Sony KDL-40Z4500

[admin_exported]

Can anyone help?

Over last 2 weeks, I have purchased a new HD entertainment system. The Sony KDL-40Z4500 200hz LCD TV (being delivered tomorrow), Sony RHT-G900 amp/ speaker unit, Sony BDP-S550 Blu-ray player, Sony 80GB PS3 (yes i'm a Sony fan boy), Sky+ HD (being installed next week), Chord Company Silver Plus HDMi 1.3 cables (x3), QED HDMi Live PS3 cable.

Being that I have had a 10 year old Sony 28" CRT TV and standard DVD player, I would like anyone to let me know the best way for me to set up this system. I'm guessing, running 3 sources (PS3, Blu-ray and Sky+HD) via HDMi to the amp and then 1 HDMi from the amp to the TV. My concern is, after reading other forums, i'm not sure how I will get the best audio, as the RHT-G900 doesnt seem to support the HD audio formats according to the manual. So do I need to send it from the sources via Linear PCM? Would this mean that the source does the decoding? Secondly, does anyone have an idea for the best settings on the TV for obtaining the best picture, or would this change depending on the source?

Is there anything else I should know about settings/ calibration?

Any responses welcome!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi All

Got my 40" Z4500 yesterday and was like a small boy on Christmas morning. My first impressions before adjusting any settings were that it totally blew me away. The quality of this set is superb.

Now I'll base my comparisons against my old 28" CRT, my girlfriends 32" S3000, and a demonstarion viewing of a 40" W4500 at a sony centre a couple of weeks ago, where I also saw a 40" X3500. Coincidentally, I noticed a big difference between those 2 sets in the shop, but I was still a bit disappointed with the motion on the W4500 which is why I opted for the Z4500 with its 200Hz technology, and I did get it £350 cheaper than the retail price online.

At the moment I have only been able to watch DVD, Bluray discs and play games through the PS3. I haven't managed to watch any SD TV (as it didnt come with an aerial cable and I didnt keep an old one

). I initially went through the THX Optimizer to calibrate settings. So far bluray viewing is amazing, edge definition, contrast and motion handling at 1080/24p is spot on. DVD's are also very good. Set Motionflow to Off then to Max and could noticibally see a difference with the later. No image blurring without creating any noise. In my opinion the 200Hz does make a difference, but I've yet to try it out on SD TV which will be the real test. I cannot see any clouding on a black screen (and it does go very black), so thumbs up there and I have no dead pixels.

My only gripe and its a small one is the remote commander. The buttons in the centre are close together and with my clumsy thumbs, I sometimes hit the wrong button. This obviously does not detract from the viewing, and the backlight on it is very cool. Also the midnight blue panel has some touch sensitive backlit buttons in the bottom right corner of the panel which I stumbled across accidentally but found very funky! I'm looking forward to having Sky+HD installed and receiving the S550 bluray player now.

Can I ask if WHFSAV are going to test this TV to get their expert opinion?

 

[Anonymous]

TKD24:
Hi All

Got my 40" Z4500 yesterday and was like a small boy on Christmas morning. My first impressions before adjusting any settings were that it totally blew me away. The quality of this set is superb.

Now I'll base my comparisons against my old 28" CRT, my girlfriends 32" S3000, and a demonstarion viewing of a 40" W4500 at a sony centre a couple of weeks ago, where I also saw a 40" X3500. Coincidentally, I noticed a big difference between those 2 sets in the shop, but I was still a bit disappointed with the motion on the W4500 which is why I opted for the Z4500 with its 200Hz technology, and I did get it £350 cheaper than the retail price online.

At the moment I have only been able to watch DVD, Bluray discs and play games through the PS3. I haven't managed to watch any SD TV (as it didnt come with an aerial cable and I didnt keep an old one

). I initially went through the THX Optimizer to calibrate settings. So far bluray viewing is amazing, edge definition, contrast and motion handling at 1080/24p is spot on. DVD's are also very good. Set Motionflow to Off then to Max and could noticibally see a difference with the later. No image blurring without creating any noise. In my opinion the 200Hz does make a difference, but I've yet to try it out on SD TV which will be the real test. I cannot see any clouding on a black screen (and it does go very black), so thumbs up there and I have no dead pixels.

My only gripe and its a small one is the remote commander. The buttons in the centre are close together and with my clumsy thumbs, I sometimes hit the wrong button. This obviously does not detract from the viewing, and the backlight on it is very cool. Also the midnight blue panel has some touch sensitive backlit buttons in the bottom right corner of the panel which I stumbled across accidentally but found very funky! I'm looking forward to having Sky+HD installed and receiving the S550 bluray player now.

Can I ask if WHFSAV are going to test this TV to get their expert opinion?

What in your opinion was wrong with the w4500 motion how bad was it.? As many people seem to think it's pretty good.

 

[Anonymous]

When the sony centre salesman put on Sky HD, I asked him to put a sports channel on, so I could check the W4500 motion with the football that was on. It was good, better than some LCD TV's i've seen but I still noticed blurring and issues with edge definition due to noise around the players etc. Even with motionflow on max it still seemed to struggle a bit. It didnt give me the wow factor I was looking for. It could have well been down to the channel, but it was Sky Sports HD1.

 

[lobby]

How well does the Z4500 handle motion, is it worth the extra cash as it seems quite expensive for a 40" tv. Just wondering what you thought of it as im looking for a new tv for the lounge.

 

[matthewpiano]

Amazed you've managed to get hold of a Z series set already. We haven't even received our first incoming stock in Sony Centres yet until later this week!!!!

Glad you are enjoying it, although I don't agree about motion on the W4500. Its a fabulous set and far better than the W4000 in every respect.