Value for money, picture quality, compact size, preview function

Power LED too bright, flimsy front input

Here are the criteria I used for my television search:
* Had to fit into a 30" x 30" corner
* Picture quality more important than picture size
* Had to have colorstream inputs for DVD, composite inputs for VCR and Playstation 2, antenna input, and front-panel input
* Had to be HDTV-capable
* Had to be under $1,600
* Had to have a flat screen since there are so many sources of glare in my family room

I started out shopping for 32-inch flat tube TV's because a 36-inch was too big for the corner and last time I was in the market for a television, projections TV's were vastly inferior to tube TV's. Once I hit the stores, I was frustrated to find that the best 32-inch flat screens were still too big, and amazed to see how the quality of projection TV's had improved. Suddenly, a 43-inch rear projection HDTV was the clear choice.

In side-by-side comparisons, I liked the Toshiba, Hitachi, and Sony pictures in that order. I found the Toshiba to have the most neutral colors. The Toshiba was also the most compact, which was an important factor for me.

Once I got home, I immediately adjusted the convergence and set the TV up using the Video Essentials DVD. Adjusting convergence is a tedious task, and I would set the value of automatic digital convergence on newer sets around $150-$200. The Video Essentials DVD is the best single investment you can make in an A/V system. A properly adjusted budget system can look far better than a top-of-the-line system with factory settings. Factory settings are generally too bright and over-saturated. This helps to catch the consumers eye, but it is fatiguing to watch, unrealistic colors draw you out of a movie, and it burns out the television much faster. My settings for this television are:
Contrast: 80
Brightness: 42
Color: 43
Tint: -6
Temperature: Cool
The size of the televsion is perfect because we can enjoy the cinematography of a widescreen movie and still have a nice large picture. One feature I found quite useful was the preview channel search. This allows you to watch one channel while it cycles through 6 other channels on the bottom sixth of the screen.

My complaints are pretty minor. The power LED is very bright and can be distracting with all of the lights off. The front video inputs (composite + S-video) flex every time I plug something in. This is unacceptable since I plug and unplug cables from these inputs frequently. I worry that this will be the first component of the TV to fail.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Mitsubishi, Hitachi

4 x 3 screen ideal for 95% of TV program material
Outstanding 1080i format for HD viewing

Cannot expand a 4x3 image within 1080i format to fill screen
Contrast setting is set full on delivery

I wanted a family room TV so 43" is more than adequate for typical viewing distances of 8-10 feet. I considered Hitachi as they have always been a favorite TV brand for quality and reliability, but their comparable model did not have true 1080i (only had 1000 lines total) and if you watched a DVD in super widescreen, it showed gray bars above and below the 16x9 image, leaving black bars above and below the picture - horrible! Mitsubishi models are all 16x9 and most of our program material is 4x3.

The first thing I did upon delivery was turn down the contrast from the max setting of 100 to about 42. This is perfectly sufficient for our well lit room. The Avia Guide to home theater DVD did not require much change from this setting.

The TV has worked extremely well in the last 6 months, the primary source being Dish Network Satellite (model 6000). Convergence stays relatively stable, requiring only a minor tweak every other month.

Internal sound quality surpisingly good for those occasions when you don't want to power up the whole HT system. The Dish Network Model 6000 receiver has dual RCA outputs - 1 to the TV, the other to the HT Receiver.

HD mode is superb on Hi Def broadcasts - especially sports on CBS (college football and the US Open Tennis). However if the source is not Hi Def, but is upsampled anyway, you get a 4x3 image in the middle of the 16x9 slice - I have not found a way to expand this image to full screen.

The line doubler works well - even VHS tapes recorded in Extended Play are acceptable.

Overall, it was the best buy out there for a 4x3 TV of the size we were looking at.

Similar Products Used:

Hitachi
Mitsubishi

everything

remote to big, doesn't support 720p,

I am verry satisfied with this product, very good dvd clarity, there is no other HDTV at a similar size for less money

good bang for the buck. Looked at Sony Too $$$ looked at Hitachi but liked toshibas picture.

Stand included in price is TOO small. Only holds my vcr and a/v reciever

Overall I like the set. I was Used to watching a 11 year old 27".

Pictcure is good ao most channels. Directv picture shows how bad most of my cable channels are.

Got DirecTv for football.

Still need dvd player but what type? Brand?

My rating is based on my purchase price.

Other local stores were $500 higher for set alone.

Similar Products Used:

none

Still waiting...

Toshiba Service, Quality

Wanted to post an update to an earlier review:

Summary: TV purchased 11/26/2000. Week of March 25-31st TV picture goes completely dark, unviewable.
March 31, Authorized Toshiba repair center phoned as directed by Toshiba .

April 3, First Repair visit by service technician Tuesday April 3rd. Service Technician reports a blown convergence board. Calls Toshiba for replacement part.

April 16, second service visit by Service Technician explains that Toshiba informed him that there is a faulty Blue CRT gun for this model. Directs him to check if this is problem. Technician checks my TV and indicates this is the problem. Phones Toshiba from my house to order part. Is informed that the part is on back order for 6 weeks.

May 10, third visit by service technician. Replaces picture tube and blue CRT gun. Technician reports to me that this blue CRT gun is faulty as well. Phones Toshiba to order another blue CRT gun and is told it is on back order.

June 18, 2001. Phoned Toshiba to speak with Service manager. Help Desk personnel, Rita takes my information and tells me that Ellen Young, Service Manager is on the phone and cannot speak with me at this time. I asked to be put on hold and wait for her to finish her call. Rita tells me that I am not allowed to wait on hold for Ellen Young. I request to speak with another Service manager and am told that she is at lunch and also unable to speak with me.

June 18, 2001 phone Best Buy for their resolution.
Thankfully I had the Extended Service Plan and Best Buy replaced this tv.

Best of luck to all of this with this model.
If you encounter this problem feel free to email me:
batgirl@enter.net

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 43H70

None so far, maybe I can post some strengths when it is working.

Picture, quality, Toshiba service and parts

I have used Toshiba products for over 10 years and never have had a problem until I purchased this model in late November 2000.

It worked well for the first three months but in late March the picture went completely dark.

Service technician came out and informed me he had another customer with the same model tv with the same problem.

Vist 1(Late March)Initial diagnosis was blown covergence board. Technician phoned Toshiba to order new part. Toshiba told technician to test Blue CRT gun, they knew this was a defective part for this model. Please be aware of this when reviewing this product for purchase!!

Visit 2(Early April) from Technican had him verifying that blue CRT was bad(I'm still not sure how this causes the picture to go dark). Technician calls Toshiba to order part and Toshiba tells him it is on back order until mid may.

Visit 3(Early May)from Technican has him repacing picture tube and blue crt gun. Still not fixed, still bad color and darkness, technican says the replacement blue crt gun is bad as well. Calls Toshiba to order another new blue CRT gun.

So it is now almost Mid may and I have been without my tv for almost 2 months.

Similar Products Used:

My first RPTV.

Price, Features, Picture Quality, Inputs, line doubler

No Vertical squeeze of non-hd

I actually purchased the 43HX70 which has the following differences fron the 43H70: slightly better remote (universal A/V remote), better protective screen (supposedly less glare), and is dark gray (v. black).

I paid $150 more for my 43HX70 at Tweeter ($2,150) than for the 43H70 at Best Buy. While the product differences are not worth $150 to me, the better service I'll get from Tweeter in the future is worth it (and I purchased their 5 year extended service contract for an additional $350(?)).

I am generally very happy with my 43HX70.

The Good Points: Great quality from good picture source, vertical squeeze on 1080i sources (not wasting any resolution on the black bars), save settings on each input mode, perfect size for my entertainment center.

Bad Points: Bad sources look worse (i.e. DirecTV picture compression), no vertical squeeze on 480p, would like some learning capabilities with remote (probably too much to ask).

I was originally worried about my purchase of the 43HX70. The Satellite picture looked absolutely terrible on the set, due to DirecTV's signal compression. This was not noticeable on my old 30" Toshiba direct-view. So I ditched D* for TW digital/analog/HD cable. TWC's analog channels are a little grainy, but are certainly preferable to the compression artifacts from D* (and most of the digital channels are much better than the D* equivalent). HD, of course, is simply amazing.

The one real strike against the TV is the lack of vertical compression for non-HD sources. I'm losing 20% of my resolution on letterboxed DVD's.

Dazzling picture; HD ready; a snap to operate. Toshiba's have a big user community and, hence, models are very tweakable

Glare! Slow remote. Adjustment menu blocks much of screen

First, I am a tough critic so 4 stars is pretty darn good to me. 5 stars is for those models I can't afford!

The 43H70 is the younger sister to 43HX70. The differences arenoted in other review but the biggie is the glare screen. I have seen the 43HX model in a store and I didn't notice a lotof glare so is it worth the extra $100 - $150? After four weeks of playing with mine, you betcha. All I can do is just deal with it but daytime viewing is hampered unless the blinds are all drawn.

But the picture quality! I have used some tricks learned at keohi.com - using mattes and bias lighting. Once tweaked with Avia, the picture is absolutely first-rate when viewing DVD's. Even Direct TV is rich and clear. 43" size is big enough to fill the room but not big enough to display rampant pixelation (at least for me). One caveat: When adjusting the picture, the damn menu covers two-thirds of the screen; while you can still see most of the picture you are adjusting, it is pretty annoying.

I am pretty happy with the set and that is even before I get to disable SVM, put Duvatyne on the inside, and do the 64-point convergence. I might be annoyed by the lack of vertical compression on anamorphic DVD's if I had ever had it before but what I don't know doesn't hurt me!

Bottom line - a very nice set, reasonably priced - but spring for the 43HX70 if you have a choice to help out with the glare - assuming you are placing the set in a room that needs that help, of course.

Similar Products Used:

Looked at Hitachi 43" models

Stunning picture, great sound.

Remote range stinks. The stand Toshiba sells for the set can hardly hold any components. Buy an aftermarket one.

I wanted a HD ready TV that would not dominate the room. After looking at direct view, I decided to look at smaller projection sets. After looking at the comparable Hitachi, and the Toshiba, I went with the projection TV. The reviews read here helped me to decide upon the Toshiba.

The menu based programming makes it easy to use, and the picture quality is excellent, especially on DVD and Playstation 2. (I saw other sets that had a better picture, but all were significantly more expensive.) Per other reviews, the TV seems to exaggerate the poor quality of my cable signal. The sound is excellent, but I generally use my surround sound system for viewing movies. Best Buy threw in a Toshiba 1600 DVD with the set for $2000. Great value in my opinion.

Remote is front heavy with batteries

After looking for 2 months I finaly decided on this set. The only dissapointment is that it is not 16x9 (wife didn't want it) and dvd's have the black lines on top and bottom.
Other than that I am amazed each time I watch the set. Especially with HD broadcasts on DirecTV(However few the have). DVD's have an outstanding picture.

At first my cable channels looked crappy. I thought it was just a bad signal. But after about 40-50 hours of burn in, the picture became fantastic. Though some cable channels still look bad.

Haven't had a chance to look at regular TV broadcasts yet, but I'm sure it's great.

Other components I use are:
Toshiba DST 3000 HD/DSS Receiver
Toshibas 6200 DVD

Still working on receiver and speakers