Sharp Aquos vs. Sony Bravia LCD TV`s

[bicker]

He wants to get a Vizio which looks like a decent model in the stores but I have never heard of most of the brands out there other than Sony and Samsung.

Samsung, Pioneer and Sony are the best, with LG and Toshiba in the second tier. Vizio has the distinction of being the most affordable televisions, though they're not in the top tiers from performance, reliability, and quality perspectives.

He also thinks bigger is better I don't want 60" in a room where the maximum viewing distance is less than 15 feet. I am leaning towards a 32" maybe a 36" TV. As I stated the maximum viewing distance is 15 feet will either of these sizes work?

I posted links for this earlier in the thread. If your viewing distance is 15 feet, then a 60" is appropriate, maybe even a little small. Remember, a 36" HDTV is much "smaller" than a 36" analog (old style) television.

I suspect though that your viewing distance is a bit smaller than that.... remember to measure screen to eyes, not wall to back-of-couch.

 

[englishteacha]

I like my Sony. We've had a bit of trouble with the HDMI ports, though.

 

[donaldduck352]

I shopped A long time for the perfect TV and Sharp Aqous has the best picture to us.But we spent good money on that thing.We are not dissapointed at all tho!

 

[bicker]

I like my Sony. We've had a bit of trouble with the HDMI ports, though.

A note about this: It may not be related to the trouble you're speaking of, but folks "should" have a bit of "trouble" with HDMI ports on all televisions. Generally, the trouble that most folks new to HD report regarding HDMI are HDCP handshake issues between their televisions and (typically) A/V receiver (speaker) systems. While some (mostly older) devices didn't properly validate HDCP (and therefore their owners didn't have the "trouble" I'm referring to), most, if not all newer devices are properly designed in accordance with the regulations, and therefore there will be some issues stemming from use of HDMI, since it is an all-digital connection. The issues could range from just longer delays switching inputs, to scratch sounds when entering a mode, to an error message informing the user that there has been a protection violation. Generally, the fault, in such cases, is the source of the signal, rather than the destination (the television is typically the destination in such connections), even though the error is reported on the destination device.

Does this mean folks shouldn't use HDMI? Of course not. It's perfectly fine except when there is a fault (again, generally in one of the source devices, i.e., a STB, DVR, etc.) Once you get it working properly, you shouldn't be getting the error message, and the other manifestations of HDCP (delays, scratchy sounds entering a mode) are easy to live with, and worth the convenience of a single wire connection.

 

[Golf4food]

He also thinks bigger is better I don't want 60" in a room where the maximum viewing distance is less than 15 feet. I am leaning towards a 32" maybe a 36" TV. As I stated the maximum viewing distance is 15 feet will either of these sizes work?

A 37" from 15 feet away will look awful small... it isn't the size of the TV, it is the size of the objects on said TV, so if you have a person's head on the TV and you are 15 feet away they will be quite tiny.

We have already agreed on the surround sound and DVD upgrade, they were easy compared to the TV. Thanks.

I hope by "DVD upgrade" you mean Blu-ray, otherwise you are wasting your HD on inferior, 20 year old technology. If you want high def you go Blu-ray. If you want the same non-high def we've had for almost 20 years you stay with DVD. The Bluray will still play your old DVDs, but they will look better, and Bluray discs will be even better.

With a Blu-ray surround sound system in our house now we feel little need to go out to movies at the theater.

 

[bicker]

Panasonic has really come on strong this year, and has now edged Sony back into third place. (Samsung remains the best.) However, figure that the difference between Sony and Panasonic, in this regard, is pretty small.

I'm sure this will come up again before Black Friday, but I figure I might as well bookmark this somewhere so I can find it later.

More evidence is surfacing that Sony is continuing its very significant downward trend in quality.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/18/sony-said-to-be-outsourcing-production-of-high-end-lcds-foxconn/

This puts Sony firmly in the same category as lesser brands, like Sharp. It is not clear, yet, whether Sony will decline even further, into the same category as Vizio, Mitsubishi, Sylvania, Emerson, Magnavox, etc.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Check Samsung... they are basically all the same parts as the Sonys and a fraction of the price. We got a 42" Samsung a couple years ago and have been very pleased with it.

 

[SueInBoston]

I'm sure this will come up again before Black Friday, but I figure I might as well bookmark this somewhere so I can find it later.

Thank you We're just starting to think about replacing our antique TV...

 

[DeniseinNS]

We recently got a 40' Sony Bravia and are very happy with it. They had told us that Samsung is the best but after just having had major issues with Samsung's awful customer service I wasn'y buying anything else from them (still waiting after a month for someone to call us back about the complaint we made that we have called multiple times looking toi speak to someone)

 

[bicker]

Check Samsung... they are basically all the same parts as the Sonys and a fraction of the price. We got a 42" Samsung a couple years ago and have been very pleased with it.

Uh, Samsung is definitely not the "same parts" as the Sony (and they're not a fraction of the price). Samsung is one of the two best brands of HDTVs today, far better than Sony (and often priced higher than Sony as well).

 

[mill4023]

I just saw this thread and have 2 questions that hopefully somebody can answer. My DH and I just redid our downstairs and the final thing we want to do is upgrade to a flatscreen TV. He wants to get a Vizio which looks like a decent model in the stores but I have never heard of most of the brands out there other than Sony and Samsung. Anybody know anything about Vizio in general. He also thinks bigger is better I don't want 60" in a room where the maximum viewing distance is less than 15 feet. I am leaning towards a 32" maybe a 36" TV. As I stated the maximum viewing distance is 15 feet will either of these sizes work? We have already agreed on the surround sound and DVD upgrade, they were easy compared to the TV. Thanks.

Your DH is absolutely right. Bigger IS better. At least for the majority of typical viewing environments with the majority of reasonable budgets.
A 32" TV is way too small from 15 feet away.
Obviously, most people don't have an unlimited budget, but if you sitting 15 feet away, I wouldn't want to go any smaller than 50" and a 60" or bigger would be better.

In our bonus room, we have a seating distance of about 15 feet and a 120" screen (overhead projector). In my opinion, that's about the perfect size for that distance. Downstairs, we are sitting about 10 to 12 feet from our 55" TV and I'm happy with that, but would still go bigger if finances were unlimited.

We just got a 55" Sony LCD (KDL-EX501) and we've been very happy with it. IMO, the picture looks great. One of the reasons I've given plasma the edge over LCD in the past is because of the colors, especially skin tones. But I've been pretty impressed with the colors on this TV.

If I was price shopping and reading reviews, who knows, I might have picked something else. But we had a Sony rear projection LCD that we bought a few years ago and when we changed the bulb, we had some color issues. This was a known issue with Sony RPTV's, so what they did to compensate is to give us the option of a free 42" LCD flat panel or various upgrade options at a substantial discount. So we ended up going with the 55" LCD for about $600.

So I'm not saying Sony is the best choice, but we've been happy with ours.

 

[linnylu]

We just purchased a 50" panasonic Viera plasma tv. I was thinking that Santa might bring a blu-ray player for Christmas but truthfully, I am not sure why a blu-ray is better than our current dvd player. Could someone please educate me! Also, will the blu-ray play our regular dvds? Any good brands that I should keep an eye out for?

 

[bicker]

15 feet away is pretty far. (Remember to measure from the screen to your eyes, not from wall behind the television to the back of your couch.)

 

[mill4023]

We just purchased a 50" panasonic Viera plasma tv. I was thinking that Santa might bring a blu-ray player for Christmas but truthfully, I am not sure why a blu-ray is better than our current dvd player. Could someone please educate me! Also, will the blu-ray play our regular dvds? Any good brands that I should keep an eye out for?

Standard DVD is 480p. That means every frame consists of 480 lines.
Blu Ray is 1080p. That means every frame consists of 1080 lines.

In other words, the Blu Ray will provide a much higher resolution for a sharper, more detailed picture. If you watch a DVD, then watch the same movie on Blu Ray, you will see things that you didn't even know where there.

 

[bicker]

We just purchased a 50" panasonic Viera plasma tv. I was thinking that Santa might bring a blu-ray player for Christmas but truthfully, I am not sure why a blu-ray is better than our current dvd player. Could someone please educate me! Also, will the blu-ray play our regular dvds? Any good brands that I should keep an eye out for?

Answering your inquiries in reverse order . . .


Just like with HDTVs, the best brands for Blu-ray disc players are Panasonic, Samsung and LG. Also Sony (their disc players haven't degraded like their televisions have). (Oppo is also a fantastic brand, but very expensive!) Toshiba is also a good brand.

All Blu-ray disc players on the market play DVDs.

Your new HDTV is probably a 1080p television, meaning that there are 1080 lines of resolution (top to bottom). DVDs have 480 lines of resolution, so while you're playing DVDs, the television has to compute what the missing 600 lines of data should have on them. So clearly there is going to be a difference between DVDs and Blu-ray discs played back using that great television you just bought: The Blu-ray discs will appear much, much clearer. Truly "higher definition".

In addition, Blu-ray disc players are still being made relatively high quality. By contrast, since they can't sell them for much money, DVD players are almost all grievously cost-reduced, so you can expect the same thing that happened when VCRs became so cheap: low quality, low reliability, lots of failures, etc.

Furthermore, Blu-ray disc players, these days, are being driven to provide the latest and greatest features, including lots of Internet connectivity (Netflix, Hulu, etc.)

If you're in the market for a disc player, my recommendation, at this time, is to either buy a high-quality, top-brand Blu-ray disc player with Internet connectivity, or go to a church fair or garage sale in your neighborhood and buy a used DVD player. Do not buy a new DVD player - that's just wasting money.

 

[mill4023]

I'm sure this will come up again before Black Friday, but I figure I might as well bookmark this somewhere so I can find it later.

More evidence is surfacing that Sony is continuing its very significant downward trend in quality.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/18/sony-said-to-be-outsourcing-production-of-high-end-lcds-foxconn/

This puts Sony firmly in the same category as lesser brands, like Sharp. It is not clear, yet, whether Sony will decline even further, into the same category as Vizio, Mitsubishi, Sylvania, Emerson, Magnavox, etc.

Definitely not good news for Sony if those rumors end up being true. Having worked in a manufacturing environment for quite a few years and dealing specifically with quality control, I know that it's very difficult to maintain high quality standards when you control the entire process and virtually impossible when you don't.

What sources do you use for reviews and ratings?
Just wondering, since there is so much conflicting information on the net.

Not sure how much I trust PC Mag, but according to their survey from last year, Sony, Panasonic, and Samsung had the best overall reliability.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/154129/sony_hdtvs_rated_most_reliable_by_pc_world_readers.html

 

[bicker]

What sources do you use for reviews and ratings?

Practically all of them. Given what you said next . . .

Just wondering, since there is so much conflicting information on the net.

I found it useless to rely on any one of them, so instead I watch many and then draw my conclusions based on how well each source provides foundation for their comparative insights.