Product Listing

First Looks: Sony Bravia KLV-46X200A 46-inch LCD TV (1080p)

By Mendelson Tiu - 9 Jan 2007

A Standing Ovation for Bravia

A Standing Ovation for Bravia

Mention the brand Sony to folks who had owned or are still using the company’s renowned Trinitron TV set and you’ll probably receive very encouraging feedbacks on color and video quality. That was true during the golden era of CRT TVs and its equivalent right now in the age of flat panel displays is the maturing Bravia range of LCD TVs. Representing the best of the Bravia range is the X-series and at the pinnacle is the KLV-46X200A, a stunning 46-inch LCD TV featuring an ultra-precise resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels.

In BRAVIA we trust

The new KLV-46X200A differentiates itself from other series within the Bravia range by its silver color tone and distinctive picture-frame design. Like most LCD TVs, the front is bare and elegantly styled. At the back however, is a busy scene of video and audio inputs. A total of five HD video sources are supported, made possible via two 1080p-capable HDMI inputs and three sets of component video inputs (two at the rear and one at the side). Accompanying these are three composite inputs, twin S-Video jacks and a PC input. Users will no doubt also like the fact that each input is tagged with its own set of picture and sound memory settings, which can all be altered via the handy remote control. There’s not much to fault with the remote control except that we would have preferred if it had separate input buttons rather than just one input selector button to switch between the many video inputs it carries.

Finding the right one

Default video settings of the panel are too harsh and overpowering, causing black to appear closer to dark gray if no adjustments are made. A quick remedy is to set the video mode to Vivid. This instantly drops the brightness of the backlight down several notches to return darker and more natural looking black levels for movies.

For our test, we had to lower sharpness and noise reduction levels to soften the harshness so that movies would not appear too artificially enhanced. Discerning users like ourselves will also be happy to know that the KLV-46X200A has a lot of advanced video adjustments available. Black Corrector, Advance Contrast Enhancer, Gamma, Clear White, Liver Color and Color Space are just a few noteworthy adjustments to assist you in getting the best video quality possible.

With the amount of adjustments available, the KLV-46X200A can be easily tuned to produce deeper black to properly enjoy high-definition content. Blu-ray and HD-DVD test movies via both HDMI and component inputs were nice and sharp with HDMI input edging ahead by exhibiting significantly lower noise levels. The second generation Wide Color Gamut (WCG-CCFL) LCD backlight technology and Sony’s BRAVIA picture processing engine worked together flawlessly to provide a wide viewing angle and brilliant video quality. Details were in abundance with the built-in advanced motion adaptive interlacing proving its effectiveness during playback of 1080i videos.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve been holding out for a Sony Bravia LCD TV with true 1080p capability, the KLV-46X200A really could not have come at a better time. Boasting two HDMI inputs means the beautifully crafted Bravia is all but ready to connect to both Blu-ray and HD-DVD players at the same time. Having proven its capability in video performance and with a bevy of video adjustments available on hand to help you get the most out of the KLV-46X200A, this is by far the best Bravia that’s worth running home to.

 

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