Sony Bravia KDL32W5500

[Blood]

Im in the market for a new tv and after much searching think ive finally settled on this one. It seems to be one of the best 32 inch sets on the market for its price and also comes with 3 year guarentee and free stand through play.com.

http://www.play.com/Electronics/Elec...V/Product.html

I have a couple of questions, they have the 37 inch set for £80 more and was wondering if this is a wise investment or would you get a better picture on the 32 inch set and just be stretching the image on the 37 inch so to say?

Also has anyone used the usb 2.0 or DLNA modes on this tv and how well do they work at playing mpegs movies etc from your computer and which way did you connect it?

Thanks for any and all help. Tom

[PeteSmith]

Link to similar recent thread.

If your interested in streaming video content to the tv you would be advised to get a dedicated device, such as the PCH mentioned in the thread above. AFAIK the DNLA is only good for audio streaming and images, and not video.

[Blood]

Okay thanks, what's the difference between the popcorn hour and the wd hd-tv player which is considerably cheaper it seems?

[PeteSmith]

Well the WD will only play content via USB, it has no network capability, which means you can't stream media from other pc's, network attached storage or stream live content from the internet. Also the PCH has a expansion slot, which means you can add an additional internal HDD, or a optical drive, so you can also use it as a fully featured Blu Ray player.

[jonny440]

I bought the exact same model, the KDL-32W5500 about a month ago and have to say that I am very happy with it.

The picture is outstanding, the control menus (can't recall sony's name for it) is great, the tv guide is great. On the down side the sound could be better, but I've got mine connected to a 2.1 AE system not an issue for me.

I have hooked mine up to my pc (and the internet) via my wireless network (DLNA) and it was a breeze with windows media player. Just do a google search on how to do this. I haven't used this to watch videos yet, only pictures and music. But it's very easy to navigate and use. Also got a sony bluray player connected which integrates very nicely with the tv's menu system and remote.

As I understand it, there is other software available that allows more options as to what format video you can watch over DLNA.

The internet widgets are of limited use imho, but thats no biggy.

If I were to buy another tele I would probably get a bigger one, such as a 37" or 40", as we currently have this one set up about 3.5m from where we typically watch, but this is only an issue for me because I've recently bought an xbox to hook up to it and some of the text is a bit small at that range (Xbox plays beautifully through it though). I would definitely go for a tv with a DLNA link if you have a lot of media on PC. I also think 3+ HDMI sockets are a must.

Hope that's of some use. If you have any particular things you'd like to know or like me to check please ask.

edit:

Just checked the manual and playing back video via USB is limited to MPEG1 format. Playing back video via the DNLA/network is limited to AVCHD, HDV or MPEG2-PS formats.