Toshiba 50L7300U Cloud TV: Tons Of Features At A Reasonable Price
The lines between computer monitors and HDTVs are pretty blurry. Aside from the most popular sizes, there aren't many technological differences between the screen on your desk and the TV in your living room. Nearly all desktop displays employ LED backlights. The same is true for large-screen HDTVs (and when I say large, I'm talking about 50 inches-plus).
In the not-so-distant past, a mainstream TV was 32 inches and high-definition meant 720p. Now, enthusiasts seem to start their research at 50 inches, while even the least-expensive models support 1080p.
Always value-conscious, Toshiba recently began shipping its line of Cloud TVs. The company sent over the 50L7300U for us to look at. This is a 50-inch LED edge-lit panel with a full array of network features. In fact, you could watch a tremendous amount of content on it with nothing more than an Internet connection. Selling at a list price of $1400 and a street price under $900, Toshiba's latest might just be a cord-cutter's dream display.
| Brand | Toshiba |
|---|---|
| Model | 50L7300U |
| List Price | $1400 |
| Panel Type | IPS |
| Backlight | W-LED, edge array |
| Screen Size | 49.5" |
| Max Resolution | 1920x1080 |
| Max Refresh Rate | 240 Hz |
| Aspect Ratio | 16:9 |
| Response Time (GTG) | 8 ms |
| Brightness (cd/m2) | 443 |
| Speakers | 2 x 10 W |
| HDMI | 4 |
| VGA | 1 |
| Component | 1 |
| Composite | 2 |
| Audio In | 1 x 3.5 mm, 1 x RCA |
| Audio Out | 1 x 3.5 mm, 1 x optical |
| USB | 2 (v2.0) |
| IR Control | 1 out |
| Panel DimensionsW x H x D | 44.8 x 29.2 x 9.5 in1139 x 742 x 242 |
| Panel Thickness | 2.3 in / 58 mm |
| Weight | 38.4 lbs / 17.4 kg |
| Warranty | One year |
There are a couple of principal differences between HDTVs and computer monitors. First and foremost is that every television includes speakers and some sort of tuner. Believe it or not, those items are required by the FCC before a manufacturer can call its product a television. If they aren't part of the package, the device must be labeled “monitor.” Pioneer's now-discontinued PRO-141 and -151 plasma displays are good examples. They had neither tuner nor speakers, but were clearly marketed as televisions.
Another difference is video processing and scaling. While all fixed-pixel displays scale incoming signals to their native resolutions, HDTVs have more sophisticated video processing abilities used to handle the various cadences and refresh rates that exist in video-based content. This is a vast subject unto itself, and we'll go into more depth on page 11, along with a few tests we’re adding to our benchmark suite.
In addition to the usual image quality tests, which we tweaked somewhat, we’ll cover usability both for traditional content delivered via broadcast and Blu-ray, and streamed video, which the 50L7300U offers in abundance. We're retaining our response and lag tests because we know HDTVs are often the centerpieces for home entertainment. You probably won't connect a high-end gaming PC to this screen, but plenty of folks will hook up an Xbox One or PlayStation 4, we're sure.
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1477874/toshiba-l1350u-series-2013/30#post_23923173
"Using the same settings on both Game and Movie, via OCD-levels of eye-balling I found that Game and/or PC modes (which look identical) have similar white levels with backlight @ 50 compared to Movie's backlight @ 68. By comparison Movie's backlight setting had to be set to 40 just to get black levels similar to Game and/or PC with backlight @ 50. And for reference,"Standard" seems to be about the same as Game and/or PC except that the backlight @ 42 seems to equal Game/PC's backlight @ 50."
For reference, CNET seemed to have assumed that the the "Movie" preset was the best when reviewing the L2300U (which is the same as the L1350U but in a different color) and then went and criticized the TV for having poor contrast and black levels. I just want to make sure Tom's doesn't make the same mistake in the future.
We did not assume that Movie mode produced the best contrast, we measured every mode to determine which was the best starting point for calibration. Our black level measurements take into account the full rendering of detail down to the lowest brightness steps. It's easy to drop the brightness control and measure a better black level but detail will be crushed. In the game mode, we couldn't get any better black levels than movie when you take detail into account. Check out the article where we talk about the use of dynamic contrast. That will give you a pretty good idea where the balance is between contrast and detail. Remember also that Game mode does not have the accurate color gamut or flat grayscale and gamma tracking possible in Movie.
When referring to forum posts, a statement like "via OCD-levels of eye-balling" means that the writer is expressing an opinion, not facts arrived at by science. We suggest taking information like that with a grain of salt.
And yes, our calibration settings would be incorrect in Game mode.
-Christian-
I stated that I was quoting and linking to a post I made myself; if look at the user name of said AVS Forum post you would see that it is my own. Therefore I don't exactly appreciate it when you say that my results have no scientific merit and are purely an opinion...not all of us can afford multi-hundred dollar calibration tools just to provide exact numbers on what we're seeing. (for reference, I was not even the person that insisted on buying the TV, I would have been fine without one)