Overpriced and not the market leader
Written: Jul 26 '06 (Updated Jun 04 '07)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Picture Quality: |
|
|
| Durability: |
|
|
|
Pros: Picture quality, great black level
Cons: Price, competition is better
The Bottom Line: Buy only if under $1000 and using limited connections.
|
|
|
| spooon's Full Review: Sony BRAVIA KLV-S32A10 32 in. HDTV-Ready TV |
Sony BRAVIA KLVS32A10 32" LCD WEGA HD-Ready Flat Panel Television
Product Features
• Front A/V connectivity; SRS TruSurround virtual surround sound capability
• Inputs: 3 composite, 3 S-Video, 1 component, 1 HDMI
• Two stereo speakers, 10 watts each
• 32-inch LCD TV measures 31.2 x 23.95 x 12.2 inches (WxHxD) with included tabletop stand. 3.8 inch depth without stand.
• 181-channel tuner (NTSC); 16:9 native aspect ratio
The Good
• It’s a Sony. For most that is enough as they are one of the largest if not most respectable TV manufacturers today.
• Picture Quality: If you looking for very good black levels and a clean picture, then Sony televisions are very hard to beat. Coming from a long history of wega and XBR, Sony’s tend to perform better than most competitors.
• The Housing: The LCD frame is of very good quality. When compared to other brands like Vizio which I have reviewed, there really isn’t a comparison. Being able to tilt the screen is a huge plus. For screens this size, the layout is very nice and very easy to operate.
• The Connections: All your standard connections are here. Your basic HDMI hookup is available and a PC (DSub 15-pin) connection is also here for computer connections.
• System Navigation and remote: Sony has been building televisions for years and it shows with their intuitive Wega Gate navigation makes it extremely easy to get where you want to go or tweak what you want. People will take this for granted until you start playing with other televisions that make you want to throw out your TV because it takes forever to tweak your setup with Avia test disc. The remote is top notch and you can tell Sony has fined tuned their remoted over the years or maybe it's that I've seen so many sony remotes that it becomes 2nd nature to navigate them.
The Bad (and it’s bad alright)
• It’s a Sony. So expect to pay top dollar for the size. Compared to other manufacturers, there might be a small price gap but when you realize how little options and connections this Sony has compared to others, why are you paying so much? It all comes down to price, picture quality, size, reliability when I chose a TV. Price is way too high compared to what the market is asking. The picture quality is great, but can’t this quality be achieved from other brands at a 30% or greater discount? I was looking for a bottom mounted speaker to fit inside a cabinet and not many TVs to choose from to do so. Sony’s should last but so do others.
• The Connections: You have got to be kidding me! How can you sell a TV at this price range and only have 1 component and 1 HDMI. No HD tuner just throws salt on those wounds. I believe this model was made for the people who will be using it in conjunction with a receiver to do all the video switching because I can’t understand how they can get away with just 1 component input. 1 HDMI I can understand as most will not have dual HDMI when this TV was first released. Who the heck needs 3 S-Video cables? Evey sony I've come across or owned has always been lacking in the number of inputs. it's sad when you have to use a front input and have cables showing because the rear inputs are all being used. A receiver will have to be paired up with this TV unless you only watch a couple of sources which many people don't do anymore. Even my grandparents have Satellite, DVD, VHS and we all know we have more electronics then our parents.
• NO HD TUNER: Yeah, that’s right. For the extremely high price, you only get a MONITOR. That is just laughable. Maybe Sony was ahead of their time and wanted to get a sub $2,000 tv that could do the bare minimum in terms of displaying HD content but to strip everything else out of it and only try to sell it’s “picture quality” is very gutsy.
• So you want to you use this a computer monitor? If you don’t have a native resolution graphics card to display 1366 x 768 your going to get giant black bars on the side. I was hooking this up to my 12” ibook and was very disappointed that this TV doesn’t scale down to match resolution when my Vizio which is almost half the cost could.
Would I suggest this to anyone? The answer is NO. This TV when I purchased it was over priced and still is overpriced today. Sony has released a newer version that adds 1 more component and a HD tuner. Why they didn’t add another HDMI port is beyond me. I would say this is for ony the hardcore Sony fans who don't like the newer models. If you were to take off the name plate, this TV would be a competitvly priced at $800 just for picture quality alone because you don't get much else bundled with it. Picture quality alone doesn't make a good TV as many TVs today have very good picture quality. As they say, "Garbage in is Garbage out". If you really wanted to improve your viewing pleasure maybe upgrading your source is in order. I would highly recommend the Vizio L32 32 in. HDTV LCD Television instead of this overpriced LCD set.
If you take into consideration, many upconverting DVD players use HDMI, blue ray and HD dvd can use HDMI, PS3 and Xbox 360 use HDMI. I would think having 3 HDMI ports would have to be the norm. Even if Sony wasn't cutting edge enough to push the market to 3 HDMI ports, can I at least have 3 component ports?
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 1600
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
spooon
|
|
Member: Lawrence Tam
Location: Sugar Land, TX
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
Mechanical Engineer that teaches MLM business techniques.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.