I am afraid I am not finding much time to be on Ciao these days but with a new puppy in the house I ...
I am afraid I am not finding much time to be on Ciao these days but with a new puppy in the house I have some doggy related products to review from time to time.
Member since:11.10.2006
Reviews:279
Members who trust:136
I have been promising to treat myself to a new TV for some time now and a few weeks ago, with Christmas fast approaching, I decided the time had come to buy.
My old TV was a Toshiba which had given me 9 years of trouble free viewing so it was fairly logical that the brand would be high on my list of possibles when I went shopping. To be honest the only thing tht made me want to replace my old TV was the fact that it was so huge that I couldn't lift it which meant it was a major problem anytime I needed to move it anywhere. It was a 26" CRT type and I figured an new LCD version would be lighter and much easier to manage.
The space where my TV sits is fairly limited so I couldn't go for anything too large but I did discover that a 32" LCD TV was virtually the same overall width as my old 26" CRT so I went off shopping for a suitable 32" replacement.
I spent a few weeks deliberating, looking at various reviews and specifications before I finally decided that the Toshiba 32AV555 was the model for me.
It is HD ready rather than full HD but to be honest that is fine by me. I gave up my Sky subscription some time ago and I don't watch much sport on TV. I looked at a higher spec model which would also automatically adjust the brightness according to the lighting in the room but for the extra £100 that cost I decided I didn't want to spend the extra.
I went into Comet a couple of weeks before Christmas and saw it on offer for just £349 and my mind was made up - it looked like excellent value to me so I bought it. It was light enough for me to carry out of my car and install at home my only problem was how to get rid of the old one. In fact that was actually quite simple to dispose of - I listed it on Freecycle for the local area and I had a willing taker within five minutes who was happy to collect!
Out of the box
The TV comes securely packed and all you need to do when you get it home is fix the stand to the base (assuming you aren't fixing it to a wall bracket). I found the instructions for that straightforward and easy to follow. When they suggested putting it on something to fix the base to the TV I simply rested it on the box using the foam it was wrapped in to protect the screen.
The instruction book provided isn't glossy or flashy but it does contain all the information I needed to set up the TV. Tuning to both analogue and digital stations was very straightforward however I didn't get a good signal to ITV through the TV which is probably more down to the reception in this area than the TV. However when I connected the TV to my Humax PVR I found that the ITV signal was fine through that.
In use
The first thing that struck me about the TV in use was the outstanding picture quality although I imagine that this is due to the fact that my previous TV was 9 years old and I now suspect was not as good as it should have been!
The controls are very intuitive, the remote is neat and easy to operate and in general I am very satisfied with it. One slight downside from my point of view is that it only has two SCART sockets whereas my previous TV had four which means that with a PVR and DVD player taking up two sockets I was stuck in respect of the Wii box. That was easy resolved with a SCART splitter which I had anyway so it isn't a problem for me generally. It does however have two HDMI connections so once I upgrade the rest of the equipment I am sure I will be glad of them.
For the Technically minded
This isn't really my strong point so I will just settle for listing the information.
HD Ready Freeview Digital Tuner Panel Resolution: 1366x768 Dynamic Contrast Ratio: 20,000:1 Brightness (cd/m2): 400 HDMI: 2
Main Specifications
Picture
Visible Screen Size (cm): 81 Screen Format: 16:9 Active Vision LCD Standard TV up-scaling Exact Scan Mode MPEG Noise Reduction Selectable Picture Format 3D Digital Comb Filter Digital Noise Reduction Viewing Angle: 178 Luma Sens (Auto Contrast) 10-Bit Processing Full Power Down Mode (On/Off) Game Mode
Interactive Features
Digital Text Electronic Programme Guide: 8 Day Now and Next Information Favourite Channel Memory Fastext Text Page Memory
Digital Ready Freeview Digital Tuner Analogue Tuner Auto Set-up
Connections
HDMI: 2 Component video RGB (via SCART) SCART: 2 Side AV input PC Input: WXGA Analogue Audio Input Fixed/Variable Audio Output Optical Digital Audio Output Headphone Sub woofer output DVB Common Interface REGZA Link (CEC Functionality) S-Video
Other features
Off timer Panel lock Integrated Signal Amplifier Wall Mountable (VESA)
Dimensions
Width (mm): 796 Height without ped. Stand (mm): 512 Height with ped. Stand (mm): 552 Depth without ped. Stand (mm): 99 Depth with ped. Stand (mm): 224 Weight (Kg) without stand: 12.15 Weight (Kg) with stand: 12.9 Power Consumption(Typical): 137 Power Consumption (Stand-by): 0.9W
Would I recommend it?
Yes I would, it looks very smart in my lounge with its black surround and neat stand. The picture quality is good and so is the sound. It was very easy to set up and represents good value for money in my view and I hope it gives the same good service its predecessor did. Thank you Toshiba!
We've no idea how old our Toshiba CRT set is, we bought it with the house as the owner no longer wanted it - it must be a good 20 years old though, and like you we've been watching these flat screen ones fall in price......although Adrianna has her heart set on a Philips Ambilight set, I'd be more than happy with another Toshiba. Richard.
The Toshiba 32AV623D is acutting-edge LCD television with HD Ready resolution, a dynamic ... more
contrast ratio of 18,000:1, Active Vision IIimage processing and an HD Freeview tuner, guaranteeing fantastic imagequality. This is matched with stereo sound and a...
Postage & Packaging: refer to website Availability: available
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