Problem with my new Sony KV32HS510 (1 Viewer)

[Joseph_Mikhail]

Just got a new sony KV32HS510. I am really impressed with the picture when the source is HD, however for regular non-HD sources (which is what I watch about 90% of the time) the picture is often blurry. Probably because of the aggressive DRC. There is no way to turn it off as far as I can tell. Has anyone else experienced this problem and were you able to fix it? I would really hate to return such a promising TV.

Also, what other 32" HDTVs would you recommend that would not have this problem?

 

[Paul.Little]

Did you not look at non-HD/DVD sources before you bought the TV? They all pretty much look the same. In fact, I think the Sony TVs handle the non-HD signals as well as any out there.

 

[John Ch]

I had experiences with 3 different KV36HS510 televisions in the last 6 weeks. 36" and 32" TV have the same electronic designs except different picture sizes.

For the first one, picture quality was very crispy and clear but with an air bubble on the screen. Anyway, I returned it.

For the second one, the picture tube had no defect but the picture quality was very bad. The tuner had a bit of noises, as a result, it generated more digital noises on the background. Also the color did not look good and lack of details. All setting and sources of signals remained the same as the first one, it looked grainy and had quite a lot of pixels on the screen.

For the third one I have now for the last few days, picture quality is excellent as like the first one. But there is minor purity problem on the left lower corner.

For all of three televisions, the texts on the screen are jagged no matter what DRC settings are or how good is the signal quality.
It is a matter how bad is the jagged texts. The second TV had the worst jagged text and more digital artifact. Don't expect a digital TV has smooth texts compared to analog TV.

Sony KV36HS510 television does a very good picture quality as long as it is fed with good strong signals (Cable or satellite). I am surprised the cablevision on some good channels looks even better than Satellite (for the same TV station). Sony really makes a good tuner and 3D digial comb filter. But most of channels may have weak signals, causing blurry picture even worse than analog TV.

On the other hand, I am very disappointed that Sony has such bad quality control on their products. I had 3 TV, but neither are defect-free.

 

[Christo Ramo]

I am looking into a 36" WEGA, a friend has one and I was watching DVD and even cable. He lives in an apartment building so I would imagine he doesn't have a dedicated line running to his apartment. The picture was mint. I even put on the weather channel and I could tell a difference right off the bat. Then we put in a DVD (spiderman) unbelievable. Both cable and DVD were through s-video and then we put the XBOX on and that is HDTV totally awesome. Maybe you aren't using the best cables? Try to stop the coax dead in the cable box and go to high quality rca's and s-video, trust me they make a huge difference.

 

[John Ch]

Christo, I totally agree with you about the quality of signal sources and type of connections.

I have no troubles with DVD signals on all three Sony TVs. I have S-video connection for my satellite receiver and RF coaxial for cablevision.

What I am talking about is I have different picture quality for cablevision on all 3 TVs for the same channel, same program (news report) and same connection. The TV tuners play an important role for removing the noises.

For the jagged edges on texts, I compared them with same program guides on the satellite receiver. The jagged edge is not noticeable on the analog TV but annoying on all 3 digital TVs. The level of pixelation is not the same from different units.

I understand that I would not get the above problems with DVD signals or HDTV signals. But most people suffer blurry or pixelated pictures from cable (analog signals) and satellite (high compression signal transmission), plus the aggressive DRC circirtry. These are the trade-off for all digital TVs.

You can imagine what the picture look like if you have a noisy tuner plus aggressive DRC. That is what I had on the second Sony TV.

Don't get me wrong, I am still happy with my 36HS510 TV even with minor purity problem on the corner.

 

[Christo Ramo]

I know it has been a while since the last post, but I was wondering if there has been any change. I am getting ready to buy this tv and I noticed that there are some picture settings that you can adjust, how have these functions helped you? Also, doesn't this TV have some kind of picture improvement system (I forget what it is called) that makes non-HDTV turn to near HDTV quality.

Did you look at the XBR models? Do you have any opinion on them in 36" and 40".

Sorry for all the questions, but I grew up knowinig that Sony was the best and until I found this site, it has made me slightly reconsider.

Thanks.

 

[John Ch]

I was making decision on 36" or 40" Sony TV two months ago.

I had a chance to talk to 2 Sony authorized service depots. All three TV technicans have the same opinion and told me 75% of 40XBR800 TV and 50% of 40XBR700 TV have to be replaced the picture tubes because of purity problems. Sony has a bulletin on how to fix green spot on the left of screen by moving the yoke. But it may not work everytime.

Technically speaking, they don't recommend 40" TV because of huge sizes of picture tubes. It is very difficult or even impossible to make a good perfect alignment/adjustment on all four corners, sometimes you have to live with it.

I don't mean to stay away from 40" TV; I like to picture quality but make sure the retail store you purchase has a flexible return policy just in case you run into the above problem.

The circuitry which turns interlaced signal to progressive signal is DRC. XBR has a more fancy design than HS models; it has a customerized DRC which you can make changes in the deinterlace processing, it can improve picture quality a little bit especiallly in a fuzzy picture.

Good Luck

 

[Christo Ramo]

Well I almost pulled the trigger on the 40" XBR, yesterday. My wife was with me and convinced me to wait until the basement is finished. After all that is where it was going to, so it made sense. I saw some blurryness on fast moving programs, like sporting events. That kind of disappointed me a little, but it did not turn me away. Circuit City is offering 0% interest for 18 months on all their TV's right now - so it makes it kind of hard to say no. They will exchange the TV if anything is not to my satisfaction, but I sure hope there isn't any problems.