A little while back we looked at and were impressed by Toshiba’s HD Ready 32CV505DB, finding it a mighty fine 32in budget TV. So now we’re more than a little intrigued to find on our test benches the 32XV505DB: another Toshiba 32in LCD TV which brings a Full HD resolution to the table while adding less than £100 to the price.Aesthetically the 32XV505DB – part of Toshiba’s strangely-named Regza TV range – looks identical to the 32CV505DB, so far as I can tell. Which is no bad thing, as the combination of a slender gloss-black bezel, silver outer trim, and thin ‘speaker strip’ jutting out along the bottom make it one of the better looking small LCD TVs in town.

Connectivity is good for the money, too, particularly thanks to the inclusion of three v1.3 HDMI inputs, a component video input, a D-Sub PC port, an optical audio output, and even a subwoofer line-out should you feel inclined to add a powered bass speaker to your setup.

As we made clear at the start of this review, the absolute key specification in the 32XV505DB’s make-up is its 1,920 x 1,080 resolution – in fact, it’s Toshiba’s first ever Full HD 32in TV. This resolution is joined, as with any Full HD TV worthy of the name these days, by a pixel-by-pixel mode for showing the UK’s 1080-line HD sources without any image scaling involved to mess things up. Continue Reading…

Last year saw the introduction of the XF range, which wrapped decent size panels in cases with unbelievably slim bezels. The result was a 40in LCD TV with a physical size that was considerably smaller than many rival 37in models. On paper this was great, but the reality left a lot to be desired. You see inconsistency wasn’t the only problem with last year’s range, Toshiba’s sets also suffered from quite poor black level response. The disappointing black levels were something that I was willing to let slip slightly back in May 2007, when I reviewed the Regza 42X3030D, but by the end of last year Toshiba was still putting out sets with very disappointing black levels that simply couldn’t compete with rival models – the Regza 40XF355D highlighted this problem when I reviewed it.

Another problem with the XF range was that it injected a degree of schizophrenia into the Toshiba range – while the XF looked like it was the flagship model, with its slim bezel and catwalk looks, it lacked the features of the Z series, which sported 100Hz processing and 5:5 pulldown for 1080p 24Hz playback. The result was that many consumers wanted the features of the Z series, but in the chassis of the XF series; an option that simply wasn’t available to them. So, it was with some trepidation that I unboxed the new 40ZF355D, which is set to pick up where the 40XF355D left off. The good news is that before I’d even switched on the 40ZF355D, the specification sticker informed me that some of the problems with its predecessor had been addressed. Continue Reading…

This isn’t the first outdoor TV we’ve covered – and it’s unlikely to be the last. The new 4610HD from SunBrite is a 46-inch all-weather LCD television which, like previous models, is designed with a corrosion resistant, powder-coated aluminum exterior that protects the internal TV components from rain, dirt, insects, and extreme temperature ranges. Now hammock potatoes can enjoy their outdoor viewing in full HD as the 4610HD is SunBrite’s first full 1080p full-HD model. It also features a baffled and filtered dual-fan airflow system to quietly keep the unit cool in temperatures up to 122 degrees F while, in extremely cold climates, the internal thermostatically-controlled heater activates automatically when the TV’s internal temperature dips to 32 degrees F, allowing the TV to safely remain outdoors in temperatures as low as -24 degrees F.

SunBriteTV’s innovative watertight cable entry system and cable pass-through design ensures quick and easy hook-up to a wide selection of video inputs, including two HDMI cables, component, VGA, S-video, composite, RF, RS232 serial, and discrete IRcontrol. The operating controls are also sealed against rain and moisture and the 4610’s high-definition LCD screen displays an extra-bright 1920 x 1080 pixel image with 2000:1 contrast ratio. The screen is also protected by an anti-reflective, impact and scratch-resistant window that is built into the exterior, ensuring any birds crashing into any screenshots of a pristine sky get more than they bargained for. Continue Reading…

LG, it’s fair to say, is getting sick and tired of being perceived as Korea’s ‘second’ AV brand after Samsung. There was a time not so long ago where the two brands’ public perceptions seemed more or less equal, but recently Samsung has surged away in terms of both image and cold, hard sales.

So this year LG claims it’s determined to claw its way back towards parity with its neighbour thanks to a new range of TVs that look set to deliver a truly killer combination of feature choice, opulent looks, high performance standards and strikingly affordable prices.

We’ve already seen LG get off to a fine start in realising this dream with the impressive 50PG6000 50in plasma TV. But now it’s time to see how the ambition holds up with a shift to LCD technology and a step down one rung of LG’s TV range ladder, in the shape of the 32in 32LG5000. Continue Reading…

If you haven’t heard of Planar before, don’t worry; it’s not one of those fly-by-night dodgy Far Eastern brands that turns out some cheap piece of tat and then disappears again as fast as it arrived. In fact, Planar is a very well established brand in the US, and now it’s decided it wants to get itself known over in the UK too.

Regular readers may recall that the 42in PD420 is not the first Planar product we’ve reviewed. We’ve previously checked out and been very impressed by a couple of entry-level DLP projectors and one of the PD420’s bigger siblings, the 47in PD470. But with its approachable £1,800 price tag and living room friendly dimensions, it somehow feels as if the 42in PD420 could really be the product that puts Planar on the UK consumer map.

That said, the PD420 isn’t exactly designed for the mass market, for it ships with neither a built-in tuner – digital or analogue – or speakers included as standard. In other words, it’s ‘merely’ a screen rather than a fully fledged TV.

Continue Reading…

Philips’ technological ambition hasn’t always been matched by perfect pictures, but this time the Dutch company has hit the jackpot. Dressed in an ‘anthracite dark’ gloss, this full HD 42inch screen possesses just about every feature you could wish for.More importantly, these features work so well they raise this TV well above the other brands that seek to make LCD a viable alternative to plasma for movie buffs.

Features

Manufacturers are constantly trying to out-do each other with a variety of gimmicks, but Philips’ effort is one innovation genuinely worth having. Its Ambilight system is presented here in its ’stereo’ format, whereby light sympathetic to what’s playing onscreen is emitted from illuminated strips around the screen edges. This technology has been around for a few years, but the 42PFL9632D uses LED lighting in an effort to achieve more colours while using less power. Continue Reading…

The Aurea is like nothing else on the market. You may have seen Philips’ Ambilight backlighting system before, but this, the firm’s latest flagship model, takes things to a new level. As well as emitting light out of its (ahem) backside, Aurea has an illuminated frame shining a kaleidoscope of colours outwards.

These colours change depending on the dominant colours on screen, so if you’re watching a football match, the left, right and lower portions of the frame will most likely be glowing green while the top will reflect the colours in the crowd.

And with 126 individual LED lamps in 42 clusters of three, Spectra can actually display multiple colours on every side of the screen. Called Active Frame, this new tech means you’re no longer limited to one colour per side.

Continue Reading…

A few weeks back we tested and loved the first of Philips’ new generation of LCD TVs, the 32PFL9632D. But for all our appreciation of that genuinely groundbreaking 32in model, there was one thing about it we would love to have changed: its size. To be frank, it just wasn’t big enough to a) totally satisfy our home entertainment dreams or b) show off Philips’ image processing cleverness to its best advantage.

You can understand our excitement, then, as we hoik onto our test benches the 47PFL9632D: a bigger brother of the 32PFL9632D which measures in at a delicious 47in. Provided this relative behemoth can reinforce just how good Philips’ LCD picture quality now is rather than suddenly revealing flaws that we couldn’t see on the 32in version, it has the potential to be very special indeed.

Continue Reading…

As the lovely Hélène Mahieu once said, size matters. Of course she was talking about a Renault Clio, but the statement is even more true when it comes to TVs. You may be happy with a 32 or even a 37in screen in your living room, but once you see a truly big TV, you’ll instantly want it and find it hard to settle for less. Bizarrely though, this massive 58in plasma screen from Panasonic isn’t that large compared to other models in the range – you need to remember that Panasonic has a 103in TV sitting at the top of its range.

Despite the fact that the TH-58PZ700 is relatively small compared to the gargantuan 103in TH-103PF9 TV, make no mistake, this is a large screen. You’re going to need a decent size living room for this 58in TV not to dominate everything around it. Unlike many manufacturers, Panasonic doesn’t offer a 60in TV, instead opting for 58 and 65in models. I can only assume that the company gets better yield from the glass at these sizes. That said, it was only a couple of weeks ago that we looked at a 63in plasma from Samsung, so it seems that there are any number of size options up at the large end of the scale.

Continue Reading…