Went to Curry's out at Braehead today and found the new 40" Sony S. It was side beside the new Samsung LE40R73BD (is this the "bordeaux" range or did I get that wrong?) so I could give some comparison. This is lucky because this is probably the nearest competitor (in this screen size)
Both were showing the RF-distributed signal so it was a tough job for both of the TVs.
Remote
Sony have changed the design of the remotes. Below is a picture of what the new V-series remote should look like (it's the Japanese one). The S-Series' one is the same only with less buttons and it's all grey. Personally I think it's a step down looks wise, it feels like the remote I got with a cheap Toshiba CRT a few years ago and it's fatter than Sony's Freeview receiver's remote.
That is where my criticism ends though.
The Samsung's remote is much nicer than the Sony's and a huge leap over last years' chunky thing. It fits in your hand nicely and looks good. It's all black but thankfully it's a matt finish (correct term?) instead of the shiney stuff the TV is made out of (more on this later). Some of the buttons are small rectangles and kinda wiggly though which'll make them a bit hard to press.
Menus / Picture Tweaks / Usability
On pressing Menu I saw that sure enough, "WEGA GATE", Sony's new menu system, is finally here in Europe. A silly thing to get excited about, but it's a good sign that we're finally getting up to date stuff.
Scrolling through the menus I at first panicked. "Where's the backlight adjustment!" - don't worry, it's there. It's FIRST thing on the list of picture tweaks instead of near the bottom where I'm used to, that's what threw me off.
All of the little tweaks that were on the USA/Australian/Japanese models that Sony of Europe seemed to cut out before, like Overscan and Y/C Select, are now on the European model, with the localised names "Picture Area" and "Auto S-Video" respectively
(Auto S-Video: this is for if you have an S-Video as well as a Composite cable plugged into the set of A/V inputs. On the older models, to view the video from the Composite cable, you had to pull out the S-Video cable. This lets you achieve the same thing without reaching behind the back of the TV. Again, nothing too important, but Sony of Europe not including it was baffling).
From what I gather the overscan adjustment does not let you completely defeat the overscan (same as the US model). But it does let you choose from 0, -1 and -2 I think (or was it 0, +1 and +2? I can't remember).
Oh, and on the old European models, you could only tweak the picture settings for the "Custom" mode in normal usage. You had to use this little
tip I came up with to edit "Vivid" mode, for example. On the American versions, all 3 picture modes were always editable. As with everything else, it's the same on the European model now. You can edit everything except for the "Advanced Picture Options" in all the modes. The Advanced options are editable in the Custom mode.
The new Sonys also have 3 options for the Power Saving mode: Off, Low and High.
So, the "Eurotrashing" has stopped
The only technical inferiority to the US models now is having interlaced-only RGB SCART sockets in place of some extra Component ones. A bit annoying but nothing a switch-box won't solve, the European ones have 1x Component in. I'll let that slide now because I understand it's partly a Localisation issue. (Give us two next time though, and two HDMI
)
The Samsung's menus are the same as last years' only the remote control IR sensor is improved. It responds better to remote commands now so tweaking the picture isn't as big a chore. For example on last years' LE32R41B I used, decreasing the Sharpness control by 20 notches meant 20 presses of the remote control to make it happen a good speed. You can just hold the button down now - makes tweaking the picture a lot easier.
Also I'm glad that Samsung have given the user more control over the backlight under the "Power Saving" mode which i think has 3 settings, Low Medium and High, but I could be wrong there because I spent more time with the Sony.
The picture
At first I was a bit surprised because the Samsung looked as if it was producing better blacks. I found this wasn't the case though, what was actually happening was that Currys' poor quality in-store loop had been telecined (telecine = film to video transfer) poorly and as a result had a sort of blue light shining behind the picture. The Sony was re-producing this faithfully to the source (a good thing, because at home you'd never have material that had been transferred this poorly), whereas the Samsung's DNIe engine was artificially boosting the contrast so high that the subtle blue tint was gone from the picture, as were most of the details in the black areas. I don't know if this can be gotten rid of by tweaking or not, but the Sony's contrast was whacked up to FULL and there was no dark details disappearing from the picture - no "black holes". Very impressive.
Disclaimer: I didn't spend enough time with the Samsung to find the Dynamic Contrast and turn it off (if it was on). So if you were considering the Samsung don't knock it off your list just yet because of this, not without giving it a look over first anyway.
Samsung still don't let you turn DNIe off. I left the store with my mind made up: DNIe is a joke and the fact that the user is allowed to see a split-screen "demo" of DNIe off on the left and on on the right, with the DNIe-less side looking BETTER, is ridiculous. DNIe applies a lot of edge enhancement. This made the in-store loop look (even more) terrible. It brought out all the noise and dot crawl from the image. Samsung seriously need to let the user turn DNIe off because it really isn't good at all.
The Sony's renderng of the shoddy RF loop was honestly no worse than you'd get from a CRT. Any objectionable noise reduction can be turned off completely. You get the feeling that BRAVIA Engine restores the picture to as close to what it would have looked like before it was sent down a shoddy RF cable whereas the other manufacturers' clean-up systems try to "improve" the picture beyond that and end up making a mess of it. As usual, any "messing around" with the picture that the Sony LCD does is very conservative.
From adjusting the Sharpness, it looks like it is possible to have NO edge enhancement on the Sony but I'll tell you for sure some other time. Take that with a pinch of salt because it's kind of hard to tell on the poor quality RF loop the store was using.
The viewing angle on both was good. Far better than my old 2004 LCD WEGA.
Looks
The Sony one looks great. It was the black version (2010U I think?) Not quite as nice as the V-Series but nice to look at nonetheless. It looks a lot better in the flesh that it does in pictures, I'm not sure why this is.
Sorry to say it but the Samsung one looks cheap. The entire TV is made out of that shiney black stuff - even the back. Imagine reaching around the back to plug in some equipment and pulling away and getting the thing covered in sweaty finger-prints. I didn't touch it so I don't know if it really collects finger prints or not but I'd imagine so?
Conclusion
All in all, very impressed by the new Sony S-Series. From just looking at the picture, I couldn't find a single thing wrong with it. Pity that the remote doesn't feel as nice as the older models but that's really the only thing I can think of. I'm not saying it's definitely as 100% perfect as the technology allows, every TV will end up having it's strange quirks - but nothing stuck out at me which is very promising.
Oh, and also regarding my Samsung criticisms, do remember that the Sony ones' RRP was about 400 pounds more (worth it if you're into getting the closest to perfection you can get at that price range, like me).
I honestly don't know how I'm going to wait for the new V-Series model. Early May can't come soon enough!
Linear Mode
