Sony Bravia KLV-S32A10 32-Inch LCD WEGA HD-Ready Flat Panel Television
Worried but turned out pleased
I was a bit worried buying this set from Amazon because it was by far the most expensive product I've purchased from Amazon. But the price, including the shipping, was substantially lower than what I could buy \\"at home,\\" so I took the chance. All in all, I am pleased that I did so. <br /> <br />The Amazon experience was generally good. It's obviously very simple to order from Amazon's site. The shipper (Eagle) did not provide enough information; using Amazon's \\"where's my stuff\\" feature, I was told that the product was shipped but had no idea where it was in Eagle's system aside from an estimated delivery date of a Monday. However, on the preceeding Thursday, Eagle called to set up a delivery time on Friday. My wife had a somewhat restricted time during which she would be available, but Eagle accomodated her. She told me that the delivery person was pleasant and put the 45 pound or so package where she needed it. The package arrived in excellent shape, as did the TV when we opened it. <br /> <br />The TV itself is quite nice. While it does not include an HDMI cable (which can range in price from about $70 for one meter [Monster] to $23 for 6 feet [Startech]) nonetheless there were enough cables provided to hook it up to my HD cable box. (Yes, you do need a separate HD decoder for this TV, perhaps one reason why it's somewhat less expensive than other similar sized Sony TVs.) One aspect of the initial set up that I believe is not sufficently explained is that you must be sure to turn to the video input on the TV into which you have connected your cable (or satellite) BEFORE you do a \\"channel search.\\" I did not realize this fact and so after I did a channel search I was very worried that all I saw was static. But, once I eventually clicked over from the video 1 input to the video 4 input (where I had connected my cable box) everything was fine. <br /> <br />The HD picture on the set is remarkable...but that is probably true of virtually all HD sets. The non-HD pictureis also sharp. Compared to conventional, CRT TVs, I think the LCD picture is distinctly sharper. Indeed, at first it seemed somehow \\"too sharp.\\" Initially I thought the picture on a conventional TV was, in some fashion, more life-like. But I am coming increasing to believe that this was an artifact of watching only CRT televisions until I purchased this set. As I watch more shows on the LCD screen, I am becoming more used to the picture and now find myself dissatisfied when I watch our conventional TV in the bedroom.. <br /> <br />The WEGA feature simplifies setting up the set and is nice but let's face it: Once the TV is set up, you probably won't use this feature very often. I wish the set had more HDMI inputs (it has only one) so that I could hook up both my cable box and DVD player. I also wish it had a set of inputs on the front to ease setting up and taking down my kid's video games. The remote has a bunch of buttons, but it's more or less logically laid out and so works well. <br /> <br />Would I buy another TV from Amazon? Based on my experience, I think so. Amazon prices seem low enough compared to the local brick and mortar stores to more than adequately compensate for the delay from order to receipt of the TV. So my experience has been strongly positive.