Toshiba 57HDX82 vs. Sony KP57WV700? (1 Viewer)

[David Glenn]

Narrowed it down to these two. Owners of these RPTVs, please provide any feedback to help me make a decision.

Thanks in advance for your response.

 

[David Glenn]

No owners of either (Toshiba 57HDX82 or Sony KP57WV600/700)? Anybody?

I plan on going to Circuit City today.

 

[Tony Bailey]

Hey David,
I'm almost looking at the same versions as you. I've narrowed mine down to the Sony KP51WS500 and the Toshiba 50HDX82.
I saw the KP51WS500 and the KP57WV700 today and neither looked as good as the Toshiba 50HDX82, however, I think that the Toshiba must offer the retailer a higher profit margin as all the salesman were pushing the Toshiba sets and down playing the Sony's.... So it's quite possible that the Toshiba's were calibrated properly and the Sony's were not. They were all playing Monsters Inc. and generally they make any set look good even an RCA..
Looking forward to other opinions, as David is, on both brands

 

[David Glenn]

Thanks for the reply Tony. I've also started a similar thread at hometheaterspot. I'll be sure post my conclusions and final decision when I finally stop agonizing and start enjoying.

 

[Brian Turner]

Hey Guys,

I was looking at the Toshiba 57HDX82 and the Sony KP57WV700.
The HDTV on the Sony was great, but when fed with Bell ExpressVu the pic was not great.
The Toshiba was also great with HDTV and pretty good with Bell ExpressVu.
I saw both units in Future Shop, Gloucester ended up making a killer deal on a Toshiba 65HDX82 a lot less than the price of the Sony.

It was delivered on Thursday. All looks very good.

BrianT, Ottawa.

 

[David Glenn]

Thanks for the feedback Brian. I'm having a hard time finding a B&M near me to demo the higher end Toshibas. Best Buy only carries the H82 and Circuit City doesn't sell Toshiba. Anybody know of any B&Ms in NJ that demo the 57HDX82?

I went to Circuit City today and played with the Sony KP57WV600 ($2999 + $39 delivery & installation, 4 yr. warranty was about $450 - sony warranties are expensive, 30-Day Return, 1 yr Intrest free financing).

The sales person was fairly knowledgable and spent a lot of time with me. This was probably due to CC employees working off commission where as Best Buy employees do not, which really shows in service & product knowledge.

The set looks great watching their HD loop and was what one would expect when viewing regular cable. As most of my viewing will be DVD, I'm really not that concerned. One thing I noticed, it seemed like the blue stood out more than the other colors. It was probably just the settings on their floor model.

The only other gripe I have about the Sony is not having the option to make the side bars the color black in 4:3 mode. It seems it can only show grey bars. As I mentioned before, since most of my viewing will be DVD, it's not a deal ender for me. I would however find this distracting watching OTA programming.

 

[Matt Daeo]

After looking at numerous tv's for months, I have decided on the Toshiba 57HDX82. Had the best overall picture and for the price cannot be beat...

 

[David Glenn]

Well, I loved the picture on the KP57WV600 but I found a great deal on the WV700. I figured the WV700 would be an improvement so I went ahead and purchased the Sony KP57WV700.

I found an authorized dealer to give me the best price anywhere and had them reduce it by $100. There was no tax and shipping was $65 for in-house delivery. Total price came to $2,865 shipped in-house.
(Is it against the forum rules to list prices or place of purchase?)
There is also a rebate from Sony for a free low-end Sony Digital Camera (model #DSC-P31 valued at $220). this rebate ends today and must be submitted by 10/31/02.

They offered a 2yr. extended warranty for $239 or 4 yr. for $299. I have 2 weeks to decide if I want the warranty.
I look at it this way, I'm basically getting the KP57WV700 plus a cheap but free digital camera that utilizes the memory stick for $375 more than I could have gotten the 57HDX82. Although, I didn't get an oppourtunity to see the HDX82, I based my decision on the comparison of the WV600 against the H82. I've been very lucky with Sony products in the past so I feel some what confident. That coupled with some of the current concerns that I've read about the 82's, I feel I made a good decision.
I'm just glad that the research is over and I will soon be able to enjoy my anamorphic dvds as well as showing digital shots of my 3 yr. old daughter on my new set via the memory stick slot.

 

[Brian Turner]

David,

Glad to see you took the plunge, you should be very happy with your choice, and you got it for a good price.

The best deal I could find here in Canada was $6000.00 cnd + taxes for a total of $6900.00.

That's one of the reasons I purchase the Toshiba 65HDX82, with taxes and 6 year warranty I ended paying $6050.00 cnd.
I could not justify the cost difference for the Sony, but at what you paid i would have looked at at again.

BrainT. Ottawa.

 

[David Glenn]

Brian,

Thanks for the vote of confidence in my purchase/decision. It was indeed an agonizing one. Good luck with your Toshiba and enjoy.

 

[elMalloc]

I dunno if it's legal or not, but I doubt it's illegal to guess.
My stab is you got it from onecall.com.
That authorized dealer rules all in price and service...
-ELmO:star:

 

[David Glenn]

Actually, I did not get it from onecall, My authorized dealer beat onecall's best price. I negotiated the deal in a physical store located in downtown, NYC.

 

[elMalloc]

Hot dang nice job.

 

[David Glenn]

Thanks. I had fun negotiating. The sales person had to go to his manager to approve the price. I wonder if I could have gotten the price down even more.

 

[elMalloc]

I'm afraid to negotiate too much...what if they deliver me a floor model set? How would I ever know..

-ELmO

 

[David Glenn]

I don't think they would take one off the floor, it's probably still too early to sell the new for 2002 floor models, unless they don't plan to restock.
In my case, they were only displaying the 57WV600. They didn't have a 57WV700 floor model.

 

[Levesque]

I had both in-house for 3 hours (the 65" version Sony KP65WV700 and Tosh 65HDX82). So I've compared them, after doing an Avia calibration, playing some DVD's and Sat SD and HD broadcast. Wich one did I chose??

I'm now the really proud owner of a Tosh 65HDX82. No hiss at all from the speakers, no ghosting, almost 200 hours done. BTW, here in Canada, the Sony was 5500$ (lowest price I was able to found) and the Tosh...4200$. That's a big difference. And from what I've seen IN MY HOUSE, this big premium was not justifiable.

And the Tosh was better on standard SD brodcast. HD was the same on both sets (I think it's normal...). DVD's were almost the same, but the color accuracy of the Tosh is superior. BTW, it's MY humble opinion, so maybe others will think differently. But for this kind of money, the Tosh was THE best choice FOR ME.

Try to do an in-house comparison before buying.

 

[elMalloc]

Can't find anyone who will give me an inhouse comparison...it's buy it and return it. I don't know why they won't let me try them out? They don't like giving us new ones? Or do they give you floor models to "test" for a few days?
-ELmO:star:

 

[David Glenn]

Lévesque,

Wow, you have a great dealer to let you have both sets to test in house. Very nice indeed. Had I had that oppourtunity, perhaps I'd be getting the Toshiba instead. But, as I mentioned before, I requested an offer $$$ that my authorized dealer didn't refuse.

Just out of curisity, how much better did you feel the Tosh was at standard broadcasts? If you would give the tosh a 10 out of 10, what would you rank the Sony WV700?

Same question for color?

What, if anything, about the sony did you prefer over the toshiba?

 

[dick_harris]

I bought the KP65WV600 for $3499 at Circuit City and they threw in a Sony Progressive Scan DVD player and no interest financing for 1 year. So far I am very happy. I calibrated it with a Video Essentials dvd but it didn't need much adjustment. It has so many features and options I am still trying to learn them all. It is very impressive on DVDs but less so on standard broadcast, which doesn't surprise me.

I like the grey bars, rather than black. The salesman explained that grey will not "burn in" as black will, over time.

One thing that bothers me, however, is that is doesn't have "audio in" inputs. I used my old big screen for the center channel on my surround sound system. Now I have to use a separate speaker. Anyone have any suggestions for how to set up the new Sony to be the center channel?

Thanks.