 Great LCD TV |
| Review Date: November 29, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Pakrin, Colorado |
I would like to comment on both the LCD and J&R, the reseller.
Although this is a brand new LCD without many if any specific public reviews, I went for the Toshiba for a number of reasons including perceived product reliability, feature set and value for money. I actively compared the Sony 40Z4100 and Samsung LNT750 which have both been on the market for several months, are highly rated to the Toshiba 46 (not 42) inch Regza XV545U. At the end of the day the Toshiba had it all even though I read some comments about lower contrast on other models I can tell you that I perceive no real issues even though the unit is installed in a very dark room. I have not calibrated the set but DVDs look great in cinema mode, even VCR tapes are acceptable. The SRT seems to be a real bonus and I will NOT buy a Blu-Ray player as a result. Set-up was extremely easy and I was able to do it all by my lonesome, essentially plug and play into a full A/V system, the remote is programmable for all my gizmos from a B&K AVR through Sony DvD and SAT box. You get the added bennies of 5:5 pull down and 120 hz. DVDs really look goood with no judder that I could tell. One gripe: the remote does not have an illumination button which would be nice in a dark environment. I ruled out the Sony because of some bad personal Sony product experiences including TVs. Although I always liked what I consider a very natural Sony picture image I've read about some backlighting and clouding issues on the LCDs and you pay the Sony premium price. As for the Samsung, I did not want a glossy screen due to too much glare and what i can only say are horror stories I read about customer service same with Sony (hopefully not with Toshiba).
I got the set from JandR. They were very accomodating and very communicative throughout the order process. They delayed my shipment at my request and held as well as improved the price up to the time of shipment. The box shipped UPS and arrived without damage on the day promised with some added packaging inside. I would definitely buy again from them. |
Incredible view, incredible Amazon price and set up
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| Review Date: December 15, 2008 |
| Reviewer: M. Garbutt, Minneapolis, MN USA |
| I have been wanting a 42 Inch LCD. Been doing the research for 1 year . Been watching prices. Went to Toshiba site. Picked the new Cinema Series. Could not believe the pricing on Amazon. So went for it. LOVE this screen, set up by White Glove is great. Easy TV with incredible sharp , crisp SD and HD Picture. Color quality is by far the best out there. This is the best value and best quality out there. Toshiba has blasted SONY with quality and Amazon gave me an incredible price. Would have bought the TV without the great price but that just made it better. Had it going with Wii games and movies and WOW watching the Vikings in HD does not get any better. Picture quality is so good that I have not had the TV Calibrated. |
Very very pleased
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| Review Date: December 29, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Marc St Louis, Montreal, Quebec Canada |
| We bought this TV five days ago as our family Christmas gift. After shopping for months, we finally chose this model. In our experience, Toshiba is Japanese for "Great colors and reliability". (It replaced our 25 years old Toshiba CRT TV). Displaying Standard TV signals is an almost "mission impossible" for any HDTV. This particular TV tries hard and frankly, the picture quality of Standard TV channels is as good as one can hope for on a 1080p Full Screen HDTV. The real WOW factor comes when watching HDTV channels. Picture sharpness is unbelievable and the colors absolutely gorgeous. Setup was easy. 1) Told the Set-Top-Box (STB) that the TV could handle 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i signals. 2) Placed the STB in pass-through mode to let the TV handle any necessary upconverting. 3) Selected the predefined "Standard" picture mode. 4) Selected the "Native" picture size. And Voila! |
The best TV purchase under the worst conditions
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| Review Date: January 9, 2009 |
| Reviewer: D. Rambow, Redmond, WA United States |
With the price drops of LCD TV's over the last 6 months I knew it was time to make the leap from my 10 year old Sony 27" crt TV. I researched all the top models and this one had all the features of the very best units, and at a remarkably low price compared to other TV's in its class.
I trusted the Toshiba brand, and saw a larger version (46XV545) in a local store. So I ordered this 42" model for Christmas, and headed out of town for a short 4 day vacation expecting the TV to arrive after my return. Then the weather delayed airline flights out, finally got to my destination, then weather delayed returns, but the new TV was going to make it all better for those great football games after Christmas.
Day after Christmas, got the TV all set up, excitement was rising, ohhhhhh nooooooo! a big 6" gray stripe running vertically down the screen. A defect! But the images on either side of the gray stripe were stunning. I called Amazon and easily arranged a replacement, but with the holidays, it was going to be a while. And weather messed that up again with the mountain passes closing about the time my truck was to arrive.
I did get to learn all the controls and settings, and watched the football games and movies around that darn gray stripe. But the images I could see were great, that 120Hz eliminated all blurring as far as I could tell, no matter how fast those running backs were running. Sound was very good for built-in speakers, but it also has every type of audio output jack you might want to hook to a true surround sound system.
Today, the replacement arrived. The 'white glove' boys packed up the old set for return, unpacked and setup the new TV, and all was good with the world. The screen was perfect, the images stunning. The HD channels were beautiful, and amazingly, that SRT technology renders the non-HD input to near HD quality. You can keep the default settings and get great viewing, or spend 5-10 minutes reading about various settings, and get super viewing. All very easy to adjust.
I hooked up cable, vcr, dtr, cable hd box, and they all worked as expected, you can program in the quick-launch buttons to switch between the various inputs, and programming favorite channels takes about 3 seconds per channel.
Oh, one comment to ponder, when looking at various models, I always ran my hand over the top of each LCD unit to see how much heat was generated, and some models were pretty hot. This Toshiba runs cool compared to other models, which translates into less power used, in fact in their power saving stand-by mode, the manual says it only uses 1 watt of power.
In summary, Amazon had no control over a defect, or weather delays in shipping, and they handled the replacement 'no questions asked' on a Saturday morning, with an easily understood voice on the phone that spoke my language. The price was the lowest possible, and the TV is absolutely great! |
Even better than expected-- a real WOW!
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| Review Date: January 20, 2009 |
| Reviewer: E. Weinberger, California |
I received my Toshiba Regza Cinema Series 42XV545U LCD television on January 15th. It actually arrived much sooner, but I didn't have a suitable stand for it, and the shipping company was nice enough to wait until I did to deliver it. I enountered a little hitch with the "white gloves" service. However, when I called Amazon, the representative was very helpful. I also contacted the local branch of CEVA, and they could not have been nicer-- came out the next morning and corrected the setup problem.
What can I say about this television. It is mind-bogglingly superb. I didn't get to see the actual picture before buying this particular model, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I bought it because I saw the prior Toshiba model next to a much costlier Sony set at Costco, and I couldn't tell the difference. I ordered it from Amazon because of the white glove service, and the excellent price-- especially because I didn't have to pay shipping or tax.
Right out of the box, the picture was amazing. The Direct TV guys, who set up HD LCDs all the time, were very impressed with it. I did some tweaking, and that made the audio noticeably better, and I turned on some of the useful features. It was easy to do so-- just read the manual and followed along. I am not sure I have everything as good as it could be, but it's hard to imagine it being any better than it is. The remote is quite good, but I will be using the Direct TV one because it is just more convenient.
I read one editor's review before buying this set that was a somewhat negative-- basically said that the set lacked some of the features it expected in other higher-end sets, and that there was too much green in people's faces. So, I was a little apprehensive about what I was getting. The other reviews that I read, and especially those of the users, were wildly positive. Even the editor who didn't like it, praised the picture quality highly. I decided against Vizio although it got rave reviews because there seemed to be quality issues. I read something about Samsung monitors being variable, and I just wasn't sure LG has been in the tv business long enough. Well, now that I have this television at home, I believe that I made the right decision. All of the channels-- high def and standard look spectacular, and I don't see any problem with skin tone. The SRT technology is another reason that I decided to go with Toshiba. You won't be sorry if you do also. |
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