Customer Reviews

Sony BRAVIA KDL-55EX500 Series 55-Inch LCD TV, Black

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This Sony was sold to me directly from Sony in exchange for a 5 year old 60" Sony that had an 'optic block' problem that would require an expensive fix. Sony had been repairing this problem for free but I had no way to know that until mine went bad and then talking to Sony they had switched to an exchange program where the customer would pay about slightly less than half the retail price. If you have a slightly older Sony that is putting either a blue color on the screen or a green one you might start directly with the Sony Style website and contact their support help to see what they may offer you. On one hand I was very sad to see my 5 year Sony develop a problem but on the other hand I have to give Sony credit for standing up to the known problem.

The largest TV offered in the exchange program was this 55" model or I certainly would have gone for the 60" because I prefer that size. That said this model has a better and more vibrant picture than my older Sony which was a premium model that I had paid over $4,000 for. So the bottom line for me is that this new Sony has a better picture for less than the old one even if you pay retail. My old Sony weighed 113lbs and this new one is around 65lbs so it is easier to handle. The remote is better and more intuitive. We watch this in a very bright room filled with natural sunlight during the day and this TV handles that very well with no glare. The speakers are nothing to write home about and probably not as good as my old Sony but we tend to watch movies with the sound coming from a quality sound system anyway. My old Sony was 1080i and this one is full 1080p which is an excellent picture. We get our signal from Dish Net which broadcasts almost exclusively in 1080i anyway. For movies we use a Samsung Blu-Ray player which works beautifully with this TV. In fact there is a type of automatic setting that the Samsung and the Sony have where when you turn on the Samsung the TV also turns on and then goes directly to the input from the Samsung. Very cool. Truthfully I can barely tell the difference from a good blu-ray picture and a good standard DVD. We tend to use Netflix a lot and always order Blu-Ray when available.

I thought the set up was easy and the available HDMI connections are excellent as my old Sony only had two HDMI inputs and this one has 4. We actually use all 4 with a DVD recorder, Dish Net, HD camcorder, and the blu-ray.

I would have no problem recommending this Sony LCD TV and in fact when I looked in the stores I thought the new LED LCDs seemed a little too bright. I do miss the 60" size but everyone who has looked at this picture has been in the 'wow' camp with it.

Had been looking for a new tv for a little while to upgrade from my 6 year old Mitsubishi Rear Projection 48" HDTV. Was trying to decide between Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, LG, and Vizio, and also LCD or Plasma. Did extensive research and decided LCD was the way to go for us. We had decided on a last years model Sony 52", but then it was sold before we got ready to get it. Thank goodness it did! Went back to Costco and found this beautiful new 2010 model Sony 55' LCD KDL-55EX501(costco's model is 501, whereas other stores carry the 500-same tv, even lists it in the instruction manual that way). This tv is so sharp and beautiful! The colors are rich and vibrant, and that was out of the box without adjusting any settings yet!Fine tuning made it even better. Has the Bravia engine 2 and that really makes it look sharp. 120hz processing, and i really dont even see anything wrong with motion scenes. Black sure looks black to me on this set, which is an issue with lcd tv's. Most stores don't carry the set yet as it was just released the first week of Feb. Can't beat Costco though, at this time its [...] and the offer not only the standard warranty on all electronics, but on this model tv, right on the box it states is has a 3 year warranty! Paperwork inside confirmed this! Lots of settings and adjustments can be made as well. Does 1080/24p very nicely. If you can get one, i would really recommend it, you wont be disappointed.

As a mid-level LCD TV, the KDL55EX500 is simply a stunning bargain for what you get. And despite the fact that it doesn't use LED technology, it's still has excellent picture quality.

This is a standard LCD TV. Despite this, it has picture quality that rivals many of its LED competitors. I've found that after visiting several stores that many LED-based sets have restricted viewing angles (often getting washed out easily if you move away from center). Also, if you've ever done research on various tech sites, you would find some people complaining about how their LED TVs have uniformity issues, and/or light-bleed from the edges of the screen. Lastly and most important to me, most of the LED TVs that I liked seemed to have significant input lag. Input lag is a slight delay of the video displayed on the TV. All LCD TVs suffer from at least a small amount of input lag, but it seemed all the LED TVs I liked (mostly Samsungs) had a significant amount of it. (Input lag is not rated on most TVs. But on PC monitors input lag often rated as "latency" and measured in milliseconds or "ms".) And since I like to play Gran Turismo 5 on my PS3 a lot, input lag was a concern for me. My previous TV had a lot of input lag (a Samsung) and it made playing Gran Turismo 5 impossible. I had to resort to playing the game on my PC monitor - it was that bad. (Note: I know a lot of TVs now boast of 120hz, or 240hz motion processing. This does not address input lag. Input lag is a seperate problem.)

So after doing a bit of research (reading up on owner's forums of various TVs), I narrowed it down to the KDL55EX500 and the KDL55EX710 - both from Sony. (I really liked the Samsungs, but as I said before, the owners forums swayed me away from them due to quality issues and input lag.) There is about a $700 difference in price of these two TVs because the EX710 series uses the newer LED technology. Seeing them both side-by-side at a local store, it was really hard to see a difference. The EX710 model looked a bit sharper, but the difference was really hard to discern. I couldn't justify paying another $700 for the EX710. Yea, the EX710 is a lot thinner, and consumes less energy, but I don't care about that (gasp!). I just want a good picture for a good price - and the EX500 had both of those things. (When I asked if they had any of the EX500 in stock at that store, the salesman said they did not - which didn't surprise me.)

I will admit that the EX500 series does not have the best picture quality I have seen. The best I think are the upper tier Samsungs (UN558000XF is amazing looking when you see it in person). But after owning a Samsung and having it die on me after only 4-years I'll stick with Sony - who seem to have a better quality track record regarding TVs. (I still own a 12-year-old Sony TV that works perfectly). The picture quality on the KDL55EX500 is still nothing to laugh about. It is simply beautiful. It's sharp, vibrant, and bright. My only gripe is that flesh tones on my older Samsung seemed to look better and smoother, not sure why - but it's true. But that's a minor complaint in an otherwise excellent-looking TV.

This TV is great with games. I could not discern any sort of input lag at all on standard settings. Sony, however added a "game mode" where it supposedly increases response time from the TV. To be honest, the difference is minute, but I like that it's there. If you're a gamer and want decent response time from your TV with minimal input lag - the KDL55EX500 won't disappoint.

Just bought this TV from the big blue box store for $1700. Tweaked the settings a little while watching some of my reference material, but out of the box settings were pretty good.

I got this set because:
1) I think LED is a little over-hyped
2) I was unable to discern any difference at the store between the Bravia 2 and the new Bravia 3 engine (in fact a friend who works in AV confided in me that there probably is no difference)
3) The glare from the glossy finish of the Samsung and Sharp sets were very distracting to me

I'm very impressed with the way this TV handles video material. Blu-ray is perfect. Playstation 3 looks awesome (made for each other?).DVD (upscaled) looks very very good also. HD cable varies depending on source but overall very sharp. Lower grade sources look pretty good also. I was worried that going from a 47 in. (Philips) to a larger screen would make lower grade sources look really bad, but the Sony's Bravia engine really smooths things out and makes it look very good. Better in fact than the 47 in. Philips!

So far the biggest problem I have noticed is that the set looks very washed out when viewed from off angle. 20-30 degrees off of center and you can really notice a loss of depth to colors and black levels.

Overall, I think I will be very happy with this set. I would have given it 5 stars if it looked better from the side.

Hope yo ufind this info helpful.

I had the same experience as the other reviewer with a 5 year old 60 inch rear projection Sony TV that developed a blue blob on the screen. I was none too happy when Sony put me on hold after telling me my [...] TV was out of warranty. When they came back on and offered me this TV for less than half the retail price I was OK with that result.
Now that I've had the TV for a couple of months I'm thrilled with it. It doesn't have all the bells + whistles/internet connectivity of other models but I love the picture. It's a great value even at list price and I'll get all those bells + whistles with my new Blu-ray player anyway.
Nothing bad to say about this TV.

I was in the market for a reasonably priced TV with a great picture and big size, and little else factored into my decision. After months of research I came across this TV and now that I've owned it for a couple of months, I must say that I love it.

It's lacking Internet connectivity so no Netflix streaming directly through the TV, no yahoo gadgets to play with, and no other specialized content available like there is on higher end TVs. If this makes no difference to you, as is the case with me (I use my PS3 if I want those bonuses), then this TV may be up your alley.

The main pro of this TV is the superb picture and the size. The size speaks for itself. Blu-Ray looks ridiculously good, video games on my PS3 are perfect (no input lag that I can detect either- which is a huge plus for me because I play a great deal of online FPS games that require quick twitch reactions), and watching sports or a movie on cable is great even though cable is usually broadcast in 1080i. Standard definition channels look like crap though, so make sure to upgrade your cable to high def.

Other pros: Better than expected sound (although I would recommend investing in a sound system), a great number of inputs, it's energy efficient, and you have the choice between 60hz and 120hz.

If you do make the purchase I have some suggestions. When it comes to the motion flow feature, which when on displays the picture in 120hz, I recommend using it on high for when you watch sports or when you're playing video games (by the way, to you gamers out there, do not play video games using the game scene option- it turns off the motion flow so you're going to see too much motion blur, especially in faster paced games, and the scene mode makes no difference when it comes to input lag). Otherwise, unless you like the soap opera effect that to me makes human movement on the screen look unnatural and makes movies in particular bizarre looking, put motion flow on standard or turn it off all together. I would use the Standard Picture Mode instead of Vivid, but if you want to customize further you can choose Custom if you wish. Beyond that, spend some time tweaking the settings even if you're not a techie so you get a picture that looks right to you, it can make a difference in my opinion but it really comes down to how anal you are about picture quality.

Good luck shopping.

Quite possibly the best bang for your buck when it comes to TV's , especially HDTV's ! The brightness and depth of the picture is incredible . The flexibility of it's useage is impressive . The cost for a reputable , name brand tv is easily among the best i've found . The sound is fair or better but when coupled with a Home Theater or external system it's great and very dynamic . 3 months into ownership and i have no complaints what so ever ...

This is a great basic TV with excellent picture quality, and easy to setup. And the matte screen make it much easier to watch during the day as well as night where my room has several windows which reflect light.

It doesn't have internet which is a plus for me from the price point of view because I am connecting it with a Sony vaio laptop with Blu-Ray via HDMI, which works great.

After searching for my first 'big screen' for months, I ran across the Sony. I was actually looking at a 50" LG plasma when I spotted the Sony. I was leaning towards the plasma until I saw the two units sitting side by side with the same programing. The difference was amazing. I knew immmediately that I would be taking home the Sony.

I worked with the owner/salesman for a bit, going over the settings and such. I was worried that the picture in my home wouldn't be as nice as in the store. He assured me that as soon as I turned it on (after the self-progaming mode was finished) the picture would look just as good. Wow, was he ever right. I am VERY pleased with the unit. I watch a lot of sports and action movies. I have not been let down. Even before my HD Fios was in, the picture quality was amazing. With the HD..well, I'm in heaven.

The sound quality isn't the best. The low end isn't really low end. My Christmas present to myself this year will be a home theater sound system. I'm sure that will just increase the awesomeness.

I looked at the Samsung 55C630 and this Sony 55ex500 at my local BestBuy and Wal-Mart for hours until I decided on the Sony. The Samsung has bright and sharper pictures on display but it also suffers a lot of glares. I spent time to read on AVS forum and I'm glad that I pick the Sony.