1005WHC14 Toshiba 27WL56P

8/8/05

5:12 PM

Page 33

26in LCD screens>GROUP TEST
Active Vision processing triples the pictures pixel count
Bass is in short supply but dialogue is always clear

Toshiba 27WL56P 850

What with a bonus extra inch of screen, this Toshiba has a far better specification and performance than we expected for the money
OK, youve got us; Toshibas 27WL56P isnt a 26in TV. It actually comes in at 27in. But youre not going to quibble about an inch are you? Course you arent. Especially as Toshiba seems to have thrown it in gratis (at 850 this is one of the cheapest TVs in this group test). Connections include an HDMI jack thats willing and able to handle HDCP-protected high or standard definition digital feeds. Theres also an analogue 15-pin PC connection. Its a shame that there are only two Scarts, and no component video inputs. However you can get component video signals including analogue high-definition ones into the screen via its PC jack and a (not included) component to VGA adaptor cable. The 27WL56s spec stacks up well. Its native resolution of 1280 x 720 is sufficient to tick the final box on the official HD-Ready checklist, while the contrast ratio of 900:1 and brightness of 500cd/m2 both bode well. The 27WL56s other key feature is Toshibas respected Active Vision picture processing, designed to triple the pictures pixel count; produce

RATINGS

STYLE FEATURES PICTURE SOUND VALUE OVERALL EASE OF USE #####
smoother colour gradations; make movement look clearer and smoother; and stretch the contrast range.

Black attack

With our test DVD of The Village, the 27WL56Ps picture punches well above its price weight. Kicking off the hot stuff is a first rate black level performance. The recurring views over the village at night all look impressive in scale, full of (often scary) depth, and impressively cinematic all because the black areas of the picture are only slightly affected by the greying over and bluish tone so common in the LCD world. Colours are spectacular too: at one end of the scale the red cloaks of the monsters are almost preternaturally visceral in intensity. At the other, even shadowy skin tones during night scenes look entirely believable in tone. The picture is also stunningly sharp. Thanks presumably to Active Vision, the hyper-detailed shots of the village
enjoying a group meal at the films start look fabulously textured not least because all of the detail is delivered with no grain, moiring or dot crawl interference.
####$ ##### ####$ ##### #####

Look Sharp

As Ivy runs through the woods trying to escape one of the creatures, meanwhile, the fast motion remains largely unaffected by LCDs common smearing problems. We were also very impressed by the lack of haloing around the sharp edges of the faces during the town meetings, and the subtle gradations of colour that are clearly visible during the village dance. The only negative thing we can say about the 27WL56P is that dark picture areas can look slightly empty, and so marginally over-dominant. But this really is a trivial point on such an affordable screen. The 27WL56P is a decent enough audio performer. Bass might be in rather short supply, but at least this ensures that dialogue is always clear and trebles have enough room to sound rounded rather than harsh even during The Villages atmospheric screechy bits! The 27WL56P really is a cracking little TV. Its impressively futureproofed in its specification, its a great picture performer, and, all things considered, it costs astoundingly little. Bargain I

TEST SCENE

> >The Village
SHADOWY SKIN DURING NIGHT SCENES LOOK ENTIRELY BELIEVABLE IN TONE
This scene shows off the quality of the Toshibas colours in the red capes, as well as the decent depth to its black levels

AT A GLANCE

FEATURES 600:1 contrast ratio 500cd/m2 brightness Active Vision processing Black Stretch MPEG NR SRS WOW audio CONNECTIONS Two Scarts (one RGB) PC VGA jack ( component video via adaptor cable) HDMI input Composite video input S-video input Stereo audio input x 2 Composite video output Stereo audio output www.toshiba.co.uk 08704 424424
Side inputs for a camcorder Two Scarts, one of which is or games console RGB enabled
Bland, but gets the job done just fine

WHC OCTOBER 2005 33