Toshiba 46UX600 LED/LCD HDTV (TPV 89)

Toshiba’s latest LED HDTVs feature a bevy of Internet-enabled functions

The Vudu application (launched by the remote’s Widgets button) is slick and colorful, providing over 100 apps that can be filtered by popularity, genre, favorites, etc. The Vudu streaming service offers the choice of rental or purchase of most titles, with typical rentals starting at $3.99 for standard definition, $4.99 for 1080i HD and $5.99 for their top HQX tier, which is 1080p and 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus. There’s also a purchase option, which carries a price typically in the $20-25 range. Some titles are only available for purchase in SD, while others give you a choice of SD or HD.

Remote Control

Looking very similar to earlier Toshiba remotes, this one doesn’t feature backlighting, but does have glow-key buttons. It’s also missing dedicated input buttons, meaning you have to toggle through the various choices. The button labeling is clear for the most part, but the Menu button is all the way down on the bottom left, and not near the cursor controls at the center of the remote as you would expect.

RECOMMENDED SETTINGS

The default AutoView setting includes dynamic backlighting, which artificially boosts visual dynamic range by dimming the picture with darkly lit scenes, causing deep blacks and dark grays to lose detail. Best to leave it off. Same goes for the dynamic contrast function.

• Color: -5
  
• Tint: 0
  
• Sharpness: 0
  
• Picture Mode: Movie
  
• Backlight: 60
  
• Color Temp: 0
  
• Gamma: -15 (measures 2.20)
  
• HD size (1:1 pixel-to-pixel): Native
  
• Dynamic Contrast: Off
  
• Color Master: Off
  
• Auto Brightness Sensor: Off
  
• Resolution+: On; Level: 3
  
• Dyna Light: Off

One negative aspect of the Vudu interface as implemented in this Toshiba is that the user has no control over the picture quality, as the set reverts to the standard Auto View default picture mode when the Net TV/Vudu function is activated, and no picture adjustments can be made.

PERFORMANCE

3D Blu-ray Evaluation: A Concert By The Lake

Detail

Shot in high def in the UK, this grand assemblage of rock and R&B legends performing hits from the ’50s through the ’00s includes such greats as Eric Clapton, Roger Taylor, Ringo Starr and The Drifters, among others, with Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker at the helm as musical director.

Color

With lush and colorful stage lighting, the disc is a visual treat. As the concert was an upper-crust fundraiser for a British charity, close-ups of the audience in the front rows reveals a very well-dressed (and presumably well-heeled) bunch indeed, with natural skin tones evident under the bright concert stage lighting.

Blacks

With DynaLight turned off, and the dynamic contrast also similarly defeated, the blacks gain stability, with little evidence of black crush. However, on full frame blacks, there’s some backlight leakage, along with some evidence of backlighting non-uniformity.