[nairrk]

Originally Posted by achopraa

Yeah, that I am aware of.
What I wanna know is the way Airtel HD is connected to LCD. Is it via HDMI? If so, is the picture quality not going to be a bit better than the connection over the Composite Connection?

+
HDMI cable comes alongwith Airtel HD and DVR STB.
When I booked for a DVR (through local dealer), they promised installation within a certain date but delayed by one day. The reason given by service engineer was that the package they recieved from airtel without HDMI cable, hence they had to wait one more day to collect the HDMI cable from airtel. Further the engineer said that for HD stb and Full Hd TV it will give better image clarity when connected through a HDMI cable.!

[frankmehta]

I powered up my Panasonic TH-P50V20D Plasma Display for the first time at my new home last night, connected Tata Sky HD (HDMI), plugged in the PS3. AND BOY!!! WOOOOOOOW!
This is DEFINITELY the best display I have EVER EVER seen. Period. No calibration. No hanky panky with the normal settings. I have set it to normal mode with contrast set at 5 and the brightness at 0. All modes like vivid colour, intelligent frame creation and eco mode OFF. Absolutely SUPER.
I am glad to have bought this tv and I thank all you guys for your stellar advice to pick up this television. I am in half a mind to buy a 42V20 for my bedroom too. But have NO space to fit it, since it's going onto a cupboard door.

A small review on Tata Sky HD + Panasonic 50V20:
There are just two channels on Tata Sky HD, which is National Geographic HD and Discovery World HD.

The HDMI cable used was the one that came with the STB and it's of ok quality. Entry level stuff. I have better MX HDMI cables (gold plated) and I will be connecting them soon.

Both channels have very good resolution (read: NOT artificially upscaled) and I have set them to 1080i mode from the STB. I have half a mind to set it to 720p, since I feel it will be much better, because that will let the AVR hardware do the upscaling/interlacing, instead of the box hardware, which must be decidedly inferior to the wizardry in the television. Also, of note is the fact that I haven't yet connected the Denon AVR 1910 between the TV sources. I am quite sure that there will be a perceptible difference in the upscaling done by the ABT Anchor Labs chip of the Denon rather than the entry level chipset in the tata sky box.
Now, I watched about 4-5 hours of TV yesterday. Some of it was at contrast 60 ( stock normal mode) and some of it was in burn in mode (contrast 0-5-10). The source content was NatGeoHD, DiscoWorldHD, Dark Knight blu-ray via PS3 and 8MP images via CD again from PS3.

Let me tell you that WHATEVER was the contrast, the reproduction of images in BOTH channels was mind numbing. The details, the correct amount and colour temperature of images, both static as well as moving was pretty much as real as I expected it to be. Black levels were a colossal improvement over my Sony W series 40 incher, and motion and pictures never felt more natural and never looked better. Soft balanced colours, without overpowering each other and lifelike images. Amazing!!! The over-awing 50 inch size also looked fantabulous in the hall, since the viewing distance is well below 14 feet.
I didn't do any critical viewing (which I won't be doing much regularly anyways) and I was happy with what I saw. I didn't see any judder, and no floating blacks or any such anomalies. Even if I did see something wrong, I didn't register it, since I don't have the aspiration for 'THE PERFECT IMAGE'
I am happy with the TV and the scrumptious quality it dishes out.
I hope this beautiful TV lasts the way I expect it to. Hope to have some great moments with it.
Cheers guys! Thanks again!

[floyd]

Shifting gears to warn fellow BHPians of the perils of buying a Sony Bravia.

I had been foolish enough to fall for Sony's marketing of Bravia TV's and bought a 32 inch LCD. The TV was quite expensive (Rs. 39,900 after exchange discount), and at this price one would expect impeccable quality.

Last week (1 year & 8 months after the purchase), the TV suddenly stopped working. The LCD screen would start going dark just after a few minutes of use, and would become completely black. Obviously the product is defective, or, made with poor quality as I never saw a 1.5 year old TV conking off before!

Now, as if selling a poor quality product for a high price was not bad enough, Sony India rubs salt by running absolutely pathetic service here! I mean, I have seen bad service, but this takes the cake.

* Sunday, 22-Aug: Raised complaint on Sony India website, as customer care helpline was not working
* Monday, 23-Aug: Called customer care. Asked to wait, as their response time is 48 hours ("Sir, complaint to kal hi raise kiya aapne!").
* Tuesday, Wednesday - No response, so I again raised another complaint, this time mentioning that it is way beyond their "48 hours" promise.
* Thursday 26-Aug: Finally got a call from service engineer. Refuses to come to my apartment, as he says it is raining!
* Friday 27-Aug: Finally settle for the service guy coming on Saturday morning.
* Saturday 28-Aug: Service engineer announces nothing wrong with the TV. I make him sit & watch it for 15 minutes, and then the problem starts happening. He says he would check if there is a loose connection, for which he needs to open the backpanel of the TV. Dutifully informs me that for opening 5 to 6 screws and pressing a multimeter contact on a circuit board, he would charge Rs. 250. The 250 went down the drain, as the engineer's multimeter showed no problems. Back panel assembled again, and it is declared that the "LCD panel" needs to be replaced. Estimate cost = Rs. 15,000

I call up the Sony customer care (dont care?) and complain about how an expensive TV like this can become so faulty in just 1 year, 8 months. The answer I get is "Sir, there is always voltage fluctuations in India, which causes this". I ask the guy why was Sony selling this TV in India if it is too delicate to handle our electric supply. No answer of course! So I say that I am in a mood to take this to consumer court.
"Sir, our senior management will get back to you on this in 48 hours".

Their famous 48 hours again! The 48 hours has passed now (Saturday to Monday, unless they meant 48 hours, excluding weekends & national holidays). The only call I got is one from their Bangalore service center. This guy asks me when do I want my home theater to be setup (??!!). I tell him I have no home theater, unless Sony wants to gift me one, and tell him that I have a TV which is not working. The guy just hangs up at this. Calls back 10 minutes later, and says when do I want a service engineer to come and check my TV. I tell him that please let me speak to someone in Sony higher management, since you are not aware of my case. "OK, I'll ask someone to call back", and hangs up.

Now, it is more than a week since my first complaint, and I still have a defective TV that works for only 5~10 minutes at a stretch. I will, of course, go to consumer court on this, as Sony has surpassed all normal bounds of human patience. Their quality has gone to the dogs, and their service is being run by clowns!

My post here is a heads-up/warning to fellow BHPians who are contemplating purchasing a Sony Bravia (or, any Sony product for the matter).

[HappyWheels]

Floyd:

Source our the Sony Singapore / Japan customer care ID and sent a mail to them also. I have had better results when I did this with JVC.

[fuel_addict]

Sorry to hear about the problem and the poor customer support from Sony. The brand name and reputation seems to have gotten to their heads. No wonder they are languishing behind Samsung/LG in the customer care and LCD sales department.

One of the reasons I opted for Samsung LCD (40") in Jan 2010 was because of the high cost-low value that equivalent Sony LCDs were offering coupled with the fact that their service charges are known to be high. I had a screen flickering (minor in nature) issue with my Samsung within 7 months of purchase. Samsung fixed this changing the IP board promptly (covered under warranty of course). What was impressive was the turn-around time from the moment I lodged the complaint. The service guy visited our home within 4 hours and the part replaced within 2 days. Their service support was excellent (better than I had anticipated). The same goes with LG. We use an LG washing machine. The service backup has been reasonably good.

Don't mean to go on bragging about other brands but your story has just degraded Sony further in my eyes. I previously owned 2 Sony TVs and have a host of other Sony gadgets but their service support and arrogance have always stood out like a sore thumb.

I hope you are able to resolve your problem without breaking the bank. 15K is a lot of money to spend on a 1 yr+ old TV. I assume you did not have an extended warranty. Some dealers such as Croma offer an additional 2 year warranty over the company provided 1 year std.

[vkochar]

Sony Products in India are doing very well because of the brand. BUT having said that their product quality is really bad. Or maybe their products are just not ready for Indian conditions.

I have owned a Sony Wega Flat TV which had a problem. I owned a DVD player which went bad because I played a Pirated DVD on it. The CD Chnager went bad because their was voltage fluctuation. The Sony CAR XPLOD CD player does not work and does not eject the CD because I put my own ripped CD. A Vaio laptop does not work because it's battery went bad the 2nd day I bought it !!

The only thing that work well is a Sony Cyber Shot camera and hopefully my new 22'' LCD which I just bought.

I stay in a small place like Agra where complaints are handled well BUT I can imagine in bigger towns how pathetic their service may be. Well you have seen Sony's, theirs is 100 times better than SAMSUNG which is I guess the world's most pathetic !!

I think the one company which has proved itself good on service is LG.

I own all sorts of products / brands - it's a mixed bag.

Since your TV is out of the warranty period - no point arguing with them .My Advise - try getting it repaired in the grey market. May be a lot more cheaper !! I do that all the time.

[aargee]

Floyd - I'm so sorry to hear about your bad experience & appreciate your good heart to share & warn us. I'm 100% sure it should not conk off in a year & 8 months. But again, too early for me to comment as I don't know your usage pattern. We've a 26" LCD that we bought for about 27K along with free stabilizer in Oct 2007. Its working faithfully until now, may be due to our low usage. I'm sorry for what you've been experiencing, just check if Sony has outsourced its service to third parties like Whirlpool or IFB. If that's the case, then, you may want to change the service franchisee.

[fuel_addict]

Originally Posted by vkochar

Well you have seen Sony's, theirs is 100 times better than SAMSUNG which is I guess the world's most pathetic !!

Are you referring to Samsung's support in smaller towns or in general? A lot of people I know think differently. I still use several Sony products and so I am not against the brand. In automobile parlance, I would compare Sony with Honda. They are riding high on brand name and past reputation.

[Ajay]

Floyd,

I did happen to have the same issue on my Bravia LCD a month or so ago.
The service person turned up almost like a week after we had the complaint registered. The t.v was 1 year 3 months old and as you are aware the warranty is only for one year. The t.v. used to go to standby mode, i mean when you turn it on, there used to be a bright light and it would turn off instantly.

The service engineer then replaced the panel after about a week, cost was Rs 12,000/- . Might not be relevant in your case but the reason given was voltage fluctuation and I did tend to agree with him as our DVD player also stopped working on the same day along with the t.v.

Cheers

[ghodlur]

When given a choice between Sony and Panasonic, I have always preferred Panasonic over Sony when it comes to Home theatre, LCD, Camcorder or digital camera however some one would try to convince me about the superiority. I have always been and will be a Panny fan.

I can comment on the Sony quality since I dont own any Sony product but have heard from relatives and friends about the good quality. May be in Floyds case he was sold a defective piece but that does not qualify for poor after sales service.

[im_srini]

Originally Posted by floyd

Last week (1 year & 8 months after the purchase), the TV suddenly stopped working. The LCD screen would start going dark just after a few minutes of use, and would become completely black. Obviously the product is defective, or, made with poor quality as I never saw a 1.5 year old TV conking off before!

What's with 1-year-8-months & Sony TVs ? I bought an X-series 40" LCD TV (KLV40X450A) on the very last day of 2008. The magazine reviews were great & the TV was even better in real life. Despite costing 1.6L I bought it, for the picture quality was top-notch. It didn't disappoint at home & performed flawlessly - for all of 20 months.

Anyway, earlier this month, I started seeing vertical snow on start-up - vertical lines, a couple of pixels wide, & almost an inch apart started appearing across the panel. This would last for a few minutes & then things would be back to normal. Last week however, the snow persisted & wouldn't go away. It was observed only on the composite & component inputs, HDMI & PC inputs were glorious as ever.

Rather miffed at the turn of events, I checked online to see if this was a common problem, the X-series 46" TVs are supposed to have a known panel issue, with Sony even extending the warranty up to 2012 (the same notice was on the Sony-India site). Called up their toll-free customer support line, I was assured that they would look into my case within 48-hours.

Got a call the next day from one of their 'technical' support personnel requesting an appointment to physically check the TV. Two guys showed up, on time, they confirmed the existence of the issue & then began their 'investigation'.

The very first thing they did was to reset everything to factory defaults, the issue was still present. This apparently flummoxed them, for they seem surprised that this 'fix' did not fix the issue. The next step was to start jiggling all the input cables, again, no joy. Exchanging serious looks with one another, they rolled up their sleeves & opened the back panel. Strangely, this final stage in their investigation involved a lot of head-scratching & staring at the back of the TV. One almost felt them willing the TV back to health.

But the TV held fast, after almost 45 minutes of poring over the rear of the TV, they threw in the towel. The explanation I was given was that 'some' board had gone kaput. Promising to return with the offending board they retreated - I have not seen them since...

The much lauded Sony quality appears to be falling & the technical knowledge of their support personnel needs improvement. Thankfully, an interesting project a work is occupying all my time, otherwise, the lack of the TV would've struck harder (especially on the gaming front). I'm hoping Sony would be able to resolve the issue with my TV before the Halo-Reach & F1-2010 launch dates !

[PatienceWins]

Sorry to hear about the experience. Sad and surprised to know that the product quality has gone down.

We brought a Sony from abroad in 1980, rough usage for 20 years and sold it off with a heavy heart. It did not give even a single issue during that time. We bought another Sony in 2000, which is going strong even now. The picture quality of Sony is awesome.

Please note that I have note used a Sony LCD, my experience is only with CRT.

[floyd]

Thanks for the comments guys.

@im_srini: Wow, how do you keep your cool when it is over 1 lakh for your TV?

@Ajay: I was also told that this issue is due to voltage fluctuations, but seriously, I dont recall too many fluctuations (at least you would see lights dim down). The only fluctuations that happen are the power cuts.

@HappyWheels: Good idea, worth a try.

[sajjt]

Floyd, I can understand your hurt feelings as I am also having Sony products with sore fingers. Actually it's not only Sony, there are more brands literally robbing their customers with any kind of reasons. I have a Sony music system bought for 30K sometime back and after keeping it idle for some time, it went to PROTECT mode. Normally the protect mode is to protect the power AMP and the other circuitry when the speaker lines were come in contact or any voltage deviations happen. And once you reconnect the lines the protect mode has to be disengaged. But this thing stays always on and I called up the Sony SVC for the service. I was told that, to release the protect mode, I need to pay 1.5K as service charges!. What kind of protection is this? My local technician set it right for 500/- So the protect mode in Sony is just another trap to rob their customers by disengaging this feature. Try some other reputed agencies who can set this right with responsibility.

I had an Olympus cam with one of the battery clamps was broken, when contacted the Olympus SVC, they’ve got another fantastic policy. If I change the battery clamps with them I’ve to upgrade the firmware too for 1.5K! The camera was 5 year old and I was planning to give it to my son for his photographic lessons. I tried to convince them that I am happy with the present firmware so only the clamps to be replaced and it's not worth to spend 1.5K for an old cam just for a battery clamp. But they were adamant as it's their strict rule to update the firmware with every service even if the customer requires or not. Another hilarious statement was made by them was the company had announced pre fixed service charge for each model at the time of launch and it cannot be changed at any point of time. How’s that? I wished them best of luck and got it repaired from a local shop for Rs .150/- instead of spending 1.5K.

The funniest thing is when I searched the Olympus site for lodging a complaint, there was not even a contact no or an email id to respond.

[tj123]

Originally Posted by vkochar

Sony Products in India are doing very well because of the brand. BUT having said that their product quality is really bad. Or maybe their products are just not ready for Indian conditions.

I stay in a small place like Agra where complaints are handled well BUT I can imagine in bigger towns how pathetic their service may be. Well you have seen Sony's, theirs is 100 times better than SAMSUNG which is I guess the world's most pathetic !!

I think the one company which has proved itself good on service is LG.

Once upon a time Sony use to be the undisputed Electronic Gaint, however now Samsung & LG has beaten the Japs, in almost all the market world wide.

I truly feel that Sony products are priced at a premium however I don't see that premium Quality feel any longer. Moreover Sony seems to give just 1 yr warranty on most of there produces, which does not exudes manufactures confidence either.

No wonder Samsung & LG have a large market share compared to Sony.