Sony Bravia KDL-46HX925 (46-inch LCD)

The Bravia KDL-46HX925 is Sony's answer to LED-backlit TVs, highly sought-after for their deep blacks. This high-end panel also retained the company's signature monolithic design and a unique six-degree tilt stand introduced back in 2010, while featuring significant upgrades under its glossy shell. Will this 3D TV match our Editors' Choice LG 47LW6500 and the Panasonic Viera TH-50VT30S in visual performance? Read on for our full assessment.

Design

For a LED-backlit TV, this Bravia is unusually sleek measuring just 36.4mm thin. Its styling is further enhanced by Sony's alluring monolithic design, an illuminated company logo and a brush-metal swivel stand. Alternate mounting options also include a Bunshin designer speaker stand and a universal VESA wall bracket. Both the TV controls and recessed side inputs are quite accessible except we're not particularly fond of the chunky composite- and component-video adapter.

Two pairs of TDG-BR250 active shutter glasses are bundled with the panel. These goggles come with a concealed mini-USB port to recharge the integrated batteries, as well as soft nose pads and flexible legs for added comfort. Moreover, its wrap-around frame blocks room ambient light from reaching the eyes to maintain optimum 3D picture quality. Wearers of prescription glasses should have few problems using the 59g 3D eyewear, though we found it somewhat heavy and the fit is a little tight.

	Design and layout
Panel depth	36.4mm
Finishing	Monolithic design; piano black
TV controls	Right, push buttons
Auxiliary A/V inputs	Left side: 2 x USB, 2 x HDMI, optical out, headphone, PC
Mounting option	Swivel table stand, wall bracket, Bunshin tilt speaker stand

You'll get backlighting and multifunctional control for compatible Sony A/V products, which are not widely available nowadays. The buttons have a rubbery texture and provide tactile feedback when pressed. Notable examples range from a 3D key to Digital/Analog to toggling TV broadcast types and Input for selecting external sources. Still, we found the power button below the clicker redundant and the boxy design not as ergonomic compared with other models that feature a more rounded shape.

	Standard controller
Form factor	Rectangular, flat bottom, 217mm long
Finishing	Matte and glossy black/td>
Backlight	Blue
Input-selection keys	Input and Digital/Analog TV
Multifunctional control	Blu-ray, DVD and AmpV

The HX925 sports the latest Sony NUX user interface for uninterrupted TV viewing with menu icons and options to the sides. Nine scene modes, such as Movies and Sports, supplement three video presets with independent memory for each A/V input. Diving deep into the menu unveiled plenty of advanced configurations though a color management system to finetune the primary hues was absent.

	Software menu
User interface	Icon-based, colored
Video modes	Standard, Vivid, Custom
Audio modes	Standard, Dynamic, Clear Voice
Key advanced settings	Backlight, white balance, local-dimming adjustments

Features

3D-wise, this Bravia supports 3D Blu-ray movies, 3D broadcasts and 3D photos on top of 2D-to-3D conversion. However, what really makes this 46-incher tick is its Intelligent Peak LED panel, which weds LED-backlighting and local dimming to deliver inky blacks and higher contrast than LED-edgelit displays. This is further complemented by Sony's proprietary MotionFlow XR 800 technology to simulate 800 frame-per-second smooth motion and reduce 3D crosstalk utilizing a 200Hz refresh rate and scanning backlight.

Sony has lined up both Bravia Internet Videos and Bravia Internet Widgets under its own Internet TV moniker to compete against other smart TVs. Bravia Internet Videos currently include 17 free video channels such as YouTube and Digital Concert Hall, while Bravia Internet Widgets are limited to Twitter and Facebook apps. Another key online component is an Internet browser, which sadly lacks Flash compatibility. Nonetheless, a free remote app for iOS and Android devices, as well as a Windows equivalent for Vaio laptops can be used to operate these functions. More details here.

TrackID is another unique feature, which determines the title of a song played back on the TV at the touch of a remote button. A music search function can retrieve artist, album and other details through keywords, too. We were less impressed by a matching video version limited to short videos and trailers. Rounding it up is a built-in camera that enables motion-sensing and face detection. This switches off the display if the viewer leaves the room and also warns children if they're standing too close to the screen.

	A/V and multimedia
Video	Full-HD resolution, LED-backlit with local dimming; 200Hz frame interpolation and scanning backlight
Audio	10W x 2, S-Force Front Surround 3D, woofer
Multimedia	MP3, WAV, PCM, JPEG, RAW, MPO, MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, WMV-HD, AVCHD via dual USB, Ethernet and Wi-Fi
TV tuner	Analog; digital (DVB-T)

There're six 1080p inputs for this model: Four HDMIs, one component-video input and an analog PC port. A home theater system can be connected to the TV's optical audio output to play back 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound for HD broadcasts, while inbuilt Wi-Fi frees the two USB ports for flash memory drives and a bundled Skype camera.

	Connectivity
HDMI input(s)	Four sockets, version 1.4, 24p-ready; Bravia Sync (HDMI-CEC), HDMI ARC
Component-video input(s)	One socket; 1080p-ready
PC input	Analog; 1080p-ready
>Audio output(s)	Digital optical

Performance

Standard-definition (SD) content

Analog TV programs on the HX925 had a distinctively clean look and good sharpness matched by smooth motion. However, there was moderate image cropping on all corners of the screen due to an aggressive overscan setting. This problem was less obvious for digital channels, which were displayed in sharper and blocking-free visuals but had lower audio. Most DVDs upscaled by this Bravia also exhibited effective noise reduction, good details and minimal jaggies. Calibrating our sample achieved flawless results for Avia color decoding and grayscale tracking test patterns.

SD performance	Analog TV	Digital TV	DVD
Details	Average	Average	Good
Sharpness	Good	Good	Good
Noise suppression	Good	Good	Good
Motion	Good	Good	Good

High-definition (HD) content

This 46-incher really excelled in this department delivering both razor-sharp and judder-free Blu-ray movies without visible processing artifacts such as haloing. More importantly, onscreen hues had an overall warm feel that's similar to cinemas with lifelike skin tones. Equally impressive were the plasma-like blacks--even under room lighting--, as well as revealing shadows which were clearly evident in many dark scenes. That said, the screen was quite reflective, had a mild color shift problem when viewed from the sides and suffered from light backlight blooming. Switching back to the HQV benchmark, this Sony passed our video resolution loss test, but failed the film resolution loss test.

Unlike the NX720, the HX925 displayed only light crosstalk while maintaining the same enticing strong depth and crisp 3D effects from native 3D content to 2D-to-3D converted materials. Both these Sony 3D TVs further stand out with their flicker-free 3D pictures under normal room lighting condition, which far outweigh the minor crosstalk we observed in some 3D movies. However, there're two potential issues with the HX925: 3D objects will turn blurry if the viewer's head is not leveled; blacks were much lighter as the panel's backlight was stuck at maximum to increase brightness in 3D mode.

HD performance	HD broadcast	Blu-ray	Game
Details	Good	Excellent	Excellent
Sharpness	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent
Noise suppression	Good	Good	N.A.
Motion	Good	Excellent	Excellent

Games, PC and Multimedia

Gamers will be delighted with the fluid and brilliant graphics offered by this panel in game mode with no perceivable lag. It was a similarly strong showing for the rock stable and legible PC text matched by banding-free color gradations at a high 1080p resolution. On the multimedia front, the Bravia played back all supported media files effortlessly, including a 1080p AVCHD file that was streamed through our office network via an Ethernet connection. Users do have to settle with just two channel audio because the HX925 will automatically convert 5.1 Dolby Digital to stereo.

	USB	Ethernet
8MP JPEG	3 sec, print quality and original aspect ratio	4 sec
MP3	Good imaging and musical with light bass	Same
Video	Sharp for SD and HD	Crisp and stutter-free HD streaming

Audio

The audio subsystem belted out soothing vocals and extended treble in admirable stereo imaging and rhythms, but failed to live up to expectations in the low frequency range despite an onboard woofer. We only managed to pick up mild mid-bass notes audible during music playback, which can be a shortcoming on explosive movie soundtracks. Nevertheless, you should be able to enjoy a more "airy" soundstage using Sony's S-Force Front Surround 3D technology.

Conclusion

For S$3,999, the LED-backlit KDL-46HX925 is more affordably priced than some LED-edgelit models like the S$4,499 Samsung UA46D7000. Best of all, you get the same flicker-free 3D that passive 3D TVs deliver with the added advantage of a brilliant 2D picture quality rivaling plasma panels. The smart TV function, two pair of 3D glasses and a Skype camera are additional niceties that earn this Bravia our coveted Editors' Choice award.

Test setup and tools

Equipment	Model(s)
Reference 3D Blu-ray player	Panasonic DMP-BDT300
Reference DVD player	Pioneer DV-S969AVi
Reference game consoles	Sony PS3/Xbox 360
A/V interconnects	Monster cables/Philips/Gefe
HDMI distribution	Gefen
Reference LED-lit TV	Samsung LA46A950
Reference plasma/3D TV	Panasonic Viera TH-P50VT20S
Calibration tool	DataColor SpyderTV Pro