Toshiba Regza 55WL863
Look out for some end-of-line reductions on this Cevo-Engine powered 55in screen. Not only does it offer eye-catching HD, proprietary Resolution+ processing makes a good fist of improving SD content too, a real bonus on a telly this large. Ostensibly, this set seems a fine choice for sports fans; the Active Motion 800 picture processing engine is the fastest offered by Toshiba. Indeed, on its Standard setting, perceived clarity remains at a full 1080 lines, without overt motion artefacts.
However the set’s fast refresh modes tend to create chroma errors, with melting yellow typically compromising whites. This isn’t noticeable on most footage, but a white train speeding across the landscape soon begins to approximate a flying banana. The set has both Freeview HD and satellite DVB-S2 tuners. Hooked up to a Sky dish, the latter gives uncurated access to all the channels (and regional variants) currently available on the Freesat platform. The brand’s online portal is a bit barren, but at least offers iPlayer and subscription movies. File playback from USB is fine, although across a network it proves next to useless.
Reg Rating 80%
Price £1550
More info Toshiba
Toshiba 55ZL2
If watching the London Games upscaled from run-of-the-mill HD into fashionable 4K (3,840 x 2,160) is an enticing prospect, then this high-priced Toshiba has unique appeal. The only consumer screen currently offering Quad HD resolution, it’s a certified game-changer. In truth, the difference between 2K native and upscaled 4K, when seen at this size, is subtle at best. But 4K upscaling isn’t the ZL2’s only party trick; it can also deliver autostereocopic 3D, fortuitous as there’s over 300 hours of 3D Games coverage on the way. Not that you’ll see it all through. Those who have bemoaned 3D glasses may well be aching to get behind goggles again, after suffering this set’s bleary glasses-free 3D.
Those considering the 55ZL2 as a future proof upgrade should also think again, as this 4K set proves unable to accept a 4K signal delivered using HDMI, be it from Sony’s BDP-S790 Blu-ray player or a PC with turbo-charged graphics card. All things considered, the ZL2 is little more than an expensive, big-screen oddity. But even so, the 4K revolution has to begin somewhere. ®
Reg Rating 65%
Price £7000
More info Toshiba
Ten monster tellies to suit all budgets
COMMENTS
Incoming...!
"This flagship 55in LED LCD brings both voice and motion control to television for the first time, in addition to all the other techno-gubbins you’d expect from a high-end set. "
So how long after Apple launch their iTV before the patent spats start?
Buy used
People are so wrapped up in having the latest and greatest, you can get older tech for cheap. I just bought a 52" Mitsubishi DLP for $100. It's 6 years old, but only has 2000 hours on a 6000 hour bulb. Sure, it's a bit bigger, but you would only know that if you looked behind it. I have it hooked up to a PC so I can watch anything with it. Normally I have it at 1280x720p, but it will do 1920x1080i and doesn't look to bad at that higher res. I just replaced a 10 year old 60" non HD Philips that I got for free. I had to throw in $25 of coupling fluid, and 3 hours of my time to get it working like new. We used that TV for 2 years until I found the Mitsubishi.
"Thanks to economies of scale, 1024 x 768 resolution PDPs are monopolising the low cost big-screen brigade"
1024 x 768 is not HD, it's not even widescreen!
How about TVs vs projector review?
You can get a very decent 100" projector setup (including a decent screen) for under a grand. Some of the new ones have fairly bright pictures, and a side by side comparison with TVs might be useful.
To me, over 2k pounds is clearly into home cinema territory - the only way I would have a TV of this value is if I won one in a competition. YMMV, of course, but I'm a projector enthusiast so even if I just had 500 to spend on a new "telly" I'd get a projector.
