Turn Off The Damn Light Sensor! – I bought the Bravia KDL32CX520 from the Good Guys for $735.
This is a great TV! It's sharpness, colour, responsiveness: all fantastic! a real delight to use, especially with Blueray. BUT it took me 5 hours of fiddling with the options to make it come alive. I'll save you that trouble by telling you the secret right now.
When you take it out of the box, screw in the stand and turn it on you will be asked whether you want "Home" use or "Shop" use. If you say "Home" then the picture will be dull and the viewing experience underwhelming. NO AMOUNT OF FIDDLING with the picture options will fix the problem. The secret is to TURN OFF THE LIGHT SENSOR! Do that and you will have a lovely TV. Don't do it and you will be thinking: Damn, I should have bought the Sharp...
The other alternative is to say "Shop" on the original setup and that will turn off the damn fool light sensor for you and you will get a nice bright, rather over processed picture straight away. Obviously Sony know that the light sensor is stupid and wrecks the image, that's why they disable it in the "Shop" mode, so that the picture looks good enough to buy. So why do they ruin the "Home" experience of everyone who isn't a geek? Obviously THEY DON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENS ONCE YOU'VE PAID YOUR MONEY!
Anyway, now that you know the two ways to avoid the problem you can buy this TV with confidence, knowing that you'll get a knock out picture. You can get a slightly more natural image with some adjusting of the controls but the main secret is to kill the light sensor. This TV also allows different picture profiles for different inputs, so can setup your PC, TV and Blueray individually.
You can hook up the internet with a network cable and watch YouTube or surf the net. I tried this and the YouTube client works quite well, but really, using the remote as a phone keypad to type in search words is a pain, you're much better off connecting the TV to your computer and using a proper keyboard. As for the Web Browser: It's a turkey. Don't even think about using it.
This TV comes with a good range of inputs that should cover whatever needs you have. I use the optical audio out, to send the sound to my surround sound receiver. I use the component video in and also the HDMI. It all works flawlessly.
The on screen display is generally very good but the "Home" page, which allows you select your entertainment source is a real pain and a waste of a good idea. If you use this to change channels you'll be there all night. Fortunately there are other ways to choose what to view and I just use the button at the top of the remote to select the hardware input and the "Guide" button to select the TV channel, (or I type the channel number direct).
The Digital Tuner works flawlessly in my location and all channels are smooth and clean.
All in all, this is a great TV in hardware terms, giving you all the features you want from such a device and producing a quality viewing experience without glitches. Sadly, the software contains a number of ill-advised ideas that may detract from the quality of the hardware. Fortunately you can get around these pieces of foolishness quite easily and sit back and enjoy the show. Just disable the light sensor, avoid the "Home" button and you're good to go! Great picture, smooth motion, full high def, good price, all the features you want. Picture will be dull and underwhelming until you turn off the light sensor. "Home" page is tiresome.
Thanks so much, Grazy & Waxxo the Martian!...the dark picture on my SONY Bravia has annoyed me big time for a long time, and no amount of fiddling fixed it once and for all. I just read your comments and followed what you said and my wife and I were gob-smacked...the Olympics have come alive!
Thanks for that info, Wazzo, I am thinking of buying the new one that is out the Sony 32" KDL32EX650 as I bought a Samsung Model # UA32EH5006M and b4 I opened the box I researched it on line and it doesn't have a EPG ! So I rang the Good Guys and have arranged to take the Samsung back
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I just bought a 40" CX520 and I couldnt agree anymore. Once turned it on the picture was dull and washed out, nothing like at the shop.
I had to call Sony NZ and the dude was a Sony TV fan and told me about disabling the light sensor under settings "ECO" now all is good.
I just cant believe Sony dont mention this anywhere in the Manual!