Sony MFM-HT205 20" Combination Monitor/TV

Introduction

The MFM-HT205 is Sony's latest TFT monitor. It's pitched as an all-in-one solution for both PC and TV use, but from looking at the panel used (and video performance), it's clear that at least originally, an emphasis has been placed on PC usage. It also features video capabilities with Composite, S-Video, Component and SCART inputs, and bafflingly, an analogue tuner (it has no built-in digital TV capabilities so will be of little use for watching TV broadcasts after analogue switch off begins at the end of this decade).

First Looks

Surprisingly similar in appearance to Sony's older WEGA LCD TVs, the MFM-HT205 looks the part with a silver front and black back. The 16:10 ratio widescreen panel is situated nearer the top of the unit, with a large but by no means overwhelming speaker grille below. The interesting design of the unit means that the front (where the grille is situated) actually curves outwards. There's also side-mounted S-Video/Composite plus Stereo Audio inputs and a headphone jack - just like Sony's TVs.



The MFM-HT205 also comes with a remote, which is a nice addition, reminding us that although it's designed primarily as a monitor, it's still intended to double up as a second smaller TV for, say, a home office. The remote features a button that lets the user jump directly to each input, which is a nice touch and saves the hassle of having to manually cycle through each one. It's just as well, too, because there's a slight delay between pressing the button and the image actually appearing. Strangely, we're only given Up and Down arrow keys to navigate the menus, rather than the full four-way directional pad like on Sony's TVs. It's strange but not really a problem, since it's a piece of cake to get used to.

The box also contains the usual UK power cord, a continental European power cord, an RF extension cable, a 3.5mm audio cable for sound, two AAA-size batteries (for the remote), a DVI-D cable, an HD15 cable (commonly known as a "VGA cable"), some documentation, and a CD-ROM containing utility software of some kind as well as more in-depth documentation.

Picture Tweaks

In Sony style, the MFM-HT205 offers the usual full range of picture tweaks. The DVI-D input allows control of the Contrast and Brightness, as well as the all-important Backlight (which you will really appreciate when darkness falls). All of these options can be set to any one of 100 values, in the case of the backlight, 0 being dim, 30 being similar to a CRT's light output, and 100 producing a retina-burning level of brightness which you'll want to tone down!

Control is also given over the Colour Temperature - the available options being 9300K, 6500K, sRGB, and also a User setting which allows individual tweaking of the Red and Blue values (the green being fixed at 120 during our tests). Gamma is also an option, although rather than a manual adjustment, the user is allowed to pick from one of four settings.

The "Screen" menu also offers a "Zoom" function which is simply an aspect ratio control. There is also an aspect ratio button on the remote for easy adjustment. "Normal" presents 4:3 resolutions pillarboxed (black bars down the sides, preserving the original picture shape) and "Full" stretches to fit all of the available 16:10 screen space, which as you would expect, looks weird. Still, the option is there for people who simply can't stand the screen having black areas.

Not unsurprisingly, the available picture tweaks for the video inputs - that is, all of the inputs other than the HD15 (aka "VGA") and DVI-D connectors - have a slightly different selection of modifications available. Here, Colour and Sharpness became adjustable, as did Hue for Composite and S-Video NTSC material. Noise Reduction and Dynamic Contrast are also available for the video inputs (but not the PC ones). Colour Temperature and Gamma are only available on the PC inputs.

Panel Performance

Sony quotes this monitor's response time at 6ms. In this regard, it is actually the most impressive LCD panel I've seen in a display and even has a slight edge over Sony's new BRAVIA LCD TVs in this area (in terms of both quoted response time and real world performance). Strong colours and thick black outlines barely ghosted at all on this monitor, whereas the latest BRAVIAs still show some slight dragging (especially if they haven't had time to warm up). I suspect that this improvement might be related to the smaller size of this screen.

The panel features Sony's X-Black coating which has an interesting effect. It gives the picture a certain depth/richness, however at the same time this might cause problems for people wanting to use the monitor in sunlit areas because it had the tendency to add glare to the screen as well. Either way, the effect is overall a good one.

The panel in our screen came with zero pixel defects, which is a relief given how many pixels are present on a display with a resolution so high. Not only that, but there is not even a trace of backlight bleeding or "hot spots" on the screen. The panel on our unit was uniformly black.

Monitor Performance

The DVI-D input on this monitor offers spectacular image quality. DVI, as you'd expect, is pixel-perfect when using the 1680x1050 native resolution. There was no light image noise visible on grey areas like I noticed on my old Philips TFT monitor from 2003. Whether or not that's down to the glossy screen coating hiding it, or it simply not being there in the first place isn't clear, but no matter whatever is (or isn't) going on behind the scenes, DVI looks fantastic.

On the analogue "VGA" connection, I did notice slight softness but the picture was still of a very high standard. Since just about all computers out there now will feature a DVI video output, this isn't something that concerns me and is probably what you could expect from the multiple digital to analogue to digital connections introduced by using this old connection standard anyway. My older Philips TFT screen did seem to feature analogue picture quality that was far closer to the look of the digital DVI connection, however.

Connecting an HDMI DVD player using an HDMI to DVI cable gave fairly good results, but really there's not much point in pairing this monitor with a set-top DVD player when you can just use a software DVD player from your computer. Nevertheless, I gave it a look for testing purposes. A word of warning, though - since the DVI input was designed for monitor use and not for video, 720x480 (480p) video looks extremely pixellated as the screen was reproducing the output of the player exactly without trying to "improve" the picture. Upscaled modes from the DVD player looked a lot better, so having the player scale up to 720p or 1080i made a large improvement. Yes, the DVI-D input on this montior accepts 1080i and is also HDCP compliant, as is required for displays that carry the "HD Ready" logo.

The viewing angle on the MFM-HT205 is quoted at 170 degrees. During the day time, the viewing angle works well but for whatever reason, in a dark room the blacks begin to take on a purple tint when you look at the display from an angle. For monitor usage, this isn't a problem as you'll more than likely be looking straight on anyway.

All in all, the MFM-HT205 is perfect to use as a monitor connected to a computer outputting digital video. It offers very high resolution, great design, and unbeatable response time. The only possible issue would be that the XBlack coating can cause reflections in the screen, but seeing as this coating also gives the picture a very agreeable depth, we'll let it off.

Built-in speakers

Although a lot of people will have their own computer speakers anyway, this monitor also features two 3.5mm jacks for sound (one for the DVI input, the other for HD15). That's a great addition because it essentially means you could have two computers hooked up to this screen.

The built-in speakers obviously weren't fantastic, but after turning the Treble and Bass in the menu up, they actually didn't sound too bad. The SRS fake-Surround processing also gave things an interesting sound.

On the next page, I test the MFM-HT205's predictably compromised video inputs.

Video Performance

Whilst the quality of the DVI input is flawless (with HD15 not far behind), video inputs offer far greater scope for things to go wrong. Is this the case on this monitor? Most of the time, yes. Do remember that this monitor is a product of Sony's IT department and not the same place that turns out the BRAVIA TVs, so don't expect BRAVIA Engine level performance here. You need to consider the video capabilites as strictly secondary to avoid disappointment. Unfortunately, since Sony promote this screen with language such as "TV/Monitor" and "Multifunction", people who buy this screen with anything other than light TV usage in mind might be left disappointed.

You do need to remember though that this screen has an RRP of £650. The closest dedicated Sony LCD HDTV is the 26" BRAVIA KDL-26S2010, which features by far better handling of video but also a lower resolution (it's not designed for monitor use although it has that capability), a slightly slower response time, no DVI input, and at an extra £250, a much higher price.

With that in mind, let's go through what this monitor can in fact do. First of all, I tested the Component video input. The Component jacks on this TV can accept 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, and 1080i video. Up first, I tested my Xbox which is modified to output 480p and HD video (it's basically a US machine). I was very pleased to see that the 1080i processing featured some form of motion adaptive deinterlacing, which simply means that the picture is constantly stable instead of jittering like cheaper solutions do. 720p over Component offered similarly good performance. Neither types of HD video over Component were incredibly defined, but there was no obvious problems on either mode. As such, this screen will probably please Xbox 360 owners looking for a cheaper second screen.

As is often the case on HD displays, what lets the video performance of the MFM-HT205 down is the way in which it handles standard definition video which, sadly, is still an important issue for lots of people. The original Xbox hardware's standard-def output lacks detail (even on 480p), so while playing a quick game of Halo 2, no immediate faults with the MFM-HT205 hit me in the face. The far superior output quality of the Japanese/American Nintendo GameCube however, quickly revealed the screen's shortcomings in the video department. Games such as the US release of Super Smash Bros. Melee (480p) are chock-full of detail, and the MFM-HT205's Component processing simply couldn't handle it. No amount of adjusting the Sharpness control allowed me to get a picture I was happy with. The choice came down to a picture that was heavily blurred with a fairly large amount of edge enhancement, or a picture that was edge enhanced even more but at the same time lacking in detail. Smash Bros. is a brilliantly detailed game and in all honesty, this is the worst I have ever seen it. Then again, it's also the first time I've seen it on a screen other than a dedicated TV, so this is probably standard for combination units. Even still, if you plan to buy this display based on its performance with Component video devices, try before you buy, because the quality varies wildly from acceptable to fairly ugly.

Testing the GameCube's interlaced menu screens also showed that the Deinterlacer in the display was letting through a lot of combing artefacts. The spinning cube menu screen and the animated sequences where the menu text turns into large blocks and shifts around the screen was really confusing for the MFM-HT205 and demonstrated that the display isn't great at handling motion from interlaced formats. This is a video processing issue and is completely separate to motion issues sometimes introduced by LCD panels (the panel in this screen is close to flawless in terms of response time).

I next connected my DVD player - a Panasonic DVD-S97 - via Component. The quality was good - certainly passable, but nothing exceptional. What I found very interesting though was that by and large, 480i video from the DVD player actually looked better than 480p. It was especially noticeable on the DVD player's menus that 480p pictures took on a filtered, slightly blurred look, with ringing around the text. When the player was set to output in 480i, the ringing actually disappeared and the picture appeared to be more detailed with less false contouring. This is the first time I've seen this happen in a display.

Unfortunately though, 480i via Component introduced a new problem. Bright colours showed a jagged appearance around their edges. The way this display handles chroma for Interlaced inputs is less than perfect - if anyone out there has ever owned a DVD player that suffers from CUE (Chroma Upsampling Error), then you'll know what to expect, only the jagged appearance is more pronounced. My DVD player does not have the Chroma Upsampling Error, and the jagged appearance to colours remained when the monitor was connected to a LaserDisc player, proving that the fault lies in the display. (LaserDisc is an analogue format and such issues could only be introduced when the picture is digitised for display on the panel).

This means that both interlaced and progressive video via Component are imperfect, and any potential users will need to choose what they feel is the lesser evil - an interlaced format's imperfect motion and jagged colour, or the strange blurred appearance that 480p took on. This is really not as much of an issue as it could be though, because I'd imagine - and highly recommend - that anyone wanting to watch DVDs on this screen does so via a PC (or an upscaling DVD player connected to the DVI input).

Moving on, I tried the display's SCART socket with RGB video from the same DVD player. The results were not pretty at all. RGB over SCART was oversharpened to an almost ridiculous extent even at the lowest Sharpness setting, and as a result was harsh on the eyes. In addition, the image suffered heavily from background noise (visible on the grey menus of my DVD player). This was through a mid-range JVC SCART cable and might be rectified by using a more expensive type. As an alternative to RGB via SCART, I tried the S-Video input. Using this connection, the obvious background noise was slightly tamer, but the edge enhancement remained.

Composite video performance was better than expected at this price point but still average. The comb filtering for NTSC video was very good, so almost no dot crawl got through. PAL comb filtering was miles behind with almost none of the dot crawl being filtered at all, which didn't surprise me as this is harder to get right. That said, it's unlikely anyone will be using Composite video on this screen anyway.

And what of the performance from the analogue TV tuner? Well - it's an analogue TV tuner on a TFT display, so any hopes of the screen looking its best showing TV programmes are out the window from the start. If you only plan to watch the occasional news report then it'll probably fit your needs, until the plug is pulled on analogue TV, of course. Consider the performance to be as average as that of the other video inputs.

Depending on your outlook, these faults may or may not be passable. After all, this product is clearly a monitor designed for use with a computer, but at the same time, Sony have actively promoted it as a television/monitor combo. Assuming the latter, these faults are especially serious when you consider that on a smaller screen such as this, users will be sitting close in front of the display and they will be smacked in the face by them.

More serious still though is the fact that this display doesn't have a Digital TV tuner. With Analogue switch-off looming overhead and starting in some regions as early as 2009, this is just ridiculous even for a combination device. When you also consider that the S-Video and RGB SCART performance is poor with a large amount of fake sharpening/ringing to the image, this means that connecting an external Freeview decoder won't be pleasant either, because the low bit-rate Freeview broadcasts will have all of their MPEG compression flaws emphasised and over-sharpened. As with DVD playback, I recommend that anyone wanting to watch TV on this unit does so via a computer with a digital tuner card installed.

Convenience Features

The MFM-HT205 has PIP/PAP capabilities. These stand for "Picture In Picture" and "Picture And Picture". Users are probably familiar with the former, which overlays a smaller picture of another input of your choice over the video. On the other hand, Picture and Picture simply gives equal screen space to both of the inputs showing on screen and shows both as small windows beside one another. Note that you can only use PIP to overlay a VIDEO input over the PC usage and not the other way around. PIP and PAP are unavailable when watching TV, so you can't, say, watch a TV channel and have a view of a file download progress bar superimposed.

Note that in the image above, I had no aerial connected, hence the static.

Conclusion

The MFM-HT205 is the most impressive LCD monitor I've seen to date. It handles motion via its monitor inputs incredibly well with only the slightest trace of motion blur on extreme colours. In our tests, the only way we made this even close to visible was to run the Windows Marquee screen saver with colours that are notoriously difficult for an LCD display. What I'm implying by this is that it is entirely possible you will buy this LCD and never see any motion blur at all unless you're intentionally trying to trip the thing up.

It might sound strange that I'm praising this display after spending a good number of paragraphs describing how poor to average the video inputs look. Part of me wants to rate this incredibly highly because of its impeccable performance as a monitor, but at the same time, Sony have sold this unit as a "TV/PC monitor". If they'd sold it as a "PC Monitor" and hidden the TV/video functionality away in a bullet-point rather than using it as a headline feature, it'd be a different story. Not only is the TV performance not very good, but you won't be able to so much as watch TV on it once analogue broadcasting is switched off in a few years - but that doesn't mean that it's not a fantastic monitor. This screen will make a lot of people who want to use it for gaming, web browsing, or other computer functions, very happy indeed.

Not only that, but this screen is fantastic value for money. You're getting an extremely high quality widescreen PC monitor for £650 (available for about £546 from certain online stores), so it's hard to stay mad at this screen just because it's second functions can be lousy. Consider also that the closest competition in the not-exactly-crowded widescreen monitor market is the Apple 20" Cinema Display, which has a considerably slower quoted response time (14ms) and from Apple's tech specs, doesn't even appear to have a backlight adjustment (I did say appear because I haven't used an Apple Cinema Display in a good year or so). That particular display currently costs £549 from Apple's online UK store. When you consider that you can get this seemingly far superior screen (even with its so-so additional video capabilities) for the same price from shopping around online, it's a no-brainer. Even if you do have to pay the £650 RRP price tag, the faster response time and picture tweaks still make this the more worthwhile screen.

As such, the MFM-HT205 is still a highly recommended monitor, but Sony need to improve the video performance if they're to continue selling this as an HDTV (the sticker on the display features the "HD Ready" logo). That said, I look forward to see what Sony have in store for future monitor/TV combos.