High Definition TV - Glory, Glory Hallelujah!

This review is for the Sony KV-27HS420 27" Direct View Flat Screen HDTV-Ready Television (I dare you to say it three times fast!).

There's a common misconception that getting a High Definition TV is useless unless you also get HD broadcasts.

Oh, contraire! A HDTV makes normal TV viewing much clearer, sharper and with better color. You get to see the whole picture - some standard sets hide up to 2 inches of screen real-estate behind the plastic of the TV's case. Add to the advantages when watching normal TV signals the inproved quality of DVDs or any other S-Video source and you have a very compelling reason to run out and get HDTV NOW!

My home has DirecTV with Tivo, which is an awesome combination that noone should be without. Our living room also has a 3-disc DVD player and a PC which is used for multimedia and gaming.

The Sony has a standard UHF/VHF tuner via 75 ohm coax, a set of S-Video/Composite audio/video connectors on the front, two more S-Video/Composite audio/video connectors on the back, 3 sets of HDTV Component Inputs on the back, and finally one HDMI connector on the back. That means you can have eight different video sources! The Sony also includes line-level audio outputs so that you only need to feed a single auxiliary input to your audio system.

Currently I have the DVD player connected to the Sony HDTV via S-Video and the picture is simply stunning compared to the old 25" Samsung the Sony replaces. I'll be getting a set of HDTV cables to hook it up to the Sony. The computer is a standard PC with an ATI All-In-Wonder 9600 video card. Currenty the PC is connected to the Sony via S-Video, but I've already ordered the $29 VGA-to-HDTV adapter specific to ATI All-In-Wonder cards. Once that arrives I'll be doing a review on the ATI All-In-Wonder 9600.

The remote of the Sony is a multi-function unit that really only appeals to owners of other Sony products and users of standard DirecTV receivers (not the TIVO units).

Luckily, the DirecTV TIVO remote has no problem operating the TV (use code 0136), providing all functions except operating the menu.

The TV is very classy. Sony uses exceptionally high-quality materials. The plastic has a very nice silver finish. The front access panel has a cover which recedes into the case instead of flipping down, yet another ergonomic win for Sony.

One advantage Sony has in its HDTV business is the Trinitron picture tube, which has been in use for high-quality computer monitors for years. Any HDTV is essentially a multi-sync computer monitor with circuitry to control and filter the vagrancies of standard TV, video game consoles, DVD players, VCRs and whatever else you can dream of hooking up to it. The Trinitron picture tube is a marvel; it gives extremely good color, contrast, sharpness, and brightness. The screen can even be adjusted for tilt in the odd event that the phospors aren't installed correctly or get mis-aligned from manhandling of the TV.

The sound on this TV is also superb to match the video. There are built in filters for TruSurround (simulates surround sound), WOW, and other standard filters. It also includes the smart volume feature that adjust the volume to a baseline so that loud commercials aren't so loud and soft shows aren't so soft. It also works to normalize volume between different channels.

I'm ecstatic about this purchase. I've held off on buying HDTV until the features:price ratio got somewhere near comfortable. HDTV is still a bit too expensive, but considering a Normal 27" Sony Trinitron was $700 just a few years ago, the added abilities of an HDTV made the purchase worthwhile!