19" LCD Monitors: The Spring 2006 Collection

Sony MFM-HT95: Slightly Cold Colors

Since the MFM-HT95 has the ambition of being both a computer monitor and a TV set, colorimetry was an aspect that needed to be gotten right. But the result is fairly disappointing.

By default, the monitor offers 8000K in cinema mode, 10,200K in PC mode and a good 6700K in gaming mode. In other words, a little cold across the board. We have trouble understanding the choice of these color temperatures, which seem quite arbitrary in the light of the standards.

This takes the cake: The MFM-HT75 already had a brightness level that was like an industrial floodlight, but at least it had the decency of offering a reasonable black level. Here, we get a black level of 0.8 nits. The result is unbelievably poor contrast. Even LCD TV sets can do better than this. Whereas the 17" version showed the manufacturer's commitment to the idea of allying the two uses - PC and TV -here we can only conclude that Sony has decided to favor the TV at the expense of computer use with this 19" version. With brightness like this, video and gaming are the only PC uses that can be considered.

The contrast was fairly stable, but you can see the monitor's affinity for high brightness. You can lower the overall brightness a little, but then the colorimetry will only be average.

We measured the monitor's color gamut. There's not much to say. The Sony monitor is in the average for the number of colors reproduced.