We viewed a lot of material on this display and for the most part it looked very good. There was one anomaly we witnessed regarding the black level capabilities of the display. A halo effect surrounded the borders of the display whenever a dark black pattern or video was present. The edges of the backlight seemed to bleed through and kill any hope of a crisp, clean black edge. The system also failed to pass a blacker than black test pattern.

Despite our pickiness, movies and television looked excellent on this display. After all, we do watch more than just test patterns around here...

BD: The Fifth Element (Revised Version)
The revised edition of this movie sports excellent picture quality and looked fabulous on this display. Bangalore's looked perfectly textured and realistic with incredible detail and color, while the skin tones of the airline stewardesses will have the woman of the house able to guess what type and brand of lipstick and eyeshadow they were wearing.

Colors absolutely popped on this display, despite the apparent green deficiency shown in the CIE chart. I flipped between 120Hz ClearFrame mode and saw a difference on the flying cars scene but not too many other places. For the most part the effects were vague as the display attempts to interpolate a hybrid cross-frame blend of two 60Hz frames. With the 24p mode engaged I wasn't really certain what was happening in terms of the combined video processing modes, and only noticed that judder was all but gone.

Xbox 360: Bioshock and Timeshift
Black levels? Check. Dark corridors with lots of detail and inky black shadows? Check. Bioshock has them all and was a great game to test out on the Toshiba REGZA display. While I felt the black levels could be a tad deeper, the range of detail was present and the system seemed capable of providing a very detailed and pleasing picture overall. Timeshift was equally compelling, with it's strengths being over-the-top game detail and lots of explosions to check banding and white level detail.

HDTV: Bones
This show is in its third season and I've always enjoyed the opportunity it presents to observe good clean environment set detail as well as outdoor scenes which tend to appear at least once or twice per episode, often at night. I grabbed a couple of screen captures which showed some real-world scenes which would test the 46LX177's ability to render moire-free lines as well as posturization-free facial texture.

HDTV: Prison Break

Who doesn't like a good show about tough smart guys wrongfully imprisoned and trying to break their way out before a corrupt government can have them killed? Mix, stir, change the season number to 3 and you have this show in a nutshell. They keep you guessing, though and the sets are designed incredibly well, with plenty of test fodder for any display reviewer to love. I especially like this year's constant juxtaposition of colorful outdoor sequences mixed with dark interior scenes.

John Leguizamo's love child? (right)

HDTV: DiscoveryHD
I don't even know what this show was about, but it looked cool and I snapped off a shots. The leaves in the trees were pristine as was the subtle texture of the water. The greens here are slightly accentuated due to the camera setting, but the vivid colorful tone of the scene made me reach for the camera.

Conclusion

This is a very pleasing display to look at overall. I was disappointed by the lack of standard definition video performance and I can't say that the 120Hz mode was definitive enough to make me say it's now a must-have feature in LCD TVs. It certainly seemed promising and with the right video processing seems to be the answer to a lot of challenges in the software playback arena. Black levels should be a tad better in a premier-branded LCD display and contrast ratio for this display was well below what we'd expect or look for. Overall I'd rate this a sleek-looking display with some very cool network features. If that's your bag, then fill it with this. If you can spend a little more and want better performance you will be able to find it.

Toshiba REGZA 46LX177
Street Price: $2699
http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/
800-631-3811

About Toshiba Digital Electronics
Toshiba America Consumer Products, L.L.C. is owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation, a world leader in high technology products with subsidiaries worldwide. Toshiba is a pioneer in HD DVD, DVD and DVD Recorder technology and a leading manufacturer of a full line of home entertainment products, including flat panel TV, rear projection and direct view televisions, combination products and portable devices. Toshiba America Consumer Products, L.L.C. is headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey. For additional information please visit www.tacp.toshiba.com.