Daewoo DT20U4SC 20" Flat-Screen CRT TV
Excellent television & customer service
I've had my Daewoo DT20U4SC television for over a month now and although I've never done so before I felt compelled to write a review about it and my experience with Amazon.com. I've ordered things through Amazon.com before, so I knew what to expect there; as usual, w/o a hitch. However, when my TV arrived (my 1st one) there was a rather large dent on the left edge of the face frame. (It looked like it had been made that way as the dent was smooth and not like it had hit a corner or something.) I decided to send the dented TV back (it was ordered directly from Amazon) and get a new, undamaged one. I noticed that there's no way to contact Amazon directly -- no customer service number -- so I had to use their email system.  <br /> <br />I was a bit skeptical at first, wondering how this would work and how fast. What I wanted to do was keep the TV I had (it WAS working) until I received the new one and, somehow, have them take the bad one back (maybe by the delivery man). No sooner had I emailed Amazon about the problem, a conformation email was sent to me saying they would send me a new TV and I should use their online \\"return dept\\" to find out how to return the damaged item. (You can print out a UPS mailing label there, etc.) I still wanted the TV picked up and told them as much, and although they told me UPS doesn't do that (pick up AND deliver at the same time), I was given the option to have UPS come to my house (on a different day) and retrieve the damaged TV, postage paid! This was great news. Within, I'd say, 3-4 days a brand new Daewoo was at my door. The very next day UPS came and got the dented one, slapped a printed return label on the box, and off it went w/o me having to drag the thing to some post office or UPS drop off point. Extremely convenient! Within a week from emailing them the switch was made and I was, and am, a happy camper. (Apparently, you can't have them pick up every item -- a TV's one thing; you could take a book to the post office.) I wanted to say something about their customer service first -- how it worked well (at least for me).  <br /> <br />On to the Daewoo DC TV. This is a rockin' set. For those of you who want a nice size (20\\") flat screen TV, but aren't quite in the market for an HD ready set, this one's a good bet. I read all the reviews here; on epinions.com too. I find long reviews helpful (longer than just \\"it's good, buy it\\") that's why mine's so long. The reviews were important for me as I relied on them instead of going to the store. It was between this one and the Sony KV-20FS120 but as the Daewoo's cheaper, among other things,  I picked it. The Sony sounded like a nice TV too, with it's Trinitron screen and all, but it (esp.) lacks inputs. Several people said it didn't even have an S-video input. With the Daewoo's inputs (five in all) I figured out a way to tape one thing on my VCR and watch another. (Basically you plug your components into their inputs leaving the coaxial, \\"F\\" in, for an antenna.) I can, with all it's inputs, hook up my cable box (thru s-video [or rca]), VCR (rca), DVD player (cvi [or s-vid], also a Daewoo), and even an antenna (thru the \\"F\\" in) and still have an input left over for a video game system (there's a 3 RCA group in the front panel, seemingly just for that). More than enough inputs for the average, and even above average user. Both the remote and the TV's front panel have buttons that step through the input displays (TV,AV1,AV2,AV3,CVI). Very convenient. There's even a trio of RCA outputs -- you could hook the audio outs to a stereo system. The menu system (also available on the TV's panel) is very easy to follow and quite comprehensive. There are separate pages for set-up, picture quality, audio, parental control, etc. <br /> <br />A word on audio.The sound quality itself is nice and the stereo is quite good considering the speakers are a bit on the small side. At higher volume levels I did notice some extraneous noise, something that really didn't happen with my old TV, although this seems to go away in S-video mode. There's 3 \\"surround effect\\" modes, although through the speakers I didn't notice much of a difference. There's a 1/8\\" (3.5mm) headphone jack right in the front panel and audio sounds fine along with getting true stereo separation through the headphones. Headphone sound was crisp -- I didn't notice too much bass or treble. <br /> <br />The most important thing in a TV is the picture quality, and the Daewoo's is very high! The picture is sharp and everything shows up quite clearly over the full field of view. It's watchable from pretty much the entire room too. Both advantages of a flat screen model. The difference btwn the normal cable \\"F\\" input and S-video is noticeable, with S-video giving a remarkably clear picture. (That's why I'd use CVI [component video input], not S-video for a DVD. Tho if your cable box doesn't have an S-video out you could use RCA.) The color is very nice; high end. Flesh tones are amazing and all the colors look great. I didn't even have to adjust picture at all. In fact, it played well right out of the box and I didn't have to adjust picture OR audio, although there are many controls for both.  <br /> <br />The size worked out quite nicely as well. The speakers are on either side of the front panel, under the screen, so it's not as wide as stereo TVs with speakers on either side of the screen. (About 20\\" wide.) Something I found handy in that it fit right in the same space my broken Samsung mono TV used to occupy. One small annoyance was that there's very little room on top of the set for components. I can barely fit my VCR & cable box up there (although they DO fit) -- something I did with my old set quite easily. I'm using this TV in my bedroom, and for a small bedroom like mine it's a perfect size as space is a concern. <br />[Although my old Samsung lasted me about 10 years, it looks like they've come way down in quality -- at least where their aprox 20\\" flat screen models are concerned. If you want to believe the reviews I saw.] <br /> <br />If you're looking for a decent flat screen television that's around 20\\" in screen size for a small to mid-size room, the Daewoo DC TV is for you. Excellent picture and sound quality and as many input configurations as you're likely to need make this a top pick -- esp. for the price! I think that Daewoo might have been thought of as a \\"minor\\" or \\"sub-par\\" brand esp. cos of the cheaper prices, that it's a Korean Co. and that it was not as well known as Sony or some of the other \\"big name\\" models. That is no longer true. The quality of their products have made them a name in electronics. (They're still expanding their product lines too.) Both my TV and DVD player are high quality and were reasonably priced. I think I'll look to Daewoo in the future when I need something in this arena -- you should too. <br />