lg 650t vs TOSHIBA 47VL863B

[admin_exported]

i went to currys to have a look at the lg 650t and found out the price have gone down and its available at 1099. the main reason i think is TOSHIBA 47VL863B which was looking much better build wise. Currys staff refused to put them side by side for comparison. Its good to have some choice if you are in the market for passive 3d but there are no reviews for the Toshiba any where . There is a bundle deal on Toshiba at pc world for under 900 pounds.

If any body have clue about how the toshiba performs than it will be much appreciated

 

[Anonymous]

Just got one of these delivered from Dixons. They had a good offer on including a Bluray player, and it worked out cheaper than the nearest comparable set with the same Bluray player etc. (I was also looking at the LG LW550T). To be fair my first impressions weren't positive. It may well have been having to deal with Dixons inability to deliver what they were supposed to have which made me a little stressed from the outset, but I didn't think the TV was anything special either. For such an expensive set the features aren't amazing, the Youtube and iPlayer functions work well however as do the other online bits, and they look quite impressive too.

The picture quality is good and the upscaling works nicely. The sound is ok but the built in sub doesn't really make itself evident, fine to listen to though so no complaints there. Not watched any 3D content yet but the TV has its own test card which demos that the 3D is working.

Initially neither the 3D test or the digital text worked on mine but after a quick firmware flash those started working so that was good. The menus and features feel a bit like a work in progress so hopefully that means things will appear in later software updates.

I can't make any of the media features work and the recording and pausing live TV to a USB hard drive isn't evident either. I'm sure I read that this model has facial recognition for loading your settings when you sit down, it hasn't. It also lacks a 2D -> 3D converter so anything that starts out flat stays flat. Not sure how well they work though so it may be that I'm not missing anything.

I was also a bit disappointed that the EPG can't be put into favourites mode like on my PVR. It's a bit of a pain having to scroll past the channels I never watch and the channel order set by Freeview isn't necessarily the order that I want them in. Looks like I don't have a choice there though.

Overall, for the money, I expected more to be honest, good picture and nice to watch though so it certainly does its job.

 

[Anonymous]

just checked dixons website . its 899 there which is 300 cheaper then currys and other places. what do you think of the build quality.

does it look better then 650t ? i dont care about the internet functions but is the picture quality of 3d and 2d same as 650t?? ans what about the gamming lag???

Please keep us updated on your findings

 

[Anonymous]

just checked dixons website . its 899 there which is 300 cheaper then currys and other places. what do you think of the build quality.

does it look better then 650t ? i dont care about the internet functions but is the picture quality of 3d and 2d same as 650t?? ans what about the gamming lag???

Please keep us updated on your findings

 

[Anonymous]

To be fair I don't fully understand what DSG group are doing with their prices, I think the £1,200 tag was artificially high but I can't see a reason for it. Dixons ran the deal with the free Bluray player for £890 or something which I got, then Currys and PC world did the same. Then Dixons dropped the deal and upped the price, followed by the other two, now the price is back down again but minus the Bluray. Doesn't make a great deal of sense to me.

I personally found the picture quality on the LG to be the same as the Tosh, I did look at the 550 as opposed to 650 though. A mate of mine insisted that the Tosh was better for picture though and my eyesight isn't perfect so maybe it is. Either way I'm happy with the picture, it is good, not sure the smart dimming thing it does is helpful though, gets a bit dull, have ended up setting mine to standard.

Checked out some 3D photos on my mate's 3D camera this evening, has to be said, the passive 3D is really easy to watch no strain on the eye or flicker. Good depth to the photos and the quality was great. Again, my sight isn't the greatest but the quality to me seemed absolutely spot on.

Don't have any games consoles hooked up to the TV so can't comment on that one I'm afraid.

Build quality is good, although I don't have a great deal of experience, the stand is solid, the panel construction is solid, it's a heavy lump and doesn't feel plastic-y. The matt finish round the edge of the screen seems a good idea too, no reflections from within the room. Remote is pretty funky too, build quality wise, I've never seen a TV remote with elements of metal in its construction before.

Also has a satellite connector / tuner which I didn't realise was included.

For me I think the biggest factor was price. With the deal at Dixons, a little bit of Quidco and the Tosh rugby cashback arrangement overall it offers better value for money than competing screens in my view. I don't think the reasonable pricing is linked to any corner cutting in qualty either which is good to see.

 

[Anonymous]

May have just found a killer issue with the Tosh, a small insect, think it's a spider, has managed to get itself between the outer screen surface (polarisation filter perhaps? It's pretty solid) and the LCD panel. Currently seems to be alive an doing its best to get out of there but it raises a point that I hadn't considered, what if things get in there and die / stop moving?

I guess this could affect anything using that tech so not limited to manufacturer I don't suppose, a good seal round the edge would have been an idea though.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Max,

Any updates on your tv. I am drifting towards lg 650t after reports of gaps in the frame of tv and screen and uneven back light.

have to buy next week . you cant judge the back light in bright store conditions. how do you fell about back lighting when watching in dark room

regards

 

[Anonymous]

Hey,

Yeh, the backlight can be a bit funny on the Tosh, it seems not to be able to handle dark scenes very well, like as aoon as more than a certain percent of the screen is displaying something dark it switches the backlight down. Not smoothly either, I thought a light had been turned off in the scene the first time it did it, it jumps rather than fades. You can get round that though by setting the display to "standard" as opposed to "auto view". There are a whole load of backlight settings and colour corrrection settings you can use so it's possible to get it looking as you want it to. In terms of backlight consistency across the screen, I'm happy with that.

Watched a couple of 3D movies the other day, was impressed. The Disney Pixar stuff is very well done and naturally quite busy / colourful on screen, the TV handled this nicely and the end result was very watchable. No eye strain or negative effects from the 3D and the reduction in resolution wasn't noticeable at all to me. I will admit to having bought Piranha (it was only £6, that's my entire reasoning). Real life stuff, water, outside, sunshine and the other "features" of that film were also presented very well.

The only thing that has really disappointed me so far is the internet TV offerings. Feels like it was put together in a hurry and past first impressions it doesn't get any better. The iPlayer app has a "0-9" button, it appears this was precisely what they asked the programmers for and exactly what they got, it puts "0-9" in the search box. Helpful. It also removes that when you put text in there, so I couldn't search for "101 Dalmations" for instance. The flixter (I think it's that one) app has a log-in screen but no option for an underscore, so my email address being "my_name@email.com" prevents me using that little feature. The Toshiba places thing doesn't seem to do anything either, no apps or anything, not really sure what the point of that is I must admit.

Still, if it's display quality you're looking at as a priority, given a few tweaks for personal taste, I'm sure you'll not be disappointed. That said, the LG is supposed to be good for that too.