In the war of words between LCD and plasma, plasma has always been considered the sports fan's television choice due to LCD's problems with motion blur and jitter - caused by sluggish response times and refresh rates respectively. The result is that players literally streak across the screen and lines on the ground are jagged rather than straight.

Sony's Bravia range has led the way in resolving these issues with LCD, and has significantly closed the gap on plasma with the 200Hz "Motionflow" picture processing in its Z series Bravia such as this 46 inch KDL-46Z4500.

Smoothing out the action
Sony's 200Hz Motionflow processing helps smooth out the motion in fast panning scenes in movies and sport. The improvement compared to some of the budget brand televisions in amazing, though it is not nearly as striking as the improvement over the 100Hz Bravias, which were already damned good televisions thanks to Sony's excellent video processing - the secret sauce of when it comes to making a great television.

More noticeable is the reduction in motion blur, putting the old Bravia to shame and rivaling the quality of plasma.

The combined result is a fantastic picture when watching action movies or fast-moving sports such as AFL. When the sporting action speeds up, the new Z series Bravia ensures the players stay sharp, the ball stays round and the grass doesn't dissolve into a green blur.

Movies too crisp, but it's configurable
Motionflow certainly helps smooth out movement, but it can make movies look a little too crisp, as if everything is computer generated. You'll want to tweak the Motionflow, Cinema Drive and Noise Reduction settings to your liking for different content.

The Sony Z Series' ability to reduce motion blur puts the old Bravia to shame and rivals the quality of plasma.

Razor sharp, deep blacks
The 46 inch 46Z4500 does an excellent job of rendering both HD and SD content - razor sharp with deep blacks and excellent contrast for showing up the details in the shadows. The screen is also very bright with vivid colours, even though it missed out on the dynamic RGB LED backlight of the new Bravia XBR series.

We're missing the X Series speakers
Unfortunately the speaker bar along the base of the Z series' screen lacks of the punch of the left and right speakers in the old X series Bravias, but this is unlikely to bother those with a surround sound system for movies.

Connections
Gadget lovers will appreciate the Z series' three HDMI inputs, while videophiles will appreciate 24 frames per second playback and v.x.Colour options. There's USB and Ethernet and the Z series is DLNA compatible, meaning it can play music and photos from other devices on your network, but disappointingly, not video (Australians have to wait for Sony's Bravia Internet Video Link for that).

Conclusion
In a side-by-side shootout, I'd still have my money on the breathtaking Pioneer Kuro plasmas, but the new Z series Bravias should certainly have Pioneer looking over its shoulder. Sports fans should definitely put the new Bravia on their short list, while movie buffs might want to wait until Sony combines 200Hz and an LED backlight for greater contrast.