Customer Reviews

Sony BRAVIA EX 500 Series 32-Inch LCD TV, Black

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

So I bought this tv without reading a single review, because there wasn't any. I wanted specifically a 32" 120hz set because it is going to be in a small room, any bigger would have been overkill, and this fit the bill.

I upgraded from a Samsung 26" 720p (LN26A330), which I had no complaints at all about, but really wanted 1080p since this is hooked up to a home theatre/gaming pc and I could use the extra resolution. I compared these tv's side by side after getting the sony, and was really surprised how much better the sony's picture was (I was using 720p on both for fair comparison, playing identical sources).

Pros
-Very bright picture, which is good for the day time
-Blu Rays do look amazing, just adjust the settings to personal preference
-True Cinema 24p mode does seem to play movies at true 24p (I set the htpc output to 24hz to accomplish this)
-Motionflow works really nicely on some blu-rays, definitely not for all movies though, but I actually do prefer it over True Cinema 24p in a lot of cases
-PC games look very good with motionflow turned on, especially FPS's. Motionflow makes 60fps look like 120fps and you can tell a difference in how clear and smooth everything is.
-Extremely energy efficient, uses only 40w in power saving mode, ~75w normal mode (this is better in both categories than my 26" samsung, which amazed me!)

Cons
-Speakers on my old samsung might have been a little better, its hard to tell for sure, but its not a big difference.
-Very minor, I wish a single button could turn motionflow on and off instead of navigating menus

Overall, I am really happy with this set. If you like 24p true cinema and/or motionflow and are willing to pay a little extra, I'd recommend it. If your not that concerned with those features, I would probably get a less expensive 60hz set, but I am glad I got this one.

btw, make sure you don't don't turn Cinemotion to auto1 if Motionflow is already on. It gives movies a really strange effect, like your hallucinating or something.

Well I've had my new TV for about a month now and it works as advertised. Excellent picture and vary fast refresh rate so no smearing during high rates of picture movement. I've played with most of the settings and right this moment I'm just using the standard display. I have used the 15 pin D connection to display HULU from my laptop and it works very well. I've also played with the sound settings and after using steady sound and clear voice went back to just standard settings. Music is very negatively impacted by using these setting to the point that movies especially have a very flat sound to them making it feel like your watching a pre-relase take before the music background was added.

One thing that most people not having had a wide screen TV before should be aware of that without getting the HD feed you are losing a good portion of the reason for getting a TV of this type. I was using normal cable connection with just a standard feed and the TV display looked like crap most of the time. There were a few stations that came in Ok like the PBS type who mostly displayed HD as a normal course of programming but most of the channels you had to make up your mind if you wanted to watch bloated people or use other settings that either cut part of the picture out or use a standard setting that gave you a small 4:3 screen. While this might seem like a very basic problem to people who have had HDTV's for a long time this was my first one I've had and the results were not good. I solved this issue by going to Direct TV and getting their HD and DVR package. A world of difference. I was able to crank the display up to it's full 1080p with outstanding results. I've been with Time Warner cable for about 25 years and was tired of it's programming anyway so it presented a good excuse to finally get away from them. We shall see how this works out. This isn't a plug for any satellite company just the one that seemed to offer the best package in my area at this time.

This TV is not internet ready but with the ability of the set top box I have and Tversity media server software (free version) on my PC and laptop I am able to look at videos and pictures without having to connect directly to the TV. You do need though a set top box that can connect to the internet so it would be mostly the higher end ones offered by the company you chose. I moved my modem and router and sat them right on top of the set top box. It's a big rats nest of power cables now but I'm thinking about making some enclosure to hid most of the mess. This is one of those things where one thing leads to another. Getting a HDTV is a big change in your viewing experience and it causes some changes in how you set up things.

One other issue that has nothing to do with the TV as such but has effected both my wife and me is the extra work your eyes go through watching a wider screen. It really gives the eyes a work out so expect to have very tired eyes if you watch TV for an extended time. One other issue was how bright the TV is at night. When a mostly white screen pops up it really can make you squint. This TV has a low light setting so it sets the brightness down at night but it still can hurt you eyes sometimes. There is a custom setting where you can play with all this picture settings but after spending a week or so trying to get it just right I went back to the standard setting. I might revisit this as I become more familiar with the whole setup I have now. Going to HD feed seems to also helped the whole experience and made it much better. So it's like anything else garbage in garbage out. You need an HD feed to really take advantage of this HDTV set.

I have noticed that on this size TV that the speakers are not the best. It really shows up in the music channels and doesn't seem to have much dynamic range and has a little in a barrel sound sometimes. Another thing that you should have if possible is a 5.1 speaker system to take advantage of what this TV can put out for a sound signal. Our room is really too small and I'll be sticking with the speakers built in right now. I have noticed that the steady sound still doesn't do too much to cut down on the very loud commercials. I'm hoping the law that is going to be passed if it isn't already to limit sound spikes in commercials will take care of this issue, one can always dream :-). Like I had mentioned before with both steady sound and clear voice music is badly impacted but voices are easier to hear.

The smallness of the room also dictated the selection of the screen size. I was pushing for a 37 inch but my wife didn't want something peeking over the window sill, women what can you do, LOL. It did turn out to be a good choice though as anything bigger and we would really have worked hard to catch all the action going on in the whole screen. I'm only about 7 or 8 feet from the screen so it covers most of my forward field of view which is very sufficient for us.

So to sum it all up get this HDTV if you want a real HD experience and you have a small room that you need to fit a wide screen TV into. Plus remember you really need a HD feed to take advantage of a TV like this.

I've had this television for a good two months and i think it's a good amount of time to fully review this Sony 32ex500. I'll go ahead and address the negative flaws this television presents. I originally returned the first 32ex500 because of blatantly horrific backlight bleeding (Clouding). I then received another set that had backlight bleeding, but not as worse. I decided to live with the backlight bleeding on this set however, many people would probably return it because of this. Another negative i have about this television is the power up time which takes about 5-7 seconds and then shows a Sony sign to remind us that it is from Sony.. again there is no way to turn this off and Sony probably will address this issue in the future, but probably not. Third negative is that this the 32ex500 lacks any notification that another hdmi is available and you have to basically switch inputs to check which one was the ps3 or which one was the cablebox.. i know, i know lazy me, but this to me is kind of a pet peeve since my sony Z 46' (splendid lcd by the way) shows which hdmi ports have been used and the ones that are vacant. 12/30/10 - Edit: i forgot to add another negative about this lcd.. when turned off.. the 32ex500 displays a bright orange light signaling the television is off which is quite annoying in a bedroom setting at night when sleeping, can't believe i forgot to add this b/c it's quite annoying b/c it seems alot of consumers would be buying this for their rooms.

The positive about this LCD is just the terrific picture in a bright lit room and the 4 hdmi inputs.. the backlight bleeding alone made this LCD two stars for me, but i was generous enough add another star because the 32ex500 does have a great picture. Remove the backlight bleeding this star could possibly be a four..

Pro- a ton of features as you have already read about it in details. For the price, I think it is a really good deal. Sharp images, and good for gaming, watching movies, and also tv viewing.

Con - it takes about 5 seconds to turn on, but that's not a big deal to me since I am usually setting up the blueray player, PS3, or PC when I pressed the "On" button. Volume on it is okay, but if you want better surround sound then you know you need to buy an audio system for it.

Overall, Sony didn't let me down as I have compare this TV along with other models, sizes, and stats of different brands.

Upgraded to this 32" Sony for a bedroom TV from a 26" 720p Sharp that I had nothing but trouble with. The picture on the Sony is remarkably better than the Sharp but that is to be expected because of the increased resolution. I also find the sound produced by this 32" to be an improvement over a two year old 40" Sony Z4100 set - remarkably so. I specifically chose the EX500 because of the 120Hz technology and I suppose it is an improvement over the 60Hz EX400 but I'll have to take Sony's word on that. Set up of the TV was very easy with no hiccups whatsoever. I have this TV connected to an LG Blu-ray Wi-Fi DVD player and a FiOS set-top box and this Sony does everything I want it to do and does it very well. Assuming it doesn't die like the Sharp did approximately 30 seconds after the warranty expires I expect to continue being very pleased. The only slight negative that I would note concerning the EX500 is that the TV is thicker (3.9") than I had expected. So if, for whatever reason, you want a thinner version of this TV you'll have to step up to the EX700 whose waist is 2.6".

Update: I've now had this TV for about nine months and I continue to be very pleased with it. I find the picture to be excellent and the colors seem to be true at least least to my eyes. My use for the TV is pretty much limited to watching HD channels and streaming NetFlix movies and TV series and in my opinion it excels in those areas. In short this TV does exactly what I purchased it for and does it well.

I did a lot of research prior to buying this set and was impressed by all the positive reviews. Unfortunately, my experience has been the opposite of most.

Pros:
1. Sony quality evident in overall set construction. Stand, remote, and overall set are all very sturdy. Stand assembly easy.
2. Written instructions were actually quite helpful, unlike most manufacturers'. Exception: Troubleshooting. Lost of dumb advice such as make sure set is plugged in, etc.
3. Set up was a breeze (unless you goof like I did and have to start over).
4. Remote is pretty intuitive.
5. 120hz refresh works well. No blurring on fast action scenes.
6. On board speakers work well. Sony is one of the few in this price range with 10W speakers.

Cons:
1. Colors are awful. They are artificial and garish looking. They have to be tweaked channel to channel and sometimes even with different programs on the same station. Multiple adjustments doesn't help reds-they are crimson no matter what.
2. Detail, especially facial features are indistinct and artificial looking. No amount of adjusting sharpness, picture, etc. helps.
3. Black and white programming, such as on TCM is blurry and cartoonish.
4. Viewing angle is terrible. Viewer has to be almost sitting dead on to get an optimum picture.

Hopefully, I just have a lemon, but I'll be returning it for another make. That's the problem with buying online-it's a pain to exchange things.

Sony Bravia is a excellent brand of television and I highly recommend it to anyone. I use this tv in my bedroom and the 32" is perfect.The quality of the HD is so nice.

I've only had this TV for about a week, but I felt the need to write a review.

If you have just cable from an antenna, the quality will be bad. Be prepared to upgrade your cable service to HD, but that's with any HD TV. If you have a PS2 or older DVD player, get a component cable since this TV doesn't come with one. For DVD/Blu-ray players, get an HDMI cable. I personally got the Monster brand one, and it's been working swimmingly.

If you already have new software, this TV is great. Otherwise, be prepared to spend a little more if you want to get the most out of this TV.

Sony products have always been in a class of their own. The picture is superb and the quality is also top in its field. I like the swivel base, this is a nice option. Easy to control and use all the options. Way to go Sony, I'm a very satisfied customer. This was my husband's Christmas present. We have another small flat screen HDTV a different brand; and there is no comparison in the quality. My husband wishes he had never purchased this other brand of television. He is very satisfied with this Sony Bravia EX 500.

This set produces excellent picture quality, which is the main criteria in my opinion for purchasing this unit. We use this set in our bedroom. The size is good to fit on the dresser. It is easy to use and the menus are very friendly. The instruction book is easy to understand and well written, typical for the Sony product. We are well satisfied with the set. On the down side, the remote does not have a 'SLEEP' button, so to set the sleep timer, you must access it through the menu. This is not a great problem, as I have a Sony universal remote that does have the 'SLEEP' button, so I use the universal remote. I believe this unit was 'RECERTIFIED' or a display model, and I got a really good price on it. The packing looked like it was not factory, which is to be expected, and the mounting screws to hold the TV to the base were loose in the box. Of the six required, we found only four. I expect that the other two were lost in transit. I will easily replace the missing two. We are very satisfied with our purchase.