Toshiba Regza 37RV675D

Although equipped with a Full HD panel, the Toshiba RV675D series is aimed at users looking for a TV for occasional use or for a budget option. That’s why it doesn’t feature the kind of technology you’ll find in the best TVs currently on the market, such as image smoothing technology for fast-action sequences, 100 Hz or 200 Hz technology, DLNA compatibility etc. Let's see how it gets on.

Design & handling: matte screen, fluorescent tube backlighting, meagre multimedia player

Unlike Toshiba’s ZV series TVs, the RV has a matte screen, which means you can place it in direct light without having to worry about reflections or glare. As I pretty much guessed from its thickness of 9.4 centimetres, this TV features CCFL fluorescent tube backlighting rather than LED.

At the rear and on the side of the TV, you’ll find four HDMI sockets, a component connection, a VGA connection and a USB port for hooking up an external storage device. The 37RV625D has a media player that’s just as mediocre as that of ZV-series TVs as only a few of our test files could be played. In fact, video compatibility is restricted to Divx 5 and Xvid in standard definition, with no HD-format compatibility at all!

The remote control has a fairly traditional design and isn’t backlit. It is, however, practical and well laid out even if its design is somewhat out-dated.

Default picture quality: good default contrast

As with the ZV series, the default brightness is set low at an average of around 94 cd/m². This low brightness could well be Toshiba’s attempt to hide the lack of depth in the black. On the whole, the results are disappointing, as the dynamic contrast is too marked, the colour temperature is too blue and white areas are overexposed. Then again, pretty much every TV we test displays faults like this with its factory settings!

Picture quality in Movie mode: a drop in contrast

Unfortunately, switching to Movie mode doesn’t fix things entirely, and some of the problems are even made worse. The colours, for example, remain inaccurate, but the contrast actually drops to 550:1, when the best TVs out there can boast 1800:1 or higher.


The brightness and gamma do, however, look a little more natural. White areas are no longer overexposed and the blue tinge is corrected. It’s no surprise then, that the HD picture looks pretty good, so long as you ignore the colour reproduction issues and the inadequately deep black. The SD upscaling lacks sharpness too. The result is a little too soft, making the picture look blurred.


Toshiba hasn’t included its ActiveVision M200HD smooth-motion feature in this model, but given that it hardly seemed to do anything when we tested it in the 42ZV625D, I suppose that’s not really a problem. On the other hand, this TV is prone to jerking and sticking when playing content encoded at 24 frames per second, including Blu-ray and DVD discs.

Audio quality

The sound is full and powerful but there's a noticeable resonance and lack of precision as the speakers are angled facing downwards. On the whole, the sound is above average, but it’s still a long way off matching a home cinema system.

Power consumption

Power consumption on standby for the RV675D is low at just 0.3 watts. When switched on, it’s still pretty good for a 37-inch TV at 108 watts.