Sony KDL-40EX503 40 inch LCD Television Review
Today, we are here to review Sony’s first TV set to be equipped with an on-board Freeview HD tuner; the Sony Bravia EX503 KDL-40EX503 LCD TV. It is hard not to get excited to review a Freeview HD, particularly after having loads of HD channels for sometime now from Sky and few others from FreeSat too. But our reviewing place cannot be a good representative of the UK households; because, for many people, purchasing a satellite dish and even a new receiver for FreeSat HD is too much of a hassle and mess. In addition to this, the monthly subscription cost of getting Sky’s HD platform is not to think about. To be honest, a good chunk of the population is not yet aware of what HD is, so an HD service that can be received for free through your TV aerial is potentially quite a big deal. Read on to find out how this machine fares.
Design:
Being positioned as second next to the unseen EX403 in Sony’s ladder of Freeview HD TV, the EX503, being the flagship model has two major boons, one being that it has a big aesthetic advantage and the latter is a feature based one. Being on the design part, we will discuss about the aesthetic advantage, which is a brushed aluminium panel running across the edge of the TV’s floor, adding a touch of opulence, which is otherwise just an everyday black rectangle of the rest of the bezel. At just under 10cm deep, the Sony KDL40EX503 LCD TV is quite chunky in comparison to today’s LED models, but the set’s design does a fairly good job of hiding the extra girth. The back of the chassis curves away from the edge of the bezel to produce a more slimline look. So though it is not something that looks really stunning, it does manage to still maintain its stylish looks.
It is worth mentioning here about the makeover that the remote control has gone through which feels more comfy to be held in the palm as against its skinny predecessor, along with chunky buttons that is easy to identify even in the dark.
User Interface:
Now, lets move on to setting up this beauty. After a few initial issues, for instance, taking a few minutes to figure out how to insert the batteries into the remote, we agreed that the OS of the EX503 is actually excellent. A wide range of key features namely Internet Video has been allotted dedicated keys in the remote, which is quite impressive in itself. As always, it is just matter of time before you get friendly with Sony’s PS3 on-screen menu, which is a double-axis XMB-style. The EPG for finding stuff on the Freeview platform is nice too, which combines heaps of neatly presented information with a sensible navigation system along with a tiny picture of the channel that you are watching at the moment, playing in the top-left corner.
Connectivity:
The online services, about which we will discuss shortly, are piped into the Sony Bravia 40EX503 LCD TV through either a built-in Ethernet port, or an optional Wi-Fi USB dongle. Other connectivity options flanking the Ethernet jack are 4 HDMIs, a 2.0 USB port that is capable of playing JPEGs, MP3s and DivX/AVC/AVCHD/MPEG4 video files together with a PC port and 2 Scarts. Not to mention, that the Ethernet port can also be used for streaming in multimedia stuff from a DLNA certified PC. Our only issue concerning the connections, is the fact that there is only one USB, which will be a real pain on the ass if you opt to choose the optional Wi-Fi dongle, and also want to sometimes use a USB storage device to play files into the TV.
Features:
MotionFlow 100Hz system:
We will discuss about the additional feature boon the EX503 has over the EX403 as we had promised earlier now. Guess no further, it is the MotionFlow 100Hz system that has been devised to minimise the judder and core issues that are caused by Motion Blur. This is too far from the end of the processing story of the 40EX503.
Sony Bravia Engine 3:
This flagship model with a Freeview HD onboard sports Sony’s Bravia Engine 3 System, has its major focusing on improvising everything from standard definition upscaling to colour to sharpness and contrast.
Online Capabilities:
Though the above discussed Sony Bravia Engine 3 has been carried over from last year, the Sony KDL-40EX503 40 inch LCD Television has taken a massive leap forward when it comes to its online capabilities. Here, in our site we had discussed about the broke nature of the AppliCast online system which was employed in some of last year’s Bravia models. Hence, it is a big relief to find Sony’s 40EX503 taking stuff to a much higher level, which includes, most notably, heaps of smooth HD Video Processing.
YouTube:
One feature that we have to give a special welcome, not because most of the rival platforms have been offering for a long time now is the support for YouTube. The feature includes most of all the famous features that can be found on the other online television platforms, such as easy remote control access to lists of Top Rated videos, Most Popular, Most Discussed, Featured, Most Responded, Most Viewed and Top Favourites. As you might be aware, the quality of these videos is mostly dependent on how they had been encoded to the servers of YouTube, but the Bravia Engine 3 engine does an acceptable job in upscaling them to the HD resolution of the 40EX503.
DailyMotion:
There is additional video content via DailyMotion, more or less YouTube’s competitor with less content but lots of HD. Also check out the 2 “how to” video services that includes the eHow and howcast that covers almost anything and everything right from solutions for unemployment to wading off a jet lag or even finding love with a Cancerian. How can you not fall in love with internet?
Sony Digital Cinema Concert Series:
Sony’s Digital Cinema Concert Series is one of the other most intriguing new video streaming services of the company. We found it to be featuring concerts from Chickenfoot, ThirdEyeBlond and Creed, and it also includes the backstage footage. However, when we tried to play it, none of it actually did. Even though it might be quite embarrassing for Sony for its own content to fail, we think that the entire system is still in its very early days and will be fixed once the TV starts picking up on the shelves.
Blip.tv:
Yet another latest Sony service is the blip.tv, which is designed to provide an online channel for the ‘quirky’ independent TV series. A couple of series in this come in HD, that managed to stream stuff perfectly well into the Sony Bravia 40EX503 40? Wide Screen LCD TV with just the conventional 2MB broadband.
Ford Models service:
The next one included is rather a bizarre one, which is a Ford Models service. Here, you get to see the range of models from the Ford agency talking you through their photograph portfolios and giving beauty tips. Though Sony’s intentions to add this looks to be nothing but noble fashionista intent, it is our weird feeling that it makes a good late night watch for all those single blokes out there.
Miscellaneous:
The OnNetworks portal provides stuff like videos of the gaming world, HD video of tourist resorts along with video golfing tips. Again, if you have a flair for golfing then you will love the profound golfing content, courtesy golflink.com, who help you via videos to improvise your golf techniques. There is more lifestyle content coming from livestrong.com. This site is loaded with pages of video clips that detail on everything, from dealing with diseases to improving your appearance and relationships. If music is your cup of tea, then Sony has not left you alone, there is the SingingFool portal, from where you will be able to get a hale and hearty selection of music videos from new, wannabe bands across a variety of genres. Yet another online service – penultimate is a facility where you get to listen to podcasts provided by the most famous sources like the CNN and NASA.
The Sony KDL-40EX503 40-inch LCD TV sports a buffer that is capable of storing up to seven seconds of video material, which definitely aids with the TV’s Video Streaming capabilities. It also has support for PING monitoring, where the equipment assesses the quality of the connectivity to a particular site and accordingly, even adjusts the quality of the video received, whenever possible.
Challenges currently faced by Freeview HD:
The Freeview HD is being transmitted by the Crystal Palace Transmitter since December 2009. For people to get their hands over Freeview HD, people need to upgrade their transmitters and the service is currently only available from two transmitters; the above mentioned Crystal Palace Transmitter in London and the Winter Hill of North West. Though around 60% of the population is expected to get FreeView HD by the end of the year 2010, there will still be a huge chunk of the population that will not be able to receive FreeView HD until 2011, that is, at the earliest. This regionalism is hugely unfair, given the fact that we all pay the same TV license fee, which is of course, not Sony’s fault. As you can imagine, Sony would have loved to see every UK household to receive Freeview HD; as for now their hope is, those people who are lucky enough to receive FreeView HD will equip themselves with the TV to enjoy it and those who are not so lucky will fancy buying the TV and make themselves future proof.
If you are quite keen in finding out how much you might have to wait before the Freeview HD revolution reaches you, there is a postcode checker in the official FreeView website. One more glitch of the Freeview HD we ought to cover here is on the amount of HD content on Freeview. Currently, there is just the part time BBC HD channel and quite an intermittent content available from ITV. However, Channel Four’s HD content is expected to hit the platform quite soon and anyway, for a people with less heavy wallets, having any HD channel at all through your TV aerial is heaps better than not having any.
Warranty:
Sony KDL-40EX503 LCD TV comes with one year warranty for parts and labour.
Sony KDL-40EX503 40-inch LCD TV – Technical Specification Table
| Manufacturer | Sony |
| Model Name | Sony Bravia |
| Model Number | KDL-40EX503 |
| Display type | LCD Display |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 99.2 x 63.6 x 26.0 cm |
| Weight | 16.4 kg |
| Colour/Finish | Glossy Black |
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| Speakers | 2 x 10W (Dolby Digital and Analogue stereo) |
| PC Sync | Yes |
| Screen Size | 40 inches |
| Video signal | 576i, 480p, 576p, 1080i, 720p, 1080p and 24p input |
| Picture features | High Dynamic Contrast CCFL Backlight BRAVIA ENGINE 3 Advanced Contrast Enhancer (ACE) Intelligent Picture MPEG Noise Reduction Input Skip Ambient Sensor Live Colour Theatre Mode CineMotion/Film Mode/Cinema Drive Auto Picture Setting 24p True Cinema PhotoTV HD MotionFlow 100Hz Photo TV HD USB Player Auto Photo Mode (DLNA/USB/HDMI™) Picture Frame Mode Photo Map Eco Settings AFD (Auto Format Detect) PIP P&P |
| TeleText | Yes Text Page Memory: 1000 |
| Timer | Clock, sleep timer, on/off timer |
| Connectivity | 1 x Digital Audio Output (optical) 4 x HDMI™ Inputs HDMI™ PC Signal Capability PC Input (15pin D-Sub) + Audio In 1 x Component Inputs 1 x Composite Video In 1 x USB 2.0 Input Mini Jack (Head/Earphone) (3.5 mm) PCMCIA Card Slot RCA AV Input BRAVIA Sync RF In 2 x Scart Inputs (RGB) DLNA BRAVIA Internet Video Wireless LAN Built-in FreeView HD Tuner |
| PC interface | USB |
| Contrast Ratio | Mega |
| Stand | Yes |
| Digital Tuner | Yes |
| Box content | Operating instructions VESA mounting holes VESA hole spacing VESA screw Table top stand Remote Commander USB WiFi Adaptor |
| Power Consumption | 106 W |
| Warranty | One Year |
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