Toshiba REGZA 42RV530U 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV Reviews

Review by RD for Toshiba REGZA 42RV530U 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
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I originally purchased the Toshiba Regza 47″ LCD (model 47HL167), which was last year’s model. The TV arrived physically damaged, and I didn’t want to risk buying online again so I purchased this 42″ LCD instead from best buy instead.

PROS – awesome picture on par with Sony/Samsung/Sharp, great price, sleek design (looks good even when it’s off), great number of connections including 4 HDMI inputs.

CONS – still looking!

Price – I had a 10% off coupon so that brought the price to $1079. And for a brand new model with a lot of nice features, was a great price.

Setup – You need to connect the stand to the TV, this consists of 8 hex bolts. It took me around 15 minutes to unpack the TV and get the stand connected, no big deal. Then I just hooked up my cable box, plugged in the power and I was good to go.

Appearance – The 47″ Toshiba I originally had was actually TOO big for our living room. I didn’t think that was possible, but it just took over the room. So make sure you consider that when buying a TV. This TV also has a lot nicer bezel than last year’s model. It is narrower and has rounded corners giving it a much sleeker look. The base is rectangular, which is nicer looking than the boomerang style stand on last year’s model.

Connections – This TV has a solid number of connections including 4 HDMI inputs(1 on the side, 3 in the rear), which is great for those who have a lot to hook up. It also has 2 component (rear), 1 VGA input (rear), 2 composite (1 side, 1 rear), 1 S video (rear), 1 optical audio out (rear). If you look up this TV on Toshiba’s website, you can see a diagram of the connections.

Picture – 1080p resolution, 8ms response time, couldn’t find the contrast ratio anywhere, Toshiba’s 4th generation PixelPure 14 bit digital video processor, Dynamic backlighting. Simply put the picture is fantastic right out of the box. I didn’t tweak anything. I think I’m going to though just to get that extra bit out of it, but the picture is solid. I compared this TV to Sony, Sharp, Samsung, LG and I either didn’t notice a difference or felt the picture on this was better. I’m very pleased with the picture on it. The picture is very crisp and bright, not washed out and dim looking like the Olevia and Westinghouse TV’s that I saw. It delivers nice deep black levels, the dynamic backlighting helps with this a bit. There are some different theater settings that you can play with to get the picture to fit just right on your screen. There is also an auto aspect control feature that will automatically set the aspect ratio theater settings depending on the source signal, which is nice. Also, I’ve heard from a lot of people that their standard definition channels don’t look good on their HDTV’s, well I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the quality of the SD channels on this TV and I think most people will be too.

Sound – The sound the speakers put out is decent. You can make some adjustments in the menu with bass, treble, etc. to further tune it to your liking.

Remote – The remote seems pretty good. Has a good amount of features right at your finger tips. Has a dedicated button for cycling through the theater settings, which is nice that you don’t have to navigate through the menu to get to this often-used feature.

Menu – Menu is easily navigable and straight forward.

Nice Features –

MUTE: The TV has a half mute feature that when you press the mute button it cuts the volume in half, press it again for a full mute, press again to unmute completely.

GAME MODE: reduces amount of time it takes for the signal to travel from the game controller to the TV. Tried playing Call of Duty 4 for PS3 with this on and off and didn’t notice much of a difference, might just be hype, I’ll play with it some more.

STABLE SOUND: maintains volume within a preset range regardless of the source signal. So when those annoyingly loud commercials come on, they won’t be any louder than what you were just watching.

INPUT LABELING: you can choose from a preset list of input labels. Would be nice if you could type the labels in yourself, but you can’t, you must use the preset names. Not a big deal, but would’ve been nice.

IR PASS-THROUGH: this allows you to set up some of your equipment (DVD player, receiver, etc) out of view in a cabinet for example and you can still use the remote to control the device. What happens is, the signal goes from the remote to the tv and out the IR Pass through connection on an IR Blaster cable (purchased separately) and the cable end is set in front of your hidden devices IR receivers and the signal passes out of there and to these devices. Pretty neat way of keeping your home theater setup looking clean and uncluttered.

All in all I think you will be very happy purchasing this TV, especially at this price. Enjoy!

Review by M. Puvogel for Toshiba REGZA 42RV530U 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
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After researching various makes and models online, it was time for us to view the televisions in-person this weekend and this 42-inch LCD by Toshiba came out the winner. Actually, it’s a toss-up between whether we or the TV happens to be the winner, but here’s what went into our decision:

Full 1080p – sure, the 720p’s are out there and they look fine at this size, but the minute you feed a true 1080p source in (blu-ray dvd, a gaming system, your computer, etc.) you would have to content with loss of picture of some sort, so we opted to not have to upgrade this set for a while.

Great picture and color representation. I compared this with both current and last-year models of Samsungs, LG’s, Sony’s and so on and of that group (in factory-standard settings) I found the color of the toshiba to be the most natural (Samsungs seemed a bit “fluorescent” and LGs a bit “wiggly.” In addition, watching both slow and fast action shots on this set were both fine whereas the others may have had trouble following along. In addition, I did the “side glance” test where I walked down the aisle to see which sets would show me the best picture from one side or the other (when sitting on a love seat for instance) and this set was the only one not to lose anything either side-to-side or top-to-bottom.

Other factors: (to sell us both before and after the sale)

* 4 HDMI and a regular PCI input means that we will be able to connect both current and future devices to the screen.

* User Interface and remote are easy to figure out and use.

* Source and channel labeling

* Sound Leveling is a very nice feature that keeps the sound flat regardless of source (no commercial spikes).

* 1/2 Mute feature means that you can turn it down, hear your wife for once and then continue to watch the show… 🙂

Review by Satisfied Purchaser for Toshiba REGZA 42RV530U 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
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After looking for months, we purchased the Toshiba REGZA 42 inch LCD HDTV and could not be happier with this purchase. It replaced a 10 year old Toshiba 37″ TV (which was still working fine, but we wanted to upgrade) and it fits perfectly in the armoire that used to hold the 37″ set.

Several features swayed us in this buy:

1. The quality of the picture. The blacks are “blacker” than many other sets and there’s no noticeable “blur” in the picture when it refreshes. We particularly like the ease in selecting the picture mode: sports, films, regular viewing, or viewer preferences.

2. Easy set up. Connected cable, plugged it in and turned it on. Couldn’t be any simpler than that. And connecting the DVD, VCR, external speakers etc. was very straightforward. Speaking of speakers, the Toshiba has a speaker bar that produces terrific sound on its own if you do not have external speakers.

3. The slim line bezel, high gloss black, all but disappears when the set is on — giving the impression of the picture floating without edge.

4. Lots of little extras you might not expect: ability to adjust sound so that commercials don’t suddenly get louder than the program you’re watching; highly adjustable color and sound settings so you get it tuned just right; well written manual.

A good buy…and if it’s anywhere as durable as our last Toshiba, we’ll be very pleased.

Review by Lou for Toshiba REGZA 42RV530U 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
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I just purchased this Toshiba 42 inch 1080p television and have been blown away by the picture quality both in HD and SD. Set-up was about 15 minutes from the box to turn-on. The stand was easy to install and the set-up on the TV was a snap.I have it hooked up to my hi-def cable box and I am quite impressed by the clarity and sharpness of the picture. The HD is outstanding and the SD channels looke great! I am watching a standard definition DVD of a Boz Scaggs concert, which looks hi-def, and it is hooked up to the component video connection. There are plenty of audio and video inputs to satisfy anyone. I am not surprised by the beauty of this television, as I already own another Toshiba 42 inch HD TV with 1080p resolution, and I have always been happy with that set. My next purchase will be a hi-def DVD player to complete the HD experience. And by the way, the sound from the TV is actually quite good, so I can take my time to find a compact speaker system to connect this to. I would highly recommend this product to anyone looking for a great 1080p hi-def TV. Hope you enjoy it as much as I am.

Review by Ted Ayers for Toshiba REGZA 42RV530U 42-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV
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I have been shopping around for my HDTV since November. The biggest issues for me were price + size + reliability. I was never set on 1080p, but when the prices for the older models went back up after the super bowl, I couldn’t see paying MORE or EQUAL for a 720p.

The Samsung models claim to have Picture In Picture, which was a feature I really wanted, but don’t be fooled. The PiP on the 500 series Samsung’s is extremely limited: the picture in picture window can ONLY display analog television. You can not have two hdmi sources on the screen at the same time, and if you have satellite or digital cable the only possible use for this limited PiP is to have rabbit ears or analog cable channels in the PiP.

Due to the lack of real PiP being available, I went with the Toshiba because I played with it at a store, and it had the best remote/on-screen menus for quickly switching between sources. I only have 3 sources I use, digital cable -hdmi, my computer (using a DVI to HDMI cable, much better quality than using the VGA analog input (any decent video card doesn’t even have VGA outputs anymore)) -hdmi, and a wii -component. I don’t have to cycle through 2 empty hdmi’s, 1 empty component, 2 empty composite, to get to the sources I use. With Input Labeling I have my sources I use labeled and the other inputs ‘hidden’.

Each individual input source also retains its own unique picture settings, which is great for having my digital cable look natural, while my Wii looks stunning and bright with overly-vibrant colors (that would look silly on live action, but look mesmerizing on Mario).

This is the first HDTV I have ever owned, so naturally I am blown away by the picture quality. Half-Life 2 and Bioshock astound me, while I am falling in love with Conan O’Brian’s High Definition face all over again.

I’m pessimistic enough not to trust Phillips or Westinghouse. With equipment this large and fragile, mistakes are going to happen, tv’s are going to arrive broken. It isn’t a question of which tv’s are more likely to break, but how likely are you going to get any real customer service if you ARE one of those unlucky few. Toshiba is at a nice middle ground. Its the cheapest and best 42″ LCD with 1080p that didn’t make me feel like I was taking a gamble.

I couldn’t be happier. I love this television.