A great flat screen TV with few compromises!
Written: Dec 03 '03 (Updated Dec 03 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
|
|
| Picture Quality: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
|
|
|
Pros: Picture quality, remote, all the basic features you need.
Cons: Dull cabinet color, only one s-video, no progressive scan DVD support.
The Bottom Line: If you want a picture that will amaze you and have the room for it, pick this one! The reason I give it four stars is no support for progressive-scan.
|
|
|
| sduncanae's Full Review: JVC AV-27F704 27 inch TV |
Like many other people, I have an entertainment center I wanted to stuff a new TV into. The TV salesman will tell you to ditch the furniture and shop for the TV you really want, but when it holds your audio system, weighs 200 lbs (unloaded) and is on the second floor, that’s not as easy as it sounds. I already had a 27” dome-screen TV. The size was fine for my room, so a natural upgrade was a modern 27” flat-screen.
Size and appearance
The AV-27F704 is the entry-level 27” JVC flat screen in their I’Art (Art of Imaging) series with an MSRP of $389.95. These are handsome silver (almost gray) cabinet sets that are some of the physically largest on the market. For me, that was fine since I wanted to “max-out” the space in my entertainment center. With it’s 5 watt per channel side-mounted, front-firing speakers, it’s almost 30” wide and weighs 101 lbs. Detractors: It might be too big and heavy for some folks, and the gray cabinet is a little dull looking.
Picture quality
When you are buying an entry-level set, you are not going to get PIP (picture-in-picture) or high-end audio, so for me the determining factor was the picture quality. I compared the JVC with other 27” flat-screen models from Sony, Toshiba, Sharp and Philips. What I really liked about the JVC was the contrast and color saturation. It can be adjusted to be incredibly bright and sharp. In fact, it has a color temperature setting, so if you don’t like the stark, bright colors, you can select a “warmer” color temperature like is the default on many other sets. Detractors: right out of the box some people may find the picture too stark, but it can be adjusted to suit many tastes.
Sound quality
As you go up in the JVC model line-up, a major difference is power output and size of the speakers. The next model up, the AV-27FA44, is another 2.5” wider to accommodate the larger speakers, and is 7.5 watts instead of the 5 watt per channel system in the FA04. In my listening room, the audio quality is fine. There are on-screen controls for bass and treble, and fixed-level audio outputs to drive a stereo system. Detractors: it’s not home theater quality, but that’s why we have home theater systems.
Remote and front panel controls
I was very pleasantly surprised with the ergonomics of the remote. It fits nicely in your hand, is uncluttered, and the most common buttons are easily found and pressed. It is a universal remote with DVD, TV and VCR capability. The only control on the front panel is the on-off switch. Detractors: no simple volume or channel buttons on the front on the set.
Inputs and outputs
This set has one s-video input (rear), two composite video inputs (1 front, behind a flip-down panel) and one rear. It also has one component video input (rear). It has one set of fixed-level audio outputs, but no composite video output. Detractor: If you have heard how great a progressive-scan DVD player is when fed through the component video input, you can forget it on this set because in the owners manual it says it won’t support progressive scan and to set your DVD player to another mode.
Other features
This set will display the channel and program information if it is available to it. This was a surprise to me! It has an aspect ratio control (on the remote) to help fit programs into the available screen space. It has auto-clock set (also where available), sleep timers, and various audio modes for theater, games, and etc. For the base model, this TV is very well equipped.
Price and warranty
I paid $299 at BiMart, an Oregon discount store chain. This was less than any other 27” flat-screen I looked at except your Apex and Advent brands which pale in comparison of picture quality. It comes with a 1 year parts and labor, two year picture tube warranty. Consumer reports in the December 2003 issue rates the AV-27F44 it’s #2 pick overall, and in the middle of the pack for repair issues.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 299
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
sduncanae
|
|
Member: Steve Duncan
Location: Washington County, OR, USA
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.