Toshiba Regza TL868 (46TL868) 3D LED LCD Television Review & Comments

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Reviewed by Mark Hodgkinson, 9th February 2012.Were it not for a couple of irritating traits then there’s no doubt the Toshiba 46TL868 could have been looking at a Recommend - or even perhaps a Best Buy - Award. As it is, the problems marring the images are such that it misses out.
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interesting review, i bought the Toshiba TL868 LED Tv on the 17th Feb 2012, to replace my ageing Evesham 42", which was showing signs of 'clouding' after a faultless several years (bought it just before they went under). apparently signs the backlight illuminators were dying

1st impressions were although it is 46" it looks considerably smaller than my Evesham 42" (having side bar speakers and substantial bezels), so much so i had to measure both sets screen sizes several times to ensure i had not been 'conned'.

for example, when i bought the Evesham while upgrading from a 26" CRT, my wife complained it was far to big and we had a big arguent, when she walked in Friday - she complained the 46" was to small??? darn, had i known i could have gone with a 60" lol!

The sound quality i agree is not good, lacking base and stereo separation, but is i'd say usable and you can attach a sub.

tbf on this point, i think anyone paying the extra premium of owning a 3D Tv, buying the required active glasses @ about £50 a pop, is likely to be going to get it attached to a decent surround sound set up. lets face it, why would you stick with stereo? be like owning an F1 racing car and fitting 'town & country' tyres' on it. on that assumption i'd say Toshiba were prudent to spent that sum of the budget elsewhere.

My old set was 1080P, so i'm used to having a fairly sharp image, this set's clarity literally popped my eye's. before buying i asked for a 3D demo, i was shown on the smaller (40"?) set. salesman inserted Avatar, a 3D dvd and furnished me with toshiba's latest active glasses. initially i could not make any sense of the images, the salesman flapped about in a panic, but eventually i sussed it was the other Tv's. Once they were switched of WOW!

as my brain adjusted, images floated out if the screen onto the floor, having never taken stimulating drugs, i can only imagine this is what the LSD influence would be like. The spec says the viewing angle is 17o degs, not trysting claims in manuals i walked either side, back and close up, even crouched down to see the viewing angle's that are likely in real life, only were only slightly affected.

i have Sky+ HD, to get 3D you have to buy their '3D World', this includes sky sports, movies and most if their services. i recorded 'how to train your dragon' from Sky 3D as a 'test' which worked fine (though the film was not the best 3D test against Avatar).

having hooked in the network i tried video streaming from my 3tb NAS drive, to my surprise this was very easy, it streamed my home movies, even clips from my CCTv system - very impressive indeed.

instead of the dedicated BR player, i took an extra set if glasses. i bought a s/h PS3 with 360 gb hard drive. i know the true purist will be horrified, but it is more practical to be able to keep 'child safe' films on the PS3 to use as a media server, and of course there is the game side ;). i as yet don't own any 3D blue ray disc's, so i inserted a normal dvd. to my eye the quality is superb.

the set has the usual terrestrial signal input, but also a satellite coax input. i've not seen any mention of an inbuilt 'free sat' tuner, just you have to select which you wan't on initial setup, so i wondered of what advantage/use is this - for hotels perhaps?

Early days yet, but thus far i have been very very happy, there is a couple of glitch's of note,

1) 3D, if you leave the 3D setting to change automatically, you will get image 'jumping' while in normal or HD mode, i found turning it off (so making 3D selection manual) stops this problem.

2) You can't 'save' your preference for when after selecting 3D, it shows two icons, and you have to select 3D (from 2D) then select side by side or above and below - WHY?

3) i went onto Toshiba World (lack of content should be renamed to Toshiba church table sale), clicked on the movie service to be told i had to update the firmware. so i tried to run the update via hard wired network, but this reports "no firmware upgrade is available at this time"???.

This us not the dearest 3D set in the market, from my usage so far it is well worth a look at - if you going to have an external sound system that is.

Regs
Alan
 
For anyone interested, I notice in this weeks flyer that this is available at Costco for £582 inc 5 yr warranty from Feb 27th
 
you can get internet 'deals' that state the set is £589.00 inc vat, 'free' 5 year warranty only available if you buy in store. but then you won't get the online price - so how is the 5 year warranty ever trulyi 'free'?

manyvstate 5 year warranty (i.e. 4 year extension if makers warranty) is about £287.00.

seems very sharp practice to me :( :( :(
 
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you can get internet 'deals' that state the set is £589.00 inc vat, 'free' 5 year warranty only available if you buy in store. but then you won't get the online price - so how is the 5 year warranty ever trulyi 'free'?

manyvstate 5 year warranty (i.e. 4 year extension if makers warranty) is about £287.00.

seems very sharp practice to me :( :( :(

At least the Costco £582 price inc 5 yr warranty is available in store. In fact it is only available in store :)
 
Granted, but that is also + VAT @ a government thieving 20% on top.

Nearest Mackro to me is Lakeside, it can take overcan hour to get out of there.

I had to decide get a warranty or save money, also the store was only about 8 miles away, so any issues i can get there and grab someones lapels :).

in store price did not include a BD player, which they tried hard to sell me. I got 3 sets of the mk2 tosh active glasses instead which in total cost £799.00 inc vat, and i get the warranty.

To conclude, bought a s/h PS3 360 gb hard drive to use as a 3D player (being an xbox360 fan) for £140.00, and a speaker bar for £20 both in cash converters :).

Makes a nice versatile setup.
 
Then i stand astonished - and corrected :).
Anyone looking for a good bargain buy on a full HD 3D LED this has to be it at this price - wish i knew before i'd bought mine

Been playing Socom special forces in 3D, awesome video effects :)
 
A bit annoyed that this is a VA panel, I bought the set thinking since its toshiba it'd be an IPS panel. There is a noticable colour shifts even at reasonable viewing angles, which is annoying. Out of box watching TV materials, the colours seem way off, even with hollywood modes. I did get it to look reasonable using normal mode fiddling with settings.

However blu-rays do look great, and overall, considering all the features, it's good value for money at £600.

By the way, you need to contact toshiba support for new firmware, they'll send you via email. iPlayer didn't work without the new firmware.
 
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CoolJL said:
A bit annoyed that this is a VA panel, I bought the set thinking since its toshiba it'd be an IPS panel. There is a noticable colour shifts even at reasonable viewing angles, which is annoying. Out of box watching TV materials, the colours seem way off, even with hollywood modes. I did get it to look reasonable using normal mode fiddling with settings.

However blu-rays do look great, and overall, considering all the features, it's good value for money at £600.

By the way, you need to contact toshiba support for new firmware, they'll send you via email. iPlayer didn't work without the new firmware.

agreed about the update, very annoying to have to go through frustrating hoops of contacting support by phone after not updating over internet and no response to emails :(.

their meek excuse us it is a 'beta' release, i.e. not fully tested - so why sell a Tv that s not ready?

but at least it resolved the BBC iplayer and movie channel issues, also seems to have sorted the image judder i got when leaving 3D in auto mode while watching standard HD programs.

i got the response "i've not heard of that problem before", a response as an experienced service engineer, just raises my anger by 1000 times.

why do companies treat customers with such utter disrespect?
 
Return of Bruno said:
Hi,

Has anyone tried non Toshiba glassess with this TV? I saw these on ebay.

2 pairs 3d active shutter glasses for Sony Toshiba TV , Brand New ! Item in UK. | eBay

not tried them, my thoughts are the originals (with gaps at the side of the lens) are a bit annoying, but it's £50.00 down the tubes if these are no good :(. - then since buying my set with 3 pairs, it's only been once we could have need more. risking £50 for 2 pairs used rarely, might just be viable // scratches his chins :)
 
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Anyone know do you have to stay 'in house' on active 3D lens glasses i.e. would any other major brand active 3D lens glasses work just as well?
 
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Return of Bruno said:
Thanks for the reply.

I just found these.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/UeroTek-Universal-Glasses-Mitsubishi-Panasonic/dp/B005F4HXNI/ref=pd_luc_cps_01_03_t_lh

If you search the reviews a couple say they work fine with the set. I have ordered 2 and as they are fullfied by Amazon should be able to return if they don't work.

Will keep yas posted.

Seems some makes don't work with them but Toshiba owners report good results, might get some for 3D gaming on my PS3 as grandchildren are not too careful with such things.
 
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