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| $450.00+ $25.49 *Shipping | Used
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| $500.00+ $25.49 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | |
| $524.32+ $67.27 *Shipping | Refurbished | | |
| $575.00+ $25.49 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | |
| Used | |
| $450.00+ $25.49 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | |
| $500.00+ $25.49 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | |
| $575.00+ $25.49 *Shipping | Used
- Mint | | |
| Refurbished | |
| $524.32+ $67.27 *Shipping | Refurbished | | |
| | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review: ( 49 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
86 of 88 found the following review helpful:
 Sony Bravia EX 500: Great value Mar 15, 2010
By T. Miller
After pretty much researching TVs to death, we purchased the Sony Bravia EX 500 and couldn't be happier. We wanted a 40" TV because it would fit nicely in our TV Armoire cabinet. I throw value into the equation, so I don't hesitate to give this 5 stars.
Highlights:
1) Crystal clear 1080p HDTV broadcast and BluRay performance.
2) The voice clarity comes through incredibly clear. I used to have to crank up the volume much higher to understand conversations on movies and TV shows.
3) The standard definition comes in much better than our old 720p HDTV, but we spend most of our time on the HDTV channels.
4) You'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between this TV and those costing twice as much for the same size.
Lowlights:
1) This is minor, but I'll keep it honest. Jutter is noticeable in faster moving camera pans and action, but hardly on BluRay which has me wondering how much has to do with the frequency of the broadcast vs. the TV. We watched "Iron Man" on the BluRay and it looked great.
2) It's rated at 150k:1 contrast ratio which pales in comparison to the 2MM:1 and higher on LEDs and Plasmas.
In summary, we're very happy with the performance of the Sony Bravia EX 500. At present, I don't know if there's a better combination of price and performance. We're value conscious, so we're extremely satisfied with this purchase.
39 of 39 found the following review helpful:
Wonderful TV...once configured properly! Nov 15, 2010
By JerryWithaJ
I would have sent this TV back but for another review. I found the picture WAY too dark, but I'd read a review saying that this was due to the TV being shipped with Auto-Contrast turned on. On this model it's called "Ambient Sensor". Go to Menu/Settings/Picture/Ambient Sensor. Turn it off and the picture is as bright and crisp as you could want. "Ambient Sensor" is the last of the Picture options. It does not appear when Picture is first selected. It is necessary to scroll down to the end (or, equivalently, up one) to access it.
That done, I had a bright, crisp picture, but there was something still not quite right. For lack of anything else to try, I checked the settings on my L series 32" Sony HDTV that this is replacing and found that the settings were different. After setting Scene Select to General, I set this 40" TV to the settings on the 32", namely, Backlight to 8 and Picture to 90. The resulting picture is nothing short of incredible!!
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Added in edit: The more I view this TV, the more I like it. The HD picture has a 3D quality to it, even though this is not a 3D set.
The more I use it, the more I HATE the remote! It makes one wonder whether the engineers who designed it ever tried using it. You can see a picture of it about 1/3 of the way down the page, on the left. Like every other remote, it has a button surrounded by a ring: press the top of the ring to go up, the bottom to go down, the right side to move right, the left side to move left. All well and good...so far. The problem is the ring of buttons that surrounds it. Even though I've had the tv for only a week, I can't count the number of times I pressed Favorites only to then press MENU when I'd intended to press the bottom of the inner ring. The outer ring of buttons should have been placed in two horizontal rows somewhere else. However, as annoying as the remote is, the picture is so great that I would not reduce the star ranking.
21 of 22 found the following review helpful:
 Quality for the price Mar 31, 2010
By Reader B
"avid reader"
This is the second Sony LCD HDTV I have. My other is the KDL-40Z4100. Sony provides high quality for the price.
I use rabbit ears to get over the air signals, and it pulls in all the stations available. The picture is crisp, and in watching a DVD (up converted) of The Dark Knight, I noticed no loss of resolution during fast scenes. I haven't had a chance to watch a Blu-Ray on it yet. I have a Sony Blu-Ray player, so it syncs nicely.
The downside? Well, when you turn it on, you get a chime sound. The plus is that is is fast in going between channels, although the favorites only hold the last 10 channels, and the remote leaves a lot to be desired. Other than the number buttons, the buttons are a bit small and crowded. Not sure why it has an ON button on the back side, as well as in the expected place. The remote for my KDL-40Z4100 is far better.
The sound is all right; nothing to really write home about.
I have it in a room where the light levels will change quite a bit, and so far have not noticed any issues. There is a light sensor that is supposed to help adjust the picture to ambient light levels. One can select different picture settings (movie, general, etc.) but I haven't found a need to select those.
The set looks good, and it has a swivel base.
29 of 33 found the following review helpful:
Second time is a charm. May 13, 2010
By Adam J. Murphy
Let's start off by saying that this is my 4th Sony TV purchase but only my 1st Sony LCD experience. I entered the LCD era years ago with Budget brands such as ViewSonic and Westinghouse and was very satisfied. Yet I'm always looking to upgrade. This 40" set replaced a perfectly working 36" Sony 720p CRT monster (219lbs), only because the entertainment center started to crumble around the mass. I still have all 3 of my old Sony CRT TV's and will never get rid of them.
So, I've always lusted after a Sony LCD but the prices were always a tad too high. Then came along this 40" Bravia and the time and Price was right. Shipping was quick, I was always in touch with the shipping company. The TV arrived 4 days later, box in perfect condition, not a scratch on it. That is where the honeymoon ended. After switching out TV's, putting in the new entertainment center, transfering all of my components over and hooking everything up per the manuals instructions....It was time to power it on. It turned on fine, started the initial set up....Then turned off all by itself and proceded to do so 3 more times then just stayed off while blinking a series of red lights below. I unplugged, reconected with other cables just incase. Same problem, off then on then off 3 more times then the same lights. I instantly had flashbacks of my 7 Xbox's going through the dreaded RROD (Read Ring of Death).
Called Sony support. Once they ran through the trouble shooting they asked for a time sequence on the lights and then quickly put me on hold. Then the agent said very stern, unplug the TV and you will need to do an exchange due to an internal error. The TV is broken! Essentially DOA! What was supposed to be a quick exchange according to Sony turned into a 2 week turn around. Some say I should have just returned it through amazon, I tried but the TV wasn't in stock, so I would have had to wait for the credit to my account before purchasing a new brand and that would have taken 2 weeks acording to the amazon rep. So I waited for a tracking number from Sony. Then came the news of a 3 week arrival time. I almost lost it, but as luck would have it, it shipped early and arrived yesterday, 9 days from the initial call to Sony support.
The replacement works great, the set up went through 100%. All of my components works great. The Picture is amazing. The menu is easy to use.
I do have one set of complaints with reguards to the amount of inputs and this is where it looses a star for me. Being an older gamer that has a young child. I like to have the option of hooking up my older systems for him to learn on (N64, SNES, his Vtech) but in this age of HDMI, TV makers are putting allot less standard inputs. I had no problem hooking up the PS3 and Cable box via HDMI, but things got a little interesting when it came time to hook up the Wii, original Xbox and Bose 321 system via component...there are only 2 component inputs. No prob, I'll just throw the Bose onto a S-video because we only use the Bose for my Son's movies to help limit disc time on the PS3.....but there is No S-video. Ok, I'll just dump that onto a standard RCA...I can't because my Son's V-Tech has taken the only standard RCA. Solution was to give the Bose back it's component slot, Split the wires for the Xbox and Wii. I did not want to get into the whole thing of using a System selector as I have done in the past...too much clutter. I have a feeling I may have to go to a system selector if we decide to hook up the N64 and SNES for him.
Reguardless of my problems with the 1st TV, I am still a fan of the Sony brand. These DOA LCD's seem to happen with every brand and it was just luck of the draw. If you search online, there are plenty of stories of DOA units right out of the box. Sony support gets a C+ only in the fact that they got a replacement out to me in 9 days instead of the stated 21 days. They need to work on their customer support especially compared to Amazon where the Amazon reps bend over backwards to help the customer.
11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Above average PQ - TOO MUCH PLASTIC! Mar 04, 2011
By MediaGuru
I purchased this TV after I ran into problems with THREE Samsung LN40C650's. The Samsungs all had terrible backlight bleeding and flashlighting and was totally unacceptable to say the least.
I spent countless hours at Best Buy after I changed my mind about Samsung TVs and this Sony TV was in the running with the LG 42LD550.
Upon comparison of the two, I noticed the Sony did seem to have slightly better PQ and it seemed to handle motion and patterns better than the LG. On the flip side, the LG does have an extra 2" of screen, internet features and the menu settings were slightly more customizable than the Sony.
Ultimately, I decided that the PQ was most important and though the internet features would be nice (with the LG) I could always connect my laptop or Roku (via HDMI).
The TV was shipped via UPS and arrived with the box in near perfect condition. I allowed sufficient time for the TV to warm up and at the end of the day, I assembled the stand and hooked up the TV to my desktop computer via VGA.
ASSEMBLY & QUALITY:
Assembly was quick and effortless, but I have to mention that the quality of this TV compared to the Samsung is definitely lacking. Everything is made of plastic...from the stand to the remote and to the TV. The Samsung stand is made from about 9 lbs of glass and metal and the back of the Samsung TV is made from metal. The only thing plastic on the Samsung is the bracket that attaches the TV to the stand, but this plastic is about 1/2" thick and is actually more rigid than the little bit of metal Sony used for the bracket that attaches the TV to the base of the stand.
If I would have purchased this Sony TV from Best Buy (or other local retailer) for approximately $800-900 (what it has sold for in the past) I would have immediately boxed it back up and returned it. I can't believe Sony can offer such a cheesy product with absolutely no additional features (such as internet) for a premium price.
NETFLIX THRU DESKTOP COMPUTER:
After everything was set up, I connected my desktop computer to the TV (via VGA) and signed in to my Netflix account so I could do a preliminary test.
I watched "My Cousin Vinny" and was impressed with the PQ even though I was watching it in SD.
I then packed everything up, went home and setup the TV in my bedroom (it's new home).
HD CABLE & UPCONVERTED SD DVDs:
Like the Samsungs, the Sony has an Optical Audio out, which works just perfect for me since my receiver has that connection. There seemed to be almost no audio lag at all and the sound was more even compared to the Samsung. When watching cable programming with the Samsung, I needed to turn the volume way down, but with DVDs I needed to turn it way up. With the Sony, both cable programming and DVDs play at about the same level and I don't have to keep fidgeting with the volume on my receiver.
HD cable looks just fine on this set and I would say the PQ is above average, but is still lacking when compared to the Samsung. The Sony does have more "noise" overall, but I found that if you change the Noise Reduction setting to high, this helps tremendously.
Upconverted SD DVDs were played with outstanding clarity BUT ONLY with daytime scenes. With dark scenes, the PQ was very grainy. I wonder if this may be due to the upconverted DVD player. I think maybe the process of upconversion is not playing nicely with the Bravia engine software. I will try to hook up my DVD player via component cables to see if that reduces the grainy image during dark scenes.
The Samsung had absolutely no problem playing HD cable or upconverted SD DVDs.
MOTIONFLOW:
I don't like this feature...probably because you can't really fine-tune it. You can choose from Off, Standard or High. With the Samsung, I preferred to have their comparable feature turned to Clear, but you had about 4 settings to choose from and you could individually adjust the blur & jitter. Again, for a slightly sub $1,000 TV, I can't believe Sony didn't offer more.
SCREEN UNIFORMITY:
This TV does have some very slight uniformity issues. There is an extremely small amount of flashlighting in the upper corners and in the upper middle of the screen, but I've only noticed this once during the movie I watched - which did have quite a bit of dark scenes. Compared to the Samsung, the Sony is perfect. You wouldn't believe the extreme amount of screen issues I experienced with the 3 Samsungs.
AFFORDABILITY:
For under $600 how can you go wrong? The TV works & looks good and the PQ is probably next in line compared to the Samsung. Though it lacks some key features, it is a solid performer and I hope it lasts for quite a while.
See all 49 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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