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ON TEST Despite its dashing good looks, the sets performance is disappointing

THE FLAT FACTS

I 30IN 16:9 LCD TV I 4,500 I RESOLUTION: 1,280 X 768 I DIMENSIONS W: 971 H: 594 D: 229 (mm) I SPEAKERS: YES I TV TUNER: YES I SCARTS: 4

Sony KLV-30MR1

Sonys 30in LCD screen is a work of art. But is there true AV grit beneath all that ethereal beauty?

FEATURES

450cd/m2 brightness; PAL/Secam/NTSC playback; Nicam stereo output with Virtual Dolby, Dynamic and Natural presets; five preset picture modes; contrast, brightness, colour, sharpness and backlight adjustment, gamma correction and three hue settings; six aspect ratio modes; noise reduction, comb filter; auto tuning; Smartlink; auto standby; on-timer; sleep timer; teletext with 250-page memory and subpage memory SOCKETS Media box: Memory Stick slot; 15-pin PC RGB and stereo minijack audio input; S-video input; composite video input; stereo audio input; headphone minijack; four Scarts (three RGB); component video input; stereo audio input; stereo audio output; subwoofer; AV mouse input; phono output; spring-clip centre speaker terminals; control-S port CONTACT Sony 1999 www.sony.co.uk TEST DATA Colour: excellent. Sharp edges, but slightly noisy edges and minimal bleed Geometry: perfect Frequency response: excellent. Fine detail up to 5.8MHz
he 30in KLV-30MR1 was the biggest gun in Auto setup is initialised within the attractive Sonys arsenal as the company launched and sensibly designed onscreen menu. It quickly its first assault on the mid-sized LCD TV finds and sorts analogue channels into the right market. The set is as much a status symbol as it order. The metallic remote control is a little fiddly is a TV, and the picture really needs to be to use, though, as the titchy buttons are too something special to do justice to its beautiful closely packed together. However, on the floating picture design. plus side, it is attractively styled and The styling really is breathtaking. The looks tasty. screen is encased in a glass panel, creating the Memory Stick compatibility impression that its suspended in mid-air. apart, the unremarkable Cleverly, all the manual controls are found on features comprise five preset the separate media centre, making the set picture modes, three virtual itself incredibly clutter-free. The speakers surround settings and are fixed to the glass panel and the screen teletext with subpages and a can be wall-mounted or bolted on to the 250-page memory. The panel supplied stand. Unfortunately, though, offers WXGA resolution (1,280 x this doesnt allow the set to swivel 768) and is capable of peak around at all. brightness of 450cd/m2. In addition to manual controls, the stylish media unit sports inputs Performance including S-video, composite Despite its dashing good looks, the video, stereo audio, a headphone sets performance is disappointing. minijack and a 15-pin analogue Noise blights even the strongest RGB socket for hooking up a PC. signal and affects the detail level, and The upper portion houses a the picture lacks clarity. With a 580i Memory Stick slot, enabling component video signal from a Tag owners of Sony digital cameras McLaren DVD32FLR, pictures are cloaked and camcorders to display in noise. This makes backgrounds pretty images and play footage on hard to define. the screen. Although moving objects remain Looks a treat but the buttons The media boxs rear solid, there is slight image lag and are too tightly packed connectivity is also impressive. judder accompanying camera pans. Three of the four Scart inputs accept RGB, while Blacks lack a little depth, leading to a lacklustre phono inputs take high-quality component contrast. The space-set opening scene of Men in video images from compatible DVD players. A Black II is slightly grey-blue in colour, instead of centre speaker and subwoofer can be hooked up black. The stars in the background also lack to spring-clip terminals to beef up the built-in sparkle. At least colours are rich and the RGB audio system a little. feed offers little degradation in picture quality.

The RF feed is beset by considerable noise and theres also a slight trace of ringing and tizzing. Images featuring bright colours and fast movement also pose a problem, as backgrounds appear fuzzy and lacking in detail. Audio performance is fair, with the stereo speakers delivering clean vocals and sufficient levels of detail. But the virtual surround settings sadly dont add much to the mix and only slightly stretch the soundstage. Ultimately, despite looking drop-dead gorgeous, the KLV-30MR1 falls short in key areas. The Memory Stick slot will undoubtedly please owners of compatible kit, who can easily display still and moving pictures on the panel. But, when the lack of features and disappointing performance are taken into consideration, it is difficult to justify the 4,500 asking price. A classic case of style over content. WP

RATINGS

FOR Gorgeous looks; connectivity AGAINST Picture noise; lack of features PICTURE.###$$ SOUND.####$ LOOKS.##### FEATURES.###$$ EASE OF USE.####$ VALUE.##$$$

VERDICT ###$$

A plain performance lets down the gorgeous styling JUNE/JULY 2004
126 WHAT PLASMA & LCD TV

0308HCC13 Sony LCD TV P

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SONY KLV-30MR1 N 4,500 (APPROX) N 1999 N www.sony.co.uk
The design is a work of genius - its official!

Flatter slicker better

SONYS BEAUTIFUL GLASS-ENCASED LCD TV CAUSES JOHN ARCHER TO CATCH HIS BREATH. IS THIS THE WORLDS MOST DESIRABLE TELLY?
The sculpted metal remote is substantial
f theres a more stunning looking TV than Sonys KLV-30MR1, then I havent seen it yet. Call me the technomancer,
proposition and especially handy for wall mounters. So few wires have to connect with the screen itself because the lions share of connection duties are taken on by a predictably stylish external AV tuner/switching box. This is included in the package price and features hookups galore. There are four Scarts (three RGB), component video inputs with progressive scan capability, a 15-pin PC VGA jack, front-mounted S-video and composite video inputs, spring-clip speaker inputs so the TV can be used as a centre channel in a surround sound system and, last but not least, a MemoryStick slot. This is there so that you can view digital photos stored on a MemoryStick on the TV screen. Setting the TV up is no trouble at all thanks to a remote control thats as intuitive as it is easy on the eye, as well as some beautifully presented if longwinded onscreen menus. My only moan at this stage is the way the TVs link with the remote control sometimes seemed to get lost, only returning if I press menu again twice.

LAB REPORT

Colour: Vibrant and relatively noise-free with good source material Geometry: Excellent Frequency response: Excellent, ultra-clear beyond 5.8MHz
but the thing really is eye-bulgingly, palpitation-inducingly, pulse-racingly, love-inspiringly gorgeous. With a capital G. With knobs on. And no, the picture on this page doesnt even start to do the real thing justice. The main cause of all this hyperbole is its translucent glass screen frame. Being both see-through and merely millimetres thick, it creates the impression that the picture itself is hanging in mid air like a wafer thin hologram. In reality, theres a good few centimetres of LCD technology poking out round the back, but thanks to the glass outer shell, youd never be aware of it.
The MBT-MRI contains the TV tuner and even a memory-stick reader slot

GLASS ACT

The gobsmacking impact of the 30MR1s design is enhanced still further by a deeply pretty, exceptionally spacious stand and by the wonderfully slick way the Sony logo lights up when the TV is on. These are just the sort of icing-on-the-cake touches such a stunning screen deserves. The 30MR1s not just pretty, though, its practical too. For a start it has stereo speakers built in. Also, only a couple of

HCC Practical Tip

If you really want to show off your KLV-30MR1 Sony sells an optional two-tier glass stand which sells for 500 and helps elevate the screen to the correct viewing height. For the best contrast, LCD screens have an optimal viewing position. Move to the side and blacks have a tendency to turn milky grey.

GO TWEAK

The list of features is fairly long. On the picture side particularly, key offerings include a Dynamic Picture contrast booster, multi-level gamma control for adjusting the contrast of picture
The hovering LEDs are an eyecatching design feature
wires actually have to go into the screen, making it a much tidier
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The HD feeds exhibited an almost total lack of grain; the cleanliness was striking
elements rather than the whole, noise reduction, colour correction, and a series of presets. As for sound, the key talent is Virtual Dolby processing. But its worth pointing out too that the AV box carries a pair of stereo spring-clip speaker inputs so you can use the 30MR1 as the centre channel in a surround sound system. While gorgeous, the 30MR1 is not actually unique. Eagle-eyed regular readers may have already noticed that Sonys 42in KE-42MR1 plasma screen wears the same spectacular finish. The 42MR1s pictures have a flaw or two, but the good news is that the 30MR1 gets a much cleaner bill of health. The set, which actually has an LG/Philips-sourced LCD panel at its heart (Sony doesnt actually produce its own plasma or LCD panels), hints at greatness. As well see, much depends on the sources connected. Colour reproduction is astonishingly vibrant. Extremely natural tones and impressively handled shading combine to great effect. Your eyes are drawn to the picture like moths to a flame. The screen can be driven sensationally bright, and fine detail reproduction is superb. This leads to a genuinely three-dimensional feel to viewing that happily isnt undone by any major processing problems with motion. Early LCD screens suffered major motion problems, with objects smearing as they move across the screen. This Sony is sensationally fast and never smears. But like all high resolution panels, the 30MR1 isnt too happy with mediocre signal feeds. The analogue tuner can look grainy and low-bitrate digital TV display is little more than functional. But up the ante in resolution and the set sings a sweet song.

highlighted the problem. Bright scenes, like Gandalfs first arrival at the Shire, look terrifically detailed and rich. But dark scenes, such as that where Frodo is stabbed by a black rider, are dull and muted. But what you lose in dynamism you gain in texture and tone. The Superbit release of Gladiator provides a stunning example of how textured and detailed an image from DVD can look. We then ran the screen with a selection of digital still images, held on memory card, at 1024 x 768 resolution. The pictures looked stunningly sharp with almost supernatural colour saturation. Finally, to really push the panel, we used the WV tech Labs to feed the set a 1080i high definition signal. The results were outstanding! Vastly superior to Sonys KE-42MR1 plasma, the pictures were stunningly sharp and noise free. The HD feeds exhibited an almost total lack of grain; the cleanliness of the image was striking. When high-definition DVDs arrive, this set will be more than up to the job. Obviously the KLV-30MR1 isnt cheap, but as a cutting-edge example of flat TV design and a indicator of just how good LCD can look, this Sony cant be beat. Just remember to feed it with high-class source material. Now, if only Sony could sort out the contrast problem. I

RATINGS

Highs: Looks, clarity, motion handling, connectivity Lows: Inability to deliver a true black
Picture Sound Features Overall ####12 #### ####12 ####12

FEATURES

HDTV compatible with 1280x768 (XGA) panel; progressive scan compatible; noise reduction; dynamic picture contrast boost; gamma control; colour correction; backlight adjust; Virtual Dolby; picture and sound presets; auto volume control; Smartlink; autotuning; sleep timer; on/off timer; slide show options from MemoryStick; teletext with sub-page storage; 450cd/m2 brightness; BBE sound Screen size: 32in Connections (on AV unit): 4 Scarts (3 RGB); stereo audio output; PC input; S-video input; composite video input; stereo audio input x 2; RF input; component video input; MemoryStick slot; DVI and control output to screen; AV mouse jack; spring-clip speaker jacks for centre channel input Dimensions: 971(w) x 594(h) x 229(d) mm; Weight: 20kg

BLAND APART

The 30MR1s only major failing is its lack of contrast. It just doesnt deliver a true black. While Gamma control and contrast can hide this during brightly lit footage (Sky News studio-shot stuff looks sensational, for instance), dark scenes can lack background detail and depth. Our Lord Of The Rings DVD
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