The Perfect Vision
Sony KDS-55A2020 Additional Notes and Technical Ratings
Under the Hood | Adjustment Notes | Test Discs | Technical Ratings
Under the Hood
Sony touts the Wega Engine video processor with Digital Reality Creation Multi-Function version 1 (DRC-MFv1), a marketing mouthful that encompasses a variety of tasks. Most of its functions are better left off because they do more harm than good to the picture.
The Advanced Iris can be set to open and close dynamically as the overall picture brightness changes, but I normally find this way too distracting. Instead, I set the iris to its minimum fixed opening, which resulted in an excellent black level with more than enough light output at the top end.
Adjustment Notes
Out of the box, edge enhancement was severe, picture mode was Vivid, color temp was Cool. Brightness was too low, contrast defaulted to Max setting, but whites were not clipped. Warm 2 color temp produced one of the best grayscales I've seen without full calibration. However, all three primaries were oversaturated, and there is no color-space selector. Light output was copious, even with the iris set at its minimum fixed opening, which resulted in an excellent black level. ANSI contrast measurements were not as widely varied as other RPTVs of recent experience, but they were not entirely uniform, either.
Test Discs
On the HQV Benchmark DVD, there was some obvious noise in the highest-frequency horizontal detail area; setting the noise reduction on High helped a lot, but it was still visible. Otherwise, detail looked fine. Low-angle diagonals and the waving American flag had moderate jaggies. Noise reduction was very effective on intentionally noisy clips without softening the picture appreciably. The set's processor never picked up 3:2 pulldown at 480i.
Looking at the HQV Benchmark HD DVD beta version I have, noise reduction did soften the picture somewhat. There were slight jaggies on low-angle diagonals. Microsoft engineer Stacey Spears' HD DVD test disc revealed that the set's processor never picked up 3:2 pulldown at 1080i, and the optics crop more than 30 pixels from the top and sides and 27 from the bottom.
Technical Ratings
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