We review the Toshiba REGZA 46WL800A LCD TV

Performance

When it came to 2D content, this TV’s performance was very much the same as that with the 47 inch model – excellent.

The black levels were very dark, and even full black screens exhibited almost no unevenness is their (low level) brightness. The LED backlight adjusted its brightness according to the picture content, and was able to apply different brightness levels to different parts of the screen.

That in turn led to lovely, accurate colour. The TV screen itself was of the anti-reflective type, rather than a mirror finish, so it leant a soft finish to the picture.

3D content was a different matter. It did everything that it was supposed to in terms of handling Blu-ray 3D, and the side-by-side broadcast 3D format, and also with converting from 2D. But it was all let down by crosstalk: the leakage of the left eye image into the right eye, and vice versa.

This was significant with all 3D content, to the point of distraction. Most of the content had visible ghosts. If your main desire is for effective 3D, go for Toshiba’s 47 inch passive model. It is enormously better on that front.

The facial recognition system required a little setup. In this process it shows you a picture of what the TV’s camera sees, and attempts to identify a face. Having done that, you accept the four red dots it uses to frame your face. Then you can give it a text name for later identification and set how personalised you want the TV to be for you. You can also call up the picture it has captured.

Incredibly, it worked. At least with me and the family member I roped in for the exercise. I gave her a wacky set of picture defaults to make things obvious, and when she sat down in front of the TV, they were dutifully applied. I thought the system a little too ready to tell you what it was up to with brightly coloured text boxes, but nonetheless as an exercise in demonstrating technological mastery, it was impressive.

Conclusion

The face recognition technology certainly makes the Toshiba Regza 46WL800A TV an interesting, perhaps, unique TV. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether you’d find this useful in your domestic situation.’

As for 3D, though, Toshiba needs to work on its active technology a bit. For the time being, its passive 47 inch model delivers a far better result.