 Good looks, great picture, Sony reliability! |
| Review Date: October 3, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Jim Green, Dallas, TX |
I am very happy with this purchase. The TV has very good looks, sleek and discreet. The equivalent Samsung and Sharp had frames too shiny and looked cheap. The picture is great. SD cable looks very good. Audio is very good. Best of all is Sony reliability. My previous experience was the Samsung 30" SlimFit. That had bending issues at first and was replaced. Then it refused to turn on, and customer service was rude and unhelpful. The Slimfit has major reliability problems. I am very happy with this Sony that replaced it.
Adding to this review after 2 weeks of extensive use. I compared this TV to Sony's 37" KDF-37H1000 LCD projection TV. This 32" LCD TV won out because:
1. Sharper picture on HD signal - the KDF-37H1000 is a little more blurry. (Note the KDF-37H1000 picture is better than no-name brand LCDs). The Sony LCDs had better focus.
1a. LCD TVs have a brighter picture. The Sony TVs have 3 picture settings: i) Vivid (very bright, what you see in Best Buy, ii) Standard (less bright, what looks better at home), and iii) Cinema (softer, more reds and earth shades). On the KDF-37H1000, you have to set it to vivid to watch even at home. On LCDs, you have to reduce brightness becuase they're brighter pictures.
2. SD cable on LCD TV is much much better than on KDF-37H1000.
2a. Motion was much cleaner on the LCD TVs. Sports blurred on the KDF-37H1000. I watched a bit of "8 below" Disney's Alaskan adventure with lots of white dogs and snow, and it looked bad, blurry and soft on the KDF-37H1000.
3. LCD TV has much less depth. Looks sleeker. I also tapped my fingers and felt around the frames on the 2 TVs. The LCDs were firmer and fit better. The KDF-37H1000 frame was looser and cheaper materials like a toy.
4. Maintainence costs - the KDF-37H1000 will require $200-400 bulb replacement in 1.5 years. The sales people said this could even happen in less than a year due to bulb malfunctions, just like in a floor lamp or any lamp. Note, Sony is phasing out LCD projection TVs in favor of SXRD, Hence, parts for the KDF-37H1000 will become harder to find. The KDF-37H1000 lamps are already $400 (Sony parts are always costlier - look at their digital camera memories, compared to Canon's).
4a. The complex combination of chips, mirrors, projectors, lamps on a projection TV is more prone to break than the simpler LCD technology. I am an electrical engineer and design integrated circuits for a living.
5. The KDF-37H1000 generates more heat than LCD, but much less than plasma.
6. The KDF-37H1000 has moving parts, such as the cooling fan, etc., All of these are more prone to malfunction.
7. Consumer reports rates the LCD TV reliability higher than projection TVs after looking at consumer repair data. Projection TVs had higher rates of return and repair.
7a. The folks at Best Buy told me they saw higher rates of returns due to reliability on the KDF-37H1000 than on Sony's LCDs.
8. The LCD TV has higher pixel count 1368 X 768, compared to the KDF-37H1000's 1200 X 720. This leads to sharper picture and better focus.
9. Screen door effect on KDF-37H1000. When objects on screen moved, their individual pixels did not move as a group. The picture was constantly dissolving and reforming. Faces had spots that appeared and dissappeared.
10. 2-3 years from now, I can put the LCD TV on a dresser in my bedroom as a 2nd TV, or put it in my study as a computer monitor. Cannot do this with the KDF-37H1000.
11. Moving - when we move houses, the LCD TV will ride easily in the seat in my Honda Civic. Cannot do this with the KDF-37H1000, which will have to go in the back of the truck with my wife.
The KDF-37H1000 was better than the Sony LCD TV in terms of:
1. Sound was much better becuase larger speakers and probably more pwerful amp.
2. A few more features and options that I will not use.
3. Larger screen. However, you must sit further back to avoid seeing spots and motion blurs.
Note the KDF-37H1000 is an excellent TV and very reliable compared to no-name brands. Definitely more reliable than the Samsung Slimfit TVs. We just came out of a bruising warranty battle with Samsung, and their reliability and customer service is pretty bad. The KDF-37H1000 does look very good compared to Samsung or Westinghouse LCD TVs, which had cheap and shiny frames. However, the KDF-37H1000 is just not as good as Sony's 32" LCD TVs. If you want a bigger screen than Sony's LCDs, go 46" or 55" projection. The SXRD projection TVs had better motion. If you're thinking of 37", get an LCD.
One thing the KDF-37H1000 has going for it is Sony reliability. I work for IBM and we design integrated circuits for Sony's products. They require a 100 defective parts per million quality level from us. This is very good in the industry. |
Excellent Value - And it is a Sony!
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| Review Date: September 3, 2007 |
| Reviewer: milominderbinder2, United States |
We could not be more pleased with this 32 Sony LCD HDTV. It is bright and easy to setup and use. It has plenty of inputs for HDMI, component, PC, etc.
If you are thinking of buying an "off-brand" TV and then getting an extended warranty, for the same money you can get the quality and beauty of Sony.
Enjoy! |
awesome picture in high definition
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| Review Date: March 19, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Robert Cullers, Manhattan, KS |
I highly recommend this TV for high definition programs. I recently watched the 2001 Space Odyssey movie (rated the best high def movie this past year by Sound and Vision magazine) on the Universal high definition channel and the picture was awesome. One can see a lot of difference in the quality of the picture on different channels or different programs. Even the poorest quality programs look good using the 4:3 viewing mode. The TV can be adjusted to also show the lower definition 4:3 programs to completely cover the wide angle screen which cuts off some of the top and bottom of the 4:3 picture, but the picture does not look quite so good in that mode (cutting off the bottom of the picture does cut off or partially cuts off the stupid channel ID's that every channel seems to want to have to spoil the picture). There are many adjustments in contrast, color intensity etc. that can be made. For instance, the picture looks the best in the "vivid" mode rather than some of the other settings.
The sound is adequate on the small speakers, and probably typical of speakers supplied with most TVs. I also have the TV hooked up to an external amplifier connected to big external speakers so that the sound is great when listening to 5.1 channel DVDs. |
Great TV, beautiful picture
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| Review Date: July 30, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Jakester, |
| This is a very nice TV. The controls are easy to use and ports are easily accessed. The picture was superb right out of the box and required very little adjustment. Also, I turned it on using my cable box remote immediately, no synching required. Very happy with this purchase. |
sony tv
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| Review Date: April 9, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Bobby J. Smyth, |
| TV is slim easy to manage. Picture is really great. I have had several sony products have enjoyed them. I always compare others but seem to go back to sony products. |
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