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As you'd expect of such a premium priced TV, the LED array behind the 55X4500's screen uses local dimming technology. In other words, clusters of LEDs can have their brightness controlled individually, enabling extremes of brightness and shade within a single frame that just aren't possible with standard single-backlight LCD technology.

If you want to put a number on this, the 55X4500 claims a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 - miles in excess of anything seen on an ordinary LCD TV, and eerily reminiscent of the figures claimed by other LED TVs we've seen, not to mention the latest Panasonic plasmas. In other words, if the 1,000,000:1 figure isn't just pure pie in the sky (which is, of course, always a possibility with manufacturers' own figures), the 55X4500 merely reaffirms the sense that plasma and LED are quickly establishing a premium AV enclave to which normal LCD technology isn't invited.

Not surprisingly given its price and unabashed sense of ambition, the 55X4500 is extremely well loaded with features. Not least among these is Sony's MotionFlow 100Hz engine, which can improve motion clarity by inserting completely new frames of image data calculated to fill in the gaps between the real frames coming in from a source.

What's more, Sony has intriguingly introduced a new tweak to the 55X4500's MotionFlow system in the shape of a ‘Clear' option. Possibly introduced in response to our previously voiced concerns about MotionFlow processing side effects, this Clear mode tones down the MotionFlow engine so that you can watch fast action without being distracted by shimmering or flickering problems. Fingers crossed it works as well as I'm hoping it will.

Also on hand to improve pictures is Sony's Bravia Engine 2 image processing, with its various elements for improving detailing, colour toning, contrast handling, motion and so on and so forth.

Further delving into the 55X4500's innovative XcrossBar Media twin-axis onscreen menus system unveils all manner of further user tweaks, too. A Game mode is provided, for instance, to reduce the lag between the TV receiving and then showing an image, plus there's a decent set of colour management tools including x.v Colour activation; the option to adjust the colour space applied to digital photos; the facility to adjust the RGB dynamic range between limited, auto and rather dodgy-looking ‘full' options; and the ability to manually choose between ITU601 and ITU709 colour matrix settings if you're not happy with the ‘Auto' mode's selection.

There are also standard and MPEG noise reduction routines; a very sensibly calibrated set of picture presets that include a really good Cinema mode; and a DRC mode that intriguingly claims to ‘produce a high-resolution picture for high-density sources such as Blu-ray players or DVD players'. There's even a DRC setting reckoned to be especially effective with upscaled video - more on this presently.

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