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Toshiba REGZA 42ZV650U 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV with ClearScan 240, Black
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*Picture quality is excellent! No 'ghosting', 'flash lighting', or 'clouding'. My panel has no dead or stuck pixels. Color reproduction is excellent with vibrant (but realistic and not over-saturated) colors. Black levels are very good, blacks are not a light gray with this screen, the black is actually pretty close to actual black (there is some very minimal light bleed of course- it is a LCD). This is especially true with the lights on. Bioshock looks awesome! The 240hz effect really looks great too with basically no 'jitter'. Pans and zooms are smoothed with no added blurring. Resolution+ (aka SRT) also makes a huge difference for non-HD sources. My Gamecube looks much better on this TV then the older Sony 42" LCD it was connected to, much less artifacts and jagged edges that are smoothed down better. DVDs also look great, even older films. Watching Trinity and Beyond: the Atomic Bomb Movie (I highly recommend this wonderful documentary BTW) with it's digitally restored archival film footage of atomic bomb tests are absolutely spectacular looking.
*Sound quality is surprisingly good (considering you can't even see the speakers), and I enjoy using the Dolby Volume feature to quiet the transition from quiet show/ TV movie to a loud commercial (HELLO BILLY MAYS HERE!!!). The volume no longer decides to double itself when commercials are on! The speakers put out a fair amount of bass considering their size- they don't sound 'small' or 'from the bottom of a barrel'.
*The remote control is nice. I can control my Xbox 360 DVD player and Comcast cable box (Motorola) in addition to the TV after programming the remote. It is also not cheap feeling with solid buttons (I wish the buttons would light up though) and a sturdy build. The IR pass-through feature on the TV looks useful for people who keep DVD players and the like out of sight behind a cabinet, but I don't use it as my AV components are all visible.
*Media player looks functional but limited. I can see myself looking at digital photos on the TV from a SD card / USB Flash, but the functionality is too basic. Video playback looks interesting but I encode my videos in h.264 (for iPod/iPhone) - and that is not supported (as far as I can tell). Maybe Toshiba will offer software updates or the ability to add additional programs in the future? I will just use my Xbox 360 for these features, and in time I will build my own Mac media center computer.
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I chose this LCD panel over the Samsung LN40B650 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with Red Touch of Color panel (my next choice after the 42ZV650U) because it's overall picture quality (color, contract, brightness, black levels) is better, 240hz smoothing effect is great, Resolution+ up-conversion majorly helps with DVDs and other SD content, excellent audio quality/features (no more loud commercial transitions), and the design is more attractive (I don't like the Touch of Color Red personally). Oh yeah, and the 42ZV650U is about $400 less on Amazon compared to the LN40B650 (or $700+ less, excluding tax, than a local retailer as of early May 2009)! The Toshiba 42ZV650U is a real winner in my book!
I purchased this HDTV from Amazon May 1st, picked up at Pilot Air Freight on May 4th. It would have been delivered on the 6th within a 4 hour time frame but it was more convenient for me to pick it up myself. My biggest concern was shipping, as it is electronic and large - thus fragile. Shipping was super quick, free, and the TV appeared to be handled well in transit as the box was not beat-up. I am very happy with my Amazon purchase!
I was blown away when I went to see it at Best Buy, and I'm still blown away by the fact that there's one downstairs in my living room. The contrast is amazing: I just finished watching The Empire Strikes Back, and I was shocked to see Vader's mask and cape actually being totally black!
I also bought a Blu-ray player the day this TV arrived, and I got The Dark Knight (one of the new Batman films) to see how it'd look. In short: it was amazing. The color was crisp and the response time being 8 ms made no discernible difference to me. I was thinking that might be a downer in scenes with a lot of quick motion (Dark Knight was a good tester for that), but it was not a problem. It was just as clear on the fast-motion fight scenes and the flyover city-view panning as it was on the slower scenes with just dialog. I was impressed. 120Hz is just beautiful (silky smooth)! I believe the TV also emulates 240Hz, but I didn't really notice that if it was enabled; I figure that not a whole lot of stuff out right now makes proper use of 120Hz, let alone 240Hz.
One reviewer knocked the aesthetics of the TV, and I have to respectfully disagree with his assessment. The pedestal stand with which it comes is perfectly sized, and the charcoal-gray bezel looks good. The lit "Toshiba" at the bottom-center of the bezel is a nice touch, and it can be disabled in the settings if it becomes bothersome. I like it as a good power-on indicator.
The menu system is well-thought-out. Amazingly, it actually made sense when I was casually playing around with it. I was able to customize the picture settings to my liking without getting into the manual...and when I did get into the manual (just to see what it was like), I was surprised to find that it was actually well-written and easy to understand. I was expecting something that had been machine-translated from Japanese, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case...or else the folks at Toshiba have made a darn good machine translator.
All in all, I think this was a very good buy. You get more screen size and better features for less $$ than other brands, so it's a no-brainer. I know I initially had qualms with not getting a well-known brand like Sony or Samsung, but I can say without reservation that such concern has no basis in reality.
For those who want a quick up-or-down on this TV: two thumbs waaaay up!
The sound quality is amazing. There are many built in options here as well. Dolby sound, surround, etc. The speakers are so well hidden and yet sound great.
Other features I love are all the HDMI inputs, an SD Card slot (we can watch slide shows from people's cameras), and the USB port (WOW you can watch DIVX movies, listen to MP3s etc from an external drive!!!)
I haven't really given the Clearscan 240 feature a chance yet because I'm waiting for the football games on sunday, but I'm very happy so far with the 120Hz smooth performance. Again, excellent value for all the features you get.
Update 8/11/2009: When i connected the DVD player or my computer to the TV through HDMI cable, i started to hear some static sound from the speaker after couple of hours (more like an 1hr 45min). Once I turn the TV off and back on, it seemed to be fine. The DVD and my computer were connected through different HDMI cable and in different ports so i doubt that there is something wrong with the cable. I didn't notice this when i watched regular TV so i am thinking there is something wrong with the HDMI connection. I called Toshiba and they didn't know what was going on so they gave me the number for a local shop and asked me to call them to take a look at my TV. I am not going to call them now b/c i noticed the problem only twice and i want that problem to occur more frequently before i call them. Also, i am worried that they will break something else b/c that's what usually happens.
Another issue i found was with the captions. I know lot of people don't use it but i use it frequently. The captions on NBC and WB(or whatever the local channel is) will not stay on if i switched between channels. For example, when i am watching NBC with the caption on and i switch to CBS and i switch back to NBC, the caption won't come on. I have to press the "C.Caption" button (the "Closed Caption" is set to "English CC1" and not "OFF") and press "Exit" button in the remote to get it back on. This happens only if the caption type is "English CC1". So if you see "English CC1" for "Closed Caption" when you press "C.Caption" button, then you will notice this problem. Other caption type seems to work fine, like "English" or "CC1".
It does not happen on this TV and it even much sharper compared to 42v4100. I can compare 60hz and 120hz TV now :)
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