Toshiba 50HM66 50 in. HDTV DLP TV

The Toshiba 50 HM66
It Was All Just a Bad Dream

Lord help me, I finally did it. A few months ago I gave up my monster Sony 32" CRT Television and went shopping for a high definition big screen television. I was tired of moving that thing, especially in view of the fact that I had to move it myself and it weighed well over one hundred and twenty pounds. It was bulky, difficult to pick up and I did not even try unless I had my weight belt on.
Since I had already given up my massive Sony CRT computer monitor in exchange for a flat panel, effectively giving up 72 pounds for less than 16, I figured I would be doing my back a great favor. In addition, as always, technology had progressed by astounding measures in the nearly seven years since I purchased a television. Now you have High Definition Liquid Crystal, Plasma, Digital Light Projection and so many options to choose from that it is not hard to get a headache researching and shopping.
After doing enough research to justify being awarded an honorary engineer's degree and pondering what the side effects would be from taking a whole bottle of aspirin to relieve the throbbing head I finally ventured out to shop.
Research had caused me to decide to limit my brand shopping to Sony, blank, Toshiba. In order not to bore you or make your head hurt I will cut to the chase and tell you I ended up purchasing a Toshiba 50" Rear Projection, model 50HM66.
The Sony Rear Projection was my initial choice yet I ended up with the Toshiba. At the time the prices had not taken the precipitous drop which is now evident at many stores, so yes, price was a consideration. The retail price on the Toshiba I purchased was $2399.00 at the time. The Sony was up near $3000.00 as I recall.
I knew I had made a good decision as far as portability was concerned when I hauled it out to the truck to bring it home. No one in the store offered any help so I was on my own and much to my pleasure I was easily able to lift the somewhat large and bulky box up in to the bed of the truck.
It was even nicer when I arrived home since at the time I was living in a house requiring the climbing of a full flight of wooden steps to get in the front door. Getting the TV up the stairs and onto a stand in the living room was fairly easy, especially once the TV is removed from the box. I am still trying to get over the fact that I had to summon all my strength to do the same thing with my old Sony, yet I was able to quite easily lift the much larger Toshiba out of the box and place it where I wished.
Let's talk about the physical operation of the TV. I must say I tried two smaller LCD televisions and did not care for either of them. The picture sharpness and clarity left something to be desired and I could never get the color to look the way I wanted it to. The Toshiba has no such problems.
The high definition digital light projection technology seems to have taken TV viewing to a higher level of enjoyment particularly if you actually get high definition channels from your cable or satellite provider. Colors seem to jump at you, sharpness and clarity is just plain phenomenal and the Toshiba model allows one to change the "lamp mode" to different venues such as 'sports', 'cool', 'warm' and so on depending on the viewer's preference.
The Toshiba is easy to install and set up assuming one has the appropriate cables. The remote and the menus are simple and easy to use. You understand, of course that all of these statements are contingent on the consumer actually reading the manual… well at least the important parts.
The only negative thing I will say about the physical attributes of the Toshiba model is the simple fact the integrated speakers are of poor quality. This is not the kind of television you want to watch with the built in sound anyway so you can do as I did and immediately integrate the Toshiba with a nice surround sound system. Mine was an already existing system with a total of thirteen satellites and I am pleased to say that firing up a movie on that 50 inch screen is nearly identical to going to the movies. The only things missing are popcorn, a date, and noisy rude cell phone users who don't have enough sense to turn them off in the theater. (The popcorn is easy, the date is another matter.)
I only owned the Toshiba for a few weeks when two strange things showed up one day; A thin pie wedge of a shadow beginning at approximately the center top of the screen and gradually widening to a couple of inches toward the right hand side, and a high pitched whining noise varying in pitch when the channel was changed. Over the next week or two while calling around to see if I should take it back to the store or wait for Toshiba the shadow began to grow until it extended all the way across the screen. It got wider too and was gradually blacking out what was now a sizable portion of the screen.
I took the TV back to the store and they replaced it with the identical model. I took the TV back home and installed it and a few days later this one started to do the exact same thing. By now the return period at the store was expired. This led me to call Toshiba directly which then led to one of those classic consumer nightmares no one should have to endure.
First Toshiba denied there was an inherent problem in this model of TV, claiming I was the only one on the whole planet with those particular problems. (I even had to play the whining sounds over the phone for them because they refused to believe it was doing that.)
After much persistence and numerous time-wasting phone calls Toshiba finally decided to send a repairman to check it out. This proved to be no easy task in view of the fact that Toshiba had no procedure in place at the time to deal with customers who did not live near an authorized service center. It took them over two weeks but they ended up paying a repairman from a city 120 miles away to drive to my home and see what was wrong.
The repairman tried to fix the problem by adjusting what he called the "light engine" of the TV. Apparently something in it was not constructed very well and kept slipping out of place causing this pie wedge shadow on the screen. He left feeling he had repaired the TV aside from the strange whining, yet a few days later the problem re-appeared worse than ever.
A few weeks later I was sitting in the living room eating a quick breakfast before work. I turned on the TV and within a few seconds I heard a rather loud pop and the screen went black. The lamp had actually blown up inside the TV. Numerous phone calls later the repairman came to my house and replaced the lamp, tried again to fix the TV shadow, and could do nothing about the whining.
I continued calling Toshiba and the repairman while he and Toshiba went back and forth about what was wrong and what to do to fix the TV. He eventually informed me Toshiba was in the process of designing and manufacturing a "new light engine" for my model because they were now getting lots of calls about this problem. The channel whining was another matter. At this point I just wanted a viewable TV back. When you are paying over $80.00 a month for high definition satellite service it becomes rather frustrating to keep staring a blank wall and an empty TV stand, not to mention disturbingly quiet in the house by myself.
A few weeks later I received a call from the repairman informing me he was in actual possession of a "newly designed" light engine. I ended up driving the TV back down to him and spending the day in the city while he installed it. Again he could do nothing about the whining so I went back home with a TV that played; you just had to hold your ears while changing channels.
In all honesty I can say Toshiba would have left it at that for I heard nothing from them ever after until I called them back weeks later. I reminded them I still had a TV that whined in between channels. They decided to continue to insist it was not the TV.
To further add to the consumer nightmare it becomes necessary to inform you, the consumer that every party involved in this aside from me and the repairman tried to blame everything else for the whining. The satellite server said it was not them, Toshiba first said it was then changed their story to bad cables. Toshiba and the satellite server then said it was something in my stereo system.
Round and round we went and I became more and more frustrated. You see, I am the kind of person who "takes care of the stupid stuff" BEFORE I call customer service. I check the cables; I eliminate things, consider all the possibilities, investigate and try to repair. It is only when I am completely and utterly lost, at a dead end that I finally call customer service. So when they continue to blame all the "stupid stuff" and I already know that is not the problem… well, let's just say I am not a happy puppy.
Finally after working my way up the customer service ladder over the ensuing weeks and getting various supervisors on the line I received a call one day informing me that Toshiba had decided to 'replace' my television. They offered no reasons, no explanations. They simply informed me they were in the process of making arrangements to have a new TV delivered to me from a far away city. I later found out that, like the faulty light engine, Toshiba also learned these TV's, not just mine, whined. They just did not want to tell me that.
I also learned that, (lucky me,) I had been one of the first to own this particular model of Toshiba TV. That is why I got the reactions I got initially from Toshiba customer service. They did not know of these problems until unfortunate customers like me beat them over the head with them and got them to stop blaming everything else.
As of this writing I have a TV which is working fine and I am pleased overall with the current operation of the product. Overall it was a rather nightmarish consumer experience which could have been made much easier to bear with a more understanding, receptive and proactive manufacturer.
The Good: High Definition rear projection TV is the way to go, especially when you consider that prices are dropping on the big screens like a boulder is tied to them. The picture is awesome, the size and portability are too much fun. I have turned my living room into a private theater. Just make sure you go with a brand you have researched as a quality TV manufacturer such as the ones mentioned earlier.
Make sure you have high definition compatible equipment, cables (high definition media input and fiber optic audio,) and a high definition channel package from your provider. This is just like computers, cell phones and other such modern technologies. If everything is not compatible with each other you will not get the full potential and enjoyment from the product as advertised.
The Bad: You may find yourself having to do as I did and upgrade your stereo system. I had a receiver that was only seven years old and an old three speaker surround sound system. None of this was compatible with the new TV. The receiver only had RCA inputs and outputs, no optical audio plugs. I ended up purchasing a new receiver, new surround sound system and a bunch of overly expensive cables for my new and existing devices.
You will need high definition media input cable, optical audio cable, a good surge suppressor and lots of room for your new giant TV. However it is easy to move it around if your wife does not like where it is.
Be prepared to have customer service issues which may or may not be handled in a professional and productive manner. I was personally advised by the repairman, who had no ulterior motive, that everyone who buys one of these televisions should purchase an extended protection plan. The main reason he gave was the cost of a new lamp when the OEM blows. He informed me that many of them cost hundreds of dollars just to buy and they blow like light bulbs, as in, you never know when.
The Ugly: If you buy a television from a retail store, be aware that they will only deal with you for the term of your return policy. Learn what that is BEFORE you purchase the TV. After that they will tell you to get in touch with the manufacturer. Once that happens you could find yourself stuck on the automated menu from hell, (press 10 if you would like to talk to real human,) or worse yet, you may find yourself with a manufacturer who will fight you every inch of the way and do anything rather than replace your TV including four attempts to repair it.
Be aware of something I learned in this experience that still appalls me to this day. The manufacturer would rather commit suicide then admit their product has an intrinsic and inherent design problem. If your new device has a problem and it does not go away after several attempts the manufacturer usually knows by then. They just do not want to tell you. That is why Toshiba suddenly called me and told me they were replacing my whining TV. They knew by then that there was indeed an audio problem. I asked the representative on the phone whether Toshiba was sure I would be receiving a non-whining TV and she guaranteed me I would. Sure enough the new TV does not whine.