Sony KDL46W4500 versus Samsung LE46A786

[Bamboozled]

Hi there,

I'm on the brink of ordering my new LCD tv. I have read much on the forums and wonder if someone out there can help clarify the mind !

With the Samsung I sure like the idea of LED backlight, very dark blacks and also like the design of the bezel. It looked great in the shop. Very new technology with maybe some time required to refine this so some risk ?

The Sony appears to be liked very much by owners. Though I'm not so happy about the physical squarer edged design I feel that this maybe a safer choice. I have not seen this model in action but have been very impressed with the Bravias I have seen.

As its a stepup from my old crt I'm sure I will be stunned by either but the question is .. which is best for what is for me quite a big purchase ?

I will be watching approx 75% SD, 20% Sky HD and 5% Blue ray films.

I'm sure that I would not be able to arrange to see them side by side as I live a little remote and am a little dissappointed that magazine reviews/comparisons are few at this time .. and I don't think I can wait !

Any comments would be much appreciated.

Bamboozled

 

[qubyb]

Hi Bamboozled,

I find myself in the exact same position. I'm already glad I was able to shrink the list down to these two To me they seem the be the best of the pack.

I have written some thoughts that can be found over here: http://www.avforums.com/forums/lcd-televisions/794082-samsung-le-a780-series-led-34.html#post7893321

Later I had a second opportunity to extensively watch both screens in another shop with content I brought myself and to me the decision is final now … it is going to be the Sammy.

The reasons all have to do with picture quality, in my eyes the Sammy performed best, nicer colors and deeper blacks, fluent, easy on the eyes. The Sony was a bit more "grainy" in cam pans and it had less "depth" which has to do with the difference between a matte screen and the glossy screen of the Sammy. The Sony showed slight coloration (pinkish and greenish) on grayscale test pictures and on a full screen 50% grey picture the screen was uneven and again slightly colorized. Also the Sony showed some strange “flickering” of the screen, possibly the backlight, subtle but noticeable. This can be exemplary, I cannot tell. Later I read about it in a forum though, so more people have noticed it. Also all the posts about “clouding” worry me.

Yet that all is not important because I just liked the Sammy's pictures better, plus the fact that it has far more controls to tune color and gamma etc, where the Sony has none. The only area where Sony was better is with USB picture viewing.

The latest German “Video HomeVision” magazine http://tests.magnus.de/foto-video-hifi/artikel/drei-lcd-fernseher-im-test.html tested the Philips 9703, the Sony X4500 and the Samsung A956 (=786 + multimedia stuff). All have led backlight. The test conclusion stated that “… with the LCD picture quality battle the Samsung 956 is the clear winner”. So ... they thought it even better than the X4500!

Although you say it will be difficult, best you can do is try to get to see both (not necessarily side by side) and watch. I'd never buy any TV unseen, you can't rely on what others say because everyone has his/her own viewing preferences. Ask for the remotes and tune the settings away from the standard shop setting which most often is “Dynamic” and critically watch different types of content, for an hour or more …

 

[Bamboozled]

Hi qubyb,

Just noticed your response .. many thanks.
I didn't see the Sony, decided on the Samsung 40 and after getting it home and falling in love with it replaced it with the 46 so I am now in awe of this amazing new 'window' that I have in my livingroom.

I am so grateful for the patience of the guys in Robert Whyte, their help, enthusiasm and for supporting my mind change.

I had sky HD installed today so this had added to the facilities that will I'm sure help to keep me sane through the winter.

I bought a Sony BDPS350 Blueray player also.

I am amazed with the quality of the Blue ray and surprised that the clarity of SD DVD's upscaled (hope that's the right word/context !) by the Sony is also so good. I have the recent 'flight of the pheonix' on SD DVD from a few years back and the quality of the desert scenes is impressive.

Also SD from the SkyHD box is noticably better than what I was getting from my freesat from sky box, maybe because the connection is now HDMI from SCART previously. The few HD mix channels I have from sky are fab.

So I am extremely happy with my new set up and might stretch to a home cinema amp and speaker system at some point.

I also need to look at setting it up as noted in the main
Re: Samsung LE-A780 SERIES LED
thread as this appears to be getting support from users.

So this is an extremely happy new Samsung backlit LED owner.

Lots of superlatives in this thread, very little techy data written with a big grin.

Sending thanks again to the guys in Robert Whyte Glasgow.

 

[qubyb]

Hi qubyb,

Just noticed your response .. many thanks.
I didn't see the Sony, decided on the Samsung 40 and after getting it home and falling in love with it replaced it with the 46 so I am now in awe of this amazing new 'window' that I have in my livingroom.

Glad you like your new set.

I just oredered mine and hope to be as happy with it as you are!

 

[skyform]

Im also between this two, actually Z4500 and X4500 are now in the play aswell.

So far i have seen W4500, 40X4500 and A956 but next week im going again to the shop to check out Z4500 which arrived this week. I will compare them once again very carefully.

So far my fav is X4500, because of a better SD then A956 and it also doesnt have all the problems that W4500 owners report, i guess BE 2 pro seems to be more complete and with less problems and X4500 also had white balance settings which W4500 and Z4500 does not have and a far better quick menu and remote.

The only thing that worries me is the clouding, it looks horrible on this year Sony's.

All of them had it V4000, W4000, W4500 and even X4500, i couldn't notice it when watching straight but as soon as i changed the angle a bit it looked horrible, the strange thing is that the last years models didnt have this problem, they all looked great, even from a very strong angle, X3500 unifirmity looked superb.

Looks like that Sony doesnt care about this