Product by Sony 
( 1 Reviews ) 
| Store | Rate | Pricing | Shipping | Buy It |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LaPlasma | 11 user 
| $3,699.00 | Instock 4 Qty Usually ships in 1-2 business days | |
| Pavilion Electronics | 8055 user 
| $3,799.00 | Instock 3 Qty FREE Shipping Usually ships in 24 hours |
See More Option shipping + price Available 2 Store
Product by MITSUBISHI 
( 2 Reviews ) 
| Store | Rate | Pricing | Shipping | Buy It |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pavilion Electronics | 8052 user
| $1,983.99 | Instock 5 Qty Usually ships in 1-2 business days | |
| Luzy's Storage Place | 1199 user
| $1,999.99 | Instock 1 Qty Usually ships in 24 hours | |
 | 0 user 
| $2,059.21 | Many Available Usually ships in 24 hours | |
| Audio Video Super Store | 0 user 
| $2,119.00 | Instock 5 Qty Usually ships in 1-2 business days | |
| Walt's TV | 170 user
| $2,199.00 | Instock 2 Qty Usually ships in 24 hours | |
| MODIA | 3115 user
| $2,199.00 | Instock 4 Qty Usually ships in 24 hours | |
| OneCall | 5869 user
| $2,199.00 | Instock 1 Qty Usually ships in 1-2 business days | |
| Video & Audio Center | 5811 user
| $2,199.00 | Instock 1 Qty Usually ships in 1-2 business days | |
| Electronics Expo | 32661 user
| $2,199.00 | Instock 10 Qty Usually ships in 1-2 business days | |
| Paul's TV | 121 user
| $2,199.99 | Instock 63 Qty Usually ships in 1-2 business days |
See More Option shipping + price Available 10 Store
I’ve had this giant Sony for about a week and for the most part am quite pleased with it. The picture is super sharp with astonishing color. For a 60″ screen, it’s very light weight and really thin. The setup and picture preferences are really easy to use and to find. There’s lots of hdmi connections on the back so you can get rid of all your composite and S cables, use hdmi cables and make all your components look the greatest they can be. I replaced a 60″ DLP tv with this so for me there is a huge drop in temperature in my TV room..this LED runs with no heat-love it.There are some really neat features, 1 is a ‘presence’ monitor. If you don’t come back soon enough to the TV, it knows it and will shut the picture off but leave the sound on. A nice feature with internet radio. I like the internet network possibilities. Pandora and Slacker and Utube are available to me from the TV and it’s remote control-nice. BUT take notice, to make the internet happen on the Sony you need either to hook up an ethernet cable from the back of your router to the back of the TV OR you need to buy, extra, the Wireless LAN Adapter and already have a wireless access point as part of your computer system.The picture is wonderful and I’m keeping it but there are some rough edges that bother me.
The onboard sound is adequate at best. There is just no room for decent speakers on such a skinny tv. Fortunately, to hook up a surround sound system to the TV is really easy. Sony also make 5.1 sound system that is wireless that is pretty good.
While, I like the internet possibilities, and particularly, being able to access Netflex for direct movie downloads, I was disappointed with Netflex and Amazon VOD services. I have a medium speed DSL and you cannot cache a video download..you have to stream it. So my DSL couldn’t keep up with the movie stream-constantly stopping and waiting for information to download. In the case of Netflex, they scan your system and check the speed and then only send the information that can be process by your system. That was a crappy picture. I can of course upgrade my DSL speed but for the addition – a month, that sort of defeats the purpose of downloads. It’s cheaper to stay with ‘snail-mail’ movies. Plus the downloaded sound was not surround sound and rather poor. Also I found the selection of available movies and programs to be a rather slim selection and that was disappointing.This is not a fault of the TV,connecting to the internet was very easy. But ,for me, the HD video services are not prime time yet. I found the radio services and Utube real nice to have and they sound great thru surround sound.
The roughest edge for me is the narrow ‘viewing angle of the screen. The viewing angle is like a wedge of fruit, coming out from the front of the TV. It can be really limiting and annoying on this set.Right in the middle of the screen-great picture..step to the side and the picture quality quickly disintegrates. My other TV is a plasma and I can virtually look at it from the edge of the screen and see a nice picture. On the Sony, if you are watching 8′-10′back, you have to watch the picture with the screen directly in front of you or else the picture color and detail will just fade out. Just like a screen on a laptop..if you tilt the lid up and down, the picture gets good then fades and then back to good. When your up close you have to be right in the sweet spot or the quality is not happening. In the store when I checked others, the further back you get, obviously the viewing angle gets wider and that color fade out for edge viewing is not so pronounced. But at my house we like the drive-in movie look so I’m maybe alittle more sensitive on this issue.
To draw this up in a sentence, great picture..stay in the sweet spot..and enjoy.
I chose this television as an exchange for a defective Sony rear projection unit, the KDS-50A2000. This was an LCoS (or in Sony parlance, SXRD) set from 2006 that, until its malfunction, provided a wonderful 1080p image with good contrast, great color, and nice detail. So I am comparing the 52EX700 to my former set.
That said, what are the criteria for a great TV? In my opinion, the criteria can be broken into 5 areas, weighted equally:
1. Black & White. How dark is the baseline black level of the set? How bright is the brightest white? What is the contrast ratio? How well do the two interact on normal viewing material?
2. Color. How accurate is the color? Is it vibrant but not cartoonish? How adjustable is it?
3. Processing. How well does the television handle fast motion? Is there a lot of video noise? Are detrimental picture “enhancements” defeatable? Is there a sharpness setting that reveals maximum detail without edge halos or other artifacts? Are there jagged edges or moire effects on challenging material?
4. Build Quality. Is the screen reflective or matte? Does the screen have uniform lighting? What sort of viewing angle does the set have? Is the cabinet sturdy? Is the remote ergonomic? How much power does the TV consume? How much heat does it generate? Is the unit reliable overall?
5. Feature Set. How many and what kinds of connections does the set have? Does the TV have internet connectivity? How comprehensive is the user menu? Is there Picture in Picture? What other sorts of convenience features are present?
I will rate this set on a ten point scale in each of the 5 categories. There are two categories specifically in picture quality, which means that the picture is the most heavily weighted feature. A perfect set (whatever that is) would rate a 50. An average store-brand cheapie set from a big box retailer would probably rate in the 30s.
**********
Black & White = 9
The 52EX700 is capable of displaying a very dark black. Blacks which are too bright can wash out an image, making it seem grayish and foggy. This is most definitely NOT the case with the EX700. Blacks are darker than my previous 2006 model television, and at least as dark as the best LCD sets from last year. Some professional reviewers (such as CNET) have said it is not as dark as some of the current competition. Frankly, I have a hard time seeing how. In daylight, the black areas of the screen are completely black. In a darkened room, if you’re watching a black screen, sure, a tiny bit of light is evident. But who besides a professional TV reviewer sits in a darkened room watching a black screen? To the human eye, on any real program material, the blacks are effectively at zero light output. On the other end of the spectrum, this set gets very bright, once you turn off the “ambient sensor” and take full control of the backlight. At half backlight, the set is quite bright. At full, it’s as eye-searing as a rear projection model with a bright lamp. Blacks remain inky and deep at any backlight setting, but of course are deeper the lower you go. Any way you slice it, this set was more than bright enough to watch during the day, and it was more than dark enough for the black level not to be an issue at night. The contrast ratio is quite high, and the image has a lot of “pop.”
Color = 9
Colors are vibrant but not cartoonish. It was easy to get them dialed in to a pleasing, natural looking palette by changing the “temperature” to its warmest setting. White Balance controls afford more chances to tweak the color. Sometimes, the darkest areas of broadcast HD seemed to tint a little green or blue, but this was likely the source, since this flaw was not evident in Blu-Ray material.
Processing = 8
Overall, processing was good. I never noticed even one instance of motion blur, whether I was watching sports, drama, or action-packed Blu-Ray movies. There is no video lag, regardless of picture settings, which is very important for video gaming (some sets make you turn off all processing in order to eliminate lag, which can lead to a diminished picture). Detail can be very strong even at lower “Sharpness” settings (mainly, sharpness puts artificial enhancements around the edges of objects on the screen, so the lower the better). This picture is a bit noisier in dark areas than my SXRD set close up, but this noise is invisible at normal viewing distances. I noticed a few jagged edges in nearly horizontal lines on Blu-Rays (grates and fences can be torture tests for digital televisions). This is a 120hz television, affording the opportunity for Sony’s “Motion Flow” setting, which interpolates frames to smooth out “juddering” on video (60hz) and film (24hz) sources, giving everything a very non-juddering smooth kind of motion. This was OK on TV programs, but was distracting on movies (which are filmed at 24fps). I generally left it off. 120hz is an even multiple of 24, however, and this set is able to decode 24fps video (such as Blu-Ray) with no artificial frame interpolation (i.e. frames created by the TV that aren’t actually in the image source) or processing. This leads to an extremely stable and sharp picture on movies without any additional and artificial “enhancement” such as Motion Flow. In the end, 60 vs. 120 vs. 240hz processing isn’t nearly as important as black level and color. Most 60hz sets look fine regardless of source, and many would say that frame interpolation modes lead to unnatural-looking images. 480p DVD looks fine. 480i broadcast standard definition performance is not going to win any awards, but it is perfectly acceptable. Just remember, garbage in=garbage out. You can only polish a turd so much, as they say. Speaking of OTA, the on-board HD tuner is very strong – it pulls in channels very stably even at 60-70% signal.
Build Quality = 7
The cabinet is understated and stylish, with a thin “metallized” gray strip below a shiny black bezel. The set is impressively thin, but not so thin that jacks are laid out in a less easy-to-access sideways orientation. I wish the input jacks had been closer to the center of the rear, but they are laid out nicely. The included stand swivels, and keeps the television stable. The screen is a matte finish (thank goodness), and does a decent job of attenuating reflections from the room. The LED edge-lighting does lead to a small bit of “flash light effect” near the edges of the screen, but it is not really noticeable on normal material, and it is not as bad as competing edge-lit sets. The “Achilles Heel” of this set is viewing angle – the image washes out a fair amount more than 45 degrees to either side of center (90 degrees total), and more than 30 degrees vertically (60 degrees total). This is, however, pretty common for LCD sets. It is neither the best or worst in this regard. There are still plenty of great seats for this set in an average living room. The remote control is average – it could have used a few more shortcut buttons, and the D-pad could have been made more ergonomic (it’s a little shallow).
Feature Set = 10
Until “Google TV” equipped sets come out next year, the EX700 is tops in terms of internet features. Netflix, Amazon VOD, and Youtube streaming are the stars, and they all work well. Picture Quality on these is decent to very good, but set-top devices perform better, since the TV seems more sensitive to connection speed. Entering your login info for these services lets you access their respective queues, right on the TV. A plethora of other, smaller internet features offers podcasts, videos, music, and other things. The haphazard organization of these is not ideal, however, and typing in search queries with the remote is cumbersome. Also extremely impressive is the implementation of TV Guide for over-the-air HD signals. The TV downloaded listings based on Zip Code, and only displayed a schedule for channels I had selected as “Shown.” The user menu is modeled after the XMB menu of the PS3 – both a blessing and a curse, because so much information is contained in it, one can easily get lost. A “Favorites” button lets you bookmark favored inputs, channels, or internet features. The VGA PC input works perfectly, and the image is automatically scaled to fit the screen perfectly, with no overscan or loss of fidelity with text. Power saving is another big feather in this set’s cap – the LED light source is already very efficient, generating almost no heat and using about half of what a normal CCFL LCD set does, but you can also shave power use further with the “Eco settings,” and the “Presence Sensor,” which turns off the screen (but keeps the audio on) when you leave the room. The only feature that really fails to impress is Picture-in-Picture, as it is limited to PCs (which must always be the main screen, and there is no swapping), broadcast TV, and component input devices (like older DVD players). It is by no means the full-featured and flexible PIP that sets used to have, and is only marginally useful.
A note on 3-D: This set is not 3-D ready. I, however, am of the opinion that 3-D in the home is a flash in the pan, and will always be, until consumers are not required to buy 0 glasses for each family member in order to view it. Also, there is currently no media to play on such a set. Therefore, I will not dock points for lacking this “feature.”
*******
All told, this set rates a 43 on my scale of 50. While this might sound like it’s low or disappointing, it isn’t. My dad has a Samsung UN55B8000, a very comparable edge-lit LED set, which performs similarly, but offers fewer features. I would rate that set 9/9/8/8/7, for a total of 41. My 50A2000, a rear projection SXRD set, would rate 9/10/9/5/6, for a 39 (the 5 is for its unreliability and the irritation of replacing lamps). The Insignia set I helped my grandmother purchase for her kitchen would rate 7/6/6/8/6 for a 33. I imagine the absolute premium today (which I haven’t seen) wouldn’t go much above 46 or 47. So anything over 40 is very likely a solid all-around performer with good features.
Thus, I rate this a 5-star set on Amazon’s scale, especially given its price point in the current marketplace. You’re getting a large, efficient LED edge-lit set with top-flight internet features and very good picture performance for under k. I am thrilled with the performance this set offers and consider it an upgrade in nearly every way over my previous 2006-model set (with the exception of viewing angles). It should be on the short list of anyone searching for a high-quality, full-featured set that can handle both home theater and HD cable/broadcast television chores. It may not be at the top of the roost this year, but for the money it is probably as good as anything out there.
Given the CNET review of this set, I was not expecting to like it as much as I did, and I was prepared for some compromises. Well, I guess pleasant surprises come in slim packages. This is an uncompromisingly good television with only a few minor flaws, most of which are endemic to LCD televisions. Its greatest strengths are its robust online offerings and its extremely punchy contrast ratio.
Pros
Getting a matte screen was the top consideration for me, as I live in a room with intense sunlight. If you are putting the TVin a bright room, it’s one of the better options I found at this price point. There is excellent color accuracy. Greens are actually natural green, not neon as they appear on other brands. Very good black levels. I think the HD content is incredible. The Motionflow setting (120hz) is great for sports, but turn it off for movies and most other content. Excellent looking TV design. The ultra thin screen is striking. The automatic ambient light adjustment is a nice feature. The internet content is decent – particularly Netflix and Amazon on Demand. Be aware that not every movie in the Netflix catalogue is downloadable, and also be aware that only some of the content for Netflix and Amazon is in HD (this will probably improve with time, though). You can hook the TV up with an ethernet cable, or go wireless with a USB adapter (though it costs another to purchase from Sony). This was easy to set up. The menu is easy to navigate. I like the various screen modes for different content. There are a thousand ways to customize the picture to your liking. Unlike some of the Sony models in recent years, the stand does swivel. Very energy efficient.
Cons:
Contrast does diminish a bit when you are off center, but no more than other LCD’s I have seen. It would be nice to have a separate Motionflow button on the remote for ease of access. The sound is thin, although you can improve it with some tweaks. If you are going to use it with a home theater, it doesn’t matter. If you aren’t, you might find it substandard. The Presence Sensor is a bit gimmicky – you won’t care that you have this 10 minutes after you set it up. There is some noticeable judder on certain content, but I set the TV to the CineMotion Auto 2 setting in Picture Adjust – it seemed to smooth this out a lot. I can’t discern much benefit from the LED edge lighting, other than the fact that it allows for the thin design.
The TV isn’t perfect, but overall, I’m pleased with my purchase.
Germany
England
France
