Customer Reviews

Sony WEGA KV-27FS13 27" Flat-Screen TV

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My previous TV, a 25-incher, conked out two days before Thanksgiving. After three days of furious research, I ventured out to my "local" electronics store (8 miles away!) at 8 am the Friday morning after Thanksgiving. I had already decided on a Sony 27" flat-screen and didn't need PIP, so the KV27FS13 was the one. It was rather difficult to judge the quality of the picture in the store; I couldn't get more than five feet away from the set, arrayed as they were down narrow aisles. But the price was right, and I've had a good experience with my Sony flat-screen computer monitor.
The punchline: The salesman asked," How many do you want? We have 19 in stock." Ooh. (...)One for every bedroom. As if.

With bungee cords, the box barely fit in the trunk of my Caprice, but I got it home and in the door, courtesy of my trusty handcart.
Getting it up on the TV stand with no help proved harder. At 100 pounds and with few right angles for my hands to get a purchase on, it's a big'un. I'm glad I got the in-home repair plan, 'cause I ain't movin' that thing again till it's ready to go to that home theater in the sky.

But enough of all that. You want to know about the picture. Well, it's flat, and there is less glare, but it's a picture. The ugly little secret no one will admit is that picture quality is dependent on many things, none having to do with the flatness of one's TV screen.

This has been brought brutally home to me during the time I've had the set. On the stations with high quality signals, the picture is fantastically bright and clear. I can see the weave in fabrics, the blemishes, laughlines and stretchmarks on actors' skins, the veins on leaves and petals, the scratches and nicks in football players' helmets. Watching certain cable channels, old family videos or clapped-out video-store rentals, however, is an exercise in frustration. I can only compare the experience to trying to read fine print without my bifocals. Our local peacock-network affiliate has multiple ghosts and scratchy sound, as it has for the last three years.

Around back, it's got more plugs and outlets than my stereo receiver. From the looks of them, you could hook up enough speakers to start a second Northridge quake. The cable connection worked, and that's all I cared about.

A few minor quibbles. There's no flat surface on top to rest the cable guide and TV listings. Why bother putting volume, channel, and on-off controls along the top front edge of the cabinet? And the color of that cabinet can best be described as stained-with-a-few-years-worth-of-kitchen-grease-silver. Sony, please. Either make it bright silver or paint it black.

Once you OPEN AND READ THE MANUAL, this TV's onscreen menus are a joy to use. And I have a Sony VCR, so I can use its remote and the TV's remote almost interchangeably. Very nice.

Moms 'n' Dads who use TV as an electronic babysitter will be happy to know that through the use of this Sony's password-prompted parental controls, their progeny can be blocked from seeing anything but G-rated fare, so hopefully they will grow up be model students and upstanding citizens and not stand around smoking and spitting and making noise in front of my house. We shall see.

Watching old CinemaScope movies that have been letterboxed is a much more pleasant experience than on my old 1989 25" bubble-screen. If you do a lot of that, you might want to spring for a 32" flat-screen, but invite some strong friends over for pizza and beer the day you bring it home. It's close to 200 pounds (Yes, I asked while I was at the store.)

Sound? It's head-and-shoulders above that coming from my old TV, whose two integral "stereo" speakers were partially blocked by the housing. I've already tried hooking the TV up to my stereo system using both the back and front audio ports, and the sound is phenomenal. I got a pretty good idea of what surround sound would be like if I ever went that route. Again, the sound is best on newer shows that were in stereo to begin with. Old movies and TV shows(my favorite kind) didn't have clear-as-a-bell sound to begin with, and there's not much improvement in 1950's audio even on a 2001 flat-screen stereo set.

So there you are, folks. If you're going to buy a Wega or any other flat-screen TV, buy it. Wonderful picture, wonderful sound under ideal conditions. But don't expect it to be a cure-all for weak output from the aforementioned sources. If anything, the high-quality display and the relative power of the speakers will exacerbate the flaws in these sources.As we used to say in the bad old days of DOS and the bad new days of HTML, "Garbage in, garbage out."

Before I made the decision to buy this product, I read a variety of consumer reviews, including Consumer Reports. The reviews gave this product high marks. (Consumer Reports rated this among the top TVs in its category). I was looking for a reliable flat screen TV that would provide excellent picture and sound quality at a reasonable price.

With the Sony KV27FS13 I was not disappointed. After getting some help to get it in place (it is heavy), the connections and setup instructions were a breeze. I am very pleased with the variety of connection options. The S-Video input allowed me to connect my satellite receiver. I can't believe the clear, sharp images. What a difference!

The reviews I read also said that video component input was the way to go to connect a DVD player. I used this connection to hook up my DVD player. The picture quality is superb! I was surprised at the clarity of the sound too. It is the closest thing to watching movies in a theater that you can experience without actually being in a theater.

All in all, I am very pleased with my purchase. I would highly recommend this Sony Wega TV to anyone who is looking for great quality at a reasonable price.

Having read a number of glowing reviews, I was not disappointed by my new Sony Wega - this TV is awesome. I compared a number of 27" flat screen TVs from Toshiba, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, & Sony. Of the five, I found the Sony to have the clearest and most vibrant picture. Also, only the Sony and the Samsung have the 16:9 picture modes to display widescreen films with the highest resolution. Digital cable (thru composite video input) looks significantly sharper and more brighter than my old TV and DVDs w/ component video input look stellar. I also have PS2 and games look awesome on the Wega.

The Sony KV-32FS13 WEGA TV is expensive compared to conventional (non-flat-screen) TVs. So you have a difficult choice: which one to buy - a conventional TV from Sharp, JVC, Toshiba or Panasonic (which will still provide good picture quality) or Sony's WEGA flatscreen, which looks cool, but costs substantially more.

For example, you can buy two Panasonic 32G5 for the same price that 32FS13 costs. When I went to Circuit City yesterday, 32G5 cost [amt] and 32FS13 cost [amt].

Let's see why Sony 32FS13 costs more.

Flat Screen

TVs with flat screen cost substantially more than "conventional" sets. The fact that the screen is flat bears not only esthetic value, but improves your viewing experience. The main advantage of the flat screen is the fact that the straight lines look straight on the flat screen when watched from an angle (in conventional TVs they get curved) and there is no picture distortion neither when watched from an angle nor in the corners when watched directly.

Another advantage of the flat screen is the fact that the glare is significantly reduced, since the flat screen reflects the light at a consistent angle, so the light coming from above gets reflected down and where you cannot see glare. Conventional TV CRTs reflect light in all directions, creating glare.

It's Not HDTV

Why waste money? The 32FS13 is a "regular" TV, but it has all inputs you need to enjoy current widespread digital and analog video sources, including S-Video and component video input for digital sources like DVD, digital satellite receivers, digital camcorders and VCRs. The HDTV is not widespread and is not going to be for quite a while.

Inputs

In addition to composite and RF inputs, this TV has S-Video and component video inputs on the rear panel. The presence of S-Video and component video inputs is one of the features not found on the cheapest TVs, even 36", including 36" Sharp TV I saw at Best Buy yesterday for [amt].

The comb filter is used to separate chrominance and luminance from the composite video signal, so if you use S-Video or component jacks, you will avoid rainbow-like Moire patterns while watching your movies.

Since this model comes with both S-Video and component inputs, you can use them to get better detail level and edge definition from your DVD player or other high-resolution sources. S-Video input allows you to bypass the comb filter and pass the signal directly to color decoder, and component input allows you to bypass both.

Features

The set of features that 32FS13 implements is impressive. You can see them on Sony's web site. If you are price-conscious, you will find that these features are not extensive enough to translate to such an elevated price comparing to competition. The extras you pay is for the flat screen, good looks, Sony's name and picture quality, which is really good.

Picture Quality

Yes, Sony does not sell their products cheap. Neither they are leaders in quality control (as you can see from the "Consumer Reports Reliability Survey", where they lag behind JVC, Panasonic and some others). But they implement new interesting technologies and their TVs are at the top in terms of picture quality.

This model produces excellent picture quality. I have seen better picture quality, but the TVs that I saw it at cost much more than this one. The picture is sharp and clear, even in the corners of the screen, where TVs usually have difficulties focusing (helped in part by Sony's Magnetic Quadra Pole dynamic focus system).

The TV also employs a three-line digital comb filter to improve the separation of chrominance and luminance (color and light information). Although the TV does not employ the more advanced 3D filter (which helps better for static images), the edges are well-defined, besides the use of an S-Video or component video input with high-quality sources allows for even better edge definition.

Keep in mind though, that flat screen aside, the picture quality produced by this TV when fed by an RF signal or analog cable is not substantially better than, say Panasonic 32G5, which costs twice less. Where the difference is more noticeable is when you feed DVD or digital satellite signal.

Remote Control

The TV comes with a universal remote control that allows you to control the TV, VCR, DVD player, cable box or satellite receiver. Some buttons are small, but the remote is compact and the button layout is quite logical.

Conclusion

It might be a difficult choice: price vs. features, looks and performance. The 32FS13 looks cool, features excellent picture and set of features and has all necessary inputs. But you can another 32" TV for twice less with not much loss in useful features and performance.

If [amt] premium is a non-issue, get FS13. Otherwise, get Panasonic 32G5, and invest the [amt] you saved in technology stocks. I doubt they can go any lower.

I'll not repeat all the comments of previous review, except to say the glowing praise of clarity and detail, as well as the 16:9 feature are on target. The complaints about the weight and deep menus are similarly on target. The only thing keeping me from giving this TV a 5 instead of a 4 is GEOMETRY! There are NO straight lines on this TV. I'd return it for a second time (this is the 2nd of this model I got from Circuit City) but the darn thing weighs 100 lbs, and the 16:9 feature is wonderful for my home videos shot in that aspect ratio.

By geometry, I mean things like graphics and text crawls on news channels are warped, and not even in a forgivable symmetrical / concave way. It's odd and inexcusable. Others have experienced the same thing. [Please] look CLOSELY at it on a variety of channels before buying. If the geometry and price don't bother you, buy it. If you can see the warpage and hate it, and don't need the 16:9 anamorphic capability, there are probably better options from JVC and Panasonic. From here on out I'll probably take Sony off the very top of my list of brands, and notch 'em down one or two.

This is a truly great TV set. I love the flat screen and how sharp it looks. When I play pre-recorded VHS tapes on my VCR on this television you can actually read the credits on the tape! I never saw that before. Also we still play Laser Discs in my household so I really enjoy the multiple options for inputs. I was also impressed with the sound on this set. You can actually hear the bass. This is a great TV. SONY makes the best.

I've had this television for probably about a year. It is a fantastic set. I am no videophile but I can tell you that it has the best picture of any set that I have owned. I'm pretty sure that it also has the best picture that I have seen on just about any television that I have sat down in front of (not including a TV store).

Pros: Great picture. Crisp and clear for television. I have a local cable company providers cable box hooked up into the S-Video input. It looks great.
I have a Sony DVD player hooked up through the component video inputs. The picture is incredible. I must add though, that some DVD's are not looking as good as I would have expected when compared to others. I think that has alot to do with the DVDs in these rare cases though. Star Wars Episod 2 looks insanely good. So do many others. Some, for some reason do not.

16x9 mode. This is also great for wide screen dvds. It increases the resolution in a very noticable way. I must add though that better instructions need to be given regarding the dvd players aspect ratio and what to do to make this feature work correctly. If done wrong, this feature makes the picture squish a little (very noticable). But when you do it correctly, it makes all the difference in the world. A very good option to have. I'm told the resolution gets to be about 33% better. It sure looks it.

Cons: I too have seen some white patches at the top left and rights sides when playing certain dvds. The only time I see them is during the intro to star trek episodes on DVD when all you see is the stars against a dark backround. The white patches are there and are noticable during this brief period. I don't watch hockey like the others and have therefore not seen the pink bars on the side they see during bright white scenes. I have had no issues with bright white scenes. The more colorful the better is the impression that I get with this TV.

One more con and that's all. Although the DVD quality is incredible for most DVDs, there are a few where during dark scenes you see what one person refered to as "hundreds of bugs running all over the place". I guess this is that grainy look that digital sometimes has. I think this comes from bad DVD's. Anyway, I do see this sometimes and am still pleased with this set. It can only be as good as what you put on it.

All in all. I Love this set and would buy it again. I paid about 500 for it and didn't find it too hard to get it in my apt. It is very versitile. It was a little heavy, but I think that that is a good sign that everything that needs to be in there, is.

I purchased the TV from Circuit City almost a year ago. At the time, I was looking at both the Wega and the Tau. Since they were the same price I went with the Wega based on Sony reputation. I have a 20 inch Trinitron that has the same wonderful picture since I bought over 8 years ago.

Anyhoo, I do like the Wega. The picture clarity is good, but I can't comment on the sound since I don't use the speakers. I like that my Sony satellite receiver can control it. My only problem with it is the pink bars on both the left and right side of the screen. They are quite noticeable on white backgrounds e.g. hockey games. I've read numerous forums entries where others have the same issue. Sony's response is to place unshielded speakers/devices more than 5 feet away from the TV. My speakers are Bose and are definitely shielded, but I've humoured them and tried it to no avail.

If you're thinking of purchasing this item and are a hockey fan, you may want to reconsider...

Overall, this is a superb product. The picture quality is crisp and clear - the various settings allow some great fine tuning for personal viewing preferences. Unfortunately my gripes are with everything but the picture tube.

The speakers are mediocre to good quality. Very limited bass range - the low frequency really lags and muddles the overall sound if you crank the bass setting too far. Treble is less of a problem. Just pipe the audio through a stereo system to augment the mediocrity. The casing and proportions really draw way too much attention to itself. The light gray color really makes this 27" look fully cubic in volume and mass. This silver color is a fad and the newer KV27FS-13 models are a darker gray tone. Look for later models to go even darker platinum. It just seems obvious that the attention should be on the screen - not the frame. Powering up when cold (sounds strange) evokes this distinctive degauss sound - not a huge deal but annoying when someone else is sleeping.

Too critical? Well, the undercarriage built in grips helped lug this thing out of the cardboard - halleluiah! And it's a great value (if you don't pay for shipping) for the updated picture technology - DVDs never looked so good:) Lastly, timing is everything - Sony had the lock on flat screens before many of the other manufacturers. Currently though, there are a few comparable companies out there building as good or better tubes. .... 4.5 stars because the tube is dead on great but the packaging needs help...I'll round up because I want to feel good about the hole in my pocket.

I just bought this television and have had it for one day. Here are my initial impressions.

The sound is very good for a television.

The picture in 16:9 mode with component video inputs is stunning. I have not seen a DVD displayed any better on any TV in any store I have been too. This includes TV's costing in the thousands. Granted many stores do not always show their TV's to best advantage.

The reason I did not give this TV 5 stars is that there are problems with geometric distortion. This is not at all apparent with programs and movies, but when there is text scrolling accross the screen it does not move exactly straight. Also the TV picture is slightly tilted - this is easily fixed with the tilt correction on the setup menu. Maybe I am being too picky - I just noticed that my 12 year old sony also has a slightly picture that I never noticed until now. I will live with it for a week or so and decide if I want to take it back to get one with less distortion.