Mintek DTV-233 23-Inch LCD TV/DVD Combo
Defective
I ordered this tv but I had to return it the next day because it was defective.  It wouldn't give me about a dozen of my channels.  Instead it just flashed the picture, then turned all white with an asterisk showing on the side, and kept alternating between those two things.  It was unwatchable.<br /><br />I tried having it redo the channel search again.  I noticed that when I clicked the up and down arrows, all those channels were skipped.  It still didn't work.<br /><br />I then plugged the cable wire into my old tv and it worked fine.<br /><br />Another complaint that I have with this tv is that there were horizontal lines going up the screen.  The instruction manual says that may happen if you have a radio in the room, not turned on, just in the room.  Who doesn't have a radio in the room?  My other tv doesn't have that problem.<br /><br />Another complaint I have with this tv is that it foreshortened the faces on the screen.  I changed a certain setting from \\"fill the screen\\" to \\"normal\\" and it seemed to fix that problem.  It seems that it was stretching the window sideways, making everyone's head look wide and short.  Then when I turned on the tv later, all the faces were foreshortened again.  Sure enough, the tv had reset itself to \\"fill the screen\\".  I changed it back and it seemed fine.<br /><br />When I gave up on the tv, because of its inability to receive a lot of channels, I turned on my old tv and I appreciated the picture quality of the Mintek more.  My old tv's picture really didn't look as good as the Mintek did.  It makes me realize how artificial all these images are.  We tend to think of them as being accurate but they are not.<br /><br />I don't have high definition cable.  I just have regular cable.  That may have something to do with it.  Maybe HDTV would at least get rid of the horizontal lines going up the screen.<br /><br />I give Amazon 5 stars.  I packed up the box, taped it up, brought it to a UPS store, and Amazon paid the postage and all.  Amazon is giving me a full refund.  I highly recommend shopping with Amazon.  I have bought dozens of books and records, and various other things, through Amazon, and I have always been so pleased with the service that my first reaction is to buy everything on Amazon.<br /><br />Later ...<br /><br />Revisiting this review, I see that someone gave my review a Thumbs Down.  What idiot would do that?  My tv was defective.  It didn't pull in all the channels.  Isn't this supposed to be a place where we share our experiences with the products we buy on Amazon?  What kind of moron would give this report a Thumbs Down?  My tv was defective, I'm telling you so, and I get booed for letting you know?  Maybe the negative reviewer is a Mintek employee hired to occasionally scan the Amazon reviews.  Something similar happened to me on Epinions when Delta Airlines let me down, and a Delta employee actually was hired to scan the Epinions reviews and defend his company.end shopping with Amazon.  I have bought dozens of books and records, and various other things, through Amazon, and I have always been so pleased with the service that my first reaction is to buy everything on Amazon.    Later ...    Revisiting this review, I see that someone gave my review a Thumbs Down.  What idiot would do that?  My tv was defective.  It didn't pull in all the channels.  Isn't this supposed to be a place where we share our experiences with the products we buy on Amazon?  What kind of moron would give this report a Thumbs Down?  My tv was defective, I'm telling you so, and I get booed for letting you know?  Maybe the negative reviewer is a Mintek employee hired to occasionally scan the Amazon reviews.  Something similar happened to me on Epinions when Delta Airlines let me down, and a Delta employee actually was hired to scan the Epinions reviews and defend his company.