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Sony tvs
Shelle
04-09-2010
I have decided to buy a new tv and after looking initially on the internet to prepare what I was looking for I went into town today to have a look.

At this point I am only considering buying a Sony Bravia tv.

After looking in Fenwicks, John Lewis, Sony and Richer Sounds I have sort of narrowed it down to perhaps 2 models but am getting confused looking at the specifications. I know there are quite a few of you on this forum who are technically minded (and have indeed saved my life quite a few times previously).

I cant decide what size to go for, went with the idea of 37" but then discovered a 40" size tv that was cheaper than the 37"

The two models I compared price wise were EX403 and EX503. Comparing them on Sonys website, the only differences that I can see is that the 503 model is slightly heavier, has the swivel feature and also has the motionflow 1000hz.

Price wise, the 503 as a 37" is £660 at Richer Sounds whilst the 40" is £715 again at Richer Sounds (incl paying for 5 yr guarantee).

The 403 model is the one that throws me as price wise the 37" is £599 at Fenwicks whilst the 40" is £549 again at Fenwicks. So in this instance it seems the 40" is cheaper for some reason?

They are both Full HD and it also says Friewview HD built in. Does this mean I dont need a separate HD box or recorder as you do if the tv was HD ready?

Also although the tvs are wifi ready I would need to buy a separate dongle (£69.95) which I am prepared to do, but am unclear just what this allows me then to access on the tv?

The sales staff were not very helpful which is crazy as they then dont get a sale

Can you advise if I am looking in the right direction as to what I have thought so far? I am prepared to go up to £700 (or thereabouts) for the right one.

I did see other models namely EX43 and EX401 but dont know if they are just making an already muddy picture worse

Any thoughts whatsoever would be most appreciated
drumtochty
04-09-2010
Shelle

The EX43B has a built in Bluray drive and an HD Tuner.

The EX401 does not have an HD tuner or an Internet connection so forget that.

The other two machines differ in that the EX403 has a 50hz refresh and the EX503 has a 100 Hz refresh. I could not tell any big difference when I checked them out. Some others may disagree.

There is a RJ45 network connector on the sets that can be connected to the net via a wire.

Or you can spend £70 on a USB stick that fits in the USB socket on the sets and that will connect you to the net assuming you have a wireless router.

Use of the Internet connection.

At the moment you can use the demand five catch up. You can use Youtube, love film and various other online services.

There is now a placeholder in the online menu on the TV's that says the BBC I player is coming soon.

I believe they also use the net connection to update the firmware on the TV as that is available online before it is downloaded off air but I may be mistaken here.

Assuming your transmitter is broadcasting HD and you have to check that, no you do not have to buy a HD setop box or recorder to view HD but if you want to record off air HD programmes you will require an HD recorder at circa £300.

Eddie
Shelle
04-09-2010
Thanks for that reply, very helpful.

I have checked and my transmitter appears to have HD broadcasts (Pontop Pike) so I assume that is ok from that point of view.

I had originally intended to buy a cable and connect my laptop to the tv (one of the reasons I am renewing tv is the connections are so out of date on current tv!) as I hadnt realised wifi connections on tv existed. We do have a wireless router so that option is there, although am wondering what difference there is between hooking up laptop and puting a dongle into tv?

Why could the sales staff not tell me any of this???

Thanks again.
drumtochty
04-09-2010
To get a reliable Net connection connect the TV to the router.

If possible use a network cable direct to the router. If not buy the wireless usb stick to connect the TV to the router.

eddie
Shelle
05-09-2010
Is it worth spending extra to have a bluray and wifi enabled?

Am willing to spend a bit more but only if the extra warrants the extra benefits gained.

Will have another look at the sony webste to see what that throws into the mix
Nigel Goodwin
05-09-2010
Originally Posted by Shelle:
“Is it worth spending extra to have a bluray and wifi enabled?”

Depends on you, but having WiFi built-in the TV avoids using a dongle, and works fine in my experience - I've installed a number of such sets and setup the WiFi for them.

BluRay is something you can add later, if you feel the need.
CPN
05-09-2010
Hi Shelle

We got an EX503 (32") earlier this year and have been thoroughly satisfied with it. I also went for the Sony Wireless Dongle at the same time and it has been very reliable in operation for Internet access. If your TV is close to your Router then obviously it would be preferable to use a wired connection if you can. The Wireless works great on ours with no stutters or anything like that.

It's worth pointing out at this juncture that although the EX503 only has one USB port, you can actually use a USB 2.0 hub on it also. This means that you can "have your cake and eat it too" in that you can create extra ports so that you can plug the Wireless Dongle into this hub and continue to use a USB key disc for occasional viewing of other content without having to unplug anything. Unfortunately, I have found that the USB port will not support an external 2.5" portable USB HDD on its own without externally powering it in some way since the port itself will not support the extra power requirement of the HDD; which is a pity. (obviously, an externally powered USB hub would also solve this problem)

Someone earlier talked about getting updates from the Internet across the network connection and I can confirm that this does indeed happen and pretty seamlessly too. In fact, if you didn't make a point to actually check version numbers of the firmware, you'd probably never realise that an update had taken place at all. Of course, sometimes an update manifests itself more obviously by adding things to menus and the latest, PKG4.068EUL-0107 which came on 24/08 or soon after, is a case in point because it was it that added the BBC iPlayer (coming soon) icon to the Internet TV page prompts. We also use the LoveFilm service direct on the TV and it works great.

Lastly, there is a third option when it comes to connecting iTVs. Powerline adaptors which create a network connection back to your router over your house mains cabling and plug in to the TV as a normal wired connection. I had previously tried these last year and to be honest, at that time, they were not very good in terms of the speed of transfer that they could muster. I tried 3 different brands at that time but they all failed when it came to streaming AV content. I even tried the newer Belkin 200 AV (I think it was called) when it first came out about 6 months ago but again, wasn't impressed.

Just last week, I spotted these D-Link adaptors on Amazon and as I'd previously had good results with D-Link's products, I decided to give them a try for my main Sony TV, Humax HDR and Sony Blu-Ray Player stack; all of which are currently plugged in to a 4 port Ethernet switch and wired back to my Router. Basically I replaced the single network cable from the switch to the router with a pair of these plugs and the result has been excellent. BBC iPlayer on the HDR plays at full speed at the high definition setting, for example. I'm currently seeing a (slowest) real link speed of 82Mbps back from the TVStack switch to the router and that is more than adequate for anything like AV content. I would thoroughly recommend them as a way of getting rid of untidy cabling and a reliable connection into the bargain. Easy to install and setup.

Hope this helps with your decision making...

Colin
Shelle
05-09-2010
Well I went back into Newcastle today armed with my new knowledge

Came back home having purchased a 40" EX503 for £699 from Fenwicks with a blu ray player thrown in for free as I found that John Lewis and Sony were doing that so I got a price match. I wanted it from Fenwicks as they had 12 months int free credit (which I didnt necessarily need but hey the money is better earning me interest than them!) and laso they had cheaper HD scart cable and delivery/installation charges. I had not intended to buy today but that offer at John Lewis and Sony expired today and thus Fenwicks would only price match today so the pressure was on

I didnt buy the dongle, as it (I thought anyhow) was expensive at fenwicks but will look to get that soon elsewhere.

Thanks Colin for that info regarding the wifi stuff, very helpful.

Also thanks to Nigel and Drumtochy for help - it is good to know that there are still people on here who help out others
drumtochty
05-09-2010
Sorry to be picky but you will not get HD via a Scart cable only an HDMI.

You meant an HDMI cable I assume.

eddie
CPN
05-09-2010
Originally Posted by drumtochty:
“Sorry to be picky but you will not get HD via a Scart cable only an HDMI.

You meant an HDMI cable I assume.

eddie”

(yes, I was hoping that too...)
Shelle
06-09-2010
No worries, I did mean that

Panic over
Fred Smith
06-09-2010
Originally Posted by Shelle:
“Came back home having purchased a 40" EX503 for £699 from Fenwicks with a blu ray player thrown in for free as I found that John Lewis and Sony were doing that so I got a price match. I wanted it from Fenwicks as they had 12 months int free credit (which I didnt necessarily need but hey the money is better earning me interest than them!)”

JL offer a free five year warranty on their TV's what do Fenwicks offer?
Nigel Goodwin
06-09-2010
Originally Posted by Fred Smith:
“JL offer a free five year warranty on their TV's what do Fenwicks offer?”

Sony come with a 5 year manufacturers warranty if you buy from a dealer.
Shelle
06-09-2010
Fenwicks also give you 5 years free guarantee.

It used to be that only JL and Fenwicks did that, but this time round I discovered that Sony and Marks and Spencer also offer that - I guess they have had to move with the times.

Comet/Currys etc are behind the times as they were charging £229.99 for 5 year guarantee and their price for the same tv and blu ray was £750, but then you had to add the 5 year guarantee on top, so it was a no brainer.

Fenwicks had the edge by also offering 12 months interest free for purchases over £500.
Winston_1
06-09-2010
Originally Posted by Shelle:
“Comet/Currys etc are behind the times as they were charging £229.99 for 5 year guarantee and their price for the same tv and blu ray was £750, but then you had to add the 5 year guarantee on top, so it was a no brainer.
”

It's worse than that as the first year guarantee is free so they are charging £229-99 for the additional 4 years. In fact it is possible with a fight to get the first 2 years free under EC rules so your £229-99 buys only 3 years.
Nigel Goodwin
06-09-2010
Originally Posted by Winston_1:
“In fact it is possible with a fight to get the first 2 years free under EC rules”

Which doesn't apply in the UK anyway.
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