Sony BRAVIA VE5-Series KDL-40VE5 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz Eco-friendly LCD HDTV

By HDTVReviewsDigest | Published: November 11, 2009
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Sony BRAVIA VE5-Series KDL-40VE5 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz Eco-friendly LCD HDTV
 
Manufacturer: Sony
Customer Rating:
 
List Price: $1,299.99
Sale Price: $849.00
Availibility: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Introducing the Sony BRAVIA VE5 HDTV, a revolutionary TV that combines energy-saving features with quality picture performance. Minimize excess power use with a high-efficiency backlight that uses over 50% less power in Home Mode than Energy Star 3.0 requirements. Plus enjoy Full HD 1080p picture quality and smooth motion with Motionflow 120Hz technology.

Product Details
  • Offers substantial power savings provision without compromising performance
  • Is the smallest of the VE5-series
  • Has Sony?s exclusive micro-tubular Hot Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (HCFL) technology which helps reducing power consumption by almost 40 percent
  • The zero-watt standby Energy Saving Switch
  • The light sensor feature of the new Sony KDL-40VE5 is likely to adjust the backlight depending on the room light

Video Reviews
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Customer Reviews
Great Picture and Features, plus it's eco-friendly
 
Review Date: July 31, 2009
Reviewer: J. Shope,
This is an excellent TV.

Picture Quality:
The picture quality of this set is superb. In the setup menu, I set the picture to "vivid" mode and the HD quality is simply life-like. The color and contrast are excellent. It also uses something that Sony calls MotionFlow which helps to smooth out the image when you are watching fast-action pictures.

Backlight Technology:
It is an LCD set, but uses a hot cathode fluorescent lamp for its backlighting. This technology allows it to be much more energy efficient and close to par with the energy usage of LED backlit LCD TVs. Most LCDs use cold cathode fluorescent lamps. The 40" model uses a maximum of 140 watts, the 46" uses a max of 160 watts, and the 52" uses a max of 180 watts.

Eco-Friendly:
It has a sensor called a presence sensor that does two things. First it senses the ambient (room) light and if the room gets darker, it will automatically dim the picture of the TV. This works well if you are watching TV in the bedroom at night and you want less light output. The second thing that the sensor does is senses the room for motion and body heat. If you leave the room for a preset amount of time (5 min, 30 min, ...) and the TV doesn't sense anyone around, it will turn off the picture. If you walk back in the room, it senses you and turns the screen back on. The sound stays on for another 30 minutes or so, then the whole set will go into stand-by mode if it does not sense you. Both of these features can be turned off via the setup menu and help to conserve energy.

Features (just a few of them):
The TV is loaded with features. It will automatically sense if you have something connected to an input (for example HDMI2). This is great when you want to hit the input button on the remote because it will not select items that aren't currently sending out a signal. This means you don't have to scroll through 10 items if you only have two components connected to the TV. In the setup menu, you can set each input for always on, always off, or auto. I used the always on setting for the PC input because the cable I used to connect the PC did not send a power signal so the TV did not sense it. By setting it to always on, the PC input will always be available when I scan through the inputs.

It also has a lot of inputs. There are 4 HDMI inputs. If you have a DVI port on your PC, then you can connect it through HDMI port 1 which also has an analog audio input. There is one dedicated composite (with S-video) and one dedicated component input, but there is another switchable composite/component input that you can use if you have two composites and one component, or vice versa. There is a PC input to connect via VGA connection. The audio outputs are one optical digital out and one analog out.


Dislikes:
1. All of the Inputs and Output are on the left side (when looking at the front of the TV) of the TV. This is unfortunate for me since my A/V cabinet is on the right side of the TV. It is a minor inconvenience, but something that I did not think about until I got the set home. I would say about half of the inputs are one the left side and the other half are on the back, next to the side inputs.

2. The presence sensor is right where I have my center audio speaker. I will have to raise up the TV to still have that speaker front and center.


Overall, this is not a cheap TV, but I think this is a case where you get what you pay for. It is a really great set.

Great Picture. TV is finally off in the morning!
 
Review Date: September 17, 2009
Reviewer: John Felisky, St. Louis, Mo USA
Auto-off feature is really nice. I'm not as green as I should be, but this set has solved my teenager falling asleep with the TV on all night. Picture is great, menu/settings are very user friendly, and only ports with an item plugged in are in the "input" rotation on the remote. Highly recommend.

One weird thing about the White Glove delivery from Amazon. They showed up on time, and even phoned ahead...very nice, plus set the TV up and took the garbage. However during the setup the TV searches for channels automatically. When this seemed to be going slow, the delivery guy says "this can take awhile the first time it runs", and my wife let them leave. After performing a "search" for about 30 minutes I discovered that they had used input cables from a DVD player that was not hooked up to the satellite system. I simply plugged an HDMI cable from the dish to the TV...and whammo...200+ channels almost instantly.

Everything else was great. I would make a similar purchase again with Amazon without hesitation.
Great value
 
Review Date: December 6, 2009
Reviewer: Colleen E. Peralta, REDDING, CA, US
Great TV. The only disappointment is the sound quality, when the sound is turned up halfway, there is a vibration to the sound. I would recommend adding speakers. The shipping was top notch! Well secured, and arrived quickly.
I love it !
 
Review Date: October 1, 2009
Reviewer: JLS, North Arlington, NJ USA
This TV is awesome! the picture is great and the sound is prety good.
MY WIFE HATES IT, BUT I LOVE IT: ITS JUST THE BEGINNING.
 
Review Date: March 7, 2010
Reviewer: KC, NYC, NY USA
I just got my KDL40-VE5 Sony Bravia, I kicks %#@#$... The picture is so clear it almost looks 3-D. Sound is perfect in the bedroom, in Dynamic setting is as good as the surround sound system in stereo setting(Yes you have to turn it up half way, but anything after that the house shakes not the speakers[Sony must have fixed the problem]). 100, 000:1 contrast means your old " View Master Viewer" is now in 40".

My 2years old genius daughter Has been trying to obtain products and items from the T.V. I'm happy my wall mount got here so I could get my 120 hz off the level of my little princess. I have a cable hd connection, and ps3 250g. Everything on HDMI connections. This may be what makes the difference???

My Wife however, does not like my Bravia. Mainly because my old westinghouse 47" 1080P, 60 hz, which only had 8000:1 contract. Just looks like a dinosaur now. The westinghouse does have a feature they called 1080Pure which give it a very good picture. I never thought someone else lcd looked better. In fact a few friends bought the same tv after seeing mine. Sorry guys... HA, HA.

The Eco Bravia has brought the future to my house. Now I'm shooting for 240hz, 1440p, 1,000,000:1.... don't look back guys, the future is waiting.
Huge power consumption savings, great picture quality, great value.
 
Review Date: January 21, 2010
Reviewer: H. Babcock, N. California, USA
I've had this TV for over three months now. Previous to purchasing this set I waited and shopped for over a year looking for the right TV at the right price. I run my place off solar power, with every watt I use of power making a difference, so I had been looking forward to this model since it was announced early in 2009 due to it's low power consumption. In this regard, it has not disappointed. For all LCD TV's, power consumption varies highly depending on how high you turn up the backlight. I use it almost solely for movies, which look great with the backlight at the lowest setting or up only 1 or 2 clicks ("Cinema" setting is nice). At lowest backlighting this TV uses only about 80watts of power (measured with my handy Kill-A-Watt meter). Upping the backlight to 2 increases it to about 90watts. (For those interested, if I turn it all the way up it goes up to about 145watts. But I never want it anywhere near this bright.) The TV running together with my Sony Bluray player uses a total of 96 watts when playing a Bluray movie. This is fantastic. By comparison, my previous TV, a couple year old high quality _32"_ Sharp model (also 1080p, and one of the more energy efficient models of its time), used nearly as much power as this 40" model. A new standard (non-"Eco") Sony 40" or a Samsung or other brand uses at least 125watts with the backlight turned down. With the backlight up other normal models use well over 200watts. So this model has a real world 40% power consumption savings compared to a typical 40" set. This is fantastic, and every bit as good as I had hoped.

Also if you're considering a bigger 46 or 52" set, the power consumption of this EV model in those bigger sizes actually scales better relative to normal LCD's (not to mention plasmas) also. Meaning as you go up in size, you actually get a higher percentage increase in power consumption savings. So for example, the 46" EV uses only about 20 watts more power than this 40", compared to an increase of about 60 or more watts in a standard V-series or other brand LCD for the same increase in size.

Power consumption: 5/5 stars.

As to the picture quality, it is every bit as good as I expected for an LCD set. Even the blacks on this set are a huge improvement over my previous 2 year old Sharp 32" LCD. They even seem slightly better (darker) than my brother's one year old 52" Sony V-series (52V4100). Of course the black levels aren't going to be as perfect as my friend's new 50" plasma, due to the inherent flaws in LCD technology, but they are as good as any LCD I've seen, and I'm happy with that. I am sourcing almost solely Bluray, so the quality is top notch. I can not comment on how SD television looks as I've never used it, and don't really understand why anyone would want to buy an expensive HDTV like this primarily for SD content. DVD's through the Bluray player upscaling, look surprisingly good. Though nowhere near as stunning as Bluray, definitely better than standard DVD quality.
In every other way the picture quality is fantastic, with one exception: There is a very slight "bleed in" of light on the upper left and right corners. I guess this might be that notorious problem I've heard about with Sony's. As someone who is meticulous on details, I did notice it right away when I first turned on the set. However, it is only noticeable when the background is black, for example during movie end credits, and as I said, it is very slight. If it were more than very slight, I definitely would have returned or exchanged the set immediately, but it's a tiny negative to an otherwise outstanding LCD picture quality.

Picture quality: 4/5 stars.

Sound quality, despite all the bad reviews I see here, is above average for built in sound on a flat panel. In fact, it's far and away above most other HDTV's I tested, particularly Samsung models, which seem to almost intentionally have unusable built in sound. It is also much better than my previous Sharp model, which incidentally still had much better sound than than the Samsung models I tested. I carefully tested the sound on some higher end Sony models as well (last year's Z and XBR) and found the sound quality on this to be comparable. The real test however, is will the built in sound be acceptable, "good enough", when actually watching a movie. It passes this test. It seems to depend a lot on the source or the actual specific disc, as sometimes having the sound at under half volume is fine, while another movie will require it to be nearly all the way up, but overall I find the built in speakers surprisingly usable.
As to the vibration noise issue reported by many here, I do notice some vibration noise when the bass is loud and the volume is turned up high, on occasion, but not so much as to be a glaring problem. Maybe others here got defective speakers. In conclusion, the sound is as good as any flat panel set I've used yet (better than 50" Panasonic Plasma, better than most other LCD's, about equal to high end LCD's). Especially if you're using the TV mainly for sports and TV, the built in sound is good. That said, as would be the case with any HDTV today, I will probably be adding a good quality sound bar or surround system in the future, to get more of a theater-like movie experience.

Sound quality: 4/5 stars.

Overall I'm very satisfied with this set. I felt compelled to put in my two cents after reading the several negative reviews here. Many of the negatives seem to either be due to bad speakers, or some unrealistic expectation with regard to SD (Standard Definition) picture quality, etc. I'm glad I bought it before reading all the bad speakers reviews, as those reviews might have stopped me from buying it. Few people seem interested in this TV's main draw which makes it worth the slight premium over Sony's regular V-series set: Low power consumption. In this regard it is so far and away above the rest that I'm tempted to give the set 5 stars overall. The only reason I'm not is because of the very slight light bleed in at the top corners, for which I refuse to give Sony the "perfect" 5 stars.

Lastly, when you consider that the price of this has come down so much now as we head into 2010 with new models on the horizon, I think right now is the sweet spot in terms of the value you get with this set, if you're looking for a good quality TV with low power consumption.

Overall: 4/5 stars.

Not for everyone. But read on.
 
Review Date: December 12, 2009
Reviewer: JR, Kingsport, TN
Let me start by saying this might have been an awesome LCD TV. I bought mine from Sears at a fantastic sale price ($850) less a 10% Sears card discount. The more I read about this TV the more I liked it.

The Good: If all you plan to do is watch High Def sources (Blu Ray, HD TV, etc.) then you will love this TV. It has a beautiful HD picture and comes with many great features. With 100,000:1 contrast ratio and 120 HZ refresh it is top shelf. Claims super low power use and appearance is very nice. If you do not plan to watch anything "non" HD then I can recommend this TV. Otherwise, read on to learn more.

The Bad: This issue will not bother everyone but it bothered me enough to return the TV (very reluctantly) to Sears. Major kudos to Sears for their courtesy. This [intermittent] issue is with non-HD sources such as regular cable signal using coax input or standard DVD using composite input. Given a low light scene (i.e. night scene) the brightness level would vary as if in "search mode". Sometimes the picture would fade to almost black and then snap back to normal or anywhere in between as the scene changed. We used our new Sony as the main TV and watched everything on it (old shows, new shows, HD stations, standard DVDs of which we have over a hundred and not likely to be converting them all over to Blu Ray $$$$!!!) and this problem was noticed on multiple channels and DVDs. In addition, std DVDs using the Component video (RGB) input looked pretty bad but that may be somewhat adjustable and up-converting may help. I did not get that far. I tested another identical TV purchased by a friend with the same results. This bothered me more than it did the rest of my family but I refuse to pay that much for anything that does not work properly out-of-the-box.

Please note that I did give Sony support one chance to rectify this issue but never got past the first level inexperienced "receptionist" who asked the usual "no-brainer" questions. I had to explain to him the actual menu path (his "resources" were incorrect) to get to the backlight/light sensor settings only to confirm that the factory defaults were as they should be. I left Sony some feedback on that issue. If it was a known issue then Sony could have told me a fix was in the works and I would have been OK with that. If it is not yet known to them (not likely) then a fix may never happen. Their loss for not escalating my call. Plus now they have a poor review to deal with.

I really hated having to return the TV but I cannot accept IQ problems from a top 3 company like Sony with that kind of investment.

Also, Remote is simple but not great (the most used buttons at bottom rather than middle where they belong) but remotes are a minor issue.
Hope this helps someone with their LCD shopping.
Great picture - Lousy sound
 
Review Date: January 8, 2010
Reviewer: G. Salter,
I purchased the Bravia KDL-40VE5 yesterday (Jan 6, 2010). It was very easy to set up. The picture is very good but, the sound is really bad. And, there's buzzing/vibrating in the right speaker. It sounds worse than my bedside clock-radio. Nonetheless, I thought adding auxilary speakers would fix the audio. Well, this didn't work very well either... the only audio output is 'fixed', therefore, the auxillary speakers will not respond to mute or volume control. Otherwise, the additional(computer) speakers ($30) made the TV come alive. Well, anyway, this won't work! Hard to believe believe that a $1000 TV sounds this lousy and will not support a couple of additional speakers. Really disappointed... think I'll take it back.
Green House
 
Review Date: April 7, 2010
Reviewer: Smash lite, New York, Ny United States
Being that it's a new TV I was expecting much more in terms of picture quality. It doesn't even comr close to my 32 inch vizio that J brought like 3 years ago. But if u always fall asleep watching tv yet u wanna save money it's perfect. Especially since I havnt seen any other tv with that feature. That's the only reason I brought it bc my son keeps the tv on every night and raises the con Ed bill. If u don't need the energy saving sensor than don't waste your time on this tv
Sony LCD Review
 
Review Date: November 24, 2009
Reviewer: M. Breier,
The sound isn't so great. I have a 7-year-old 36" RCA console with better sound. It could be that I don't understand how to adjust my screen so that I get a picture that has all the correct attributes. When I set the screen so I see all that the screen has to offer I get 4 inch bars on the top and bottom of my screen which results in a narrow picture. If I set it to a "wide-zoom" screen I lose some of the picture or information and it's the same if I set it to "full". Sony's manual doesn't explain this very well. This is my first HD television so maybe I just need to learn how to use it.

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