Price Paid:  $3000.00 from hd tv

Summary:
the model i have is 52hmx85 maybe because its black or i got in canada. The tv is very good looking and the picture quality is excellent ,unfortunately the bulb burnd out after only 6 months about 700 hours on the low light level cause i want to preserve it .One week later i got the bulb assembly easy to replace and i got it going .This time i set it to high level ..the picture is even more vivid . Toshiba told me that they are aware of the bulb problem on their dlps so they are giving me a 2year warranty instead of one plus the bulb they gave is better to last than the pevious one ...WRONG. 4 months bulbs gone less than 400 hours ..This time it will take more than a week sighhhh. I did some research and found out that rear projection dlp and even sony rear lcd have similar problems. Wife cursing me that i should have gotten a plasma instead . Best buy people told me that some plasma they got went dead and has to be scrap it will cost more to fix it . When i ask toshiba about the rating of the bulb which is 6000 hours , should last me 5 years which didnt .............their response is that it was the bulb people ratings not toshiba .You cant win . Hopefully they will have a sale on this bulb i need lots...

Strengths:
Good looking tv, looks like a plasma, price is affordable, picture quality is excellent ,sound is very good

Weaknesses:
life bulb is nowhere close to 6000 hours rating ,price of the bulb, cannot buy extended warranty for the bulb ,hard to get a replacement bulb

Similar Products Used:
pioneer rear projection crt 50' 1989 no problem still working good
toshiba rearprojection crt 65' 2004 minor problem hopefully thats it tv is great

Price Paid:  $3099.00 from Zone electronique

Summary:
I finally hooked it up to an HD signal, man I don't know how I managed for so long ( 7 months ).

SDTV signal is just plain bad ( of course ) altough lowering sharpness makes it bearable.

As for the other signals,image is sharp, colors are bright, vivid and well balanced.
I think blacks show up nicely but the problem is that whenever two tones of black, or something relatively dark, are shown the contrast between those tones isn't great. Meaning that whenever something dark appears it's usually too dark. Example: if someone is wearing black and the background is black also, it's going to be really hard to tell the outline of is clothes, so sometimes you get the feeling that there's a face floating in the middle of your screen. And shadows usually hide some details that you feel are there.

Altough I got admit that I haven't finished calibrating it yet so maybe I can help it a bit without upping the brightness too much.

My panasonic dvd cp-67 player really shine through this television and so does my HD PVR ( Scientific atlanta: explorer 8300HD (videotron) both use the 2 component inputs on this television.

I'm planning on plugging my HD-PVR with the HDMI, but I haven't tried them yet.

After a couple of weeks I noticed some smudges(2X2 pixels wide) on the screen and then after a couple of months the tv shut itself for no apparent reason this happened 3 times during a 4 months period. I had the Toshiba repair guys come over and they change the hole light engine, and wiped one of the two smudges, the other one is between two pieces of glass they said they'd call back and reschedule another appointment but they haven't ( but don't worry I will ).

The remote is good but too sensitive.

I use this screen in a bright room and it is a very good tv for that case, especially if you select the High power lamp mode but I don't think it's necessary ( it will also shorten the lamp's lifespan )

The price marked above is in Canadian Dollars, also bear in mind that this screen came with the stand ( sold usually 400$ ). For a 52 ¨screen the price was awesome, a great value.

I recommend the HmX and not the HM, because the later has only one HDMI inputs.

I haven't really tested the speakers, but I have no complaints.

The sidebars on the screen when displaying a 4:3 image are grey and that kind of bugs me, it should be black for a better contrast with the image it's a no-brainer, go figure.

For those who are scared of that rainbow effect I haven't seen any nor anybody who came to see it, I think that the HD2+ chip is immune to this problem.

Toshiba says I can't and shouldn't hook it up to a computer, but I will anyway.

In the end, I love it it's not perfect but it's a great bargain for a 52¨it's good with HD, 480p, videogames ( plugged trough the components inputs ) and with the DLP you don't get that awful screen door effect that you get with an LCD projection.

Strengths:
Two HDMI inputs
great image quality
good remote
52¨for that price, wow!
Colors are vivid and well balanced

Weaknesses:
bad black on black contrast
awful sdtv image ( duh!)
grey sidebars on 4:3 image, ???
some smudges on the screen

Similar Products Used:
when i shopped around the second place was the samsung with the pedestal ( I can't remember the model number sorry ) but I never used it