Manufacturer: Sony Find all Sony reviews Model#: KV27FS1.20 Average Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars	Retail Price: $449.99 Online Sale Price:
Features: 27-inch direct-view CRT television with flat, high-contrast FD Trinitron picture tube; 30.25 x 23.25 x 19.63 inches (W x H x D) Digital comb filter enhances resolution by removing blurred edges between colors and reducing dot crawl Component-, composite-, S-video, and RF video inputs accommodate nearly any video source Clear Edge VM wideband velocity modulation improves the definition at picture edges 10 watts per channel x 2; includes Steady Sound auto volume control with BBE sound enhancement and SRS 3D audio effect (simulated surround sound)

The picture is sharp, clear, and lively when you sit close and from afar. Colors are saturated, but not overly so- the result is pleasing to my eyes and I enjoy watching it. The biggest feature in my mind is the 16:9 mode. This mode allows the TV to use all of its resolution for widescreen viewing, making it a mini 25-26" widescreen. In this mode, I cannot see any lines and the picture is clean and vivid. Watching widescreen DVDs in this mode is so rich and clean- I cannot describe it- I swear it is close to HDTV, but in tiny form, but the clarity and resolution are still very high- Finding Nemo is very sharp and there are no lines visible to my eyes.

There are some downsides that I have noticed- Even though this is a flatscreen, the glass has some distortions and lines are not perfectly straight. This is normal in all tubed TVs. Also, for this basic model, the 16:9 mode is activated in a menu so it takes like five button presses to get to turn it on. The sound quality is improved, but you still need a surround system to get full sound. As another reviewer has said, to turn off the TV sound (to use your own surround sound), you have to go through a menu. I think the more expensive versions have direct buttons for these features.

Dudes, you know how important a TV is when you get home and just want to veg- HDTV is great, but costly and not really ready for anything other than basic TV channels and DVDs. If you are watching regular non HDTV channels on an HDTV, you will need a 34" widescreen to get the same conventional 27" picture. For the price, I'd rather get this TV now and wait for HDTV when it matures (in about 2006). The 27 inch TV is perfect for a small apartment or a large bedroom. At a viewing distance of 6-7 feet, it feels intimate, but not "large." This TV is the cream of the crop in its class and provides entertainment without digging a large HDTV hole in your wallet.

Date: 2004-04-19
broke down less than 2 month
The picture tube went less than 2 month. This unit is made in Mexico.

Date: 2004-02-27
Good, but flawed
I was looking for a good 27" TV and of course everyone mentions the Sony.

Not a Sony fan, I see them resting on their name more than anything these days, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

Hooked it up - Component DVD, S-video gaming, antenna.. all of it. First things first, clarity is really good. I went from a blurry as heck 25 to a pretty crisp 27. Nice. Games looked outstanding. DVDs looked.. well.. wrong.

I bought the TV because it had 16:9 mode. Great, I love anamorphic dvds. Turned the option on in my dvd player, turned 16:9 on with the tv.. Hmm, it doesn't look right for some reason. I checked online and it is a known issue that the sonys oversqueeze the picture. And we're not talking a mm or so, we're talking over an inch. So a 2.35:1 movie was more like a 2.45:1 or 2.5:1. Something that was grossly distorted. Soo, I had to break into the service menu, grab some measuring tape, and used a setup disc to make a circle, well, circular. Something Sony obviously couldn't do. Flaw one, but fixable.

I tried watching the Simpsons on this Tv - not a good idea. Homer is Yellow, not orange. People don't all have sunburns on TV. I tried fixing the colour and it got to the point where to make skin tones look even tolerable, everything else had a noticeable drop in saturation. Checked online, surprise surprise, red push for sony tvs. Only on the newer FS100s they've changed the registers in the service menu, so good luck finding out exactly what to change because it's not what it used to be. Flaw 2, not quite fixable.

Then there was the geometry. Images shouldn't bend out near the top few inches. Also, when I was playing games there was major distortion in games that had letterboxed cutscenes - to the point where it looked like the few inches between the blackness of the letterbox and the bright scene resembed a scrambled cable station. NOT good. Flaw 3, I didn't even want to try to fix it.

Took the thing back. From what I've read, it's definitely common enough that I didn't want to bother with another Sony. Maybe I'm picky, but for 400 bucks I deserve to be.

Date: 2004-02-03
Wega is the best!
Even though it is a very heavy TV, it is the best picture tube TV for the price and picture quality. My mother now has this TV since I moved and I miss it. I am going to wait for a year or two for the price to come down on the plasma/LCD before I invest in an another TV. I am three stories high and I do not want to have to carry it in the future! I liked the v compression. I used v compression with the s-cable and a dvd player. The picture was clean and sharp like no other non HDTV tube TV I have ever seen. You do loose some size of the TV, but if you are like me and watch TV a couple yards away, you should not be bother much. If you are a big dvd fan and are farther away than a couple yards, you might want to look into the 32-40 inch tube tv wega. Make sure you have buff friends to help you move it though. I mainly used the TV with my DirecTv and tivo with outstanding consistant quality. Now I am going to have to get use to an old plain picture tube TV.