HT's Inaugural LCD Face Off HT Labs Measures: Sony

HT Labs Measures: Sony BRAVIA KDL-40S2000 LCD HDTV

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Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio—1,199:1;
ANSI Contrast Ratio—1,078:1

Measured Resolution with the Leader LT-446:
480: 470 (per picture height)
720p: 720
1080i: Out to the limits of the 1,366
by 768 panel

DC Restoration (poor, average, good, excellent): Excellent

Color Decoder (poor, average, good, excellent): Good

Measured Color Points:
Red Color Point: x=0.638, y=0.331
Green Color Point: x=0.274, y=0.592
Blue Color Point: x=0.144, y=0.059

The top chart shows the KDL-40S2000's gray scale relative to its color temperature at various levels of intensity, or brightness (20 IRE is dark gray; 100 IRE is bright white). The gray scale as set by the factory, in the Warm 2 color-temperature mode, measures slightly cool with dark images and slightly warm with the rest of the gray scale. After making adjustments using the Photo Research PR-650, the gray scale measures within 489 Kelvin of D6500, the accurate color temperature, across the entire range. Dark images were too cool, and the rest of the gray scale was still slightly warm.

The bottom chart shows the gray scale (or color temperature) relative to the color points of the display's red, green, and blue color filters. These are somewhat off those specified by SMPTE. Red is pretty much accurate, blue is slightly oversaturated and very slightly greenish-blue. Green is slightly undersaturated and rather bluish-green.

After calibration and using a full-field 100-IRE white (79.14 foot-lamberts) and a full-field 0-IRE black (0.066 ft-L), the contrast ratio was 1,199:1. Using a 16-box checkerboard pattern (ANSI contrast), the contrast ratio was 1,078:1. The best contrast ratio was achieved with the backlight set to Min. The brightest image was achieved with the backlight set to Max. In this setting, the KDL-40S2000 produced 141.3 ft-L with a 100-IRE frame and 0.119 on a 0-IRE frame. The contrast ratio in this mode is 1,187:1.—GM

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