Customer Reviews

RCA F38310 38" 16:9 HDTV with Built-In DirecTV and HDTV Receivers

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

The answer is YES: Yes the picture quality is awesome, YES movies look better viewed the way they are supposed to be (widescreen), and YES TV is a whole new experience. If you are in the market for a TV and don't have room for a rear project massive TV this TV gives you close to the same size screen, arguably better color quality, and the versatility of putting this TV anywhere just like any other "tube". If you watch TV on a regular basis or if you are like me and love movies wide screen is the way to go. Enjoy!!! : )

Purchased and began using this TV this past weekend. I have found that it seems to be a product rushed to production. Simple problems such as no satellite outputs. If you wish to tape something off of satellite, this set does not have a satellite output to hookup to your Tivo, Ultimate TV, or VCR. Are you a big fan of PIP? If so, this isn't the TV you want. You can only view PIP if you are viewing an analog channel and if the PIP is tuned to an analog channel. So it isn't possible to view a satellite or digital CATV program and pull up your PIP. Selecting channels is also cumbersome. If viewing satellite and you want to go to ESPN from another channel, you would have to enter '206', then press 'OK' for the tuner to switch. I know, just one more button to press, but try finding that button in the dark. Picture quality is Good with my satellite, and Best when viewing DVD's. RCA included the HDTV tuner with this set which will save you money down the road and allows you to view HDTV broadcasts currently being offered. In St Louis, 3 local stations are broadcasting HDTV, and with my over the air antenna, the quality is outstanding. Out of 5 stars I would rank the picture a 4 as quality seems to go along with digital broadcasts (HDTV, DVD etc). With limited HDTV broadcasts, picture quality suffers right now. The absence of the satellite output bothers me most especially when you pay this much for a TV and it's the "latest and greatest" offering.

I've had this RCA set for about a year. The HDTV picture is superb; with the over the air local stations' HDTV selections sharper than the HDTV channels from DirecTV. If all channels were broadcast in HD this would be a superb set. However, most programming in non-HD (99%). The TV comes with a DirecTV HD tuner....the high def channels as mentioned are superb, but everything else is less than average. All the other non-HD stations (which is all the channels except 199 and the HBO HD station (509) are somewhat blurry and come in in much less detail/resolution than any of my other TV sets connected to DirecTV. Since most of the programming is now non-HD, most of the TV watching will be non-HD programs, hence, resulting in watching a poor picture. Had the RCA tech come out and check out the set, could find nothing wrong, and hinted that RCA knows they have this problem with this set and it seems to be related to the built in DirecTV HD tuner. The way I found around this problem was to purchase another non-HD DirecTV tuner (got a TiVo unit) and connect it to the RCA TV. I watch the HD stations on the built in RCA tuner and remainder of the DirecTV stations via my accessory DirecTV tuner. The picture via the accessory tuner is much better but still not quite as good as the picture on get on DirecTV via my old Mitsubishi 35" TV. The other built in tuner (the one obtaining local stations) is much better, and the over the air HD station reception in HD is superb. The only other drawback is that there are no outputs from the back of the TV; this means one cannot hook up a VCR to tape any shows. TiVo solved part of this problem, record shows on its disk and can connect VCR to the TiVo unit.

When the TV works, it has a beautiful picture with HD and DVD sources. Because the TV has a DirectTV tuner, the HDTV signal from that source is wonderful.

The TV (when it works) has some quirks: it's difficult to manuever around the menus, the owners manual is incorrect in places, and the internal fan(s) are noisy 24/7; you can hear them over movie sound tracks during quiet breaks.

But the real problem is that my TV has been unreliable. In just 11 months, the main circuit board and picture tube went out and I was without my TV for 3 months of the 11 waiting for repairs. The tube went out just 10 days after the circuit board was repaired. The retail price for the tube (not including labor) was [price]. The only parts that haven't had to be replaced are the plastic casing and speakers, and the right speaker now appears to be going out.

RCA/Thompson Customer Service/Relations was simply unresponsive. They did not care that the TV was out of service for 3 months, and did nothing to speed up the process. They certainly weren't going to replace this obvious lemon (according to the repair tech). To talk to a human at RCA, it will cost you; it's not a toll free number. I was on the line waiting for someone for 75 minutes over 3 periods. I've had to get time off work on 6 occassions to deal with in-home techs and pick-up and deliveries.

A product is really only as good as the company that stands behind it, and this is an obvious example of a company that does not stand behind its product, which makes purchasing this TV a significant gamble. With so many nice TVs to choose from, this TV is just not worth this hassle.

I've had mine for about three months now and I love it. Just beware that it's very heavy and finding the made-to-fit stand can be difficult. There is also a great deal of menus to figure out before the television will perform its best. The setup isn't easy but is worth it. The RCA HDTV receiver isn't the best on the market and has a fan that runs all the time to keep it cool. Overall though, these are small prices to pay for the thousands of hours of television bliss that you'll enjoy. I know that I do.

I bought this set and it has warts. First of all, the unit has some kind of cooling fan(s) inside that constantly whir and make loud noise, even when the set off! This is very distracting at night, so I have to unplug the set and thus lose the date and time settings to keep from hearing the fan noise all night long. Sometimes the fan noise is audible above the actual sound level of the TV program being watched! Second, the remote is a real cumbersome thing to operate, very `klugey' and irritating to set preferences and channels, and although "touted" as a remote able to Learn the codes for VCR's and DVD players connected to the set, it has NOT been able to learn my VCR and DVD players. Also, the PIP function is too primitive. The PIP image can be moved around the screen, BUT the size of the PIP image is FIXED and cannot be altered. Also, whenever channels are changed, a large INFO banner is always displayed for ten seconds or so, this is a real "BUSTER" and cannot be suppressed, a real NUISANCE! Worst of all, don't get snookered by your cable company like I did! Yes, the major NETWORKS are all broadcasting HDTV in my locale, BUT not all cable companies are "re-broadcasting" in Digital. CABLEVISION isn't in my area, so, I can't get any HDTV programming to watch! Not the set's fault, but, make sure your cable company can "deliver" HDTV programming. I also suggest getting the extended warrantee with In-Home service otherwise you will have to carry this 219 pound behemoth to a service center if it ever needs repair and judging by the scanty RCA/PROSCAN warrantee, this item might not "have the longest life expectancy in the world".

I had been very happy with TV for the first month but a reoccurring technical problem as made me regret purchasing it. The TV now loses picture and sound after being on for about 20 minutes. Despite still being under warranty this problem has yet to be corrected after several visits by an RCA technician over the past month. I would absolutely not buy this TV again and I strongly suggest that anyone who purchases it consider checking to make sure there is a competent repair center that can make housecalls in your area (TV is way to big to haul back and forth to the many service calls you may need).

I would have said 4.5 if I could have. What keeps it from a 5 star rating? The grey bars on the side when watching 3:2 format programs, no outputs whatsoever, and the digital zoom (for fake widescreen and real widescreen for anamporphic programs) is just the slighest bit less crisp than the "normal" image with the bars on the side. Although I was surprised by some of these small setbacks, I in no way regret the purchase of this TV.

I do recommend the stand, as this TV is HEAVY, and building your own or using a generic stand may not be appropriate. SVHS input from my computer is awsome, and allows me to use my computer DVD player to watch DVD's, although a progressive scan DVD player would take more advantage of the HDTV quality. If you are trying to take advantage of the "HD"TV, don't count on the attenna method... Direct TV ability is built in, and the cheapest plan is $21.00 a month. The fact that this TV includes a built in HDTV receiver is a real plus, and if you already have another receiver, you can pay a minimal fee to activate both of them through Direct TV.

Tube, in my opinion, is better than any projection and most LCD TV, however, I've seen Plasma TV's, and they are very bright and clear, but very expensive. This TV rules, and will be modern and up with current technologies for many many years to come. As all TV's will be standardized with the HDTV format by 2006, why wait for the future? You can have it now... this TV RULES!!!

The reason I bought the RCA over the other Brands that pushed flatscreens and projection plus other tech options was the picture. Natural warmth as close as you can get to film quality.It has a slight curve to screen but very close to flat. It was the only way they could produce this type of tube design. It does not effect screen displacement.

Set up is very straight foward, just read the book. It's a real plus having the satelite receiver built in, also 2 antenna inputs for cable and HD local stations.

One thing to be aware of is the weight, It takes 2 plus to lift because it's still CRT technology and get the stand made for the this model(optional base). It has pegs that go in to bottom of
TV so it won't shift forward in a Earthquake. Always get an
extended warranty with so much technology inside the set.
The TV has been going 6 hours a day seven days a week since September with no problems. It was purchased new at a much higher price then currently priced at now!

I bought this television a week ago. It worked only 4 days and then went off completely. It will not turn on at all. I checked the instruction manual and learned that the TV has a protective circuit, which turns it off in case of a power surge. I tried all the methods prescribed by RCA to get the TV back on but nothing worked. Finally a RCA appointed local technician checked it and found that a component in the power supply board has burned itself. Four days is an awfully short life for a failure of the circuit board. I am going to get rid of this TV now and buy something else. Please note I also use a real good surge protector for this TV and all my stereo components. I do not believe that the TV ever was surged. Another shortcoming is that RCA provided only a single set of component video inputs. This becomes a real problem, if you have two high performance devices to connect to this TV (like a progressive scan DVD player, and a HD Decoder box for the cable TV). You can get around this by getting a component video switch. However, there are not many such switches are around at this time. The least expensive one I found is made by JVC and is available for about $ 100 ffrom some online retailers. I hope RCA takes notice of these issues and resolve them as soon as possible.