Tour & Design
Toshiba calls the design Of the ZV650 range 'deep lagoon', as the screen is designed to look like a pool of water. To acheve this effect, the front of the display is amde from a single sheet of glass with a pattern fo white dots at the edge that is designed to soften the look. The glass sheet is surrounded by a metal edge. The design works well; the white dots soften the edge of the screen so it blends into the background better.
Back
Because the demo models were firmly attached to the wall, we were not able to get a photo of the back. However, we do know that there are 3 HDMI ports and a gaggle of analog video and audio inputs on the back in a single panel on the left side.
Sides
The 55ZV650U is not a thin display; it is just over 4 inches thick. On the right side are the controls, a single HDMI port, an SD Card slot and a number of analog inputs.
Stand/Mount
We were not able to examine the stand of the 55ZV650U, but the stand is the same style as the SV670, which is shown below. The rounded design complements the look of the screen and should do a decent job of holding it upright.
Aesthetics
The Deep Lagoon design of this screen is attractive; it has a clean, uncluttered look but also manages to look at little different to the standard black bezel design of most other screens.
Performance Features
Display Size & Technology
The 55ZV650U is built around a 54.6 inch LCD screen, with a conventional CCFL backlight. Only the more expensive SV670 series have moved up to using LED backlights.
Formats & Resolution
This display is a 1080p screen with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, so it can handle all of the consumer HD formats and display every single pixel of them all.
Brightness, Blacks and Contrast Ratio
We were not able to conduct any of our usual measurements on the blacks and whites that this display can achieve, but Toshiba claims that it can manage a contrast ratio of 100,000:1. They didn't specify how this was measured, but we are betting that it is the dynamic contrast ratio, where the blacks are measured with the backlight turned down, and the whites with it turned right up. We'll have to wait until we get one of these displays into our testing lair to find out what the figure is in real world use.
Color
Like most Toshiba displays, the 55ZV650U supports a wider color gamut called Deep Color. This is wider than the standard HDTV gamut, but it will only provide an advantage with products that support it.
Motion & Refresh Rate
The 55ZV650U uses the fastest motion processing currently in widespread use: the ClearScan processing runs at 240Hz. This means that the display calculates and inserts 3 frames imbetween every 2 frames of the signal. The demos that Toshiba were showing definitely looked impressive, but we'll wait until we can get this model into our test lab to draw any real conclusions.
Viewing Angle
Toshiba doesn't provide a viewing angle figure for their displays, but we found that the demo units on display had extremely good viewing angles. But again, we will have to wait to get this display in for testing to ascertain the real figures.
Connectivity & Media
Audio & Video Ports
The 55ZV650U has a decent selection of ports on both the back and the right side of the screen. On the back, there are three HDMI ports, two component video inputs and a composite and an S-Video input. We weren't able to get a shot of these ports, but you can see the layout in this shot from the manual.
On the side, there is a single HDMI port, and a composite video input.
Media & Other Connectivity
There are two ports designed to expand the media repertoire of the 55SV650U: a USB port and an SD card slot. The USB port allows you to connect a USB thumb drive or other USB device to play back photos, music and videos on the screen. Videos can be in the MPEG 2 or DivX format.
Placement
The side ports are reasonably well located, below the controls on the right side of the screen. They are easy to find, but you do need to lean around the side of the display to figure out which one is which.
Audio
We were not able to test out the speakers of the 55ZV650U.
Controls, Menu & Remote
Remote
The remote control that comes with the 55ZV650U wasn't available for us to test out.
Controls
The controls are located above the ports on the right side of the display, in a recessed indentation. The buttons are large and well spaced, as well as being slightly offset, which should make them easy to find by touch.
Menu
We were not able to try out the on-screen menus of the 55ZV650U; the menus were locked out on the demo unit we looked at.
Conclusion
Series Comparison
ZV650U Series
There are three models in the ZV650U series: the 42ZV650U (42 inches), the 47ZV650U (47 inches) and the 55ZV650U (55 inches). All the models have a similar set of features.
Meet the tester
Richard Baguley is a veteran writer who has written about technology ranging from Alphabet to Zip file utilities. He has contributed to pretty much every major tech publication, including Amiga Format Magazine, PC World, Wired, CNET, Toms Guide, Forbes, and many others. He lives in the Boston metro area with his wife, dog, and an indeterminate number of cats.
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