Advice Needed on Toshiba 32C3030

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Having read the 5 start review from what hi-fi and countless other good reccomendations about the Toshiba 32C3030 online, i was very close to purchasing one (especially seeing as they can now be attained for as little as £460).

However just before i was about to purchase it, i was flicking through some other magazines and noticed a review for the same model, however it put it in a very different light. Such quotes included:-

"Black Areas of the picture are mediocre"

" If the Screen is not viewed from anywhere but directly in front of the screen, blacks degenerate into grey mush"

"There's judder, smearing and noise aplenty.

Now of course there were positives mentioned, but the negatives were made out to be far more extreme than in other reviews and the overall conclusion was not good.

Now whilst i have more faith in What Hi Fi's opinion, i am a little concerned about going ahead with the purchase now. My question is not which review is correct (as obviously opinions can differ), but more how can the same model TV get such differing reviews from two sources?

Any help in elaying my doubts would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi. I am sorry if this changes your perspective but this is just my view. The toshiba is a great budget 32" LCD but it is that, a budget tv. Consequently performance is going to very good for the money but not excellent per sa. You should take a look at the Panasonic TX-32LXD70 available for £600. This is an amazing TV complete with 100Hz technology and excellent SD picture quality. A tv like the panny certainly won't dissapoint! Best of luck in your search.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your input.

However.... over the last 24 hours my thoughts on what level of LCD to get has changed. Seeing as even a 'budget' screen is still quite an investment, i've been thinking of going slightly bigger with more future-proofing so i don't find myself looking to upgrade.

I'm looking at screens of about 37" now (since my room and viewing distance of 6-8ft) probably dont require anything bigger. And since i will have a PS3 attached i'm temped to go for a screen with a native 1080p resolution.

With this in mind, i've been looking at something like the Toshiba 37X3030D (or equivalent)

From what i can tell this will do wonders for my gaming / dvd / blu-ray experience.

However, my one concern / question is that whilst HD viewing will be wonderful, as like many, a lot of my viewing is of Standard television (particular fast motion such as football). How good really are these new 1080p native resolution sets for watching standard televion? With the amount of upscaling needed i get the impression that by going for these newer sets to get the most out of HD, you are losing out when it comes to standard TV. Would it be better sticking to a 1366x768 screen that supports 1080p input to get a better standard TV experience?

I look forward to what hi-fi's next edition with it's 37" 1080p resolution screen feature and hope very much they talk about their ability to watch normal tv (as opposed to just focuing) on the top end HD quality. Any advice / reccommendations on the subject in the mean time would be appreciated, as i have a feeling that whilst i'd be getting a great HD experience i could find myself wanting to plug my current CRT screen in to watch SD tv.