In use
The Toshiba takes an age to power up (a
full seconds) but both screens are straightforward to set-up thanks to the
installation wizards. When it comes to comparing the operating systems, things
are not clear cut. On the one hand the Toshiba’s GUI is more contemporary
looking, featuring graphical icons that appear on the outer edges of a rotating
wheel (with most of the wheel hidden below the screen at any one time). You
then nudge your way up and across to find the relevant sub-menu, but it falters
because the system doesn’t respond quickly enough to the remote and the icons
and text appear small.
On the other hand, Panasonic uses the
traditional method of listing categories down the left and inviting you to move
the cursor across and down through the sub-menus. It works well but is in need
of a make-over. It’s not all bad for Panasonic as the Viera Link button on the
remote brings up a nicer looking dashboard, providing quick access to all
connected and internal sources.
Both
screens have Smart TV portals, but while Panasonic’s Viera Connect has a
selection of apps that is streets ahead of Toshiba’s Places
Neither Freeview EPG uses an overlay or
mini window to maintain contact with the current broadcast and they use a
similar legible color scheme of black text on a white background, which is
oddly reversed when you do a genre search. Panasonic edges this one thanks to
its three layout options that let you choose the number of channels listed (the
maximum is 14) and the amount of programmer information on show.
Both screens have Smart TV portals, but
while Panasonic’s Viera Connect has a selection of apps that is streets ahead
of Toshiba’s Places, the latter is the more satisfying experience to operate.
Panasonic uses over-sized panes that have terrific impact but only eight can be
much seen at a time. Toshiba does a much better job of displaying its connected
wares, dividing them in to categories but it offers a meager selection.
Great
clarity, but just eight apps on display at any one time and an annoying pinging
sound that you’ll want to disable
Performance
Tune in to an HD channel on either screen
or watch a Blu-ray movie and you’ll initially be more than impressed by the
excellent levels of detail. With the Panasonic though you may spot a number of
faint vertical bands. With dark, static footage such as Downton Abbey’s dining
room you won’t notice them, but they’re more obvious on brightly lit scenes
when a camera pans rapidly and when there are large areas of a similar color,
such as a football pitch.
There is some haloing around high contrast
objects such as white letters on dark backgrounds and you get a slight shimmer
around trailing objects. Blu-rays look decent though, with plenty of clarity, a
highly realistic color palette and reasonable levels of shadow detail, for
example in The Dammed united. Oddly, for once, standard definition channels
from a Sky box look a tad softer than the built-in Freeview tuner.
The
Toshiba Places main menu sensibly balances attractiveness with practically. The
favorites folder is good addition
The Toshiba 46TL963 doesn’t have any
obvious flaws, overall it lacks a bit of impact but is highly adept at dealing
with movement. Skin tones are a bit on the pink side and there’s some backlight
leakage, but it’s only really an issue with very dark scenes. The Panasonic’s
Freeview tuner is sharper than the Toshiba’s, although Freesat pictures on the
Toshiba are better and are on a par with images from a Sky box.
Verdict
Anyone upgrading from a dated plasma or LCD
screen will be amazed at how much more you now get for your money. For not much
more than the price of a iPhone you can get a whopping 46in screen and enjoy
eye-popping images in HD from all manner of easily connected sources.
Both models can hook up to a home network,
record to external hard drives, playback multimedia files and offer bespoke
connected TV services. Someday all TVs will be overflowing with online apps and
catch-up services, but Toshiba badly need to do some catching up of its own to
fill its decent-looking but sparsely populated Places portal.
Panasonic’s Viera Connect service offers
much more but its operating system, like that of the screen in general is in
need of refreshment.
Concerns that these budget-priced models
offer quantity rather than quality are not entirely misplaced. The
specification of the Panasonic TX-L47E5 illustrates that corners that have been
cut to keep the price down: for example, the basic 50Hz panel with 150Hz
scanning is simply not able to handle movement as well as the faster refresh
rates found on higher priced Viera screens. Motion isn’t that badly handled and
there’s plenty to like about the picture quality but the faint banding issue is
hard to overlook.
Test and measurement
Toshiba 46TL963
·
Price: $900
·
Screen size: 46in
·
Display technology: LCD
·
Tuners: analogue UHF; DVB-T/T2; DVB-S/S2
·
EPG: Freeview HD 7-day; Freesat 7-day
·
Speaker: 2x10W
·
HDMI: 4
·
Scart: 1
·
Audio out: optical, h/phones
·
Wi-Fi networking: Optional USB
·
Rating (%): 82
Power usage
Slightly higher in use but very low standby
is what we like to see
·
In use: 75W
·
Standby: <1W
Media playback
·
Via USB: yes
·
DLNA Client: yes
·
DLNA Server: no
·
uPnP: yes
Video formats
·
MPEG-2 TS: yes
·
AVI: yes
·
DivX: yes
·
XviD: yes
·
MKV: yes
·
WMV: yes
Audio formats
·
MP3: yes
·
WAV: yes
·
FLAC: no
·
WMA: no
·
M4A: yes
·
AAC: no
Still image
·
JPG: yes
·
BMP: yes
·
GIF: no
·
RAW: no
·
PNG: no
Panasonic TX-L47E5
·
Price: $1050
·
Screen size: 47in
·
Display technology: LCD
·
Tuners: analogue UHF; DVB-T/T2
·
EPG: Freeview HD 7-day
·
Speaker: 2x10W
·
HDMI: 4
·
Scart: 1
·
Audio out: optical, h/phones
·
WiFi networking: Optional USB
·
Rating (%): 81
Power usage
Amazingly low power standby mode is very
welcome
·
In use: 70W
·
Standby: <1W
Media playback
·
Via USB: yes
·
DLNA Client: yes
·
DLNA Server: no
·
uPnP: yes
Video formats
·
MPEG-2 TS: yes
·
AVI: yes
·
DivX: yes
·
XviD: yes
·
MKV: yes
·
MP4: yes
Audio formats
·
MP3: yes
·
WAV: yes
·
FLAC: no
·
WMA: no
·
M4A: yes
·
AAC: no
Still image
·
JPG: yes
·
BMP: no
·
GIF: no
·
RAW: no
·
PNG: no
