Sony KLV-23M1 M Series WEGA 23" Widescreen HD-Ready Flat-Panel LCD Television (Silver)

Rating:
Summary: You get what you pay for...
Review: I was looking for a smaller LCD TV for the bedroom, and in two years of looking none really impressed me. Although there were several HDTV sets that were either larger or cheaper, I went with the Sony KLV-23M1 for its excellent picture/sound quality and nice design.

The resolution on this model is 1366x768, a true 16:9 ratio unlike the crop of 1280x768 sets out there. The picture is vivid and crisp, with above-average grays and blacks and bright whites. Do yourself a favor and pick up a home theater calibration disc to get the most out of your purchase, Digital Video Essentials and the Avia Calibration DVDs are the best out there.

I purchased a Sony DVP-NS975V DVD player at the same time, and results are noticeably better than the Sony DVP-NS725P it replaced. The 975 makes use of the HDMI (all-digital) input on the TV, and is an aesthetic match to the set to boot. With this particular TV there's no HDTV tuner built-in, so you'll have to purchase one seperately. Everything looks fantastic if you decide to go with one though, and in some instances this TV looks better than the plasma TV we purchased two years ago!

Sony wisely moved the speakers from the sides of the TV to the bottom, which makes for a cleaner-looking set that fits better into your home. There's a surround mode that's sounds pretty good, and there's a surprisingly good amount of bass from such a small cabinet. The speakers are clear and can be cranked quite high if you so desire.

The set upscales input to match the native resolution, and does quite a nice job of it. There's little to no motion blurring caused by fast action, a problem with older LCD TVs that didn't have a high enough pixel response time.

The design of the TV is very nice, with rounded corners, a sharp-looking front, and nice touches like a little door covering the buttons on the front that blends in with the bezel. I also liked how half the inputs were on the left-rear side of the TV and half on the right-rear side. They're hidden by removeable doors that have holes feeding into a cable guide on the back of the TV, making cable clutter less of a problem.

Some things I didn't like included the slow speed with which the TV switches inputs. You'll push the button on the remote or the TV, and it'll take a couple of seconds for the input to switch over. In addition, flipping through regular broadcast channels also takes a little bit longer than on my 27" Sony CRT TV. When you've got over 100 channels, the extra fraction of a second becomes noticeable. There's also only one component video input, which meant I had to go get a switchbox to hook up all my game consoles. Finally, the rubber on the bottom of the stand can damage some wooden finishes, my significant other was a little angry when it dulled the finish on a nice Ethan Allen chest.

So is it worth the Sony price premium? It's made in Japan, which is a plus. I've been using Sony products for 20 years, and none of the ones made in Japan have given out prematurely. The design is very nice, and the performance also rocks. Although it's not perfect, I'm still very happy with it and ended up keeping it over the four other sets I bought to try out. Recommended.