Price Paid:  $430.00 from A&B Sound

Summary:
I reviewed alot of other tv's... including Sony and Panasonic. Nothing comes to the quality of picture of clarity of image for this price. At this size either. The inputs are great, especially for the size, i've seen tv's way larger with half the inputs. Once I setup the tv properly with contrast, sharnpess, etc. I didn't even have a problem with jagged lines or 'stepping'. Even the audio output from the two small speakers is exceptionally good, especially with BBE on (although with headphones, it adds abit of background hissing). Another good thing WAS the headphone jack, and the front A/V inputs. Great for late night watching or quick connections. And for Sara and all those that are review the 27 INCH version of this tv... maybe you should check the link your on before you review. Can't find the right link? DON'T REVIEW IT, or wait till a suitable link is opened.

Strengths:
Easy to use remote, tons of inputs, 'favorites' channel selector

Weaknesses:
Velocity Scan Modulation (which I didn't even have a problem with once it was setup properly)

Similar Products Used:
Various Sony and Panasonic TV's

Price Paid:  $420.00 from Future Shop

Summary:
Excellent TV. Took my time to compare the Toshiba to the Sony FS12 and Panasonic SX11...Tosh had a much better picture. Sound is great, especially with BBE turned on. Plenty of inputs, which seems to be the norm with any flat screen these days. Comb filter's tendency to affect vertical lines is nowhere near as bad as other reviewers say it is.

Strengths:
Picture quality, BBE, asthetics

Weaknesses:
Tuner is a little slow compared to Pana & Sony.

Price Paid:  $400.00 from The Wiz

Summary:
I've had this excellent 24" since May 2001 and no product in its price range or size has since come out to rival it. The color, clarity and geometry are excellent. I've owned Sony TVs in the past and made side-by-side comparison with the new Sony 24" TVs, and the Sonys (many of them) have a distinct lower bow effect which makes the picture subtly 'droopy' looking. The Toshiba had Component video inputs (which helps DVDs look fantastic BTW) and only the newest Sony 24" has this feature now. Audiowise, things are fine for a 24". I just wish the ColorStream and S-Video audio inputs weren't shared with the Composite inputs. Having said that, this not uncommon for 24" TVs. The picture can look a bit pixellated. I believe this is a problem with the Digital Comb Filter and not the Scan Velocity Modulation because I disconnected the SVM circuit board on my set, and lines still look somewhat blocky. On the plus side, this blockiness only occurs with mediocre quality RF signals. I've had no reason to complain when the TV is fed a high quality RF, VCR or DVD signal.

Strengths:
Picture quality, color rendition, clarity, picture geometry, BBE, volume limiter. Remote control is light, ergonomic and glows in the dark.

Weaknesses:
3-line digital comb filter can make straight lines appear blocky.

Similar Products Used:
Sony 24", 27" TV. JVC 24", 27" TV.

Price Paid:  $0.00 from brault&martineau

Summary:
24 pure FST the best for color sharpness the best 24inch flat tube with colorstreams* (component input) i used this tv more than 8 months one of my best buy no problem with geometry.

Strengths:
pure colorstreams for vibrant color sharpness. good price for a flat screen like that.

Weaknesses:
the sharpness are 2 strong for JVC owner.

Similar Products Used:
sony 27 XBR,27 pure FST,panasonic tau

Price Paid:  $521.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
Sara is right. "The pixels are noticeable, and more often than not, curves and facial details get blurred in that awful, blocky way. I can't stand it."

I saw the same thing. Basically everyting look like an animated cartoon with overly sharp, "blocky" edges. But the color is so good that I persisted in trying to get used to this problem. Fortunately, I found the solution to it on the Web. The problem is that in all picture modes except
"movie", velocity scan modulation is turned on. It is this that caused the awful edges. If you used the Video Essentials setup disk, this will be very apparent when you set the sharpness. If you use any mode other than "movie", no matter how far you turn the sharpness down, the edges are terrible. In movie mode you can smooth the edges and get a perfect balance between detail and smoothness. So the lesson is, set the TV up in movie mode. The results are extraordinarily good.

Now for a more general review, taking into account the issue above (which is nowhere mentioned in the manual). I have the TV sitting in my home with a Sony 27FV17, and I am trying to decide which one to keep. I have been able to fiddle around with both of them in order to gauge their strengths and weaknesses.

The Sony has much better sound (this may not be true of the FS models though). The 16:9 compression mode is excellent. It renders 16:9 DVDs close to HDTV quality - where the scan lines almost completely disappear. The geometry is not too bad - verticle lines are not bowed. They are squiggly though. There were not any problems with pink and green blurring onto white backgrounds at the edges, as others have reported. The problem with the Sony is the color. This may have to do, in part, with the fact that the tube is noticably lighter than the Toshiba. In addition, red saturation is overdone, which means that things appear too "warm" most of the time. Turning down the color helps, but this causes undersaturation of the other colors, resulting in a less vivid picture. Along side the Toshiba, no matter how I fiddled with the controls, I could never achieve the color purity and naturalness of the untweaked Toshiba.

As for the Toshiba, from what I have seen, you cannot get better color in a 27" flat direct view TV. I have looked at Panasonic, Samsung, Phillips (albeit, not as critically as the Sony). I can unhesitatingly state that for me the color and detail are very involving, much more so than the Sony. As for the sound, it is mediocre - but then the Sony cost $250 more and has a more powerful amp and speakers. The Toshiba does not have 16:9 compression, which is very nice indeed on the Sony. The biggest problem with the Toshiba is geometric distortion of vertical lines. They are bowed inward uniformly on both side of the screen. This is not generally noticable except when looking at rectangular objects like doors and window.

So which one will I choose? Still not sure, but most likely the Toshiba because the color and detail are so addictive. If the Sony had the color and detail of the Toshiba, it would be great - but it doesn't.

BTW, the build quality of the Sony is noticably better. This is readily apparent when connecting and disconnecting components on the back panel. The jacks are better and the back panel itself is stiffer. The Sony also weights about 15 pounds more.

I would give the toshiba a 5 star rating if it weren't for the vertical distortion. The Sony rates a four. I would suspect that for most people, the Toshiba would be the more enjoyable choice since the picture (aside from geometry) is dazzling. The Sony has a softer picture due mostly to the color balance, and that may be appealing to some. I find that the "warmth" (or washed out quality) of the Sony is not very involving. On the other hand, if the Toshiba were not there for comparison, you would never know what you were missing.

Strengths:
Fabulous color

Weaknesses:
geometry

Similar Products Used:
Sony 27FV17