Toshiba 20AF44 20" FST Pure Flat Color TV with Stereo Sound
My Experience with the Toshiba 20AF44
I bought a 20AF44, excited as I was because I own a 20AF41 and a 14 inch 14AF42 (or 14AF43, I forgot the model number) and was very pleased with them. Unfortunately, when I hooked up my sample of the 20AF44, the screen image wasn't very focussed. Looking at text on the screen, there was a greenish hue on the right side of every letter, and the letters weren't focussed. I later discovered (partly from reading other reviews) that the velocity scan modulation, which is supposed to improve edge sharpness of images, does bad things to text, making them look fat and rough on the edges (even though it brightens same). You can't turn VSM off in the on-screen menus...BUT you can see what the screen image looks like without the VSM when you activate the on-screen menu and look at the image then. The VSM gets turned off when the menus are on so that the menu text looks clean, but you can then see the TV image behind the menus without the VSM on. Image text is clear and clean and normal looking without the VSM on. My 20AF41 and 14AF42 don't have aggressive VSM and the latter two show no difference whether the on-screen menu is on or off.  <br /> <br />So I returned the 20AF44, as I was dissatisfied, and bought a 20-inch Sony (the model number was ?????VM300, I think). This sample was too dark and contrasty, even with the menu brightness turned up full, and although someone else on Amazon reported that tweaking the brightness with the service menu fixed things up, I didn't want to, as I demand that the unit perform properly out of the box). So I returned the Sony, and got another 20AF44. The greenish hue on text was gone, and I accepted the artifacts of VSM...but now there was an intermittant high-frequency squealing sound from the picture tube depending on the source material. I couldn't figure out what material triggers the squealing sound...also, if I activated the on-screen menu and scrolled to the two right-hand menus, that tended to cause squealing, and if I scrolled to the two left-hand menus (the sound and picture menus), the squealing would tend to stop). Note that this squealing is different from the normal humming sound that all picture tubes make. So I am going to return this second 20AF44 and buy something else. I'm frustrated by the whole experience and don't know what to buy now, as I NEED to have a 20 inch TV, and I remain happy with the two existing Toshiba TV's that I have.