Sony TV KDL-24EX320 TV review

Why Sony KDL-24EX320?

After repairing the kitchen, I decided to update the TV. Immediately set myself some mandatory characteristics that must be necessarily implemented in the new device.

1) Diagonal: 22 to 26 inches. Of course, I wanted more, but the place is limited.

2) Wi-Fi module for playing content from network storage. In its role is the NETGEAR WNR3500L router with Tomato firmware, which runs the Transmission torrent client, FTP, Samba and DLNA server. After all, it’s much nicer to watch a freshly downloaded series of The Big Bang Theories at dinner than to stick into House 2 interspersed with advertising.

I began to study Yandex.Market and was surprised to find that none of the manufacturers, except Sony, realized the ability to connect to the network on a TV with a small diagonal. All network connectivity models start at 32 inches. The choice here is great. I had to choose from three (KDL-22EX320, KDL-24EX320, KDL-26EX320) Sony models. All of them are completely identical in characteristics, the difference is only in screen size. Although not only in size. With some fright in the 26-inch model, the resolution is 1366x768, and in the 24-inch model it is 1920x1080. Where is the logic? Because of this, I stopped at 24EX320.

Wi-Fi: 802.11n

We technically savvy people know that in nature there are several Wi-Fi standards. The most common are b \ g \ n. For some reason, this was not indicated on the product page in Yandex.Market or on the official Sony website . It is simply indicated that there is Wi-fi. And what he is no longer clear. How it is? In my opinion, the manufacturer’s official page should contain full technical information. I write to Sony support (info@sony.ru) and get an answer:

Good afternoon!
First of all, let me thank you for contacting us and for your interest in SONY products.
We inform you that the built-in wi-fi module in the KDL-24EX320 TV does not support the n standard.

Well, here we are :( 2012 is in the yard. My entire home technical zoo (which is not the first freshness), consisting of Macbooks, Asus F8, Sony Vaio Z11, Google Nexus One phone and Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet has Wi-Fi n The router has the n only mode of operation for greater performance, I had to come to terms with the fact that it would be necessary to switch the mode to Auto.

Specifications, unboxing, testing

For starters, the most interesting technical characteristics.



Here you can read the works of marketers about additional functions like the "X-Reality Image Processor" and other dregs. I will skopipistu most internet:

1) Video calls and voice calls via Skype ™
2) Record TV shows on an external hard drive
3) Save energy and money thanks to the presence sensor
4) Automatically adjust the screen brightness to save energy
5) Play video and music, as well as view photos via USB
6) Control your TV via free smartphone apps

In the box was the TV itself, stand, remote control bullets and batteries. Quickly attached the stand to the TV with two screws and put it in its rightful place. Sony has a very good appearance. It looks expensive and solid. I definitely put five for the design!

Analog TV, Network, DLNA, Browser, Skype, YouTube

I also really liked the menu interface. It works quickly, without delay. Fully Russified and quite logical.
To start, I run an automatic scan of analog broadcast. No problem finding all the channels you need. In the menu they can be conveniently and quickly swapped and give a name. The only negative is that the channel name is limited to 8 characters. Therefore, my beloved Discovery did not fit the letter Y.
I also want to highlight the quality of the screen. Indeed, on TV this is one of the main criteria. Here you can safely put the top five. Just excellent viewing angles, a good margin of brightness. It is very difficult to describe the image quality in words, but believe me, it is worthy!

We turn to the most interesting thing - connecting to a wireless network. The process is fast, no problem. And now the video lying on the server is already available. Let's check TV for omnivorous formats.



At first I tested it on TV shows, where one file weighs about 350 megabytes.
AVI (MPEG-4 Visual) 720x400 1998 Kbps - excellent
MKV (AVC) 720x400 1546 Kbps - excellent
MPEG-PS (MPEG) 704x576 Kbps - excellent



But then Fail happened. Since the TV supports Full HD, I decided to give it something more serious. To do this, I specifically downloaded the movie Cars 2 weighing 21.0 GB (BDAV, 1920x1080 AVC 35.5 Mbps) and Rise of the Planet of the Apes 7 GB (MKV, 1280x 544 AVC 9140 Kbps).

In the folder where these videos were lying, I saw the inscription "There are no items to display." I went to FTP, checked - the files are in place. Just in case, I launched Rescan files on the server. The result is one "There are no items to display." It dawned on me - after all, my Galaxy Tab tablet is also friends with DLNA. I go in - everything is OK. The video is in place.
A deplorable result, these films could not be made. I don’t know why, the Sony TV faucets were afraid of the large file size, the star felts got up like that. But this is a fact.

Further, during operation, a rather poor "omnivorous" device was revealed. I did not search for my favorite (for TV) codecs and containers. For you have to immediately download them or convert.



The browser does not work very smartly. The only fast-working resource is bash.org.ru :) If there are a lot of graphics on the page and complex formatting is a pipe. Plus, typing the URL from the TV remote control is not the most convenient thing. Although you can bookmark sites of interest once and easily call them up. I made myself a page with Yandex Weather and Yandex Traffic. Now you can watch how the latter slows down.





The YouTube client is top notch. All standard features like search and comments work. For those who don’t know. There is a channel “Our favorite cartoons” on Youtube , where almost all the old cartoons from Soyuzmultfilm are posted absolutely free and legally. Now we feed the child under this channel.

Skype

A little ambush awaits here. You can use it fully (video and voice communication) only with the purchase of the optional accessory “Built-in camera and microphone for BRAVIA® TVs with Skype ™ support”. This “little thing” costs as much as 5000 rubles. And it’s impossible to connect another non-original webcam. In principle, this is the usual Sony policy, I did not expect another. Buy our accessories! =)

Sony remote

He quickly found this software on the Android Market and put it on a tablet. The first launch introduces into a stupor. Firstly, the application is not adapted for large screens and it does not start Full Screen. Kindergarten. Secondly, the advertising banner in the application was infuriated. For some reason, I think that I already paid for the TV. Really, such a megacorporation as Sony counts a penny and earns on advertising impressions =) Not solid and not serious. My opinion is that the application was made for the “to be” checkmark. Demolished.

Summary

When buying, I naively believed that this unit is a multimedia harvester of my dreams. Four months have passed since the purchase. We can say that I regret the overpaid money for all those "network buns" that I pecked at. Surfing through the built-in browser is only possible with steel nerves. Playing movies over the network works every other time. It would be more correct to buy some omnivorous media player for yourself as a separate device. Only Youtube client did not let us down :)

Pros:

1) Stylish appearance
2) Nice screen
3) It's a Sony :)

Minuses:

1) The price compared to other 24-inch models does not look very appetizing
2) Problems with DLNA
3) No Wi-Fi standard n

Lastly, a few different photos.