Toshiba 19DV615Y LCD television

The Toshiba 19DV615Y is a 19in LCD television with an integrated DVD player. It has good picture quality for its size and the multimedia features are easy to use. If it was cheaper, we’d have no problems recommending it over competitors.

The 19DV615Y LCD television comes with a remote control, and Toshiba is planning to offer a free promotional 12V inverter with the 19in and 22in DV615Y series TVs — so you can run the television from your car’s cigarette lighter socket to keep the kids happy on long trips.

The television's initial channel scan took under two minutes. The internal tuner can handle digital and analog television, so wherever you are in Australia you should be able to get reception if you have a good aerial. Channel reception was as good as we’ve seen on other televisions, with no macro-blocking or artefacts visible on any digital channels.

All you need to get the Toshiba 19DV615Y going is a power cable, but an HDMI port is included for connecting a digital video device such as a Panasonic DMR-BW750 Blu-ray disc recorder. VGA, component, S-Video and composite ports are also built in for analog devices. You can hook up a desktop PC via VGA and take advantage of the screen’s native 1366x768 resolution.

Picture quality from the Toshiba 19DV615Y isn’t fantastic, but it’s acceptable given the small screen size. A contrast ratio of 1000:1 is high enough to make both television and DVD watching reasonably rich and vibrant, but Blu-ray content delivered through the HDMI port might fall a little short of its full potential. A maximum brightness level of 300cd/m2 is enough if you’re sitting close to the screen in a bedroom or study, but in a room significantly larger the screen loses its definition and clarity when viewing from a distance.

The internal DVD player is the standout feature of this television. It’s quiet and quick, loading DVDs in a few seconds. Internal up-scaling of the DVDs is good — while not up to par with the Sharp LC40LB700X, DVD video content is still reasonably detailed.

With a six star energy rating the Toshiba 19DV615Y isn’t going to make a big addition to your house’s energy bill. If it means the kids will stop watching Spongebob on your 50in pride-and-joy plasma and retreat silently to their room, you might even save money in the long run. Toshiba’s 19DV615Y is more expensive than competitors from brands such as Soniq, but the quality of the DVD player is good and the energy rating is appealing.

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