Performance
We hooked up the office PlayStation 3 to the 42WLT68 and had a very good time indeed. There was no motion blur on any of the games we played -- everything looked sharp and fluid.
Hi-def material was excellent too: we watched some Blu-ray material including the ever popular Black Hawk Down, which looked every bit as gritty as it should. We opted to let the TV down-covert from 1080p, and the results were excellent. A quick viewing of the Click trailer on our copy of Talladega Nights confirmed that the picture quality can be very impressive indeed.
Our Blu-ray copy of Casino Royale was also a stunner. The picture quality on this AVC-encoded disc was a brilliant showcase of what high definition can be. The black and white scenes at the start of the movie are very grainy, but this is a mood-creating device from the filmmakers rather than a failure of the television. The rest of the film is clear and exceptionally good quality, and had us on the edge of our swivel chairs.
Standard definition was decent enough. We're big fans of the 100Hz technology that Toshiba uses to improve standard-definition TV, but at 42 inches this televisions is pushing Freeview well beyond its optimal screen size. What this means is you'll see lots of picture problems when watching terrestrial channels.
Sound quality was actually very good, although the speakers are relatively small, there was enough bass during the action scenes of Casino Royale to make us sit up. With the optional subwoofer, this would sound even more impressive. The only criticism of the sound is that by default the bass setting is quite high, and this tends to drown out speech quite badly at times. This is easily adjusted through the menu system though.
Conclusion
We've seen good 720p screens and some bad 1080p ones. Despite its comparatively low resolution, the Toshiba Regza 42WLT68 is a good, solid HD Ready screen. Unless you want to boast the pixel resolution among friends, you'll probably never notice it doesn't do 1080p.
The 42-inch screen size means that Freeview pictures can look pretty ropey, but that said, upscaled DVD looks great. This means you'll be able to enjoy your existing film collection for some considerable time to come while still getting the benefit of an HD Ready TV.
If your main source of entertainment is Freeview, you might want to consider a smaller television. That said, the Toshiba does its level best to make the pictures from Freeview as good as they can possibly be, and viewed at a sensible distance away, the quality is decent enough for all but the most fussy viewer.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Nick Hide
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