Toshiba REGZA 42ZV650U 42 inch 1080p LCD HDTV display
This TV is a ClearScan 240Hz Black and is better than a Samsung LN40B650.
Image Quality.
The picture is excellent! No worries about ghosting, flash lighting, and ‘clouding’. I see no dead or stuck pixels. It has excellent color reproduction with vibrant colors. It is realistic but not over-saturated. Black levels are not a light gray with this screen. It is actually very close to actual black. However, there is some minimal light bleeding. This is to be expected in a LCD. It is most noticeable with the lights on.
At 240hz, you get a great picture with almost no ‘jitter’. Pans and zooms are smooth with no added blurring. Resolution+ (aka SRT) makes a big difference for non-HD viewing.
Gaming.
Compared to my older Sony 42″ LCD, my Gamecube looks much better. There are fewer artifacts and jagged edges look much smoother. Playing Bioshock looks awesome!
Movies.
DVDs look great, including older films. I watched Trinity and Beyond: the Atomic Bomb. It is an excellent movie showing film from the 50s and 60s. The movie looked absolutely spectacular, with digitally restored archival film footage of atomic bomb tests.
Sound.
I was surprised with the sound quality. For a TV where you can’t see the speakers, you get a surprisingly good sound. The Dolby Volume feature is great when you need to lower the volume during transitions from a quiet TV/movie to a loud commercial.
The volume doesn’t double itself when showing commercials! The speakers have a fair amount of bass for their size. They don’t sound ‘distant’ or ‘from the bottom of a barrel’.
Remote.
The remote control is good enough. It lets me use my Xbox 360 DVD player and Comcast cable box (Motorola) and TV after programming the remote. It feels firm and sturdy with solid buttons. It would be nice if the buttons were illuminated, though.
Some like to keep DVD players out of sight behind a cabinet. The IR pass-through feature on the TV looks useful for that. I don’t use it since my AV components are all visible.
Media Player.
The Media player looks limited. You can view digital photos on the TV from a SD card / USB Flash. However, the Toshiba’s options are too basic for that. Video playback looks promisng. However, I encode my videos in h.264 (for iPod/iPhone). This Toshiba does not support that (as far as I can tell).
Comparison Shopping.
Instead of the Samsung LN40B650 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color panel, I chose the Toshiba because of it’s overall picture quality. Overall color, contrast, brightness, and black levels are better. The 240hz smoothing effect is top-notch. Resolution+ up-conversion helps a lot with DVDs and other SD content. The excellent audio quality/features with commercial quieting were easy sells.
The design is more attractive to me, because the Touch of Color Red is not my taste. Plus, the Toshiba is a lot cheaper than the Samsung.
The Toshiba 42ZV650U is the best choice in my book!
Glare Problem.
This LCD reflects way too much light. When the Toshiba LCD is off, or when showing dark scenes, it is like looking at a mirror! The glare is so noticeable, you’d think it was a plasma TV.
This glare issue does not seem to be limited to this Toshiba. Many of the LCD TVs I considered have a very high gloss frame. They reflect a lot of light. Why they don’t use a flat black frame is beyond me. It’s annoying that it reflects light in the room.
