Toshiba 46XF355DB Regza 46inch Full HD 1080 LCD TV Review


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Having lived with Toshiba’s 46” HDTV longer than planned, Phil Hinton is surprisingly happy with it’s performance..

Introduction

Toshiba have certainly set out their full Regza HDTV ranges to appeal at many price points. The TV on test here was available at the £2000 level, which may seem initially expensive when compared to the ‘C’ and ‘X’ series, but this model has a few neat features that make up for the extra outlay. This particular model will be replaced this year and is available at cut prices; our review should give you an idea if it is worth going with the '07 model.

The first thing to hit you when unpacking this 46” TV, is the fact it actually takes up no more room than a standard 42”. The reason is it’s ‘picture frame’ design which does away with large side screen bezels. This means that the actual bezel is only 200mm wide on the top and sides, with the bottom at 600mm and containing the Onkyo designed stereo speakers. So looking head on towards the TV, the actual 1920 x 1080 LCD screen takes up almost all of the set. This makes the Toshiba compact and nothing but screen surface, allowing the TV to look smaller than a normal 46” screen. Indeed our 50” Pioneer Kuro looks massive in comparison with its wider bezel and pedestal, when added to the 50” screen surface. The downside to this design is a slightly wider back case that measures in at 6” from the front of the screen to the furthest point on the rear of the TV. So if you are planning on wall mounting, it would be at least 8 inches from the wall when in place. However I feel that the actual screen design with hardly any bezel makes up for the slightly fat rear end. The Toshiba comes out of the box with an attached table top pedestal.

Summary

In rounding up my thoughts on the Toshiba 46XF355D, I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised with its performance levels, once correctly set up out of the box, and then calibrated. Indeed it has been my main TV for about 4 months now, and I cannot say that I have been desperate to get rid of it in favour of the kuro. That’s not to say it gets anywhere near that kind of picture performance, but rather it does everything rather well for an LCD set, and has a picture that is easy to live with in a livingroom setting. Black level impressed me, and once calibrated the image can look very natural and detailed. It just lacks that overall degree of depth that the very best offer, it can look rather flat with some material; only HD material can give a sense of what could be achieved.

The Toshiba picture frame design does look very stylish, and the lack of screen bezel adds to an immersive picture experience. Colours look natural and fairly accurate out of the box, with a calibrated performance that really brings out the best of this TV. Given the falling prices of this model, you could do far worse than at least demo this screen. The 46XF355D offers a performance level that is certainly keeping up the pace for LCD TVs, and offers better than expected black levels and a nice natural looking image, when set up correctly. I can only recommend that if you are after a bargain that will perform well at the price point, you could do far worse than the Toshiba.

Scores
Contrast ratio/dynamic range
Black level
Colour reproduction out of the box
Colour reproduction calibrated
Greyscale out of box
Greyscale calibrated
ISF or calibration controls available
Video processing SD/HD
Sound quality built in
Networking
Features
Ease of use/menus/remote/settings
Value for money
Overall

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Connections

So when we get around the back, what kind of connections do we get? Well as you would expect we have three HDMI v1.3 inputs (number three is situated on the right side panel for easy access for your camcorder). There are also two scart inputs, one component, a DVB common interface and one RGB/PC input. On the right hand side panel there are additional s-video and composite connections. There can be no complaints with the number of inputs available here with almost everything you could possibly need in a living room set up.

So after connecting up our source components it’s time to switch the power on and let the TV set up the analogue, and digital channels. This initial set up takes no time at all to perform, and the EPG is easy to use, if a little basic in design. We will cover the actual performance later. Moving on to the menu screens gives access to most of the features you will ever need in proper set up and calibration. However the lack of RGB offsets and gains will require entry to the TV’s service menu for greyscale calibration, more on this later.

The menus are well laid out and identical in appearance to other Toshiba Regza sets. There are also some new features added which improve the set over the other series screens, such as more available colour temperature settings, which include a correctly named ‘user setting’. These new settings are named, ‘Dynamic’, ‘standard’, ‘cinema’ and ‘user’. As you can imagine dynamic is overly bright with a very blue/red look, standard is more laid back but with an obvious warm look and cinema is closer to being accurate with just a tad of red within the image. User is defaulted when you change any of the settings in any mode, so be warned, if you take the time to properly calibrate the TV (and we highly recommend you do), you really should write down the correct settings as they can be easily wiped out with a wrong selection on the remote. This has always been a problem with the Toshiba sets and we really wish they would give us some dedicated memory modes, to avoid losing our settings by one wrong press of the remote control. We see this as a serious problem with the set, especially if you have kids who are likely to mess around with the remote control. However there is a panel lock option in the functions sub menu which can be used to lock out any changes to any of the picture controls, along with other features.

The menus contain all the usual settings and come in six main areas of operation, picture settings, sound, set up, Regza link, timer and functions. Under each major menu name are a choice of input controls and further sub menus depending on what function you select. For example to enter the 3D colour management menu you need to select picture, then switch the 3D colour option on, then select the base colour adjustment menu. However, although it may look overwhelming at first, the actual layout of the menu system is pretty easy to master in a matter of 10 or so minutes. Other features that can be accessed are the sound controls which allow set up of the SRS WOW settings, adjust the tone controls and balance and also select TV speakers or an AV Amp selection. The tiny stereo speakers under the front bezel are designed by Onkyo and offer up a reasonable sound quality, if you are not using the set with an AV sound set up. The final settings to select are the inputs and aspect ratios. This is done from the remote control and brings up small menus at the left side of the screen. Input selection allows DTV and all the aforementioned input connections, where the aspect controls allow various settings, including exact scan which allows 1:1 pixel mapping.

The remote control supplied with the set is identical to other Regza series TVs, with a clear layout of main controls, as well as easy access to advanced controls such as the main menu. Selecting between HDMI and the built in digital and analogue tuners is easily achieved using the large AV button, at the bottom of the number selections. Overall, a nicely laid out and solid remote. As a side note the Toshiba allows CEC control using HDMI so you can control your Blu-ray or Amplifier using the Toshiba remote when set up correctly, even if those sources are from other manufacturers.

So with the Toshiba set up and ready to go, out comes the measuring and testing equipment for a closer look at the out of the box, calibration and video processing performance of the XF355DB.

Picture performance

Moving on to how the set performs, I first tested it over a few weeks of viewing in the best out of the box configuration. This was in cinema mode, natural temperature, and the main controls set for my viewing environment. The only problems I encountered with this set up, was when the room was filled with bright sunlight. In these circumstances it would have been ideal to have had a day time setting. As it was I just set the TV into standard setting, which brightened up the screen to cope, but maintained integrity of the image. It was however in this setting that artefacts do start to become apparent, with poorly transmitted TV signals. In the evening settings the image was strong, with only the very worst of TV transmission quality showing up problems, and that was clearly not the Toshiba's fault.

The built in DVB tuner performs well with a very good image for the majority of material. Colours are kept in check and never look overblown, and the black levels on the Toshiba are very good for an LCD screen. It was the good black level coupled with strong, yet accurate looking colours, that impressed me with the DVB material. There were signs of digital artefacts with some material, and I guess this is a problem we will always see on any TV, even the best. ITV are the main culprits when it comes to poor transmission quality, and watching the Euro 2008 games in SD just confirmed that for me. But for the majority of viewing the Toshiba performed better than it should have with freeview pictures, and if you can overlook the odd artefact problem with poor transmissions, you will be pleasantly surprised at the image quality. I should obviously point out that all the picture processing built into the set was switched of, apart from NR which I had on low for TV viewing.

With HD material from SKY HD the 46XF355D performed to its best capabilities, with an image that looked sharp and acceptably natural for out of the box settings. The exact scan setting allows 1:1 pixel mapping and slightly increases the image. I also noticed that when exact scan was switched off with HD content, there was a slight 5% overscan applied to the image. This wasn’t an obvious flaw and I only noticed the set was doing it when displaying test patterns. One thing that is annoying, is the fact you have to reset the exact scan mode, each time time you change to another resolution such as SD TV, then back to HDTV signals. BBC HD football coverage looked sublime with no problems of image blur or banding. The fast pans within action shots did lose some of the fine detail, but never broke up into a digital mess like some competing screens do. Testing with the FPD Benchmark disc gave a moving fine detail reading of around 300 lines, which for an LCD is really rather good. This set does not have 100hz processing like some of the new sets out there, but it's overall video processing was very good indeed, with very few artefacts seen in real world pictures, and almost all the HQV tests passed with flying colours.

By adding Blu-ray to the mix just confirmed that the image quality provided by the Toshiba, when set up in the optimum settings, is very good indeed. Blacks are strong, colours rich and free from bleed, with fine detail popping off the screen. The set does lack that overall breathtaking three dimensional look that HD is capable of, but I have only ever experienced that kind of performance on plasma and projectors, offering far higher contrast and deeper blacks than the Toshiba. In terms of LCD performance, the Toshiba is a fine set that when set up correctly can look very good indeed.

A word of warning about the downsides to the Toshiba, out of the box. Leaving the picture processing switched on full causes some obvious problems, with ticker tape logos on news channels and picture break up can be seen on fast moving action. Use the factory settings on the set and it looks a complete mess, with whites clipping and the black level looking like a solid block of gray. The backlight can be seen as a clear banding of light structures, and artefacts dance around the screen with glee. The image also has a very blue over wash in this setting, and to be honest, if this is the settings used in a showroom, you will probably walk straight past this TV. However you can rest assured that when set up correctly out of the box, and I’m not talking about a full calibration, just getting the main controls right for your room, the picture is far far better in quality. Switch off all the gubbings, like back light control and black stretch, and use a copy of DVE, and you should achieve a very acceptable image that looks very watchable and natural.

Dynamic Mode left vs Calibrated picture right

These images are just for illustration and should not be used to base any purchase decisions on.

In full calibrated mode the Toshiba moves up a gear in overall picture performance, with blacks looking nice and deep and a good degree of shadow detail seen. They are not inky black like a kuro plasma, but for an LCD they are a strong point that never looks gray, they just occasionally lack any real depth. Colours further improve when set with a meter and software, and after a good tracking greyscale is dialled in. Skin tones really benefit and reds look strong without noise or bleed. HD is where you will notice the biggest difference with calibration on the Toshiba, images no longer look flat; but take on a wider sense of depth. The one thing this HDTV does well is bring fine detail to the image, looking very sharp unless the image moves quickly, but even then its not a mess of artefacts like some screens out there. The response time works well the majority of the time. 24p playback is also accepted and displayed correctly but there is still a degree of telecine judder on some material. However I’m not convinced that this is entirely down to the set; rather pans which were filmed that way and hence look wrong anyway, (this was checked on my kuro and projector and it was the same). Even with gaming on the PS3, the Toshiba holds up well and displays things in a clear and concise manner, with little in the way of shimmer or detail decay, and edges appear as they should from the source material.

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Toshiba 46XF355DB

46" LCD TV
Size: 46 inch television
Suggested price: £1,999

Reviewed 17th June, 2008 by Phil Hinton

Key Features

Super-slim bezel creates iconic ‘Picture Frame’ effect

Available in large-screen 40” and 46” sizes with two colours to choose from

1080p 1920x1080 resolution.

24fps playback.

3xHDMI Plus CEC control.

Active Vision LCD processing on both models.

Onkyo sound system.

Pros

Good value for screen size

Full CMS controls for calibration

Blacks are very good for an LCD set

Good Video Processing for SD and HD signals

Nice design

Handles 24fps material with ease

Cons

White balance Greyscale controls in service menu only

No memory options for saving multiple picture presets

Not the slimmest TV on the market

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