Experience Using Toshiba TV In Home Theater System, November 17, 2010

I ordered this TV from Amazon about three weeks ago, and received it one week later. Although I was concerned about safe shipment of such a large object, it arrived in excellent condition. The packaging, with foam plastic inserts to support the TV at all four corners, was quite impressive.

Set-up was very simple. I only had to look up a few points in the manual. The manual is even written in legible English!

The picture quality on this TV is excellent. I watched a football game on broadcast TV, and that was a completely different experience from watching the same games on my old CRT TV.

I bought this TV for use in my “Home Theater” system that I am still putting together. Playing movies from my HTPC or watching Blu-ray movies really demonstrates the excellent picture quality of this TV. Just as an aside, the remote is easy and fairly intuitive to use. That’s not a big point, but a poor remote can frustrate the user of an otherwise excellent TV. This remote works well enough that it doesn’t add any irritation to the total experience.

It was when I hooked up the TV to my existing stereo receiver/amplifier that I discovered one point about the TV that is less than perfect. I had not noticed any deficiency in the sound while watching broadcast TV or even watching DVD movies on the TV. But once the stereo receiver/amplifier was hooked up and I could hear the sound over that set with top quality Altec-Lansing speakers, the sound quality was much better. In short, if you want the best home theater experience with this TV, it will need to be supplemented with a good amplifier and speakers. But I expected that going in. I’m not downgrading the TV set just because its audio performance, with its small speakers, isn’t quite up to what I get out of my 100 W amplifier and 15″ speakers. Heck, each of those speakers cost almost as much as this TV!

This TV set is great for what it does – providing an excellent picture. The fact that it isn’t also a professional sound system is irrelevant to its function. Besides, if we have a home theater system, we will have the tuner/amplifier and speakers already for other purposes.

Hooking up the audio output from the TV to a separate amplifier may be a trap for the unprepared. The TV sound out is via TosLink, which is an optical digital signal. I knew that from the Amazon description and pictures of the input/output connections for the TV. I had already ordered a TosLink optical cable and an optical/digital to analog sound converter and two RCA cables to connect to my amplifier. The total cost of those items was about . Not a big deal, but just an advance notice to any purchaser of this excellent TV that you really do need the cables and D/A converter, because the sound from your existing home theater or stereo amplifier and speakers will be needed for the complete enjoyment of this TV. If you have a more modern amplifier with optical digital input, only the TosLink cable will be necessary.

All things considered, I don’t have any complaints, and I would buy this same TV again. In fact, I’m thinking about buying another one for my bedroom!

Five Stars! No doubt about it!

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Toshiba 40″ 1080P TV, October 6, 2010

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C. Yanonis “stoney12″ (Lakewood, CA) – See all my reviews

  

I have nothing but good things to say about this TV, great purchase and I am loving it. I bought it for my bedromm and was limited by the size of my cabinet, it fits perfectly and the picture is wonderful. It was extremely easy to set up, just plug it in to my cable and the wall socket and we were off and running. Living in a single household, I need things that are easy to install and this fit the bill.

Thank you I only reget I did not buy it sooner.

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Excellent, Excellent Choice fellow consumers!, October 4, 2010

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Peter M. Akmans (Brooksville, FL USA) – See all my reviews

  

I have ordered and received MANY similar sets in recent months. This Toshiba puts all others, including many 42″ sets to SHAME.

Picture quality is fabulous. Sound quality is fantastic. Best of all are the many HDMI possibilities, composite and AV connections. PC compatible is another plus. Believe it or not, my all time favorite is the remote, which has the buttons in a white color to off set the black back ground. This makes it extremely easy to see exactly what you are doing, especially in darkened room with just your Toshiba on. However I will say that Toshiba should update the remote just a tiny bit. At least I think a button labeled TV/VCR is outdated. Prices do vary so do you home work. My set was originally USD662.00 and just 1 week later USD557.00. Amazon as always came through and refunded my account the difference. BIG PLUS NO INTEREST FOR 24 MONTHS!

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