SONY KV-20FV300 20" FD Trinitron(R) Wega(TM) TV
An update to my previous review -- must read
After writing the other review in which I expressed my frustration at how dark and washed out this screen is, I decided to do some more digging to see if this is a common problem with Sony WEGA televisions. I found it IS, to a certain extent. <br />However, it CAN BE FIXED. The &quot;user controls&quot; -- Brightness and Picture (contrast) -- can do nothing to make the picture better. However, there is what is called a &quot;Service Menu&quot; available on almost all Sony televisions. To access the Service Menu, you must turn the television off and then press Display - 5 - Vol+ - Power on the remote control. This turns on the television in Service Mode and gives you access to a number (hundreds) of internal settings. On the remote, 1 moves forward in the list, 4 moves backward, 3 adds 1 to the setting, 6 subtracts 1. The settings stay until the television is UNPLUGGED.<br />The thing is, it is entirely possible to destroy your picture tube if you switch the wrong setting. Very very bad, don't do. Write everything down before and after you change it, and don't change anything unless you know what it does. There IS a way to save settings to permanent memory, but I won't tell you what it is -- you can find it yourself on the net.<br />Anyway, the most important setting I changed was &quot;SBRT&quot; or Sub Brightness. Mine was set at 32. The scale is 0-63. I think I have it at 50 now. That made ALL the difference. The picture absolutely came to life with this small change. Wonderful, and the difference between a highly disappointing, unusable television and one that looks great. I was able to turn down Brightness and Picture to mid levels and the picture is now bright and vibrant with well-controlled darks and lights. <br />It's puzzling Sony would release a set with such horrid problems when a fix is a setting or two away. I don't understand it, but I'm happy to have found the way to fix it.<br />I was also able to fix geometry problems on the left side of the screen,&quot;shrink&quot; the image a tad so you can see to the edges of TV, DVDs, and games, fix a convergence problem in the upper third of the screen which made white lettering look more like white, pink, and turquoise, and smooth out some stuttering problems the screen showed in high res PS2 games with fine details. But as I said, I wouldn't go messing with settings you're not sure of without a guide (but &quot;SBRT&quot; won't hurt anything).<br />Now that the screen looks great, we're happy with the television. I have to say though, that the built-in sound is disappointing -- the speakers are in the back, facing backward, which gives the audio a remote, indistinct sound. Music sounds pretty muddy, despite satisfactory bass. We've ordered a pair of shielded bookshelf speakers which will go on the &quot;B&quot; line of our stereo and sit beside the Sony. <br />Can't give this set 5 stars because of the stock settings problem and the sound, but having fixed both problems, we're very happy with this screen. It's stupendously sharp and well-defined with the component inputs and the &quot;VM&quot; set to High. <br />A good place to learn more about Sony televisions and high-definition monitors and about the Service Mode is at Agoraquest.com.