Sharp picture, Poor Sound, GET A WARRANTY - known problems
Written: Sep 16 '03 (Updated Sep 19 '03)
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Pros: Excellent picture. Nice pic-in-pic features. Lots of inputs
Cons: Poor sound. Reflective screen. Projection lamps develop known 'flicker problems' over time.
The Bottom Line: Great Picture - Poor Sound. Perfect if you already have an AV Receiver but get a waranty since this TV is known to develop 'flicker' problems with the projection lamps
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| alexworden's Full Review: Sony KP-51WS500 51 in. TV |
I love this TV - I didn't realize what a worthwhile purchase this would be. I haven't been to the cinema since I bought it :)
The TV is capable of displaying two channel inputs at the same time - and shrinking one while growing the other. This is useful if I'm playing a game and my wife is watching TV. You can also have it scroll other channels coming in on the TV tuner up the side while you're watching one channel - an impressive feature but I don't use much since I have a digital receiver and TiVo so I don't channel surf any more and I couldn't use this feature with a digital receiver anyway (only one channel available). Still if you actually were only watching standard TV this would be useful.
I'm not impressed with the sound that comes out of the TV itself. I imagine most people with this TV have an a/v receiver anyway - it's a shame that the TV isn't designed to allow you to use it's speakers as the center channel. Anyway - the sound from the TV is shallow and seems distorted.
The picture is fantastic - especially when using component or s-video. Forget about composite if you want a good picture - remember you can't get better than what you put in - and you'll really notice the poor picture quality delivered by a composite cable with a screen this size.
I notice that one reviewer mentioned that it's hard to get used to widescreen aspect when watching regular TV! Well you're not supposed to watch it like that! The TV does automatically detect WS input and switches aspect ratio. One annoyance however is that the bars on the sides when viewing 4:3 standard aspect are projected light grey and there's no option to turn this off. I've heard that this can burn out the tubes / burn an image into the screen after extended viewing in 4:3... :( It's also distracting when viewing in the dark. I'd much prefer back bars thanks!
There are useful other widescreen format modes that you can select from such as zoom, which zooms into a 4:3 broadcast image to fill the screen - but you lose the top and bottom of the image. You can pan the image up/down to see more of the top or bottom. There's also Wide-Zoom, which attempts to show more of the zoomed image by compressing just the top and bottom section - things tend to warp on screen which is odd but this is useful for playing some non-widescreen video games.
Finally - the reason why I'm writing this review is to warn everyone about my latest experience. A few days ago, the image went green and started flickering. Luckily I'd bought the extended warranty so it doesn't cost me anything to have it fixed. The repair man came today and fixed the green tint - that apparently was expected wear-in! However, he could not fix the flicker. He said it happens because Sony used defective paint/coatings on the insides of the three colour projector lamps. This coating flakes off and causes the lamp to flicker. It is VERY EXPENSIVE to replace these lamps without a warranty and my guess is that these lamps would fail just after one year of normal viewing.
SO BE WARNED - if you buy this TV or any projection TV for that matter, GET AN EXTENDED WARRANTY where you are not responsible for shipping or repair costs for at least 3 years! Since projection TV's require maintenance it's always a good idea to buy the extended warranty.
If you're buying one used - make sure it has had the lamps replaced or is still under warranty. Aparently, Sony has fixed the defective paint problem used in new and replacement lamps. Let's hope so!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1800
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Epinions.com ID:
alexworden
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Reviews written: 9
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