Just got a free 36" 4:3 aspect ratio Sony WEGA FD Trinitron: KV-36HS20 model.

[SNKNostalgia]

I woke up today and saw this in my rec room. My roommate must have gotten it from his girlfriend's mom.

I haven't had the chance to try it out yet, but do any of you know much about this set?

Currently I am using my Toshiba of the same size; model 36HF71 and read reviews saying the Sony is actually better... but then some say they like the Toshiba. My guess is how well the factory calibration went, but I am curious of some personal experiences from here.

Here is a link of when I got the Toshiba for free a few years back.

http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?207764-HDTV-I-am-getting-for-free.

BTW, the Toshiba goes black and white when I set the color past 54 in HD and does a flicker after just being turned on. Sounds like it is getting there.

EDIT: Also, the Sony set is pretty much the same as the KV-36XBR450 model minus a cinema vision feature.

 

[Joneo]

I've got an SD Sony KV-27FV17 I like pretty well (one of the sharpest SD sets out there IMO) and an HD Wega that croaked a year ago.
In general I've found them to have pretty respectable geometry (less so in the 30"+, of course), very well defined images and good color purity. Any of that useful?

 

[SNKNostalgia]

I've finally tested it out and found that my Toshiba is overall better. Even with service mode, the sharpness of the Sony only goes so high. I tried both of the SHAP options in service mode to get maximum sharpness. It only showed a sharper picture using Composite and S-video. It really made no difference in sharpness in Component video using 480i/p and 1080i. So not being able to sharpen up the graphics of PS3 and 360 games or Blu-ray is a bummer. It is perfectly fine for Comcast Cable in HD, DVD and NES up to Game Cube old school gaming though.

The only thing the Sony wins at is that the blacks are more black/white than a reddish-brown/white like my Toshiba and my SD Sony Trinitron in my room.

I just hope my Toshiba keeps living on since it has weird signs of possibly nearing its end. It still works great, but does a weird flicker one time a minute after turning it on. The other thing (which isn't a problem really) is when you turn the color up higher than needed at 55 or higher. It just goes black and white, then goes back to normal when you lower the color setting to 54 and under (48-50 being plenty of color). At least if it dies I can use the Sony as a temporary replacement.

Both sets have the slight cut-off in 1080i mode on the top and bottom of the screen at around 1/2 inch on both. Also, both sets have the slight bowing in with the Letterbox bars in the center of the screen. This must be a common problem with all of these particular sets. These problems cannot be adjusted in the service modes.