Large, good color. color temp control and component inputs

horizonatal and vertical lines get distorted a little bit. usually only noticible in test patterns. very slight low pitch buzzing. probably from power supply. blacks could be richer and deeper. Takes a long time to change channels. tuner is slow.

I got this TV for $599 brand new. don't email me about where because the deal is over. Anyways, I like it and it's a good bang for the buck. The buzzing can really only be noticed when its muted or a very quiet scene. really though, the problems I listed are all minor and while they add up, they don't ruin this tv. A good value for 600 bucks, I wouldn't pay more than 800 for this TV though. And at the usual retail price of $999, this TV is not too hot.

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7 year old 31" Phillips

Bang for the buck.

Weight, no clock, can't disable internal speakers.

Great picture, great features, lots of inputs and outputs.
Internal sound is ok, but who uses it anyway? The remote is ok, I've seen better and worse. Front panel video inputs are nice for camcorders and digital cameras. Using component video with DVD results in absolutely spectacular picture quality. Color seems a bit washed out, but I have the Video Essentials DVD on order ($35 from www.buy.com), so that should be easy to cure.

This thing weighs a ton, too -- I just about ruptured my pancreas lifting it onto the stand. Don't have to worry about anyone breaking into your house and walking away with this unit! The only bad things I can say are nitpicky details:

There is no clock. I've become very used to having a time display on-screen, I'm going to miss that.

The power LED is quite bright and distracting, especially if you've got the lights dimmed. I'd suggesst putting some black electrical tape over it -- but be careful, the IR sensor is right there, too.

You can't turn the internal speakers off, and the audio out level is not relative to the volume setting. So, if you're using external amplification, you must turn the TV's volume all the way down, and use the external pre-amp to control the volume. This is likely only a problem for watching cable, since you'd probably send audio from the DVD and VCR directly into the preamp. But I find that all channels are not equivalently loud, so to need one remote for surfing and another for volume is a real pain.

Got it for $849 at www.ecloseout.net.

Price/performance

I think this is a familiar senerio. I wanted a HDTV but did not want to pay for it. I looked at the Sony wega and did not care for it at all. The picture looked grainy and I dont think that the guns will last over time due to the large bend the gun must make on a flat screen. Talked to several service engineers who agreed with me. I think the toshiba 36" had one of the better picture out there for the price. In fact, I was so please with the TV I bought the Toshiba DVD 3109. Good luck...

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Sony wega

Great Resolution, Size

Bend of the Screen, Rf1/Rf2 switch

I was looking for a set that was the largest monitor possible, I don't really like the quaility of the projection tvs. but was also limited by the size of my cabinet. This tv fit my requirements because the speakers were on the bottom. I also did not want to pay an arm and a leg while waiting for the HDTV's to become reasonable. I narrowed it down to this set and the comparable Panasonic. I chose this after reading the horrible reviews on the Panasonic and I am glad I did. This TV has great resolution I believe it was 850 lines. I have owned Toshiba's for years the last one lasted 10 years and I am hard on tv's. I chose this over the CZ36V51 due to the additional RF1/RF2 input. I use this for our satellite input. Unfortuately, there is no toggle between the two on the remote (like older remotes), you have to go through the menu. The bend on the tube is a little bothersome at first but after a while you don't notice it. When using S-input you can't use video one. Other than these small issues I am very pleased with my purchase. The Colorstream (Componet) video makes the colors very vivid. The DVD's look great with it. I paid $969 at Frys. I would highly recommend this reasonable set.

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Older Toshiba sets

Lots of inputs/outputs,pip

This 36" is loaded with inputs 3 video in's, color stream in (also known as component video input), one 's'video input, 2 ant in from 2 different sources, and stereo audio inputs. TV has 800 lines of resolution and a crisp picture. Remote is easy to use and the 2 tuners make pip easy to hookup.Picked it up at Sears for $999 and they threw in a free matching stand which looks great with it.Very happy with my choice.

Picture clarity, price, component video inputs

COLOR!

PLEASE READ THIS IF YOU ARE CONSIDERING A TOSHIBA DIRECT-VIEW UNIT. IT’S A LONG REVIEW, SO IF YOU’RE JUST SCANNING, SKIP TO THE PARAGRAPH STARTING WITH “HERE’S THE INTERESTING PART”.

I watch a fair amount of TV, and I was looking for a reliable 35”/36” unit with a good, clear picture. I’m not into the technical details of a set, just the interests of the average person. I had done a lot of research on the Toshiba CZ36 series – namely the T31, the V51 and the V61. In addition, I had read all of the reviews on this site, and they solidified my confidence in my choice of any of these three Toshiba units. In fact, my father and my friend both bought older model Toshiba 36” sets several years ago, and they’re both thrilled with them.

I purchased the CZ36V61 unit from Best Buy for $899 (after rebate), and, as a side-note, I opted to take the unit home myself, rather than have it delivered. Wow, big mistake. Don’t do this, with ANY large tube unit. The unit weighs almost 175 pounds and the box has no handle-holds. Carrying it into my pickup truck was easy compared to trying to lift the set out of the box, and onto the TV stand at home (with help). Besides the weight, there are no user-friendly handle-holds on the set itself either. I hope this did not affect my ability to father children. I digress.

Now the disappointing part. When I got home, I plugged in the local cable TV co-ax and my new Toshiba DVD (with component cables) and I was initially very pleased with the picture. However, after watching the set for a couple of hours (both cable and DVD), I realized the colors were just wrong. The picture was slightly faded and had an annoying pink/red shade. Blues were purple, and white was pink. Naturally, I tried adjusting the picture controls (contrast, brightness, color, tint, sharpness, color temperature), and after several days, I found that I couldn’t eliminate the faded color, nor the pink cast in the picture. I found that the tint control will reduce reds, but it jacks up the greens, and it gets really ugly. I wasn’t able to find a happy medium.

Seeking help, I bought the “Video Essentials” DVD to help adjust the picture. This DVD is a good tool for adjusting the aforementioned picture controls, by displaying test patterns and colors for calibration, if you can part with $40. To make a long story short, I ran through the Video Essentials setup several times, even using two different input methods for the DVD (component cables and straight RCA video), and was still unable to correct the pink cast and faded color of the screen. I was convinced I had a bad set, and I was going back to the store to complain.

HERE’S THE INTERESTING PART. I went back to the store, where an entire wall of direct-view tube TV’s (of varying brands) were displayed. All of the sets displayed the same channel, and when a picture of an orange campfire came up, all non-Toshiba sets displayed it as orange, and all Toshiba sets displayed it as faded purple! This was true for every single direct-view Toshiba set, whether 27”, 32” or 36” in size! Check it out for yourself – you can pick out which sets are Toshibas from a distance, without even seeing the brand names. Granted, all the units were set to the default color settings and, on any TV, these always need some tweaking, but as I mentioned before, as an owner of this particular set, I’ve tried everything, and simply found that you can NOT eliminate the pink cast to the picture. Flesh tones are reddish-pink, and the overall color is imbalanced. In fact, the tube seemed incapable of producing a pure white image. Even images of white snow appeared pink, while all other sets displayed white.

The bottom line is if you’re shopping for a set, make sure you look at the color quality just as much as the picture quality. I didn’t, and I learned a lesson. Fortunately, I realized this early, and I returned this set to the store.

Don’t get me wrong. I like most Toshiba equipment - I’m thrilled with their DVD player. I just think they changed something in their TV tubes, and it horribly imbalances the color. It’s a shame, because the picture clarity is EXCEPTIONAL on their tubes. The features of the sets are good, too. I almost kept my set for these reasons, and tried to live with the poor color balance. In the end, I couldn’t do it. The color is just plain disappointing.

Perfect Picture off Component Video, Color Decoding Perfect

Calibration levels not perfect out of the box. (not many tvs are)

After several tries at trying to find a good tv by taking various models home, this one was the clear winner. I took home a 36 Zenith and had troubles with brightness levels varying from input to input. I would calibrate Component Video, only to find out that S video was incorrect. All the inputs rely on the same calibation settings. I took home a JVC to find that the tube would get hot and the color would become innacurate( a problem associated with poor power supply.) Finally I tried the Toshiba. I originally did not want to spent so much, but forgot about the price realy fast. I had spent many hours with my AVIA DVD calibration disc getting my old S video only Toshiba just right, and was amazed when I discovered the accuracy of this set. Most sets have poor color decoding (reds are usually heavily exagerrated) this one's were perfect. After calibration, I discovered that setting everything to the center of adjustment levels was just about perfect. Out of the box, the contrast was set to the max. This is usually done by tha manufacturerso that when it hits the sales floor, it will have the brightest picture possible. Unfortunatly, this is horribly innacurate and burns the tube up really fast. Never buy a floor model Tube television.(unless its been calibrated) Anyone who doesnt like this TVs picture performance is just used to seeing innacurate images, and beleives that that brighter brights and redder reds is better. A properly calibrated TV can seem strange at first, but after you ge used to it, you never want to see anything else. This TV is THE BEST one I have ever seen. If youve seen better, tell me, because if it was any better than this, I would probably love it. Of course an HDTV is probably better than this one, but thats a whole other playing field. I have good hopes for a Widescreen Toshiba Tube.

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27" Toshiba, 36"JVC, 36"Zenith

PIP w/ multiple channel display, 2 RFs, high res. clean S-video picture, theatre mode

curved screen and resulting reflections, only one s-video input

My friend has a Sony WEGA 36", which looks very sharp..a bit too sharp for my taste. I got the Toshiba because of good reviews and a reasonable price ($750 at Best Buy). I hooked up all my gaming gear via S-video cables through my Kenwood VR309 receiver which is hooked up to the Toshiba. The video quality for my Dreamcast games is breathtaking. The images are clean and vivid, with no noticeable bleeding. I didn't realize that the graphics were so detailed before. It brought my admiration of the Dreamcast to a whole new level (used to play it on a 20" TV). I also hook up my satellite through s-video, and the signal comes through clear without any distortions. Can't wait to hook up DVD through the colorstream cables.

Not too many

Too many to list

I don't understand. The main reason why I bought this Toshiba was because of the great reviews I read right here. But there are many problems. First, the geomeotry of the picture can't be fixed. When I watch letterboxed movies there is an obvious warping effect on the right side of both black bars that curve to the middle. At times, there is this faint green tint on the left side of the screen. Also, there is this REALLY annoying horizontal scan line effect when watching just about anything. It just appears and becomes obvious at certain times of a movie or tv program.
...Lets see what else...well the Mute really isn't a Mute button, it just lowers the volume instead of turning it off. I still hear my cable box loud and clear when I switch the channels on it. The commercials on the thing are extremely loud. SmartSound or whatever that feature is called that lowers the volume during loud passages should be STANDARD on such expensive and large tv's but Toshiba doesn't have it.
It's been about 2 months now and I am going to fight till the end to either get the major problems fixed or get the unit returned to Toshiba. I am very unhappy. My 12 year old Mitsubishi 50inch projection tv puts this tv to shame!

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50 inch projection tv which is 3x better in picture quality and 12 years old now

Price, 2 antenna inputs, 3 video inputs, SVHS input, DVD Component video, 800 lines resolution

picture quality when compared to a WEGA! Hernia-causing Weight!

This is a GREAT TV - Just don't expect a $700 TV to do the things that a $1,600 TV does! It does have a nice picture though, especially when I use the SVHS input from my dish or a DVD. For those who complain about the quality of the picure, shell out the extra $$$ for a WEGA XBR and stop whining. I even remember someone complaining that the power LED was too bright - give me a break! After one year, no REAL problems here. I am happy.

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GE 27", Sony WEGA 36"