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DEAL WATCH: Keurig K-Express | 22% off $69.99

Keurig has changed the face of coffee, and snagging one of these for less than $70 is a solid deal. Read Review

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  • Introduction

  • Overall Design

  • Front

  • Back

  • Sides

  • Remote Control

  • In the Box

  • Black Level

  • Peak Brightness

  • Contrast

  • Tunnel Contrast

  • White Falloff

  • Uniformity

  • Greyscale Gamma

  • Color Temperature

  • RGB Curves

  • Motion Performance

  • 3:2 Pulldown & 24fps

  • Resolution Scaling

  • Formats

  • Viewing Angle

  • Reflectance

  • Video Processing

  • Calibration

  • Video Modes

  • Connectivity

  • Placement

  • Audio Quality

  • Menu Interface

  • Instruction Manual

  • Local Media Playback

  • Power Consumption

  • Value Comparison

  • Blacks & Whites

  • Color Accuracy

  • Motion

  • Viewing Effects

  • Connectivity

  • Value Comparison

  • Blacks & Whites

  • Color Accuracy

  • Motion

  • Viewing Effects

  • Connectivity

  • Value Comparison

  • Blacks & Whites

  • Color Accuracy

  • Motion

  • Viewing Effects

  • Connectivity

  • Conclusion

  • Photo Gallery

  • Ratings & Specs

  • Introduction
  • Overall Design
  • Front
  • Back
  • Sides
  • Remote Control
  • In the Box
  • Black Level
  • Peak Brightness
  • Contrast
  • Tunnel Contrast
  • White Falloff
  • Uniformity
  • Greyscale Gamma
  • Color Temperature
  • RGB Curves
  • Motion Performance
  • 3:2 Pulldown & 24fps
  • Resolution Scaling
  • Formats
  • Viewing Angle
  • Reflectance
  • Video Processing
  • Calibration
  • Video Modes
  • Connectivity
  • Placement
  • Audio Quality
  • Menu Interface
  • Instruction Manual
  • Local Media Playback
  • Power Consumption
  • Value Comparison
  • Blacks & Whites
  • Color Accuracy
  • Motion
  • Viewing Effects
  • Connectivity
  • Value Comparison
  • Blacks & Whites
  • Color Accuracy
  • Motion
  • Viewing Effects
  • Connectivity
  • Value Comparison
  • Blacks & Whites
  • Color Accuracy
  • Motion
  • Viewing Effects
  • Connectivity
  • Conclusion
  • Photo Gallery
  • Ratings & Specs

Introduction

Overall Design

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The {{product.name}} has a rather thick black bezel made of glossy black that surrounds three sides of the screen. The bottom lip is a wider than the rest and transitions into a halftone grey pattern. The design is a little dated, but at least they're trying something beyond the plain, black frame. The base is cheap plastic, which is frequently the dead giveaway that you're looking at a cheap TV.

Front

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Back

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Sides

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Remote Control

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We had mixed feelings about the remote control. It's compact and lightweight, but the button placement is cramped and difficult to feel your way around without constantly looking down.

In the Box

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The {{product.name}} ships with the remote control and batteries, stand and necessary screws, and guide on setting up your TV, and assorted documentation. There is no complete manual. That's available for download here.

Black Level

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The {{product.name}} has a respectable black level of 0.08 cd/m2. That's quite good for an LCD television. As you can see in the chart below, it beats the Samsung, but not quite the Vizio. LG trailed the pack by quite a bit. The Toshiba's performance is a bit misleading, though, because there is very little detail in the shadows. More on how we test black level.

Peak Brightness

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The {{product.name}} is plenty bright. Take a look at the chart. The whites peak out at a dazzling 361.46 cd/m2. More on how we test peak brightness.

Contrast

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The {{product.name}} has a contrast ratio of 4519:1, which compared very favorably to the three TVs we pulled in for comparison. More on how we test contrast.

Tunnel Contrast

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The {{product.name}} has no problems maintaining a consistent black level, no matter how much or how little black is on the screen. More on how we test tunnel contrast.

White Falloff

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The {{product.name}} produces a perfectly level peak brightness. More on how we test white falloff.

Uniformity

Greyscale Gamma

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The greyscale gamma measures how well the TV transitions from black to white within the greyscale. What we're looking for in the chart below, ideally, is a slow and steady slope upwards. Instead, we're presented with this mess – a complete lack of detail in the shadows. That whole portion of the line in the lower left represents the darkest signal intensities, and as you can see the TV's luminance doesn't respond by getting brighter. It stays flat, then suddenly hits a threshold point and shoots upward at far too steep an angle. More on how we test greyscale gamma.

Color Temperature

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The {{product.name}} definitely had a hard time displaying a consistent color temperature. As you can see in the chart below, as the signal intensity goes from darkest to lightest, a white screen will alternately appear warmer or darkest. More on how we test color temperature.

RGB Curves

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For whatever problems we saw in the color temperature test, the {{product.name}} produced smooth color curves. This means you can expect smooth transitions in color gradations. Blue skies, solid-color fabrics, green leaves – these are all objects that require the TV to show every possible shade in seamless gradations. This isn't necessarily the best TV we've seen, but it's very good for the price. More on how we test RGB curves.

Below are digital recreations of the color data from our tests, compared with three similar TVs, as well as an ideal response curve.

Motion Performance

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The motion performance of the {{product.name}} is decent, on the whole. There are definitely issues with judder, wherein moving objects have a certain flicker to them. It's especially noticeable if the object has vertical stripes. On the plus side, we didn't notice any motion artifacts like color trailing or halos, which can occur in even the best of TVs. More on how we test motion performance.

3:2 Pulldown & 24fps

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The {{product.name}} has a little trouble with native 24fps content, like you'd get from a Blu-Ray movie. When we looked at patterns that can be challenging for TVs, like high contrast / high frequency patterns, the TV created a lot of judder, blurring, and visual "buzzing." There was no setting in the TV's menu to eliminate the problems – something many higher-end TVs offer. More on how we test 3:2 pulldown and 24fps.

Resolution Scaling

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The {{product.name}} has a native resolution of 1366 x 768. This is near, but not identical to, the 720p broadcast standard. The 1366 x 768 resolution is not uncommon in TVs, but it does present some serious performance issues. Because none of the broadcast standards are natively supported, everything you display on the {{product.name}} has to be reformatted by the TV's internal processing to fit the screen. It's not great at this task. More on how we test resolution scaling.

480p

The 480p video was the only NTSC broadcast format that looked good.

720p

The 720p format (1280 x 720) is the closest resolution to the TV's native resolution of 1366 x 768, but far enough apart to cause problems. High contrast / high frequency patterns created terrible Moires.

1080p

The 1080p content we displayed on the {{product.name}} was nearly illegible. We could not read fine text and many types of patterns created Moires. It wasn't a pretty sight.

Formats

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The {{product.name}} is frequently advertised of having a resolution of 720p, but it's actual native resolution is 1366 x 786. Calling it 720p is a bit of a misnomer. It's close, but not identical, to the 720p broadcast signal, which is 1280 x 720. The TV can handle all the NTSC resolutions, but it has to rescale them all to fit the screen.

Viewing Angle

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The {{product.name}} has a narrow viewing angle, typical for an LCD TV. However, if you look at the chart below, you'll see that some LCD TVs can perform a little better than others. If you're looking for a TV with a really wide viewing angle (i.e., a TV for a wide, shallow room) buy a plasma. The {{product.name}}'s total viewing angle was measured at 33 degrees, or 17 degrees from center in either direction.

Reflectance

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The {{product.name}} has an unfortunately reflective screen – unfortunate in that it has both of the biggest common problems with screen reflectivity. When hit with a strong light, we saw a wide, diffuse glow and a very distracting rainbow patterns that branched out in four directions. Usually, our testing reveals one problem or the other. Toshiba went all out with the C110U and gave us both.

Video Processing

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The {{product.name}} is an inexpensive TV and has very few special features. Those Toshiba did include don't do much.

Calibration

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The {{product.name}} was not difficult to calibrate, with the exception of the "Gamma" setting, which puzzled us. Typically, if there is a gamma setting on a TV, it's defaulted to zero (or whatever the middle value is in its scale). When we put the {{product.name}} in Movie mode, the Gamma setting was preset at -2. We ran all our tests with the setting at -2 and at 0. The -2, the default, gave the better overall performance, especially in color tests.

[

All of our calibration is done in conjunction with the DisplayMate software.

](http://www.displaymate.com/)

Video Modes

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There are a handful of video modes.

Connectivity

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The {{product.name}} is limited to just two HDMI inputs, one VGA with accompanying audio input, one component AV input, and one composite input. You also get a digital audio output. That's considerably less that what you'd get on a TV for even a hundred dollars more. This is clearly not the choice for your home entertainment hub, but it's fine for a bedroom, kitchen, or the like.

On the side, you'll find a USB port that can read USB mass storage devices to play photos and audio files.

Placement

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The ports on the back of the {{product.name}} are all easy to reach and the TV is just so lightweight that its easy to pick up and spin around. The panel does not swivel on its base. We wish that Toshiba could have placed some video input ports on the side for quick swaps.

Audio Quality

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The audio quality of the {{product.name}}'s 7W speakers is quite bad. It's a step up from those little speakers you take to the beach for your iPod, but only by a little. The menu offers options for bass and treble control, but they can't really add any more bass.

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The menu is extremely simple, which is rarely a bad thing. All the options are clearly laid out. It's certainly not a beautiful interface, but it gets the job done and keeps you from getting lost. We've seen a lot worse.

Our only complaint is that the response time between hitting a button on the remote and getting a reaction from the TV can be a little laggy. You also need to point the remote directly at the IR sensor.

Instruction Manual

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The instruction manual (available in its complete form for download) is quite detailed and explains all the menu settings and specs. You'll want to download it here because the paper version included in the box is much abbreviated.

A manual for so many TV models, they have to be further categorized by type.

Local Media Playback

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The {{product.name}} has a single USB port on the side that can connect to USB mass storage devices to read photos and music files. Unfortunately, the range of compatible file types is extremely limited: JPEGs and MP3 files only. The interface is rudimentary but straightforward. When you plug in a device, you're asked if you want to access the data. Answer in the affirmative and it asks you to choose either music or photos. Unfortunately, you can only look at one media type at a time.

The TV lets you create slideshows and add music from the USB device to play in the background.

Power Consumption

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The {{product.name}} requires very little power to operate, only $11.26 a year, on average. That's cheap, even for an 32-inch LCD.

It compares quire favorably to the competition, as you can see in the chart below.

Value Comparison

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The Samsung LN32D450 is a modest offering from the TV manufacturing dynamo. At an MSRP of $399, it's just a tad more expensive than the {{product.name}}, priced at $349. It's only 720p and lacks a lot of the features that make more expensive Samsungs worthwhile, like internet connectivity. While we weren't blown away with the image performance, it generally performed better than the Toshiba, especially when it comes to shadow detail.

Blacks & Whites

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The Samsung couldn't match the {{product.name}} for raw scores in black level and peak brightness, but the Samsung had the benefit of actually showing details in the shadows.

Color Accuracy

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The Samsung produced better color than the {{product.name}}, all told. We liked the Toshiba's color curves, but the Samsung had better color temperature consistency and colors that were closer to the HDTV standards.

Motion

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We noted some distinct problems with the Samsung's motion performance, which was particularly laggy. The Toshiba was better in this regard.

Viewing Effects

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The Samsung and Toshiba viewing angles were virtually identical, about 32 degrees. It's not very good.

Connectivity

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The {{product.name}} is notably short on ports. Though the Samsung is no exemplar of connectivity, it beats the Toshiba with more AV inputs.

Value Comparison

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We reviewed the LG 37LK450 ($599 MSRP), but there's a 32-inch version in the same series that retails for $499 MSRP, which is considerably more than the {{product.name}} ($349 MSRP). We were deeply impressed with the color performance, though the contrast ratio left something to be desired. All in all, we'd take the LG despite the poor black levels. The native 1080p resolution combined with the better color performance make it a better TV, all around. Is it $150-better? That's hard to say. There are probably better $500 TVs out there.

Blacks & Whites

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The LG LK450, like many LG TVs we reviewed this year, fell short on the black level tests. Yes, the screen was nice and bright, but the Toshiba's contrast ratio was ultimately wider. However, we would probably prefer the LG, as you can actually see the detail in the shadows. This was a notable problem with the Toshiba.

Color Accuracy

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Though deficient in black level, the LG LCD televisions tend to have excellent color performance and the LK450 was no exception. It handily beat the {{product.name}}.

Motion

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The LG and Toshiba were very similar in their motion performance – just a bit of judder but few other problems.

Viewing Effects

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The LG LK450 managed a wider viewing angle than the {{product.name}}, but neither was stellar.

Connectivity

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The LG offers far more connectivity options than the {{product.name}}.

Value Comparison

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The Vizio M320VT ($539 MSRP) costs nearly a hundred dollars more than the {{product.name}}, but you get a lot for your money. The resolution is 1080p rather than 720p and nearly all the performance metrics were better. There's little question that it's a homely television to look at, but the {{product.name}} is no prizewinner itself. If you feel that improved video performance is worth about $90 extra, go ahead and buy the Vizio.

Blacks & Whites

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The Vizio M320VT produced an excellent black level and peak brightness. The contrast ratio was nearly identical to the {{product.name}}, but we prefer the Vizio, which displays far more detail in the shadows.

Color Accuracy

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The Vizio scored well in the color tests, generally. On the whole, it's preferable.

Motion

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The {{product.name}} and the Vizio M320VT were very similar in their motion performance. Both showed some judder but few other outstanding problems.

Viewing Effects

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The Vizio M320VT showed a far wider viewing angle than the {{product.name}}. It was among the better LCDs we've reviewed.

Connectivity

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The Vizio has a full complement of four HDMI inputs, while the {{product.name}} has just two. Most other connectivity options are the same.

Conclusion

The {{product.name}} ($349 MSRP) is a budget TV, so we try not to ask for too much. For instance, there are few special features. The design elements – both exterior and interface designs – range from drab to downright ugly. Those are small problems and easily forgiven. However, we cannot ignore core performance issues.

The results from the color tests were generally good, except for some issues with color temperature consistency. The TV suffered two graver problems. First, there was very little detail in the shadows. We ran the tests a few times to be sure. If you like, you can locate the Gamma control in the menu and bump it up from the default setting of -2 to a setting of zero. That will gain you some shadow detail but negatively impact color performance.

The second major problem was the sharpness. The {{product.name}} has a native resolution of 1366 x 768, which doesn't match up to any broadcast standard. As a result, every signal sent to the TV has to be re-sized, which it does poorly.

Overall, you can't ask for much at this price, but you shouldn't have to settle either. There are plenty of choices out there around this price range. We recommend reading the Vizio M320VT and Samsung LN32D450 reviews before you buy.

{{photo_gallery "Front Tour Image", "Back Tour Image", "Sides Tour Image", "Stand Photo", "Controls Photo", "Remote Control Photo", "Connectivity Tour Image 1", "Connectivity Tour Image 2", "Connectivity Extra Photo", "Menu Main Photo", "Menu 2 Photo", "Internet Features 1 Photo", "Internet Features 2 Photo", "Internet Features 3 Photo", "Local Media Playback 1 Photo", "Local Media Playback 2 Photo"}}

Ratings & Specs

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Meet the tester

David Kender

David Kender

Editor in Chief

@davekender

David Kender oversees content at Reviewed as the Editor in Chief. He served as managing editor and editor in chief of Reviewed's ancestor, CamcorderInfo.com, helping to grow the company from a tiny staff to one of the most influential online review resources. In his time at Reviewed, David has helped to launch over 100 product categories and written too many articles to count.

See all of David Kender's reviews

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