Toshiba 42WLT66 review

As mentioned above, the TV has a high-resolution panel, but there's more to its picture processing than simply the capacity to show loads of detail. Working alongside this is Active Vision (Toshiba's own image-processing technology), digital noise reduction, a comb filter and automatic progressive scan -- all working together with the intention of improving the quality of whatever signal you feed the screen. Additionally, there is a selection of picture formats (4:3, 16:9 etc) and pre-set modes, the latter meaning you don't have to adjust each separate picture parameter every time you feel like changing the picture.

Even so, we got the best results from the TV when we adjusted the settings individually -- you can even make tiny adjustments to the brightness of the light behind the screen. Like most LCDs, it does benefit from some tweaking depending on the room conditions. For example, in a dimly lit room, the rather low contrast ratio occasionally makes dark scenes look slightly murky and indistinct, even if they looked fine during the day -- a little tinkering with the settings helps to sort this out.

Audio-wise, you get a basic stereo speaker set-up (with the option of adding a £150 active subwoofer for extra bass performance) with Bass Boost and SRS WOW enhancement. The latter is designed to give a 3D effect from two speakers. These functions can be turned on or off in the menu system as you see fit.

Performance
The 1,920x1,080-pixel screen does a fantastic job with hi-def content. We fed it an upscaled version of Kingdom of Heaven from a Denon DVD player and, while a little dark and dingy at times, the image was nicely detailed and sharp. True 1080i sources were also excellent: unsurprisingly, Call of Duty 2 from an Xbox 360 looked superb (and the screen's quick response time meant ghosting and motion blur was not an issue) and 1080i high-definition clips from our testing box looked smooth, sharp and vibrant.

Standard definition doesn't fare quite so well. We watched a good portion of the World Cup on this television (via Sky) and the picture was almost always plagued by masses of speckly MPEG compression artefacts, particularly around the players and ball. This is partly due to the quality of the source, but the (admittedly much pricier) Philips 42PF9831D eliminated the ugliness far more effectively.

Sound quality is reasonably good. There's more bass than you'd expect from the tiny hidden speakers, and the SRS WOW is an interesting change from normal audio output -- don't expect miracles in terms of its pseudo surround sound, though.

Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Nick Hide