Sony Bravia KDL-46W4100 LDC HDTV Review - Performance: Summary

Our overall impression of the image quality of the 46W4100 is positive; we found that it produced dark, deep blacks and bright, clean whites. Colors were also generally good; it had a smooth response curve (which means accurate color), but the color gamut was slightly off. This could make for some colors appearing to be unnaturally green or blue. The other main issue we found was a disappointing viewing angle; the contrast ratio quickly fell at just a few degrees away from straight on.

Calibration
All HDTVs need calibration to get the best results, and the 46W4100 is no exception. We use DisplayMate to calibrate the display, looking for the settings that give the maximum luminance, but without compromising the color accuracy. The settings that we found to work best are below; you can use these as the basis for your own calibration. However, we strongly recommend that you use a calibration system such as DisplayMate to calibrate your HDTV; the correct settings depend on the individual panel and the surrounding lighting. To save space, we only list the options that are different from the default.

Dot Pattern
The 46W4100 is a true HD screen; it has enough pixels to accurately represent every single pixel of a 1080p signal. The individual elements of the screen are shown on the right at 20x magnification, and this shows that the screen is composed of groups of three elements for red, green and blue. Each group of three elements forms one single pixel.

You can see these elements in action in the video below, which shows the same 20x magnification of the screen going from black to white, then through red, green and blue.