Sony KDL-46VE5

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Sony KDL-VE5 series

In case you haven't noticed, "green" is big business. One way for HDTV makers to cash in on the public's craving for efficiency is to label a TV "eco-friendly." Sony's KDL-VE5 series does just that, but unlike a lot of so-called green electronics, this TV can actually save power in a new, potentially very effective way. That's because it incorporates a "presence sensor" that can automatically turn the picture off when it detects nobody's watching. Amazingly, the feature worked pretty well in our tests, and we hope to see similar automatic turn-offs in future televisions--as long as irate couch potatoes don't flood Sony's customer service call centers to complain of malfunctioning TVs. Otherwise, the Sony uses about as much power as a typical LCD--it's nowhere near as miserly as the LED-backlit Sharp's LC-LE700UN series, for example.

The KDL-VE5 also offers very good picture quality for a standard LCD, but on the downside it charges a hefty premium over the step-down KDL-V5100 series--the only major differences between the two are styling and the VE5's presence sensor. If you're prone to forgetting to turn the TV off, however, the KDL-VE5 might be able to make up the difference in a few years.

Series note: We performed a hands-on evaluation of the 46-inch Sony KDL-46VE5, but this review also applies to the 40-inch Sony KDL-40VE5 and the 52-inch Sony KDL-52VE5. All three sizes in the series share identical specifications aside from screen size and should exhibit very similar picture quality.

Design
[Editors' note: Many of the Design and Features elements are identical between the KDL-VE5 series and the KDL-V5100 series we reviewed previously, so readers of the earlier review may experience some déjà vu when reading the same sections below.]

Sony models typically bring a bit more style to the tabletop, or the wall, than your average TV, but the KDL-VE5 series is an exception. Its squared-off panel looks pretty conservative next to the designs of Samsung and LG, or even Sharp. The speaker bar along the bottom of the panel is silver for a classic two-tone flourish, and above it runs a reflective strip that provides further accent. The glossy black of the square, nonswiveling stand matches the frame around the screen, which is average in thickness and otherwise unremarkable.

The conservative, two-tone look of the VE5 is achieved by silver speakers and black frame.

We actually prefer the VE's smaller remote to the many-buttoned clicker included on Sony's higher-end models. The central cursor is plenty prominent and surrounded by four buttons that are difficult to confuse--one of which is the important "wide" key for aspect ratio control. A cluster of keys at the top of the remote can command other gear that's compatible with the HDMI-CEC control-over-HDMI scheme, but the remote can't control other devices via infrared. One missing item for an eco-conscious TV is a dedicated button to easily access all of the power-saving features; as it stands you have to delve into the menus to do so.

The main picture menu puts plenty of information onscreen at once.

The menu system is also a refreshing, relatively simple affair compared to the company's PS3-inspired cross media bar used on step-up models. All of the major categories, from picture to setup, are arranged to the far left and stay visible no matter where you are in the menu. Nesting of multiple menus is kept to a happy minimum by grouping numerous selections on the screen at once. We also liked the one-line descriptions of various menu functions, as well as the separate Tools menu with easy access to oft-used items (although controls for the MotionFlow and Eco modes are regrettably absent). On the other hand, the Favorites bar, to quickly jump to a last-used input, channel or USB content, seemed somewhat extraneous.

Hitting the favorites key brings up a list of channels and inputs.

Features
The VE5's main differentiating feature is the ability to sense your presence and, if it detects you're no longer in the room, turn off the picture until you return, saving significant amounts of power. A small motion sensor in the middle of the silver speaker bar monitors a 45-degree arc directly in front of the television, out to a distance of about 10 feet according to the manual, and when it fails to detect movement after a specified period of time--you can set it for 5, 30 or 60 minutes--the picture goes dark (the sound remains turned on, however) and power consumption drops to about 51 watts. That's at least half, depending on your other settings, of the VE5's normal power use. If the sensor detects movement again within 30 minutes the TV turns back on. If not, it shuts off completely, cutting power use down to nearly zero watts.

A sensor on the front of the VE5 detects motion. If it doesn't "see" any within a certain timeframe, the TV turns off.

In demo mode the presence sensor displays a numeric bar that shows how close the TV is to deactivating.

In our tests the system worked well, turning the TV off after we left and re-engaging power when we returned after a brief time. We liked that a "TV is about to turn off" warning message appeared prior to automatic shutoff, and that simply moving an arm or head served to reset the timer, remove the warning and keep the picture on as we watched. Only once over a couple days of testing, all in the most sensitive "5 minute" setting, did the VE5 turn off while we sat in front watching it. Naturally this occurrence depends on how much you move or fidget within the sensor's range while watching TV; also, the sensor has more trouble in darker rooms.

We would like to see a completely customizable timer, or at least a 2- and 3-hour mode to accommodate most movies, and we'd be happier if the TV drew even less than 51 watts while the picture was off. All told, however, the sensor provides a practical and useful way to reduce energy use, especially for people who duck in and out of the TV room frequently or often fall asleep in front of the TV without setting the sleep timer.

The Eco menu offers settings for the presence sensor, as well as control over the VE5's other power-related features.

Although it lacks a dedicated power saver mode, the VE5 does offer a few other ways to cut down on power use. You can manually turn off the picture and leave the sound on. A room lighting sensor brightens and dims the screen according to ambient light levels; the backlight can be made to fluctuate depending on program content as well; and turning off the "energy saving switch" (essentially, a power toggle) on the side eliminates the miniscule, 0.013-watt draw used when the TV is turned off yet awaiting the remote control's signal (e.g. standby mode). Of course, using this switch means you'll have to walk to the TV and turn it on manually.

Sony also claims that its "HCFL" backlight improves on conventional CCFL backlights ("H" is for "hot," "C" is for "cold) by using up to 65 percent less power, but in our tests we didn't notice any improvement. See power consumption below for more details.

The VE5 series is bereft of the interactive doodads available on the company's step-up sets starting with the W5100 series. It does sport 120Hz processing however, which enables improved motion resolution (a.k.a. less blurring) when you turn on the company's MotionFlow dejudder processing. Unlike Samsung's and Toshiba's video processing schemes, Sony's doesn't allow you to get the antiblurring effects without dejudder--not that the effects of blurring are generally visible anyway (see Performance below).

Sony's MotionFlow dejudder processing is available in two strengths.

Other picture controls are relatively extensive. Sony offers three global adjustable picture modes and a fourth, called Custom, that's independent per input. A Theater key on the remote puts the TV into the Cinema global preset.

In addition to the three color temperature presets, full white balance controls are available to help customize the grayscale. More advanced settings include gamma and a Game Mode to disable video processing, along with dubious extras like Live Color, Clear White and Advanced Contrast Enhancer that we left turned off for our evaluation.

Full white balance controls are always a welcome sight.

The KDL-VE5 offers four aspect ratio selections, including one called Full Pixel that correctly scales 1080i and 1080p sources to fit the screen. It lacks extras like picture-in-picture, but we did like the handy product support screen, which includes phone numbers for Sony customer service.

Connectivity on the KDL-VE5 series is solid, if a bit unusual. Sony chose to mount three of the four HDMI inputs--a healthy number--on the side panel rather than the back. That makes temporary hookups more convenient, but on the flipside some users may be less comfortable with wires protruding from the side. Sony did inset that side bay enough to accommodate all but the fattest cables, however.

Although it has just one HDMI port, the back panel does include two component-video and a smattering of audio jacks.

The side panel of the Sony, with its three HDMI and one PC input, is where the action is.

Non-HDMI jacks in the back include two component-video and one RF for antenna or cable, as well as analog and digital audio outputs. That well-rounded side panel boasts a PC input (1,920x1,080 resolution), a USB port for photos and music and an AV input with S- and composite-video.

Performance
The picture quality of Sony's KDL-46VE5 is solid for a standard LCD, with relatively deep black levels, accurate color, and good video processing. On the other hand we'd like to see better saturation, more neutral colors in dark areas, and an improvement in uniformity.

As usual for a Sony review our standard calibration began in Cinema mode, which came fairly close to the color temperature standard, although it fell slightly short of our nominal 40ftl light output. We tweaked the grayscale slightly to very good results, aside from the very darkest areas, and ended up with gamma at a respectable 2.13 versus our target of 2.2. It's worth noting that, as usual, we disabled all of the controls we could that changed the backlight, including the "Auto" backlight setting in the Eco menu.

The side-by-side comparison included a couple LCDs in the VE5's price range, the LG 47LH50 and the Philips 42PFL6704D, as well as a couple of more-expensive LCDs, Samsung's LN52B750 and Sony's own KDL-52XBR9. We also included a par of plasmas, the Panasonic TC-P50V10 and our reference Pioneer PRO-111FD. Our film of choice for most of our image quality tests was "Gran Torino" on Blu-ray.

Black level: The KDL-VE5 delivered a deep shade of black for a standard LCD, equaling that of the XBR9 and surpassing the other LCDs, with the exception of the Samsung B750. The difference was most visible in dark scenes, such as when Eastwood's character awakens in the middle of the night and grabs his gun to investigate a noise. The depths of the shadows in his house and garage, as well as the black of the letterbox bars, all appeared relatively deep on the VE5, albeit not to the same extent as the B750 or the plasmas. Details in the shadows, such as the tools along the walls of the garage or Eastwood's face as the overhead light swings back and forth, also looked quite realistic. We also appreciated that the backlight didn't noticeably change in intensity during transitions between dark and lighter scenes.

Color accuracy: The set's accurate grayscale was were visible in delicate skin tones, such as the pale face of Sue in the truck with Eastwood in Chapter 10, which had the right balance without the greener tinge we saw on the XBR9. The green plants in the background, as well as the red and blue of the Lor family shaman's outfit in Chapter 12, for example, showed the Sony's primary and secondary color accuracy.

On the other hand we did have to reduce the color control, sacrificing some saturation, to avoid a subtle orange-ish look to skin tones. As a result, colors appeared less lush and vibrant than on the LG and the Samsung, not to mention the plasmas. As usual with Sony and many other makers' LCDs, the VE5 also reproduced very dark areas with a decided bluish cast that we couldn't adjust away.

Video processing: You'll need to engage the VE5's MotionFlow dejudder mode to get the antiblurring benefits of its 120Hz refresh rate (which are dubious; see below), but doing so has the usual effect on film-based sources like "Gran Torino." It makes them look more like video.

We compared Sony's Standard mode, the less objectionable of the two MotionFlow settings to our eye, against Standard on the Samsung and Low on the LG, and as in the past we liked the Sony's Standard better. The other two seemed smoother and definitely showed more artifacts than the Sony. For example, in Chapter 9 when Eastwood faces down the punks on the street, the fence behind Trey as he stumbles away dissolved into a blurry halo on the Samsung and LG, while on the Sony it stayed stable. The Sony also preserved some judder in Standard--for example when the camera pulls away from Trey and Sue as they round the corner, the trees in the background stuttered a bit, while on the Samsung and LG they moved smoothly. As always, the "beauty" of dejudder is definitely in the eye of the beholder, and we really prefer Samsung's system since it allows significantly more customization than Sony's simple two settings.

Our preference was to leave dejudder Off for films, and we appreciated that when we did so the VE5 handled 1080p/24 sources well. Our preferred test for this capability, the shot moving over the deck of the Intrepid from "I Am Legend," revealed that the Sony properly preserved the cadence of film.

Like the KDL-5100 series, the VE5 was unable to resolve every detail of 1080i and 1080p still resolution sources. It deinterlaced 1080i video-based sources correctly but failed with film-based sources regardless of the CineMotion setting we chose. Motion resolution with was normal for a 120Hz LCD: 500-600 lines with dejudder engaged (MotionFlow set to Standard or High), which dropped it to 300-400 lines with it turned off. As usual, we found it exceedingly difficult to spot the effects of these resolution characteristics when watching normal program material.

Uniformity: The VE5 exhibited worse overall uniformity any of the other LCDs. The sides appeared brighter than the rest of the screen, but the worst offender was brighter area in the upper-left corner, which became clearly visible dark scenes and the letterbox bars. When seen from off-angle the screen washed out at about an average rate compared to the other LCDs.

Bright lighting: Matte-screened LCDs like the Sony performed the best in our comparison under bright lighting. It handled reflections from windows and lights facing the screen quite well--better than the other displays in our comparison, which all have glossy (the Samsungs) or glass (plasma) screens. It also preserved black levels in dark areas better than either of the two plasmas, and about as well as the Samsung LCD.

Standard-definition: The VE5 turned in an average standard-def performance. It resolved every detail of a DVD source, and fine details in the grass and stone bridge looked as sharp as we expected. With video-based sources we saw more jaggies on moving diagonal lines than on other displays, albeit not as many as on the XBR9--although the waving American flag appeared about the same on the two Sony displays. The VE5's noise reduction performed very well, cleaning up the snowy, noisy shots of skies and sunsets with aplomb, although the MPEG noise reduction option didn't seem to do much in those areas. CineMotion set to Auto1 engaged 2:3 pulldown to remove moire from the grandstands.

PC: Like the V5100, the VE5 couldn't resolve every detail of 1,920x1,080 sources via both HDMI and VGA, failing to deliver the full vertical resolution according to DisplayMate. PC sources still looked relatively crisp nonetheless, but not as good as on the XBR9, for example.

Power consumption: Aside from the room lighting sensor, which can obviously cut down on power use in its own way, the KDL-VE5 isn't much more efficient than any other standard LCD TVs out there. After calibration it used a bit less power than competing LG and Samsung models of similar size, but couldn't compete with LED-based sets. For what it's worth the Sony's standby power use was among the lowest we've ever tested, but such differences have a negligible impact once you get down to fractions of a watt.

Juice box
Sony KDL-46VE5	Picture settings
	Default	Calibrated	Power Save
Picture on (watts)	125.31	103.91	N/A
Picture on (watts/sq. inch)	0.139	0.11	N/A
Standby (watts)	0.014	0.014	N/A
Cost per year	$27.01	$22.40	N/A
Score (considering size)	Good
Score (overall)	Good

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