Sony KV-14LT 1 > Reviews (3)

As my main Christmas present for Christmas 2000, I was given a Goodmans Matrix 14” portable TV in Ice Blue. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, however at the time due to family circumstances my mum bought this as a present in a rush and I was grateful at the time for this TV, and although I did want a nicer, higher quality TV I was happy with this TV. However, two major gripes I had with it was lack of teletext (a must for me!) and also the screen was curved so much that viewing it from an angle in bed was a pain in the neck (literally!). Therefore, from my Christmas and birthday money earlier this year, as well as my allowance I had saved up, I decided to replace my TV with one that I would be happier with.

My requirements was a television with a near-flat screen and teletext as a priority, and my second “look-out” was for the TV to be Sony brand, as we have a Sony television as the main TV in the front room and we have been happy with it since day 1. The model I found in the local Comet was this Sony KV14LT1. It had all the features I wanted – and even more than I expected – it had a flat screen, teletext, was of the Sony brand (obviously!), and also had more features such as SCART sockets and AV sockets for connecting things like camcorders or games consoles without interfering with the TV aerial. Also it had a headphone socket, and a remote control where all the buttons actually work!

I took the box home (this TV is quite heavy – it shows the good build quality of it), and as soon as I got it upstairs to my bedroom I opened it. It was nicely packed into the box with polystyrene blocks, with a plastic bag including loop aerial, remote control, and the instruction manuals with guarantee cards. As the TV is fairly heavy, it is advisable that you have someone there to hold the box whilst you take it out, otherwise you pick the box up with the TV as it’s so well packaged.

Before I could put the TV on my TV/hi-fi cabinet, I first kindly donated my old Goodmans Matrix television to my 10 year old brother, as he wanted his Playstation 2 in his bedroom, and not in the living room. He’s now happy to have that, and admittedly the curve isn’t that bad from the angle it is to him – his bed and TV are on opposite walls, whereas my headboard and TV are on the same wall (therefore I could notice the curve more).

When that was done, and I had set up his TV, I was finally able to put my brand spanking new TV in its new home – adjacent to my Aiwa hi-fi on my TV/stereo cabinet. I plugged in my “rake” aerial (loop aerials aren’t very good at picking up reception in the side of the house my bedroom is in), then plugged the TV into the plug socket. Now I was ready to tune in the television. I sat down on my sofa, after switching the TV on with remote control in hand, expecting to go through a long list of menus to tune the television in.

However – this was when I released that the TV I had just bought had automatic tuning! “So it bloody should for that price” some of you maybe saying, lol.

Anyway, I let it tune into the different channels – BBC1 North, BBC2, ITV1 Yorkshire, Channel 4, and Channel 5. When it had finished, it put these channels in order. Of course, being the picky person I am, I wanted to also get BBC1 East Midlands and ITV1 Central (in Lincolnshire we fall within the radius of two transmitters) so going through the menus I was easily able to select and fine tune the channels into slots 6 for BBC1 East Midlands and 7 for ITV1 Central.

The two main things that amazed me by this TV were the picture and sound quality. Compared to my previous Goodmans which was affected by a lot of interference (if I was printing something out every time the cartridge went across the paper on the printer I would get lines on the screen, same if I had a text message), however I think the Sony TV I now have has an interference suppressor of some sort, as I can now print something out (the TV and printer are in the same place as they were when I had the Goodmans TV), and also I can put my mobile phone on charge next to the TV without getting stripes down the screen every time somebody sends me a text message. The picture quality is very good on this TV, bearing in mind it’s only plugged into an internal aerial. Perhaps the Sony has a good internal aerial, I don’t know. The flat screen really does make a difference, and also because it has a Trinitron tube (as all Sony TV’s have), the picture quality is even better.

Another good thing is the sound quality, and I was surprised to find out it wasn’t stereo! I can hear it clearly, even though I have the volume on only 6 bars (I had to have it halfway up on my old Goodmans TV as you couldn’t quite hear the people talking, the interference meant they kept “mumbling”). Also, when watching something like Top of the Pops you can really feel the beat of the music, it’s almost as good as the Sony Dolby TV we have downstairs. I was planning to plug the television into the stereo as an audio output, however as the sound quality is so good I didn’t see the point.

The controls on the TV are easy to use – they are below the screen at the front and are clearly labelled. Buttons control volume up/down, channel up/down, AV, Menu and the usual big Power On button. There’s also a little red light which lights up if one of the buttons on the front of the TV or on the remote is pressed, or when the TV is on standby. There’s also a little drop-down flap on the opposite side from the power button, where behind are red and white AV plugs, and a headphone socket. Additionally, at the back of the TV there is the standard SCART socket which allows easy connection of equipment such as video recorders, DVD players, digiboxes and game consoles.

Sony have a newer version of this TV out now, basically the same, however the controls are at the top rather than at the front. I bought my Sony portable TV from Comet, in March of this year for approx. £180. If you look online you might still be able to buy this model, although it’s newer cousin is probably just as good. And although £180 may seem a lot at first for a portable 14” TV when you can buy one in your local Asda for £90, the quality build, picture and sound with this TV, as well as bonus features, is worth the extra £100 or so.

Jon