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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My first Sony product and I have to say that I am impressed., September 13, 2009
This review is from: Sony BRAVIA VE5-Series KDL-52VE5 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz Eco-friendly LCD HDTV (Electronics)
I had been apprehensive about pulling the trigger on an LCD TV for months now waiting for all these promised LED LCD TVs to become available from various manufacturers. With Samsung hitting the market first and disappointing most of us with their outrageous prices and availability with gloss screens only, they were quickly removed from my list of potential purchases. LG then hit the market with their model, which is very impressive, but with a $2400+ price tag, it was still a bit too much for my budget. Then there was Vizio which still hasn't been able to apparently get the bugs out of their LED LCD TVs that were promised in June, then September, and now October. So needless to say they were removed from my list.
This model of Sony hit the shelves roughly around the same time as the Samsung LED TVs. Its specifications were pretty good, and the promise of low wattage similar to the LED LCDs was very attractive. What I wasn't happy with was the fact that this is an 8-bit LCD panel as opposed to the 10-bit panels that the other manufacturer's models used. A local retailer finally had the Sony in their show room, so I could see if the 8 bit panel made a difference, and after spending over an hour comparing its picture detail and clarity to the Samsung and LG models, I could not see anything negative about the Sony. In fact, to my eyes even the contrast differences between the LED models and this ECO series was negligible, and definitely not worth the extra price tag for the LED models. The color was also more natural on the Sony than the Samsung and LG models that were next to it. One of the most noticeable segments they had running was a cooking channel scene where the cook was making some broccoli dish. The broccoli on the other sets was almost fluorescent, but on the Sony it was a perfect medium dark green. I was sold.
Now with the KDL-52VE5 dropping from $2100 to what it is now, I decided I had waited long enough. Since my local retailer could not come close to Amazon's price, I purchased it from Amazon. The set arrived within a week with the free shipping, and I have to say that the shipping company (Pilot) that delivered the set was great. The delivery man was very friendly and helpful. He quickly unpacked the new set, helped me take down my old (325 lb) 36 inch tube TV from its stand, placed the new TV up on the stand, and powered it up to verify that it was working. Great delivery service.
Now that I have the TV at home, I am 100% happy with the purchase so far. I was worried that I would be disappointed with the contrast ratio once I played a movie at night, but I couldn't be happier. A 100,000 to 1 contrast ratio is just fine. I am very picky about how well a television handles black (as well as color), and this set produces blacks even better than the HD CRT set that it is replacing. The color is amazing. Playing any Pixar film with this set in vivid mode will blow your mind (or at least your kid's minds). I haven't had the time to tweak each of the picture settings, but I have to say that right out of the box this thing is amazing. I have simply been switching between standard and vivid depending on what we are watching and I couldn't be happier with just these factory setups.
The sound from this is fine for watching anything that you don't feel like firing up your surround sound receiver for. It is very clear, and has very good range for TV speakers.
I then had to test the power consumption with my kill-a-watt plug in meter. With the set in vivid mode, with the light sensor on in a daylight lit room, the set averages just 145 watts. In a dark room it uses even less, since the sensor automatically turns down the backlight level. Only 145 watts for a 52 inch television with 120 Hz motion correction. I'm impressed!
As far as longevity goes, only time will tell, but since this basically a standard Sony LCD with just a more efficient backlight setup, it should be fine. If things do go wrong in the future, I will make sure to update this review.
Anyway, if you are on a sub $2000 budget and want a great 52-inch TV that won't jack up your electric bill, then this is the one to get (unless you want to wait yet another year).
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17 of 17 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-52VE5 52-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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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent TV Set, December 2, 2009
This review is from: Sony BRAVIA VE5-Series KDL-52VE5 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz Eco-friendly LCD HDTV (Electronics)
I bought this after a 32" Samsung stopped working with certain HDMI sources. I still love Samsung, but after that one mysteriously stopped working I decided I'd try something new. And I'm glad I did. The 52" size is really perfect for my room. It's definitely a large set, but not so large that images feel overly stretched across its surface.
Initially I was very disappointed with the image quality. The issue is that when the light sensor is turned on, the backlight slider can be set to full power, but you're only experiencing a fraction of this set's incredible brightness. Although the brightness sensor seems like a great feature, I found that overall it was too aggressive in reducing brightness, so I have to recommend that it be turned off. Ironically, it works better in well-lit rooms than dark. Once you have full control over the backlighting, this set really shines. The contrast is excellent (my camera has a contrast ratio of 2000:1, and it couldn't capture this TV's image fully). So I can believe that it has the 5000:1 on-screen contrast that Sony claims.
Personally, I don't like my image tampered with. The low setting of motionflow is okay, but the high setting is really comical and only good if you crave that look of sped up footage. The contrast enhancer I also don't find necessary, since the image has great contrast natively. However, I do like that you can create multiple image settings for each input. For example, I can quickly toggle between a game setting and a movie setting when using my PS3.
Sound quality is fair. Nothing to write home about. I certainly don't use TV speakers with an image this good, and don't recommend anyone else does either.
The energy saving features and setup of this set are really excellent. My surge protector monitors current, and this tv usually uses only 0.4 amps (~50 watts). It's mainly dependent on the backlight brightness, but even so, this is one very efficient product. I was worried that the unique backlight would tinge the color, but as far as I can tell, it's spot-on. The motion sensing really does work. I leave it set to 30 minutes and it hasn't shut off on me yet, which is good. Sony doesn't mention this much on their website, but it's also heat-sensing, which could explain it's sensitivity. I sit 13 feet away, and it detects my motion with little difficulty.
The worst part about the TV is either the remote, or the fact that the inputs are on the side. If you end up swapping inputs a lot, I suppose it's nice, but otherwise I feel it's a poor design decision. Depending on the heft of your wires, and your seating angle, you could be looking at HDMI cables out the side of your otherwise beautiful tv set. The remote is very basic. Compared to the older V-series Bravias, this TV actually has the less fancy interface (the XMB went hand in hand with a nicer remote for the 4100 series). That said, I don't feel affected by either. If the decision to drop a pointlessly shiny interface and fancier remote keeps the price down, I'm all for it. I use a Fios or universal remote almost exclusively, so I don't miss it. And since I don't use the TV to tune my programming, the XMB would be a waste. That said, this interface is fine, very logical and doesn't hide settings too deep (except motion flow). No frills, but won't disappoint either.
I wish Sony had included a little more detail in their manual, but I doubt most people even read those anymore, so I'm just nit picking. The stand is pretty good, although Sony recommends you anchor down the TV to the wall, which might be a good idea. Shame the stand doesn't swivel, as I have two common sitting positions in my room. Oh well. The important thing is that the image quality on this TV is superb, there are no oversights that ruin the usability or connectivity of the TV, it's very energy efficient, and it looks good even when off. I fully recommend this TV if you like the V-series, and are interested in saving some energy.
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