KDL32D3000U Optimal Settings For Best Picture

The Sony KDL32D3000U has a myriad of picture setting options to allow you to settle on a final picture that you prefer. That said, if you don't know what you're doing you may well end up spoiling rather than improving the picture quality. Here are some pointers to guide you along the right way.

Backlight should be set to the minimum possible with tolerable brightness in a low light environment so that you can get the deepest black possible out of the KDL32D3000U. An inky black is important because it serves as an anchor to confer image depth and dimensionality. Of course, during day time you can bump up your backlight as required so that shadow detail is not overly obscured.

Sharpness should be set to minimum too. Most modern LCD TVs introduce ringing to the picture (most noticeable around text) beyond the minimum sharpness level, and the KDL32D3000U is no exception. However, on poor source (e.g. analogue or Freeview with low bit-rate), you may wish to increase this setting to get a slightly sharper picture. Ringing would be less of a problem because many other compression artifacts like mosquito noise would grab your attention well before ringing.

The Noise Reduction and MPEG NR options on the Bravia KDL32D3000U should be left off. The former functions as advertised, but does so at the expense of causing motion smearing as the detection circuitry couldn't work out if movement is movement and not noise. The latter is just a blur filter, meaning that you lose quite a bit of texture and detail from objects on the screen.

Depending on your source (video, film or game), you should experiment around with the Film Mode and Motion Enhancer options on the KDL32D3000U because each combination will give you different results for each source. Undesirable side effects are video-like fast forwarded motion applied to film material, and intermittent frame break up.

If you're adventurous or want to squeeze the best out of your Sony KDL32D3000U, you'll need to venture into the service menu to adjust the greyscale so that white looks white and not too blue. Bear in mind that you will need light output measurement tools to get an accurate result, and any mistake in the service menu may result in irreparable damage to your KDL32D3000U. If in doubt, just hold off from doing this, or call upon a professional calibrator.