Finally I received my Toshiba 30WL46 TV, UK specification. It looks nicer in the flesh than in the pictures.
First, lets clear up some specification confusion.
Contrast ratio is 600:1
Brightness is 550 cd/m2
Resolution is 1280x768 (NOT 720. 720 is for the 27")
It does not have component inputs
It does support PIP, PAP and PAT
So first of all lets start with the bad news:-
1) There are software flaws. Colour temperature set to normal is actually cool, and cool is normal. Warm is correct
2) Another software flaw. Luminance peaking and black stretch settings are lost when disconnected from mains, but not lost on standby
3) Another software flaw. When using PIP/PAP the second channel has its own brightness settings/colour temperatures etc. It seems to get confused and apply second channels image settings to first channel, the most obvious being colour temperature.
4) There is a high pitched whine (confirmed with 2 sets) that is audible when first switching the unit on and fades after it has been on for a few minutes or so. It appears to be coming from the power supply. I have really sensitive high pitched hearing so this may not bother others. With the sound up on the TV it is not that obvious.
5) The user guide gives completely the wrong information on how to use teletext subpages. I figured out the right way myself.
With that out of the way!
When first switching the TV on, the first thing I noticed is that black was not as black as expected. I found my way into the menu system which is a very fancy graphical affair. I quickly found my way to the backlight control. It runs from 1-15 and was set to 15. I turned this right down to 3. Blacks now looked closer black and yet still the picture seemed very contrasty. I have to say that LCDs still need to mature on black level and compared to a CRT, they still do not show the same amount of dark detail or reach true black as per a well set CRT.
However on a bright image, I felt I could almost walk into the TV it was so natural, vibrant and lifelike.
The image looked a little soft even at maximum sharpness until I switched on luminance peaking. This made the image look far more 3D like (if less technically accurate!)
There was no evidence of smearing/blurring. I wondered as this was not an Activevision set, how much difference this would make. Having seen an activevision set previously, I cannot see a major difference.
The unit features twin analogue tuners and the picture from analogue is the best I have ever seen on any television ever. It made the best of a good UHF signal and almost rivalled that from cable via RGB! Talking of Cable, the picture is outstanding from this too. My only gripe is there isn't separate colour level settings for the different inputs. As per normal, RGB input is more saturated, so a compromise between analogue and RGB input is needed.
The switching on of PIP and PAP is a little slow. Once in PIP mode, you can change the size of the inserted picture window and change its location. You can even switch it from 4:3 to 16:9! With both PIP and PAP, you can only change the channel of the currently selected window (switched by using the picture swap button). Teletext can also be placed next to a channel window.
I have not yet tried the DVI or VGA inputs.
Jonathan
First, lets clear up some specification confusion.
Contrast ratio is 600:1
Brightness is 550 cd/m2
Resolution is 1280x768 (NOT 720. 720 is for the 27")
It does not have component inputs
It does support PIP, PAP and PAT
So first of all lets start with the bad news:-
1) There are software flaws. Colour temperature set to normal is actually cool, and cool is normal. Warm is correct
2) Another software flaw. Luminance peaking and black stretch settings are lost when disconnected from mains, but not lost on standby
3) Another software flaw. When using PIP/PAP the second channel has its own brightness settings/colour temperatures etc. It seems to get confused and apply second channels image settings to first channel, the most obvious being colour temperature.
4) There is a high pitched whine (confirmed with 2 sets) that is audible when first switching the unit on and fades after it has been on for a few minutes or so. It appears to be coming from the power supply. I have really sensitive high pitched hearing so this may not bother others. With the sound up on the TV it is not that obvious.
5) The user guide gives completely the wrong information on how to use teletext subpages. I figured out the right way myself.
With that out of the way!
When first switching the TV on, the first thing I noticed is that black was not as black as expected. I found my way into the menu system which is a very fancy graphical affair. I quickly found my way to the backlight control. It runs from 1-15 and was set to 15. I turned this right down to 3. Blacks now looked closer black and yet still the picture seemed very contrasty. I have to say that LCDs still need to mature on black level and compared to a CRT, they still do not show the same amount of dark detail or reach true black as per a well set CRT.
However on a bright image, I felt I could almost walk into the TV it was so natural, vibrant and lifelike.
The image looked a little soft even at maximum sharpness until I switched on luminance peaking. This made the image look far more 3D like (if less technically accurate!)
There was no evidence of smearing/blurring. I wondered as this was not an Activevision set, how much difference this would make. Having seen an activevision set previously, I cannot see a major difference.
The unit features twin analogue tuners and the picture from analogue is the best I have ever seen on any television ever. It made the best of a good UHF signal and almost rivalled that from cable via RGB! Talking of Cable, the picture is outstanding from this too. My only gripe is there isn't separate colour level settings for the different inputs. As per normal, RGB input is more saturated, so a compromise between analogue and RGB input is needed.
The switching on of PIP and PAP is a little slow. Once in PIP mode, you can change the size of the inserted picture window and change its location. You can even switch it from 4:3 to 16:9! With both PIP and PAP, you can only change the channel of the currently selected window (switched by using the picture swap button). Teletext can also be placed next to a channel window.
I have not yet tried the DVI or VGA inputs.
Jonathan