Sony BRAVIA V Series KDL 40V5100 40 Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Sony BRAVIA V Series KDL 40V5100 40 Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV
Keep pace with fast-action movies, sports and game play. Equipped with Full HD 1080p and Motionflow 120Hz refresh rate technology, the KDL-40V5100 40-inch BRAVIA V series LCD flat panel HDTV provides a more fluid, natural and realistic viewing experience while enjoying fast-paced entertainment. Additionally, every scene will be sharp, vibrant and life-like thanks to BRAVIA Engine 2 fully digital video processor. Plus, a 50,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio yields deep blacks in darker scenes. The V series also includes 7 HD inputs to ensure you get impressive image quality from all your HD components such as PlayStation 3, Blu-ray Disc player and your PC.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Great TV but doesn’t have standard holes in back for mounting
TV works great so far. The only problem was we didn’t realize the holes in the back for mounting aren’t standard size. We had to buy a $80 adapter plate in order to mount it to the wall.
5 Stars Excellent TV, Auto contrast can now be turned off!
First things first, THEY FIXED THE AUTO-CONTRAST! I have nothing but good things to say about this TV. Do not be fooled by the 1 star ratings. All those 1 star ratings complain about the auto contrast/brightness feature which could not be turned off, but SONY FIXED IT ALREADY in the newer units or a software update via sony.com will add the controls to turn the function off.
With that biggest gripe fixed, this TV has outstanding visual clarity and the color saturation is beautiful. Black levels are excellent on this non glossy screen. You can’t go wrong with a Sony and the software update shows they are listening to their customer base. No dead/stuck pixel, great viewing angles, 120hz refresh is great for sports, but in my opinion, not for movies. Excellent TV, I would buy another one of these without hesitation, superior when compared to the other brands that offer the same features. The Bravia V series lives up to the Sony name and quality standards you would expect. Deserves all 5 of the stars it’s rated.
2 Stars Very disappointed in Sony
We bought the V5100 2 weeks ago. After getting it home we were a little disappointed with the picture as we didn’t have HD yet, so we got the HD dish installed. Picture on HD was perfect, other channels good but not great. When watching DVD’s we noticed the dimming issue, dark scenes getting darker and darker. After reading a few review sites I discovered there was a fix from Sony so I called the customer support and asked to be sent the software update. That took about a week, and the USB would not download, it went to a blue screen. So I called tech support and got a guy that was really clueless to the problem. He had me call a not so local authorized dealer which wouldn’t come out, we would have to take the TV there, 40 miles away, drop it off then have to go back another day to pick up!! So, I decided to try to download the fix myself from the Sony website. After a few failures I discovered you had to format the disk to FAT32, so I did and it worked. But it hasn’t fixed the dimming problem, it’s still there just not quite as bad. The store we bought the TV from tried to work with us saying it might be that our DVD player is not the newest or best, but I’m not sure that’s an issue. We have decided to take the Sony back and get a Samsung or Mitsubishi. It’s disappointing that Sony would sell TV’s knowing there is a problem, and then not tell their retailers that there is a known problem. Or at least the store is claiming they didn’t know. They are willing to replace or exchange it. I’d be afraid of the same problem with another Sony. Very frustrating.
Update: Went and compared the 5100 to the Samsung and did not like the Samsung as much. So asked the store to send technician to adjust, haven’t heard from them. In the meantime after much research on different websites I discovered after you do the software update you have to set the Advanced Contrast Enhancer to Low or Off, I set at low. And, I set the picture setting to Standard, not Vivid, altho Vivid was brighter but maybe not better. Now it seems perfect, no shadows or shading in the dark scenes. So for now we are happy campers, hope it stays that way!
5 Stars Latest V Series Delivers Solid Performance
This latest V series TV replaces last years W series. The picture quality, color, and viewing angle are outstanding. I am not really sure how much better Sony can improve on the quality of this unit. The reviews that rate this TV three stars are simply off the mark. This TV delivers a better picture than the competing Samsung and Toshiba models at the same price level. I have my TV plugged into an antenna and the picture quality is just amazing. The TV menu system is well designed and easy to use. I am extremely happy with my purchase.
4 Stars Overall a great TV
Update: You can now download the firmware update for this TV at the link below. It will fix the auto-dimming problem. I would now give it 5 stars: [...]
With this fix being made, I would now say that the TV deserves five stars.
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I have owned this TV for about two weeks now and think it is great. The picture is very sharp. The colors are great. The blacks and whites look fabulous. The stand it comes with is very sturdy and there are more than enough inputs for my needs. The TV itself also looks very elegant.
I was going to buy this 2009 TV or the 2008 Sony KDL-40Z4100 (a higher end model from the previous year), whichever came down in price first. The two TVs are very comparable in features. The main difference for me was price but also important were the contrast ratios. This TV has a contrast ratio of 50:000 to 1 while the KDL-40Z4100 has a contrast ratio of 30:000 to 1. As a further comparison, the 2008 version of this TV, the KDL-40V4100, has a 25:000 to 1 contrast ratio. That big jump in contrast ratio pushed me towards this TV over last year’s Z series.
I have read the reviews describing the auto-dimming but honestly I don’t think it is that big of a deal. We watch mostly TV (Lost, 24, The Office, sports, etc.) as opposed to movies and after two weeks of use, today was the very first day I noticed the auto-dimming. It happened for about 2 seconds and was a strange dimming. My wife still has not noticed it even though we have both been on the lookout for it to see how bad it is.
While I agree that I cannot see how this is a feature Sony would want to include without being able to turn off, to me, it was pretty minor and I would still happily buy the same TV again. I suppose that there are shows or movies where this happens more frequently but after two weeks, I still don’t see it often. I took off a half star for this.
The other half star taken off comes from what seems like a long time for the TV to start. Once you turn it on it seems like it takes around 20 seconds to get started and display a picture. It isn’t a huge deal and once the TV is on it doesn’t affect anything. However, compared to my old CRT which turned on in a couple of seconds it seems long.
My hope is that Sony comes out with some sort of firmware update that allows you to turn this auto-dimming “feature” off as many customers are unhappy with it. That is pure speculation though as I haven’t heard any hints of this happening.
