Toshiba 52HM84 and 52HMX84 Comments??

I was in Best Buy in Salem, OR yesterday looking at the HDTV's. The new Samsung HLP5085 was prominantly displayed and the salesman told me it was the only HDTV they had that was the "4th generation" DLP. It looked excellent, but I also took a look at the Toshiba 52HM84. The salesman told me that this was not nearly as good as the Samsung since it was a "1st generation DLP." The more I looked at the Toshiba, the better I liked it. I liked it better than the Samsung. When I got home, I checked the specs. and it has the same DLP system that the Samsung HLP5085 has. No wonder the image looked so good. The salesman was very uninformed or was told to push the Samsung.

I wanted to look at the quality of the Toshiba with a DVD signal and a regular SD TV signal, and they had locked up all their HDTV's with passwords so that only the Satellite Digital signal could be shown. I guess they don't want to sell many HDTV's.

Anyway, I would be interested in what owners of either the Toshiba 52HM84 or 52HMX84 think of their TV's for not only HDTV, but SD and DVD programming? Reading the data on the Toshiba HDTV's appears to indicate that Toshiba has some very sophisticated digital and analog signal processing.

Thanks for your input!

Terry

The salesman told me that this was not nearly as good as the Samsung since it was a "1st generation DLP."

A little off-topic and I'm just guessing but the salesman may have meant "Toshiba's 1st DLP". Sounds like Toshiba did their homework if they can match their first effort against the DLP veteran Samsung.

Actually he said that the Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, and others on display were all "had 1st generation DLP processors." Perhaps the Panasonic and mitsubishi were, but don't think so. He was pretty much hard selling the Sammy. It was strange. I would think they would be happy to sell any unit and let the customer decide what they liked. By pushing the Sammy on the pedestal base, it limits alot of folks who don't want the pedestal base.

Personally, I am leaning towards the Toshiba, but I might wait for the Samsung HLP5674 if it ever comes out, or see what is new at CES at the first of the year. The technology is changing so fast, but on the other hand, I don't want to wait forever. The Toshiba looked so good, I cannot imagine how a new model would add that much additional clarity. I am such a novice to this, though.

I own this Toshiba model. All in all a good TV.

Two things I don't like about it.

1) Gray vertical bars to crop a standard 4:3 TV image. I found this very annoying. Toshiba supposidly displays gray bars to prevent screen burn in, but this shouldn't be an issue with a DLP set. Try watching a B&W film like Citizen Kane with bright gray bars on the side. Not fun. Granted you can expand the image, but that adds distortion or crops the image. I don't use the stretch mode feature.

2) No built in digital/hdtv tuner. I didn't think this would be that much of an issue. Fyi, my cable company is Time Warner and I'm using a Pace HD cable converter box. In the lower (analog) channels 0-77, the SD 4:3 picture quality was really really bad. I'm sitting 12 feet back, so it wasn't that I was too close to the screen. I swapped out and tried a different converter box. Nothing helped. So for yucks I directly connected the cable to the Toshiba (i.e. removing the Pace converter box). The picture quality on channels 0-77 was dramatically better. So I'm now looking at TVs with a builtin digital cable/HDTV converter. Toshiba has a model 52HMX94 with a built in tuner.

HDTV and DVD picture is very good.

I got the 52HMX94. It has the 2nd gen TI chip, if you mean the "HD2+ Mustang" chip.

I have the Toshiba 52Hm84, purchased just before Christmas. I love it. I was stuck between the Sammy, Panasonic and Toshiba. And have not regretted my decision. I thought the pictures were all comparable, I really couldn't tell the difference. The package I got with the Toshiba, stand and DVD player was the best. Naturally the signal and cables are important to the picture. I have component hook-ups and am using satillite (expressvu), the HD channels are outstanding. DVD picture is excellent also. I was worried about the SD channels and have been pleasantly surprized. They are easily watchable and my wife and kids have never complained about the difference in picture between HD and SD. There has only been the odd channel with a poor picture (mind you 75% of what we have been watching has been HD).
I would have no trouble recommending the Toshiba to anyone. Ours has given us no trouble, no fan noise and nothing but pleasure.

I purchased the Cinema Series set in early January and am extremely happy with it. I decided on a HMX (Cinema series) versus the HM (Theather Wide) series due to 2 HDMI inputs and better looking exterior design.
HD looks absolutely stunning on that TV, as well as DVD signal from my high-end Denon DVD2910 via HDMI cable. I am always stunned how deep the colors are on this set. I keep on coming back and reflecting whether I made the right decision and compare it with the newest Samsung HL-P5085W. Every time I visited Best Buy I thought that colors were richer and deeper on Toshiba they have there (the HM version) than the Samsung. I do see "Rainbow" effect on it sometimes on Dark-light areas sometimes, but I think it is a pitfall of any DLP TV and due to color wheel. I do not know if the rainbow effect problem becomes less of an issue with a faster color wheel on Sammy.
In all, I am very very happy with my choice.

I'm very pleased with the Tosh 52HMX94. DLP technology has to be the best choice for reliablility, cabinet form factor and picture, in my opinion! Plasma and LCD have too many long term reliability concerns for me. HDTV on this set is absolutely stunning. My cheapo Sanyo VCR/DVD player looks great with it too. I had concerns about that, but I can't see how a new DVD player could do much better! I like the theater mode 1 for small format expansion to full width. It expands the picture more on the sides and less in the center and so makes it less distracting. So far I'm using terrestrial antenna signals only. PBS HD comes in perfectly. Jay Leno comes in in HDTV too on KSL here. Next I need to decide on cable or dish and which one. Voom is a good likelihood because of all the HDTV channels. I have a somewhat confusing array of digital / analog /formats to choose from.

I originally was going for a Samsung, but this set looks just as good and has the integrated tuner setup that I wanted for a very good price. I bought it at John Paris Furniture for 2895.00.

One "problem" my wife sees is that it takes a long time (almost 5 seconds) for the tuner to select a new channel. This set is not for people who love machine-gun style channel surfing! If you want to do that, go through a VCR to surf and find what you want to settle on, then go back to the digital tuner.

I like hearing this. I have been scoping out the latest flat screens for sometime. Planning to drop the dough sometime over the next 6 months.
Wife & I were strolling through BB ( not my favorite store except to window shop ) and checked out more products.
My other half was humoring me since it was my birthday...to her a TV is a TV ....well, she changed her mind several minutes later, "Okay, I'm beginning to see why you are interested in these. Say, isn't that George Clooney on that one? Wow!" ;)

Never hurts to have the 'wife factor' covered.
Getting back to the techie stuff, they had a Tosh DLP next to a Samsung and Panny. I would say the panny was sharper than the Sammy but the Samsung had better colors. The Tosh had the best of both worlds in my opinion. I just kept going back to it, when my wife verbalized her impression, validating my own. It was simply a better image, more detail.
Now, I realize how each set is adjusted is a big factor, but the Tosh just had an appeal that I did not get off the others in the same price range.
I am eventually planning to replace a Sony 36" Wega. A very nice set really. I also have a much older 32" Toshiba in the bedroom. To this day, I like the colors better on the Tosh. I've done the Avia thing to both of them at least a couple of times.
I had the video driver go out on the T after we moved about 4 years ago. Just 4 weeks out of warranty. At the tech's urging I wrote Toshiba and pleaded my case, being critical but not nasty. They picked up the $300 tab.
I just may be going back to being a Toshiba customer again.
One question on the Toshiba, it appeared to have a bit more screen glare than the others. Of course, the ambience in the store could be a major factor. But was curious if there is a protective screen that can be removed, as was the case on early CRT rear projectors.
Nice forum here!

No screen glare on mine.

No screen glare on mine.

That's good to know! Also good to know you don't live in a Best Buy store.. :)

I had the toshiba and thought it was pretty good, at least at HD sources. DVD was so so. It was downright terrible at regular broadcasts...almost unwatchable. I went back an got a sony Kdf 55.
and have not looked back . The sony blew my toshiba away in all categories, color, sharpness, watchability, sound. I also like the fact it has a built in tuner and memory card reader. Regular broadcasts are very watchable now. The price was also slightly lower.

Interesting. While watching the playoff games I've been searching for posts on the Toshiba on various A/V forums. This is the 3rd negative thing I've read. Against about 18 positives. But then nothing is perfect.

how to deal with this gray bars on sides? if can make to black, it's better.
I have emailed Tosh CS twice, but they just want me to dial 1-800. :mad:


1) Gray vertical bars to crop a standard 4:3 TV image. I found this very annoying. Toshiba supposidly displays gray bars to prevent screen burn in, but this shouldn't be an issue with a DLP set. Try watching a B&W film like Citizen Kane with bright gray bars on the side. Not fun. Granted you can expand the image, but that adds distortion or crops the image. I don't use the stretch mode feature.

well I absolutly love mine, interesting thing is what echelonphoto said, I have a neibor that had the sony kdf 55 and when we tried to play xbox on it, it was terrible, so he returned it and now has the toshiba 52hm94 and is happier with it than the sony, so go figure.

As said in this thread already the only disapointing thing I have found on the toshiba is the anoying grey bars ( but my 6120 expressvu receiver changes them to black for SD so don't affect me) and the picture quality on some (not all) SD channels is not very good. HD is just awsome on this set and I am yet to see better. I have my PC hooked up to my set via component and it is very good, gaming is awsome, also xbox is very good. DVD's look good, some almost as good as HD and some look not so good, I find it greatly depends on the dvd itself for quality. All in All I am very happy with my toshiba dlp set and have no regrets.

I find the 'inferior' SD image interesting. Are these displays so highly tuned for HD, they sacrifice SD quality?
I don't know. Just asking the question, and I have read it elsewhere as a common complaint.
And yet MOST of the programming I would watch for an hour or more would generally be HD or DVDs, etc.

I have Dish, and most regular programming looks just fine...regular analog TV...I would not want it to look worse just so I can enjoy HD.

well I absolutly love mine, interesting thing is what echelonphoto said, I have a neibor that had the sony kdf 55 and when we tried to play xbox on it, it was terrible, so he returned it and now has the toshiba 52hm94 and is happier with it than the sony, so go figure.

As said in this thread already the only disapointing thing I have found on the toshiba is the anoying grey bars ( but my 6120 expressvu receiver changes them to black for SD so don't affect me) and the picture quality on some (not all) SD channels is not very good. HD is just awsome on this set and I am yet to see better. I have my PC hooked up to my set via component and it is very good, gaming is awsome, also xbox is very good. DVD's look good, some almost as good as HD and some look not so good, I find it greatly depends on the dvd itself for quality. All in All I am very happy with my toshiba dlp set and have no regrets.


How do you connect your Toshiba to your PC? Do you get HD from your PC? Which equipment do you use? Thankz

Toshiba has always been a big favorite in rear projector sets.



(http://www./avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=438276&highlight=toshiba)

I connect my PC's video card (ATI all in wonder 9800) with the component dongle that came with the video card, it works very well with very little overscan (set at 720P 1280x720). the coulor is much nicer than on my nec monitor and gaming is just awsome :)

Maritimer, I am also using the Expressvu 6120 to my 52HM84 and have it connected with component cable for an excellent HD picture. The SD is better than I expected. I am using an Optical connection for full 5.1 sound, which is awsome. I wonder if you or anyone else is using DVI to HDMI and if so, is it noticably better than component. The HDMI cable is very expensive and I wonder if it is worth the price.

hey paul11
I am also using component from my 6120 to my yamaha rxv2500 and component from yamaha to tv and all my component cables are top quality monster cable. I also have the sound from the 6120 run via optical, I am very happy with the 6120 sat receiver just wish there was an HD pvr available to us expressvu customers.
I find the component out on the 6120 looks better than the dvi out. dvi seems to be to dark where the component is right on.

Maritimer, thanks for the info.
I am using monster cable also and have been very happy with the picture. I just wondered if there was a further improvement with DVI to HDMI. I'm satisfied now that I have done every thing I can.
They wanted $240.00 for an HDMI cable at Future shop here in Calgary...that's nuts.

such STB is NA here, actually a junk here.
seems I have to live with gray bars. :(
ghosting is another issue.
http://funimg.pchome.com.tw/img_upload/PRODUCT/l/i/20050226_lienly_080302.jpg
other than above, PQ is really life like!!! :)

As said in this thread already the only disapointing thing I have found on the toshiba is the anoying grey bars ( but my 6120 expressvu receiver changes them to black for SD so don't affect me) and the picture quality on some (not all) SD channels is not very good. All in All I am very happy with my toshiba dlp set and have no regrets.