Flat CRT; 16:9 Enhanced Mode

Sony Q.C. Problems

First, if you purchase any Sony WEGA Trinitron TV, I recommend purchasing the matching Sony television stand. Secondly, when moving the WEGA’s upstairs (or downstairs--much easier), I suggest leaving it in the box--these TV’s are not light!

Sony TV’s, I think, are the best direct view (KV) television sets on the market. Sony quality control, however, is a definite problem. My first (of the three) KV-27FV16 TV was a lemon. The green and blue amplifiers were over driven, the tint (service--not user) setting was too far on the green side, the horizontal and vertical size and position were way off (usual for KV Sony’s), horizontal trapezoid, tilt, horizontal PIN distortion, and trapezium all needed adjustment. The main problem, however, was color purity on the left and right sides of the screen; light pink and green vertical shading bands began to appear in these areas--a classic indication of magnetic interference. A Sony authorized repair technician came out to my house to “fix” the purity problem; all he did was degauss the screen and quickly left. Unsatisfied, I exchanged the TV for another WEGA. After all the re-packing, lifting, driving, and unpacking, guess what?--same purity problem! This time, I noticed the degaussing coil was making an unusual (for Sony KV’s) sound. Instead of the usual duumm, the coil made a short--high pitch--buzz. Based on others’ descriptions of the same purity problem, I suspect Sony had a large batch of defective degaussing coils--and did nothing to correct the problem. Again, I made the tedious exchange for yet another WEGA. Thankfully, this one had a non-defective degaussing coil--no more purity problem, although there were still the same color and geometric adjustments that had to be made.

If you are lucky, Sony Televisions are the best. Otherwise, expect to deal with returns and the associated headaches--and backaches!

flat tube, great picture, enhanced 16:9 is excellent, 3 D combs, on screen menu, 2 S video connection, 15 x 2 watt speakers, sleek design

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I have had this set for 9 months now. I have had none of the probelems that few people have had with pink lines and all as mentioned in their reviews. On set menu with tons of features are great. The 15 watt speaker chambers sound great. 3 D combs, enhanced 16:9 really add effects to games and movies. I use this set with a sony playstation 2 as a game console and DVD player and both perform flawless. I also use sony VCR SLV-71N and SLV-N81 along with sony V premium tapes. Play backs are flawless. TV needs adjustments out of the box. Best 27 inch I have ever had!!!!!!! Sony does it once again with with it's sleek design. The only draw back I notice is with mega band cable. Some graphics are grainy but that might be a cable problem and not the tv itself. If anybody has a resolution to the problem please e-mail me.

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Emerson 27

Beautiful picture, Sound and Enhanced 16x9 mode.

Sony quality control, sloping picture, halo.

I looked for months and read all of the reviews just like everybody else. I finally decided to go with the Sony 27FV17, because of the sharp picture it produced and the inclusion of the enhanced 16x9 mode. What I found out three tv's later is like others have said, that Sony has some serious quality control issues with this particular tv. I have always been a believer in Sony quality, but this one disappoints.

The first set I purchased had a beautiful picture and I was really happy. That was until I watched my first letterboxed movie in the enhanced 16x9 mode. Yes the picture looked incredible in this mode, except for the fact that on the upper right hand side the picture sloped downward terribly. So I decided to take it back and get another. This time the same problem, plus the picture was cloudy on the left and right sides of the television. On light backgrounds it showed up as a blueish halo around the outer edges of the screen. Trying my best to keep my faith in Sony, I made another trip to make an exchange only to find both problems again, only worse.

As of now I am left with no other choice but to get a refund for this tv. I tried to ignore some the bad reviews and give this television a chance, however at $750.00 I feel that as a customer I shouldn't have to settle for a undoubtedly flawed product. It would be a great television for me, if only it could produce straight lines and lose the halo. Unfortunately I have to give this 1 star.

Audio better than JVCs. Has Mode for enhanced 16:9

Geometry problems, distortions.

Before buying a new 27 incher I read the reviews here, and was very skeptical about the things sayed about the sony tv. I went to 4 different stores to investigate: BestBuy, Sears, Frys, and Circuit City. In all places I saw the some of the problems described in here. About 70% of all the Sony Wega flat screen tv's that I saw had the geometry problems everyone is talking about, ranging from slight to seveer. Some had distortions, and I never saw, or noticed the red/green discolorations.
How can this happen? I own a 2 year old 32XBR and it has none of those problems. Did this happen in the newest batch? Some error in the engineering that no one caught?
Some people have suggested various fixes for these problems, but for the ammount of money they ask for this tv, it should just work. You shouldn't have to have a degree in electrical engineering to have your tv working the way its supposed to.
More importantly, when are they going to fix it?

PS: I opted for the JVC F702 instead.

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Sony 32XBR series

Sound, 16:9 compression, general build quality

color

I have the TV sitting in my home with a Toshiba 27AF41, and I am trying to decide which one to keep. I have been able to fiddle around with both of them in order to gauge their strengths and weaknesses.

The Sony has much better sound (this may not be true of the FS models though). The 16:9 compression mode is excellent. It renders 16:9 DVDs close to HDTV quality - where the scan lines almost completely disappear. The geometry is not too bad - verticle lines are not bowed. They are squiggly though. There were not any problems with pink and green blurring onto white backgrounds at the edges, as others have reported. The problem with the Sony is the color. This may have to do, in part, with the fact that the tube is noticably lighter than the Toshiba. In addition, red saturation is overdone, which means that things appear too "warm" most of the time. Turning down the color helps, but this causes undersaturation of the other colors, resulting in a less vivid picture. Along side the Toshiba, no matter how I fiddled with the controls, I could never achieve the color purity and naturalness of the untweaked Toshiba.

As for the Toshiba, one review pointed out that -

"The pixels are noticeable, and more often than not, curves and facial details get blurred in that awful, blocky way. I can't stand it."

I saw the same thing. Basically everyting look like an animated cartoon with overly sharp, "blocky" edges. But the color is so good that I persisted in trying to get used to this problem. Fortunately, I found the solution to it on the Web. The problem is that in all picture modes except
"movie", velocity scan modulation is turned on. It is this that caused the awful edges. If you used the Video Essentials setup disk, this will be very apparent when you set the sharpness. If you use any mode other than "movie", no matter how far you turn the sharpness down, the edges are terrible. In movie mode you can smooth the edges and get a perfect balance between detail and smoothness. So the lesson is, set the TV up in movie mode. The results are extraordinarily good.

Taking into account the issue above (which is nowhere mentioned in the manual)from what I have seen, you cannot get better color in a 27" flat direct view TV than the Toshiba. I have looked at Panasonic, Samsung, Phillips (albeit, not as critically as the Sony). I can unhesitatingly state that for me the color and detail are very involving, much more so than the Sony. As for the sound, it is mediocre - but then the Sony cost $250 more and has a more powerful amp and speakers. The Toshiba does not have 16:9 compression, which is very nice indeed on the Sony. The biggest problem with the Toshiba is geometric distortion of vertical lines. They are bowed inward uniformly on both side of the screen. This is not generally noticable except when looking at rectangular objects like doors and window.

So which one will I choose? Still not sure, but most likely the Toshiba because the color and detail are so addictive. If the Sony had the color and detail of the Toshiba, it would be great - but it doesn't.

BTW, the build quality of the Sony is noticably better. This is readily apparent when connecting and disconnecting components on the back panel. The jacks are better and the back panel itself is stiffer. The Sony also weights about 15 pounds more.

I would give the toshiba a 5 star rating if it weren't for the vertical distortion. The Sony rates a four. I would suspect that for most people, the Toshiba would be the more enjoyable choice since the picture (aside from geometry) is dazzling. The Sony has a softer picture due mostly to the color balance, and that may be appealing to some. I find that the "warmth" (or washed out quality) of the Sony is not very involving. On the other hand, if the Toshiba were not there for comparison, you would never know what you were missing.

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Toshiba 27AF41

Razor sharp picture, 16:9 Mode

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I purchased this TV at Sears using the internet price matching scheme plus I bought on a day where Sears had 10% all items. What a steal! I got a TV with a June 2001 manufacture date and I have experienced none of the problems common with Wega. Slight geometry problem corrected by TILT option. After a 3 day break in, I calibrated the TV using Video Essentials. I use regular old cable, but my connection is very strong as I notice zero noise on most stations. I run component cables from my DVD player and like others, this is a great poor man's HDTV when using 16:9 mode. I don't use the speakers on the TV since I run the sound through a Marantz 5200 and Polk 6600 home theater with the PSW350 subwoofer.

People have said the tv is heavy, but 100 lbs is easily doable. Just have a buddy available when you set up.

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JVC F802

Easy Setup, Good Sound, Great Looks

Heavy, but hey what do u expect. That 16:9 Compression
thing is useless.

Best 27 inch i have ever owned, and the only one. Can't really compare it to anything i just know that i like it.
Tons of hookups and easy to use remote. I like the external speaker option thing where u can control your tuner through
the tv remote instead of a separate remote. I also hook-up
my computer to it and Unreal Tournament never looked so good. The 4 inputs is pretty nice too since i often hook up a digital camera, camcorder, and playstation to it. I always thought PIP was dumb but when u can play playstation during commercial break and swap back to tv when its on again that's pretty cool. And with the hefty sony discount its totally a steal. Doubt i would shell out 800 or more bucks for it but still an awesome tv that i would recommend.

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Montgomery Ward 13 incher. Yes they made tv's at one time.

Sound quality, picture

wish it could display a progressive image

I spent about a month checking out every TV I could find in a 27" before buying this. I came down to the FV series Sony Vega, the Panasonic Tau, and the new JVC I'art. While all three TV's offer an excellent picture, the Sony seems to be the best of the three. The Panasonic Tau did not have the clarity of either the JVC or the Sony. Plus, it still suffers from the unrealistic color that Panasonic seems to favor. No amount of adjustment can overcome this either. So I was down to the JVC or the Sony. The JVC does offer a VERY good picture, but color reproduction seemed a little less accurate than the Sony, even after extensive calibration with the standard controls. After I had both sets set up, I did the "scan line test" and walked towards each set until I could notice the scan lines. I was able to get a bit closer to the Sony before I could see the lines. This was off of a standard cable source. The sound on both sets was very good for a TV, but I found the Sony to have a little more bass, which makes for a fuller sound. The simulated surround modes actually do work on the Sony!! Not that I use them. Plus, the Sony did have the 16x9 enhancement, which does make a slightly noticeable difference in picture quality.
Sears matched the $665 price from CrazyEddie.com, although I really had to fight with the sales guy to get it. Luckily, I live in the same town as CrazzyEddie's warehouse so Sears couldn't factor in the shipping charge to the price match.
Once I got the set home and got it hooked up to my HT system: Pioneer Dv-626 DVD
AR310HO Mains (I love these speakers)
ARCS25HO Center
AR208HO Surrounds
Pioneer VSX-457 (It sucks, but gets the job done)

I absolutely love this TV!!!! Anamorphic movies on the 16x9 mode are beautiful! Granted, there is not that much of a difference between regular widescreen mode, but there is definitely a difference. This TV does help you realize how lousy most cable and VHS sources are. After playing with the settings, I noticed that the Velocity Modulation (VM under the first menu of the setup screen), while is makes things such as text much sharper, creates so much sharpness that you get "pixelation." Turning the VM off makes pictures much softer and smooth, but I have found that for DVD watching, I like to leave the VM on "low." Play with it and see what you like best.
Overall, you can't go wrong with this set. It is pretty expensive, but you get a great tube for the money. I would also highly recommend checking out the JVC I'art.

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compared with JVC I'art and Panasonic Tau

none i can say currently, since my tv set is in pieces

sony's customer service is the utmost worst i've ever dealt with. shame on you sony!

i purchased sony set kv27fv-16 in jan 01. i watched the set for less than 10 minutes and spotted an issue with the tube. there was a pixel that stood out as white, then the top of the screen was hazy. i phoned for an in house sony repair, which confirmed the set had a bad tube. it is now many months later and i still have no tube. i am going on my 4th tube (incl the original). every tube that comes the tv repair shop has been broken. what has happened to the QUALITY control departments in companies today? one last item to mention, sony only has a 3 month period in which to log your woes, then you can get service as much as the set needs. but note the complaint must be in within 3 months.

Great picture and sound. Love it with DVD. You must put on leathal Weapon 4 Great Picture.

So far I have no complaints but I hope nothing comes up.

The guy was leaving the store and introduced me to the sony. I looked at the price and noticed it too much ($800) for me. But again, the guy was leaving the store and gave me his store discount and bought it for a great price for $560 and that is now lie.

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