Toshiba 27A33 27" TV with FST Black Tube
SUPER Awesome TV! Almost like a FLAT screen!
WoW is the word to describe this awesome piece of machine and technology. After 14 years of happy performance from my Sony 27\\" Trintron it finally started dying. It started showing white horizontal bars and color/hue turned green and everything got worse by the day for the last 2 weeks. So A new bedroom TV set was needed, especially that I watch lots of DVDs and PS2 games. <br />My budget was strictly $250. Quality was important, Sony is of course the best but the most expensive, but Toshiba is known for the reliability. Other brand I considered are JVC, Panasonic and Philips. I wanted a quality 20\\" flat screen tv. They all looked very impressive and ultra clear at the stores, particular the Sony models, but they're too expensive. Then I looked at some traditional tv, they were really 'BALLISH', the picture tube was very UN-FLAT and I was repelled by it, much more BALLISH than my 14 year old Sony! Then my friend told me not to buy 20\\" inch flat tv because its too small, he adviced me to look buy 27\\" traditional tv with the same money and told me to get a nice 'flat' traditional tv. However, all the traditional tvs I seen are BALLISH until I saw this piece of awesome machine at another store. I immediatly knew this is the tv for me. The screen is UNBELIEVEABLE flat, you got to seen to believe. Other quality brands such as JVC, Panasonic, Philips all have fat man's gut 'BALL' screens. This Toshiba is so unreal, almost like a flat screen! The outermost part of the screen which is the middle and the innermost part of the screen which is the corners, the distance between the two parallel planes is about 3-4 millimeters or 1/8 inch!!! WOW! Much closer to a flat screen than traditional! I like the design too. The speakers on the bottom is better! The viewing area is much less obtrusive and clean, more like a monitor.<br />The picture quality is super. Bright, colorful, and vivid. The default brightness is very bright already. The white is very pure and white and the blackis very black or dark. The only spec I can't find is the horizontal lines. Other brands usually sport 600 lines. The detail is very impressive which lead me to believe that its around 600 or 800, hopefully Im right.. This tv is loaded with features, everything you can imagine is there. The parental control features is very very nice but I won't be using it though. You can even set video game 'time', haha I feel bad for the poor kids. The stereo speakers are pretty damn good! Although only 2.5 watts per speakers but when I turned up the volume to max, there's no distortion, no rumble, no tv case shaking, nothing! Just pure sound. You can adjust the bass and treble too which similar models of other brands dont have. ALL brands except Sony all sound like they gonna explode at the half way mark. The speakers are so good that you don't have to crank it up to hear things! On low volume setting, you can still hear everything. The surround sound actually works, I was surprised by it. In a small room, you can actually hear sounds behind you! But you can always hook this tv to a stereo system. This tv also have S-video hookup which lots of other tv in the same price range don't have! The colorstream component video inputs is nice. Everything and all functions perform beautifully and since this is Toshiba I expect it to work like brand new for 10 years.<br />Overall this Toshiba 27A33 27\\" TV is the BEST for the price. Im really happy that I got this 27\\" tv instead of a 20\\" flat screen. This TV is just like a flat screen! Highly insisted recommend. Thank you Toshiba!