Nice Picture, Great for the Playstation 2 with the Compoment cables.

Poor Quality.

After returning 3 Wegas, I finally got one with No Problems.
The first 2 had Green Hues on the left side of the screen.
The third one had a tilted screen. When corrected with the tilt correction, the video games were off the screen. This 4th one seems fine. I don't think the Sony Quality is there anymore. Otherwise a great Television.

Similar Products Used:

Sont, Toshiba, Panasonic.

Picture clarity, Color, Sound(if you actually use it)

whats with the pink lines?

I bought this unit simply because its the best 27" out there, even though you could buy a 32" for the same price, if not cheaper. If you want quality then its worth the sacrifice! BUT, YOU HAVE TO GET A GOOD ONE! I had to return the first set because of faint vertical green and pink lines on either side of the picture about one inch fronm the border. Also, there was geometry problems that could not be fixed with the tilt correction function (nice feature but the way). The second set i got STILL has the pink lines but its not nearly as bad and ok enough to live with..its a workout to return this monster! But the geometry is ok on this one so I'm happy. I read alot of other complaints about the same problem with pink lines. Shame on you SONY for letting these duds out but I guess true fans will keep coming back. Overall, A GREAT TV. DVDs are awesome on it. IF possible, check it out in the store to maybe save you a trip back later..

HIGHLY responsive to magnetic fields (like those from speakers) - and poor placement of the GUI slider bars for picture calibration

My main set for more than 10 years was a Sony 27" XBR monitor, which held up quite well, and really only lacks the 16:9 enhancement and component video in to make it still competitive; I own numerous other smaller sets, though have also gone with Sony 13" and 20" Wegas for my office...

I have been reading the reviews of this product here for some time, and have pointed others to this section as well, to entice them to buy this TV, and also to show them what to avoid...

Pink and green lines? Did anyone who saw these try moving anything with magnets in them away from the set? Large speaker systems have large magnets in them - subwoofers often have HUGE and heavy magnets - which will cause geometric distorion AND, yes, pink and green discolouration! If you see discolouration and/or geometric distortion first try moving any speaker systems you have FAR away from the set and see if the lines and distortion disappear...

Someone ealrier remarked that in 16:9 enhanced mode squished heads, etc....Du-UH! The disc was not anamorphic! Your settings were wrong...Refer to http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#1.1 concerning anamprphic DVDs and all matters concerning the little miracles of technology...

This TV is the best value currently on the market, as it has an excellent colour decoder, very good factory presets in the Movie mode (choose color temp: Neutral, turn down the Picture to about 3 or 4 and you're already in the ballpark), and the superb 16:9 enhancement...

LEAVE VIVID and SPORTS alone! They make the picture look TERRIBLE, and will fry this set in no time! And do NOT use VM (velocity modulation)!!! Refer to http://www.videoessentials.com/glossary.htm for a detailed understanding of why you should steer clear of these settings...

If you have a DVD player use the component video in on the video 4 input, and get the Video Essentials or Avia's test discs to properly calibrate this set...My major complaint with the set is that it is difficult to use the test patterns generated from these discs (or from any tv station sending them out) because of the location of the GUI 'slider' bar which appears near the bottom of the screen for all the picture settings - it takes some time (you have to exit the settings menu to see whether the settings are accurate), but the results of properly calibrating this set are well worth the trouble...

One last thing: put a lamp with a 20 or 25 watt bulb behind the set and turn off the rest of your room lights - properly calibrated, using the component video in with anamorphic DVDs, and with the ambient light placed behind the set will reveal the wonders of this (relatively) inexpensive marvel...

Yes, it IS a heavy product - but, remember the lawyer in "Jurassic Park"? "If they're heavy they're expensive"...Sony's power supplies tend to be very good, and they contribute a lot of weight to their better electronics products...Be prepared before you go moving this thing around - and learn something about the product and the technologies underlying it before you think that you have gotten something of poor quality...

Similar Products Used:

Sony 27" XBR

picture is great and sound is very good

very good piicture, using it with a panasonic dv434 dvd player and component video connection. sharp!!!!!!

Picture quality, flatness, 3d-comb filter, inputs

Factory setting has too much red-push, but could be tamed.

While looking to upgrade the old 19" JVC, we settled on 27" Panasonic Tau and Sony Wega. The Tau has a nicer, slimmer cabinet, but had bad geometry problem, and moving pictures look too pixelized. We decided on a Sony. There is lots of information on the net on the Wega, and more widely available.

Initially, we had our eye on the FS12 model because it's the cheapest of the 27". However, side by side comparison of the FS12 and the FV16 (in Erols, they have 2 composite video outputs from a single DVD player simultaneously going to both TV's), the difference was quite obvious. The 3D comb filter on the FV16 makes the picture so much cleaner (on DVD input, so the difference on TV input would be even greater). We didn't really care for the PIP (turned out to be a nice feature), but the picture quality of the FV16 was quite big that we decided to splurge the extra dollars for it because we plan to keep the TV for a long while.

So, if you read that the difference between the FV16 and the FS12 is just the PIP, think again. The picture quality of the FV16 is so much better, even with DVD input. The FS16 and the FS12 have 3-line comb filter, the FV16 has 3D comb filter. I didn't think it would make a difference, but in reality, it obviously does.

I didn't really care for the sound quality because we pass the audio through Yamaha A/V receiver with the TV audio output level set to fixed. Everything is controlled using RadioShack 15-1994 remote control (see my review there).

After a break-in period, I calibrated the TV using Avia DVD. The picture (contrast) factory setting is way too high (shortens the lifespan of the tube, increases chance of phospor burn-in). The red-push was also too high. So I put it into movie mode, left the color balance in warm, and calibrated the sharpnesss, picture, brightness, saturation/color, hue and red-push using Avia. The service mode helped a lot. Once I got the settings corrected, I left it in movie mode but switched the color balance to neutral. Now skin tone looks a lot more natural, and overall picture quality is a lot more vibrant and detailed.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic Tau 27"

Flat and 16:9 enhance mode

intermitten disortion color and high pitch sound. The space between horizon and vertical line on screen were too long.

I purchased in August, 2000. After a month used and I experienced the problem with the high pitch sound. Can't return because over 30 days and forgot to buy a different for exchange as other did. I did call Sony for repair but I didn't let them repair because I have to carry to the shop and don't know when I can get back. It's disappeared 5 months later or so far until now. WHEW!!!.
Not so soon, I started experienced with color faded and moving from top down on the right side of screen. I thought because I used sattelite, I tried to take the sattelite connection off and used regular antenna but not help. I tried play back on video tape or DVD still have intermitten color disortion. Right now, I didn't hear the high pitch sound anymore but still saw intermitten fading color on the right side screen.

Similar Products Used:

first time used Sony Flat Wega

Flat Screen, 16:9 enhanced mode

Unbelievably poor color purity

Review of latest KV27FV17

I had to return the first one because of Black snow and a pink Halo. How this set managed to pass QC is bad news for SONY.

The second set has the following problems

Color purity is quite poor with pink clouds on white screen

There are vertical striations on the left side of the screen

Geometric distortion is very poor especially in bottom right corner, vertical lines off about 5 degrees !!!

Sound quality is pretty poor

I don't like the Preset picture modes, all visually a bit extreme

16:9 enhanced mode works well and resolution on 16:9 DVD's is very nice


My 10 year old XBR rated 10 out of ten, this VEGA rate 6 out of 10

Similar Products Used:

Sony XBR

16:9 enhanced; great menus; great sound

...I'm thinking...

This is a secondary TV for the bedroom. Did a lot of research on 27" sets; considered Toshiba and Philips, as well as the KV27FS17, but my videophile friend strongly suggested I go with the KV27FV17.

Absolutely the most incredible 27" picture I have ever seen! DVD's blow me away using component/16:9!! I really like the 4 picture modes. "Movie" seems the most appealing. I took the "Standard" mode and changed the settings using the Avia DVD and they were actually fairly close out of the box. Corrected geometry using tilt correction.

Digital cable pictures look awesome! They should look even better next week when I get my new cable box that has S-video output and Dolby!

The only downside to all of this is that I fear I will abandon my primary home theatre setup (which features [?] a 1994 vintage Mitsubishi 52" RPTV) for the comfort of my master bedroom and the dazzling pictures from my new Sony! And if I could pipe in the audio, I probably would!

Similar Products Used:

old Mitsubishi 27"

Without question, the Sony has the best picture available.
Remote is great and easy to use.

Without question, the Sony has the worst sound available.
Hissing/gray noise at all times noticed on 3 TV's.

This review is for the Sony KV27FV17. I purchased this Sony from Sears for $649.00. Circuit City wanted $749.00.
Got the TV home and had to have my wife help me lift it. That didn't bother me though because I don't plan on moving it anytime soon. Turned it on and WOW what a great picture.
Then as I sat watching, I could here this hissing noise in the background. I got up and put my ear to the speaker and sure enough I could here this continueous hissing noise. It bugged the heck out of me so I exchanged it for the same model. Got the 100lb TV home again and wife helped once again. Hissing noise again on this TV. I check wiring, I check different signal source, I tried everything. I e-mailed Sony with no response. So I took it back. We went to the show room and sure enough even the display had this ever so slight hissing noise in the background. So right there and then I said no Sony for me. Don't waist your time lifting this 100lb monster.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 27AF61

Sound, Vibrancy of colors, picture geometry. Very nice case style.

Sony's quality control

This is a review of the 27FV17 & is the 2nd one that I've had. The first one was returned becuase of poor color uniformity. There was a visible haze on the left & right edges of the screen that was noticeable against light backgrounds (shots of the sky, white screen on ad's, etc). I looked at this set at a couple of other stores (Sears, Tweeter & at Circuit City). One of the other display models had the same problem. When I spoke to a salesman at C.C. he told me they had 3 or 4 of them come back for the same thing. Also, analog cable channels looked pixelated, lot of video noise on weaker stations. Basically Sony seems to have Q.C. issues, if you get a good set, it's great but a larget % than normal seem to have problems right out of the box. Because of this I tried the JVC after reading a lot of good reviews here. That didn't work out, see my review under that sets listing.

After my experience with the JVC I deceided to give the Sony a 2nd chance. I'm glad I did. This one has none of the color problems the 1st one showed. Colors are crisp & vibrant. Very clear picture. The video noise on weaker channel is much reduced also. I don't know if there is a greater variation between tuners from set to set on this model or if the 1st one I got was just a lemon. For whatever reason, the replacement seems great. The picture (especially on digital cable channels & dvd's) seems to jump out at you, almost 3d like. Clear, sharp details. You can see details in peoples faces, textures of skin, etc. that the JVC just tended to smooth out. I especially like the skin-tones, look natural to me. Very good range of contrast. Bright picture but nothing looks washed out. Good details in the shadows. The sound on this set is also 1st rate. I never liked having to route the sound thru my stereo system, too many buttons to push when you just want to watch a program for a little while. This sets sounds fantastic. Bass that extends much further down compared to the JVC (& panasonics I've heard). Clear, crisp highs.

This set has to be the best 27" model out at this time. Great picture & sound. The physical appearance is very nice. Has a polished look of quality about it. The only problem is that you have to get a good one. If you have picture problems out of the box, bring it back & get a replacement. Do this as many times as you have to. For the (premium) price this set goes for you should be able to expect (near) perfection. Once you get one without problems the quality of the picture (and sound) will astound you. I'm giving the Vaue 4 stars because it is a little pricey compared to most other 27" sets but the overall is 5 stars because it really is a level above the comptition. Consumer reports also rated this as a top set.

Similar Products Used:

JVC 27F801, Older 27" Sony XBR.