Toshiba 26HF85 and 30HF85. PLEASE READ!!!

Just want to stop by and inform all the TV buyers regarding to the new Toshiba 26HF85 and 30HF85 CRT HDTV sets. If you are thinking that these are quality Toshiba TV sets, think again. These new HDTV sets are not made by Toshiba but made by Orion in Thailand. These two models are being outsourced to Orion and are reportably having a lot of quality issues. If you have never heard of Orion before, this is the company that currently produces TV and video products under the low-end Broksonic, Durabrand, Memorex, Orion, and Sansui brands. Thanks for your understanding and good luck with your new HDTV purchase.



Walter Chan

I just wanted to say that I went to Best Buy and saw flaws in the 30" AND 26" sets that were on display! I wanted to purchase a Tosh but now no way. And for 999.00! Right now Wal Mart is selling a 30" Sanyo for 697.00. I'll probably go that route.

I read in one of the forums it was only the sets under 30", not the 30".

I'm guess I'm going to play devil's advocate here.

I've been looking for a 26-30 inch HDTV for my bedroom and recently had the chance to compare a Tosh 30HF85 and Sony KV-30HS420 at BB. To my surprise the Tosh actually outpreformed the Sony IMHO. Color was better on the Tosh and (most noticeably) the geometry on the Tosh was much better.

The Sony IMO didn't have as good a color, but most noticeably the geometry was horrible!! the top was ridiculously crooked.

I'm not a Toshiba whore but I was underimpressed with what I saw from the 30HS420 in comparison to the Tosh.

There is no reason u shouldn't enjoy your TV. Walter has been going to every A/V chat about this. It is his one-note. I have been in the business for years. I'm familiar w/ and have been involved w/outsourcing. The 26 and 30HF's are indeed outsourced to Orion just as many products are outsourced. Orion must meet Tosh standards for design and parts. Quality control is monitored. Tosh's failure rate is 12 percent, the industry average. Tosh, Sony, Panny, etc, all fall between 11 and 14 percent. Sound and Vision Magazine just (this month) did a comparo tween the 30HF84 and comparable Panny and Samsung. Samsung didn't fare that well. Tosh won over Panny by a nose. If u are worried about outsourcing go to AVS Forum's "Official 26HF85, 30HF85 and 34HF85" link and look at last couple of posts from those of us in the business. Enjoy your TV's. One more thing, you will find that all CRT direct view TV's have some geometry imperfections. That is the nature of the beast. After professional calibration the geometry on my 34HF84 is perfect to naked eye and according to ISF tech who did the work, Tosh has better geometry than Sony

alalk3 said :
After professional calibration the geometry on my 34HF84 is perfect to naked eye and according to ISF tech who did the work, Tosh has better geometry than Sony.

I have the same set and am quite satisfied with the picture out of the box. Is the calibration worth it and can you describe the calibration he did. A local outfit in my hometown is offering calibration for 250.00

Ed

I made the mistake of buying the Toshiba 26HF85 TV from a distributor without seeing the picture first. I wanted HD and progressive scan. This seemed a cool little unit. When I got it home I found I could not adjust the contrast enough to get a decent picture. I had to crank the brightness up all the way to get any kind of resolution in shadows. Then all the figures on screen seemed blasted by light. And with this much brightness the tube life will be drastically shortened. I called Toshiba and they put me onto an authorized repair center. I left it with them and they reported that the contrast indeed could be adjusted – just not very much. It seemed an okay Toshiba to them. I called Toshiba again and they said if I didn’t like the picture then I should return the TV. I took it back to the distributor and they said the lousy picture was within Toshiba’s specs. I noticed they had a Toshiba plasma display which had a similar picture – blasted bright with murky shadows and dull colors. I guess this is Toshiba’s idea of a good picture. Yikes! I left the TV with the distributor. They’re charging me $50 to return it. A small price to pay to get rid of this piece of junk.

Whoa, you really "bought a pig in a poke"!

You didn't check your specs well, or were confused by marketing hype... "Progressive Scan" support for HDTV means a display with a native resolution of 720p... many manufacturers of cheap TVs try to say their's has PS, when it only supports 480p or 540p... and it's native HD res is 1080i interlaced.

All consumer HD CRTs and CRT based RPTVs are interlaced.

MikyC - you can rest assured that there are plenty of very satisfied Toshiba owners out there - maybe your idea of a good picture is not mainstream!

In reply to the reactions to my post: the Toshiba had true 480p progressive scan which had fine sharpness working with my Pioneer DVD player. My problem was I could not adjust the picture to bring out the detail in shadows. The contrast simply did not adjust and I was told this is normal in this model. I doubt my taste in picture is too far out of the mainstream. I've spend 25 years in TV and motion pictures and know what a cinematographer intended when he lights a scene. The Toshiba TV I had could not produce a decent image. Period. I'm back to using a 10-year-old Panasonic 19 inch which has a much better picture. Sure, there are plenty of happy Toshiba customers. There are lots of people who like back projection TVs too. ALL of their pictures are terrible, yet some people, dazzled by size, buy them. There certainly is no telling for taste, but at some point there are basic aesthetic parameters which must be met. The Toshiba didn't meet them.

This is from a recent review - admittedly for the 34" model....

"Perfect color and an amazing black level—in other words, everything you'd expect from a CRT.

It's hard to talk about CRTs these days. Sure, they still make up the majority of the display market, but they're just not sexy. It's like a Toyota Camry—it does everything it's supposed to do, and it does it well, but no one really lusts after it. That analogy is probably too harsh for the Toshiba 34HF84, which has more-accurate colors and a darker black level than any display I've reviewed in recent memory."

http://www.hometheatermag.com/directviewandplasmatvs/105toshiba/