The Short Form

$2,300 ($2,800 list) / SONYSTYLE.COM / 877-865-7669

Snapshot

Sony's slim new Z-series LCD looks great and, a few picture quirks aside, offers solid video performance as well

Plus

• Balanced, natural-looking color • Sleek, appealing design • Excellent screen uniformity and viewing angle for an LCD • Plentiful inputs and picture adjustments

Minus

• Slightly fluctuating black level on dark scenes • Odd, occasional red "ghosting" effect

Key Features

• 120-Hz display • TV Guide On Screen Program Guide • HDMI 1.3 connections • DLNA-compliant • 1080p/24 input-capable with 5:5 pulldown • Inputs 4 HDMI, 2 component-, 3 composite-, and 1 S-video; RGB PC, RF Ant/Cable, Ethernet, USB, and Sony Digital Media Port • 42 1/2 x 29 1/2 x 12 1/8 IN / 58 lbs (with stand)

Sony's last few generations of LCD TVs have earned their share of kudos in these pages for solid video performance and style. But with most TV makers making the switch to ultra-thin bezel designs, the high-tech "picture frame" look of Sony's XBR-series LCDs was starting to seem a bit, well, baroque. For its new Z-series sets, the company decided to finally trim down the bezel to the one-inch width that's fast becoming standard for LCD TVs. The KDL-46Z4100 sports this sleek, spiffy new design (it's available in piano black or brushed metal), which also makes use of narrow, near-invisible speakers mounted at the bottom and separated by a clear acrylic window.

While the cosmetic changes are welcome, Sony also made some tweaks in the video features department that benefit picture performance. The KDL-46Z4100's improved "Motionflow" 120-Hz display technology uses frame-interpolation and Sony's own blur-reduction processing to make film- and video-based images look smooth and solid in scenes with fast motion. And there's an Advanced Contrast Enhancer (ACE) mode to maximize picture contrast by dynamically varying its backlight level. Sony also added features to let the TV stream photos and videos over a home network and beyond. These include an Ethernet port for linking to a DLNA-compliant PC and other devices; a Digital Media Extender (DMex) port for Sony's $299 Bravia Internet Video Link, a module that lets you connect directly to the Web to view content from YouTube and other sites; and a "Digital Media Port" for plugging in an optional adapter to view vids stored on your iPod.

The KDL-46Z4100 may be network-friendly, but rest assured, it also has plenty of conventional A/V inputs. You get three HDMI jacks in back plus another one on the side for quick HD camcorder hookups, two sets of component-video inputs, and a dedicated RGB port for a PC. The set's side-mounted A/V jack-pack also has a port to plug in a USB thumb drive loaded with digital pix for viewing slideshows.

Sony's slim remote control has a fully backlit keypad that glows blue when you hit the Light button at its top. Pressing the Input button triggers an onscreen list of sources that you scroll through using the arrow keys. Active inputs can be relabeled with names like BD, Satellite, or Game, while unused ones can be skipped over altogether. The set's Wide button calls up an onscreen menu listing various display modes. For SD, you get a choice of Full, Normal, Zoom, and Wide Zoom. For HD, the options are Full, H-Stretch, Zoom, and Wide Zoom. Unfortunately, there's no Normal Option for HD signals, which would let you "squeeze" upconverted 4:3 programs that were stretched out by the broadcaster to fill 16:9 screens.

SETUP

Scrolling through the Sony's cool, PS3-like XMB (XrossMediaBar) menu, I first visited the Screen Settings submenu and set Display Area to Full Pixel mode to let the TV display 1080i/p programs at full resolution with no picture overscan. Next stop was the Picture Settings submenu, where I first switched the Video/Photo optimizer to the Video setting, and then switched CineMotion to Off. This adjustment allowed the TV to bump a 1080p/24 input from my Blu-ray player up to its 120-Hz refresh rate using a straight 5:5 pulldown (no motion interpolation).

One cool feature of the Sony is the ability to let you configure its CineMotion and Motion Enhancement processing on a per-input basis. So, while I chose to defeat both types of processing for the Blu-ray input, I could switch them on independently for my high-def cable box connection. Cinemotion setup choices include: Auto 1 (applies 2:3 pulldown to a standard 60 Hz signal along with motion interpolation), and Auto 2 (applies 2:3 pulldown to with no motion interpolation, but adds mild anti-blur processing). For Motion Enhancement, the options are High, Standard, and Off.

The Sony's four Picture Modes can be custom-tweaked for each input and the set will store your changes. In Custom mode, Warm2 Color Temperature proved to be the most accurate preset, although additional tweaks in the Advanced Menu's White Balance adjustment were necessary to remove a green-ish bias (see Test Bench). Other adjustments that I settled on included switching Gamma, Black Corrector, and Clear White to Off, Color Space to Standard, and Backlight to near minimum. I also set ACE to the Low position. Curiously, this helped quite a bit to eliminate a contrast "pumping" effect that I had noticed on dark programs when ACE was initially set to Off.

PICTURE QUALITY

After adjustment, colors on the Sony looked somewhat punchy, but for the most part balanced. For instance, in the scene from the Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay Blu-ray where the duo (John Cho and Kal Penn) arrive at their playboy friend Raza's (Amir Talai) house after hitching a ride on a Cuban refugee raft, both the orange of their government-issue jumpsuits and the red of a party attendee's bikini top looked vibrant, but not overly lurid (as for the scene itself, that's a different story). Skin tones, too, looked entirely natural on the Sony. Watching another sequence where F.B.I. man Ron Fox (Rob Corddry) interrogates Harold and Kumar's parents, a good range of skin tones could be seen in the faces of the multiethnic cast — and in the stern, pasty-faces of the government agents on the opposite side of the table as well.

The Sony's handling of shadows — and of dark scenes in general —was also pretty impressive for an LCD. In several scenes from Harold & Kumar where the fugitive stoners traverse the Southern landscape at night, the set revealed satisfying image depth. (Along with stabilizing the TV's overall contrast, ACE also helped quite a bit to improve black levels in dark scenes like these) But compared to the best plasmas, the Sony still displayed typical LCD black-level limitations on really dark, torture-test material. For instance, in a scene from the Dark City Director's Cut Blu-ray where John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) roams the city seeking clues to his identity, shadowy streets and buildings in the background had a flat look. Even so, when the scene switched to the somewhat murky SRO hotel where inspector Frank Bumstead (William Hurt) combs Murdoch's room, the set showed an ample amount of detail in the woodwork lining the halls.

Sony's Motion Enhancer processing made programs like a Beijing Summer Olympics soccer game on the Universal HD channel look a bit more solid, and it also didn't add artifacts or impart a sped-up, "video look" to film-based programs — something I've seen with other 120 Hz LCDs. Picture uniformity was also excellent, and the set's regular and MPEG noise reduction processing helped clean up grainy images without smoothing out significant detail. The Sony's handling of regular DVDs and TV programs was just average overall, with pictures looking soft compared to the upconverted 1080p picture delivered by high-def disc players.

One strange picture problem on the KDL-46Z4100, that I spotted only after extended viewing, was a red "ghosting" artifact that looked a bit like the "rainbow effect" associated with DLP RPTVs and single-chip projectors. This mostly showed up in scenes where a dark object — such as a person with black hair or dark clothes — made a quick lateral movement across the screen, causing a solid red flicker trail. To be fair, instances of this problem were relatively few and far between, though still, it should have been a non-issue for an LCD TV.

Bottom Line

Sony's new KDL-46Z4100 combines elegant style with a picture that follows in the solid tradition of earlier Sony LCDs. And the extensive suite of picture adjustments and broad array of video inputs — including ports that let you tap into a home network — further boost its appeal. One or two picture quirks may prevent the KDL-46Z4100 from getting my unequivocal thumbs up, but for the most part I liked what I saw on this slimmed-down new Sony.

TEST BENCH

Color temperature (Custom mode/Warm2 color temperature before/after calibration):
20-IRE: 7,521 K/7,238 K
30-IRE: 6,772 K/6,524 K
40-IRE: 6,411 K/6,560 K
50-IRE: 6,480 K/6,534 K
60-IRE: 6,489 K/6,579 K
70-IRE: 6,603 K/6,599 K
80-IRE: 6,594 K/6,598 K
90-IRE: 6,521 K/6,397 K
100-IRE: 6,235 K/6,382 K
Brightness (100-IRE window): 37.5/36.5 ftL
Primary Color Point Accuracy vs. SMPTE HD Standard

Color	Target X	Measured X	Target Y	Measured Y
Red	0.64	0.77	0.33	0.36
Green	0.30	0.30	0.60	0.73
Blue	0.15	0.12	0.06	0.06

The Sony KDL-46Z4100's Custom picture preset delivered its most accurate color when the Warm2 color temperature preset was also selected. In that mode, grayscale tracking was +/- 265 degrees K of the 6,500 K standard from 30 to 100 IRE. Manual adjustments made in the set's White Balance submenu eliminated a green-ish bias and also improved grayscale tracking to +/-118 degrees K from 30 to 100 IRE — an excellent performance level. The set's Movie mode delivered similar out-of-box grayscale tracking results as the Custom preset, but peak brightness in that mode was limited to a relatively dim 20 ftL. The set's gamma was most accurate with the Off option selected in the Gamma submenu.

Color decoder tests in Custom mode revealed a -15 percent red and -5 percent green error on both the HDMI and component-video inputs. As compared to the SMPTE HD specification, the set's red and green color points showed relatively high levels of oversaturation with Standard color space selected (the Wide color space option delivered even more exaggerated results).

Overscan — the amount of picture area hidden behind the edges of the TV's screen — measured 0% for 1080i/p-format high-definition signals with Full Screen Size selected and the Display Area set to Full Pixel (Other Display Area options let you increase the overscan amount up to 7%). The set fully resolved 1080i and 720p test patterns both on the HDMI and component-video inputs, though a degree of noise was visible in the highest frequency burst for component-video. Screen uniformity was excellent for an LCD display, with gray full-field patterns showing no sign of tinting or uneven brightness ("screen clouding") over the entire 0-100 IRE range. Off-axis uniformity was also excellent for an LCD, with picture contrast only starting to fall off noticeably at a greater than 40-degree off-axis viewing angle.

Tests of the Sony's video processing delivered mixed results, with the set breezing through all the tests contained on the Silicon Optix HQV high-def test disc with the exception of Film Resolution. (Interestingly, no real-world consequences of this could be seen in any of the film-based 1080i-rez programs I watched.) However, it failed a number of tests on the DVD version of the same disc, with the Jaggies Pattern 2 (Diagonal Filter) and Mixed 3:2 tests faring particularly badly (in the latter, graphic title overlays jumped and "shredded" at regular intervals). The set's regular and MPEG noise reduction modes proved effective at cleaning up pictures without any significant detail loss at all settings with SD programs, though slight softening could be seen on HD ones with the mid and high presets selected.