Considering the Toshiba 57hdx82

rlightfoot

As a determinative piece of my ever-growing HT, am considering this rear projection HDTV-ready TV. Does anyone own this and/or have any thoughts. Main competition seems to be in the Mits, Sony and Hitachi. Sony only by sheer volume, not quality.

Dr. Spec

Toshiba makes a very nice RPHDTV. My buddy owns the 50" job, and I like the picture. Toshiba does the "smoothwide" 4:3 screen stretch very well.

The Mits Diamond series is very nice and has a great rep, but is kinda pricey.

The Hitachi (not just because I own one) has a stunningly good picture for the money.

The big thing in store demos is to check all the settings on the units. They are often way out of whack, and set with brightness and color levels way too high, etc.

Reset everthing and drop the brightness level to about 40-45%. This will be more typical of an in home picture. If you ISF calibrate, you will typically find brightness level much lower than the factory setting afterwards. Ask Ron-P about his settings after ISF calibration. Mine ended up around 42% or something.

Ask for a DVD progressive feed (not the typical HDTV feed loop) and set each TV for progressive scan input.

Play the same scene a few times on each one to evaluate.

The HDTV loop is nice for instant back and forth comparos, though. Try to get the competition close to each other to minimize other variables like lighting, etc.

Finally, GET the 3 yr warranty - it's worth the peace of mind.

Doc

Ron-P

Finally, GET the 3 yr warranty - it's worth the peace of mind.

Agreed. I bought a 5 year in-home for $295.

Also, bring in a couple of your favorite DVDs and demo them, after adjusting the settings of course.

I went with Mits because of the tweakability. Both sets were equally impressive as for picture qualtiy.


Peace Out~:D

begbie

Can't comment on the Mits., we just don't have them up here in Canada.:(

I happen to own the Toshiba 50hx81 which is essentially the same tv but the new model has the controversial dvi input.

Couldn't be happier with the set. Sony compares quite close and has added a couple of advancements to their crt guns to give Toshiba a run for their money. At the time, the technologcal advance was Toshiba as I compared day after day when I use to work at the local a/v store.

As I remember other factors besides picture quality that involved in the Toshiba purchase--

*price !
*room for the monster cs400i on top tv shelf
*build quality - Toshiba (wood) Sony (plastic)
*remote
* 4:3 imaging Toshiba's famous "theater wide 1"mode
* remote
* discrete on/off, aspect modes for macro functions

begbie

Oh yeah, about the Hitachi. Great pro-jos but even better styling on this year's models (imo). Though check out for their 4:3 imaging on the new models. They've been horrendous at it (smooth wide mode) in the past. I just couldn't live with a picture that looked like you lived in a fish bowl !
See if you can put on a hockey game or football. Watch as it pans left to right and make sure it's on any of the set's best mode for viewing 4:3 material !!

Hope that helps!

scottvamp

Go on. Be a man. Front Projection is the key to an awesome HT.
I've been drinking and now I am Dr. Suess. No really really FP.
You can DOOOOOO it!!!;)

Dr. Spec

Originally posted by begbie
Oh yeah, about the Hitachi. Great pro-jos but even better styling on this year's models (imo). Though check out for their 4:3 imaging on the new models. They've been horrendous at it (smooth wide mode) in the past. I just couldn't live with a picture that looked like you lived in a fish bowl !
See if you can put on a hockey game or football. Watch as it pans left to right and make sure it's on any of the set's best mode for viewing 4:3 material !!

Hope that helps!

I concur all the way - smooth wide sucks **** on my Hitachi.

I'll say it again, though - the Hitachi picture quality is top notch - slightly better than Sony, RCA, or Toshiba IMHO. The Mits Diamond series is fabuolus too.

I use Normal or Fill for 4:3 viewing.

On Normal, it's the 4:3 screen with gray bars on the side. I make sure to switch to another aspect mode during commercials to avoid screen burn - I'm anal about that.

On Fill, it simply takes the Normal screen and exands the entire picture so the gray bars disappear. You miss some top and bottom stuff, but at least the image is not stretched or distorted.

Bring on widescreen HDTV, I say!

Doc