Toshiba Regza 37C3030D review

High-definition picture quality was excellent. Serenity looked superb -- there was plenty of detail in the dark scenes, and the colour was bright and vibrant. Happy Gilmore looked bright and colourful, but as usual we were amazed at the flaws high definition shows up. There are a number of scenes in Happy Gilmore that aren't focused properly -- on DVD we never noticed, but on HD DVD it's really very obvious indeed.

In the ongoing battle between overly soft Freeview pictures and ones that show up every picture defect, we found the Toshiba sat firmly in the soft category. We didn't dislike the Freeview picture, although the softness meant details were slightly washed out. Colour was good though, and overall we felt the picture was decent enough.

Sound was a little weak. We found that when listening to speech only, we were able to easily hear what was said, but as soon as a sound effect was added, speech was drowned out and less distinct. We tested some external speakers hooked up to our HD DVD player via a stereo amp, and found this sound to be clear and easy to understand. It's not unusual for LCD TV speakers to be low quality, as space in the cabinet is quite limited. External speakers solve this, albeit at extra cost.

Conclusion
If you're looking for a basic HD Ready screen, the 37C3030 should appeal to you. If you can stretch your budget a little, consider the big brother of this TV, the 37X3030D, which has the advantage of 1080p and nicer styling.

While this TV isn't perfect, it does well on both HD and Freeview content and the 37-inch screen is large enough to impress your mates.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Nick Hide