Huh?

Duh

Toshiba MD13N1 TV with DVD/CD Bought at Best Buy. Within one month the DVD/CD jammed and then the antenna jack broke too. Toshiba said it was my fault that it was abuse. How they determine that when they are not sitting with me is beyond me. Neither Best Buy or Toshiba will fix this. As far as I can tell from the little information I am given after two times sending the TV into Best Buy authorized Toshiba service is that the part is "not available." How could a part not be available if one of the nation's largest retailers is selling the same TV today (I saw it on the shelf). No, Toshiba just does not want to repair anything if they can possibly help it. Their warrenties like their products are worthless. Do not buy Toshiba products

Similar Products Used:

I have Sony, RCA, GE, JVC and Motorola TVs. The best by far is Sony

Sharpness of Picture

Good Stuff

Similar Products Used:

Dvd, Toshiba Vcr

ISF-calibration makes this set truly AWESOME and takes it to a whole new level! Picture quality will now easily rival those sets costing thousands more.

Once again, slow remote...but my Phillips Pronto saves the day!

This is my second review of this set once it was properly ISF-calibrated by a quality technician. And I must say...it was truly worth it!! WOW....I can't believe how much better this set has become. My progressive scan DVD images now are approaching HD quality. Resolution has improved 20%!Even my DSS and OTA NTSC analog signals have improved significantly. Practically all RPTV's coming out of the factory now has many settings way out of whack. (And it's way too risky to fiddle around with the factory settings yourself). When you decide to purchase this set, be sure to set aside some money to get it properly ISF-calibrated, because it's a MUST. And you won't believe your eyes, too!

Awesome picture....ability to tweak it to perfection.

Current model's remote and so-so picture with Satelite and Cable

The current model was originally purchased and several problems developed. Hint...don't trust an installer who "claims" to know what he's doing. Toshiba rep. was sent out and determined the set was damaged due to improper setup at delivery by store "know it all" installer.

Actually worked to my benefit. Toshiba is sending me the absolute latest version that will be released at the end of this month (October, 2000).

The three grand prices these sets are going for now is due to the release of the much improved new models later this month and yes, "OneCall" knew this...but they didn't tell ya that did they?

Personally, I would hold off folks on jumping on the current model. The new flagship models have some great improvements that make this already great set even better. I have a friend who actually got a sneak peak at one of the new one's. He says they blow away the Pioneer Elite's and even Runco's ridiculously priced rear projection set.

Improvements to the upcoming model include (Finally) a revised remote that allows for much easier direct access selective input switching. New model also has improvement to several of the internal components that are designed to provide much better picture with non-DVD sources. There are several other tweaks that improve this set even further.

Now, are you ready for this...the 2001 model numbers have gone back to the 1999 model numbers! Yup...strange but true...call Toshiba and they will confirm. New Model number is simply 56H80....they dropped the TW letters but it is till Theater Wide.

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Pioneer Elite and Sony XBR2

When purchased new in Feb. of 2000 had nice picture for the price against the competition

Totally unrepairable piece of junk

This review is mainly to warn other users against Toshiba products in general and the TW56X81 and it's descendants. My Toshiba HDTV has been in Sabel Electonics in Houston since April 18th with no firm date of it ever being fixed after being told when it was picked up that I would have it back in a week to 10 days. They went through two rounds of replacing board level components with advice from Toshiba Tech Support before saying the picture tubes needed to be replaced and then after finally receiving authorization from my extended warrenty service co. Phillips noPriority Service proceeded to order the wrong tubes. Sabel Electronics said they were unable to find the correct tubes but were looking hard for them everywhere. When I checked with Toshiba, no picture tubes were on order from Sabel. After numerous phone calls and aggravation, Toshiba finally put the tubes on order May 31st. According to Sabel, the tubes were supposed to be in by mid June ::::: According to Toshiba, they gave no delivery date for the picture tubes. Kind of hard to figure out who is lying to you but you know someone is. Now it's mid June and according to Sabel, Toshiba now says mid July for the picture tubes to be in. I think I'll call Toshiba again and see what kind of story they have now. The last story was that if they could not find the correct part to fix the set in 30 days from the order being placed, they would consider other options. Yeah, and I really believe that one now that they've just extended that 30 days out to 45. I believe that Toshiba builds only junk products to dump on the American market. I believe that Sabel Electronics has no idea of how to repair anything electronic. I believe there should be no Priority in Phillips Priority Service as their favorite quote is " Well there is nothing we can do".
But then again, that's only my opinion.

Stunning picture DVD and especially HDTV

Remote

After going through two defective Sony big screen's I decided to look at another brand. The 53" had a bad power board that could not be fixed and the 57" Widescreen was out of focus and after two attempts to correct was still out of focus. I contaced two ISF Certified Calibrators who both recommended the Toshiba tw56x81. They both added that this was the finest set available for picture quality. I took their recommendation and purchased the set. They also recommended this set over the Tw56x80 due to an essential adustment that was taken out of the x80. Also the x81 has larger CRT's. I then had the set fully calibrated by Robert Busch at Busch Home Theater. The cost was $650.00 and worth every penny. He did a superb job (you can find his info at the Image Science Foundation site). General rule is that Big Screens need calibration since none of them are right out of the box. In the case of mine, although it was clean when opened, one of the lenses was not seated properly an easy fix with one extra turn of the back screw holding it in. The result is a picture beyond my expectation. Stellar and stunning HDTV. I have the Toshiba SD9200 progresive scan dvd player that I purchased at the same time, and the picture quality is remarkable. The remote is the only weekness and I am in the process of getting rid of remote clutter with a new advanced universal model. One tip is to purchase the x80 remote since it has a better design and compatible with DVD players. I am completly happy with this set and would recommend it to anyone serious about outstanding HDTV quality picture, and DVD that will take your breath away. At its best this is pure eye candy.

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Sony KP53 and 57" Widescreen

I just got 56h80 and this TV is awesome! I was worried about getting my first RPTV and reading posts from some people that said the picture quality will be worse than Direct View TV. After calibrating the TV with AVIA and use Tosh 6200 progressive, all I can say was WOW! Gladiator and XMen looks very good it's hard to believe. The line doubler in this set is also very good. My LD and TV looks very nice as well. For the price/value this TV is very hard to beat. I've been looking for well over 2 months comparing Tosh, Mits, Pioneer etc. I think Tosh give the best value among all. Enjoy!

Just something that I left out of my last review...

For those who may want more current information on upcoming models, a better place to look would be a message board like...

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum24/HTML/003465.html

and find out the most current information, complete with civil discussions, and reasonable speculation, presented as such.

The above URL is a thread that the TW40x81's are back in production and being sent to dealers again. The 40H81's release date is currently said to have been pushed back to 2001, without a month I think... You can read the thread yourself. There are many other threads that provide excellent information. You won't find Dark Cobra there. His/her "style" of writing would garner banishment.

This way, you can see what other folks have found out, and digest all the information yourself, rather than relying on the product of someone else's digestive processes.

That is one way to "look out for each other".

It is the purpose of message boards.

This review area is for reviews of current products that have been used firsthand. Mention of future products is certainly reasonable, but IMHO should be done with restraint, especially when it is second-hand.

This review area is a different way to "look out for each other." It should be a one-shot, with, IMHO, appropriate updates. I apologize for the number of updates that have felt were appropriate in this instance, but I do feel they were appropriate.

Happy viewing,
Doug

excellent picture

remote

Just af few final points I forgot to make in this series of threads and then I'm done. The folks at One Call are good people who offer great service. The fact that they are selling this unit at an incredibly great price is wonderful. However, the point to my original post was simply to inform those of you who are about to purchase this product that right on the horizon are some significant improvements.

When most of us are about to spend this level of money (and even three grand is a lotta money) we most certainly would like to make the most informed decision we can in order to get the most bang for our buck. I sure know I do, and judging from the separate emails I got from quite a few of you, an awful lot of you are similarly interested. I was glad to provide you with a few of the advanced details of the soon to be released sets.

You can actually obatain the information from Toshiba's website....you just have to know the trick to getting it. All you have to do is on the page where the current models are displayed, type in 56H80 into the search box. This will bring up the information on the 2001 models! They list the major improvements but the full detail page is not yet avaiable. If you call them they will now tell you all the changes.

(Yes...I know this was also the model number for the 1999 sets....ask Toshiba why they returned to the older model number for the 2001 units and they will give you a rather interesting answer...LOL).

All the prior threads pretty much listed the obvious weaknesses in the otherwise fine product. Toshiba has finally gone to some lengths to correct most of them in the up and coming model. While it does reamin to be seen just how fine a job they did, none of us would be even considering buying a Toshiba at this price point if we didn't have some trust in this company. So to say that it is mere speculation that the changes may not be good really expresses a lack of faith in Toshiba and is naive at best. If you don't trust this company to improve its product then you need to be looking at a Sanyo at the local Walmart....

Toshiba has the finest guns in the industry and even the super high end products like Runco use the Toshiba guns! Point is they know what they are doing and the earlier comment from Doug that their changes may not be good at all is nothing short of ridiculous and unworthy of further comment.

Those of us videophiles who truly care about obtaining the finest picture we can get, will be glad to have received some advance information prior to purchasing at this time. The advances may not be earthshaking, let's face it this set is already damn good. However, it does appear that some very good tweaks that everyone was asking for in all the preceeding posts are about to be included.

All I was trying to do was let my fellow videophiles know what I had discovered. A few of you hit it right on the head in your emails to me. Most of you folks truly would have been pissed if you spent three grand for a set only to find out that several weeks later some significant improvements were done to the set. When your spending this level of money....most of you correctly indicated that you would prefer to spend a little more to get those benefits. I agree, it's actually a no brainer for most people, but to each his own. I was glad to have informed you and you are all very welcome. I am confident that One Call will also offer the newer set at good prices below full retail....it's what their known for!

If I offended you Doug, I'm sorry; but those of us who have been involved in this site throughout the years have always sought to look out for each other whenever we can . . . and we will continue to do so. . . . Peace.

Picture is incredible.

Video inputs are a hassles to switch between

I love this set. Almost a perfect ten. The only thing that needs to be fixed is the way you switch between inputs. You have to press the input button then wait a few seconds till it switches then do it over again about 5 times. The process should be quicker. It makes it impossible to use an IR macro with this TV. Other than that it's great.

Now if Toshiba would start making more of them. There is some sort of production problem with Toshiba HD.