It’s rare to find an HDTV at any price that delivers near-accurate color right out of the box, but the 46-inch Sony Bravia KDL-46V3000 did exactly that. The set further impressed me with its ink-like black levels and dark screen material that together produced a well-contrasted picture in both sun-drenched and dimly lit room environments—if you stay in the TV’s viewing sweet spot. As one of Sony’s most affordable 1080p LCDs, the KDL-46V3000 also came close to receiving my highest recommendation. Sadly, despite an otherwise strong showing, when displaying scenes depicting lots of motion, the KDL-46V3000 was among the most smear-prone sets I’ve seen.
The KDL-46V3000’s exterior features glossy black bezels that measure just over 2 inches wide save for the lower portion of the frame, where a finely perforated grille conceals the TV’s unremovable stereo speakers. The set’s non-swivel table stand is factory-attached, bringing the TV’s total weight to 71 pounds with overall dimensions of 44.8 by 30.8 by 12.1 inches (WHD). The width of the base stand is 19.3 inches, and the cabinet depth (without the stand) is 4.9 inches. On-display controls are centered on the top edge of the TV, which provides easy access.
The remote control is a narrow, baton-style that features an uncluttered face adorned with distinctly shaped buttons that give good tactile feedback. This is appreciated, since the buttons aren’t backlit, nor do they glow in the dark—leaving you little choice but to feel your way around when in a dark environment. The remote provided fast, consistent performance even from relatively extreme angles and at distances exceeding 15 feet.
HD-compatible video inputs are located on the back of the set and include two HDMI ports, two component video inputs, an RF input, and a VGA port for PC use. The KDL-46V3000’s HDMI, VGA, and component video inputs accept a 1080p (60 Hz) signal. A composite video input is provided on the left-hand side of the set for convenient front access—albeit in standard definition. Sure, this set is in Sony’s least-expensive line of 1080p LCDs. Still, I would have preferred it if the company had sacrificed one of the TV’s three (standard-definition video only) composite video inputs to make room for an additional HDMI port. The two provided are barely enough these days.
The KDL-46V3000 features a native screen resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels progressively scanned (1080p), and the TV provides picture size settings that eliminate video overscan with 1080i and 1080p video signals. This ensures a clearer, more detailed image. Oddly, the KDL-46V3000 overscanned 720p component video by about 5 percent, but the same video resolution over HDMI enabled a setting that eliminated overscan. The KDL-46V3000’s HDMI port also accepted 1080p input at 24 Hz (1080p24), but this feature is somewhat worthless since the resulting image is converted and displayed at the TV’s native 60-Hz refresh rate. Standard-definition video via the component input exhibited an excessive 7 percent overscan that unnecessarily softened the picture due to the lost detail.
{mospagebreak title=Page 2}
Like other recent Sony televisions, including the KDS-55A2020, the KDL-46V3000’s menu system utilizes the XrossMediaBar (XMB) interface that was introduced with the PlayStation 3. The XMB made browsing the available menu options a breeze, and I was especially pleased to find the menus didn’t close or exit for several minutes—ideal for the tweak-prone videophile or those of us who like to take our time fussing with settings. After switching the KDL-46V3000’s picture mode from the eye-frying "vivid" to the "cinema" mode preset, all I could say was "wow!" Colors suddenly appeared natural, edge enhancements were minimal, and even the TV’s backlight setting was set to minimum levels—great for dark-room viewing and reduced power consumption. Color gamut measurements using the Konica Minolta CS-200 chroma meter revealed the KDL-46V3000 to be the most color-accurate HDTV I’ve measured out of the box. Red, though, was just slightly undersaturated. Color tracking of the TV’s RGB levels reported that green was about 4 percent high. Red and green levels exhibited a generally linear response from dark to peak levels, whereas blue showed an almost sine-like response that varied about 5 percent across the scale. White balance calibration using the TV’s standard menu controls brought all levels into near-perfect alignment and the primary color points practically outlined the HD color space standard. That’s an impressively calibrated color response for any HDTV.
Viewing angles, however, did affect the perception of color quality. Loss of saturation was obvious in skin tones starting at 20 degrees off-axis from the center of the screen. At 40 degrees or greater, people assumed a ghost-like appearance. This applied to both horizontal and vertical viewing angles. The relatively narrow viewing sweet spot of this TV is worth keeping in mind if even slight off-axis viewing is going to be common in your home theater setup. Off-axis color saturation loss is a common image artifact with almost all LCDs, but most models, including NEC’s Multeos M46-AVT, maintain color saturation until 25 degrees off-axis.
When configured for maximum brightness, the KDL-46V3000’s average peak white measurement of 292.8 cd/m2 aided it in producing an average contrast ratio of 1123:1—a respectable performance. Also, the set’s dark-colored screen material and antireflective properties allowed it to maintain a well-contrasted and saturated picture when viewed in a well-lit environment. Dark-room viewing benefits more from superior black levels than peak brightness—a picture that’s too bright can cause unwanted eyestrain. With the KDL-46V3000’s peak brightness limited to 100 cd/m2 using a combination of power-saving modes and backlight settings, average black level measurements were 0.08 cd/m2 with the average contrast ratio calculated to be 1180:1. Those are new dark-room records for the HDTV’s I’ve reviewed to date.
The Silicon Optix HQV Benchmark DVD provides a series of challenging standard-definition (SD) tests, and the KDL-46V3000 turned in an acceptable performance while running it. I recorded strong showings in video-noise reduction and detail preservation. The benchmark’s film mode (24 frames per second) tests as well as film-sourced DVD movies such as Gladiator revealed the TV was slow at detecting this type of video material. It did eventually lock on, eliminating the flicker and loss of detail that occurs when the video processor fails to properly correct the frame rate differences between the video material and the display. The KDL-46V3000, however, failed all other frame-cadence detection tests, including those for 30-fps material, various types of animation, and time-compressed (most "edited for TV") movies.
{mospagebreak title=Page 3}
The HD HQV Benchmark also used 1080i video material (like some HD satellite and cable programming) to challenge the KDL-46V3000 into reconstructing a 1080p image. The benchmark demonstrated that the KDL-46V3000’s ability to reduce video noise and preserve detail was exceptional. That said, the set stumbled on the video reconstruction test, leaving jagged edges on the moving diagonal lines. In comparison, the superb filtering offered by the Westinghouse TX-47F430S and NEC Multeos M46-AVT HDTVs left diagonal edges smooth.
The Achilles heel of this set is its handling of fast-action video. I found that when playing standard and high-definition programming from disc players and satellite television, the KDL-46V3000 was prone to obvious and significant smearing of the picture—particularly in video containing dark or dimly lit scenes. For example in the Raiders of the Lost Ark DVD, the brim of Indy’s fedora left a distracting trail across the KDL-46V3000’s screen. The HD versions of Batman Begins and season two episodes of Heroes also exhibited noticeable smearing. Dark, natural colors appeared especially susceptible. Also, when viewing a tennis match on the KDL-46V3000 in HD, the yellow ball took on a severely elongated shape as it sped across the blue court. In every comparison, the KDL-46V3000’s video motion performance was bested by the other liquid crystal HDTVs in our labs, such as the NEC M46-AVT and Samsung LN-T5265F. All of the LCDs in turn were trumped by a 1080p plasma television from a top-tier manufacturer that awaits review. After discussing my findings with Sony, the company suggested disabling all the video-noise-reduction features of the set on a per-input basis. I found that increasing the level of noise reduction (NR) in the KDL-46V3000’s picture menu made the blurring substantially worse. Disabling the NR options altogether failed to eliminate the blurring artifacts, too, although they were lessened slightly, which improved overall image clarity.
Power consumption measurements of the KDL-46V3000 averaged 256W operated at maximum (default) brightness. This works out to a monthly cost of $8.12 when operated 8 hours per day at a kWh price of $0.13 (2007 California average). The KDL-46V3000’s dark-room-calibrated power consumption averaged a scant 103W, bringing the monthly cost calculation down to $3.26. Though the TV’s default power consumption was about average, the dark-room results were the best I’ve seen for an LCD of this size.
The Sony Bravia KDL-46V3000 delivers color and contrast that other HDTVs would be challenged to match, even though its viewing sweet spot is relatively narrow. The set’s excessive smearing of moving imagery was unacceptable and proved a constant distraction. Also, the slight improvement after applying Sony’s suggested fix came at the expense of the TV’s video-noise-reduction features. If absolute picture clarity is critical to your video viewing enjoyment, steer clear of this Sony series.
Pros
Superb color accuracy. Impressive image contrast.
Cons
Considerable smearing in motion scenes. Narrow viewing sweet spot. Film-mode detection was inconsistent. Excessive overscan with standard definition and component 720p video.
Veredict
Sony’s Bravia KDL-46V3000 delivered the best out-of-box color I’ve seen from any HDTV, but unacceptable image blurring when displaying dark scenes as well as a narrow viewing sweet spot make it difficult to recommend.
Specifications
* Screen Size: 46 inches
* Type: LCD TV, LCD Monitor, HDTV
* Native Resolution: 1920 x 1080
* Supported EDTV and HDTV Resolutions (HD Ready): 480p, 720p, 1080i, 480i, 1080p
* Aspect Ratio: 16:9
* Video Inputs: Component, Composite, HDMI, RF, S-Video
* PC Interfaces: Analog VGA, HDMI
* Built-in TV Tuner: NTSC, ATSC
* Rated Maximum Viewing Angle: Horizontal: 178 degrees
* Rated Maximum Viewing Angle: Vertical : 178 degrees
* Brightness (Max): 292.8 cd/m^2
* Max PC Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels
Source: Sony Corporation
