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I am a complete amateur when it comes to shopping for tv's. We love our 27" 15 year old Mitsubishi (brand not sold in Canada any more) but with digital TV and connection requirements for other accessories, we decided to shop for a new widescreen TV. We have been sold on one of Sony or Toshiba (they tend to come out on top of any reliability list.Any thoughts on which is the better of the two would be greatly appreciated.
Also, any other reasonable widescreen alternatives?
Many thanks
Follow Ups:
I have owned a RPTV from Toshiba for almost nine years. A year ago, the convergence board died. I had it repaired for $600 and it has been perfect since. The repair tech who did the work could not believe what good shape the TV was in, both physically and picture-wise, considering its age. He remarked that I might get another 7 or 8 years out of it. It's all about lowering the contrast and brightness to sane levels, IMO.So, I am a Toshiba fan. While CR might have rated Hitachi #1 in relability, I used to work at a retailer, and Hitachi was dropped, largely because of all the problems we had with their RPTVs, so YMMV.
I'm not a huge fan of Sony picture quality on their RPTVs. Also, keep in mind that a 50" screen is significantly larger than a 46" screen (measure the square-inch difference), and bigger is better for screen size if you're looking for a theater-like experience.
Regarding reliability, I believe that the most recent Consumer Reports survey of rear projection TV's had Toshiba ranked last of the 4 manufacturers that they had enough data to rate-quality control seems to be an issue. Hitachi was number #1, followed by Mitsubishi at #2 and Sony at #3.I have a Hitachi 51SWX20B (51" widescreen) and love it. They all have pluses and minuses, no RPTV is perfect and all require adjustment to look thier best. Toshiba generally has the best "stretch" modes, if you watch a lot of 4:3 material. Is the 50HDX82 available in your area? If so, I would recommend it over the 50H82-it costs more, but the picture quality is much better (I looked at both sets side by side).
I highly recommend either the Sound & Vision home theater tuneup DVD or the more expensive Avia disc as a necessary accessory for your new set- all RPTV's come out of the factory with jacked up contrast and brightness settings to so they'll stand out in the showroom. Running the CRT's at those searchlight levels will shorten the life and can cause burn-in of fixed display material (CNN logos, etc).
The linked website below has been helpful to me, particularly the rear projection TV forum.
I've owned the Tosh 50H81(essentially the same thing as the 50H82)for a little over a year with zero problems. We still love the set and have never regretted going with the Toshiba.
Thank you, You've been a great help. Getting atune up disk is good adviceall my best
I bought a 55" Toshiba set two years ago. Right off the bat, the color alignment was bad in a few spots. I dealt with each service company in my area in turn and their incompetence was really frightening, including a claim that one of my DVD players was not compatible (the guy didn't have the component video hooked up right)I spent 4 months trying to get the set sorted out via the normal methods to no avail. Worst of all, Toshiba couldn't have been less interested about the terrible service their agents provide here in AZ and did absolutely nothing to help.
I had been a very happy Toshiba purchaser in the past, but with servise like that, consider very carefully whether you can afford to spend that kind of $ on a TV where the service will be poor or effectively nonexistent.
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