Toshiba Regza 46SL863

Instead of adding 3D to its latest SL863 TV, Toshiba has tried a different strategy by making it as interactive as possible.  That's why it includes the latest technology, including support for the Toshiba Places platform, DLNA connectivity and the new HbbTV standard.

Build Quality and Design

The SL863 comes in four different sizes—32'', 37'', 42'' and this 46'' model—and represents a mid-range offering in Toshiba's collection.  It might not have 3D, but it does have just about every other technology you could ask for, including LED backlighting, a 100 Hz motion interpolation filter, support for the DLNA 1.5 and HbbTV standards and multimedia features via the USB port and UPnP for music, photos and video.  All of that is crammed into a TV that's just 4 cm thick. 

Although the software has the same interface as Toshiba's Places external media centre, it seems that the decoding chip powering it has been replaced.  During our tests, we really struggled to make it play many files and were very disappointed to find that it was only compatible with MTS files encoded using AVC.

The interface itself and the other menus did win us over, and they're fast and generally very intuitive.  That at least Toshiba has done right.

It's just a shame we can't say the same about the mediocre remote made from cheap plastic and with confusing buttons.  Even with the arrow keys it's hard to find the right one.

Ghosting and Input Lag

The SL863 got off to a poor start when our first tests revealed a ghosting time of 30 ms, which is right at the bottom of the list, coming in at twice the average figure we've found on other TVs.  And with an input lag of 33 ms, or two frames, it's hard to recommend it for gamers either.  The input lag won't be so much of a problem for them, but the ghosting is a huge drawback.

Image Quality

With the factory settings, the SL863 is configured to have a very eye-catching picture.  Unfortunately, however, that also means it suffers from inaccurate colour reproduction (average deltaE: 11.6), a colour temperature that climbs to almost 10000 K leaving greys looking very blue and a gamma curve that looks like a rollercoaster.  Lighter areas of the screen are totally overexposed.



Fortunately, you can really improve things and get a much more natural picture by switching to 'Hollywood Day' mode, and setting the brightness to 5 and the colour temperature to 3.  The SL863's MVA display still struggles with contrast, barely making 1320:1.  That will look fine for watching TV during the day, but true Home Cinema fans who turn the lights down will find the black looks totally washed out.

The viewing angles are another problem: as soon as you move slightly to the left or to the right, black areas quickly appear blue which is very disconcerting.

It's not all bad news, though, and the SL863 does have some strengths.  It does a great job of evenly spreading out the brightness in lighter areas, something of a rare feat for a TV with Edge LED backlighting.


Once you've set it up properly, the colours are accurate with our equipment measuring a deltaE of 2.7.  This score represents the distinction between the colours requested by a video input such as a DVD player or games console and those actually shown on screen, and when it falls below 3.0, any remaining discrepancies are invisible to the naked eye.

The lack of responsiveness is a real problem for films.  Long panning shots and fast-moving scenes often suffer from ghosting, and the motion interpolation filter hardly improves things.  When you turn it on, jitters are contained but still remain very visible.

HD content looks exactly as it should and upscaling of SD content like ordinary TV pictures or a DVD is about average.  Our tip is to turn up the sharpness a little, which will add plenty of extra details to a DVD, which is more than welcome.

Clouding

The SL863 isn't capable of showing blacks evenly. The problem, known as clouding, is particularly noticeable around the outside of the frame, with fewer problems in the corners.  That makes it harder to spot in films.

Audio Quality

The image quality might be just about OK, but the audio is absolutely appalling!  The sound comes out so muffled that we wondered if there was a problem with the SL863 we were testing.  We took it apart to see if we could identify the problem but the speakers seemed to be free of any obvious defects—they really are that bad!

Energy Consumption

The SL863 made up some lost ground in our final test for energy consumption, with the LED backlighting around the edge of the frame helping it stick to just 80 W on the 46'' version.  That's quite simply an excellent performance, and the 1 W required on standby is just as impressive.