We discovered a few things about the Sony system during this testing.
With the help of David Katzmaier, another CNET TV reviewer, I set the Sony system up side-by-side with the 24-inch Lenovo IdeaCentre B520, and the 55-inch Panasonic TC-P55ST50 for reference, and compared the quality on each with a DirectTV signal and a pattern signal generator. But on the Sony system, the X-Reality chip does affect that external signal, which is how Sony is hoping its TV tech will entice shoppers looking for an all-in-one for home entertainment. In that case the display on an all-in-one works like a standalone monitor, and the graphics card does not come into play with regard to image quality. Next to the Asus ET2700I and its GeForce GT 540M video chip, TV reviewer Ty Pendlebury and I noticed perhaps more vibrant colors on the Sony, but Keyboard Cat on YouTube and "Ghostbusters" on Netflix both looked the same between the two systems in terms of pixelation and overall sharpness.īecause the L-Series has a dedicated HDMI input, though, the X-Reality chip also comes into play when you connect an outside video source. In a sea of low-resolution YouTube and NetFlix videos such a chip sounds great, but the resulting quality boost in Windows-based video isn't dramatically better than what you get with a decent dedicated graphics card. The Bravia chip in the L-Series is called the X-Reality chip, and its primary function is to amp up the image quality of overly compressed or pixelated video content.