Bottom Line

Toshiba’s 47TL515U is a decent-performing TV offering built-in Wi-Fi and a menu of popular streaming services, including Netflix, Vudu, and Pandora. Where the Toshiba came up short for me was in its handling of very dark or very bright images; in both cases, the picture tended to flatten out and lose visual punch. That said, until the day when autostereoscopic TVs become cheap and widely available, affordable sets like this one will provide a good entry portal to experience 3D TV.

Test Bench

Color temperature (Movie 2 mode before/after):20-IRE: 6,625 K/6,380 K

30-IRE: 6,676 K/6,428 K

40-IRE: 6,656 K/6,464 K

50-IRE: 6,710 K/6,472 K

60-IRE: 6,664 K/6,494 K

70-IRE: 6,701 K/6,528 K

80-IRE: 6,716 K/6,541 K

90-IRE: 6,746 K/6,547 K

100-IRE: 6,755 K/6,581 K

Primary Color Point Accuracy vs. SMPTE HD Standard

Note: Spectracal’s CalMan Professional monitor calibration software was used during the calibration and measurement process. See the PDF below for a complete report with detailed pre- and post-calibration results.

The Toshiba 47TL515U’s Movie 1 and 2 presets delivered the most accurate grayscale performance, with the former displaying a slightly warm balance and the latter a slightly cool one. Before calibration in Movie 2 mode, average color temperature was 6,704 kelvins. After calibration mode using the set’s two-point white balance adjustment, color temperature averaged 6,508 K, with grayscale remaining impressively linear down throughout the entire brightness range.

Color-decoder error measured 0% for red, +5% for green, and 0% for blue. Primary color points matched the HD standard fairly closely, with both red and green showing slight over-saturation. (Secondary color points were also off to a degree.)

Gamma at the Movie 2 mode’s default setting measured somewhat off from the 2.2 target throughout most of the set’s brightness range. A 0-IRE (black) field pattern with Dynalight (local dimming) turned on measured 0.012 ftL; with maximum brightness set for 34.98 ftL, this yielded a contrast ratio of 2,915:1. An anomaly with the TV’s local dimming backlight caused white clipping to show up on test patterns with a high average picture level — something that translated into reduced highlight detail in normal program material. (Test patterns with a lower average picture level did not show the same white clipping issue.)

The set displayed full picture resolution for all signal formats delivered via HDMI and component video inputs. Motion-resolution tests revealed 1,080 lines with both the Standard and Smooth Film Stabilization modes enabled. Deinterlacing of both film- and video-sourced material was excellent. The only test it tripped on was the 2:2 pull-down on the HQV evaluation DVD — a minor slip. The set also failed the Chroma Multiburst test from the Spears & Munsil Blu-ray. Noise-reduction processing was effective, with no picture detail loss visible on standard- or high-def material with any of the MPEG NR and DNR settings enabled.