» Sony Bravia W-Series KDL-52W4100 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV

Sony Bravia W-Series KDL-52W4100 52-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent - but with a couple quirks
Comment: Bought this from Amazon, best price by $400+ from local stores and lower then other sites, and the Amazon reputation!!! White Glove delivery was 4 days earlier then anticipated and was flawless. They brought it in and set it up, turned it on and left...

Over all I LOVE this television. My 'quirks' later are minor compared to the overall excellence of this.

Picture is sharp, bright, and clear, even with sporting events. Sound is excellent, glare (I have two large windows in the room) is low compared to a glossy TV.

I have played one DVD and watched cable television from it. The cable sourced unencrypted 720 and 1080 HD broadcasts that fill the screen are AWSOME! The others are better then my old 37" as they equate to about a 42" but I feel cheated because they don't fill the screen without losing the edges of the picture. This is a transmission issue not a TV issue.

I bought a Bravia audio system at the same time and while it took me a little while to find all the settings in both devices once you do it works well. When you switch between functions (TV or Video) the TV and Audio system decide who's speakers to use and switch between them. You can override that but the initial setting work.

Now the quirks....
- I did a full auto search then digital channels only, some digital channels that I can direct access do not get enabled in the search. I can access them if I enter them in the TV Guide (which works well) but if I manually scan up or down it skips them.

- Then I noticed that some channels that were locked out arbitrarily come back to live. When I go to them I get no signal. Occasionally "can't decode signal" which is an active encrypted channel, but I locked these out manually.

- The PIP is frustratingly limited as you can only use it with the PC input. I often used PIP when watching sporting events and another show.

- The PAP (picture and picture) is also arbitrarily limited as you can only use the TV input as the sub screen, then another input as the main screen. You can switch back and forth between them and get audio from the live one but not maximize then switch. I had an older tube TV that allowed PIP and then another that allowed 4x PIP and you could switch between andy of them.

- The buttons to get the PIP and PAP are convoluted. There is not a single key to get them, takes about 3 to 4 key strokes.

- The remote is out of ergonomic balance. The control buttons in the middle do nothing during normal TV operation and the channel and volume are all the way down the bottom putting it off balance when using it. They could have se the control buttons at the top to mimic the volume and channel.

- Manual is good at best. Some of the steps to reach a goal are missing so the last step like `and push the control button' are there but how to get to that control button is left to the user to figure out.

- No Coaxial audio out, there is Optical and HDMI.

- TV Guide is very good. It also takes a litte 'smarts' to set up. One thing missing I had with my old Guide + Gold was the ability to schedule shows so the channel changed automatically or if you had shut it off, the TV would turn back on when the show started. The ability to schedule would have been nice.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A complete waste of 2 thousand dollars
Comment: We bought this Sony Bravia 1 1/2 years ago from Amazon. It had a 5 star rating, everyone loves it. Last week we turned on the tv and all we saw were vertical lines. My husband did a search on problems with this model and found multiple message boards of people having the same complaint. No picture, just vertical lines. Everyone wrote in that the cost of the repairs were actually more expensive than what they paid for the tv. We brought ours to a Sony repairman, and was told the TV's lcd board was shot. The cost for the part from Sony is $1,800.00. Plus $200 for the repairman. After only 1.5 years of having the tv, the cost for the repairs were exactly what we spent to buy it. The repairman says this happens very frequently with Sony products now, and Sony doesn't budge to help with the cost, they just don't care. My husband called Sony himself to complain about it and told them we will never buy another Sony product again. What a disappointment. Please do yourself a favor and do some serious research before spending this much money on a Sony TV. Amazon reviews are great, but what you need to research is what happens to the products after having them for over one year. Sony used to put out a great television, but now they are pathetic.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Happy
Comment: I've had this TV for about a month and couldn't be happier. (I'm also happy to be done with comparing 30 different models of big screen LCDs every time I go into a store!)

I debated between this and the Samsung LN52A650. Side by side the Samsung's picture seemed brighter in the showroom. But then I decided that it was almost tooo bright. The other major factor was that the Samsung A650 has a shiny screen like the plasmas do even tho it's an LCD. I'm so glad I didn't go with that as our viewing room has a window at the back and there's plenty of reflections on the screen in any black areas of the picture.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: OH MY GOD, 1000 STARS SO FAR
Comment: Just got this TV but after all the TVs Ive had this picture quality is truly AWSOME. Just wrote a review for my Sharp I like to but this one has a digital picture of HD quality and even my DVDs Look SO much better it is truly UNREAL. I love Amazon but didnt purchase either thru here.

BUY THE EXTENDED WARANTY!!!

Let me give you a little background on my TVs Ive had 5 brands of TV, in the last 4 years all HD. First was a off brand big tube very heavy TV I think the brand was Dish. It blew up in 3 months. Then I got a 52" JVC rear projection that was ok but had to replace the bulb in a little over a year, then a loose connection cousing 3 service calls and finally a replacement, it lasted 3 years. Was a good TV but the picture was fading cant say I wasnt a little happy it got replaced. While we had the JVC we got a 52" Panasonic Plasma again picture was ok, but it ran very very HOT,it was like having the oven on in the bedroom, It went out in about 6 months and after the service tech couldnt repair it We got the 46" LCD Sharp, even this one developed a line in the picture after about 3 months, contacted Sharp and after Emailing a Picture of the line in the picture they immediately sent out another TV and picked up the old one they were very nice and very easy to deal with, and the replacement has worked great for almost 2 years now. For a less $$$ amount I would recommend the Sharp Aquos LCD, It was the best till I got my Sony. But my best recommendation is always buy the extended warrantys there worth it.

I dont do gaming or hook up my computer ect to my TV just my satelite and DVD, however it has 4 HD connections, monitor connection, in and out you know the rest, pretty much everything if your in to that you know what to look for.

All I can say again and again the picture quality is far beyond any TV Ive owned, it runs nice and cool, very light for its size and HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.

One more thing I will never buy Rear projection or Plasma again. LCD ROCKS!!!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: No TV is perfect, but this is close, great value for 120hz refresh
Comment: I debated long and hard on the Samsung 750 vs the Sony. The Samsung had more features, 10 bit, internet built in, but in the end I went with Sony. I really didnt like the red trim on the Samsung, and i've never had a Samsung. I've had 5 Sony TV's, including 2 XBRs, and have NEVER had a problem. Never. They are predictably great at rendering a great image...
The one thing about the Sony is that it is SO good, it makes some non-blu ray movies played through a Blu-Ray device (PS3 in my case) that they look like a video. This occurred w Star Wars Phantom Menace, and it looked horrible, like they shot it in a home. It seriously looked like a video! I thought this might be an anomoly, so I tried Planet of the Apes (non blu-ray) and it was not as bad, but similar. That said, I've not made any adjustments to the tv settings (Picture etc..) I just went with it right out of the box. So, it may just be me ... We'll see. I'll report back. But overall: LOVE the TV. Amazing picture.

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