Toshiba 57H94 57 in. HDTV CRT TV
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- Digital TV Standard: HDTV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 14:9
- Weight: 204 lb.
- Projector Technology: CRT
- Built-in Tuner: ATSC NTSC
- Screen Size: 57 inch
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User ReviewRead All Reviews »
Great Bargain, Expect a few annoyances.
Pros
Nice HD picture TVGuide On-Screen CableCard Plenty of inputs
Cons
May have to upgrade software Medium-quality SD picture Glare
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Fantasic picture, great value!
I bought this TV from Best Buy and they delivered it. It's on rollers which is real nice. I bought the TV partly because it was a large projection TV, and partly because it had enough inputs and a CableCard slot in it.
For those of you not familiar with the CableCard, it allows you to receive the encrypted digital signals from your cable company - they rent you the card as they would a cable box, but now your TV does the descrambling and you eliminate cords, box, and an extra annoying remote. However, you lose your menu/pay-per-view/video-on-demand functions (which I never use and had no desire for.) The TV has TV Guide On Screen built in so the guide is at least present with the CableCard.
The previous review complained about the picture; the analog/SD picture is acceptable - it's not great but it's not horribile either. If you're buying a TV for SD picture quality I would say this isn't for you. Buy an SDTV if you want a clear SD signal.
The HD picture quality however, is NICE. I have an HDMI-upconverting DVD player and it really makes a huge difference watching a DVD through HDMI vs. composite or S-video. Digital HD channels REALLY come through nice.
I will warn you though, when I got the TV, the picture card viewer for digital camera media did not work! It came up with a giant red "X" for each picture. It also does not have an xD media slot, however I did manage to find an xD-to-Smart Media adapter for $2 off the internet, and it works like a charm. The CableCard also did not want to work. I worked with my cable company for almost an entire week only to find out the software revision was too low. I called Toshiba's help line and within a week they had sent me an upgrade kit. It consisted of an SD card with the upgrade on it; all I had to do was insert it into the slot, let it do it's thing and after a reset, the picture card viewer worked and so did the CableCard.
The sound is OK but I purchased a seperate surround sound system and used the optical output from the TV to the surround system. Works great.
The TV has quite a few inputs; it has two component (HD) inputs as well as the HDMI input, then two composite/s-video inputs on the back and a third in front under the control panel flap.
It also has two IEEE-1394 inputs but I don't have anything that works with these inputs yet. There are also some outputs for some IR control over your other components; apparently you can not only control them with the remote but also with the remote *on-screen* which I didn't quite understand why. The neat thing is you can set your VCR and the TV Guide up so the TV Guide program will turn the VCR on to record your program. Toshiba also sell a device called "Symbio" which turns the TV into a DVR. From what I understand though, you can't record one channel and watch another.
As with any large projection TV, glare is an issue. You'll want a fairly dark room to put this in.
Overall I really like the TV. It's nice and big and the price was right. For some reason it was cheaper than the smaller 51" version (51H94) ? Supposedly they are identical in features, just a difference in size. Other than the annoyance of the CableCard/picture viewer not working at first, I'm enjoying it!
For those of you not familiar with the CableCard, it allows you to receive the encrypted digital signals from your cable company - they rent you the card as they would a cable box, but now your TV does the descrambling and you eliminate cords, box, and an extra annoying remote. However, you lose your menu/pay-per-view/video-on-demand functions (which I never use and had no desire for.) The TV has TV Guide On Screen built in so the guide is at least present with the CableCard.
The previous review complained about the picture; the analog/SD picture is acceptable - it's not great but it's not horribile either. If you're buying a TV for SD picture quality I would say this isn't for you. Buy an SDTV if you want a clear SD signal.
The HD picture quality however, is NICE. I have an HDMI-upconverting DVD player and it really makes a huge difference watching a DVD through HDMI vs. composite or S-video. Digital HD channels REALLY come through nice.
I will warn you though, when I got the TV, the picture card viewer for digital camera media did not work! It came up with a giant red "X" for each picture. It also does not have an xD media slot, however I did manage to find an xD-to-Smart Media adapter for $2 off the internet, and it works like a charm. The CableCard also did not want to work. I worked with my cable company for almost an entire week only to find out the software revision was too low. I called Toshiba's help line and within a week they had sent me an upgrade kit. It consisted of an SD card with the upgrade on it; all I had to do was insert it into the slot, let it do it's thing and after a reset, the picture card viewer worked and so did the CableCard.
The sound is OK but I purchased a seperate surround sound system and used the optical output from the TV to the surround system. Works great.
The TV has quite a few inputs; it has two component (HD) inputs as well as the HDMI input, then two composite/s-video inputs on the back and a third in front under the control panel flap.
It also has two IEEE-1394 inputs but I don't have anything that works with these inputs yet. There are also some outputs for some IR control over your other components; apparently you can not only control them with the remote but also with the remote *on-screen* which I didn't quite understand why. The neat thing is you can set your VCR and the TV Guide up so the TV Guide program will turn the VCR on to record your program. Toshiba also sell a device called "Symbio" which turns the TV into a DVR. From what I understand though, you can't record one channel and watch another.
As with any large projection TV, glare is an issue. You'll want a fairly dark room to put this in.
Overall I really like the TV. It's nice and big and the price was right. For some reason it was cheaper than the smaller 51" version (51H94) ? Supposedly they are identical in features, just a difference in size. Other than the annoyance of the CableCard/picture viewer not working at first, I'm enjoying it!
