Review: Toshiba Regza SNB LCD HDTV

Shopping for a new TV in any consumer electronics store will yield a multitude of flat panel TVs, both plasma and LCD, striking their thin poses on the store walls. It’s clear that thin is the design statement of the times, but how thin can they go?

Most TV manufacturers, Toshiba include, have slimmed down the depth of their TVs to just a few inches so that they barely make a bump on the wall. Toshiba is taking the diet pill one step further by slimming down the bezel (the frame) of the television on their Super Narrow Bezel (SNB) REGZA line. The company calls this TV “practically all screen,” and compared to any other TV on the market, they’re absolutely right. Why is this important? Well, that depends on what you want out of your TV. For many owners, half the reason for owning a flat panel TV is that they look cool. While some manufacturers struggle to make their flat TV designs more innovative and fashionable, Toshiba has chosen to make this TV disappear as much as possible. There’s not much question of this minimalist TV fitting into your home’s décor.

If you don’t plan on hanging it on a wall, but plan to put it in a cabinet or armoire the SNB TVs will fit in a smaller space while giving you a bigger picture. This 40-inch model is actually about the same size as Toshiba’s non-SNB 37-inch 37HL67 model.

The company got the bezel this thin by pulling a few tricks—first, its depth is not quite as thin as other models. The 5.1-inch depth is a few centimeters thicker than the company’s larger 42-inch model 42LX177. The speakers, in a new SoundStrip 2 design are barely noticeable underneath the screen. Also the controls were moved from the front to the side.

While this TV may look impressive from the front, the rear jack pack has also got it’s fair share of features. For hooking up an HD DVD player, high def set-top-box and game console there’s a suite of three HDMI inputs. There are two component inputs, as well as the standard low resolution analog video and audio inputs. Being an LCD TV, it’s got a 15-pin VGA port for a PC hookup. There’s only one cable/antenna input, though very few people will even use that. I would have liked to see an HDMI input on the side of the TV for easily plugging in a high def camcorder.

Inside the REGZA, Toshiba has packed most of its best picture technologies. The TV is based on a 10-bit LCD panel with 1080p resolution. A 10-bit panel can produce more levels color resulting in smoother transitions, particularly noticeable on grayscale tests. For processing the incoming video signal, the TV uses a 14-bit PixelPure processor and a wide color gamut CCFL back lamp with backlight control. Advanced gamma, contrast and noise reduction controls allow you to fine tune the picture.

I fed the TV HDTV signals both from an antenna and an HD DVD player. With the TV set in Movie mode, I adjusted the dynamic contrast (automatically adjusts picture based on what’s on the screen) to low and gamma (for adjusting level of black) also to low. The Toshiba delivered an excellent picture with little messing around on my part. The HD DVD version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix looked great. Contrast was on par with plasma TVs, and Toshiba’s processor did away with any jagged artifacts. Some slight juddering showed up on scenes that had an object moving horizontally across the screen, but it was barely noticeable. This TV does not have the 120Hz feature found on Toshiba’s latest Cinema series, which is meant to eliminate judder.

On wide-angle viewing the TV also performed well, which will be a comfort for people who have their seating spread out in a wide area of the room.

The first “big” TV my family had when I was growing up was a 27-inch Bradford House CRT with a cherry wood cabinet (before they called them bezels). The whole thing weighted a ton and took up the space of a Galapagos tortoise. Years later my father ripped out the TV tube and turned the wood exterior into a small wine cabinet. That’s one feature you’ll never get out of this TV.