Toshiba 42H82 42 in. HDTV-Ready TV

I purchased this model from Onecall.com (great service by the way), for a total of $1590 including "White Glove" delivery. After the delivery guys left I couldn't help but kiss the unit as a result of my excitement as to how beautiful the model looked in my living room, and my overall elation after finally getting a widescreen TV after much research and planning. My decision went to the Toshiba after also looking at the Samsung HCM-4215W, and a couple of Hitachi and Mitsubishi models that didn't impress me. Apart from looking for good picture quality it was also important for me to have a sleek looking TV that wasn't big and bulky (a trait shared by the Mitsubishi and Hitachi rear projections). The Samsung really got my attention when I saw it at Best Buy. It had a nice looking picture and was the nicest, slimmest, rear projection in that price range. I was heartbroken however to discover, after reading reviews around the Internet (mostly at Amazon.com) that that particular model was plagued by problems with the tube. A salesman at Best Buy even confirmed that they got many returns on the HCM-4215W. Thus my final choice became the Toshiba 42H82.

I've had this TV for about 2 weeks now and so far I have been 100% satisfied with the purchase. I am a huge movie fan (mostly DVDs) and this model was perfect for me. I'm using S-video for all my connections except the DVD player for which I am using Component Video. After playing around with the convergence, contrast, etc., I finally got a picture that I must say is excellent. The colors are vibrant and the picture is very sharp. The built in speakers are not that bad and the sound system the TV uses has SRS surround which is an emulation of typical surround sound. I would however recommend a nice home theater system to do justice to the great video quality.

The TV has 5 separate widescreen modes. Keep in mind that in order to use these modes effectively and to get the best possible image, you must go into your DVD player's setup and set the output to 16:9. One of these modes stretches an anamorphic widescreen DVD (2.35:1 format just like theaters) completely on the screen eliminating the black bars on the top and bottom. However the stretching is obvious and it kind of throws you off because it just plain don't look right. There is one mode however that almost fills the entire screen and only shows about .5" of the black bars on the top and bottom (hardly noticeable) and the best part about it is the picture is great and the stretching of the image doesn't throw you off. I also hooked up my X-box via S-video to this TV and WHOAH, Halo never looked better.

I really can't find anything wrong with this TV. I love it!