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  • Introduction

  • Overall Design

  • Front

  • Back

  • Sides

  • Stand/Mount

  • Remote Control

  • In the Box

  • Black Level

  • Peak Brightness

  • Contrast

  • Tunnel Contrast

  • White Falloff

  • Uniformity

  • Greyscale Gamma

  • Color Temperature

  • RGB Curves

  • Motion Performance

  • 3:2 Pulldown & 24fps

  • Resolution Scaling

  • 3D Effect & Experience

  • 3D Black & White

  • 3D Color

  • 3D Crosstalk

  • 3D Glasses

  • Formats

  • Viewing Angle

  • Reflectance

  • Video Processing

  • Calibration

  • Video Modes

  • Connectivity

  • Placement

  • Audio Quality

  • Menu Interface

  • Instruction Manual

  • Internet Features

  • Local Media Playback

  • Power Consumption

  • Value Comparison

  • Blacks & Whites

  • Color Accuracy

  • Motion

  • Viewing Effects

  • Connectivity

  • Other Comparisons

  • Value Comparison

  • Blacks & Whites

  • Color Accuracy

  • Motion

  • Viewing Effects

  • Connectivity

  • Other Comparisons

  • Value Comparison

  • Blacks & Whites

  • Color Accuracy

  • Motion

  • Viewing Effects

  • Connectivity

  • Other Comparisons

  • Conclusion

  • Model Series Comparison

  • Photo Gallery

  • Ratings & Specs

  • Introduction
  • Overall Design
  • Front
  • Back
  • Sides
  • Stand/Mount
  • Remote Control
  • In the Box
  • Black Level
  • Peak Brightness
  • Contrast
  • Tunnel Contrast
  • White Falloff
  • Uniformity
  • Greyscale Gamma
  • Color Temperature
  • RGB Curves
  • Motion Performance
  • 3:2 Pulldown & 24fps
  • Resolution Scaling
  • 3D Effect & Experience
  • 3D Black & White
  • 3D Color
  • 3D Crosstalk
  • 3D Glasses
  • Formats
  • Viewing Angle
  • Reflectance
  • Video Processing
  • Calibration
  • Video Modes
  • Connectivity
  • Placement
  • Audio Quality
  • Menu Interface
  • Instruction Manual
  • Internet Features
  • Local Media Playback
  • Power Consumption
  • Value Comparison
  • Blacks & Whites
  • Color Accuracy
  • Motion
  • Viewing Effects
  • Connectivity
  • Other Comparisons
  • Value Comparison
  • Blacks & Whites
  • Color Accuracy
  • Motion
  • Viewing Effects
  • Connectivity
  • Other Comparisons
  • Value Comparison
  • Blacks & Whites
  • Color Accuracy
  • Motion
  • Viewing Effects
  • Connectivity
  • Other Comparisons
  • Conclusion
  • Model Series Comparison
  • Photo Gallery
  • Ratings & Specs

Introduction

Overall Design

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The hard edges, glass, and mirror surfaces of the {{product.name}} were, perhaps, a misguided attempt to look modern. In our opinion, it has all the modernity of fat leather couches, white limos, and the other trappings of a Miami Vice 1980s. Don't get us wrong, there are many TVs out there far uglier than this, but Toshiba should take some tips from Samsung and Sony when it comes to contemporary TV design. Minimalism is where it's at.

In terms of functionality, the {{product.name}} is fine. We're not crazy about the touch-sensitive buttons along the bottom of the bezel because they're hard to find and they leave fingerprints all over your nice, clean TV. The panel can swivel on its base, too, which is always an appreciated touch.

Front

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Back

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Sides

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Stand/Mount

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The stand allows the TV panel to swivel back and forth, though we found this particular model a little sticky in its movement. The neck that attaches the panel to the base has oddly hard angles, but it doesn't affect the functionality. The entire base has a glass finish on top that is bound to collect dust and fingerprints.

Remote Control

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The remote control that ships with the {{product.name}} is a jarring combination of ugly and dysfunctional. We really, really do not like it. First, the buttons are nearly illegible because the text is written under each button, so you're constantly waving the remote around to make the writing legible. Secondly, the weight is off-balance, too heavy in the front. Third, the d-pad in the center is surrounded by a second d-pad! Seriously, who designed this thing? It's far too easy to hit the wrong button.

The one potential benefit is that the remote control is universally programmable. The complete set of codes is in the instruction manual.

In the Box

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The {{product.name}} ships with the remote control, batteries, the stand and necessary screws, an instruction manual and assorted documentation, as well as some adapters for the AV inputs.

Black Level

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The {{product.name}} produced a very poor black level. As you can see in the chart below, it's far brighter than the three TVs we pulled in for comparison. Granted, Sony LCDs tend to do well in this test and the Samsung and Panasonic are both plasmas, which have naturally darker screens. Perhaps if we'd pulled an LG in we would have seen more comparable results. The LGs, however, tend to do very well in color performance, unlike the {{product.name}}. More on how we test black level.

Peak Brightness

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Whatever it's faults in other tests, the {{product.name}} produces a bright white. Typically, we think anything over 200 cd/m2 is sufficient for overcoming a sunny room. A peak white of 320.17 cd/m2 is great for exactly that sort of environment. More on how we test peak brightness.

Contrast

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Due to the poor black level, the {{product.name}}'s contrast ratio didn't extend beyond 681:1. That's pretty poor, considering the next worst performance in our little round-up is the Samsung PN51D6500 with a contrast ratio of 3901:1. Poor showing here, Toshiba. More on how we test contrast.

Tunnel Contrast

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The {{product.name}} did not have too much trouble maintaining a consistent black level. No matter how much or how little black is on the screen, the luminance levels of the black stay fairly consistent. Typically, LCD displays like this perform similarly, while plasmas have trouble. More on how we test tunnel contrast.

White Falloff

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Similar to the test above, the {{product.name}} performs just fine in our white falloff tests. From a little white patch to an entirely white screen, the luminance levels should remain consistent. More on how we test white falloff.

Uniformity

Greyscale Gamma

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The greyscale gamma measures how well a TV transitions from black to white within the greyscale. First we look at the smoothness of the line in the chart below. Overall, it's quite smooth. Sure, there are a couple little hiccups that indicate where banding banding may occur, but they're infrequent and minor. We're also paying close attention to the lower left tip, representing the shadows, and the upper right tip, representing the highlights. Both plateau, meaning the TV has a hard time displaying any detail within those signal ranges. It's a problem that we noted in other tests. Finally, we're looking at the slope of the curve, which should fall between 2.1 and 2.2, ideally. The {{product.name}} has a slope of 2.64, which is steeper than we'd like. This means that you'll probably miss out on some of the finer shades of grey in a gradient. Overall, it's a decent performance, but not amazing. More on how we test greyscale gamma.

Color Temperature

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The {{product.name}} did a great job maintaining a consistent color temperature. As you can see in the chart below, there's a slight tendency to warm as the signal gets darker, but it's so slight and gradual you probably won't notice. More on how we test color temperature.

RGB Curves

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What can we say about the {{product.name}}'s performance in the RGB tests? As you can see in the chart below, the display gets to a certain brightness threshold and then flatlines, producing no detail after that point. Practically speaking, this means an Arctic snow scene is going to appear as a mass of undifferentiated white mass. The same problem will happen in any bright color: blue skies, red roses, green leaves, etc.

We tried every setting on the TV to try and eliminate or even reduce this problem. Scene mode, backlight, contrast, brightness, special processing features, etc. None of them had any real effect. We haven't seen a problem like this in other 2010 and 2011 Toshibas, so we're not sure what the issue is here. More on how we test RGB curves.

The strips below are digital recreations of the information gathered from the RGB Curves test. They're compared to three similar TVs, along with an ideal response curve.

Motion Performance

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Overall, the {{product.name}} does a decent job with motion performance. We've certainly seen a lot of worse televisions, but we've also seen higher-end models like this that offer more video processing improvements. The first thing we noticed was that the baseline motion performance – with all special features disabled – is fairly smooth. There's not an excessive amount of judder. The TV also maintains a good level of fine detail. In more high contrast patterns, there was obvious color trailing, but that's standard for LCDs. Very high contrast patterns, like black and white strips, suffered from heavy strobing.

The {{product.name}} has two features in its menu that seem to address motion performance, ClearScan 240 and Film Stabilization. The ClearScan 240 has a much more dramatic improvement to motion smoothness, eliminating most of the previously cited artifacts. However, it introduces new artifacts and makes film-based content look terrible. We can't recommend its use in most occasions. More on how we test motion performance.

3:2 Pulldown & 24fps

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The {{product.name}} showed some slight problems displaying native 24fps content, like you'll see on a lot of Blu-Ray movies. In order to get certain high frequency patterns to stop flickering, we had to enable the Film Stabilization feature to the Smooth setting. However, that setting gives film-based content a unpleasantly sharp look, as well as introducing new artifacts. The {{product.name}} lost points in this test. More on how we test 3:2 pulldown and 24fps.

Resolution Scaling

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The {{product.name}} has a native 1080p (1920 x 1080) display, but most of the content that gets fed through cable and satellite is of a lower resolution. It's up to the TV's internal processing to upscale that information to fit the screen. Overall, the TV did a good job of this. Notably, though, certain test patterns gave the TV a very hard time in its native resolution, an unusual problem that we're not entirely happy with. High frequency patterns created false coloration. We see it from time to time, particularly with plasmas. A high-end LCD like the {{product.name}} should not have these issues with such prominence. More on how we test resolution scaling.

480p

When displaying 480p content, the {{product.name}} lost 3% of the top and bottom of the screen to overscan, but nothing from the sides.

720p

With 720p content, the {{product.name}} showed no problems whatsoever.

3D Effect & Experience

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The {{product.name}} uses passive 3D, which Toshiba cleverly refers to as "Natural 3D." LG took a similar tack by re-branding passive as "Cinema 3D." Both realized that when consumers are faced with the choice between something called active and something called passive, they'll choose active even if they have no idea what it means. It's stupid, but they're correct in their strategies.

Passive 3D has some advantages. The glasses only cost a few dollars, as opposed to the $50-150 active shutter glasses. And those LG commercials on TV are correct that the viewing angle is wider. However, there's a strong caveat to that statement. They should clarify that it has a wider side-to-side viewing angle. However, the up-and-down viewing angle is quite poor. Unless you're sitting perfectly eye-level with the screen, you may as well throw out the glasses. Sitting as much as 10 degrees up or down from the center is enough to break the effect. Consider these facts carefully if light of how you arrange your TV (wall-mounted, low on the floor, etc.).

If you sit perfectly level with the TV, the 3D effect is actually quite good. It's much better than the other passive 3D TVs we've reviewed, especially in staving off crosstalk. One of the traits that people don't like about passive 3D is that the resolution is halved – half the rows going to one eye and half go to the other eye. We noted this as a big problem with other passive 3D TVs we've reviewed, but it didn't seem to bother us with the {{product.name}}.

Some of the options in the 3D menu

3D Black & White

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As with any 3D TV using glasses, you lose a lot of light due to the tinting on the glasses themselves. As a result, you're contrast ratio is significantly reduced. As you can see in the chart below, the {{product.name}}'s contrast ratio is cut in half when in 3D mode.

3D Color

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The {{product.name}} performed similarly in 2D and 3D, as least in terms of color. Rather than the color temperature getting cooler, it got warmer, but the error was in the same slight and gradual manner that you probably won't notice.

Sadly, the RGB curve was just as bad in 3D as it was in 2D. As you can see in the charts, the TV can't display detail after a certain brightness. We tried playing around with all the TV's settings, but there didn't seem to be any hope.

The 3D color gamut was not so far off from the 2D performance. The blue was a little unsaturated, but the red, green, and white points were all quite similar.

3D Crosstalk

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Crosstalk is the term used to describe data intended for one eye bleeding into the other eye, and thus ruining the 3D effect. As we mentioned earlier on this page, it's critical that you sit perfectly eye-level with the TV in order to get the correct effect. Once you're positioned in the right spot, the {{product.name}} did a great job staving off crosstalk. As with all the TV's we've reviewed so far, the biggest problem is with high contrast patterns like black & white. When we watched a few scenes from our standard movie, we were pleased to see that the {{product.name}} didn't trip up on the same picture elements that many active shutter TVs do. Overall, this was a strong showing.

3D Glasses

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The {{product.name}} ships with four pairs of 3D glasses. If an active shutter 3D TV came with four pairs of glasses, that would be a $200-600 windfall. The {{product.name}}, however, uses passive 3D, so the glasses only cost a few bucks. This is great if you plan to outfit the whole family for movie night. The glasses are also far more lightweight than active shutter, though they don't make you look any less dorky.

Yes, you will look like a dork with these on

Formats

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The {{product.name}} has a native 1080p (1920 x 1080) display, but can adequately handle all standard NTSC formats.

Viewing Angle

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The {{product.name}}'s side-to-side viewing angle is average for an LCD display, about 34 degrees from center in either direction (or 67 degrees in total). That's pretty poor compared to a plasma TV like the Panasonic ST30 or the Samsung PN51D6500, as you can see in the chart below.

But what about the up-and-down viewing angle? We don't test it routinely, but we noticed it was a real problem with the {{product.name}}. If you're not sitting perfectly eye-level with the center of the screen, you lose a great deal of contrast. (This proved to be an enormous issue for the 3D performance, but that's covered elsewhere in the review.) You'll want to consider this problem before you buy the {{product.name}}, or any TV, based on how you plan to arrange it in your home. Will the TV be up on a wall, down on the floor, or at a perfect 90-degree angle so your eyes? Consider carefully.

Reflectance

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When the {{product.name}} is hit with a strong ambient light, you'll see a wide, diffuse light. There doesn't seem to be any attempt to refract the light like we've seen on a lot of LCD displays. As a result, you'll lose a lot of contrast ratio. Fortunately, the panel isn't super-reflective, like the glass on plasma TVs, so you won't be looking into a mirror (darkly).

Video Processing

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The {{product.name}} offers several video modes. We recommend that you disable most of them for peak performance, but it's always good to experiment on your own.

Calibration

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Calibrating the {{product.name}} is fairly easy. Just use our handy chart below. Unfortunately, none of these settings seemed to have any effect on the terrible peaking problems we noticed.

[

All of our calibration is done in conjunction with the DisplayMate software.

](http://www.displaymate.com/)

Video Modes

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The {{product.name}} has several video modes.

Connectivity

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The {{product.name}} offers all the ports you'll need for a home theater set-up. For older devices, there are two composite AV, one component AV, a cable/antenna, and a VGA input. For newer AV devices, you have four HDMI inputs.

Of course, TVs are expected to go beyond the devices sitting next them and into the realm of "smart," though the definition of smart is up to the company and any given press release. In the case of the {{product.name}}, we're moderately impressed. There are two USB ports for connecting to USB mass storage devices like thumb drives. There's a LAN port in the back for connecting to DLNA local networks, as well as the wider internet for streaming content (more details on that later in the review). We're quite pleased to see that the {{product.name}} also offers built-in WiFi, so you skip running that ethernet cable across your living room floor.

Placement

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The {{product.name}}'s ports are arranged in an L-shape along the back of the TV. Ports facing the side are easy to access, while those facing downwards are much trickier to get to.

Audio Quality

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The {{product.model}}'s audio performance is wretchedly bad, sounding only the slightest bit better than a rusty phonograph. Forget bass response at all: the {{product.model}} just won't reproduce it. This TV is probably good enough for talk shows, but we wouldn't suggest using it for movies unless you're using an external system.

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The menu interface of the {{product.model}} looks pretty cool the first time you open it. That's about how long the honeymoon period with this TV lasts, however, as the functionality of this menu is a little subpar. The interface is inconsistent at best, relying on a system of pop-up scrolling sub menus that are impossible to tell if they actually contain the settings you're looking for. We had to use three separate submenus just to calibrate the picture.

Once the submenus are open, you'll get a very straight-forward scrolling list of settings that are much closer to what older TV owners will be used to. It's really too bad that Toshiba didn't stick with this for their {{product.model}}, as it probably would have made the interface simpler.

Instruction Manual

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The {{product.model}}'s instruction manual is thorough and easy to navigate. Well done on this one, Toshiba. We recommend downloading the PDF version for even faster keyword searching. Find it here.

A manual for so many TV models, they have to be further categorized by type.

Internet Features

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The internet features of the {{product.model}} were much improved over other Toshiba models we've reviewed this year, in that they actually worked this time. Like many other manufacturers, Toshiba has partnered with Netflix to put a button on the remote to take you there instantly. As for the rest of the content available to you over the internet, Toshiba still uses the Yahoo! plug-and-play content platform, which performs like many of the other features on this TV: sluggish and painful to use. While it allows Toshiba someone to lean on to develop content partnerships and app, likely an onerous task for a hardware-oriented company, relying on Yahoo has cost them. Samsung, Sony, and Panasonic have pulled ahead. All developed their own little networks and the interface is both richer and easier than Yahoo's.

Local Media Playback

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The {{product.model}} has two USB ports, which allow it to play back video clips, music and photos from a USB mass storage device. While the menu for media playback is basic, it does look somewhat nice, and there are a few options for controlling slideshows.

Power Consumption

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The {{product.name}} does not need too much power to operate. If you look at the table below, you'll see numbers for maximum backlight and a second backlight setting that doesn't give peak performance, but bright enough for a sunny room.

The {{product.name}} compares quite favorably to its competitors.

Value Comparison

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The Panasonic TC-P50ST30 is not a perfect TV, but it is a very good TV. The core performance was great, outside of some significant motion artifacting. The 3D performance was notably better than Panasonic's first-generation efforts.

Blacks & Whites

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The Panasonic ST30 has a killer black level, even for a plasma TV (plasmas typically have a much deeper black level than LCDs). Even though the {{product.name}} produced a significantly brighter white, the Panasonic's contrast ratio absolutely destroyed the Toshiba.

Color Accuracy

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The {{product.name}}'s color performance was not great, so it's no surprise that the Panasonic ST30 outperformed it. The color temperature consistencies were similar, but the RGB curves on the Panasonic were far smoother.

Motion

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The Panasonic ST30 may have had a lot great qualities, but we noted a lot of problems with the motion performance. The {{product.name}} was not quite as smooth but produced fewer artifacts.

Viewing Effects

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The Panasonic ST30 is a plasma TV, and plasmas offer a much wider viewing angle than even the best LCDs.

Connectivity

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The {{product.name}} offers more connectivity options than the Panasonic ST30.

Other Comparisons

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The Panasonic ST30 uses active shutter 3D technology, which requires more expensive glasses, but purportedly better quality than passive 3D systems like the {{product.name}}. When compared specifically to the {{product.name}}, it's a bit of a toss-up. As we noted earlier in the review, the Toshiba requires you to sit perfectly eye-level with the screen. Anything less than perfect and you may as well not even try the 3D. The Panasonic doesn't have this particular restriction.

Value Comparison

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The {{product.name}} is one of our top-rated TVs for a reason. It's an incredible combination of performance and features, all at a very attractive price of ($1299 MSRP). The downsides were few, and typical of all plasma TVs, such as a reflective screen. We'd easily pick this over the {{product.name}}.

Blacks & Whites

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The {{product.name}} could not match the Samsung PN51D6500 for black level, which made the Samsung's contrast ratio much wider.

Color Accuracy

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The {{product.name}} and Samsung PN51D6500 both produced consistent color temperatures. In the RGB curve tests, however, the Toshiba failed to produce any detail in the highlights.

Motion

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The {{product.name}} and Samsung PN51D6500 both did well in the motion tests, but the Samsung had some troublesome artifacts that obscured fine details, giving Toshiba a slight advantage.

Viewing Effects

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The Samsung PN51D6500, as a plasma TV, offers a far wider viewing angle than the {{product.name}}.

Connectivity

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The {{product.name}} has a slight advantage in terms of connectivity, thanks to an additional composite AV input and built-in WiFi. The Samsung requires an additional purchase for WiFi.

Other Comparisons

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The Samsung PN51D6500 uses active shutter 3D, while the {{product.name}} uses passive 3D. In the past, we would assumed that plasmas using active shutter had a distinct advantage. The {{product.name}} has shown that this is not always the case. Done correctly, though, the inherent loss of resolution that passive 3D suffers can be mitigated. The {{product.name}} looked much better than the passive 3D TVs we reviewed from LG.

Value Comparison

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The Sony KDL-32EX720 is a very strong television, with outstanding core performance and a great feature set. An LED-edgelit LCD like the {{product.name}}, the EX720, has the same problems with an even illumination, but it trumps the Toshiba in every other respect.

Blacks & Whites

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The Sony EX720 offers a great black level, especially for an LCD television. It absolutely dominated the {{product.name}}. The Sony also had a brighter white, making for a much wider contrast ratio overall.

Color Accuracy

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The Sony EX720 produced outstanding color performance results, far exceeding the {{product.name}}.

Motion

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The Sony EX720 did a great job in our motion tests, as it could take advantage of the MotionFlow processing feature. It smoothed over a lot of the problems we otherwise see in most LCD displays. Of course, it introduced other problems, but we score based on best possible performance. There's no question that the Sony EX720 beats the {{product.name}} in this regard.

Viewing Effects

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The Sony EX720 had a particularly narrow viewing angle, one of the weaker aspects of the TV.

Connectivity

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The {{product.name}} has a very slight advantage over the Sony EX720, as it offers an additional composite AV input and built-in WiFi. The Sony requires an additional purchase for WiFi.

Other Comparisons

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We were not in love with the Sony EX720's 3D performance. There was a lot of crosstalk and a fair amount of eyestrain. The {{product.name}} wasn't perfect, but at least the glasses are a lot cheaper, as it uses the passive 3D system instead.

Conclusion

The {{product.name}} is part of a high-end series, yet has precious little to recommend it. First, it takes more than 30 seconds to start up, so we originally thought it was broken and had already started the return process. Once it was up and running, things didn't get much better. The black levels and contrast are poor. It appears incapable of displaying details in highlights. The viewing angles, both side-to-side and up-and-down, are narrow. The menu interface is gawky and the remote control is terrible. The internet features are decent but have been far surpassed by other TV manufacturers. And considering the TV as an object in the home, it's not the most attractive.

Wow, that's quite a list of cons. What about things to recommend it? Well, the {{product.name}} is a bright TV, so it can compete with a sunny room much better than a plasma TV. There are also plenty of connectivity options for AV devices, local media networks, and the wider world of streaming content. Plus the built-in WiFi means one less cord to run across the room.

When you tally it up, the {{product.name}} just isn't worth it, especially when you consider that you can find competing TVs with better performance, interface, and design for the same price.

Model Series Comparison

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The TL515U is a high-end series for Toshiba. It incorporates the best of their 2011 technologies (at least we gathered that much from their press release): 3D display, 240 Hz refresh, streaming content, built-in WiFi, and LED edge lighting. There are four models in this series: 32, 42, 47, and 55 inches. All share the same basic attributes. Unfortunately, we just don't like the TV all that much. Sorry, guys.

{{photo_gallery "Front Tour Image", "Back Tour Image", "Sides Tour Image", "Stand Photo", "Controls Photo", "Remote Control Photo", "Connectivity Tour Image 1", "Connectivity Tour Image 2", "Connectivity Extra Photo", "Menu Main Photo", "Menu 2 Photo", "Internet Features 1 Photo", "Internet Features 2 Photo", "Internet Features 3 Photo", "Local Media Playback 1 Photo", "Local Media Playback 2 Photo"}}

Ratings & Specs

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Meet the tester

David Kender

David Kender

Editor in Chief

@davekender

David Kender oversees content at Reviewed as the Editor in Chief. He served as managing editor and editor in chief of Reviewed's ancestor, CamcorderInfo.com, helping to grow the company from a tiny staff to one of the most influential online review resources. In his time at Reviewed, David has helped to launch over 100 product categories and written too many articles to count.

See all of David Kender's reviews

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