flat screen, bright picture, nice looking cabinet.

unglued cabinet, one input.

I purchased the KV-27S42 a couple of weeks ago, and it's a great set. Also this set doesn't tilt at all, I guess Sony finally caught up with the complaints. The picture is really good. The cabinet looks really nice, it compliments my home theatre setup with the optional stand that I got for this tv. One problem that I noticed is that the screen came unglued right above the Sony logo. I know Mark, one of the reviewers here has the same problem. I called the warranty guys but they wouldn't fix it. Mark, or if anyone had a solution to this, can you please post it in here? I thought about using super glue but I don't know if that is a good idea. Other than that it's a great set!

Excellent Picture, Inputs

I have searched high and low for a TV for the passed two months. I knew more than the salemen that were selling the TV's (I am sure you have had similar experiences with salesmen). I had it narrowed down to 2 sets. The Toshiba and SONY. Even though the Toshiba had component inputs, the picture just wasnt as good as the SONY. They were side by side at the Good Guys and Best Buy. I like the flat screen that Sony has, as opposed to the bubble like screen of the Toshiba. Toshiba seems to have a few more features but that still doesnt make up for the lack of picture quality. For example Toshiba offers a temperature setting for the color settings ( cool, warm, etc.) The Sony adjusts the temperature automtically. The bottom line for me was that the Sony just looked better. I am real happy with the set.

Vivid color, good sharpness w/ s-video, anamorphic squeeze & other tweaks using service menu, decent sound for a tv

Made in Mexico, picture is slightly tilted, slow channel surfing

Picture is generally very good for a tv. However the drool factor doesn't come in until you use anamorphic squeeze on this sucker, when used in conjunction w/ dvdplayer via s-video w/ an anamorphic dvd. Its so sharp w/ the anamorphic squeeze, that it looks almost like an XBR WEGA or CRT screen.

However during widescreen movies, u can see the slight tilt of the picture, but its not really annoying unless you really like to nitpick.

If youre looking for a 27"-36" set for your dvd hometheater w/o the expense of WEGA or other flatscreens, the Sony "V" series should be on your very short list.

Similar Products Used:

old Hitachi tv set, Magnavox, Panasonic Panaflat 27"

I wanted to buy a new 27" TV and since only Sony provides a 16:9 aspect ratiomode (via Sony's service menu, see http://members.accessus.net/~090/awh/sonyadj.html for details) it was going to
be a Sony. Since VSM (Velocity Scanning Modulation), has gotten a bad rap for actually reducing image resolution, I wanted to avoid the V-series and stay
with the S-series. Two tuner PIP is fun to have so I settled on the KV-27S66.
Thanks to the Video Essential DVD disc(http://www.videoessentials.com/) I was about to discern convergence errors in the first unit I bought so I exchanged it for another which, though not perfect, was acceptable. The service menu, along with the VE disc, is also good for correcting overscanning which is very common on all TVs. It's missing a component video input but you can't have everything for $450. It does have the most reasonable remote I've seen in a long time. I'm giving it four stars (five stars minus one for the spotty screen convergence quality control).

Very good picture, great input/outputs, great remote.

Voices sound a little muffled.

I chose this relatively expensive 27" "V" series set specifically because I wanted good audio, but now I do not use the set's speakers at all - I feed the audio to a receiver I bought at additional expense because the V series sets have the speakers on the side, which make voices sound muffled to me. I have the set in a entertainment center, like a lot of people do. I also have to use a cable box, so the fancy PIP and other functions are unused by me. If I had gotten the lowest-level "S" series set, I'd have the same picture with a simpler hook-up and save $150 + the cost of the receiver. I have seen sharper pictures on other sets, especially ProScan, but Sony has the best overall picture to me. The inputs/outputs, ergonomics, and the remote are all TOP NOTCH on the Sony sets, making them a pleasure to use. ProScan is too quirky for me. I can't figure how these obviously brilliant Sony engineers thought it a good idea to have side-firing speakers. The clarity of voice audio is paramount with television - I hate a lot of background noise - but I find the voices clearer from the back of the set than the front! My advice is that unless you really prefer a lot of sound, get an S series set with front-firing speakers (and audio out jacks if you prefer an external amp) and spend the money you saved on an external switching unit for the A/V gear you accumulate over the years. I give 4 stars overall because of audio only - 5 stars for EVERYTHING else, and only 3 stars for value because I think the 5 star value is in the S series sets. Sorry if I got a little windy here, but I hope I've helped a potential buyer!

Similar Products Used:

Any 27" Sony.

Excellent picture, nice flat screen (flatter than about 90 percent of tv's out there). vibrant colors

none so far

When I first started shopping for a new tv I knew that I wanted the best brand (Sony). So I chose this one because of its flat screen and awesome picture. If your going to buy a 27" tv go for this one......you won't be disappointed!

Similar Products Used:

n/a

Picture!!!

Annoying degause when it turns on, remote does not "flow"

I think some of the reviews for this series of TV's were placed in the wrong catagory. This is for the 27S66, which is a fine television. I was deceiding between the 27S42, 27S66, and a 35" Toshiba open box. After reading all of the reports on this fine review board, I went with the 27S42 because it was on sale for $370.00 at BB. The first thing I did when I turned the TV on was take note of how loud the degausing was, and looked to see if the picture slanted. Mine didn't slant at all. The only problem I had was that the screen came "unglued" from the border, right above the Sony logo. After a couple of weeks, Best Buy had a sale for their Best Buy Credit Card holders (an extra 10% off any item). I took my 27S42 back and picked up a 27S66 on sale for $450.00. I got this one home, and the same part of the set was unglued, but that's a minor detail in my book.
Either Sony has fixed their bug, or I'm real luckcy, becase the picture does not slant in this set either. Also, the degause is not as loud. For 400 bucks, plus tax, this was a great deal on a great set! Plus it has an extra set of inputs!

Remebmer, there are several Sony's in this catagory:
27S42
27S46
27S66
27V42
27V66

Similar Products Used:

Old 20" Magnavox, Sony 27S42, 35" Toshiba

vivid color

distorted or tilted picture, bad customer service, mediocre sound, relatively expensive

What attracted me to this set was its flat screen and vivid colors. When watching a DVD movie in widescreen format, however, I noticed that the picture appeared tilted or somehow distorted. The effect is also very noticeable when watching channels that run a banner across the bottom of the screen (Headline News, ESPN2, etc.). I have since traced the problem to the TV set. I have several acquaintances who also had the same problem with SONY TVs, one of whom had to bring his set back 2 or 3 times before finding one with a respectably level, undistorted picture.

Over the last few months I've visited several electronics goods stores and noticed that many of the SONY TVs on display exhibit the same tilted or distorted picture. I encourage you to check it out for yourself. Every salesperson I talked to readily acknowledged that this is a common problem with SONY TVs. Some of SONY's newer models now have a tilt adjustment (I wonder what prompted the addition of this feature), but I haven't tested this to see if it corrects the problem.

Check your SONY TV carefully and right away, the service warranty runs out in only 3 months and then you're stuck. SONY's customer service is an unfunny joke.

JVC and RCA also have fine pictures and vivid colors; they are less expensive, build quality seems better, and my past experiences with these companies has been positive. Their TV screens aren't quite as flat as SONY's, but I'll take a slightly less flat screen over a distorted picture any day.

Similar Products Used:

several, significantly better, JVC and RCA televisions

Good picture, good inputs

tilted for letterbox

The picture quality seems good. The sound is adequate, but for movies, I run it through speakers, so who really cares. Although I can deal with it, the picture is actually tilted a bit. With letterboxing like on the AMC channel, the right side is 3/16 of an inch higher than the left side. This is definitely noticeable, but I don't think it's worth it to return it becase I'll probably have the left side 3/16" higher than the right if I get a new model.

Similar Products Used:

none