In the PC World Labs' tests, the 47ZV650U put up slightly above average scores in picture quality. Color saturation is a weak point for the 47ZV650U. One judge complained that a scene in the Phantom of the Opera DVD looked murky. Another noted that a scene from The Dark Knight Blu-ray Disc looked hazy, and complained about the "washed out" skin tones in a 720p Wheel of Fortune clip. Like some of our other judges, I found the images dull, flat, and uninteresting--the result of a slight lack of color saturation. But I liked how it handled 720p content, giving it high marks in the clips at that resolution.

The 47ZV650U did moderately well in four out of five benchmark tests. Instead of actual movie and television content, the benchmarks use specially designed moving and still images intended to catch certain problems common in HDTVs. But this Toshiba unit performed miserably in the diagonal panning test, vibrating the image violently where it should have been moving smoothly. While you're not likely to see such extreme shaking when viewing normal content (the test was designed to push a TV's limits), it does suggest that occasional moving camera shots could be problematic.

Overall, the 47ZV650U performed reasonably well in our two motion tests, which are designed to show how well an HDTV can handle moving objects; its motion handling, however, was the weakest among the 240Hz sets we've tested. This model did perform well--though not exceptionally so--in our horizontal panning test, but it struggled some on our diagonal panning test, displaying significant motion judder and stuttering in place of a smooth pan.

But for a 47-inch HDTV that you can buy for only $1300, the images are more than acceptable. In our most recent round of testing, only one other set of comparable size--the --had better image quality scores, and that HDTV sells in the neighborhood of $1700.

You can crank up the sound to ear-shattering levels, which is good even if you don't want to, because it means that the speakers can handle a lot of power--and you'll be able to bump up the volume when necessary. At 60 percent (still loud enough to anger the neighbors), the 47ZV650U sounded very good, without exhibiting any distortion. The simulated surround wouldn't fool anyone into thinking that it's a true surround-sound system, but it created an immersive feeling. The audio, though, lacked the dynamic range needed to give a sudden loud organ blast the intended punch. But you should never depend on a TV's built-in speakers if you want the full, movie-going audio experience; that's what surround receivers and speakers are for.