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Sony's KP57HW40 vs. KP57WS500 (1 Viewer)

Joey B

Stunt Coordinator
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Jul 18, 2000
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54
Quick question for you,

My Father-in-law is looking at buy a new TV (His old one died so this is a good time). While we've been comparing, we were looking at TVs at Best Buy. The one he liked best was the 57 inch Sony. It was selling for $2799.99. When we got home, I was looking on Sony's Website for more info, but the 57 inch they had was a different price, so I checked BB's Website and sure enough, they list two different TVs. The KP57HW40 is the $2799.99, and the KP57WS500 for $2299.99. The only major difference I can see is the cheaper TV has DVI. Is it the newer one of the two? Do any of you know of any other major differences? Thanks for all your help.

Joey
 

Jeff Aguilar

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Jun 30, 1997
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Lacey, WA
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Jeff
The KP-WS500 is a newer model than the other. It is the base model for this year's 57" tv's. After the 500 series there are the 600 and the 700 series.

The main differences between the 500 and the 600 series are the glare protection screen and the surround sound that comes from the tv. I believe that they have the same lens setups.

The main difference between the HW40 and the WS500, I believe is the lens setup and the DVI connection. The WS500 is supposedly better. But, that needs to be taken with a grain of salt since I own the WS500! I ended up with the WS500 based on the DVI input and the price. It does have a fantastic picture.

There has been some trouble with the flicker issues with the HW40's and some of the older WS500 (that were built prior to 2003). Sony has acknowledged the problem and is trying to correct the tv's out there with that problem. The newer WS500, manufactured after January 2003 does not seem to be displaying that problem. That is another reason I went with the newer line.

Hope this helps. There is a lot of information regarding the Sony tv's on this forum and the Spot. It really has a strong following and the tv's are very tweakable. It sure was nice to be able to fix the red push via the service menu on my tv. The information that people put on this sites is really invaluable. What a great resource.

Jeff Aguilar
 

Steve Schaffer

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Apr 15, 1999
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Steve Schaffer
The HW-40 and WS-500 differ in that the HW-40 has an antireflective coating on the screen while the WS-500 does not, and the WS-500 has DVI while the HW-40 does not.

Both models have the same service menu, so tweaks for color decoder and turning off SVM will be the same.

The HW-40 is an earlier model.

The chassis are basically the same otherwise, and both are great sets if you get a late production WS-500 or a very early production HW-40 (Sept 01 or so), neither will have the flicker problem. The likelihood of finding an early production HW-40 is very low, so go with the WS.

The WV series are a different chassis, with a different service menu.

WV models have adjustable DRC, HW and WS models don't. WV-600 has antireflective screen coating, and WV-700 adds a special screen design which reduces the amount of brightness dropoff at off-center viewing positions.
 

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