Toshiba has long been an all-purpose TV company making sets in virtually every display category. But like a few other TV makers, the company has apparently decided to limit its future big-screen offerings to flat-panel LCD models. To stand out in this increasingly crowded market, though, the company is clearly amping up the high-end performance features in its Regza line, of which the new Toshiba Regza Cinema Series 52LX177 52-inch LCD HDTV ($3,600) is a prime example.

The big news in this 52-incher is ClearFrame — which bumps the TV's refresh rate from the standard 60 Hz up to 120 Hz to reduce LCD motion blur. But instead of simply displaying each video frame twice in succession, the TV uses something that Toshiba calls Motion Vector Frame Interpolation to create new "tween" frames from the existing ones — a technique that generally results in smoother motion. Other highlights include both dynamic and variable backlight settings, a wide-gamut lamp to enhance color reproduction, and HDMI 1.3 inputs that offer present and future wonders such as Deep Color, xvYCC color space display, and automatic lip-sync.

With its buttonless, gloss-black front, the 52LX177 has an appealingly clean look. The TV's curved stand manages the neat trick of being sturdy while taking up only a tiny footprint, and a "Soundbar" running along the bottom edge projects impressively large and clear sound for something that's only about 1 inch high. The TV boasts an unusually wide range of inputs as well, including three HDMI, two component-video, and one VGA. An Ethernet port connects to a home network for streaming photos and music and for checking and sending e-mail.

Toshiba's bulky remote is crowded, but fortunately it's fully backlit. Pressing the Input button calls up a menu of sources to toggle or scroll through, or you can jump directly to one by punching its associated number on the remote. Pressing the TV's Pic Size button calls up a similar menu of aspect-ratio modes. The choices here include Native (displays high-def with no overscan), Natural (displays pictures in their original aspect ratio with moderate overscan), Full (16:9 for widescreen DVDs), 4:3, and three Theaterwide stretch and zoom modes. All modes work with standard- and high-def signals.

SETUP
The 52LX177 has an impressive suite of setup features, starting with a trio of picture memories (Preference, Pro1, and Pro2) that can be individually tweaked for each input. Along with basic adjustments, you also get the option to modify the set's variable and dynamic backlight settings for each custom picture memory. And the TheaterLock feature lets you lock down your adjustments via a menu switch.

The Toshiba's advanced tweaks include both dynamic contrast and MPEG noise reduction, as well as a variable gamma adjustment. Then comes the esoteric stuff. Color Master Pro lets you adjust the hue, saturation, and brightness levels of as many as nine colors (red, green, blue, yellow, magenta, and cyan plus three custom). ClearFrame is the set's aforementioned 120-Hz scanning mode. And the xvYCC feature lets the TV display the extended range of colors made possible through the xvYCC color space, though this requires source material that's not yet widely available.

The Short Form

Price $3,600 ($3,999 list) / tacp.toshiba.com / 800-319-6684

Snapshot

Toshiba proves itself a major LCD player with this newest Regza Cinema model.

Plus

•Very good out-of-box performance •Wide array of picture adjustments

Minus

•Typical limited LCD viewing angle •So-so standard-def image upconversion

Key Features

•1080p resolution •Built-in HDTV tuner •ClearFrame 120-Hz display •Deep Color/xvYCC display options •HDMI CE-Link control •Inputs: 3 HDMI (ver. 1.3); 2 component-/ composite-video; S-video; VGA; RF antenna/cable; Ethernet •50.5 x 33.4 x 15.4 in; 103 lb

Test Bench

With its Warm preset selected, the Toshiba's grayscale tracked around ±683 K of the 6,500-K standard from 30 to 100 IRE — below-average performance. Adjustments made in the set's color-temperature menu helped level grayscale tracking out to ±389 K. Color-decoder tests revealed a mild +5% green error on the HDMI inputs and +10% red on component-video. Red, green, and blue color points showed high levels of oversaturation against the SMPTE spec. Overscan measured 0% for HD signals with the Native screen mode engaged. The set fully resolved 1080i/p and 720p test patterns via HDMI, although a 1080i pattern viewed via component video looked slightly soft. Screen uniformity was very good when the set was viewed from off-center seats up to 20 to 30°, with picture contrast fading considerably beyond that point. I also noted some screen "clouding" on black images — film-title sequences, for example — though the same effect was barely noticeable on regular programs. Full Lab Results

PERFORMANCE
After adjustments with the set's Warm color-temperature preset selected, colors looked relatively natural. And the TV proved capable of a punchy picture with satisfying blacks without requiring me to turn on the dynamic contrast and backlight settings, so I left these off for most viewing. On the HD DVD of the British comedy Hot Fuzz, a scene where the evil-minded village elders meet in a churchyard showed off the Toshiba's handling of dark material: Background shadows displayed a bottomless sense of depth, while the black cloaks worn by the elders showed plenty of detail in the garments' folds and creases. And when supercop Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) shows up with a flashlight to break up the party, the TV maintained its solid black depth even with bright white beams cutting through the image.

The Toshiba's color rendition was also very good. In a scene where the cops do battle with supermarket employees, the officers' pasty skin tones looked natural and subdued, while the brightly colored boxes, jars, and bottles lining the aisles kept a punchy, vivid appearance. And the set's high-def picture detail was nothing short of excellent. Watching a scene at a church fair where a newspaper reporter gets offed by a falling cathedral spire, I could easily see the fine-pebbled texture of the limestone in a close-up shot of the spire before it gets pushed from its tower. And the intricate patterns of crumbly brick buildings in the background came through nicely.

Turning on the TV's ClearFrame 120-Hz display feature had only a subtle effect that was mostly visible with movies. Scenes with motion had a slightly "snappier" appearance with ClearFrame. And although I couldn't confirm an actual increase in picture sharpness and clarity with the feature enabled, I did find its effect appealing.

Curiously, ClearFrame also had the negative effect of introducing slight flickering noise in areas of fine detail during camera pans — such as the Vatican wall scene from Mission: Impossible III or a moving crane shot over trees in the church-fair sequence from Hot Fuzz. Toshiba confirmed that, with ClearFrame switched on, the TV performs frame interpolation even when fed a 1080p/24 signal. That's counter to displaying each frame multiple times — a simpler technique that some other TVs apply. So ClearFrame processing was the likely culprit here.

The set's upconversion of standard-def DVD and cable was passably good, if a notch below that of some other high-end LCDs. DVDs looked fairly soft overall compared with the same titles upconverted by my high-def disc players. The TV's CableClear digital noise-reduction and MPEG noise-reduction features proved effective in clearing up noisy images, although any MPEG noise-reduction setting beyond Low resulted in a visible loss of picture detail.

BOTTOM LINE
The Toshiba Regza Cinema Series 52LX177 52-inch LCD HDTV looks impressive right out of the box, and its serious video-tweaking tools make it look even better. Although I'm not sold on the subtle effects (and occasional artifacts) of the set's ClearFrame processing, this feature is defeatable. And the set's $3,600 street price is competitive with prices for similar models. If Toshiba really is determined to become an all-LCD company, I'd say that this 52-incher is a very good start.

Full Lab Results
Photo Gallery
Test Reports RSS Feed
More Test Reports
Back to Homepage
What's New on S&V