Price Paid:  $249.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I guess for $250 this was an ok unit. Initially I was stunned at the picture this TV displayed. It looked quite good for an analog TV. I watched a bunch of DVDs with it and they all looked great. As I inspected the picture closer, there were two things I noticed. The first is edge softness. Along the left and right border, the picture is a little soft and out of focus. I never really noticed while DVDs were playing or during any soft of telecast. I first noticed it with the DVD menu up. The text spanned across the whole display and it definitely showed that the picture was a bit out of focus. The letters became a touch blurrier than in the center of the tube. I noticed this too on the cable signal, although not quite as bad since the quality isn't there to begin with. I want to stress though that it wasn't a severe problem, although it was noticeable. The second issue I had was with the color reproduction. Overall it was quite good. There was a 'blotch' in the lower right that was off though. When white, it shifted a bit toward brown. Same thing in the lower left corner. It was quite subtle and not noticeable with a video feed, I only caught it with a solid background. To be fair, these 2 issues really didn't detract from the DVD experience at all. I was very pleased when watching my movies through the S-Video connector. The picture looked great, the colors were vibrant. The 4 temperature presets are pretty cool for a quick picture adjustment. I didn't keep it long enough to test the component inputs. I guess my overall impression was a mixed bag. The issues I had weren't all that major. Being an electrical engineer, maybe I was a little overly critical about the 2 things I noticed. The slight color problem I think was particular with my set. It seems the electron beams just got a little off in those 2 corners, probably not a design issue. The edge softness I'm not sure about. It could be an issue with the entire line, it doesn't strike me as an isolated incident, although I never saw the display at Circuit City for this model. Objectively speaking, the picture quality was good, DVDs were very enjoyable. At $250, it is the cheapest flat tube 27" TV I found. If budget is a big factor, I think you could do worse.

Strengths:
+ Good picture quality + Decent value + Flat tube

Weaknesses:
- Edge softness - Color anomalies in the lower corners - No vertical compression (it's a $250 TV) - No channel labeling

Similar Products Used:
JVC 27F704