Toshiba 42VL963 review

Ambitious but oh-so-slow Edge LED telly with passive 3D

Toshiba 42VL963

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Usability

Despite putting in a largely likable picture performance, the 42VL963's appeal is seriously hampered by its overly fussy user interface and lacklustre remote control.

The latter looks classy, with a gloss black panel and large buttons lain on a curved silver base.

Toshiba 42VL963 review

However, it's badly weighted to the top – where the battery compartment lies in its undercarriage – and it's not very responsive at all.

Numerous times during the review did we have to wait for commands to be accepted by the TV or, more usually, discover that the TV just didn't allow quick commands.

Whatever we tried, the 42VL963 was always either two steps behind, or half asleep. Even switching between picture presets involve a second or two of blank screen.

Sadly, the 'quick menu' button on the remote brings up some pretty unusual settings, such as picture size and headphone sound levels. It's hardly streamlining.

The remote also lacks a 'back' button of suitable size and placement, since it turns out to be the primary button for getting out of menus, returning to main menus and swapping between MP3 songs and videos.

Toshiba 42VL963 review

Toshiba has designed a potentially useful carousel behind the Menu button that puts major functions together; Connected TV (which leads to links to YouTube, BBC iPlayer and the Toshiba Places pages), Media Player (USB or network-sourced media), Function (just a sleep timer) and Setup (Picture, Sound, System Setup and Preferences).

Toshiba 42VL963 review

Toshiba 42VL963 review

Toshiba Places is slow to navigate, though apps load quickly. However, when exiting Toshiba Places, we got an irritating 'Are you sure?' delaying message, with the default set to 'No'; three button presses to get back to live TV.

Digital file support via its USB slots is rather less irritating.

Amid a rather functional, but not unpleasant, USB Media Player interface that puts all folders and files in a simple grid on a black background, we managed first to play MP3, M4A and WMA music.

Toshiba 42VL963 review

Video formats included AVC HD, AVI, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG and WMV HD (though not WMV), although for some reason a preview pane pops up when you hover over a specific file, though shows nothing.

Once again, the remote's buttons are too small and unresponsive to smoothly navigate within and between digital files; the left and right chapter skip buttons are also positioned at the base of the remote, which makes it tricky to use if holding the remote in one hand.

After taking four button presses to fire up the equally drab, slow Network Media Player interface instead, in our test the 42VL963 successfully streamed the same music file formats, albeit with a second or three's delay, but only AVI video files. Still, it's a decent effort.

Toshiba 42VL963 review

Sound

The 42VL963's twin 10W speakers are a smidgen above average.

Hidden in the Advanced menus is a surprisingly effective voice-enhancement mode, while the Audyssey ABX function – available on a low or high setting – adds some finesse to treble highs, though little in the way of much-needed bass.

Toshiba 42VL963 review

Overall, the soundstage is wider and more detailed than most, though it's not particularly proficient with music.

Value

The 42VL963's lack of Wi-Fi puts it a step behind most of its competitors at this price, though it's arguably the lack of a dual-core processor and a decent remote control that puts the 42VL963 down the pecking order, despite its thoroughly respectable pictures.

The provision of four pairs of 3D glasses – and plenty of ins and outs – do claw back some ground for the 42VL963, but not enough to prevent us from making this obvious conclusion; there are better value all-rounders available – and more user-friendly ones, at that.

Jamie Carter

Jamie is a freelance tech, travel and space journalist based in the UK. He’s been writing regularly for Techradar since it was launched in 2008 and also writes regularly for Forbes, The Telegraph, the South China Morning Post, Sky & Telescope and the Sky At Night magazine as well as other Future titles T3, Digital Camera World, All About Space and Space.com. He also edits two of his own websites, TravGear.com and WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com that reflect his obsession with travel gear and solar eclipse travel. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners (Springer, 2015),