Toshiba widescreen Tv? (1 Viewer)

[Jassen M. West]

What does everyone think of this TV? The size is about right, (i have a small room) I was wondering about quality of picture, build.
Thanks
jay

 

[John-Miles]

Its a great tv, but I would suggest you look at the 36" 4:3 toshiba it will give you almost as big as big a screen for watching widescreen material (about 5% less) and it will give you alot more screen area for non widescreen material (about 60% more) for me it would ahve only been worthwhile to pay more for a smaller screen if i was going to watch almost exclusively widescreen material.

but thats my 2 cents

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Interestingly,
I'm of the opposite opinion. I like a 16x9 screen not only for the added resolution of 16x9 material. Does that 36" Toshiba have 16x9 compression? You shouldn't buy ANY 4x3 set...even a 60" 4x3 set...if it doesn't have 16x9 compression. The added resolution and resulting picture quality even on a small 4x3 27" TV is significant and you'd be buying something that's a bad design to buy a new TV for your DVD movies and not be able to take advantage of full-resolution of your 16x9 encoded movies.
In any case...when I watch a widescreen movie like Lord of the Rings...I don't want it to look smaller than than Survivor and I don't want to look at 50% of my screen realestate being blacked out. No...I'm not a Walmart shopper I'm a 16x9 display enthusiast. I like my 16x9 screen because movies are BIGGER and WIDER than plain-ole 4x3 TV. It helps make them look more impressive to other guests too. I never had a guest go 'oohhh, ahhhh' when a letterboxed movie came on my 4x3 set after watching the Simpsons (which dwarfed it). But I *do* get those reactions when the simpsions are over and suddenly a movie comes on that's more panaramic and dramatic on my 16x9 display (a 34" direct-view) like the curtains opening up at the theater for the feature film.
Isn't that the effect we're after?
Besides, the difference in sizes here to me makes the 34" a no-brainer. With a 34" 16x9 you're basically getting a widescreen movie that's as big as if you had a 4x3 40" TV!! You're 4x3 window-boxed programs are the size of a 27" 4x3 set which isn't shabby either. I've seen letterboxed movies on my friend's 4x3 36" and I can assure you that they look significantly larger and more involving on my 34" 16x9 monitor.
Get the 16x9. Get the 16x9.
-dave
p.s. You can tell I prefer to optimize my display for films. If I played videogames or watched DSS sports more than I watched widescreen movies my priorities might be different and a 4x3 screen might make sense.

 

[Jassen M. West]

Thats what i was thinking,, i have a nice 27"WEGA right now and i want the widescreen for movies. Even if i use it for 4x3 material it won't be any smaller than i'm used to seeing on my 27". I would like to thank John for his input but i didn't think that this would turn into a 4x3 VS 16x9.
Anyone that does know about the Toshiba please let me know, i have heard that their 16x9 RPTV's are nice but i do want to stick to a tube. the bright spot on the RPTV would bug me. Unless i can be convinced that the spot isn't as bad anymore.

thanks again

jay

 

[Chris Kane]

David,

Are you sure that a 34" widescreen has the same picture size of a 40" displaying letterbox? I personally don't mind the black bars. It's the picture quality and size that matters to me. It just so happens that I measured the actual picture on a Sony KV-34XBR800 today. It was displaying a DVD sourced 2.35:1 picture that measured 13 and 3/4" High and 29 and 1/2" Long. If a 40" could measure larger with the 16:9 compression I wouldn't have any concerns other than exterior dimensions. Don't get me wrong. I love the look of widescreen displays.

Chris

 

[Chris Kane]

Jassen,

Home Theater magazine (January) has a review of four 34” direct view sets. One is the Sony that I mentioned above and the Toshiba was the 34HDX82 (I don’t know if the X was a misprint or not). The Toshiba seemed to fair well.

Also – I totally agree with you on the “bright spot” issue. It’s my biggest gripe with RPTV. However, I just saw Sony’s KP-65WV700 RPTV with a technology that I felt made a big difference! I’ve included a quote from their web site below.


…These features include Uniform Brightness Screen™ technology, which greatly reduces “hot banding" or uneven strips of brightness to significantly widen the vertical viewing angle from 34 degrees to an impressive 60 degrees, placing this TV ahead of the rest.

-Sony

 

[Jan Strnad]

I agree with David, but also, movies (most of them widescreen) are what I want a big TV for. I'm happy watching Friends on my 20" bedroom TV, but movies need to be big!
Not that my screen is all that big: I have a Tosh 42H81 (42" widescreen). But that effect of seeing widescreen movies bigger than most broadcast TV counts a lot for me. It just seemed "wrong" to have my picture shrink when I went from the news to a modern movie with my 35" 4:3 set.
I don't notice a hot spot, BTW. The picture definitely rolls off as you get away from the sweet spot, especially vertically, but I don't have any complaints about the picture from a normal viewing angle, i.e. straight on or somewhat off to the side. The viewing angle is something to consider, though, if you think about a RPTV.
Jan

 

[John-Miles]

Chris a 40" would be a fair bit larger than a 34" as i said before a 36" is only 5% smaller in widescreen than a 34"

personally I am a mechanical engineer, and well numbers are a big part of my life, so i can deal with the astetics of a 4:3 box when im getting virtually the same screen size.

As for the black bars being distracting, well ive never had a problem with that because when i watcha movie its dark enough in my room that all i see is the lit up picture part.

yes the toshiba does do the squeeze, and personally if it didn't id say go widescreen all the way.

and like i have said before if i could ahve bought a 34" at the price of a 32" then i would ahve gone widescreen all the way, but i am not going to pay more for a smaller screen, astetics dont mean that much to me.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

John,

I see where you're coming from.

Hey...has anybody checked out the 30" 16x9 direct-view HD by Samsung? Best Buy has one on display and it's got a beautiful picture and is priced at about $950!!!

-dave

 

[John-Miles]

Hmmmm 950 for a 30" that sounds like a reasonable price for a widescreen.
I still prefer the Toshibas