Sony, ambassador of the LCD Wide Gamut, offers this large size television but in ''simple HD''. We hoped not to see the video noise present on the Full HD version we previously tested. This LCD is situated in the entry level for this Japanese manufacturer despite its 46 inches.

As always, Sony made considerable effort in connectivity and this television is equipped with the classic two HDMI 1.2a inputs, a VGA and YUV.  For its level on the market, this product does rather well (we could have feared for the worse in this segment) with its integrated digital TV tuner and well conceived remote.

From the beginning, this Bravia and its 1366 x 768 pixels imposes a distance of at least 2.50 meters (ideally 3.50 m) between itself and the viewer. And actually this is in part due to poor scaling. The result is that lines create an easily visible comb effect (see box) and curves in HD look stair-like. Even if this television supports 1080i, it only has satisfactory performance in 720p leaving the HD fanatic a little disappointed. Surely, it does improve the sharpness of images, but rendering is largely inferior to what is already available on 32 inch products.  

With SD sources like digital TV or a DVD, results are better as aliasing disappears and we noted that there was only average video noise and slight shimmering. So our hopes were fulfilled for this criteria despite the results of its Full HD sibling, the KDL46W2000.

It’s unfortunate that there is no "All Pixels" mode which is found on Full HD Sonys, because with PC use, for example, overscan can be a problem (the edges of images will be missing).

In terms of colors, this Bravia is true to its origins, meaning it is very far from true color fidelity. Blue is omnipresent with a color temperature at more than 11000°K, when this value should be more like 6500°.  Therefore in this (unadjusted) state it could only be recommended to those who prefer unnatural images. We even have difficulty understanding this choice of presets which results in noticeable digital grain.

For color correction, as usual you will have to go into expert mode and look in the "Image" menu.  We recommend you use the settings of the KDL46W2000 in order to have better rendering, notably in terms of color temperature, which goes down to 6600°K.  Once again, we found it unfortunate that there was no adjustment for each primary RGB channel. Either way, in using these settings the grain disappears, while on the other hand, the starting contrast ratio measured at 980:1 falls under the 500:1 mark. In the end, we started to wonder about the numerous advanced options present in the Image menu and the fact that most of them should be deactivated. As for reactivity, it is well in the average and Sony’s know-how is proven with pleasant dark sequences.

Finally, the standard OSD on all Bravia is well equipped, very readable, and is entirely intuitive.  The clouding  defects that we noted on the Full HD KDL46W2000 aren’t here this time, and it seems that the "simple HD" models were spared from this defect.