PRODUCT REVIEW: MAY 9, 2006
Westinghouse Digital LTV-40W1
HDC LCD/DVD HDTV
Many years ago, Ross Bagdasarian (“David Seville” from Alvin and the Chipmunks) wrote a satirical song called “Hey, That’s Almost Good!” Well, the same could be said about Westinghouse Digital’s LTV-40W1 LCD/DVD HDTV — except that it’s better than “almost good.”
In fact, the LTV-40W1 HDC is one of the best LCD TVs I’ve tested to date in terms of image quality and performance, with only a few shortcomings. It has a built-in ATSC tuner and also tunes analog NTSC and unscrambled QAM channels. On top of all that, it’s also got a built-in DVD player and a pair of 9W stereo speakers.
I have to admit, when I first saw this product at a WD demo in late March, I was more taken with the company’s 42-inch LTV-42W2 1080p LCD TV and didn’t pay much attention to the LTV-40W1. I just asked for review samples of both products, and left it at that. Fortunately, the 40-incher got here first.
For those who don’t know, Westinghouse Digital is a resurrected brand (licensed from CBS/Viacom) and the company primarily imports LCD TV products from China for the US marketplace. The LTV-40W1 is a bit of an exception, however as it uses 40-inch Samsung glass with 1366x768 pixel resolution.
Figure 1. Westinghouse Digital’s LTV-40W1 HDC.
OUT OF THE BOX
The LTV-40W1 HDC isn’t the first LCD TV with a built-in DVD player — Panasonic, LG, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, and others have all given it a try at one time. It may be the largest LCD TV so equipped to date, and it’s certainly the first one I’ve seen that also tunes DTV signals.
It’s not particularly heavy. Weighing just 62 pounds, the LTV-40W1 is easy to move around and place. The stand is built-in and doesn’t require much of a footprint. The housing is finished in dull silver with a black front and bezel, and the two speakers are mounted below the screen to make the TV more armoire-friendly. (The DVD slot is almost unnoticeable below the Westinghouse logo.)
The connector complement is basic, but should be enough for most of your DTV needs. Perhaps reflecting a trend away from analog video, there is only one each composite and S-video input. However, there are two complete racks of RCA jacks for YPbPr component inputs. An HDMI input is also provided with separate audio (useful if you are connecting a DVI-output device to this input).
On the computer side, there is but one 15-pin RGB input. For audio, there are three pairs of RCA jacks and one 1/8” Mini jack for a computer. There is also a stereo analog audio output and a coaxial S/PDIF digital connection for an external AV receiver. A single RF connector is used for off-air or cable TV feeds (two would have been better).
Figure 2. The rear panel is sparse; all connections are made on either side of the center pillar.
REMOTE AND MENUS
The supplied remote is of the skinny “baton” type with perhaps a few too many buttons for my liking. On the plus side, you’ll have direct access to any input (except HDMI, which was baffling) and can memorize three favorite channels. You can also access any input by toggling the tiny INPUT button, nearly lost between the channel up/down and volume rocker switches.
The internal DVD player can be controlled with eight buttons at the bottom of the remote. Unfortunately, there is only one Menu button, so DVDs with top and secondary menus will be a bit problematic to play.
TV operation is quick with automatic channel scan. Simply select the source (Air or Cable) and let ‘er rip. You can also add or delete channels as you watch them. For program guide information, the small “i” button above the DVD controls provides basic channel info, while a second push of the button brings up a mini program guide.
The menus are simple, but cover pretty much all the bases. You’ll have access to the five main image adjustments plus three factory color temperature settings. There are also two aspect ratio settings, Fill and Standard, which seem to work in any mode, even with HDTV programs. You can also dim the backlight if you want (I didn’t).
For more advanced image settings, you’ll have to get into the service mode. I assume Westinghouse Digital will make the service code available to qualified individuals, such as those with ISF certification. In this menu, you can set gamma and RGB contrast and brightness.
Back in the main menu, there is a separate screen for setting up picture-in-picture functions. You have nine different positions to choose from for your PiP window, or you can place two inputs side-by-side (POP and PBP).
When I tested this function, the HDMI and DVD inputs were in a separate PiP group from all other inputs. I could use any analog input (even HDTV) as a small window or as the main image, but the second video image had to be either an HDMI source or the DVD player.
Want to drive this TV with your computer? It’ll handle a wide range of RGB signals, including 1920x1080p/50 or 1920x1080p/60. The HDMI input is about as versatile and was able to pass 1280x1024 SXGA, 1400x1050 SXGA+, and 1920x1080p50/60 with no difficulties. However, it would not show 1280x768 at all. The owner’s manual suggests an HDMI setting of 1360x768p for optimal results, and that worked just fine.
ON THE TEST BENCH
Based on past reviews, I don’t expect a lot from LCD TVs in terms of black levels and contrast. Historically, black levels in the range of 1 to 1.5 nits are good for LCD, and contrast measurements in the mid-100s to low 200s are about the highest I’ve seen. Brightness has never been an issue; I routinely log readings that exceed 200 nits with all kinds of LCD TVs and monitors.
Here’s where the LTV-40W1 surprised me. After calibration for best grayscale image, I measured average (ANSI) contrast at 368:1 and peak contrast at 512:1. Those numbers are more plasma-like than LCD-like and were so high that I re-did my measurements to make sure I logged them correctly.
The reason? Average black levels in RGB and YPbPr modes were .58 and .57 nits, respectively. That’s right up there with the average plasma monitor, and some of those measure even higher black levels! As for overall brightness, I logged 180 nits (52.6 ft-L) with my “optimum” grayscale, setting the brightness control to 40 out of 100. Obviously, the LTV-40W1 can crank out plenty more photons if needed.
That “optimum” grayscale wasn’t completely clean. There was evidence of false contouring across the low end, which suggests the LTV-40W1 is probably using 8-bit sampling per color channel. It’s not obnoxiously bad, but you will see solarization and contouring from time to time in video and movie scenes with low luminance values.
How about color? I opted to use the factory settings to see just how cleanly the grayscale tracked. The first two settings were way too cold; Color Temp 1 settings never dipped below 10,000 degrees K, while Color Temp #2 couldn’t drop below 8000 degrees K. However, Color Temp #3 got me into the ballpark, starting in the mid-7000 range at 30 IRE and dropping steadily to 6400K at 100 IRE.
I opted to go into the service menu and recalibrate all three CT settings down to D9300, D6500, and D5400, respectively — a more useful range for video and computer display work. Figure 3 shows the before (Color Temp 1) and after (Color Temp 2) grayscale tracks around the desired D6500 white point. Calibration did make a difference, even though the color temperature shifted about 1000 degrees from 20 to 100 IRE.
Figure 3. Here’s how grayscale tracks plotted with each color temperature setting.
Figure 4. Would you believe this color gamut came from an LCD TV? I wouldn’t have.
In terms of color gamut, the LTV-40W1 turned in the best performance I’ve seen to date for an LCD display. Figure 4 shows the actual plotted color gamut using ColorFacts 6.0 software and the HDTV REC.709 gamut as a reference. This is a level of performance some plasma TVs can’t even match — and they’re using phosphors instead of color microfilters.
VIDEO IMAGE QUALITY
Needless to say, this Wide XGA LCD TV looks best with 480p, 720p, and 1080i sources. Analog TV is tolerable and composite video is soft. (High contrast and low black levels help a lot!) Surprisingly, the composite video decoding and de-interlacing is very good. A quick check with the Zone Plate pattern from Video Essentials showed plenty of detail at 300 and 400 lines with no color moiré, something that more expensive displays don’t do all that well.
The Realta HQV DVD (from an external Panasonic RP56 player) showed 3:2 pulldown detection to be quick and clean with minimal interlaced scan line artifacts on display. The cadence detection wasn’t as good with oddball cadences, though. The title crawl tests from that same DVD were free from crosshatching, but had some jitter.
If you like HDTV, the signal bandwidth is better than average. I checked 720p and 1080i luminance multiburst patterns from my AccuPel HDG2000 and was able to resolve to 18 MHz cleanly, with 37.5 MHz filling in both times.
Chrominance bandwidth was good out to 37.5 MHz, however. I’m not certain, but enough evidence was seen of scan line artifacts in 1080i mode to conclude that very basic sequential 540p processing is being used without much motion compensation.
Motion is still an issue with LCD TVs. I watched a FIBA volleyball match between Italy and Brazil in 1080i, and saw plenty of sample-and-hold motion blur, particularly as the camera was following the action in close-up. The LC twist time is claimed to be 8 milliseconds, but I have my doubts. Black frame insertion or a scanning backlight would have helped clean up the fast stuff.
The contouring I mentioned before showed up in scenes from Law and Order on TNT. It was the classic “crawling moss” effect seen on older plasma TVs and is simply a consequence of insufficient bit depth in luminance sampling. This should not be particularly difficult for Westinghouse Digital to fix on future models, particularly since they seem to have a handle already on black levels and contrast.
The internal DVD player was a problem. Although its 480i video processing was still good, images would break up and drop out on occasion, particularly during the rotating bar sequence from the Realta HQV DVD. This may have been an MPEG2 decoder problem, but it certainly wasn’t limited to the Realta HQV DVD — I also saw it with different clips from Video Essentials. There may also have been a problem with the laser pickup. It’s something to check out thoroughly if you decide to buy this TV.
As for power consumption, the LTV-40W1 averaged 236.7 watts of power per hour, during a three-hour viewing cycle. That’s a total of 710 watt-hours. With a base rate of $0.08 per kW/hr, the cost to operate the LTV-40W1 was $0.06 during that time period. For a month of 6-hour days, energy costs were estimated to be $3.60 using the same base rate.
CONCLUSIONS
OK, I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised with the LTV-40W1 HDC. It performed a lot better than I expected (despite the problems with the DVD player) and the ESRP of $2,099 is awfully attractive, particularly when you consider you also get NTSC, ATSC, and QAM tuners. For that matter, this could have been a CableCARD TV — all it needed was the PCMCIA slot and additional software.
The HD performance is very good; bandwidth is better than average, and even standard definition video looks pleasing on this LCD TV. I don’t know how they got those black levels down so far and the color gamut so wide, but this TV has just whetted my appetite for the LTV-42W2 even more.
Shortcomings? With the grayscale performance I measured, 10-bit processing would have been a big boost. Also, easier access to a User color temperature setting and more than one picture gamma would have been nice. I don’t know why the panel wouldn’t support 1280x768, which is a pretty standard PC output resolution (my notebook works at 1280x768). And a second HDMI input should really be standard on any TV these days.
