» Toshiba 34HF85 34" TheaterWide HD-Ready Flat-Screen Direct View TV

Toshiba 34HF85 34" TheaterWide HD-Ready Flat-Screen Direct View TV Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Poor picture quality compared to DLP
Comment: I purchased a Toshiba 34HF85 from Sears to replace a 15 year old Mitsubishi that I had installed in a custom cabinet. I selected it because of the low price and because it fit the existing cabinet. After installing the tv and a new Dish Network 411 receiver, I was extremely dissappointed in the quality of the picture.
This was my second HDTV. My other tv is a Samsung 50" DLP, about two years old.
The Samsung is in a totally different league. It's picture is dramatically better, sharp, clear and bright. I guess I was spoiled by the Samsung picture. The Toshiba seemed to get a worse picture than my old Mitsubishi.
I called Sears and discussed the problem. They suggested that I schedule a Sears technician to try to tune the tv. The technician arrived and looked over the set. He told me there were no improvements that could be made by tuning or setup (as I suspected). After comparing to the picture on my Samsung, he said if he were me he would immediately return the set to Sears and trade for something else. He said that under these conditions they would probably give me full credit (it was only two weeks old). He helped me pack up the Toshiba, in the original box.
Upon returning the set to Sears, I was informed that they have a new policy that any tv returned for any reason will have a 15% restocking fee, even if traded for another item. Sears has initiated this policy since combining with KMart. I was disgusted with Sears, but bit the bullet and paid the 15%. I plan to keep the tv quite a while and don't want to live with a lemon. I won't be buying a major item from Sears again.
I purchased a 42" Samsung DLP from TV Authority. I was able to shoehorn it into the cabinet with some modificaton. It gets a great picture like my other one.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Two lemons, what are the chances?
Comment: When we found out that the Sony HDTV that we wanted was no longer in production because all the models were changing out, we were talked into getting the Toshiba 34HF85. The price was good, it seemed to have good reviews, (although the sound system was nothing special), so we bought it from Sears. We immediately noticed problems with the HD channels: intermittent vertical green and red lines, very dark areas on close-ups, and waves of light rolling up the screen. Since this was our first HDTV, we assumed it was a cable problem. Comcast came twice to the house, replaced the cable box, installed an expensive HDMI cable, and finally told us the problem was the TV. We called Toshiba and got the name of the authorized repair service in our area; they picked it up and spent 2 weeks trying to fix it, but Toshiba tech support couldn't figure it out. We got the TV back, brought it back to Sears, and their repairman worked on it. He failed also. They had one of the Toshibas left and let us take the new one home. Out of the box, it had sound, but no picture! Sears repair came to the house, decided to replace the entire circuit board. We waited a week, the piece arrived, still no picture! Back to Sears, we found that they had just gotten one new Sony HDTV 34XBR970. It was going to be their floor model. They felt so bad for us, they sold it to us at 20% off. It is fabulous! Very uncomplicated, gorgeous picture, great sound. During the time we had the 2 Toshibas, I found that I really hated the set-up menus. The Sony is much simpler and clearer to understand. The only drawback is that the Sony is about 3 inches wider because the speakers are on the side, so it hangs over the TV stand we bought. But buying a new TV stand is a small price to pay after 2 months of misery. BTW, the people at Comcast and at Sears were wonderful. Thank you, Sony!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Better choices out there
Comment: Even though CR gave this HDTV a poor rating I decided to give it a try anyway ... unfortunately I was very disappointed. The previous ratings mention that the picture is acceptable after considerable adjustments were made ... what they don't mention is that you have to adjust the set for literally every source--hd, dvd, standard analog broadcasts, etc. In my opinion this is unacceptable, for that reason I returned the set and purchased a Sony LCD with which I'm very pleased with . Additionally, the Toshiba set I received had a flaw in the tube where the top 2" of the tube was constantly brighter than the rest of the picture. BTW I would have purchased Sony's 34" HDTV, however at 200lbs it's just too heavy, hence why I opted for the LCD.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Quality Picture at a bargain price...
Comment: Overall, I am very pleased with the quality of the picture on this TV set. I have it hooked up with an HDMI cable connected to Comcast's (Motorola) DVR box. Comcast has several "HD" broadcast stations, although true HD programming is still very limited. I would suggest you program your own preferences (called MEMORY) rather than use one of the preset Toshiba setups which are either too bright (Sports & Movie) or too dark (Normal) I have my preferences set to levels between the Movie and Normal settings and find that I do not have to change them too often. I also have set resolution to 1080i, but will sometimes switch it to 540p on some analog stations or older programs as the interlace scan lines are sometimes very obvious and progressive scan works better. Amazon claims in the product description that this set includes 2-tuner PIP, but I do not believe it does as there is nothing in the documentation that references this, nor do I see any PIP button on the remote or in the menu setup.

**** UPDATE***** I checked with Toshiba customer service and was informed that 2 Tuner PIP IS NOT A FEATURE on this TV set!!! There are not 2 Tuners, nor is there any PIP!!! They also informed me the set is manufactured by TOSHIBA in the USA and not Orion as some reviewers have suggested!*******

While overall, I have a positive view of this set, there are some drawbacks:

The 4 different theater-modes for the picture on analog/normal stations really distort the picture and/or cut off the top and bottom. Full screen mode keeps all of the data at the top and bottom but people tend to have fat squishy faces.
The TV does NOT have a Menu button on the set...so if you lose or break the remote control, you are stuck...there is no other way to choose source, picture size/quality, or other settings! This is a major drawback!
The Remote Control that comes with the set is supposed to be a universal remote, but it has no code for the Motorola box comcast uses, nor does it have any buttons for DVR controls, so it is necessary to keep 2 remotes around.

I would also STRONGLY recommend you try to get this at a local store with their own delivery company. The company Amazon used for my delivery was horrible. I was NEVER directly contacted by the company when my set arrived in their warehouse. I had to make a toll call 4 different times to finally get delivery over a week after the warehouse received it from Amazon, and 13 days After I ordered it from Amazon.com. Amazon claims that the "premium delivery service" they use, for which you add $100 to the price, "use protective equipment such as floor mats and doorjamb padding to prevent damage" There was no evidence of this when they made my delivery, and one of the two people sent was an older gentleman who had a great deal of trouble lifting the merchandise, almost dropping it a couple of times on the way up the stairs. They also DO NOT set up the TV for you. They will plug it in and hand you the remote, and that's it. If you do not know anything about hooking up, make sure you get it from a dealer who provides a set up service. Amazon also does not do any follow-up on how the delivery service was which is very surprising to me.
So to sum up, I'd give the TV about 3 and a half-stars
The price 4 stars
and Amazon delivery service 0 stars.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not as bad as you think
Comment: First of all I don't understand why negative reviews are left on this set based on what other people say. I've had plenty of hours viewing on this set, allowing it to burn in, to leave a fair review. This TV is capable of displaying a clear HD picture. It's not perfect, but I've had casual viewers say they have never seen HD so real. It seems this set does a poor job of displaying 720p and 1080i signals. I have my dvd player and Dish 921 HD receiver set at 480p with the TV upconverting to 1080i. This seems to be the best picture I can get and it looks fantastic, especially on HD channels. Whether or not it is made by Orion, Toshiba is responsible for their product and there is no conspiracy of Toshiba ripping of customers. You get what you pay for with this TV and if you want a slightly better set, you can get a Sony for a few hundred dollars more.

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