LCD TV Reviews

Full-On/Full-Off Contrast Ratio—1183:1; ANSI Contrast Ratio—976:1

Measured Resolution with the Leader LT-446:
480: 480 (per picture height)
720p: 720p (pph)
1080i: out to the limits of the 1366 by 768 panel

DC Restoration (poor, average, good, excellent):
Excellent with black corrector and contrast enhancer off
Color Decoder (poor, average, good, excellent):
Average

Measured Color Points:
Red Color Point: x=0.648, y=0.320
Green Color Point: x=0.211, y=0.620
Blue Color Point: x=0.146, y=0.066

The left chart shows the KDL-V40XBR1's gray scale relative to its color temperature at various levels of intensity, or brightness (20 IRE is dark gray; 100 IRE is bright white). The gray scale as set by the factory, in the warm2 color-temperature mode measures almost accurate with the darkest images but too warm across the rest of the gray scale. According to Sony, the KDL-V40XBR1's gray scale isn't adjustable outside of the factory.

The right chart shows the gray scale (or color temperature) relative to the color points of the display's red, green, and blue color filters. These are off those specified by SMPTE. Red is slightly oversaturated and slightly purplish-red, while green slightly oversaturated and very blue-green. Blue is slightly oversaturated. The second set of color points (the triangles) are the KDL-V40XBR1's color points in the wide color space mode. Red and green both get slightly worse in the way they were off in the normal mode. Blue stays the same.

In the warm2 color-temperature mode and using a full-field 100-IRE white (55.6 foot-lamberts) and a full-field 0-IRE black (0.047 ft-L), the contrast ratio was 1,183:1. Using a 16-box checkerboard pattern (ANSI contrast), the contrast ratio was 976:1. The best contrast ratio was achieved with the backlight set to min. The brightest image was achieved with the backlight set to max and produced 133.8 ft-L with a 100-IRE full-field and 0.126 ft-L on a 0-IRE black (a contrast ratio of 1062:1).—GM