Toshiba 65HX83 65 in. HDTV-Ready TV
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- Digital TV Standard: HDTV-Ready
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 14:9
- Weight: 240 lb.
- Built-in Tuner: NTSC
- Screen Size: 65 inch
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User ReviewRead All Reviews »
As good as it gets for that price.
Pros
Cutting edge digital technology, very stylish, excellent price, unbeatable picture.
Cons
Manual should explain settings and features in more detail.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
If 65 inches isn't too much tv for you, This is the set to buy. The blacks are black, the whites are white and the colors are amazing.
I bought the Toshiba 56" cinema series in '97 when the wide screen phenomenon hadn't yet sunk in. Till the day I sold it 7 years later that television still had the best performance and sharpest picture I had ever seen(for it's size). I took that money and ran to my favorite toshiba dealer to buy the tv I've had my eye on for about 5 years. The 65hx83. I had been gradually watching the price fall and the features abound in this beautiful piece of modern furniture over the years.
My criteria were price, HDTV, and SD picture quality in that order. The price was well below reasonable at $2350.00. As for picture quality, I, a person already familiar with what a nice picture looked like, was completely blown away.
The setup was easy, I just plugged in the cables and turned it on. A quick push of the "Touch Focus" button and all three guns lined up automatically. I still had to fine tune with the multi-zone convergence feature, but even still the picture right out of the box was fantastic.
There is a very noticeable difference between the different modes and how they handle compressed satellite images. The guys who delivered the set left it in sports mode which is like an overdrive mode for the brightness, contrast, and host of digital filters. This proved too sharp and clear for a standard compressed signal. Although the colors were eye popping and vibrant, the picture was very pixelated and the sharp edges between light and dark areas were boxy and slightly drifted. I was disappointed at first with this and started wondering if I had made a mistake. Then I did something I am not too proud of, I read the manual.
The manual merely touched on the settings and features in the on screen menu giving brief descriptions and cryptic terms. But I expected that. After spending some time adjusting and fine tuning, I found that the best picture was obtained by simply putting it in standard mode.
The images came alive. The standard compressed satellite images smoothed out nicely, though some programs are still much better than others. Viewing a clean progressive scan component video DVD was like a night at the movies without the guy chewing popcorn in your ear. It was as close to film, with the 3:2 pulldown mode and 420p to 1080i upconverter, as I had ever seen. I saw colors that amazed me. The picture was sharp and clear. Because the 3:2 switch displays at 24 frames per second for film instead of 30 fps for video, it was a true reproduction of the original format. This was noticeable in the film spots that randomly speckled the frame from time to time making you forget where you are.
I havn't yet received the HD receiver I ordered but it's exiting to think what I am in store for. In my opinion, Toshiba is leading the way in rptv's.
New entry; 2-3-04
I got my HD receiver last night and my jaw dropped as the high definition images came to life. I had seen the in store demo of the high definition picture before I purchased the set but this well surpassed it. The salesman said it was because they are unable to use the HD broadcasts for demo purposes and that the demo HD VHS tape had been running in a loop for a long time. This apparently degraded the quality of the picture.
A clean satellite HD signal almost makes you want to step through the screen, and you could with 65 inches of screen if it were possible.
I usually watch all programs in 'full' mode. That is where the the 4:3 aspect ratio is stretched to 16:9. The reason is because I don't want to develop burn-in on the sides where the black bars would be for normal non-widescreen programming. The downside is that the image looks slightly squished but I have gotten used to it and don't really notice it anymore.
When I connected the HD receiver I used the DVI connection to keep the signal in the digital domain. This eliminates artifacts produced by the digital to analog circuitry which show up as floating specs in the picture. This works great but there is a downside. On non-HD programming, the picture automatically reverts to 4:3 mode producing the black bars on the sides and there is no option for stretching that out to full mode using the DVI input.
The only way around this was switch inputs from DVI to component when I wasn't watching HD programming. One more step, but still worth it.
I could not find any reviews for this product when I was researching for my purchase so I am writing this hoping to help the next person to make a somewhat informed decision. You have to take the product's and reseller's ads with a grain of salt. This wasn't a class assignment so please don't grade it. I truly hope my personal observation helps you.
My criteria were price, HDTV, and SD picture quality in that order. The price was well below reasonable at $2350.00. As for picture quality, I, a person already familiar with what a nice picture looked like, was completely blown away.
The setup was easy, I just plugged in the cables and turned it on. A quick push of the "Touch Focus" button and all three guns lined up automatically. I still had to fine tune with the multi-zone convergence feature, but even still the picture right out of the box was fantastic.
There is a very noticeable difference between the different modes and how they handle compressed satellite images. The guys who delivered the set left it in sports mode which is like an overdrive mode for the brightness, contrast, and host of digital filters. This proved too sharp and clear for a standard compressed signal. Although the colors were eye popping and vibrant, the picture was very pixelated and the sharp edges between light and dark areas were boxy and slightly drifted. I was disappointed at first with this and started wondering if I had made a mistake. Then I did something I am not too proud of, I read the manual.
The manual merely touched on the settings and features in the on screen menu giving brief descriptions and cryptic terms. But I expected that. After spending some time adjusting and fine tuning, I found that the best picture was obtained by simply putting it in standard mode.
The images came alive. The standard compressed satellite images smoothed out nicely, though some programs are still much better than others. Viewing a clean progressive scan component video DVD was like a night at the movies without the guy chewing popcorn in your ear. It was as close to film, with the 3:2 pulldown mode and 420p to 1080i upconverter, as I had ever seen. I saw colors that amazed me. The picture was sharp and clear. Because the 3:2 switch displays at 24 frames per second for film instead of 30 fps for video, it was a true reproduction of the original format. This was noticeable in the film spots that randomly speckled the frame from time to time making you forget where you are.
I havn't yet received the HD receiver I ordered but it's exiting to think what I am in store for. In my opinion, Toshiba is leading the way in rptv's.
New entry; 2-3-04
I got my HD receiver last night and my jaw dropped as the high definition images came to life. I had seen the in store demo of the high definition picture before I purchased the set but this well surpassed it. The salesman said it was because they are unable to use the HD broadcasts for demo purposes and that the demo HD VHS tape had been running in a loop for a long time. This apparently degraded the quality of the picture.
A clean satellite HD signal almost makes you want to step through the screen, and you could with 65 inches of screen if it were possible.
I usually watch all programs in 'full' mode. That is where the the 4:3 aspect ratio is stretched to 16:9. The reason is because I don't want to develop burn-in on the sides where the black bars would be for normal non-widescreen programming. The downside is that the image looks slightly squished but I have gotten used to it and don't really notice it anymore.
When I connected the HD receiver I used the DVI connection to keep the signal in the digital domain. This eliminates artifacts produced by the digital to analog circuitry which show up as floating specs in the picture. This works great but there is a downside. On non-HD programming, the picture automatically reverts to 4:3 mode producing the black bars on the sides and there is no option for stretching that out to full mode using the DVI input.
The only way around this was switch inputs from DVI to component when I wasn't watching HD programming. One more step, but still worth it.
I could not find any reviews for this product when I was researching for my purchase so I am writing this hoping to help the next person to make a somewhat informed decision. You have to take the product's and reseller's ads with a grain of salt. This wasn't a class assignment so please don't grade it. I truly hope my personal observation helps you.
