Toshiba 52HM84 52-Inch HDTV-Ready Projection DLP TV

Review by H. Brake for Toshiba 52HM84 52-Inch HDTV-Ready Projection DLP TV
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I researched televisions before buying the 52HM84. I compared DLP, LCD and Plasma. I decided on the DLP due to its size and picture quality. I had narrowed my research down to the Mitsubishi and the Toshiba – since these both us the HD2+ DLP chip. The Mitsubishi had a glare on the screen and the Toshiba didn’t. The quality of the picture is outstanding. The technology to clean up messy analog signals is outstanding. I could not be happier with this purchase. I highly recommend a buyer to purchase the matching Toshiba ST5284 stand for the set. Together – the set is perfect! GOOD WORK TOSHIBA!

Review by OC Resident for Toshiba 52HM84 52-Inch HDTV-Ready Projection DLP TV
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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 quickly set 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.

Review by Joseph H. Armstrong for Toshiba 52HM84 52-Inch HDTV-Ready Projection DLP TV
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Just dumped my Toshiba 42HP83 plasma due to failure within 10 months (see my review there) and was looking for a replacement, preferably non plasma this time. After extensive searching in my local stores and testing the DLP units, I’m convinced the only reason that you’d want a plama now is 1) you want to brag about having a plasma, and 2) need/want a flat panel to wall mount and can’t afford an LCD unit yet. GET A DLP!

I narrowed my selection down to Samsung (50″), Toshiba (52″), and Mitsubishi (52″). Despite its great reviews, the Mitsu was REALLY BAD compared to the other two. Virtually every place I visited said that it was the ‘Reps fault’ and that they made the settings wrong. Don’t believe it! Make sure you see these units with the same HD signal and you’ll agree that the Mitsu is inadequate.

Thus it was down the the Samsung HLP5063W and this Toshiba 52HM84, and quite frankly I don’t thinnk you’ll go wrong with either one. The Samsung uses the 3rd generation of the DLP chip while Toshiba uses the HD2+ ‘second generation’ chip, although in some opinions the HD2+ chip is better. It took a great deal of scruitiny between the two to see any difference, and my preference leaned towards the Toshiba. As I found out, NEWER isn’t always BETTER! Here’s more details on the 52hm84:

Picture: AWESOME!, and this is from someone who had a plasma for almost a year! Striking color saturation (better than Samsung) and as good as my plasma before it started to die. The 2nd gen HD2+ DLP chip does better than the 3rd gen in perceived sharpness (not really sure why). Unlike the 1st generation chip, the 2nd and 3rd have the ‘dimples’ in the mirrors filled in and thus provide a ‘flat’ mirror for each pixel. Having looked at the first generation TVs before, these two were significantly better. When we got it home, we watched a DiscoveryHD program (HDMI) on the Met museum in NY and the clarity was startling, almost too good as the cracks in the paint were very visible.

One feature I liked with this unit is that you have the option of a ‘quick start’ mode where for several minutes after you shut down, you can turn the unit back on and the screen’s back to full intensity almost instantly. Thus, if you turn it off and then turn it back on again, this circuit keeps some power going to the bulb so it’s not coming up from a complete shutdown. During this time there is an eerie glow from the screen as the bulb is still on, and the green standby LED on the front will blink. The instructions say that this will prolong the bulb life (just got the unit so I don’t know about that one yet).

NOTE: Be aware that DLPs require the bulb to warm up before it gets to full intensity, but as my plasma took 1 hour to warm up to see the picture, that’s only a small issue for us 🙂 Only takes a few minutes anyway.

Sound: Can’t say much here as I’m running through my sound system and the integrated speakers are off.

Inputs: Large assortment of inputs available here. HDMI works great (I’m running a DISH 811 HD with a DVI-to-HDMI adapter). If you’re looking for CableCARD or direct input from cameras, etc., this one doesn’t have it, but the 52HM94 model does (same light engine).

Remote/Controls: adequate but I wish they’d used the one I had for my plasma (pushbutton component selection vs a slide switch on this one). However, as I was replacing one Toshiba for another all the programmed functions in my universal remote still work fine. Menu controls are a little quirky (be careful to follow the on-screen instructions to see what you’re supposed to do to get from one menu to another). However, very minor detraction from an otherwise outstanding performance.