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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Picture and Features, plus it's eco-friendly, July 31, 2009
This review is from: Sony BRAVIA VE5-Series KDL-46VE5 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz Eco-friendly LCD HDTV (Electronics)
This is an excellent TV.
Picture Quality:
The picture quality of this set is superb. In the setup menu, I set the picture to "vivid" mode and the HD quality is simply life-like. The color and contrast are excellent. It also uses something that Sony calls MotionFlow which helps to smooth out the image when you are watching fast-action pictures.
Backlight Technology:
It is an LCD set, but uses a hot cathode fluorescent lamp for its backlighting. This technology allows it to be much more energy efficient and close to par with the energy usage of LED backlit LCD TVs. Most LCDs use cold cathode fluorescent lamps. The 40" model uses a maximum of 140 watts, the 46" uses a max of 160 watts, and the 52" uses a max of 180 watts.
Eco-Friendly:
It has a sensor called a presence sensor that does two things. First it senses the ambient (room) light and if the room gets darker, it will automatically dim the picture of the TV. This works well if you are watching TV in the bedroom at night and you want less light output. The second thing that the sensor does is senses the room for motion and body heat. If you leave the room for a preset amount of time (5 min, 30 min, ...) and the TV doesn't sense anyone around, it will turn off the picture. If you walk back in the room, it senses you and turns the screen back on. The sound stays on for another 30 minutes or so, then the whole set will go into stand-by mode if it does not sense you. Both of these features can be turned off via the setup menu and help to conserve energy.
Features (just a few of them):
The TV is loaded with features. It will automatically sense if you have something connected to an input (for example HDMI2). This is great when you want to hit the input button on the remote because it will not select items that aren't currently sending out a signal. This means you don't have to scroll through 10 items if you only have two components connected to the TV. In the setup menu, you can set each input for always on, always off, or auto. I used the always on setting for the PC input because the cable I used to connect the PC did not send a power signal so the TV did not sense it. By setting it to always on, the PC input will always be available when I scan through the inputs.
It also has a lot of inputs. There are 4 HDMI inputs. If you have a DVI port on your PC, then you can connect it through HDMI port 1 which also has an analog audio input. There is one dedicated composite (with S-video) and one dedicated component input, but there is another switchable composite/component input that you can use if you have two composites and one component, or vice versa. There is a PC input to connect via VGA connection. The audio outputs are one optical digital out and one analog out.
Dislikes:
1. All of the Inputs and Output are on the left side (when looking at the front of the TV) of the TV. This is unfortunate for me since my A/V cabinet is on the right side of the TV. It is a minor inconvenience, but something that I did not think about until I got the set home. I would say about half of the inputs are one the left side and the other half are on the back, next to the side inputs.
2. The presence sensor is right where I have my center audio speaker. I will have to raise up the TV to still have that speaker front and center.
Overall, this is not a cheap TV, but I think this is a case where you get what you pay for. It is a really great set.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Deal On A Great Television, August 19, 2009
This review is from: Sony BRAVIA VE5-Series KDL-46VE5 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz Eco-friendly LCD HDTV (Electronics)
I bought this television after doing some pretty extensive research. I had almost decided on a Samsung, but after going to the store and looking at some of them, I decided that the Samsungs were way too glossy for my taste. I saw the 40" version of this television on display at a store, and it looked fantastic. Very sharp picture, not glossy. The power saving features and having seen how good it looks in person got me very close to a decision, and the final piece of the puzzle was that it would fit on the stand I already have. That might sound silly, but it's another $200-$300 for a decent stand. My stand is 20" wide, and has about an 3/4" lip on the edge. The stand on the Sony is about 18" wide, and lifts the TV up over the lip, so it worked out quite nicely.
The service from Amazon was great on this. The free scheduled delivery worked out great. The company that delivered it (CEVA, I beleive) showed up early, and carried it up the stairs to the third floor for me. They offered to unpack it, which I declined, wanting to do it myself to make sure I could save the box for moving purposes.
It took me about 30 minutes to get the TV unpacked, the stand attached, and the TV up and running. Keep in mind, I was doing this by myself...it would have been quicker with a helper.
The picture on this TV is simply awesome! I watched The Descent on Blu-ray as my first movie, mainly because it's a very dark movie, and I wanted to see what the black levels were like. The Sony did not disappoint. Most of the movie is set in dark caves, and most of the time, I couldn't even see the edge between the dark movie and the edge of the letterbox.
The only bit of weirdness I've had, was at the very beginning of the movie, there's a white water rafting scene that looked very strange to me at first. It turns out it was because the director of the movie had been using camera movement for dramatic effect, and the MotionFlow technology was canceling it out! It was easily fixed just by turning off MotionFlow. I plan on leaving it off, as I have noticed no blurring issues even with it off.
The only thing a wee bit lacking on this TV is the sound, but it's not horrible, and honestly, if you're willing to shell out the cash for this TV, then you should be willing to shell out for a good sound system too. Overall, I highly recommend this TV.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
So far, so good..., October 1, 2009
This review is from: Sony BRAVIA VE5-Series KDL-46VE5 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz Eco-friendly LCD HDTV (Electronics)
I just received this TV from Amazon 2 days ago, so my opinions are based on first impressions...
This actually the first Sony HDTV I've owned. I have a 32" Sharp LCD from 2005 (which is still a great TV) and I owned a 40" Samsung LCD from 2006 which recently died. This is my first 1080p television. As with most of these sets, you will need to make adjustments for a while to get things just the way you like. I spent a couple of hours fine tuning the picture settings on this set and wow! As far as television viewing, SD picture quality is so-so which i have come to expect. Combine that with my cable company's poor signal compression level and there are just certain channels that make you turn your head away. HD channels are another story. This is where this TV shines. Channels like Discovery and HD Theater pop off the screem, almost Blu Ray quality. Audio quality is not the best, but as i believe someone else mentioned, if you're investing in a set like this, chances are you're going to have a 5.1 or 7.1 setup to go with it, which i do, so the onboard speakers arent an issue...
As far as Blu Ray viewing, I have only thrown in a couple of discs to see how this set handles them. I fed my PS3 "Baraka" and what i had intended to be a 5 minute PQ test ended up lasting about 40 minutes. It's that amazing. Watching a particular scene in "Quantum of Solace" i was completely floored (The airplane chase sequence) With the motionflow and cinema settings fine tuned, the landscape in particular during this sequence almost looked 3-D!
One of the major marketing points for this set are it's "Eco-friendly" tools, many of which i've disabled. The motion sensor that sits in the middle of the speaker grille is useless to me because my center channel speaker blocks it. I do like that fact that there's a "kill switch" on the side of the set that cuts all power consumption. When my wife and I travel we usually unplug our appliances so having this should keep me from having to get behind the TV stand and unplug the set amongst other things.
Additionally as others have mentioned, I would have preferred that Sony placed more of the HDMI outputs on the back of the set as opposed to the side. This is a minor inconvenience that can be solved with right-angle HDMI cables or adapters...
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