HD PICTURE QUALITY. HD picture quality fell short, overall. Reproduction of fine HD image detail was lacking. We did note some added edge enhancement processing which makes the image look a little less realistic. There was some slight loss of fine texture due to "noise-reduction" processing. Color accuracy was Very Good, with flesh tones in particular, looking natural. Very Good contrast—the difference between the darkest blacks and brightest whites—gave images convincing depth and dimension. Black levels were OK and maintained some contrast in darker scenes, but they fell short of the better TVs. The quality appeared worse as we viewed from the sides—see our Viewing Angle results, below. Image brightness was moderately low, dimmer than most—OK for a dark room but not the best choice for a bright room. There was slight display non-uniformity in our test sample—it appeared as brighter cloudy areas which were most noticeable on very dark scenes (or in the black bars of a letterboxed movie)—the severity can vary from model to model. Its reproduction of smooth edges on image content deinterlacing of 1080i video was ineffective with visible "jaggies"); and film mode detection from 1080i content was Excellent.
VIEWING ANGLE. This Westinghouse has a narrow viewing angle overall, below-average performance among TVs. Only those seated directly in front of the screen will see the best picture quality. We examined the image quality at various viewing angles—its image quality notably decreased as we moved away from the center position. When we viewed the TV from the sides image quality degraded significantly. The picture showed a strong loss of color, so flesh tones looked very washed out. Black levels visibly brightened, and reduced the contrast especially on dark scenes. We viewed the image from above and below center screen, and noticed Good vertical viewing angle performance, with only slight changes in color, contrast, and black level.
MOTION BLUR. In our motion tests, this Westinghouse TV had only Fair motion performance, with significant blurring. It does not have a special feature to minimize motion blur.
SOUND QUALITY. We got sub-par sound quality, with below average performance. It could be acceptable for typical programming, but its shortcomings would be obvious with movie soundtracks and music. In our listening evaluations, we found the bass (low frequencies) to be lacking and lacked some definition. Treble (high frequencies) lacked detail. The overall sound was a bit thin and closed in. This TV should be OK if the room isn't too noisy—we found the speakers could produce a Good volume level and without obvious distortion. If sound quality matters to you, you might want to add a soundbar or other external speaker system.
EASE OF USE. Consider the TV's stand is 43 inches wide when choosing a table top to place it on. On first power up, an on-screen guide appeared—which you could choose to follow when setting up the TV. The remote controls the TV via an IR light beam which must be pointed at the TV. It has a full number keypad for entering channel numbers. It includes all the buttons we typically expect: power, channel up/down, volume control, mute, source input, menu, and exit. It also has dedicated buttons for streaming None. The TV lacks the ability for you to enter custom names to different input sources.
INTERNET FEATURES. This TV provides internet functionality with a selection of applications.
CONNECTIONS. This model has three HDMI inputs and one "component/composite shared" input (which means you can only use one type or the other at a time) one USB port, an optical digital audio out, a headphone out, a VGA video input.
WHAT'S INCLUDED. You get with this TV: a printed user manual {and} a remote control with batteries.
