The Sony KDL-52 Z 5800 TV is a Full HD, 52-inch LCD TV. It’s also Sony’s first TV with a universal multituner, but that’s just one of many selling points — not least of which is the outstanding picture quality. Sony lists the new model, released in autumn 2009, for 2,475 GBP, but it’s advertised online from around 2,200 GBP.

Florian Friedrich, tested on December 23, 2009

Sharp, bright picture.
Excellent depth and colours.
Accurate 24p reproduction (even from 60-hertz signals).
High motion clarity in video-based material.
Universal tuner for analogue TV, DVB-T (Freeview), DVB-C, and DVB-S2 (freesat, also in HD).

Poor motion clarity in film-based material.
Lack of format-switching for up-scaled 4:3 pictures.
Awkward DVB-S navigation.

Wow! Sony’s new 52-incher offers an extensive set of features, enormously bright pictures, and highly accurate colours. Admittedly, 2,500 pounds isn’t exactly cheap for a TV, but the Sony is worth every penny, even despite weaknesses such as its pronounced dependence on viewing angle.

Most important connections:

4x 1x

Multimedia

The Sony’s rear panel hosts all of the connections you need in today’s home cinema — the two HDMIs are joined by a further two on the side of the unit.

If you like multimedia, you’d better add the 52 Z 5800 to your shortlist: The network connection allows the TV to access various types of information from the Internet — these can then display alongside the TV picture. It’ll also play back videos, photos, and music files from a USB stick — or stream them from a server via a PC network. Photo playback is of particularly high quality.

Other Features and Operation

Despite initially coming across as overcrowded, the Sony’s remote control turns out to be very practical.

The universal tuner is especially deserving of praise: This is the first time that the Japanese manufacturer has fitted a TV with such capabilities. The U.K.’s main subscription services, Virgin Media (DVB-C) and Sky Digital (DVB-S), both require their customers to use a set-top box, but you’ll at least be able to use the Z 5800’s built-in tuner to receive analogue TV (where it hasn’t yet been switched off), Freeview, and freesat.

Channel navigation works well for cable and terrestrial channels, thanks to pre-sorted channel lists, but satellite reception dumps radio stations and TV channels into one big list, which doesn’t exactly simplify navigation.

The doubled-up sound and picture settings in the “Picture” and “Scene” menus were also slightly baffling, and there’s no format-switching for 4:3 and letterbox signals arriving as 1080i. This comes as a disappointment, although admittedly a familiar one.

Picture Quality of Standard-Definition Signals

We thoroughly recommend setting the “Scene” (AV mode) to “Cinema”, which you can do either with the direct button on the remote control or in the options menu. If you turn up the colour saturation and set the gamma to a darker value, you’ll get a contrast-rich, digital TV picture with superb fine-detail reproduction. Camera pans, however, occasionally suffer from noise.

With a maximum brightness of 420 Cd/m2, the Sony displays a bright image that even looks great in bright surroundings. In dark rooms, the backlight produces a rich image even at its weakest level — at which the power consumption measures around 140 watts. Standard-definition video processes excellently via HDMI.

Picture Quality of High-Definition Signals

Colours are generally accurate, but a slight tint creeps into dark greys.

To get a picture with good fine-detail reproduction, you first have to go into the menu and switch off the picture-cropping (“overscan”), which is activated by default for both HDTV broadcasts and HDMI signals. You can do this by setting the “Display Area” to “Full Pixel”. At least you’ll only have to deactivate it once — unlike some other TVs, the Sony then leaves the setting switched off for good.

With the Blu-ray “I, Robot”, the Sony impresses from the outset: Few TVs manage to present such a colour-neutral white in the gleaming disc-menu, and even the finest details display in excellent sharpness. Gloomy scenes, too, look incredible. Pictures convey a profound impression of depth thanks to the remarkable contrast ratio of 3,000:1 — impressive for an LCD TV without Local Dimming. There’s only a touch of brightening around the screen’s edges.

Most colours display perfectly, but dark greys and browns struggle a little: Dark grey exhibits a slight lilac tint, while browns sometimes look too reddish and poorly resolved. And, as is typical with LCDs, the Sony’s picture quality depends strongly on viewing angle — if you’re watching from one side, you won’t be able to ignore the weak blacks and pronounced colour deviations. With the “Motionflow” technology switched off, the Sony shows authentic, cinema-style, 24p judder, but the sharpness falls slightly short of perfect.

Sound Quality

There are two sides to this story: On the one hand, the rich fundamentals and accurate treble impress. On the other, speech sounds washed-out and imprecise because the speakers don’t point toward the listeners.

Scene: Cinema

Display Area: Full Pixel

Contrast: 90

Brightness: 50

Colour: 57

Colour Temperature: Warm 2

Sharpness: Minimum

Film Mode: Auto 1

Auto Light Limiter: Off

MPEG Noise Reduction: Off

Adv. Contrast Enhancer: Low

Noise Reduction: Off

* These settings apply to realistic playback of HDTV/Blu-ray material through the HDMI interface in a darkened environment. Manufacturing and HDMI playback device deviations may necessitate slight adjustment.