Toshiba 42WLT66 |
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The Good
Great picture and sound performance, sophisticated design.
The Bad
Connectivity is a little confusing.
Design
The sleek black chasis has become a trademark of Toshiba recently, and gives a classic feel to the 42 WLT66. The 42 WLT66 looks and feels more robust than previous Toshiba LCDs, yet it actually weighs noticeably less, improving its wall-hanging potential if the slightly uninspiring desktop stand option doesn't excite you.
Features
Screen size & shape: 42in 16:9 Tuner: Digital Sound system: Nicam Resolution: 1920x1080 HD Ready: Yes Contrast Ratio: 800:1 Brightness: 550cd/m2 Weight: 28.9 kg OTHER FEATURES: Active Vision SOCKETS: 2 HDMI input, component video input, S-video, 3 scarts (2RGB), composite video input, stereo audio input, digital audio output
The 42WLT66's digital tuner carries full support for the seven-day electronic programme guide (EPG) service now provided by Freeview, and will even let you store up to eight 'timer events' for recording on a separate device while you're out, simply by directly selecting programmes from the EPG listings.
The next key inclusion is the latest version of Toshiba's proprietary Active Vision LCD picture-processing system. Active Vision LCD is an umbrella term that incorporates a host of different image-processing elements designed to improve colours, contrast, motion and sharpness.
Another trick tucked away in the Toshiba's menus is a colour-management system that handily lets you tweak the saturation, brightness and hue levels for no less than six of the picture's colour components: magenta, cyan, yellow, red, green and blue.
Performance
The 42WLT66's pictures excel. Colours, for instance, are exemplary, combining almost brutal intensity with impressive tonal subtlety. Good colours are usually accompanied by a decent contrast range, and so it proves with the 42WLT66, as peak whites are pristine but controlled, while deep blacks appear impressively profound and largely free of LCD's common 'greying-over' problem.
The benefits of Toshiba's Active Vision processing system, meanwhile, are evident in the 32WLT66's fine detailing. What's more, this exceptional sharpness is achieved without throwing up any significant negative side effects. The set is thus a superb performer with high-definition sources -- though it proves unusually good with standard-definition digital broadcasts and DVDs too.
There are only two small picture downers to report. Firstly, dark scenes are subtly affected by an unwanted blue undertone. Second, while skin generally looks natural in colour, faces can look marginally flat and waxy thanks to a lack of shading finesse.
Sonically, the 42WLT66 is perfectly respectable. Voices remain clear and authentic even during rowdy action scenes, trebles avoid harshness and the speakers get good and loud before even a trace of distortion sets in. In an ideal world, more bass wouldn't have gone amiss -- but this can be said of nearly all other LCD TVs. At least the 42WLT66 provides the option of upping the bass quotient by adding an optional subwoofer. .