Toshiba 27AF41, not a complaint here
Written: Mar 12 '02
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Pros: Sharp picture, great sound,
Cons: no selectable enhanced mode.
The Bottom Line: After a little tweaking, one of the best sets I have seen for the price. if you're in the hunt for a nice 27" Flat Screen, grab this one.
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| paramchuk's Full Review: Toshiba 27AF41 27 inch TV |
Ahh.... the elusive Flat Screen TV. No longer when sitting at the side of the TV do I have to ask my TV watching pal, "Hey, what happened on that side of the screen? Did he get shot or what?" No longer will I have to put pillows in
the windows to block out the glare of the sun. No longer will I long for a new TV with more than the RF input. The Flat screen is mine.
After researching why I needed, not wanted, NEEDED a flat screen TV I went on the hunt of WHICH TV to get. Size was an issue. The cabinet I needed to store this TV in could only support a depth of 21", this TV comes in just under at a hair over 19"... made it. Then came hunting for features and overall quality of the set. My initial choice of flat-screen TV's was the Samsung TXL2971 - an analog widescreen TV which offered all of the options I was looking for in a TV. S-video inputs (my DVD player is old and doesn't have component), component inputs, regular AV and RF inputs...and most important of all, the ability to to the anamorphic squeeze. Essentially, the squeeze lets you set your DVD player to 16:9 mode which on a regular TV set will make the picture look stretched. But on a 16:9 TV or one that can do the squeeze, this increases the resolution of the movie's by 33%. Now you may be saying that the Toshiba doesn't have this squeeze trick available...well you'd be partly right.
But after looking at reliability, and the track record of the company with the Flat Screen technology, which is prone to issues(more on these later), I choose to go with the Toshiba. The reason I went with this instead of the Sony Wega is simple... the Sony cost $100 more, and the picture was not as sharp. The scan lines on the Toshiba were barely noticable, while on the Sony from the same viewing distance, I could see the gaps in the screen.
The Toshiba comes with as many inputs one could desire...well, it could come with more component inputs, but I don't need them, yet. The set comes with 1 rear set of component inputs called ColorStream by Toshiba, 2 rear S-video inputs, two rear AV inputs, one rear RF input, and one front AV input for camcorders, or what have you. See, plenty of inputs.
The set weighs about 90 lbs, so be prepared for some heavy lifting, and this is something you do not want to drop.
After plugging the set in, plugging in all my inputs, and starting up the TV, it looked great. even out of the box settings would be OK for some people. Not I though. The onscreen menu comes down transparently and stays on the
screen while you adjust settings. A nice touch, so this way you can see the effect of changing the settings. I did notice the contrast was set too high, as well as the brightness...and I turned the sharpness WAY down. Having it
too sharp makes the edges of things on the screen seem a little fake...turned down gives it a softer image.
But what about geometry? Well, the set DID have some strange curves on it. The THX box one some DVD's seemed to bend severely to the side...and unfortunatly, the regular menu does not offer a way to fix this. So you might have to call in a service tech to calibrate the TV to make things look right on the screen. I however, did this myself by entering the service menu. DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. It could damage your set. If you must change some parameters in the service menu, please be sure to write
down the initial settings. I won't post how to get into the menu here, to prevent people from wrecking their sets and saying I told you to do it. Now the set only has a very minor bend in the corner, which I will tackle a little later once I get my hands on a calibration DVD.
Remember the squeeze trick I talked about? Well, it's not an option on this set. However, in the service menu, one can fiddle with some settings to do this trick. It might be a little tedious, but the difference in the quality of the picture is worth the minute before and after the movie it takes to change this. The scan lines become invisible...letting the TV take on an almost HDTV look. Toy Story 2 never looked so good. Almost three dimensional.
The sound from the TV is good for basic TV. It has a stereo decoder allowing stereo sound from TV broadcasts. It also simulates surround sound. The surround sound option actually works quite well for those without access to a
separate home theater.
I did purchase the extra service plan from the store I bought it at, due to electronics these days being made "disposable". The plan was $15/year for 4 years....not bad, because if anything goes wrong before it expires, the store
will replace the TV, the part, or if this TV is no longer around, replace it with a comparable one.
Thus far into ownership ( 3 weeks), I have nothing bad to say. I came into the flat-screen world expecting some geometry issues, and they can be overcome with some patience and practice.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 499.00
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Epinions.com ID:
paramchuk
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Member: Jeff
Location: Portland, OR
Reviews written: 64
Trusted by: 27 members
About Me:
I am Canadian.
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