Westinghouse LTV-40W1HDC review: Westinghouse LTV-40W1HDC

Review summary
TVs with built-in VCRs are commonplace, but sets with built-in DVD players are relatively rare. The Westinghouse LTV-40W1HDC, a 40-inch flat-panel LCD HDTV, is one of the most appealing we've seen recently, and it does a good job of tightly integrating a slot-loading DVD player. Whether it's worth getting this combo set vs. a stand-alone TV depends on your needs; many people already own DVD players and may not care about the combo. But the convenience of slipping in a disc and having it begin playing, without having to switch inputs or deal with an external player, could appeal to a lot of people, especially families with kids who watch a lot of DVDs. The Westinghouse LTV-40W1HDC might not boast as impressive a picture as many competing stand-alone models, but its sub-$2,000 price will heighten its appeal. Westinghouse also offers a 32-inch version with a built-in DVD player, model LTV-32W4HDC. The Westinghouse LTV-40W1HDC's coolest feature is its built-in slot-loading DVD player. Slipping a DVD into the slot on the front of the set causes it to automatically turn on, switch to the DVD input, and begin playing the disc. We appreciated the design's convenience, as well as the fact that you don't need to use one of the set's inputs for an external DVD player.

The DVD slot blends nicely into the area below the screen and between the speakers. A defeatable blue LED illuminates the slot, and you can find the eject button nearby. Otherwise, the LTV-40W1HDC looks just like a standard flat-panel LCD. Its comparatively pedestrian exterior is charcoal gray around the screen with a strip of lighter gray across the middle and pale silver to either side. The foot of the included matching stand can be removed if you want to wall-mount the set, but the TV doesn't seem designed for it, not least because its depth is a little more than 5 inches without the foot. The whole set measures 41.4 by 28.3 by 8.9 inches (WHD) and weighs 34.5 pounds.

Westinghouse's bland remote offers up OK ergonomics, and while we didn't expect backlighting or the ability to control other gear, we would have appreciated a bit more tactile differentiation among the keys to aid navigation by feel. In its favor, the clicker has direct-access buttons for each of the inputs, with the unfortunate exception of HDMI; to access that source, you have to cycle through all nine by pressing Input repeatedly.

The remote includes eight keys devoted to the DVD player (menu, play/pause, stop, setup, chapter forward and reverse, and scan forward and reverse), and the directional keypad controls DVD menus when in DVD mode. Unfortunately, there's no key for Title (a.k.a. Top) menu access, which can make navigating some discs a relative pain. The set's side panel also has basic controls for the DVD player and the television, in case the remote goes missing.

The Westinghouse LTV-40W1HDC's chief feature, naturally, is the built-in DVD player. Although we appreciate the convenience, we miss a few of the functions found on most normal DVD players. There's no slow motion or frame-by-frame transport, no search or other function to jump directly to specific chapters or titles (of course, you can still proceed to chapters or scenes if the DVD's menu has that option), and no way to resume playback from where you left off after ejecting the disc, although it will resume if the disc isn't ejected. We also wished for some sort of display for elapsed time and title/chapter information; the LTV-40W1HDC has neither a front-panel readout nor any way to view such info onscreen.

Otherwise, the LTV-40W1HDC's feature set is pretty standard for a big flat-panel LCD. Like most of its competition, it has a native resolution of 1,366x768 pixels. That's plenty to display all the detail of 720p HDTV sources, and all material, whether from DVD, HDTV, standard TV or a computer, is scaled to fit the native resolution.

Conveniences include an ATSC tuner and a picture-in-picture mode with side-by-side and inset options. We were disappointed that the LTV-40W1HDC offers only two choices for aspect-ratio: Standard (for 4:3 programs) and Fill (for wide-screen). We would have liked to see a zoom option too, which would allow the set to display letterbox, nonanamorphic DVDs properly. If we wanted to watch the upcoming non-special-edition Star Wars films, for example, we'd have to choose between a stretched picture or one with black bars on all four sides.

Westinghouse throws in a couple picture-adjusting features as well. Although there aren't any picture presets, the television offers independent input memories to make it easier to tweak the set for various sources. While we like the adjustable backlight control, we don't like that its range of adjustment was extremely narrow; sliding it all the way up or down didn't have as much effect as other such controls we've seen. You can choose from three color-temperature presets, and we found Color 1 to be the most accurate.

The LTV-40W1HDC offers average connectivity for a 40-inch LCD. It includes a single HDMI input, two component-video inputs, and one each of S-Video and composite; the last two unfortunately share one set of analog audio inputs. There's also a VGA-style PC input (1,360x768 is the recommended resolution), an RF input for antennas, and both analog and digital audio outputs. We would've liked a set of side-panel easy-access inputs, as well as a second HDMI input, but since the DVD player is built in, we don't expect many users to miss these jacks.

Overall, the Westinghouse LTV-40W1HDC's image quality can't compete with that of the better big-screen LCDs we've tested, but its built-in DVD player performed solidly in our tests.

First, we checked out the Westinghouse's ability to handle darker scenes with a variety of DVD material, and the results were less satisfactory than with either of the two (the Sharp LC-37D40U and the Samsung LN-S4051D) LCDs we had on hand to compare. During John Connor's first dream sequence from the Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines DVD, for example, the Westinghouse evinced a lighter shade of black in the letterbox bars, and black areas appeared too bluish. The biggest issue, however, was lack of detail in the shadows. As he awoke after the robot stare-down, for example, the wrinkles in his pants appeared indistinct, and the stripes in his blanket disappeared abruptly into the shadows instead of fading naturally as they did on the other two sets.

We also saw a bit more softness in the Westinghouse's image. When T-X emerges naked from her steel ball, for example, her blonde hair lacked some of the crispness and detail seen on the other two sets. In its favor, the LTV-40W1HDC introduced slighly fewer false-contouring artifacts than the Samsung, but more than the Sharp.

The Westinghouse turned in relatively good scores for color temperature and primary color accuracy overall (see the geek box), but its inaccurate color temperature in dimmer areas was a liability in many scenes. As Kate (Claire Danes) sits on the back of the ambulance in the afternoon sun, for instance, her pale face appeared a bit too reddish, as did the Terminator's under the shadow of the coffin on his shoulder. The LTV-40W1HDC also introduced more noise than the other LCDs in certain shots, such as in the sky above the good guys' Winnebago as it races across the desert.

The performance of the built-in DVD player was impressive. It passed all of the important tests from the HQV suite, smoothing jagged lines nicely, resolving every detail DVD discs, and quickly engaging 2:3 pull-down detection. Hooking up an external DVD player to this set wouldn't probably result in an appreciably better picture. The Westinghouse's player delivered good disc compatibility, handling all but the most difficult discs in our test suite.

Switching over to high-def, we immediately noticed that with wide-screen HD sources via HDMI, neither of the two aspect-ratio modes filled the screen correctly. Selecting Standard actually underscanned the picture slightly, preventing many programs from filling the screen completely. Conversely, selecting Fill overscanned too much, cutting off a lot of the picture around the edges. Standard mode via component video was a bit better, while Fill mode with wide-screen DVDs from the internal player also resulted in significant overscan.

The first Detroit vs. Miami NBA play-off game on ESPN HD, for example, didn't quite fill the screen on the left side, and there was a bright line along the bottom edge of the screen. We selected Fill mode, but the image appeared noticeably softer in areas such as the score graphic in the lower right and the cursive Palace logo on the floor. As we expected, the brightly lit game looked appreciably better than dimmer scenes. We also appreciated the Westinghouse's wide viewing angle; as with the other two sets, the brightness and image color didn't change too much when seen off-angle.