|   Toshiba | miamifunk
Jul 6, 2001 10:46 AM | | I'm thinking of buying a Toshiba 32A41 TV and SD1700 DVD player. I am on a limited budget and this can be had for $740 total at Sears. Any opinions? I would be willing to spend at most $150 more if there were a better deal available. I would love to hear from people who have owned or tested this equipment. Thanks |
| TV is good, but upgrade the DVD player to... | Josh Studrawa
Jul 6, 2001 10:57 AM | | http://www.pricescan.com/electronics/items/item508289.asp
The 1700 doesn't play CDR, CDRW, or MP3. If they are important, then upgrade to the SD2700. The link above is the lowest prices around, and Sears WILL price match (heard you may need to be tough with them though).
http://www.pricescan.com/electronics/items/item506626.asp
Here's the 32A40, not the 41. If you can get Sears to price-match both, it's only around $650 or so. You should have some haggling room there if they get pissy. |
| re: Agree with josh but... | Scott2k
Jul 6, 2001 11:11 AM | | you may find lower prices than pricescan carries. I found the 36A60 online for $799 vs. $969 @ Sears and they matched it. I did have to be kinda rough though. BTW, don't spend more for the 2-tuner PIP, you'll NEVER use it. IMO. |
| re: Toshiba | Brad-
Jul 6, 2001 11:18 AM | | Be very careful not to get one inflicted with the MOIRE PROBLEM. I had two 36A60 sets that were very distorted with this common Toshiba problem.
http://www.audioreview.com/reviews/TV_Large/product_70553.shtml |
| re: Toshiba | miamifunk
Jul 6, 2001 12:10 PM | | I have read about this problem, but was under the impression that it had occured in a number of manufacturer's sets. How will I know if this set has the problem? Will it be noticable if I were to carefully study the demo model in the store? I have been TV shopping for several months and can't afford to get stuck with a lemon. If it makes any difference, I plan to use the TV mainly for watching DVD's through the component inputs.
Thanks for the help |
| re: Toshiba | Brad-
Jul 6, 2001 4:14 PM | | RE:"I have read about this problem, but was under the impression that it had occured in a number of manufacturer's sets."
It's a problem with all big screen sets, but the television can be adjusted to rid it, yet have no ill effects with picture quality. Toshiba never did a defocus on their tubes. The problem with this seemingly very simple fix is that Toshiba knows this, yet hides the fact. I called, and they said they never heard of the problem. The problem is well documented for the past 3 years. The other major problem is that many had problems getting this simple fix. Toshiba never trained their techs well enough on how to elevate this simple problem.
Although it's a simple problem, others in the review section have had major headaches getting this simple problem fixed!
RE:"How will I know if this set has the problem?"
You'll only know when you get it home.
RE:"Will it be noticable if I were to carefully study the demo model in the store?"
Probably not. I looked very careful. In fact, I watched the set for over an hour to find any defects, and I never noticed the moire problem.
What's strange is that these thin lines are very noticable in a normal average lit watching environment. The stores excessive lighting adding to the screen glare somehow masks these.
The first set I had was defective with another problem, but still had the moire problem. Before I exchanged, I went back to the store to see if the demo model had those strange thin lines all through oranges, reds, and smokey grays. It didn't obviously. When I got my replacement, I swear the thin horizontal lines were worse than the first set. Made it completely unwatchable due to the annoying and distracting lines. Fast vertical pan produced much worse lines. I seriously can't understand why anyone would not return these sets when they're inflicted with this horrible moire problem.
RE:"I have been TV shopping for several months and can't afford to get stuck with a lemon."
I went through many sets. Now that my needs are demanding, I'm very demanding on my television.
My first 5(3 JVC 36D201s, and 2 Panasonic 36D31s) sets were from the same store. I had a store credit and needed to get a television from them. They were all damaged.
The Panasonics just plainly didn't electrically function correctly.
The JVCs had their screen shifted off center, and twisted at a slant. Some slanted one way, others slanted the other way. Called to have the last one repaired and the technician felt it was better not doing anything since the set sounded like it was dropped or severly abused. It would had surely had future problems. These televisions were definitely abused as no other JVCs I've had were inflicted with these troubles.
Now for the actual performance of the sets that did work:
I had a JVC 36230 which worked perfectly and looked beautiful. Unfortunately I was told by the retailer it had 1 S-Video connector and 1 composite video connector on separate video inputs. It did not and I could not use it.
I had the Toshiba 36A60 as a replacement to the JVC. Picture was horrible with the moire problems. 1st Toshiba didn't work correctly as it had broken packaging material which was caused by shipment abuse.
I then went to Philips 36PT71B(first one was damaged in shipping) which had some strange RF noise that locked my remote capability in my DVD player on occasions. It also caused my Dish Network(which uses a RF remote) to cycle through screens. Problem went away as soon as I disconnected video cables from the television. Can we say Gremlins?!? Plus, it had very poor shielding allowing one tuner signal to bleed into the other tuner's |
| Continuation: Part 2 | Brad-
Jul 6, 2001 4:15 PM | | I then went to Philips 36PT71B(first one was damaged in shipping) which had some strange RF noise that locked my remote capability in my DVD player on occasions. It also caused my Dish Network(which uses a RF remote) to cycle through screens. Problem went away as soon as I disconnected video cables from the television. Can we say Gremlins?!? Plus, it had very poor shielding allowing one tuner signal to bleed into the other tuner's picture. Example: watching channel 5 on antenna A/tuner A, you could see in the background channel 2, which was the channel that was on antenna B/tuner B.
Just received my JVC 36D302 and so far it looks very good. Most likely will look better when I can adjust it out of the sunlight tonight, and when it's doesn't have so much reflection on it's screen.
These are my findings. You could buy the Toshiba and see if you like it, if not, send it back. BTW, getting the store to deliver these sets is the only way to go when their weight starts at 150lbs.
With these big sets, I can't stress enough, watch out for abuse. Beside the slew of 5 sets that must had been on the same pallet or same shippment, the first Toshiba and the first Philips had the boxes ripped open with packaging broken to bits. They were obviously dropped very hard to break the styrofoam. This explains why they had problems functioning.
Be sure to get a television in a "perfect" box. No scrapes, rips, dents, or tears!! |
| Good points Brad. | Smokey
Jul 6, 2001 6:59 PM | | As Brad pointed out, you will not know how your Tv will look until you get it home and watch it under your home environments. You can not judge a Tv by its picture in the showroom. Not only the ambient lightning a problem( bright over head lights) but also all Tv's contrast have been set too high and each TV receiving different type of signal because of all the splitters and amplifiers the retailer used to feed all of their Tvs.
I was lucky as far as packaging is concerned. I do own a truck and me and my brother went down to store to pick the TV ourselves. As Brad pointed out some of the packaging has been damaged and abused during shipping and it is evident by excessive scratches and dents on the packaging. You can reject any packaging that look suspicious if you are delivering your self.
Also if you have your store deliver the Tv, inspect the packaging before they leave and do not let them throw away the packaging after the unwrapping the TV. Some store will not take the Tv back without its original packaging.
good luck. |
| Good points Brad. | miamifunk
Jul 6, 2001 9:49 PM | | Thanks to everyone for the advice. One can never have too much information when making such a decision. I really appreciate the time taken to provide thorough and accurate responses to my original question. I guess the thing to do (as stated above) is to make what appears to be the best choice and simply return the set if it turns out to have problems. Even so, much of this will depend on how willing Sears is to price match the lowest prices I can find. |
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