new Toshiba flat tubes (1 Viewer)

[ThomasL]

Has anyone bought or calibrated (With Avia/VE) the new 27AF41 or other new flat tube direct view from Toshiba? Interested in comments and experiences...
thanks,
--tom

 

[JohnnyG]

I did a 20AF41 a few weeks ago. I've got a 27AF41 coming in 'any day now'.
Grey scale was extrememly high out of the box, but was fine afterwards. The G.DRV parameter is actually R.DRV(!), but once that was figured out, all went smoothly.
Geometry was actually quite good for a little 20" set, as was convergence.
Any specific questions?
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[Mike Kao]

How is the picture quality compared to the Wegas?

 

[ThomasL]

Johnny, I already own a 20AF41 and have the service manual. Thanks for the tip with GDRV and RDRV switch though. I went in and fixed my geometry somewhat and took the blue tint out of the low end of the grayscale - at least the tint that was visible to my eye on the test patterns.
btw, do you know what SUBCONT and UNICOLOR do in the service menu?
Also, do you know if there is a way to turn of SVM or fix the red push via the service menu?
As for the 27AF41, I was interested in knowing if they behave like the 20AF41 and 24AF41. The remotes are different for starters so I'm curious if they'll behave the same, on the bad side - cool (blue) grayscale, and red push but on the good side - good black level retention and sharp contrast.
Mike, I bought the 20AF41 and didn't really compare it at all to the Sony 20 inch Wegas, mostly because the 20FV12 was $100 more than what I was getting the 20AF41 for. I would be interested as well in knowing how the 27AF41 and other new flat tubes from Toshiba compare to the Sony, Panasonic and JVC competing products.
cheers,
--tom

 

[PascalC]

I'm very interesting about de 27AF41 but I can't find any review....

 

[JohnnyG]

SUBCONT should be the sub-contrast control (the base value that's added to the user control). UNI COL, I have no idea what it does.
I don't see any parameter that screams SVM. Maybe the RGB CONT parameter has something to do with the color decoder, but I'm guessing (I don't have a set here to play with).
The 27AF41 may be different as I believe they are using a Toshiba-built tube where the smaller sets are not.
One of my customers very critically evaluated the 20AF41 against the competition from Panasonic and Sony. He said the Sony was the worst and the Panasonic the best, with the Toshiba just slightly behind it. He ended up chosing the Toshiba based on price (I think the fact that I offered to calibrate it for free might have helped too )
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[ThomasL]

Thanks Johnny for the reply,
Yes, for the $$, the Toshiba set seemed to offer the best value. I was able to pick mine up at Best Buy for $270. Tweeter had the high end 20 inch Sony - the 20FV12 I believe - and I think it was $100 more. They also had the Panasonic Tau 24 inch SX series but not the 20 inch. Circuit City had a 20 inch JVC D series set that I also looked at. I eliminated the Sony from my list simply based on the price level compared to all the rest. I eliminated the JVC because it was around the same price ($250) as the Toshiba but not a true flat screen. In addition, I could not find any information on it at JVC's web site. I liked the Panasonic but I couldn't find the 20 inch anywhere locally. We even toyed with the idea of getting the 24 inch (this is for a small space in a fireplaced living room) but in the end I couldn't justify $450-500 for an accessory tv in the non-tv room. I figured that extra $200 could be better spent toward a nice 32 inch flat screen for the family room sometime later on. So, I opted for the 20 inch Toshiba. It helped that I had a 10 percent off Best Buy coupon and I knew I could get a service manual for it.
I think looking at the models now, based on features, the Panasonic just edges out the Toshiba, either 20 or 24 inch. The advantages are that it has an Svideo on the front inputs and it has an adjustable color temperature setting. I would have liked the latter on the Toshiba.
cheers,
--tom

 

[ThomasL]

JohnnyG, I took another look at the 20AF41 service manual and I noticed that under the Subtint/subcolor step, they explain how to set the service menu TINT and the SUBCONT parameter. This seems strange. Could SUBCONT actually be SUBCOLOR or perhaps the manual messed up? I was thinking that UNICOLOR may be the underlying COLOR service parameter.
I read your post about adjusting settings for each individual input on a Panasonic RPTV and that got me thinking that the Toshiba 20AF41 has 3 different service modes (CS, AV, and TV) and that SUBCONT, UNICOLOR and TINT are all set differently depending on what mode you're in. It seems to me then that one could also calibrate these individually so that when the color and tint user menu controls are in the middle that each mode is optimized. Does this make sense? Is it as easy as simply positioning the user control in the middle, and then entering the service menu and adjusting the underlying service parameter using an Avia test pattern - for each different mode? I would give this a try if I knew for certain that UNICOLOR = color and SUBCONT = contrast.
Also, for anyone who has bought a 27AF41, I'd be interested in knowing if you can still enter the service mode via the Mute Front Panel Menu+Mute mechanism like on last year's Toshibas. I ask because it is different on the 20/24AF41. I'd also be interested in knowing if the service menu has 3 different modes like the 20/24AF41s do.
cheers,
--tom