Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3926 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: KDL46W5500U
• Released on: 2009-04-20
• Dimensions: 52.91 pounds

Features

• 46" Full 1080 HD LCD Screen
• 1920 x 1080 Resolution
• 100000:1 Contrast
• S-Force Front Surround Sound
• 4 x HDMI Sockets

Manufacturer's Description

A BRAVIA LCD TV is no ordinary television. Design is sleeker, pictures are brighter, details clearer. All BRAVIA televisions are HD Ready as a minimum, with up to 4 HDMI connections, and come with an integrated digital tuner so there is no need for a set-top box to view Freeview TV and radio channels. Most of the BRAVIA LCD TVs feature BRAVIA Sync technology, it takes just one button to turn on your entire Sony home entertainment system, while XrossMediaBar helps you navigate your TV easily with its best-in-class menu screen. After all advanced technology should simply mean technology that does more for you.

The BRAVIA W5500 has all the Sony technology you need to experience a new level of entertainment. BRAVIA ENGINE 3 digital processing delivers a depth, richness and clarity that will take your breath away. Motionflow 100Hz technology keeps fast-moving sports and action crisp and clear. You can connect it to your home network using DLNA and enjoy music, video and pictures from other compatible devices on your TV. Plus you can use the AppliCast™ feature to check on-screen RSS feeds of news and other information while you’re watching your favourite programmes.

Motionflow 100Hz for super-smooth, ultra-realistic sport and action scenes

Motionflow 100Hz lets you see fast-moving sports and action scenes like never before by unlocking the amazing detail they contain. This blur reduction technology produces super-smooth, ultra-realistic viewing by doubling the conventional number of frames in a sequence. After every frame it creates an additional unique frame before the next one, based on key factors in the preceding and following images. While similar technologies simply duplicate frames, Motionflow 100Hz intelligently applies information to make movement appear even smoother.

The unique technology of BRAVIA ENGINE 3 optimises the quality of every single scene

An LCD television creates pictures by switching millions of pixels on and off. In the W5500 this process is controlled by the BRAVIA ENGINE 3, the latest version of Sony’s advanced digital processing technology. Using a collection of unique Sony algorithms it applies a digital perfecting process to reduce noise and produce cleaner images, higher contrast and smoother motion sequences, resulting in enhanced overall performance regardless of source.

Specifically, it analyses each individual scene, controlling the peak brightness level to generate advanced colour and brightness, and optimising the noise level. It also detects and adjusts the overall colour distribution of each frame and smoothes diagonal lines of pixels in fast-moving pictures to prevent jagged edges and bleeding colours.

In short, it delivers exceptional performance in every single scene.

Create an entertainment network in your home with DLNA

The BRAVIA W5500 means you can finally create an easy-to-use home network that lets you share music, video and pictures from around the house on your TV. As part of the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), Sony has adopted a universal standard for connectivity that enables your electronic devices, regardless of brand, to ‘talk’ to one another. So now it’s easy to move files between your TV, PC, printer, music player, phone, camera and more, wherever they are in the home. By integrating your TV into a home network, either wirelessly or via a cable, you can use your BRAVIA remote to find photos on the DLNA-enabled laptop in your bedroom and call them up to your living room TV screen. If you want hard copies, just send them to print on the colour printer in your spare room.

As well as BRAVIA TVs, Sony offers a range of DLNA Certified™ devices such as VAIO notebooks, the Sony Ericsson mobile phone, the PLAYSTATION®3 and the GigaJuke hard-disc drive music system.

AppliCast™ brings live internet feeds to your screen while you watch TV

AppliCast™ lets you see internet information on your BRAVIA TV while you're watching television. You don't have to switch on your PC - just call up widgets onto the TV screen. Three widgets, including a clock and calendar, are already installed on the on-screen XrossMediaBar and you can add RSS feeds of news, weather and more by connecting your TV to the internet via the Ethernet port at the back. Just select the information you want with your BRAVIA remote and it's right there whenever you need it.

Box Contains

Customer Reviews

Magnificent!
This is my first HD television, having had a non-HD 42" plasma from LG for four years previously. I spent a lot of time researching models before choosing, and then had to wait for a month or so before this new model came available. And what a difference from my old TV!
I can't really comment in great detail on the image quality - for me, it's fabulous but I'll leave the microscopic reviews to the professional reviewers. As a user, this TV is great. Although the screen is larger than my old TV, the unit is lighter (24kg). It's pretty easy to fix the supplied stand (place the TV on top and then fix in place with 4 screws), and the TV rotates 20 degrees to either side on the stand.
So far, I have connected my old DVD player (my Sony Blu Ray player is on order), my portable PC (which has a Blu Ray drive), media PC, Wii and the Xbox 360 that I couldn't resist buying now that I have an HD television (and don't regret at all!). The television gives a great picture on most of them, although I'm having trouble with my media PC - but that's due to Windows and the graphics drivers rather than the TV (which shows a very nice picture at 1280x768).
The on-screen menus are very practical, and you can switch between inputs rather easily. I have set up DLNA servers on my home network, but apparently the TV is very picky about video formats, so I'm moving back to the idea of using my media PC or the Xbox to present videos. The TV happily plays music from the DLNA connection, though (using the Windows Media Connect function in Windows Media Player).
The sound is actually pretty good - again, certainly better than my old TV. Naturally, it is lacking in bass and it's only stereo; reproduction is pretty clear, though, and whereas I had completely abandoned the TV speakers on my old telly for my surround system, the speakers on this one are perfectly usable (good thing too, as I've run out of channels on my rather ageing amp!).
What else? Picture quality is really great; HD sources look superb and I am very impressed by the quality of the standard definition TV images coming from my satellite tuner - much better than I had expected. No artefacts noticed so far, and I certainly haven't seen the clouding issue, although I haven't really done specific tests for that (sitting in a dark room in front of a black TV screen....that doesn't sound like much fun anyway tbh!). The TV does take several seconds to warm up when you switch it on, but there is a little green light that comes on (unobtrusive when you are watching) to tell you that it is actually thinking about it.
Bizarrely, there is an angled edge on the inside of the screen surround that sometimes reflects parts of the image on the screen. It's not really a problem, but it's noticeable sometimes (particularly when there is a black border on the screen).
The remote is clear and easy to use, and feels good to hold.
Overall, a superb piece of equipment, and I'm very happy with the investment that I have made.

An awesome television and stunning picture
Finally decided to upgrade my old Trintron CRT and spent the past 3 months or so looking at the various LCDs available out there. I initially settled on a Sony KDL46W4500 after seeing one in a store and was just about to part with my hard earned cash when I started reading reviews and read about the so-called dreaded 'backlight bleed'. Given the high cost of the Sony, this completely put me off, so it was back to the drawing board for me.

I spent more time looking around but never quite found a set I fancied as much as the 46W4500, that was until the Sony KDL46W5500 came out. I couldn't find any reviews but Amazon had it at a very competitive price so I decided to take a chance on it.

All I can say is I'm glad I took the risk. The picture on this set is nothing short of stunning. I don't have HD installed yet but the SD picture is very, very good. I'm using it with a Sony blu ray player and although I haven't watched any blu rays yet, the DVD upscaling is jawdroppingly good - the sports mode makes the pictures scarily real. I've been going through my entire DVD collection just trying out the pictures and it's totally different to watching them on my old CRT screen. Can't wait to see blu ray, although it's difficult to imagine how much better the pictures can get.

Of course I was a bit worried about this backlight bleed issue, and I've sat there in a pitch black room, watching dark DVDs, and all sorts of different pictures and programmes. The blacks on the TV are the blackest I've ever seen on a screen and I simply cannot find any evidence of backlight bleed. I think that 99.9% of people will be delighted with the picture.

The TV is packed with features, the menus are quite easy to use. There are the usual HDMI and SCART inputs, plus you can plug in a USB Key with photos, videos, and music on which the TV will happily work with. You can also connect the TV to your router although not quite figured out how to set the networking bits yet. My laptop plugs in quite happily via a standard monitor cable and I can view my PC screen on the TV.

The TV is easy to lift (a lot lighter than my old CRT) and feels solid and well built. The screen swivels on the stand just enough to adjust for comfortable viewing.

Overall, very, very pleased with this TV. Can't wait to see blu ray on it.

Super Picture
Have just bought this television on Friday 7th August and up till now I am very happy with both sound and picture quality. The t.v it is replacing is the 40W2000 which is an excellent television too . I was in the same frame of mind as other reviewers in that I perhaps dithered a little in going for the bigger screen size in first the W4000 and then the W4500 only to be disppointed that when I finally made my mind up both models were discontinued. I settled for the 5500 based on reviews alone both in magazines and customer comments and so far no regrets . As with the W2000 , I went for the 5500 with little or no show-room demonstration.
I relied on Sonys reputation and just went for it . I have yet to have a proper play with all the controls and settings and what everything does,so I set the brilliance,colour and contrast to the same levels as I had on the W2000 and the picture was stunning,especially on close-up during the Sky game on Friday night. Over the past few weeks I have picked the brains of some high profile retailers regarding the difference between 100 and 200hz and the bottom line is there is no noticeable difference to the human eye . At one time I almost went for the 46Z4500 as this has the 200hz feature, the 5500 has the Bravia 3 engine to compensate . Set up was simple and straight forward.I managed to get a good deal at Comet in comparison with a local independant retailer. I never expected such a big firm as Comet to tolerate any form of haggling,
so Ijust put on my Dominic Littlewood head and talked of price matching . Very pleased . If this television is on your short-list and within your budget the go for it .