Toshiba 42PW23P

I have had this tv over 20 years.It is a bit bulky but fits ok in a corner of the room.I like that it has a matt screen,not a nasty shiny one.,it's very easy on the eyes with natural looking colours.

The speakers were not too great but at the time of purchase there was an offer of free external speakers which are very good.

The stand which has shelves to keep DVD player and DVDs is good and the glass doors keep everything out of site.

The tv has needed only one repair in all these years which only cost £50 ,so low maintainance.Ive one had the tv put on freesat which is great.i am loath to change this for a modern tv ,I have looked at them in the shops but come home to my old faithful.Can anyone beat having one of these beauties as long as I have?

MY OPINION THEN OF THE TOSHIBA 42 INCH REAR PROJECTION. OLD TECHNOLOGY, AND THAT'S WHY THEY HAVE DROPPED FROM £999.99 TO £699.00.

OK IF YOU JUST WANT TO WATCH DVD'S OR PERFECT SATELLITE PICTURES, BUT TV PICS WILL ALWAYS DISSAPOINT, UNLESS YOUR TV SIGNAL IS PERFECT!

THE 42 INCH SCREEN WILL HIGHLIGHT ANY IMPERFECTIONS, AND YOU WILL HAVE DOUBTS WHY YOU EVER PURCHASED REAR PROJECTION .

An excellent performer, particularly on DVD, laserdisc, Freeview and Digital Satellite TV. Not so good on terrestrial analogue. That apart, the digital convegence board failed on mine 2 weeks after the warranty expired. £176 repair bill. Not so good. And so soon.

I paid £2400 when this Toshiba 42PW23P Rear Projection Television came out in 2001. It hurts when I see what they cost now, they are an absolute bargain. But I dont regret paying for it - its been worth it over the last 30 months.

Displays in shops actually do projection tvs a big dis-service since they usually look pale and dim. This is purely down to the viewing angle, as you look down on it in the shop from close proximity. Once its in your room and you are sitting in your chair the colours and picture are fantastic. No problems with it, and easy to refocus after we moved it. Three Scart imputs are useful, as is the RGB screen settings allowing a laptop to be connected - great for showing digital photos. Sound is excellent, but marked it down since we have improved it by adding a full BOSE surround system.

I've only had my Toshiba 42PW23P Rear Projection Television for a few days and its going back to where it came from! Personally I'd say to anyone thinking of buying one of these types of TV's.........Be careful and make sure that you have exhausted your research. I'm still researching and am now seriously considering a Sony Rear Projection instead and its got to be 100hz for better clarity and reduced flickering.

Another point you need to remember is that with this particular Toshiba model , there is the problem with image burn. You arent told this until the TV is deliverd and set up. For those of you that dont know what Image burn is consider the following:

You are watching a DVD and the phone rings. You pause the film and it ends up being for a long period of time cos you got carried away with your nattering . You come back and continue to watch the film. The next day you notice some faint but permanent images on the screen. No amount of scrubbing is gonna get them off. These are permanently burnt on because the image from the film you were watching or paused was left static for too long a period. This can also be caused buy logo's which appear at the top of a lot Sky and Cable channels and it is also a fact that playing your playstation could in some cases contribute to this this problem.

The way to reduce the risk of image burn is to reduce the contrast and brightness levels on your TV and if you dont like it....then its tough luck! You will find that the manufacturer will pass the blame onto you if your TV gets image burn as they consider this to be as a result of misuse!

Obviously its a design error that has been around for a lot longer than it should have and has also been a problem up until recently with Plasma TV's.

I hope that you find this review helpful.

Kev

My one of these beauties arrived a couple of days ago, and I'm in love. Straight out of the box, installation is a doddle and the remote is simple and easy to navigate. The unit itself is fairly tall without the cabinet and sits nicely at head-height if you're sitting on your sofa. In terms of its depth, it's a good bit thinner than my old 28" widescreen telly that the Tosh is replacing.

Once up and running, you notice straight away what a superb picture you get from the TV; after all the warnings from my collegues that it'd be fuzzy, it was a delight to see just how sharp and bright the image is on-screen, with no discernable flicker.

In terms of its connectivity, there's plenty of holes to plug things into and the general build quality of the unit seems very high. The only (tiny) niggle about the telly is that when you stand up, the picture suddenly looks dimmer. It's actually quite cool though as you sit down, and suddenly the screen looks incredible again, reminding you just how amazing this unit is.

At £1000 it's dear, but you can certainly appreciate what your money is getting you!

This was my first foray into rear projection televisions, I almost bought a cheap plasma but I knew it would be a waste. I replaces a 32" CRT set.

Initially Toshiba looked HUGE in my living room, but a couple of days viewing and I was pretty used to it. My seating position is only about 7 feet from the screet and would benefit from being a few feet further back thanks to seeing a few screen artefacts.

I won't comment on the sound of the set, I don't use it thanks to having an external surround sound setup.

The general geometry of the picture was good with heavy horizontal overscan and light vertical overscan (all fixable via the sercive menu). User level convergence is messy and manual ... gets it wuite close though. Service level convergence is much more accurate but dangerous.

After good setting up, the picture detail is superb, espicially from DVD ... Sky Digital proves a good source but some compressed channels make the TV look 'noisy' ... its not the TV, try DVD as a source.

For the money ... this is a true home cinema bargain !