Toshiba 30HF66 30" Upconverting Widescreen Pure Flat CRT HDTV
awesome bang for the buck!
Well, thanks in large part to my trusty Avia Calibraton DVD, worth every penny of its thirty bucks.  Straight out of the box, the picture on this TV was horrendous with the factory settings---I was afraid I had gotten a defective model, or just a really poor quality set since I had recently read that Toshiba CRTs are now all subcontracted out to Orion (maker of various low-budget Walmart generics) while Toshiba concentrates on manufacturing flat-panel TVs.<br /><br />After proper calibration, I am happy to report that the PQ on this humble CRT (bought for under half a grand during a 2-day online sale at Best Buy) easily rivals the best LCDs and even plasmas!  It's all dependent on the quality of the HD signal and the quality of the DVD recording.  Yes, some DVDs do look much better than others.  And yes, analog SD (standard definition) sources especially VHS actually look worse than on an SDTV...again, generally true of any HDTV monitor.<br /><br />An unexpected surprise for me was the built-in HD tuner.  Wow, what a huge difference it made, I don't watch much broadcast TV except for news, but the extra channels and the HD picture size/quality was stunning!  I have a Dish satellite but don't subscribe so just get local stations, I'm sure that subscribers probably enjoy even higher PQ.<br /><br />Audio quality: I use a coaxial digital connection going out to my AV receiver, but tried out the TV's onboard speakers and found them to be pretty decent for what they are.<br /><br />My only minor gripe is that during 4:3 viewing of 4:3 sources, the black side bars are not straight but sort of curved---as I understand it this is pretty much an inherent design feature of *all* CRT televisions.  I figure that since most of my viewing is of DVDs and occasionally HD local PBS stations, this is a very minor quibble.  You can either have the 4:3 expanded horizontally, horizontally and vertically, or cropped and filling up the entire screen.<br /><br />The horizontal letterbox bars also had some slight geometry problems, but thankfully there is a Picture Tilt function that mostly took care of that.<br /><br />The other minor gripe is that the remote and interface could be a little more user-friendly and flexible.  I would have really liked to be able to directly choose video inputs and picture size with a simple click of a button rather than have to go through the menu system.  Guess I'll have to bite the bullet and get a universal remote with programmable macros...<br /><br />****<br /><br />UPDATE, 8/20/06: There is ONE very serious problem with this TV, or at least the set I received---what's called \\"black crush,\\" or the total loss of contrast detail in low-light scenes.  Especially with the Avia-derived settings I use which provide the best PQ during well-lit scenes:<br /><br />Brightness ... 28<br />Contrast ... 16<br />Color ... 16<br />Tint ... -13<br />Sharpness ... 10<br />Color temp ... Cool<br />SVM ... off<br />Cable Clear ... off<br /><br />I hate to do this because the PQ is beautiful about 90% of the time during normal-lit scenes, but will be returning this TV to the store, boys.<br /><br />Revised rating: 3 stars.lems, but thankfully there is a Picture Tilt function that mostly took care of that.    The other minor gripe is that the remote and interface could be a little more user-friendly and flexible.  I would have really liked to be able to directly choose video inputs and picture size with a simple click of a button rather than have to go through the menu system.  Guess I'll have to bite the bullet and get a universal remote with programmable macros...      ****    UPDATE, 8/20/06: There is ONE very serious problem with this TV, or at least the set I received---what's called \\"black crush,\\" or the total loss of contrast detail in low-light scenes.  Especially with the Avia-derived settings I use which provide the best PQ during well-lit scenes:     Brightness ... 28  Contrast ... 16  Color ... 16  Tint ... -13  Sharpness ... 10  Color temp ... Cool  SVM ... off  Cable Clear ... off    I hate to do this because the PQ is beautiful about 90% of the time during normal-lit scenes, but will be returning this TV to the store, boys.      Revised rating: 3 stars.