Customer Reviews

Toshiba 27AF42 27" Pure Flat Screen TV

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I will make this review fairly short and as sweet as I can. Most of the previous reviews have pretty much nailed this set.

Color Accuracy:
This is the most accurate color decoding you will find at this size and price range. AVIA showed all three color bars to be within -5% of 0 value when the Movie mode is selected. Green was dead on. Fleshtones on this set are dead accurate. Don't buy it if you like looking at red, orange or green skin.

Geometry:
Every flat screen out there has Geometry issues and this one is no exception. While very well calibrated at the factory, at least the Tosh's geometry is easily finessed for the most part in the service menu...the set even comes with it's own screens available in the service menu (which I actually preferred over the AVIA disc for their simplicity).

Features:
The Achilles Heel---the Tosh offers less than the competition including the all-important 16:9 mode. The Menu system is comprehensive but obscures a large portion of the screen when in operation...a hassle while calibrating. Otherwise the feature set is better than average and does include tilt compensation, a big plus.

Sound:
Excellent. Only the Sony Wega sounds better. Fixed/Variable audio as well as speaker on/off are available.

Remote:
Underwhelming but very functional. The competition offers better. It does glow and stand upright---two pluses.

Physical Dimensions:
This set weighs 10-12 lbs less than the competition...a fair consideration where upstairs bedrooms are concerned. The H/W/D is comparable to the others however and the silver cabinet design is attractive.

Verdict:
It is being sold at many places including Best Buy for ridiculous combinations of low pricing and BB rebates. I suggest anyone in the market for an analog 27" flat screen run to the nearest retailer (online or otherwise) and snatch this set. Be prepared for TV excellence.

This Toshiba 27AF42 TV is totally awesome! I read all the reviews before buying it, including the few negatives ones regarding horizontal and vertical line regularity.

If there is some irregularity when viewing boxes onscreen, I haven't noticed it, and the picture itself is mind-boggling! It's hard to believe that a "high definition" televison would or could be much higher definition than this one.

The "picture in picture" version costs a little more, and I've heard PIP isn't worth the cost, but with this set it might be a nice feature, given how sharp this set is.

I have two points to make, however, based on the other reviews I've read here. First, don't trust what you see in a TV store, with a large number of other brands' 27 inch flat screen models next to the Toshiba. Most stores apparently use some kind of signal splitter, which seems to degrade ALL the sets in the store, due to a loss of signal strength caused by the way they split the original signal.

Secondly, this Toshiba offers something else that my girlfriend and I saw immediately. It gives you a strong sense of 3-dimensionality, with objects in the background actually appearing to have depth. For example, a sitcom series was on TV last night (one that we've seen many times before on other television sets), and the scene of the room looked so "real", with depth and dimensionality I've never seen before on a television.

You will not be sorry you bought this TV, it is in a class by itself.....

The Toshiba 27AF42 offers a good combination of price, features, and picture quality. I'm very pleased with my purchase. These are some things I like and would nitpick:

1) Picture is sharp and colors are good. The image has slight pincushion distortion. This is the opposite of barrel distortion where a squarish flat object would appear slightly spherical with the center closer to you. I created an image with fine print and sent that from my PC via its S-VHS output so it filled the Toshiba's screen edge to edge. Focus was slightly soft at the edges. Viewing a perfectly rectangular image you can see the pincushion distortion but you only notice it with video if you're looking for it. The slight edge softness isn't noticeable with video.

2) Tuner is reasonably good. I live in a rural area and use a rooftop antenna, and the Toshiba pulls in the stations as well as can be expected.

3) Having 2 S-VHS and 1 component input, all three with matching audio inputs, allows you to use the TV to switch between sources (which perfectly matches what I have). The Toshiba has one audio output and what comes out of this audio output (as well as the built-in speakers) is from the input that matches your video source. So you only need one audio cable to your receiver and you no longer need to select your audio source at the receiver to get hi-fi sound -- tidy. There's a dedicated button on the remote to switch between sources.

4) The remote is basic and easy to use. The menus are easy to navigate. The remote should have a dedicated sleep timer. You set the sleep timer from the menu. It's easy enough but who wants to navigate a menu when ready to doze off?

5) Finish is silver but I wish there was an option for black.

Outstanding picture. This TV will really show differences in the quality of your source. Blacks are VERY black. Some night scenes and dark shadow areas look almost spooky. Bringing up the brightness/contrast shows there isn't anything there but the effect is unsettling compared to a "regular" picture tube. Excellent comb filtering, and a very good job of eliminating edge and corner distortion found in less capable sets.

Gripes: 1) the little plastic front access door broke off while moving the TV, and the showfloor demo also had the door missing. 2) the remote is OK. I like being able to choose input sources here rather than using my receiver as a switch (two analog or s-video, one coax, one composite RGB) from the remote, but the thumb switch on the left side for TV/cable/VCR has a very short "throw" and gets moved inadvertantly.

Sound is better than average, but I use a home theater receiver so the built in speakers are not an issue. Picture quality from the composite RGB input from my DVD player is amazing.

This replaced an older Toshiba 27" TV which has a very fine picture but some service history problems. Toshiba gets one more chance here. The picture quality is limited only by your source. Highly recommended.

I bought this TV about 2 weeks ago, and I am extreemly impressed. The picture is great I am really impressed with it. The sound from the TV could use some improvment, but sounds fine on it's own. That shouldn't matter for people using a surround system. The menu and remote are very intuitive and easy to use. I have my computer hooked up to this TV VIA S-VIDEO and let me tell you the picture is so sharp this TV could almost pass as a regular computer monitor. Text is easy to read and computer interface is surprisingly sharp. I use the computer to TV hookup mostly to watch DIVX movies, and just a WARNING the owners manual does state that prolonged usage as a computer monitor my leave ghost images on the picture tube, so if you're planning on doing the same as I am make sure you don't over-do it! This TV has as many hookups and connections as a person could ever need, and they are very clearly labeled. I reccomend this TV to ANYONE who is looking for a 27" TV. The sony TVs might have a bit better picture (so I am told), but this TV was cheap compared to Sony's comperable products. ALL AROUND AWESOME TV!!

I got this tv for Christmas for my room and I absolutely love it!! The cable reception could be a little better but its still very good . Has easy to navigate menus, looks great. One of the other many features i liked was the componet video output for maximum results for dvd players, playstation 2, video games and vcr's, which gives it the best possible grahpics, sound, clarity and smootheness. The sound quality is great, although I would reccomend a home theater sysrem for watching movies with the volume high. It has 1 componet input(in the back)2 S-video inputs(in the back) 3 av inputs(2 back,1 front.) The 2 s- videos are also av inputs in the back so you have to use one of them. Definetly purchase if your looking for a high quality tv with great picture for a good price. You won't regret it.

I've been in the market for a flat screen TV for some time, and have done my research on many of the brands. I was leaning towards either the Sony or the Toshiba. Before actually putting money on the counter, I went to see them both in person. Side by side, the Toshiba blows the competition away. Great color & contrast, super clear picture, and teriffic audio quality - all at a price that I couldn't pass up. I couldn't be happier with my purchase; would highly recommend this model to anyone in the market for a mid-size flat screen set-up.

I use this TV with a Panasonic DVD-RV32 with component cables (AR PR-191). DVD movies are just fantastic with incredibly sharp images. The color quality is outstanding. Switching the DVD Advanced Surround Sound ON makes a much improved difference in movie sound quality. The Menu on the remote makes it very easy to change settings. You can change picture, audio, and video preferences very easily. Movie mode provides a softer picture which may look better when watching cable programming. Standard and Sports settings provide a slightly brighter picture with more contrast. Cable viewing, especially digital channels, is very high quality, but not as good as DVD. This TV will correctly show 16:9 format movies from my DVD player. I don't need to buy fullscreen format DVD's. I plan on adding a NAD C350 integrated amp and Pinnacle AC400 speakers for outstanding audio. I also purchased a 3 year in home repair plan. This is a great TV costing just slightly over $ 400.

This 27" Toshiba is a terrific flat screen TV set at a very reasonable price. Toshiba consistently makes excellent TV sets across their whole model line -- on a par with Sony but less expensive. One reason the picture on this set is so good is that it has a 3 line digital comb filter. A digital comb filter is essential for excellent picture quality and a 3 line digital comb filter is better still. All top performing sets have them, but not all sets in this price range do. The fact that this set does is an indicator of Toshiba's dedication to quality and performance even in very reasonably-priced models. The 27" flat screen picture tube on this TV should be quite satisfactory for most viewers. But, if you feel that you must have a larger set, Toshiba makes excellent 32" and 36" TVs which I also highly recommend -- as well as a 34" widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio) TV which is compatible with the new high definition (HDTV) broadcasts which are now becoming available. No matter what you're looking for in a TV set it's hard to beat Toshiba's quality, performance, and pricing. This TV is no exception.

For those who don't get Consumer Reports magazine, their December 2002 TV-buying guide rates this TV as the best 27" television set that they reviewed. Only missing feature that prevents a rave review is that there is no automatic volume leveler. They also complain about the rear inputs being poorly labeled, but they leveled that complaint against almost all reviewed sets of every class (some of this info comes from the online updates to the print version).