Toshiba 32WLT68 Regza LCD television review

Full Review

With the price of LCD televisions coming down, there is no better time to get a flat screen addition to your living room. Of course the gadget child within you wants you to get a massive 40-inch plus model, but your living room might not be able to take it.

Toshiba's answer is its 32-inch Toshiba 32WLT68 Regza LCD television that comes in a piano black glossy finish and a most notably three HDMI sockets on the rear for connecting all manner of HDMI ready devices such as your HD DVD player, Sky HD or merely a PS3 when it comes out in March.

Buyers looking to get a bigger size in the same style, can of course opt for the 42- and 47-inch variants, however the big thing for HomeCinema buffs to note here is that none of the panels are Full HD-Ready.

720p and 1080i are all that you'll get and while the 32-inch model we tested, 1080p resolution isn't really an issue for the bigger sizes it certainly will be. Why do you need 1080p? Well for those slightly confused by all the HDTV standards 1080p is the definition that both Blu-ray and Toshiba's own HD DVD standard play back at. Anything else, although not entirely noticeable, is, as some would have you to believe, substandard.

Back to the 32WLT68 and chances are, if you're really that much of a HomeCinema fan this will either be your second TV or you're not really into the idea of a large screen in your living room.

Connectivity wise and the 32WLT68 is excellent. Hidden alongside the on button behind the screen to the right - it means there are no buttons on the front - there is an HDMI slot, S-Video and video and audio phonos in addition to the further connections on the rear.

At the rear there is a further two HDMI sockets, as mentioned above, and a component video input for your Xbox 360.

You also get two Scarts, a D-SUB PC input, S-Video and composite both analogue and optical digital audio outputs and a dedicated subwoofer output. There is also a CI slot for adding subscription services to the integrated digital tuner like TopUp TV.

It might be designed well and feature plenty of connections, but does the picture justify the effort? The Toshiba 32WLT68 features a technology Toshiba call Active Vision M100. According to Toshiba it works on a rather simple and effective principle of refreshing the picture 50 or 60 times a second, doubling the signal scanning to make it 100 or 120 (Hz) so as to reduce the afterglow.

It's a different approach to other manufacturers that sometime slip a black frame in between each frame to achieve the same result.

Either way the end result on the Toshiba screen is very good with the screen coping with plenty of movement on everything we tried it on from Sky HD to some movies and Xbox 360 games.

The catch is that compared to other screens the results do come across slightly darker, but then if you've got the lights down low to watch you favourite movie this shouldn't be a problem.

Verdict

Toshiba has updated its 32WLT66 with a stylish casing that sits comfortably on its swivel stand and offers plenty of connectivity features and good screen quality to boot.

However upsizing to the 42- or 47-inch model will mean that you won't get the 1080p support making this score only good for the 32-inch model rather than the complete range if you are looking to take full advantage of HD playback via a Blu-ray or HD DVD player.

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