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  • Introduction

  • Tour & Design

  • Blacks & Whites

  • Color Accuracy

  • Motion

  • Viewing Effects

  • Calibration

  • Remote Control

  • Connectivity

  • Audio & Menus

  • Formats & Media

  • Power Consumption

  • Vs Samsung UN46B6000

  • Vs Vizio SV471XVT

  • Vs Sony KDL 46Z5100

  • Conclusion

  • Series Comparison

  • Introduction
  • Tour & Design
  • Blacks & Whites
  • Color Accuracy
  • Motion
  • Viewing Effects
  • Calibration
  • Remote Control
  • Connectivity
  • Audio & Menus
  • Formats & Media
  • Power Consumption
  • Vs Samsung UN46B6000
  • Vs Vizio SV471XVT
  • Vs Sony KDL 46Z5100
  • Conclusion
  • Series Comparison

Introduction

Tour & Design

Front


The front of the Sony KDL-46VE5, well... that's for looking at. Of course, because of the bezel's high gloss black finish, you'll probably be looking at reflections of your living room room, as well. That small circle in the middle that looks like a button is the 'Presence Sensor,' which scans the room for heat or movement. Stay alert and active while watching TV, or it will shut off on you! We explore this feature a little more in the Power Consumption section.

 

Back


The back of the KDL-46VE5 is where most of the ports are located. For information about these ports see our Connectivity section.

 

Sides


As with many TVs, there's a column of on-board controls on one side, and a selection of ports on the other side. For information about the ports on the side of the Sony KDL-46VE5 see our Connectivity section.

 

Stand/Mount


The stand on the Sony KDL-46VE5 seems steady enough, but it doesn't swivel. Depending on the layout of your room, this might not be an issue. But if you're trying to service a wide room, you're going to have to be careful not to scratch whatever furniture the TV is sitting on. At any rate, it's a pain during set-up, when you need access to all those ports in the back. 

 

Controls


There are the basic controls. For anything more advanced, you'll want to use the remote. The one extra element here is the Energy Saver Switch. More than just turning the power off with the Power button, flipping this switch *completely *kills power to the TV. It's the same as pulling the power cord from the wall. What's energy saving about that? Well, even when the average TV is 'off,' it's still leaching power from your mains. Save the planet, man.

 

Remote Control


The remote is pretty good, but not the best layout. Nevertheless, we could perform the basic functions without looking at it after a few minutes.

 

In The Box*(6.0)*


Just the basic from Sony – TV, stand, remote, batteries, and instructions. There is no cleaning cloth or HDMI cable. You can, however, go to http://esupport.sony.com/referencebook/ for extra information that didn't make the cut for the printed booklet.

 

Aesthetics*(6.0)*


Sony tends to keep its TVs looking fairly simple and (correctly, we believe) letting the screen take precedence. For you purists out there, be warned that there is a little 'jazz' at the bottom – a thin strip of mirror that runs along the  top of the speakers. There is a speaker grill at the bottom, as well, which is a rare sight in these days of perfectly clean bezel design. Overall, the bezel is glossy, but not as super-shiny as some Samsungs.

Blacks & Whites

Black Level*(8.23)*


The black levels that we tested on the Sony KDL-46VE5 turned out to be great. At best, it could produce a black level of 0.09 cd/m2. That's quite dark, and hence, quite good, at least for an LCD television. Plasma TVs can always get a little darker, because they can completely turn off that pixel. LCD TVs have a large backlight behind them that can never be totally blacked out.

The KDL-46VE5 has dynamic backlighting, but thankfully, you can turn it off. The feature sounds great, but it can be badly implemented, resulting in garish, abrupt adjustments in the shadowy areas of the screen.

 

Peak Brightness*(8.6)*


The peak brightness on the Sony KDL-46VE5 is good, but we've seen better. At best, it produced a measurement of 325.9 cd/m2. From this score, you can expect more than adequate levels of detail in the highlight areas of the screen. 

 

Contrast*(8.42)*


Our contrast numbers tend to differ drastically from what the manufacturers give you. The short explanation is this: our numbers are realistic, there's are idealistic. At best, we found the Sony KDL-46VE5 produced a contrast ration of 3621:1. That is still a very good score, putting it above the average for LCD TVs in this range.

From a score this good, expect a snappy, sharp picture with a pleasing level of detail in both shadows and highlights.

 

Tunnel Contrast*(9.52)*


Chances are, most movies you're watching don't have an an all-white or all-black screen. Rather, the highlights and shadows exist side-by-side. But on some televisions, when there is more white on the screen, the shadows tend to get brighter. Better TVs maintain an even level of blackness. The Sony KDL-46VE5, thankfully, tends to be among those better TVs. No matter what the content on the screen, you can be assured of good detail in the shadows. 

 

White Falloff*(9.81)*


The white falloff is exactly like the test above, but in reverse. On some TVs, when there is a lot of black on the screen, the detail in the highlights is lost. Better TVs, like the Sony KDL-46VE5, maintain an even level of white no matter the content. Well done, Sony. If only the uniformity could have been as pleasing (read next section).

 

Uniformity*(5.75)*


Sometimes an all-black screen isn't all black, not when the TV creates little hot spots, blotches, and other little irregularities. It happens to a lot of TVs, and it happened to the Sony KLD-46VE5. In fact, it happened pretty badly. We test looking at an all-white screen and a all-black screen. When it was all-white, the uniformity was fine. But when we looked at the all-black screen, bright spots appeared in all four corners. This effect, called 'flashlighting' starts bright in the corner and pushes in towards the center of the screen. You're only going to notice it in very dark scenes, but it's an issue.

 

Greyscale Gamma*(7.75)*


The greyscale gamma test measures how smooth the transition is from blacks to whites. It's all a little academic to go into too much detail here (proud geeks can read more here). Suffice it to say that an ideal curve is 2.2. The Sony KDL-46VE5 produced a curve of 2.58. It's not perfect, but it's not too bad. There is no way to alter the gamma directly on the TV, but the performance is good enough as it is that most people won't notice a problem.

 

Resolution Scaling*(7.7)*


The Sony KDL-46VE5 has a 1080P resolution, but a lot of the content coming into your TV is not 1080P. The TV's job is to take that input and upscale it to fit the 1080P resolution. In this section, we test to see how well it does at that job.

480p*(0.0)*

The 480P content is frequently what standard definition DVD players with an HDMI connection output. When displaying this signal, the TV overscans by 2% (meaning the outermost 2% of the image is lost). This is normal.

720p*(0.0)*

A 720P signal also overscans by 2%, which is more loss than you want to see. Fine, high frequency patterns sometimes called strange artifacting. Text samples, even fine text, were clean and easy to read.

1080i*(0.0)*

A 1080i signal is what most cable TV outputs. It looked nearly as good as a 1080P signal, though there was some minor smudging of details.

Color Accuracy

Color Temperature*(7.56)*


The color temperature test looks for uniformity in color temperature across the greyscale. In the best cases, the color temperature remains constant, but more often, the color temperature will warm or cool depending on on the intensity of the image.

The Sony KDL-46VE5 performed quite well until the intensity nears the bottom of the scale. Practically speaking, this means that shadows and darker areas of the screen may start to fluctuate between too warm and too cool. However, your eyes are less sensitive to changes at extreme shadows, so it shouldn't affect your viewing pleasure too much.

 

RGB Curves*(6.85)*


This test examines the response curves of the individual red, green, and blue channels.

Overall, the Sony KDL-46VE5 produced a smooth curve, outside of some minor hiccups in the middle of the range. The only issue appears at the brightest, most intense end of the range. At this point, the reds and greens did okay, but the TV peaks too early on the blue channel. Practically speaking, this means that really bright blues might lack detail and nuance.

Below are visualizations of the response curves, from brightest to darkest.

 

 

 

Color Gamut*(5.22)*


There is an internationally agreed-upon standard for the colors that TVs produce, called rec. 709. But there are standards and there are standards, if you know what we mean. Some TVs (most, actually) fudge the details and get pretty close, but not perfect. The Sony KDL-VE5 is among them. Look at the chart below to see how the triangles match up. There are some differences in the reds, green, and blues, usually oversaturating them. However, the white point (the circle in the middle) is accurate.

 

Below is a list of coordinates from the three color points and the white point. Non-tech geeks may feel free to move onto the next page.

Motion

Motion Smoothness*(6.25)*


The KDL-46VE5, like most Sony recent HDTVs, has a 'motion enhancing' feature called Motionflow. It uses processing to smooth motion artifacts like jagged lines. While the Motionflow feature can help with some issues, it creates others. For instance, when highly contrasted edges move from side to side (like red football jerseys against a snowy field), Motionflow actually creates extra trailing. Sure, the jaggies are gone, but it's quite the trade-off.

These settings are defaulted to be on, in the 'medium' setting, when you take it out of the box. If you never fiddle with the settings after this, you're still in a good position. Some TVs produce truly horrific images when they over-process. Sonys, on the other hand, are fairly conservative even at their heaviest processing. Do yourself a favor, though, and just turn all these garbage special features off.

 

Motion Artifacting*(3.88)*


Artifacts are things you seen on your screen that shouldn't be there, things that aren't in the original signal. Unfortunately, we saw a lot of artifacting on the Sony KDL-46VE5. It didn't seem to matter if the Motionflow processing was on or not. Sometimes we saw false colors produced and sometimes we saw heavy trailing.

 

3:2 Pulldown & 24fps*(2.5)*


The Sony KDL-46VE5 had a very hard time with 3:2 pulldown, which is when a TV (that displays at 29.97 fps) has to play back a Blu-Ray movie or other source with a 24 fps frame rate. There was a lot of juddery movement, and none of the processing options that the Sony TV offered could mitigate the problems. This was just flat-out bad.

Viewing Effects

Viewing Angle*(2.66)*


LCD TVs are never champions when it comes to viewing angle. It's just not in their nature; you need to look to a plasmas TV for success here. When we tested the Sony KDL-46VE5, we found that it lost 50% of its contrast ratio at only 20 degrees. This is a the worst of the four TVs in this comparison pool.

 

Reflectance*(4.0)*


The Sony KDL-46VE5 has a highly reflective screen, there's no getting around that. What's strange is that the diffusion screen meant to mitigate this problem actually creates a 8-pointed star pattern around any reflecting light. That's just the physics of light, baby, making your Sony glow like a Christmas tree.

There is some hope, though. If the light shining on the TV at enough of an angle, you might not get too much of the star-shape bounce. Oh, but there's yet another problem: the inside of the bezel is highly reflective. Even if lights are far off to the side, you're going to see a gleaming reflection on the very edge of your screen.

 

Video Processing*(3.5)*


There are a bundle of extra features that Sony, like so many other companies, packs on to try and lure you in. Most of them are things you don't need, but let's walk through them one by one.

 

Calibration

Calibration


[

](http://www.displaymate.com/)Very few TVs come out of the box precisely to offer the best possible picture. To make sure we're scoring based on TV's best possible performance, out first step in the review process is to calibrate the set. To do so, we use a CS-200 ChromaMeter to take measurements and Displaymate, a television calibration program.

Below are all the settings we used to achieve optimal picture quality. While these settings will be find for most users, you can alternatively invite a paid stranger into your house and calibrate the TV for you. With the paid stranger, however, comes the added bonus of a TV calibrated for your specific room.

 

Video Modes


There is a small handful of video modes on the Sony KDL-46VE5.

Remote Control

Ergonomics & Durability*(4.75)*


The remote control that ships with the KDL-46VE5 is a standard Sony design. It's longer and thinner than some remotes, and has an excellent weight distribution. There's also a handy little groove on the bottom that helps keep it from sliding around in your greasy hands. But it's not all sunshine. The button layout (discussed below) is poor and it would have been nice to add some backlighting for the buttons. Aesthetically, the color palette could use some work. Black, grey, blue, green, and orange don't tend to happily co-exist in the same space, at least not in this arrangement.

 

Button Layout & Use*(4.5)*


Sure it feels comfortable, but the button layout doesn't make any sense. Your grip naturally falls at the top of the remote, perfectly positioned for... the Menu buttons? The most frequently used buttons on any remote are the Volume up/down and Channel up/down. Sony chose to position these all the way down at the bottom, in the least accessible place. The Bravia-branded functions take the sweet spot near the top. It's all a bit of a mess.

 

Programming & Flexibility*(1.0)*


If you happen to be a Sony-brand loyalist, you're in luck. The remote only works with other Sony products. If, however, you fall into that much larger camp of people that mix it up, you're S.O.L.

 

Connectivity

Input Ports*(7.5)*


The ports on the Sony KDL-46VE5 are located on the back and the left side. Now, most people don't have easy access to the back of their TVs, so it makes sense that you want a few easy to reach ports on the side. But the HDMI distribution doesn't make that much sense on the KDL-46VE5. There's only one HDMI in the back, and three on the side. If you have more than one HDMI port in constant use, you're likely stuck with a big, ugly wire sticking out the side of your TV (an automatic deduction from your tech-savvy status).

 

Of course, some of the ports on the side make sense, like the PC input, something you're likely to connect and disconnect frequently.

 

Output Ports*(2.0)*


The Sony KDL-46VE5 has two outputs, an analog audio and a digital audio. Pretty standard stuff.

 

Other Connections*(0.0)*


There are no other connections on the Sony KDL-46VE5, such as a LAN port for Internet.

 

Media*(1.0)*


The Sony KDL-46VE5 has USB port on the side for playing back photos, videos, and music. There is another USB port on the rear of the TV, but it's not usable as a media player port.

 

Placement*(5.5)*


The placement of ports on the side could have been worse. They're partially hidden behind the bezel, so only thick cords will be so inflexible that they'll peek out from the side. Unfortunately, most HDMI cables are thick, so your second and third HDMI wires will always look a bit gangly hanging off your expensive television.

 

Audio & Menus

Audio Quality*(5.5)*


The audio quality of the Sony KDL-46VE5 is pretty good, but in no way does it match a moderately-priced set of surround sound speakers. There are four available audio modes in the menu: Dynamic, Standard, Clear Voice, and Custom. The Dynamic mode, we found, is good for general use. It punches up the bass and treble, but not too much. The other modes are either too flat or too tinny.

The Surround sound option is called TruSuround XT. Of course, all TVs have to fake surround sound through processing because the actual speakers are very close in proximity, directly below the screen, quite the opposite of being surrounded. In the case of the Sony KDL-46VE5, the processing is pretty good. Watching a thrilling action scene, we could appreciate the effect of shoulder-to-air missiles passing from left to right through the air.

 

Menu Interface*(7.0)*


The menu interface on the Sony KDL-46VE5 is rather good, as it is with most Sony Bravia HDTVs. The key element for any good interface is simplicity, and the VE5 succeeds at that. Hitting the Menu button on the remote control or on the side panel calls up a clean, straightforward menu. The line items in the menu are left-aligned, and as you select each one, the submenu extend out. You can almost always tell exactly where you are in the directory tree.

 

Only occasionally, when you enter a sub-submenu can you get a little confused. Even novices should be able to surmise that you can always hit Exit at this point and start over.

 

Manual*(5.0)*


The included manual is certainly not expansive on details, but it's enough to get you started. Topics covered are a basic tour of the ports and the remote control, a cursory overview of the features, and important safety instructions (don't bathe with your new TV, please!). More details are available online at http://esupport.sony.com/referencebook/. Those expecting a detailed blog from the engineers, complete with schematics and brutal honesty about the TV's capabilities and limits, may be disappointed. It's also fairly sparse on details. 

Formats & Media

Formats*(10.0)*


The Sony KDL-46VE5 plays at 1080P, the highest resolution format. Of course, it can also play lower resolutions like 1080i, 720P, and more. The TV does not support the extended color gamut (xvYCC).

 

Photo Playback*(4.5)*


The photo playback begins with you, the owner, inserting a USB stick into USB ports (or simply taping a photo to the screen). A very simple interface appears that includes thumbnails of your photos and icons for folders and sub-folders. It's all very straightforward if you've ever used a computer.

 

Music & Video Playback*(7.0)*


The music playback function operates the same as photos. Plug a thumbdrive into the USB port, and a folders/thumbnail display appears.  You may have to select the Tools button on the remote control to shift between photo playback and music playback.

The Sony KDL-46VE5 does not appear to play back video clips through the USB port, though many TVs can. Sony may have used this small feature as a differentiating point between the 46VE5 and some other model higher up the product tree.

 

Streaming Playback*(0.0)*


The Sony KDL-46VE5 does not have an Internet port and, therefore, no streaming playback. Sorry.

 

Other Media*(0.0)*


There are no other media playback features.

Power Consumption

Power Consumption*(8.95)*


The Sony KDL-46VE5 is part of Sony's 'Eco' series. Yes, you should be highly skeptical when any large, entrenched company starts bandying around buzzwords like eco or green. It's not that they're being outright deceptive, necessarily, but they understand the sway of the zeitgeist.

So what's so eco about this TV? There are a few creative ideas here. The small button-shaped sensor on the front of the TV is actually an infrared motion and heat sensor. If you've stepped away for a time, the screen will shut off in a kind of stand-by mode. If you don't come back after 30 minutes, the TV shuts off completely. The potential danger (or stupidity) of this feature is that most people don't flail their arms around while they're watching TV, so what's to prevent it from shutting off in the middle of your favorite show? As far as we could tell, it was pretty sensitive to small movements. Unless your asleep and completely still, it should stay on.

The second feature is an 'Energy Saver Switch' on the side. More than simply a power button, flipping this switch completely kills power to the TV, just as if you'd unplugged it. This prevents the TV from leeching that small, slow power draw that so many

The third feature is a series of high-efficiency HCFL backlights that, according to Sony, reducing energy consumption by up to 50% per year versus Energy Star 3.0 standards.

 

As you can see from the chart above, the supposed energy savings are present, but they're hardly revolutionary. The Samsung 46UNB6000 actually uses less energy.

Vs Samsung UN46B6000

Value Comparison Summary


The allure of an LED backlit screen is hard to ignore. It's got that buzzword appeal. And our testing bore out the hype with positive results: great color, great contrast, great motion blur reduction. To boot, the Samsung UN46B6000 has Internet connectivity, something definitely missing from the Sony KDL-46VE5.

Blacks & Whites


The Samsung UN46B600 was graced with the ability to produce very deep blacks and very bright whites. The Sony KDL-VE5 was also very good. In fact, Sony takes the slight edge on this, but the difference between the two is minor.

 

Color Accuracy


The Samsung UN46B6000 offers excellent color reproduction. When we looked at test results, the RGB response curves were smooth and the color temperature remained consistent. The Sony is good, but the Samsung is better.

 

 

 

Motion


Both the Sony and the Samsung feature 120Hz refresh rate, but this is a great example of the same technology being implemented in completely different ways. The Samsung UN46B6000 is miles better than the Sony KDL-46VE5. The latter was plagued with jaggy lines and juddery motion in native 1080P, as well as 1080i, 720P, and especially during 3:2 pulldown. The Sony Motionflow and other special processing features only helped occasionally, and only to a small degree.

 

Viewing Effects


The Samsung had a slightly wider viewing angle, but practically speaking, they're both pretty bad. However, the Samsung never seemed to skew or posterize colors when looked at from an angle.

 

Connectivity


When comparing connectivity, the Samsung definitely wins for the addition of a LAN port for Internet, plus minor cred for a headphone-out jack. In all other respects, the Samsung and the Sony are similar.

Vs Vizio SV471XVT

Value Comparison Summary


The Vizio SV471XVT is.... good. It won't blow you away, but you're unlikely to be out and out disappointed. For the most part, the Vizio and the Sony offer the same features. The Sony probably has a edge of overall performance, but it's weakness in motion rendering could be a killing blow in this face off.

Blacks & Whites


The peak white levels on the Vizio SV471XVT are almost blinding good, which makes for more than adequate daytime viewing. The black levels were disappointing, and the contrast was decent at best. The Sony KDL-46VE5 is definitely the TV to pick if you have a strong penchant for black and white noir films.

 

Color Accuracy


The color curves on the Vizio SV471XVT were bumpy, which indicates that there could be some false color gradations. The Sony KDL-46VE5, on the other hand, was nice and smooth. 

 

 

 

Motion


The motion smoothness and lack of artifacting of the Vizio SV471XVT was so much better than the Sony KDL-46VE5. This is the single compelling reason to pick the Vizio. 

Viewing Effects


The Vizio allows for a slightly wider viewing angle than the Sony KDL-46VE5, but the Vizio's colors tended to posterize at angles.

Connectivity


Connectivity is a draw between the Vizio and the Sony, at least where it counts.

**
**

Vs Sony KDL 46Z5100

Value Comparison Summary


The KDL-46Z5100 is the better performer of the two Sony TVs, but not by much. Despite having a more advanced processor (Bravia Engine 3 versus Bravia Engine 2), we were surprised to see that the the strengths and weaknesses ran along the same lines. The key differences are simple: the 46Z5100 has LAN Internet access and slightly better color performance, and the VE5 is the 'energy efficient' model. Would Sony like this simplified explanation? No, but there it is. 

Blacks & Whites


The white and black levels looked very good on both TVs, as did the contrast. However, the 46VE5 had a small advantage in greyscale gamma, which produced smoother gradations in the shadowy areas.

 

Color Accuracy


The color performance was measurably better on the 46Z5100 than the 46VE5 – the color temperature was more consistent and the color curves were smoother. If you have a sharp eye, you'll probably see the difference, but both TVs are good enough. 

 

 

 

Motion


They're both bad when it comes to producing smooth, non-artifacting images. Sorry. It's frustrating that TVs that perform so well in other areas do poorly here.

 

Viewing Effects


The Sony KDL-46Z5100 has a much wider viewing angle than the Sony KDL-46VE5.

 

Connectivity


The 46Z5100 has a LAN port for Internet connectivity, and comes loaded with a bunch of great widgets for pulling content a wide range of sources. The 46VE5 does not. 

**
**

Conclusion

 

Series Comparison

VE5 Series


This is a small series, the 'eco-friendly' VE5s, and perhaps more of an experiment for Sony than a full-fledged line like the XBR (with eight models).

Meet the tester

David Kender

David Kender

Editor in Chief

@davekender

David Kender oversees content at Reviewed as the Editor in Chief. He served as managing editor and editor in chief of Reviewed's ancestor, CamcorderInfo.com, helping to grow the company from a tiny staff to one of the most influential online review resources. In his time at Reviewed, David has helped to launch over 100 product categories and written too many articles to count.

See all of David Kender's reviews

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