Sony KV-32HS500

Price Paid: $1250

Purchase at: Circuit City

Strengths
Great DVD and Game Image Quality
CRT Detail
Inputs Inputs Inputs


Weakness
Satellite TV Image Quality
NOT WIDESCREEN WTF!!!!
Remote Control not really universal
16:9 Advanced Widescreen mode is overrated


Comments/Review
Why I Bought This

This TV was a great deal for what you get, the picture is awesome, nothing out right now can touch the picture quality of a tube tv. The TV looked amazing sitting on circuit city's floor playing their HDTV satellite feed. I thought to myself, what a great price I guess I can live without widescreen.

I Brought It Home

I brought this thing home in the old minivan, the circuit city guy even took 40 bucks off of the price because I picked it up and they were having a free delivery promotion. I was so happy, I came home hooked up the xbox, the gamecube, the progressive scan DVD, the PS2 and was amazed by the quality on all of them, especially the xbox. This was how games were meant to be played.

There was one little thing that bothered me though, the black bars on the top and bottom of the DVD movies, I realized that I really wanted a widescreen but I bought this television thinking I could survive. I even tried out the 16:9 advanced mode and it just stretched the peoples heads and had you watching the movie through a little slit, aka it sucked. Trust me folks, no matter how hard you try to think otherwise, you know you want a widescreen.

Then I decided to try satellite television. I hooked it up and I was horrified, everything was hazy and the words had this halo type thing around them, kind of like digital noise. It looked like an mpg movie, because of the compression that directv uses. This set has such a high quality tube that if you feed it crap you get crap out of it. Well I continued to watch it and watch it and I got used it after a while, but I would still notice it on occassion and it would feel like this tv was a mistake.

I decided to go read online about what my other options were, I found that Sony makes another 32" 4:3 model which was the KV-32HV600. This model has the DRC V1 circuitry that lets you control the amount of digital recreation thus minimizing the haziness. It costs a couple hundred more and it is well worth the price in my opinion.

I only used the sound on this television briefly when I didn't have the xbox hooked up through my stereo reciever and I thought it sounded more than acceptable. The remote control on the other hand is another story.

The remote control does its job extremely well, as long as it is the tv that you are controlling. Sony claims that it is universal but when you look in the manual it is only universal with a select group of electronics. I couldn't get it to work the volume control on my Yamaha reciever, and it would not even turn my hughes satellite reciever on or off, even though they had codes for both of them. So this remote is great, unless you plan on using it for universal features.

This TV has lots and lots of inputs I just wish it had more than two sets of component inputs, but it is definately not a necessity.

The only two things that were holding this television back was that it was not widescreen (really personal preference) and the satellite picture quality (I've heard that digital cable looks just as bad). So basically with the DRC V1 circuitry this tv would be perfect. The only other option is to buy an HDTV satellite reciever, but 500 dollars to watch the handful of high definition channels on DirecTV is pointless and a ripoff. So if you are shopping for a Sony 4:3 32" then I would recommend the 32HV600, if you want a widescreen tube tv, you can't go wrong with the 34XBR800 (DRC V1, widescreen, and XBR OH MY!!).

Personally, I made the jump over to Rear Projection as I decided I wanted something a tad bigger. I took this television back today and traded it in for a Sony 57" with the DRC V1 and widescreen (KP-57WV600), hopefully I will like this one better.

Good luck in your tv buying decision, I hope this helped.

Added: May 20th 2003
Reviewer: JT
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