Sony BRAVIA W-Series KDL-52W5100 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV

Review by M. Barnes for Sony BRAVIA W-Series KDL-52W5100 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Rating:
I received the KDL-52W5100 about 2 weeks ago. It replaced a KDL-52V5100 that I got in March, which replaced an older Sony Hi-Def LCD rear projection 1080i model (KDF-60XS955). The KDL-52V5100 was great at first, but it had a very annoying dimming problem that Sony eventually fixed with a firmware update. The problem was that the firmware update then broke the audio for me. The audio would cut out a few times a night on all HDMI inputs. Tried new cables, new Dish receiver, everything. They finally, after weeks of fighting with them, sent me another KDL-52V5100 which then had the same problem. Sony was very good about taking care of me with these issues, once I got a hold of the right person. Before that, they give you the run around and are willing to let your brand new TV sit in a repair shop for weeks while you wait for it. I will be keeping the contact names/numbers/email addresses for future reference. It’s amazing how fast your problems get addressed when you email the Vice President of customer service for North America directly at his actual personal email address! 🙂 They finally, just 2 weeks ago replaced it with this TV. The KDL-52V5100 had a great picture (when I wasn’t having problems with it) but this TV performs very noticeably better! I have used it with an XBOX360, a PS3 and with Dish Network Hi-Def receiver/DVR. The standard def is better than most of the other LCD’s I looked at but as with all you can see the flaws of the SD picture. This one looks better than most for SD though. It also doesn’t have the HDMI color space issue that the KDL-52V5100 had with my XBOX360. I have it set to Y’CbCr and it looks AMAZING! The PS3 also looks INCREDIBLE! This TV had all the features I wanted and has delivered higher performance and picture than expected. This TV does have noticeably better picture quality than the V series. The contrast is better (possible due to the Bravia 3 engine as opposed to the Bravia 2 engine in the V series) and there are more advanced features for scene selection and other video options. Plus the Xross media bar menu system is WAY better than the plain generic menu in the V series. It looks to be more customizable. The internet connection, DLNA and widgets are just a bonus for me. When I received it, it already needed a firmware upgrade which very conveniently upgraded right over the internet rather than having to use a flash drive. Because of that I can’t comment on issues with the old firmware. The stand is average size but I wish it swiveled. The TV is not too heavy. The appearance is very sleek, it appears less clunky than the heavier V series and I like the option to have the Sony logo glow. It’s pretty cool. The one thing I was worried about was the fact that it has an 8-bit LCD panel, rather than a 10-bit panel. I was really worried it would have banding or “paint by number” effects. I picked up a copy of Digital Video Essentials (DVE) HD Basics on Blu-Ray to calibrate the TV and to my surprise it included a test for checking for slow processing and for color banding “paint by number” effects. This TV was able to reproduce a perfect gradation in both color and gray scale with ABSOLUTELY no banding or “paint by number” effects whatsoever! I was really impressed. According to DVE an 8-bit panel should be able to do this as long as the processing board is fast enough and good enough quality. These problems are more due to the processing than an 8-bit panel according to DVE. The 10-bit is not necessary if you have adequate processing. After more research I have found that, that is why most higher end manufacturers, like Sony have started using 8-bit panels again in most but their very high end models. After calibrating this TV with DVE the picture is far better than I had ever hoped for, with great black levels and extremely vibrant, true to life color. The off angle viewing is exceptional. The picture morphs a little from extreme side view due to the flat screen, but the contrast and brightness even from almost sideways is awesome! On the last note, the Dish Network receiver/DVR looks great as well. Any problems with the picture was due to the signal from the satellite and not the TV itself. All the HD channels have some compression and it shows, but wouldn’t matter how good the TV is for that. DVD, Blu-Ray, XBOX350 and PS3 have absolutely the best picture I have seen on any other LCD. They only thing that could be as good or better is Plasma, but I really wanted a Sony and they only make LCD’s now. I am very pleased with my purchase and would highly recommend this TV for anyone. The matte finish is great as I have a lot of ambient lights and side windows in my living room. The only other TV I was considering was the Samsung and the highly reflective, glossy screen just would not work for me. Other than that, the Samsung has a great picture too. I mean Sony uses Samsung panels in most of their TV’s, so…

Review by Daniel Kim for Sony BRAVIA W-Series KDL-52W5100 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Rating:
Full Disclosure: I own the Sony KDL-52W5150 which is an idential TV to the KDL-52W5100.

My Sony 52 inch W5150/W5100 is a thing of beauty! The pictures are fabulous and it looks great in the living room also. My old 60 Hz Sharp 46 inch cannot compare to this TV in terms of deep blacks and motion picture quality. Its specs are identical to much more expensive XBR9 except for 240 Hz refresh rate.

First, the pictures are amazing! The blacks are so ridiculously black… my biggest pet peeve on a HDTV is the greyish black when there’s supposed to be a black background on some older TV’s. You don’t have that problem with this TV. This TV has Bravia Engine 3 (Sony’s latest video processor) and has a 120 Hz refresh rate. Inbetween those two, the motion judder that I used to see on my old Sharp TV during fast action scenes in movies or sports are gone. All I see is smoothe motion which is a thing of beauty. Once you turn off the “Vivid” colors mode, the colors look real and true to life. I just love it. In fact, my wife told me how she noticed for the first time all the intricate details of the makeup on the TV news anchors’ faces. That’s high picture quality.

Second, it looks great in the room. I love the Sony light that comes on on the bottom center of the bezel when the TV is on. (In fairness, my wife hates it so be aware that all or most late model Sony HDTV’s have this feature) And it looks great whether it’s on or not… showing the deep blacks and the rich colors. It really does become the center of your family/living room entertainment. Some prefer the touch of color from Samsung… I prefer the all black look of my TV.

Finally, comparing the specs on this TV versus the top of the line Sony XBR9, there wasn’t enough difference to pay the extra $500 premium. Both TV’s have the same contrast ratios (3,800 native, 100,000 dynamic). For novices, the contrast ratio is a rough ratio of the brightness of the darkest color the TV is capable of versus the brightest color. So the higher the number, the more capable the TV is in terms of reproducing a wide range of colors at a wide range of brightness. They also look very similar, both use the latest Bravia 3 Engine video processor to produce their pictures, have the same # of HD ports, and allow for widgets & broadband access to Internet.

The three major differences between the W and the XBR9 are the following: 1) 120 Hz vs. 240 Hz refresh rate, 2) 8 bit versus 10 bit panel, and 3) of course the $500 or so in price premium. Frankly, my research into 120 Hz vs. 240 Hz refresh rates lead me to conclusion that most people can’t really notice the difference. People can notice the difference between 120 Hz and 60 Hz (as I pointed out earlier), but the 120 vs. 240 seems much more marginal. I am not such a videophile that I will pay a serious premium for a marginal difference. Then the 8 bit vs. the 10 bit panel is an even more dubious distinction. 8 bit panels allow for 17 million colors… the 10 bit panels allow a billion in theory…. But you don’t really need it. That’s because no content source available right now (not blue ray, not HD broadcast, HD cable/satellite) can differentiate colors to that degree and no LCD panel can reproduce that many colors at once. My advice is – save your money and buy the 10 bit panels when the content actually catches up. Buying 10 bit panel right now could be like buying a 50 inch plasma TV in 2000 for like $20K when no real HD content sources were available to take advantage of the big screen & TV capability.

The only thing this TV does not have is LED backlighting. This TV along with Z series and the XBR9 are Sony’s best CCFL backlit LCD TV’s. Now the latest TV’s have started to use LED backlighting technology to really hike up the contrast ratio to 1 million to 1 and beyond. Sony’s latest release XBR10 does this as do the Samsung B6000, B7000, B8000, and B8500 series TV’s. Those TV’s are fabulous TV’s, and they look so cool with their super thin form factor (Samsung’s are 1.2 inches thick!). But I am not prepared to pay double or even triple the cost of my W series to get a similar sized LED backlit LCD TV just yet. Wait 3 years and the prices will be MUCH cheaper, since by then larger screen true LED TV’s called OLED (not the LCD with LED backlighting TV’s that are available now) will probably be more widely available.

By the way, the Samsung TV most comparable to this TV is the Samsung 52B650. Both are 120 Hz, near top of line TV’s with CCFL backlighting. I could have gone with either, but I ended up going with this TV because I got a great deal on it and because my sound system and blue ray player (PS3) are Sony products – hello Bravia Synch. Some do think the picture quality on the Samsung is slightly better… but I found the differences to be virtually indiscernable to my eyes. Can’t go wrong with either as Samsung and Sony are, IMO, the two greatest LCD TV makers right now… but Samsung seems to be pulling ahead lately.

Overall, fabulous TV… well worth the costs. One of the best top tier, large screen size TV’s available with CCFL backlighting. LED backlighting is better, but it costs over double. So for non-early adopters, this is the way to go.

UPDATE: 4/5/10

I am adding calibration settings that has really helped make my TV “pop” and look more realistic at the same time – I got them from avsforums. As a prerequisite, you do need to have the latest firmware update. Please refer to your manual on how to update the firmware.

Picture Mode: Custom

Backlight: 2

Picture: 91

Brightness: 52

Color: 48

Hue: R1

Color Temp: Warm 1

Sharpness: 4

Black Corrector: Off

Contrast Enhancer: Off

Gamma: 0

Light Limiter: Off

Clear White: Off

Live Color: Off

WB

R-Gain -2

G-Gain -1

B-Gain -22

R-Bias 2

G-Bias 1

B-Bias -4

Review by Sanket Prakash Sant for Sony BRAVIA W-Series KDL-52W5100 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Rating:
This TV is simply superb. Me n my wife were saving money since last 13 months….we were going to buy a 52″ or above TV in the thanksgiving sale…but we saw this TV for 1546$ and it came with a free Sony Blue ray DVD home theater system (BDV-E300) at that time and we bought it.

The TV is simply amazing. The crystal clear quality, the amazing Dolby sound. But the best feature is its internet capability……i connected an Ethernet cable to the TV and the TV automatically did the rest. I could just go down to the Network option and access Youtube, Yahoo & lot more applications. The XMB bar makes scrolling between different options very very easy.

I did a lot of research on which TV is the best…i compared dynamic ratios, response times, frequencies etc. etc. but the best thing to do is go to best buy or frys….look at each TV that you are considering and buy the one that you feel is the best….all TV have same performance….it just has to please your mind…..

Also, make sure you buy the TV only from Amazon. I have never seen such class of customer service like amazon provides. When i bought the system, the price was 1589$ and in 2 days it dropped to 1540$. I simply called Amazon and said the price just dropped and they gave me a refund of 59$ and matched the price. The TV was delivered before time, and the guy who delivered it installed it on my TV stand and turned on the power for me.

The blue ray system i got was defective and a blue ray DVD that i rented from block buster got stuck in it…..again…Amazon to the rescue….Amazon arranged for UPS to pick it up from my house….they are going to send me a brand new system again…..they even reimbursed me for the price of a new blue ray DVD which i had to pay Block buster……Seriously…Amazon rules….

I am very happy with the TV and amazon…

Review by Robert Chien for Sony BRAVIA W-Series KDL-52W5100 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Rating:
I just bought this TV last week. I’ve been in the market for a 52″ LCD HDTV for about a month, and ultimately chose this model for several reasons: (1) Based on my research, Sony and Samsung are the top brands. I ruled out Samsung after realizing that none of their 2009 models (B line 5, 6, 7 series) come with S-video input for some unknown reason. The 2008 models (A line) had them, but not in 2009. I have older equipment that defaults to S-video output, so for me having an S-video input is very important. Also, 3 of the 4 HDMI ports are on the side, and since I’ll be wall-mounting the TV, I think easy access to the ports is very important, too. (2) Between the Sony 52″ models, there are 5 selections: S, V, W, Z, XBR. The W is neither too low-end (it has Bravia Engine 3, unlike the S or V which only has Bravia Engine 2) or too high-end (120Hz is good enough for me, Z and XBR are 240Hz). It is the smallest in dimension, with the thinnest bezel. It comes with DLNA and Internet support, although I don’t see myself using the widgets that often (because I have it hooked up to a Mac mini anyway), having the capability to connect to network greatly increases the value and flexibility of it.

Overall, I’m happy with the TV. The picture looks sharp, the colors are gorgeous, and setup was easy. Once on the network, it found a firmware update to fix some known issues so that was very easy.

Then, yesterday, I discovered a major design flaw in it. I was hooking up an indoor digital antenna to the TV, and looking for a signal strength indicator so I can best position the antenna. To my disappointment, I couldn’t find it in the owner’s manual, so I called Sony support. I was told that it does not have a signal strength indicator. I find it absurd that a $2000 TV with built-in HD receiver does not include such a critical feature. Samsung T260 LCD HDTV (~$350) has it, and EyeTV 3 software even announces the signal quality every second while I’m up fine-tuning the antenna position.

I hope Sony recognizes this inexcusable oversight and corrects it in a future software update.