divedoctors's Full Review: Sony Grand WEGA KF-42WE610 42 in. HDTV-Ready LCD T...
I recently purchased the Sony Grand Wega 42" rear projection LCD television and have been very impressed. First, let me tell you about the mistake.
About a month ago, I decided that I wanted to upgrade my old 31" CRT TV to a new widescreen HDTV-ready monitor - basically for the (then) upcoming Michigan - Ohio State game. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on a television, so plasma was initially out of the question. I went to Best Buy and Circuit City (it was just easier than getting to a Tweeter or more "professional" store) and was initially satisfied with the picture quality-price ratio of the standard CRT-projection 42" Toshiba and the 46" Sony. I ended up getting a good deal on the Sony at Circuit City, so I was soon the owner of the 46" CRT-projection Sony (KP46WT510). Soon after delivery to my apartment, I realized that I had made a mistake. The picture quality just wasn't what I had expected. Neither DVD nor the digital cable (non-HD) really was as impressive as I had hoped. Most of the "on-air" channels had ghosting that wouldn't be filtered. Viewing at any angle other than straight-on just made the picture darker- I already knew that this might be a problem, but I didn't realize how annoying it was. So, I ended up going back to CC and telling them that I really didn't like the TV at all, and wanted to look for something else.
Well, I decided that I needed to suck it up and just spend the money on a decent TV. I looked at plasma screens, but I was turned off by the fact that the prices for HDTV-ready screens were astronomical and the life-span of the screens was relatively short-lived. 20,000 hours to failure? Possibly much less time until fading? The way my TV is just left on for much of the day, I didn't want to have to replace a $5000-$7000 TV in 5 years. I looked at the Samsung DLP TV - excellent picture but the rainbow effect was a bit annoying to my eye.
The TV that really impressed me was the Sony 42" Grand Wega LCD-rear projection. It was reasonably priced, had absolutely outstanding picture quality and color/contrast (more on that later. It has 3.28 millions dots resolution - calculated out, that is higher than the plasma and DLPs by far. It won't "burn-in" if left in 4:3 aspect ratio for extended periods of time. And, the lifespan of the three LCD displays is extremely long. The one thing that needs occasional replacement is the projection bulb. Interestingly, the horizontal viewing angle of this "projeciton" TV is VERY wide, you can see the picture with very little drop-off in brightness or quality from anywhere in our living room. The vertical viewing angle is more narrow, but we're all usually sitting so the TV is normally at eye level.
Now, back the contrast ratio. The LCD rear projection TVs have, as their biggest criticism, poor rendition of true blacks. In other words, black just doesn't look that black. From what I've read on the net, this has been a big problem keeping the LCD RPTs from taking a bigger share of the market. I must admit that I really can't see any problem with the ability of my Sony to display black very well. In fact, when fine-tuning the display using the Lucasfilms THX program, I can achieve all of the display goals with very little tweaking. So, I can only conclude that the contrast ratio may not be as high as plasma TVs, but it is more than adequate for the superb pictures that this TV produces.
All in all, this TV is the complete package. And the value is excellent. Circuit City, Best Buy and most of the other "chain" stores sell it for around $2600-2800. Remember, the plasma TVs that sell for a similar range are almost all EDTV (a marketing ploy) not HDTV! Those plasma TVs don't even approach the resolution of the LCDs.
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