Sony Bravia KDL52W5500U 52-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD TV with Freeview and 100Hz Motionflow

Posted in Sony, TVs-500-2000. Written by admin on October 15th, 2009

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Sony Bravia KDL52W5500U 52-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD TV with Freeview and 100Hz Motionflow

Manufacturer: Sony
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Product Description

Quite simply innovation at its best: This TV is a keeper.The W5500 delivers the next generation in picture excellence with unrivalled depth, richness and clarity. What's more, you can connect to your favourite digital devices for total entertainment.

Product Details

Motionflow 100hz with Image Blur reduction
Bravia Engine 3
Dynamic contrast ratio of 100000:1
DLNA networking & USB Media player
Power consumption (home): 131W

Video Reviews

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Customer Reviews

stunning

Review Date: June 9, 2009

Reviewer: Daniel, Cambridge, UK

I have been waiting for Sony's new model for weeks and am not disappointed.

Even turned off it looks great with its piano black finish but when turned on the picture is truly stunning. The images are clean and crisp and the colour is extremely vibrant. The 100000:1 contrast ratio makes most of the other sets I considered look shabby in comparison. It seems to handle fast moving images with ease without much of the noticeable juddering that I have seen on most TVs. I have seen no sign of the uneven back lighting problems that have been discussed with the smaller version of this model.

I intend to use my surround sound system for most applications but the quality of the TV's own sound is much better than you might expect and as is perfectly adequate for general viewing purposes.

I bought this TV with the Sony BDP-S550 and, as I have said, the results are extremely impressive. However I am also very impressed with the picture from the digital receiver. I had expected it be stretched and grainy but this is just not the case. I fully intended to make sky hd my next purchase but am now seriously reconsidering if I need this.

Setup is extremely easy and is completed with a few button presses. It did take about 20 minutes to download all the tv guide but I don't know if that is normal or not. This model has the stand pre attached so it is just a question of lifting off the box and placing the TV on the cabinet.

My one and only gripe would be that even though I spent nearly £1900 on a tv and blue ray player I still had to purchase a separate HDMI cable as none was provided. Very tight Sony!

In summary, an awesome bit of kit and definitely the best purchase I have made in years.

What a stonker

Review Date: June 11, 2009

Reviewer: J. Cobb, UK

I also have placed an order for this Sony set and have received it. I also like the other reviewer placed an order for the Sony BDP-S550 Blu-Ray drive, as it was version 2.0.
I have had a few LCD's in the past, but nothing above 40" and I was a little weary of picture degredation on a bigger screen. How wrong could I be it is gobsmacking. Also like the review above I can not see anything on my set that warants people going on about the levels of black. No problems here at all.
I really love the fact that it's DLNA and I can use my media server and other gadgets with this LCD. Applicast is also great as I have my RSS feeds come through, and it looks like these will be updated and new stuff come via updates as it is connected to the internet.

9.5/10 overall. Sound could just be slightly better although the one I have is connected to a 7.1 reciever.

So good I bought the company ...

Review Date: February 1, 2010

Reviewer: Brian Lee, Warton, Preston UK

... well - another Sony 52W5500 TV anyway!

I originally bought a Sony KDL-52W5500U TV in May 2009 for my Lounge which is reasonably large (25 ft long), anything smaller than a 50" is too small for the room IMHO (the wife disagrees but what's new?). I bought that one from my local Sony Centre as they were actually cheaper than Amazon - for at least a week - just as the 52W5500 was released. In fact I was informed I had only the second set in the country!

Wow - to say I was knocked out by the picture is putting it mildly - it is absolutely superb when playing a decent Blu-Ray disc. I had Planet Earth and South Pacific (the recent documentary not the film!) on (ad nauseam according to the wife) and they were both (to use a tired word which nontheless is still approriate) stunning. I was even pleasantly surprised by the built-in Freeview tuner's picture - depending on the source of the programme it can be very good too - but if you get closer than about 12 feet you can notice digital artefacts on some programmes depending on their age and the care taken in production. If this is a problem there are several noise reduction settings or even resolution reduction options if required.

Sound is not particularly good - in common with most LCD TV's. It is by no means the worst I have heard, but it is not brilliant. However, hook up a decent A-V amp with Dolby Digital / DTS capability and 5 or 7 small speakers plus a sub-woofer and wow - you have sound that really matches the picture! IMHO it is also essential to have an A-V amp with good old Dolby Pro-Logic capability as well to produce rear (surround) channels from the ordinary stereo output from the Freeview tuner. Otherwise you will only have surround from DVD and Blu-Ray discs (or Sky plus) whereas Dolby Pro-Logic produces quite acceptable surround sound by decoding the stereo outputs intelligently. Most modern stereo programme tracks are mixed with Dolby Pro-Logic information encoded in.

One niggle was the Programme Guide (EPG). The selected default was some third-party guide which apparently took hours to download initially and then apparently bombards you with adverts from then on. Blow this thought I (after waiting over 30 minutes for the download) - from experience with earlier Sony TV's there is nothing wrong with the standard Sony EPG. You have to know where to go on the menus to select it though (Settings - Digital Setup - Technical Setup - Programme Guide) ...

Having done that - it's as good as I had hoped. Even better - you can use it as a 52" Photo Display screen if you want via the inbuilt USB connection. Predictably - these look great! Plus there are loadsa other goodies but I haven't tried many of these.

(Cautionary note - correspondence in another forum indicates that this TV is not ideal for gamers - there is lag on the HDMI inputs - presumably caused by the picture enhancement technology used in this TV - essential for producing a good picture on such a large screen with such a detailed resolution. This lag renders some fast games unplayable - apparently even when (as I suggested) you turn off the 100Hz motionflow. This same lag can cause echo effects if you have two TV's (e.g. in different rooms) tuned to the same channel, one of them this set and the other a cheaper TV with less resolution enhancement processing etc. You can hear an echo effect between the TV's. This is not actually a problem (unless you have both TV's in the same room!) just a bit disconcerting to begin with. I suggested to the gamer that the lag was non-existent if you use SCART inputs - he was not impressed as he had a PS3!)

Anyway ...

Hmm ... thought I - this TV is really good ...

Hmm ...

Now then ...

I had a Sony KDL40W4500 in my Hi-Fi room which I thought was great. I bought this from Amazon in December 2008 based largely on good reviews - it was voted not just "TV of the Year 2008" by "What Video and Home Cinema" magazine but "Product of the Year 2008" which included any Audio-Visual product of any genre. So - thought I - it should be good! And it was. Very good - and particularly when viewing Blu-ray.

Hmm ... but - after seeing the 52" TV in the lounge with Blu-Ray - the 40" TV didn't quite cut it.

So - I found a willing customer for the 40" (I didn't let him see the 52" initially) and ordered a second 52W5500 for my Hi-Fi room. And this time Amazon (October 2009) were about £[] cheaper than Sony Centre! It arrived quickly with courteous and friendly van drivers wearing white gloves (as Amazon had promised - mind you the drivers didn't seem to know anything about that!) who carried it upstairs for me no problem. (Some delivery drivers refuse to cart heavy stuff upstairs.)

Now in the smaller room (viewing distance 9 feet) the artefacts on some external inputs (e.g. from VHS tape) are a bit more noticeable but Freeview is usually perfectly OK and, of course, Blu-Ray is extra stunning!

(Another cautionary note - being a bit bigger than the 40" set and being on a cabinet in front of the window - it makes the room dark! But who cares?)

I now have two ideal set-ups with my two 52W5500's, two Sony Home Cinema sound systems (with 200 watt sub-woofer and 5 peanut-shaped speakers each) and two Yamaha A-V 5.1 Digital Surround amps. Currently my favourite demo disc is Baraka on Blu-Ray - watch this on a Sony KDL-52W5500 if you want to understand the true meaning of the word "stunning"!

Manufacturer: Sony
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