Westinghouse TX-47F430S 47-inch HDTV

Westinghouse is very well known for offering extremely competitive priced offering great value for money and a quality HDTV. From the Westinghouse TX series comes the Westinghouse TX-47F430S, a large 47-inch HDTV with a 1080p LCD screen offering a 1920×1080p pixel resolution for the very highest HD format available. Furthermore, it sports an astounding four HDMI inputs.

The screen of the TX-47F430S is bordered by charcoal gray on all sides that lacks the luster (gloss) found on many newer sets, but it looks pretty drab in comparison. Brighter gray is used along the bottom of the set to differentiate the microperforated speaker grille, and the matching stand is gray as well. Once you pull away the advertising stickers, the only accent is a small, defeatable power indicator light and the admirably subtle Westinghouse W. The TX-47F430S measures 46.1×32.3×9.3 inches including the stand and weighs 83.4 pounds; sans stand the panel measures 46.1×29.5×5.5 inches and weighs 70 pounds.

The main feature of the Westinghouse TX-47F430S is its native resolution of 1080p, which translates to 1,920×1,080 pixels on the screen. Those pixels allow the set to display every detail of 1080i and 1080p sources, while all other sources, from 720p HDTV to DVD, to standard-definition sources, to computers, are scaled to fit the native resolution.

Aspect ratio control is fairly standard, with the same three options available for both HD and standard-definition sources. One of the TX-47F430S’s claims to fame is its prodigious input selection. It has an outstanding four HDMI inputs, one of which includes analog audio inputs to ease connection to DVI sources. There’s a VGA-style computer input along with a pair of component-video inputs. Lower-quality sources get just one composite and one S-Video input, which unfortunately share one set of analog audio inputs. There’s also the standard RF input for cable or to connect an antenna to grab stations for the ATSC tuner, an optical digital audio output so the tuner can pass surround soundtracks, and an analog audio output.

Westinghouse takes care to advertise its vertically aligned, side-facing input arrangement, and while unusual, it is rather convenient. The column on the back of the set sprouts half of the inputs to either side, so cables don’t stick straight out from the back of the panel, yet are easier to access than with the downward-facing input bay utilized by other television brands.

The most important performance capability of the TX-47F430S is its picture quality including its commendably accurate color and solid video processing. These good points were countered by the set’s inability to produce a very deep black and its less-than-even uniformity and softer standard-definition picture.

As mentioned the Westinghouse could not produce as deep a level of black as the other sets in its category and level. Shadow detail were a bit harder to discern than other brands, and the TX-47F430 became too bright too quickly in areas that called for a gradual rise from black to shadow.

Near-black areas were also tinged a bit redder than they should have been, an exception to the TX-47F430S’ otherwise linear grayscale performance. Finally, the set failed to maintain a consistent black level as other areas of the picture became brighter. In general, the Westinghouse didn’t do a very good job of realistically reproducing darker scenes.

With brighter blacks, the saturation of colors suffers too, and for that reason the TX-47F430S didn’t appear quite as rich and punchy in colorful scenes. Color accuracy, on the other hand, is excellent, especially in skin tones such as the faces of people.

The screen uniformity of the TX-47F430S was tolerable but not ideal for a 47-inch LCD. There are brighter areas in the upper-right and lower-left corners that were clearly visible in dark shots and black letterbox bars. In brighter areas, the edges of the screen were slightly brighter than the middle, but thankfully, this effect was quite difficult to detect in normal viewing material.

Sources:
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