Sony KP-65WV600 65 in. HDTV-Ready CRT TV

UPDATE AT BOTTOM


I will probably update this review later with all the tv's specs but chances are if your are looking at this tv you already know the specs. You can go to www.sony.com and search for this tv in the meantime. Besides your probably not interested in specs but the real world usefulness of the tv. Todays date is May 18, 2003 Sunday.

Ok so I have been shopping for several months and finally decided to take the plunge and depart with thousands of dollars to have a true home theater against my better financial judgement. I figured your only going to live once (for the sake of argument) so why in the hell not enjoy your time at home a little more.

Of course I also rearranged the furniture in my living room and measured out where the tv will be placed to ensure a good line of sight to the screen and good flow for people movement around the furniture. Additionaly I had to figure out where I was going to install the surround sound system and mapped out the cable outlet to the new tv location.

Light control is usually a major issue with all of these types of tv. You have a big 60 inch by 32 inch or so flat piece of shiny plexiglass and whatever lights are on in the background will show up on your screen. You may have to be creative with drapery, lights etc.



I went to a local Video only store where they were asking $2800. This is the lowest price around. Everywhere else they are asking $3299 (Everett, Washington) I talked him down to $2600 (probably could have gone down a little more but you it was a fair deal for the both of us) plus tax and of course I had them deliver it for free. It cost me $2836 with tax, out the door deliverd to my house.

I purchased it last Sunday and had it delivered on Tuesday. On Sunday night I discovered the www.hometheaterspot.com Under the Sony section it lists the continual issues of screen flicker for this model. Sony actually put out a bulletin in Jan 03 about how 1% (BS) of its models of big screen rear projection tv's have defective cathode ray tubes (CRT's) and that they will all be replaced under warranty. They also state that they changed something in their manufacturing line to ensure this doesn't continue to happen. The defective crt's cause the screen to change brightness, and/or color shifting.

I had bought me tv earlier in the day and even with all of my research, including consumer reports, I did not find out about this problem until after I bought it. I could have cancelled the sale but Sony does warranty their sets and they did state they fixed the problem. When my tv arrived with an April 03 build date I was relieved. I figured I wouldn't have any problems.

It didn't even occur to me that I would have a problem so on the 3rd day of ownership I noticed a fluctuating brightness on a sceen from a dvd I was watching. I paused it an rewatched the scene but now the picture was fine. I started pausing it and watching. Sure as s*it the screen was flickering and I was about to join the thousands of other Sony owners that have to get their tv's repaired and the tv is only 3 days old. So tonight I am watching a letterbox video with grey bars at the bottom and the flickering is driving me nuts. When you have a screen with 12.5 square feet of viewing area even the smallest fluctuation in intensity levels is obvious.

So there is my bad about this tv. I am not sure what I am going to do at this point because I don't believe swapping it out with a new tv will help but I think I will go that route anyway as opposed to having my new tv repaired. I will update this as needed.

Now for the good:

When it isn't flickering the picture is really good. I only have standard analog cable running to the tv but the builtin upconverter cleans up the signal quite well by increasing the resoluting of the picture. I sit back about 9 feet from the screen and the picture is very pleasing to the eyes. I don't see scan lines like what are obvious with the older analog tvs. Sony's claim is that it is near high definition quality.

If I ever hook up a high definition signal to it I know the picture will be just amazing because I saw the high definition playing on it in the store. It was like watching in 3d or like having a sports team play their games outside your living room window. It is that realistic.

With a dvd player and component cables hooked up the picture is even better. It is hard to explain really. Just take my word for it that you won't be complaining about the picture with this set minus the flickering issue.

The menus are easy to navigate.

The tv sports a feature called flash focus which aligns all your colors automatically (red, blue and yellow) for a clear picture with a push of a button. This feature becomes useless once you realize they put in a manual convergence feature that allows you to really fine tune your colors at multiple points across the screen. Manual tuning is an easy to use feature so don't let it scare you.

The speakers sound pretty good and have a simulated surround sound mode that does a fairly good job. I have since disabled the speakers and hooked up my surround sound so it is a moot point for me.

There are of course an s-video, left and right audio and a composite video hookup on the front for the xbox or camcorder.

All together there are 7 video inputs, two of which are high def component inputs. I have my dvd hooked up on one of them for the best possible picture. There are a couple s-video inputs on the back.

There is a monitor out so you can hook a vcr and record whatever is playing on the tv.

There are variable audio outs that I hook up to my surround sound receiver. This enables you to set your volume on the receiver and use the tv volume to adjust the sound coming out of your receiver.


My xbox games really come to life on this thing. What can I say except the games are huge!

The downside to a big tv is that you can see all the flaws in people you normally see on tv. You see people that you thought were just perfect, with bad skin, bad teeth and any other imperfections you can imagine because they are now HUGE right in front of you. I was watching an analog cable signal of a local newscast and I could see the individual pores and small hairs on the face of a woman they were interviewing.


This tv does come with one coat of antireflective coating which blocks about 60%(per Sony) of the intensity of the reflections according to the specs. The model below this the kp65ws500 doesn't have any coating and the model above the kp65wv700 has two layers for an 80% (per Sony) reduction in reflectivity.

This tv has the digital video interface DVI which is to be used in the future so that you can play copyrighted material on your tv and so that you can't copy it. It allows signals into the tv but no signals out. I don't think it is anything to worry about for now but it is there.

This is a big tv. It weighs about 299lbs and its footprint is about 29.5 inches deep and 60 inches wide. This is about 12.5 square feet...coincidentally the same viewing area that the screen has to offer. The tv has casters on the bottom of it so moving it around is no problem, assuming you aren't moving it up and down stairs. The owner's manual suggests using four people to actually move it.


The remote is good for the tv but its boasting of being able to use it as a universal remote is stretching the truth. It can be done but it is slightly complicated by having to unfold a portion of the remote and sliding a switch to the appropriate device. This unfolding piece directly blocks any light you might use from the tv (in a darkened room) to view any of the universal buttons. The remote has a joystick that is very intuitive. If you use computers at all then navigating the menus using this builtin joystick should be a snap. You would think with a tv costing around 3 grand you would get a lighted remote. NOPE... the volume/channel and number buttons glow in the dark but no lights. When will these companys ever learn that people watch tv with the lights out or in a dark room and you can't see the damn buttons on the remote????

I have yet to watch a good porno on this thing.

I am sure I have left out lots of information but it is 5:35 in the morning and I am tired.

I have given this tv a poor rating at this time because it fails to do exactly what it was designed to do and that is deliver an accurate representation of the incoming video signal and display it on the screen without adding any other television induced artifacts such as fluctating screen brightness..

The picture when good is great even though I rated it poorly on the 1-5 scale.

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Update 1 June 03

I just had the three crt's replaced on my three week old tv. The picture doesn't flicker for now. The April build date of my tv had crt's with a Jan 16, 2003 manufacturing date. I didn't look at the dates of my new crt's.

I will say that Sony repaired my tv without a hassle. It took about 2.5 hours to do everything. A local authorized repair place came to my house and did the repair. So far I am happy I guess.

I have yet to see hdtv on this thing. When I do get that going (another $500) I will update this and then give my opinion on the picture.

As a sidenote while I was at the Circuit City the other day I was talking to a salesman and he pointed out a NEW $1500 32" Sony XBR tube tv. He also pointed out that about an inch or so down from the top (letterbox format on 4:3 screen) there is a 'dead line' horizontally across the screen. Come to find out the entire line of Sony xbrs have this problem. Something to do with the "math" I was told. Sony didn't do the math correctly when manufacturing this line of sets and there is NO fix. You are just stuck with a dead line that once you see it, it is obvious. I am just SO THROUGH WITH SONY PRODUCTS. I mean come-on. We can send men to the moon, grow human ears on the back of mice and Sony can't build a F$%^&*% tv that works properly?

What a joke.

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UPDATE NOVEMBER 7 2003

Ok so for now, knock on wood, the tv still isn't flickering and I am very happy with it, minus the initial repair issue.

About two months ago however, the joystick had a dead spot in it when pressed to the left. You can tell because whenever you press a button on the remote the LED light on the remote would come on. So if you were moving the joystick to the left it would light at partial movement but not when moved all the way left. This made it annoying when adjusting items in the menu because you are supposed to be able to just hold it to the left in order to automatically adjust the onscreen slider. Additionally, within about a month of having bought my tv, the flip open door which I wasn't impressed with in my initial review broke its latch. The latch is a flimsy piece of plastic,but if the door isn't latched then the microswitch under the door doesn't depress and you cannot use the rest of the remote until you hold down the door or use rubber bands.

So I called Sony and after being told I would have to send my remote in for repair and wait a few weeks to get it back I requested to speak to a supervisor. The jackaSS on the other end of the phone would absolutely not allow me to talk to a supervisor. I told this guy I was not going to be without a remote control for any length of time after having just spent $2800 on their tv and after having had it repaired already. He insisted his supervisor would tell me that I would have to send it in. I told him I didn't think I would be doing that in no uncertain terms, and I hung up on him.

I called back and spoke to another guy named Brian and unfortunately for him I was extremely ticked off and agitated from the previous idiot. I told him I didn't care about his rules or any repair policy and that Sony was goint to be like Burger King and do it my damn way. I am the customer and I will be making the rules.

In the end Brian had a new remote control Fed-Ex'd to me the next day, and I got to keep the old one with no charges to me.

I guess Sony service is hit and miss. I have noticed that with most all businesses. Just hang up and keep calling back until you get the answer you want.

By the way. I have wrapped a rubber band around the flimsy flip door and that way it keeps me from opening it out of habit or using it in any way.

HDTV....

Ok so finally in my area Comcast has ABC, ESPN, some of the Mariner's games when they were playing, and the local public tv station in high definition.

Of course just because you are watching a HD channel doesn't mean that you are watching a HD program. For example ESPN HD is on 24 hours a day but they only average about 1 HD program during that time. The program has to be shot in HD originally in order to actually be HD. That takes money and they don't have that much right now I guess. But when you do see a HD NFL game it is simply amazing. I really don't know how to explain it other than it is like looking a a huge crystal clear photograph. Kind of like looking out a window as they say.

ABC has all the local news casts in HD throughout the day and usually a show or two every night from about 8-10 pm.

The Mariners baseball games were great. You can read all the names on the jersees. You see all the little bits of dirt being kicked up as somebody hits a ball, slides, runs etc.

When an HD channel is broadcasting and there isn't a HD program on it will simply broadcast whatever is on the regular sister channel but it will be in digital simucast. This means that although you are watching a widescreen tv it will show a normal square box with black bars on the left and right and the picture will be clearer than standard broadcasts (because it is digital) but not as good as HD because it isn't HD programming.

In addition to being crystal clear if you compare a normal show to its HD counterpart of the exact same show you will see that you see much more to the left and right in the HD mode than the standard mode. This is a big plus.

OK so I am sure you are thoroughly confused but some of this can ONLY be figured out after you have the tv and play around with the HD programs, regardless of how much research you do.

As for the HD programming I go to my local KOMOTV.COM website and they list the shows that are in HD and ESPN.COM has a link to their HD programming


UPDATE SEPTEMBER 27th 2004
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Ok..so it has been about a year and a half. I have been very happy that since getting it repaired, right after I got it, there haven't been any other issues with the tv other than what has been mentioned. Once again the low scores I gave to this tv were due to the fact that I had recalled parts in my tv that was manufactured several months after the announced recall. That really bugs me but it is fixed now and with all the HD channels coming out I am certainly spoiled. I would have a hard time giving up my tv for a smaller one.

I am sure that all the SONY sets now have all the bugs worked out of them and I would have to reccomend that if you buy a tv buy a Sony....





Dave
livingaboard@hotmail.com