Toshiba 46HM84 46-Inch TheaterWide HD-Ready Rear-Projection DLP TV
Excellent set for a very reasonable price
I spent over two years looking at high definition televisions before settling on the Toshiba. The features that sold me were the outstanding picture quality, both brightness and clarity, as well as the very reasonable price for the size and features of the set. I spent several months watching the prices in the retail stores, but never found the price dipping much below the $3000 that every retail store seems to want to sell it for.     I have never purchased an item as large as this from Amazon, and I was a bit reluctant to do so. Given the reviews to date and comments regarding reliability, I was concerned about buying from a company that did not have a good extended warranty option available. While Amazon does sell third party contracts, I did not find them to be particularly well known. I was leaning toward buying the unit from Sears, where the extended warranty is supported by a very large service organization, and the organization is staffed by full time Sears employees who have always been very professional with other items I have needed service on. The down side was a $700 difference in price between Sears and Amazon.     What finally convinced me to choose Amazon over the local retailers was that I was able to double the warranty by charging it on my American Express card.  My only other hesitation was that I needed the unit carried up a flight of stairs, and while I knew that the local Sears delivery person would carry it up, I was not sure what to expect from a trucking company contracted by Amazon.     My set was delivered yesterday by Eagle Freight. They scheduled my delivery between noon and 5:00 pm, and they showed up at 4:00 pm, after first calling to let me know they were on their way. The drivers were very friendly and professional, and they gladly carried the set up to the second floor and waited while I confirmed it was working properly. They even took away the empty packaging. Since I am familiar with electronics equipment, I knew how to quicklyset it up without their help. I'm not sure they would have known how to set up an HDTV had I needed assistance, but fortunately this was not an issue for me.     The TV was up and running within 3 minutes, and the quality is absolutely breathtaking. After much trepidation about purchasing such a large item over the internet, I am quite pleased that I chose to do so. I'm still debating whether to add an extended warranty or just take a chance on it with the American Express warranty doubler as a backup. The extended warranties do not generally cover the replacement bulb, which cost approximately $300. Since this is the most likely part to fail, I suspect that I would be better off taking my chances and skipping the extended warranty option. However, it's nice to know this option exists if I need it.     For those of you thinking about purchasing this item from Amazon, I would recommend you give it a try, as long as your credit card will double the warranty, and you do not need much help in hooking up the set.  I will update this review after having a few weeks to get more familiar with the TV.    3/5/2005    After having this set for a few months, I am still thoroughly impressed with it.  The quality is outstanding, and I have had no issues to date with reliability.  I did purchase a 4 year Warrantech warranty for around $200.  This extends the warranty beyond the one year Toshiba warranty for a total of 5 years of coverage.  Hopefully I will never need it, but for $200 it seemed well worth the price.