Toshiba REGZA 40RF350U Super Narrow 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

Review by Ross Bagley for Toshiba REGZA 40RF350U Super Narrow 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
Rating:
This TV is absolutely gorgeous. For HD inputs, I’m using an Toshiba HD-A35 1080p HD DVD Player, a Panasonic HDC-SD5 Hi-Definition Palmcorder Camcorder BUNDLE, as well as an HTPC driving the TV at full resolution 1920x1080x60. Videos, HD DVD’s, normal DVD’s, PC games, web browsing, digital photo slideshows: all look completely stunning.

In addition to showing beautiful video, the physical design of the display is also excellent. The matte screen surface does not cause distracting reflections from lights in the room, and the very thin bezel makes for a very tasteful frame and allows the TV to fit in the middle of a wall where any other 40″ display would be too big. One thing that really bothers me about other HDTV’s is how much space is made for built-in speakers. This is part of a home theater, and I’ve got a 7.1 speaker system. I don’t need cheap speakers on the TV and I definitely don’t want to be reminded of them every time I look at the TV. This display does have some speakers, and they sound okay (as good as two closely spaced 10W speakers can sound, I suppose). As you can see from the images, the speakers are out of sight. Perfect for my needs, they’re behind the screen on the bottom left and right, so they don’t mess up the look of the unit. Overall, very appealing.

I expected that since the display is optimized as a TV, it wouldn’t be that great as a computer display (computer LCD’s normally have more of a screen door effect than LCD TV’s so that the pixel boundaries are more square and precise when displaying text and other fine pitch imagery). I was wrong. It makes for a fantastic computer monitor that I can comfortably use for web browsing or gaming from about 6-8 feet. Games look wonderful, Netflix media player looks beautiful, it’s all good.

Because I’m also using a Toshiba HD DVD player, they can talk to each other over HDMI (Toshiba calls it CE-Link). While this seems like a good idea, in reality, it’s utterly and completely useless and is more of an annoyance than anything else. The only thing that seems to work about it is that if I turn the TV off, the next device in the HDMI network will shut off too. Absolutely nothing else happens. As a result, I’ve disabled it. I advise you to get a universal remote and program a few macros so that things turn on and off together.

I’ve mounted the TV on a Sanus VMAA18 Articulating Mount for 30″-50″ Flat Panel TVs – Black which is a little overbuilt for this TV, but I wanted it to be *really* secure. Cable routing is also a little difficult since the mount structure interferes with easy access to most of the input ports. You can still get to the inputs, but small hands help quite a bit. Not a deal-breaker, and certainly not the fault of the TV, just an annoyance to be aware of.

Review by Robert Gorg for Toshiba REGZA 40RF350U Super Narrow 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
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When I entered the market, I throughly researched the LCD options in a 40 inch model. I became sold on the latest Samsung until i measured the actual width of the unit on the shelf of my cabinets. it would have stuck out over the end making it unappealing from a decor sense. In further researching my options, I learned of the thin bezel feature of the Toshiba. My measurements showed that it would fit perfectly on my shelf.

Please understand that I am no technophile, but I do appreciate good visuals and sound. While I don’t know if the Toshiba is as good as the Samsung, I do know that I am completely satisfied with my purchase. The picture is great, especially in HD although I have no complaints about non HD sources. We regularly watch old Andy Griffiths’ and Bonanzas’ and they look really good as well. The highest praise that I can give is that viewing all programming from nature, to football, to Andy Griffith is more involving, thus more enjoyable than ever before.

One last consideration, I initially bought the unit from Amazon for about $400 less than it was priced at Circuit City. I carefully monitored the Amazon price during the 30 day price guarantee and saved another $106 on three separate price drops with no problems obtaining them. Don’t ignore this price saving feature from Amazon.

Review by Scott L. Hutchinson for Toshiba REGZA 40RF350U Super Narrow 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
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Picture is outstanding in both HDTV 1080I and Digital 420P.Great looks and super thin.The 1080P on XBOX 360 and HD DVD was amazing.It’s the perfect size,Not to big and not to small.Onscreen menu was very easy to use and it came with a quality remote.

Review by Arthur Gladstone for Toshiba REGZA 40RF350U Super Narrow 40-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
Rating:
crutchfield sent my new 40″ Regza TV, which amazingly fit into my entertainment system with an inch to spare; price, shipping,packaging, and the picture quality (1080p) were terrific…even had a device to sense if the container had been dropped! Completely satisfied!