HDTVtest skrev:
Sony W6
CONCLUSION– Up until last year, a 42 inch LCD-based TV almost certainly points to the use of IPS-type panel whose contrast performance often disappoints. This year, we’ve tested at least two HDTVs with 42″ screen size which feature VA LCD panels, delivering the sort of deep blacks commonly associated with top-tier LED LCDs.
The Sony KDL-42W653A is one such TV: it handles both HD and SD feeds with great composure, and is above all a supreme large-screen gaming display. A few people may lament the omission of tri-dimensional capability, but given the lacklustre reception to 3D among the general public, we’re sure some potential buyers would gladly give this up in exchange for a more affordable price.
PICTURE QUALITY– The Sony KDL-42W653A uses a VA-type LCD panel supplied by Taiwanese vendor AUO (AU Optronics), which translates to deep blacks by LED LCD standards. On a 4×4 ANSI checkerboard pattern, we measured the TV’s black level to be 0.046 cd/m2 which is on par with this year’s VA-based high-end LED televisions like the Sony W9 as well as the Samsung F7000 and F8000. As is the case with most LED LCDs, the W653 dimmed its backlight down to 0.022 cd/m2 when asked to display a full black screen.
Considering its edge LED makeup and svelte build, our KDL42W653 review sample exhibited surprisingly good backlight uniformity, without any sign of clouding or corner bleed. A subtle dirty screen effect (DSE) was visible in the centre of the panel particularly when we put up 20% to 30% stimulus full-field grey patterns, but to be honest this is pretty much unavoidable on all large-sized edge-lit LED TVs due to the way a limited number of LED bulbs (which are placed along the borders) are required to illuminate the entire screen. The DSE on our Sony W6 review unit was extremely mild, and rarely bothered us in real-world content.
The KDL42W653A is advertised by Sony as featuring Motionflow XR 200Hz, but it’s important to understand that this is simply a figure for marketing purposes (similar to Samsung’s Clear Motion Rate or LG’s TruMotion), rather than the true refresh rate of the TV. Running our reference motion resolution test pattern (Chapter 31 in the FPD Benchmark Software disc) on the Bravia W65 returned a result of 300 which is what we would expect natively from an LCD panel without the help of MCFI (motion-compensated frame interpolation).
Interestingly, the Sony W653 doesn’t have any [Motionflow] control available in its user menu, but does offer an [LED Motion Mode] option which activates backlight scanning on the television. When enabled, motion resolution jumped to 1080 (the maximum value possible in the FPD Benchmark test pattern), but three undesirable side effects ensued: a drop in luminance; increased flicker that was especially noticeable on bright scenes; and double ghosted image on moving objects. In other words, although [LED Motion Mode] significantly reduced motion blur, it came with several shortcomings which made it pretty much unusable in our opinion. Your mileage may vary.
While we’re at it, we ran our custom “motion interpolation checker” pattern on the KDL42W653A, and verified that no forced motion interpolation took place in any of the [Scene Select] presets. Having no MCFI forcibly applied is particularly relevant for the [Cinema] mode which is our picture preset of choice for critical viewing – the last thing we want is for the cinematic quality of 24fps movies to be subverted by ugly soap opera effect.
HD feed looked nothing short of stunning, helped immensely by the set’s deep blacks and balanced colours. 1080p/24 signal from Blu-ray playback was presented impeccably without any sign of telecine judder. The Sony KDL42W653 is no slouch at handling standard-definition content too, delivering crisp upconversion without excessive ringing, as well as competent film cadence detection, though the TV’s jaggies suppression for video-based material was not as effective as Samsung’s or Panasonic’s (to be fair, the difference was more marked in HQV Benchmark than in real-life content).
Sony’s 2013 Bravias have proven to be superb gaming TVs, and the W65 is no exception. With [Scene Select] set to “Game“, the 42W653A effortlessly smashed through our existing input lag record (held by another Sony – the W8), posting a jaw-dropping figure of 14.6ms on the Leo Bodnar lag tester. Engaging [LED Motion Mode] – should you wish to do so – barely increased the lag by a mere 6ms to 20.5ms which is an excellent level of responsiveness no other non-Sony HDTVs have been capable of matching to date. Add full 4:4:4 reproduction (in [Game] and [Graphics] mode) to the equation, and we’re convinced you won’t find a better flat-screen television on which to play video games at the moment.
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