Television Purchasing Guide

Cutting up carrots and slicing potatoes with the food prep does not have to become dull, mind-numbing work. In simple fact, these days, you are able to play Xbox 360.against other chefs, catch up about the latest Rachael Ray broadcast, or even watch a DVD concerning how to make a tasty Eggplant Raviolini dish whilst doing so. Thank the Toshiba 15LV506 DVD combo television, which can liven up any extended cooking session, whether you’re a true foodie or not. It’s small, white, and portable enough to change position from 1 countertop to the next, even with one hand. The device also supports component video and has a built-in digital tuner, a side-loading DVD drive, and operates properly as a boombox to boot. Alas, while the image around the box makes it look like you should have the time in your life while using 15LV506, the reality is as follows. We can only suggest it for those who are not that interested in the good quality entertainment experience.

Initial, about that image we mentioned about the box. It’s interesting because there’s a woman walking from 1 counter to the subsequent in the spacious kitchen, glancing more than her shoulder. The Toshiba HDTV is not even shown, but she includes a appear of complete amusement – perhaps laughing at a single of Oprah’s jokes, no doubt. Yet, from that distance, as we discovered during testing, the Toshiba television would be barely watchable. As such, this image is a superb instance of up-selling to the rich and glamorous (the featured kitchen area in the photo is some thing you’d only find at a broadcast studio), but the Television itself is more like a Wal-Mart unique: 1 you’d purchase for the price, not the attributes.

The 15LV506 is an all-in-one television that does work nicely with the cooking. It’s a 15-inch LCD (measured diagonally) that weighs about 8 pounds, and the stand is sturdy adequate that you can move it close to very easily. The Television doesn’t in fact swivel around or move down and up like you may expect, so you have to adjust the whole unit for a different viewing angle. The DVD is side-loading and operates well, though: It grabs the disc from you and doesn’t force you to push it in all the way, as with the PlayStation 3. In everyday use, these kinds of as changing channels, adjusting volume, and switching input modes, the 15LV506 performs quite adequately. We can definitely imagine somebody preferring the device’s small size, promoting a chance to watch movie, rather than raising the bar for actual picture high quality and overall enjoyment. Yet, we can’t overlook a few glaring deficiencies that make it hard to recommend.

It’s important to stress that this set is about what you can do with it, not how properly it performs, nevertheless. For instance: We also connected it to a Dish VIP-622 DVR and watched HD programming like the recent James Bond series shown on Encore HD. The 15LV506 worked okay with the 1080p HD movie, but lacked any true color quality – blues looks darker than they ought to have, for instance. You can also connect a video game console, but not the PlayStation three the use of the HDMI connector: The 15LV506 only supports the older component movie connection. It is possible to run digital audio out to a receiver to assist with audio quality, even though. The unit offers some minimal adjustments terms of acoustics as nicely, say for example a surround sound setting and bass/treble adjust. Sadly, none can hide the truth that the speakers are sub-par.

Fortunately, virtually any Cd and dvd we loaded into the unit worked as expected. We successfully tested burned CD-RW discs and burned DVD movies in DVD-RW format. The Toshiba 15LV506 remote control worked well in the kitchen too (it has big buttons for fast forward and power, for example), but we would have preferred some type of latch or snap-in holder about the Television to avoid obtaining spaghetti sauce all around the remote, safely placing it out of harm’s way. The Television also has a few other functions worth mentioning, say for example a headphone jack and a method to connect it to RCA audio receiver. There’s even a sleep timer for those late nights of oven-baking bliss, or if you decided to use the unit within your bedroom instead.

Overall, this $300 HDTV is pretty much what you’d expect: Of middling high quality, kitted out with a handful of extra features, lacking HDMI and DVI support, and constructed in a little size that operates nicely on a countertop. We can’t imagine anyone making use of it for extended movie-watching sessions – we only created it via about half of any given flick. Yet, the 15LV506 is functional and light adequate to use with the cooking, and for that purpose, it’s enough to keep you smiling at least long sufficient to cook up some lasagna and garlic bread for your hungry brood.