Toshiba 55WL863B 55-inch Widescreen Full HD 1080p 3D 200Hz Pro-LED TV with Freeview HD

Its a little sad to see people reviewing a television without hands on experience of the unit itself, rather than just reading its 'edge lit' and therefore less than acceptable.

I recently ordered a Sony Bravia screen which cost £1,200 - 46 inch, and was impressed with it, but I experienced some issues with brightness abnormalities bottom left and bottom right of the panel. I wasn't happy and had it sent back. I was offered a refund or replacement from the local store and opted for a refund, as I had read about this toshiba screen online and fancied the idea of having a modified Playstation 3 IBM cell processor handling some functionality, such as processing and 2D to 3D on the fly conversion.

The tv, as expected is exceptionally thin, due to the LED panel, and weighs very little when I think back to my Sanyo 50inch AQUOS from 5 years ago. The out of the box settings aren't bad, although some user adjustment can help get the most from the screen, especially in regards to the contrast/back lighting settings. If you want to spend extra, then you can get the calibration unit, but its around £200 I think so seems a little over the odds.

There are plenty of settings to cater to bluray and other media. I run a media PC through one of the HDMI inputs, and there is also a separate audio in for a PC if the non HDMI ports are used, which is useful. 4 HDMI ports are great and cover most bases for people. I use an AC RYAN VEOLO via one of the HDMI ports, connected to my network and the picture quality is fantastic. AutoView works great at night as it automatically calibrates the screen to suit the ambient light. It works a lot faster than my AQUOS, as I could see it adjusting the black content sometimes and taking a split second to counter a change in overall scene lighting.

2D picture quality really is superb, black definition is the best I have seen, and compared to other edge lit screens ive seen, there is very little backlit bleed on the corners, even at high settings. This surprised me.

I have yet to test the 3D aspect of the TV, or the 'on the fly' 2D to 3D conversion as I had to order 3d glassed from Amazon, as this particular screen doesnt ship with any 3d glasses. This seems a little tight of Toshiba, as they would add £80 to the cost to them, or less. 2D quality however is as good as I have seen, and easily equal to the Sony Bravia high end screens ive used.

Sound quality is fairly weak, but it isn't just this screen, most thin LED screens suffer in this regard due to the physical depth and lack of decent subwoofer power. I use a set of Harmon Kardon KL55 glass speakers via the audio out panel on the rear of the screen and this dramatically helps for music, and general movie viewing. The volume for audio out can even be controlled by the TV in the headphone section which is useful for devices which dont have dedicated volume controls, such as the playstation 3. (works great).

refresh is very good, and although it is rated quite low (around 28ms), there is a dedicated GAME function setting which seems to clear up any motion based problems.

24frame support seems good, and I watched the bluray of AVATAR and it really impressed me, especially with the depth of colour and accuracy of flesh tones. I read some problems with the 'red' content of the screen, but toshiba have patched it with a new firmware in the middle of december which can be downloaded directly via the wireless capabilities of the screen (another great option as you dont need to run another cable to the screen). It self updated in a few minutes and changed some of the menus, with animations and a few extra features.

Youtube and BBC iplayer are flawless, and look great.

All in all, very impressed and this is easily one of the best 2D televisions on the market. With on the fly 2D to 3D conversion thanks to the IBM cell processor this certainly seems to cover all bases.

Highly recommended.

Originally purchased the 55 inch Samsung D8000 for £2K and it proved a fabulous picture, but only with a perfect HD signal. Feed it with standard definition & the picture quality really suffers. Also the Samsung had serious motion issues & also suffers from a high delay time with PS3, XBox 360 gaming etc (even in gaming mode) (i.e. Gaming picture lags behind your gaming input). Read the great review in the similarly great Home Cinema Choice magazine & decided to try the Toshiba & problems solved !! No motion issues, SD looks great, gaming now spot on & at £850 less than the Samsung, no contest !! OK it isn`t as attractive without that super skinny silver bezel, but the Toshiba still looks great and again equates to a £850 saving to say goodbye to a skinny bezel ??!!!

Nice looking large screen LED TV from a reliable manufacturer. Impressive picture quality. Very thin bezel and very light. 2D picture quality is excellent too. Great value price from Amazon. Sound is a little low on base but overall is crisp and pleasing to the ear. Nothing comparable is available at this price. Highly recommended.