[tvhustla]

I'm looking to get a Sony KV32FX68 Tv and the cheapest i've seen it has been £735 inc del, is this the best price there is?

Also would anyone recommend it or should i look for something else at that price?

Got mine two weeks ago from JL for £699 on a price match with BOS Electronics. Am now awaiting my 3rd replacement.
First set the tube wasn't aligned straight in the frame, and the picture failed on some of the THX tests.
Second set, similar problems.
Now awaiting set three, but maybe i,m just being too fussy.
Wife & kids didn,t notice any problems until i pointed them out.
Having said all that, i have been qiute happy with the picture quality, and have only been disapointed by minor niggles.

[Markybhoy]

I have just ordered one from dixons, came to a total of £742 using the promotional code youatwork.

Was swaying between this tv and the KV32FQ70 but after reading some reviews it seems that there was not much difference between them. So i have opted for KV32FX68.

Should be delivered on saturday, if you haven't purchased by then I will post my first impressions of it.

[tvhustla]

thanks for the replies
was the £699 price without the stand, as i want the stand inc.
if i want to ask JL to pricematch with totaldigital.biz, do i just ask them to do it, or is there more to it than that?
the main reason i would want to buy from JL is for the 5 year guarantee, but £742 from dixons is not bad, do they give you a 5 year guarantee too?

received my Sony a couple of weeks ago and it seems ok to me. However, I haven't carried out the above tests. Can anyone advise?
Also why does the screen flash when the video's switched on and I click on the video channel. It doesn't matter whether its recording or not. If I press play then the video will play ok. It is a Sony video.

[Markybhoy]

No, dixons only do a 12 month guarantee.

I would hope that if its going to break down it would be within the first few months, but a 5 year guarantee would probably give you more peice of mind.

Still, if it does go after a year, I can always claim on the house insurance if you no what I mean!!!

£699 included the stand.

used the THX optimizer on Monsters Inc.
If you were to just switch TV on and view normally i doubt if you would notice any problems.
Its only when you use a test disc and start to look for problems that you find them.
I doubt if any TV is perfect, its just a matter of finding one you can live with.
Its really only after looking through these forums that i have become more critical as to what is acceptable.

[CAS FAN]

I bought this TV (without stand) from WAV Direct - £623 without stand £699 with stand - delivery was £60 and the TV was delivered in 3-4 days. Great TV, fantastic picture!

[tvhustla]

is the stand any good as im wondering whether its worth the extra money?

[CAS FAN]

I don't own one but from what i've seen it looks stylish and reasonably well built with a fair amount of room on the shelves. Getting the stand usually only adds around £60-£70 to the price of the TV which is pretty cheap. I already had a decent corner tv unit so I didn't bother other wise i'd have probably made the purchase. The TV and stand are both in silver and if you have other silver boxes ie. Sky/Sky +, Silver DVD and or video and a SIlver PS2 it would all look pretty cool!

[tvhustla]

is it likely to need a 5 year guarantee because JL are taking ages to get back to me, might have to phone them up again.
totaldigital seem ok but offer only a one year guarantee.

[CAS FAN]

I reckon guarantees are a bit of a waste of time - good if you can get them for free I guess but in my experience if something is going to go wrong it will within the first year (probably within the first few days or weeks). My older 29" Sony has lasted a good 7 years with a lot of use and i've had no problems with it at all. The picture is still like the day it was bought. The only reason I upgraded to a new telle was to go widescreen as i watch a lot of DVD's and digital TV is usually in Widescreen now. I would say that modern Televisions have a built in obselescence of around 5-10 years so that when they do go they are generally no longer covered by Guarantees. I guess you have to look at it from a business point of view - if TV's generally failed in the 1st 5 years then it wouldn't be economically viable to offer guarantees.

[IanRidley]

I always thought that extended guarantees on electricals was a waste of time so I would never pay for them. When I bought my 32" Toshiba I got a 5 year guarantee free. Good job as well as three and a half years on the tube has now gone. I received a cheque last week for over five hundred pounds as they said it was not worth replacing the tube. Thats over five hundred pounds that I wouldn't have if I didn;t have the five year guarantee.

Needless to say I'm buying my new set price matched from JL . Probably KV32FQ70.

I notice digitaldirect are selling it for £785. Do JL match DigitalDirect?

If not TotalDigital have it for £799.

Ian

From reading other threads on this board it would appear that JL will sometimes price match totaldigital (TV cost plus toatal digital's delivery price of 20 or 30 quid) and sometimes will not.

TotalDigital apparently have a walk-in shop (which is where most internet price matching efforts with JL usually fall over) but it would appear, as I say, that getting JL to agree to match is dependent on that particular store's undersales policy, the A/V department attitude or ultimately (in some cases) the store manager's attitude to price matching.

If you do a search in this forum for 'JL' and/or 'pricematch' you should get some interesting (if rather long!) threads to read through.

As you say though it could all be worth it in three years time when you're expensive TV breaks down!!

[CAS FAN]

I agree if you can get the guarantee for free then it's worth having. I would never pay for one though as it's rare, expecially for a Sony to go in a 5 year period. There is always a small chance that something will happen but the components in the TV have a shelf life that is generally around 8-12 years dependent on usage. If the TV is left on 24/7 or the unit is turned on and off a lot of times per day (say 5-10) consistantly then this could shorten the component and tube lifespan. If there is any manufacturing fauld with the tube or components then these faults should show themselves within the first year of owning the set. Like all insurance it's a risk thing, i spent ages waiting for my old Sony to go so I gould justify a new TV...it didn't and is still working like the day I bought it. Most things I find get replaced through obselescence rather than through breaking down. But if JL offer a 5 year warranty and they pricematch the TV then snap it up!

Any 32FX68 owners use this set with a Digital STB?

If so, any comments regarding the picture quality? I've been told (and have read on this forum) that some 100Hz sets can be dodgy when used with Sky and wondered whether the same is true with the Freeview channels from a STB.

I was going to buy a Sony 32DX50 (having been persuaded that 50Hz would still provide the necessary picture quality) but am now questioning the advantages of getting an iDTV due to problems with being able to record digital broadcasts. (It would appear I would still require an STB to record from Freeview otherwise my TV would have to be ON whenever I was recording as opposed to just leaving the STB on as I currently do)

The 32FX68 is reputed to be a good set but have not read any comments regarding it's suitability to terrestrial digital tv broadcasts.

[CAS FAN]

I use it with NTL Digital and the picture quality is superb, can't fault it. It's a big improvement over my old 50htz Sony to be honest. Great TV in my opinion!

[tvhustla]

well the JL on oxford st wouldnt match it with TD because 'they negoitiate their prices and dont have a fixed price'!
what sort of crap excuse is that?!

I rang up JL (Nottingham) today at 4.15pm asking their Undersales Dept to pricematch Total Digital's £715 price. The woman rang me back at 4.18pm to say that they would price match at £735, the extra £20 being the delivery cost that Total Digital charge for Nottingham.
Having owned a crappy Philips 9308C for a week (I sent it back to JL)I'm just hoping that the FX68 will give me a straightforward, shimmer and pixel free image on my ntl cable.

[tvhustla]

i've seen other posts where people purchase it with a price match against a more expensive company i.e. £749 instead of TD £715 and then they claim back the difference from barclaycard, can someone tell me how that works as i've got a barclaycard but never knew about this price matching scheme.

I received my 32FXZ68 last week and whilst I'm very impressed with the PQ there appears to be a problem with the alignment in 4:3 mode. The side edges of the picture are not vertical (narrower at the bottom than the top). Is this the same problem you had with your set, IvorBigun?

Had one of these delivered a week ago and am very impressed.

Bought it thru my local Sony Centre. It cost £899 BUT:

- That included delivery and set-up, including cables for Video, DVD and set-top box and 5 yr guarantee

- Bought it on Barclaycard and will look to price match. Means finding a better deal, that includes delivery and the guarantee. Have found 1 such cheaper deal, can't remember who it was, hoping that JL bring their price down within the 60 day limit.

Picture quality generally very good, see some novice's questions below. Some ghosting on terrestrial at times - we don't have a strong signal here and use a booster. Picture thru DVD and set top box is excellent. We don't have a Sky card yet (Sky Sports will be too tempting while I'm still working) so cannot get ITV or Channel 5 thru it the set top box.

Sound quality very good, perhaps too much base sometimes but guess I can adjust that. No idea how they can simulate surround sound without the extra speakers.

Telextext memory is excellent. (Have started fiddling around with the digital teletext on satellite, navigation seems to take a while.)

Some very basic questions:

- Not sure which picture size/mode to use when. Have noticed some distortion around the edges when using Smart but has not bothered me. Easy enough just to select what looks best but is there a thread somewhere here that advises?

- Only sport I've watched so far was the FA Cup last week-end and it didn't look quite as sharp as I had hoped. Don't know if that is the 100hz. Is there a setting to fiddle around with to help with this? What does Sharpness mean on the basic settings?

- The picture quality on Auf Wiedersehen Pet was not as good as other programmes have been. Maybe just the way that was filmed. Did anyone else watch that and think the picture was not that hot?

- Have connected my old hi-fi amp to the DVD. Works well, am not sure whether to actually connect it the TV as I know you then need to fiddle around a bit each time you want to use it. If you do rig it up this way can the volume control on the TV be used to control the external speaker volume?

Thanks for any help
Rick

Rick

The "Smart" picture mode appears to stretch 4:3 pictures to make them fill the whole screen. It's not a even stretch though - the middle of the picture appears to be left as normal and it's just the edges that are stretched.

If you set the mode to 4:3 it still appears to automatically expand the picture if it is 16:9 mode. I only noticed my problem with the 4:3 mode last night when watching A Touch of Frost. I couldn't stand watching it in Smart mode because of the stretched image at the edges. When I switched to 4:3 mode the picture edges are not vertical and the image is wider at the top than the bottom. It's the same if I try playing a DVD in 4:3 mode (e.g. Wizard of Oz).

Anyone else had this problem or know what the cause might be and whether it can be corrected?

[Markybhoy]

Just got my 32FX68 yesterday, sony offer an extended guarantee on the colour tube for £37 for 3 years on top of the one year guarantee, is this any good?

My only complaint with the tv is when watching footie on cable the picture is not as sharp as the old tv which I have just put in the spare bedroom, which is a 2 year old 28 inch 4:3 watson tv which only cost me £180.

[tvhustla]

im sure if you alter the settings you should get a sharper picture, maybe someone whose already got one will be able to help you although rickmorley does make a similar point

[Markybhoy]

There are three different picture modes, live, personal (which you can configure) an movie.

Movie seems to be the best setting to hide the grainy look of the picture but it also makes the picture darker than I would like, I have tinckered about in the personal setting but cant seem to find a happy meduim.

To be honest I am having second thoughts about this tv as it is not quite what I expected for the money.

I dont know if it is worth just getting a good 50hz tv if the problem is due to this being a 100hz tv or maybe I need a stonger signal for my tv ie a booster or something.

Anybody any suggestions?

[CAS FAN]

Hi Markybhoy,

As you refer to a signal booster I take it you are watching either analogue or a freeview signal. I personally watch TV through NTL Digital and get a great picture, very sharp, no graininess, good colour and the contrast is great with good blacks and bright whites and light colours. Maybe it's down to either the quality of the signal you are getting and or the bitrate of the channel you are watching. I don't have Sky sports at home but I have Premiership + and obviously BBC and ITV through NTL. I have watched footie on all 3 channels and have found them all to be a great picture. This comprises of some FA cup on BBC, the premiership on ITV and several live Prem + games. I set up my TV using the THX optimiser off one of my DVD's (Finding Nemo I think) and haven't altered it since as this provides a good picture through the PS2, NTL and DVD. Personally if you don't have it i'd consider SKY or Cable and also try setting up the TV with the THX optimiser if you have a DVD with it on. I have an old 29" 4:3 Sony Trinitron TV which has a good picture, although it's not as good as the KV32fx68.

One last thing I noticed was that when on zoom mode while watching TV the picture wasn't as smooth as it should have been. Initially had my cable set to 4:3 letterbox which left borders at the top and bottom of the screen which is why I used to use Zoom. I've since altered the ratio to 16:9 and the picture is now superb and I use WIDE for 16:9 broadcasts and SMART for 4:3 broadcasts wich does a decent job with no noticable degridation of picture.

I hope something there helps but other than that i'm stumped.

[Markybhoy]

Cheers gthom3, sorry should have clarified I am watching sky sports through telewest cable.

I have a copy of finding nemo so I will give that a go regarding THX.

Will post my findings

Cheers

I'm inches away from buying the FX68. Do you notice any problems with the picture on any other broadcasts or is it just live footy you are disappointed with? What about normal programs (the News, EastEnders etc) and DVD? I'm one of those people who if they notice a problem with the picture quality it niggles them forever. I've got a Sony 29" 4:3 at the moment, 5 years old. No problem with the picture as such, just not widescreen and doesn't have that 3D effect that the 100hz TVs have.

[Markybhoy]

stejcoolj

i was speaking to a friend in work who said he had same problem with a 36 inch sony he said after about 3 weeks the problem dissapeard.

he said he rang sony and they told him that because its a new tv it has to be givem time to 'burn in' much like when you drive a new car.

don't know if they gave him a load of bull but he did say that he is now over the moon with his tv

will hold off a week and see if the picturer improves, dvd's seem to be fine and the sound is excellent