Toshiba 42ZV650U

High Definition is the latest in the ‘must have’ of the technological world, and the Toshiba 42ZV650U is a High Definition television set that offers you the chance to watch all compatible programs in the highest quality possible. There are hundreds of manufacturers all trying to seduce you with their products and convince you to purchase their television, and the range of prices is equally vast, so choosing can be a bit of a headache. The Toshiba 42ZV650U is going to set you back just over $1000 which, in terms of its screen size is possibly at the expensive end, but features clever technology that justifies the price. So, is this the headache relief you have been looking for, or will you get a better deal with a different television?

Toshiba Regza 42ZV650U

Overview

We are not going to spend a long time looking at the product design, as televisions are largely all similar, so we would rather focus on what the marketing people are offering to tempt you to purchase their television before we look at the functionality. The Toshiba 42ZV650U is a 42 inch flat panel LCD screen, and has a black casing, which doesn’t detract from the screen. It is very neat and has just a couple of visible power lights on the bottom right corner.

What Toshiba want you to know is that this is a 1080p full high definition display, which uses ClearScan 240™ with Backlight Scanning, and has been awarded a DivX‚ certification. Also included in the list of selling points is the fact that the Toshiba 42ZV650U has gaming mode and input labeling, and like all of the high definitions in the Toshiba family the set has the Energy Star rating and is part of their own Toshiba Earth Protection Group, so meets their own ‘green’ standards.

Actual user review:
“This tv provides very good features for the price, HD viewing is excellent, out of the box picture quality settings are good, sound is surely better compared to other lcd’s, I haven’t tried gaming yet, but connected the PC to it and the quality was still good. No clouding, flashlighting and watched sports without any motion blur. The bezel looks good and the screen can be considered shiny but definitely not more than the sammy ones. At night with all the lights out the movies are awesome, black levels look good to me but I am no expert. Take a look at this before you select any other new panels.” – G.Saldanha (NY,USA)

Key Features

That all sounds very good, but let’s have a look at this product in more detail and see whether this selling points reflect the performance or whether it is actually a bit disappointing. The 42-inch LCD screen is a substantial screen, and could dominate a small room too much; the ZV650U range also offers a 47 and 55 version. All the televisions in this series have been labeled by Toshiba as being part of their Deep Lagoon™ range, which refers to the design of the actual set, giving a 3 dimensional depth which sounds a bit too hyped for us. The set looks fine as far as we can see; enough said. However, Toshiba are incredibly proud of it so we will mention it.

Remember the clever technology we referred to at the beginning of the article that justifies the money? Well, this technology is what makes the picture quality better than some of the LED High Definition televisions on the market. This is the ClearScan 240™ technology and is basically an emulation tool that gives the impression that this is a true higher refresh rate 240Hz television, although Toshiba make no bones of the fact it’s just an emulation which drags the performance of this 120Hz unit up to a 240Hz level. Hey, it works, and we are impressed as it does deal effectively with blurring and creates an anti-blurring effect that a true 240Hz set would be proud of. Sadly, it isn’t as good as a genuine 240Hz performance when it comes to some other picture issues and doesn’t deal at all well with lighter black levels.

Looking at the rear of the unit, we were impressed with the connectivity ability, as there are 4 HDMI connectors in total. One is offset on the side of the unit, but that works for us. There is the USB port that we would expect to find, an SD card slot, and 5 other VGA/S-video connectors, and of course the clear labeling they are also proud to report. There is certainly nothing missing that we would expect to find, so thumbs up there.

Conclusion

The Toshiba 42ZV650U is a robust piece of kit that for the money is average, as the picture quality is reasonable but not the best we have seen on other products in a comparable range. What did impress us was the color performance as this really was spot on, apart from that all-important black level which we already mentioned as disappointing. The ability to manipulate the color in the color management system is impressive as the range is extensive and you can then lock the color when you have found the level for you, which is certainly a bonus.

Average User Rating:

• “I bought this TV online after going to Best Buy and taking a look at it. The contrast is amazing! The color is crisp and the response time being 8 ms made no discernible difference to me. I was thinking that might be a downer in scenes with a lot of quick motion, but it was not a problem. It was just as clear on fast-motion fight scenes. I am impressed. 120Hz is just beautiful and silky smooth! I believe the TV also emulates 240Hz. The menu system is well-thought-out. I was able to customize the picture settings to my liking without getting into the manual. When I did get into the manual, it was actually well-written and easy to understand. All in all, I think this was a very good buy. You get more screen size and better features for less $$ than other brands. For those who want a quick up-or-down on this TV: two thumbs waaaay up!” – D.Chappell (AL,USA)
• “I was a little hesitant about buying toshiba since I was always a samsung fan and the toshiba tv’s never seemed to match up in picture quality. I am happy to say that this tv turned that thought process around for me. Thus far I have had no issues with the TV and the picture looks amazing. When comparing with other models this one outclassed the samsung b650 to me but the b750 did seem slightly better. Though when considering the b750 was $600 more than what I payed for this set and 2″ smaller I can easily say this was the best bang for my buck tv by far.” – J.Boyd (USA)

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