Toshiba Regza 42AV635DB 42-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p LCD TV with Freeview and Resolution +

Roger

at 3:54 pm

To think this now costs around one-third of the price of a similar model only 3 years ago! If you can accommodate its size, it is an excellent buy, almost a bargain.

In use it is an excellent TV. Picture is sharp and clear, with no funny quirks, and set-up was easy enough; even though I had to tune mine in manually (I am on the cusp between two transmitters) it didn’t prove difficult. Some things to note are;

- very comprehensive range of inputs and outputs, something which is important not to overlook when buying. Not all sets are so well equipped; it is best to be as `future-proof’ as you can. Most are round the back, so note if you are in the habit of frequently plugging and unplugging SCARTS, for instance,

- the set comes with Freeview, but still has an analogue tuner. Even so, the digital tuner is quite good, and most should have no difficulty getting an acceptable signal,

- the set is 1080p HD ready. Even if you don’t have HD (yet!) you will still benefit if your DVD player has upscaling (though there do seem to be some random compatibility issues with all makes, especially with 4:3 ratio programmes)

- although it comes with Dolby digital settings, the sound is adequate rather than spectacular. This tends to be a common problem with flat-screens; the difficulty is fitting good loudspeakers into a shallow box. More expensive solutions can help, but even then they are not going to be as good as a proper sound system, which you will probably have if you’re serious about films. Even so, not all of us want theatre sound when watching the news, etc, and the sound is more than sufficient for normal use, and still OK for films if you don’t want the bother of extra speakers cluttering up the living room,

- the remote is a bit of a let-down. The buttons are well laid out but don’t seem to be as positive as I would like, the response angle is a bit limited and I have found it does not have a particularly long range. Still, I’ve got used to it!

- the manual makes odd references to menu settings, some of which are just not clear; you may have to experiment, or just leave them on default settings,

- the stand can be removed for wall mounting but the manual is of little help. Still, one call to Toshiba and I found them very helpful in clearing the matter up.

As for styling, it is a matter of preference, but I prefer the simple, rectangular black frame of this TV. It’s going to dominate, wherever you put it, so you want to be pleased with how it looks.

I doubt you’ll be disappointed with this set – I do my homework carefully and it ranks as one of the best to my mind.

Rating: 5 / 5

It doesn't do what it says on the tin!

at 5:16 pm

This 42″ TV was ordered and delivered in super quick time – helpful delivery guy too.

It took me about 20 minutes to get it out of the box and up and running – very easy set up. The freeview tuned in very quickly – no need for manual deletions.

The result is better than I had hoped for.

Picture quality in a room that has a lot of natural light is very good and it seems to be just the right size screen for us. Resolution + means the sharpness of ordinary old pictures (films, old TV shows, etc) is very good.

Controls are intuitively easy to use although I can appreciate that some people might be used to a different layout.

I’m impressed so far!

Rating: 5 / 5

L. Goodwin

at 10:37 pm

Ive had this TV for a week now, so I figured I’d write a review, as they were very scarce when I was buying this.

Firstly, the size is awesome, for 42″ you definitely get your money’s worth. TV sizes aren’t necessarily what they say in the description, as I had a 32″ Bush HD LCD TV before this, and it towered way above my mates 32″ Samsung. This is the same thing. I sit about 2.5m away from the TV and if I had picked up the 50″ Plasma instead Id have to turn to my head to see what was on the screen. The Screen is huge and more than enough for many households.

Like I said, I’ve had it for a week, so I’ve tested the Freeview picture quality on it properly. Obviously its not as sharp as HD, but its pretty good. I watched the Newcastle/WBA match and the England/Holland match, and it had no motion blur whatsoever. There was a bit of pixelation around the players in the England match a few times, but that’s down to the ITV broadcast, as there was none on the BBC Newcastle match. Watching the tickers on news channels was no bother, very clear text and no blur again. Very impressive. Who needs 100hz? Watching general TV was pretty good, but like I said, its down to the broadcaster with the pixelation. Watching BBC/ITV/CH4 was pretty good, no noise or pixelation. But watching Coronation Street on ITV2 Morning repeat, the picture seemed to suffer a little bit. Not distractingly bad, but you could see the difference between the other channels.

I have a BluRay player, a HDDVD Player and a PS3 hooked up to it. I havent had a proper test of HD movies yet. When I got the TV I whacked on Transformers BluRay and Independance Day BluRay for a quick test to check the colours and contrast mainly. I was impressed with it, but I only skipped to the actions scenes. I’ll be watching a film on it sometime later to really test it out.

Watching DivX through the PS3 was really impressive. It up-scaled really well and there’s no difference whatsoever in watching a 700mb movie and full retail DVD, which I thought was cool.

Contrast levels were really good. So good, that I had to turn it down a bit. I don’t get the whole “Blacker than Black” arguments, as testing this TV out, The blacks were black and the grey’s were grey, and the contrast level “supposedly” isnt as good as the high end models and Plasma’s.

I have had problems with the TV. Mainly with the Inputs.

I had my PS3 and BluRay running through my Amp, then up to the HDMI on the TV. For some reason, the TV wouldn’t accept the PS3 signal, it would just flicker like crazy. No idea why? As when I unplugged it from the Amp and plugged it straight into the TV it worked perfectly.

I still have a problem connecting my PC to the TV via VGA. It brings up the BIOS and Windows Loading screen, but then goes off and brings up a message along the lines of “Video Format Not Supported”.

Don’t let it put you off though, as my PC is a 5 year old Shuttle XPC, and will probably just need the settings changed in the BIOS. Not a major factor for me, as I’m buying a new PC in a couple weeks anyways.

I wasn’t that keen on the remote. But I think that’s just personal preference, as all the remotes I’ve had have the channel numbers on the bottom and the menu buttons etc, on the top half. Like the Sky remote or general Freeview remotes. It takes some getting used to, as I’ve pressed wrong buttons a few times and thought it was just in my head when I heard someone describing what was happening on Ugly Betty (God? lol)

I think a universal remote is finally in order for me.

All in all, this is a really good TV. Entry Level? only if you’re picky!

I’m very happy with it and don’t see the need to upgrade to a higher end unless it suddenly dies out of warranty.

Thanks For Reading.
Rating: 5 / 5