Sony KDL 46VL130

[Confused shopper]

Help: Looking at Sams' Club Sony KDL46VL130 which some say is the KDL 46V3000 at local Sears stores. What is everyones opinion on buying from a Sam's Club or a Costco type store vs. Sears, Best Buy etc? Anyone have this Sony model? What are the pros & cons? Thanks to anyone who can give some feedback.

[RonV]

Re: Sony KDL 46VL130

Help: Looking at Sams' Club Sony KDL46VL130 which some say is the KDL 46V3000 at local Sears stores. What is everyones opinion on buying from a Sam's Club or a Costco type store vs. Sears, Best Buy etc? Anyone have this Sony model? What are the pros & cons? Thanks to anyone who can give some feedback.

Best thing to do is compare the models on the Sony site.

Sometimes Costco and Sam's will get a different SKU number for products so the other box stores (Circuit City and Best Buy) can't match the prices. I like the 90 days you get at Sam's and Costco and Costco now has "Concierge" service for electronic items which automatically extends the warranty.

It all depends on what you are looking for and which store you are more comfortable with. I purchased my last TV at Costco and its fine. I haven't had to use any of their services yet.

[JohnA]

Re: Sony KDL 46VL130

Sam's Club and Costco is a lot more lenient with their return policy so that's a big plus in my book.

[mr.smith]

Re: Sony KDL 46VL130

Help: Looking at Sams' Club Sony KDL46VL130 which some say is the KDL 46V3000 at local Sears stores. What is everyones opinion on buying from a Sam's Club or a Costco type store vs. Sears, Best Buy etc? Anyone have this Sony model? What are the pros & cons? Thanks to anyone who can give some feedback.

Yes, it is the same as 46V3000 (the specs is exactly the same). I bought the VL130 from Costco and used it with my VUDU and it work great.

Remember that you can only get VL130 from Sams or Costco, since it's an OEM version. The pros is that you get an extra year of warranty from Costco (2 years vs normal 1 year standard). You also have 90 days to return with no questions asked. On the other hand, you can bargain at Sears and BB, and usually get better deal. Wait for the sales and you can probably get an extended warranty thrown in for the same price you would pay at Sams/Costco.

I saw someone else mentioned in another thread on this forum that they own the VL130 and they can watch Bourne at 1080p/24 on it.

Overall I like this TV. The cons is that there is only two HDMI and I need three, but ain't that the case? you always need one more than whatever it is you bough!

[Paul Maxx]

Re: Sony KDL 46VL130

This may not apply to Sam's Club or Costco but be leary as it may be the same model but not have all the same features. Walmart is notorious for this. You may see the same product at Best Buy and then see it at Walmart for much cheaper and figure you are getting a deal. The fact is that Walmart actually gets a lesser quality product than say a Best Buy or Circuit City which is why they can offer it cheaper. The manufacturer actually has production lines that run with lesser quality parts and lower QA standards so they can give the product to a Walmart cheaper. A lot of time this means outsourcing the production over seas to totally different facility. This means that your device (tv, digital camera, dvd player, etc) may not have as many ports in or out, be made of a lesser material and be much less durable, or have lesser electronics and performance. There is always the chance that they are OEM refurbs being sold as new (ref, PC Richards). I found this surprising at first and was unsure of the validity until I researched and found many examples and confimations of this. Again I'm not saying that this is the case with the two sam's and Costco but be aware it is out there. Sometimes a good deal is okay and a lesser product is acceptale, sometimes it is a good deal on a legit product, and sometime it is just too good to be true.

[redwein]

Re: Sony KDL 46VL130

Here is an article that says that the Sony TVs in Walmart are not the same ones sold in other retailers.

http://www.news.com/Sony-plans-TV-li...3-6190298.html

They specifically did that to not aggravate the other stores by selling the same TVs at Walmart for a lower price. They don't go into details, but it does seem to indicate that you may actually be getting less to go along with the lower price.

[Paul Maxx]

Re: Sony KDL 46VL130

On the by and by I did put this on another thread somewhere but it bears repeating. Sony is no longer going to be making their Bravia SXRD rear projections. So there current gen KDL-50(55&60)A3000 are it and their prices should be dropping considerably if they haven't already. I am gettin one myself next month and they are pretty good with HDMI 1.3, 1080p/24, and 1080p over component. This is great new if you have a Xbox 360 w/o HDMI. Please before anyone jumps all over me for the component statement check it out first.

[timhood]

Re: Sony KDL 46VL130

Yes, it is the same as 46V3000 (the specs is exactly the same)...

Actually, the KDL46VL130 is the same as the KDL46V2500, not the KDL46V300. Compare these specs from Sony:

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/spe...VL130_mksp.pdf

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/spe...V2500_mksp.pdf

http://www.docs.sony.com/release/spe...V3000_mksp.pdf

In particular, note the contrast, # of HDMI inputs. The 130 and 2500 match up perfectly, the 3000 exceeds those two.

[NOREXX]

Re: Sony KDL 46VL130

Timhood,

Incorrect. The KDL-46VL130 is the Costco/Sam's Club re-branded version of the Sony v3000, not the v2500. Follow the links you posted and you'll notice that the link for the "v2500" opens the manual for the v3000, not the v2500. Looks like Sony's webmaster has made a mistake.

Instead, compare Sony's specs/feature lists side by side, and you will see this is true:

• Both the KDL-46VL130 and the KDL-46V3000 have 1080p/24 input capability, while the KDL-46V2500 does not.
• Both the vL130 and the v3000 have native 1080p, while the v2500 upconverts 1080p.
• Also, the L130 physically more closely resembles the 3000 than the 2500.

From Sony Specs:

KDL-46V3000: 1920 x 1080 Native Panel Resolution
When it comes to high-definition TV the pinnacle of performance is achieved by using 1920 x 1080 display panels. Full HD 1920 x 1080 panel resolution with over 2 million pixels 5(more than twice that of 720p HDTV) is exactly what you need to reproduce the 1080p content that can be delivered by our cutting edge 1080p Blu-ray disc? player.

KDL-46V2500 BRAVIA? LCD flat panel HDTV: 1920 x 1080 Panel Resolution
When it comes to high-definition TV the pinnacle of performance is achieved by using 1920 x 1080 display panels. And BRAVIA V-Series televisions have them. Full HD 1920 x 1080 panel resolution with over 2 million pixels (more than twice that of 720p HDTV) is exactly what you need to reproduce the 1080p content that can be delivered by our cutting edge 1080p Blu-ray disc? player. And working with BRAVIA Engine? standard definition is upconverted to 1080p for a picture so real it?s like you?re actually there.