Customer Reviews

Toshiba 42HL196 42-Inch 1080p LCD TV

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I currently have a TiVo series 3 hooked to this unit via an HDMI input and the picture is stellar thanks to the TV's 1080p native resolution. The colors are vivid and lifelike, and the ability to use various Theaterwide settings allow 4:3 video look properly sized on the screen. Two HDMI inputs are great for expandability and cablecard support means there is no need for a separate cablebox. (Unless you want Video on Demand or Pay per View movies.)

The audio is impressive for this unit. With it's SRS WoW settings, the audio sounds clearer and has more range. It's speakers are mounted below the screen so the unit is narrower than similar TVs with side mounted speakers. This allows for more space surrounding the TV.

I have the unit hanging on a Sanus wall mount and it installed with no problems. My only complaint is with the instruction manual. There are no directions describing how to remove the base. It only states the unit is wall mountable. With a bit of fiddling I finally found the 5 screws located on the back just above the base and the TV lifted off it's pedestal easily.

This unit is Ethernet enabled. What does that mean? It has an option for viewing pictures across your network, it can check your email and it also has an option for downloading and upgrading the firmware of the TV.

As with any TV there are some Cons.

There is no 1080p input. However the TV does display all video in 1080p so everything is upconverted, including 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i. (I hope Toshiba will release a firmware upgrade that will allow 1080p input sometime in the future, but this is probably wishful thinking.)

As with all LCDs, the viewing angle is somewhat limited. At angles more than 45 degrees off center, color looks a bit faded. and the backlight is more visible.

Minor problems aside, this TV is a great deal for the price, has a wonderful picture, great sound, and input connections galore. I highly recommend it!

When the wife and I set our minds to getting an HDTV, we scouted out many brands in many different stores, both retail and online. At first we thought about a 42" HP plasma set that was similar in price. It got some good reviews, and people seemed to like it. Then we gravitated toward a 42" Westinghouse HD monitor, mostly because of price and the 1080p res. As we noticed the price drop on this Toshiba, we started looking closely at it. This particular model has dropped over a thousand dollars in the last six months since it was released. It will probably continue to drop as the battleground of 42" continues between plasma and LCD. I can honestly say that I have never been happier with an electronics purchase.

The amount of inputs are good, with two component video and two HDMI. Right now, I'm using one of each, so it doesn't look very cluttered. The screen quality is excellent in Hi-def. Standard is O.K., but you'll miss the hi-def quality when you navigate away. I have not yet noticed any pixel lag on this LCD, even with high-speed sequences such as football or horse racing.

The sound is O.K. It's not spectacular, but that's what separate audio systems are for, anyway. One thing I did notice is that when I have the sound from the TV output to my stereo receiver, there is an ever-so-slight lag between the TV sound and the stereo sound. I simply mute the TV during those times to correct the problem. This TV also has a half-mute function, which is very useful when you want to have volume, but still take a call, for instance.

Viewing angle is fairly good, although you do lose a bit of contrast and brightness when viewing it at an angle both horizontal and vertical simultaneously (if you're standing up higher than the TV at say, a 30 degree angle horizontal).

It's true that the input does not accept 1080p inputs, but as it upconverts all signals into 1080p anyway, you can feed it a 1080i signal and still have it look just as good. The IR blaster is nice for use with cable and satellite boxes, but you'll probably prefer to use the box itself to control the TV rather than the other way around. The TV Guide built-in function is praiseworthy, but only useful if you have a hi-def cable signal coming in with no box. Otherwise, you'll probably just use the cable or satellite box and their scheduling guide.

A month ago, I was just like you, agonizing and researching about a 42" HDTV to purchase. I read all the posts, checked all the prices, and went to my local stores to see them all in action (which is also very difficult to tell the difference in the stores between the models). This model had very little feedback of any kind when I purchased it, but I took a chance and it paid off. Don't give it a second thought. Buy it without remorse. But it here (some of the cheapest prices and shipping from a reputable merchant). Buy it now. Even if the price drops tomorrow (as it literally did for me!), I can tell you that there's a very good chance you won't be disappointed with the price you paid or the quality of the merchandise you ordered.

The product title, "Toshiba 42HL196 42" 1080P LCD HDTV" says "1080p".
The tech description also says "True HD 1080p native resolution".
After we received the TV, we realized this TV only supported up to 1080i for all inputs including HDMI, components, and VGA.
What do they mean "True HD 1080p"!?

The reason why we purchased this TV was to hook up our PC to the TV as a multi-media center to browse the Internet, edit photos and video, watch DVD and movies, and do some Word and Excel work.
However, this TV is not a PC friendly one.
Although the ad says the TV's native resolution is 1900 X 1080, it can only accept VGA signal up to 1024 X 768 (1280 X 768 kind of worked).
As a result, all the PC stuff on the screen looks expanded.

I really think Toshiba should not say it is a 1080p HDTV if it does not support the inputs.
Also Toshiba should make the limitation clear to buyers that the TV supports only XGA for VGA input and there is no 1080p input for HDMI.
In order to find out about the truth, you really have to call Toshiba to find out.

We do not recommend this TV if you are planning to hook up PC to it.
It is a good 720p TV that has HDTV and cable tuner with nice LCD screen.
However, we wanted to purchase 1080p HDTV, not 1080i HDTV.
We trusted Toshiba products before, but it is going to be hard for us to trust their product description.

I hope Toshiba will do something better next times to clearly state their product details instead of burying or hiding the important facts.

I have had this TV about three weeks now. I am very satisfied with the purchase.

The pros are: 1) Excellent Picture 2) TV Guide feature 3) Lower Price 4) Cable card

The cons are: 1) DVD has audio out sound delay with receiver 2) No 1080P inputs.

Picture: This TV upsizes all input to 1080P output. It does an excellent job of upsizing the standard 480i digital signal. The Hi-Def looks awesome. The super bowl on 1080i looked fantastic, and I got a lot of comments on it. DVD looks great using the component video input.

TV Guide: Now that I have it, I would not buy a TV without it. It's a lot better than the Comcast guide. You can see way more listings at one time, you have more and better information about the program, and you can turn off stations which you don't get, which always irked me with the Comcast guide.

Price: In the store, I thought the Sony looked the best, but the difference seemed marginal. I could see definite difference between the Sony and the Vizio. In the end, the Sony was just way to expensive compared to this TV, which was priced equal to the Vizio.

Cable Card: The Card gives me 1) Unscrambled Premium stations 2) Hi-Def Channels with a regular number instead of hyphen format 3) Direct Digital Input. (Instead of the cable box which converts a digital signal to analog for channel 3, not nearly as good). I opted not to get a Hi-Def box which costs more, but just kept the old box connected to Antenna 2. I don't pay anything extra for the old box and I can get ON Demand. I found that some TV's don't come with the cable card, like the SONY.

Audio Output: I connected the analog audio output to my receiver. I can listen to TV with very nice sound from both the TV and receiver this way. However, when connecting the DVD I found a very annoying audio delay between the sound coming from the TV and the sound on the receiver. I need to turn off the sound coming from the TV when I watch DVD's. Also, output is fixed not variable, which would be nice to mute commercials. I would have had to buy the more expensive HZ model to get the variable output.

No 1080P output: This is not a big deal for me. In terms of picture quality, it will not be a problem. Consumer Reports had a side bar on this in the Nov issue, and it was "not a big concern". If I do decide to buy a Hi-Def player, I will make sure it has a switch for 1080i output, like the Samsung Blu-Ray player I reviewed. I just don't like the way Toshiba markets this as Full HD. The more expensive HZ model has 1080P input, but that retails for $600 more.

I summary, this TV is a good value for the money, and the TV guide puts it over the top.

We decided to purchase an HDTV for the family as a Christmas present. We spent a lot of time researcing out the various formats, IO, and technologies before making a decision. Finaly settled on the Toshiba 42" LCD and found the best deal at Amazon, which included free shipping. The expected delivery date was indicated to be as late as December 23, which made me a little nervous, but the TV actually arrived on December 12 and we made arrangements with Eagle to pick it up ourselves on the 14th when the kids were not around. I do not have cable, but had purchased an HDTV antenna from a local Radio Shack, and I am able to pick up 5 HD stations with good quality. The picture quality is great. The colors are very clear and bright. I must say that I am very happy with the television, the antenna, and the delivery (Eagle). The TV arrived in about a week during the busiest shipping time of the year. The only negative I can see is the fact that the TV is advertised as being 1080p compatible, but does not actually accept 1080p input. This has not affected my ability to use it, but I think I would be very upset if I had ordered this TV, expecting it to be compatible with existing 1080p equipment.

Stop the search for the perfect big screen TV. The Toshiba 42HL196 42" LCD is what you are looking for. This set has all the bells and whistles and above all it has a truly beautiful picture. The two HDMI inputs are an absolute must because it makes hook-up extremely easy and from what I have learned it maximizes picture quality. I matched this set with the Sony DVP-NS75H CD/DVD player which converts my DVD collection to near HD quality. It is wonderful to watch my favorite movies again with such a high quality picture. I am very, very pleased with this purchase.

I was looking for a 1080p TV for my PS3, so after some research, I landed on this Toshiba. I got really excited because it mentioned "native HD" and "1080P" when I was doing my research.

After I got the TV home, I hooked up my PS3 with an HDMI cable and did not see the picture, after doing some research I found out that this TV outputs 1080p but does not accept 1080p INPUT. I was upset to say the least.

So, don't expect to watch anything in 1080p as far as Blueray or PS3 is concerned.

Picture is still great though and built in ATSC Tuner, although common is nice as well. It also has a NIC card to hookup to your home network and also do firmware updates. Maybe who knows, Toshiba will provide a FW update to do native 1080p input.

Toshiba just entered the group of those small, shady brands that advertise their products erroneously, on purpose, to give it a bump. I took 20 days to write this since I was not believing it and really wanted to make sure this was happening. I called Toshiba several times to understand exactly what was going on. I called Sony to ask why the PS3 wasn't working on 1080p (as someone on the Toshiba hotline advised me to, believe it) and even Sony said yes, your tv should accept the 1080p signal, let's try the cable, etc, giving me even more of a headache. Do you think the decent brands like Sony or Samsung would ever do it? Of course not. Well, I really used to think Toshiba was in that group too, and I was wrong, so...
This TV does not accept any sort of 1080p signal, it just "converts" the image to 1080p with a built-in converter. I talked to a specialist and THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS HAVING THE 1080p SIGNAL COMING FROM THE ORIGINAL MEDIA.
I will never buy anything Toshiba anymore because of this, and I'm talking to my lawyer (not kidding) to see if there is anything that can be done. THIS IS OUTRIGHT UNTRUTHFUL, LYING PROPAGANDA. Meanwhile, do not buy this over any of the regular, good brand 1080i TVs you see out there, it's really not worth it.

The only reason I give this product 4 stars is because of the HDTV cable card. Often, when turned on, the TV fails to activate a picture. We have to remove the card, wait a minute, reinsert the card,and let the TV re-boot, otherwise it is a great product. If anyone has a solution we would be happy to know about it.

I purchased this TV as an after Christmas present. So far I have been pleased with the overall performance, picture, etc. of the TV. The on board HDTV tuner works great with a UHF antenna mounted in my attic, and the overall performance of the HD features are pleasing.

Exceptions to the good experience are:

1) 1080p - not really a 1080p TV, but advertised as such.

2) MP3 Player - this is a great idea that they just didn't finish. When connected on your home network, the TV will go and find MP3's at a specified location. The problem is that the application will only find a maximum of 15 folders of MP3s at the specified location. This means that if you organize your MP3s into folders and have more than 15 of them, you're not going to be able to play them using this feature. I've contacted Toshiba customer service about this and been given the brush-off. I'd also expect this to be dealt with in a firmware upgrade.

BTW - the firmware upgrade will work by downloading the firmware files on the web to a machine on your home network. The TV can then be pointed to the location and load the files.

Overall I'm pleased - it would be nice to see these couple of issues fixed.