| Customer Reviews: Average Rating:  Rating : - One of the better TVs in the 26" flat-panel group At first, I was shopping for a cheap 32" HDTV for my bedroom. After getting burned by two straight bad 32" HDTVs from other brands, not wanting to spend more money for the more expensive 32" sets, and seeing that a 32" screen is a little too big for my small bedroom, I decided to look one size smaller and get a good 26" television at the same price range.
I singled out this Sony model out of the other 26" televisions because it was the only 26" television that actually had a vertical viewing angle. The pictures on the rest of the 26" televisions turn white when viewed from above and turn purple and green when viewed from below. This Sony model does not have this problem.
The picture is great for an LCD. There are settings to improve the levels of black and white. Picture from the component connections look good. Analog channels have a bit of static in some colors. I don't have any HDMI device to try out the HDMI ports.
The television's audio is good when it's loud, but not good when it is set low. My television had a low-volume hiss in the built-in speakers and is noticeable in low volume levels. There are stereo RCA and digital coaxial audio outputs for external speakers.
This television forces the user to run a 30+ minute auto program to detect all of the channels. There is no way to manually add or remove channels from the television without running the auto programmer first. Thankfully, the auto programmer found all of the analog and clear unscrambled cable channels and didn't add any scrambled channels.
The biggest turnoff of this television is its selling price. Depending on the sales price, you can get a low-to-mid range 32" HDTV for the same price.
If you just care about screen size, then those 32" HDTVs might be for you. If you want quality for about the same price and don't mind a smaller size, check out this Sony while shopping around. It's not the best TV out there, but it's in the top five of 26" HDTVs out there.
edit: if you do get this model or any other Sony LCD television, immediately shut off "Noise Reduction" in the Advanced Options of the Picture menu. Noise Reduction introduces ghosting into the picture and most video modes have it on by default. + See Full Customer Review |  |