Best CRT TV picture on planet earth, bar none. INPUTS galore, great customobility of input labels and settings.

Heavy (My God!!) I could not sleep the first night because I was worried that my TV Console Cabinet would give out under the WEIGHT.
Instruction Manual is Pitifullll.. My toaster has a better manual!

FIRST IMPRESSION:
Out of the box this TV smells of quality and it does not dissapoint. I have had no speaker peeling (Yet!). The TV has not shut off by itself, overall everything has been extreamly good.

SOURCE MATERIAL:
The source material that you feed this beast is all important, feed it Crap and you get Crap x 10 , feed it good stuff and you get a great picture. This unit really shows how crapy DSS really is, if I turn up the contrast to about 60% I can see all the mpeg squares that make up the picture Where as my good old C-Band system looks incredible. On DSS CNN (204) the newscasters face is full of squares and I have to put the TV in "Movie" mode in order to blur out the picture and make it look like how a cheaper TV would show the image.
Bandwidth is the Key, and only the PPV section on DSS has the bandwidth neccessary (Barely).
I also purchased a Pioneer DVD (DV-434) with progressive scan $290 at Brandsmart. This combo in progressive mode makes buying the set worth it, and of coures gives the best picture.


TUNING:
Picture quality is the best of any TV, but to get it you do need to buy AVIA or VE and tune the picture. I would also recommend buying the service manual $17.65 at 1-800-488-Sony

SPEAKERS / REMOTE:
The internal speakers, are as expected; a bit weak but if your not setting up a home theater they are more than adequate. The remote is very flexible and nicely laid out with no clutter, it is not an expensive looking remote but it does get high marks for ergonomics and versatility.

SUMMARY:
If you watch lots of DVD's or have Digital Cable or a C-Band dish then this unit is your dream come true.
If you use DSS, Dishnet, VHS or Really Crappy Cable then this unit will not make you happy, with DSS it depends on the channel your on but if you mainly watch networks, CNN or anything other than Movie channels and PPV then you might want to reconsider.
I am real happy with this set and I recommend it.
A general word of warning about buying any set, never buy a demo or floor model. The factory contrast setting will take out half of the CRT life if they are running for months at the high settings.

Similar Products Used:

Sony Kv-27### Zenith

Just a follow up to my previous review...

I wrote my previous review within a a few days of purchase. I've used this fine TV for a month and a half now, and my satisfaction has only grown! As stated in other reviews, if you feed this set crap, you'll get incredible crap out. With certain Digital Cable feeds the pixs are lousy, i.e. grainy and almost animated looking. But feed it a good digital cable feed or a DVD source and the quality is OUTSTANDING!! As for the speaker grills... No problems. Maybe Sony changed the glue they were using! HA HA

The set did need a little tweaking (using the AVIA test and setup DVD) but I was actually surprised at how close the settings were staight from the factory. Since I haven't been able to find any glaring or not-so- glaring flaws, I Rate it a 5 in both value and overall! Highly recommended.
Enjoy...