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We mentioned some time ago that the new Toshiba TVs were being touted by the company as eco-friendly because they featured an off switch. Of course, it’s funny to us that putting an off switch on something is remotely newsworthy. There was a time when it was a given that something with electricity flowing through it would have some means for cutting the juice, if need be.
Luckily, the Toshiba Regza 37XV505 doesn’t just say ‘thank you and good night!’ after it reveals the switch. Its other tricks include a 1080p/24 panel for your HD material, three HDMI sockets for connecting your high-definition hardware and of course, component, VGA and Scart inputs for everything else. There’s also ‘Regza link’, the Toshiba brand name for HDMI CEC, the device control system often found on HD devices.
The Tosh’s rabbit isn’t out of the hat yet. It supports audio description, which isn’t new but is still useful to have as a built-in feature, rather than relying on an extra decoder box. AD is a way of helping partially-sighted people to understand what’s happening on-screen by describing the scene in more detail. Essentially, it forces TV to be as descriptive as radio is. You can turn this feature on and off as you see fit, obviously.
The 37XV505 also sports ‘luma sens’. No, it’s not a character from Super Mario Galaxy: it’s another vile proprietary way of describing a simple feature. Basically, the TV monitors the ambient light in the room and adjusts the brightness of the TV to match. As a result, movie watching in dimly-lit rooms won’t be ruined by an overly zealous backlight.
For those of you less concerned about the Princess and more geared up for the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, the Tosh has a game mode that promises accurate motion, plus the
ability to set the screen to do 1:1-pixel mapping. This is the best
way to guarantee you’re seeing everything happening on-screen. If the fuzz takes a shot at you, you won’t be able to blame the TV’s overscan region if you don’t see it. Overscanning is unlikely to be a major problem in reality — as is true with the enemy, we hope — but as 1:1 pixel mapping improves the quality of the image, we’re all for it.
Available now for around £800, it has a finale just for the hippies: an energy saving trust endorsement accompanies the TV, meaning it should help to reduce your energy bills and your burden on the environment, too. Cue the rabbit. -Ian Morris
Update: Read our full Toshiba Regza 37XV505D review.
