( 5 reviews )
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( 4 of 4 found this review helpful ) Posted: 04-08-2005
Luckily I bought this unit from Sears as a 'floor' model. Reason I'm lucky is that Sears 'burned in' the unit for me for several months, and when I bought it they gave me a good price and the 1 yr warranty as a new unit would get. It broke within 10 months after purchase and Sears is going to replace it with a comparable unit. Anyway, here's what I saw up until it broke and how it broke: 1) Picture: FANTASTIC! Just like the other reviews, the picture of the 42HP83 is unsurpassed! Vivid, accurate colors, Outstanding contrast, and very important as the room this unit is in has 8 windows, very bright. When running DVI from my DISH HD receiver the picture is unbelievable, and the component input isn't bad either (it takes a great deal of scrutiny to see the difference, but it's there) 2) Sound: Sorry I can't get into this much as I disabled the amp/speakers that are built into the unit in lieu of my HK surround system. 3) Controls: Once you get the hang of 'em, menus are good but you'll have to practice how to use the buttons 4) Inputs: More than you'll probably need, but then again, I was using my AV receiver to handle much of the switching, except for the DVI input. 5) Maintenance (general): We live in a very dusty area so the back picks up a bunch of 'dust bunnies' that you need to clean off periodically Now to the demise of the unit: About 9 months into my ownership of the 42HP83, the screen came up normally in the morning, only to start pixelating after a few minutes. Almost like the pixles were overwriting each other, causing ultimately a black screen with a string of pixels across the center. Originally it stayed like this for about 5 minutes and then the picture reappeared with some pixelation, and ultimately stabilized a few minutes later. Within almost a month, that wait time was up to 25 minutes. Sears service came out 4 times and was unable to fix the problem. NOTE: as people have pointed out here, service folks in general are NOT knowledgable when it comes to these units and after replacing three circuit boards with no effect, apparently they've given up and are going to replace the unit with a comparable one. One interesting piece of info: Had I purchased this unit NEW it would have failed about 6 months after warranty expired!!!
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( 4 of 4 found this review helpful ) Posted: 01-16-2005
Before my purchase I spent a lot of time looking at various option with TVs. I work for a major home electronics dealer and I had some special access to testing information and narrowed it down to this model a Sony variations and a Samsung model. This TV won, hands down. The picture is beautiful, especially in DVD or HD, likewise the sound quality is excellent, slight distortion, but with proper calibration it's easily solved. Several reviews have mentioned the sound being "off" and "not syncing correctly" I experienced this slightly in the short film "Star" by BWM Films, otherwise I have had no problems the picture and sound match perfectly. The level of detail and sharpness are by far the best I experienced in Plasma. The color quality and brightness levels are amazing, even if turned down below 25%. The blacks are very black and the whites are brilliant white. The sharpness is equal if not better then many XBR models. I am very pleased and will continue purchasing Toshiba's for years. Make sure you properly calibrate the model (either professionally or with an Avia disc...) and make sure you let the TV warm up to room temperature before you turn it on. Likewise read you manual, a lot of mistake and abuse can come about with improper knowledge of how to run a machine like this. This Toshiba is like a European sports car, you treat it right and it'll treat you right.
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( 5 of 6 found this review helpful ) Posted: 11-24-2004
I have bought this TV in June. It has not worked for 15 days properly. Picture comes up for 30 min and it goes off and the screen is just with white lines all over, and the TV gets so hot we shut down for few min (when it works). It works once a day. Picture quality is not good. Repair guys took 2 months to figure out what the problem is. After 4-8 new parts in it, it worked for 20 days again back to the same problem. Customer Service of Toshiba "New Technology and New Problems". No HELP AT ALL FROM THEM. Do not take my word. I am putting the Phone Number of the Repair center: 770-451-5057 and my case #: 281270. PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS TV.
