You can’t tell from the photo but this LCD TV from Sony is e-friggin-normous. It looms like the slab from 2001. It’s so wide, the screen crosses three time zones. I’m afraid to sit too close in case it falls over and crushes me flat. The best viewing position is squashed up against the far wall of my lounge. Actually, the best viewing position is squashed up against the far wall of my neighbour’s lounge.

Okay, enough hyperbole, but 46 inches is well into the usual territory of plasma displays. This Sony Bravia TV has all the typical advantages of the latest generation LCDs: bright, vivid screen for lights-on viewing, stupidly wide viewing angles, and low glare. You also get the usual downside to LCDs in that the blacks aren’t really really black and the shadows can get a mite murky.

Still, there are plenty of controls to play about with to get the image looking just right. As well as the usual contrast/brightness/colour settings, the intensity of the backlight itself is adjustable to match ambient light levels. Colour temperature can be tweaked too. Ooh, I like tweaking.

The mighty screen has a native resolution of 1366×768, so HD 720p input is sweet and 1080i is downscaled. The size of the screen combined with this HD resolution actually leads to what I thought was this TV’s biggest downfall. No, not pixilation – I didn’t spot much of that but if you aren’t putting the absolute best quality video into it, things can look ugly. The screen is almost too good.

I played a number of DVDs, which were up-scaled to 720p by our Pioneer reference DVD player. Some were good and some were bad. Like Hulk, with clearly visible ringing and fuzzy bits in high contrast areas. This was a fairly recent movie too. It just wasn’t a well-encoded DVD.

Older but much better was Gladiator. The movie is very watchable with only text looking fuzzed. Peter Jackson’s latest King Kong was the best of the bunch and a joy to behold. Standard TV programs (even digital) are just – well – lacklustre.

Your collection of Superbit DVDs will look great on this set. Given the requirement for good input, it’s perhaps strange that there’s only one HDMI input available. Other sockets include the usual  component, composite and PC input.

The screen has an 8ms response time to reduce motion artefacts and also digital noise reduction options. This is best left set to low – or even off – to prevent it adding motion smear right back in.

The remote is very large for a device with so few buttons. It does have a handy control to bring up the most used image and audio setting menus.
On the sound side of things, BBE bass enhancement stops things sounding thin from the built-in speakers. It may not be thin, but it’s not very loud either. I certainly won’t be waking the neighbours with full volume. Well, I might be waking them, actually, but that will only be to ask if I can sit in their lounge to watch this TV.

Chris Anderson

Sony KLV-46A200A Bravia 46-inch LCD TV $5999

Contact: sony.co.nz

SPECIFICATIONS

- 1366×768 native resolution
- 8 m s pixel response time
- BBE base enhancement
- Picture In Picture mode
- 1x HDMI, 1x D-sub PC, 2x component, 3x composite inputs

PROS

Well-built large screen
Low screen glare
Screen out-performs much source material

CONS

No Picture In Picture mode
Only one HDMI input
Screen outperforms much source material

VERDICT

It’s huge – your DVD collection had better be up to the challenge!

Aesthetics: 94%
Performance: 94%
Features: 89%
Functionality: 89%
Price Value: 84%

Overall: 90%

What do you think?