55UL3A63DG TV: Is Toshiba Still Making Good TVs?

Presentation

The Toshiba 55UL3A63DG has a 55 inch VA panel (approx. 140 cm) displaying an Ultra HD definition of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels. It announces a brightness of 320 cd / m², compatibility with extended colors and HDR10, HLG and even Dolby Vision standards, which is interesting in this price range. In terms of audio system, you have to settle for two 10 W speakers. This TV is powered by a home operating system offering some popular applications.

The Toshiba 55UL3A63DG TV is currently sold for around € 400. It doesn't really have a direct competitor on the market at this price, but it is possible to find good 55-inch Ultra HD televisions on promotion like the Hisense 55A6500 which is occasionally sold for around € 400.

All the brightness and colorimetric measurements mentioned in this article were carried out with a SpectraCal C6-HDR probe and the CalMAN Ultimate software.

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Image quality

This television uses a VA (Vertical Alignment) type LCD panel. This display technology provides good contrast by effectively blocking light from the backlight. In return, the viewing angles are narrower than those of IPS or Oled LCD televisions. Note that the sub-pixels are placed horizontally, while they are usually placed vertically. We measured a 75% variation in brightness at 45 °, a little more than on other VA televisions, with the exception of very high-end models using an optical filter improving the viewing angles (Samsung QE85Q85R / QE65Q90R or Sony 65XG9505). We can clearly see a variation in image quality as soon as we offset more than 40 °. We are very far from what Oled technology offers with only its 25% at 45 °.

To get the best rendering, we chose Cinema mode, then we selected custom energy saving mode to reduce the brightness (called backlight) to 44. We also disabled dynamic contrast and Tru Micro Dimming in the advanced settings. In this mode, we measured a delta E of 5.3, far from the threshold of 3 below which the colors can be considered as faithful to the source. In general, televisions with a delta E greater than 3 are increasingly rare.

The gamma displays very relative stability and the curve is well above the reference curve, which results in a slightly underexposed image.

Despite a setting on hot, the temperature is too high (7,600 K) compared to the video reference value (6,500 K) and this results in the image by rendering a little too cold (slightly drawing towards blue). Above all, the curve lacks stability over the entire spectrum, rendering is quite uneven.

VA technology provides a good native contrast (measured at 2,980: 1), but it is still far from the contrast noted on some competitors not necessarily high-end like the TCL 55EP680 (measured at 4500: 1). The contrast of the Toshiba 55UL3A63DG nevertheless allows you to benefit from a black sufficiently deep to fully enjoy a film or TV series in the dark without suffering from greyish blacks.

The scaling engine allows you to resize SD, HD and Full HD content so that they display correctly on this Ultra HD panel. This engine is fairly basic and produces a fairly blurred and very smooth image. Fortunately, it does not distort the original source and it limits the artifacts. It is not really his favorite field, but he does not commit any odds.

In terms of motion compensation, the motor does its best to limit jerks, but it cannot improve sharpness in the absence of a 100 Hz panel. The 50 Hz prevents the insertion of black images via scanning of the backlight and the TRU Flow engine put forward by the manufacturer is not really efficient.

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HDR

The Toshiba 55UL3A63DG is compatible with the Dolby Vision dynamic metadata format in addition to the classic HDR10 and HLG. Remember that Dolby Vision is particularly effective on entry-level TVs, since it takes into account the capabilities of the TV and thus avoids clipping (white saturation). On the other hand, we have some doubts about the Dolby Vision certification on this particular model. The latter is supposed to ensure a minimum of image quality, especially in color reproduction, and it is clear that this is not the case here.

The Display Tone Mapping used by Toshiba is excellent. It perfectly follows the curve up to 50% luminance, then it smoothes the signal up to the maximum capacities of the TV so as not to lose detail in very bright areas. It thus avoids the phenomenon of clipping with the signal in HDR10 at 10,000 cd / m² used for this test.

We measured the brightness peak at 312 cd / m², a value too low to take full advantage of the dynamics of HDR content. Fortunately, the Toshiba 55UL3A63DG has good contrast which allows it to display fairly deep blacks, but it cannot display the dynamics of very bright images.

In HDR Film mode, the colorimetry is the same as in SDR mode. With a delta E measured at 6.2, the colors are far from being faithful, which raises the question of the relevance of the Dolby Vision certification.

The Toshiba 55UL3A63DG only covers 52% of the Rec.2020 space, a very low figure which does not allow to correctly reproduce all the colors of this space. Remember that high-end televisions are currently content with 70 to 75% coverage of Rec. 2020. So it's not really important at the moment, but it is a good indicator of the quality of the panel and the backlighting system.

It is a little better on the side of the coverage of the DCI-P3 color space which reaches 72%, but this is again very much lower than competing televisions in the same price range which often exceed 80% of coverage of the DCI-P3 . In comparison, Oled TVs display more than 90% of the colors of the DCI-P3. It is this space that is still mainly used today for 4K Ultra HD productions.

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Video games

This Toshiba television sets a sad record: that of the longest remanence time (25.5 ms). This time is very far from that of the best LCDs on the market, like the Samsung QE65Q85R and Sony KD-75XG9505 which go down to 11 ms. It is even very far from that measured on entry-level televisions like the Samsung UE55RU7405 which displays 18 ms. We thus see a trail behind moving objects (ghosting), which seem to slightly split.

Game mode reduces the display delay to 46 ms, a very average value which limits the time lag between the action on the joystick and its impact on the screen, but which remains largely noticeable.

Game mode changes the display and rendering of colors. We measured an average delta E of 9 and a color temperature above 8000 K. The rendering is therefore very cold and the colors are very far from reality. In the end, this TV is clearly a bad playmate.

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Clouding

The use of a Direct Led backlight system limits the risks of clouding, but this defect can still appear if the light distribution filter is damaged during transport. We didn't see any clouding issues on the model we tested. On the other hand, the four corners of the television displayed a darkened image, which was confirmed by our measurements. With an image calibrated at 150 cd / m², the corners display a white at only 80 cd / m².

We have measured the average difference in white homogeneity over the entire slab at 17%; a fairly average figure for a 55-inch LCD model. Recall that above 20% the eye begins to perceive a difference in uniformity. The fact remains that here the phenomenon is very visible in the corners.

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Ergonomics

Vestel - the manufacturer of Toshiba TVs, remember - is trying a little poker with this design of the 90s a little particular and this fairly massive beveled central foot. We like it or we don't like it.

The screen edges are quite thick, but average for entry-level TVs. The adjustments are pretty well done.

The central foot is quite imposing and the design is not very successful. The diode (red or green depending on the state of the TV) is quite aggressive, especially in the dark.

The anti-reflection filter is not really one since it eliminates almost no stray light. This is the lot of most entry-level Ultra HD TVs, although some still manage to stand out, like the TCL 55EP680.

In profile, the TV is quite thick (8.1 cm), the fault of the Direct LED backlight system. The dimensions on the TV stand are always linked to that of the base, which here shows a fairly average depth of 25 cm.

The rear is fairly classic. The foot is quite complicated to mount and seems relatively fragile. We find the power supply - whose cable is not replaceable - on the left and the connection on the right.

The connection consists of four HDMI 2.0b inputs, a headphone output, two USB 2.0 ports, a VGA input (quite rare), a 10/100 Ethernet port, an optical audio output and d 'a composite entry. This TV also offers Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The tuner is TNT (DVB-T / T2), cable (DVB-C) and satellite (DVB-S / S2) compatible.

The interface is clear, but lacks a bit of responsiveness. In terms of functionality, you have to be content with a few applications (Netflix, PrimeVideo, YouTube, etc.), but this is sufficient in most cases for basic use. More demanding users will turn to a dedicated Nvidia Shield TV or Apple TV 4K box, better followed in terms of updates.

The first start is made in 21 seconds, a fairly average score, but already faster than that of Android TVs. The webOS systems of LG and Tizen of Samsung remain ahead with a first start-up in 5 seconds. It then takes about 12 seconds to wake up the TV; again it's quite long, but fortunately the TV consumes less than 1 W in standby. It goes out in a second.

The design of the remote control blends with that of the TV and smells good of the 90s. Nostalgia, when you hold us ... All the essential buttons are there and we even find direct access to certain streaming services like RakutenTV, YouTube or Netflix. The keys naturally fall under the thumb, the touch is pleasant, but the infrared sensor sometimes has trouble receiving the signal, which requires pressing a button several times.

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Audio

The audio system consists of two 10 W speakers. The sound is very average and lacks bass and treble. The frequency response is only correctly ensured between 160 and 1300 Hz, which is problematic for reproducing part of the voices. With this TV, we advise you to opt for a sound bar, a home cinema kit or even a PC speaker kit.

The frequency response at 79 dB (A). [/ Media]

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Consumption

We measured consumption at 80 W on our target with a white set at 150 cd / m², or a relative consumption of 95.9 W / m², slightly lower than the average of the televisions tested (around 100 W / m²). This TV cannot compete with the most energy-efficient TVs, such as the Samsung QE65Q60R with 66.1 W / m², the TCL 55DC760 with 66 W / m² or the Sony KD-65XG8505 - the most economical TV in our comparison - which is satisfied with a consumption of 55.8 W / m², it is nevertheless one of the very good students. Standby consumption is always less than 1 W.

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Conclusion

Manufactured under Toshiba license by the Turkish giant Vestel, this Toshiba 55UL3A63DG television is a real disappointment both in terms of image quality, responsiveness and audio. Even if its price may seem attractive, it is clearly a model to avoid. By watching promotions, we find better for the same price, like some Hisense models (H55A6500) or even Samsung models for a few tens of euros (Samsung UE55RU7025).

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