Customer Reviews

Sony BRAVIA VE5-Series KDL-46VE5 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz Eco-friendly LCD HDTV

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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...

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.

Be warned. This TV has a problem with the motherboard. The USB patch they send you to correct the various issues, does not work. I purchased two of them and luckily was able to return them for a full refund. The sound drops out, the video signal drops out, the screen flashes and the patch made the picture blurry. I ended up purchasing two Samsung LED TV's which are just great for the same price I paid for the two Sony's. You don't need these problems after spending a couple of grand thinking you are getting a quality product. I cannot stress to you more, stay away from these TV's no matter the price.

We received this set from Sony as a replacement for a previous Sony 46" LCD that failed after 18 months. We were pleased to get a good deal as a replacement. I was really impressed with the picture quality of this set, however, we have found a serious flaw in the sound. There is a constant static sound in the background and at low levels the sound is distorted with lots of static (really bad if you are watching TV at night). I even went to Sony's website to see if there is a software patch.

I have been a loyal Sony fan for my life, however, I don't know what is going on with their quality. I am not sure what we will do now, but I can't recommend their LCD sets due to these quality issues.

Turning the set on is a little slow, but if the energy savings pan out to be what they claim it is worth the wait. You need to purchase the High Definition signal from your service provider to take advantage of the picture quality of this set. Otherwise, save your money and purchase a less expensive set.

Ive had this tv for about 2 years now and it's given me plenty of problems, considering how much I paid for it. I've had the audio dropouts, I've had the video dropouts, I've had random turnoffs, and pretty much any other problems you've read about here. I haven't had to replace any hardware yet and the issues have all been fixed by either a software update or a full factory reset, but I'm afraid to customize the options at all, just in case it's one of those options I'm changing that is causing the problems.
Bottom line is that this is the last Sony product I'll purchase. It's really that simple. I'm not one of the angry folks that will bash Sony, but you won't see me carrying any more of their products into my house. My upstairs tv is an Emerson I picked up for $200 and it gives me no problems whatsoever, even with being heavily used by my 3 year old. I think I'll look in the direction of LG or Vizio for my next tv.
Good luck!

Have had this TV up and running now for about two years. The wife has to have the TV on shortly after she gets up in the morning and she leaves it on all the while she is home. The only time the TV ever gets turned off is when she is not home or when she retires for the night. The picture is still looking as super good as I got it to look after spending the 1st six months we had it playing with all the menu setting choices. The TV looked fine right out of the box but I thought I could do better. And that I did. Mission accomplished. But I cheated. I used to fix all of our TV's even though I was not a professional TV repairman. However not having a BluRay DVD player yet even to this day, I used my eye and experience to make all of the adjustments instead of a calibration disk and instruments. The picture on that thing is now as good as I've seen anywhere and far better then most. Old friends dropping by for the 1st time since we got the TV just freeze in their tracks with their mouth open when they see that TV playing! Their speech trails off to a mumble for the first few minutes and then they can't take their eyes off of the screen.

We can get only one TV station here and there is no cable available so we have satellite with HD. I haven't bought a blue ray player yet because all the DVD rental places within 25 miles of us have closed down. My internet connection is very slow so I don't want to screw around with downloading plus would the download be 1080P?



Interesting experience with Amazon ordering this TV over the internet. When the delivery truck arrived right on time as expected the driver was apologetic and a little worried. He had me climb into the truck to inspect the package the TV was packed in. One corner was heavily crushed in as though the package had been dropped off of the back of a truck landing on one corner. Edges of the package next to the crushed corner were also wrinkled quite noticeably. The driver said that was the way it had arrived at his place of work and was laying on the loading dock when he first saw it. He also stressed that I didn't have to accept it in that condition. I told him that I won't accept it and he seemed relieved. He immediately got on his cell phone called his company. He then said that I have nothing to worry about and everything will be taken care of. Three days and an email from Amazon later another truck showed up in our yard with a different driver. He showed me the package and it looked pristine. I accepted it and he carried it into our house, unpacked it and him and I mounted it on it's stand. He then fired it up and it looked great on the satellite TV even without HD yet. We ordered that next and I could never go back!

Amazon's customer service is 2nd to none!

Save yourself the headache! The "BM3" motherboard is bad in these TVs. The software upgrade does not work and the replacement motherboard does not fix the problem either. BEWARE!!!
The problem starts out as a simple little audio distortion and becomes progressively worst each time until the TV becomes just a fixture on the wall. If you have one of these TVs call Sony now and get a replacement before your warranty expires. Sony will fight the consumer "tooth and nail". Don't give up!

I purchased this TV in October of 2009. In the first 4 months my HDMI outputs stopped working so the whole mother board had to be replaced. Now it broke again, a month after the warranty expired. I can't even turn the damn thing on! Amazon do not want to help me with this issue. Sony reps just care about the warranty, not the reputation. Now I have to dish out my own money and I am sure it won't be cheap, to fix it or buy another TV, which will not be a SONY this time and probably will not be from AMAZON either!

Maybe this is a rare case, but customer service could be improved because a defective product is a defective product!