One of the Best 2009 LCD HDTVs for the $$$, Better than a Samsung LN40B650, May 5, 2009

By 

Justin Haynes (Jacksonville, FL) – See all my reviews

  

My Toshiba 42ZV650U Review:

*Picture quality is excellent! No ‘ghosting’, ‘flash lighting’, or ‘clouding’. My panel has no dead or stuck pixels. Color reproduction is excellent with vibrant (but realistic and not over-saturated) colors. Black levels are very good, blacks are not a light gray with this screen, the black is actually pretty close to actual black (there is some very minimal light bleed of course- it is a LCD). This is especially true with the lights on. Bioshock looks awesome! The 240hz effect really looks great too with basically no ‘jitter’. Pans and zooms are smoothed with no added blurring. Resolution+ (aka SRT) also makes a huge difference for non-HD sources. My Gamecube looks much better on this TV then the older Sony 42″ LCD it was connected to, much less artifacts and jagged edges that are smoothed down better. DVDs also look great, even older films. Watching Trinity and Beyond: the Atomic Bomb Movie (I highly recommend this wonderful documentary BTW) with it’s digitally restored archival film footage of atomic bomb tests are absolutely spectacular looking.

*Sound quality is surprisingly good (considering you can’t even see the speakers), and I enjoy using the Dolby Volume feature to quiet the transition from quiet show/ TV movie to a loud commercial (HELLO BILLY MAYS HERE!!!). The volume no longer decides to double itself when commercials are on! The speakers put out a fair amount of bass considering their size- they don’t sound ‘small’ or ‘from the bottom of a barrel’.

*The remote control is nice. I can control my Xbox 360 DVD player and Comcast cable box (Motorola) in addition to the TV after programming the remote. It is also not cheap feeling with solid buttons (I wish the buttons would light up though) and a sturdy build. The IR pass-through feature on the TV looks useful for people who keep DVD players and the like out of sight behind a cabinet, but I don’t use it as my AV components are all visible.

*Media player looks functional but limited. I can see myself looking at digital photos on the TV from a SD card / USB Flash, but the functionality is too basic. Video playback looks interesting but I encode my videos in h.264 (for iPod/iPhone) – and that is not supported (as far as I can tell). Maybe Toshiba will offer software updates or the ability to add additional programs in the future? I will just use my Xbox 360 for these features, and in time I will build my own Mac media center computer.

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I chose this LCD panel over the Samsung LN40B650 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color panel (my next choice after the 42ZV650U) because it’s overall picture quality (color, contract, brightness, black levels) is better, 240hz smoothing effect is great, Resolution+ up-conversion majorly helps with DVDs and other SD content, excellent audio quality/features (no more loud commercial transitions), and the design is more attractive (I don’t like the Touch of Color Red personally). Oh yeah, and the 42ZV650U is about 0 less on Amazon compared to the LN40B650 (or 0+ less, excluding tax, than a local retailer as of early May 2009)! The Toshiba 42ZV650U is a real winner in my book!

I purchased this HDTV from Amazon May 1st, picked up at Pilot Air Freight on May 4th. It would have been delivered on the 6th within a 4 hour time frame but it was more convenient for me to pick it up myself. My biggest concern was shipping, as it is electronic and large – thus fragile. Shipping was super quick, free, and the TV appeared to be handled well in transit as the box was not beat-up. I am very happy with my Amazon purchase!

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Regza is good-za, June 15, 2009

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D. Chappell (VA, USA) – See all my reviews

  

I bought this TV online after going to Best Buy and taking a look at it. I didn’t want to buy a TV without seeing it in person first…and not having to pay sales tax was a big plus as far as getting it online It was ordered 6/5/2009, and it was delivered in perfect shape on 6/12/2009 (way to go Amazon!).

I was blown away when I went to see it at Best Buy, and I’m still blown away by the fact that there’s one downstairs in my living room. The contrast is amazing: I just finished watching The Empire Strikes Back, and I was shocked to see Vader’s mask and cape actually being totally black!

I also bought a Blu-ray player the day this TV arrived, and I got The Dark Knight (one of the new Batman films) to see how it’d look. In short: it was amazing. The color was crisp and the response time being 8 ms made no discernible difference to me. I was thinking that might be a downer in scenes with a lot of quick motion (Dark Knight was a good tester for that), but it was not a problem. It was just as clear on the fast-motion fight scenes and the flyover city-view panning as it was on the slower scenes with just dialog. I was impressed. 120Hz is just beautiful (silky smooth)! I believe the TV also emulates 240Hz, but I didn’t really notice that if it was enabled; I figure that not a whole lot of stuff out right now makes proper use of 120Hz, let alone 240Hz.

One reviewer knocked the aesthetics of the TV, and I have to respectfully disagree with his assessment. The pedestal stand with which it comes is perfectly sized, and the charcoal-gray bezel looks good. The lit “Toshiba” at the bottom-center of the bezel is a nice touch, and it can be disabled in the settings if it becomes bothersome. I like it as a good power-on indicator.

The menu system is well-thought-out. Amazingly, it actually made sense when I was casually playing around with it. I was able to customize the picture settings to my liking without getting into the manual…and when I did get into the manual (just to see what it was like), I was surprised to find that it was actually well-written and easy to understand. I was expecting something that had been machine-translated from Japanese, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case…or else the folks at Toshiba have made a darn good machine translator.

All in all, I think this was a very good buy. You get more screen size and better features for less $$ than other brands, so it’s a no-brainer. I know I initially had qualms with not getting a well-known brand like Sony or Samsung, but I can say without reservation that such concern has no basis in reality.

For those who want a quick up-or-down on this TV: two thumbs waaaay up!

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Great Value, May 19, 2009

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J. Boyd “mattman502″ (Atlanta, Georgia) – See all my reviews

  

I was a little hesitant about buying toshiba since I was always a samsung fan and the toshiba tv’s never seemed to match up in picture quality. I am happy to say that this tv turned that thought process around for me. Thus far I have had no issues with the TV and the picture looks amazing. When comparing with other models this one outclassed the samsung b650 to me but the b750 did seem slightly better. Though when considering the b750 was 0 more than what I payed for this set and 2″ smaller I can easily say this was the best bang for my buck tv by far.

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