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  • Introduction

  • Tour & Design

  • Blacks & Whites

  • Color Accuracy

  • Motion

  • Viewing Effects

  • Calibration

  • Remote Control

  • Connectivity

  • Audio & Menus

  • Formats & Media

  • Power Consumption

  • Vs Sony KDL 46VE5

  • Vs Samsung UN46B6000

  • Vs Sharp LC 46SB57UN

  • Conclusion

  • Series Comparison

  • Introduction
  • Tour & Design
  • Blacks & Whites
  • Color Accuracy
  • Motion
  • Viewing Effects
  • Calibration
  • Remote Control
  • Connectivity
  • Audio & Menus
  • Formats & Media
  • Power Consumption
  • Vs Sony KDL 46VE5
  • Vs Samsung UN46B6000
  • Vs Sharp LC 46SB57UN
  • Conclusion
  • Series Comparison

Introduction

Tour & Design

Front


The Toshiba 46RV525R has a slightly thick bezel made of glossy black plastic. Its stand is square and a bit on the thick size. The branding doubles as a power indicator, and there's another LED indicator to its right.

 

 

Back


The back of the TV has a group of ports towards its right side.

 

For information about the ports on the back of the Toshiba 46RV525R see our Connectivity section.

 

Sides


The left side has the on-set controls and a handful of ports. The right side is bare.

For information about the ports on the back of the Toshiba 46RV525R see our Connectivity section.

Stand/Mount


The stand is a bit bulky, but sturdy. Our main complaint is it doesn't swivel, which makes getting to the ports slightly awkward.

 

Controls


The controls cover the basics: power, channel up/down, volume toggle, menu, and input switcher.

 

 

Remote Control


The remote offers a lot of functionality and a lot of buttons. We wish there was slightly more differentiation between some of the smaller buttons.

 

In The Box*(8.0)*


In the box you'll find a manual, remote, batteries, and cleaning cloth. The TV is relatively simple to set up: just put the stand on the TV and tighten some screws.

 

Aesthetics*(5.0)*


The TV is really generic for a modern TV. It doesn't have any design flourishes, and its bezel and base are a bit too thick. This being said, it's not anything we'd call ugly either. It's just not particularly noteworthy in either direction.

 

Blacks & Whites

Black Level*(6.98)*


The Toshiba 46RV525RZ had a black level of 0.16 candelas per square meter (cd/m2). A good black level is around 0.10 cd/m2, which means the 46RV525RZ is 60% brighter than a solid, deep black level. This being said, the average LCD tends to settle around the 0.20 cd/m2 mark, so the 46RV525RZ is slightly better than average for its display technology.

 

Peak Brightness*(7.84)*


Displaying an all white screen at maximum backlight, the 46RV525RZ had a luminance of 261.51 cd/m2. This isn't the brightest display we've seen, but it should be more than sufficient for normal use. External light might wash the screen out slightly, but you shouldn't run into any issues with dim brights. 

 

Contrast*(6.85)*


Manufacturer-stated contrast ratios are often greatly exaggerated. The black and white measurements are taken with different settings enabled for each, meaning there's no way you would see such performance during normal use. When we test contrast ratio, we use the same settings we initially calibrate.

We measured the 46RV525RZ's contrast ratio at 1634:1. This is a mediocre contrast ratio. 

 

Tunnel Contrast*(9.40)*


Here, we check to make sure the TVs black level is consistent, independent of the displayed content. The 46RV525R's levels remained pretty much consistent.

 

White Falloff*(9.97)*


This test ensures the HDTV's brightness won't dim, depending on what's being displayed. The 46RV525R maintained bright whites in this test. 

 

Uniformity*(6.50)*


In this test we look at the uniformity of an all white and all black screen on the Toshiba 46RV525R. With the all white screen things looked good, with just a small amount of dimming at the corners and along the edges. With the black screen, however, we noticed significant bright areas at the corners and also saw blotches of brighter areas across the center, which is worrisome as this can detract from the viewing experience when looking at darker scenes.

 

Greyscale Gamma*(9.04)*


We measured the Toshiba 46RV525R's gamma curve at 2.27, which is just barely outside the ideal range of 2.1 to 2.2. This means the television should make correct adjustments as it goes from dark to light. Some HDTVs have a much higher gamma, which means the adjustments happen more aggressively and can cause you to lose detail in very dark and bright areas. This shouldn't be a problem with the 46RV525R.

 

Resolution Scaling*(5.65)*


Although the Toshiba 46RV525R is capable of displaying full 1080p content, the reality is that the only place you'll get content at that quality is from a Blu-ray disc. Most of the content that you will get on your HDTV will come in one of the flavors listed below, and in this section we look at how well the HDTV handles these various formats.

480p

This is the format used by standard definition television and DVDs. The Toshiba 46RV525R's does a good job with 480p content, unlike most HDTVs we were able to adjust the view settings so there was no overscan, although in order to do this we did have to give up using the entire display to view the content, with black bars appearing on the left and right. If you stretch the content out there will be about a 3% overscan at the top and bottom. There were no serious problems with moire patterns, legibility or resolution.

720p

This is the lowest quality of high definition content and is used on the internet and sometimes by broadcast HDTV sporting events. Once again we were able to get zero overscan, but we did start noticing some problems with moire patterns. In particular we noticed some fine patterns appearing in certain orientations of alternating black and white lines. This was the only significant issue we saw, however.

1080i

This is the standard used for broadcast HD. Unlike 1080p content, however, it is sent in two sets of 540 lines rather than one set of 1080 lines. This reduces the bandwidth required, but can also introduce problems. Thankfully no major problems were present in our testing.

Color Accuracy

Color Temperature*(10.00)*


The Toshiba 46RV525R aced this test. It's color temperature remained so consistent that its fluctuations exist outside the realm of human perceptibility. You would need super powers to notice any shifts in this TV's color temperature.

 

RGB Curves*(7.93)*


Red, green, and blue light are the building blocks for each other color your HDTV displays. Since these three colors are so integral in color quality, we test their responses individually, from their lowest intensity to their highest.

The Toshiba 46RV525R performed pretty well on this test. In the graph below, you'll notice that the curve is relatively smooth, with only small bumps. These bumps represent minor losses of detail, as the colors' intensities aren't changing smoothly between nearby shades. There is also some minor peaking in the blue and red channels, which means they're displaying the same color for a somewhat large range of high intensities. The peaking is the small plateau towards the right of the graph. 

 

Below we've taken the red, green, and blue curves and graphed them as gradients. We've also paired them up with the ideal response and the responses from some competing HDTVs.

 

 

 

Color Gamut*(5.13)*


The colors a TV is supposed to display are dictated by an international standard, rec. 709. Here, we measure the TV's color gamut against rec. 709, to see where the TV is off. 

The 46RV525R's reds were spot on, but its greens and blues were both oversaturated. Its greens were pushed slightly towards blue, and its blues were pushed slightly towards red. 

Below is a chart for the HDTV nerds out there. It's the rec. 709 standard and our measurement, along with the amount the TV was off. Chances are, you won't care about this poor, lonely chart.

 

 

Motion

Motion Smoothness*(5.00)*


Unlike many other Toshiba HDTVs, the 46RV525R doesn't feature a 120Hz refresh rate. Interestingly enough, we didn't notice much of a difference between the 46RV525R and its 120Hz-capable sisters. Moving faces held together pretty well, albeit with an obvious cartoonish cast, but we saw massive amounts of motion blur with moving blocks of color, especially when viewing in 1080i.

 

Motion Artifacting*(5.00)*


Artifacts are things that appear on the display that should not be there. With the Toshiba 46RV525R we detected quite a few artifacts related to moving objects. There was a very obvious judder in certain moving scenes, and we also saw the same rolling shutter effect we've seen on other HDTVs, although the 46RV525R was actually a bit better than average in this respect. What concerned us more is that we saw a flat out inversion of colors in some moving objects, which should never happen.

 

3:2 Pulldown & 24fps*(8.50)*


3:2 pulldown is the process by which an HDTV converts broadcast content that is received at 60 frames per second into 24 frames per second. This is primarily done for films that are supposed to be viewed at the lower frame rate to get that film-like look. The Toshiba 46RV525R did a good job with this conversion, with barely noticeable glitches in our test pattern. You do need to turn on the Film Stabilization feature in the advacned picture menu in order for this conversion to happen appropriately, but there's really no reason not to leave this feature on. There are two options here, Standard and Smooth, in addition to Off. We didn't see a significant difference between the two so select the one that looks best to you. The 46RV525R also supports content that comes in natively at 24 frames per second, for example films played from a DVD or Blu-ray player.

 

Viewing Effects

Viewing Angle*(3.90)*


We measured the Toshiba 46RV525R's viewing angle at 28° total. That means that, once you get 14° off-center, you'll lose 50% of the picture's contrast. This effect is caused by the thickness of the screen: as you move away from dead center, you're actually looking through a thicker screen. This can seriously impact how much light reaches you, making brights appear significantly dimmer, but not do.

 

 

Reflectance*(9.00)*


We didn't really have much of an issue with the Toshiba 46RV525R's screen being reflective. An external light created a diffuse glow, but it wasn't particularly annoying, and was easily overpowered by the TV's backlight.

 

Video Processing*(4.00)*


While we often lament processing features on TVs because they frequently hurt rather than help picture quality, the features on the Toshiba 46RV525R are quite mild. In fact, we had a hard time telling when any of the features listed below were off or on. Notably absent from the list is any sort of motion smoothing feature, which is a welcome relief. The latest batch of big screens have been jam packed with things like 'Tru Motion' and similarly named gimmicks that reduce a film's quality down to home movie levels.

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Calibration

Calibration


[

](http://www.displaymate.com/)When we review TVs, we want to compare them across a common ground. We therefore calibrated each TV to best suit our testing environment, ensuring we're getting the best possible results from each. We've listed the changes we made in the table below. If a setting isn't listed in the table, we didn't alter it.

It's unusual that we have to adjust the 'Color' setting on a TV, but in the case of the Toshiba 46RV525R, we noticed that the red and blue channels were peaking much too early (that is, they were missing a lot of detail in the highlights). We lowered the Color setting, and found that we could regain some of that detail without affecting the brightness or contrast ratio. You may wish to do the same on your 46RV525R.

 

 

Video Modes


As with most HDTVs the Toshiba 46RV525R offers a variety of different video modes. Below we list them and Toshiba's explanation for each.

 

 

Remote Control

Ergonomics & Durability*(7.5)*


The 46RV525R's remote does a decent job. In neutral position, the remote sits comfortably in the hand. It's balanced well, its bottom edges are curved, and there's a ridge on the remote's underside for your index finger. The remote's bottom is smooth, which might make it easy to drop. Though the remote seems durable, it's made from lightweight plastic. We think it'd survive a few spills, but it also didn't instill the utmost confidence.

 

Button Layout & Use*(7.5)*


The remote has good button layout overall. With your thumb resting on the select key, you can easily reach the volume and channel changing buttons. You will have to shift your grip slightly to reach the number pad, however, but not very far. The buttons are a good size and are clearly labeled for the most part. The buttons also glow in the dark, but the majority of the descriptors are located on the remote themself. The glowing mainly shows which buttons are where, because it isn't bright enough to illuminate their labels.

The buttons on the remote had good travel, but we would've liked a bit more tactile feedback. The buttons will snap into place gently and sometimes very unevenly. The remote works if it's even vaguely pointed at the front of the TV.

 

Programming & Flexibility*(7.0)*


The remote can be programmed to work with other devices from other manufacturers. Programming the remote is an easy process. You point the remote at the device, hold the RECALL button, and type in a three-digit code. The TV's manual comes with a list of available codes. We were able to get it working with the office cable box without issue.

 

Connectivity

  • 1 Composite video input
  • 1 Analog audio input

 

Output Ports*(2.0)*


The back of the TV has two output ports: a digital and analog audio out.

 

Other Connections*(0.0)*


The TV has no other connections.

 

Media*(0.0)*


The TV has no media functionality.

 

Placement*(7.0)*


The ports are very well placed on the Toshiba 46RV525R. There aren't that many located on the side, but the ones located on the back are very easy to access, with the possible exception of the cable input. The TV doesn't swivel, making the good port location almost necessary.

 

Audio & Menus

Audio Quality*(4.0)*


The Toshiba 46RV525R doesn't have the best set of built-in speakers we've heard. Voices were very flat, even when the voice boost feature was enabled. The TV had very weak bass with the StableSound feature on and sounded very tinny. When we switched it off it gave the bass a bit more presence, but not much, and the lower bassy sounds made something in the TV vibrate. Interestingly, there is a bass boost feature, but we didn't notice a significant difference between low, high, and off. Regardless of the various advanced audio settings, the audio quality sounded pretty flat.

Overall, the speakers won't make you cringe and rush out to buy new ones, but they're not great.

 

Menu Interface*(7.5)*


The 46RV525R's menu system is very basic. It features a tabbed interface: icons run across the top, and the highlighted item's menu extends underneath. The top-level menu items are pictures, sound, applications, preferences, and setup.

Chosing an item from the aforementioned list will cause a submenu to pop out, where options are listed as you'd expect. The main gripe we had was some of the submenu headers were a bit vague. Although you could guess which options fall into'picture settings' and which occur under 'theater settings,' it's not particularly obvious.

 

Manual*(6.0)*


The 46RV525R's manual is packed with information, but isn't very user friendly. For starters, the font is rather small. The manual has a table of contents, but it's very dense. The different chapters are split into headers and subsections. The headers and subsections don't have any differences in the text style or font, but the latter is indented slightly. The manual also doesn't have tabbed pages and its index is pretty sparse, especially compared to the table of contents. The manual does feature pictures and charts, but they, like the text, are a bit too small.

 

 

Formats & Media

Formats*(10.0)*


The Toshiba 46RV525R is a 1080p HDTV. That's currently the highest HD format available.

 

Photo Playback*(0.0)*


No photo playback.

 

Music & Video Playback*(0.0)*


No music/video playback.

 

Streaming Playback*(0.0)*


No streaming playback.

 

Other Media*(0.0)*


No additional media.

 

Power Consumption

Power Consumption*(8.44)*


Each TV is going to have operating costs. Since some TVs are more expensive to keep on than others, we test their wattage draw, then use national averages to figure out the cost per year.

The Toshiba 46RV525R doesn't cost a lot per year. Even with the backlight at its highest (which isn't particularly bright), the TV will only draw about $35 per year. With the backlight off entirely, you can drop costs down to $13 per year.

Below is a chart comparing the TV's power consumption to a few competing models.

Vs Sony KDL 46VE5

Value Comparison Summary


The Sony costs $600 more than the Toshiba, but offers better performance all around. This one really comes down to your budget, and how much a decent performance hike is worth to you.

Blacks & Whites


The Sony had a significantly deeper black and a brighter white as well, leading to a much higher contrast ratio.

 

Color Accuracy


The Toshiba had a steadier color temperature and better color representation than the Sony.

 

 

 

Motion


The Sony had some serious artifacting issues, but had less blur than the Toshiba.

 

Viewing Effects


The Toshiba had a narrow viewing angle, even for an LCD. The Sony's was slightly wider, but was also subpar.

 

Connectivity


The Sony has an extra HDMI and a USB port for media playback.

Vs Samsung UN46B6000

Value Comparison Summary


The allure of an LED backlit screen is hard to ignore. It's got that buzzword appeal. And our testing bore out the hype with positive results: great color, great contrast, great motion blur reduction. To boot, the Samsung has Internet connectivity, something definitely missing from the Toshiba.

Blacks & Whites


The Samsung was capable of a much deeper black and a much brighter white, leading to a significantly higher contrast ratio.

 

Color Accuracy


The Toshiba's color temperature was more even than the Samsung's, but the Samsung performed slightly better on our RGB tests.

 

 

 

Motion


The Samsung has significantly less motion blur; the two TVs have roughly equivalent artifacting issues.

Viewing Effects


The Samsung had an average viewing angle for an LCD HDTV; the Toshiba's viewing angle was more narrow than average.

Connectivity


The Samsung doesn't have as many ports as the Toshiba, but its USB and LAN port provide it with extra media functionality.

**
**

Vs Sharp LC 46SB57UN

Value Comparison Summary


The Toshiba is a bit cheaper than the Sharp, and the Sharp doesn't offer much to compel buyers to spend the extra cash.

Blacks & Whites


The Toshiba had a deeper black, but wasn't as bright. Even so, it had a slightly higher contrast ratio. The differences are too miniscule for the average viewer to notice, however.

 

Color Accuracy


The Sharp had better color representation, but the Toshiba had a much more even color temperature.

 

 

 

Motion


Both TVs had issues with motion blur and artifacting.

 

Viewing Effects


Even though neither TV had a good viewing angle, the Toshiba's was more narrow than the Sharp's.

 

Connectivity


The Sharp has an extra HDMI, at the expense of an analog audio input.

Conclusion

 

 

 

 

Series Comparison

RV525R Series


This series consists of some basic 1080p HDTVs. They have 3 HDMIs and no frills.

Meet the tester

Mark Brezinski

Mark Brezinski

Senior Writer

@markbrezinski

Mark Brezinski works on the Home Team, reviewing refrigerators, minifridges, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, air purifiers, and fans.

See all of Mark Brezinski's reviews

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