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The Short Form
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| $3,299 / TACP.TOSHIBA.COM / 800-631-3811 |
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Snapshot
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| Toshiba' slim-framed LCD does 120 Hz and a whole lot of other things right |
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Plus
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| • Crisp high-def picture • ClearFrame processing effective with all program types • Strong blacks and shadow detail for LCD • Very good screen uniformity and viewing angle |
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Minus
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| • Inaccurate out-of-box color • Soft picture quality with component-video inputs • 2:3 pulldown slow to kick in for 480i /1080i programs |
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Key Features
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• 1080p resolution |
The design of big-ticket consumer goods tends to reflect the era in which they're made. Way back in the mid-20th century, cars had a Space Age, aerodynamic look, and TV sets resembled the monitors from a sci-fi movie. In the SUV-and-Hummer era, TVs grew unapologetically large, with hulking cabinets that only a McMansion could accommodate comfortably. I'm not sure what recent designs say about our current time, but a significant trend I'm seeing is TVs with minimal frames that seem to disappear into thin air.
Toshiba is actively pushing this look with its Super Narrow Bezel design. Its top LCD model, the 52XF550U, not only has a 1-inch-thin bezel, but a new version of its ClearFrame 120-Hz technology, which eliminates blurring from fast-moving programs like action movies and sports. Notably, the set supports 1080p/24 input signals from Blu-ray Disc players, with a "5:5 pulldown" option that preserves the original film-frame sequence.
View the set straight on, and only a sliver of gloss-black frame peeks out from the top and sides of the 52XF550U's screen. Its SoundStrip speakers are also compact; the strip juts out just an additional inch from the TV's bottom. Around back you'll find a full array of connections, including three HDMI and a pair of component-video jacks plus a VGA port.
Toshiba's big remote is a handful, and the keypad isn't backlit. Fortunately, the buttons are also large, and the layout is clean, making it fairly easy to locate a specific control in a dim room. To switch sources, you hit the Input button and scroll through options listed on an onscreen menu.
Hitting the Pic Size button calls up the set's comprehensive selection of display (aspect ratio) options. Natural and Full modes display 4:3 and 16:9 programs, respectively, while the Native mode scales images to fill the screen for all standard- and high-def formats, and displays them with no picture overscan.
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The Toshiba offers plenty of flexibility to adjust its picture. Along with four picture presets, there's a Preference mode that lets you tweak and store picture settings for each input. Advanced controls include both an adjustable backlight and a Dynalight setting that automatically adjusts black level based on picture content. You also get a static Gamma adjustment and Cool, Medium, and Warm color-temperature presets (along with blue and green drive adjustments for each).
The ClearFrame 120-Hz feature can be switched on in the menu. Motion Vector Frame Interpolation processing is used to derive additional frames from the incoming video signal; with a standard 60-Hz source, this effectively doubles the number of video frames being displayed per second. A Film Stabilization option also provides Standard and Smooth modes for handling film-based programs. When sending a 1080p/24 signal to the TV from a Blu-ray player, the Standard mode engages 5:5 pulldown (each original film frame that's been encoded to video is displayed five times to hit the TV's 120-Hz refresh rate). The Smooth mode, meanwhile, adds processing to eliminate the motion-judder artifacts that are part and parcel of the film-watching experience.
The TV's grayscale measurements were way off from the 6,500-K standard with its Movie preset selected (see Test Bench), so I made basic adjustments in the Preference menu and used a color analyzer to perform an ISF-style calibration. Although the Dynalight setting did a good job extending the TV's black level on dark images, it also lessened overall picture contrast by dimming highlights, so I left it off.
PERFORMANCE
With the Toshiba tweaked, I got down to business by watching No Country for Old Men on Blu-ray Disc. In an early scene where the murderous Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) pulls over a driver on an empty highway, the TV's crisp detail brought out the texture of both the gravelly road and the grassy border alongside it. But the image didn't merely look crisp: There was a physicality to it that made me feel like I was in that scene.
The set's post-calibration color rendition was also impressive. In a scene where Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson) visits Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) in the hospital, differences between Moss's slightly sick, yellowish complexion and Wells's healthy pink skin tone were clear. And the red, yellow, and green hues of the bouquet that Wells carried with him looked natural and balanced.
Dark scenes, like one where Moss is chased by drug dealers and their dogs, also looked punchy and film-like. When the criminals cranked up their vehicles' floodlights, I could see a lot of detail in the landscape.
As a movie fan, I proceed cautiously with motion-interpolation modes on 120-Hz LCDs, some of which can impart an unnatural "sped-up" look. But Toshiba's ClearFrame feature proved effective and artifact-free at all settings, including the judder-fighting Smooth mode. As my Blu-ray player supplied a 1080p/24 signal with ClearFrame and Standard Film Stabilization enabled, pictures looked razor-sharp even in complex tracking shots along fences or across signs.
The 52XF550U delivers a wide viewing angle for an LCD TV, with pictures retaining solid contrast over a 45° arc. Its picture uniformity was also very good, with only a black test pattern showing a slight amount of uneven brightness. The set's video processing was slow to kick in when I watched both 480i standard-def and 1080i high-def movies — a situation that occasionally resulted in jagged "stairstep" effects appearing in images.
BOTTOM LINE
Toshiba's 52XF550U excels on many levels. This LCD set's thin, almost nonexistent frame makes it look good both on and off. And its strong picture detail, post-adjustment color accuracy, and shadow rendition let it compete with the other top-dog LCD models on the block. Add Toshiba's impressive ClearFrame 120-Hz processing, and you've got a TV that deserves a spot at the top of your wish list.
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Color temperature (Movie Mode/Warm Color Temperature before / Preference Mode/Warm Color Temperature after calibration):
20-IRE: 9,892 K/7,672 K
30-IRE: 8,714 K/6,449 K
40-IRE: 8,582 K/6,340 K
50-IRE: 8,569 K/6,462 K
60-IRE: 8,504 K/6,535 K
70-IRE: 7,651 K/6,422 K
80-IRE: 8,090 K/6,482 K
90-IRE: 7,870 K/6,525 K
100-IRE: 8,225 K/6,556 K
Brightness (100-IRE window): 37.3/35.0 ftL
Primary Color Point Accuracy vs. SMPTE HD Standard
Color |
Target X |
Measured X |
Target Y |
Measured Y |
Red |
0.64 |
0.78 |
0.33 |
0.35 |
Green |
0.30 |
0.22 |
0.60 |
0.72 |
Blue |
0.15 |
0.12 |
0.06 |
0.02 |
The Toshiba's Movie picture preset delivered the most accurate color when its Warm color temperature preset was also selected. However, grayscale tracking was +/-2,214 degrees K of the 6,500 K standard from 30 to 100 IRE in that mode — a poor performance level. Adjustments made to the green and blue gain color temperature controls in the Preference settings improved grayscale tracking to +/-220 degrees K from 30 to 100 IRE, although a 20 IRE window showed a distinct bluish bias — something that could also be seen on regular programs. Color decoder tests revealed a -10 percent green and -5 percent red error on both the HDMI and component-video inputs. As compared to the SMPTE HD specification, the set's red, green, and blue color points showed relatively high oversaturation. The points could be adjusted using the Color Palette adjustment in the set's ColorMaster menu, however.
Overscan — the amount of picture area hidden behind the edges of the TV's screen — measured 0% for 1080i/p-format high-definition signals with the Native display mode active. The set displayed 1080i and 720p test patterns with full resolution on the HDMI inputs. They looked comparatively soft when viewed via component-video connections, however, with no detail visible in the highest-frequencies of both 1080i and 720p multiburst test patterns. No edge enhancement was visible via the HDMI inputs with the sharpness control set to minimum, although some could be seen on the component-video inputs under the same conditions. Screen uniformity was very good for an LCD TV, with picture contrast remaining solid at all viewing angles over a wide 45-degree arc. There was also no sign of tinting on black, white, and gray full-field test patterns. And screen brightness remained uniform all the way down to 0 IRE. At this level, the corners of the image looked slightly brighter than its center.
The Toshiba passed most of the tests contained on both the Silicon Optix HQV high-def and DVD test discs. In both cases, however, 2:3 pulldown processing was slow to kick in, causing moiré artifacts to briefly flicker on-screen in areas of fine detail when watching both 480i- and 1080i-format movies. The set's standard digital noise reduction setting worked well, helping to smooth out grainy images without reducing picture detail. Its MPEG noise reduction mode significantly softened pictures at the medium and high settings, however.