Price Paid:  $2100.00 from Tweeter

Summary:
I'm following up to my previous review since I just had my TV get fully calibrated by a qualified ISF technician. Basically, it was well worth the money. I had trouble getting the brightness and contrast to balance out properly and it was clear why once the initial grey scale data was plotted. The TV was well above 6500K on the white end of the scale and the same amount below at the black end with the crossover biased towards the black end. After calibration all I can say is "Wow, what a difference." The picture is absolutely beautiful. I just wish they could do a better job calibrating these things at the factory. The performance is now elevated to the "5 star" category.

Strengths:
See previous review.

Weaknesses:
See previous review.

Price Paid:  $1948.00 from Brandsmart

Summary:
I purchased the 50HX81 a in Jan. 2002, the day I turned it on I was very dissapointed with the picture quality. This was my first big screen projection set, my previous set was a Panasonic Super Flat 36 inch which was very clear (I currently have that one in the bedroom). After a few adjustement my 50hx81 became better but after a few months I started to see a red flicker problem when viewing for a few hours. I called a Toshiba Certified Repair Center, they came to my house and changed a part which did not fix the problem, they came back on took the set with them 3 times... still not fixed. I complained to Toshiba and they finally decided to give me my money back thru my local retailer to purchase another set. I did not have to purchase another Toshiba but I did a 50HDX82(after looking at others like Hitachi 51SWX, Mitsubishi 55311 and Sony 51HS). They all had a decent picture but the Toshiba was superior in sound and picture specially while viewing 4X3 image in 16X9 format. This one was much better from the start. I recently purchased an HD receiver and in HD this TV is super clear, most of the prime time shows are broadcast in 16X9 HD, what a difference... I also had the pleasure to watch the Super Bowl in HD, all I can say is WOW!!! If you are looking for good performance at a reasonable price I recommend this set, but beware of the 50HX81.

Strengths:
Picture quality specially in High Def., Internal WOW surround sound speakers.

Weaknesses:
Nine point convergence not sufficient. Need to go in the service convergence mode to make a difference.

Similar Products Used:
Toshiba 50HX81, Hitachi 51SWX & 51UWX

Price Paid:  $2100.00 from Tweeter

Summary:
This is a 2002 model year product. Pull down list doesn't allow for it for some reason.... Great HDTV-ready set for the money. I never thought "widescreen" would make such a huge difference in the viewing experience, but it does. Matched the set with the Toshiba SD-4800 DVD player (progessive) and DVDs look fantastic. As expected, the big screen really shows how lousy my cable TV service really is. Bought the set because cable company promises HD programming in the next few months. CNN and sports events that use best possible NTSC resolution look much better than most other things. "Widescreen 1" mode works great (stretches left and right third of screen, not center third) and is very watchable for 4:3 sources. S&V Home Theater Tune-up DVD worked well for calibrating the user settings. Much improved over my "eyeball settings" because I couldn't quite get the contrast and brightness set right. Tint needed to be +2 towards green to get flesh tones right. Default setting for Contrast is 100% which is probably why the previous reviewer has a problem with "brightness".

Strengths:
- Great value. - Color rendition is excellent. After calibrating, looked at some hand modeling of jewelry (only the finest cubic zirconium on the market today!) on the home shopping network and the flesh tone was perfect. There appears to be no "red push" issue with the color decoder like my Sony Wega TV. - You really can sit closer to HDTV-capable sets such as this one. I sit 9 feet from the screen and can't see a scan line. - DVD playback is top notch. - Sound system not bad for a TV. - Can create separate picture settings (preference) for each input which is great. I have different settings for Cable TV, DVD player, XBOX, N64, and VCR that get the most out of each input device. Like this much better than Sony's "4 picture mode" choices. - Can turn off SVM from the user menu (hooray!) as well as other trick things like AutoFlesh Tone, Cable DNR, etc. - 4.5 stars for performance, but I can only award 4 based on the grading system here. I can see a bit of digital noise when I look very closely at DVDs. Of course, during normal viewing you don't notice it at all. Maybe it's the scaling the TV does to 540i/540p that causes it.

Weaknesses:
- Not sure if 9 points of convergence from the user menu is enough. Convergence seems to drift pretty quickly (but not severely), but I don't really think I'm totally through the break-in period yet.

Similar Products Used:
- First RPTV I've ever owned. - By the way, the difference between the 50H82 and 50HDX82 is the inclusion of a "DVI" input for digital cable/set top box hook-up. I was told you can get a DVI upgrade

Price Paid:  $2445.00 from Tweeter

Summary:
nice product w/features that surpass newer models but very bright/it gave me eye fatigue,but images are sharp and detailed,sold it to a relative and got me a mitsu ws-48511

Strengths:
detailed picture

Weaknesses:
to bright even w/the brightness settin down

Similar Products Used:
Toshiba 42h81