Toshiba 32BV500B 32-inch Widescreen HD Ready LCD TV with Freeview

With the picture resolution being 1366 x 768, this television is not fully HD. As a result, picture is not as crisp as other televisions of similar price. If you are looking for a good value television with good picture quality, this model is in that category. However, why settle for second best when there are other televisions with higher specs for the same price/cheaper? Having seen this model on Amazon's 'deals of the week', with the average customer rating being high and considering the price, I hastely bought it thinking I had netted a bargain. However it has been brought to my attention that there are better TVs on the market which are within the same price bracket. I came across the LG 32LD450, a superior model regarding looks (a much slimmer frame), weight (3.2kg lighter) and resolution (1920 x 1080p), not to mention it's a whopping 27 pence cheaper...
I am not saying this Toshiba model is a bad piece of machinery, it is 10 times better than my last tv, but if i could rewind time I would have chosen the LG, in my opinion it's better value for money.

I bought this from [...] for [...] and the product is labelled kv500 (same thing)

Aesthetics;

The frame of the TV is really wide, just shy of 2 inchs on the sides and top and 3 inchs at the bottom, it has a gloss finish. the bottom has "Toshiba" written in silver and below that is a silver line from one end to the other (cuts off just shy of the ends (1cm gap)). There is a tiny white light under this line in the centre, it glows a dull white when in stand-by and it is not distracting and I like it. There are touch screen keys at the bottom; volume, program, source and power, not only do they look good they are really responsive and easy to use and have a click sound when touched, I am not a fan of touch screen buttons but I actually enjoy using these, really I enjoy it.
The base is nice, but a bit big I'd say. It is 50cm long, not a problem for me but might be for others.
If you are considering a wall mounted TV I'd suggest not to go for this one. Although I can't fault it's aesthetics from the sides, it is a bit big and wouldn't look so good, it is 9cm deep, so add another 3cm for cables. If you want a wall mounted TV look into LED TVs.

The remote!! my god this is butt ugly (google - RC-3910). The buttons are rubber and the back is that rubbery plastic material. Everything is square and straight edged, only mute, power and ok are circle buttons. It is extremely hard to get used to the button layout as everything is square and in a similar layout, I like to use remotes without looking but this remote makes that near impossible.

Display:
My version is the KV500 (BV500) and is a 720p version. I use the TV for regular freeview, PC and PS3. Regular TV is good quality, the colours look real and the detail is really good. The PS3 plays amazingly well, I play battlefield badcompany 2, a FPS, and the quality is amazing. This TV is 50hz, and even though it is said that it shouldn't be great for games, it is, maybe I'd have a different opinion if I had a 100hz TV but I can't complain with the picture I get. The actual colour and picture displayed is perfect, I've played this game on 3 different TV's one being a 1080p LG and I couldn't set up the picture properly, the problem being that I couldn't see my enemies at all pretty much, this TV was perfect, I didn't have to change a thing from the preset settings.
Using this TV as a monitor gives me a 1cm thick black border, but it's a 32 inch tv so I'm not that bothered but some people may not like it. The correct settings are "HDTV - 768p"/"1366x768" or if you don't have those settings "HDTV - 720p" or "1360x768". To set your resolution use your graphics cards controls not windows, ie. nVidia or ATI.

Connectivity:
2x HDMI
Composite
Scart component
Scart
VGA
USB - Can recharge a ps3 controller lol!!!
PCi Card?
Headphones

The HDMI inputs are not automatically detected. You have to switch each time you want to switch, this required pressing source then selecting the connection, or if you want to go to TV just change the channel.
The USB does play videos.
Headphones is where you can plug in speakers.

Interface/functions:
Links are to image shack and contain nothing other than a picture.
[...]

The interface is ok, easy to use.
1 thing I hate is that if you have speakers (connected to headphones socket) like me, you CANNOT control the volume from normal volume, you have to go in to the menu > sound > headphones, doesn't affect the PC volume because I can control that through the PC but the PS3 and TV is where you have to do this.
The controls for the USB are very simple, you have play, forward and rewind at different speeds, would have liked to see a scene selection being at intervals of minutes or something.
The sleep function goes up in 10 minutes and upto 2 hours.
The EPG doesn't look nice, but is easy to use and offers reminders. The menu on DTV offers "timer" which lets you set the TV to turn to a show at certain times and durations and this can be set daily or weekly.

If you press the "ok" button on a HDMI screen it will "freeze" the screen, pressing again will unfreeze. I like this feature, it acts as a lock because no-one else will know :p

Overall

Pros;
Looks,
Preset display modes,
connectivity,
Game play,
USB plays videos.
USB recharges a PS3 controller.
Even though I use speakers, the normal speakers aren't that bad for TV speakers, they are flat but compared to other TVs they are very similar,
Good quality image.

Cons;
Headphones can't be controlled through normal volume,
Dull looking interface,
Size of frame,
Remote... the remote dammit.
None Auto switching for HD inputs.

Lol so happy that this can recharge my ps3 controller that I edited.

Glad this was useful to most people, if you would like any info give a reply.

I Had high hopes for this TV, the brand and the price were just what I was looking for. Those hopes were dashed however when after receiving the TV I found the picture quality poor, and the sound weak when compared to my old Tv, a Sony Bravia KDL32s300 which is on its last legs.

The picture, when a HDMI source is selected, produced a grainy/spotted outline to both people and objects, most noticeably lettering or straight edges. My Xbox360 *should* look fantastic on a HD screen and it does on my old TV, but not on this model. Same goes for my HTPC, the picture quality on HD and SD programmes looked very poor, with a 'ghosting' of sorts from a distance and a specklely aura when close up.

It is a shame, and it was with a heavy heart I had to send it back, and received from Amazon a replacement very quickly. Unfortunately it had the same 'fault' and looked bad again.

I will send this back and upgrade to a more expensive model.

2 stars for the tv - price and simplicity, and i will give 4 stars to Amazon for customer service.