Toshiba 14N21B

...Then I found it. Toshiba Model 14N21B2. What appealed to me was how it looked. It would look great on my TV table. Silver and chrome. Perfect.

++The price and Availability ++
I paid 74.99 for the TV at Argos. I have found it at Total Digital http://www.totaldigital.biz for less online than that. They are selling the TV for £65.
Of course, you could buy it from Ebay second hand and the prices start from £26 upwards.
...right hand corner the brand Toshiba printed in capital letter. It's a 14" screen. It's quite small TV. The measurements are 36.2 cm x 36 cm x 32.1 cm.

At the top of the TV, there's a slight gap so you can put your hand in it to carry it. The reason for this is because it's meant to be a portable TV although I don't use it for that. When you lift it up, you'll be surprise how light the TV is compared to other portable TVs. It weighs ... more

Moved into my new house and I had no TV at all. My gran lent me her second TV but as soon as I started work at my new job and received my first credit card. I knew that I had to buy a TV and give my gran her old one back. I trotted down to Argos and looked around. Then I found it. Toshiba Model 14N21B2. What appealed to me was how it looked. It would look great on my TV table. Silver and chrome. Perfect.

++The price and Availability ++
I paid 74.99 for the TV at Argos. I have found it at Total Digital http://www.totaldigital.biz for less online than that. They are selling the TV for £65.
Of course, you could buy it from Ebay second hand and the prices start from £26 upwards.

Other places they sell it are
http://www.lxdirect.com/ £74.99
http://www.choiceforyou.co.uk £79.99
http://www.currys.co.uk £69.99
http://www.comet.co.uk £69.99
http://www.dixons.co.uk Instore £79.99 - On the web special £69.99

++ The Look and Features ++

What you get in the box. The TV, a remote control, a small aerial and the manual.

--The TV--

It's silver with in the right hand corner the brand Toshiba printed in capital letter. It's a 14" screen. It's quite small TV. The measurements are 36.2 cm x 36 cm x 32.1 cm.

At the top of the TV, there's a slight gap so you can put your hand in it to carry it. The reason for this is because it's meant to be a portable TV although I don't use it for that. When you lift it up, you'll be surprise how light the TV is compared to other portable TVs. It weighs around 9.5 kg.

At the bottom of the screen, it has various buttons.
First, there's a plug in headphones. So you can listen to your TV as loud as you like and your parents or neighbours won't complain.
Next to that, there's a light red light to show if it's on stand-by or not. Next to that, we have the on/off button. Sometimes if you push it too fast to turn it on, it switches off again which is pretty annoying at times.
Next to that, you have volume and channel up and down buttons which is great when you lose the remote like I do a lot.
Next to that, there's video 2 and audio sockets. Video 2 is rimmed in yellow and the audio is rimmed in white. There's two sockets are for a video player, DVD player or home entertainment system. Controlled by the channel EXT2. So I would of thought that they could of put these at the back of the TV because now when you plug it, there's all cable at the front and around your TV. Luckily, there's another way to plug in your video, DVD or home entertainment system at the back of the TV.

First, at the back of your TV you have the mains lead, then the aerial socket and then SCART socket controlled by the channel EXT1 for your video, DVD player or home entertainment system

--The Remote Control-- (see picture)
Use two AAA batteries. Works by infrared. Can be used up to 5 metres away from the TV but the further the distance the more like it won't work.
There's a couple of special buttons
 mute the sound
 switch back to the channel you just had
 teletext
 picture mode (for the changing the colour of the picture)
 AV button to go to EXT1 and EXT2
 Standby button

--Features--

The features of this TV are
 Teletext
 Automatic Tuning system
 On screen menu

With the on screen menu comes:
Channel mapping and changing channels, Choice of different languages, Timer functions and Panel lock, changing the picture and colour.

**Teletext**
You can only get the teletext through the remote control. You can use the teletext on BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Five but not if you use it through a freeview or set top box then it just comes up blank. Teletext has variety of information on it like up to date News, Weather, Financial and Travel info. The TV comes with Fasttext. You have four coloured buttons on your remote. Red, Green, Yellow and Blue. With these buttons, you can move around the teletext services with greater speed and ease.

**Automatic Tuning System**
It will automatically tune the TV for you if you have your aerial or video or satellite plugged in. Just turn on the TV and push the standby button and then press OK on the remote. (You can also find it on the on screen menu)

**On Screen Menu**
On the remote, there's button. MENU. Press that and you get this list
ON/OFF TIMER
SETUP
PICTURE
EXT COLOUR
LANGUAGE
PANEL LOCK

PRESS UP/DOWN/OK/MENU/ EXIT (these are all on the remote.

%% ON/OFF TIMER %%
This feature allows you to turn on your TV automatically after you preset a time (up to 12 hours and 59 minutes) and on the channel you want. Also you can preset it to turn off at a set time and you can use in conjunction with each other which can work very well as a parent lock combined with the Panel lock which I'll explain later on in my review. There's a button on the remote to quickly get to the feature.

%% SETUP %%
Three options on you can choose for the SETUP Menu
Manual Tuning
Automatic Tuning
Channel Mapping

I've explained the Automatic Tuning earlier. Manual Tuning is used when Automatic Tuning system doesn't work or doesn't program all the channels.
Channel Mapping is to change the channel's name, swap the channel around for instance you would like BBC 1 on channel 10 instead on the preset channel one.

%% PICTURE %%

You can change the colour on your TV by using this option. By press up and down on your remote, you can change brightness, sharpness, colour and contrast. Also you can change the picture by use the picture button on the remote. It gives you 4 picture modes.

%% EXT COLOUR %%

By connecting the TV to external equipment, the picture may come black and white instead of been colour. With EXT COLOUR, you can correct this.
It has four options. AUTO/PAL/NTSC 4.43/NTSC 3.58 to go with the equipment you've got.

%% LANGUAGE %%

You can have the on screen menu in 5 different languages. English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. On this menu, you can change it.

%% PANEL LOCK %%

This option can lock the buttons on the front of the TV so if you don't have the remote, you still can't change the channel or volume on the front of the TV.

%% ON/OFF TIMER and PANEL LOCK - PARENTAL LOCK %%

These two option combined are a perfect parental lock. You can program it so your child just can watch the programme you want them to watch and not be able to change it the channel nor continue watching anything else after the programme is finished.

--The Manual--
The instructions in the Manual are easy to read and follow. It shows you with pictures and words exactly how to setup the TV, use it and change the settings on it. It tells you a list of Dos and Don'ts for example:
Air Circulation. Leave at least 10-cm clearance around the TV to allow adequate ventilation.
Also it tells you if your TV goes wrong check these following points because requesting service and at the back of the manual, it tells you all the specifications of the TV.

--Quality--
The picture is brilliant and the sound quality is good. The volume can go up to 64 on the screen. It's loud but I have had louder on my other TVs I've had before. Although, that probably ruined the TVs in the first place, so it's probably a good thing.

++ Problems I had ++
The TV comes with a one-year guarantee and I was very pleased it did. One night 9 months after I bought the TV, I was watching a film on Five and then I just switched off and was making a weird buzz noise.
A friend check if it was the fuse in the plug but it wasn't. I panicked. The receipt was on the box of the TV (Argos stuck it there) and we'd thrown it away. Luckily, I'd bought this on my credit card so I still had my credit card bill.
So on Monday morning off I went with the TV and my credit card bill. The Argos staff were really polite and helpful and she asked me what was wrong with it and I told her what had happened. She said, "Do you want another TV or your money back?"
I was so shocked. I thought I would have to wait until they had checked out the TV or repaired it. I told her that I'd been happy with this TV so I wanted another TV and she ordered me another TV. She gave me a receipt for it and went home.
Also this has extended my guarantee for another year.
So go to Argos if you want great customer services. :D

++ Overall Comment ++
Besides the one problem I had with the TV, it's a wonderful small portable TV. It's easy to tune and use.
 

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