Customer Reviews

Toshiba 40G300U 40-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV (Black Gloss)

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I ordered this TV from Amazon about three weeks ago, and received it one week later. Although I was concerned about safe shipment of such a large object, it arrived in excellent condition. The packaging, with foam plastic inserts to support the TV at all four corners, was quite impressive.

Set-up was very simple. I only had to look up a few points in the manual. The manual is even written in legible English!

The picture quality on this TV is excellent. I watched a football game on broadcast TV, and that was a completely different experience from watching the same games on my old CRT TV.

I bought this TV for use in my "Home Theater" system that I am still putting together. Playing movies from my HTPC or watching Blu-ray movies really demonstrates the excellent picture quality of this TV. Just as an aside, the remote is easy and fairly intuitive to use. That's not a big point, but a poor remote can frustrate the user of an otherwise excellent TV. This remote works well enough that it doesn't add any irritation to the total experience.

It was when I hooked up the TV to my existing stereo receiver/amplifier that I discovered one point about the TV that is less than perfect. I had not noticed any deficiency in the sound while watching broadcast TV or even watching DVD movies on the TV. But once the stereo receiver/amplifier was hooked up and I could hear the sound over that set with top quality Altec-Lansing speakers, the sound quality was much better. In short, if you want the best home theater experience with this TV, it will need to be supplemented with a good amplifier and speakers. But I expected that going in. I'm not downgrading the TV set just because its audio performance, with its small speakers, isn't quite up to what I get out of my 100 W amplifier and 15" speakers. Heck, each of those speakers cost almost as much as this TV!

This TV set is great for what it does - providing an excellent picture. The fact that it isn't also a professional sound system is irrelevant to its function. Besides, if we have a home theater system, we will have the tuner/amplifier and speakers already for other purposes.

Hooking up the audio output from the TV to a separate amplifier may be a trap for the unprepared. The TV sound out is via TosLink, which is an optical digital signal. I knew that from the Amazon description and pictures of the input/output connections for the TV. I had already ordered a TosLink optical cable and an optical/digital to analog sound converter and two RCA cables to connect to my amplifier. The total cost of those items was about $50. Not a big deal, but just an advance notice to any purchaser of this excellent TV that you really do need the cables and D/A converter, because the sound from your existing home theater or stereo amplifier and speakers will be needed for the complete enjoyment of this TV. If you have a more modern amplifier with optical digital input, only the TosLink cable will be necessary.

All things considered, I don't have any complaints, and I would buy this same TV again. In fact, I'm thinking about buying another one for my bedroom!

Five Stars! No doubt about it!

I have nothing but good things to say about this TV, great purchase and I am loving it. I bought it for my bedromm and was limited by the size of my cabinet, it fits perfectly and the picture is wonderful. It was extremely easy to set up, just plug it in to my cable and the wall socket and we were off and running. Living in a single household, I need things that are easy to install and this fit the bill.

Thank you I only reget I did not buy it sooner.

I have ordered and received MANY similar sets in recent months. This Toshiba puts all others, including many 42" sets to SHAME.
Picture quality is fabulous. Sound quality is fantastic. Best of all are the many HDMI possibilities, composite and AV connections. PC compatible is another plus. Believe it or not, my all time favorite is the remote, which has the buttons in a white color to off set the black back ground. This makes it extremely easy to see exactly what you are doing, especially in darkened room with just your Toshiba on. However I will say that Toshiba should update the remote just a tiny bit. At least I think a button labeled TV/VCR is outdated. Prices do vary so do you home work. My set was originally USD662.00 and just 1 week later USD557.00. Amazon as always came through and refunded my account the difference. BIG PLUS NO INTEREST FOR 24 MONTHS!

This Toshiba 40G300U at times has a beautiful crystal clear image when the lighting on the show is bright however if there is any darkness there is NOTICEABLE and distracting lighting spotlights coming out of all corners, it is all I can see, I have adjusted the color and Dynalight and Backlighting, which helped some but still irritates me that the corners are faded compared to the rest of the picture.
The sound quality, as I was aware of through reading reviews and was prepared for it is pretty tinny and muffled sounding I really have to jack the volume up to hear it.
The base of this tv feels like cheap plastic which is alright with me its pretty unnoticeable once the T.V. is positioned wherever it will be, what bothers me is how far it sicks out the front of the television so that the T.V. has to be pushed back about 6 inches more than I would like in the cabinet so it doesn't over hang the base of the cabinet. I checked to make sure it is on the correct way, and as there is a hole in the base back, there is no other way it could be installed.
I had read reviews about the Toshiba LED light logo and how people didn't like that, but it turns off/on easily from the menu and is not the problem I was worried it might be.
I bought this T.V. because of an over time payment option if I had the money out of pocket right away I would probably go with a higher end LED LCD for better black lighting qualities.. Right now I like the tv but I am hoping I will just get used to the poor spotlighting black qualities in the picture.

The TV is pretty good. The base is screwed in but it wobbles a little but. The image quality is pretty good (Sony and Samsung are better) but I had to turn off the Motion Vector alogoritm as it was generate a lot of stuttering when watching HD channels off cable. DNLA is great, I was able to stream from my WindowsMediaPlayer library and I can watch my HD (mpeg2) clips. It is a very good buy for less than $600.

Great TV. The first delivery was messed up during shipping, but a replacement was sent immediately with no hassle. Worked great right away. Picture and sound are great. I haven't even had time to figure out what it can do -- so far have only used it with a Toshiba upconverting DVD player and to watch streaming internet. Does everything well.

I highly recommend this set. I researched heavily before getting it. I'm no "audiophile" (though I have a music recording studio) or "technophile" (likewise), but every time I use this TV, it's "what a great TV," instead of "I should have gotten a..."

Hope this is of use to anyone shopping around. Good price, great to watch, no bugs yet.

I started out with a 37" Vizio LCD 1080p. After a few weeks, I decided to return it, as the picture was sub-par. I was now left to decide what to buy. My father in law has a Samsung, and everyone says Samsung is the best TV, but in the end, you pay MUCH more for the Samsung. I finally decided on the Toshiba. I set it up, connected the cable via HDMI, and WOW. It blew the Vizio out of the water! The picture is so nice on this TV, that I would say it is on par with the Samsung my in-laws have.
I got the TV at a great price too. On top of that, a week after I purchased it, I noticed the price was lowered. I immediately called Amazon, and they credited me the difference in price. Excellent policy they have, but you MUST notice it and call to get an adjustment; they do not do it automatically.
If you are on the fence about this TV, I say get off the fence and click to buy it. Sound is great. Lots of connections to choose from (although I only need the HDMI:). This TV costs less than a comparable Samsung or Sony. I say save your money, get the Toshiba, and you will be glad you did.

UPDATE THE FIRMWARE
This is very important if you are a video game player and/or satellite TV user. I have an Xbox 360 and DirecTV. I noticed whenever I changed the channel on DirecTV the screen would go black, then a blue bar with "NO VIDEO" would pop up for a few seconds, and THEN it would finally take the channel. It does this every time I change the channel.

With my Xbox 360, I had an issue watching Netflix through it. If I was watching a movie through Netflix and hit the stop button or if the movie ended, the screen would go blank and stay blank. It wasn't the Xbox freezing up as first thought, it's a problem with the TV. If I clicked the "INPUT" button on the remote, changed to another input, then changed back to my HDMI port the Xbox was hooked up to, the picture would appear again. This was the only solution to the problem...

...Until I just did a Google search and found out many other Toshiba users experienced the same issues. Toshiba issued a firmware upgrade for this issue in November to fix it. So if you buy this TV and experience either of these problems, update the TV's firmware.

SETTINGS
My only other issue is when I change inputs and the settings reset. There is a setting to turn "Game Mode" on and off. Some of my Xbox games run smoother when it's turned on (the games appear more like they would on a 60hz TV). Some games I prefer to have it off. What I don't like is every time I turn off the TV or change inputs, it always changes my preference setting back to Game Mode Off. If I'm playing a game with Game Mode ON, then pause it so I can flip to my DirecTV real quick, then switch back to my game, it turns Game Mode OFF. I really wish they could make it so each input can have its own custom settings, so for instance when I'm on HDMI 1 (DirecTV) it's will have certain settings and when I'm on HDMI 2 (Xbox) it will have different default settings. Maybe there's a way to do it and I just haven't figured it out yet, but if not, it would be helpful as different settings work better with different peripherals and having to go through the menu every time I switch to one of them to change all the settings manually is a pain.

That said, I bought this TV as an upgrade to my Samsung 40" 60hz TV. I was debating getting the Toshiba or upgrading my Samsung to their 40 inch, 120hz TV, which would have cost $200 more. The picture quality of the Toshiba is great. You can definitely tell the 120hz difference as, for example, a main character in a TV show will "pop" out more from the background. The audio quality is good. It's not like I was expecting anything earth shattering there. Other than that, I don't need all the fancy bells and whistles. Quirks above aside, I have been very happy with the overall quality of this TV.

I am very happy with my purchase of this TV. The picture is absolutely beautiful. I have a regualar DVD player and it upgrades the picture from this player. Just after setting up the TV, I watched a movie that I saw at the theatre in 3D. The picture was so clear, it appeared as if it were 3D. The only drawback is the sound. I am slightly disappointed but not enough to bring down the rating. I have the DVD player connected to external speakers which make it more like theatre sound. Compared to other tv's I reviewed prior to purchase, the inputs on the Toshiba are also a bonus. It has 4 HDMI, a component, a composite,
USB, LAN and VGA. It also has an SD slot for viewing your pictures from a camera. This is enough for any purpose. The price and features make this TV an excellent buy.

Excellent picture, great color reproduction, just the right amount of brightness. Sports are amazing on this TV.