Customer Reviews

Toshiba 62HM84 62-Inch HDTV-Ready Projection DLP TV

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

I spent over two years looking at high definition televisions before settling on the Toshiba. The features that sold me were the outstanding picture quality, both brightness and clarity, as well as the very reasonable price for the size and features of the set. I spent several months watching the prices in the retail stores, but never found the price dipping much below the $3000 that every retail store seems to want to sell it for.

I have never purchased an item as large as this from Amazon, and I was a bit reluctant to do so. Given the reviews to date and comments regarding reliability, I was concerned about buying from a company that did not have a good extended warranty option available. While Amazon does sell third party contracts, I did not find them to be particularly well known. I was leaning toward buying the unit from Sears, where the extended warranty is supported by a very large service organization, and the organization is staffed by full time Sears employees who have always been very professional with other items I have needed service on. The down side was a $700 difference in price between Sears and Amazon.

What finally convinced me to choose Amazon over the local retailers was that I was able to double the warranty by charging it on my American Express card. My only other hesitation was that I needed the unit carried up a flight of stairs, and while I knew that the local Sears delivery person would carry it up, I was not sure what to expect from a trucking company contracted by Amazon.

My set was delivered yesterday by Eagle Freight. They scheduled my delivery between noon and 5:00 pm, and they showed up at 4:00 pm, after first calling to let me know they were on their way. The drivers were very friendly and professional, and they gladly carried the set up to the second floor and waited while I confirmed it was working properly. They even took away the empty packaging. Since I am familiar with electronics equipment, I knew how to quickly set it up without their help. I'm not sure they would have known how to set up an HDTV had I needed assistance, but fortunately this was not an issue for me.

The TV was up and running within 3 minutes, and the quality is absolutely breathtaking. After much trepidation about purchasing such a large item over the internet, I am quite pleased that I chose to do so. I'm still debating whether to add an extended warranty or just take a chance on it with the American Express warranty doubler as a backup. The extended warranties do not generally cover the replacement bulb, which cost approximately $300. Since this is the most likely part to fail, I suspect that I would be better off taking my chances and skipping the extended warranty option. However, it's nice to know this option exists if I need it.

For those of you thinking about purchasing this item from Amazon, I would recommend you give it a try, as long as your credit card will double the warranty, and you do not need much help in hooking up the set. I will update this review after having a few weeks to get more familiar with the TV.

3/5/2005

After having this set for a few months, I am still thoroughly impressed with it. The quality is outstanding, and I have had no issues to date with reliability. I did purchase a 4 year Warrantech warranty for around $200. This extends the warranty beyond the one year Toshiba warranty for a total of 5 years of coverage. Hopefully I will never need it, but for $200 it seemed well worth the price.

I researched televisions before buying the 52HM84. I compared DLP, LCD and Plasma. I decided on the DLP due to its size and picture quality. I had narrowed my research down to the Mitsubishi and the Toshiba - since these both us the HD2+ DLP chip. The Mitsubishi had a glare on the screen and the Toshiba didn't. The quality of the picture is outstanding. The technology to clean up messy analog signals is outstanding. I could not be happier with this purchase. I highly recommend a buyer to purchase the matching Toshiba ST5284 stand for the set. Together - the set is perfect! GOOD WORK TOSHIBA!

Just dumped my Toshiba 42HP83 plasma due to failure within 10 months (see my review there) and was looking for a replacement, preferably non plasma this time. After extensive searching in my local stores and testing the DLP units, I'm convinced the only reason that you'd want a plama now is 1) you want to brag about having a plasma, and 2) need/want a flat panel to wall mount and can't afford an LCD unit yet. GET A DLP!

I narrowed my selection down to Samsung (50"), Toshiba (52"), and Mitsubishi (52"). Despite its great reviews, the Mitsu was REALLY BAD compared to the other two. Virtually every place I visited said that it was the 'Reps fault' and that they made the settings wrong. Don't believe it! Make sure you see these units with the same HD signal and you'll agree that the Mitsu is inadequate.

Thus it was down the the Samsung HLP5063W and this Toshiba 52HM84, and quite frankly I don't thinnk you'll go wrong with either one. The Samsung uses the 3rd generation of the DLP chip while Toshiba uses the HD2+ 'second generation' chip, although in some opinions the HD2+ chip is better. It took a great deal of scruitiny between the two to see any difference, and my preference leaned towards the Toshiba. As I found out, NEWER isn't always BETTER! Here's more details on the 52hm84:

Picture: AWESOME!, and this is from someone who had a plasma for almost a year! Striking color saturation (better than Samsung) and as good as my plasma before it started to die. The 2nd gen HD2+ DLP chip does better than the 3rd gen in perceived sharpness (not really sure why). Unlike the 1st generation chip, the 2nd and 3rd have the 'dimples' in the mirrors filled in and thus provide a 'flat' mirror for each pixel. Having looked at the first generation TVs before, these two were significantly better. When we got it home, we watched a DiscoveryHD program (HDMI) on the Met museum in NY and the clarity was startling, almost too good as the cracks in the paint were very visible.

One feature I liked with this unit is that you have the option of a 'quick start' mode where for several minutes after you shut down, you can turn the unit back on and the screen's back to full intensity almost instantly. Thus, if you turn it off and then turn it back on again, this circuit keeps some power going to the bulb so it's not coming up from a complete shutdown. During this time there is an eerie glow from the screen as the bulb is still on, and the green standby LED on the front will blink. The instructions say that this will prolong the bulb life (just got the unit so I don't know about that one yet).

NOTE: Be aware that DLPs require the bulb to warm up before it gets to full intensity, but as my plasma took 1 hour to warm up to see the picture, that's only a small issue for us :-) Only takes a few minutes anyway.

Sound: Can't say much here as I'm running through my sound system and the integrated speakers are off.

Inputs: Large assortment of inputs available here. HDMI works great (I'm running a DISH 811 HD with a DVI-to-HDMI adapter). If you're looking for CableCARD or direct input from cameras, etc., this one doesn't have it, but the 52HM94 model does (same light engine).

Remote/Controls: adequate but I wish they'd used the one I had for my plasma (pushbutton component selection vs a slide switch on this one). However, as I was replacing one Toshiba for another all the programmed functions in my universal remote still work fine. Menu controls are a little quirky (be careful to follow the on-screen instructions to see what you're supposed to do to get from one menu to another). However, very minor detraction from an otherwise outstanding performance.

Before signing and accepting delivery of any Toshiba DLP, be sure to check the screen to make sure that the coating on the inside of the screen is uniform. On mine, there was a circle about 10" in diameter that you can see in certain lighting and even when the TV is off! It will appear lighter than the surrounding areas at times and can be annoying. I called Toshiba and had a service man come out and even though he acknowledged that this is common, Toshiba will not replace the screen. I would have given them a negative 10 if it were possible just because of their attitude. So, look at the screen VERY carefully before accepting or purchasing. If you see this problem, refuse to accept it. Or else just buy a Samsung or Mitsubishi DLP to avoid the problem I have.

I have upgraded from a high def Toshiba 4:3 projection TV. I ordered this TV from BuyDig as they gave you 10 days in home in case something was wrong with the TV. Currently their price is the same here but with threshold free shipping and $99 White Glove service. Amazon will have you deal directly with the manufacturer in the event there is something wrong with the TV upon delivery. At first, I was a bit disappointed with the picture until the cable company came to bring a second HD box for the 4:3 TV thatI had moved to the bedroom from where the new TV was going. The cable Tech set the HD box to normal with 1080i and the picture was amazing. As good as any picture I had seen in the stores. Whether it was DLP or plasma. I am not using the DVI hookup rather I am using the High end composite cables. The unit is also hooked up to a home theater. I have the TV set up in the basement which has always been the TV room in the house. Im glad thats where it is as I was able to move the sofa back to a viewing distance of between 11 to 12 feet. Too close and its overwelming. If the TV had been in a normal size room I would have selected the 52" monitor. I had selected the Toshiba over the competition due to the higher end chip and my previous experience with Toshiba. In addition, in relation to the other DLP models it was less expensive with in my opinion a better picture. Finally, I purchased the matching stand from ABT electonics as they asked $289 which included $20 shipping. The matching stand is a must if you are spending the money on this TV. The only thing I will continue to reseach is getting a replacement lamp so when the day comes when that goes I can change it as the instructions to change it appear simple. Enjoy this set!

We received the TV in mid Dec/2004. We like it a lot.

Worked great for about 2 weeks and suddenly would not turn back on.

Figured out that if we unplugged it, it would come back on after being unplugged for a minute.

The authorized Toshiba service people here have given up after 2 service calls and 2 parts replacements.

Each time the replacement part was ordered it took 6 weeks!

We have been limping along by unplugging it every night.

3 weeks ago the lamp blew. The lamp has a 1 year warranty and it was less than 6 months old.

BUT! Toshiba doesn't have any. It has been on backorder for 3 weeks now and they have no idea when any will show up. Each week they say "Please try again in a few days".

It's a great tv when it works, like it a lot. But, going on to a month without any tv is no fun I can tell you.

updated: Nov 2008
Toshiba found a replacement bulb soon after I wrote this review and express shipped it to us. Since then we've replaced the bulb twice (about once a year) without any supply problems. The bulbs are expensive -approx $200!
We figured out the issue oursleves with not being able to turn it back on - it has something to do with using an HDMI cable to connect the tv to an old Dish Network DVR. We switched to using composite cables and everything has been fine since.

The Toshiba DLP televisions will be the demise of their reputation! They have a great picture but the bulb lasts less than a year! My 52HM84 is two years old and I have replaced the bulb TWICE! At $200 a shot, this is ridiculous. When I contacted Toshiba Customer Service they acknowledged a problem with the 2005 bulbs, and extended the warrantee to two years, but "claim" there is no problem with the 2006 TVs. When I asked him if replacing the bulb every year was what he considered "no problem" he read a prepared statement and said he could do nothing for me.

DO NOT BUY THIS TV or any other Toshiba Product! Sites like this should make Toshiba pay for flipping their nose up at poor Customer Service.

SPREAD THE WORD!

I reviewed and tried several DLP TV brands before finalizing on Toshiba 52 inch. The contenders were Samsung, Mitsubishi and to a certain extent JVC. I did not invlude RCA in the list because of its below average image.

The picture quality on this set is outstanding. Colors are vibrant and life-like. Brightness and contrasts are superb. It lacks some of the better image resolutions (1080i). However, the resolution it offers is very good in itself (720p). I found that this TV displays non-HD channels much better than its competitors. HD-channels are even better. 5 out of 5 for picture quality.

Sound quality is very good. However, a home theatre will produce a much better sound than this TV. Overall, 3 out of 5 for sound quality.

The TV provide several inputs on the back including component and HDMI (the latest standard). There is an additional input provided on the side for easy access. I found the number adequate. However, an additional HDMI would have been appreciated. 4.5 out of 5 for this feature.

Lamp Life is where this TV falls way behind. I found that the lamp lasted for aprx 2000 hours instead of what Toshiba claims in its manual(6000-8000 hours). I kept the lamp on hi-power to see better image on the screen. But that is not the cause for reducing the lamp life by 4000 hours. I found several customers complaining about the lamp failure. Also, the replacement lamp is usually on backorder (out of stock) for 2-3 weeks, which will leave you without TV for some time. 1 out of 5 for this reason.

Overall, this TV is good but you should buy replacement lamps in advance should your burn out. A replacement lamp would cost around $200 on internet. There are several online retailers who sell it. Because of the lamp your yearly expense on this TV will be around $200.

UPDATE - 1/7/2009

So, my second lamp blew off today. This one averaged about 2000 hours. I had set it to LOW power setting, low brightness and connected to surge protector. Did everything according to the manual but did not get anything more on the lamp life.

Now, I am in between work and wont be buying the replacement lamp until my job starts. That means no TV in home until then. And this also means that as soon as I can afford a new TV, this one is going into junkyard.

I purchased this TV from Amazon in December 2004. On December 17, 2005, the projector lamp went out on the TV. I contacted Toshiba and was told that replacement lapms would not be available until at the earliest January 3, 2006. I searched the internet for every available option and all local TV service companies and have all been told the same thing, the Replacement Lamp for this TV is on back order from Toshiba. I called Toshiba back and after a very heated discussion, the Toshiba rep admitted that the original lamps were defective. It is obvious that there have been a widespread failure of these lamps that is why there is a shortage and are on back order everywhere.

So basically, I have an unworkable $2,500 HDTV sitting in my lving room during the Christmas and New Years Holiday. Considering I have purchased a XBox 360 for my son for Christmas, created family DVDs to give away for Christmas presents to family members, the College Bowl Season and the end of the NFL Season, I will not be able to watch or use my $2,500 TV at all for up to three weeks. This is totally unacceptable in my opinion. Toshiba should have realized the upcoming issues with these TVs once they started failing and should have recalled them immediately upon recognition. I have been a loyal Toshiba customer but right now I am disgusted with Toshiba and will never purchase another Toshiba product.

I have nothing good to say about this TV or Toshiba products after this experience.

The Toshiba DLP is a nice TV when it works. Unfortunately, I began to have problems the second day of use. Without warning the picture went blank after a few hours of viewing on day 2. To get the picture back the set needed to be unplugged and repowered. Over the next 10 days the picture disappeared another 5-7 times. With only 2 weeks of use, my new Toshiba DLP has been in the shop for 3 weeks and it appears it will be there another 2 -3 weeks.

All I can say is read and understand the Amazon.com warranty and return policy for this item and expect little if any assistance if you should have a problem. I would also suggest that you check out your local Toshiba service center for their service and reputation. If you have a problem with your set you will be at their mercy, so beware.