Read my review of the KDL-40EX503 and decide for yourself....
Got mine early May 2010. What can I say? This would
be my 5th SONY Bravia LCD. 40"V, 40"W, 40"X, 40"Z amd finally the 40"EX.
Which of those does not have a backlight issue? Sadly the 40"V, which
is also the cheapest.
My 40"EX has backlight bleed/clouding in both top corners. Motionflow
is good, but with panning scenes its just simply not as what hi-fi puts
it. Its a very mediocre television. Nothing about it made me excited.
It is just another lcd TV and here I would like to start a bit of a
debate:
I have literally read thousands of television reviews in the past two
years. After distilling most of them, I can honestly say, that there is
not an lcd TV that does not have some sort of screen uniformity issues.
Some of us, swith on the TV, watch a program or movie and thats it.
Others, (including myself) tend to marvel at the brightness and
contrast, the colors and the black levels. After all, we have waited
years to be treated to such audio visual splendour in our own homes. And
lets face it, these TV's are not cheap.
So why do I feel that we are being 'experimented' on? Yeah ok, the
screen is not perfectly uniform so what? For me its a big deal. So ccfl
backlights does not work too well. So lets try LED. Oh my goodness LED
has its own issues so lets do local dimming. Oh my word, after producing
100000000 models our local dimming is causing ghosting all over the
place.
Frankly for the price we pay for some of this technology, it should
be VERY GOOD. I dont care about the sound. Sound is very relative to the
listener. But most of us can distinguish between black and white, or
blue and red, if you follow.
I dont really care if my screen is not pitch black or the so called
'inky' black. As long as there is no information on the screen which is
not coming from the source (TV broadcast, DVD, Blu Ray). Yes, Im talking
about those white patches becoming every so bloody irritating when you
are watching any source whith black bars at the top and bottom.
I feel this is all pathetic. And the major culprit here I feel is
SONY. As you may have noted in my opening paragraph, I have not changed
my brand - even though I am having a serious outburst here. But why can
the guys and gals at SONY, not try to make the screen uniform. For an
entire year, What Hi-Fi has been harping on and on about the
'inconsistent' backlight issues.
Lets face it, we cannot simply becuase of one reviewed sample, and
another over the moon customer with no backlight issues, suddenly assume
all is well. Because clearly it isnt.
I feel that LCD is rotten technology that should be placed in a tube
and shot into space. Why dont we all give plasma a shot?
LCD TV's are like a bad hi-fi system. At first, we are amazed by the
sparkling treble and thumping bass - as we are with the LCD brightness
and the big sizes. Then after a while, it grows tiresome. We reduce the
backlight to '0', we push buttons all night long, we calibrate, and
whatnot. But you are stuck with something that claims to be more than it
is and what it can deliver.
I challenge SONY to change my mind about all of this.
Concluding: I dont brag about my TV. When I watch with someone else, I
wonder if they are also quietly spotting the white strobe lights in the
corners but keep their mouths shut out of politeness. Its an
embarrasment. The no of times and the money I have spend in transporting
the models back and forth from the shop to find the perfect one has all
been completely fruitless.
FEDUPWITHSONYUNTILFURTHERNOTICE
My comments really shouldn't put you off the 503 as in this case i have had only one replacement. I should also say that the first 2 TV's i had were Samsung LE40B650's and they were TERRIBLE!! Pixels always alight, backlight problems and built seemingly of paper on the rear panel (connecting any source pushed the entire rear panel into the screen to an alarming depth even when careful) and the aerial didn't even fit on the connection on the TV as it was too big....i could go on!
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