Recently Purchased this TV for my brother and some observations....
1.The KV-XA21M93 flat TV from Sony is, arguably, one of the best looking TVs amongst the 21’’ TVs. The external cabinetry is so solid and the metallic look is so authentic that it looks as if it is made out of a single sheet of aluminium.
The set-top woofer is very proportionate, unlike the woofers of the other TVs that impart a ’’hunchback look’’ to the respective televisions.
Feature-wise, the TV has hardly any unwanted features. It is very straightforward to use, but has some serious flaws as far as the operating is concerned. There is only one button that lets you select the parameter and adjust it with the help of the ?+/-? keys. But the problem is that there are around 15 parameters to be accessed, and if you want to go one step backward from a given parameter, then you have no choice but to start all over again!
The other flaw is that there is no way you can save your personalised settings on the TV. Adding to your frustration is the fact that none of the three factory modes are worth much. The small consolation is that the on-screen display, as you fiddle with the menu options, doesn?t obstruct your view of the picture.
The back panel only has composite input and output, which is something of a letdown in such a high-end TV. The front panel has A/V connections for quick connectivity, including a socket for headphones. The remote is comfortable to hold, but has very confusing nomenclature to the buttons. This is because the remote has been manufactured to work with many other models that may have advanced functions.
It was a big task adjusting the settings on this set, but once you have gone through the cumbersome menu to get the best picture quality, you are confronted with a television that has an exceptional ability to hold black levels. There is a slight problem in the brightness section, though. In the presence of bright images, the almost black images lose their presence on the screen. The contrast has very little distortion and blooming.
It also has large range, meaning that the TV can show very illuminated whites. With this comes the inevitable, blooming and shimmering. Blooming is in control, but still enters the neighbouring dark areas; this kind of blooming is called ?haloing?. But the TV has a lot of shimmer; shimmer being the virtual white illuminated outline that surrounds the bright objects in dark backgrounds. With increased sharpness you can also observe dot-crawl. However, all this can be minimised to a great extent if the TV is set very carefully. Post-adjustments, the colours rendered are indeed stunning.
The engineers at Sony should also have provided for a personal memory file for the audio-video settings. The TV?s finish, build, picture and sound qualities are second to none.
Overall, it is good