Sony Bravia KDL-32S2000 32-Inch Flat Panel LCD HDTV
A worthy set for anyone
After my 4-year old 32\\" Hitachi plasma set was toasted with some serious burn-in issues, I hit the books and the stores to see what was out there for a replacement set.    LCD TVs have come a long way, and panel sizes keep getting larger with each passing year. I decided on a direct-view LCD TV because of the aesthetics and good experience with a Sony KLV-23M1 23\\" LCD set I purchased last year.    The TV itself looks pretty slick and should blend in with any decor. The bezel surrounding the screen has been made thinner compared to previous sets and is now a charcoal/graphite color, which doesn't draw your eye's attention as much as some of Sony's prior bright silver-rimmed models. Along the bottom of the screen is a light blue/green frosted strip, which things like the IR sensor and Power light are embedded into.    Sony includes a little plastic clip that corrals all your cables towards the middle-back of the set, making for a cleaner appearance from the front. A nice touch is that you can turn the TV about 15 degrees to the left or right on its included pedestal. The on-TV control buttons have been moved to the top, allowing for a thinner and cleaner area below the display.    The speakers are along the bottom of the screen, and put out some decent sound on their own. The pseudo-surround effects, while no substitute for a proper 5.1 or 6.1 system, do a pretty good job of approximating a wider soundstage. Watching The Fifth Element while flipping between surround and stereo modes showed a marked difference with no impact on dialogue clarity.    Like other reviews have stated, standard-definition content is nothing special when viewed on this TV, and its quality brings out a lot of flaws in the image that I couldn't see on a regular tube TV. The set was most at home when I put HD content on it, like an Xbox 360, HD-DVD player, and over-the-air HD programming. Regarding the latter, the KDL-32S2000 has both NTSC and ATSC tuners, so you don't need an external box to get over-the-air HD signals. You'll have to tweak the picture settings to get the most out of the TV, the Vivid mode it defaults to is really bright and oversaturated, blowing out fine details and highlights in the picture. Calibration DVDs are inexpensive, I usually use either Digital Video Essentials or Avia.     I'm pretty sensitive to refresh rates, and some PSP games can make me nauseous due to that unit's well-documented poor-responding screen. The refresh rate on the KDL-32S2000's is great and I didn't notice blurring or color shifts at all.    I watch a lot of TV shows on DVD, and you'll get about the equivalent of a 27\\" square TV when you view 4:3 material on this set. There's a few zoom options you can use to stretch or crop the image to take up the entire display, but I like seeing the show as it was originally presented.    Physically, the remote control is pretty cut-down and cheap-looking and feeling compared to previous Sony remotes. However, the button layout is simple and Sony has simplified the TV's internal menus and sped up navigation, which makes for a more pleasant user experience. I especially appreciated the drop-down listing of all the TV's inputs, from which you can just scroll to and select the one you want.    Speaking of inputs, the KDL-32S2000 has a nice assortment, my only wish is for one additional HDMI input. The jacks on the component inputs are a tiny bit closer together than on my other TVs, and some Monster cables I had with big fat plugs had some trouble fitting in without rubbing on each other. This is more a cable problem than a TV problem, as all other cables I tried had sufficient clearance.    My set was made in Japan (20 years and no Japanese-made Sony electronics failures, knock on wood) and Sony's customer support was excellent when it arrived with a couple of dead pixels. A replacement arrived quickly and was flawless. Balancing nice design, quality construction, features, a surprisingly decent price, and the Sony brand name, this set is an appealing contender for your hard-earned dollar.