Customer Reviews:
 What a stunner !! April 29, 2007
migo1759 (Hertfordshire, UK)
36 out of 36 found this review helpful
Had this TV for 2 weeks now and I still can't believe just how fantastic this set is. It was so easy to set up - took max 5 mins, with a very easy to use on-screen guide. It tuned itself to all the available digital and analogue stations. I receive terrestrial digital via Freeview, using a 30 year old aerial in my loft and the picture is superb.
The set itself is well built and is aesthetically well designed.
I also treated myself to the Sony 160Gb HDD DVD and connected them with just the one HDMI cable. So simple and stunning results.
Couldn't be happier.
Sony KDL32V2500 - 32" Widescreen Bravia July 21, 2007
rocco (UK)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
I make no apologies to being brand-loyal to Sony. I love their products and this tv is no exception. I've actually owned this tv since it first came out 18months ago and payed considerably more than is advertised by Amazon. This tv is the business and you'll find no better, I don't think, for the price (my next choice would be the Samsung with the glossy black finish). I think there has been some minor cosmetic changes but it's the same tv I bought last year. Picture quality on the built in freeview is very good. I've also seen this tv with a HD picture and it was lovely, vibrant and crisp.
The only negative is only one HDMI input. Sony must have known the HD and HDMI was the future, but why only 1 socket (hid behind a removable panel) - or at least it was then. However, that may have been one of the changes since I bought mine. If you're going to by an LCD in this price range buy Sony. If you're going to buy a Sony make sure it's a KDL-V model.
 Great picture and easy to set up. October 30, 2007
Julikat (Surrey, UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've had this TV for just one week. I ordered it on a Thursday and it arrived the very next day. Thank you Amazon!!
Briefly, the TV settings are set for viewing in a showroom, so brightness and contrast are on maximum.
I was really shocked by how awful it looked when I first switched it on - thankfully, all it needed was a huge tweak of the settings.
If anyone wants to improve the picture quality as an immediate 'quick fix', I've set mine like this:
FIRST: Select 'Tools' on the remote control, and choose Power Saving. Next, make sure it is set to 'low' or else you won't be able to adjust
the backlight (crucial for making the black parts look 'black')
NEXT: Go to 'Menu' and scroll up to 'Settings' and select. This puts you in 'Picture Mode'. From there, try the following adjustments. This is only intended as a quick fix while you work out the menus for yourself.
Backlight - Minimum
Contrast - 80
Brightness - 40
Colour - 40
Colour temperature - Cool
Sharpness - 7
Noise reduction - Off
Also, once you're in this menu, take a look at the top where it says: "Target Inputs" - you'll see an option for 'Viewing Only' and in the dropdown menu the other option is 'All'.
Don't select 'All'. The beauty of selecting 'viewing only' is that once you get the picture as you want it, it will be 'set' for that particular input.
When you put a DVD or tape in, you'll need to choose your picture settings for that input - and once again they'll be saved.
If you select 'All' - it means the picture settings you used for the TV input will be applied to every other input - and as you'll see, one picture setting doesn't suit each input. Once you've adjusted the picture settings - you won't have to do it again.
The only reason I knocked one star off is because my old 28" Sony Trinitron had a much fuller sound. The Bravia has smaller speakers and sound quite tinny compared to the old TV. There are sound settings to play around with though, and overall, it's good enough and the fantastic picture is well worth such a minor niggle.
One other thing, I bought the Thor Scart to Scart 1.5m from Amazon as well for £17.99. It really makes a difference to the colour reproduction and 'ghosting' which can occur with inferior cables. I have to say the picture was good without the Thor lead, but I wanted to get the best out of the TV and thought £17.99 wasn't a bad price to pay for the improvement it's made.
 Primitive EPG October 10, 2007
Ian Howarth (UK)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Well, one of the better LCD screens (with nice sound), but still well short of CRT picture quality. What really bugs me, though, is the truly awful Electronic Programme Guide (common to all Bravias?), which is just a grid of times. No option to limit the listing to "favourites" (or even "TV only" - you have to wade through reams of radio channels), no option to get information on individual programmes, and if a programme is less than about ten minutes long you can't even see its full name from the EPG. Oh, and when you select on-screen information for current programmes, this completely blocks out the top half of the picture; was ANY thought given to this? I invariably end up picking up the signal through my Humax PVR, rather than the Sony built-in decoder; the picture is slightly degraded, but the interface is far better.
Why you shouldn't buy a large TV online. January 12, 2008
Steve (Huddersfield, U.K.)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The picture quality is good for an LCD TV. Don't use the factory settings, look online and you will find how it should be set up for home use. There is 'motion blur', a slight effect on moving objects or when the camera pans, but that's common on most LCD sets. Some viewers won't even notice it. But it's still quite not up to the old CRT standards of sharpness, especially on moving objects. The sound is not so good. As others have remarked, there is very little bass. I am sure Sony could have engineered better sound quality if they had wanted; small speakers can, surprisingly, give good lower frequencies.
But I can live with that.
What I can't live with is a vertical red line on screen 5 cm from the left hand side. I notified Amazon, who said to send it back. As they no longer stock this TV, they would give a full refund as it's only a couple of months old and otherwise as new. A company called HDNL was going to collect it. But that means, at short notice, getting a day off work. For me, that's not easy, and after some delays I'm going to have to contact Amazon to re-re-arrange collection. I'm now booking a number of days off work. Because of course I've also get to get a replacement TV. And do you know what these courier companies are like? I was given a two and a half hour time-slot (fixed by the courier, not me). Great..
Why can't Amazon send an engineer out to just repair it? I already know it's the digital tuner in the TV that's at fault. Well, I think you'll find all online companies will want you to send back the TV if it develops a fault. And currently (read other reviews) Sony at least don't seem to be too good on reliability (I've bought Sony for 30 years and this is the first of their TV's to give a problem. Standards falling to keep prices down?).
Anyway, the outcome is , when eventually I get the TV back to Amazon, and get a refund, I'm going to a local TV shop which stocks some superb Panasonic Plasma TVs (still the best). It will mean paying about £150 more, but I think it's worth it. A five year guarantee. Service by their own engineer, in your own house. And a loan telly if it comes to that.
And no waiting around for bloody couriers.
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