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 (3 star rating)
Background
I have used this TV for over 60 hours while at work. It is set up in one of our video conferencing rooms and is used primarily for video conferencing meetings. It is also used in various communication courses for students to practice giving video presentations, view their practice presentation VHS tapes and view other various communication course materials. I have also used this TV to watch a DVD, a VHS tape and cable TV.
Basic Information on the Display Technology
With all of the various TV display technologies on the market today (Plasma, DLP, LCD, etc.), it is important to understand the basic pros and cons of the display technology used in this TV. The Toshiba MW27F51 TV uses flat screen CRT technology. CRT stands for "Cathode Ray Tube" and is the most common technology used in building TVs today. This TV uses the same basic technology that has been used for decades to build TVs, with the exception that this screen is completely flat. The common design for CRT TVs is not flat - in the common design the edges of the screen curve in slightly, so that the middle of the glass screen is closer to the person viewing the TV. This results in slightly skewed images that are not displayed uniformly across the entire screen. Flat screen technology keeps the image proportion accurate across the entire screen. Here is a quick comparison of flat screen CRT technology to some of the newer display technologies (DLP, LCD, etc.):
Advantages of flat screen CRT technology include:
- Flat screen CRT TVs set the standard for image quality that other display technologies are compared to
- Excellent black-levels (Black-levels is a term used to describe the capability of a TV to produce a true black color)
- Very wide viewing angles (Images remain easy to see are retain high quality when sitting to the left or right of the TV)
- Very low susceptibility to image burn-in (Where the possibility that an image, or part of an image, can become permanently burned into the screen)
- No rainbow effect or screen door effect artifacts that are sometimes found in rear-projection DLP and rear-projection LCD TVs
- No lamp bulb to replace
Disadvantages of flat screen CRT technology include:
- Very heavy and bulky compared to the newer display technologies
- Limited screen size - currently the maximum screen size is about 40"
Basic Features of the TV
Listed below are what I believe to be the important characteristics of any TV, along with my impressions / comments on the usefulness (or lack thereof) with the Toshiba MW27F51 TV.
- Big screen --- this TV has a 27" screen, which is adequate for most small to mid-sized rooms.
- HDTV compatible --- I consider this is a must have for any new TV. HDTV is slowly but surely becoming the standard for all TV stations, and if you enjoy watching TV, your experience is vastly improved by watching HDTV. This TV is not capable of displaying HDTV signals, which is fine if you are just going to use it to watch DVDs and VHS tapes. If you are planning to use this TV as part of a home theater, I would recommend choosing another model that is HDTV ready.
- 16:9 aspect ratio --- I consider this a must have for watching DVDs and HD shows. This TV has a 4:3 aspect ratio, which is fine for watching regular TV and VHS tapes. Again, if you are planning to use this TV as part of a home theater, I would recommend choosing another model that has a 16:9 aspect ratio.
- Built-in HDTV tuner --- a nice feature that allows you to watch over-the-air HD channels (such as NBC, CBS, Fox, etc.) without the need to purchase an additional tuner or antennae. As this TV is not capable of displaying HDTV signals, it does not include an HDTV tuner.
- Slim footprint --- this is one real big disadvantage of CRT tubes, as they require a lot more space than TVs built using newer display technologies. This TV is a lot bulkier than a similar sized LCD or plasma TV. It weighs in at 97 lbs. and measures 29 1/8" x 25 3/8" x 19 7/16" (WxHxD).
- Plenty of Audio / Video Inputs and Outputs --- since this TV includes a built-in DVD player and VCR player, the number of audio / video connections is not quite as important of a feature as it is for most TVs. It does have an adequate number: 2 RCA audio / video inputs (1 front, 1 back), 1 RCA audio / video output (back), 1 RF input (back), 1 Coaxial digital audio output (back), 1 headphone jack (front). It should be noted that this TV does not have a S-Video input.
- Picture-in-Picture --- This is of very limited use to me, but it may important to some people. Not included with this TV.
- Progressive Scan (3/2 Pulldown) --- I consider this a must have for watching DVD movies and I consider this a must have for any HDTV. Not included with this TV.
- High quality sound --- not as important if you have a separate home theater audio setup, but definitely important if you do not. This TV has average sound quality coming from 2 speakers with a total 5W output. More details on the sound quality are described below.
- Warranty --- important to protect your investment. This TV comes with a 90 day parts and labor warranty, 1 year parts-only warranty for all parts of the TV and a 2 year picture tube warranty that is parts-only.
My Experience with this TV
In the next few pages I have broken down my experiences with this TV into separate sections, as I realize some people may not be interested in all of this information.
Watching Regular Cable TV
Currently we have cable TV hooked up through the RF input on the back of this TV. When you first power on the TV, it takes about 5-6 seconds for the TV to warm up. The picture fades in gradually during that time (this is true no matter regardless of the input source). Once the picture fades in completely, the resulting picture was excellent. The image details were clearly displayed with only very slightly noticeable jaggedness. The slight jaggedness was primarily attributable to the source signal, as the cable signal at our workplace is split amongst multiple TVs throughout the building. The example I can use to describe the jaggedness is the image of an umbrella that a reporter was holding while doing a live update on the weather. As the reporter moved while giving the report, the edges of the umbrella were not clearly distinguishable compared to the background images. The edges became blurred and the image details of the umbrella were not completely clear.
The image colors were displayed accurately and faithfully, with the exception of a slight tendency toward too much redness. This was an issue with the color settings of the TV in Standard picture mode, and I was satisfied with the resulting image after manually adjusting the color settings. I found the color to be more equally balanced after changing the color settings through the on-screen menus. One nice feature of this TV is the available Memory picture mode, which allows you to save your customized settings instead of having to manually adjust them each and every time you turn the TV off and back on again. The other picture modes are Standard, Sports and Movie.
The flat screen produced very realistic images and did not suffer from any negative disproportionate stretching found in non-flat screen CRT tubes. Viewing the TV from left or right viewing angles produced excellent results, and there was no loss of brightness or image detail as you moved to the left or right of the center view. I sat approximately 45 degrees to the left and to the right of the TV, and the image looked just as good from that angle as it did when viewed directly from the center.
The sound quality while watching cable TV was adequate, but not impressive. The speakers did not produce much bass, and sounded flat when trying to reproduce frequencies lower than a man's voice. Any sounds below about 200 Hz are, by and large, absent with these speakers.
The upper frequencies sounded a little better, but not by much. I would describe the upper frequencies as hollow and without depth. I didn't get a chance to really turn up the sound, but, in the few instances where upper-range frequencies were played, these speakers left a lot to be desired. There just wasn t clarity of the upper-range frequencies and I was left with the feeling "Is that it?" I would definitely recommend using the coax digital output to connect to an external set of speakers for better sound quality.
One somewhat useful sound characteristic of this TV is the StableSound feature. It keeps the volume level consistent when the source signal volume varies, so that you don't have to turn the volume up or down to keep the overall volume level the same. I noticed that the volume level remained consistent between the news program and the commercials that we watched. It did not, however, help to keep the volume level the same when different people were talking during a video-conference session. If someone speaks in a quiet voice, the StableSound did not raise their volume level to the same level as other people who spoke more loudly.
Next: Conclusion
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