SONY KDL40S5500 Or KDL40W5500

[T5SOR]

Please could someone let me know what the difference between the above is? The only difference I can see is the price tag, with the W5500 being £200 more.

Does the W5500 have a better picture? Sound? Newer?


Mike

[OldSkoolRS]

My Dad is looking at getting one of these and asked me to look into the differences between these: The 'W' seems to have more than double the contrast ratio of the 'S' and accepts a 24p input from BluRay (rather than using 50/60Hz like older spec TVs have to do, which causes judder as BluRay is usually a 24p source from film), where the 'S' doesn't appear to alow 24p input. The 'S' uses the Bravia 2 processor whereas the 'W' uses the Bravia 3, not sure if there's really much difference there TBH, but it's implied that '3' is 'better' than '2' I suppose.

Not sure about the sound side of things as I never use the TVs speakers myself, I have a separate amp and speakers, so I don't pay much attention to the TV's sound side of things. There are possibly other differences, but those seem to be the main ones.

EDIT: My initial reply misread and I answered for my Dad's question which was 'S' or 'V'...apart from the extra (80,000:1 verses 60,000:1) contrast of the W over the V, there didn't seem to be much to persuade him to spend the extra over the 'V'. Unless viewing in a well setup demo room, it might be hard to see any difference in store between these models. Also bear in mind that the contrast ratio of these TVs should be taken with a pinch of salt. In practice they are probably nearer 5,000:1 real world measurements. My 40W2000 was specified as 8,000:1 and I measured it at 1,100:1 when I calibrated it recently, though it still gives a good picture IMHO.

Edited by OldSkoolRS on Friday 11th September 18:55

[T5SOR]

OldSkoolRS said:

My Dad is looking at getting one of these and asked me to look into the differences between these: The 'W' seems to have more than double the contrast ratio of the 'S' and accepts a 24p input from BluRay (rather than using 50/60Hz like older spec TVs have to do, which causes judder as BluRay is usually a 24p source from film), where the 'S' doesn't appear to alow 24p input. The 'S' uses the Bravia 2 processor whereas the 'W' uses the Bravia 3, not sure if there's really much difference there TBH, but it's implied that '3' is 'better' than '2' I suppose.

Not sure about the sound side of things as I never use the TVs speakers myself, I have a separate amp and speakers, so I don't pay much attention to the TV's sound side of things. There are possibly other differences, but those seem to be the main ones.

EDIT: My initial reply misread and I answered for my Dad's question which was 'S' or 'V'...apart from the extra (80,000:1 verses 60,000:1) contrast of the W over the V, there didn't seem to be much to persuade him to spend the extra over the 'V'. Unless viewing in a well setup demo room, it might be hard to see any difference in store between these models. Also bear in mind that the contrast ratio of these TVs should be taken with a pinch of salt. In practice they are probably nearer 5,000:1 real world measurements. My 40W2000 was specified as 8,000:1 and I measured it at 1,100:1 when I calibrated it recently, though it still gives a good picture IMHO.

Edited by OldSkoolRS on Friday 11th September 18:55

Thank you for the info

I was in Tesco earlier and they have both side by side. Looking at them the "S" picture seems more fuzzy. The "W" picture looked darker, which I guess you can adjust? Pricey in Tesco though, £880 quid, only £750 in Richer Sounds!


Mike

Edited by T5SOR on Saturday 12th September 12:40

[OldSkoolRS]

Yeah, I wouldn't hold too much store by what you see in Tescos. They may not be setup properly, or even they may be fiddled with by customers (or staff that don't know any better). The darker one may have had the backlight turned down, the brightness adjusted or the light sensor may be switched on which can effect brightness if it thinks the ambient light is strong. There may not be a good reason why the S looked fuzzy either...it could just be that the sharpness was cranked up on the 'W' or it could be the difference between the Bravia '2' engine against the '3'of the W.

I don't know if the current models have the same settings as my older 40W2000, but mine has three settings for every input (or you can select that they are all the same for all inputs): Vivid (horrible, with everything up full), Standard (not bad and the first quick fix to try when you get it home) and Custom where you can tweak all the settings to your own requirements, including turning the backlight down a bit to improve black levels in a dimmly lit room. In the shop if you can at least set both TVs to Standard it might give you some idea of whether the differences between models is worth the cost.

Edited by OldSkoolRS on Saturday 12th September 14:07

[derestrictor]

JVC LT-42DR1 - can't find a machine gun smiley but it machine guns the above - black levels no lcd has any right to produce...sorry.

[peanutjb]

T5SOR said:

Thank you for the info

I was in Tesco earlier and they have both side by side. Looking at them the "S" picture seems more fuzzy. The "W" picture looked darker, which I guess you can adjust? Pricey in Tesco though, £880 quid, only £750 in Richer Sounds!


Mike

Edited by T5SOR on Saturday 12th September 12:40

I was thinking of getting a 40V5500 (inbetween the S and the W) for 800 notes through the sony scrappage scheme (i.e. from a Sony centre). On closer inspection, the 46V5500 only cost 50 quid more... needless to say I did the right thing and got that instead!