Sony Centre

[admin_exported]

I popped into the Sony Centre on High Street Kensington to get some headphones.

On display were both a 40w5710 (I think) and a Panasonic 42G10. The Sony had far deeper blacks and purer whites as well as bolder colours. The source was then changed and film credits appeared. The Sony handled them superbly, whilst the Panasonic was pretty poor with quite a bit of judder. Again, the contrast levels on the Sony put the Panasonic to shame.

One of the staff members came over and spoke of the bold colours on the Sony compared to the subdued ones on the Panasonic. I was also told of the inherent flaws in Plasma technology and that Sony no longer manufactured plasmas as a result. He spoke of screen burn being a major issue and that Plasmas had a considerably shorter life span.

I was surprised by how poorly the G10 handled motion and how shoddy the contrast levels where, given that I had seen this tv in John Lewis a few months ago and been quite impressed (bar the design of the set) with it.

I wonder if the contrast settings might have been lowered and Intelligent Frame Creation turned off?

The Sony set did look superb though. I know it was light, but the blacks were terrific and the backlight did not seem to seep through at all, and this was on the credits with an almost entirely black screen.

P.S.

I know a similar thread regarding this discussion was locked. My intention isn't to start the whole debate again nor is it to criticise Sony or Sony Centres, just to report my observations on what was a chance encounter with the Sony/Panasonic comparison phenomenon.

I have a Panasonic plasma and the blacks are very dark and the whites very white and I have no problem with judder on the credits, hence my surprise at how badly the G10 performed by comparison.

 

[Andrew Everard]

The thread was locked because it became bizarre and abusive.

 

[Anonymous]

its quite obvious the panasonic was set up too look poor , screen burn ?? hardly a big problem , but its a competitive market , i guess all is fair in love and advertising ..

 

[Anonymous]

That kind of marketing prolly works well on those who are clueless. Im betting the guys working there would not allow you to fine tune both tv's in a room that would be similar to what you would have at home :-D

Im not saying the plasma would win, but it would have been a much closer call and they would prolly win in different categories. That kind of marketing would be illegal in stores over here UNLESS the store sold both brands.

 

[Anonymous]

I guess they wouldn't, but I didn't ask. Given that I didn't ask for any help I wasn't too worried about letting him waste his time explaining the virtues of the Sony set, of which there are many, but I think asking to play around with the set with no intention to purchase a tv, would have been wrong, so I just accepted and then disregarded his comments.

As I said before, I was very impressed with the Sony set and there really would have been no need to lower the settings on the Panasonic, if indeed this is what happened, which of course I am unsure about, as it can hold its own with anything else I've seen.

 

[sonycentre]

Our sony centre does not have the panna,we just stick to selling sony products,But i know the tvs are set up "out the box" to most of the public would just take a tv and plug it in.Like if you purchased the tv from the multichains and so on.A good dealer would spend time to offer del&set-up.this is not sony slagging panasonic off just to prove that tvs will look diffrent out of the box.And i must admit when i saw this at training we were allowed to play with the settings and the panasonic did not look as good as the sony.

 

[ElectroMan]

Of course, the biggest problem with single-brand dealers is that they cannot offer direct comparisons with other brands ...

 

[staggerlee]

I've in fact been in Panasonic centres were they have sonys set up alongside the Panasonic's and surprisingly the Sony's look bad. Its not that difficult to make a particular brand if Tv look bad and interestingly all the negatives were with Sony. I would use common sense a Sony shop is not going to favour Panaosnics and vice versa.

 

[ear]

the W series has so much more black detail...today i compared extensively sonys W series and panny's and lgs plasmas, and...I dont think I would be satisfied with a plasma..

 

[Anonymous]

ÿWhat a farce both pana and sony are dissing each other with lies! ÿWe don't know how each really performs? And some Sony Centre chap say theirs are the best???? Amateurs

 

[Anonymous]

Lies and more silly school girl lies!! Reviews are fixed!

 

[Andrew Everard]

saw5suffer:Lies and more silly school girl lies!! Reviews are fixed!

Meaning what, exactly...?

 

[laserman16]

Andrew Everard:

saw5suffer:Lies and more silly school girl lies!! Reviews are fixed!

Meaning what, exactly...?

Looks like the "conspiracy theory" has raised its ugly head again.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Yup. And as usual, a blank statement with no supporting 'evidence' whatsosever.

Just not sure what it's got to do with the price of fish in the context of this thread...

 

[gpi]

Hi hmtb. IMO the Sony Centre is unlikely to show the Panasonic in a better light against their own product. It does seem rather underhand if they are deliberately 'downgrading' the Panasonic's picture quality but this should be immediately obvious to most viewers. I would tell the salesperson you have a Panasonic TV and do not experience the same poor quality their set is displaying and ask to view the on-screen menu settings for both sets so that you can make a comparison that way.

 

[Anonymous]

ear:the W series has so much more black detail...today i compared extensively sonys W series and panny's and lgs plasmas, and...I dont think I would be satisfied with a plasma..i find that a strange statement ear , sure , personal choice is fine , and maybe lcd is for you , but to say the w series has more black detail than the current plasmas , g10 , v10 etc ?? where did you compare ? was it in a bright shop ? it doesnt make sense to me ....

 

[gpi]

sonycentre:Our sony centre does not have the panna,we just stick to selling sony products,But i know the tvs are set up "out the box" to most of the public would just take a tv and plug it in.Like if you purchased the tv from the multichains and so on.A good dealer would spend time to offer del&set-up.this is not sony slagging panasonic off just to prove that tvs will look diffrent out of the box.And i must admit when i saw this at training we were allowed to play with the settings and the panasonic did not look as good as the sony.

I cannot believe for one minute you would display a TV 'out the box' with no time taken to make the TV look as good as you can. I also don't think most of the public would take a TV out of its box and just plug it in. You don't give much credit to most of the public. Most people would spend some time going through the menus to get the best possible picture. What would be the point of all the settings otherwise?

 

[sonycentre]

Round and round again.i think the tvs are both just taken out of the box,and plugged in,with no calibration to them at all.at the end of the day this will go on and on.How many people on this forum have said they have been to a multichain and commented on the lgs,samsungs,sony tvs look diffrent.If you are that concerned then ask to play with the settings,any good dealer will not deny you that,every one will have there own view on what looks good and bad to them.there will always be this hi-fi,surround sound,pcs consoles(are mine is better then yours and so on)At the end of the day its you that will be using the product.

 

[Anonymous]

i wonder then , why the salesman in the said sonycentre spoke of screen burn being a major issue ? when its generally accepted that it isnt a problem at all , whfi have often agreed , how could this knowledgable sony centre man have got that wrong information ??

 

[simonlewis]

It's sales talk, i think anybody will put down the opposition, regardless whether it's true or not.

 

[sonycentre]

gpi,it is not the case that i dont give credit to the public at all.sony tvs have a shop or home settings.Most people that buy from argos,currys comet will just put the tv in the car and just get it out of the box.not every one will have as much passion as most of us here.Look at some of the problems that happend with the freeview retune in september.belive me we had a hudge amount of phone calls,and some of them were from people who did not own sony products!!!!!!.

 

[gpi]

sonycentre:Round and round again.i think the tvs are both just taken out of the box,and plugged in,with no calibration to them at all.at the end of the day this will go on and on.How many people on this forum have said they have been to a multichain and commented on the lgs,samsungs,sony tvs look diffrent.If you are that concerned then ask to play with the settings,any good dealer will not deny you that,every one will have there own view on what looks good and bad to them.there will always be this hi-fi,surround sound,pcs consoles(are mine is better then yours and so on)At the end of the day its you that will be using the product.

If that is the case it doesn't prove the Sony set is better than the Panasonic's, IMO, as both sets have not been suitably calibrated. Anyway, I have no intention of going round and round again so I'm out. 😱) As a side note, I have a brother-in-law who has has worked for BT for his entire working life. He is very defensive of any negative comments made against BT and I can appreciate you will take the same stance with Sony; it's only a natural reaction to any criticism.

 

[Anonymous]

i seem to remember another recent thread , about sony , in which somebody said they thought the thread was also going , round and round , and , coincidently , they worked for sony too ...

at the end of the day , selling tvs puts bread on tables , just like selling anything , from cars to mars bars , comparisms , fair or not , will always be used to sell products , thats always been the way , and always will be ...

 

[Ravey Gravey Davy]

maxflinn:

at the end of the day , selling tvs puts bread on tables , just like selling anything , from cars to mars bars , comparisms , fair or not , will always be used to sell products , thats always been the way , and always will be ...

They are not the only ones at it- We went into London this weekend to see the Jersey Boys and this is what greeted us on the Piccadilly line tube advertising board.(bit fuzzy)

 

[Andrew Everard]

Lets hope they take a similarly understanding view of consumers wasting half an hour of the salesperson's time in Currys stores and then clearing off and buying the product cheaper online...