Sony Bravia KDL-32BX300

Motion Performance

Motion Smoothness (6.0)

The Sony KDL-32BX300 performed decently in our motion testing. This TV did not wow us, but it’s hard to complain. Objects in motion were sufficiently smooth, but they tended to lose a noticeable amount of fine detail. On the more expensive Sony EX700 series, there was a feature called MotionFlow that made a big improvement to detail retention. The BX300 series does not benefit from the same features. There is another feature, called CineMotion, but it only affects video in a native 1080/24p format, which excludes all cable TV.

Motion Artifacting (6.5)

The Sony KDL-32BX300 showed a minor amount of motion artifacting when we looked at 1080p samples, limited to occasional strobing and some false color trails. Footage in 1080i, however, was noticeably worse. We saw the same problems, but more frequently. More on how we test motion performance.

3:2 Pulldown & 24fps (9.00)

The Sony KDL-32BX300 is capable of playing 24fps footage, but in order to get the best performance, you may want to turn on the MotionFlow setting (located in the Picture menu). Wen engaged, it significantly reduced strobing and choppiness when panning left and right. More on how we test 3:2 pulldown and 24fps.

Resolution Scaling (5.17)

The Sony KDL-32BX300 has a native display of only 720p (1280 × 720 pixels), as opposed to the higher standard of 1080p (1920 × 1080 pixels) on most TVs. At this point, only cheap TVs are limited to 720p. That’s not to say that this is a big problem. HDTVs receive all sorts of different signals, and it’s up to the TV’s processor to convert those signals and either upconvert or downconvert them to fit on the screen.

Overall, the Sony KDL-32BX300 was pretty bad at resolution scaling. There was always the presence of overscan, which means a loss of information around the edge of the screen. No options on the TV’s menu were able to eliminate it completely. There were other problems as well, described below. More on how we test resolution scaling.

480p

When we looked at 480p footage, the Sony KDL-32BX300 showed a 3% overscan loss on all sides. However, the scaling created few other issues.

1080i

With 1080i footage, there was a 2% overscan loss on all sides. We also saw a lot of artifacts created by the scaling, like frequent Moire patterns in high frequency patterns. Fine text displayed on the screen had some legibility issues. This is unfortunate, because the bulk of HD cable television is in the 1080i format.

1080p

Footage in the 1080p format also had a 2% overscan on all sides, and the same issues described in the 1080i scaling.

Other Models in the KDL-xxBX300 Series
For more information on other models in this series, check our Series Comparison Page.
Sony Bravia KDL-22BX300 22 in.