Sony KV27FS12 27" Trinitron WEGA Stereo TV
Staggering picture quality, the best connection options
The picture of the Sony WEGA (&quot;vega&quot;) picture tube is easily the best that I have ever seen on a non-projection TV set. The screen really is totally flat, the picture is sharp and bright, and black is really black.<br />By itself, the picture quality is far and away the best reason for buying this TV. Only the Samsung flat TV comes even close, but the Sony still beats it in image and build quality. Sony has also given the WEGA four video inputs (in order of quality): component video, S-video and composite video. There are even video hook-ups on the front of the set to make it easy to plug in cam-corders.<br />With component video inputs hooked up to my DVD player, the picture quality is staggering. S-video input from my Tivo is good, but ultimately limited by the quality of my digital cable connection... which is unfortunately frequently poor.<br />Sony also includes a feature called &quot;velocity modulation&quot; which sharpens the details on the parts of an image that are not moving. At a &quot;low&quot; setting this improves the picture quality for cable TV sources, but doesn't seem to do anything for DVD. Settings at higher levels produce some unwanted &quot;edge shadow&quot; artifacts on cable TV pictures.<br />There are only two problems worth mentioning:<br />1) If you connect the audio output jacks of the TV into your stereo amplifier, the TV produces a loud &quot;pop&quot; when it is powered up or down. This is disconcerting and not good for the health of hi-fi speakers. However, if you are using a surround-sound (Dolby and/or DTS) receiver, this won't be a problem as the TV won't be in the audio path at all.<br />2) The universal remote is poorly laid out, and can't control multi-disc DVD players (like the Pioneer DVD changer that I own). The problem is that you can't switch discs from the remote.<br />Finally, be aware that this TV, like most others in its size bracket, is very heavy indeed. It's a 2-person lift and difficult to maneuver.<br />Even with the these faults, the Sony is still the best buy. If you don't want to spend major, major bucks on a huge projection TV, this is almost as good but at a fraction of the price.Even with the these faults, the Sony is still the best buy. If you don't want to spend major, major bucks on a huge projection TV, this is almost as good but at a fraction of the price.