Quality Viewing...! (Sony KV-28FS20)

Member Name: 137699

Product:	Sony KV-28FS20
Date:	05/02/03 (171 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb Picture & Sound, Quality Built to Last, Easy to Set up

Disadvantages: Only 2 Scart sockets, Fast-text has been superceded

I've had one of these for over 4 years now. When I bought mine, I got a brilliant deal by getting it from Costco for £695, as opposed to the £1100 that the local Sony Centre was asking for the same model!

It came in a massive carton, and I had to lug the thing from the car into the house, and set it up on my own! It was not a great experience, and I'd have happily used some help!

Once unpacked, and installed, it was as simple as pie to set up. The remote control is basic, but totally funcitonal, and the settings are controlled through on-screen menu's which are easy to operate.

The set itself is a 28" widescreen, with fasttext (fast teletext), nicam stereo sound, 50hz pure flat trinitron screen, and a nice glass cabinet.

The picture quality is surpassed only by 100hz tv's from quality brands. This set produces a better picture than just about any other 50hz screen, and many of the cheaper 100hz screens also!

For those of you who don't understand the difference between 50/100hz, it is basically how quickly the image is refreshed on the screen. 50hz tv's have been the mainstay of television technology for some time, and have a slight flicker. The 100hz tv's in comparison, appear to have almost no flicker whatsoever.

Having said that flicker (or rather, lack of it) is only part of what makes a good picture - the other being the quality of the tube - and Sony have consistently outperformed it's competitors for many years in producing the finest quality tubes.

The one in this set is a top example of this. The perfectly flat screen takes a little getting used to after watching a rounded screen for so many years, that at first the image seems a little strange. But after a few hours of watching, you gradually come to appreciate the pin sharp picture this screen offers, and how the flat screen almost eliminates reflection, and disctortion, resulting in an excellent picture. I
would still choose a pure-flat 50hz screen over a rounded 100hz model any day.

The sound from this set is also equally excellent. My version doesn't have surround sound, I didn't need that as I already have a Dolby Digital home cinema setup, so I went for the straight 2-channel Nicam Stereo version of the TV. I don't usually bother switching on my surround setup unless I'm watching a film, so I was surprised to find just how well the standard stereo sound from the TV performs - as the channel seperation is excellent, and it seems to literally throw sound around the room from it's two inbuilt speakers, even at relatively low volumes!

The only real criticisms of this TV for me, are that the fast-text is not as good on some of the more recent models, and there is not the widest selection of inputs and outputs, which means that I had to wire things very specifically to get the DVD, video and satellite decoder to all co-habit.

Having said that. the TV has provided so far 4 years of trouble free quality viewing, despite having survived in that time 3 house moves!

Testament to the quality of this set, is that I recently saw an ex-rental version of it in a Box Clever shop, and they were asking £450 for it, without a stand! Bearing in mind that you could buy a brand-new cheaper Bush or Thomson brand set for less than that, it tells you which one is likely to last the longer!

I fear that within the next 2/3 years the end will be met for my trusty set, as I will succomb to wanting a pure-flat 100hz tube, better fast-text, and more inputs, but for now, it is plenty good enough!

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