KDL40X3000 PQ & Settings

Even though after calibration the Sony KDL40X3000 is capable of churning out superb picture quality with class-leading blacks, revealing shadow detail, accurate and well-saturated colours with minimal motion blurring, for most viewers the task of wading through and understanding the functions of each individual option in the user menu is simply overwhelming given the number of controls available. It is hoped that this piece of writing will aid you in your quest in achieving the best possible image quality from your Sony KDL40X3000.

While the SPVA LCD panels on the Sony KDL40X3000 gives it the ideal platform to deliver high-quality black level, unfortunately it also gives the headache of backlight clouding if you are not careful. To remedy this, it is very important to try and set backlight level to the minimum tolerable without compromising the top-end brightness. In my experience a "Backlight" value of 1 to 2 is sufficient for viewing in a dim environment; probably up to 4 or 5 in a brighter condition (e.g. day time).

If superior blacks give dimensionality and depth of field to the picture, colour accuracy and saturation define how vibrant the entire image looks. Now the Sony KDL40X3000 does offer Wide Colour Gamut (WCG), but on the whole I have measured this to be inaccurate. It is much better to stick to the "Standard" colours, which delivers the most accurate colour palette I have witnessed on an LCD television so far.

Another important issue to take note of is the sharpness level. Some Sony Bravia LCD TVs of the previous generation exhibited quite serious edge enhancing artefacts, i.e. the television added so much artificial sharpening to the edges of objects to the extent of introducing ringing or halo-ing around the said objects. Therefore it is advisable that "Sharpness" on the Sony KDL40X3000 be set to as low as possible (personally I use 0)... perhaps slightly higher if you need the extra sharpness boost when viewing standard-definition material.

Done properly, noise reduction should reduce the digital noise inherent in broadcast while preserving the fine detail meant to be there, but unfortunately such technologies are difficult and expensive to implement, so generally the best examples of noise reduction won't be found on mass produced LCD televisions. On most TVs this feature will either truncate find detail (which are mistaken as noise) or cause motion smearing (as the movement is wrongly interpreted as noise). As with other LCD TVs, the noise reduction control on the Sony KDL40X3000 should be left off unless absolutely necessary.