TechRadar: Audio visual reviews

Review: Kogan LED55

John Archer — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:48:00 GMT

Overview

It's fair to say that Kogan is not - yet - a household name in the UK.

But if the Australian brand's LED55 TV (also known as the Kogan KULED551HDAA) is anything to go by, this situation could be about to change fast.

Here's the deal. The Kogan LED55, as the no-nonsense part of its name suggests, is a 55-inch TV that uses LED technology. This isn't new, of course, but here's the fun bit: the LED55 can be yours direct from Kogan's UK website for just £999. Including free shipping.

The expectation from such a price/screen size/technology equation has to be that the Kogan LED55 is going to be a basic television. Yet actually, a scan of its specifications suggests that it's got quite a lot going on.

For instance, it's got a Freeview HD tuner on board, showing that Kogan has taken the trouble to localise its flagship TV for the UK market. It's also got 100Hz processing, suggesting that maybe it's going to spare at least a thought for the small matter of picture quality.

Then there's its built-in PVR functionality for recording from the tuners to a USB storage device, while sound comes courtesy of an SRS TruSurround processing system.

Even the fact that it uses Edge LED lighting to illuminate the 1080p pixels in its monster screen is significant. It's good to know, too, that the other sets in Kogan's current UK range - including the 42-inch KULED42XHDAA, 46-inch KULED461HDAA and 32-inch LEDBD32, the latter of which has a built-in Blu-ray player - all use LED lighting too.

Basically, most things about the Kogan LED55 sound too good to be true.

Features

The Kogan LED55 isn't exactly the prettiest TV you'll ever see. But nor is it ugly - not by any stretch of the imagination.

Its bezel may be a little wider and more angular than most televisions, but the glossy black finish is decent enough. It feels a little 'squeaky' with its build quality during set up, but once it's positioned on its heavy-duty, crystal-finished stand, it looks robust enough.

Some budget TVs tend to forget that most people want a very slim TV these days. But here again the Kogan LED55 gently impresses, with its respectable depth of just 50mm (off its stand).

A quest for connections uncovers a minor but certainly not deal-breaking disappointment in the shape of three HDMI inputs rather than the four now commonly found on big flatscreen TVs.

But you also get some pretty handy compensation from a USB port and its ability to both play back AVI, MP4, DivX4, DivX5, XVID, MP3, WMA, JPEG and BMP files, and record broadcast programming to USB HDDs up to 1TB in size.

As usual, you shouldn't really consider such USB recording systems to be a replacement for a more heavy-duty recording option, but it's great for 'pausing live TV' or simple timeshifting.

There's also a D-Sub PC port for simple computer connection, and a LAN port to support the TV's integrated Freeview HD tuner. It's a pity that this LAN port can't also be used for either taking the TV online or accessing files stored on a networked PC. But then the Kogan LED55 does, after all, only cost £999.

As noted earlier, the Kogan LED55's screen specifications seem mostly quite promising - especially its use of Edge LED lighting rather than CCFL, and the presence of 100Hz processing to reduce potential motion blurring from the 6.5ms response time panel.

However, it's not all plain sailing on the spec front, because neither the claimed 320cd/m2 of brightness nor the maximum 40,000:1 claimed dynamic contrast ratio stack up very well against the sort of numbers routinely trotted out by the more established TV brands. Hopefully Kogan is just being more honest.

Heading into the TV's on-screen menus, it has to be said that there isn't a great deal going on. You get fairly perfunctory - though actually not horrifically calibrated - presets; a trio of colour temperature presets; multiple levels of noise reduction; and actually that's kind of it.

The only attempt to cater for enthusiasts is the presence of a fairly rudimentary colour adjustment system that enables you to adjust between 1 and 100 the levels of the red, green and blue colour elements.

This relative paucity of set up flexibility is really to be expected on such a cheap 55-inch TV, though. And in some ways the only truly aggravating absentee is a dedicated backlight control to accompany the basic brightness adjustment.

Picture quality

It probably won't shock you too much to hear that the Kogan LED55 is hardly a classic performer where picture quality is concerned. After all, lest you've forgotten, it does only cost £999 for a 55-inch Edge LED TV. But is the Kogan LED55 good enough for its money?

Let's start with the good news. First, the picture is surprisingly bright, certainly brighter than the claimed 320cd/m2 brightness figure would have led us to expect. More proof - as if it were needed - that manufacturers' quoted specs really aren't worth the paper they're printed on.

Colours are quite boldly portrayed as well, and combine with what appears - initially at least - to be a pretty satisfying black level response. This latter attribute is a real surprise, since it tends to be pretty much a given with cheap LCD TVs that black levels are average, at best.

Yet here, aside from occasional moments when very dark scenes seem to take on a slight bluish glow, black colours on the Kogan LED55 really do look quite black, with relatively minimal amounts of the usual low-contrast greyness.

It should be said here that you'll need to rein in the Kogan LED55's brightness setting quite considerably (as low as 30-40 on its 1-100 scale) to get the best black level response. But even with brightness this low, you're not left with a picture that's devoid of vibrancy and punch.

The Kogan LED55's motion handling is in some ways better than is typical with budget TVs, too - at least in the sense that the usual motion blur is only moderate rather than excessive.

Presumably this is down at least in part to the TV's 100Hz processing. However, this processing is also responsible for the Kogan LED55's single most aggravating flaw. Because while it might reduce motion blur, it also generates - especially when watching Blu-rays, oddly - some very obvious and distracting unwanted side-effects.

These include haloing around the edges of moving objects, flickering over fast-moving objects and general patches of shimmering and distortion.

Basically, the Kogan LED55's 100Hz engine is a bit of a mess. So you should just turn it off. Um, except you can't, because for some reason, Kogan has decided not to give you the option to deactivate it, so you're left with it on permanently, warts and all. This is a mistake.

Another issue with the Kogan LED55's pictures finds the backlight looking a bit inconsistent. All four corners of the screen, in particular, exhibit clear 'jets' of light creepage, unless you turn the brightness level right down to 30 or less. But there are other more subtle areas of inconsistency too.

Next to cause a little trouble are the Kogan LED55's colours. They're quite punchy, but they're not especially natural or subtle when it comes to portraying minute tonal shifts.

These issues are particularly apparent with skin tones, which look a bit yellowish or wan, as well as looking unnaturally smooth and monotone, with none of the subtle colour nuances and facial minutiae available that stop people looking like mannequins on better-specified TVs.

It doesn't help the skin tone issues, either, that the screen isn't particularly crisp when handling HD material. You can see a step up from standard definition pictures, but the step up isn't as pronounced as it ideally would be on a Full HD 55-inch LED TV. Ramping up the set's sharpness setting can improve the sense of crispness, but only at the expense of an increase in picture noise.

Very bright scenes, meanwhile, look a bit flared out at times, as if the screen can't resolve small differences in white tones.

Input lag measurements from the Kogan LED55 also fluctuate between a respectable 40ms and a disappointing 70ms, resulting in an average figure of 52ms that appeared to marginally reduce our Call of Duty skills.

Sound, value and ease of use

Sound quality

Although the Kogan LED55's carriage of SRS TruSurround processing is quite an eye-catching feature for a budget TV, it does, of course, still remain the case that the SRS system only works effectively if it's unleashed through a decently powerful speaker system.

And it's no great surprise to find the Kogan LED55 without enough audio heat to bring the SRS system - or a potent action film soundtrack - to life.

It must be stressed that it's not a shockingly bad sounding TV by any means, and it's able to cope reasonably cleanly with 'normal'-volume, daytime TV stuff. But it certainly sounds harsh and compressed - with too much treble emphasis - when put under any serious pressure.

Value

Value is tricky to judge, really. Clearly on the one hand £999 is remarkably cheap for a 55-inch Edge LED TV. But, on the other hand, there are a few ways in which you only get what you pay for with the Kogan LED55. Ultimately it's probably fair to say that the Kogan LED55's price is more or less right.

Ease of use

The Kogan LED55 is a bit of a mixed bag in this respect. On the upside, its on-screen menus, while certainly unusual in their presentation and design, are actually pretty straightforward to navigate. Part of this is down to the fact that none of the five sub-menus you can cycle through by pushing right on the remote actually have many features in.

But the no-nonsense, clear text and basic organisational principles are effective enough and should present no major challenges to even the most technophobic of television buyers.

The weak point where ease of use is concerned comes from the set's remote control. It's a deeply utilitarian affair, in that its layout and shape looks and feels like one of those universal remote designs commonly found with budget TVs in place of something that's in any way adapted to the TV's particular feature set and on-screen menu structure.

Some of the buttons are too small for comfort, too, but worst of all is how unresponsive the remote control is. It could be because its squishy buttons don't respond well enough to your presses or, more likely, because the cone of responsiveness of the IR receptor on the TV just isn't wide enough to pick up signals as readily as it should.

The result is much frustration, as time and again the TV fails to respond to remote commands at the first try, requiring you to lean forward or sideways to get your desired result.

It's worth adding, too, that you get no paper or CD manual with the Kogan LED55. Instead you just get a bit of paper with a link to an online PDF manual. This is eco-friendly and all that, but it's not necessarily convenient for everyone.

Verdict

It's a brave new brand indeed that tries to crack the UK TV marketplace right now. But Australian brand Kogan is having a pretty full-blooded stab at it, especially now that it's got a genuine flagship proposition on its hands in the shape of the Kogan LED55.

This 55-inch set is no ultra-basic lump of plastic, despite its low price. It's got a Freeview HD tuner, it uses Edge LED lighting, it's got a Full HD resolution, and it's even got 100Hz processing to help pictures out.

Its performance isn't the horror show that we might have expected for its money, either. Its contrast range and brightness in particular are good enough to render pictures perfectly watchable. But there are also enough problems to remind you that the set is, after all, a budget model.

We liked

The Kogan LED55 is remarkably affordable for a 55-inch LED TV, despite having a respectable core spec sheet. Its Freeview HD tuner is appreciated considering the TV's affordability, as is its facility for recording to USB drives. Black level response is better than usual for the budget world, too, and pictures are generally vibrant and dynamic.

We disliked

The Kogan LED55's 100Hz system is of a pretty low quality, causing obvious unwanted side-effects. And, annoyingly, you can't turn it off.

There are also backlight consistency problems unless you really slash the television's brightness output, and colour tones don't look especially natural or subtly toned. HD pictures don't look particularly crisp either, and skin tones tend to look plasticky and unrealistic.

Finally, while the TV's audio is mostly OK, loud scenes can start to sound quite shrill.

Final verdict

Kogan has certainly unleashed a startling statement of intent with its LED55. Its 55-inch size shows that the brand has the AV ambitions to take on the more established TV brand names, and its lowly price shows that it's prepared to appeal to our wallets.

Kogan has even managed to underline its raw 'big screen, small price' hook by giving the LED55 a few unexpected features, such as a Freeview HD tuner and 100Hz processing.

Perhaps inevitably, though, while it's better than expected in the contrast and brightness departments, the Kogan LED55 falls short of its more established rivals with its performance, thanks to some backlight consistency concerns and some troubling 100Hz processing that leaves obvious distracting side effects and can't be turned off.

In fact, this 100Hz problem is so frustrating that it ultimately led to the Kogan LED55 only ending up with an overall score of three stars rather than the three and a half it might otherwise have claimed.

Review: Toshiba 32RL858B

Tech staff — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Overview and features

The more time goes by, the cannier Toshiba seems to get at understanding the needs of specific sections of the UK TV market. The Toshiba 46TL868 tested recently did a great job of catering for people wanting a good-sized active 3D screen on the cheap.

And now there's the Toshiba 32RL858, a 32-inch TV that manages to combine a strikingly affordable price point with just the sort of features and looks a savvy budget 32-inch TV buyer would be crying out for.

It's remarkably slim for a budget television, for a start, with both a tiny bezel and a trim rear that will help it fit into a potentially much snugger space than your average 32-inch TV. It's also got a built-in Freeview HD tuner, and uses Edge LED lighting rather than an old-school CCFL system.

It also rather excellently fits into modern lifestyles by supporting playback of multimedia files from either a networked (ideally Windows 7) PC or a USB storage device.

As if this wasn't already more than enough for a 32-inch TV costing under £400, the Toshiba 32RL858 even carries the brand's new online platform, Toshiba Places, which provides access to various video, music and information services.

In fact, so strong is the Toshiba 32RL858's feature list for its £399 UK price, it can't help but make you wonder if Toshiba has had to compromise on the TV's performance somewhere along the way.

Features

Most cheap and cheerful 32-inch TVs are cut from more or less the same aesthetic cloth. They're almost universally fairly chunky bits of kit with wide bezels that are usually finished in some glossy but plasticky black colour. Toshiba appears to have recognised this lack of variety, and so has come up with something completely different with the 32RL858.

For starters, it's a muted silver colour rather than black. Second, its bezel is exceptionally slim - not much wider, in fact, than the once-groundbreaking width of the bezels on the high-end Samsung 7000 Series TVs. Third, its rear is the absolute opposite of chunky, measuring only around 30mm deep.

In short, the Toshiba 32RL858 is a perfect option for fitting either 'invisibly' into a main living room, or slipping into a potentially space-limited second room.

Despite its slimness, though, the Toshiba 32RL858 has managed to cram a more than adequate number of connections onto its rear. These include three HDMIs, a USB port -through which you can play a solid mix of video (including DivX HD), photo and music file formats, a D-Sub PC port so the TV can double as a computer monitor and an Ethernet port - through which you can stream files from a networked PC or go online with Toshiba's Places system.

If wiring your TV up to your router sounds like hassle, you can add Wi-Fi via a USB dongle. This dongle is an optional extra rather than being included free, but this is fair enough with such a cheap TV.

The only bum note with the Toshiba 32RL858's connections is that most of them face straight out of the screen's rear, rather than permitting side access. This could clearly create a few problems for anyone wanting to wall-hang the set, and thus flies in the face of the ultra-slim bodywork.

Casting an eagle eye down the Toshiba 32RL858's specification list, it's gratifying to discover that its screen is a Full HD one, despite its price, and that it has a Freeview HD tuner when it wouldn't have been surprising to find only a standard definition one.

The TV set's slenderness is only possible, of course, because the screen is driven by Edge LED lighting. And, as usual, this has helped the Toshiba 32RL858 to deliver a startlingly high claimed contrast ratio - 3,000,000:1, to be precise. Or to be imprecise, given how large a pinch of salt such manufacturer figures need to be taken with.

As if the use of Edge LED lighting wasn't surprising enough on a big-brand budget TV, Toshiba has also managed to include 100Hz processing on the set, which should hopefully mean it suffers less with motion blur than your average budget telly.

And still this isn't the end of the surprises. For tucked away in the TV's on-screen menus is a suite of unexpectedly advanced picture adjustments. These include an adequate colour management system, complete with fine-tuning for the brightness and saturation of the six key colour components.

Wrapping up the Toshiba 32RL858's remarkably long list of features is its Places online system. This remains one of the most attractively presented of all the smart TV interfaces, and is also to be admired for the unusual effort it puts into personalising the smart TV experience.

You can set up different front ends for different users, with individual favourites lists and such like. It's no surprise to find that other brands are starting to deliver similar personalisation traits with their upcoming 2012 smart TVs.

It's good to find, too, that Toshiba has recently added the Acetrax film streaming platform and Facebook to Toshiba Places - especially because prior to that, the platform's 'Social' Place was more or less empty.

However, despite these new additions, the Places service remains rather behind the online services of its major rivals in raw content terms.

Yes, there's BBC iPlayer and YouTube, plus a bunch of subscription-only services. But overall there isn't nearly as much going on in terms of free video streams or gaming/utility apps as there probably ought to be. Hopefully Toshiba will cram lots more content onto Places in the coming months.

For the sake of completeness, it should probably be stressed here that the Toshiba 32RL858 doesn't carry any 3D support. But as well as 3D being of questionable value on a 32-inch TV unless it's going to be used predominantly as a gaming monitor, it's not really realistic to expect to find 3D on a budget TV.

Even the occasional budget TV that has carried 3D has tended to make a mess of it.

Picture quality

And so to the moment of truth. Has the Toshiba 32RL858's almost slavish bid to be all things to all men with its features led to some nasty picture compromises?

Actually, no. While its pictures are never going to challenge those of the leading lights in the TV world, they are certainly far better than those of the vast majority of budget 32-inch TVs.

So this review can finish on a deserved high note, let's get the bad news out of the way first. This is largely centred around the appearance of some backlight consistency problems. While watching very dark material on the Toshiba 32RL858, there are some parts of the picture that look unnaturally brighter than others, thanks to the difficulties associated with spreading Edge LED lighting evenly across the entire screen.

However - and this is a pretty big however - the backlight problems are generally very subtle, particularly if you do the sensible thing and rein in the Toshiba 32RL858's backlight level to somewhere around 60%. Certainly at this point the issues are far less overt than they are on some of Toshiba's larger and more expensive TVs.

Obviously having to calm the backlight down to fight the lighting consistency problems means you have to accept something of a hit with the image's overall brightness. But the Toshiba 32RL858's innate brightness is actually so high that pictures still have plenty of punch and dynamism even after backlight taming is complete.

Getting back to the negatives, the Toshiba 32RL858 is a merely adequate standard definition performer, since its processing doesn't prove quite as astute at suppressing source noise as the best TVs around.

That said, standard definition images do at least look reasonably sharp, and colours hold up passably well - something that certainly can't be said of the standard definition performance of many other cheap TVs.

It probably hasn't escaped your notice so far that even the negatives raised with the Toshiba 32RL858 have tended to come with some sort of positive qualification. There really isn't anything irredeemably wrong with the TV's pictures at all. And there are lots of things right.

Colours, for instance, are much more natural, vibrant but also subtle than those of almost any other sub-£400 32-inch TV around. With HD, in particular, the Toshiba 32RL858's colours look like they belong to a mid-range rather than a budget TV - there's none of that 'PC' (rather than video) flavour so common with cheap sets.

Part of the reason colours look so good is that the set is also miles better than most budget TVs where black level response is concerned. Dark corners are only very marginally affected by the sort of grey mist effect so common at the cheap end of the TV market. And as noted earlier, there are also no serious problems with backlight inconsistency - so long as you don't try to run the backlight at its highest levels.

Dark scenes lack a little shadow detailing and colour punch compared with more expensive TVs, but again, for the money there's really nothing to complain about.

The Toshiba 32RL858's sharpness is very good for its price, too, mostly because the 100Hz engine and a seemingly fast-response core panel means that there's much less motion blur and resolution loss than you get with the vast majority of budget LCD TVs.

Gaming

There's also the Toshiba 32RL858's input lag to consider. After all, as a 32-inch TV there's a good chance it will be used at some point as a gaming monitor. So it was pleasing to measure a satisfactory average lag figure of around 35ms - low enough not to significantly damage your gaming performance.

Ease of use, sound and value

Ease of use

This is a fairly strong area for the Toshiba 32RL858. As hinted at in the Features section, for instance, the on-screen menus for its Places online service are really attractive - colourful, friendly and much less intimidating than those of most if not all other smart TV interfaces.

They should also provide a simple way of organising potentially lots of services - should lots of services ever materialise! And the attempt to personalise Toshiba Places for different users in your home is welcome, if not fully realised yet.

The normal TV menus initially disappoint by not following the graphics-rich, intuitive 'two-wheel' system found on higher-level Toshiba TVs. But while the Toshiba 32RL858's more straightforward text- rather than graphics-oriented menus might not be as attractive, they're reasonably logically organised and do a decent job of enabling different users to select the level of picture fine tuning that best suits their technical confidence.

Turning to the Toshiba 32RL858's remote control, it again is a cut above the budget TV norm, thanks to feeling less flimsily built, being better organised and responding more satisfactorily to button presses. It also doesn't have that rather odd and irksome sliding silver shield that lets down the remotes for Toshiba's high-end TVs.

Sound quality

Not surprisingly, given how slim it is, the Toshiba 32RL858 struggles to impress with its sound. The tiny speakers shoehorned into its svelte frame fail to deliver any sense of soundstage expansion when asked to try to portray an action scene, leaving such scenes sounding flat and overcrowded.

Bass is in severely short supply too. Before you get too despondent, though, it should be said that the set does cope adequately with the sort of undemanding, run-of-the-mill audio fodder that dominates the majority of a typical household's day-to-day viewing.

The Toshiba 32RL858's audio is only average, there's no getting round that. But it isn't as brittle and feeble-sounding as some budget TVs we've heard.

Value

The Toshiba 32RL858 is pretty much off the scale in this department. Toshiba's TV offers far more in both feature and performance terms than pretty much anything else around in the sub-£400 segment of the 32-inch television marketplace.

Verdict

The Toshiba 32RL858 is one of those TVs where you find yourself forever double checking that its price is really as low as you thought it was. After all, it offers online smart TV functionality, a Freeview HD tuner, a Full HD resolution, DLNA and USB file playback, Edge LED lighting and even 100HZ processing, despite costing under £400.

It's also remarkably attractive for what's ostensibly a budget TV, thanks to its extremely narrow bezel, unusual silver finish and slim rear end.

It even provides a surprising amount of adjustment options for getting pictures looking exactly how you want them to.

In short, the Toshiba 32RL858 feels like a mid-range TV at a budget price.

We liked

The amount of features the Toshiba 32RL858 carries for its money is outstanding. The Freeview HD tuner and network/multimedia features are particularly welcome, given the set's second-room potential.

The TV's extremely slender design is a great find at the sub-£400 price level too, as is the set's all-round impressive picture quality.

We disliked

Dark scenes lack a little shadow detail versus some more expensive sets. There's some very minor evidence of backlight inconsistency, too. The set's audio is average to the extent that it struggles to convince during action films, and finally there's not as much content on Toshiba Places as there is on rival online platforms.

But then having any online functionality at all on the Toshiba 32RL858 is arguably a bonus. In fact, all of the TV's negatives are small within the context of its lowly price.

Final verdict

Toshiba has been quietly but surely making the budget end of the TV world its own in recent years, and the 32RL858 is a perfect example of just how much Toshiba has learned, and why the brand is now hard to beat for anyone on the hunt for a good TV for not much cash.

The TV looks much better than most budget models, with its unusual silver look, exceptionally narrow bezel and ultra-slim rear. It's also got way more features than most budget TVs - most notably a Freeview HD tuner, Full HD resolution, 100Hz motion processing, smart TV functionality and network multimedia playback capability.

Best of all, though, is its picture quality, which neatly sidesteps nearly all the usual problems associated with budget TVs.

Review: Toshiba 40RL858B

Jamie Carter — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:13:00 GMT

Overview and features

Being first out of the blocks is important in the world of consumer tech, but the most successful gadgets tend to be carefully thought out responses to what's already on the market - and that's exactly what this 40-inch Edge LED backlit LCD TV tries to do.

Announced at Berlin's IFA exhibition last autumn, but launched in the UK this month, the Toshiba 40RL858 addresses a perceived demand for smart TVs by putting a revamped version of Toshiba Places at the forefront of an increasingly standard feature set that marries a Freeview HD tuner with Edge LED backlighting and 100Hz scanning.

However, there's no suggestion of 3D goodies, despite Toshiba having issued televisions in 2011 with both active shutter and passive 3D systems.

Not atypically for a flatscreen TV, the Toshiba 40RL858 is also all about outward appearances, adding to the current penchant for metallic-clad designs, and with an impressively slim depth of just 38mm.

What's more, the bezel around the panel measures a tiny 80mm, which is far more impressive than the slightly plasticky-looking metallic 'styled' chassis.

The Toshiba 40RL858 comes in only one other size, the 32-inch 32RL858. But the RL Series isn't the only clutch of Toshiba TVs arriving early in 2012.

Also available is the TL868 Series, a slightly higher end choice including the Toshiba 40TL868 and Toshiba 46TL868. This series adds active shutter 3D (perhaps as a response to some underwhelming reviews of passive 3D TVs?), 200Hz scanning and an extra HDMI port, as well as sporting a gloss black finish.

Features

Although the Toshiba 40RL858 is all wired up for some online action, it lacks integrated Wi-Fi. That's a real shame, and its absence is likely to make Toshiba Places an underused resource, although the brand does sell a WLM-20U2 Wireless Dongle for an additional £30 or so.

Toshiba Places is slowly becoming a genuinely useful online hub. It's had the likes of BBC iPlayer, YouTube and Flickr for some time, and now adds Facebook and Acetrax to the mix.

Also strung across an unusual scrolling timeline-style user interface are the likes of Aupeo (web radio), Viewster, Dailymotion and Woomi (random video content), alongside three rather lacklustre (though child-friendly) subscription apps, Box Office 365, Cartoon Network and HiT Entertainment.

This odd mix of services doesn't really deliver the choice and openness that the best smart TV platforms do, although we suppose the presence of BBC iPlayer on its own will be enough to convince a lot of people to invest in Toshiba Places.

Connections

A Freeview HD tuner and CAM slot (for adding subscription channel packages) mean one less HDMI input on the Toshiba 40RL858 than is becoming normal - there are only two on the reverse of the TV, with a third on a side panel.

Also back there is a set of component video inputs, and slots for composite video, RGB Scart, a D-Sub 15-pin port for directly attaching a PC or laptop, and Ethernet LAN for getting online via wires.

Audio is sent in via some phono inputs (if you're using those component video slots) and out through a digital optical audio output.

Sadly there's just a single USB 2.0 slot on the Toshiba 40RL858, and although it's able to play a plethora of video, music and photo files from a thumbdrive, we're confused as to why it's alone - where's the Wi-Fi dongle supposed to go?

With an Edge LED-backlit panel with 100Hz scanning, the Toshiba 40RL858's core hardware is relatively advanced for the money.

The panel itself boasts a Full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel panel, support for 24 frames per second (fps) fare from Blu-ray discs, while a sensor can be activated to automatically dim or brighten those LEDs, as ambient light conditions prescribe in a feature called AutoView.

Tweakers can perform a detailed calibration on the Toshiba 40RL858, with everything from base colour adjustments and colour temperature changes across the spectrum all possible.

For more casual users, there's a roster of preset picture modes that include a game mode and useful Hollywood 1 and Hollywood 2 settings (the former is the cleaner, darker and most natural). We didn't find the ColourMaster feature of much use, although the usual digital noise reduction tech is worth experimenting with if you're watching non-HD channels on Freeview.

Ease of use

Toshiba rather shoots itself in the foot from the off by promoting its headline acts - BBC iPlayer and YouTube - on the TV's core user interface.

Accessing them without having to fire up Toshiba Places might appear a space-saving idea, and it is, but for some reason iPlayer can't be launched from the actual Toshiba Places platform that it's supposed to be the crowning glory of. The icon is there, but a 'sorry, mate, we've not bothered to link to that' message (or words to that effect) appears when it's selected.

There are other long-winded and annoying oddities here, too: to even exit Toshiba Places - and you likely won't be staying too long - requires pressing Exit, then confirming it. The live BBC iPlayer link lies under the Applications tab on the main menu.

In terms of their future usefulness, the Toshiba Places pages do have one saving grace - armed with a separate login, multiple members of the household can customise what services they see. The big drawback for now is that there actually isn't all that much to decide between, but this could develop into a genuinely useful approach.

Elsewhere, Toshiba Places is nothing special, although some shortcuts have been added up top - we can see why the likes of Acetrax, iConcerts (archived John Denver concerts! Yeah!) and Aupeo can be called up immediately without hunting for the link, but do we really need a one-touch option to change the language?

It adds to the impression that this user interface was created by visual designers only, and not road-tested as much as it should have been. It's slow, and feels entirely separate from the rest of the TV.

Typical of the UI's rudimentary design is the Freeview HD EPG, a seven-day affair that displays all information for 13 channels over two and a half hours, in what looks like a half-written spreadsheet. There's no thumbnail image of the current channel underneath, although audio continues.

It's also slow to navigate - it's not even possible to scan down a page at a time, which is a huge shame, considering that the HD channels are hidden 50 channels in.

Remote control

At least an inch too long and a touch slow to issue commands to its mother ship, the Toshiba 40RL858's remote control isn't one of our favourites. That's despite it being a winner in all other areas.

It sports a nicely weighted design that uses good quality and well-sized rubber buttons, and stores plenty of shortcut keys, as well as old-fashioned number buttons.

USB and Network Media Player

Dock a USB flash drive into the Toshiba 40RL858's sole USB slot and the TV immediately asks if you'd like to engage the Media Player, although it's just as easy to access via the Quick menu.

Photos are well provided for, with thumbnails displayed in a large 3 x 4 grid. When selected, they load with a variety of fade-in styles, with our test revealing support for both JPEG and BMP files, although not GIF or TIF formats.

Digital music fares well, too, with support for MP3, WMA and Apple Lossless M4A files. Tracks play when selected, but also kick-in after a few seconds if you merely hover over them. A largely blank full-screen is then displayed that lists the song title and artist beside a fairly low-res image of a quaver.

The highlight, though, is digital video - there's simply nothing we had in our locker that the Toshiba 40RL858 didn't play, which is a rare occurrence indeed. Everything from DivX AVI files, WMV and high-definition MKV and WMV HD (complete with audio) to MP4 and MPEG-2, various AVC HD and even a RealPlayer Media video all loaded quickly and played without problems.

The performance is slightly patchier over DLNA, with MKV not recognised.

Picture quality

We started on the Toshiba 40RL858's Hollywood 1 picture mode for the sake of simplicity. This avoids the occasional haloing of bright objects (something that a light sensor-driven feature called AutoView also appears to cause), although it's worth increasing the contrast and brightness a notch or two. But having done so, there's nowhere to save settings as a user preset. Doh!

With our Star Wars IV V VI Blu-ray boxset in tow, the Toshiba 40RL858's Edge LED-lit backlight appears as annoying as a Gungan, with some light leakage at the bottom and sides of the screen jarring during the dingy, muted scenes inside the Jawa sandcrawler on Tatooine. It's not an unusual sight on similarly priced sets, but it's nonetheless a hardware characteristic that's tricky to get around.

Those same scenes reveal a fairly profound attempt at black, although a lot of shadow detail is lost across C3PO and the other droids. Colour is generally good, but not as nuanced as a high-end set, with ColourMaster adding little.

The preceding handheld camera-driven scenes in Star Wars IV of R2D2 being hunted down by Jawas shows up a touch of shimmer around moving edges, and we also noticed a slight blur as R2D2 moves, although the picture is very obviously Full HD.

It's actually worth toning down Hollywood 1's sharpness setting to banish what little background noise there is on Blu-rays, and thereby achieving an even cleaner image.

Even with standard definition DVDs, it's worth sticking to the Hollywood 1 setting, which takes down the backlight sufficiently to hide the otherwise incessant picture noise in backgrounds.

Watching Djokovic Vs Murray from the Australian Open on BBC2, the MPEG digital noise reduction cleans up some of that noise, but adds some jagged edges.

Overall, standard definition sources are coped with reasonably well, with DVDs especially looking smooth and very watchable.

Switching to BBC HD for the rest of Djokovic Vs Murray, the immediately crisper, more precise picture is obvious, although a moving overhead shot of the Rod Laver Arena still produced diagonal jagged edges from the court markings.

As Murray rolled his body from side to side while awaiting Djokovic's serve, his face blurred. But aside from this, and other issues caused by the LCD panel, the Toshiba 40RL858 is a decent, good value canvas for watching Freeview HD fare.

Sound and value

Sound

Saddled with a depth of just 38mm, it's no surprise that Toshiba's audio boffins haven't come up with something approaching acceptable sound.

It's really no worse a performance than on 95 per cent of all flatscreen TVs on sale, but the Toshiba 40RL858's twin 10W speakers don't offer much in the aural department.

The crash, bang, wallop of a typical high octane movie just serves as a reminder of how great a proper audio setup is, and it's the same result from music, although dialogue-heavy TV is dealt with.

Value

With a reasonably versatile picture performance firmly putting the Toshiba 40RL858 in the mid-market in terms of ultimate quality, the asking price seems fair. Toshiba Places as a platform needs more thought as well as content, but it supplies us with BBC iPlayer and YouTube, which will suit most homes for now.

Do factor in the need for a separate sound bar or similar - the built-in audio on the Toshiba 40RL858 really is poor - although that's normal at this price, while a lack of Wi-Fi and only three HDMI ins could cause set up problems for some.

Verdict

Reasonably slim, fairly adept with all sources and with a smart TV platform that's at least nominally engaging, Toshiba's 40RL858 is a classic mid-range TV.

We liked

A nicely cinematic, yet sharp treatment of Blu-ray and clean standard definition sources if you're careful to tweak, the Toshiba 40RL858's digital dimension appeals. BBC iPlayer's presence is also pleasing, as is its comprehensive digital file support.

We disliked

It may be of metallic design, but the Toshiba 40RL858's plastic frame won't fool all. Ditto Toshiba Places, which is scarred by a lack of must-have content and some interface oddities. Sound is poor, and saving picture presets isn't possible, while light leakage from the flanks can be distracting. A solo USB, no built-in Wi-Fi and a fiddly Freeview HD EPG can all annoy too.

Final verdict

A good value TV for a living room, Toshiba's 40RL858 is a classic mid-range set whose attempt at a smart TV platform is the low point on an otherwise capable performer. What it lacks in ultimate quality and ease of use it makes up for with versatility.

Review: Urbanista London Headphones

Matthew Hanson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:01:00 GMT

According to Urbanista's website, 3.5 billion people live in 'urban environments'. That's a pretty big potential market, and Urbanista is targeting city dwellers with fancily-designed gadgets to make inner-city living that bit more exciting and glamorous.

Each gadget is named after a city. Copenhagen gets some over-ear headphones, Las Vegas gets iPod cases and London gets some in-ear headphones. It could be worse – New York gets a…uh…trolley for shopping and luggage.

So what makes the London headphones suitable for urban life? The design of the headphones is certainly striking – whether you find it attractive or not will be down to taste. We're not too sure how having designer in-ear headphones helps living in a city, but we certainly give credit to Urbanista for doing something a little different with the design.

Of much more use in a busy, noisy city environment is the inline microphone which is very useful if you're listening to music on your phone and someone rings. The earphones come with a number of in-ear attachments which makes it easy to get the earphones as comfortable as possible.

The all-important sound quality is very good and the tiny 10mm speakers have a good frequency range. The £49 RRP asking price is pretty high though, so we wonder how much you're paying just for the good looks?

Review: Bayan Audio Bayan 7

Ian Osborne — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:30:00 GMT

The Bayan Audio Bayan 7 is a curious-looking speaker dock which looks more like an oven that slots into a wall than a high-end iOS speaker dock (a black version is also available). But on closer inspection, it soon reveals its true purpose.

Set into its clear acrylic facia is a hefty bass subwoofer that also acts as its stand. The rest of the sound is supplied by twin 5cm full-range speakers and two 2.5cm tweeters.

The Bayan 7 has two amplifiers, one for the bass and one for the middle and high-end sounds. Altogether, the five speakers deliver 120W of power, so it won't leave you short of volume. Its comprehensive collection of drivers also gives it a very wide frequency response.

Around the front there's two 30-pin dock connectors, which fit every compatible device except the iPad. You can charge an Apple tablet using the USB port on the back of the Bayan 7, and play its sounds by connecting the supplied 3.5mm AUX cable (which can also connect to your Mac or any audio device with a headphone socket). But you can't use the rather fussy remote's iPod controls when listening to an iPad.

The hand controller also lets you set the volume, adjust bass and treble independently and switch between Music Mode and Vocal Mode, which is well tuned for spoken word media such as audio books.

Bayan 7 is suited for most genres of music, but if you like intense, room-shaking bass, it might not be for you. Although deep, rich and natural, its bottom end won't drown the mix even when turned up to maximum.

Its excellent stereo separation belies the proximity of its speakers, though the sound isn't as three-dimensional as it might be. But where Bayan's high-end speaker dock really scores is in its crystal-clear reproduction.

The Bayan 7 is not a speaker dock that looks good in any room, but you can't fault the sound. Whether its rather idiosyncratic appearance is a good thing or a bad thing is very much a matter of taste.

Review: Hannspree SE40LMNB

Jamie Carter — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:56:00 GMT

Overview

This budget-busting effort from Hannspreee does away with 'smart' apps and on-demand IPTV services and instead combines some of the basics on shoppers' lists: LED backlighting, Full HD, pause live TV and basic USB recording.

The brand often rears its head as a maker of novelty televisions for kids and of budget gadgets in general, and this 40-inch Edge LED-backlit LCD TV from Hannspree is firmly in that second camp.

The brand's first model in its SE TV Series, and available to buy now from Misco, the SE40LMNB includes a two-year collect and return warranty as standard. A 32-inch version, the Hannspree SE32LMNB, will become available this month, too.

Although the SE40LMNB's recording and Time-shift functions are touted, note that the system employed here is much like on any other modern TV.

A lot of the major Japanese, Korean and Chinese brands now build-in a USB port that's capable of making TV recordings to a connected hard disk (not forgetting the all-important pause and rewind live TV feature), and that's the case here.

Tie that to a Full HD resolution and the reasons to buy increase, though that extra detail is rather wasted by the lack of a Freeview HD tuner.

That will annoy some, especially if Freeview HD has just started broadcasting in your area, though the ears of Sky, Virgin and Freeview+HD box owners will be surely be pricked; is this the budget, tuner-less LED TV you've been looking for?

Features

Ins & outs

Despite its budget nature, the SE40LMNB has as many ins and outs as much more advanced TVs.

Across the back you'll find a set of component video inputs alongside dedicated analogue stereo phonos, while nearby is a 15-pin VGA input for a PC alongside a 3.5 mm minijack input for PC audio, an RF aerial port (to fuel the built-in Freeview tuner), and a Scart. The latter uses a special adapter provided in the box, something that's common on super-slim LED TVs, though we're not sure why it's been employed on a TV that measures a whopping 50mm at its thickest point.

Three HDMI inputs – just about enough in our opinion – are supplied on the SE40LMNB's side. It's slightly strange that they're situated here, but we've no complaints; it means easy access for hooking-up a games console, and occasional HD camcorder, or a PC laptop. Alongside are a headphones slot, a single USB port (two would be nice), and an optical digital audio output. The latter's inclusion on the TV is laudable, but why at the top of this section?

USB functions

At least that USB port powers a Media Player, so a USB stick containing the likes of JPEG, MP3 and DivX files can be played back, but we're now not sure whether to attach a thumb drive full of files, or a HDD for powering the SE40LMNB's USB recording and Timeshift functions.

The SE40LMNB can also claim a couple of characteristics that most of its more expensive competitors increasingly ignore; a set of manual controls on the side of the TV (in case you lose the remote), and a well written, comprehensive user manual (this is invariably supplied by competitors as a digital PDF file written in pidgin English).

Other specs

Elsewhere, the specifications demonstrate a reasonably advanced TV. The Edge LED-backlit LCD panel has a 1920x1080 pixel resolution for Full HD images, while the bottom mounted stereo speakers are rated at (just) 8W each. The panel claims a so-so brightness of 350 cd/m² while contrast is rated at 4,000:1, increasing to – wait for it – 8,000,000:1 in X-Contrast dynamic mode.

We wouldn't go as far as to say the SE40LMNB has a suite of picture processing circuitry – it certainly has not – but it can claim a 3D Comb Filter, 3D De-lnterlacer, a general noise reduction mode, 3:2/2:2 Pull Down and a 24P True Cinema mode, though these are all standard on all TVs. Straddled with a 50Hz panel, we would expect to see a touch of blur during fast moving footage, with the panel's response time rated by Hannspree at around 5ms.

Among a plethora of picture modes is the relatively rare PAP – picture and picture – which can be activated from the main menu setup time. Two sources can be shown at once, though one has to be the live digital TV picture.

Ease of use

Let's start with the physical setup of the SE40LMNB; attaching the desktop stand is easy since the column itself is already attached the TV (though it can be got rid of for wall mounting).

It's simply a case of screwing the stand and column together, though try as we might, we couldn't get the TV to stay completely level – it was slightly lopsided at all times despite several attempts. Possibly a lack of elbow grease?

Digital TV

From the 'guide' button on the remote we're given a fairly loosely designed electronic program guide. As well as a thumbnail of the live TV channel playing in the bottom left-hand corner – something that's all too rare on some brands of HDTV – a short synopsis of the programme's contents and timings are included on the right.

The top half of the screen is completely occupied by the schedules themselves, which entail program details over two hours for just six channels at once, which is at least two too few in our opinion.

The fonts used are small, but the design in general is very impressive, and hi-res; as well as nuanced graphics that lend a slight 3-D look, the simple black-and-white and green colour scheme is subtly designed to gel with Hannspree's branding, though it's never overt.

Input labelling

Other gems buried in an otherwise rather basic user interface include the ability to individually name each input. For instance, HDMI 1 can be renamed Blu-ray, VCR, PC, Digital STB, Camera or Recorder, on the input settings menu. It's something we've seen before on TVs from Panasonic, so it's good to see here on this otherwise budget effort.

It's also possible to put a small delay on the optical audio output, avoiding lip sync issues, while parental lock can be put on various options.

Timeshift & PVR functions

The Timeshift and personal video recorder functions are easy enough to setup. It's based around an MPEG recorder, which records in identical quality to the original broadcast, though the capacity depends on what size HDD you decide to use (we used a 2GB USB stick for testing purposes).

The feature is accessed via the Quick Access onscreen menu of shortcuts, which is confusingly associated with the Option button on the remote control. It contains links to Picture Presets, Sound Presets, Timeshift, PVR, a Recording Schedule, and USB (though it's an either/or situation for the latter; with only one USB slot, it's not possible to both Timeshift and watch DivX files from a thumb drive).

Timeshift on the SE40LMNB is unnecessarily long-winded. The whole point of such a feature is to quickly record something if the phone rings or the doorbell sounds, but here it's necessary to first press the option button, then select Timeshift, and then hit the red Fast-text key to pause live TV. That's at least two buttons too many.

Live TV can be rewound, and any recorded footage fast-forwarded using the same Fast-text keys, this time green and yellow. However, Timeshifting isn't just long-winded; it also lacks basic functionality.

Our chief criticism is that programmes can't be recorded straight from the EPG, as you would do from a dedicated PVR set-top box. We're left with the impression that this feature just isn't going to be used much, at least not on any regular basis.

Remote control

The remote control supplied with the SE40LMNB is rather basic and a touch too lightweight, but we like its fluorescent lime green standby button in the top right hand corner – it makes a nice change from red.

Elsewhere the buttons are of relatively high quality, at least in terms of responsiveness and touch, though the remote is badly in need of some dedicated pause/FF/RW keys that would bring to life the Timeshifting features. Seriously, who wants a TV with a built-in PVR brains if you have to do dive into internal menus continuously?

USB Media Player

Shoving a USB stick, and the SE40LMNB immediately launches its Media Player software. Split into the usual photo, music and video sections, the system proved able to play just JPEG photos and MP3 music in our test, while video file compatibility is limited to AVI, MPEG and MP4 files created using the MPEG 1–2, 4 and H.264 Containers.

From our motley collection of files it managed to play just DivX, MP4 QuickTime, and MPEG files. That's not too bad a result, though it's sad to see no MKV support.

Picture

Switch on the TV and you immediately notice the blue-ish tinge to a panel that's best described as imbued with blotchy brightness, though we've seen no worse a situation on Edge LED-lit screens of thrice the price.

There's nothing particularly special about the picture options available on this TV. There are various picture preset options including Movie, Eco, Vivid and Studio, while it's only possible to change basic parameters such as brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness, and colour temperature. The dynamic backlight can be changed to various low intensities in Eco mode, with an auto using a built-in ambient light sensor to measure surrounding light, and then adjusting accordingly for maximum efficiency.

Advanced options

Tellingly, the advanced video menu includes just a basic (and ineffective) noise reduction setting alongside a toggle for that ambient light sensor, and X-Contrast, though in our experiments toggling this setting on and off made little difference to the finished picture.

Blu-ray

Armed with a Blu-ray of 2012, the SE40LMNB initially leaves us thinking that it's something of a bargain. The muted colours of the movie are brought out nicely with the SE40LMNB in Movie mode, and the action is presented in a detailed manner that's on the right side of harsh.

We did notice a modicum of blur and the occasional judder from cameras pans, but with plenty of hi-def sharpness to display, some relatively profound black in a CGI shot of Earth from outer space, and some notable shadow detailing in black jackets, the SE40LMNB is halfway to impressing us.

Standard definition

It's doesn't get much further. With standard definition sources – Freeview and DVD – the SE40LMNB really trips-up. A broadcast of Liverpool Vs Manchester City in the Carling Cup on BBC1 reveals a softness that's in stark contrast to its Blu-ray performance. Not only is there a lot of picture noise that just doesn't go away, but there's also a rather garish approach to green that leaves the pitch over-saturated.

We had trouble tempering it without making the players look genuinely ill and over exposed, though the intense colour saturations aren't the only problem. The players have dotty noise around them as they move across the screen, with fast-moving objects causing a streak. Its watchable, yes, but the SE40LMNB isn't advanced enough to show standard definition – if anything, it would help if the screen was smaller or lower resolution, thereby better hiding its shortcomings. It simply didn't compare at all to the clean, accurately coloured and fluid images from the same game on an ageing HD-ready plasma we had nearby.

Freeview

What the SE40LMNB lacks is any detail-boosting tech, though we can't stress enough how much Freeview HD is missed. We do realise that to hit this kind of price Hannspree has had to let a few things go, but why produce a highly capable hi-def TV only to then make it rely on a standard definition source it really struggles with?

A dose of detail-boosting picture processing circuitry would help, as would some effective noise suppression tech, but the provision of some hi-def TV channels would lessen the problem immediately.

Sound and value

There's really nothing to get excited about on this count; thin and weedy, treble detailing is soft and can sound harsh from its down-firing stereo speakers, while bass is both muffled and inconsistent.

It's not a major criticism – we've heard £2,000+ tellies with rubbish sound quality – but you will need something extra (perhaps a soundbar) to make-up for this particular shortcoming.

Value

The use of a Full HD resolution Edge LED panel is laudable on such an affordable TV, but this 40-incher's over ambition proves its undoing; with no Freeview HD tuner its soft and noisy standard definition is left to mare an otherwise sterling hi-def performance with Blu-ray.

It's a shame since the use of a HD-ready panel – almost unheard of these daysm particularly in LCD TVs – would have offered the best of both worlds in playing down the SE40LMNB's innate problems (a lack of upscaling circuitry) and giving HD the chance to shine.

We still feel a HD-ready plasma is the ideal solution at this size and price, but there's no doubting the SE40LMNB's all-round good value reputation.

Verdict

Can an app-less telly eschewing any semblance of home networking and smart TV cut it? Selling for less

than £350, the SE40LMNB's is a barebones experience indeed, though for owners of Sky, Virgin or Freeview HD set-top boxes and PVRs, it could be the stripped-down HDTV bargain you've been looking for.

We liked

The user interface in general is attractive and well designed, and there's no doubting that the SE40LMNB is easy to use. We particularly liked the speed of setup, the nicely designed EPG's thumbnail of the live TV channel, and the ability to customise the names of each input.

Pictures lack sparkle, for sure, but contrast is decent and Blu-ray in particular is excellent. Besides, this is a 40-inch TV for less than £350.

We disliked

For all its trumping of PVR functions, this USB-powered function is so basic as to be virtually useless. The Timeshift functions are similarly long-winded and unlikely to be relied upon regularly, though it's nice to see both features here nonetheless.

There's noticeable light leakage from the LED backlit panel, and while still pictures retain a lot of full HD detail, there is noticeable blur and a slight overcooking of colour tones.

This is a basic TV that will suit many living rooms, but not home cinemas. The conclusion is underlined by the very average quality of the onboard speakers.

Final verdict

Without a Freeview HD tuner the SE40LMNB really struggles to make standard definition watchable, but those with a HD set-top box will find this 40-inch Edge LED TV a good value performer, which excels with Blu-ray.

Owners of HD PVRs can also skip over its long-winded USB PVR functions, though all will need a separate sound system.

Review: Toshiba 46TL868B

John Archer — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:40:00 GMT

Overview and features

Few TV brands have had as busy a 12 months as Toshiba. Not content with launching its biggest television range for years last April, Toshiba even managed to squeeze in a 'round two' of telly launches right at the end of 2011. And heading up this second raft of TVs is the TL868 series, as represented here by the 46-inch Toshiba 46TL868B.

Toshiba has got very clever in recent years at figuring out ways of offering sought-after features for cheaper prices than any other mainstream brands. The 46TL868B fits into this trend perfectly, managing to deliver Full HD active 3D, Edge LED lighting and an astoundingly slender form wrapped around the large 46-inch screen all for under £700 - the sort of money you'd normally expect to spend on a fairly bog-standard 42-inch TV.

Chuck a Freeview HD tuner into the mix, and there's a very good chance indeed that undecided TV buyers wandering around their local electronics store will have their attention and ultimately cash grabbed by Toshiba's almost shameless attempt to, um, give punters exactly what they want.

But is the Toshiba 46TL868B really the bargain it first appears? You don't get any free 3D glasses with it, after all. And there have been a number of Edge LED TVs from Toshiba this year that have suffered with some pretty serious picture flaws. So could it be that the ultimate impulse buy will turn into a nasty case of tears before bedtime?

The first feature anyone will notice about the Toshiba 46TL868B is how slender it its. For a start, it sticks out only a fraction as far around the back as your average budget LCD TV.

Even better, its bezel is almost non-existent by budget TV standards - only a touch more than 1cm across. This means that the TV will fit into the sort of space usually only occupied by a 42-inch TV. Also, experience suggests that the smaller a bezel is, the easier it is to get lost in the image on the screen. Especially if that image happens to be a 3D one.

And yes, despite costing less than £700, the images on the Toshiba 46TL868B really can be 3D as well as 2D. In fact, the TV even uses the Full HD active system that all the main brands bar LG still tend to consider the premium 3D format for picture quality enthusiasts.

However, there is a catch with this. While even the most affordable passive 3D TVs usually ship with loads of free glasses included in the price, the expense of making active shutter glasses for 3D TVs means you don't get any at all for free with the Toshiba 46TL868B.

Presumably Toshiba thinks - not unreasonably - that there's something to be said for tempting cash-strapped AV fans to the 3D table with a lower up-front price, then allowing them a simple upgrade path to 3D as further funds for pairs of active shutter glasses become available.

To be fair, while the Toshiba 46TL868B doesn't ship with free 3D glasses, you certainly can't accuse it of lacking features and ambition in other areas. Its connections, for instance, are prodigious, with highlights of four HDMIs, a D-Sub PC input, two USB ports and even a LAN port.

This LAN port is there in part to support the Toshiba 46TL868B's Freeview HD tuner (a tuner that itself might not necessarily have been expected on such a cheap TV). But much more impressively, it can also be used for hooking up to a DLNA-capable (and ideally Windows 7) PC for streaming in video, music and photo files. Or it can be used to take the TV online, via Toshiba's Places service.

There will be more on Places in a moment, but first there are a couple more things to discuss about the two USB ports. Namely that as well as enabling you to play a good variety of multimedia file types - including DivX HD - stored on USB storage devices, they enable you to add an optional USB dongle to make the TV Wi-Fi capable.

The Toshiba 46TL868B's Full HD screen is driven by Edge LED lighting rather than the normal CCFL system you might have expected on such an affordable set. And even more surprisingly, there's 100Hz processing to boost the image's stability, richness and motion clarity.

Heading into the on-screen menus, the Toshiba 46TL868B continues the theme of offering more than you've any right to expect. Pretty much every aspect of the TV's pictures can be adjusted across a prodigious range of settings, thanks to tricks such as a surprisingly well-realised colour management system, a backlight adjustment and a black/white level slider that proves to be a rather nifty tool for enabling you to balance brightness against black level response and shadow detail.

The Toshiba Places online system initially seems hugely promising, thanks to what is arguably the most attractive and 'personable' on-screen interface of any smart TV system to date. It's also clear that Toshiba has managed to sneak a bit more content on there than has been the case before.

The key options available now include BBC iPlayer, Box Office 365 (subscription), the Cartoon Network (subscription), HiT Entertainment (subscription), Viewster, Daily Motion, YouTube, Woomi, Flickr, the Aupeo internet radio site and two significant recent additions: Facebook and the Acetrax on-demand movie service.

Even with these new additions, there's no disguising the fact that Places is currently lagging behind the online systems of its big-name smart TV rivals, such as Samsung's Smart Hub and Sony's Bravia Internet Video services, as seen on the Samsung PS51D8000 and Sony KDL-46HX923, and other excellent smart TVs.

So here's hoping 2012 will bring a flurry of Places activity to rival the flurry of hardware activity Toshiba managed in 2011.

Picture quality

3D picture

So far the Toshiba 46TL868B has done nothing but over-achieve for its price point. And happily this trend largely continues with its picture performance.

Starting with 3D (having secured a pair of Toshiba's impressively light and rechargeable new active shutter 3D glasses, sold as extras), the Toshiba 46TL868B hits the right note immediately, by delivering an impressive amount of brightness and colour richness with its 3D images.

Sure, wearing the active 3D glasses does lead to a drop off in brightness, but it's nothing like as extreme as it tends to be with some active shutter 3D TVs - especially the more affordable ones.

The decent brightness helps 3D colours look likably natural, as well as bringing out a reasonable amount of tonal subtlety in dark parts of 3D images.

The Full HD nature of the Toshiba 46TL868B's active 3D images is clearly apparent, too, in the strikingly high detail you can see when watching Full HD 3D Blu-rays. Even when there's a lot of motion in the frame, the Toshiba 46TL868B manages to keep things looking crisp and textured - something that cheap TVs usually struggle to do even in 2D mode, never mind 3D.

Also contributing to the clarity of the Toshiba 46TL868B's 3D images is the fact that they're surprisingly little affected by crosstalk noise. The ghosting problem certainly doesn't appear routinely like it can on so many active 3D TVs - even some that cost considerably more than this one. It's still visible around bright or colour-rich objects during quite deep shots, but for the most part it's only a minor and occasional irritation rather than the really destructive force we might have expected.

In fact, it's the 3D image's clarity that sticks in the mind much more than any crosstalk issues.

2D picture

Although mostly much better than they've any right to be for under £700, the Toshiba 46TL868B's 3D pictures do suffer with a bit of a problem during very dark scenes. During these you can sometimes see clear evidence of backlight inconsistency in the TV's top left and right corners. What's more, the fact that the areas of extra brightness are essentially a 2D artefact lying across the surface of a 3D image tends to make them look more obvious.

It's no surprise whatsoever to find backlight consistency issues also playing a part in the Toshiba 46TL868B's 2D performance. However, thankfully the problem is much easier to control with 2D than 3D, because there's no need to feed the picture with as much brightness once you don't have to contend with the dimming effect of the 3D glasses.

Take the backlight down to a sensible level - certainly below 70 and ideally between 55 and 60 if your room isn't very bright - and the backlight consistency issues become so minor that you'll only even be vaguely aware of them during a tiny fraction of your overall viewing time.

Dark scenes in 2D mode reveal the Toshiba 46TL868B to have a rather good black level response by the standards of similarly affordable TVs too. Admittedly the backlight, brightness and contrast settings you will probably end up with in your quest for the best black level performance will leave dark scenes sometimes looking a bit short of shadow detail. But this is a relatively small contrast problem by the standards of the affordable TV market at large.

The sharpness and detail evident with HD 2D pictures, meanwhile, handsomely picks up the baton from the clarity noted with HD 3D images, and again goes comfortably beyond the level you might expect at the Toshiba 46TL868B's price point.

The motion clarity noted in 3D mode is even more striking in 2D too. Indeed, it's arguably in this performance aspect more than any other that the Toshiba 46TL868B most rises above its price point.

That said, the set also humbles the vast majority of other affordable TVs with its colours. Their vibrancy and range is even more obvious in 2D mode than in 3D, avoiding both the washed out and off-key looks that are quite common at the more affordable end of the TV market.

In fact, there are a few considerably more expensive TVs we can think of that can't match the Toshiba 46TL868B's colour vibrancy.

Standard definition

While HD TV pictures look startlingly good, aside from the occasional minor backlight flaw, though, the Toshiba 46TL868B does reveal its relative affordability a little more with standard definition sources - or weak quality ones, at least. With these, the set tends to exaggerate whatever noise (MPEG or otherwise) they might contain to a sometimes quite distracting degree.

To be fair, the set does carry noise reduction circuitry, but this tends to leave pictures looking a little soft and laggy.

Ease of use, sound, gaming and value

Ease of use

It's a little disappointing, if not really surprising, to find that the Toshiba 46TL868B's on-screen menus aren't the slick new 'radial wheel' affairs sported by Toshiba's latest flagship TV sets. Especially since the ones you get instead are rather drab and a little long-winded to negotiate your way around.

They are, though, perfectly legible, and once you've calibrated the TV for the first time, there's not that much need to delve back into them again very often.

Other frustrations include difficulties playing back some kinds of files from PCs that don't use Windows 7, and the fact that stupidly, neither the BBC iPlayer nor YouTube apps can be accessed directly from the Places menus. Instead, if you choose iPlayer or YouTube from there, you just get a message telling you to quit Places and access the apps via a different route.

The Places system is otherwise a great addition to the weird and occasionally wonderful array of smart TV interfaces that have emerged in recent times.

As well as looking colourful and inviting, and organising content in a logical way, there are also admirable attempts at personalising the Places system so that it can be adapted to suit different members of your household.

It's going to be really interesting to see where Toshiba takes this impressive start as 2012 plays out.

Turning to the remote control, we like the new design Toshiba has provided for the Toshiba 46TL868B. It's stylish and exceptionally weighty and robust for something that's partnering a budget set. Not all of the buttons have been given the appropriate level of prominence, perhaps, and there's a slight top-heaviness to its design that led us to nearly drop it a couple of times. But overall, it's a winner.

Sound quality

While very slim bodies like the one encasing the Toshiba 46TL868B might be easy on the eye, they don't tend to be compatible with great sound quality. There simply isn't enough room to squeeze in a good quality pair of speakers.

And the Toshiba 46TL868B does not, sadly, prove to be the exception to this rule.

While its audio is perfectly adequate - maybe even slightly better than that - for typical, undemanding TV shows, a good Hollywood action scene or two soon exposes a serious lack of deep bass, as well as an inability to expand the soundstage anywhere near wide enough to avoid sounding flat and thin.

Gaming

The Toshiba 46TL868B's size and price could potentially make it a very popular gaming monitor. So it was pleasing to only measure an average input lag figure of around 38ms when using the TV's Game preset. This is by no means the best figure around, but it shouldn't be enough to be responsible for many of your gaming failings.

Value

The Toshiba 46TL868B's features and design alone would more than justify its cost. So by the time you've added in its hugely engaging 2D and 3D pictures, you've got a set that's such great value for money it's almost silly.

Verdict

Toshiba's eye for creating a bargain is arguably at its most effective yet with the Toshiba 46TL868B. It ticks the latest fashion box, for a start, by boasting an exceptionally slender bezel and an extremely trim rear.

Then it confounds expectations raised by its sub-£700 price by providing not only a Freeview HD tuner but also active 3D playback, DLNA network support, USB multimedia support, optional Wi-Fi and even smart TV services courtesy of Toshiba's Places platform.

It even manages to boost its picture credentials by including 100Hz processing, a surprisingly effective Edge LED lighting system and the sort of picture calibration options generally only reserved for much higher-grade TVs.

We liked

The fact that the Toshiba 46TL868B is routinely available for less than £700 is undoubtedly this TV's single most attractive point. But there are plenty of other cheap TVs in the world that are nowhere near as desirable.

So attention must also be given to how good the Toshiba 46TL868B's picture quality is - in 2D and 3D mode - for its low price. And to the amount of multimedia and online features it provides for its money. And to the slickness of the space saving design.

We disliked

The Toshiba 46TL868B's audio is predictably rather flimsy, thanks to a fundamental shortage of bass and a predictable lack of raw power and range. But it's actually perfectly fine with the fairly undemanding stuff that makes up most of a typical TV's diet.

There are also minor issues with backlight consistency, especially during 3D viewing, and the Toshiba 46TL868B's standard definition pictures look a little rough around the edges at times.

Also, Places could benefit from a bit more content coming online.

Final verdict

For its money, the Toshiba 46TL868B is a really excellent TV. It cunningly ticks all of the key feature boxes right now - Freeview HD tuner, active 3D playback, USB and network multimedia playback, Edge LED lighting - and encases them in a fashionably thin chassis that wouldn't look out of place on a TV costing twice as much.

As if that wasn't enough, it also delivers HD 2D and 3D picture performances so clean, bright, colourful and sharp that they make the efforts of many other 'budget' LCD TVs seem positively grubby by comparison.

There are issues, for sure. Backlight inconsistency during very dark 3D scenes is one, and a pretty flimsy audio performance would be another. But taken as an overall package, with its price positioned to the front and centre of our thinking, the Toshiba 46TL868B is one of Toshiba's biggest bargains yet.

Review: Philips 50PFL7956T

Jamie Carter — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:17:00 GMT

Overview

This LED TV may have unusual, almost unique, dimensions that lend it an almost futuristic appearance.

But the ultra-widescreen Philips 50PFL7956T Cinema 21:9 Gold's strange shape will make a lot of sense to committed movie buffs.

The reason for its existence, of course, is CinemaScope. Films have been shot in the super-wide 2.39:1 format for yonks, and even now most films are presented on DVD or Blu-ray with black bars above and below them.

The flipside with this TV is that anything not filmed in CinemaScope – such as broadcast TV programmes – theoretically need black bars on each side. The Philips 50PFL7956T promises to upsize regular widescreen fare to fit well on the super-wide Edge LED panel, which it does primarily by zooming in slightly.

Given its widescreen shape, the Philips 50PFL7956T is a TV strictly for movies, although its smaller size indicates that it's aimed just as much at living rooms as at dedicated home cinema rooms.

It's dressed to impress, too, with an ever-so-slightly gold-tinged metallic silver casing that's more than skin deep. This is one of the most solid and attractive TVs we've yet seen, and eons ahead of its gloss black plastic rivals.

How it differs to the previous incarnation, the Philips 58PFL9955H, is two-fold. As well as not being nearly as expensive, the Philips 50PFL7956T – a full eight inches smaller in the diagonal, but only 32mm in depth – has a much smaller footprint. It's very difficult to compare Cinema 21:9 sets with 'normal' TVs because of the way they're measured, but for the sake of argument it's best to think of the Philips 50PFL7956T as a stretched 42-inch TV – the footprint is roughly similar.

This is actually Philips' smallest version of its now two-strong Cinema 21:9 range, with the flagship 58-inch Philips 58PFL9956 Cinema 21:9 Platinum also available.

Aside from width, the major difference between the two ultra-widescreen TVs is their flavour of 3D. The Philips 50PFL7956T sports the cheap passive 3D system, which Philips calls Easy 3D, while the 58PFL9956 pushes its flagship credentials by using the pricier, more detailed active shutter 3D system, termed 3D Max in the Philips lexicon.

This dual approach to 3D is an odd one, but seems to have been adopted to ensure that some of Phillips' mid-range standout TVs remain affordable. Relatively speaking, that's the case here - despite its high price, this is an attempt to get 21:9 ratio televisions into the mainstream.

Elsewhere in Philips' rather late arriving arsenal are some good value, more normally proportioned offerings. The entry-level 7000 Series consists of the 37-inch Philips 37PFL7666, 42-inch Philips 42PFL7666 and the 47-inch Philips 47PFL7666.

Next up is the 8000 Series, with the 40-inch Philips 40PFL8606, 46-inch Philips 46PFL8605 and the 52-inch Philips 52PFL8605 that all swap Easy 3D for 3D Max.

Finally there's the no-holds-barred 9000 Series, whose star turn is undoubtedly the 46-inch Philips 46PFL9706, which uniquely comes complete with a Moth Eye Filter – a reflection-eliminating nanostructure, if you're asking. The 9000 Series also includes the 52-inch Philips 52PFL9706, although this one doesn't have Moth Eye.

Features

Although those with no interest in watching Blu-ray discs in full super-widescreen glory will see nothing but novelty in the Philips 50PFL7956T, the TV's got more going for it than mere dimensional rarity.

Using an Edge LED backlight, the Philips 50PFL7956T's 2560 x 1980 pixel panel can show 3D material and make 2D-3D conversions on the fly from any source. Its thoroughly advanced Pixel Precise HD video processing is fitted with 400Hz Perfect Motion Rate, HD Natural Motion and Super Resolution.

For a full examination of the Wi-Fi-powered Net TV, read our Philips 42PFL7666H review, but for now know that you'll find BBC iPlayer, YouTube, TuneIn Radio, Aupeo, Picasa, Acetrax and Box Office 365. Attach a wireless keyboard and you can type straight into the likes of Facebook and Twitter, as well as into a dedicated web browser.

Ambilight Spectra 2, Philips' two-sided version of this unique lighting tech, makes an appearance on the Philips 50PFL7956T. It's actually a bit of a let-down - although the dynamic light show that accompanies a film or TV is technically as impressive as ever, the two sides are so far away from each other that the effect is not as cohesive or enveloping as it can be.

A third strip of Ambilight LEDs along the top of the TV is needed, although its no-show simply helps to explain the Philips 50PFL7956T's relatively low price.

That said, there's a surprise in store for gamers. Although they're not the target audience of the Philips 50PFL7956T, the extra-large screen can be used for two-player full screen gaming, if both players use adapted 3D specs.

Two pairs of regular 3D glasses are included in the box, but for this feature to work you'll need to either buy the £50 PTA436 pack of two special gaming glasses from Philips, or make them yourself – the pack contains one pair that uses two left eye lenses, and one that has only right eye lenses in. Geddit? Forget 3D effects – the 3D glasses are used here not to create depth, but to make only half the pixels visible to each player.

Connections on the Philips 50PFL7956T are fairly standard for a high-end TV; four HDMI inputs (including one on the side panel, and one that's Audio Return Channel-compatible) are joined by a set of component video inputs, an RGB Scart, a couple of USB slots, an Ethernet LAN port, an SD card slot (for Net TV downloads only), an optical digital audio output, ports for a PC link and a headphones slot.

One of those USB slots can be used to make recordings from the Philips 50PFL7956T's built-in Freeview HD tuner, as well as power a record/pause feature. Streaming digital files across a home network is also possible.

Ease of use

One of the key features of the Philips 50PFL7956T is its stretching and cropping of various video inputs. While 2.39:1-shaped Blu-ray movies are simply cropped top and bottom to present their full screen, an Auto Fill mode ensures that everything else fits. Sort of.

We tried it with a range of TV broadcasts and DVDs, and found that some background actors lost their heads, while other footage, such as sports and movies, generally didn't suffer. In fact it often looked amazing. Auto fill isn't perfect, but there's never any nasty stretching involved.

While Net TV, along with many of the Philips 50PFL7956T's core functions, is easy to use, Multi View turns out to be a let-down. Despite the screen being so wide, the provision of a main screen and a thumbnail beside ought to work. One of those windows must be Net TV, and unless you're watching something on BBC iPlayer, there's not a lot of point to Multi View.

That goes double because the web browser option in Web TV is slow and hard to navigate. Reach for your smartphone is you want to surf the web.

The remote control is nicely designed, with an oval shape, although this time the metallic finish is merely painted plastic. One thing we did notice was the remote's lack of a dedicated 3D button. If you're using a 3D Blu-ray player, this makes no difference - the TV automatically prompts you to choose 3D mode. But if you're watching from a Sky or Virgin Media box, as we were, it's necessary to dive into a long series of on-screen menus to find the side-by-side 3D format option. It's not a problem as such, but the TV doesn't make it easy, and as a consequence the instant 3D effect is lost.

Picture

Cover up the logo on front of the Philips 50PFL7956T and we would still know that this was a Philips TV. Not because of the shape – something only Phillips has experimented with – but because of its Pixel Precise HD engine.

The Philips 50PFL7956T arrived to us in its default settings, which meant all of its key slices of tech, including Perfect Motion Rate, Super Resolution and HD Natural Motion, were on their medium settings.

2D TV

Take Downton Abbey as a great example of how Philips addresses a TV's picture. This is a period drama, and on most TVs, appears as such. However, aside from cropping the top and bottom of the footage to make it fit the 21:9 panel, the Philips 50PFL7956T's circuitry creates a picture that is highly detailed, with an unusual depth even into 2D mode – so much so that some of the characters appear slightly divorced from the background.

Put simply, the out-of-the-box picture on the Philips 50PFL7956T looks processed, although whether that's a positive or negative depends on your point of view. We found that HD Natural Motion successfully put an end to blur and judder, especially from Blu-ray discs, although it is best left on its lowest setting. It's worth playing around with the settings (something that can be time-consuming) because simply switching off Pixel Precise HD's tech instantly softens the picture.

Put on a Blu-ray movie – in this case Black Swan – and the results are astounding. Presented in the correct aspect ratio, it's a real screen-filling treat. Watched in the well-judged ISF Night setting in a blackout, the detail is clean enough to please and colours remain on the right side of lifelike.

The contrast and peak whites are not as impressive as they could be, which is down to the use of Edge LED technology - it must work even harder to illuminate the bigger panel.

3D TV

Aside from the drop in brightness that active shutter 3D systems suffer (to say nothing of their glasses' high price and heavy design), 3D images on the Philips 50PFL7956T are punchy and lively. There is a noticeable drop in resolution (half the number of pixels are available to each eye when compared with active shutter screens) and horizontal lines are visible on the screen – the major reasons why passive 3D pictures aren't quite as involving, or as impactful, as active shutter 3D pictures.

Legends of Flight 3D from 3D Blu-ray provides some comfortable aeronautical excitement with a stack of well photographed sequences where the front effects aren't so in-yer-face as cinematic 3D fare. Donning the 3D specs does add a touch of contrast, but peak whites aren't clean and there was a slight lack of shadow detail inside the cockpit.

Those slight weaknesses of the panel are tempered by the fact that it's perfectly possible to watch 3D in a brightly-lit room – and there's not even a tinge of crosstalk. Easy 3D seems a wise move, but bear in mind that very few 3D movies have been released to make it a fair fight.

We're not sold on 2D-3D conversion, although the reason for its existence is simple: unless you like children's animation, there's really not much to watch in 3D. Still, the Philips 50PFL7956T's attempt at adding this to A Christmas Carol is rather lame.

When the credits roll, from three names presented on the screen, the bottom one is discernibly further forward than the others. There's very obviously an averaging-out algorithm at work that's not paying attention to what's being shown on the screen. Needless to say, the 3D effect in the movie itself was hugely random, yet occasionally impressive.

Gaming

A blast of Pro Evolution 2012 from an Xbox 360 looked simply awesome. The stretched aspect ratio really suits such games, and the Philips 50PFL7956T in Game mode provided crisp and blur-free results that were blighted only by the slight lack of contrast.

The Dual View mode works well indeed, with the exclusive view for two separate players really making a difference in a two-player game, something that brings a tactical change to the game play itself. It's an excellent trickle-down from 3D tech, and arguably both just as useful and similarly as limited, with both features giving fairly soft-looking images.

Sound and value

Sound

With a decent stereo effect and more power than most TVs, the Philips 50PFL7956T is certainly one of the better audio performers. However, despite the 34W power – and maybe because of its sheer width – we weren't blown away by the various audio modes.

Almost all Philips TVs have better-than-average speakers, but the absence of separate woofers on the rear slashes the bass on offer and produces a soundstage that despite being powerful, seems a little thin in the mid-range.

Considering the almost exclusively movie-based diet of the Philips 50PFL7956T, we'd suggest hooking it up to a home cinema system, which we'd expect most potential buyers to already own.

Value

The 50PFL7956 is Philip's most affordable attempt at CinemaScope, but that's tempered by the fact that this is a smaller TV. In our opinion, it's a much better fit for the average living room than bigger versions, and deserves to sell well despite its high price.

It's the rarity of the CinemaScope-shape screen that you're paying for here; most of the same tech and special features can be found on Phillips' circa £800 TVs, which puts into perspective just how much of a treat the Philips 50PFL7956T is. And, make no mistake, movie fans will love this television – there are few better ways to watch a 2D Blu-ray disc.

Gamers might be attracted by the Dual View option, although this feature is possible on any passive 3D TV; regular fullscreen gaming – as with all regular widescreen 16:9 footage, including all broadcast TV – is zoomed in on to make it fit the screen. Heads can disappear in the process, so a movie lover's dream could be an annoyance for those watching prime-time TV.

The Philips 50PFL7956T, then, isn't an all-rounder, but instead a specialised, highly capable and surprisingly versatile choice.

Verdict

Is the Philips 50PFL7956T the first affordable CinemaScope TV? Not quite, but this effort from Philips halves the price of a 21:9 aspect ratio telly while also halving the resolution of 3D. Using Edge LED backlighting and passive Easy 3D tech, the Philips 50PFL7956T is a noticeable step down from the flagship 58-inch – and £4,000+ – 58PFL9956, but here the experience is smaller, so those compromises on ultimate quality are less of a problem.

We liked

With no flickering or crosstalk, and an overall more versatile, watchable experience, we'd rate Easy 3D a success on the Philips 50PFL7956T. A fabulously made TV, the Philips 50PFL7956T's headline act of removing black bars from Blu-ray is where it impresses most, displaying bags of detail and well-judged colour, though some games also benefit from a stretch.

We disliked

Aside from games, the way the Philips 50PFL7956T handles anything that isn't in the 21:9 format leads to occasionally bizarre decapitations, while engaging the 3D mode on anything other than 3D Blu-ray is long-winded, and can look soft. Meanwhile, the two LED strips that power Ambilight are simply too far apart to be fully immersive, Net TV's provision of BBC iPlayer is really all the online platform has going for it, and there's a slight lack of contrast that's more noticeable because of the stretched display.

Final verdict

A living room-sized version of a CinemaScope TV aimed at those who mostly watch Blu-ray movies, the Philips 50PFL7956T comes with a raft of must-have features – including a clean and easy 3D mode. The fullscreen option for split-screen games provides a tempting trickle-down tech from 3D, and some games look fabulous in a 21:9 shape, although this TV is at its best when it's simply removing the black bars from Blu-ray discs – and presenting them with more detail than ever.

Review: Philips Fidelio SoundSphere

Rob Mead-Green — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 09:30:00 GMT

The Philips Fidelio SoundSphere is one of the best-looking Airplay speaker systems we've ever seen – and, we're extremely happy to report, its beauty is far from skin-deep.

Comprising two forward-leaning cylindrical speakers clad in a classy gloss black, it's accompanied by a simple iPod/iPhone/iPad charging dock, remote control and all the cables you need to get it up and running quickly and simply.

Inside one of the speakers you'll find a 2x 50W RMS amplifier, while each speaker also includes a 127mm woofer for mid-range/deep bass, and a 25mm tweeter, which arcs out of the top on a hefty chrome arm that can also be used to help you move them around.

Setting up the SoundSphere is pretty straightforward. On the back of the active speaker you'll find a power socket, along with a pair of binding posts that are connected to the accompanying passive speaker using the speaker cable provided. You'll also find a 3.5mm input jack, along with controls for the SoundSphere's Wi-Fi transceiver connection so you can connect to it using AirPlay.

If you want to use your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch make sure you also download the free Fidelio app, available from the iTunes App Store. This app handily enables you to tweak the speaker's EQ settings, adjust the SoundSphere's volume and stream thousands of internet radio stations, among other things.

Using the Philips Fidelio SoundSphere with your Mac couldn't be simpler. Once its Wi-Fi connection is on, it magically appears as an AirPlay speaker in iTunes 10.

Philips says the aim of the Fidelio SoundSphere is to recreate the experience of listening to live music – and it truly does a magnificent job. Whatever genre of music you throw at it from opera to r'n'b, folk, thrash metal and panpipes, the Fidelio SoundSphere will deliver it with wonderfully believable vocals, lashings of melodic bass and crystal-clear treble.

The criticisms we have about the SoundSphere are really quite minor. Having to lash up a cable between the two speakers ensures it's not quite as wireless as you might like.

Another tiny niggle concerns the high frequency tweeters. While the woofers are sensibly covered by magnetic grilles, the tweeters are open to the elements and to little inquisitive fingers. We suggest you position the speakers out of reach on a shelf or sideboard if you don't want them to be damaged, because we've discovered that kids are rightly fascinated by these speakers.

So should you buy the Fidelio SoundSphere? If you love music, the answer is definitely.

Review: Logik L423ED11

John Archer — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:50:00 GMT

Overview and features

While TV manufacturers claim that they're satisfied with the sales of 3D TVs, to the outside observer it seems clear that 3D hasn't captured the public's imagination as strongly as the AV industry wanted (and possibly needed?) it to.

This might well explain why UK retailer Dixons has decided to have a go at injecting some new life into 3D's flagging fortunes by selling its own in-house range of 3D TVs for the lowest prices yet seen.

One of the highlight models from this new Logik-branded Dixons range is the L423ED11: a 42-inch 3D TV costing just £599 that uses Edge LED lighting, has a Full HD resolution and, at the time of writing, ships with a free Philips 3D Blu-ray player and 10 - yes, 10 - free pairs of 3D glasses.

So the set could turn out to be the mass market 3D bargain the UK TV market has been waiting for.

The Logik L423ED11 is joined by the 32-inch L323ED11, which costs £449, and the 47-inch L473ED11 for £699. You can also buy a trio of even cheaper models - the 32-inch L323CD11, priced at just £379, the 42-inch L423CD11, costing £479, and the 47-inch L473CD11, with a £599 price tag that use standard CCFL lighting instead of LED lighting.

The million dollar question, of course, has to be if 3D TVs so outlandishly cheap can actually be any good. So let's find out how the Logik L423ED11 fares.

Features

Not surprisingly, the Logik L423ED11 isn't the best-looking TV in the world. It's just another in the endless line of glossy black rectangles, except for having a slightly wider bezel than you usually see these days. It's bulkier round the back than most Edge LED TVs too - although of course, only the oddest people actually spend time looking at the rear of their TVs!

Connections are surprisingly solid, with three v1.4 HDMI ports (all 3D ready) alongside, among other things, a D-Sub PC input so the screen can double up as a computer monitor, and even a USB port capable of playing a surprisingly wide variety of video, photo and music file formats.

The one noticeable connection absentee is a LAN port. The fact that this means the TV doesn't have any Smart TV or DLNA functionality is only to be expected on such a cheap set. But the missing LAN port also alerts us to the fact that the Logik L423ED11 doesn't have a Freeview HD tuner, which is rather harder to take.

The fact that you currently get 10 free pairs of 3D glasses with the Logik L423ED11 reveals right away that the TV uses LG's passive 3D technology - as seen on the LG 50PZ850T, LG 55LW980T and other LG TVs - rather than the active shutter system. This reaffirms the sense that it's the passive 3D system that's driving the affordable part of the 3D TV market.

In terms of other features of note, there's precious little going on - as you might expect. The only surprise is the presence of a 2D to 3D conversion system.

It's actually quite a relief that the Logik L423ED11 doesn't have many features to navigate through, because it's ridiculously hard to get the TV to pick up commands from the cheap, plasticky remote. It's maddening.

Picture, sound and gaming

3D performance

Kicking the picture testing off with 3D, the Logik L423ED11 looks a little rough and ready thanks to the appearance of some horizontal line structure in the image caused by the passive 3D filter, and a slightly soft look versus the finest active 3D images. There's also a little more crosstalk than you get with LG's costlier passive 3D TVs.

However, the amount of crosstalk is still minimal versus that seen with most active TVs. And as usual, watching passive 3D feels more relaxing than the active approach, especially because there's no flickering to deal with.

Also likable is how bright and colourful 3D pictures look on the Logik L423ED11, and the TV handles 3D motion surprisingly decently too, with little sign of the sort of blurring often found with cheap LCD TVs.

2D performance

There are times when the Logik L423ED11 looks better than expected with 2D, too. Feed it a bright HD image and you'll likely feel very happy indeed with how pictures look. The sharpness and detail on show with such footage shames some TVs costing twice as much, while colours also look clean and punchy.

Unfortunately the Logik L423ED11 is a heck of a lot less comfortable with any other sort of footage - as in, anything that's standard definition and/or mostly dark. With standard definition the TV set's upscaling processing doesn't do a great job of either adding sharpness to the source or suppressing any noise it might contain. It's also notable that colours tend to suffer with more 'offish' tones than you get during HD viewing.

The Logik L423ED11's biggest single problem, though, is without doubt its total inability to produce anything approaching a convincing black colour. Dark scenes instead look like they're appearing through a grey fog, making it hard to see what's going on at times, and making dark colours look routinely unnatural.

There's practically no shadow detail to be seen either, making dark scenes feel flat and empty and thus startlingly different to any bright scenes that might appear either side of them.

Making matters even worse are unmissable signs during dark scenes of backlight inconsistency from the Edge LED backlight system. And then there's the way that the Logik L423ED11's contrast drops to almost nothing if you have to watch the screen from a wider angle down the side than 30-35 degrees.

There's a separate viewing angle limitation with 3D, too. If you find yourself watching the screen from as little as 10 degrees or so above or below it, 3D images go from having very little crosstalk to being absolutely plagued by it.

However, it's worth adding that the black level problems on the Logik L423ED11 are slightly less pronounced with 3D, thanks to the gentle dimming effect of the passive 3D glasses.

Sound

Joining the Logik L423ED11's strikingly up and down pictures is a passable audio performance that manages to avoid the horrible weediness and tendency to distort sound of many budget TVs, but also lacks the range and raw power to really do action scenes justice.

Gaming

Any gamers thinking the Logik L423ED11 might be a good budget 3D gaming option might be cheered to hear that the set only introduces a respectable sub-40ms of input lag. But to be honest, the severe lack of black level response is likely to cause far more 'unfair' deaths during your games than a bit more input lag probably would have!

Verdict

Being able to say that it's the cheapest 42-inch 3D Edge LED TV in the UK at the moment gets the Logik L423ED11 off to a highly attractive start. Especially since its price currently includes 10 pairs of glasses and a free Blu-ray player! What's more, it doesn't seem as badly compromised in terms of its design and connectivity as you might expect for its low price.

There are even some good points about the Logik L423ED11's performance. Its sound is passable, and its 3D pictures are fun, if short of finesse.

However, it's ultimately severely hamstrung by its inability to render dark scenes with any real quality, and it's possible that its extreme viewing angle limitations might be problematic to some people too.

We liked

The Logik L423ED11's price is definitely right, especially because the £599 currently gets you 10 pairs of glasses and a 3D Blu-ray player. The set's pictures look surprisingly good with bright HD content too, and its 3D images are relaxing and engaging.

We disliked

There's no Freeview HD tuner, the TV's viewing angle is extremely limited, and the set's black level response isn't really good enough.

Final verdict

It's a little difficult to know what to say about the Logik L423ED11. On the one hand, even after finding a few problems with it, its value is undeniable - even quite incredible with the Blu-ray player and glasses offered for free at the time of writing taken into account.

So if you really are desperate for big-screen 3D for a large family and you can't afford more than £600, the Logik L423ED11 is your only option. And actually, it's really not unpleasant to watch with 3D.

The catch comes when you're watching dark 2D scenes, which look far less pleasant than bright scenes, thanks to a fairly fundamental lack of contrast. Only you can decide if the Logik's value appeal is so strong that it overwhelms the black level problems.

Review: Revo K2

Ian Osborne — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:30:00 GMT

Designing an audio product presents manufacturers with a dilemma. Do they forego convenience and build a great sounding but bulky system, or sacrifice audio quality in favour of a smaller footprint?

Thankfully, Revo's new K2 iOS dock, radio and audio streamer makes no such compromises.

The K2's square-shaped base with sides of just 10.6cm and two alarm settings make it ideal for your bedside table. But its brushed aluminium bodywork, black rubber details and invisible-until-lit OLED means it looks good just about anywhere.

Its 30-pin connector can be retracted when not in use, and can hold any iPod or iOS device, including an iPad. DAB/DAB+ and FM with RDS radio formats are covered, as is internet radio, Last.FM (a month's free trial supplied) and streaming audio from your Mac or any DNLA-compliant source.

You can join it to a home network through Ethernet or Wi-Fi, and connect it to an existing stereo setup through RCA or digital optical out. There's also AUX-in, a headphone socket and a composite video-out port for watching iPod videos or slideshows on your TV. A handheld remote augments the neat on-board buttons.

Sound quality is excellent. Its stereo effects are surprisingly good given the narrow form factor, and thanks to the rear-mounted bass port, the low end of the sound spectrum is clear and crisp. The audio as a whole is complete and lively, with a detailed top end, bouncy midtones and a near 360-degree dispersion.

The user interface deserves a mention too. Revo products are famed for their accessibility, and the K2 is no exception – steady improvements make it the best yet. If you have a sound system you're not using to its fullest because you can't be bothered to keep dipping into the instructions, you should have bought a Revo.

Revo's K2 delivers a sound that belies its small form factor. It's possible to get more out of bigger, more expensive systems, but for a compact £300 device, it's among the best we've heard.

Review: Philips 42PFL7666H

Jamie Carter — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:54:00 GMT

Overview

Phillips has taken its sweet time in delivering its 2011 line-up of LED TVs, but this 7000 Series screen was worth the wait.

Sticking to the brushed aluminium look that has served the brand well in the last few years, this 42-inch Edge LED TV screen's headline act is Easy 3D.

It's perhaps the best, simplest name yet for the passive 3D system (LG calls in Cinema 3D), although we're slightly confused as to why Phillips has chosen it over active shutter 3D for the 42PFL7666.

It's a company obsessed with picture quality, debuting all manner of new processing goodies every year, so why opt for this less detailed, and often less impressive, flavour of 3D?

The obvious answer is that the use of passive 3D technology means Phillips can include multiple pairs of the much cheaper 3D glasses in the box. The problem with this theory is that only two pairs are provided with the Philips 42PFL7666.

True to form, this 3D TV comes with a host of advanced features, some of which are unique to the brand. We're talking mainly about Ambilight, a Philips-only technology that sees the 42PFL7666 put on a stunning lightshow in time to content on the screen.

Ambilight is here in its stripped-down stereo two-sided version, and it's accompanied by a host of extra features, including Pixel Precise HD processing, 400Hz Perfect Motion Rate, DLNA networking, built-in Wi-Fi, Net TV apps and, best of all for movie fans, 28W speakers.

How Philips has managed to pack all that into a TV that measures just 37.8 mm in depth is quite something.

Elsewhere in the 7000 Series is the 37-inch Philips 37PFL7666 and 47-inch Philips 47PFL7666, while the step-up 8000 contains the 40-inch Philips 40PFL8606 and 46-inch Philips 46PFL8606.

The 8000 and even richer 9000 Series TV screens all use 3D Max - an active shutter 3D system - although the brand's best is saved for its ultra widescreen 21:9 aspect ratio TVs. The 'Gold' 50-inch Philips 50PFL7956 and 'Platinum' 58-inch Philips 58PFL9956 use Easy 3D and 3D Max, respectively.

Features

Despite seeing the arrival - at last - of a Freeview HD tuner on a Philips TV, the 42PFL7666 also witnesses the debut of Easy 3D, the brand's stab at the cheaper, easier-on-the-eye format beloved of 3D cinema goers.

Let's pass over 3D for a minute and instead consider the Philips 42PFL7666's burgeoning online dimension, which is powered by Wi-Fi. Accessed from the set's fairly rudimentary user interface is Net TV, a screen studded with apps and an open internet browser.

Apps include BBC iPlayer, YouTube, Facebook, TuneIn Radio, Aupeo (another radio app), Picasa, Twitter, Acetrax and Box Office 365, among others. There's none of the polished approach of Sony or Samsung, and nor is there access to LOVFiLM or Demand Five, but it's a relatively fair choice nonetheless.

If you already have a backlog of digitised video, music and photos to get through, the Philips 42PFL7666's DLNA home networking will be just as attractive as Net TV. It's marketed as tying together all kinds of network devices including a PC or Mac, and even tablets and smartphones.

It's all true, although it boils down to something rather less ambitious; straightforward networking of video, music and photo files, while the Philips 42PFL7666's user interface can be navigated using apps on an iPhone or Android smartphone or tablet.

The Philips 42PFL7666 can also record live TV to a USB stick, although the residual feature that enables you to pause and rewind TV will doubtless prove to be just as useful.

Ins and outs are fairly standard, including four HDMI inputs, a wired Ethernet LAN option and a Common Interface slot. There's also an optical digital audio output for attaching the Philips 42PFL7666 to a home cinema system, although its powerful 28W makes that less essential compared to almost all other flatscreen TVs.

While it would be wrong to call passive 3D a lower quality 3D system (we've seen some storming 3D performances from passive sets such as LG's 55LW980T), we remain surprised that Phillips has chosen it for some of its LED TVs.

3D, of course, is all about immersion, and the inclusion of Ambilight, here its Spectra 2 format (on the left and right sides of the TV only), certainly won't hurt in that regard, although it's really designed to prevent you getting tired eyes.

However, it's active shutter glasses that tend to make 3D a fatiguing experience, and we expect no problems with the two pairs of passive glasses in the Philips 42PFL7666's box. Each pair of 3D glasses comes in a small drawstring black felt bag, which weigh about the same as the flimsy glasses themselves.

Away from 3D is the powerful Pixel Precise HD processing engine. As well as offering - wait for it - four trillion colours, Pixel Precise HD also promises 500,000:1 contrast ratio, Super Resolution (an upscaling tech), HD Natural Motion and a 400Hz mode that Phillips calls Perfect Motion Rate. The latter two are designed to keep images free from blur and judder, and so retain their Full HD detail.

Ease of use

Although it's great to see a Freeview HD tuner inside Philips' 2011 TVs, the eight-day electronic programme guide alongside it is sparse indeed. A mono grid showing now/next information for eight channels at once is impressively simple - we'll give it that - but also incredibly basic. Worse, there's no shortcut to it on the remote control, although if you do attach a USB stick, pausing live TV is just a case of pressing one button.

Remote control

The Philips 42PFL7666's nicely rounded remote is as impressive as any we've seen. Comfy to hold and with a high-end feel despite the use of plastic, it's accompanied by Philips' MyRemote app for iPhone/iPad/iPod touch and Android smartphones and tablets that mirrors the hard-button remote as well as introducing an element of swipe and gesture driven controls.

It should come into its own for inputting text, which is really only needed when using the Net TV's built-in web browser. It's slow and difficult to navigate using the hard button remote, with URL entry long-winded and off-putting, and that situation doesn't change much by using MyRemote.

In our test we managed to input text using a pop-up virtual keyboard within the app, but the web address that appeared on the TV screen bore no relation to what we had entered. On a few other occasions it failed to register any text at all - there's a syncing issue between the app and the TV since MyRemote often seems to be a few steps ahead of the TV.

What it does do, however, is stream photos in a smartphone directly to the TV screen. Who needs Apple TV?

DLNA

Back on the 'proper' remote we managed to indulge in some more manual DLNA networking, with our test files successfully streaming from both a networked Mac and playing from a USB flash drive in AVI, MKV and AVC HD flavours.

This Philips TV is all about its processing. With so much to think about in Pixel Precise HD, such as HD Natural Motion (which can be set to either on or off), Clear LCD (ditto), Super Resolution and various settings for dynamic contrast, backlight and MPEG reduction, there are too many variables to easily create the perfect picture on first use.

However, there is an automatic calibration wizard very obviously flagged up in the Philips 42PFL7666's home screen's Settings area, which takes the viewer through a series of images, noting preferences and adjusting settings accordingly. As a rule of thumb, keep Pixel Precise HD's technologies on their lowest setting to begin with, where the picture is at its most natural, and experiment as you go.

Picture

Let's go straight to Easy 3D. When viewing active shutter 3D TVs, donning the glasses means a drastic reduction in brightness. That's not the case with passive 3D TVs like the Philips 42PFL7666 - at least, not much. What's immediately obvious after putting the 3D glasses on is that it's possible to see the panel's horizontal and vertical pixel structure. However, sit a few metres back and that problem instantly disappears.

Passive 3D on this LED TV is a success, but not a total one. Sure, there is a reduction in detail compared to active shutter 3D TVs, but this wasn't hugely noticeable during our test footage from Alice in Wonderland and The Ultimate Wave Tahiti 3D.

3D performance

Another 3D movie trailer, this time a rehashed 3D version of The Nightmare Before Christmas, looks reasonably good, largely because the 3D depth is noticeable but slight, and there are few of the attention-grabbing front effects that tend to disrupt as well as dazzle.

Legends of Flight 3D is next up, and shows off the 3D format at its best and worst. A slow panning shot of a biplane is smooth and impressive, if not as detailed as it could be, but in the very next scene a glider flies against a stunning background of mountain scenery that shimmers and judders considerably. Objects at the front of the shot are often impossible to decipher.

Easy 3D does mean living with shimmering, a visible pixel grid in mono shots and less detail, but it's always comfortable to watch and for most viewers isn't as huge a step down in quality from active shutter 3D TVs as some would have you believe.

Plus if you live in a large household, the far cheaper 3D glasses will more than justify a slight drop in detail.

2D performance

Back in two dimensions, we noticed some horizontal judder. As the camera pans down, in this case during adverts for Apple's iPod touch where the main actor wears a horizontally striped T-shirt, there's a definite judder and blur as he jumps, though objects going from left to right are a lot smoother.

Smooth colour gradations pervade everything on the Philips 42PFL7666, which should be considered an advanced performer with high-definition sources. HD channels look awesome in terms of clarity, fluidity and colour, and it's a similar story with Blu-ray, although we're sure there are TVs elsewhere in Philips' range that boast better contrast.

The Philips 42PFL7666's Edge LED backlighting system is partially successful; true black is never achieved, but it gets pretty close in dark scenes. Find a mixed brightness scene, such as in our test disc 3:10 to Yuma on Blu-ray where a character sits alone in a darkened room while sunlight streams in through the door, and that black loses its lustre on its way to blue. Ambilight does increase the perception of contrast, but let's not over-egg that effect - it's only slight.

Super Resolution, which is designed to upscale standard definition TV channels and DVDs, is also an acquired taste. If you look at a paused picture you can detect a slight increase in detail, but in a moving picture it's almost impossible to see, unlike the odd artefact around moving objects, which is frequently visible with this mode engaged.

Sound and value

Sound

Clear Sound does a reasonable job at increasing the clarity of dialogue, and Incredible Surround is worth considering while watching movies, though both of these modes' success is down to the sheer power behind the Philips 42PFL7666's speakers.

Rated at 14W each, they are among the best in the business despite the removal of woofers from the rear of the TV (as was the case with Phillips' 2010 crop of TVs). Still, it's worth playing around with the individual treble and bass controls in the home screen's Settings menu. Though it's hard to resist pushing the base up to its maximum level, we'd advise leaving it a tad below.

Value

The Philips 42PFL7666 is great value; nicely styled and boasting tremendous build quality, the likes of which are so, so rare in the flatscreen TV market, the provision of a solid, stable desktop stand and those impressive speakers make this a standout product if judged purely on hardware.

Inside it's a different story, however, with a rather dated-looking user interface and a smart TV dimension that is really only justified by the presence of the BBC iPlayer.

There are better such platforms available, but the Philips 42PFL7666 is relatively media savvy in other areas and the sheer versatility and quality of the HD TV make this a great choice for movie buffs after something a little different. And don't underestimate Ambilight - it adds something special that's not easy to live without once experienced.

Verdict

Just 37.8 mm in depth and clad in brushed aluminium brilliance, the light show emanating from this 42-inch TV's sides makes the Philips 42PFL7666 appear a high-end choice indeed. Whether that impression lasts when the TV is switched on depends on what you're after, but we'd judge this a thoroughly advanced hi def and competent 3D performer that's ideal for a living room where a gloss black mass-market TV just won't do.

We liked

As an idea we find Ambilight almost irresistible, though it's the Philips 42PFL7666's competent combination of colourful, punchy and highly detailed Full HD and Easy 3D that are likely to appeal to most.

The build quality is stunning, as are the integrated speakers, and it's also great to see a Freeview HD tuner, the BBC iPlayer, an effective home networking dimension, a well thought-out remote control, and Apple TV-like streaming of photos from smartphones and tablets.

We disliked

Freeview HD is spoiled by a grid-like, mono channel grid and drab EPG that are indicative of the Philips 42PFL7666's rather staid user interface. Net TV isn't a patch on the competitors' online hubs, and as well as some horizontal judder the other major picture foible is a lack of ultimate contrast and a loss of detail and edge definition during 3D playback that's obvious immediately through an often visible pixel grid.

Final verdict

Ideal for a living room after both something a little bit special and the low maintenance passive 3D system, this sculpted aluminium effort is as good value as it is good looking.

Equipped with Ambilight and other goodies including Freeview HD and a 'passive' Easy 3D mode that justifies its introduction by Philips, this Edge LED effort is a competent performer across-the-board whose lack of star quality pictures are explained in its low price.

Review: LG 50PZ850T

John Archer — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:47:00 GMT

Overview

LG is never short of an idea or two, that's for sure.

For instance, not content with introducing passive 3D TVs to the world this year, the Korean brand has now also hit the street with PenTouch technology, as sported by the 60-inch 60PZ850T and the 50-inch 50PZ850T under scrutiny here.

As its name suggests, PenTouch uses a 'touch-screen' technology in conjunction with a special 'pen' to allow you to interact directly - as in, physically - with the 50PZ850's screen.

You just move the pen around on the screen or tap it to produce freehand drawings or navigate and access various function buttons or browser icons.

With its key PenTouch system not necessarily God's gift to TV tech, then, it's just as well that the 50PZ850 has a couple of other tricks up its sleeve. Namely active 3D playback (one pair of active shutter glasses is included) and a reasonably potent video engine. Though it should be made clear right away that the PZ850 TVs unexpectedly do not carry LG's Smart TV system.

YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwHvuUlFtQk&hd=1

On paper, this possibly sounds like fun. Certainly LG's promotional materials for the PZ850TVs make extravagant use of photos of cute, excited kids playing with their new TV/best friend. However, the reality of the feature is rather less credible - more on this later.

If you'd happily ditch the PenTouch system in favour of a more powerful picture engine and Smart TV functionality, you could step up to LG's PZ950T plasma series without spending a fortune more. Or if you're happy to again do without PenTouch and settle for a few picture quality compromises, you could step down to LG's PZ570T plasma series, which still carries 3D despite its relative affordability.

With LG's 2011 having being notoriously inconsistent where TVs are concerned, though, the key question for now is whether the 50PZ850T is one of the brand's hits or misses.

Features

To say that the 50PZ850T is an oddity in feature terms would be an understatement. Obviously the stars of the show - on paper at least - are the set's active 3D and PenTouch functionality. Both of which need more explanation.

If you're wondering why LG has used an active 3D system on the 50PZ850T in direct opposition to LG's virulent belief that the passive 3D technology now used on all of its LCD TVs is the best 3D option, it's because apparently plasma technology - or at least, LG's plasma technology - isn't capable of outputting enough brightness to counter the impact of the passive 3D filter.

Given LG's generosity when it comes to giving away passive 3D glasses with its passive TVs, it's a shame if hardly a surprise that you get just a solitary pair of active shutter glasses with the 50PZ850T.

PenTouch

As for the PenTouch feature, its response time is said to be only 150ms, and its touch resolution is a respectable 4.6mm(h) x 2.3mm(v). It also must be stressed that the feature doesn't just let you draw pictures on the TV's screen; the 'pen' can, among other things, also be used to access and navigate the Internet, browse 'sweep'-style through the photos you might have stored on a PC, or access and write notes for a provided Family Diary feature.

However, within about 10 minutes of using PenTouch, it's looking like quite possibly the single most pointless feature ever added to a TV. Seriously, who in their right mind - aside, possibly, from a toddler - would really want to put down their laptop or tablet computer, stand up, wander over to their TV and start using a huge pen to draw on their TV or use it to access a few cumbersome 'apps' that would be much better suited to a computer anyway?

As for the possible toddler attraction, would you really want your kid to be a) standing literally inches away from a 50-inch TV, and b) banging a pen against it with the sort of gusto that only a toddler can manage? Surely not.

To be honest the feature isn't even something you will necessarily try once and then forget, as it's quite a faff to get up and running, at least to its full extent. So really, highlight feature or not, the best thing to do with PenTouch is forget it's even there and move swiftly on - while trying desperately to ignore the fact that presumably you have to pay a few quid for it...

Endorsements aplenty

Rather more likely to appeal to the readers of this website - or anyone normal - is the TV's impressive suite of picture adjustments. As usual with LG plasmas, the 50PZ850T comes with the endorsements of both THX and and the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) - endorsements that are only handed out to TVs deemed to have enough picture flexibility to be professionally calibrated.

The endorsements also mean the TV enjoys two THX presets (one for a 'Cinema' and one for a 'Bright Room') and two ISF Expert modes, via which you can access in-depth tools like a colour management system, white balance adjustment, and gamma controls.

The 50PZ850T's connections are promising. There are three HDMIs for 3D and HD sources (one less than might, perhaps, have been ideal), as well as a USB port that can be used for playing back a decent variety of music, video and photo files. There's also a LAN port, though it was surprising to find that while this permits networking with other computers, it doesn't also provide access to LG's latest Smart TV online service.

The design of the 50PZ850T has to class as a significant feature, meanwhile. For as well as boasting one of LG's impressively slender 'Razor Frame' bezels, it enjoys a shiny metallic finish that's quite new for LG and gives the set a pleasingly distinctive and gently opulent appearance.

It's worth adding too that the screen enjoys 'Protective Skin Glass', which LG claims boosts picture clarity as well as improving the screen's durability and safety to cope with the fact that you're supposed to be jabbing pens at it all the time.

Finally the 50PZ850T boasts LG's 3D XD Engine video processing system, which actually works to improve both 2D and 3D picture quality as well as powering the set's solid - but certainly not spectacular - 2D-to-3D conversion system.

Picture performance

How good the 50PZ850T's pictures are depends on what you decide to compare it with. For while it often looks pretty handy, at least with HD, when compared with your average LCD TV, it falls short of the standards being set right now by its main plasma rivals.

This performance summary is particularly appropriate when it comes to the 50PZ850T's contrast performance. For while its black level response is actually good-to-very-good compared with most LCD TVs - especially in terms of the amount of shadow detail retained during dark scenes - black colours certainly look greyer than they do on equivalent Samsung and Panasonic plasma models.

To be fair, this is only really apparent when you're watching predominantly dark scenes. Where there's a mixture of bright and dark content, the set's black level efforts look extremely accomplished.

Especially as plasma's self-emissive nature means that dark and light parts of a shot can be produced with independent luminance levels, so there's no need to compromise the bright bits in order to improve the dark bits.

Colour

The 50PZ850T's colours are a similarly mixed story. Compared with the best LCD/LED TVs, there's no doubt that its colours look slightly dull at times, certainly once the screen has had a little calibration work done on it. In fact, post-calibration pictures in general look rather muted and short of brightness.

That's not to say the 50PZ850T isn't capable of looking quite punchy by plasma standards; it's just that it only looks really dynamic if you use the 'Vivid' preset or leave its colour, contrast and brightness settings set so high that colours look gaudy and noise levels look excessive.

While sensibly calibrated 50PZ850 colours might not be the punchiest around, though, they are actually reasonably accurate in most areas, as well as containing a quite expressive amount of subtlety when it comes to portraying small tonal shifts and blends. That said, colour tones aren't perfect; there are always a few tones that look a bit under-saturated no matter what settings you use.

The 50PZ850T shows off more of plasma's advantages, meanwhile, when it comes to motion reproduction, as there's scarcely any trace of the motion blur that troubles pretty much all LCD TVs to some extent. There is a little judder to be seen, and some very faint traces of fizzing noise over skin tones as they pass across the screen. But both these flaws can be considered minor.

With some decent if not spectacular sharpness and detailing evident while watching HD on the 50PZ850T, meanwhile, overall the set can be considered a rather good 2D HD display - especially if the room it's in isn't very bright.

3D

What's more, it turns out to be a reasonable 3D display too - especially as it suffers far less than some of LG's other plasma TVs with the dreaded crosstalk double ghosting problem. There's still some evidence of it over 'classic' crosstalk-inducing sequences, but it's neither as common nor as aggressive when it does appear as it can be on many rival 3D TVs.

The full HD active 3D images look detailed and 'HD', meanwhile - though there's no hiding the fact that they also look quite a bit duller than their passive counterparts.

Aside from the collection of minor niggles noted in passing already, the 50PZ850T has a trio of more significant issues you need to be aware of. First, its screen seems a little prone to image retention, suggesting that it needs to be treated with great care, at least in the first few weeks and even months of your ownership, if you want to avoid any potential permanent 'screen burn' issues.

Next, the 50PZ850T doesn't seem a particularly good friend of standard definition. LG's highest-spec LCD TVs have exhibited some much-improved standard definition upscaling this year, but the 50PZ850T leaves standard def sources looking a bit soft and murky, and also seems to struggle to deliver the same sort of colour accuracy in evidence with HD material.

Bad news for gamers

The third of the 50PZ850's genuine disappointments - if you're a gamer, at any rate - concerns its input lag. For as with many other LG TVs in 2011, this plasma model records a figure of 81ms, even when using its dedicated Game preset. This is more than twice as high as the input lag figures of most rivals this year, and from our experience can result in reduced performance when playing fast-reaction games.

It's probably necessary to at least mention here, finally, that the PenTouch functionality works reasonably well after an initial 'learning curve' aa you figure out what sort of interactions the screen 'likes' and which ones it doesn't. But as mentioned earlier, at no point did any of the features PenTouch delivers remotely feel like sufficient justification for including such a bizarre feature on a domestic TV.

Sound, value and ease of use

Sound quality

The 50PZ850 is incredibly heavy and robustly built for a modern TV. Obviously this is mostly down to its tough-finished, heavy-duty screen. But the build quality also raises hopes that the 50PZ850 might prove a cut above the flat TV norm with its audio power.

And to some extent it is. Certainly its sound isn't prone to the distortions and unwanted chassis vibrations so common in the skinny TV world. This is particularly helpful when it comes to handling deep male and shrill female vocals.

However, there's no great bass extension to be heard, and treble detailing is merely average.

Value

On the one hand, getting a reasonably well specified 50-inch, 3D-ready plasma TV for marginally under a grand doesn't seem like a bad deal.

However, it's disappointing that the 50PZ850T doesn't provide any Smart TV online functionality for its money, and it's impossible to avoid the fact that you must be paying at least something for the PenTouch functionality despite it being a feature it's hard to imagine anyone - at least in a domestic environment - using more than once.

Ease of use

LG's onscreen menus continue to be some of the best in terms of both their presentation and their ease of use.

The use of bold, large icons immediately puts you at ease when you first hit the menu button, and the way features are divided across the initial main menu headers is logical. The submenus all feature very clear text too, and best of all, navigating between and around them all feels logical and consistent.

It's also much appreciated that LG provides a picture wizard too that holds your hand through a basic but reasonably effective manual calibration process. And many people will like the way that the more in-depth calibration tools are only accessible if you first access the ISF Expert preset modes. This ensures that complex features only come into play for people actively looking for them, and so can't confuse more casual users.

The remote control is a good effort too. It's a little unassuming to look at, but the more you use it the more you start to appreciate its logical, ergonomic layout and tactile button response.

Verdict

The PenTouch system that's the headline feature of the 50PZ850 is unfortunately a classic example of a piece of technology designed to solve a problem that never actually existed. Did you ever feel the urge to walk over to your big TV, pick up a pen and start scrawling on the screen? Nope, didn't think so.

The only people who might get any use at all out of PenTouch are young kids, but it's hard to see how having young kids standing extremely close to and touching a 50-inch plasma screen is ever likely to be a great idea.

Once you write PenTouch off in your mind, though, the 50PZ850T certainly has its attractions. It's got solid USB and PC-based multimedia support for instance, and its HD picture quality isn't bad at all so long as you don't mind the post-calibration image not being particularly bright. It's good to see that 3D doesn't suffer too badly with crosstalk noise either.

A list of niggles that includes an uninspiring standard definition performance, some colour tone concerns, rather average black levels by plasma standards and excessive input lag make it impossible for us to wholeheartedly recommend the 50PZ850T. But for all its foibles and mad features, it's still ultimately a respectable 3D plasma TV; you just need to be fully aware of the pros and cons before you part with any cash.

We liked

The metallic design is eye-catching if you like that sort of thing, and provided you can make your room reasonably dark and don't mind putting in a bit of time to adjust colour balances, the TV can also produce some good HD and decent 3D images. The operating system is good too.

We disliked

Some colour tones never look quite right, black levels aren't great by plasma standards, you initially need to be careful about image retention, standard definition pictures don't look particularly brilliant, there's no Smart TV functionality, the input lag is too high for gamers, and the PenTouch feature is a waste of space.

Final Verdict

There are things to like about the 50PZ850. Its picture performance with HD is in many ways very good, and it's a relief to find that its 3D pictures are far less troubled by crosstalk than those of some of LG's cheaper active 3D TV plasma models. It's a very easy TV to use, too.

Ultimately, though, a series of seemingly rather careless flaws, a lack of LG's Smart TV service and a headline feature that's no use to man nor beast mean the 50PZ850T can ultimately only earn a very cautious rather than whole-hearted recommendation.

Review: Sony SRS-BTV25

Alan Dexter — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:35:00 GMT

The peculiar Sony SRS-BTV25 Bluetooth wireless speaker is aimed at the smartphone, iPod, iPad and iPhone market.

It will work with any device capable of connecting to a Bluetooth speaker, though, which includes most tablets and a fairly large wealth of MP3 players.

Bluetooth speakers aren't exactly new, and even stylish ones are fairly commonplace. But even so, it takes Sony design to make us sit up and listen. The Sony SRS-BTV25 not only looks incredible, available in black or white, but the surprisingly punchy notes that it is capable of producing set it apart from its bulky, boxy peers.

The unit boasts two speakers inside its svelte casing. The 20mm tweeter housed in the top of the unit points down at the deflector, while the 56mm woofer points upwards. The resulting sound is excellent, and just as advertised, produces a 360-degree audio that sounds great anywhere in the room.

You're obviously going to miss out on some stereo cleverness, since this is a point source, but otherwise it's generally all good. We did hit some distortion at the maximum volume, but at 13W that is surprisingly loud, and you'll be much happier at lower volumes.

Despite its minimalist design, the top of the Sony SRS-BTV25 is home to no fewer than six buttons and four LEDs. The power button is to the left of the volume controls (although you can change the volume with your smartphone or media player as well).

The rear of this top panel has a button each for selecting the Audio In jack as your source, for connecting and pairing with Bluetooth devices and a third that turns on the Bass Boost. To the rear you'll find the power connector and the Audio In 3.5mm jack as well.

There is a rather neat addition of a USB socket, which you find hidden on the right-hand side of Sony's little speaker under a grey flap. This enables you to charge your mobile phone, tablet or MP3 player while streaming music to your speaker using the power of Bluetooth. Somewhat confusingly though, this USB port is a power outlet only, so it isn't as you might expect another way of getting sound onto it.

There is another, potentially more interesting version of the Sony SRS-BTV25, called the Sony RDP-V20iP, which boasts an iPod dock and, more importantly, integrated rechargeable batteries.

This means you can take it to a park or a campsite and annoy others with your particularly peculiar taste in music. The important point is that the iPod version isn't tethered to a specific spot, and even though the power cord is 3m, it still means you've got to make an effort to work out where you're going to place it, as opposed to just leaving it untethered on the coffee table.

Verdict

Our biggest problem with Sony's wireless speaker unit though, is the pricing. With a UK price of £150 we find it hard to recommend. It's brilliant on pretty much every other level, but costs twice as much as it should do. And while that might be due to the exchange rates right now, it won't help Sony sell many.

Review: Samsung PS51D8000

Jamie Carter — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:46:00 GMT

Overview

Forget Samsung's bevy of super-slim and much-marketed LED TVs - it's actually the brand's plasmas that see it at the peak of its powers.

Strapped with its fast evolving and increasingly ambitious Smart Hub online platform, the 51-inch Samsung PS51D8000 includes apps for movie and media streaming, as well as web browsing, home networking and digital media playback.

The Samsung PS51D8000 increases its reach in more ways than that. Unusually dimensioned because of a slightly slimmer bezel (at 23mm it's still not as slim as an LED TV, but it's a fine effort nonetheless) that creates a slightly larger playground for the plasma cells, this TV is an excellent example of why the gloss black template - initially popularised by Samsung - should be binned.

Nicknamed the 'Metal Crystal' design by Samsung, the unusual look of this TV involves a slither of transparent plastic around the outside of the bezel, while a spider stand adds to the allure.

The insides of the Samsung PS51D8000 are a similarly polished affair, with tuners for Freeview HD and Freesat HD - complete with USB pause and record features - and, of course, a 3D option.

The most obvious alternative to this plasma TV - priced at £1,350 in the UK and $2,300 in the US - is Samsung's 51-inch PS51D6900. This is a lower spec and much cheaper plasma screen that's mopped up the mass market.

Samsung also offers a smattering of lower-spec 3D plasmas, including the 43-inch PS43D490, 51-inch PS51D550 and 59-inch PS59D550 (the latter two have a Full HD resolution and a Freeview HD tuner).

Away from Samsung, Panasonic's stable of 3D televisions - such as the Panasonic TX-P50GT30B or similarly 3D glasses-free Panasonic TX-P50ST30B - will most suit those after an active shutter 3D plasma.

It's also just about worth considering active shutter LED TVs such as the Sony KDL-46HX923 or Samsung UE46D7000, and passive 3D LED TVs such as the LG 47LW550T.

Features

The PS51D8000 is not Samsung's flagship TV - that honour goes to the plasma-less D9000 Series - and, in some ways, this set is almost fighting against the Edge LED TVs within its stable.

Apart from its Full HD plasma panel (complete with Real Black Filter and 18-bit Natural True Colour system), the Samsung PS51D8000 is identical to its liquid crystal brethren, such as the Samsung UE46D8000 and Samsung UE60D8000, in terms of features.

The headline grabber is Smart Hub, a collection of apps for video and entertainment, although the set's built-in Wi-Fi and Timeshift feature (the latter using a USB stick or HDD to pause or record live TV) will attract just as many.

It uses Wi-Fi to power Smart Hub, which includes apps for BBC iPlayer, LOVEFiLM, Google Chat, Acetrax, Facebook, YouTube and Blinkbox, among many, many others - it's a hefty offering indeed, with a polished user interface.

Also accessed via a Smart Hub shortcut, AVI, MKV, AVC HD, MOV and MPEG video files can be read from a USB flash drive or streamed from a networked computer (using the PC-centric AllShare DLNA protocol, which Mac users can fool by using UPnP software such as TwonkyMedia), as well as MP3 music and JPEG photo files.

The Samsung PS51D8000 is well connected and specifically designed with wall mounting in mind. Along an easily reachable side panel are four HDMI inputs, one of them Audio Return Channel-compatible, while nearby are two USB inputs.

Two audio connections also reside on that side panel - optical digital audio and a minijack for PC audio, while the bottom panel includes the RF and LNB for powering the free-to-air cable and satellite TV tuners, Ethernet LAN for hardwiring to a broadband router, and a legacy VGA 15-pin hook-up for a PC.

Adaptors are supplied in the box for RGB Scart and component video. Audio, meanwhile, is dealt with by downfiring 10W stereo speakers along the Samsung PS51D8000's slim undercarriage.

Ease of use

Smart Hub, Samsung's offering to the online TV era, is fast becoming one of our favourite such platforms, although it still can't compete with Sony's Bravia Internet Video for must-have content. It's a close contest though, with LOVEFiLM, BBC iPlayer, Acetrax movies and Samsung's own Explore 3D app the headline acts on Smart Hub.

What we like most about Smart Hub is that all of its apps and services are visible from the Samsung PS51D8000's homepage; its iPhone-esque app icons are nicely grouped and separated from each other.

There is, however, a small snag that tests our patience with Smart Hub. When initiated from the remote's dedicated button, it can take a while (around 20 seconds) to load. Scrolling and general navigation of the home screen is quick but, when selected, apps often hang or suffer from unexplained connection issues that render them useless.

A similar problem plagued the AllShare DLNA streaming feature, which is irritating since when it's in a good mood, Smart Hub is peerless.

Web browsing on the Samsung PS51D8000 is also a victim of frequent "Cannot connect" messages, despite the set being warmed up and fully networked. But the main issue here is it's slow - so slow - to scroll through pages. It took us at least 10 seconds to get from a headline on a BBC news story to being able to read the first paragraph. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Like Smart Hub, the Freeview HD electronic programme guide is also immaculately designed. With the exception of Sony, perhaps, no other manufacturer gets close to Samsung's slick treatment of the Freeview TV schedules - and this time it's a thoroughly speedy experience.

Smart Hub is just about fine for daily operation, but that doesn't mean the standard picture/sound/set-up menus have been sacrificed. A green menu button on the Samsung PS51D8000's lightweight and intelligently backlit remote control takes us to the picture menus, which contain an immediate surprise.

Besides the usual tweaks for contrast, brightness, sharpness, colour and tint, there's also a dedicated section for adjusting the pixel brightness of each cell in the plasma panel. This Cell Light setting goes from one to 20, yet even on its top setting it never reaches the scorch-yer-eyes out levels of some LED TVs.

Preset picture modes include the usual dynamic, standard and movie modes, but there's also another mode simply called 'relax', which appears to dim the brightness even further than the movie mode. It's worth trying out if you're planning to watch in blackout surroundings (where plasmas also do their best work).

An advanced settings menu has choices surrounding gamma, colour space and white balance, as well as a motion lighting feature that adjusts brightness levels according to the amount of movement on the screen, thereby reducing power consumption.

Picture

Although 3D is merely an optional add-on, it's to this mode we headed to first on the Samsung PS51D8000 - and we're glad we did, since it's this plasma TV's strongest point.

With a pair of remarkably lightweight and comfortable SSG-3100GB 3D glasses (sold separately) on, we set about watching a bunch of movie trailers from Smart Hub's Explore 3D app. Consistently clean and with depth effects that are almost always comfortable to watch, the Samsung PS51D8000 produces some of the best value 3D images we've seen so far.

Excerpts from How To Train Your Dragon, Ocean Voyagers and Shrek all displayed bags of colour and life, with only live-action fair occasionally displaying hints of double imaging - and we're not blaming the Samsung PS51D8000 too much for that common phenomenon.

It's motion that the Samsung PS51D8000 deals particularly well with. When the 3D action hots-up and the depth effects in How To Train Your Dragon start to fly, we're not startled, squinting or feeling ill, but genuinely engaged and impressed - and comfortable.

Over in Wonderland, this time from a 3D Blu-ray disc, Alice looks decidedly doubled-up, but the cat and all other animated characters hugely impress in both depth and cohesiveness. The richness of the colours and believability of black zones also impress.

Let's not go overboard on the latter. Although the Samsung PS51D8000's contrast and black levels do increase when the 3D glasses are donned - and in a hugely impressive way - it's partly because the native panel lacks ultimate darkness. There's a definite grey tint to the panel that's especially noticeable when the 3D specs are taken off, which is an inevitable consequence of the Active Shutter system.

However, the plasma panel's extra brightness (relative to earlier incarnations of 3D plasmas) not only provides colours with such a sparkle, but will also no doubt help to tempt shoppers that by intuition pick the brightest TV in the shop.

Those customers who do look twice and plump for this plasma TV will also be buying a screen that handles 2D content well, despite that Real Black Filter not putting the Samsung PS51D8000 up alongside Panasonic's pricier plasmas.

Freeview HD sources look excellent, tight and smooth, with a run-through of our beloved Frozen Planet recorded from BBC One HD seeing the Samsung PS51D8000 showing-off its Full HD panel.

If you're used to watching an LCD TV, you will notice the pixel structure of the plasma panel if you sit too close. Sit where you're supposed to (at least a couple of metres away) and you'll be rewarded by an impressive image, although colours can appear a tad ripe.

We largely relied on the Samsung PS51D8000's movie mode, but did tone down the colour somewhat - it was simply too much for us at its standard setting.

Sound and value

There are a few sound modes on board the Samsung PS51D8000, including Music, Movie, Amplify and Clear Voice, as well as a separate section containing the self-explanatory SRS TruDialogue and SRS TruSurroundHD. SRS TruSurroundHD is the most impressive - don't expect 7.1 wizardry, but we did perceive a much wider soundstage that was just about suitable for movies.

Kudos go to Samsung for achieving what would appear to be some low frequency sound - not something we've often heard from a flatscreen TV. It's able to go to fairly high volumes without getting distorted, too.

Despite its slimness, this plasma TV actually has rather good speakers, something that at a stroke justifies our continued criticisms of TVs with weak sound, and gives us hope for the future.

Value

The reticence of 3D TV manufacturers to give away multiple pairs of 3D glasses with their latest wares will be the death of the format, and we're sad to report that it's a similar situation with the Samsung PS51D8000. Not a single pair of 3D specs adorns the box.

Judged on ultimate picture quality, the Samsung PS51D8000 is a mixed bag. It's not bright enough to compete with LED TVs, but not dark enough to be considered as good a home cinema choice as Panasonic's ultimate plasmas. The TV is left somewhat in limbo - but that's easily spun as 'good value', and justifiably so.

Considering its Smart Hub and associated online trickery, the Freesat HD tuner and Wi-Fi, we'd judge the Samsung PS51D8000 to be just about worth the £1,000+ price tag. It's as versatile a TV as you'll find, and a better performer with 3D than most other TVs in its price range - although the inclusion of some 3D glasses would instantly convince us.

Verdict

We're pretty sure the 'new kind of TV' promised by Apple TV and Sony, among others, will improve on Samsung's Smart Hub - but, for now, it's a good place to start.

Boasting enough features to be deemed at least a mid-to-high-end TV, the Samsung PS51D8000 keeps plasma at the forefront for anyone after picture perfection, but it's 3D that this set excels with.

We liked

Although Freeview HD has come to be regarded as almost the bare minimum for a TV in the UK, any set that adds built-in Freesat HD gets a hearty slap on the back from us. Doing so might set the super-slim Samsung PS51D8000 tumbling, but there's a lot more to get head over heels about - its nicely designed, all-encompassing and content-stuffed Smart Hub user interface, for one.

The appearance of the Explore 3D app is a great addition, particularly since those buying 3D glasses will get one of the best - and certainly the best value - 3D performances available anywhere in the TV market.

We disliked

Smart Hub looks great and is an advanced piece of software, but it's slow and gets in a muddle. After waiting for several apps to load and umpteen connection problems (even when wired to a router), we declare this a rather moody GUI.

Aside from middling contrast for 2D fare, our only other complaint is that there are no 3D glasses included in the box - and the Samsung PS51D8000's awesome 3D pictures make that an especially bitter pill to swallow.

Final verdict

Sensibly - in our view - sticking to active shutter 3D while the slow trickle to the less impressive passive 3D tech continues, Samsung is quickly becoming as known for its good value 3D plasma as it is for its impossibly slim LED TVs.

It's sculpted another stunner with the Samsung PS51D8000, and although Smart Hub could do with debugging and super-charging, this is an easy to use TV with all the latest features - and a cracking 3D performance.

Review: Samsung UE46D8000

Daniel Phillips — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:45:00 GMT

Overview

The word 'premium' gets bandied about willy-nilly in the TV market, but some sets come along that completely and utterly deserve it. And we're looking at one of them right now. The 3D-ready Samsung UE46D8000 oozes premiumness from every inch of its svelte frame, boasting divine looks, a shedload of cutting-edge features and hopefully picture quality that'll make your eyes pop out of your head.

That said, it's not the best-specced set Samsung has to offer. It hails from Samsung's Series 8 range, which is one step down from its high-end Series 9. But in anyone else's line-up it would probably be top dog, which is testament to Samsung's generosity and the breadth of its range.

The UE46D8000 takes its place in the Series 8 (8000) range alongside six other TVs, including the 60-inch UE60D8000, 55-inch UE55D8000 and UE40D8000, plus three 'C8000' models from last year – the 55-inch UE55C8000, 46-inch UE46C8000 and 40-inch UE40C8000. All of them are edge-lit LED models.

The UE46D8000 really is a fabulous-looking TV. Suave and sophisticated, its astonishingly slim silver bezel makes the screen look more expansive than it is, and it's all perched on a curvy four-pronged silver stand that brings a feeling of hi-tech elegance. This shiny design is sure to add a bit of sparkle to any living room, and as ever the LED panel has facilitated the set's obscenely slim profile (an incredible 29mm). And if that wasn't eye-catching enough, turn it on and the Samsung logo lights up below the screen.

The UE46D8000 is also well-stocked for sockets. No less than four HDMI inputs are provided – all v1.4 for full 3D compatibility, plus they're sideways-mounted and easy to access. There are two Scart inputs (both require an adapter cable), plus D-Sub PC, composite, component and two minijack inputs. These are joined by an optical digital audio output, Ethernet port, three USB ports and a CI slot for pay TV.

Features

With its abundance of hi-tech tricks the UE46D8000 is less a TV, more an all-singing, all dancing entertainment hub. The key to this is networking functionality. It comes with built-in Wi-Fi, affording you fast, cable-free access to DLNA media streaming and a vast range of internet content without the need for a USB dongle.

Samsung's Smart Hub service is the place to find all this online content. There's so much on offer here that we can't talk about everything in depth (and we've covered it many times before), but the key apps – Samsung's zeitgeisty name, not ours – include BBC iPlayer, LoveFilm, Acetrax, BBC News, YouTube and a channel for Samsung's own 3D content, while your social networking fix comes from Facebook, Twitter and Skype (for which you'll need to plug in the optional camera). There's tons to explore, more than you'll ever have time to sample, including row upon row of games, puzzles, kids' stories and educational apps.

It also boasts some fairly nifty tools such as Your Video, a database of film and TV programme information. You can find movies available on any of the featured video-on-demand apps (with direct links to them) giving details about each release such as cast and crew, photos and so on. You can even share stuff you like on social networking sites and view recommendations based on your viewing habits.

Additionally the Search tool lets you look for content by keyword, showing you all of the results in the on-board apps and allowing you to search the same keyword in the web browser – yep, you can even browse the internet at large with a live TV picture-in-picture, although it's a real chore to use with the remote.

The AllShare feature lets you stream your own content from networked PCs and other devices. That includes video, music and photo files, and a surprisingly wide range of formats is supported, including AVI, WMV, DivX HD and MKV. Of course you can also play back media from local USB devices, and if you connect an external hard-disk drive you can turn the UE46D8000 into a PVR, setting programmes to record from the EPG and pausing live TV with the Time Shift feature.

The UE46D8000 is a fully-fledged 3D set, using the active shutter system and a supplied pair of glasses (SSG-310GB) that uses Bluetooth to communicate with the TV. The specs are surprisingly lightweight and comfortable to wear, featuring an adjustable rubber nose band.

The set can also convert any content passing through its circuits into 3D, including programmes from the built-in Freeview HD tuner – pre-empting the arrival of proper terrestrial 3DTV by years. But 3D conversion is just the tip of this TV's technological iceberg, as there's lots of other impressive processing under the bonnet.

The 3D HyperReal Engine and precise Micro Dimming (which can adjust the clarity of smallest details) aim to produce the deepest possible blacks, while the Clear Motion Rate 800Hz harnesses the LED backlight, video processing and 'Ultra Clear' panel to effectively increase the refresh rate to 800 frames per second.

Picture

Samsung's LED sets have proved their excellent picture pedigree over the last couple of years, and the UE46D8000 continues the company's fine run of form – although you'll need to carry out some serious tweaking in the setup menu before you start your movie viewing in earnest.

The Standard preset, which many users would head straight for, sees the contrast ramped right up to 100, giving the image a horribly garish and hyper-real look. Thankfully the UE46D8000 provides you with a detailed set of picture tweaks, ranging from the usual stuff like brightness and colour to more advanced tweaks like Black Tone, Colour Space and White Balance.

There are even built-in test patterns that allow you check if your calibration is hitting the spot. Next to these are the special picture modes like LED Motion Plus, Motion Lighting, noise filters… basically everything you need to get images looking exactly as you want them.

Get it right and the UE46D8000 will absolutely blow you away. With 2D discs like Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the busy 1080p pictures are rendered with the sort of forceful sharpness that draws you right into the picture. The intricate CG robots, all whirring cogs and gleaming chrome, look crisp and punchy, while humans are reproduced with equally impressive clarity, particularly the close-up shots of skin and hair with their life-like textures.

Detail doesn't greatly reduce in clarity when objects are moving either, which makes for steady, composed images no matter how busy the scene, although once or twice we noticed some brief twitching during the closing action scenes.

The movie also provides an ideal test of the set's motion processing. The constant barrage of fast, flying robots with moving parts, explosions and swarms of soldiers at the movie's overblown climax is enough to induce ADHD in any TV, but the UE46D8000 handles it all with admirable smoothness.

There are various tools in the setup menu to remove artefacts, Motion Plus having the most telling impact on picture quality (available in Clear, Standard, Smooth and Custom modes, the latter allows you adjust blur and judder reduction manually). But even without them the set manages to side-step judder and motion blur very well indeed. We recommend leaving the Smooth mode well alone, as it gives the image an unnatural feel, like it was shot with a home video camera.

What's also impressive is the amount of brightness this LED panel is able to kick out, even when you dial the factory backlight and brightness settings down to something approaching normality. That gives the image an instantly likeable, vibrant appearance.

But the best part is that it's backed up by terrific contrast and black levels, which keeps the image looking solid.Black parts of the picture are deep and realistic, not greyed over, while gloomy scenes look dark without losing that all-important shadow detail.

Checking for any backlight issues, we couldn't spot any pooling or unevenness – the black bars on 2.35:1 movies, for instance, are a textbook shade of black right the way across. The Micro Dimming really does result in an expansive contrast range, lending depth and punch to areas of the screen that need it but delivering eye-popping brightness in other parts of the same frame.

And the final piece of the 2D picture puzzle is colour, which thanks to the excellent brightness and contrast levels look sensational. Yes they dazzle when they need to – just check the Autobots' gleaming paintwork for proof – and they're never anything less than realistic, but it's the set's subtlety that really impresses, rendering gentle colour blends and tonal gradations beautifully. This lends the image an irresistible sense of depth and smoothness, as if you were watching the robo-carnage with your own eyes.

Turning to 3D, we find the UE46D8000 in fine fettle once again. That intense natural brightness pays dividends when viewing through the dimmed lenses of Samsung's 3D glasses (which, incidentally, seem lighter than its rivals' glasses). It uses the 2D qualities described above, namely superb brightness, deep black and vibrant-yet-nuanced colours, to deliver stereoscopic images that are out of this world – literally in the case of our 3D Avatar disc.

Pandora has rarely looked more spellbinding, with expertly layered objects and scenery, no obvious signs of motion blur and the sort of crisp, composed detail reproduction that'll leave you transfixed. However, there's no escaping slight traces of crosstalk in the image, which has blighted Samsung's 3D sets since day one, but it's not prevalent enough to take the shine off these otherwise superb 3D pictures.

And while we're talking 3D, the set's 2D-to-3D conversion is fairly good. It gives everything from the Transformers Blu-ray to Harry Hill's TV Burp a distinct sense of layering and depth without excessive artefacts, although it needs obvious cues to make it worthwhile – for much of the time the image just looks like a slightly warped version of 2D.

The UE46D8000 does a decent job with standard-definition material too. Pictures from the Freeview tuner are upscaled to the screen's resolution while maintaining excellent detail clarity. But the colour balance looks unnatural and slightly on the garish side, plus the set struggles to mask MPEG block noise, which makes it look a tad gauzy. There's also a touch of shimmering and mosquito noise with The Smurfs on DVD, but the strong blues are nicely handled and on the general image quality is solid.

Sound, Value, Ease of use

Sound

Quite how Samsung squeezed speakers into such a slim screen is impressive enough, but even more remarkable is how good they sound – by LED TV standards, of course. The 2 x 10W amplification goes nice and loud, with excellent speech clarity and crisp treble.

The lack of bass makes it sound fairly narrow, and the unbalanced sound can take its toll on your ears at loud volumes, but for day to day use it's fine. There's also a couple of audio modes to pep up the sound, including SRS TheatreSound HD and SRS TruDialog.

Value

If you check the price tag before you've seen the spec sheet and clapped eyes on its pictures, you might think the UE46D8000 is expensive. But with such a generous feature list, jaw-dropping looks and a winning way with HD, SD and 3D pictures, the asking price seems entirely reasonable. It's not flawless, but thankfully those flaws are in areas that won't jeopardise your enjoyment.

Ease of use

The UE46D8000 is a real joy to use. On-screen presentation is friendly, menus are well structured and the software responds quickly to commands from the remote. That makes frequently-used functions like input selection and menu navigation an absolute breeze.

The setup menu is neither too basic nor over-elaborate, using crisp fonts and a few tasteful graphics to emphasise certain choices and options. A helpful explanation appears when you highlight any option, and it lists what's in each submenu before you actually select it, which is a nice touch.

Within the setup menu we had no trouble connecting to our network – a step-by-step wizard guides you through it, and entering encryption keys and passwords is easy enough.

Once connected, the Smart Hub feature uses a great-looking and logical interface, packed with icons for each app, as well as providing quick access to all the set's functions – web browser, EPG, DLNA streaming and so forth. It even plays the current input in a small box.

Finding your content on a network or USB device couldn't be easier, thanks to the straightforward folder-based layout of the lists.

The good news continues with the Freeview EPG, which is still one of the best around. The main reason for its success is that it manages to squeeze a live TV box, the six-channel programme grid and the synopsis into the same screen without seeming cluttered, plus the cursor moves around freely, programme names are easy to read and colour coded options make key functions easy to access.

Finally, the UE46D8000 rounds off this operational tour de force with a superb remote that sports chunky rubber buttons, an intuitive layout and easy-to-read labelling. It's so simple my three-year-old son could use it. Most of the key features have their own buttons, including the e-Manual, which explains all of the set's functions on screen.

Verdict

From the moment you first lay eyes on it, the UE46D8000 is a very special TV. The thin bezel, super-slim profile and gorgeous silver stand make it an absolute stunner design-wise. But its feature list is equally attractive, offering the latest mod cons like network media streaming and Smart Hub, as well as support for 3D, external HDD recording and multimedia formats.

But there's substance behind the style too. In terms of picture quality it may not boast the direct LED backlighting of its higher-end brethren, but deploys its edge LEDs to devastating effect, bringing yousharp, nuanced and deep hi-def pictures with both 2D and 3D material.

We liked

There are few TVs that can match the UE46D8000's level of aesthetic exuberance – its drop-dead gorgeous design will make it a real talking point in your living room. Smart Hub provides a hugely generous range of apps in a slick, attractive interface, while the rest of the network capabilities are nicely integrated.

Add generous connections, built-in Wi-Fi, extensive multimedia support, 2D-to-3D conversion and you've got a set that many brands would call their flagship. And in terms of operation, it's as if Samsung designed this set for a child, but jazzed up the GUI for adults.

The set's 2D pictures are excellent by LED standards, offering inherently bright, vibrant pictures teeming with clean, sharp detail and subtly rendered colours. And apart from a few instances of crosstalk, 3D images are stunning.

We disliked

Some crosstalk is noticeable with 3D pictures, and Freeview SD pictures don't dazzle in quite the same way as HD with some noise issues and slightly unnatural colours.

The web browser is a chore to use with the remote, and although it's better than some flatpanel TVs, the sound system's lack of bass makes sound quality unbalanced.

Final verdict

With stunning looks, a hugely generous feature list and largely knockout picture quality, the UE46D8000 is a premium TV in every sense of the word, and easily justifies its asking price.

In fact, the presence of the brilliant Smart Hub alone might be enough to make some whip out the credit card. Its few flaws are nowhere near grave enough to mar your enjoyment, making this Series 8 set an unmitigated success.

Review: Sony KDL-46HX923

John Archer — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:30:00 GMT

Overview

Despite a rather up and down performance through 2011, Sony looks like it could be about to finish the year on a high. For rolling into town today is the brand's KDL-46HX923.

This 46-inch LCD set sits at the very top of Sony's range this year, a position that's mostly defined by the fact that it - along with its 55-inch 55HX923 sibling - is the only Sony set that uses direct LED lighting with local dimming rather than edge LED or CCFL lighting.

Sony's previous direct LED sets have generally been very impressive, so there's every reason to hope that this trend will continue with the 46HX923.

Naturally the 46HX923's appeal doesn't end with its direct LED lighting, though. The set also carries a full list of all Sony's key features this year, including active 3D playback, solid multimedia playback support, the 'Pro' version of Sony's new X-Reality picture processing suite, and access to Sony's mostly excellent Bravia Internet Video online service.

As you would expect, the 46HX923's flagship status means that it carries a fairly premium price tag: around £1650. If this is out of your reach but you fancy a Sony TV, then one step down in the range you get to the HX823 series, which carries a similar feature count to the 46HX923 but uses edge LED lighting instead of the all-important direct LED lighting system.

If you're a lucky member of the money's no object brigade, though, it's time to find out if the 46HX923 really is worthy of such a substantial wedge of your hard-earned cash.

Features

The single biggest selling point of the 46HX923, at least where AV enthusiasts are concerned, is its direct LED lighting. Positioning the LED lights behind the screen rather than around its edges and then providing the processing power to separately control the light output of individual LED clusters should allow the set to deliver a 'real' contrast range streets ahead of anything possible using edge LED lights. And so far as most movie lovers are concerned, contrast is definitely king.

The 46HX923's design will also be a major selling point to a lot of people. Its direct LED system means it's not the thinnest TV ever, but it benefits from Sony's 'Monolithic' design, which finds the screen and its black bezel sharing the same single 'plane' and opulent glinting finish. It's less showy than some rival 'designer' TVs, but we suspect this will enhance rather than hinder its appeal to more conservative households.

Spinning the set round uncovers a more than satisfactory collection of connections. There are four HDMIs - a number that seems to have become pretty much standard in the upper echelons of the TV market - with other highlights of two USB ports, a D-Sub PC port, a LAN port and, best of all, built-in wi-fi.

Multimedia agogo

The USBs support recording of material from the built-in Freeview HD tuner and playback of a good selection of multimedia file formats, while the fact that the 46HX923 can be added to a PC or broadband network means you can use it to either stream in multimedia files from your PC or access Sony's Bravia Internet Video service.

The variety of file formats the TV can support is pretty robust, but the real star of the multimedia show has to be the Bravia Internet Video service. This is arguably the best online TV platform around, at least to the extent that it delivers so much of the sort of video content that appears best-suited to an 'Internet on your TV' experience.

Highlights include the BBC iPlayer and Demand 5 catch-up services, a Sky News video headline 'app', Sony's Qriocity movie database, a Sony TV 'archive', and LoveFilm. Even the pretty expansive raft of more 'b-list'/minority interest video services have more gems tucked away in them than you find with rival online video services.

Add in Skype, Facebook, Twitter, the music 'arm' of Qriocity and an open Web browser, and the 46HX923 really does offer an awful lot of 'extra-curricular' activities to keep you busy. Though this does also create a couple of usability problems, covered later in the Ease of Use section.

3D and video processing

The 46HX923 inevitably carries 3D playback capabilities. And as Sony has yet to jump aboard the passive 3D bandwagon, the 46HX923's 3D talents are of the active, full HD variety, with two pairs of Sony's chunky but actually reasonably comfortable glasses thrown in for 'free'.

Furthermore, unlike some of Sony's 2010 3D sets, the 46HX923's 3D transmitter is built into the main TV body, rather than being an optional external extra.

Another sign of the 46HX923's flagship status comes from its video processing. For it boasts both X-Reality Pro (the top tier of Sony's new X-Reality engine) and MotionFlow 800Hz, which uses a combination of a 200Hz panel, a scanning backlight and frame interpolation processing to deliver an 800Hz-like effect.

The Pro bit of X-Reality Pro refers to an extra bit of processing power especially designed to work its magic on internet video sources.

Sony doesn't trouble itself to seek the endorsement of any third party picture 'authorities' such as the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) or THX. But this doesn't mean that the 46HX923 isn't well equipped with calibration tools - even if some of them (particularly the 'colour management' system) are rather non-standard in their presentation.

There's certainly enough setting flexibility to get pictures looking either very close to the key video standards if that's the way you like things, or very dynamic and punchy if you prefer to go that way. Or both if you like different settings for different types of viewing.

Picture performance

For much of the time, the 46HX923's pictures are very good indeed - outstanding, even. As with previous Sony direct LED sets, for instance, the 46HX923 is capable of producing some very rich, deep black colours. Not on a par with the very best plasma TVs or Philips' recently reviewed 46PFL9706H, but a notch above anything you'll get from any of this year's edge LED TVs - even Samsung's.

The local dimming aspect to the TV's direct LED system, moreover, allows the 46HX923's deep black colours to be accompanied simultaneously - within the same frame - by very punchy colours and crisp, pure whites. In other words, there's no requirement to dim the overall brightness of the image to achieve a good black colour.

Local dimming can sometimes lead to shadow detail getting crushed out of the picture during dark scenes. But the 46HX923's brightness/contrast balance seems well judged, ensuring that even the darkest corners still contain enough low-light detail to avoid looking hollow and/or flat.

Colour

Sony's very first direct LED TVs suffered with a slightly green undertone at times. But this is not the case with the 46HX923, which instead pumps out really bright, vibrant but also natural colour tones across an impressively wide spectrum. There's almost infinite subtlety in the way colours are portrayed too, with immaculate blends and a strong sense of depth to objects and people, even when you're only watching in 2D.

Having said that the best plasma sets can produce deeper blacks than the 46HX923, it's only fair to stress that the 46HX923 can outgun plasma screens with its brightness.

Sony can generally be relied on to deliver excellent HD sharpness with its relatively high-end TVs, and the 46HX923 fits the bill perfectly. Turning off all the available motion processing reveals the set to have a pretty impressive innate response time that means there's only the faintest trace of resolution loss over moving objects.

Even so, it's good to see that the motion processing options the set offers are unusually assured in that - provided you stick with their lower 'power' settings - they are subtle in the way they work and don't throw up lots of unwanted side effects. So they're at least worth experimenting with, rather than just being better off avoided entirely as can often be the case with motion processing systems.

Standard definition

While the 46HX923 is clearly at its best with HD material, it's a more than solid standard def performer too. The X-Reality Pro engine is extremely able when it comes to adding detail to standard def sources without exaggerating noise - even when handling the often heavily compressed material you get from the Internet.

Colours are perhaps not quite as natural as they are with HD, but this isn't a big deal really, and doesn't stop standard def images from being perfectly enjoyable to watch.

There are a couple of issues to report with the 46HX923's 2D images, though: one predictable, the other weird. The predictable one is that very bright objects can exhibit a little 'haloing' when they appear against dark backgrounds. This is caused by the number of dimmable LED clusters not being numerous enough to deliver pixel-precise levels of light accuracy, and it's an issue found to some extent on all local dimming direct LED TVs.

The key point, though, is that the extent of the haloing is sufficiently limited and its brightness sufficiently low-level that it's seldom seriously distracting.

The weird issue is the appearance at the left and right edges of the screen of faint dark seams. These vertical lines appear about a cm from the screen's edges and are around half a centimetre across. Their location at the periphery of the image and their subtlety means you certainly aren't always aware of them, by any means. But they could become one of those things that you can't stop yourself looking out for.

3D performance

Turning finally to 3D, the 46HX923's extreme brightness, strong colours and rich contrast serve it well, allowing its 3D image to look dynamic and engaging even though Sony's chunky but reasonably comfortable 3D glasses are usually considered to take more brightness out of images than most.

So far as issues with the 46HX923's 3D pictures are concerned, the set could perhaps work a bit harder to compensate for the colour shift introduced by the active shutter glasses. You also have to sit with your head bolt upright, for otherwise the picture can be tinted red or blue if you tip your head one way or the other.

By far the biggest problem, though, is that the 46HX923's 3D images suffer with crosstalk. In other words, it's routine to see double ghosting around some objects in 3D frames, especially those in dark backgrounds.

This blurring of dark backgrounds has been alarmingly common with 2011's active 3D TVs, and it really needs to be sorted out on 2012's sets if active 3D is to continue claiming the high ground against LG's rival passive 3D technology.

Sound, value and ease of use

Sound quality

Perhaps because the 46HX923 has a little more depth to play with than many premium TVs, it manages to produce a well-rounded sound performance with a fairly open mid-range that makes it very comfortable indeed to listen to - at least with relatively straightforward material.

Loud action scenes expose a little shrillness at the upper end of the spectrum and a very clear limit to the TV's bass handling capabilities, but the 46HX923 overall certainly sounds much better than the flat TV average.

Value

Considering how well it's built, how many features its got, how good its 2D performance is and how relatively expensive its all-important direct LED lighting is to manufacture, the 46HX923 seems fairly priced.

In fact, its price seems considerably more than reasonable if you also factor in the current promotions Sony is running with the TV, namely: giving away two pairs of active shutter glasses for free; bundling the necessary external camera for Skype; giving you £150 cashback if you send in a claim form before January 31st 2012; and most remarkably of all, allowing you to claim a free PS3 console with Uncharted 3 and two 3D Harry Potter Blu-rays!

Please note, though, that the PS3 offer only runs until December 12th...

The only pity is that you're paying for 3D pictures that can vary between very good and merely average, depending on what's being shown.

Ease of use

Given that the 46HX923 is Sony's flagship TV, it's a touch disappointing to find that it only gets Sony's standard remote control. There's nothing wrong with this remote per se; in fact it's rather well laid out and quite comfortable to hold. But it does feel a bit lightweight and plasticky, and so doesn't seem a good fit for the more opulent build quality of the TV.

There's also work for Sony to do with its TVs' onscreen menus. The main menu system is poorly presented, with too much reliance on obscure and small icons, too much scrolling through long lists of submenus, and seemingly little discernible logic to the way the menu lists are ordered.

The Bravia Internet Video menus, meanwhile, are thankfully a big improvement over the pretty hopeless efforts of Sony's 2010 TVs. Yet they're still less intuitive, attractive and efficient than those of the latest 'Smart TV' systems from Samsung and LG - despite not being clogged up as some rival systems are by swarms of largely pointless apps...

There are some ways in which the 46HX923 is pretty easy to use, though. For a start, it's more sensible with its picture preset modes than many rivals, which will doubtless appeal to people who have no interest whatsoever in endlessly fine-tuning settings for themselves.

It also works harder than most to help you economise, particularly with its presence sensor, which can turn the screen off automatically to save power if it detects that nobody is in the room while the TV is on.

Finally, it's good to find that a reasonable selection of features - including the brilliantly fun Track ID system that automatically identifies with startling accuracy any songs that might be playing on a TV show you're watching - can be accessed directly from the remote, without you having to resort all the time to the fiddly menus.

Verdict

The 46HX923 is designed to be Sony's 'statement' TV for 2011, sporting its fullest feature count in terms of picture technology and multimedia support. Its most important high-end touch is its uses of direct LED lighting, which experience has shown can deliver a truly premium level of performance.

It also looks lovely in its 'Monolithic' clothes, and ticks pretty much all our multimedia boxes with its video-rich Bravia Internet Video online service, DLNA support, USB playback, and USB HDD recording from the Freeview HD tuner.

As you would expect of a flagship TV this year, the 46HX923 also has active 3D support, with two glasses thrown in for free. Actually, the set's appeal is currently - though only for a little bit longer!! - greatly enhanced by further deals including cashback, free Skype cameras, and even a free PS3.

We liked

The 46HX923's design is very classy, and we're loving some of the limited offers Sony is currently providing with this TV - though the PS3 one may well have expired (forms have to be in by December 12th) by the time you're reading this.

The set's 2D picture quality is very good indeed too for the most part, especially where contrast is concerned, and its online video service remains the most broadly watchable of all the current 'smart TV' systems.

The screen's inherent brightness and colour richness serves it well when watching 3D too.

We disliked

3D pictures are fairly routinely troubled by obvious crosstalk noise. Also, there's a faint but still sometimes noticeable 'seam' just inside the left and right sides of the picture that once spotted can become increasingly annoying.

Sony's current operating system needs a revamp too, as it struggles to cope comfortably with all the features the set carries.

Final verdict

The 46HX923 mostly does a good 'flagship' job of showcasing Sony's TV talents this year. Its design oozes understated elegance, its connectivity is excellent, and its feature count is long, headed up by such key findings as direct LED lighting, active 3D support, a high-level video processing system, and what remains in some ways the best online video service in town.

Its 2D pictures are mostly outstanding, meanwhile, with vivid colours, a deep black response, a wide contrast range, excellent sharpness and good motion handling.

The 46HX923 falls frustratingly short of bagging an unqualified recommendation, though, on account mostly of crosstalk with 3D and some curious 'shadowy lines' down each of the TV's sides.

Review: Epson Moverio BT-100

Jamie Carter — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:22:00 GMT

Overview and features

Picture the scene: you're in an aircraft cabin, pulling the long haul.

The colour is draining not only from your face but also from that cheap LCD screen in the seat in front of you. Suddenly a cinema screen rolls down and a 3D movie starts to play, but only to you – and you even manage to see the drinks trolley in your peripheral vision.

Forget virtual reality; Epson's newest innovation – on sale now in Japan, and destined for the UK early in 2012 – is designed to create a portable, transparent home cinema experience for bored business travellers, though there's more to it than mere movies.

Armed with a Wi-Fi connection, the Moverio BT-100 can get online, and though it's not possible to download apps and games, its browser does support Adobe Flash video (as well as MPEG and H-264 videos manually transferred via a PC).

The BT-100 runs an Android operating system. Version 2.2, to be exact, though it's customised so much that it will be unfamiliar to most. It is controlled using a touch sensitive trackpad, which also houses a 4GB SD card to go with the internal 1GB of memory.

Battery life is rated at about six hours, and the product ships with a neat black carry case (though the whole package is rather large).

As a portable home cinema, the BT-100 is rather behind the times in featuring a 960x540 pixel resolution for each eye, which is a quarter the resolution of a full HD image.

Is the BT-100 a direct rival to Sony's HMZ-T1? It's bound to be endlessly compared, but they're different beasts; the HMZ-T1 is about total immersion, and probably has a gaming future, while the lighter BT-100 is more mobile (the clue is in the 'Moverio' moniker) and doesn't give such a closed experience.

In short, Epson's effort is no 'Personal 3D Viewer' – it's actually marketed as the 'first consumer see-through mobile viewer'.

Performance and verdict

Put the BT-100 on and it immediately feels different to Sony's effort. For a start, it's lighter, and doesn't have as much weight on the front, something that makes it easier to wear for longer periods.

That's not to say that this headset is exactly comfortable. Most of the electronics appear to be in each side, which is also where both the headphones and the cables protrude from.

The headphones are of generic design, and quality, but could – theoretically – be upgraded. They are supplied separately as single earpieces that attach to each arm of the BT-100, each with a cable about two inches long.

As far as cables are concerned, that's just the beginning; you also have to put up with a thick cable from each arm that stretches down to the smartphone-sized trackpad.

Using that rather old-fashioned looking trackpad is easy enough, and swiping through the Android carousel-style interface is a cinch. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi was disabled on our review product – an early prototype – so we were not able to test the BT-100's web browsing capabilities.

However, we were able to call up the browser and inspect the setup process, which is almost identical to a smartphone running Android. Besides, we can't see the point of web browsing on video glasses – especially on some that are aimed at business travellers on long haul flights.

Having not thoroughly tested it, we ought not to criticise, but this does appear to be a novelty feature; we all have a touchscreen smartphone in our pocket anyway.

No, the BT-100 is all about video. Where the image appears to be in your field of vision depends on where you look; stare off into the middle distance and you'll see what appears to be a giant cinema screen about 300 inches in diameter, but you can just as easily watch the same image as TV-sized picture on a wall or object a couple of feet in front of you.

It takes a while to get used to, but it made us smile as soon as we put the glasses on – and that's always a good sign, especially for a new genre of gadget.

On our demo product we had several videos pre-installed, including trailers and an MP4 file of Knight & Day. The latter was presented in widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, and appeared plenty detailed enough, though hardly comparable a Blu-ray disc.

It's not the sharpest image we've seen, and nor was it the most steady – we noticed the odd shudder and blur – but it was comfortable enough for around half and hour of viewing, and on pure video quality actually slightly above our expectations.

It's best used in dim light, but works okay anywhere but the brightest of surroundings – though the smoked glass frontage is best left in place (it can be removed, but with devastating consequences).

Not surprisingly for a product with two eyepieces, the BT-100 can also show 3-D video. However, the native transparency of the product means that watching in 3-D is not as immersive as it could be, though we noticed none of the ghosted images, crosstalk, or brightness issues that blight some 3-D TVs and projectors.

Sadly, it's also not as 3-D as it could be, either; depending on where you aim the product, the picture can appear to be a long way away, but there is little depth within the 3-D image itself – though it is perceptible. Note that the BT-100 is only compatible with the side-by-side 3-D format.

There is, however, one problem with the BT-100 that strikes at its core usefulness for airline passengers. Is it the fact that the transparent image is projected onto random objects – typically super-imposed onto a switched-off LCD screen in the airline seat in front?

Actually, no, we experimented with viewing the image over a host of different objects and in varying degrees of brightness, and although the lines and shape of the background is occasionally obvious (and you would never 'aim' the BT-100 at a window or other light source), that's not the major problem. The big issue is sound.

Take any random long haul cabin and the ambient noise – the engines, the aircon system, the screaming children – can reach 50 decibels. That's why noise cancelling headphones have been such a success in the last five or so years, and they are sorely missed here.

We're not talking bulky, battery driven designs that cost £250; decent, and fairly cheap, earbuds that are capable of blocking out most aircraft sounds should have been provided. Regular business travellers will already have noise cancelling headphones of some kind, so using the BT-100 will mean making a compromise on sound.

Verdict

Without the sense of isolation that blights Sony's effort, Epson's see-through home cinema experience is a tad easier on the senses, though we're not sure the two should be compared too closely.

While Sony's HMZ-T1 is a 3D gaming accessory, the Moverio BT-100 is a business traveller's indulgence, though both are first-gen efforts with significant drawbacks.

As a hands-free alternative to an iPad or smart phone, the BT-100 is a good first effort, though a little rough around the edges – hopefully the second generation attempt will have noise cancelling headphones and a few less cables to contend with.

Review: Logitech Wireless Speaker Adaptor

Matt Hanson — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 11:18:00 GMT

Streaming music wirelessly via Bluetooth is excellent. Pretty much all smartphones these days not only hold a hefty chunk of our music collection, they also have Bluetooth connectivity that enables music to be streamed to a compatible stereo.

It's so much easier than plugging in the phone via a cable - especially if someone were to ring you mid-song and you have to dash to unhook the phone before you miss the call. Bluetooth's high bandwidth serves to stream music almost without any noticeable loss of quality, over a greater range.

This all sounds great, but what if you have already spent hundreds of pounds on a stereo system that doesn't have Bluetooth? Sure you could buy a standalone Bluetooth-compatible speaker system, but most of them won't hold a candle to your favoured hi-fi.

This is where the Logitech Wireless Speaker Adaptor for Bluetooth Audio Devices comes in, and it works really well. Essentially all you need to do is plug this into your sound system via either phono or headphone jack and you've turned your hi-fi into a Bluetooth-enabled device.

Verdict

This is a great tool for turning your Bluetooth tablet into a handheld music jukebox, or playing music straight from your mobile phone. It's easy to set up, works well and adds some great new functionality to your existing music setup. What more could you ask for?

Review: Sony MDR-ZX500

James Rivington — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:34:00 GMT

How much should you spend on a pair of headphones?

It's a tricky question to answer because generally speaking, the more you spend, the better the product.

There are exceptions of course – Beats by Dr. Dre headphones are stupidly expensive and do not deliver proportional levels of sound quality – but on the whole the trend holds firm.

So do these Sony MDR-ZX500 headphones offer a decent dollop of audio fidelity, or are they just another also-ran pair of cans for the undiscerning ear?

Sadly, they fall into the latter category.

The ZX500's are cheap, they look good, they're nice and light and they sound better than those bundled buds.

But they're no star performers. All audio is squeezed uncompromisingly into the murky midrange, with little on offer in the way of fidelity at high or low frequencies. Your music can sound a lot better, and for not much more money, either.

So if you're looking to replace some bundled white iPod earphones with an over-ear alternative and don't want to splash the cash, the ZX500's will find a good home with you. But if you need more, you're going to need to spend a little more money.

Review: Nvidia 3D Vision 2

Phil Iwaniuk — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:15:00 GMT

Overview

Nvidia's new 3D Vision 2 Wireless Glasses are designed to work with its new LightBoost technology and cut out annoying periphery dramas with 20 per cent bigger lenses.

Maybe you love 3D, maybe you hate it. Wherever you stand on the begoggled viewing experience, though, chances are you'll have at least a couple of niggles.

Stereoscopic 3D is no infant in technology terms, but it is experiencing teething problems as it gradually invades your household media setup.

For starters, it's inconvenient and uncomfortable to have to wear special glasses every time you want to play a game or catch a movie; not to mention expensive if you're shelling out for several sets of glasses. Then there's the flickering in your periphery, the headaches and the lack of image depth.

Samsung has made good progress in addressing the comfort issue with its SSG 2 and 3 series 3D glasses, and while 3D monitors that don't require the goggles at all aren't too far away, the industry isn't just sitting on its hands until then.

Verdict

Other than the size, the Nvidia 3D Vision 2 Wireless Glasses are almost identical to the original 3D Vision glasses, which unfortunately means they're still uncomfortable.

Samsung's SSG-2100AB specs are still the most comfortable we've perched on our conks, and Nvidia lags well behind in this department. It's odd because they've obviously been redesigned with comfort in mind, but still don't sit naturally on the face.

Now the good news - the bigger lenses and wraparound design of the Nvidia 3D Vision 2 glasses greatly improve your viewing experience.

Having your brain decode stereoscopic 3D images while also dealing with, y'know, real life 3D in your peripheral vision is very tiring, and we suspect closely linked to those inevitable headaches following a long session.

Increasing the lens size is such a simple solution to this problem, it makes you wonder why it took them this long to get it sorted - so it goes with 'new' technologies, we suppose.

The really important development here is LightBoost, Nvidia's new 3D tech.

To you and us, this is a layer of film across monitor and TV screens that counteracts any dimness, delivering twice the brightness and, consequently, clearer, more colourful 3D images.

Sounds a bit like marketing nonsense, but we can absolutely vouch for it - just read our review of the LightBoost-ready Asus VG278H if you need convincing.

Verdict

These Nvidia 3D Vision 2 glasses are being marketed as LightBoost-compatible, but the same is true of the 3D Vision 1. They're both just shutter glasses, after all.

Buy these glasses for the improved viewing experience, by all means, but don't be tricked into thinking you can't enjoy LightBoost without them.

We liked

Nvidia has made good progress with the 3D Vision 2 glasses, by eliminating peripheral vision problems and increasing lens size. It's subtle, but it really does make a difference.

We disliked

That progress is halted in the comfort department, though. Given that these glasses are selling for roughly the same as a pair of (non-3D) prescription glasses, we expect a greater level of comfort. Competitors like Samsung are some way ahead in this area.

Final verdict

Crucially, the combination of these glasses with a LightBoost-equipped PC monitor gave us our first genuinely enjoyable, almost jaw-dropping 3D gaming experience - for the first time, we're excited about 3D.

Review: Philips 46PFL9706H

John Archer — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:45:00 GMT

Overview

As well as being the long-awaited first TV from Philips' 2011 (just!) range, the 46-inch 46PFL9706H also happens to be the only TV from that range - indeed, the only set in the world, as far as we know - that uses a Moth Eye filter.

This being a flagship Philips TV, though, the 46PFL9706 certainly doesn't rely exclusively on its Moth Eye filter innovation.

It's also distinguished by direct (where the lights sit directly behind the screen) rather than edge LED lighting, and looks a million dollars in its brushed aluminium bodywork.

You also get Philips' unique Ambilight technology where the TV casts coloured light out of the TV's sides and top, as well as one of the most comprehensive multimedia support systems in the business - complete with a much-improved online service.

And then, of course, the 46PFL9706 carries the second generation of Philips' active 3D technology (called '3D Max').

The Philips 46PFL9706 is joined in the 9000 series range by the 52-inch 52PFL9706H - though this model doesn't get the Moth Eye filter.

If the 46PFL9706's £2,300 price is too rich for your blood, then you could shift down to the 8000 series, comprising the 52-inch 52PFL8605H, the 46-inch 46PFL8605H and the 40-inch 40PFL8606H. This series is cheaper because it uses edge LED lighting, and a less powerful processing engine.

For now, though, let's get back to finding out if Philips' new flagship TV lives up to is phenomenal promise.

Moth eye introduction

In many ways the 46PFL9706H is the most feature-heavy TV ever. The headliner, of course, is the Moth Eye filter. This carries tiny nodules on it that mimic similar structures found on moth's eyes and are used to eliminate reflections on the screen, resulting in a greatly enhanced perceived contrast range.

Certainly the presence of this filter seemed to help the 46PFL9706 produce stand-out performance quality at all of the technology shows it's been featured at this year, where any screen that can 'defend itself' from the high light levels of a typical show floor is going to look special.

If you're the sort of person who likes to put numbers on things, then consider this: whereas the 52PFL9706H without the Moth Eye filter boasts a contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1, the 46PFL9706H claims, incredibly, 50,000,000:1.

Or if you're struggling to get your head round all those zeros, the Moth Eye filter potentially delivers 10 times the contrast of a non-Moth Eye TV.

Obviously all these sorts of numbers have to be treated with an enormous pinch of salt, but nonetheless it's impossible not to get at least a bit excited at the thought of what the filter might do.

Design and features

The Philips 46PFL9706's design is more of a 'feature' than it is with most TVs.

Catching the eye right away is its lovely brushed aluminium bezel, and the extremely high quality of the similarly metallic desktop stand. The exceptional quality of its finish isn't the only attraction of the stand either, because in an intriguing move it also contains the TV's speakers, with a short plug-in cable connecting it to the main TV.

Obviously this means that anyone wanting to wall hang the TV will also need to hang the stand (flat) right under the screen. The stand has been designed to support such mounting, of course, but while it might look very pretty, it's possible that some people really won't want to have a rectangular slab of metal hanging on the wall under their television.

Given how preposterously slim many TVs have been this year, it has to be said that the Philips 46PFL9706 feels chunkier than most flagship TVs. The reason for this, most likely, is the set's use of direct rather than LED lighting, because the direct approach means the illumination has to be sited directly behind the screen, and so needs some sort of 'throw' distance.

Direct LED

Using direct LED lighting rather than the more common edge-based system is potentially key to the Philips 46PFL9706's performance, though, because it enables Philips to deliver much more local control over the illumination of the picture.

In fact, the TV has the processing power to individually handle, in real time, 224 separate LED clusters, meaning that the picture can deliver 224 different luminance 'zones'. This number is clearly well short of the number of pixels (1920 x 1080) contained in the screen, so there's potential for light haloing around very bright objects if they appear against very dark backdrops.

But the potential for this flaw should be vastly reduced compared with the situation on LG's 55LW980T http://www.techradar.com/reviews/audio-visual/televisions/plasma-and-lcd-tvs/lg-55lw980t-1031942/review, with its mere 96 local illumination zones.

Philips has long been at the forefront of multimedia support in the TV world, and this trend continues with the 46PFL9706.

For instance, a pair of USBs can be used for playing back video, photo and music files across all these formats: AVI, MKV, H264/MPEG-4 AVC, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV9/VC1, AAC, MP3, WMA (v2 up to v9.2), and JPEG.

The TV also carries built-in DLNA 1.5 certification, and can access your network via LAN or built-in Wi-Fi.

These network options also, of course, enable you to get online, via Philips' NetTV platform. This is an enhanced beast from last year's offering, following the common delivery model of providing direct access to a selection of high-profile apps, and a further app gallery where people can find and download smaller, more minority-interest apps.

Apps

The highlighted apps comprise (at the time of writing): YouTube, BBC iPlayer (the first time this has appeared on NetTV); MeteoConsult; Facebook; Aupeo Personal Radio; HiT Entertainment; CNBC Real Time; TuneIn Radio; iConcerts; Twitter; Viewster; Euronews; Vimeo; Picasa; Meteonews; Box Office 365; Cartoon Network; France 24 On Demand; TV5 Monde; the Funspot gaming network; DailyMotion; ScreenDreams; and CineTrailer.

There's also an internet browser which, unlike those found on many TVs, is decently usable thanks to an impressive text input interface and more legible text than you usually get on a TV browser.

Extra apps you can download comprise TomTom HD Traffic; the Foreca weather forecaster; ebay; TED Talks; the Films and Stars, network delivering movie reports, 1-on-1 interviews with actors and directors, plus award show and festival reports; the MyAlbum photo storage site; a Volkswagen promotional site; and last but not least, the cloud-based AceTrax movie purchase/rental service.

It seems odd, actually, that AceTrax isn't given more prominence in the list of highlighted services, but there you go.

Video processing

Anyone who's followed the progress of Philips' TVs over the past few years will know that any new high-end set will feature an extremely powerful video processing engine. These have been sources of controversy at times, with some people feeling that they do more harm than good, making pictures look too processed.

But while there were certainly issues in the early days of Philips' focus on processing, and while you invariably have to be careful with many of the processing setting options, the simple fact is that the more powerful Philips' processing systems have become, the more capable they've become of delivering all the positives of video processing with fewer of the negatives.

The latest Perfect Pixel HD Engine employed in the Philips 46PFL9706 astonishingly doubles the power of the previous version, and as such it's claimed that it can process on the fly an extraordinary two billion pixels a second. This is extremely significant, because as well as speeding up the processing, it enables the processing to work more intelligently on pictures to give more accurate and artefact-free improvements.

To give some idea of how many picture elements the processing now covers, tucked away under the Perfect Pixel HD header in the on-screen menus are tweaks that affect motion, sharpness/resolution, contrast, backlight control, MPEG noise reduction, colour and gamma.

As you would expect, it's motion handling that potentially benefits the most from all the extra power in the Philips 46PFL9706. The set claims a 1200Hz Perfect Motion Rate - the highest such figure in the business - achieved via a combination of frame interpolation processing, a 200Hz panel, and a 200Hz scanning backlight.

Crucially, moreover, the new processing power allows Philips to apply its Perfect Natural Motion system to full HD 3D for the first time.

The new processing engine in the Philips 46PFL9706 additionally enables you to adjust the depth of native Full HD 3D sources as well as 2D to 3D converted images - something Philips believes is a first for the TV market, although similar functionality is available on Panasonic's AT5000 projector.

Panel improvements

Staying with 3D-related features, Philips has introduced new measures aimed at tackling active 3D's problems with crosstalk noise. First, the panel is driven faster. Also, the scanning backlight inside the Philips 46PFL09706 should prove more effective than the cheaper blinking backlight alternative.

Finally, and perhaps most intriguingly, Philips has officially recognised the commonly seen situation whereby crosstalk is worse when TVs are 'cold', developing a system where the TV can deliver both a more unified heat level across the whole screen and a higher uniform temperature, thanks to the direct LED illumination system.

Enthusiasts still troubled by the amount of options and processing delivered by the Philips 46PFL9706 could well have their concerns greatly allayed by the discovery that for the first time ever Philips has sought and obtained the endorsement of the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF).

This indicates that this is a TV with sufficient picture flexibility - especially where colour is concerned, via a new Colour Control centre - to be professionally calibrated by a trained ISF engineer. This really should enhance the 46PFL9706's appeal in the eyes of the enthusiast market, and is perhaps an endorsement Philips should have sought years ago.

Wrapping up this section of the review in relatively prosaic fashion are the Philips 46PFL9706's connections, which add four HDMIs, a D-Sub PC port and an SD card slot to the aforementioned USBs, LAN, and Wi-Fi connection options.

Please note that the USBs can also be used for attaching a USB HDD, to enable recording from the integrated Freeview HD tuner. Because yes, it's a huge relief to find that Philips has put right its major 2010 mistake by building Freeview HD tuners into all of its TVs this year.

3D features

The 46PFL9706 carries Philips' latest Full HD 3D engine too (AKA 3D Max), which is reckoned to have reduced crosstalk noise compared to the brand's 2010 3D TVs. You currently get a couple of pairs of 3D glasses included (as a promotion) with the TV, and unlike Philips' 2010 TVs, the 3D transmitter is built into the TV rather than being an add-on extra.

A fun extra feature of the new 3D system enables two video gamers to enjoy full screen playback simultaneously, rather than having to stick with the usual split-screen approach.

This works by pushing two separate 2D streams through the same 'alternate frame' delivery system usually used by each 'eye' of a 3D signal, with each player then setting their glasses to only show one half of the twin-feed stream.

Impressively, the glasses that Philips includes with the TV are able to accommodate such use via a simple built-in switch - you don't have to buy special, separate glasses.

Ease of use

As always with a high-end Philips TV, there are two sides to this part of the 46PFL9706's story. On the one hand, the design of its on-screen menus and especially its remote control is really very good.

The menus are clear and mostly straightforward to navigate, despite having to handle a vast amount of features and adjustments, and the remote control does a mostly sublime job of helping you do everything from getting around the menus, to typing text into the web browser and surfing channels from remarkably few buttons.

The button layout is inspired too, aside from the positioning of the 'Back/return' button directly under the 'Navigate down' button. It's all too easy to hit 'Back' when you meant to hit 'Down'.

While the actual interface for the Philips 46PFL9706 might be remarkably straightforward for such a sophisticated TV, though, getting the best from the TV is made trickier than some people might like by the amount of effort you need to put into tinkering with the set's myriad processing options.

Because different source types seem to benefit from different settings, and for all its processing brainpower, the Philips 46PFL9706 isn't as clever as it ideally would be at figuring out for itself the best settings to use with different types of source material.

Instructions

The Philips 46PFL9706 ships with its instructions manual built into its on-screen menus, under a 'Help' icon. This is fair enough in some ways, although tracking down specific features (such as the two player gaming option) through these menus is much harder than it would be with a paper manual.

A system like that found on Samsung's TVs, where you're told what a feature does when you select it on the menus, would have helped, too.

There are additionally a couple of issues surrounding the TV's design that require a little extra care. First, attaching the stand to the TV is a really very fiddly process, actually made rather scary by the amount of warnings that Philips gives you about how much you need to take care of the screen on account of the delicacy of the Moth Eye filter.

The other issue is also to do with the Moth Eye filter, as it turns out that if you manage to get your fingers on it, is causes a startling amount of mess. So much so that at first you might think you've actually broken the screen.

With this in mind, Philips is shipping a special cleaning fluid and cloth with every 46PFL9706; and you certainly shouldn't try to clean a finger mark with anything else!

Picture quality and moth eye

The impression of outstanding picture quality exhibited by the Philips 46PFL9706 at various displays and shows over the past 12 months is immediately and spectacularly borne out by the experience of watching the TV in a more intimate testing environment.

In fact, there are many times - a great many times - when the Philips 46PFL9706 produces the best pictures yet seen from a flat TV. Seriously.

Right away images look spectacularly punchy, thanks to a combination of three separate elements.

First, the set's brightness output is remarkable.

Second, the TV's colour saturations are gorgeously fully saturated and aggressive.

Thirdly and most eye-catchingly of all, the black levels able to appear right alongside the brightest of whites and most extreme of colours are profoundly deep and rich.

This result of the set's local dimming technology more than anything else separates the Philips 46PFL9706's performance from the flatter, less dynamic look of pictures produced by edge LED or CCFL LCD TVs - even Samsung's 7000 and 8000 televisions.

Regarding the brightness, what's remarkable is how the extreme brightness levels still always look controlled - there's no sense of peak bright areas or the pictures 'flaring out' and losing detail.

As for colours, their intensity does not in any way preclude them from containing almost infinite subtleties of blend and tone. In fact, you might well see some shades of colour distinction in some of your favourite sources that you've not seen before on previous HD sets.

Where the black level response is concerned, the Philips 46PFL9706 produces the most exquisitely deep and rich black colours ever seen from an LCD TV. Period. In fact, remarkably they're even deeper than those of plasma TVs.

Moth Eye

The Moth Eye filter undoubtedly plays a huge role in this monumental achievement, as even if the test room lights were turned up to maximum it was practically impossible to see even a trace of reflected light on the TV's screen.

The difference this makes to contrast is astonishing - so much so, in fact, that it has to be seen to be believed.

Closer examination of the set's delicious portrayal of dark scenes reveals that a) there's still a highly credible amount of shadow detailing in dark areas and b) the direct LED problem of haloing/clouding around bright objects against dark backdrops appears only rarely. And even when it does appear, it's very subtle in terms of both its brightness and spread distance.

Furthermore, the brightness of the light picture elements is so extreme on the Philips 46PFL9706H that it distracts you from any slight haloing that might appear.

The haloing effect becomes more obvious and distracting if you watch from an angle - anything more than 30 degrees or so. But this isn't necessarily a big deal unless your room layout routinely requires people to watch from down the TV's sides.

Once you've recovered from the impact of the Philips 46PFL9706's brightness, colour and contrast, you'll also realise that it excels in another key area: sharpness. With HD, its pictures look immaculately crisp and full of pure, noise-free texture and detail, yet this exceptional sharpness is delivered without grain, without fizzing noise, and without edges looking over-sharpened - so long, at least, as you don't overcook the TV's sharpness enhancement circuitry.

Standard definition

The quality of Philips' processing is further apparent with the 46PFL9706's handling of standard definition sources and even online content. Both are upscaled to the screen's full HD resolution with exceptional levels of added sharpness, yet unlike early versions of Philips' processing systems, this sharpness is added without exaggerating noise.

On the contrary, the upscaling processing does a superb job of taking noise out of the picture. Certainly video streamed from the internet has never looked better on such a large screen.

The most controversial part of Philips' mostly outstanding processing effort on the 46PFL9706 is, inevitably, Perfect Natural Motion. And it's definitely true to say, as usual, that applying this even on its lowest setting to films - especially Blu-rays - isn't generally a good idea. The silky fluidity of motion it produces just doesn't look 'filmic', for want of a better word.

Also, if the film has a lot of grain in it, the motion processing does some very strange things indeed, making the grain look like it's flowing like some kind of river across the screen!

Making Perfect Natural Motion even more unnecessary with films is the fact that even without any motion processing active, the Philips 46PFL9706 suffers with scarcely any motion blur or resolution loss at all - so long as you're also careful not to set the noise reduction features too high!

There's no harm with trying Perfect Natural Motion for viewing non-film content, though. Especially since, for the first time ever, Philips has managed to deliver the processing's promised freedom from judder without causing the unwelcome side effect of a shimmering halo around moving objects.

What's really crucial to stress in all this talk of how good the Philips 46PFL9706's 2D pictures are is that all the many and varied benefits palpably introduced to the TV's picture quality by the latest Perfect Pixel HD processing do not make the picture look unnatural.

Because not only does the set produce the most natural picture ever seen from a Philips flat TV, it also produces one of the most natural pictures seen from any TV, period. And ironic though it might sound, its kind of 'invisibility' is ultimately the latest processing engine's most impressive achievement.

3D performance

Turning to 3D after the Philips 46PFL9706's 2D heroics is slightly disappointing, thanks to that old active 3D nemesis of crosstalk noise. Despite Philips' claims to have addressed this double ghosting concern, it crops up quite regularly on a variety of 3D sources, especially over backgrounds, sometimes to the extent that they look slightly out of focus.

There is, however, a crosstalk fix - delve into the menus, find the 3D Depth control, and select the 'Lower' setting. This instantly kills off almost all crosstalk. Phew. But... it also reduces the depth of the 3D image considerably, so much so that sometimes the picture scarcely looks 3D any more.

Plus, of course, there's the argument that if you reduce the depth of the picture, you're actually not watching it in the way it was designed to be watched.

In all other ways the Philips 46PFL9706's 3D images are exemplary. The set does a brilliant job of rendering all the detail of full HD 3D sources (except for where the ghosting gets in the way).

Motion looks super-sharp too now that the Perfect Natural Motion circuitry can work in three dimensions (though it did seem that there were a fraction more processing artefacts than were visible with 2D).

And Philips' light and comfortable 3D glasses seem to reduce brightness less than most active shutter models, a fact which joins with the screen's innate brightness and dynamism to ensure that its 3D images are arguably the brightest, most colour-rich examples we've seen from an active 3D TV.

The crosstalk issues still mean, though, that if 3D is very important to you, Panasonic's latest GT30 and VT30 plasmas are a crisper, cleaner option.

Sound, value and gaming

While building the Philips 46PFL9706's speakers into its stand is certainly a novel idea, it's not necessarily one that you'd expect to lead to brilliant sound.

But actually, while the Philips 46PFL9706's sound isn't quite as clear and refined as that of last year's 9000 series (which used rear-mounted bass woofers on the main TV chassis), it's still way more powerful, well-rounded and bass-heavy than that of the vast majority of its peers.

Value

Clearly £2,300 is a hefty amount to cough up for a 46-inch TV. But the Philips 46PFL9706 isn't just any 46-inch TV. It's the very definition of a flagship model, all the way from its sumptuous build quality through to its massive feature list and a fantastic innovation in the Moth Eye filter that has lead to it delivering the best 2D picture of this TV generation.

Gaming performance

Finishing up with the 46PFL9706's performance as a gaming monitor, it's pretty brilliant in most ways.

Its combination of sharpness, dynamism and terrific black levels gives HD games an almost unbelievable amount of 'snap', while the set's motion handling avoids the sort of blurring as you pan around that's common with LCD TVs.

The split-screen into full-screen two-player feature works well to some extent too (once you've tracked the feature down through the 'Adjust' button's menu).

The only catches are that you can see a faint representation of the other player's screen 'under' your own, and that during our tests the processing required to resize the top/bottom split-screen image to a full-screen one led to a couple of inches of the picture disappearing off the left side of the screen so that, for instance, you couldn't see much of a Call of Duty map.

The first 46PFL9706 review sample tested disappointingly registered a quite high input lag figure of 80ms. But a second set Philips sent over thankfully produced a vastly more satisfying result of around 30ms, which is easily low enough to 'keep up' with all but the most frenetic of twitch gamers.

Verdict

Few if any TVs shout 'flagship' at you quite as loudly as the Philips 46PFL9706. Its metallic silver bodywork looks posher than a Harrods hamper, especially when you've got all those lovely Ambilight LEDs turned on, and its feature list reads like a what's what of the cutting edge TV world.

Naturally this feature list includes 3D (of the active Full HD variety) as well as Smart TV functionality including DLNA support, playback of multimedia files from USB sticks, recording from the Freeview HD tuner to USB HDDs, and access to Philips' Net TV service.

Where the Philips 46PFL9706 most earns its corn, though, is with its picture technology - particularly its Moth Eye filter, its direct LED lighting system and its ultra-powerful Perfect Pixel HD processing engine.

We liked

The combination of the Moth Eye filter and direct LED lighting helps the Philips 46PFL9706 to deliver exactly what we'd hoped it would: the best picture quality yet seen from an LCD TV. With HD and standard definition alike, its images are ground-breakingly spectacular.

Its multimedia tools are superbly wide-ranging and brilliantly implemented too, and the design of both its remote and its on-screen menus is inspired, making a potentially brain-bending TV surprisingly easy to use.

The TV's audio is good too, with plenty of volume and even a bit of bass to keep you company.

We disliked

The set's biggest flaw is the appearance of crosstalk with 3D images. It's not terrible by any means, but at its worst it can make backdrops look slightly out of focus.

There's also some very minor light haloing around bright objects if they're against dark backgrounds, but really this only becomes a significant issue if you're watching from a fairly wide angle.

Another issue is that you will have to devote time - potentially quite a lot of time - to learning your way round the pros and cons of all the TV's many processing elements.

Verdict

Watch any 2D Blu-ray on the Philips 46PFL9706, and you'll scarcely be able to believe that the stunning picture before you is being produced from an LCD TV.

Its simply phenomenal contrast range helps it deliver a genuine leap forward in LCD picture quality that its hard to imagine any other brands being able to get close to for at least a couple of generations, if their current TVs are anything to go by.

The set also looks beautiful, and has every feature anyone could reasonably - or even unreasonably! - expect a TV to carry.

Crosstalk with 3D stops it from being a truly flawless gem, but it still represents a genuine TV milestone.

Review: LG DM2350D

Jeremy Laird — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:00:00 GMT

LG DM2350D review

One TV screen that does the lot. That's the plan for the new LG DM2350D Cinema 3D Monitor TV.

For starters, it's a Full HD PC monitor. It's also a digital TV with an integrated DVB tuner and IR remote. But the LG DM2350D 's real party piece is that it throws stereoscopic 3D into the mix.

Whether you want to watch Blu-ray movies or play the latest PC games, 3D support is promised.

What's more, it all comes in a compact package that does a decent impression of a miniature high-end HD TV. If you're short on space but don't want to compromise on style, you could do an awful lot worse.

Of course, all of this is theoretical. With so many features and different technologies on offer, there's an awful lot to get right and plenty to go wrong.

Yup, LG has squeezed a digital TV tuner into the DM2350D's slim and slinky chassis. Factor in the IR remote control and the result is pretty much indistinguishable from a standard, small flatscreen TV.

With one exception. Only standard-definition DVB-C and DVB-T broadcasts are supported. You can watch Freeview HD in its full 1080p glory, but only with an external box connected via HDMI.

Consequently, digital TV viewing comes with standard definition TV's characteristic soft smeary image quality. It's fine for casual viewing, but HD TV addicts will not be satisfied.

Of course, the HDMI ports mean it's easy enough to connect all manner of external boxes from Freeview HD, to Blu-ray players and games consoles.

HD PC monitor

As a monitor for a desktop or portable PC, the LG DM2350D is pretty much par for the course. It's a 23-inch panel with a Full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel grid. At this price point – and bearing in mind the built-in tuner and 3D support - it's no surprise to find that the underlying technology is TN.

It's the cheapest of the commonly used LCD panel technologies, and it typically translates into narrower viewing angles, reduced contrast and less accurate colours than more expensive alternatives such as IPS and VA panels. That said, TN technology is always improving, and LG's latest effort is one of the better TN screens we've seen.

Part of the explanation is the use of an LED backlight. The result is richer, more saturated colours than you get with a TN panel powered by an old school CCFL lamp. Like most TN screens, pixel response is excellent, too, making this screen a great choice for keen gamers.

Still, there's no escaping the LG DM2350D's fundamental TNness. If you want really broad viewing angles and accurate colours for video editing, you'd better look elsewhere.

Overall brightness is another weak point. It's not actually an issue when viewing in conventional 3D mode. But it's a little disappointing in the context of LG's claims of increased brightness in 3D mode.

The final PC-specific 2D image issue involves video inputs. For the most part, these are well catered for, with a pair of HDMI ports, VGA, SCART and component connections. However, for PCs, DVI and DisplayPort are preferable.

It's quite common to suffer from scanning problems when controlling a monitor from a PC via HDMI. Our testing went smoothly, but in our experience, you're at the mercy of PC video card hardware and software vagaries if you roll with HDMI.

3D capabilities

So, the LG DM2350D is a decent PC monitor and a tolerable TV so long as you factor in the Freeview HD issue. But what about its 3D performance?

The screen's 3D technology is passive, polarised and orthogonal. That means polarised glasses (two pairs are provided - a pair of throwaway frames as per the cinema and some clip-ons for spec wearers), rather than active shutter glasses. The orthogonal bit matters because it makes this TV screen more sensitive to viewing angles. More on that in a sec.

From there, things get a bit more complicated. In terms of 3D gaming, LG has gone with the TriDef platform. It's the solution chosen by AMD for its graphics cards, but it also works with Nvidia hardware.

Game compatibility is pretty broad, and in our testing, we had no major issues with it.

However, we did find it tricky to find the viewing sweet spot for the LG DM2350D, in terms of distance and elevation. Unless you get it just right, you'll experience variable degrees of double vision.

The overall sense of depth and 3Dness isn't as dramatic as we've seen courtesy of the best active-shutter screens. Also, it's worth noting that both observed resolution and brightness take a hit in 3D mode. There's a price to be paid for flicking the 3D switch.

Finally, it's worth noting that currently, the LG DM2350D doesn't support 3D Blu-ray via a PC. You need to hook up a 3D Blu-ray player to the TV for that. So, the support is there, it just makes life a little more complicated.

You can't simply connect a Blu-ray-capable PC and have a single solution that does PC gaming, HD TV and 3D Blu-ray. You're going to need some extra boxes.

We liked

As TN screens go, the LG DM2350D is decidedly decent. Thanks to an LED backlight you get rich colours. Black levels are above average for this panel type, too.

The TriDef 3D tech also makes for good game support and relative ease of use - it just works, and the built-in TV tuner is a boon if space is tight.

We disliked

Stereoscopic 3D is an acquired taste at the best of times. With orthogonal polarised tech, getting comfortable and correctly positioned is a bit of a faff.Once you've done that, the image quality, brightness and sense of depth isn't exactly breathtaking.

Lack of built-in HD TV support irritates, too.

Final verdict

The LG DM2350D is a very strong all-round package for the price. Its lack of native Freeview HD is the only major issue.

Review: Sony HMZ-T1 Personal 3D Viewer

Steve May — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 10:00:00 GMT

Overview and features

The consumer electronics industry has long had a fascination with video headsets. They tend to make cyclical appearances, promising ever more futuristic delights.

From the early days of Virtual Reality to goggles with integrated TV screens, this sub-genre of oddball tech is nothing new. Even Sony has been here before, with its Glasstron eyeware, released in the US during the late 1990s.

But the Sony HMZ-T1 3D Head Mounted Display is rather different. It's without doubt the most elaborate personal viewer to reach the consumer market. It's a good deal more advanced than rival 2D/3D viewers from Vuzix, such as the Vuzix iWear AV310, and employs high-resolution OLED panels.

In short, this new Sony contraption actually works. But that doesn't guarantee anyone is actually going to buy it.

The Sony HMZ-T1 is a two-piece set, comprising the 3D viewer itself and an HDMI dual output switcher. A single cable links the two, delivering sound, vision and power. Any HDMI source can be connected, from a set-top box to Blu-ray player.

Distribution is limited to Sony stores. This is clearly not a mass market item, a fact that's reflected in the £800/ US$799 price tag.

Of course, if you're buying the Sony HMZ-T1 as an alternative to a super-large screen 3D TV or even a video projector system, the asking price could be construed as fairly reasonable. If you want a cinematic viewing experience but simply don't have the space to accommodate a physical display (perhaps your super-yacht just isn't big enough for a dedicated cinema cabin?) it's a compelling solution.

Sony says watching a movie with the HMZ-T1 is similar to munching popcorn in the stalls of a 750-inch cinema screen, with a viewing angle of 45 degrees. There's even a slight, subtle tilt to the OLED panels to emulate that big-screen effect.

It's not just about video though: a pair of on-ear stereo headphones is integrated into the headset shell. Volume, menu and settings controls are located on the underside of the viewer. Here you'll also find sliders beneath each eyepiece to adjust focus.

Remember, though, that the system isn't wireless and doesn't work on batteries. Consequently you're very much tethered to both your source and a power supply. The dual output switcher rather conveniently has an HDMI v1.4 pass-though so that it can sit unobtrusively in your equipment rack, routing signals to your headset when required.

As an executive toy, it's likely to be highly desirable. It's possible also that the system could bring big screen thrills to the infirm or bedridden.

Performance and verdict

There's something just a little bit unsettling about a total immersion 3D system such as the Sony HMZ-T1. With your head in a virtual cinema and a sound system that isolates you from the world around, the experience is just a little unnerving. But it says much for the quality of the 3D viewer's display that this happens.

Pictured delivered by the tiny OLED panels are wonderfully sharp and colourful. Sony equates the resolution to 720p, although we suspect this is more subjective than mathematical. That said, the illusion of a large screen is surprisingly convincing, and there's genuine hi-definition clarity to be had.

For a truly cinematic sensation, we found 2.35:1 framed Blu-rays worked best. Actually, in some ways the viewing experience is better than at the cinema. These days you're rarely allowed to watch movies in a dark theatre (probably due to health and safety rules), but within the confines of the Sony HMZ-T1, films play in perfect darkness. That means images are extremely dynamic, with deep solid blacks and dazzling peak whites.

The 3D experience offered by this headset is rather different to other display technologies. Stereoscopic images don't have to be filtered by an additional lens, be it polarising or actively shuttered. That means there's no difference in overall brightness between a regular 2D HD movie and a 3D one.

This is a transformational difference. Consequently, there's no detail lost during the Green Hornet's night-time escapades and the vivid colour palette of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is mercifully undimmed.

Even better, because the refresh rate of OLED is lightning-fast (just 0.01 milliseconds), there's no overlap between left and right image frames. Suddenly that old 3D bugbear of crosstalk double imaging has been put to bed. Even difficult 3D source material such as Monsters vs Aliens appears clean and deep.

Sony has done a similarly fine job with the HMZ-T1 personal 3D viewer's sound system. Even though the built-in headphones use conventional stereo drivers, the surround processing that feeds them is extremely effective. Sony calls the process 'virtual phones technology.'

There's a choice of four surround presets available: Cinema, Game, Music and Standard. Each offers slightly different virtual staging. We found Music to be particularly effective with live concert material.

There are caveats, though. The balance of the headset isn't a design strong point, which is unsurprising given the size of the forward-facing optical block that houses the two 0.7-inch OLED panels.

When watching a movie you really have to recline back, to make the HMZ-T1's 350g sit on your face rather than hang off your nose. And we're not sure we'd want to wear them for more than a couple of hours in one stretch.

The headset isn't particularly suitable for gaming either, unless you're completely adept at using a console controller in the dark. Unable to see exactly where our fingers and thumbs were made us even more cack-handed gamers than usual.

We also found ourselves becoming slightly paranoid the longer we wore them - a consequence of the isolating effect of the design.

Verdict

While we really can't imagine head mounted 3D displays taking off in quite the same way that Walkmans did a generation ago, we rather like Sony's HMZ-T1 personal 3D viewer.

It's a bold and exciting spin on a familiar concept, and one that actually delivers on its promise of a virtual cinema experience. Its 3D performance is particularly mesmerising. If we could see our thumbs, we think they'd both be pointing upwards.

Review: Philips Fidelio AS851

James Rivington — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:32:00 GMT

Philips Fidelio AS851 review

The Philips Fidelio AS851 is the flagship model in Philips' new range of Android docks.

Featuring two 15W 3-inch speakers, a microUSB 'flexidock', Bluetooth connectivity, a slick design and a £199 price tag, it's a premium product for sure. But is it really the Android dock that users are looking for?

Whether you love, hate or stand indifferent on Apple's iOS devices, you have to admit that Apple makes it very easy for third parties to build peripherals.

Stick your iPhone in any dock and it'll immediately start playing music and system sounds through the speakers without needing to set anything else up - that's the kind of user experience Philips is up against here. It's a system so abundantly easy to use that even a lobotomised crab could use one. Or Brian Belo.

But sadly, Android simply isn't a platform that offers that level of ease. In fact, in this sense, Android cannot really be described as a platform at all. It's a piece of software that runs on all manner of different devices, and here lies the first problem...

While Android is the best-selling mobile phone platform in the world - there are now over 200 million Android phones out there already - there are too many differences between devices to make a dock that suits them all.

There's different sizes, different connection types, different connection placements and orientations, different software layers, different internal components - the list goes on. So making a 'dock' that works "for Android" in general is simply not possible - hence why most manufacturers concentrate on general Bluetooth systems.

For instance, if you try to dock your Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to the Fidelio AS851 you'll find that the female proprietary connector is totally incompatible with the male microUSB phallus on offer.

So if you're thinking of buying this dock, you should first make sure that your device has a microUSB connector. If it doesn't, don't waste your money.

We tested the AS851 primarily with a brand new HTC Sensation, and we have to say we were not hugely impressed. The tiny nature of the microUSB connection makes the dock very fiddly to mate with your phone.

The male docking part itself is fairly clever in that it can be slid across the front of the dock and spun round, so depending on the orientation and position of the port on your phone, you'll be able to dock it and have it sit in the middle.

For phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S II which has its port on its base, right in the middle, the dock works fairly comfortably. But with our HTC and many other handset models, the phone needs to sit sideways which is a lot more fiddly to both dock and use.

We were using the Spotify app, for instance, which cannot rotate into landscape mode and so when docked we had to operate it sideways which was not fun.

Simply getting our HTC Sensation to mate with the dock was fiddly in itself, and making it stay on the dock while using the touchscreen was tricky too - it's extremely easy to knock off its perch because the microUSB port is so puny.

The handset itself is heavy, and so the flimsy connection does not offer enough support.

Assuming you can get your phone docked though, you'd assume that Android would then send its audio signal straight to the dock, right? Wrong. Android is not able to do this currently, which means your phone also has to pair with the Android dock via Bluetooth.

The Philips Fidelio app, which you must download from the Android Market, auto-launches when you dock and turns Bluetooth on and pairs for you so it's not a huge deal. But the app was continually flashing up "switching Bluetooth on" notifications while docked, which was irritating.

And the app actually launches whenever you plug the phone into any power source rather than just when you dock, which is another annoying feature – it's not clever enough to work out what it's plugged in to.

You can, at least, remove your phone from the dock without your music being interrupted, but if you want to do that why not just buy a standard Bluetooth system and use your charger?

Sound quality

And this leads us to sound quality. For a dock with a recommended price of £199 you'd expect some pretty amazing sound, but unfortunately we were left wanting more.

Anyone easily seduced by bass will be kept happy, with low and high end, too, coming through fairly well. But there's a huge, gaping, awful hole in the midrange which really knocked the stuffing out of all the music we put through it. This dock is a long way from being a match even for Philips' own high-end iPhone/iPad speaker dock, the DS9010.

It's a huge disappointment and so audiophiles or indeed anyone who thinks they'll notice sub-par sound quality should probably stay away – this is a very common issue with docking speakers, but this isn't a cheap product and that's why we're not letting it off the hook.

Verdict

If you need to pair via Bluetooth, why not just save some money and buy a standard Bluetooth speaker system? For £200 (ok, you can pick this up for £175 on Amazon, but still…) you can buy some really decent kit which sounds better. And that's what we'd recommend you do.

There are reasons why there aren't loads of Android docks out there to go with those 200 million phones, and anyone using this system will soon find out what those reasons are.