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[Kevin Wood]

I thought I had issues with Sony...   ...but this arrived in my mailbox this morning...

That just about sums it up, I think. Nope. Can't think of anything to add.

I haven't owned much Phony stuff, but, of the items I have:

Car head unit purchased mid 90's: Utter bilge. LCD display breaked up in the first couple of weeks. Response when returned under warranty: "You've dropped this". I hadn't even taken the removable front panel off the head unit. The vile beeping every time I got out of the car eventually sealed its' destiny: one last meeting with Sammy.

TV purchased late 90's: Went bang after a couple of weeks, repaired locally under warranty. Repairer said "they all do this, it's a sh1te design, so we upgrade a few parts and it's reliable from then on". Sure enough, it was, until replaced earlier this year. Not a bad TV, a few irritating features, but, FFS, it only has to sit there and display a picture.

Sony VAIO: My boss has had a stream of these, and I have got the hand-me-downs on occasions. I don't know why. He should have been thoroughly put off buying them by now. Perhaps he's a Sony fanboy. Generally, poor thermal design means they just die without warning. Why not buy any other brand of Laptop and perhaps get a proper SD card slot instead of one of those overpriced Sony proprietary "memory stick" slots (as in "I know where they can "stick" that").

Oh, and a little portable FM radio mid 90's. It's pretty difficult to make an @rse of a job of designing something so simple, but they managed to put a stupidly bright power LED on the front for no apparent reason. It's on all the time, not just when the power is on. It's so bright it stops me sleeping. Fortunately a little strip of black insulating tape fixed that. 

So, would I buy anything else from them? Nope.

Shame really, because their products from before they disappeared up their own jacksie were rather good IMHO (original walkman, and around that era).

[Kevin Wood]

Oh, and I forgot the CD rootkit issue. That just showed such total contempt for the sheep they call customers that it should have been a big red flashing signal to all that they can't be trusted. Rip that Sony CD and don't touch it again!

[TheBoy]

Had issues with all my Sony stuff. Amp had dry joints and was fixed, ps3 lost it's wifi. Not aware of any other fony shite in the house.

I do like my Amp though. And the ps3... Even if it's only ever used fo blu ray films.

I do have a Fony amp - its pre millenium, so when they still made reasonable consumer stuff. Can't think of another piece of Fony equipment in the house - not even PC CD drives etc

[TheBoy]

I thought I had issues with Sony...   ...but this arrived in my mailbox this morning...

That just about sums it up, I think. Nope. Can't think of anything to add.

I haven't owned much Phony stuff, but, of the items I have:

Car head unit purchased mid 90's: Utter bilge. LCD display breaked up in the first couple of weeks. Response when returned under warranty: "You've dropped this". I hadn't even taken the removable front panel off the head unit. The vile beeping every time I got out of the car eventually sealed its' destiny: one last meeting with Sammy.

TV purchased late 90's: Went bang after a couple of weeks, repaired locally under warranty. Repairer said "they all do this, it's a sh1te design, so we upgrade a few parts and it's reliable from then on". Sure enough, it was, until replaced earlier this year. Not a bad TV, a few irritating features, but, FFS, it only has to sit there and display a picture.

Sony VAIO: My boss has had a stream of these, and I have got the hand-me-downs on occasions. I don't know why. He should have been thoroughly put off buying them by now. Perhaps he's a Sony fanboy. Generally, poor thermal design means they just die without warning. Why not buy any other brand of Laptop and perhaps get a proper SD card slot instead of one of those overpriced Sony proprietary "memory stick" slots (as in "I know where they can "stick" that").

Oh, and a little portable FM radio mid 90's. It's pretty difficult to make an @rse of a job of designing something so simple, but they managed to put a stupidly bright power LED on the front for no apparent reason. It's on all the time, not just when the power is on. It's so bright it stops me sleeping. Fortunately a little strip of black insulating tape fixed that. 

So, would I buy anything else from them? Nope.

Shame really, because their products from before they disappeared up their own jacksie were rather good IMHO (original walkman, and around that era).

I bought one of their clock radios in the late nineties (my old one lost an arguement with my fist ), chose the expensive Sony one because I was a Sony Fanboy. Used it for one night - it was LCD with backlight. The backlight was so bright, it lit up the room like daylight.

[Osprey]

...
Car head unit purchased mid 90's: Utter bilge. LCD display breaked up in the first couple of weeks. Response when returned under warranty: "You've dropped this". I hadn't even taken the removable front panel off the head unit. The vile beeping every time I got out of the car eventually sealed its' destiny: one last meeting with Sammy.
...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=Yre_f-c9VY4

[Kevin Wood]

...
Car head unit purchased mid 90's: Utter bilge. LCD display breaked up in the first couple of weeks. Response when returned under warranty: "You've dropped this". I hadn't even taken the removable front panel off the head unit. The vile beeping every time I got out of the car eventually sealed its' destiny: one last meeting with Sammy.
...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=Yre_f-c9VY4

That man needs a proper sammy.

[Martin_1962]

yeh even tho im a fan of sony stuff, i prob wouldnt pay there prices for a tv or laptop, i have to have a ps3 for gt5 thats the law lol

Some of there stuff is good, some poor.

Don't like their cheap stuff, their more expensive TVs are good (the W series won lots of awards quite a few on system) however not sure on the post S-LCD TVs, their (not cheap) video cameras are very good, the semi pro stuff is among the best there is, their ES stuff is good, their PMPs are good.

Viao stuff is over priced, basically Apple prices for the PC market. And their car hifi WAS good but now just cheap tat. Their music labels are full of shite, films so so, games very good.

Saw a recent Sony home cinema amp a couple of weeks ago - too light weight, bit plasticy, but then so are a lot of similar priced ones now, but they have abandoned that part of the market from being quite popular with ES receivers.

TB was caught out by a TV with a known defect, which was fixable but I cannot remember the fix.

[Martin_1962]

Oh, and I forgot the CD rootkit issue. That just showed such total contempt for the sheep they call customers that it should have been a big red flashing signal to all that they can't be trusted. Rip that Sony CD and don't touch it again!

That was BMG - the Japanese HQ were furious over it. That said all their acts are rubbish anyway.

[Martin_1962]

Had issues with all my Sony stuff. Amp had dry joints and was fixed, ps3 lost it's wifi. Not aware of any other fony shite in the house.

I do like my Amp though. And the ps3... Even if it's only ever used fo blu ray films.

I do have a Fony amp - its pre millenium, so when they still made reasonable consumer stuff. Can't think of another piece of Fony equipment in the house - not even PC CD drives etc

I have all sorts of stuff, but not any real issues with Sony stuff, but then I tend to ignore stuff I know they are churning out.

DVD recorders - they bought them in - unreliable
PVRs - reboxed cheap stuff - no way would I touch. Yet they manufacture for Tvonics and the kit is better than their own branded stuff.

My 1999 AV ES receiver rather good, but their most recent one I thought was flimsy - would I buy it? No - because it is plasticy cheap crap. Do they do an equivalent to ES now - no.

DVD burners - can't go wrong with Pioneer I have 2 at the moment as I don't want to wear out the Blu Ray burner.

[ninjapirate]

yeh even tho im a fan of sony stuff, i prob wouldnt pay there prices for a tv or laptop, i have to have a ps3 for gt5 thats the law lol

Some of there stuff is good, some poor.

Don't like their cheap stuff, their more expensive TVs are good (the W series won lots of awards quite a few on system) however not sure on the post S-LCD TVs, their (not cheap) video cameras are very good, the semi pro stuff is among the best there is, their ES stuff is good, their PMPs are good.

Viao stuff is over priced, basically Apple prices for the PC market. And their car hifi WAS good but now just cheap tat. Their music labels are full of shite, films so so, games very good.

Saw a recent Sony home cinema amp a couple of weeks ago - too light weight, bit plasticy, but then so are a lot of similar priced ones now, but they have abandoned that part of the market from being quite popular with ES receivers.

TB was caught out by a TV with a known defect, which was fixable but I cannot remember the fix.

i did have a vaio laptop that was pretty good, must of been about 2003, in the end the brackets for lid came right through and it fell off lol but i had dropped it so many times.   still got a sony micro hifi mini disc player going strong, think ive even got a early mini disc player aswell lol never had any of my playstations give any trouble, couple sony digi cameras been fine and a older camcorder still going well. had a million sony erricson mobiles, my HUs were good tho but must of been 2004 or before, ones still going lol so my experience is ok i couldnt justify the extra espence on tv's and laptops now.
oh my dvd recorder sucks, its in my bedroom and if left on the led does keep me awake lol

[TheBoy]

yeh even tho im a fan of sony stuff, i prob wouldnt pay there prices for a tv or laptop, i have to have a ps3 for gt5 thats the law lol

Some of there stuff is good, some poor.

Don't like their cheap stuff, their more expensive TVs are good (the W series won lots of awards quite a few on system) however not sure on the post S-LCD TVs, their (not cheap) video cameras are very good, the semi pro stuff is among the best there is, their ES stuff is good, their PMPs are good.

Viao stuff is over priced, basically Apple prices for the PC market. And their car hifi WAS good but now just cheap tat. Their music labels are full of shite, films so so, games very good.

Saw a recent Sony home cinema amp a couple of weeks ago - too light weight, bit plasticy, but then so are a lot of similar priced ones now, but they have abandoned that part of the market from being quite popular with ES receivers.

TB was caught out by a TV with a known defect, which was fixable but I cannot remember the fix.

*Sigh*

Another fanboy.

The W series telly was good. Not brilliant. Just good.

The fix for my Fony telly was replacement with a different model - they all suffered, just the 100Hz ones were worse.  However, Fony UK refused to do this, stating a new SCART board would fix all issues. It didn't, clearly. It was a poor design, poorly constructed with substandard parts.

Did I mention my C&G224 P3 was in TVs

[Ken T]

Lets not forget Minolta who made pretty good cameras, until the 5M pixel CCDs (made by Sony ) started going bad after a short while, and they had to replace them under an extended warranty. Can you imagine the cost of stripping one camera, replacing the CCD, set it up and ship it back ?. Multiply by a large percentage of digital cameras sold and its no wonder they went out of business. This also affected JVC and somebody else, Nikon (?)

Ken

[Martin_1962]

Lets not forget Minolta who made pretty good cameras, until the 5M pixel CCDs (made by Sony ) started going bad after a short while, and they had to replace them under an extended warranty. Can you imagine the cost of stripping one camera, replacing the CCD, set it up and ship it back ?. Multiply by a large percentage of digital cameras sold and its no wonder they went out of business. This also affected JVC and somebody else, Nikon (?)

Ken

This was bad glue AFAIR - had a 6 Y/O video camera repaired FOC

[Martin_1962]

yeh even tho im a fan of sony stuff, i prob wouldnt pay there prices for a tv or laptop, i have to have a ps3 for gt5 thats the law lol

Some of there stuff is good, some poor.

Don't like their cheap stuff, their more expensive TVs are good (the W series won lots of awards quite a few on system) however not sure on the post S-LCD TVs, their (not cheap) video cameras are very good, the semi pro stuff is among the best there is, their ES stuff is good, their PMPs are good.

Viao stuff is over priced, basically Apple prices for the PC market. And their car hifi WAS good but now just cheap tat. Their music labels are full of shite, films so so, games very good.

Saw a recent Sony home cinema amp a couple of weeks ago - too light weight, bit plasticy, but then so are a lot of similar priced ones now, but they have abandoned that part of the market from being quite popular with ES receivers.

TB was caught out by a TV with a known defect, which was fixable but I cannot remember the fix.

*Sigh*

Another fanboy.

The W series telly was good. Not brilliant. Just good.

The fix for my Fony telly was replacement with a different model - they all suffered, just the 100Hz ones were worse.  However, Fony UK refused to do this, stating a new SCART board would fix all issues. It didn't, clearly. It was a poor design, poorly constructed with substandard parts.

Did I mention my C&G224 P3 was in TVs

There was an engineered fix but not in UK, I think someone on AVF found it.

[TheBoy]

yeh even tho im a fan of sony stuff, i prob wouldnt pay there prices for a tv or laptop, i have to have a ps3 for gt5 thats the law lol

Some of there stuff is good, some poor.

Don't like their cheap stuff, their more expensive TVs are good (the W series won lots of awards quite a few on system) however not sure on the post S-LCD TVs, their (not cheap) video cameras are very good, the semi pro stuff is among the best there is, their ES stuff is good, their PMPs are good.

Viao stuff is over priced, basically Apple prices for the PC market. And their car hifi WAS good but now just cheap tat. Their music labels are full of shite, films so so, games very good.

Saw a recent Sony home cinema amp a couple of weeks ago - too light weight, bit plasticy, but then so are a lot of similar priced ones now, but they have abandoned that part of the market from being quite popular with ES receivers.

TB was caught out by a TV with a known defect, which was fixable but I cannot remember the fix.

*Sigh*

Another fanboy.

The W series telly was good. Not brilliant. Just good.

The fix for my Fony telly was replacement with a different model - they all suffered, just the 100Hz ones were worse.  However, Fony UK refused to do this, stating a new SCART board would fix all issues. It didn't, clearly. It was a poor design, poorly constructed with substandard parts.

Did I mention my C&G224 P3 was in TVs

There was an engineered fix but not in UK, I think someone on AVF found it.

The fix would be a new PSU, new defelction drivers, and possibly a new coil. That would fix the geometry changing with what the screen is displaying.  The electronics around picture generation would need fixing as well, but it would be impossible to tackle this before getting a stable image, no matter what is onscreen.