Help! Is it worth buying a Sony TV?

[Oldboy]

I have been looking to upgrade my ageing Sony kdl 32P3020 lcd tv with a bigger full hd set with as many toys as my budget will allow (i have a budget of about £800), I have been looking at the Sony kdl 37w5500 as recommended in What Hi-Fi but have seen ALOT of people having backlighting issues with this set (backlight bleeding evident during normal viewing) even though the review in What Hi-Fi encountered no such issues! It seems the more i dig the more the problem is rife throughout alot of Sonys current range so how much of a gamble is it buying a Sony TV at the moment? Afterall i don't want to hand over £800 and it dosen't even work correctly! Would really appreciate some suggestions for an alternative TV, but i've been so happy with my old 32inch that i had my heart set on a Sony but now i'm open to any suggestions.....

 

[professorhat]

Best suggestion would be to buy from a dealer you trust with an agreement that, if you are in any way unhappy with the backlight, you can return it for a replacement or a refund. Any dealer who's confident in their product would be happy to arrange for this I'm sure.

 

[Oldboy]

Really? I thought that would be the last thing a dealer would agree to! I had thought about it but dismissed it out of hand as thought i would have no hope of securing that agreement but know i think i may give it a go....i'm guessing i should stick to the usual suspects, Superfi, Sevenoaks etc? BTW i need to thank you for the advice you put up about upgrading your PS3 hard drive...i used that to upgrade mine to 320gb and was SO simple so thanks alot for the clear info much appreciated!! So nice to have more storage!

 

[kjelly]

http://community.whathifi.com/forums/t/290651.aspx

 

[professorhat]

Oldboy:BTW i need to thank you for the advice you put up about upgrading your PS3 hard drive...i used that to upgrade mine to 320gb and was SO simple so thanks alot for the clear info much appreciated!! So nice to have more storage!

No problem - glad it's still getting some use!

 

[Oldboy]

Terrible!!! The only consolation is that you are far from the only person this has happened to as ALL forums are awash with this complaint, Sony's reply to the many complaints is this and i quote ' the backlighting issue is one inherant to the lcd technology and NOT a fault with the TV'. I'm pretty sure most people will think the same as me when reading that and smell a rather large rat!!! I'm shocked your problem is getting worse though...how bad has it got?

 

[Oldboy]

Think you may be surprised...friend of mine put me on to it! I didn't think there would be anything about it on these forums how wrong was i!!

 

[Clare Newsome]

We've been covering the issue for some time - both in reviews and these Forums.

What concerns us most at the moment is that last year we didn't see a single set with clouding, whereas this year the majority of Sony sets we've had in for review have had backlight issues. The 2009 37in we had in was clear, but this just highlights the inconsistency - and suggests, if anything, that quality control is getting worse.

It's costing Sony dearly - where there are no issues, the Bravias are typically class-leading for performance, particularly when it comes to motion, which they've nailed better than any rival.

 

[Oldboy]

Thanks Clare! Would you say therefore that the chances of a Sony set coming out on top in the forthcoming 40-42inch test is unlikely? Also would you consider marking down any Sony set at the moment just because of the known clouding issues even if a review sample suffered from no such issues as the case has been with the kdl37w5500 recently? There seems to be at best a 50/50 chance of getting a set free from problems at the moment and to me that is unacceptable, i feel for all those people who have a set with issues and don't want to add myself to that group.

 

[Clare Newsome]

You'll be able to read the results of our latest 40-42in TV Supertest in our next issue - with subscribers from this Friday; in shops by next Wednesday.

We now mention Sony backlight issues in every review, though if the set we've tested doesn't suffer any, it get reviewed as such - we can only review what we see. However, by making people aware of the issues for every set, they can make up their own mind whether it's something they want to take into consideration when buying (eg getting retailer agreement that they can return the set if there are problems).

 

[Oldboy]

Again many thanks Clare! That's fair enough afterall you can only review what is infront of you but on the question of getting a retailer agreement is this common practice? I would like to look into this more as was only on this thread that it was suggested but i'm not sure who to approach as i've no idea how common this is....or give up on Sony and look for an alternative.

 

[professorhat]

I would say you need to take it to your retailer on the basis of customer satisfaction. Any retailer worth his salt thrives on this - back in the day, they used to say a happy customer tells 3 people of his experience whereas an unhappy customer tells 10. I don't think these numbers have been adjusted to take into account the internet, but I'm pretty sure the ratio stays the same. Thus, a good retailer who wants to ensure he has happy customers should be happy to oblige. You like the Sony TVs, so I'd say ask first - the worst the retailer can say is no - if they do, politely decline the purchase and then you could come back here for some other ideas.