Customer Reviews

Sony BRAVIA V-Series KDL-46V5100 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV, Black

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

I just received this television. My first impression is great. I've been investigating diffrent brands and different models of LCD TV's for a while. Here is the conclusion I reached and the reasons for purchasing this TV:

* Sony has great models for over $2500. They have great picture but not great enough to compensate for the couple of thousand extra dollars paid. I saw 46XBR6 and 46V5100 next to each other in BB and did not see a significant difference except the price.
* Samsungs have great LCD TVs. But glossy screen would not work for me at all. I have a bright living room where my TV is located. So, if you will have your TV in a bright room, you probably would like to avoid glossy screens like Samsung has. It really reflects a lot almost like a mirror. This was a big deal for me.

Now, my experice with KDL46V5100 is as follows:
It has great picture quality. I did not expect it to be so good at even SD. It is very easy to use. We plugged the TV and started to use it right away. Even user's manual is just a few pages. Before buying the TV I paid extra attention to the wide angle performance. This TV has about the same view from front and from sides: no changes in color or image quality with angle that I recognized.

I am extremely satisfied with the Amazon delivery. They brought the TV, unpacked it and installed the TV on the stand.

Good TV for good price and good service from Amazon...

I recently purchased the Sony Bravia 46V5100, and wow is all i can say. This is my first HD anything purchase, although i did a ton of research for over a year, im glad i chose this Sony. I also promptly purchased the playstation 3 for the games and blu-ray, along with the HD package from the cable company, and it blows me away. The picture never blurs or anything like that, im a huge NASCAR fan and there is no blurring, no skipping and you never miss a bit of the action, and of course its the fastest sport on TV. With all the HDMI inputs, i dont know what else i can put in there to make it better, theres more than enough room for all the accessories. The screen is what made the difference for me between this Sony and the Samsung of the equivilant. The screen is not as glossy as the samsung, although the bezel is as shiny as the rest, you hardly notice it. The white glove delivery was great, i was notified of every step of the journey for my TV, the delivery guys unloaded it, ops checked it and explained some of the features. The only problem was a "feature" that came with the TV that darkens the screen during dark scenes on a movie or TV show, this problem has been fixed by a software update, found on the Sony support web site. its a very easy fix, just requiring an USB memory stick, or if you dont have one the Sony people will send you one. The update just takes minutes and makes a world of difference. I was a bit nervous about buying a TV online, but i went and checked it out at best buy, and it was about $400 less at amazon than at best buy, so my decision was made for me. Over all its a great tv, and a great price for the size of the TV. Thanks

Overall, the picture quality is good, as only Sony TV's seem to deliver and the audio sounds great even though the speakers are small. However, the manufacture quality is not up to my expectations when it comes to spending extra money for the Sony brand. This is my 2nd 46v5100 as the first one was problematic and updating the firmware didn't help. There was intermittent loss of audio, there was terrible flashlighting in 3 of the corners, especially in the upper left corner, there was clouding in the bottom half of screen, and finally there appeared to a dimple behind the LCD. Amazon's policy on defective TV's requires that the buyer contact Sony to get a case #. Well, discussing to troubleshoot the problem with Sony was a real pain. (The Sony rep believed that resetting the TV could fix the clouding and flashlighting!) The replacement TV has manufacture date of August 2009 so it had the latest firmware. Fortunately, the 2nd set didn't have the audio problem and had considerably less clouding, however it still has flashlighting in the upper left corner. I'll probably just keep this set as Amazon's return/exchange policy for LCD TV's is a hassle. (Or at least, I was hassled by two Amazon reps). Now, I'm looking to get a second LCD TV for bedroom but I'm looking at other brands. I gave this TV only 3 stars because it seems average even though it is a Sony... It's tough to enjoy this TV's feature set when there are backlighting issues that is so visible every time I watch TV.

I'll start off with the good stuff with this TV, excellent sound and great picture (except for really high motion which i'll get to later). The sound on this TV exceeded my expectations by a large margin as the sound quality is really crisp and clear. Sony got the sound on this TV right, and i don't think it could get better from just having a standalone TV set. One note: My cablebox makes a poping sound when switching channels - Sony has noted that this is a problem from the cablebox on their website.

The picture is really great once you get the correct settings put in as well (do a google search for best settings). Only use HDMI cables unless your cable box or other device doesn't have an HDMI port for the best picture. One thing you will notice if this is your first dip into HDTV waters is that not all HDTV broadcasts are going to be in true HD quality. Some stations stretch the picture which looks terrible. It's not the Tv's fault however, it's the stations that are broadcasting. Some are good, some are bad, and some are just plain ugly.

Where i knock this down 1 star is for fast motion. Sorry Nascar fans, im talking fast zoomed in motion - mostly football. Most sights that tell you how to calibrate your TV will tell you to turn the "Motionflow" portion of your settings off. I tried it and can say for me personally i can't watch the TV like that because the motion isn't smooth. If i put "Motionflow" on standard it looks better but i wish there was a setting between off and standard, like low for example. Getting back to my point though, i do not recommend this TV for viewing spaces UNDER 10 feet. Pixelazation starts to show up alot at the under 10 feet distance - especially in fast camera moments like football. Over 10 feet in your viewing area and i would probably give this TV 5 stars and not 4. Putting "Motionflow" on standard helps, but it doesn't cure it, and the level above standard is just silly because everything looks really fake. Would a TV at 240hz do a better job of making the motion blur go away? It may, but from what i have been reading on the internet the motion blur is from the TV stations broadcast itself. I don't have a 240hz TV right now (they are a little too expensive) to compare, but i have a feeling that you would still have some of the motion blur. Im just not sure at this point if the motion blur comes from the TV itself or from the HD broadcasts, it's there nonetheless even with HDMI cables and thats why i knock it down to 4 stars.

As a side note i want to add that you should get a Blu-ray player if you like to watch movies. Most DVD's i own (around 500) look pretty bad on the new HDTV set's. Even with upconverting, the quality does not hold. Can you watch it - yes. Does it look good - sometimes depending on the encoding. Does it look great - no, only blu-ray will look great from now on if you purchase any HDTV set. It sucks, but it's the truth.

UPDATE - Seems that i have found some settings that work alot better for fast motion after playing around with it for quite awhile and i wanted to share it with you guys:

I'll start under "advanced settings" and remember these are what I like best (you may not):

Cinemotion - Auto 2
Motionflow - High

With these settings i have found that football and high action for that matter is much better on this TV, but beware, i have found that if you don't use them both in combo you end up with scenes in movies that tend to go a little too fast making it look fake. Using them both together really helps eliminate MOST of the blur or pixelation (there is still a slight bit but i would say 90-95% is eliminated)

The rest of my settings are (these are to your own taste, the motion settings are more important):

Picture mode - Standard
Backlight - 6
Picture - 95
Brightness - 52
Color - 49
Hue - 0
Color Temp - Neutral
Sharpness - 6

Everything else is in "off" mode

Good luck, hope it helps!

I researched 46 inch lcd tv's for months, and every site recommended the Samsung 550, so I bought it. I'm not a techie, so I'll just say this: the speakers on all Samsungs are on the bottom of the set, so unless you know how to hook it up to an external sound system, every show will sound like you're inside a tin can with the lid closed. I sent it back and got the Sony, which is a VAST improvement; the speakers are on the front of the set, where they belong. The picture is sharp, colors saturated and beautiful, it's easy to navigate. It's a great TV. Unlike the Samsung, which is incredibly shiny and reflective, the Sony even looks great in my living room. I love it!

There is one major flaw with this TV that causes me to not be able to recommend it. There is a red flash issue that is unacceptable. Some scenes change hue and you see a quick redish flash more often than you will probably be willing to accept. If you search the internet for red flash and/or red flicker with the Sony kdl46v5100 you will see multiple complaints about this very defect. Don't take them lightly. Sony has a firmware update, but it does not resolve this specific issue. They refuse to correct this issue as you can see when you research it. In short...I'm stuck with my tv, but you don't have to be. Choose wisely.

Known issues that Sony refuses to address:

* Audio Dropouts. Sound will cutout for no reason, causing you to change channel to get the audio back.

* Red Flashing. Faces go from normal skintone to sunburn and back and forth.

* Non-linear grayscale tracking (causing dark grays of the picture to be either green or blue).

* Clouding. Uneven screen, causing clouding effect in different section of screen
* Flashlight effects in corners.

* Screen flicker while using "full pixel" screen aspect mode

Sony refuses to address these problems, do yourself a favor and buy a different TV.

Check out [...]for a thread listing all the problems pertaining to this model.

Standing in front of a wall of TV's, BB showing a advertising disc with maybe 480p content on it this Sony caught my eye! I looked at the Sammy LED but it wasn't what I expected (I know its the first model) The brightness was just over the top, whites actually looked to bright over everything else.

Needless to say I picked up the Sony Bravia 46" V5100! This is a replacement for a 32" in my bedroom, so I hurried home to make the swap!

Out of the box this TV looks amazing even off! I love the black, not a big fan of these new sets with "color" but that's just me!

I pulled this beast out of the box and mounted the wall bracket hardware to the back. Hoisted it up onto the wall and made the connections (Xbox 360/HDMI)

I pressed the power button and WOW! The colors on even the initial screen were just gorgeous! I went thru a few settings but mainly just wanted to see what she could do. I fired up Finding Nemo, and was blown away, the colors are just insane...literally they pop off the screen. I followed this up with a quick game of COD4 which also to no surprise looked amazing!

Everything is razor sharp right out of the box, hopefully tonight I'll get a chance to run a good calibration and setup but I'm really amazed at the quality of this TV!

I cant wait to see a Blu Ray player connected to this set...I can only imagine how beautiful it will be (I was tempted to pull the one out of the living room but it was getting late)

The sound is well...TV sound, and I never buy a new TV based on its speakers. For normal everyday listening they do sound pretty nice, even at higher levels...in fact the simulated surround sound is pretty good on HD broadcasts (over air) I did notice it doesn't handle the surround sound on movies and games as well but that's to be expected!

If your looking for an excellent TV at an excellent price this is the way to go! I'm gonna post any problems here after tonight's setup and more in depth use...somehow I don't think ill have much to type!

I have been shopping for a 46" TV since last autumn. The Sony KDL-46V5100 at $1299 is a great value; when I saw the price drop from $1399 I hit the buy button. The 2009 V5100 models look as good as the 2008 Sony Z4100 series, at least to my eyes.

I considered buying a clearance 2008 model but worried about software support for discontinued models. Sure enough, Sony fixed their auto-dimming problem in a patch for the 2009 models and has not yet released a patch for 2008 models. Be sure to install the firmware update if you buy this TV; see the Sony site for details.

Sound quality is quite good for a TV; we seriously considered not using our older Sony home theater system and just going with the TV's speakers.

We love the matte finish screen. The styling is plain and unobtrusive; doesn't stand out but doesn't distract either.

A great TV at a great price. I don't like to spend a lot of money just to have the fanciest new toys; I prefer to get the maximum value for my money. This model hit the sweet spot for me.

I wanted to post my thoughts here to inform potential buyers and also to beg Sony to do the right thing and stand behind their products. Even if it's one of their lower end models, $1,000+ is still a significant amount of money to pay for something that doesn't work properly.

I personally own the 52 inch model of this set, but have used the other size models as well. My comments here pertain to issues that apparently plague the entire Sony Bravia V and S series and have NOT been addressed by the latest firmware update available as of this date. The bang for the buck on this TV would be great, if not for these issues. The worst part of it is that Sony has seemingly been completely silent on the issues and has so far refused to acknowledge or do anything about it. If Sony would just address these issues, my rating would increase significantly. I've been a lifelong Sony customer, but at this point I cannot imagine buying or recommending another Sony product if this is how they support their products. I'm really hoping they come through and address this appropriately and restore my faith in the Sony brand.

While some common LCD problems, such as clouding and flashlighting do affect some other owners, here is a summary of the two major problems I have personally experienced with these Sony TVs:

1. Visual Problem (Red Flashing) - In some programs, red items in the scene will flash as though someone is boosting the color saturation momentarily. You can see this color shift in faces, but also in other objects. This happens on all inputs and with many TV shows, movies, etc. I see it a lot in the set background of The Daily Show. There is a whole lot of information about this issue on avsforums, various youtube videos, etc. Many owners have had multiple service visits and exchanged TVs, without resolving the problem. There is simply no way that Sony does not know how to reproduce it.

2. Audio Problems - There are frequent audio dropouts. The sound will cutout and won't come back until the channel is changed or TV power is cycled. Additionally, when the TV volume is very low (1 to 10), there is significant hiss and noise which make the program audio nearly unintelligible. Late night quiet viewing is very problematic due to this. There is also a loud pop whenever the display resolution changes using HDMI.

I could learn to live with the audio issues, but the Red Flashing issue is serious and very distracting. I am seriously hoping that Sony can and will do the right thing and release a firmware fix for this as it very much seems to be a video processing bug which affects all of their Bravia Engine 2 sets. If Sony won't resolve this, then I plan to fight them tooth and nail while under warranty as these are clearly design and/or manufacturing defects. I've heard some people try to claim that this is the price to pay for buying one of the "value" models and it's par for the course. That is pure nonsense! These are NOT simply the quality issues that one might expect, related to contrast ratios, color accuracy, etc. These are serious flaws!

Anyway....hope this information helps potential buyers make a more informed decision. I welcome any comments or feedback!