2006 Toshiba/Insignia CRT Thread

Just back from some local Best Buys, where I was surprised to see that both stores I visited were in a frenzy. A lot of the new model TVs came in last week and are being put on the shelves at this very moment. Thanks to whoever it was that posted several days ago that the new Insignia 30" was out at Best Buy.

Today I got to see both the new Insignia 30" and the Toshiba 27DF46 models. The Insignia is listed on the Best Buy website but no picture is shown, the Toshiba is not yet listed. Both have silver cabinets with black bezels (the front). There have been some minor cosmetic changes made for the better on the control panel of the 2006 Toshibas. The front panel that hides the controls looks different now and closes correctly. On some of the 2005 models, like the 30HF85 and 26HF85, it didn't close fully. Not a real problem, just a tiny thing that I do not personally care about.

The Insignia has bottom speakers just like the Toshiba, however that was not because of a conscious design specification. The reason is that the new Insignia 30" IS the Toshiba 30" underneath. Not only does it use the same tube but the entire TV, speakers, components, and all, underneath is most likely 95% the same. This was posted earlier by waltchan but I did not really believe him until I saw it for myself.

How do I know this? For one, the tube picture is obviously the same as the Toshibas. I recently went through more 30HF85's than just about anyone so I know practically all the geometry/convergence/focus quirks that are specific to them. Also, although the cabinet design is slightly different for the Insignia, the positioning of the Power button, the red LED light, all 4 channel/volume buttons, and the front-panel composite/S-Video inputs are all EXACTLY at the same spots as on the Toshiba (although the buttons are a different shape and there is no closable front panel). There is also no Menu button, same as the Toshiba. I didn't check the back panel though, and most likely it would have some minor differences as the Insignia supposedly has only 1 component input and no HDMI input.

If one still needs more proof, the BB salesman was kind enough to lend me the remote. I opened up the User Menu, and it is almost the exact same as the Toshiba menus. There are some slight cosmetic changes for 2006, but the basic layout is the same. There is no one on this Earth who would not agree that the Toshiba and the Insignias have the same-looking Menu.

If one needs even more proof, I then proceeded to open up the Service Menu on the 30" Insignia using the standard method that works for Toshiba TVs. The Service Menu looks 100% the same as on the Toshiba 30HF85's I had previously. I immediately closed the menu though without doing anything or looking to see if all the options were the same.

As far as the quality of the image goes, it appeared to be a slightly lower quality than the 30HF85's I had previously, but only in a quality control sense. Specification-wise it was the same. The screen dot pitch is exactly the same, and the geometry pecularities (not necessarily problems) are exactly the same. RGB convergence seemed better than all the 30HF85's I went through previously. But focus seemed off in general, worse than all the 30HF85's I had previously. However I can't be certain as I didn't take the TV home with me to test with familiar sources. There did not seem to be any of the problems with noise/static/interference that some 30HF85 users complain of (all units were affected, but some were worse than others).

The Insignia 30" had terrible Y/C color delay deconvergence problems though. I had mentioned earlier that all 30HF85 manufactured in Spring 2005 had unacceptable (about 4 SD pixels) Y/C delay through the component inputs only. The composite and S-Video inputs worked fine, and I never tested the HDMI or coax inputs on the units I had. The Insignia 30" has Y/C delay just as bad on the coax input, the only one I could check on the Best Buy TV. I have no idea if they have the problem through the other connections, it would be interesting if anyone who buys one of these can tell us (and knows what Y/C delay looks like). One of the Insignias I looked at had a weird geometry problem (that almost certainly cannot be corrected in Service Menu) but the other one didn't, that I can remember. Quality control issues I suppose. Both units seemed to have clean screens without dirt or missing pixels (an issue which plagued half the 30HF85's I owned previously, and caused returns).

Also, since a lot of managers and very knowledgeable salespeople were around, I asked them when the 30HF66 might come in. After some checking, it appeared that the 30HF66 was not yet listed in the Best Buy private computer system (the 27DF46 was), and so according to one of the HT managers, the earliest it could arrive would be in 3 weeks or so. He said that after the TV model appears in their private system, it usually takes around 3 weeks before the stores receive it from the central warehouse.

So it seems like it may still be another month before the 30HF66 comes in, but unfortunately if the quality is exactly the same as the Insignia 30" (which is quite possible) the chances that it will be a good TV are slim.

Another side-note, the Insignia 30" takes FOREVER to change channels with the built-in tuner. I'd seen some users complain before about other TV models, but never thought much of it. However, I've never seen a TV that takes THIS long. I timed it, and the Insignia takes 5 full seconds to change a channel and display it. That's actually long enough to be somewhat annoying.

The side bars on the Insignia are black. I forgot to thoroughly check the User Menus to see if that could be changed. I did check them for the standard critical stuff like Velocity Modulation settings, and they were there (no surprise because the Menu is the exact same as the Toshibas).

I didn't really check the 26DF46 too carefully, but from a quick glance it did appear to have a good quality picture.

Anyway, if anyone gets one of these TVs please let us know what you discover about it!!

Just in case people are wondering, I'm a bit disappointed in the quality of the new Insignia (only because of the Y/C delay, which I consider a fatal problem) but still think the TV could be a decent buy for only 550 dollars. Especially if the other inputs turn out to be better. It will be interesting to see if the quality of the 30HF66 manages to be an improvement. If not, one would have to ask themselves if an additional 250 dollars is worth it for an HDMI connection and a nicer looking (and universal) glow-in-the-dark remote.

At the moment I'm not making judgements on anything. I'm only trying to learn more about these TVs and tell others my observations. Eventually I need to make a choice and purchase a CRT of some sort and hopefully I will make the right decision this time.

Presuming it is a newly badged line of opening price point CRT HDTVs. I have already posted with my particular cabinet dimension problem, stating that I've modified (carved out) my hutch to accomodate a 31 5/8 inch set. The 30Hf85 would now fit, but I've rejected it because it doesn't have ATSC tuner.

I Understand that the 30HF66 does, so am hoping it is a good set with some image improvements too. The 30HF85s I've seen all have high-feature blooming (appears as focus problem, where high contrast edges are "bloomed." This can be muted a bit by carefully watching the brightness and contrast settings from day one. On my old 32 NTSC Toshiba, I kept that in check and today 9 or 10 years later the tube is still crystal sharp and one of the best I've ever seen. A DVD is very pleasant to view on it, but of course the letterboxed image is small.

I am anxiously awaiting the 30HF66 and hoping the cabinet dimensions have not changed from the HF85, but will look at the Insignias when they are in. Anxious to know if there really are any technical differences. Hypothetically the QC should be identical between the badged brands, and I would think it would be uneconomical to omit chassis features although I guess it's possible. Any other commentary by experts would be appreciated.

Part of the badging agreement might be to omit chassis features, not for reason of economy, but to differentiate products. They might only be firmware changes or some jacks not populated.

mrow2, I know of that blooming/focus problem you speak of on the 30HF85's. I already talked about it in the first post; I said the 2 Insignia's I saw actually had worse blooming than the worst 30HF85's I've seen, so that could be a problem. But that was only what I felt after looking in the store, to be sure I would have to look at the TV in my house viewing familiar material.

Regarding this blooming problem, it was worse on the three 30HF85's I had that were produced in March 2005, and much better on the one 30HF85 I had that was produced in September 2005. I also found, like you, that the blooming could be kept under excellent control if I lowered the brightness/contrast settings. The settings I ended up using were Brightness 25 (Default), Contrast below 0. I went into the Service Menu and lowered the Min Contrast setting below normal...the resulting effective Contrast I used would be considered below the original "0". Probably a bit suboptimal contrast setting, but it was necessary to get the 30HF85 beam spot to focus sharply. Still much more contrast than any LCD so I thought it was okay.

The Insignia is the exact same TV as the 30HF85 inside, but the cabinet was maybe 1/2" wider. I didn't measure it precisely, just eyeballing it. I could be wrong but that's what I felt. But I predict that the 30HF66 will have the exact same dimensions as the 30HF85...looking at the design of the 27DF46 is enough to make me fairly certain of that.

It appears to be a low to middle end lineup of LCDs and CRTs. No idea if it is a division of Toshiba or an off brand buying from different suppliers. I suspect the latter. The 30 inch HD widescreen shown is not like the 30HF85; it has speakers on the side. It is in a category of sets called TVs not monitors yet it does not have the HD tuner. Maybe their category of monitors don't have the sound, to differentiate between those and TVs that do. :-)

That's last year's Insignia model.

Other people say that Insignia is actually Best Buy's brand TV. Only Best Buy carries it, they just don't want to write "Best Buy" on the front of the TV.

Last year's Insignia 30" was a totally different TV underneath. I compared this year's model with last year's model side-by-side yesterday, and it was obvious the tube was different (different geometry quirks, attributes, etc).

This year's Insignia has a built-in HD tuner. It's kind of like the 30HF66 without any HDMI input and only 1 component connection. But like I said, it took 5 full seconds to change channels with it (in the meantime you see black screen), I dunno if people would find that acceptable...

by Tosh from another maker (Orion)? Why would Tosh put
out a substandard product and risk their reputaion?

Understand now that Insignia is the Best Buy in house brand and probably has more than supplier. I spent many years with Sears in D/57 and know that the Sears brand had several sources including (in those days) Warwick (Sears' own company then), Hitachi (these were great products), Sanyo (took over Warwick), and Toshiba I think.

by Tosh from another maker (Orion)? Why would Tosh put
out a substandard product and risk their reputaion?
Cheaper labor, that's why. Toshiba has already allowed Orion to make the TVs since 2004 and smaller CRTs since 2001. All Toshiba CRT TVs are now made by Orion. Toshiba no longer manufactures any CRT TVs. The new Insignia 30" you see here is basically an identical version of the new Toshiba 30HF66 without HDMI input.

Does Sears have an in-house CRT TV brand too? If so, what's the name?

Does Sears have an in-house CRT TV brand too? If so, what's the name?
Sears doesn't have one yet. I can only think of Kenmore and Craftsman, but they are not electronics.

Silvertone. Warwick built a lot of the sets. I don't recall when it disappeared, but possibly right before I became involved with them in the 1980's. Maybe some still had the name, I forget. It worked fine as a brand in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Gradually, the logo I saw on the in-house Toshibas and Sanyos and Hitachis was "Sears."

Sears had one of the first in-home VCRs and I had one, called Cartrivision, a few years before VCRs came along. It was blended with a high end Warwick chassis and it was a nice looking set, good furniture. Mine always worked good, and a few years later I sold it right before Betamax was introduced. It seemed like a third of the chassis was located on the helical scan head assembly, which was quite large. The cartridge was the size of a hardcover book. I don't recall the width of the tape, might have been 3/4 inch. Tapes were expensive but I got a bunch with the set.

Well seeing as I actually own a 30" Insignia I may chime here.Yes I agree that the lack of HDMI and the obvious CRT quirks that one can point out,for the price the quality far exceeds.i have had my set for a lil over a year now and ZERO problems except for the one I caused,slight mis-coloration caused by speaker too close to tv,but BB sent out a tech who degaussed it and my problem is gone.My brother-in-law works there so I got his employee discount and ended up paying 450 the set.I love it.I actually spend more time on the CRT than I do on my other sets mainly cause its in my bedroom but the PQ is nice and I personnally have had no real problems with it.

Well seeing as I actually own a 30" Insignia I may chime here.Yes I agree that the lack of HDMI and the obvious CRT quirks that one can point out,for the price the quality far exceeds.i have had my set for a lil over a year now and ZERO problems except for the one I caused,slight mis-coloration caused by speaker too close to tv,but BB sent out a tech who degaussed it and my problem is gone.My brother-in-law works there so I got his employee discount and ended up paying 450 the set.I love it.I actually spend more time on the CRT than I do on my other sets mainly cause its in my bedroom but the PQ is nice and I personnally have had no real problems with it.
This is a different Insignia TV made by a different manufacturer. It's made by Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronic Ltd. in China, maker of Advent and Prima brands. This year, the 2006 one is made by Orion (Sansui) who makes Toshiba TVs and Toshiba DVD/VCR combos.

This is a different Insignia TV made by a different manufacturer. It's made by Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronic Ltd. in China, maker of Advent and Prima brands. This year, the 2006 one is made by Orion (Sansui) who makes Toshiba TVs and Toshiba DVD/VCR combos.
Oh ok cool...I wasnt sure which model you guys were talking about....so you are familiar with my model?I see you know who manufactures it ,could you tell me how to get into the service menu or where should I look?I have been very pleased with it but would like an oppertunity to to atleast look at which options if any can be tweaked.

BTW the Toshiba 30HF85 is now only 600 dollars at Best Buy this week. They must be really desperate to get rid of them all because the 30HF66 is probably due anytime now.

At that price point, I'm actually considering going out to get one again. It's also due to the fact that the Insignia 30" didn't seem that great, so my hopes on the 30HF66 have been dashed somewhat. Still, I really wish someone would buy the new model Insignia and investigate it better so we can all learn more about it.

Getting another 30HF85 may be a mistake, but when the price drops below a certain amount, more imperfections in quality become acceptable to me. At the moment I'm still planning on waiting for the 30HF66 but who knows what will happen. I think I can say with some degree of certainty that if the price ever went below 500 I'd probably get a 30HF85 immediately.

It's not lack of funds that makes me think that way, as I'd much prefer to spend more and get more, but if that is impossible (I also require a bottom-speaker compact design) to find, then spending very little and get something worth my money is acceptable too...

Porcupine, it's best if you stay at this forum. I just got banned at AVS Forum. The administrator blocked my IP address, so I can't access there anymore. That's alright if I get blocked because I already hate that place anyway. Those people who continue to accuse several people that I am them, they are dead wrong. Let's continue discussing Toshiba TVs here. I hope Ratman is reading this.

Okay. I won't talk at AVS Forum much either then. Maybe never. Especially if the admins banned you, and not "them". For they are the ones that obviously deserve to be banned for their actions, not you. If the mods are on their side there is not much we can do. It's not a good forum, and it's not a neutral forum.

Actually I hope Ratman is not reading this, for I have lost all my respect for him recently at the AVS Forum. I never want to see him again, and if I see him continue to follow us here I may have to consider other options against him.

On the other hand, since you claim your IP is now blocked, if I continue to post at AVS Forum for a week, won't that prove I am not you? Of course, I'm sure no one believes I am you anyway, it is just their dumb little game they play which the mods there are willing to put up with.

It's your call on what I should do with this. (point out that my IP is different, or just leave everything alone since I'm sure neither the AVS "gang" or the AVS "mods" care).

Yes, please continue posting. In fact, copy this link at AVS, so they can read this. I take pride in honesty and lying is not something I always like to do. If I lie, I don't write good lyrics or music. And you know I don't have time to make new accounts and post under different alias. Life is busy. I'm glad that you are still with me.

Of course I'll read this! If you post only as 'waltchan', then you can be held accountable for your info. Just keep it honest.

IMO... it's best to not "bash" another forum or it's partipants here. You're only asking for trouble... let it go.

I had always assumed previously that Toshiba had provided the initial design specifications for the 2004 and 2005 CRT HDTV models, regardless of the fact that they were actually being produced by Orion in Thailand. I thought this because there were some genuine Toshiba-produced 2003 and earlier models that appeared to have a similar design (at least aesthetically, bottom speakers and all), though at the very least with vastly superior quality control.

But now that it has been revealed that the new Insignia (Best Buy house brand) 30" CRT is also the exact same Orion 30" tube underneath, I don't know what to think anymore. If Toshiba owns the tube design then I don't think Insignia should be able to use the exact same tube, even though Orion is making it.

Could it be that Orion is actually the one who has designed this tube from the beginning? Or perhaps they simply inherited the rights legally and fully from Toshiba?

IMO, it really doesn't matter. I don't think that any TV today is made with components that are 100% from the manufacturer.

So, Toshiba outsources to Orion. Orion manufactures using the Sansui and Insignia brand name at a lesser price. What would one expect for less $$? No matter how you cut it, dice it or slice it, it's Orion.

Therefore, buy a Toshiba for a few $$ more (hoping for better quality) or avoid all Orion manufactured products altogether. It's that simple!

IMO, it really doesn't matter. I don't think that any TV today is made with components that are 100% from the manufacturer.
Correct. Orion does not make many TV parts. Orion buys all the parts and components from manufacturers and assembles the TVs according to the drawing design sheet.

My point....
The same thing is done by Mits, Hitachi, Panasonic, RCA, etc...

No TV today is manufactured or assembled 100% by the name on the front of the TV.

There may be some TV's out there with that 'badge', but it will cost you quite a few more $$ than what a J6P wants to spend.

Sheesh! Even the $5000 Loewe Aconda used the RCA/Thomson picture tube!

Oh well, I ended up getting a 5th 30HF85 a couple days ago, lol. The quality of the new 30" Insignia didn't give me hope for the 30HF66, so I decided it was better to buy a cheap 600 dollar 30HF85 or a 550 dollar Insignia now, than wait for a 800 dollar 30HF66 that only has a *chance* of being better. Also, by the time the 30HF66 comes out probably the 600 dollar 30HF85's will be gone so I had to decide now.

After carefully looking at the Insignias one last time I decided on the 30HF85 again. Their pic quality seemed comparable and I figured the extra 50 bucks was worth it just for the glow-in-the-dark universal remote and an HDMI input that may have the banding problem and not work anyway. ;)

I'm pretty lucky though, this time I got a unit with a different build date of November 2005, and it is different from all the 30HF85's I had before. At first I thought it was perfect, but it's not. Still, it's by far the best set I've had overall (but not in each specific category).

No busted screen pixels on the shadow mask, and a 100% clean glass screen. None of my 4 previous sets satisfied with requirement, though 1 came close (only a dirty glass screen, but in a way such that the light still shone through and nothing was obscured).

Focusing and vertical bloom on this one is the 2nd best of all my sets. The best one of my previous was the 1st 30HF85 I ever got, also produced in Fall 2005 (unfortunately I forgot the exact month). I'm still breaking-in this set though, and unfortunately I noticed the focusing got slightly worse after I used it for a couple days (problem is easily compensated for by reducing the Contrast/Brightness, as on all 30HF85s, the only issue is how bright can you have these sets and still retain good focus) so I had to darken it a bit.

RGB convergence is almost perfect on this set. It is the best I have ever seen on any CRT by any maker these days, including Sony, etc. Someone really got it as good as possible, within the set's limitations, at the factory. o_O My previous 4th set, had the worst RGB convergence, could have been returned for just that (though I returned it for having multiple broken screen pixels).

Y/C delay (Y/C convergence) is pretty good on this set. Best through the S-Video inputs, like on all 30HF85s. It started out 100% perfect out-of-the-box, but after I broke in the TV for a couple hours it degenerated boohoo. :~~( Now it's just very good. Y/C Delay through the component inputs is good too though (all the 30HF85 built in Spring 2005 have unwatchable Y/C delay through component, making those connectors worthless). On my current set, I noticed for the first time that the Y/C delay through component using 480i is slightly worse than Y/C delay through component using 480p. But they are both very similar amounts. My 480p through component is about as good as my S-Video (after it degenerated)...both are pretty good with acceptable Y/C delay.

My set also works with 480i through component, so far. My very first 30HF85 produced in Fall 2005 had the known vertical-desynch problem with 480i through component. Some other owners developed the problem after months of usage though; I hope I don't either.

The problem with 10 degree-from-horizontal, very faint interference lines crawling up the screen, through S-Video and composite, that exists on all 30HF85s, and is worse on Fall-produced units, is indeed very observable on my unit. I think I have it at an acceptable level though.

My current unit has a geometry problem (not fixable in service menun); it's the only area in which this unit has some problems. Although, both my previous Toshibas had different kinds of geometry problems. (My first 2 Toshibas I didn't even really know what geometry problems were back then, so I never bothered to check). I see a lot of other TVs and computer monitors with this problem though, it's not uncommon, and it's not that severe on my current 30HF85. What happens is that horizontal lines on the TV go like this:

\ \ \__________________________
\ \____________________________
\ \_____________________________

In other words the left side of the screen goes upward at a slight angle. It's only about 2 degrees though. It's not super diagonal like my "picture." :) The "bending" point occurs slightly to the left of the center of the screen.

My current unit also has a crappier power supply than my 3 previous Spring 2005 units. And probably the same power supply as my first Fall 2005 unit (I didn't know how to identify all power supply problems back then). Screen image "geometry" balloons outward more noticeably in very dark scenes, than my Spring units did (one sign of a weak power supply). However I tested my current unit with vigorous high-intensity flashing explosions and the image never cut-out so far (it did once, with my first unit).

Anyway, for 600 dollars I think this was a good buy, and I'm satisfied. Though I'll have to wait for the TV to fully break-in to see what it will be like, it should still be okay after that. I'm still curious to see what the 30HF66 will be like but unfortunately I probably can't get one now that I've already got this. I hope future 30HF66 owners will be able to give it an in-depth review for me to read. :)

One last thing, considering how much the characteristics of my 5 units have differed, I'm sure the 30HF66 will have lots of variations from unit to unit as well, even if some general improvements manage to be made. Probably it will have some sets with terrible RGB convergence and some with perfect RGB convergence, just like I saw with the 30HF85. So I'm pretty happy with the set I've finally managed to get...though I'd much rather have gotten one decent set to start with and paid retail price.

The 6th unit should be perfect. :hithere:

Glad you finally got a set your happy with. Focus is very easy to do yourself. I've tweaked my 30hf84 and my Philips 30pw8502 with great success.

I believe the horizontal bowing can be addressed by a tech with magnets. They should be able to do it in your home considering that set has in home service. Matter of fact, let him do the focus adjustment at the same time. If you are there to watch him, you shoudn't have any problems.

If you want to get a good HD tuner cheap there are a lot of used Samsung SIR TS-160's on Ebay. I guess these are the returns from D* owners when the H20 came out. I have had one for about a year and I used it with my 30hf84. Works great through component or DVI to HDMI. You don't have to subscribe to D* , you can just use it as an OTA tuner. And if you want D* service just add a triple lnb dish and you have their HD programming. I've seen them as low as $35.00 for Buy It Now. And a lot of the guys ship worldwide so you shouldn't have a problem in Hawaii.

The focus is good enough on this set, I'm easily satisfied. The only two things about this set I wish were better are the horizontal geometry (the bend, actually it's more like 5 degrees than 2 degrees, ohwell, it's not terribly severe) and the abnormally poor power supply (it makes the screen geometry balloon outward noticeably on any reasonably dark scene...the side grey bars in 4:3 mode will be super curved if the middle image is black, but will be perfectly straight if the middle image is some fairly bright image).

I'll probably just leave this set as is...I think it's good for an overly-picky person like myself to try to learn to live with minor problems rather than go berserk with returns and repairs right off-the-bat. I think I've had enough of returns, and for 600 dollars this is good enough. :)

If my set ever acts up though in the future (like developing the 480i glitch through component, or I get some HD sources and become annoyed with HDMI banding or 1080i component white glow) while it is still under warranty, I'd probably ask them to try to fix the horizontal bend at the same time.

I'm curious though, if the horizontal bend is fixed with magnets, could that possibly change the RGB convergence on this set? Right now it's pretty amazingly perfect so I'm a bit worried about that as well. I don't want to possibly mess with something that's already going fairly good.

Other things I noticed recently are that the vertical bending/bowing is better on this set than the 3 previous March 2005 units I had (I don't know how to compare to my first Fall unit, because back then I did not look for geometry problems). Also, color purity across the screen is much better on this set than all March units (the same color is the really the exact same color almost wherever it is...the March units don't even come close). Probably my first Fall unit had this good color purity too, as I didn't notice any problems until my 2nd unit (March 2005 build).

Yeah, shipping to Hawaii is generally not a problem. Televisions are the first thing I've encountered that tend to have problem shipping to Hawaii. I have bought receivers, large speakers, etc online. Something needs to be really huge before people won't want to ship it here.

Something needs to be really huge before people won't want to ship it here.

I wonder how they got all of those cars there? :confused:

Boat. I once shipped my car here from the mainland a number of years ago when I finished undergrad. 800 dollars to ship a relatively small car. I forgot how long it took, at least several weeks I think.

TVs would have to be either airlifted or boated over. Air would be too expensive (probably 300 dollars I am estimating, based on what other things I have bought) to ever be worth using on a CRT. By boat the cost might be reasonable but there is no standard US boat service to Hawaii for regular mail (packages, etc).

You can only use boat for super giant things like cars and special-arrangements (if you are moving for example, I think you can make giant "crates" of your stuffs like furniture etc, and put them all on a boat and ship em over all at once.

Most likely the TV stores in Hawaii get their stuff by boat too. Since they get TVs en-mass I'm sure they are allowed to use boats. It's just there's no regular boat service for individual consumers who only want to ship one "small" thing, like a TV.

I believe "USPS Media Mail" to Hawaii also goes by boat. But USPS Media Mail won't accept heavy packages like televisions.

edit: Regular individuals CAN ship a TV by Air to Hawaii if they want to, UPS and/or Fedex will accept it, it's just that the cost might be 300 or more (probably 500 or more with Fedex) and so few Internet stores offer that option, as it's too cost inefficient.

If all that sounds weird to you, I dunno. I'm not the one who makes the rules. Maybe I'm wrong on that. It seems that boats will only either accept small packages (Media Mail) or GIANT GIANT packages (cars or huge crates).

If all that sounds weird to you, I dunno. I'm not the one who makes the rules. Maybe I'm wrong on that. It seems that boats will only either accept small packages (Media Mail) or GIANT GIANT packages (cars or huge crates).

I do realize that boat or plane is the only way to get products to/from an island. :rolleyes:

Your statements do sound 'weird'. Maybe you are wrong.
They send "stuff" back and forth every day that's as big as a TV.

Agreed that one may pay an extra premium, but it's not like shipping products to Antarctica. It shouldn't be as expensive that you make appear to be.

...and all the Toshiba TVs made at the Orion factory in Thailand are being delivered by boat to the United States. They first enter at the Los Angeles port area.

Yeah I was pretty sure TVs would go by boat, it's the most economical. But all those Orion TVs come in a huge crate shipment on a boat. Similarly, the Hawaii stores afterwards get huge crate shipments of TVs from the mainland warehouses.

What the boats won't accept (I dunno why, ask them) is a package consisting of only one or two TVs. They just find that kind of size of product awkward. They only want to ship huge things, so to ship TVs you must have an arrangement with them to ship many TVs en-masse.

Boats will ship small things like books and stuff via Media Mail, only because the USPS company has an arrangement with them to load up huge crates of media packages. But USPS and UPS are bad and don't offer non-Media Mail boat service to Hawaii. I don't know why, ask them. To ship things by boat to Hawaii (such as my car, for example) one has to make arrangements directly with the boating companies, in which case you must make your own giant shipment for them (either a car, or a "crate").

Actually, now that I think about it, I did do that once (ship CRT to Hawaii by boat). At the same time I moved to Hawaii and shipped my car over, I had all my other stuff (computer monitor, fairly large speakers, receiver, etc) shipped over too. I think it all came by boat as well, and a crate was made (because I put all my stuff in it). I dunno. It costed a lot though, but that was because I did it through Mailboxes, Etc. (you will get charged more because someone takes care of all the technicalities for you). I think it costed 200 dollars to ship my 20" computer monitor over (70 pounds). It costed more for the other stuff (speakers, etc).

My computer monitor also arrived broken (and I received 500 dollars of insurance money, though I paid over 1000 for my monitor that was all I insured it for). So perhaps that is why USPS does not want to deal with the boating companies.

My car also arrived with minor cosmetic damage (although I'm sure it came on a different boat) and I got a little bit of money for that as well. When you ship a car via boat, before it ships some guy comes over and SUPER CAREFULLY checks out your car for all the tiniest damages and writes them all down. Then when it gets there, another guy does the same thing. They are careful not to get cheated on....but apparently they need to do that cause they do damage cars fairly often I'm guessing.

I discovered something very useful yesterday in the 30HF85 Service Menu, and was able to alleviate my "power supply geometry ballooning" problem to a great deal. Perhaps to the same level as on my previous units. So that's one problem solved, simply through the Service Menu!

The needed setting was V. SYMM. I'd toyed with this on all my previous units but never found it to do anything useful. It appeared to adjust the vertical image sizing in a funny way (adjusting this control also makes the whole image temporarily bounce as it is being adjusted, which is scary) and there are two other Service Menu settings to adjust the vertical sizing, so I'd never touched this.

But I just realized what it does, at least sort of. It moves around the ballooning geometry part of the screen (for dark images only...power supply problem) up or down. Resizing the image is only a side-effect. By centering my ballooning region properly, the problem was reduced significantly. I think it is now on par with my previous sets, and the set geometry is much more constant now (not affected by the on-screen image as much). Hurray!!

Even more interestingly, I discovered afterwards that V. SYMM., which is located in the Service Menu just after all the geometry settings, is the only geometry-affecting setting that is global to all display modes (Full, Natural, TheaterWide, etc). So there is something "special" about that last geometry setting. My thoughts that it somehow has to do with an adjustment regarding the power supply thus makes sense, I think. :)

Factory-set V. SYMM is the same on all 30HF85s, it's always pre-set to 128 (ranges from 0 to 255). On this last set, I changed it to 200. On all my previous sets 128 was probably the correct setting. Probably few sets need this adjustment I am guessing.

I just bought this off of NewEgg for $529
I just ordered the Toshibs 30HF85 off of NewEgg for $529 plus $70 shipping. I know NewEgg is trustworthy, but is this set a lemon?

I originally went for the Samsung SlimFit "79" but the model was a lemon right out of the box.

What's the best 16x9 HD set for $600-700 for an XBox 360?

I suppose no set at that price does 720p native? I thought the Samsung SlimFit's do (maybe they do) but I got one and it was a lemon and I sent it back. I went for the Toshiba because my parents bought one 3 years ago and the tube is amazing.

Now I'm worried I'm gonna get one that is not up to par.

I hope someone replies in time in case I need to cancel my order.

Thanks!