TOSHIBA 42WH36P just purchased new for £900 from Martin D's, have I made a mistake ?

[nypdblue]

I thought I had bought a real bargain with this rear projector, but I have subsequently read about the seemingly endless major convergence problems and cases of having to adjust numerous times daily.

Should I cancel my order ?, as I get the feeling that it could prove to be a nightmare.

[pugheaven]

Mine's awesome, they take a little setting up, but my mate and I are well impressed... and the picture is getting better and better... had mine for 6 days now... it's awesome for the money mate ;-)

[weyland-yutani]

the convergence probs are random, so at least wait till you get it to find out. if its a good one then you have indeed got a bargain.

[alexs2]

Originally Posted by nypdblue

I thought I had bought a real bargain with this rear projector, but I have subsequently read about the seemingly endless major convergence problems and cases of having to adjust numerous times daily.

Should I cancel my order ?, as I get the feeling that it could prove to be a nightmare.

I don't think you need worry too much....I've had my 50" Toshiba for just over a year now,and other than occasional convergence,which you will need to do in any case,no problems.

It's worth spending a bit of time when you get it to set the picture up properly,especially with respect to brightness,contrast and sharpness,which all come with the defaults set way too high for an ordinary room.
Let the set warm up properly before adjusting the convergence,and you should have no problems.....there are far more happy owners than not!

[scooby do]

NYPD

can you please give me the contact details for the store/retailer that you got this from as I have been trying to track one day for some time, and it looks like you got a good price.

Cheers

[nypdblue]

Hi Scooby Do,

I purchased it from my local Martin Dawes in Birkenhead (Wirral), it was advertised for £999 and I originally thought it would be the new lower spec 42WH46P. But on checking the rear of the set and the Toshiba Owners Manual I was very pleasantly surprised.

I offered £900 for a cash purchase and the manager a little reluctantly accepted, thanks for everyone’s reassuring comments over my concerns.
I guess it a case of letting it bed in and fingers crossed it will be a real bargain.

[blossom]

I am watching Sweden vs Bulgaria on my 42wh36 at the moment. The picture is excellent & thats not on Sky due to the 4:3 situation, but on normal RF feed. Since the service level convergence was done on mine it has been the dogs conkers. Get one. You got a good price as well.

Cheers

Paul

[cjking]

I'm very happy with my 51wh36. It's not perfect, but I'm satisfied that I've made the right choice. I was willing to spend up to 3K on a Plasma or LCD rear-pro (Samsung) and travelled to see the Sagem DLP rear-pro ready to buy it on the spot if I was impressed. In the end this TV was half the price of those and the picture quality for DVD is unbeatable.

This TV has two drawbacks the others I mention would not have had, however these are only a problem if you sit extremely close to the screen like I do. Because I sit so close, I can see scan lines if I don't use progress mode; so I always use progress mode; however progress mode (unlike all others) is a 50Hz mode, so sometimes you see large-area flicker. (Usually on large area of bright light solid colour like studio backgrounds. Drama and sport are seldom affected.)

If I sat further from the screen I would use 100Hz modes when flicker was a problem and progress only for drama/movies, then 50Hz flicker would not be a problem.

A third issue (not a fault of the TV) is that pictures that looked excellent on a smaller screen such as my analog cable TV signal or S-VHS VCR can look very grainy. (DVDs are fine - with a big screen your really see the huge difference in quality between DVD and analog TV.) Again, this would not be a problem if I watched from further away, the graininess disappears and the pictures look excellent again - though this does defeat the point of having a big screen TV. (It's actually quite spooky how the picture quality noticeably improves as I back away from my normal view distance.) Obviously the real solution is to get better quality signals. I should have Sky+ within the next six weeks, and if I need to record to keep I'll probably be better off getting a DVD recorder to replace the video.

It's also only fair to add that I have spend a fair amount of time adjusting the convergence, including correcting minor geometry errors and setting the correct brightness, contrast etc. using DVE. I have not however fiddled with the focus or opened up the set - I really don't want to do that, and I've got an excellent picture without having to go that far.

[nypdblue]

Thanks 'cjking' really informative info on your experience with tv and great help, mines being delivered Friday morning, fingers crossed it will be okay.

[scooby do]

Come on NYPD let us know how you are getting on. I'm picking my 2 Wh36's up next weekend.

[nypdblue]

Hi Scooby Doo

Tv arrived last Friday and after setting up it was immediately noticeable that there were two marks/ imperfections inside top left of screen.

Service engineer visited to inspect it the next day and offered those reassuring words, "don't worry we'll get it into the workshop and have a new screen fitted in no time", yeah in your dreams.

Obviously this was refused by myself and agreement was made to replace as new for delivery Tuesday.

I have noticed an improvement in the picture quality day by day, but I can't achieve anything like a decent quality picture when connecting my Pace Freeview Recorder with optimum leads etc. For some reason despite an excellent signal quality the picture is slightly blurred and not at all as good as standard analogue ??

Where did you purchase your two Tosh's from and did you get a similar price to what I paid ??

Three years ago I purchased a Philips Designer 32" Tv w/screen(100Hz)Ice Blue for £1,500 which has just had a new tube fitted and is in pristine condition, any ideas how much I should being looking to ask for it and where is the best place to seek a buyer ??

Thanks in advance .....

[scooby do]

Same price as you because same shop! Picking them up on Saturday. Who came to inspect your TV (company)as I would guess that it was either a smudge on the mirror or something on CRT or even something on the inside of the screen. Did the "engineer" take your TV apart and check these things?

[nypdblue]

It was a Martin Dawes (Service Technician) who called, the imperfections are definitely noticeable on the inside of screen so there was no need to dismantle.

But upon inspection of replacement tv this morning everything appeared to be okay. Though to my dismay a couple of hours later against a brighter image there is again a small but evident imperfection towards the top/middle of screen.

I'm no expert but I'm really annoyed that both of these tv's obviously were passed after inspection by Toshiba, despite such obvious imperfections.

Well what should I do, I feel like I should request a Toshiba Service Call as another replacement could again have the same problem, anyone else come across this before ???????????

Toshiba quality control is no good, my TV had screws loose.

Why do they build them in the U.K?

[scooby do]

Are we sure that the smudge / imperfection could not be removed by taking the lens assembley off and cleaning. I remember that there were some issues with masking tape residue being on the inside of the screens this could be removed by taking the Tv apart. I already have a RPTv and it needs a clean, these things need cleaning every 6 months or so (especially if in a dusty enviorment). Got me wondering now what my 2 will be like, thats if they dont end up giving you one of my two to replace your one that has the defects. What bothers me is all the TVs going back and forward ultimely must put the price up for everyone. Do you fell that if the engineer had took the Tv apart he could have cured the problem?