good or better than the expensive mounts. I already had a ps3 so the XMB menu system was very familiar. This is a great tv for the money.

The only con I can think of is that the remote doesn’t have a 1 button sleep timer. You have to go through the menus.

BTW: Amazon did a great job. I order TV on a Thursday and the following Wednesday the tv was hanging on my wall. Nice Service.

Review by E. Garcia for Sony BRAVIA W-Series KDL-40W5100 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Rating:
This is a great buy I have several LCDs HD around the house and did my research before this buy. The video quality is great. Clear and vivid colors. Motionflow is a plus, great for sports. Movies look great especially Bluray on 1080p. The picture looks like its going to pop out of the screen. This tv has great features as you can see, plus the xcross feature is sleek. You can watch Youtube on the tv; program weather,stock and news widgets plus tweeter and more to come (must have a broadband connection). You can also connect to your home network to access movies,pictures and music from your computer(s) to watch on your tv. The design of the tv is clean and does not look cheap, the frame around the screen is no more then an 1 1/2inch thick. The stand is rectangular and has a nice glossy finish. Has a multitude of input connectors. Great tv. No problems. The sound is fine for regular programing but if you want to enjoy movie quality sound don’t expect the tv’s speakers to do it unless your in a small room, so if you want great sound with this great tv just invest in a home theater system (Sony Bravia Home Theaters have a great kick)

Review by W. Gee for Sony BRAVIA W-Series KDL-40W5100 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Rating:
Got this TV for a week and overall very satisfied with purchase. PQ is excellent with many settings available. Calibration was found through forums. Watched several HD sporting events over the past weekend and didn’t notice too much pixelations and blurring effects. 120Hz is definitely better than my year old Samsung 1080P 60Hz.

Widgets were cool and fun but only a nice to have, not a must. Probably should incorporate full website content, can only watch content available to the widget. Youtube is the only fully functional channel (exactly like website). Like I said, a cool thing to play with.

By comparison to other LCDs and Plasmas, I can say for sure that Panny plasma is still the best for PQ, natural coloration, least amount of pixelation and blurring. On the bad side of plasma, heavy and can only stand upright. My 2 year old 720P Panny still beats this set but I needed a lighter set to mount on the bedroom wall and just couldn’t beat Amazon’s price and package deal(included a Blu Ray Home Theater System).

Pros:

Excellent Picture Quality

Cool Widgets

Many changeable settings for fine tuning

120Hz

Cons:

Sound quality is a little muffled (speakers over & under chassis)

I haven’t compared this to the XBR or Z (10-bit) panels, but those are substantially more and from an older generation XBR6 this panel (8-bit) is definitely better than that one.

Review by Tony R. Matthews for Sony BRAVIA W-Series KDL-40W5100 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Rating:
I got this tv from sonystyle. It’s a great tv. I have the Samsung40B650. So i make comparisons because they are priced so similarly.

Appearance

Appearance-wise this tv loses to the samsung. There is no glossy screen, but the sony does look good in a bright room. However, sony doesnt swivel. The tv viewing angle is almost 180 and I never have to worry about glares as well. The frame is simple and it looks very professional. The samsung line is pretty and stylish. Both tvs are great, you have to decide whether style or simplicity is what you need.

Sound

HDMI-CEC works great. I got a sony bluray theatre with this product. One remote to control sound is amazing. The tv sound is okay. Because of the way the speakers are position, it kind of looks like it comes from the bottom of the tv, not so much natural. Any flat screen tv will perform horribly with sound if it is paired with 10W speakers.

Features

If you have worked the playstation 3, you will transition smoothly with the xmb crossbar. It’s not complicated. Just a different feel.

If you arent using a cable box, TV guide works to provide you with information per channel using your analog coax. Unfortunately it isn’t able to decipher the digital channels, so all your HD channels are not identified. You can manually move the channels to the appropriate name, but it does take some time.

The tv is also internet capable. I’ve used the on-demand amazon. And it renders well for their non-hd shows. It does hiccup now and then. Netflix just became available but it only streams movies you place on your queue. It isn’t as advance as the Xbox 360 interface. The tv is also dlna capable where it can stream videos from your computer. The music seems to do well. The video looks awful. Unless its a 720 file. It looks worse than standard def tv. For this reason, i just stick to streaming my videos from my comp on my xbox 360. I dont know if the 360 processes the video better but its definitely not as choppy or pixelated. The tv has updated its firmware three times already. I haven’t seen a better response time or any big changes to know what is happening.

Not really a big deal, but you can turn off the illumination of sony when the tv is on. For some reason, manufacturers decided it would be cool to light up their emblem to distract you from your viewing pleasures. Most people dont care. I found it annoying. So thank you SONY!

Channels/Inputs can be labeled with text, not just ‘game’ or ‘dvd’

Gaming

One reason I got this tv is because I hated the gaming on the samsung tv. The hdmi input had a lag which messed up gameplay online. This tv does not have a lag.

Bluray

1080p looks great:)

Overall, the tv is amazing. There are a few turn offs, but this tv is great. The number of inputs are great. The tv color didnt need calibration. I guess i should talk about 120Hz. Yeah, it’s there. Never used it. Sony has really lost a few points in reputation based on the cheap lines they put out- the s and l line specifically. The W line is certainly competitive but not cheap. I see the price has gone down fairly well. 900s are a great deal for this tv and I would buy it again.

I know my review is pretty nontraditional. I was trying to fill gaps that other reviews do not. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away!