Toshiba 32WL56 review

Features
The TV doesn't feature an integrated digital tuner, which is our main problem with its functionality. Otherwise, it ticks all the right boxes for the demanding user, even though it's a relatively cheap television. The television boasts high-definition compatibility, with the ability to display 480p, 576p, 720p and 1080i video. 480p and 576p are terms for NTSC (American and Japanese) and PAL (European) video, and if you're using a progressive-scan DVD player then you'll see a much more stable image from the TV.

720p and 1080i are the two high-definition standards that look to be supported by Sky, and as the higher number suggests, the difference is more lines of resolution. 720p can be played back line for line, whereas 1080i has to be scaled down to fit the panel's 1366x768-pixel resolution. If your craving for high definition is reaching its peak, then you can invest in an 'upscaling' DVD player, which will take standard 480 or 576 video and upscale it to high-definition resolutions. It won't increase the detail from the original DVD (as it can only reproduce what's there), but it should make DVDs appear more natural over standard players. You should invest in one of these if you want to get the best from your shiny new TV.

Active Vision is intended to boost picture performance -- even high-definition content can need a little cleaning up when it's shown on a 32-inch screen. Active Vision can handle the cleaning up of high definition material at the pixel level, and it also promises to make motion smoother. 360° motion estimation is a fancy name for the way Active Vision processes moving people and objects, so that they look smooth when they come out on the panel. Any jitter on fine detail and text is eliminated by altering the sequence of line scanning down the screen. Conversely, if you're watching an action film and nearly the entire two hours is made up of camera pans, the Active Vision engine will sense this change and temporarily disable Active Motion processing. Clever stuff.

The options menu won't give Sony any nightmares -- it's plain and uninspiring. If you don't get bored by flicking through it all, you'll find a few more useful options, including Black Stretch and MPEG Noise Reduction. We found the contrast levels to be the weakest part of the Toshiba's performance overall (see below), but you can use Black Stretch to automatically make the darkest parts of the picture as black as the LCD panel is capable. MPEG noise is a common flaw of compressed video (both DVDs and digital TV), so you can use the reduction setting on the 32WL56 to help keep the reigns on this common digital artefact. There's also SRS WOW enhancement for the speakers, which you can use if you feel the television's audio needs more oomph.

Performance
With the help of Active Vision LCD picture processing, Toshiba has developed an LCD panel that can compete with the big boys, if not touch the greatness set by Panasonic, Sony and Sharp. The picture is as crisp as we've seen and DVD movies scream by with nary a judder in sight. It treats poor quality sources particularly well, with standard Freeview showing plenty of detail, if still blocky in background areas.

The screen's contrast is slightly low compared to the competition, and you can really see this manifested on screen with a poor amount of shadow detail and a lack of clarity in darker movies. It also means that all images have a certain flatness, and where colours have jumped off the screens of Panasonic and Sony LCDs, the picture itself wasn't quite as alive this time. There's no better test for this than an Xbox and a copy of Burnout Revenge, and as the streets whooshed by we didn't feel that we were inhabiting a living, breathing world.

An HDMI input also means that you can pump in some high-definition video. We're currently loving the selection of movie trailers on offer at Apple's revamped Web site -- they're a great test of any LCD. You can be assured that once Blu-ray and HD DVD arrive, you'll want to make the investment. Picture quality overall was best when using the HDMI, VGA or component inputs, but we were impressed with the picture quality from Scart, which was comparatively one of the best we've seen with a DVD player or Freeview.

Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Nick Hide