Sony Bravia M-Series KDL-32M3000 32-Inch 720p LCD HDTV Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I am very happy with this purchase. The TV has very good looks, sleek and discreet. The equivalent Samsung and Sharp had frames too shiny and looked cheap. The picture is great. SD cable looks very good. Audio is very good. Best of all is Sony reliability. My previous experience was the Samsung 30" SlimFit. That had bending issues at first and was replaced. Then it refused to turn on, and customer service was rude and unhelpful. The Slimfit has major reliability problems. I am very happy with this Sony that replaced it.
Adding to this review after 2 weeks of extensive use. I compared this TV to Sony's 37" KDF-37H1000 LCD projection TV. This 32" LCD TV won out because:
1. Sharper picture on HD signal - the KDF-37H1000 is a little more blurry. (Note the KDF-37H1000 picture is better than no-name brand LCDs). The Sony LCDs had better focus.
1a. LCD TVs have a brighter picture. The Sony TVs have 3 picture settings: i) Vivid (very bright, what you see in Best Buy, ii) Standard (less bright, what looks better at home), and iii) Cinema (softer, more reds and earth shades). On the KDF-37H1000, you have to set it to vivid to watch even at home. On LCDs, you have to reduce brightness becuase they're brighter pictures.
2. SD cable on LCD TV is much much better than on KDF-37H1000.
2a. Motion was much cleaner on the LCD TVs. Sports blurred on the KDF-37H1000. I watched a bit of "8 below" Disney's Alaskan adventure with lots of white dogs and snow, and it looked bad, blurry and soft on the KDF-37H1000.
3. LCD TV has much less depth. Looks sleeker. I also tapped my fingers and felt around the frames on the 2 TVs. The LCDs were firmer and fit better. The KDF-37H1000 frame was looser and cheaper materials like a toy.
4. Maintainence costs - the KDF-37H1000 will require $200-400 bulb replacement in 1.5 years. The sales people said this could even happen in less than a year due to bulb malfunctions, just like in a floor lamp or any lamp. Note, Sony is phasing out LCD projection TVs in favor of SXRD, Hence, parts for the KDF-37H1000 will become harder to find. The KDF-37H1000 lamps are already $400 (Sony parts are always costlier - look at their digital camera memories, compared to Canon's).
4a. The complex combination of chips, mirrors, projectors, lamps on a projection TV is more prone to break than the simpler LCD technology. I am an electrical engineer and design integrated circuits for a living.
5. The KDF-37H1000 generates more heat than LCD, but much less than plasma.
6. The KDF-37H1000 has moving parts, such as the cooling fan, etc., All of these are more prone to malfunction.
7. Consumer reports rates the LCD TV reliability higher than projection TVs after looking at consumer repair data. Projection TVs had higher rates of return and repair.
7a. The folks at Best Buy told me they saw higher rates of returns due to reliability on the KDF-37H1000 than on Sony's LCDs.
8. The LCD TV has higher pixel count 1368 X 768, compared to the KDF-37H1000's 1200 X 720. This leads to sharper picture and better focus.
9. Screen door effect on KDF-37H1000. When objects on screen moved, their individual pixels did not move as a group. The picture was constantly dissolving and reforming. Faces had spots that appeared and dissappeared.
10. 2-3 years from now, I can put the LCD TV on a dresser in my bedroom as a 2nd TV, or put it in my study as a computer monitor. Cannot do this with the KDF-37H1000.
11. Moving - when we move houses, the LCD TV will ride easily in the seat in my Honda Civic. Cannot do this with the KDF-37H1000, which will have to go in the back of the truck with my wife.
The KDF-37H1000 was better than the Sony LCD TV in terms of:
1. Sound was much better becuase larger speakers and probably more pwerful amp.
2. A few more features and options that I will not use.
3. Larger screen. However, you must sit further back to avoid seeing spots and motion blurs.
Note the KDF-37H1000 is an excellent TV and very reliable compared to no-name brands. Definitely more reliable than the Samsung Slimfit TVs. We just came out of a bruising warranty battle with Samsung, and their reliability and customer service is pretty bad. The KDF-37H1000 does look very good compared to Samsung or Westinghouse LCD TVs, which had cheap and shiny frames. However, the KDF-37H1000 is just not as good as Sony's 32" LCD TVs. If you want a bigger screen than Sony's LCDs, go 46" or 55" projection. The SXRD projection TVs had better motion. If you're thinking of 37", get an LCD.
One thing the KDF-37H1000 has going for it is Sony reliability. I work for IBM and we design integrated circuits for Sony's products. They require a 100 defective parts per million quality level from us. This is very good in the industry.

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Samsung LN37C550 37-Inch 1080p 60 Hz LCD HDTV (Black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Beautiful looking set, great picture. BUT - steady buzz from back of set. Not very loud, but clearly shouldn't be there. When sitting in front of the TV with it turned on, you really can't notice. But if you turn volume down, or mute, it is clearly noticable. Called customer service - and she was clearly someone with barebones training. Most questions I asked her, she put me on hold and obviously checked with someone else. Anyway, bottom line is she came back to the phone and told me that 'that's normal; that's the way the set sounds'. I voiced my concern about this answer, but clearly was not going to get any further on this phonecall. Hung up. To be sure I wasn't being too picky, I had my wife and a brother come into den, where this TV is, and they both agreed that this was, in fact, NOT normal - at all! Called Samsung back, gave them history, and told the guy NOT to tell me this was 'normal'. He didn't. Instead he dispatched local repair shop. Several days later service guy arrived, and took set apart. He figured out which module was buzzing, and ordered one. Two weeks later he returned with an entire front panel of the TV. This includes new screen, frame, most of the guts (including buzzing component), less one board, and power supply. Samsung told him to order it that way, not just the "failing" component (?) Almost a new TV entirely! He put it all together, and guess what? The noise was still there, but now louder than ever! That was a few days ago, and here I sit with my now louder buzzing TV, that I can now hear, sitting in front of set with normal volume on. And Samsung says this is Normal !! Grrrrrrrrrr. The service guy now plans on ordering a new power supply, and replacing that. If that doesn't work, he thinks a new set entirely is in order! Except for 1 board where all the jack connectors are, the metal back panel, and the pedestal, isn't that what I already have?? ! To be continued....

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Make the move to the smoothest LCD action ever. Samsung's LN37C550 LCD HDTV offers incredible color and rich clarity, all on a 37-inch screen. Add the power of Samsung's Wide Color Enhancer, for a picture that optimizes a given color's hue, resulting in more natural rendering of colors and lifelike action. Samsung HDTVs are also ENERGY STAR compliant, helping the environment by using less energy while saving you money.

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