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Sony 55-inch BRAVIA HX925 - Top of its Game

By Andy Sim - 29 Mar 2012
Launch SRP: S$5999

Spyder3TV, DisplayMate & HQV

Calibration - Spyder3TV Report

We calibrated the HX925 with Datacolor's Spyder3TV Home Theater Color Calibration kit prior to our visual tests. This is to ensure we assess the HDTV based on optimal display settings and not on visual estimation alone. Using the television's Standard picture mode preset, we've also disabled all picture enhancement features to avoid any discrepancies. Our calibrated results are indicated in the diagram below. If you have time to calibrate the unit further, the HX925 also allows for advanced RGB tuning (via its White Balance selection) which enables you to adjust the panel's red, green, and blue gain and bias levels. As with most Sony sets, the default factory settings for the HX925 did not deviate much from our final calibrated readings. 

The calibrated settings for the Sony Bravia HX925 are as follows - Brightness: 50, Contrast: 98, Color: 59, and Tint: G1. Black and white luminance readings were recorded at 0.310 cd/m2 and 281.755 cd/m2 respectively. All readings are based on the Standard picture preset.

 

DisplayMate Tests

DisplayMate is an application which generates a sequence of test patterns to determine the capabilities of imaging devices, like color, uniformity, and gray-scale accuracies for example. For our tests, we've hooked up the Bravia HX925 to our display test-bed via a HDMI connection. Similar to our calibration setup, we have also disabled all visual enhancements on the TV to reduce the variables involved. Here are some of our findings.

Color Scales Test: Our camera might not do this screenshot much justice, but the Bravia HX925 was able to reproduce the 10 color bands with ample accuracy. Each hue is faithfully rendered.

Sony Bravia HX925 DisplayMate Analysis
Screen Uniformity Screen uniformity was excellent as illuminated by its Intelligent Peak LEDs. Unlike edge-lit sets prone to blotches caused by uneven light distribution, this BRAVIA was almost devoid of any backlight bleeds.
Dark Gray Scale We had to bump up brightness values from 50 to 72 to discern the darker gray blocks. The calibrated value retained black levels but wasn't enough to reveal deeper shades. Other than this, the HX925 displayed neutral and even grey tones on the whole.
Color Scales Apart from the ends of the darker scale, the TV displayed faithful color fidelity and distinct color gradations. For instance, less capable displays tend to muddle the red and orange hues but not the HX925 in this instance
256-Intensity Level Color Ramp Minor 'clumping' is inevitable on LCD panels regardless of the backlighting technology. However, we also observed that the HX925 with its full-matrix LED lighting displayed significantly smoother gradients than most edge-lit models. 

 

IDT HQV Tests

IDT's HQV Tests (on Blu-ray) are designed to assess image quality and handling of digital displays through a variety of video signal processing tasks which includes decoding, de-interlacing, motion correction, noise reduction, and film cadence detection. We've programmed the Blu-ray player to playback in 1080i to test the TV's de-interlacing capabilities. Here are the results we noted on some of the more crucial HQV tests:-

HQV Digital Noise Filtering Test: Sony's primary Noise Reduction feature didn't remove noise grains as effectively as anticipated. On the other hand, the video processor and X-Reality Pro engine were excellent at rendering moving interlaced images.

Sony Bravia HX925 HQV Analysis
Digital Noise Filtering This model is equipped with three noise filters – Noise Reduction, MPEG NR, and Dot NR. We'll ignore the latter two since they only apply to highly compressed files and up-converted SD sources. Sony’s Noise Reduction algorithm is feeble but not entirely ineffective. Small traces of noise grains were eased off although a Maximum setting is required.
Diagonal Filter Test The Bravia’s video processor was able to convert moving interlaced images to suit its progressive display with absolute ease. The rotating bar was free of jaggies (interlace artifacts) as well, which also tells us there is a minimal loss of video data during the video reconstruction.
Film Resolution Loss Test The HX925 is 24p-ready, meaning it was able to process native 24p sources like most Blu-ray discs. However, it didn’t fare too well with 1080i60 video sourced from 1080p24 content (such as HD broadcasts). Sony’s Auto1 and Auto2 options produced a fair amount of 'strobes' on the SMPTE pattern.

 

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9.0
  • Design 8.5
  • 3D Performance 9
  • HD Performance 9
  • SD Performance 9
  • Features 8.5
  • Value 8.5
The Good
Impressive black levels
Superb contrasts
Competent video scaler
Almost crosstalk-free 3D performance
The Bad
Pricey
Messy apps layout
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