- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 51 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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18 out of 18 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"Great TV for the price"
Pros: HD images fantastic; built in HD tuner and cable card; individual adjustments for each input; 3 component inputs; HDMI
Cons: remote not illuminated and can't get it to learn the codes I need; proj bulb will need replaced eventually
Summary: This is my first LCD projection TV. I moved up from a 34" tube set. It is taking me a bit of time to get used to the projected image but I really like the larger screen.
Scenes with flashing lights or rapidly moving images do show signs of pixelation and that has been the toughest thing to get used to since I rarely or if ever saw that on my CRT HDTV. Blacks don't have nearly the detail they did on my CRT, but you can adjust the contrast to help with this a bit. Non-HD channels through the HD cable box don't look very good at all-but they didn't look good on my Sony 34" tube. Basic cable channels bypassing the HD box going into the TV's cable input look much better. I have one local HD channel and the built-in tuner worked very well and I can enjoy that channel without using the cable box- just a small indoor antenna. TIVO playback at anything below BEST shows major artifacting.
The set sounds great, and you have quite a few adjustments available for each input. Speakers fire in down position, but the chassis is scooped to then send them forward. By moving the speakers to the bottom (and effectively hiding them) the set will bit into an entertainment center made for a 36" 4 X 3 set. Mine is on a stand I used for my 34" CRT set and fits perfectly.
When I set up the TV and it looked for both analog and digital channels, I was curious it found 13 digital channels when I only had the cable box hooked to it. What I discovered is that the tuner had "picked up" digital channels from the cable box that are used for video on demand. Whenever somebody was apparently watching a VOD movie in our neighborhood or in the city?? it showed up on upper channels like 188.1, 188.2, etc... Sometimes video was there and sometimes not. I ended up removing those channels.
This is the first TV I've owned that let's you customize the audio and video settings for each input, but it appears that the cable and antenna input share the same settings. This works very well when having to make one setting for cable, and another for HD or DVD inputs.
The on-screen menuing is great. If broadcasters have the signal encoded, you can get program info without resorting to a TV Guide type system. I noticed the HD broadcast channel I get via antenna had full program info- sound info, etc... but most of the channels through cable only have program titles or just the rating, or just the time remaining. Perhaps the cable company strips this signal? I leave this feature turned off because I am tired of seeing "information not available."
I was most disappointed in the remote however. It's not illuminated, and even though there are pages of codes to use for other devices, I could get none of the ones for my cable box or DVD player to work (Motorola and Toshiba)
Overall I am very happy with the purchase and can put up with the small problems since the HD images are spectacular, and the progressive DVD images look great as well.Updated
Getting used to a rear LCD projected TV image again took some time. I would like to update my rating from a 7 to a 9. I still don't like the fact that Sony provides a remote that is supposed to have codes from other devices but that in reality it won't learn my Toshiba DVD or Motorola cable box codes- both brands which appear on the code list in the owner's manual. I think previously the 7 rating was due to the remote- which is really not that big of a deal. If you don't want to spend the extra $$$$ for a plasma or LCD screen TV, and don't want to mess with the alignment issues of the CRT rear projection sets, this Sony set is for you!
- 4 replies to this review
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I am thinking of buying this TV or the Samsung DLP. The Sony has a sharper picture, but in the store I noticed some pixelation occurring during fast pans of the camera (during a football game). Has anyone else noticed this? Does this also happen on DLP? With Plasma? Is this the TV's problem or the digital broadcast's problem?
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I appreciate your supplement to your initial review. That was most helpful and gives me a bit more confidence about choosing this set over a plasma unit. Since this set is now getting nothing but 9s and 10s, I think I will take the plunge.
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I have an older Toshiba SD-1600 DVD player and my Sony remote works with either the DVD Player code 754 or the DVD/VCR Combo Unit code 773. True there is no eject, etc but it works great for general viewing. Have you tried contacting Sony on line about the problem? I would be surprised if they didn't already have a fix for this.
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The Logitech Harmony remote might be a solution to the remote included with 42A10. The remote has backlight and will control several components with a push of a button.
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?CRID=2078&PAGE=products/features/harmony&countryid=19&languageid=1
Where to buy
Sony KDF-E42A10:
$1,399.00
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$1,399.00 | Yes |
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