Sony WEGA KLV-23HR2 23" HDTV-Ready LCD TV

The Sony WEGA KLV-23HR2 23in set I own was purchased new at a cost of approx #2,000GBP ($4,000 USD) the European version (manufactured in Spain) of the one referred to in the first review and is not HDTV-ready; this is confirmed by the tech specs on page 69 of the operating instructions. This set's operating standard supports "PAL I" covering the UHF analogue Chs in the UK B21 – B69, otherwise the set's remaining specifications (other than the PSU) are as per the the U.S version. It was purchased to replace an old 19in Sony Trinitron, so the quality of the replacement needed to meet or exceed those exacting picture standards. The styling and aesthetics of the set (Black) are appealing and eye-catching, complimenting the environment in which it resides. For optimum performance the set is fed from its own stand-alone high-gain antenna system delivering at least 1.0V p-p at the I/P to the front-end. The sets picture quality and that of the LCD display is astoundingly poor and cringingly disappointing by comparison to the familiar capabilities of a good Sony CRT set i.e. KV19XMTU / KV1442UB etc. From the stance of picture quality ,this is a major step backwards, the LCD display also suffers from a slow refresh rate manifesting itself as an inability to maintain a sharp image and moving scenes with detailed textures. On this set there is constant interference on the LCD display, manifested as diagonally rolling hum bars through the video (perhaps as a lack of mains smoothing in the circuit design!). I/P video to the RGB port (from DVD source) and the improvement to quality is noticeable (yet the interference remains) however, it still comes nowhere near the sharpness, detail and the vibrantly faithful image produced by a Sony Trinitron. Out of 10 for picture quality? Minus 5!