It's fair to say this Toshiba set doesn't get off to the best of starts.
Fairly ordinary-looking out of the box, it's a pain to set-up, with an aerial cable tucked away underneath the chassis rather than square on the rear panel (where the three HDMI inputs are).
At least once you're connected, you needn't be rooting around there much more; the particularly uninspiring excuse for a remote is more of a day-to-day irritation.
Hand this remote to a pal and they'd be forgiven for thinking you were about to ask them to rewind a VHS, such is its archaic appearance.
And the buttons, in to the bargain, are on the fussy side being decidedly unsatisfactory to use – as much as you can garner satisfaction from pushing buttons on your zapper.
Uneven backlight
With the set finally up and running, the story doesn't get any better, as we instantly spy an uneven backlight, with blotches of brighter areas to a couple of corners of the panel.
While we wouldn't damn the entire range with punishment for this indiscretion, we would urge you to exercise caution and check your potential Toshiba TV doesn't suffer from said affliction.
Starting with some off-air viewing, the Toshiba does its best to deliver a stable, clean image but lacks insight and subtlety compared with rivals. Fast-scrolling motion is displayed with relative ease, though, and the colour balance is pitched about right.
Moving on to video content and the DVD of Star Trek and the picture that greets us is simply a little lacklustre.
No big price advantage
There's no price advantage for this Toshiba to use to its favour – it's cheap but, no cheaper than rivals – and the picture does little to really impress us up against the competition.
Black levels need to be stronger, detail recovery could be more thorough and there's hints of background noise at times.
Step up to the Blu-ray of Moon and the jump in quality is tangible, with vivid colours and good texture to skin tones, but there's not the quality you'll find elsewhere - maybe that 1366 x 768 resolution isn't up to the task.
Sonically, this set is okay, with a fairly clear, full-bodied sound.
That alone is not enough to have us recommending this TV. Competition is fierce and we'd advise you to look elsewhere unless you see a real steal of a price on the Toshiba 37AV635D.
Follow whathifi.com on Twitter
