With the summer holiday booked I'm going to have to put in extra time on Ciao to earn the beer money...
With the summer holiday booked I'm going to have to put in extra time on Ciao to earn the beer money. All reads and rates gratefully received - Phil
Member since:03.11.2003
Reviews:65
Members who trust:98
Just a little geography of my working environment before we begin. The school at which I am employed is about a mile from the Toshiba factory responsible for television and video production for Europe. The factory one of the most significant local employers. As a Japanese owned company they have a reuptation for high expectations from employees but also for a high level of employee care. They also, compared to other industries in the area, have an ability to generate the sort of publicity that promotes local pride in the juggernauts that rumble on through. An example of this occurred before Christmas.
We, at school, received a letter inviting us to bring a small group of children to the Toshiba factory and receive a Christmas present. Five local schools were chosen and apparantly this is an annual Toshiba event.
The gift, the largest rear projection television made in the plant. At 43" this is huge. It is also the largest and most expensive Christmas present I have ever seen
given! These retail at over three thousand pounds although careful shopping I am assured can save hundreds.
First, a taste of technology. Cathode ray tudes accelerate electrons at a reactive surface - the screen. This produces light of different colour and brightness and the image you see. They contain one gun for shooting the electrons and therefore scan across the screen moving down as they go. Modern televisions based on this technology can scan down a screen at around five times faster than your eye could detect movement and therefore appear flicker free. However, to the sensitive, there is a flicker in the way the image is constructed. These rear projection televisions don't work in quite the same way and the image is pushed onto the screen all at once hence, completely flicker free viewing.
Now, this isn't quite the whole story though. As they don't shoot light generating electrons, but instead light itself they are slightly dependant on the ambient light in a room for a good picture. If the light in a room is very bright the image quality dulls and the colours looked slightly washed out. In a dark pub, these televisions are ideal and nearly always the technology of choice for the large screen football and rugby that shows in our national drinking houses.
Back to the television in question - two people, with a little heaving and straining and the possibility of a hernia if not fit, can just about lift this television to reposition it.
Tuning is all digital and our television was installed by an expert. If you are paying this kind of money for a television this is a reasonable expectation and it is fairly standard that this will be installed for you so long as you supply a valid input, either from your aerial or your cable/satellite box.
The image quality is superb for a rear projection television and so long as yopu observe the need for lower light levels really makes a great impression on viewers. One comment to make on rear projection televisions as a whole and not just attrubutable to this model is that sitting to close degrades the quality of the image. I would say over four feet back is essential to see the image at its best. I don't understand quite why this is, it may just be the size of the screen itself or it may be a similar effect to having the lights up to high as mentioned earlier.
The remote control that comes with this television is excellent and those who have a toshiba or sony television will be familiar with it. The design and useability are almost identical.
This television has proved easy to use, popular with all who have viewed films and programs on it and most of al has been an exceptional quality when compared to the £300.00 that we usually spend on a television.
Would I recommend it? Well, the answer is yes, but only to people in a similar situation. That is if you are likely to need to share television or films with a smallish audience then this is ideal. If your audience is larger I would opt for a data projector. Likewise if you are thinking of a television for home I'm not convinced that a rear projection is likely to be your television of choice unless you have a seriously large lounge. I would be more likely to recommend many of the alternative technologies for home and if your television room is that big you may prefer the smaller and neater design of a projector and screen anyway.
I knocked one star off for value for money because if I had this much money to spend on a television, even if it was one for work, then I wouldn't buy this but would buy a smaller television, a screen and a projector and no doubt still have change.
Note, for those who think the money buys an all in one home cinema, it doesn't. This is a television. No DVD or video, just a huge and superb quality television.
Thanks you for taking the time to read this opinion and I look forward tor eading your comments - Phil.
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No Setup - Just put your batteries in and off you go. Our remote controls are generic ... more
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