46LX177 Calibration and Benchmark Testing

We used Datacolor’s Colorfacts Professional 6.0 software to measure the 46LX177's performance in various modes and Color temperature settings. Unfortunately, there are no User calibration controls for RGB Cut and Gain (you can adjust Blue and Green Drive only) so we didn't include a post-calibration set of measurements in our review (as is our policy, which encourages manufacturers to make these controls available outside of a service menu). Surprisingly, the Toshiba showed a dramatic deficiency in Green. How it can do this and boast xvYCC support was beyond us, however the tristimulus sensor has been fairly accurate to date. We also noted a very odd gamma value of around 1.55 which is unusual and way off our target of between 2.2 and 2.5. Blacks took off quickly and whites got bright far too early in the grayscale as a result. Tweak the Static Gamma setting down (like all the way) to produce a more appealing curve. There was no perceived banding.

We took some ANSI contrast measurements and got the following, disappointing results:

• 192:1 – Movie Mode (backlight standard)

• 344:1 – Standard Mode

• 467:1 – Sports Mode

• 177:1 – Movie Mode (backlight all the way down)

In terms of real-world performance I like to see at least 400:1 on displays while in Theater picture modes. The results of our tests here backed up our viewing tests which showed that the Toshiba simply didn't have the ability to achieve very dark black levels.

Color temperature was pretty good. Here are what the various modes yield in their default settings:

• 14300K – Sports Mode

• 8700K – Standard Mode

• 6750K – Movie Mode (Color Temp Warm)

• 8800K – Document Mode

With these results, you'll see below how well the Movie Mode with a Warm Color Temperature setting fared (pretty well as far as grayscale was concerned.)

Left: After taking a few measurements in the Movie Mode with color temperature set to Warm we received these results. Not too shabby from 30 to 100IRE. Right: While the curve looks smooth, the overall gamma curve comes in close to a straight diagonal line, meaning that the gradual slope from black to white was a bit too harsh for our tastes. Adjusting the Static Gamma setting to -4 helped this a bit.

Color temperature as pretty good from 30 to 100IRE.

The measurements of the Toshiba 46LX177 were not up to what we had been expecting, especially with all the talk of xvYCC support. We next employed the 120Hz ClearFrame processing to see how it held up in real-world testing. On movies it indeed seemed to help remove some motion blur, but this was only perceptible a very minimal manner at lower speeds. Throwing up a Rainbow & Dither test from AVIA Pro, for example, we witnessed increased meaningful clarity at speeds of up to '5'. Beyond that the system simply resulted in slightly decreasing the thickness of blurred and trailing edges as they screamed across the display. Beyond '8' and the difference was unnoticeable.

When we ran some fine detail tests on it, however, the ClearFrame mode rendered artifacts in our Moving Zone Plate test pattern:

These artifacts could be toggled on and off in real-time with the ClearFrame setting.

While I never witnesses these artifacts in any movie viewing, the real strength of the technology seemed to be in its adaptation of 24p source material which it rendered with very little apparent judder effects.

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

Perfect Score is 130
Toshiba REGZA 46LX177 Benchmark Score: 53 (one of the worst performers we've seen this year)

*We tested via HDMI at 480i resolution and confirmed via component video inputs at 480i

Comments on HQV Testing

Ouch. The Film Detail tests and 2:3 cadence tests almost never fail, however the lock-on time was extremely slow and for some reason the Toshiba never cleanly locked on to an unflagged 2:3 cadence. Feed this display a good, solid progressive scan source as the onboard video processing left us wanting for more. Let me reiterate: if you have a nice DVD or HD DVD player and a cable box that can output 1080i then you won't have a problem with this display. If you plan on feeding it a 480i source you may want to take another look at your options.