KDL40W3000 Settings For Best Image Quality

There are a lot of controls (perhaps too many) in the user menu of the Sony KDL40W3000 that you can use to finetune the picture quality on the LCD television. The thing is, if you do not know what the function of each individual control is, then you run the chance of actually ruining instead of improving the final image quality. Here are some tips for avoiding that.

LCD TVs are great in that they offer backlight control which ultimately affects the total light that comes out from the screen. Understandably during day time the backlight should be bumped up to try to maintain shadow detail against competing ambient light, but during critical viewing at night one should adjust the backlight on the Sony KDL40W3000 to as low as possible without sacrificing too much in overall luminance.

Why set the backlight so low? It's because this will allow you to achieve the deepest blacks that the Sony KDL40W3000 has to offer, thereby enhancing the image depth and 3-dimensionality. Also, because clouding (uneven patches particularly visible during dark scenes) is usually seen when the backlight is high, naturally lowering backlight would reduce the chance of clouding appearing on the screen.

Now is a good time as any to tackle the issue of sharpness. Although it can make the picture appear more defined, by and large sharpness is bad because on LCD TVs produced enmasse insufficient technology is implemented such that it is carried out efficiently. As a result, usually increasing sharpness excessively would introduce ringing or halos around objects (especially around text), so sharpness should be kept to the minimum on the Sony KDL40W3000.

You should also refrain from engaging the Noise Reduction and MPEG Noise Reduction controls found on the Sony KDL40W3000. Don't get me wrong, these function do work, but in doing so they bring about motion blur (because the internal circuitry is not sophisticated enough to tell the difference between movement and noise) and/ or loss of fine detail (again, because the circuitry can't differentiate between minute detail and noise).

To truly get the absolute best out of your Sony KDL40W3000, you need to try to approach the D65 greyscale standard as stipulated by the movie and broadcast studio industry. D65 is the colour temperature that is uniformly adopted by them, so if you want to watch movies as intended by the director, it is imperative that your KDL40W3000 is calibrated to D65. The white balance controls available in the user menu of the Sony KDL40W3000 makes it easy for D65 calibration, but then again you would need to have the necessary tools and knowledge before you can do it yourself. A professional calibrator would help in this regard, but then again their services do not come cheap.