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Sony KDL32W4000
gillw
21-08-2008
Thinking of getting a Sony KDL32W4000 mainly for use with Sky HD. Also hoping to watch F1 in HD if the beeb provide it next year!

Does anyone have this TV and if so, what's it like?

Any opinions appreciated.
Nigel Goodwin
21-08-2008
Originally Posted by gillw:
“Thinking of getting a Sony KDL32W4000 mainly for use with Sky HD. Also hoping to watch F1 in HD if the beeb provide it next year!

Does anyone have this TV and if so, what's it like?

Any opinions appreciated.”

Don't have one, but I've delivered and installed them - it's a cracking TV, as are all the W series.
player1
21-08-2008
Great choice of TV...stylish LCD and stunning picture. I have the 40W4000 and am delighted with it.,...I watch Sky HD and am looking forward to buying the new PS3 to watch 1080p Blu-Ray.

Check out the W4000 owners thread over on avforums...
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showt...36056&page=262


or the HDTV review ( of the 40W4000 ) at ....
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Sony-KDL40W4000/
Orbitalzone
21-08-2008
I have the 32W4000 and am very very happy with it... I spent months and months looking, trying out various models and so on....I decided between a Panasonic or Sony and the Sony seemed to have a few extras such as easy ability to alter backlight control unlike the Panasonic (well you can but via service mode)

SD via Sky looks pretty good once you've setup things (such as set sensible colour, contrast, backlight, sharpness (to low) colour temp and such like....you'll get pretty good standard definition programmes looking pretty darned good for an LCD.

I can't get freeview so can't comment on that.

SkyHD looks very good.... nice and sharp, minimal noise and great colours. Blu ray looks very good as well....

I've connected a PC via HDMI and it can run at full 1920x1080p (I use a DVI to HDMI lead)

Sound quality is pretty good for such small speakers and about a million times better than many many others! cough * Samsung*

I got mine from a Sony Centre with 5 year guarantee and option to buy a Sony Blu ray player for £50, which I did although it's a basic Sony model that is also the world's slowest DVD/Blu ray to powerup (you'll probably see my grumbles at the AVForums!, but 120 seconds from power up before the thing can display a menu! sheeesh!)

Would certainly recommend the TV and flog the Blu ray on Ebay for £120 as I will do!
Nigel Goodwin
22-08-2008
Originally Posted by Orbitalzone:
“I've connected a PC via HDMI and it can run at full 1920x1080p (I use a DVI to HDMI lead)”

If you've got a VGA lead, try that - I've found VGA gives better results on all the sets I've tried (most of them Sony).
Orbitalzone
22-08-2008
Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin:
“If you've got a VGA lead, try that - I've found VGA gives better results on all the sets I've tried (most of them Sony).”

I did try it but found it wouldn't go any higher than 1280x1024 and it looked about the same as HDMI, albeit HDMI offered resolutions from vga right up to 1920x1080

The results were pretty good but to be honest it's almost too high resolution!

THe user guide says the TV only goes up to 1280x1024 on HDMI or VGA.

Another quirk, HDMI 3 wouldn't work on the PC although is fine for Blu ray at 1080p (on the PC it didn't display any setting although the same pc was fine on the HDMI 1 and 2 sockets!
Nigel Goodwin
22-08-2008
Originally Posted by Orbitalzone:
“I did try it but found it wouldn't go any higher than 1280x1024 and it looked about the same as HDMI, albeit HDMI offered resolutions from vga right up to 1920x1080”

Interesting, on all the ones I've tried the computer 'plug and played' to the resolution of the screen, and you get pixel for pixel results. All HDMI solutions seemed to scale it whatever resolution you set the PC to.

If I get a chance, I'll try it on a W4000.
Orbitalzone
22-08-2008
Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin:
“Interesting, on all the ones I've tried the computer 'plug and played' to the resolution of the screen, and you get pixel for pixel results. All HDMI solutions seemed to scale it whatever resolution you set the PC to.

If I get a chance, I'll try it on a W4000.”

I found that via HDMI it initially scaled any setting and looked a bit wishy washy.

However, on my Ati graphics card (2600XT) in the Ati settings there's an option called 'scalling option' which I set to maximum (seemed the wrong thing to do) then I set the TV's HDMI menu setting to 'full pixel' it did the 1:1 pixel mapping perfectly.

I then turned sharpness right down as that also made it look overly sharp.

Overall it worked very well for a screen that isn't really a PC monitor.

As for VGA it wouldn't do any 1:1 mapping and all settings looked scaled and fuzzy... maybe I didn't set the TV correctly but I tried most things I could think of.
It's only me
24-08-2008
Originally Posted by player1:
“Great choice of TV...stylish LCD and stunning picture. I have the 40W4000 and am delighted with it.,...I watch Sky HD and am looking forward to buying the new PS3 to watch 1080p Blu-Ray.

Check out the W4000 owners thread over on avforums...
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showt...36056&page=262


or the HDTV review ( of the 40W4000 ) at ....
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Sony-KDL40W4000/”

Me to, great set, very pleased with my purchase, comes very highly recomened by me.great with the ps3(gaming/bluray)
love the picture framing system,just plug in a usb memstick with your favourite photos or art work
They had a good deal at John lewis the other week where the set was selling for £999 and you get a free Blu-Ray player
gillw
24-08-2008
Thanks for all the replies. I think I am pretty much decided on getting this model. Just got to finish decorating the front room...

How does the picture frame feature work, does it animated the pics or just flick them up one by one..
Digoutyoursoul
24-08-2008
Mine works fine and my hubby watches baseball on it so he likes it 2
nancyboy
25-08-2008
When I last saw one, this TV had a shiny black screen surround, these can cause annoying reflections depending on the light conditions in your room. There are other offenders, eg Samsung, in my view this is a design fault. However ...

Some people don't even notice these reflections, but a few picky people find them incredibly annoying to the extent that they end up getting rid of the TV (usually at a substantial loss).

Apart from this issue this is a good TV, it rates highly in competitive testing though generally worse than the best Panasonics. Sound is a bit average.

The top-rated TX-32LZD80 from Panasonic is £100 cheaper, I would want to see them working side by side on a variety of sources before choosing.
It's only me
26-08-2008
Originally Posted by gillw:
“Thanks for all the replies. I think I am pretty much decided on getting this model. Just got to finish decorating the front room...

How does the picture frame feature work, does it animated the pics or just flick them up one by one..”

Just a fade in or out or a swipe!
gillw
26-08-2008
Originally Posted by nancyboy:
“.

The top-rated TX-32LZD80 from Panasonic is £100 cheaper, I would want to see them working side by side on a variety of sources before choosing.”


I've done some reading on this model and it seems to suffer from back light bleed. The problem always seems to occur at delivery and once the unit is replaced for a good set the problem doesn't return.
gillw
26-08-2008
Originally Posted by It's only me:
“Just a fade in or out or a swipe!”

Don't suppose it has the cheesy music like the Wii?
MD_Zero
27-08-2008
I "got rid" of my 40W4000 as I got a new plasma which was superior quality, the sony is now at my holiday home and is reserved for PS3/360 usage since thats what this tv does best...freeview doesnt look very good but the hd performance more than makes up for it
It's only me
27-08-2008
Originally Posted by gillw:
“Don't suppose it has the cheesy music like the Wii?”

No cheesie music
gillw
29-08-2008
What are the chances of me being able to sell my old 32" CRT?
Nigel Goodwin
29-08-2008
Originally Posted by gillw:
“What are the chances of me being able to sell my old 32" CRT?”

Depends if you can find a mug or not!

They are really of so little value now, we don't even try those that come back in, we just give them away 'as seen'.
gillw
29-08-2008
Originally Posted by Nigel Goodwin:
“Depends if you can find a mug or not!

They are really of so little value now, we don't even try those that come back in, we just give them away 'as seen'.”


I know of a local charity that may take it - but I have to pay them a tenner!
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