Sony KV-32FX68S
Image Quality
Sound Quality
Value For Money
Sony KV-32FX68S
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User Reviews
Value For Money
Image Quality
Sound Quality
Just Bought This Sony Kv32fx68s Widescreen Tv From
Just bought this Sony KV32FX68S Widescreen TV from WAV direct (cheapest on the net) after a lot of research! Boy, what a good decision, picture quality is second-to-none and sound is good. Believe those "Which" reports and t.v. of the year awards. This is one fantastic tv that sets the benchmark for all others. Go get yourself a piece of the action - you won't regret it!!!
Value For Money
Dear All, This Month's Pointless Waste
Dear all,
This month's pointless waste of money was a 32" Sony KV32FX68S widescreen tv. Pointless because my 29" Panasonic did the job perfectly well. Apart from the fact that it was too small for the lounge, had wimpy sound, was CTV format and had only 1 scart socket. "Mmmm, 32inch Wega" I thought (in a Homer Simpson voice)......
So, I spent a day doing some research and decided that the kv32fx68 was "The One". A good balance between connectivity, size, price etc. It is, of course, impossible to ascertain picture & sound quality without testing a model in-store, so I did what most lazy people do instead, trusted the brand.
I wanted a Sony because I have had problems in the past with Panasonic and Philips CTVs. I have fond memories of my Father's Sony (32" Mono, cost £1100 in 1983), which was an absolute cracker and lasted 14 years with 2 destructive kids. It had superb sound and picture quality. I wanted a tv that would last as long and provide as much viewing pleasure as possible, so I didn't mind spending a bit of money to get a good one.
After some scouting around, I bought from www.totaldigital.biz, paying £735 in total for delivery and stand. I have no idea why anyone would want to pay a £1000 on the high street. In fact how do Currys/Comet stay in business with their prices???
I was happy with the service. The set was delivered in two days by some surprisingly happy guys (considering they'd been driving around London all day in 95F heat). They carried the 300 ton set upstairs, but did not check to see if it worked before leaving. Obviously very busy chaps.
After building the stand (I highly, highly recommend two people for moving/fixing the stand and tv) and connecting the set, the moment of truth had arrived.....
"It works!!!! I bought it off the internet and it works!" I said, gleefully.
So, how does the set perform? Well, the picture quality is superb. No fancy "digital pixel" this or "ultra mega super scan" that, just a crisp, bright, well contrasted, stable image. Wonderful.
I thought the weak freeview signal would look very pixelated and grainy on a 32, but it was only fractionally inferior, and looked better in some respects because the image filled the entire screen. I was warned-off higher spec sets that use fancy technology to improve the picture. I'm glad Sony made the decision to make the highest quality standard tube they could, rather than spruce-up a standard tube with suspect technology (as seems to be the case with the fx66).
DVD playback is a revelation. Crispier than a foil-packed, liquid-nitrogen cooled.....crisp!!).
Connectivity is very, very important, especially if you intend to hook-up a vcr/dvd/5.1/xbox/ps2/digibox etc. The set has 3 scarts (2xRGB, 1xS-Video) and smartlink on the 3rd scart. Front composite A/V's and S-video sockets come in handy too.
And now the caveat. Yes, there is one, I'm afraid. Sound reproduction is not up to scratch. A £1000 tv should sound incredible. No excuses. I get the impression sony made compromises in this department in order to benefit the aesthetics of the design (preventing it from getting too wide, perhaps?).
Where is the sub-woofer/low-frequency unit? There are a pair of high/mid range drivers at the sides, but the sound is far too tinny. Increasing the bass in the OSD doesn't help matters either. Changing the sound to Dolby is pointless, adding nothing to the range/depth of sound. Sony's "dynamic" option is the best option. This seems to throw sound around the room more convincingly than dolby, but the effect is hardly earth-moving.
I'd imagine Sony is pre-occupied with developing the best image quality as a priority, with sonic abilities taking second place. They probably assume that anyone with the means/enthusiam to spend £1k+ on a TV would almost certainly have an Amp/5.1 system to connect it to. Thankfully I invested in one recently (Acoustic Solutions DS1033 - a great system for the money), and it makes all the difference.
Dont' get me wrong, even with the average audio reproduction, this is still a fantastic set. I wouldn't change it for anything esle (alright, maybe an Anaconda:-), but I just think Sony could have tried that little bit harder to improve the sound...
Other minor bugbears are the remote, (even though it is programmable with dvd/vcr/sat, it's too long and skinny) and the speaker-off option (Sony owners know what I'm talking about). Oh, and I can't seem to get a decent picture from my Dreamcast using s-video/scart. It is very fuzzy and flickers badly when running in 60hz mode. Don't know why. I haven't tested the Xbox or Gamecube via RGB Scart yet, but I'm praying there wont be a problem. I'll have to investigate this one a bit further.....
Thanks for your time.
Great review, I purchased this set on the 23rd July and agree with the picture comments but as yet I have not tested the sound limitations.
Geometry skew is pretty bad in widescreen tv\'s and is very distracting when your attention is drawn to it. It gets even worse when the horizontal or vertical bar is bright white.
My 28\" panasonic CTV suffers from this horribly, especially in NTSC mode. I don\'t know the exact science behind the phenomenon, nor why the big manufacturer\'s haven\'t been able to solve the problem. Guess they\'re all to busy channeling resources to plasma/lcd research?
One very important thing to point out is that your contrast and sharpness settings will GREATLY affect the amount of skew you experience. I bought a very, very useful tv calibration dvd from eBay recently (called something like \"the ultimate silver test dvd\").
Amoungst other audio/visual tests, it allows you find the best settings to minimise geometry skew and has made a big difference to the performance of the tv (and the 5.1 set-up etc.). There is only one for sale on eBay at the moment:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3390409004&category=2300
I hope this helps. Thanks for your comment!
Good review, thanks for putting the time in. Your review had partly to do with me choosing this model in the end and yes the picture quality is really good. I bought Finding Nemo and WOW!! the quality of the image is amazing.
You mention the \"skew\" in video games and I have noticed this too. But its not the only bending of the image I have noticed. I also have a freeview box connected to this TV and when the info bar on the bottom pops up on changing the channel and also when using the menu I can see quite a bit of bending going on. Its mainly on the left hand side and quite a bit along the middle bottom. The horizontal lines are not straight, they bend up in the middle and then drop off at the right side.
When watching programs like \"Millionaire\" the CGI along the bottom is not at all straight. I have also read that this is quite \"normal\" in 32\" widescreen TVs but it is a bit annoying once your attention is drawn to it.
Have you noticed this as well or is your TV not as bad as this?
Maybe Im just being incredibly fussy and should start \"watching\" my TV instead of \"looking\" at it. But I have a 21\" 4:3 Trinitron Wega in the bedroom and the geometry is 100% perfect. I suppose I was kind of expecting a similar quality with the 32fx68 as well so I am a little dissapointed......
Well, it seems that I made a wise purchase after all! The guys at What Hi-Fi Sound & Vision gave this their 5 stars award last month (even though its been available for over a year) and What Video also gave it their highest accolade.
Personally, I'm surprised to discover that this is the highest rated all-rounder, but happy about it none the less.
DT
OK, Here comes my 3 month update:
They're not really problems, more annoying little things like the lack of flexibility in the OSD menus.
I have to adjust the colour settings every time I use the XBOX, but I can't store the settings because the tv won't allow you to save more than 1 personal setting:-( Give me more customisation options, Sony!
More annoying is the geometry "skew". According to what I have read, this is not really a "problem" so to speak, more a "feature" of widescreen CRT's.
When the screen alternates between light & dark quickly, the image warps & bends. Some expensive sets employ technology to limit the effect of this, but it cannot be cancelled out completely. The skew is only really a problem (in my experience) when playing video games, as one generally spends a large amount of time navigating between menu screens. It can become quite destracting once your attention is drawn to it.
Apparently plasma & LCD's don't suffer from this.
Otherwise, the set has been working just fine. The sockets seem to be very firmly welded to the chassis, as mine get a lot of abuse and are still rock-solid. MMmmmmmmm...... That's about it!
See you again in 3 months!
Dynamic_Turtle
Value For Money
The Strange Thing About The Fx68 Is That Because I
The Strange thing about the FX68 is that because it does not have Digital plus 100hz it does not eliminate flicker all that much, I compared the flicker to a 50hz DX40 and the flicker is only "slightly better".
This 100hz TV was much better for purity and picture quality (With the DNR on the picture was fantastic!)
To be honest with you the only reason I did not get the higher FQ70 is because even though that is a digital plus model with 100% Flicker free picture due to vps, it had alot more smearing then the standard 100hz FX68.
"i Viewed them side by side with the same source"
I think any enchancments like the extra flicker reduction (vps) (digital plus) even though they may keep on screen EPG'S perfectly still they still add many problems to the picture.
I give this brilliant quality TV 10/10
P.S - If you ever buy a Sony TV that does have 100hz digital plus make sure you can switch it off as some sets don't let you do this and if like me you hate smearing you won't be happy.
sounds from all these reviews that this tv is thoroughly useless and a waste of money!
Good TV, picture is excellent, don't be put off about slight flicker like charlie, you will never notice it.
Only problem is a slight curve towards the bottom right of screen, which happens on nearly every widescreen tv(only noticable when Sky programme browser is on), JVC and some phillips models being the worst.
Don't bother with the virtual Dobly setting, useless, go and buy yourself a decent home cimena surround sound system to really appreciate the TV.( not a Sony Davs ( pretty poo! lacks power).
I have this tv (going back though)...what is the point of 100hz if it doesn't reduce the flicker???
Remember the TV is advertised by Sony as 'Flicker-free picture' and it certainly isn't that. Had an Engineer look at mine and he was NOT impressed.
I find the TV gives me eyestrain which is not on and so it is going back.
Glad you like it though. Have fun with your flickery new friend :-)
Value For Money
I Bought It From Digital-point.co.uk. They Were Th
I bought it from Digital-point.co.uk. They were third cheapest when compared using the kelkoo search facility. Unfortunately, the two cheaper sources (RGB.com and Techtronics.com) were out of stock and a little uncertain of when it would arrive. It was ordered on Monday, 1600 and arrived Tuesday, 1030. The delivery men were friendly and helpful. They carried it into the lounge, unpacked it and insisted I inspect it for any damage.
Excellent picture and sound.
However, one small point with physical stability. A small child could pull it onto them without too much effort. I have secured the rear support leg onto the floor via a bracket to prevent this. Possible SONY, could supply a similar facility.
Whilst your review was short and to the point, I found it more to be a review of the service you received from the website you purchased the tv, rather than a review of the television in question.
I need help on my tv purchase!
Value For Money
Great Price, Great Picture!
Great price, great picture!
Sony 32fx68: engineer called put some stuff on component, result: no improvement.
Reading other comments on this site and others ..I wonder if it is worth pursuing this any more...where do I go from here?
Hi,
Concerning the buzzing: the shop where I bought my TV wouldn't give me a refund because they said it wasn't an anomaly (!!!)...
So I still have the Sony KV-32FX68S, maybe next year I'll try to sell it and buy myself a plasma-screen.
For the people who are having the same problem, here's a very good url where you'll find a lot of information concerning this buzzing-problem: http://www.avforums.com/frame.html?http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65955&perpage=15&highlight=Fboard&pagenumber=15 .
Cheers!
Re Buzzing Sony Widescreen TV:
I also have a Sony KV-32FX68 wide screen, the warranty has run out but I have a repair protection plan. I have had a buzzing noise in the background and unfortunately only decided I'd had enough of it recently. The sony engineer reckons it is as it should be. He has ordered some coating substance to put over the offending item. But I don't hold out much hope. He is due to call. I will update on results.
Appreciate feedback form anyone else in forum who reached a resolution to the irritating background buzzing!
The geometry isn\'t perfect (finally I still got the FX68, but the buzzing is still there so I called the technical service and they said they\'ll change the F-Board, hopefully that will do it), and yes it\'s a problem that a lot of widescreen tv\'s have nowadays (especially 32\" screens and above), for more info on that problem and other tv-related problems go to www.avforums.com .
Whats the general opinion on the geometry of this set?
I have just recieved mine yesterday and although the picture looks great there is a small ammount of curving on the left hand side.
I have read lots on the net about widescreen TVs and the geometry issued associated with them but the reviews I read on this TV did seem to give the impression that the geometry was perfect....which it isnt.
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