Is 200hz all it's cracked up to be? (Sony KDL-40Z4500)

Member Name: sdemb

Product:	Sony KDL-40Z4500
Date:	02/10/09 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 200hz feature, great black levels, vivid colours

Disadvantages: 200hz feature might not appeal to everyone

Intro
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I recently upgraded to this Television from a 32" Toshiba. This television is one of Sony's flagship models, it's most notable feature being it's 200hz refresh rate. It's priced towards the higher end of the market with the larger 47" version costing around £300 more. I opted for the 40" model, which seemed big enough when compared to my previous 32"


Design
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The first thing you will notice when seeing this television for the first time, is it's clean, modern design. The LCD panel itself is surrounded by a glossy black frame, and if you look closely enough, is speckled with shiny bit's of blue. The blue speckles seemed a little unnecessary in my opinion as they are only viewable when strong sunlight hits the set, or you look very closely, I'm glad Sony did this however as I feel they could have looked extremely tacky if they were more visible; seems like a design addition just for the sake of it. On the bottom right hand side of the frame are some touch buttons which allow you to change channels, inputs, and volume, these buttons are only visible when you touch the frame and completely disappear when not in use; I felt this was a nice touch. In the centre of the frame is the Sony logo which is actually backlit when the set is turned on, the light fades out when the TV is switched off. Underneath the glossy frame, a strip of glass hangs below which holds the thin wide speaker that stretches along the entire width of the television. The speaker is finished in silver, with additional speaker covers available to purchase separately, in black or red, depending on your decor!
The glass separates the LCD from the speaker and creates a classy 'floating effect'


Picture Quality
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Unfortunately, I didn't use the built in digital tuner so can't comment on the quality of it as I have SkyHD which is what I am basing this review on. The quality of the standard definition channels is about as good as gets for an LCD, unfortunately, lower quality broadcasts are exaggerated by the size of the television and some slight artefacts can appear. This is to be expected on any LCD TV. Switch to an HD channel and this is where the magic happens, the picture is sharp, and almost breathtakingly good. Colours are vivid but natural and the tv offers many presets to play around with. Blacks are about as dark as they get on an LCD, still not as good as the best Plasma's however. Switch to a blu-ray and the quality is as good as it gets, some of the starry sky scenes in Wall-E were eye-wateringly good!


Sound Quality
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The sound quality isn't amazing but does the job and the built in subwoofer manages to beef up some of the lower frequencies to produce a pleasant sound. If your a movie buff, you may want to invest in some surround sound.


200hz?
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Now for the big question, is the 200hz feature useful? Short answer, yes, long answer, maybe. For regular television, that's your soap opera's and your documentaries, you most likely hardly notice the feature since these types of programs don't feature fast moving scenes. Although I don't watch allot of sporting events myself, I can see how this feature would be useful in this case, making pictures smoother and making sure you don't miss anything. Where the feature is most notable is during film's, and you will notice it, allot, but not necessarily in a good way. Watching films with the 200hz feature turned to max, is a strange experience, it's hard to explain but it makes films look like TV shows, this is because TV shows are generally shot at a higher hertz than films. The feature can sometimes ruin the mood of the film, instead of looking like a high budget movie, shot in an artistic way, it's almost as though your looking out of a window at regular people walking around. I personally turned the feature to standard instead of max, but it will really come down to personal preference and what you prefer. It's an amazing feature in it's own right but wether or not it improves the viewing experience is not so clear.


Conclusion
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Overall the quality of this television is hard to beat, without spending twice as much money. Wether or not the 200hz feature matters to you, shouldn't sway your decision too much since the television would still be great without it, and since the price of this TV has come down since it was released, your not exactly paying a premium just to have it.

Summary: A good price for what would be a fantastic television even without the 200hz feature!

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