Sony KV28HX15

...I refuse this for a Sony Wega 28" TV? Certainly not, so it replaced my aged Panasonic 21" normal TV.

As with any widescreen CRT TV the first thing you notice is the sheer physical size. The box only just squeezed through the door, and the TV took two people to lift. Styling is smart with curves sweeping backwards and a silver finish.

There are two scart connections at the rear, but only one is RGB compatible. ...
...you would expect from a Sony Wega screen. I can't see any screen distortions, not even at the edges. There aren't any functions to adjust screen deformities as you would get on a computer CRT. Remember this is the same Wega technology as goes in to the rest of the Sony range.

The only niggle I have is that the tv can be set to 'smart' mode and autosense the type of signal it is receiving (4:3, 16:9 etc) but this causes it to display ... more

I saw a refurbished bargain - only £160 instead of the £320 usual price. Could I refuse this for a Sony Wega 28" TV? Certainly not, so it replaced my aged Panasonic 21" normal TV.

As with any widescreen CRT TV the first thing you notice is the sheer physical size. The box only just squeezed through the door, and the TV took two people to lift. Styling is smart with curves sweeping backwards and a silver finish.

There are two scart connections at the rear, but only one is RGB compatible. There is also an AV socket at the front for videocameras etc. Higher end TVs usually have more RGB capable scart sockets so this TV requires you to either daisychain your equipment or buy a signal switcher box - I have a DVD, FTA digibox, VCR, and Sky+ all daisychained to the single RGB scart. The TV autosenses which item was last turned on so autoswitches properly - decent fully wired scart leads are needed for this to happen.

The remote control is long and skinny - not a really pretty design but functional. Two AA batteries are required.

The manual is basic but covers the limited feature set of the TV.
Autotuning happens when turned on for the very first time, a very painless operation. The manual is sufficient that all features can be set in about 10mins. These are limited to picture settings such as contrast etc, spatial sound, 16:9-4:3-widescreen autosensing, sleep mode, tuning, and RGB shift.

The sound and picture quality on my set are good to excellent as you would expect from a Sony Wega screen. I can't see any screen distortions, not even at the edges. There aren't any functions to adjust screen deformities as you would get on a computer CRT. Remember this is the same Wega technology as goes in to the rest of the Sony range.

The only niggle I have is that the tv can be set to 'smart' mode and autosense the type of signal it is receiving (4:3, 16:9 etc) but this causes it to display a picture that is sometimes slightly larger than the actual crt size, so a small portion top and bottom are cut off. A zoom facility allows you to adjust the picture up or down to see the portion cut off (for subtitles etc). The manual does note this but it would have been better to autosize the picture to the true screen size. This is a slight niggle as we prefer to leave it in widescreen mode anyway which gives a full screen picture without any missing portion.

The TV doesn't include a freeview tuner though the next model up does. The TV is also 50Hz so some viewers may notice a flickering (some people do, most don't) and be happier with a 100Hz model (though 100Hz models have problems too). The 50Hz flicker apparently is worse the larger screen you get and 28" is about the sweet spot for size vs flicker.

Overall I am very pleased with the TV accepting that it has limited features. If I was setting up a home cinema then it would be a poor choice, but for everyday use it is spot on.

Prices vary from £400 on the high street, to £320 on the internet.
My set was refurbished though looks brand new - only a label on the box indicated otherwise. For £160 this is a cracking bargain.
I guess a refurbished unit has quite stringent quality control performed on it so all deviations are corrected before release, whereas a brand new TV has normal basic functions only checked.

 

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