Bravia KDL-32EX724 poor picture quality

[Smot..]

It was time to upgrade our 5-yr old 26" Bravia KDL, and since I  wanted to get something with network capability (and a slightly larger  screen) the 32EX724 seemed to fit the bill nicely.

Unfortunately, the picture quality of this model is simply poor, indeed bordering on unacceptable.

Any  viewing at an angle of 30 degrees or more gives a grey washed out image  with some slightly false colouring. Our living room shape means that  most viewing is at this angle. Only one person sits directly in line.

On first using the set, the image was too dark to see  much at all, and the "vivid" setting merely caused colour bleeding  without really making the image much brighter.

I discovered (with help from other forums) that the  default setting for these sets has "Eco" mode on, and in particular  "Light Sensor" set on. Turning this off made a big difference, but only  to the person sitting square on to the set. Surely the default setting  should be the normal mode, not the Eco mode! How many calls do the Sony support team get for this issue alone?

Our old Bravia had a vastly superior picture, albeit not HD - is this the price of progress?

As part of the registration process, I was asked to  complete a questionnaire on my opinions of the set. Some of these ask  the rather smug question about brand vs price - would I pay more for a  respected brand? Well, no longer, Sony! If I pay a premium price, I  expect premium quality - simple as - and this set ain't it.

Are we all expected to sit clumped together in a room straight in front of the set to get a decent picture?

Unless someone here can suggest something dramatic  (and I've tried all sorts of scenes and tweaking of the colour,  brightness and contrast controls), this set is not fit for purpose. A  shame really, as the feature set is superb, but this counts as nothing  if the picture itself does not cut the mustard.

Oh, while I'm at it, the sound quality of this £500+  set is really poor - it's tinny with inadequate ability to refine it  into anything remotely resembling hi-fi. Think "budget laptop". Also  think "I need to buy a decent audio system when I buy this set".

Any new Sony set I purchase will be conditional on a  28-day home trial. Nothing less. Sorry, Sony, but your utter reliance on  brand loyalty rather than product quality has almost certainly lost you  a future customer.

But I live with the faint glimmer of hope that this  set is rescuable by the tweaking of some setting deep in the bowels of  the config screens or a mysterious firmware upgrade....

[corinne_sony]

Hiya.

I am also having exact same issues you are experiencing. Please let me know if you had any feedback from anyone on this. I feel sickend to the stomach to think I've spent £500+ on a set that I can bearly bring myself to watch. I bought this to replace 5 yr old Samsung which had developed shaddow through the middle of the screen. I would now much prefer to watch the old set. Is there nothing that can be done about this?

Anyone out there please help before I through this set through the window

[twelfth_man]

I have to agree with the comments posted so far. I purchased the EX723 after what I thought was a solid check on reviews and actually seeing one in the flesh. Can't imagine what I saw in the set - except a decent discounted price (but there is something about looking a gift horse in the mouth, isn't there?). However, the viewing angle is awful - somewhere in the 60 to 90 degree range if I'm being generous, and nowhere near the quality of other sets from "inferior" competitors - and makes the TV picture a nightmare vision if you move from the sweet spot. I can live with the set as I am not a great TV watcher anymore, but there is no way back for me with Sony. Poor products will kill you every time - and it is particularly sad to report this of a brand that used to be at the very top of the game. Tried to get an answer from Sony as to what they estimate the maximum viewing angle to be - no reply says it all.

[Nielsen]

I could hardly "believe what I was seeing" with my just 1 year old Bravia EX720, when it suddenly turned into reverse on brightness/darkness and strange colours like a polaroid negative. After resetting to factory settings and switching TV on/off and nothing helped back to repair.:smileyangry:

Timing was perfect EURO 2012 soccer coming up and no TV for a month, - thx a lot.:smileycry:

Now I just got the TV back from warranty repair and the interesting part on poor picture quality starts here. :smileyinfo:

I too had some problems on tweaking the brightness/contrast and colour saturation to my satisfaction on a test signal when I just bought the TV, but now after repair and recalibration/fine tuning everything is much, very much better, -other issues also vanished, and according to repair log no parts where changed.

It seems to me that SONY  has a quality issue on they calibration process at factory level, and it could be more serious than SONY thinks, cause it's hard as a user to determine a bad calibrated TV with enough certainty to trow back at the salesplace.:smileysad:

[Rickj2903]

I acquired a KDL-32 EX724 as a replacement for a failed 5yr old Sony TV, I have had the TV now for circa 12 months and it has been driving me mad. Like Smot I am struggling to get a viewing angle where we can all watch the screen without weird "false colours" particularly reds. One minute the picture is fantastic and the next a strange "glowing red" on a football shirt or a post box in the background will appear. it seems to be more noticeable when the picture is not studio based i.e. outside broadcasts. Thank goodness i found this thread, I was seriously considering going to the Doctors as I thought that it must be me, my family just accept the fault as "part of the TV". I will never ever buy another Sony product.