50h81 has arrived at dealer... (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Roebuck]

I just had a quick look at the Toshiba 50H81 at the downtown A%B Sound.
The first impression is that it looks far sharper on 1080i than the 56H80, 40H80, that were side by side with the 50H81. I thought that the cabinet was very nice looking.
The lighting was not optimal as there was some reflection on the sceen from some store lighting. Because of this I did not ask to see a dvd etc as I want to check it out under better conditions. I did notice some of the usual problems with the geometry that would need to be corrected.
It is out anyway I am sure others will come out with more detailed info than this, but I'm just letting you know it is out. The asking price is $3395.00 CND, of course you can deal from there.

 

[Kevin Roebuck]

Sorry, $3999. is the asking price, (NIGHT SHIFT......DAYTIME CONFUSION....)

 

[Scott L]

Thanks much for the info Kevin! Hmmm, that's about $2600 usd. Kinda on the pricey side, but from what you say it sounds like there are several noticeable improvements. I'm still decideing whether to get this or the Panny 47". Hope it's worth the extra $600.
Thanks again!
Scott

 

[TimothyB]

My son and I just came from Best Buy and Sears. We went into BB first where they had just put on display a 50H81. It was placed right in the middle of all of the other 40" to 62" models all tuned to the same channel. All I could say was, "AWESOME, TOTALLY AWESOME". It totally blew everything else in the store away!! I mean, we were instantly sold. We tried to find flaws, and kept comparing the picture to every other set, but in the end, the 50H81 is miles ahead of everything that we saw. They were asking $2349 or something like that. I did'nt much care what they were asking. I have no intention of ever buying anything from them anyway.
We went down to Sears where they did not have one on display yet, but said that they were expecting them soon. They said that they would match any price locally.
Hope this helps.

 

[Scott L]

For anyone in the DC Metro area, Belmont TV has it for $2,277. The shipping and setup cost is $80. Plus the guy told me the new models have a feature where they do self-convergence. Sounds interesting but since I've never owned an HDTV yet I'm not sure how important this is.
http://www.belmonttv.com/html/projection_tv.htm

 

[Phil Iturralde]

For those interested, I created a webpage with 10 digital images from my Toshiba 50H81 HDTV (received yesterday from Continental Trading e-tailer' - ordered July 23rd), including 1 image from a random TV commercial via an outside TV antenna.
http://www.geocities.com/mv_us_2000/Toshiba_50H81_HDTV.html

 

[David Head]

Those pictures look great Phil! You don't have a progressive scan player? If not, that's even more impressive. Even the picture of the commercial was very watchable. What camera did you use?
David

 

[Phil Iturralde]

Thanks David Head!

What camera did you use?

An Olympus C-3000Z, on a tripod and with the Flash bypassed.
Tomorrow Friday NITE DVD is "Rush Hour (#1)" for a family that have not seen it yet! . . . really!
Phil
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http://www.geocities.com/p_iturra

 

[David Head]

That's interesting Phil. I'm looking to purchase my first 16:9 RPTV in the next couple of months (as soon as I move) and I'm pretty sure it will be this one. I've got the same DVD player and plan to eventually get the RP91, but would have to "live with" the RV-31K initially.
I'm assuming you tweeked the TV a little (9 pt?) before taking the pictures. What was your impression of it out of the box? How long did you run the set before using Avia/VE (again, assuming that you did)? Thanks for the input.
David

 

[Phil Iturralde]

quote: tweeked the TV a little (9 pt?) before taking the pictures. [/quote]
After I powered it on, I waited a few minutes watching whatever was on channel 7 (I was still arranging my audio equipment / cables) and then press the Auto convergence button "Touch Focus" - cool! I lowered all the settings and after I connected everything, I moved the TV to it's final resting place.
Then I did the 9 pt. conversion, and later that evening, finally had time to Calibrate the Video w/Video Essentials (I have AVIA but use VE for speed).
quote: How long did you run the set before using Avia/VE (again, assuming that you did)? [/quote]
It was on about 5 - 6 hours (took a PTO day from work to play

)
The next morning, I took the digital pic's that's posted on my webpage.
quote: What was your impression of it out of the box?[/quote]
Very Bright & Clear!! All the colors were great. Interestingly, after calibration, . . . it's Glorious!!!
Factory Setting / VE Calibration
(I selected "Movie" mode before I started the Calibration process)
Contrast:... 100 / 26
Brightness:. 50 / 57
Color:...... 50 / 45
Tint:....... 0 / -16
Sharpness:.. 50 / 45
Mode:....... Sports / Preference
Flesh tone:. Off / =
DNR:........ Auto / =
Cinema Mode: Video / Film
Color temp:. Cool / Warm
After a few days, I re-check everything again and maybe when my wife is away (real estate agent), I'll run AVIA.
Phil
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http://www.geocities.com/p_iturra
[Edited last by Phil Iturralde on August 04, 2001 at 10:09 PM]

 

[Lawrence Samoyloff]

You listed "DNR" twice in the above post: is it on or off?
Apparently disabling DNR defeats the 2:3 pull-down circuit, so you'd wanna leave it on. Notice any difference turning it off??

 

[Phil Iturralde]

Opps - "DNR" should be once and set on "AUTO"! I'll edit the post above.

Notice any difference turning it off??

I have not experimented with it, so I can't answer your question, but I read that it should be on, so I just verified that it was on Auto when I got my 50H81.
Phil
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http://www.geocities.com/p_iturra
[Edited last by Phil Iturralde on August 04, 2001 at 10:12 PM]

 

[Andrew Grall]

quote: Factory Setting / VE Calibration
(I selected "Movie" mode before I started the Calibration process)
Contrast:... 100 / 26
Brightness:. 50 / 57
Color:...... 50 / 45
Tint:....... 0 / -16
Sharpness:.. 50 / 45
Mode:....... Sports / Preference
Flesh tone:. Off / =
DNR:........ Auto / =
Cinema Mode: Video / Film
Color temp:. Cool / Warm[/quote]
My settings are a little different...
Factory Setting / VE Calibration
(I selected "Movie" mode after I did the Calibration process because I read about this afterward. I then reset the settings to the same VE settings I did before switching to Movie.)
Contrast:... 100 / 35
Brightness:. 50 / 50
Color:...... 50 / 50
Tint:....... 0 / -14
Sharpness:.. 50 / 10
Mode:....... Sports / Preference
Flesh tone:. Off / Off
DNR:........ Auto / Auto
Cinema Mode: Video / Film
Color temp:. Cool / ? (Why would you change this?)
That was all set to the best of my visual abilities with Video Essentials... Maybe our sets are just a little different... or maybe we just see things a little diffently...
P.S. I have not done an outo-focus yet, but I have toyed with the manual 9-pt convergence...
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[Edited last by Andrew Grall on August 05, 2001 at 08:30 AM]

 

[Phil Iturralde]

toyed with the manual 9-pt convergence...

The 9-pt convergence is the most accurate alignment tool, and you should do it for each mode.
Phil
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http://www.geocities.com/p_iturra

 

[Stefan A]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is this 9 pt. convergance I am reading about?
Stefan Antwarg

 

[Phil Iturralde]

Stefan, the 9-pt convergence option allows you to manually align the Red or Blue CRT Colors together. You have 9 target cross areas on the 16:9 screen, one in the Center (larger cross) and 8 other smaller crosses. The idea is to end up with a white cross, any misconvergence horizontally or vertically would be indicated by a visable Blue/Red cross. Once aligned, all you see is a white cross.
Here's the link (a PDF file for download) to the Link Removed

 

[Matthew_S]

Phil,
I am totally new to 16:9 tv's so excuse my lack of knowledge...my question is-how is the tv broadcast in your pic's widescreen? Is this accomplished through a setting on the tv? I was under the impression that with a 16:9 monitor, tv broadcasts:
a. look like crap
b. are "windowboxed" or whatever.
I also noticed that the toy story pic's seemed to fill the entire screen even though they are not 1:85- your other 2:35 pics do have some letterboxing as i thought...I'm in the market for the same 50h81 but have a lot to learn first (obviously). Would appreciate any answers to the above questions....thanks!
[Edited last by Matthew_S on August 07, 2001 at 10:53 AM]

 

[Phil Iturralde]

tv broadcast in your pic's widescreen?

I'm using Toshiba's Theater Wide #1 (out of three) for my 3 TV random digital images via outdoor TV antenna (about 35 miles south, away from San Francisco), you'll notice that the Channel 7 logo is oblong so it has some streching @ the ends, though the center is near aspect ratio. We all like this mode, and this will help minimize the possiblity of the dreaded side bar RPTV screen burn-in.
See http://www.keohi.com/keohihdtv/usefulinfo/toshiba/theaterwidemodes_usefulinfo.html

 

[Matthew_S]

ok. This is starting to make sense. So how does a 1:85 movie look on the 50h81? Are there any black letterbox bars? As for the tv images, i did not realize that they were digital. Have you looked at a regular cable broadcast on it yet? How does that look (if it works at all)? Thanks for answering-hope you don't mind.

 

[Andrew Grall]

No bars on 1.85:1 movies...
I have found that regular cable TV varies... Some programs look great, and some look awfully grainy... But it is usually good enough that I don't mind. I usually watch regular TV using either Wide #1 or #2.
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