Big screen, Big sound, Big Value. (Toshiba 37X3030D)

Member Name: Luke UK

Product:	Toshiba 37X3030D
Date:	09/08/07 (1852 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 1080p, Good Sound, Nice Stand, Loads of Inputs, High Quality Piano Black Finish

Disadvantages: Average Digital Tuner, Not so good with Scart Inputs.

Welcome to my review of the Toshiba 37X3030D LCD Television.

I recently bought this Television because I used to own one of the 'first' generation of HD TV's to hit the market and wanted to upgrade not only the size of the screen, but the pixel resolution too.

In a nutshell, what attracted me to this television set was the fact that it can display a true HD image, also known as 1080p. This, number basically represents 1080 lines being progressively displayed on a screen at any one time.

If you were also one of the adopters of the earlier HD LCD TV's like me, chances are would be that your screen only display's images upto 1080i. This is using less lines on the screen because the images are interlaced. So, what's the difference- a slight improvment in screen quality, but only just.

So, you might be thinking-why bother upgrading to something only slightly superior than what you have at the moment?

Well, fortunately the Television excels in other areas too. And this is where my review formally begins in structure, sorry-up until now I've only provided a warning to current LCD TV owners and not to new buyers.

Okay, unwrapping and mounting the Television was easy, the unit has a stand which is truly wonderful, it anchors the set really well because its positively weighty. The stand also has a swivel mechanism which is great because you can adjust the direction of the stand so you get a good angle from the screen. The Television is a really good looking piece of equipment, its piano black finish is shiny, but not reflective.

On the back of the Televsion you have the following inputs:-

2 HDMI Inputs
2 Scart Inputs (1 RGB)
1 PC Input
1 Component Input
1 Optical Digital Input
1 RCA Input
1 Subwoofter Input
1 Composite Input

So as you can see, no shortage of options regarding connecting equipment to your set. Whats also worth mentioning about the above is that the HDMI Inputs ate 1.3v certified, which basically means thier the newest type of HDMI version, with improved levels of bandwidth (say, if your using a Playstation 3, watching a Blu-ray movie will look better, with higher detail levels).

Right, well switching the Televison on when connected via an Aeriel lead will automatically tune the set, both Digital and Analogue frequencies. It's digital TV menu is, at best-average. It does the job, but paying £50 on an additional reciever will mean you get a much better experiance. It's not that the digital TV menu's are bad, but thier sluggish at times and you dont have the 'picture in picture' (where you can watch the channel your on and browse the channel lists at once)ability some internal tuner sets have, not a big complaint but its worse for not having it.

So far I've used various HD sources on the set, through the HDMI lead the Playstation 3 looks great, detailed, sharp, clear and the same can be said about the PC input which I use with my Xbox 360. The other sources dont seem to be quite as hot, thier more than acceptable-but in an age of HD now, I dont think new sets like this one are designed with older inputs like Scarts in mind.

I would like to say that you should take a bit of time to configure the set, making small changes to the brightness, contrast and backlight really makes a difference to your viewing quality. Generally setting everything between 50-70 generally looks better than the preset configuration which the Television comes with (being far to bright).

The sound is on par with the generally good picture quality. It's got a great bass control setting, and watching a film like Apocalyto with the bass turned high gave me a pleasant surprise, it isn't a surround sound experiance but the speakers do a good job, especially when they are concealed so well on the bottom of the screen.

I spent £999 buying this with 3 years of insurance bundled in for good measure. I'm happy with the product, if you want a big screen, which can generate a big sound then look no further. You will get the most from this screen if you have alot of HD sources, if you just want it to watch Television shows then you could probably get away with choosing a cheaper screen.

Summary: A good TV for HD sources.

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Installation:
Sound quality:
Features: