Toshiba Consumer (TV/DVD/etc) (72HM195) 72" Integrated HD DLP PTV
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: DLP Lamp Problems Comment: Bad product. My DLP lamp died in <1000 hrs of viewing. Now that I've replaced it, the TV cycles through on-off cycles many times - get to watch the TV only if you're lucky! Not worth it!
Horrible product. Customer Rating: Summary: TV NOT WORTH CONTINUED INVESTMENT Comment: We are extremely disappointed in this T.V. We've had it for a year and a half and have already replaced the lamp twice. Once it was under warranty, but this time we had to shell out the money out of our own pockets, and the lamps are not cheap. We found a "deal" for the lamp and "only" had to pay 180 dollars for it. Toshiba states that the lamp should last an average of 8000 hours, both times we were at about 1200-1500 hours of viewing. Wrote a letter to Toshiba with no response. Buyers beware, this T.V.requires a continued investment. Customer Rating: Summary: Horrible Quality, Not 1080p, Do Not Buy!!! Comment: Am am a electronics junkie who is well informed of the latest and greatest however this is not a 1080p TV like they say it is! Toshiba is lying to get stupid people like me to believe them. Thought is was a great deal to get a 1080p for about 2000 less than the bigger names. Should have listened to my instincts. 1080p DLP HDTV is the name of the "engine" used to make the pictures but has absolutely nothing to do with actual picture quality. It only will ACCEPT and DISPLAY 10801!!!!!! The quality is also horrible. At 480 or 720 resolution (both p and i) you cannot even see the faces of basketball players. 1080i is ok but you will have to stand 20+ (Manufacturers suggestion is 10-25) feet back to even get a decent picture. . We replaced a pioneer HDTV from 3 years ago, no HDMI, 1080i is the best it can do, and it is by far better than this one. I REPEAT, DO NOT THIS PRODUCT IT IS NOT 1080p! HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are already here so if you buy this tv you are screwed for the next few years. If only I had found these reviews earlier I would have saved over 3000! Customer Rating: Summary: Good TV, bad marketing Comment: I bought this TV in Dec '05 and have enjoyed its picture quality very much. It does suffer, like most TVs in this design, from the fuzzies during scenes of fire, rain, lightning, etc. Other than that, the picture quality is excellent. The speaks are ok if you've never owned a receiver before, but I'm pretty sure my factory car radio sounds better.
My only two real complaints about this TV are the size auto adjustments and the false (or at least hidden) advertisements in 1080p. First, get ready for a fun ride if you have multiple sources (or just HD vs non-HD programming) at varying source resolution. Switching between channels of HD/non-HD causes the TV to blank out for a bit while it tries to reset itself to the correct format. I've also enjoyed (not) watching it go from full screen to standard size (4:3) after I've tried to tell it to stay in widescreen.
*****
Second, as another reviewer stated, this TV only accepts up to 1080i input. I feel very cheated on this. Reason? Xbox 360 recently (11/1) updated to support 1080p output. Does this TV work in that mode? NO! Is there a real picture quality difference? Beats me because I'll never know on this TV. To advertise a TV as a 1080p, but then to find out (on Google no less - Toshiba's site itself is nothing but marketing bull) that it can only do magic on 1080i inputs to make them 1080p output sickens me.
So to wrap it up, this is an excellent TV from my experience overall. I did find on Toshiba's website that there's a known bulb issue and they will extend your warranty on the bulb for an extra year if your s/n is in the range. Customer Rating: Summary: Beware of Fake reviewers! Comment: Some of these reviewers are suspect (namely the ones with 100% positive votes which have only one review to their names). Buyer beware. Check all your sources and read the 'real reviews'.
