Good Value TV/VCR for the $$$
Written: Sep 18 '01 (Updated Nov 18 '01)
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Pros: Convenience, picture clarity, auto-clock set, line-in jacks
Cons: Sound, small buttons.
The Bottom Line: There may be better TV/VCR combos, but for what I paid the Toshiba MV13L3 is an excellent value.
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| PennyStretcher's Full Review: Toshiba MV13L3 13 inch TV/VCR Combo TV |
We were looking for one of these a few years ago for the kitchen, but were turned off by the high price. It was cheaper then to get a separate cheap TV and VCR. Well, generally you get what you pay for, and the cheap TV was ready to bite the dust (a Funai-built Citizen 13"). Besides, with separates there are more dangling cords to clutter things up not to mention wasted shelf space.
For a replacement we decided to stick to name brands. Panasonic, JVC, even Samsung were going for $CDN 300-$400 (200 to 300 in $US). Ouch! I found the Toshiba MV13L3 at XS-Cargo (sort of like Big Lots in the U.S.). The price was $199 Cdn ($130 US). Now that's more like it. The catch was it was a "refurbushed" product with no authorized warranty from Toshiba. The store offered a 30 day straight exchange in case of a problem.
For $100 in savings I took a chance. And I must say the set works quite well.
The setup was easy but a little quirky. Channel setup was easy enough, although it had to be set for "air" since the default was "cable" (we use "air" plus a satellite RF feed thru an outboard A/B switch). The "auto-clock set" failed to work initially. Reading the manual helped. Unplugging/replugging it and leaving it "off" for 5 minutes allowed the clock to set. However, it doesn't matter now since WNED's (Buffalo PBS station) time-set feature no longer seems to work. Neither did the "auto standard time" feature on the MV13L3 on October 28th 2001, which entailed a manual set. The TV's channel memory remains intact while it is unplugged, which is nice.
We are happy with the picture quality of both TV and VCR, but some tweaking of "tint" and "color" was necessary before I liked it, and it seems to vary a bit from channel to channel. The default factory setting for "color level" was turned up so that the reds were nearly bleeding. The picture clarity, contrast, brightness are all very good. Tuner sensitivity is a lot better than on the Funai TV. It picks up all the Buffalo UHF channels very clearly (70 miles away, as the crow flies).
The VCR picture is acceptable. It's a 2-head mono, records in SP or SLP, and mated with the 13" TV does the job well. The unified remote has a "skip" search button which lets you zap up to 3 minutes of commercials in 30-second increments. Rewind time is about 2 minutes for a T120.
The VCR timer feature is versatile, (8 events up to 1 month in advance, with daily, Mon-Fri, weekly, weekend, etc) but is a bit clunky to set. Why they insist on using up/down buttons rather than keying in numbers directly from the keypad is beyond me! But it's no better or worse than any other late-model VCR timers. The front panel controls include a large Play button, but the other buttons for volume, record, FF, channel up/down etc are tiny and hard to distinguish. Hopefully the lettering won't wear off over time.
The sound quality is a bit below par. I expect a 13" TV with a 2" speaker to sound tinny, but this one has no high end either, making it rather muffled. It sounds better through the headphone jack. It plays mono through stereo headphones without a mono-to-stereo adaptor. And what's with the "fake" left speaker? Maybe they use the same cabinet for a stereo model? The cabinets appear identical for MV13K1/K2 models which I found at another XS-Cargo store. I don't know what functional differences, if any, there are between these and the L3, except the K2 has a 4-head VCR (for freeze-frame-freaks) and cost $20 more. Also, there are no line in jacks, just a 75-ohm F jack at the back.
In all retrospect, these are minor flaws reserved for nit-pickers. For it's intended use this set is great value for the money!
PS- there is no V-chip control as indicated in epinion's product outline.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 130
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Epinions.com ID:
PennyStretcher
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Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 1 member
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