Why You Can Trust CNET Sony Bravia KDL32V5500 review: Sony Bravia KDL32V5500
The Sony Bravia KDL32V5500 is in a class of its own with its solid picture and ability to stream DLNA content worth the price of admission.
When it comes to features, this television easily blows its competitors out of the water. Not only is it a 1080p panel but it also comes with DLNA networking features that allow you to hook it up to your home network and stream media files from any PC or NAS device. The image quality is quite good, and for the price being asked this is one of the best value 32-inch units on the market today.
Sony Bravia KDL32V5500
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Design
The speaker grille along the bottom of the panel feels old school. These days it's rare to find a TV that is willing to actually show off its speakers as most tend to hide them behind the bezel. It doesn't have many curved edges making it look more practical than stylish.
Features
The KDL32V5500 is a 1080p panel and as such is suited to viewing Blu-ray films, playing HD games or just kicking back with your favourite DVD. However, it also has features that allow it to be much more than a simple TV.
Using the USB port, you can connect any flash memory device to the panel and play media files directly. It is limited by what it can play but most of the more popular formats floating around the internet are covered. Images are restricted to JPEG only whereas music can be in MP3 or PCM formats. For video, MPEG-2 PS, MPEG-2 TS, AVCHD and DivX are supported. Also, since this panel has a LAN port, you can connect it to your home network and stream files from any PC using DLNA. The process of setting it up is fairly straightforward but it does help if you have a little PC knowledge up your sleeve. When the DLNA features are set up, it makes it extremely simple to view shared media on your network.
If you own a PlayStation 3, then you will be familiar with the Bravia's on-screen menu system — it uses the same XMB (Xross Media Bar).
When it comes to connection options, the Sony drowns you with choices. It has four HDMI ports, two component, three composite, a USB port, LAN, PC connection and optical audio pass-through.
Performance
1080p Blu-ray performance and HD gaming were top of the list of things to test on this panel. Overall, we found the image quality to be quite impressive with top-notch colour reproduction and pinpoint detail. However, there were a few flaws here and there that should be mentioned. Firstly, the backlight bled a little in the bottom corners of the panel, and while it wasn't terribly noticeable from a comfortable viewing distance it was there nonetheless. In addition, the black levels, while good, could have been deeper. That being said, the good on this panel far outweighs the bad. We didn't find any image noise, pixellation or contrast stepping at all when viewing 1080p content.
Standard-definition DVDs, on the other hand, didn't fare as well but still looked quite good. Image noise, pixellation and scaling artefacts were all present but unless you view the TV from up close, they won't impact your viewing all that much.
Conclusion
The Sony Bravia KDL32V5500 is in a class of its own. While it's not the most advanced television Sony has on offer and image quality could be a little better, for the asking price you aren't likely to find a 1080p panel that has this many features and connection options. We were particularly impressed with the DLNA feature which turns the TV from a display device into an entertainment hub.