Flatscreen Sony Makes 3D Pictures
Written: Aug 25 '03
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Pros: Very good picture quality, vibrant sharp and easy to watch; easy to use; well built
Cons: Still pricey; Mono Sound
The Bottom Line: A great small TV
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| MichaelHatton's Full Review: Sony KV14LT1 14 in. Standard Television |
Two years ago Sony launched a new range of portable TV. Like their bigger brothers, the VEGAs’, have flat screens and eye catching design. Portable though, is a stretch, as the VEGA portables from Sony are much larger than the predecessor with regular curved screens. By at least 5-10cm longer, the KV14LT1 sacrifices space and practicality for performance and design.
Useful as the swivel stands were, you never used them, and the boxy exterior made the old portable range look generic and ‘TV’ like. The new range is available in multiple finishes, white, silver and mild coloured variants, making the portable units very attractive to be put in a bedroom. The new colour scheme is matched with a simple but modern casing, which is curved and smooth so that it makes a statement about the flatscreen.
Surprisingly the price of the unit hasn’t changed since it was launched - significantly, they can be found for £180 or less. Comparatively it’s expensive, compared to curved screen units, and what you get is only slightly better in terms of functionality.
Features
The one thing you can count on when it comes to Sony TVs is a good selection of sockets. This 14” unit will take composite and RCA audio inputs on the front panel, and hidden beneath a flip-down panel is also a headphone socket. The back houses a RGB only SCART socket (Europe only possibly), and regular RF coaxial cable input. A bonus feature lets you use the SCART socket as an output socket for loop-through AV signals.
It is compatible with PAL, NTSC and Secam video signals at 50/60Hz. The screen is the standard Trinitron, with a maximum (4:3) 34cm diagonal visible area, and is 16:9 compatible too. There is Teletext support (FASTText with 10 page memory), and the menu system has been improved. Auto-Setup and tune in sequences are now much faster and reliable.
Picture & Sound
It’s crisp and clear, very colourful and easy to watch for long periods. The screen produces very good geometry for a CRT, and the colours are very vibrant. With DVD it gets even better, especially as you can opt for Anamorphic in the 16:9 and not resolution with Pan Scan (so you can set your DVD player to Widescreen in the TV type). The contrast is excellent; it makes pictures standout with amazing three-dimensional qualities and texture. TV reception doesn’t need to be great, as there is Digital Noise Filters that take away a lot of noise. For the sound, its clean and doesn’t get distorted or make the case rattle. You can’t complain, but the differences of a flat screen at this size aren’t massive compared to normal and much cheaper curved screen TVs.
Conclusion
Flatscreen TVs are still quite the bit more expensive than the old style curved tube shape. However, in a Sony case, it’s not the same. The Trinitron system means that all screens must be flat vertically. In any case, I haven’t seen many new curved Trinitron TVs…So, if you want Sony at 14”, these will fulfil you needs, whether with movies, games or just TV.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): ~250
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MichaelHatton
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