New TV - Sony KDL 32V4000 - Impressions soon...

[Rossco]

Hello, this part of the forum is a bit quiet these days so I thought I'd make a new thread for advice to get full attention.

It's that time of year again where all the students get their loans and bursarys and want to splash out on something, and I'm thinking of a new TV.

First I thought was 1080p, but only got room for 32" so maybe not worthwhile? I do use my screen as my main PC monitor so a 1080p set would have been nice for doing uni work, working in 3D applications on super high res would be sweet but possibly not worth the price alone considering the screen size.

So maybe best to just go for the old 1366 x 768 resolution again as most are these days.

Ideally I would only spend ?400 which would probably kick the ass out of my LG, one of the first HD Ready sets from years back. But wouldn't mind going as high as ?600 if it is a real belter and worth the extra cash.

I've had a look around various retailers and review sites but really not sure what to go for, been out the loop with TV's for a while now, don't follow it that much anymore but two I found to be the best in this price range were these:

Sony KDL 32V4000

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-KDL-32V4000-Widescreen-Bravia-Freeview/dp/B0018PKEIY

and

Panasonic TX-32LXD85

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-TX-32LXD85-Widescreen-Ready-Freeview/dp/B0015M0P84

Now obviously the Panasonic seems the better TV from most reviews and it looks gorgeous I think but not sure if it's worth the extra ?130 seeing as the Sony is so cheap at only ?370!

So any advice would be most excellent if anyones had experience with either or just generally knows their stuff about this!

Cheers.

[bankies]

I was going to get the Sony KDL32V4000 but last weekend I got the Sony KDL32W4000 from Amazon for ?628.

I had seen both in the shops and the V series was good but when I saw the W with Bravia2 at 1080p

Had to sell my Wii to cover the difference but I hardly used it anyway

[Geezer]

I can recommend the 32 Samsung 4 series. I got one recently and it is a very nice TV, it was £419 including a 5yr warranty from JL so it is also very affordable:

http://www.johnlewis.com/230507074/Product.aspx

[Margoos]

Sorry to hijack this thread but geezer, i just bought that tv you just linked there and do you get motion blur on games at all? i get it on the 360 over hdmi, ps3 over hdmi and the wii over component. ive tried adjusting the settings but it doesnt seem to work, i have my pc speakers near the tv, freeview box and wireless router, does anyone know if this could be the cause or is it just a feature of the tv its self?

[Geezer]

I only use it with the PS3 over HDMI at the moment. I get no blur at all, not even in extremely quick games like Wipeout HD. I haven't even tinkered with the settings yet so it's all set to factory default, I've been using it for a couple of weeks with no problems

Here is the TV's thread over at AVForums. Maybe you'll be able to find some info there.

[Margoos]

cheers mate, will have a tinker about with it now, hope it will solve it, it only tends to be when theres dark sections in games like on cod4 when you go in to a buliding and it poorly lit, its really noticable

[Rossco]

I was going to get the Sony KDL32V4000 but last weekend I got the Sony KDL32W4000 from Amazon for ?628.

I had seen both in the shops and the V series was good but when I saw the W with Bravia2 at 1080p

Had to sell my Wii to cover the difference but I hardly used it anyway

I really don't think 1080p is worth it at 32", alot of people seem to say it's pointless so not sure I'm willing to pay extra for it. Plus, I still watch alot of SD stuff like Sky and DVD's so wouldn't that make them even worse?


I'll look into that Samsung, see if it's worth it too then. There's just so much choice now, it's hard to pick the right one.

[Hohum]

Have been considering the 32V4000 myself, for the money it looks great value. 1080p doesn't bother me, as nearly all the content I'd use on it would be SD anyway. If you do end up getting it, then do let us know how it works out for you

[Margoos]

thanks for the link geezer i used the settings for the R86/87/88 tv but im using an elite over hdmi so i fugred the setting would work okay, looks stunning now, tiny bit of motion blur hardly noticable but not half as bad as before, many thanks to you sir, sorry for barging in on this thread

[capcom_suicide]

I have the KDL32-V4500 and wrote a mini review here:

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showpost.php?p=1387611&postcount=21

I'm really happy with it. Fantastic TV.

[concretesnail]

I was going to get the Sony KDL32V4000 but last weekend I got the Sony KDL32W4000 from Amazon for ?628.

I had seen both in the shops and the V series was good but when I saw the W with Bravia2 at 1080p

Had to sell my Wii to cover the difference but I hardly used it anyway

i just got the same set from amazon and it is waiting at home for me now to un-pack and setup. i'll get round to posting a review once i have it done.
i know that it is over the ^00 quid mark (just) but with more games looking to 1080p i though that the little extra over the v was worth it.

[Olly C]

I've got the 32v2000 and I've been super happy with my purchase since I got it a few years back when ever it was the current model, I paid ?1,080 or something back then and have had ZERO problems with it using it originally with PS2/Xbox/Gamecube/Neo-Geo and since moving to PS3/360/Wii/Sky HD and I've been happy with it all

I often use it as a PC monitor as well to watch videos and such on my PC.

I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a quality 32" HDTV especially at the price it cost's these days

[Rossco]

God I still can't decide, whats the major differences between the Sony KDL-32V4500 and the KDL-32V400? Alot more expensive, for what seems to be similar sets?

[capcom_suicide]

God I still can't decide, whats the major differences between the Sony KDL-32V4500 and the KDL-32V400? Alot more expensive, for what seems to be similar sets?

The V4500 is hard to find in the UK; but I just saw the play.com price for the 32V4000! Woooooow!

I wish we had that sort of deal. Amazing.

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/-/318/404/-/6615245/Sony-Bravia-32-KDL-32V4000U-HD-Ready-Freeview-Widescreen-LCD-TV/Product.html?searchtype=genre

£400 for a Sony with better spec that a similar TV that cost 900 a year ago?

I'd go for that.

Here is the comparison:

http://www.sony.co.uk/product/CompareProducts.action?site=odw_en_GB&pcReturnUrl= %2Fproduct%2FProductComparisonWizard.action%3Fmode lName%3DKDL-32V4000%26site%3Dodw_en_GB%26sectiontype%3DProduct &models=KDL-32V4000&models=KDL-32V4500

It's missing:

-Optical Out.
-XMB interface on TV
-30,000 versus 33,000 Contrast
-It says it's missing the ability to accept & scale a 1080p input? This may be important, but it's 720p anyway...

Seems a great TV for the money, esp as it's 150 quid under RRP at play!

Another bonus with spending 400 notes on a TV today, is that you can sell it for 200 in a few years and justify the upgrade, as you bought a "Cheap" TV.

[Rossco]

£370 on Amazon.co.uk but I don't think that has the 3 year warranty Play.com has with it for free. But yeh, seems a very good deal, I'm swaying towards it now.

Didn't realise the V4500 has XMB interface, that's quite cool, does it work like that for all the menus just like PSP/PS3 does? Optical out I can imagine is completely useless and only if your playing DD5.1 from Freeview or memory stick in the TV which I won't be doing as I have Sky+ anyway and memory stick play is of no interest to me.

Contrast ratio is too close to make it worthwhile for me to pay the extra also.

One thing I notice on the comparison though is the V4500 has 24p and like you say, 1080p input. I don't know exactly how it works though, I have my PS3 set to 720p for games and Bluray, but does that mean I could set it to 1080p instead using the V4500 and it would accept the input and scale it better or something? Anyone able to clear that up? And of course 24p when playing 1080p video makes things smoother doesn't it on fast moving shots?