Initially, the Toshiba 26AV505DB failed to impress us much with its plasticky feel and uninspired sculpting, and its paltry pair of HDMIs and lack of PC D-Sub input made us glum.

However, unlike the D-Sub-deficient JVC 26DE9, this set does allow some flexibility of PC connection via its HDMIs, so it's not a total loss for computer users.

Image features

The Toshiba 26AV505DB's native resolution is an HD Ready 1,366 x 768 pixels. However, it certainly stands out from the crowd with its large 30,000:1 contrast ratio, and we hope this translates into a worthwhile black level response.

It's no great surprise given, its price, to find the 26AV505DB devoid of Toshiba's decent Active Vision LCD image processing. But it's not wholly without picture tweaking flexibility, thanks to MPEG and standard noise reduction routines, a 3D colour management system, whereby you can adjust the individual colour elements and a contrast booster.

Great value performance

The 26AV505DB really gets interesting with its picture quality, which outguns any other 26in TV we've seen at the same price.

Take black levels, for instance. Dark scenes are really surprisingly watchable, with passable amounts of shadow detail, nothing too alarming in the way of grey or blue misting, and none of the forced 'hollow' look common to cheap LCD TVs.

Obviously, the 26AV505DB's black levels are no match for those of a good premium TV, but then the 26AV505DB is unapologetically a budget telly, and by those standards its black levels are fine.

The set also suffers less with motion blur than you'd expect for its money. Again we're not saying there isn't any resolution loss over moving objects; just that what blurring there is seldom distracts. Even the 26AV505DB's colours are respectable, managing to look decently vibrant and natural instead of grubby and off key as they so often do at the cheap end of the market.

Weak audio

The Toshiba 26AV505DB also has enough wherewithal to present HD pictures with respectable sharpness and detail, yet can also upscale standard definition more satisfyingly than some TVs costing twice as much.

The set's audio doesn't achieve quite such a likeable balance as its pictures, tending to leave action scenes sounding a bit weedy and harsh. But it actually sounds fine for normal TV viewing, which again seems a fair deal for £300.