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  • Introduction

  • Tour & Design

  • Blacks & Whites

  • Color Accuracy

  • Motion

  • Viewing Effects

  • Calibration

  • Remote Control

  • Connectivity

  • Audio & Menus

  • Formats & Media

  • Power Consumption

  • Vs Sony KDL46Z5100

  • Vs Samsung LN40B650

  • Vs JVC LT42P300

  • Conclusion

  • Series Comparison

  • Introduction
  • Tour & Design
  • Blacks & Whites
  • Color Accuracy
  • Motion
  • Viewing Effects
  • Calibration
  • Remote Control
  • Connectivity
  • Audio & Menus
  • Formats & Media
  • Power Consumption
  • Vs Sony KDL46Z5100
  • Vs Samsung LN40B650
  • Vs JVC LT42P300
  • Conclusion
  • Series Comparison

Introduction

Tour & Design

Front


The only features on the front of the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U are the power and timer indicators at the lower right and the infrared sensor for the remote to the right of the Toshiba logo.

 

Back


On the back of the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U you'll find ommost of the ports organized in a group towards the left side and the power out slightly right of center. For information about the ports on the back of the 40XV645U see our Connectivity section.

 

Sides


There are no features on the right side of the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U. On the left side you'll find the on-tv controls sitting just above a smaller selection of ports. For information about the ports on the side of the 40XV645U see our Connectivity section.

 

Stand/Mount


The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U's stand is a simple slap of glossy black plastic that provides a solid base but does not rotate.

 

Controls


The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U's on-tv contols are found on the right side of the HDTV in a group just above the ports on that side.

 

Remote Control


The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U's remote control has a curved light grey back and a matte black front that is studded with glow-in-the-dark buttons across its entire surface.

 

In The Box*(6.5)*


The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U ships with a manual in both english and french. There's also a remote with batteries included and a cleaning cloth, which is a nice extra you don't get with every HDTV. Getting the television set up out of the box is a bit of a chore, however. We had to assemble the stand first, which is an extra step we don't like to see. And lowering the display onto the stand is definitely a two person job.

Aesthetics*(4.0)*


The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U isn't a particularly attractive HDTV. It has the same glossy black bezel you see on most modern televisions, and it can't lay claim to being particularly thin either. Utilitarian is probably the best word for it.

Blacks & Whites

Black Level*(9.11)*


We measured the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U's black level at an impressive 0.06 candelas per meter squared (cd/m2), which is very good. This is significantly better than our average HDTV, and beats outall of our comparison models, although the Sony and Samsung come close to matching it. It far outmatches the JVC model, however.

 

Peak Brightness*(8.30)*


We measured the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U's peak brightness at 298.86 cd/m2. Once again this is good performance, although not quite as impressive as the black level. Below you can see that it lags slightly behind our comparison televisions, but not by much, and it should be plenty bright for any situation.

 

Contrast*(9.15)*


As you might expect from the good black level and peak brightness the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U's contrast ratio is very good at 4981:1. You can see below that this compares favorably with the Sony and Samsung models, falling between the two, and is far better than the JVC model. Contrast ratio is important as the human eye is very sensitive to it.

 

Tunnel Contrast*(9.78)*


In this test we check to make sure that the black level stays constant as progresively less black is displayed on the screen. The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U did very well in this test, with only minor fluctations in the black leve as we went from a 100% black screen to a 5% black screen. This is important because if the black level increases with smaller amounts of black on the screen you lose a lot of your contrast ratio in scenes with only small patches of dark areas. This won't be a problem with the 40XV645U.

 

White Falloff*(9.98)*


This is the opposite of the previous test, here we want to make sure the peak brightness doesn't vary as we reduce the amount of white on the screen. The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U once again performed admirably as the peak brightness stayed rock solid throughout.

 

Uniformity*(5.50)*


In this test we look at the uniformity of an all white and all black screen on the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U. With the all white screen things looked good, with just a small amount of dimming at the corners and along the edges. With the black screen, however, we noticed significant bright areas at the corners and also saw blotches of brighter areas across the center, which is worrisome as this can detract from the viewing experience when looking at darker scenes.

Greyscale Gamma*(8.52)*


We measured the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U's gamma curve at 2.45, which is close to our ideal of 2.1 to 2.2. This means the television should make correct adjustments as it goes from dark to light. Some HDTVs have a much higher gamma, which means the adjustments happen more aggressively and can cause you to lose detail in very dark and bright areas. This shouldn't be a problem with the 40XV645U.

 

Resolution Scaling*(8.33)*


Although the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U is capable of displaying full 1080p content, the reality is that the only place you'll get content at that quality is from a Blu-ray disc. Most of the content that you will get on your HDTV will come in one of the flavors listed below, and in this section we look at how well the HDTV handles these various formats.

480p*(8.50)*

This is the format used by standard definition television and DVDs. The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U's does a good job with 480p content, unlike most HDTVs we were able to adjust the view settings so there was no overscan, although in order to do this we did have to give up using the entire display to view the content, with black bars appearing on the left and right. If you stretch the content out there will be about a 3% overscan at the top and bottom. There were no serious problems with moire patterns, legibility or resolution.

720p*(8.0)*

This is the lowest quality of high definition content and is used on the internet and sometimes by broadcast HDTV sporting events. Once again we were able to get zero overscan, but we did start noticing some problems with moire patterns. In particular we noticed some fine patterns appearing in certain orientations of alternating black and white lines. This was the only significant issue we saw, however.

1080i*(8.50)*

This is the standard used for broadcast HD. Unlike 1080p content, however, it is sent in two sets of 540 lines rather than one set of 1080 lines. This reduces the bandwidth required, but can also introduce problems. Thankfully no major problems were present in our testing.

 

 

Color Accuracy

Color Temperature*(6.69)*


Like stars, which can range from blue hot to cool red, the light given off by your television can also have a color cast depending upon it's temperature. When we calibrated our HDTVs we try and set the color temperature as close to 6500 Kelvin as possible. Ideally this color temperature should not vary as the television ranges across the greyscal from deep greys to bright whites, which is what we look at in this test. Below you can see a graph of the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U's performance in this test.

You can see that the 40XV645U had some problems with the color temperature at the darker end, with a bluish cast appearing, which is a problem and results in the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U's less than impressive score in this test.

 

RGB Curves*(5.82)*


All of the colors your HDTV produces are achieved by mixing different amounts of red, green and blue. As a result the performance of those three colors is very important in determining how well the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U produces colors. Below you can see a graph of the 40XV645U's red, green and blue color curves graphed against intensity.

You can see that the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U had some problems with color reproduction here. In particular the curves show some significant jagged and bumpy spots, most obvious in the blue but also present in red and green. This means that at points the 40XV645U will make innacurate adjustments in color. We also see that the HDTV makes very little differentiation in red and green at the lower end of the intensity scale. This can cause loss of detail in dark areas. At the same time we see that the blue curve never drops to zero, which probably explains some of the problems we saw with color temperature above. The overall result is simply a poor performance all around.

 

Color Gamut*(5.20)*


All televisions must comform to a standard for how they reproduce colors, known as ITU Rec.709. This defines the color gamut for the television, which is the set of coordinates for all colors the HDTV can produce. The purpose is to ensure that the color the content producer wants you to see is actually the color that you see on your television. In this test we looked at how well the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U matched this standard. Below you can see a chart comparing the 40XV645U against Rec.709.

You can see that there are some significant problems, specifically in the blues and greens. What this means is that you won't see colors in those areas in exactly the way you are supposed to. To be fair to the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U very few HDTVs do a good job in this test, but the 40XV645U's performance is still at the lower end of a lackluster range. For those who are geeky enough to be interested you can see the exact color coordinates measured in the table below.

 

 

Motion

Motion Smoothness*(5.25)*


One of the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U's signatue features is 120Hz refresh rate, which theoretically should help with motion performance. Unfortunately we didn't see a ton of evidence for this when looking at moving objects on the display. We did like that moving faces held together pretty well, albeit with an obvious cartoonish cast, but we saw massive amounts of motion blur with moving blocks of color, especially when viewing in 1080i. We've seen significantly better motion smoothness from other HDTVs that sport 120Hz refresh rate, although we should also mention that if you turn this feature off things get really ugly.

 

Motion Artifacting*(4.75)*


Artifacts are things that appear on the display that should not be there. With the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U we detected quite a few artifacts related to moving objects. There was a very obvious judder in certain moving scenes, and we also saw the same rolling shutter effect we've seen on other HDTVs, although the 40XV645U was actually a bit better than average in this respect. What concerned us more is that we saw a flat out inversion of colors in some moving objects, which should never happen.

 

3:2 Pulldown & 24fps*(8.5)*


3:2 pulldown is the process by which an HDTV converts broadcast content that is received at 60 frames per second into 24 frames per second. This is primarily done for films that are supposed to be viewed at the lower frame rate to get that film-like look. The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U did a good job with this conversion, with barely noticeable glitches in our test pattern. You do need to turn on the Film Stabilization feature in the advacned picture menu in order for this conversion to happen appropriately, but there's really no reason not to leave this feature on. There are two options here, Standard and Smooth, in addition to Off. We didn't see a significant difference between the two so select the one that looks best to you. The 40XV645U also supports content that comes in natively at 24 frames per second, for example films played from a DVD or Blu-ray player.

 

Viewing Effects

Viewing Angle*(4.43)*


The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U did not have a very imressive viewing angle, which we measured at 18 degrees from center. This is the point at which the television's contrast ratio falls below 50% of maximum. This is not uncommon amongst LCD televisions, but we've seen better from other LCD televisions, as you can see from our chart below where all three of our comparison televisions are LCDs. Plasma televisions tend to have far better viewing angle.

The result is that if you're sitting on a couch directly in front of the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U you probably won't run into a problem. But if you need a television for a large room where people are viewing the television from a wide range of angles you might want to consider another HDTV.

 

Reflectance*(5.0)*


The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U doesn't do a great job with reflectance, especially with dark scenes. We noticed obvious and significant streaking with lights we shined onto the screen, even when at an angle. When viewing a movie on the HDTV the lights were very distracting. This is one television where you'll want to watch in the dark or be very careful where you place the lights in your room.

 

Video Processing*(4.0)*


Like most HDTVs the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U offers various controls that are meant to help improve your viewing experience, especially with broadcast television. In this section we take a look at each of those and see if there is any effect.

 

 

Calibration

Calibration


[

](http://www.displaymate.com/)In order to ensure that we test HDTVs under the best possible circumstances we calibrate them using DisplayMate software. This is the same software used by many manufacturers. Below you can see our calibrated settings. If you wish you can also pay someone to come into your home and calibrate your HDTV, alternatively you can use our settings, although we need to note that the best calibrations are unique to your viewing environment. The calibrated settings listed below only list items that we changed.

 

 

 

 

Video Modes


As with most HDTVs the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U offers a variety of different video modes. Below we list them and Toshiba's explanation for each.

Remote Control

Ergonomics & Durability*(7.5)*


The 40XV645U's remote does a decent job. In neutral position, the remote sits comfortably in the hand. It's balanced well, its bottom edges are curved, and there's a ridge on the remote's underside for your index finger. The remote's bottom is smooth, which might make it easy to drop. Though the remote seems durable, it's made from lightweight plastic. We think it'd survive a few spills, but it also didn't instill the utmost confidence.

Button Layout & Use*(7.5)*


 

The remote has good button layout overall. With your thumb resting on the select key, you can easily reach the volume and channel changing buttons. You will have to shift your grip slightly to reach the number pad, however, but not very far. The buttons are a good size and are clearly labeled for the most part. The buttons also glow in the dark, but the majority of the descriptors are located on the remote themself. The glowing mainly shows which buttons are where, because it isn't bright enough to illuminate their labels.

The buttons on the remote had good travel, but we would've liked a bit more tactile feedback. The buttons will snap into place gently and sometimes very unevenly. The remote works if it's even vaguely pointed at the front of the TV.

 

Programming & Flexibility*(6.0)*


The remote can be programmed to work with other devices from other manufacturers. Programming the remote is an easy process. You point the remote at the device, hold the RECALL button, and type in a three-digit code. The TV's manual comes with a list of available codes. We were able to get it working with the office cable box without issue.

Connectivity

Input Ports*(7.0)*


The input ports are located on the back and side of the TV. If you're looking at the front of the TV, the ports are clustered on the right side.

The side-facing ports are located just underneath the on-set controls. Here you'll find an HDMI port, composite video input, and a set of analog audio inputs.

The back of the TV provides users with two additional HDMI ports, a pair of component video inputs, an additional composite video input, three sets of analog audio inputs, a VGA port with accompanying 3.5mm audio jack, and an S-Video port. Underneath this cluster of ports, facing down, is the cable in.

 

Output Ports*(2.0)*


The TV only has two output ports, which are located on the back of the TV: one set of analog audio outputs, and a digital audio out port. This is a standard number.

 

Other Connections*(0.0)*


 

The 40XV645U has no other ocnnections, such as wireless or Bluetooth. 

 

 

Media*(1.0)*


 

The 40XV645U has a USB port on its side. You can use this to view photos on the TV. 

 

 

Placement*(6.5)*


The ports are very well placed on the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U. There aren't that many located on the side, but the ones located on the back are very easy to access, with the possible exception of the cable input. The TV doesn't swivel, making the good port location almost necessary.

Audio & Menus

Audio Quality*(4.0)*


 

The Toshiba REGZA 40XV645U doesn't have the best set of built-in speakers we've heard. Voices were very flat, even when the voice boost feature was enabled. The TV had very weak bass with the StableSound feature on and sounded very tinny. When we switched it off it gave the bass a bit more presence, but not much, and the lower bassy sounds made something in the TV vibrate. Interestingly, there is a bass boost feature, but we didn't notice a significant difference between low, high, and off. Regardless of the various advanced audio settings, the audio quality sounded pretty flat.

The TV doesn't have a proper surround sound option, but you can enable the stereo extension feature. This helps localize sound slightly better, but made sounds happening off to the left or right sound like they were happening to the extreme left or right with no real differentiation inbetween. It seemed like something was either playing loudly from one channel and not the other, or equally through both, with very little difference between these three points.

Overall, the speakers won't make you cringe and rush out to buy new ones, but they're not great.

 

 

Menu Interface*(7.5)*


The 40XV645U's menu system is very basic. It features a tabbed interface: icons run across the top, and the highlighted item's menu extends underneath. The top-level menu items are pictures, sound, applications, preferences, and setup.

There isn't anything flashy about the menu system. Submenus open up over their parent menu and you'll have to use the return button to exit out.

The one gripe we have about the menu is that none of the menu items are explained. This is obviously less of an issue for something like the sleep timer, but some proprietary features in the advanced picture menu or audio menu aren't particularly obvious.

 

Manual*(6.0)*


The 40XV645U's manual is packed with information, but isn't very user friendly. For starters, the font is rather small. The manual has a table of contents, but it's very dense. The different chapters are split into headers and subsections. The headers and subsections don't have any differences in the text style or font, but the latter is indented slightly. The manual also doesn't have tabbed pages and its index is pretty sparse, especially compared to the table of contents. The manual does feature pictures and charts, but they, like the text, are a bit too small.

Formats & Media

Formats*(10.0)*


The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U has native support for 1080p content, which is the highest quality of HD content currently available. It also supports other formats, including 480i/p, 720p and 1080i, so it can handle just about anything you throw at it. There is also support for 3:2 pulldown and native 24fps content for getting that film-like view. About the only thing it is lacking is support for an extended color gamut, which some HDTVs now have.

 

Photo Playback*(2.5)*


The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U can play back photos from USB devices connected to the USB port on the right side of the HDTV. The photo playback interface is relatively simple, you see the folder structure on the USB device and must choose a folder with photos in it. This gives you a set of thumbnails, selecting one and pressing the center select button will open it up in full screen with controls outlined at the bottom. You can play a slide show and rotate photos. There's no way to control transitions, play music or any other advanced features here, it's just a basic photo viewer.

 

Music & Video Playback*(0.0)*


The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U does not support music and video playback from storage devices.

 

Streaming Playback*(0.0)*


The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U does not support streaming playback of content from the internet.

 

Other Media*(0.0)*


There are no additional media options on the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U such as a built-in DVD player.

Power Consumption

Power Consumption*(8.67)*


Although we rarely think about it, the cost of an HDTV isn't limited to the purchase price. Some HDTVs consume a lot of power, which can drive up your electricity bill. For this test, we hook the TV up to a wattage meter and run our test show at various backlight levels. We also test the TV when it's powered off or in standby mode, but if such a mode doesn't exist or draw power, we don't include it in the table. In our calculations, we assume as use of 5 hours per day, with the rest in standby mode.

The 40XV645U is less expensive than the average set we review. Even with the backlight blazing it'll only cost about $40/year. The average cost for running the 40XV645U at 200 cd/m2 was under our current average of about $30.

 

 

Below is a chart comparing the 40XV645U's power consumption costs to a few competing TVs. 

 

Vs Sony KDL46Z5100

Value Comparison Summary


The Sony KDL-46Z5100 is a significantly better HDTV than the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U in a variety of ways. It produces much more accurate colors, motion performance is better and it has more connectivity options, including access to online content. It's also a larger HDTV at 46-inches versus the 40XV645U's 40-inches. That would seem to indicate that it's by far the better value, but when you look at the price you have to ask yourself how much all those extra features are worth. At $2,200 the Sony KDL-46Z5100 is going to cost you about 2.5 times the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U. Although we're not enamored of the 40XV645U, you will have to ask yourself if the Sony's improved performance is worth that much more.

Blacks & Whites


Both HDTVs do a very good job with black level and peak brightness, producing excellent overall contrast ratios.

 

Color Accuracy


The Sony KDL-46Z5100 significantly outperforms the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U in color accuracy. It doesn't exhibit the problems with color temperature or banding in RGB curves that we saw on the Toshiba television.

 

 

 

Motion


The Sony KDL-46Z5100 also beats out the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U in motion performance, despite the fact that both sport 120Hz refresh rate. The Sony's processing is simply much better done, with significantly lower motion blur and much fewer artifacts appearing in moving objects.

 

Viewing Effects


Both HDTVs have very reflective displays, so be careful where you place the lights in your room. The viewing angle on the Sony KDL-46Z5100 is significantly wider than the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U, which isn't to say it's paticularly good, just better.

 

Connectivity


The Sony KDL-46Z5100 offers one additional HDMI input and a LAN port for connecting to your computer network and the internet over the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U.

 

Other Comparisons


The Sony KDL-46Z5100 offers significantly better audio quality from the built-in speakers. It also offers a wider arrange of media support as you can play back pictures, music and videos from connected USB devices, versus just pictures for the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U. Finally the internet connectivity offers a wide variety of online sources for additional media, including Amazon's on-demand store.

Vs Samsung LN40B650

Value Comparison Summary


The Samsung LN50B650 is a significantly better HDTV than the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U, offering better color reproduction, motion performance and even slightly better contrast ratio, something the Toshiba excels at. It also brings internet connectivity and better media playback features to the table. You'll pay for these upgrades, however, with the Samsung model retailing for $800 more than the 40XV645U. Even with that price difference, however, we lean towards the Samsung LN40B650 as the better value if you care about the internet connectivity and media playback features.

Blacks & Whites


Both televisions performed very well in this area, with deep blacks, bright whites and amongst the widest contrast ratios we've seen.

 

Color Accuracy


The Samsung LN40B650 performed significantly better in color accuracy. The much more stable color temperature and more accurate red/green/blue performance far outweighs the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U's small edge in color gamut.

 

 

 

Motion


Both televisions sport 120Hz refresh rate, and both have some significant problems. The Samsung LN40B650 produces much less motion blur than the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U, but it actually produces more motion artifacts, which is rather remarkable given that the 40XV645U is not a good television in this regard.

Viewing Effects


The Samsung LN40B650 and the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U have almost identical viewing angles, which means both are poor. They also both have problems with reflectance of light off the screen.

Connectivity


The Samsung LN40B650 offers an extra HDMI port over the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U and also offers an additional USB port and LAN connectivity for accessing network and internet content.

Other Comparisons


The Samsung LN40B650 offers a wider variety of media playback features, with access to internet content from sites like Flickr, as well as video and music playback from USB devices, while the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U lacks any internet connectivity and can only play back photos from the USB port.

Vs JVC LT42P300

Value Comparison Summary


This one is a difficult call as both televisions force you to make compromises. The JVC LT-42P300 offers a built-in iPod/iPhone dock that many will find useful. It also does a significantly better job with color reproduction and equivalent motion performance, which isn't good. The Toshiba, however, is $250 less and offers much better black/white performance. This one really comes down to whether that integrated dock is important to you. If not we'd go with the Toshiba, if it is we'd go with the JVC.

Blacks & Whites


The Toshiba Regza 40XV645U significantly outperforms the JVC LT-42P300 in this area, with much deeper blacks, although the peak brightness is about the same. Those deep blacks have a huge impact on total contrast ratio, however, with the 40XV645U sporting a contrast ratio almost seven times that of the JVC model.

 

Color Accuracy


The JVC LT-42P300 does a significantly better job reproducing colors. The color temperature is much more stable and the color gamut adheres more closely to the international standard. It also does a slightly better job producing accurate reds, greens and blues, so it's just better across the board than the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U.

 

 

 

Motion


Even though the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U sports a 120Hz refresh rate that the JVC model lacks, the motion performance is actually pretty similar.

 

Viewing Effects


The JVC LT-42P300 is the clear winner here, with a wider viewing angle. It also does a significantly better job diffusing light on the display.

 

Connectivity


Both televisions offer 3 HDMI inputs and a rough equivalence in other ports, including a USB port that supports only photo playback. The JVC LT-32P300 takes a big step over the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U by offering an integrated iPod dock, however. This allows you to play music and videos stored on an iPod or iPhone with a nice interface controlled by your remote.

 

Other Comparisons


The JVC LT-42P300 offers slightly better audio quality from the built-in speakers than the Toshiba Regza 40XV645U.

Conclusion

 

 

Series Comparison

XV645U Series


Toshiba's XV645U series is part of their high-end Regza lineup of LCD televisions, sitting just below their XV650U series. This series comes in three sizes, 52, 46 and 40 inches, and all sport 3 HDMI inputs, a USB port and 120Hz refresh rate.

Meet the tester

Alfredo Padilla

Alfredo Padilla

Editor

Alfredo Padilla is a valued contributor to the Reviewed.com family of sites.

See all of Alfredo Padilla's reviews

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