Well to begin with, i had never ever been an lcd fan.i had always loved plasma televisions, with their unmatched picture quality, clarity, and wide viewing angles I simply couldnt have gone for an lcd.i have a panasonic plasma, which has been working fine, but what I wanted was a flat panel for the bedroom as the sony trinitron had started showing signs of ageing.
I couldnt go for a plasma this time as the min screen size is 42".lcds have a wider range of screen choices with 32"fitting most aptly to my requirements.now as usual, i carried out a detailed research, emailing the companies to confirm their specs, and finalising the brands like hitachi, sharp with sony being my last resort.sharp had developed lcd televisions, so it was a safe bet, hitachi, again belonged to professional av, and sony.is a sony, but it least interested me.i really wanted to go for hitachi, but somewhat I dindnt get clear reviews on it, and I even took advice of fellow members on this site, each one suggesting a sony.
sony was suggested by everyone, as in india, its considered a "status symbol", god knows why.
I purchased sony bravia 32V5500 from singapore, its an upgraded version of 32V550A, which we get here in india for 47000inr, quite expensive for a small lcd and sony Vseries has always been an expensive choice, as far as I know.
this tv has got a 1080p full hd resolution, with bravia engine 3.bravia engine 3 is the latest image enhancer developed by sony, with a huge improvement over be2., sony’s live color, mpeg noise reducer do improve the image significantly.it has a native contrast of 4000:1, dynamic being 60000:1, but dynamic contrast is just a marketing gimmick.the remote is easy to use and comfotable to hold.its a typical sony design, what I have been seeing for the past many years.
as soon as I took it of of the carton, it said "made in malaysia, packed in singapore".the tv has a look to kill for.a beautiful glossy black bezel and super black non reflective panel, and the most unusual, out of the world look with a transparent strip with power leds on it.the speaker grille is bottom mounted, much better looking than the T series bravia.i assembled it myself, though I had called sony later to get it wall mounted, for which they charged 1300inr.the tv also contained a paper saying "u are a proud owner of the sony bravia", along with user manuals and a quick start guide.i was yet to confirm it.
my biggest excitement, when I grabbed the power cord and turned it on.
this tv has got a mind blowing black level, far far away from the lcd league.the panel sony has on its barvia is from sharp’s kameyama plant in japan, so this not a surprise.user interface is the sony’s xmedia bar, very easy to use, the same ui as in the play station 3.this tv has got preloaded full hd images, which work as in photo frame mode, and if u have a pendrive with songs in it, they can work as the background music.
4 hdmi, ehternet port, usb, 2 component, 1svideo, and a d sub.so plenty of connectivity options.but they will hardly be of any use to me as I just need to put up my tatasky.
sd content is of good quality, no blockish images at all, and videos are very sarp with no fuzzy edges.the colours reproduced are very accurate, not like what I saw in samsung-oversaturated.theres no lcd issue of motion judder, back light bleed, and I never felt the need of a 100hz in 32 inch.build quality is a thumbs up from me as its of a heavy grade plastic, unlike lg, samsung.sound quality is also good, with decent levels of bass and treble. .this tv has got a power consumption 0f 111w, which is too less.what I liked was -no picture mode.here you can turn off the picture if you just want to listen to the sound.
a tip to increase the lifespan of ur lcd-keep the backlight low, as this would put lesser strain on the cfl bulbs which light the tv.
the tv is DLNA certified.(Digital Living Network Alliance) Digital Living Network Alliance(DLNA) is a standard designed to realize seamless interoperability of connected devices on your home network, enabling you to share your digital media and content services easily and without fuss. bravia sync is also yet another function where you can control all the devices connected with hdmi through a single remote.
overall, this tv has been upto my expectations, i havent had any issues till now, neither I should have them in future.those considering a high end 32inch lcd, bravia 32V5500(or 32V550A as in india)is the one to go for.