Sony Bravia KDL-46HX803

Sony has three different ranges of 3D TVs in its collection, including the HX903 series (available as 46'' and 52'' models) and the LX903 series (which comes in 40'', 52'' and 60'').  The third and final member of the trio is this HX803 family, which uses lateral LEDs for backlighting and comes in 40'', 46'' and 55'' versions. 

Despite being the most affordable of the three, it still has a wide range of features, including Motionflow 200 Hz to improve the fluidity of movements in films, Bravia Engine 3 software, a built-in light sensor to adjust the settings according to the ambient conditions and a media player.

You can use the Ethernet port or an optional WiFi card to access the Bravia Internet Video online services from sites like YouTube and Facebook, or play content over your home network thanks to DLNA compatibility.

3D glasses and transmitter an optional extra

The HX803 is the most accessible part of Sony's 3D TV range, with the 46'' version on sale for around £2200.  You'll end up paying a lot more though, because, like with the C7000 series from Samsung, the 3D glasses and the transmitter used to synchronise them aren't included in the price.  That means you get a 3D compatible TV with built-in 2D-to-3D conversion—but not the glasses that you need to see pictures in three dimensions.



2D-to-3D Conversion

Let's take a closer look at 2D-to-3D conversion, something that's built into the HX803 and some Samsung models.  It means you can watch anything—TV, DVDs or 'ordinary' Blu-ray discs—and the TV will convert the picture to 3D for you.  It's very simple and can be turned on or off using the remote control.  Right now, it's the only way to enjoy a wide range of content in 3D. 

This is the second time we've tried 2D-to-3D conversion on a TV.  When we tried it on the Samsung C7000, we found a few problems, with details in films that should have been in the background jumping forwards.  In another scene, one character's right eye was far too deep inside their head.  Although a lot of people are glad to be able to try 3D straight away, this system isn't for everybody, especially for extended periods.  We don't need to tell you that we were keen to see if the HX803 did better than the C7000 ... 

Sony's conversion does add depth, but only at one remove, with all of the action appearing to take place just behind the panel that covers the screen. That's the only thing that seems further forward, and its position can be adjusted using via a setting in the menu.  That makes this mode of only minimal interest.

Image Quality: 3D 

For consumers, TV manufacturers have agreed to adopt active 3D technology, and Sony is no exception.  That means creating the impression of depth by providing alternate Full HD 1080p frames for each eye one after the other.  At the same time, the lenses turn black to cover one eye and then the other so that the correct frame is seen by the each eye.

Sony lent us its BDP-S570 Blu-ray 3D player and a 3D test disc to try out this TV.  Just like with the Samsung UE46C7000 and the Panasonic Viera TX-P50VT20, the results are impressive, and the 3D effect is as convincing at home as it is at the cinema.  Things jump out the screen and you really get a sense of depth of field.  However, there are still a few problems: crosstalk is visible in some areas, which occurs when the signals for the left and right eyes get mixed up, and as a result some objects end up doubled.


To really see this problem, we used the test card above in side-by-side mode.  The frame is actually divided in two, with the left-hand side going to the left eye, and the right-hand side going to the right eye.  The Sony HX803 is less affected by crosstalk than the Samsung C7000, but the results are still far from perfect: a small part of the left-hand frame is visible on the front and vice versa.  If you click on the image above to see it full-size, Panasonic suffers from this problem less.

You should also know that those wearing 3D glasses really need to be close the screen's centre line, so you can forgot about lying down on the sofa to enjoy a movie.  Another recurring criticism is that the glasses significantly reduce brightness.  To see just how bad it was, we measured the light levels 40 cm away from the screen showing a pure white test card, with and without glasses.  Even with backlighting turned up to the maximum, putting the glasses on reduces the amount of light by around 81%.  It struggles to climb over 45 cd/m², which means you'll have to watch your 3D movies in a dark room.

Build Quality and Design

Unlike the more expensive models in Sony's range, the HX803 series doesn't have the Monolithic design that puts a single pane of glass in front of the screen.  Some viewers are likely to prefer this more traditional, less glossy look, but the panel still suffers from reflections.  You need to make sure it's somewhere without too many direct light sources.

The connection options found at the back and around the sides are pretty standard.  There are four HDMI ports, component video, SCART, VGA and an optical audio out.  The HX803 has a USB port for plugging in external hard drives or memory sticks to enjoy video, music or photos.

Bad news, though: Sony hasn't bothered to include a decent media player to access this content.  During our tests, only devices formatted as FAT32 were recognized.  When a TV can't handle NTFS, we only test DivX because other formats aren't worth it if they aren't compatible with large HD files.  Video here is limited to DivX SD and not even HD, which makes for a pretty disappointing media player.

Fortunately, though, the onscreen menus are easy to use and attractive, and the whole thing is based on the XrossMediaBar interface first seen on the PS3.  All of the settings we're used to from other Sony TVs are here, and there's a lot of room for manoeuvre.  You can even adjust the colour temperature across the whole range of brightness levels.  We'll see later on whether or not that's actually useful for correcting any problems with colour fidelity.

As with so many of Sony's competitors, the HX803's remote control is one of its main weaknesses, and we've come to expect better from the manufacturer.  It's intuitive to use, but its square shape make it hard to hold and the individual keys don't have any backlighting. 

Connecting a PC went off without a hitch, but we detected an input lag of 99 ms which gamers won't be impressed by.  It won't have any effect on performance for anybody else though.

Image Quality: Factory Settings

When you take it out of the box, the HX803 is in Standard mode, and, although we're used to unnatural colours, the results weren't too bad—they were even quite attractive in some ways. Most viewers will be more than happy with this mode, but more demanding observers will notice that the colours are a little too saturated with too much blue.


Image Quality: Custom Mode

To see your films as the director intended—without any filters—we suggest you switch to Custom mode and set the backlighting to 5 if you're in a bright room, although this can seem too bright if you're in a darker environment.  If you prefer turning the lights down before you watch a film, then you can easily adjust the backlighting to suit yourself.

At first sight, the colours in Custom mode might seem out of place if you're used to colours that are too saturated.  It might take a little getting used to these settings, but they are more accurate.

The colours are much more natural, with an average deltaE of 2.7.  When this reading falls below 3.0, the discrepancies between the colours that should be on display and those that are actually shown is invisible to the naked eye.  It's a great result, but Sony doesn't stop there.  We also found a contrast ratio of just under 2700:1, with blacks darker than 0.08 cd/m².  Our only criticism is that the HX803 tends to make lighter areas too bright, losing some detail along the way.

We didn't notice any problems when we watched fins in SD or HD.  DVDs are upscaled well, even though a dedicated device like a PS3 or a DVD/Blu-ray disc player still does better.  The HX803 really goes to town with HD films.  The Motionflow 200 Hz Pro mode makes for exceptionally fluid movement, but you need to be careful not to turn it up too high so you don't end up with visual artefacts or the impression that you're watching the 'making of' or a TV show when you're actually looking at a film.  Even at its minimum setting, you get plenty of fluidity without any negative effects on the quality of the picture.

Sound Quality

Like Sony's NX803 range, the HX803 is a victim of its own good looks: it's so thin that the sound isn't big enough.  The speakers aren't loud enough, and while the bass is non-existent, the mid-range and treble is confused.  Unless you're not particularly picky, you'll have to get some Home Cinema speakers to get the most out of a film.

Energy Consumption

On standby, the HX803 only needs the bare minimum of 0.1 W, or the equivalent of 15 p if you leave it switched on all day.  When it's working, we measured 105 W of energy for the 46''.