The Problem is Choice...

[Mr Jezz]

Hey,

(I couldn't locate the Sony W3000 thread, the link seems to be invalid, so apologies if this ought to be in there.)

I am looking to buy a new TV, spending £1500 tops. I have a Sony TV at the moment, which I have been happy with. Having done some research it seems the Sony W series of LCD TV's are highly thought of. Currently my thinking is as follows;

either,

1 - Sony KDL40W2000 £1000 (bit concerned about the reported 'clouding' issue, how widespread is this?)
2 - Sony KDL40W3000 £1500 (have seen prices around this figure although may well be wrong)
3 - Sony KDL46W2000 with Sony RDR-HXD870 DVD Recorder - £1400

You can probably imagine what my questions are likely to be. Largely it's a toss up between the 2000 & 3000, if the price difference between the two 40inch models is around £500, is the new 3000 really worth the extra money, it's not exactly a small amount! I've read some stuff on the US web sites and they suggest many of the 'enhancements' are of little value. The 2000 seems to have crashed in price recently, I guess retailers are trying to clear out stock, I don't want to miss the chance to grab a bargain by waiting for the 3000 to come out, only to find it ain't worth the extra money. The second debate I'm having is the age-old question of whether size matters? I like big TV's! but 40inch ain't exactly small, however I found a deal for the 2000 46inch version, with HDD recorder for an extra £400, which seems pretty good. What would you rather do, save some dough and get the 40W2000, go for the future proofing and stump up the extra for the 40w3000, or spend the extra dosh, but on a bigger size and HDD recorder?

As I said, the problem is choice...

 

[ChrisGgr]

The W3000 will be a definitely better model than the W2000.The price also will be a little lower than 1500£.And the most important clouding is not as common that was in W2000!!!!

 

[King Louis]

With every successive new Sony range people keep saying ''they must have cured the clouding problems with their panels this time'', but no they never seem to. There have already been reports of clouding with the W3000 in the U.S. apparently, and as no-one over here has one I don't think it's fair to say that clouding won't be such a problem.

 

[ChrisGgr]

Yep I have seen the clouding reports in US.Yep CLOUDS STILL EXIST.Thats clear.But there arent like the W2000.Almost all W2000's and X2000's are cloudy(not all but large amount).That doesnt happen with V3000-W3000-X3000.There is clouding but not as previous years models

 

[King Louis]

The thing is that there aren't a large amount of V,W or X3000s about so it's really still to early to say how prominent it is.

 

[Mr Jezz]

Presumably, if you buy a model that suffers from clouding, you return it and hope to get a replacement that doesn't?

It would be good if the W3000 was less than £1500, but the question remains, is it worth the extra? Especially when you can get the 46-inch W2000 with HDD recorder for £1400.

 

[JayQ]

It's that same old nightmare situation; Do I buy now while prices are low or do I wait for the newer model.

Having spent the last month viewing the 40W2000 & 40D3000 I have come close on many occasions to actually buying. If the new models where more than a few months away I probably would have but they are going to be here by the end of this month.

As to them being better or worth more money for me it's almost irrelevant, from past experience I just know that if I bought now then the first time I saw the new model I'd want it!

I'm going to wait 4 weeks and see what happens, ultimately I aint going to wait for ever but it is only 1 month. Also have you looked at the new V3000?

 

[ChrisGgr]

Also V3000 is better than W2000 and will cost around 1.100£!!So maybe this is a better choice!!Also the 46V3000 will cost around 1.500£!!

 

[Mr Jezz]

I'd been wondering about the V3000, do you know what the difference is between the V and W 3000? I read somewhere that some of the models won't have the new x.v.Color technology and the backlit remote, according to CNET the colour stuff is not much use at the moment anyway, as only certain camcorders can make use of it.

source CNET

 

[ChrisGgr]

The W3000 adds to V3000:
Bravia Engine EX
x.v. colour

The only difference that is visible is on SD because BE EX makes better job than the simple BE

 

[Mr Jezz]

Doesn't sound that enticing really, not considering I guess a £200 or £300 price difference. Does anyone know if the V or W can do 1080p over VGA? Got an xbox 360 I wanna upscale dvd's on.

 

[zAndy1]

Does it have to be a Sony?

 

[Mr Jezz]

Nope! but there are allot of TV's out there, ya have to narrow it down somehow. From what I can tell the current W2000, (clouding aside), has a very good rep, that's why i'm looking at sony's.

 

[davejm]

It's also worth considering the Samsung M87 range. If you can get one with more recent firmware, then you've got yourself a good TV.

 

[Mr Jezz]

What about the new Samsung F86 series? specificaly the LE46F86BD, seems to have a good spec, and the price is quite allot less than the new crop of Sony's. My only reservation is the size of the thing! well the width really, it's 1222.3 mm, this seems about 100 mm more than most other 46inch tv's, which is a real pain! I can't figure why they've made it so much wider?!