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Features

At a glance, the new Bravia W4’s improved 30,000:1 dynamic contrast is superior compared with its predecessor and even the award-winning X-series. That said, this is more than often of a rough gauge from past experience. Upon closer scrutiny, we further discovered a 10 percent dip in overall lumens from 500cd/m2 to 450cd/m2 brightness, while the response time and viewing angle has stayed put at 8ms and 178 degrees, respectively. Not exactly the kind of fancy specs you would probably shell out S$6,999 (US$4,683.80) for, but more on this later when we come to the Performance section.

For the record, Sony has also overhauled the KLV-46W400A’s underlying video processor to the Bravia Engine 2 (BE2) iteration and added Live Color Creation technology to boost performance. Sadly, there’s no official document that differentiates BE2 over the original EX flavor beyond the claim of delivering "vibrant, crisp and true-to-life images". Those with poor TV reception may be interested in its Intelligent Picture function, too. This software system enhances picture clarity on-the-fly by amplifying and applying noise reduction to weaker analog broadcast signals.

To offset its onboard multimedia playback omission, Sony has thrown in the Digital Media Port (DMP) which first debuted in the DAV-IS10 and DZ1000 home theater systems. A proprietary implementation of an expansion port (think USB), it enables advanced media device connectivity and control using addon DMP bases and the TV’s remote. For example, you could browse and stream audio and video from its Walkman MP3 players using the TDM-MW1 cradle. You could do the same for music wirelessly through Bluetooth between its TDM-BT1 adapter and compatible gadgets.

In total, there’re five 1080p-ready inputs at your disposal for HD duty. Three are the latest digital HDMI format featuring film-centric 1080p24-compatibility (24p True Cinema), plus Bravia Sync capability. The latter is a proprietary version of HDMI-CEC which now works with its Handycam for one-remote TV and video camera operations. Still on track, but in the 1080p50/60 and analog domains, are the dual component-video sockets. There could have been a sixth port if not for the crippled PC jack, maxed out at a widescreen-oriented 1,360 x 768-pixel resolution.

« Design | Performance »

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