I'm just about to pull the trigger on a Sony KDF55WF655 and read a few more "reviews" from a quick google search. A couple of them mentioned that anything other than true HDTV looks grainy on the Sony LCD's.
Anyone have any personal experience that they could share?
Actually, I always thought Sony had a soft feel to SD. However, Sony is said to have the best SD picture but of course won't look as good as HD.
TM
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I have the KD42WF655 and the SD looks better on it than any other set I've seen. I had a Samsung DLP and it made SD look waxy. I took my DV camcorder into Circuit City and played it back on a number of sets and that's one reason I bought the Sony. I am very pleased with the Sony LCD. I have had it for over a month. Since Circuit City and Best Buy have 30 day return on the TVs, I brought them home for a real test. I have regular cable and the tuner in the Sony picks out the digital channels in basic cable that you would normally need the digial box for and even pay for. I get Video on Demand channels. Never know what or when something is on but it's free. I use a set top antenna to pick up local DS channels. Can't say enough good things about this set.
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback. One other question. Everyone seems to buy from Circuit City and Bestbuy. What about the online dealers? The cost is ALOT less and I'm thinking about using one of them. - Steve
TM
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I would be a little worried about something so big and expensive as this tv being shipped to me. No telling who is handling the box. But then again, they are shipped to CC and BB. But then again, you can take them back real fast if there is something wrong with them. I have not had real good luck with mail order electonics of any worth so I take a long look at what I will save against everything else.
Also like Steve in the original post, I have been contemplating pulling the trigger on the Sony 55wf655 or xs models. I have been looking at both for weeks. I am still new to the dlp and lcd markets. I just recently sold my old CRT to step up to a new wide screen. Dlp scares me, and LCD looks great.
Anyway, I thought I would come right to the source. This week I was going to buy the WS but when I went back to CC it looked fuzzy and not near as good the past 2 weeks! Should this alarm me? I checked the video settings and put them back to standard. I am already scared of these; no one really knows the life expectancy. I really want it but may need to go back to the rock solid world of CRT.
sailsonly
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Can't really say enough bad things about Big ticket online purchases from those e-tailers.I ordered from one and got the run around for 3 weeks.Charged my credit card before they even had the item in stock.Then another week to credit my account. The stores appear to have several different names for the same operation.There are probably some good ones out there.I just didn't find one. Seems like their reviews are extreme one way or another.When you are spending anywhere from 2-5 grand it pays to be careful. My advice is stick with tweeters, cc or another brick and mortar store.
tnbubba
Unregistered guest
Posted on
sailsonly, that is my thinking also. i have purchased cameras, vcr etc from some of these warehouses, but when you're spending $4 to 5 grand it makes you think a little harder. that's why after weeks of considering one of them i went up the street to tweeters and made my purchase. i can sleep tonight. one reason that steered me this way is i e-mailed the store with some questions. they got right back to me and i had a couple of other questions and of course got someone else. he sent me an answer on the warranty on the bulb. said it was covered under ext warranty. then when i called the store to get a couple more questions answered i asked him again about the bulb and he said oh no, no bulb coverage. makes you start wondering then. they couldn't even tell me who the service people were in my area. icalled a few and they never heard of the co issuing the ext warranty. do your homework!!
Thanks guys! I'm thinking hard about buying from a local retailer. Right now for the TV, Stand and extended warranty it's about a 25% difference. That's quick a bit when talking about a 3k to 4k purchase..
I was hoping for a few hundred dollar difference to make this decision easy!!!
Rocky
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Steve,I just ordered the kdf-55wf655 from CC. I think it is risky to buy this type of product from an e-tailor. There are too many stories here and elsewhere about lcds and dlps that come defective or become that way in a short period of time. It would be a nightmare to be shipping these back and forth etc. I agree that saving the bucks sounds good, but having someone local to step in and step up when there is a problem makes alot of sense. Also, the no hassle 30 day refund is huge, because of what you have asked about. Some people just have better luck with these sets than others. If it doesn't work well for you (or me) with the connections and signals we have, we send it back and start over.
spudg
Unregistered guest
Posted on
As a 25 year service professional in the industry, I would recommend to EVERYONE to check with the specialty retailers in your area before buying!! Most of the time they will match the price from BB and CC. For a true education and demonstration, even if you pay a few dollars more, the specialty retail salespeople are professionals, not clerks as they are in the big box stores. If the specialty retailer is a servicing dealer too, that should help seal the deal. A good service dept is worth its weight in gold!! Don't depend on an independent servicer who has nothing at stake if your TV breaks.
Clarkboy
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I'm thinking about getting the 55WF655, but CC and Best Buy want 3299 for the TV. My wife doesn't think a TV for 3G's is worth it. That's why I'm comtemplating purchasing this TV from a online vendor. I was able to find the TV for 2373 and this is with authorized online Sony dealer. I checked the Sony website to in fact make sure the vendor was a authorized dealer. I found the TV cheaper at other online store, but none are authorized to sell Sony product. So if I want the TV I have to put my trust in this online vendor and hope everything turns out for the best. Wish me luck.
Before you make that jump, find out where the vendor is located. then do a search and see if you can actually find their physical location.Give them a call and tell them you have a friend in the area and could they come by and look at the set and possibly even pick it up. Loads of these etailers don't stock anything and take your money and then try to figure out a way to drop ship it to you. In your case, if you can go pick it up, you just saved yourself a bundle of money, if you can't pick it up then it's gotta be shipped and that's when the hassles begin. If it is shipped via a truck line you will be charged extra to come into a residential area. Don't have a fork lift? Then you get charged extra for a drop gate, and the box is gonna get left right there in the street. You gotta take a day off from work to wait for the truck, unless you want to go to their depot with a friends truck to pick it up. Now I'm not saying you'll have to go through all of this, but others who are thinking of using an online etailer really need to think it through. So you've saved yourself a bunch of cash and when You and your buddy go to the truck depot to pick the tv up you notice a nice gash in the box, well you can take it home and open it up, but you must also sign the frieght companies release form in order to remove it, and then load it in your friends truck. O.K., You get it home and find a ding in the screen, frieght company says "not us" you signed the release. Other senario, you want to unpack it to check for damage at the frieght depot, or in the back of the trailer before the driver doing the home delivery pushes it out to you. You say "just want to see if there is any damage", well they're not goin to let you unpack it there, because they don't want to ship the tv back to the shipper in a taped up box. Third senario seeing a ding or gash, You flat out refuse to accept it and say "send it back", that's fine with the trucking company and back it goes. In the mean time the etailer has his money (used to be your money) and now he's gotta get a claim filed against the trucking company. Well sir that takes about six weeks.By now your wife is so pissed cause you're now paying interest on a credit card, on the tv you haven't gotten yet! If your dealing with an outfit like Crutchfields, then you're lucky cause those folks will make it all work out,(can't say enough good things about them) if your dealing with some of the folks I've dealt with then keep the pressure on them. Cause they've been paid and your way way over there in never never land, and they know you can't come in to hassle them. Good luck and I really hope it all works out for the best.I have dealt with trucking companies in my business and have written from experience.
To add on to the on-line buy debate. I bought mine from CC, glad I did. First one - out of an undamaged box - had a big crack on the face plate. They exchanged it in 24 hours - delivered for free.
I usually like the on-line, but when it costs so much to ship, if I had to ship it back for any reason the savings is lost.
I decided to go with CC after alot of deliberation. It cost a little more, but I think having the local folks to deal with is going to be worth it. My WEGA was delivered quickly and works like a champ. I do have one pixel that is stuck glowing green, but CC was willing to do whatever I wanted to make me happy about it. After a bunch more reading, I decided just to stick with this set since it sounds like a few stuck or dead pixels is pretty common and with my luck I'd get a new one with 3 instead of only 1! :-)
Whao! As a current owner of a Sony KDF60WF655, I'd like to chime in for my 2 cents. 1. Smassey: You are absolutely wrong. Dead pixels on LCD projection tv is NOT a common thing. It CAN happen to them but fairly rarely. It behooves me that anyone would hold on to one that is brand new and already has a dead pixel. I hope you didn't get hustled by CC guys. 2. Smassey, et al: Sony LCD projection tvs are well known for their pq of sd programs. As a few have already mentioned, Sony shows sd programs better than DLPs since Sony has been working at this particular technology for about 5 years whereas others have been focusing only on hd signals. 3. Retailers vs Etailers: I researched dlps and lcds and lcos for about a year and also spent 5 months trying to decide on where to buy. Since etailers were about $500 to $1000 cheaper than retailers on 60 inch Samsung dlps and Sony lcds, I always thought I should get it from an etailer. For the savings, I could get all the accessories plus dvd players etc. The more I read the "ratings" of etailers on the Pricegrabber.com, Shopzilla.com, Nexttag.com, etc (those are comparison shopping sites), the less confident I became. It seemed that the cheapers ones were the smaller ones with short histories. I read an article that said that many are "shell" operations out of a home-- basically working as a middleman for distributors without any or little actual warehouse of their own. To make the long story short, I decided to buy from an etailer named "Ecost.com." I decided to buy from this company because it was the ONLY public company that actually trades on the nasdaq. Nasdaq companies adhere to a very strict financial standard when compared to other companies. Ecost's price on my Sony was about $200 higher than other smaller etailers but still $600 better than CC, $800 better than BB and $900 better than The Good Guys. So I purchased one on 12/17/04 for $2899 --- and here's the kicker--- $223 for a Fedex overnight delivery. All other etailers charge $500 to $800 for overnight on 60" tvs. I could not believe it and would not believe it until a Fedex guy actually knocked on my door the next morning with my new Sony. What I also noticed on the comparison shopping sites's ratings of Ecost.com was that most complaints were about the "handling fee" that are tacked on all orders that isn't obvious when you put an order in shopping cart. It's only about $25 for the tv and my salesguy took it off my order. I also liked the fact that it was a Nasdaq traded company and the tv was delivered by Fedex.
Thanks for your 2 cents for what they are worth. As far as anyone being wrong about dead or stuck pixels being common or not, you need to do a little more research and maybe actually talk to Sony support on the issue.
As far as your good luck with ecost goes, that's great. I too have bought some smaller ticket items from them and had good service. In the end, I just ended up prefering having a local company to deal with.
Thx, Steve
BigSonyFan
Unregistered guest
Posted on
To Clarkboy -- CC (at least in Indianapolis) has a sale on Sony KDF60WF655 running through tomorrow (Saturday) for $2,569 before tax. They are matching a more regional store's price (HH Gregg).
Good day. For the past 3 months I have been looking for a widescreen TV. I am leaning towards the SONY RP 55" LCD. So, how does this compare to the DLP models? I need an expert opinion quick. My wife is tired of looking! Should I spend the 3K on the Sony? Also will the warranty cover the bulb and dead pixels?
Anonymous
Posted on
CC matched the Electronics-Expo.com (they have physical stores in NJ) for me last week. The price was atleast $600 cheaper than their price, and lesser than many online e-tailers as well. The CC warranty covers the bulb replacement. Getting it delivered today!