Sony W4500 - dare I buy one?!

[admin_exported]

After reading What HiFi's extremely positive review of the Sony 40W4500 and also the 46W4500, I was close to buying one. However, clearly there are problems with some batches of this set. Please could someone tell me whether these problems affect the 40" W4500 or do they only affect the 46" version? And please could sum up the problems encountered by people as the other post has over 500 replies and I simply don't have time (or the stamina) to read through all of them!

To put it simply, should I be wary of buying this tv? And if so then how wary should I be? Or should I just go right out and buy one?

Nice1 very much as always. Peace out.

 

[michael.seigal]

I have the 40w4500 and its great! I dont have any problems (apart from setting the colours right but thats my fault not the TVs lol) On Blueray and HD its stunning and I have no clouding. I would recommend this tv!

 

[Anonymous]

Check my summary of the 40W4500 on the following thread:

http://whathifi.com/forums/post/161658.aspx

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Gansta,

First of all - the set is a brilliant set in terms of what it can do. The problems have been that many people on the internet have complained about 'clouding'. This is uneven patches of light (from the backlight) breaking through the blacks whilst TV is projecting a dark image.

It is really only viewable at night time when the lights are off and depends on individual severity, it also depends on the scene being played on the TV/dvd/blue ray etc. Since many people like to watch films and TV in the dark to capture that cinema film feel (I'm guessing if you are into TVs enough to spend £1000) you may also be one too.

Mine is not too bad at all compared to some people, but it is there and i notice it (it does keep catching your eye and all you can think is, "i wish that wasnt there") and it ruins things a little. My old series 5 samsung didnt have this trouble. Samsung are now on series 9 - to put that into perspective.

Some have it quite bad on here though, and it is still there after 1 or 2 replacements. It may or may not be a bad "batch". On the forum, some similarly affected tvs have come from different manufacturing locations, which would suggest there is other problems there too.

My Advice would be to make sure that the seller will exchange it directly (ie no engineers or sony ref numbers), if the issue arises.

Personally, if i am offered a replacement 40w4500 or a refund/exchange, due to lack of confidence as i read some peoples troubles i would have to opt for the later. I dont want a second tv with the clouding any worse. Which is a real shame as it is such a superb set when you see it without noticing the defect.

 

[Big Aura]

I have the 40" w4500 and it's pretty impressive on SD and really good with HD (I have a freesat box; I never knew people on the tellybox had such bad skin...!).

The clouding issue hasn't been apparent on my set, and I've turned the backlight right down to near zero to give blacker blacks. It's not a plasma in that regard, but lighter, cleaner and a sharper picture all-round compared to the Panasonic competitor. The only screen I'd swap it for would be the Pioneer, but my other half won't have a "50" monster" dominating the room. Buy it from John Lewis and make sure to point out (asap) that your contract is with them, not Sony, if it doesn't live up to expectations - then let them fight whatever battle they want with Sony.

 

[Anonymous]

yeah, i have read that John Lewis are one of the more easier retailers to deal with on this issue!

 

[Anonymous]

Just to add to my earlier posts. I think this TV is superb. With a good quality source the detail, colour, contrast, blacks etc are superb. With a poorer feed they are obviously less so. A good example is the BBC news where the on air pictures are excellent, whereas when the program cuts to a previously recorded interview or piece of news the quality can vary a lot, depending on the recording. Also, when upscaling DVD's the blacks can also vary alot. I watch an 8 year old DVD (Fith Element) and the space shots are lovely, whereas with the I am Legend DVD, when Will Smith is in the pitch black nest, the blacks are worse and slightly noisy (Sony S550 BD player doing the upscaling). Compare this to the What Hifi comment that with the same scene on Blu Ray the blacks are superb. Again, with Digital Terestrial TV the HD content is awsome and also the SD but they vary again between programs (from awesome to excellent). I have also noticed the "four torches in the corners" effect to a small degree and have noted that this becomes worse when the source is worse? Quality source, no torches. All this when viewing in a darkened room (just lamps). I also thought that I may have had a clouding issue, but on closer inspection noted it was noise and only appeared on poorer sources. So my conclusion is (any actual faults aside) that I do think this TV suffers from a couple of things: 1. The TV is probably too revealing of poor sources. 2. The backlighting increases with poor sources(??). Hope this helps anyone and comments would be appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the replies. So am I right in thinking that the clouding issue is not just a fault on a small number of sets, but it's pretty much a feature of the W4500 range? Because I'm the kind of person who notices and gets annoyed by faults on products - it really winds me up the fact that it's like a lottery when you buy a product from Sony or another big company and you could likely end up with a dud product. Cheers.

 

[Anonymous]

Well according to Sony, its just something thats there for some people and thats that. They have released some calibration settings but thats a pretty lame answer. What if you don't want those settings...!!

The clouds also seem to appear after the set has been on for a short time about 40 mins or so....so it makes me wonder if it is in part a fault of design and under some manufacturing conditions is more prone to come about.

Its such an excellent TV that its painful to say "hold fire", but in my experience and reading this forum, It might be worth waiting to see what else comes of the issue and if more people post without the defect.

 

[professorhat]

Gotta agree with Sebastian on this - out of all the affected posters so far, he's definitely dealing out a lot of common sense advice. The other option is to notify the dealer you purchase from before you buy you are aware of this issue and make an arrangement that if it affects you, you can swap. Overall, the best advice seems to be to buy from a trusted dealer rather than the cheapest price you can find, which I think is just good advice in life whatever you're buying!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi all, got my 40W4500 yesterday and its brilliant...awesome picture quality (DVB-S) and xbox is rocking 🙂

got some very very light clouding in the corners but its not a problem cause i dont see it in normal conditions.

 

[Anonymous]

sebastian:

....so it makes me wonder if it is in part a fault of design and under some manufacturing conditions is more prone to come about.

Yup, since Sony's response, my suspicion has also been that it may be an early stage problem - possibly design fault. Afterall, initial reviews for the Z4500 are promising in that it does not suffer from backlight bleed - am I right in thinking that the actual LCD panels used for the W4500 and Z4500 are exactly the same?

 

[Anonymous]

It isnt a faulty batch and sony know all about backlight bleed have done for years...my 40w2000 had it years ago and there was the same amount of shouting then and funnily enough the same responce from sony.

Although saying that after a while i forgot about my set bleeding as i hardly ever noticed it and enjoyed my otherwise great tv!!! But it kinda oneof those things that lcd's in general suffer from

 

[Anonymous]

Ive had mine for 5 days now and i find myself watching more tv and playing my Wii, i thought i would stick in my pen drive to see what photos look like and wow, my cameras only a 4m pixel but jesus the picture on screen is awesome, i also have what looks like 4 torches in the corners but you only notice it if you know its there.

 

[farawaydave]

is all this just acase of "if theres a fault mine must have it too" my pal just paid £1500 for 52w4500 and i must say its awesome.we spent a good hour trying to find the "torches" and eventually you convince yourself that the're there. we then went to two sony shops and examined all the 4500s on display, perfect. whf have had 3 if im right all perfect Clare even got her dad one.the rival mag tested the 52 in this months mag and it gets 5/5. I dont see a big problem.you can convince yourself of anything.in medical terms its called the placebo effect. if i didnt already have a 50in panny i would deffinately consider the sony but thats my opinion for what its worth!

 

[Anonymous]

The rival mag did indeed the sony five stars but also said their review set had backlight bleed

 

[Anonymous]

so why give it 5/5? not logical

 

[Anonymous]

Becouse is quite common on LCD tv's and didint think important enough to dock points