Update on my wows with the Sony 46EX503, a happy ending ?

[admin_exported]

An update on this thread http://community.whathifi.com/forums/t/464197.aspx

I thought I'd start a new thread, rather than just adding on to the original, as what happened raises some questions.

So, John Lewis delivered a replacement Sony 46EX503 this week (top marks to them) and I'm pleased to say that it works, that is to say it works in accordance to all the reviews that have been written for the 46EX503 so far, it is a cracking good picture, and if you are lucky to get one that works first time, then you will not be disappointed. This proves that the first set was indeed faulty "out of the box".

So to some questions/discussion points. I am really disappointed that a Sony product failed straight out of the box, and reading this and other forums, especially in relation to TV's, it seems that I was not alone in this happening lately. Is Sony quality not what it used to be ? This will be the 6th (I think) sony TV that I have purchased and the first that has failed out the box, and it has left a bit of a sour taste, especially as I have a hunch that it was probably shipped in that state from the factory. I have some experience of this (electronic manufacturing in "low cost regions") and when we moved a manufacturing plant from the UK to a low cost region the out of the box fail rate doubled, as did the annual fail rate. It took a lot of hard work to get it back down.

Is it as good as the 40W5810 that I still have ? Hmmm, good question, and I'm not too sure if I can answer yes yet. Of course it is larger (46 as opposed to 40) and that may be tricking the eye, but I have the luxury of being able to do a side by side comparison, and the jury is out at the moment.

Now to a question to the What Hi-Fi folks, and one that I know has been asked many many times before, but hey, I'm a newbie here, so cut me some slack ..... I've now set up the 46EX503 with what my eye thinks is a reasonable picture, with the aid of the THX calibration stuff that appears on some discs, and my wife, and my son but what I'd really like to know is what the reviewers used as their review settings ? Did the reviewers actualy record the settings, or is there some other reason that review sample calibration, or picture, settings are not divulged ? I ask this as it would be a good starting point to get going for us. It may also be interesting to see how far away others are from the review settings (bearing in mind that the human eye varies from individual to indiviual).

Anyway, I'm now a happy bunny, for the time being at least

 

[bigboss]

Just one failed TV out of the box doesn't make a company's quality control bad. Every manufacturer has such failed units. But the proportion is quite low.

With regards to TV settings, WHF will not divulge information to you. The viewing environment in WHF test room & also in other forum members' houses will be different to yours. However, some other members who have your TV model may come along & post their settings.

 

[Oldboy]

Hello,

Top marks to John Lewis for delivering a replacement tv! I'm afraid i will have to wholeheartedly agree with you that the Sony QC department is getting slack of late, count yourself lucky you only had 1 faulty tv straight out of the box...i had 6 faulty Sony LCD tv's straight out of the box in a row, 3 of those were the 40W5500 and the other 3 were the 40ex503 which is regarded as a cracking tv on these very pages.

The first 2 W5500 tv's i had suffered from the dreaded backlight problems of that model and the 3rd although slightly better still had the backlight bleed but this time it had a mind of it's own and would turn itself off when it felt like it. I then got the 40ex503 and the 1st of those i received had the exact backlight problem i had on the W5500, the 2nd had no backlight issues but several always on (constantly white) pixels and a strange line vertically down the screen which was visible across all sources. Finally the 3rd ex503 arrived and that suffered from picture cut out when the picture would be replaced with a purple background upon which black and white vertical lines were added, seemingly whenever the tv felt like it!

Now, sorry Big Boss but that is quite a failure rate for 1 customer to go through no? I understand your point on failure rates but i have suspected for some time now that when it comes to tv's something within Sony is very wrong, given my experience. I gave up in the end and bought a Panny 42G20 and in stark contrast it's been perfect since i bought it, perhaps highlighting further the problems within Sony? I was releived that some manufacturers still know how to make a great tv, lol.

Good to hear the replacement 46EX503 is working but i would have thought it would leave the 5810 in the shade when it came to picture performance, very surprised that in a side by side comparison it's as close as you say between the two. Here's hoping you get many happy years of viewing from your new tv

 

[bigboss]

So you actually persisted with Sony through 6 TV failures??

You must be the unluckiest Sony customer in the world!!

Sorry, but such instances are extremely rare (of what you went through). There is no evidence that the proportion of faulty Sony TVs is more than any other TV manufacturer. In fact, it's the contrary (US data):

 

[Anonymous]

As you state the figures above are from the USA, where I doubt though that the appliances are assembled in Slovakia, as are the ones sold in the UK. Through my own experience different factory's / assembly plants can have very different quality metrics, even though they could be using the same sub-assemblies and most likely the same processes. So you cannot take one regions results and state that they are indicitive of other regions that will be supplied from a different plant.

 

[bigboss]

ISTE: As you state the figures above are from the USA, where I doubt though that the appliances are assembled in Slovakia, as are the ones sold in the UK. Through my own experience different factory's / assembly plants can have very different quality metrics, even though they could be using the same sub-assemblies and most likely the same processes. So you cannot take one regions results and state that they are indicitive of other regions that will be supplied from a different plant.

Point taken, but do we have any evidence that Sony TVs in UK fail more frequently than TVs of other brands? Has anyone done a reliability survey in UK?

I'm no big fan of LCD TVs & have no affection towards Sony TVs; just balancing out the allegations.

 

[Anonymous]

On a positive note we have just finished watching a number of Blu-Rays (Sony S760) on the 46EX503 and we are warming to this TV

We watched the last 30 minutes of Transformers 2, the desert blasting scenes, and I must admit we were impressed, very impressed

SGU, which looked awful with the faulty set, is now stunning, even in the dark and moody Destiny scenes.

All this means is that we are going to have to watch everything we have all over again

With Blu-Ray as the source, this set does indeed put the 40W5810 that we have in the shade, but the 40W5810 actually has a better Freeview picture / tuner, just by a small margin, but you can see the difference. Not enough to say that the 46EX503 is not a good buy (faulty first one aside) as Hi-Def sources just look stunning now.

From being well peeved a week or so ago, I and the family are somewhat happier tonight

 

[Clare Newsome]

Glad you got a great set in the end

Re the Freeview, I suspect this is what I referred to in the previous thread:

Obviously if you're sitting the same distance from a 46in set than from
a 40in set, you could expect to see more flaws in upscaled SD material
(that's the same for just about any large-screen Full HD set)

Roll on full Freeview HD deployment - and more content on it!

 

[Anonymous]

Clare Newsome:

Roll on full Freeview HD deployment - and more content on it!

Absolutely, the sooner the better. June 2011 for us, and it is not as if we live out in the sticks, we live in the capital of Scotland (although some would say that is the sticks