Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)First, regarding the reviewer who is complaining that his TV was made in Mexico. Actually, this is false, they are just assembled in Mexico. The actual LCD is made in a factory jointly owned by Samsung and Sony. I believe the idea that Mexican labor is inferior is a position founded more in racial prejudice than anything else. This isn't Sony Mexico, its just a Sony factory using Mexican labor. Get used to it, Japan and the US arn't assembling electronics anymore---but the engineering is still top notch Sony---and its the engineering that you buy a Sony for.
Also, this TV functions properly as a widescreen LCD computer monitor. Before, when I had the el cheapo Polaroid TV, it didn't send the resolution information properly to my IBM ThinkPad. As a result, my computer refused to output a widescreen signal. With this TV, it works great.
This TV features a digital diagnostic screen that displays a ton of information about the station. It shows signal to noise ratio, frequency, and a bunch of other technical details you might need to adjust your antenna. Also, I picked up 21 digital stations with this TV, while the Polaroid found only 17. I also didn't have any problems with multipath.
This is one of the few HDTVs that includes both a broadcast ATSC tuner and a cable QAM tuner (without decryption from the Cable Card for HBO). The Samsung only has an ATSC tuner. Also, unlike the Samsung, it can recive complete program information and program guide information from digital stations.
In comparison to the Samsung, colors are far more natural. Faces and outdoor scenes look as they should. Samsung's DNe processor makes colors look like a cartoon in a side-by-side comparison. However, I realize the casual buyer is just interested in flashy, showy, exaggerated colors. Also, if you like to tweak color options, the Sony has a lot more than the Samsung. Black levels are very good. The light sensitive backlight option dims the backlight automatically in dim light. It seems to work pretty well and keeps the black nice and black.
Sound quality is pretty good, but who is going to spend over a grand on a TV just to use the internal speakers?? I'm sure anybody buying this TV has a stereo or surround sound system. Actually, the simulated surround sound option sounds pretty awesome.
The remote is also very simple, but actually, I really like it that way. I find that menu navigation is a snap. The only thing lacking is an input switch button. Switching inputs is a bit of a pain.
Things I don't like about the Sony: Two HDMI inputs would be nice. There isn't any Picture-In-Picture, but in my experience, this is more of a gimmick. One exception, however, would be if you wanted to play a video game and watch a TV program in the corner. Finally, it only has one RF input, so if you want to have cable and broadcast hooked up at the same time, you need to buy an external RF switch, as is described in Sony's manual. That brings the price up $25.
Most importaintly, motion blur seems to be a problem with this screen. Amazon's description essentially implies there is none. However, motion blur is quite noticable with rapid motion in video games or even HDTV programs. In fact, it seems worse than I remember with my el cheapo Polaroid HDTV.
Summary: It isn't cheap, but is the best general purpose television I've seen. If you are mainly interested in games, the cheaper Samsung might be the way to go, however.
One last thing, when I received mine from Amazon, it had a stuck red pixel in the very center of the screen. Customer service was very friendly, however, and took care of the problem quickly.
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Sony Bravia KDL-26S2000 26-Inch Flat Panel LCD HDTVThe sleekly styled, silver 26-inch Sony Bravia KDL26S2000 is packed with the latest high-performance video features, including a wide viewing angle, blazing fast 8ms response time (great for sports and action movies), and a wide color gamut backlight that provides more natural skin tones and highly accurate overall color reproduction. It also offers integrated HDTV capabilities (with an integrated ATSC tuner), digital HDMI video connectivity, and a bottom speaker design that helps save space. The thin profile of this Bravia TV accommodates VESA compliant mounting systems (separately available). The removable pedestal swivels 30 degrees left and right and also tilts forward 3 degrees and backward 8 degrees for additional placement flexibility. Like other TVs in the Bravia line, the KDL26S2000 uses Sony's Wide Color Cold Compact Fluorescent Light (WCG-CCFL) to display a color gamut almost 30 percent larger than a conventional CCFL display, which results in deeper reds, more vivid greens, and cleaner blues. It also offers a high response time (also referred to as refresh rate) of 8 milliseconds (ms), which is able to clearly portray fast-moving images across the screen with well-defined edges and without ghosting (streaking or shadowing). The set's Light Sensor feature intelligently adjusts the screen brightness to match the ambient light in a room, ensuring a comfortable viewing experience.
It also features the latest in Sony’s unique S-PVA (Super Patterned Vertical Alignment) LCD panel technology, which divides each sub-pixel into two segments per color for a more refined consistency in colors, contrast, and brightness at wide viewing angles. This seventh generation Sony LCD panel was specially crafted at Sony's plant and produced from one of the world’s biggest mother glass (a huge sheet of glass that can be divided to create multiple LCD panels).
The KDL26S2000 has a 1366 x 768-pixel resolution, 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, 178-degree viewing angle, and 1300:1 contrast ratio. (The higher the contrast ratio, the greater a TV's ability to display subtle color details and not get washed out by ambient room light.) The Cinemotion 3:2 pulldown cinema video processing detects and compensates film--which is shot at 24 frames per second (fps) compared with video's 30 fps rate--to video for a smooth theaterlike experience at home. The 3D digital comb filter offers 10-bit signal processing that renders superb gradation of grays, resulting in superior picture detail.
Other convenience features include:
WEGA GATE Easy Operation Guide allows you to easily navigate to the most convenient TV functions: favorite channels, TV channel list, external input list, or settings.
Favorite Channels with the WEGA GATE function, allows you to navigate a list of up to 16 favorite channels without leaving the current channel.
Wide Screen Mode allows you to watch 4:3 normal broadcasts in wide screen mode (16:9 aspect ratio).
Parental Control (V-Chip) helps parents monitor what their children watch on TV by establishing rating limits.
Caption Vision/Info Banner allows closed caption and/or channel programming information to be displayed.
The Freeze Function temporarily freezes the picture in a separate screen while the programming continues to display, which can come in handy when you want to copy a recipe, phone number, etc. that flashes too quickly across your screen.
It pumps out 20 watts of audio power via its integrated bottom-aligned stereo speakers (10 watts per channel). It has a built-in Dolby Digital decoder (for connecting to a surround sound home theater receiver) and it can also produce SRS TruSurround XT virtual 5.1-channel surround sound from its two speakers. This set offers the following connection options:
Composite (RCA audio/video): 3 inputs (1 on the side)
S-Video: 2 inputs (1 on the side)
Component (Y/Pb/Pr): 2 inputs (with left/right audio jacks)
HDMI: 1 input (with L/R RCA audio connections)
PC: 1 D-Sub15 input (with L/R stereo mini plug connection)
RF: 1 input
Total audio inputs: 5 (1 side, 4 rear)
Analog audio output: 1
Digital audio ouput: 1
Headphone: 1
Tech Talk HDMI is a lossless, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface to link any audio/video source (such as a set-top box, DVD player, or AV receiver) with your TV--all over a single cable. HDMI supports standard, enhanced or high definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio on a single cable. It supports all ATSC formats--standard (SDTV), enhanced (EDTV), and high (HDTV).
Component video (also called Y/Pb/Pr) features a three-jack video input, which provides separate connections for luminance (Y), blue color difference (PB) and red color difference (PR). This results in increased bandwidth for color information, resulting in a more accurate picture with clearer color reproduction and less bleeding than you would get with S-Video or composite (RCA yellow video plug) connections. You will need a separate RCA left/right audio cable for sound.
TruSurround XT audio adds three new audio enhancement technologies to produce an amazingly immersive sound experience.
Dialog Clarity brings movie dialog into focus during the playback of any surround-encoded material to make speech much clearer and crisper.
TruBass creates incredible deep rich bass allowing a person to perceive significantly deeper, richer low bass tones that are far beyond the physical low frequency capabilities of the speaker itself.
The SRS WOW feature widens the soundstage by processing standard two-channel stereo material as well as multi-channel encoded material for a dramatic improvement in the playback of any stereo audio over a two-speaker system.
And in case you were wondering, BRAVIA is short for "Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture."
What's in the Box 26-inch Bravia LCD television, tabletop stand, remote control (with batteries), coaxial cable, HD15-to-HD15 cable, printed operating instructions
Warranty 1 year for parts and labor
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