Toshiba MD20FL1 20 inch TV/DVD Combo TV
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Similar in Standard Televisions
- Screen Size: 20 inch
- Combo Type: TV/DVD
Similar in Standard Televisions
Optoma HD20 DLP Projector
$1,229.96
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Good TV for the price
Pros
Nice picture, many features, easy DVD access
Cons
Lousy sound control. Blanks between channels.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
An excellent TV/DVD purchase if you don't mind constantly adjusting the volume levels and don't channel surf.
At 20", this set is the perfect size for a guest room or bedroom, but I wouldn't recommend it as your main television. Its dimensions fit fairly easily into a cabinet, but I found that it is a little larger than it needs to be. The bottom buttons are fairly tall, so the TV height is roughly the same as a standard television with a seperate DVD player on top of/below it. So basically, as a combo unit, it doesn't save you any space.
However, the power of the combo unit is being able to run everything from a single remote. At this, the Toshiba excels. The DVD items are separated nicely at the bottom of the the remote layout, and getting to the DVD player is a single buttonpress. The TV also has game and secondary feeds which add to its versatility.
On the video side, the picture is outstanding. The flat screen does add a level of clarity I don't see on my curved livingroom set, and the picture goes from corner-to-corner with no blank cutoff like you see on some other TVs. As such, the 20" screen appears more like a 23".
In spite of some nice features, such as automatic channel discovery and last channel recall, the audio features on this set have been completely overlooked. The set suffers from the "quiet show/loud commercial" where you're straining to hear your favorite characters whisper words to each other on full volume and then are blasted across the room when a used car sale comes on. What's worse, there isn't even a "mute" feature to give you a chance to save yourself prior to the sound assault. You're stuck constantly adjusting the volume on the undersized remote buttons.
Sony figured out how to balance sound years ago, and mute has been a feature on every TV I've bought since 1984. For all their boasting of features, how did Toshiba let this happen?
Another annoying "feature" for channel surfers is that the TV inserts a moment of black screen when switching. Since most shows feature lighting such that the screen is mostly white, this results in a highly annoying flash effect. This is excaberated by the fact that when you're surfing, your attention is focused on the screen to see what's next. Bottom line: unless you like headaches that feel like an ice pick being shoved behind your eyeballs, read the TV guide before switching channels.
However, the power of the combo unit is being able to run everything from a single remote. At this, the Toshiba excels. The DVD items are separated nicely at the bottom of the the remote layout, and getting to the DVD player is a single buttonpress. The TV also has game and secondary feeds which add to its versatility.
On the video side, the picture is outstanding. The flat screen does add a level of clarity I don't see on my curved livingroom set, and the picture goes from corner-to-corner with no blank cutoff like you see on some other TVs. As such, the 20" screen appears more like a 23".
In spite of some nice features, such as automatic channel discovery and last channel recall, the audio features on this set have been completely overlooked. The set suffers from the "quiet show/loud commercial" where you're straining to hear your favorite characters whisper words to each other on full volume and then are blasted across the room when a used car sale comes on. What's worse, there isn't even a "mute" feature to give you a chance to save yourself prior to the sound assault. You're stuck constantly adjusting the volume on the undersized remote buttons.
Sony figured out how to balance sound years ago, and mute has been a feature on every TV I've bought since 1984. For all their boasting of features, how did Toshiba let this happen?
Another annoying "feature" for channel surfers is that the TV inserts a moment of black screen when switching. Since most shows feature lighting such that the screen is mostly white, this results in a highly annoying flash effect. This is excaberated by the fact that when you're surfing, your attention is focused on the screen to see what's next. Bottom line: unless you like headaches that feel like an ice pick being shoved behind your eyeballs, read the TV guide before switching channels.
