Customer Reviews

Akai PT4299HD 42-Inch Widescreen HD-Ready Rear-Projection TV

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When the cable guy walked past our nearly decade old Magnavox 27 inch tv and nonchalantly announced its impending demise, it was time to venture into the brave new world of tv technology: crt, plasma dlp, lcd...hearing about all the new "idiot box" advances made me feel like I was on lsd. As if that weren't bad enough, whatever we bought had to fit in the Arhaus armoire (last year's tax purchase) that's only 21 inches deep. Finally, we found the Akai. With its 42 inch screen, it's a big upgrade from the old set, and a nice transition set while waiting for DLP, Plasma and LCD to get lower in price and iron-out the kinks. At $799 through HH Gregg and Circuit City during sales, it's not gonna break the bank, either.

Pluses: fits where others don't, tweaking the factory presets results in a picture quality that rivals its more expensive, big name counterparts, intuitive menus and remote, no glare. Basically a rebadged Samsung, without PIP.

Minuses: none of the traditional necessary inputs for HDTV. If you want to get HD, you'll need a tuner or digital cable box with built-in tuner, no lenticular cover (the lens screen is particularly fragile and needs careful cleaning), should be on matching stand for best light distribution, sound quality requires a home theater set.

But if you're happy with a larger screen that offers crisp, clear, bright and detailed images when using prog scan DVD players or watching channels like HBO that are truly digital, the Akai's not a bad choice. Especially for the technophobic and budget-minded.

I got one just like this at Conn's but it was the 52" model. I was really impressed when I got it home. The HD through the component input is beutiful. But here is what you need to watch out for BURN IN in on the side bars if you watch it in 4:3 mode and I am talking less then 3 months with only occasionally watching it with black bars on the side. Akai put in small print on the front page of their manual that they will not warrent any type of burn in. I did call them anyway and they won't do a thing. If you do buy this TV make sure you always watch in 16:9 mode or you too will get side bar burn in.

Looked at Plasmas & LCD's -this Akai has much better contrast and blacks and half the price. It's a rear projection CRT-no bulbs to change like DLP's. If you have the room, it's not bad looking either. Only 21" deep and 89 lbs is not bad compared to large 200lb. direct view CRTs. TV should be at eye level or slightly above and 10 -15' from viewer with low or no lights on for best picture. I put it on a sturdy coffee tabe. Akai was known in past for high quality audio components like reel to reel, may now be made by Samsung. Color saturation & balance was excellent out of box. 4 picture modes are available, I found Custom & Standard best to tweak picture with, I found cutting down on sharpness & contrast got a nicer, smoother picture. Hooked up to Charter HD cable box with monster DVI cables & DVD with component cables- gets excellent HDTV & DVD picture, from side angles as well. Hoping for more HD channels to become available as analog (non HD) picture quality is lousy when in DVI input mode as it has to be in "stretch mode" on cable box to fill the whole screen. These 480 or lower broadcasts show 4:3 black bars on side which worries me for burn in problems. I heard that the first 100 hrs of use are most critical to avoid burn in on RPCRTs. Using the TV as the tuner rather than cable box and using its "panorama" option fixes this better though and significantly improves an analog- source picture to "good." Watching sports or anything else in HD is awesome though as monitor displays 1080 input from most of those. Picture seems to get even better as the TV warms up. Very good remote as well. It's S-Video input is essential for decent VCR use. Kmart is clearing these out now for $810 and a very reasonable extra 2 yr protection plan for 50$. For about $900 total with taxes, combined with my surround sound system ( built in sound from TV is very good, by the way), I have a pretty decent theater in my basement!

This is a steal! If you don't have thousands of dollars to waste, this is your answer to prayer. This TV is outstanding though not perfect... but there is nothing to complain about cause you get so much more TV for your money than anything I saw in my weeks and weeks of research. Spend a couple extra bucks to get the component cables cause it takes your picture to a new level! ENJOY

Have been looking for a tv for a few months. I first saw this model locally at Circuit City. It had a beautiful picture, especially for the price. I needed a television that would sit on a stand so I would have a place for my home theater components and Directv Box. I bought the stand which is made for this tv from Circuit City ($99.99) which is available online. (Amazon does not offer the stand) I odered this tv on 11/28/04 and I got the shipping confermation that it was on the way on Sunday 11/29/04. I received it yesterday 12/4/04 and they even brought it in my house and put it on the stand. Not bad for the "Super Saver Free Shipping" . This was a very smooth transaction. I will do business here again! This is a great TV for a guy on a budget!!!! P.S. My wife loves it to!!
A. Cook
Hampton, VA

Have owned for 4+ years. Have never had a problem. Use 5 hrs daily. Great for quality and reliability for the price.

I think that its a bang for the price, im very satisfied with my purchase.