Sony KD-34XBR970 34" TV: Marvelous Picture Quality, Just Heavy as Hell!
Written: Dec 03 '06 (Updated Dec 27 '06)
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Pros: Insane Picture Quality & Clarity
Cons: Extremely heavy set, along with a High Price Point for 34 inches.
The Bottom Line: A Fantastic Television set if you want to spend the extra cash on the Sony Brand Flat Screen is Clutch!
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| DeRango's Full Review: Sony KD-34XBR970 34 inch TV |
Flat Panel Televisions are amongst the best quality units available on the market today, Sony does an excellent job of delivering fantastic picture, color, and clarity in the KD-34XBR970 FD Trinitron.Sony is a name found in many areas of electronics, but I have always shifted my purchase towards this particular brand because of reliability and overall quality.
Manufactures Description
Sony's KD-34XBR970 FD Trinitron WEGA Flat Screen Technology is the basis of Sony's award-winning line of visually flat televisions. The FD Trinitron sets deliver incredible image accuracy, wide viewing angles, outstanding contrast, and corner-to-corner detail. The visually flat FD Trintron tube minimizes annoying glare from light sources, which enhances contrast. Detail, corner-to-corner, is rendered more accurately because images aren't distorted by a curved screen. Squares are square, straight lines appear straight, and circles are circular.
Initial Set Up
What a pain in the (you know what), the unit is nearly 200lbs and for a 34 inch set it is really a difficult task to get out of the box and setup. Even though The Sony KD-34XBR970 34" TV was quite a challenge to get situated due to weight and bulky size, the experience getting started proved exactly the opposite.
The remote, menu features, and front buttons make using the set simple, which is a nice bonus. The menu comes up clearly and there are few submenus, which typically confuse people rather than assist them. Sony did a nice job making the television easy enough to use for the absent minded and ignorant.
Style
A sort of silver/grayish outer case, with a darker almost blackish/silver casing for the remainder of facing (near the screen). The buttons are clearly visible from the front of the unit and it should compliment a contemporary decor for most households. The colors are fairly neutral so they should go with both dark and lighter cabinetry and woods. I feel the television has a sharp clean look that really gives it a "high quality, I paid a lot for it appearance."
Picture
Comb Filter 3DYC / 3D Digital
Velocity Scan Modulation
Adjustable Color Temperature
The Sony Trintron flat tube delivers a truly high quality picture, along with fantastic clarity to compliment the rich realistic colors. Anyone into watching football will really appreciate the clear picture and extremely realistic detail the Sony delivers.
Referring to the picture quality is known as clarity, which has proved quite excellent, with clear crisp images that do not offend the eye. I can comfortably watch television for extended hours without worry of headaches, eyestrain, or blurry vision. Usage of this television has been quite comfortable as the television is extremely clear in images for videos, DVD’s, gaming, and daily episodes of the Simpsons.
Again the Trinitron WEGA Flat Screen Technology produces an excellent overall picture in clarity, quality, and colors. Furthermore the clearness compliments the flat panel TV with glare reduction and increased viewing angles.
DVDs
Watching movies on this particular unit really looks great, and if you have a higher quality DVD player with the right cables, all the better. I really enjoy watching movies as the picture quality compliments the overall experience with fantastic colors and crisp images.
Sports
Well she might not be a 62 inch, but if you had to watch the game, you will not be disappointed. Sports channels like ESPN and Fox really look sharp and the images of the field and players really look fantastic. The flat screen is great because of the glare reduction and realistic images, so even though it is not a big screen it still looks great.
Gamers
For all you video heads out there you can make use of the input jacks to hook up your favorite gaming system and then drool over the picture quality. If you really want to be “in” the set hook up a surround sound system and play an action based game like GTA 3 for PS2, and just sit back to enjoy the clarity of explosions and bullets flying all over.
Everyday
For those of you whom could not miss an episode of desperate house wives, the picture quality will be extremely satisfying as color tones and images will appear realistic and vibrant, don’t forget to with the high clarity to gossip about how old the actresses look or how many crows feet you can count on their faces.
Sound
Audio Type: Stereo
Audio Output: Variable / Fixed
SAP / MTS Stereo
Audio Leveler
Currently I am using the speakers which are with the television, I would like to hook the unit up to a receiver then add some surround sound speakers or even floor mounted speakers to give a more realistic sound to the watching experience.
The unit lacks a subwoofer, but then again most sets this size do not include this feature, however it would be nice if the unit produced a louder sound. This area of the television is mediocre, but unlike picture quality, this area can be improved with aftermarket equipment.
Speakers
Number of Speakers 2 Speakers
Speaker Power 2 x 10 Watt
Inputs & Signals
Rear Input Connectors
• S-Video x 2
• Composite x 2
• HDMI x 1
• Audio (RCA) x 5
• RF x 1
• Rear Output Connectors Audio (RCA) x 1
Front Input
• Connectors S-Video x 1
• Composite x 1
• Audio (RCA) x 1
A decent amount of room to grow with hooking up several devices in the future, my first connection will be a receiver to increase the sound quality and capabilities. The location of these inputs is fairly standard, but it is nice to have some front inputs for hooking up Playstation, Xbox, or even my old VCR.
Remote
Funny thing to mention I had to take a double take as the remote included BATTERIES, yes it actually had them in the box. The layout of the remote seems fairly common, nothing to really report in the positive or negative category, it just seems average really. Functionality of the remote would be much easier to use if contained an illumination feature, which would light up when the buttons are pressed.
Recommendation
If you can see past a few flaws and the expensive technology costs, the versatility for daily usage really makes up the difference for the higher cost. The strongest points would include the extremely clear picture, fantastic clarity of the screen, and the strong versatility for different day to day uses. The mediocre areas would clearly be the remote and sound quality of the set. Finally the major issue would be the insane weight compared to the actual size of the unit, along with the fact that 34 inches is considered somewhat small when televisions now come in 72 inches, and the price point is fairly high.
Overall if you want to spoil yourself and looking for a unit that fits into a cabinet, this would be a great choice, just make sure you have someone help you move it in.
Features
Digital TV Standard HDTV
Screen Type Flat Screen
Diagonal Screen Size 34 inch
Display Capabilities
Digital TV Standard HDTV - HDTV receiver is integrated.
Aspect Ratio 16:9 • 4:3 Enhanced
Broadcast Format Supported 1080i (HDTV) • 720p (HDTV) • 480p (EDTV) • 480i (SDTV)
Built-in Tuner ATSC & NTSC
Details
Parental Control V-Chip
Sleep Timer
Energy Star Compliant
Screen Text
Channel Labels
Without Closed Caption On Mute
OSD Languages English • French • Spanish
Dimensions
Width: 39.13 in.
Depth: 23.75 in.
Height: 25.75 in.
Weight: 190.04 lb (UGH!)
Warranty
Tube Warranty 2 Years
Overall Warranty 2 Years
Other Sony Products & Electronics Links
Toshiba 27D46 27" TV
Sony FD Trinitron WEGA KD-27FS170 27" TV
Terk TV5 TV Antenna
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 800
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