Customer Reviews

Sony KDL46Z4500 - 46-inch Widescreen 1080P Full HD 200Htz LCD TV with Freeview

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great piece of equipment. The picture quality, especially when showing Blu-Ray films, is excellent: sharp, clear and bright. Watching films feeaturing bright sunshine or other lights you almost have to look away at times. There is also a theatre mode that reduces the full-on brightness and gives a picture more like that in a cinema.

The sound quality will probably not be enough for audiophiles bent on a surround sound home theatre set, but the integrated speakers (left, right and subwoofer) are very good indeed. There are various virtual surround sound modes where tricks with timing are used to simulate sound coming from the side, or indeed the rear (although this latter is less convincing if your sofa is very close to the back wall). Again, with Blu-Ray films, if you select the HD soundtrack such as DTS HD Master Audio or TrueHD, you will be surprised at just how good the internal speakers can sound.

Set up and operation are fairly simple and intuitive. I just found it a bit slow and awkward to sort channels. The BRAVIA link is useful if you have other Sony products, particularly a Blu-Ray player. The remote control is nicely ergonomic and comprehensive, with a backlight feature for viewing films in darkened rooms. I also found a nice touch in that the Sony logo is a lamp which fades in and out when the TV is turned on and off.

The 200HZ Motionflow feature is good to have for sports and action movies, although I have yet to notice a big difference between the maximum motionflow setting and the standard immediately beneath it.

All in all a very impressive TV. Wholeheartedly recommended

An avid fan of home cinema and What Hifi reader. Spent ages choosing a new tv, reading reviews and blogs etc and i LOVE this one. The picture is just awesome. 200hz screen is brillinat for sports or fast moving pictures with NO hint of blurring. The sound from the speakers is far better than other screens at this price. The USB input to display photo's etc is great and the xbar set up is so easy. The remote is intuitive and is back lit for when watching movies in the dark. My PS3 looks fantastic on it as does any DVD or any HD content icluding SKY HD whichs looks superb. I could go on forever, it is a great set. Use the THX set up disc from any Star Wars DVD to tweek the settings and you'll have a superb TV.

I bought the Sony 46-Z-4500 to replace a 32" CRT Sony IDTV and I must say it is very good. This is my fourth Sony TV.

What I really like is the quality of picture. Using the built-in digital tuner is quite a lot better than through a Humax PVR which interestingly was better than the using the previous TV's internal tuner. Motion flow really seems to work with fast moving scenes too as there doesn't seem to be any of those horrible digital artefacts. For such a large screen it is surprising how good a low resolution image can be made to look. As you can imagine, viewing full 1080p/24 Blueray disk source is fantastic. The colour balance and contrast are superb.

Sound quality through the internal speakers is acceptable for general day to day viewing although not as good as the previous 32" CRT TV. For films the scale of the sound isn't great, so I'm waiting the arrival of a new surround sound amp to hook up to some existing 5.1 speakers.

There are two options for Electronic Programme Guide (EPG). One has picture in picture (PIP), but a large part of the screen has an advert and is generally really cluttered. The other standard Sony look which is my family's preference doesn't have PIP.

I have my TV connected to the home network and have viewed photos and tried listening to music served from a Vista laptop. Photos are very good. As the sound quality for the TV is nothing to shout about, until I get surround sound up and running there is no point is listening to music through it. There is a USB socket on the side too and that works equally well for photos and music. There is no option to view video over the network.

I'm really pleased with the purchase and have already recommended it to friends and colleagues.

My rating is:

Picture quality: 5/5
Sound quality: 3/5
Features: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

I have had several Sony television sets in the past and this one is the best yet. I am not technically minded but so far as I am concerned the picture is every bit as good as most of the professional reviewers said, and I would not wish for anything better, especially on high definition. The sound is quite reasonable although obviously not up to hi fi audio standard.

The initial installation proved very easy and it was accomplished without any problem and without professional help. It is a very heavy set and requires two strong men to lift it into position.

Perhaps I may conclude with a word of praise for Amazon. Not only was the quoted price the cheapest available anywhere, but it as delivered free on the agreed day with a careful two man delivery.

Bought to replace an ageing CRT 32" Sony Trinitron the main reasons for going with the Z series were 200hz motion flow and the non-reflective screen.
Both work well with little to no refelctions compared to my old glass screened TV and motion handling just about as good as I have seen on any LCD TV.

This TV does deliver a fantastic picture but needs a few subtle tweaks to get the best out of it. Out of the box (having told it you are in a 'home' setting rather than 'shop') you get three presets - Movie, Normal & Vivid and these can be customised individually for each input which is useful as I have different settings for SKY, Blu Ray and PS3 for example and can switch between them with the TV reconfiguring automatically as I change inputs.

Both Movie & Normal profiles are pretty much on the money at default and I only made minor changes, mainly to tailor to the light levels in my room - with Movie being my prefered everyday setting and Normal for HD sports such as footy or NFL. Vivid on the other hand is way too bright and unless you have the TV directly facing a sunlit window I doubt you could watch for long without eyestrain or a headache!

There are a lot of picture options and some care is needed in setting up as combining certain options can introduce odd effects - setting motion flow to high and film mode to 2 for example gives an almost 3D effect but delivers an unatural look to film material and strange artifacts on horizontal & vertical movement.
I'd recommend taking a look on the AV Forums website to get some guidance as to good starting pojnts if you are struggling to get a good picture.

Sound is OK but as with most flat panel speakers a bit lacking in depth and scope even with the numerous virtual spcial effects - apparently it has a Sub-Woofer but to be honest I set it to max and struggled to hear any difference. Voice force on the other hand works very well in enhancing the vocal range which I found very effective as I have high frequency hearing loss.

Connectivity is good with 3 HDMI ports, 2 Scarts, PC, Component, LAN and USB - one HDMI is on the side though so make sure you use a flat cable or 90 degree plug to ensure the cable doesn't show and spoil the clean lines if you use it.
Bravia link is included if you have Sony AV equiment and it works a treat with my Blu-Ray - switching inputs and changing settings automatically including syncing to 24p as soon as I power up the player.

Finally the design - typical Sony. Highlights are floating speaker and LED's in a 'glass' panel, illuminated logo and touch buttons on the frame and a subtle sparkle effect in the frame and stand. The stand is a swivel type an does wobble when you move the TV but seems to be solid in normal use.
The remote is great and considering the amount of buttons is well laid out and easy to use - a bonus is it is back lit and even the backlight button glows in the dark to help you find it if you have the lights down.

Feed this TV with HD and it's superb, with strong punchy colours and razor sharp definition. Upscaled DVD's likewise very good. SD is OK but you'll need to be around 8-10ft away to get an acceptable picture.
It's biggest strength is definately the 200hz motionflow - it may be a gimick but it's a very effective one.

Highly recomended!

I'd been looking for a new tv for quite a while and finally settled on this one. I'm not disapointed eithier. The picture blew us away and thats only running at 576p (not got a blueray player yet). Sound is very good as well for a tv. Very easy to setup and the freeview tuner is better than any set top box I've had.

If you want/need a new tv you won't go wrong with this one, would highly recomend it.

I read lots of reviews about which to purchase and made lots of trips around the shops and i must say in my opinion the picture quality is far better than any others that i looked at. I must admit that i was a bit apprehensive about buying an expensive tv over the internet, but it all came with no problems, (thanks Amazon).

An excellent product well packaged and delivered promptly. As part of a complete HD Sony AV system, it works extremely well.

Finally received this Tv which is excellent without doubt but the tracking info supplied by Amazon through HDNL is just a total waste of time. Let me explain. It started with an email after paying for it stating delivery by the 30th Sep-1st Oct telly ordered 28th September then actual delivery time scale was 6th October. I thought great, but alas by the 30th September both HDNL and Amazon where telling me via the tracking number online it had been delivered! Well to my surprise and horror it was not delivered to me.
I had to go through to HDNL who at first were`nt very helpful but gave me another number to phone, so I phoned it for more info. Then I had to phone Amazon for even more info which was given.
Now my point is whats the use of giving a tracking number to the customer when it becomes useless! I had to make phone calls after phone calls to track my own item which I should never of had to make.
Cant fault the Tv in anyway highly recommended, but I wont be using Amazon or HDNL until this tracking is sorted out so they can get it right. As you can see that when it`s been delivered and you don`t have your goods then it becomes a very large concern especially when its that amount.

So the Tv gets 5 stars but Amazon and HDNL only get 2 at a push, sorry.

Excellent picture even when not in HD.

When in power saving mode, the external inputs not selected when TV was switched off appear to take some time to be made available for use when TV is next switched on. Minor irritation sometimes.