Toshiba's Connection-Crazy Regza TV

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The 52LX177 delivered solid, deep blacks and decent detail in shadowed scenes, though many plasma-screen TVs and some rival LCD TVs from Sharp (6753.T) and Samsung do a better job on both fronts.

Personalizing Your Picture

As with many Toshiba sets, there's a tendency for both reds and greens to be a bit oversaturated. I typically don't mind the red, but some users may be turned off by the exaggerated skin tones. The greenish tinge was a bit more bothersome. I tried to adjust the color by digging deep into the menu system, but couldn't quite get it where I wanted. Professional calibration may help on that front.

The average user can get by with the four preset picture modes, but there are plenty of options for people who like to adjust images often. There are memory categories called Preference, Pro1, and Pro2 that can be individually tweaked to customize the settings for everything from color to backlighting.

Users also can delve into the contrast setting to fine-tune the blackest blacks, the whitest whites, and everything in between. You also can fine-tune the "noise" from signals and enhance the edges of images, as well as adjust hues, saturation, and brightness levels of individual colors.

Recommended for Dedicated HD Viewing

As other manufacturers have done this year, Toshiba has equipped the 52-in. Regza with technology that expands the number of colors the set can reproduce. Another goodie that Toshiba hopes justifies the high price is a picture-on-picture feature that lets you watch two HD images at once. The set also has a game mode to offer a faster response time between the controller and the display. And there's a lip-sync technology to make sure that sounds don't lag the image on the screen—a problem that sometimes occurs when using HDMI cables.

Overall, the Regza 52LX177 manages to hold its own against a slew of competitors in both the core plasma and LCD markets. If you're looking to watch high-definition programming in particular, I'd recommend adding this set to your comparison-shopping list.

Edwards is a correspondent in BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau.