Review by Adam J. Murphy for Sony BRAVIA EX 500 Series 40-Inch LCD TV, Black
Rating:
Let’s start off by saying that this is my 4th Sony TV purchase but only my 1st Sony LCD experience. I entered the LCD era years ago with Budget brands such as ViewSonic and Westinghouse and was very satisfied. Yet I’m always looking to upgrade. This 40″ set replaced a perfectly working 36″ Sony 720p CRT monster (219lbs), only because the entertainment center started to crumble around the mass. I still have all 3 of my old Sony CRT TV’s and will never get rid of them.

So, I’ve always lusted after a Sony LCD but the prices were always a tad too high. Then came along this 40″ Bravia and the time and Price was right. Shipping was quick, I was always in touch with the shipping company. The TV arrived 4 days later, box in perfect condition, not a scratch on it. That is where the honeymoon ended. After switching out TV’s, putting in the new entertainment center, transfering all of my components over and hooking everything up per the manuals instructions….It was time to power it on. It turned on fine, started the initial set up….Then turned off all by itself and proceded to do so 3 more times then just stayed off while blinking a series of red lights below. I unplugged, reconected with other cables just incase. Same problem, off then on then off 3 more times then the same lights. I instantly had flashbacks of my 7 Xbox’s going through the dreaded RROD (Read Ring of Death).

Called Sony support. Once they ran through the trouble shooting they asked for a time sequence on the lights and then quickly put me on hold. Then the agent said very stern, unplug the TV and you will need to do an exchange due to an internal error. The TV is broken! Essentially DOA! What was supposed to be a quick exchange according to Sony turned into a 2 week turn around. Some say I should have just returned it through amazon, I tried but the TV wasn’t in stock, so I would have had to wait for the credit to my account before purchasing a new brand and that would have taken 2 weeks acording to the amazon rep. So I waited for a tracking number from Sony. Then came the news of a 3 week arrival time. I almost lost it, but as luck would have it, it shipped early and arrived yesterday, 9 days from the initial call to Sony support.

The replacement works great, the set up went through 100%. All of my components works great. The Picture is amazing. The menu is easy to use.

I do have one set of complaints with reguards to the amount of inputs and this is where it looses a star for me. Being an older gamer that has a young child. I like to have the option of hooking up my older systems for him to learn on (N64, SNES, his Vtech) but in this age of HDMI, TV makers are putting allot less standard inputs. I had no problem hooking up the PS3 and Cable box via HDMI, but things got a little interesting when it came time to hook up the Wii, original Xbox and Bose 321 system via component…there are only 2 component inputs. No prob, I’ll just throw the Bose onto a S-video because we only use the Bose for my Son’s movies to help limit disc time on the PS3…..but there is No S-video. Ok, I’ll just dump that onto a standard RCA…I can’t because my Son’s V-Tech has taken the only standard RCA. Solution was to give the Bose back it’s component slot, Split the wires for the Xbox and Wii. I did not want to get into the whole thing of using a System selector as I have done in the past…too much clutter. I have a feeling I may have to go to a system selector if we decide to hook up the N64 and SNES for him.

Reguardless of my problems with the 1st TV, I am still a fan of the Sony brand. These DOA LCD’s seem to happen with every brand and it was just luck of the draw. If you search online, there are plenty of stories of DOA units right out of the box. Sony support gets a C+ only in the fact that they got a replacement out to me in 9 days instead of the stated 21 days. They need to work on their customer support especially compared to Amazon where the Amazon reps bend over backwards to help the customer.

Review by Leonard C. Moses II for Sony BRAVIA EX 500 Series 40-Inch LCD TV, Black
Rating:
I bought this a couple months ago as a first flat screen tv. I paid the price that Amazon is selling it for now which is 790 dollars. I am pleased with it. When I first got the tv there were times when the picture wasn’t perfect for what was playing. During the Where the Wild Things Are Bluray the browns didn’t come through just right. So I changed a few settings and yes… then it was perfect. I use this tv for a pc monitor, for browsing the internet, for netflix watch it now, for blurays, and for upconverted dvd’s. I bought a Sony bdp-s360 and am pleased with the quality of the upconverted dvd’s on this screen as well. Sometimes I can’t tell the difference between Blurays and dvd’s. Animated films seem much clearer on Bluray. I play games like Titan Quest on this pc and they have never looked better. I’m looking forward to playing a good mmo on it. Great tv. Good price. This one should last for years. I found no other screen I liked as much as this for the price.