good size for medium size room, good picture, good price, pip useful for avoiding commercials

2 serious defects in 1 of the 2 TVs I own.

I bought 2 of this model for my house. one has 2 defects. The screen has a defect that shows a discoloration in the picture on 1/4 of the screen on certain combination of colors, mostly black and white shots, but is not noticeable during most viewing. The other defect is the tuner is going bad on the same tv and many channels fade in and out into static and snow. which is annoying. the pip picture looks good, but switching to that channel is all snow sometimes. I will have to buy a vcr and use its tuner to correct this problem. Dvds look great on this brand and model v, and my surround sound reciever and speakers make watching dvd excellent.

component video hookup, price

Excellent television. Use it with my DVD player and get fabulous picture quality via the component video hookup. Excellent quality. Very hard to beat this television set at its price level.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic

component video input, 2way pip

This TV looks incredible with a component video hookup to my ONKYO DV-S525 DVD. Haven't gotten to play with PIP because I'm using a satellite signal for my TV, but it looks like a lot of fun. The black bands on widescreen movies are truly dark, which may be the best thing of all. Can't say anything about the sound quality as I have a home theater setup and leave the TV for the most part on zero volume. This is the best TV at the price range ($750 at Best Buy minus $50 Toshiba rebate). I am very pleased.

Similar Products Used:

GE 27"

Inputs A-Go-Go, price vs performance ratio

The remote

I got this at Best Buy as a floor model and couldn't be happier with it. The picture on it isn't as bright as the Philips I used to have but I think that after using the video essentials dvd that the picture is much more accurate.
My biggest fault I can find is the remote and the lack of direct buttons to choose which input to switch to as this make the Philips Pronto remote a bear to program. Other than that, for the price, its a winner. And the other reviews are right, grab a strong friend, this thing is a beast...

Similar Products Used:

Philips 27"

Picture quality and DVD quality are excellent.

The sound is a little weak and the remote needs a little meat to it. Only 30 channels can be labled at a time.

SO far so good. The pciture qaulity is very good, especially with a good DVD player. I use a Toshiba and the Colorstream kicks butt. The remote needs to be a little beefier. The Exit key is a little t oclose to the directional keys. I hit it by accident sometimes.

Adjusting the color, tint etc.. is easy. The pre-sets they have are also pretty good if you do not want to mess with it. The sound is ok, not bad but not great either. I do like the option to adjust the trebele and bass.

The one major weakness is the ability to only program in 30 channels lables. I have 70+ channels and do not use a cable box

Number of inputs, Picture quality, Price

Pip sort of useless, Cannot find a way to turn off close captioning while muting.

I wanted to build a small home theater setup and though I loved the size of the smaller RPTV's and the picture on the Wega's in the end I decided I couldn't justufy spending that kind of money on a TV right now with HDTV around the corner and getting less expensive as time goes on. I decided to spend a lot less money and get a 32" set as my room is small anyway.

I really liked the picture on the Toshiba's especially for the money and the fact that this was the only lower priced set that had component video in and an S video input. I negotiated what I thought was a good price on a floor model at Best Buy ($480) and once they delivered it everything seemed fine. This is where my mini nightmare started. I got a DVD player as a gift and once I played a letterboxed movie I noticed that the picture was slightly tilted.After finding out this was not an adjustment I could do I called an authorized Toshiba repair place and had them come out. He removed the rear cover and made the adjustment but once he moved the TV back I noticed it had areas on the screen where it looked like a magnet had come near, sort of colored blotches. After complaining about this he went to get a degauser (sp?) and degaused the screen a number of times but he could not get rid of the problem. He told me if I wanted it perfect he would need to order a new yoke and it would take a week to ten days.

Well now my picture was horrible. Before it was great just slightly tilted. At this point I did not trust or beleive that he could replace the yoke in my home and my TV would have a perfect picture. It was 30 days since I had purchased it and I called Best Buy to ask if I could return it. I wound up returning the set and negotiating a price for a new one ($629). Frankly I was pleased with Best Buy in that they would take it back after someone had messed it up (yes I told them what happened) and that they gave me a decent price on a new set (was advertised on sale for $699).

Anyway, today my new set was delivered. I went through the Video Essentials DVD and although not perfect, it's pretty close. There are a couple of slight geometry errors, the screen is slightly low and bunched on the extreme left on a couple of test patterns but it is very slight and I'm not calling anyone to fix it:)

Picture quality on component video and s video is awesome. While the screen may not be as flat as the Wegas, I believe that is only noticable if you sit off to the side or possibly in daylight with glare from a light source from the side. Viewing from in front of the set results in a phenominal (sp?) picture. I'm using the component video for a DVD player and the S video for a Dish Network satellite.

Sound is mediocre but it is on most sets. Better off connecting to a stereo/surround sound system. When muting the set it automatically shows closed caption on the screen and I have not been able to figure out how to turn it off. I have a feeling PIP will not get used much by me and seems to be a somewhat useless toy. Save the $ and get the 51.

I give this set 5 starts for value as I don't think much else compares in this price range for picture quality and video inputs. Although I had problems with the floor model one, I attribute those problems more to the repairman and the complexity of repairing modern sets in the home. I still give this set an overall 4 stars.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 27"

Component Video In, Adjustability, Clear sharp picture, Reasonable price.

Very curved screen

Flat screens have several advantages:
1. A non-distorted image is viewable from more locations
within a room.
2. It is easier to eliminate glare.

They also have some disadvantages:
1. Harder to focus (uses software to change focus from
side-to-side, top-to-bottom.)
2. Cost.

Seeing as I can control the lighting in my viewing space fairly effectively and that usually no more than two people are watching, the flat-screen advantages are not worth the extra cost for me.

This TV offers great features and displays a sharp, bright image under a large range of ambient lighting. The remote is reasonably laid out and easy to use. This TV will serve me quite well until prices for HDTVs with progressive scan come down to planet Earth.

Great Value for the Price; Both a Component and a S-Video input; Multiple Coax Inputs; Good Color Fidelity; Front (instead of Side) Stereo Speakers; Good 3-Function Universal Remote Control; PIP designed for use with a cable box

Picture Tube is too curved and reflects too much glare; PIP function cannot be used with Coax Input #2 or Component Inputs; Does not perform a 16:9 rescan to display the full-resolution of anamorphic DVDs

I had been using a borrowed 27" TV from a friend and didn't plan to get a new TV for my living room until DTV (aka HDTV) sets were more affordable. But my friend asked for his TV back so I had to buy a new TV that would not cost too much because I don't think spending a lot on a NTSC standard TV now is a very wise move these days, with the new ATSC standard slowly taking hold. So I shopped around on the Internet for a quality-brand 32" TV that has component video (for DVD) that was hopefully less than $600 or $700 - and this Toshiba set is what I found.

This is a quality TV. The dark picture tube is very good, with rich color fidelity and good resolution. The only drawback of the picture tube is that it is unfortunately a bit too curved which causes it to be somewhat reflective of the room. And, although, the picture tube is not quite as good as the tubes on the current Sony TVs, this Toshiba set is a lot cheaper than a comparable Sony set - and with more features than any TV in its price range.

The listed features were impressive but I was even more impressed by them when I actually got the set. For example, although the set has PIP, I assumed that it would be useless since I have to use a cable box where I live. But, no problem, since Toshiba already thought of that problem and designed the set so that cable can be run into it twice: once before the cable box (Coax Input #1) and once after the cable box (Coax Input #2). So now I can watch channels on the full screen and still use the PIP capability to check out any channel that doesn't need the cable box for descrambling (ie. I can see everything except premium channels in the PIP window). Although the PIP unfortunately cannot be used with every possible input into the TV, it is still very useful to me to do things like check the score of a game or channel surf without changing the main channel (and the six mini-screen mode of PIP is a nice, easy way to channel surf six channels at a time).

I also like the fact that the stereo speakers are on the front of the TV, not on the sides like a lot of other sets, and, hence, do not suffer a slight muffling effect I've heard in these other sets.

If there is a major drawback, I do wish it could detect anamorphically enhanced DVDs and rescan them in a 16:9 window to display the full-resolution of a DVD. But this is no different from most TVs out there (I think the only ones that can do this trick cost at least three times more than this set).

So, overall, the Toshiba CZ32V61 is a very good TV with some great features and it is a real bargain in its price range. And it'll serve well until affordable DTV/HDTV sets are available.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 27" TV; Mitsubishi 27" TV; Sylvania 20" TV

Good picture, good price, extra A/V connections, Color Stream component hookup to DVD

None for this price

I liked this Toshiba more than comparable Sony TV's this time around. This is the first non-Sony TV I have owned in about 20 years. Also compared this model to the Toshiba Cinemea Series, and for the money vs. limited improvement, this 32" set was better. The best feature of this TV is the component link to your DVD player which Toshiba calls Color Stream. DVD's look great on this TV. After watching several DVD's, my only complaint is that I should have purchased a 36" Toshiba rather than this 32" because of the "wide screen" DVD presentation. However, there was a big price difference ($400) between the 32" and 36" sets and it seemed best to hold off for now given that I will probably be going to a HDTV set in a few years.

I will give this set 5 stars for both ratings, but the value rating is certainly 5 stars is certainly deserved.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 27"

Component video, PiP

Weak sound, curved picture tube

I had been looking for a new TV for months. Like many others I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a TV that would be useless in less than 10 years so I tried to find one that had the most bang for the buck without compromising quality. I wanted a TV that at least had component video input so I could hook up a DVD player. After reading a lot of reviews and talking to people I decided the Toshiba was a good value with reasonable quality. Well, you get what you pay for, I suppose.

The TV is huge, absolutely huge. If you have never had a 32" TV you will be surprised at how big it is, and how much it weighs. They weigh 125 lbs. and are hard to handle. Have someone strong help you with this thing because it is a load.

I wasn't too pleased with the way the TV presets looked. "Cool" was just too bright, and you can't really watch TV in "theater" mode because it's too dark. You will not be happy with the factory defaults. Don't expect this TV to look good right out of the box. No problem. You can fine tune the picture. It's tedious but I think that is the way it is with most TVs.

I didn't like the setup menus. They have a stange, amatuerish look. This probably won't bother most people. To me it just suggested that they didn't put a lot of effort into this.

This TV has rather some annoying traits: Adjusting volumn results in a clicking (faint, but once you notice it, it will bug you) sound coming from the TV. It's not the remote, it's the TV. I don't know if it's a design feature or not. It makes no sense. At high levels you can't hear it, but turn the volumn way down and you will hear it! Also, turning MUTE on and off results in a POPPING sound. There is no excuse for that. That may be something most of you can live with, but not me. This bugged me so much I took the TV back for an exchange. The second set did the same exact thing so I guess it's a design flaw!

The sound is weak, and you have to turn the sound way up. I turned the bass up to the max and still couldn't really get a good sound. The TV uses FIXED audio outputs which means that if you hook some powered speakers up (like PCWorks) to augment your sound until you can get a stereo or home theater setup you will not be able to control the volumn with the TV. If the TV had VARIABLE audio outputs, then when you hooked up the speakers the volumn coming from the speakers could be adjusted with the TV remote. Therefore, you have to get up and adjust speaker volumn manually. This is WEAK!

The thing that did it for me was the TV picture tube. On the first set there was a noticable geometric distortion in the tube. Normally you don't notice it. On my cable system I have an on-screen guide. It looks like a box that overlays the picture. When you pop that up, the TOP line of the guide is wavey. Think of a flag rippling in the wind. That's what it looks like. Anytime there is a horizontal line geometry at the top of the tube you will see that wave. Most of the time, those kinds of lines are at the bottom of the TV (things like sports tickers, etc.) so you won't notice it. Like I said before I took the first one back thinking it was just that one TV but the second set does the same thing so again I think it's just crappy engineering.

I just can't live with these things so I am taking the TV back. That's just me. Your mileage may vary.

If it wasn't for those few quirky flaws I'd be pleased with the set. It's a decent value giving the PiP and the inputs, but manufactoring quality just seems too low budget for me. I think the TV makers just don't care about direct view TV anymore so they don't put a lot into them. You either have to pay out the nose for a good set with decent on-screen geometry and sound or live with a substandard TV until HDTV takes over.