Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Got this TV less than a week ago, at an unbelievable price (especially considering this TV is new for the second half of 2010)
First, the basics: bezel is not too thick, and the TV set is very thin. Mind you, not as thin as those 1cm top-line Samsungs or LGs but for around 700 bucks I wouldn't get nitpicky. This TV is feather weight; as indicated it weights a bit over 30 lbs with the stand. Look is very clean.
Inputs: 4x HDMI is plenty, and component video doubles as composite (so you can't hook up both at once). PC (VGA) input supports up to around 1368 x 768 resolution. Have no idea why, but this is stated by the manufacturer so be warned. I suggest using a cheap DVI to HDMI or VGA to HDMI adapter (if the computer doesn't have HDMI already) for getting 1920x1080 resolution from your computer.
Picture quality: Excellent. Contrast, black levels all very good. Reproduction of colors is also very good out of the box, though there are plenty of menu items for tweaking the picture settings. Brightness is not a problem, as I am using this set in a fairly dim room and it hurts to watch on the highest brightness setting. During the daytime there is a small (but negligible) amount of glare when watching dark scenes. I am not a professional, but I do have experience with a number of different sets and technologies. Only caveat on picture quality: when dark, there is noticeable bleeding/clouding/leak from the LED backlight. This is only noticed switching between channels, or if you're playing content that is taking up less than 5% of the screen. Viewing angle is excellent side-to-side (nearly 180 degrees), but narrower up-down (you start getting into contrast issues).
Note on 120hz: don't buy this or any other TV only for the ClearFrame, MotionFlow, etc. It makes filmed content (native 24p or 30p) look really weird. The classic example is the movie vs. daytime soap opera effect. It can make filmed content look like it was shot through a home camcorder. Obviously, if you watch live sports, etc. this is helpful, but just not for movies and filmed TV content. This model, like all others, allows you to switch off the 120hz feature.
Sound: I commented on a previous review about this, and this is the topic that prompted me to write my own. At first, the sound was horrible. If you're looking to buy a TV set with decent sound, get a Sony. This TV has "invisible" speakers to fit its thin frame, so I wasn't expecting great sound. But the TV sounded like crap at first. It turns out that there was a very thin (and nearly invisible) protective film covering the metal strip at the bottom of the screen (the speakers). Once I removed the strip, the sound quality was upgraded from crap to acceptable. Not great, but it wouldn't need to prompt buyer concern or anger. For the first couple days, it did force me to investigate some options for the TV, which made me discover that there was no option other than optical out if you wanted to hook this set up to better sound.
Features/Widgets: Menu is good, but not great. Sometimes, it can be confusing as to what you're looking for (setting up the wireless is split into three options in order of technical difficulty, for example). The built in apps are a great bonus, and include the VUDU suite of streaming content features for Pandora, Facebook, etc. The one drawback is that the remote is not suited for letter input, so be prepared for some real pain when inputting your login and password over and over again. Netflix wasn't available built-in, but hook it up to the internet once and upgrade the TV firmware and it will install the Netflix capability. The Media Player feature hooks up to your home network thanks to the TV's DLNA cert, and surprisingly works much faster to download and buffer songs and videos than my PS3. Perhaps it's due to the faster N wireless spec, or perhaps the TV is downgrading the quality of content (HD from my media server streams as SD). To me, internet on TV is still more of a gimmick, but it has made much progress in the last couple years.
Note: this TV ships with a wifi adapter, which saves you quite a bit of $$. Other manufacturers force you to buy in to their proprietary adapter USB stick. I think Toshiba realized that the thing only costs two bucks to make and threw it in as mercy for consumers.
I'm giving it 4/5 stars as an overall TV, with one star removed for sound (those of you with home theater systems wouldn't care) and backlight bleeding (which is not noticeable when there's anything on screen). When considering the price (this TV was up for sale a week ago on another respectable site in the low 600s) it is hands down a 5/5.
[UPDATE 2011/02/02]
TV is still going strong... definitely am still in love with this set, though prices for HDTVs in general have been dropping so just make sure to compare. NICE BONUS - the TV specs said that it only accepted XGA resolution from the PC input (which was the case for my Mac mini), but somehow when I connected it to my Thinkpad I could display at 1920x1080. Just FYI.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Toshiba 40UL605U 40-Inch 1080p 120 Hz Ultra Thin LED HDTV, Black
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