Sony Bravia KDL-46Z4100 46-inch LCD HDTV Page 3

TEST BENCH

Color temperature (Custom mode/Warm2 color temperature before/after calibration): 20-IRE: 7,521 K/7,238 K 30-IRE: 6,772 K/6,524 K 40-IRE: 6,411 K/6,560 K 50-IRE: 6,480 K/6,534 K 60-IRE: 6,489 K/6,579 K 70-IRE: 6,603 K/6,599 K 80-IRE: 6,594 K/6,598 K 90-IRE: 6,521 K/6,397 K 100-IRE: 6,235 K/6,382 K Brightness (100-IRE window): 37.5/36.5 ftL Primary Color Point Accuracy vs. SMPTE HD Standard

Color

Target X

Measured X

Target Y

Measured Y

Red

0.64

0.77

0.33

0.36

Green

0.30

0.30

0.60

0.73

Blue

0.15

0.12

0.06

0.06

The Sony KDL-46Z4100's Custom picture preset delivered its most accurate color when the Warm2 color temperature preset was also selected. In that mode, grayscale tracking was +/- 265 degrees K of the 6,500 K standard from 30 to 100 IRE. Manual adjustments made in the set's White Balance submenu eliminated a green-ish bias and also improved grayscale tracking to +/-118 degrees K from 30 to 100 IRE - an excellent performance level. The set's Movie mode delivered similar out-of-box grayscale tracking results as the Custom preset, but peak brightness in that mode was limited to a relatively dim 20 ftL. The set's gamma was most accurate with the Off option selected in the Gamma submenu.

Color decoder tests in Custom mode revealed a -15 percent red and -5 percent green error on both the HDMI and component-video inputs. As compared to the SMPTE HD specification, the set's red and green color points showed relatively high levels of oversaturation with Standard color space selected (the Wide color space option delivered even more exaggerated results).

Overscan - the amount of picture area hidden behind the edges of the TV's screen - measured 0% for 1080i/p-format high-definition signals with Full Screen Size selected and the Display Area set to Full Pixel (Other Display Area options let you increase the overscan amount up to 7%). The set fully resolved 1080i and 720p test patterns both on the HDMI and component-video inputs, though a degree of noise was visible in the highest frequency burst for component-video. Screen uniformity was excellent for an LCD display, with gray full-field patterns showing no sign of tinting or uneven brightness ("screen clouding") over the entire 0-100 IRE range. Off-axis uniformity was also excellent for an LCD, with picture contrast only starting to fall off noticeably at a greater than 40-degree off-axis viewing angle.

Tests of the Sony's video processing delivered mixed results, with the set breezing through all the tests contained on the Silicon Optix HQV high-def test disc with the exception of Film Resolution. (Interestingly, no real-world consequences of this could be seen in any of the film-based 1080i-rez programs I watched.) However, it failed a number of tests on the DVD version of the same disc, with the Jaggies Pattern 2 (Diagonal Filter) and Mixed 3:2 tests faring particularly badly (in the latter, graphic title overlays jumped and "shredded" at regular intervals). The set's regular and MPEG noise reduction modes proved effective at cleaning up pictures without any significant detail loss at all settings with SD programs, though slight softening could be seen on HD ones with the mid and high presets selected.

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